Cedar Fair to buy SFWoA

You may either Trade your SFWOA pass for a Geuaga Pass or get a refund. thats from the CF meeting.

As far as SFWOA passes being good at any other SF park. Ask SF.

Chuck

So they are going to just shut down the wildlife side, eh? Well, I knew Cedar Fair wasn't in the animal business.

I was joking with someone earlier that next week they would announce that they had hired Caribbean Gardens to manage the wildlife side of the park. :) Guess not...

(I wonder if anybody other than Walt and Jeff will 'get' that one...)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I just learned of this somewhat tragic news. I have listened to the conference and read all the topics here. I'm still in shock. I guess I won't go on my Six Flags tours with my Six Flags pass now. I suppose I'm locked in to GLP, and just that. Some good out of the situation. Maybe we'll see some new trains on Raging Wolf Bobs and Villain. I'd love to see the G-Trains in the trash tomorrow. What will happen with the retracking of the coasters, the new supports? Will any of this be affected in any way? What about the water park? Everyone is talking animals, will this still be included with admission? So many questions, so few answers. I have a "SFWOA" voucher on the refrigerator and also a "CP" one. The funny thing is neither of those will get me into a Six Flags park, and the CP one won't get me into a Cedar Fair Park. I guess we just need to give this some time for some answers. It's going to kill me for the Bruce Wayne building, and large Batman Knight Flight sign, the Batman music, Superman music, and even the stupid "Welcome to Batman Knight Flight, America's Longest Floorless coaster" boarding announcement. I guess I won't be couting on 40 rerides on S:UE like last year. Guess I need to get there day one and see what my new homepark has to offer. Good luck CF, you've confused a lot of people.

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RideMan said:
So they are going to just shut down the wildlife side, eh? Well, I knew Cedar Fair wasn't in the animal business.

I was joking with someone earlier that next week they would announce that they had hired Caribbean Gardens to manage the wildlife side of the park. Guess not...

(I wonder if anybody other than Walt and Jeff will 'get' that one...)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

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I got it but I've read the Cedar Point history book and realized the location of this park. ;)

I get it Dave ....

oh ... besides me and Jeff ;)

*** Edited 3/10/2004 11:36:17 PM UTC by Gemini***

I'm copying the following from a news post:

From listinening to the call, it seemed clear that other CF passes would not be valid "this year", which leaves open the possibility that they will be "next year."

My suspicion is that CP will raise their season pass rices by a good chunk of change next year, and that GL's will be priced similarly, after which they will behave as all-CF-park access. Following this reasoning, they won't want to allow CP passes to work at GL under this year's prices, otherwise there is a "price increase" next year, not "more fun" (at a new price).

An alternative pricing scheme is to eliminate CP's park-only passes, selling only combo passes (good for all CF water and ride parks) a bit above the current CP combo price point, and sell park-only passes (good only at CF ride parks) at GL a bit above this year's CP park-only price point.

*** Edited 3/10/2004 11:50:53 PM UTC by Brian Noble***

I would imagine that if they allowed CP passes to work at GL, GL would get overcrowded from day 1. For an extra hr drive, (and not even in many cases) CP pass holders get a whole new park with a pretty impressive coaster lineup...how many would say no to that?

i hope they by sixflags new england next and build a new TTd 500ft tall

The Six Flags European Division, (which includes SF Holland, SF Belgium, 3 Walibi parks in France, Bellewaerde and Warner Bros. Movie World Germany) are being sold to a new private investment firm. Bill Murhied(sp?), will become the manager of this new company, I think he is currently the GM of SFGAdv. He is leaving Six Flags and a new GM will be appointed soon.

The deal does not include Warner Bros. Movie World Madrid, SF still owns part of this park. Six Flags will now have 31 parks worldwide.

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Lord Gonchar said:

As far as the effect on attendance - don't think like us enthusiasts, think like GP. For the vast majority of those SFWOA passholders, it was just for 'free' admission to SFWOA for the season. They weren't traveling around hitting every SF they could looking to squeeze every last buck of of the pass. Most people won't even think twice - they'll be more annoyed that (assuming they already have an actual pass, not a voucher) they'll have to switch it for a GL one.

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Yes, but what about the locals or even regional guests (and I know some who aren't enthusiasts) who stopped buying SFWoA passes because they weren't happy with the park and decided to buy CP passes instead. In this situation, it would be good for CF to accept other CF passes so that disgruntled patrons could see the changes without having to spend some extra bucks. Then next year when the season price pass goes up (as we know it will), they wouldn't balk as much to the price increase knowing they have another park to visit close to home with good operations. Call me kooky, it would just show good will toward pass holders.

CP recipricocity would be a nice touch. Geauga Lake is going to need to get people to the park and that's not as easy as it sounds. My SFWoA/GL pass is going to be pretty worthless this year. If there was an upgrade package to get into CP as well, I'd be happy.

