Celebration City to be closed as of Saturday

Holy crap.

(article)

CC was honestly one of my favorite parks. The cool Pimpin' Gonch avatar photo was taken there.

I liked Celebration City for what it was. At least there is no talk of removing the park and even consideration for retheming it.

Wow. Did anybody see this