I will really miss the animal park. I loved it!

I am ticked off that CP passes will not be honored but what are you going to do right? Maybe next year.

Good thing I get my pass at SFKK, but at this point no SF park is safe right now, especially then they just sold off a bunch of stuff overseas.

I was flabergasted when I heard the news this morning. Talk about getting hit with a ton of bricks! We didn't see this one coming.

I guess all the annoying and needless SFWOA bashing will finally stop.

If the animal area is going to be closed down this year I can ONLY IMAGINE what Cedar Fair has in store for that area and the park for 2005. Oh I can't wait!

-Tina

Anyone who watched the news channels tonight will realize that the locals are looking at this as the greatest thing to happen in a while.

One person I saw interviewed said it best ...

"As a local bussiness owner who's company relies alot on the customers of the park, it's great to hear the news that a company now owns the park who can afford to take care of it and bring it back to it's former glory."

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SFZIP said:
I think he is currently the GM of SFGAdv. He is leaving Six Flags and a new GM will be appointed soon.

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Goodie, perfect time to send in my rezoom!

Well there you have it............the rumored flyer for cedar fair!! Im still looking back at threads when peope were soo head strong that six flags would NEVER sell their parks especially a flagship park like SFWoA. People were saying that they invested too much money into it and things like that. Im sure the other six flags parks are shivering (SFAW watch out!!). But i wonder why CF. I wonder if this was an under the table job because this is the first time for me hearing this. Im sure other park companies (Paramount/viacom, Busch, or perhaps Universal)would probably be interested..........moreless Busch because of the animals. But hey, its a done deal!!

I probably never would have went to the park branded SFWoA and i probably still wont go to GL

There are some other aspects that have yet to be determined.

1. Will the park's annual Oktoberfest return this year? It was a popular event before and during the Six Flags era.

2. Will Fright Fest become Halloweekends?

I am hoping that CF does keep the Wild Life side and uses it for park expansion. Someone mentioned turning part of it into a giant kid's area and with all the greenery and shade, it would be a good idea to turn part of it into a large Camp Snoopy.

I think it's funny that when Dick Kinzel was interviewed on our local news he stated that people complained that the walk between sides was too long. I don't see anyone complain that the walk between Millennium Force and Frontiertown is too long as they are about the same length. It would make for a very cool Fright Zone during Halloween. Anyway, maybe if CF adds things along the land bridge behind Wolf Bobs it wouldn't seem that long.

X Factor

Wow....
I don't even know what to say...

Absolutely Amazing!

it was wierd turning in my application at SFWOA err I mean GL today...its just wierd

Quick items...

1. On the season pass thing...just a bit of trivia...
FunTime (Geauga Lake, Wyandot Lake, Darien Lake) was the first chain of amusement parks at least in my lifetime to offer season pass reciprocity. They were followed by Six Flags, KECO, and Cedar Fair. Premier didn't get into the act until after they bought FunTime (in fact, my Wyandot Lake pass got me into Adventure World when the Adventure World pass didn't work anywhere else!) and still doesn't offer any kind of reciprocity to Frontier City. No value judgement of any kind there, just observations.

2. Cedar Fair has said that they won't honor Cedar Fair passes at Geauga Lake or Geauga Lake passes at other Cedar Fair parks. Thinking it over, that seems like an odd, but not unreasonable decision. But who is to say that is the end of the story for this season? It is pretty clear that this was a very sudden decision, and all the details are not worked out yet. I, for one, will be not at all surprised if we see some kind of 'deal' for pass-holders appear at some point during the season, probably something like the pop-can discounts, but targeted specifically at the pass-holders from the 'other' park.

3. Regarding the Caribbean Gardens thing...Yes, Walt, I knew you'd catch that one in about a half a second. :) For those who didn't, think about your Cedar Point history, go to their web site, click on "Press Room," and see if anything looks vaguely familiar.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

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FlyInBack said:
I dont think it would be fair to pay extra for GL privliges. Its not like I have to pay extra for a CP pass to allow entrance to Dorney. A CP (or any CF) pass is good at all CF parks, so this shouldn't change. I'd be mad if they made GL an extra charge for '05.

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Uh, while a nice perk, do you know how often people use passes at other parks? While the Michigan's Adventure-Cedar Fair crossing might be more substantial now, when I was there I was one of three passholders on their comp sheet. At Dorney, Steph and I were two of about a dozen. Similarly, at PKD with our PKI pass, about a dozen for that day.

These parks aren't close together. Cedar Point and Geauga Lake could potentially have thousands of dual-pass holders in any given day. The park's are barely ninety minutes apart.

So what's not fair about a dual-park pass price? *** Edited 3/11/2004 1:49:52 AM UTC by Jeff***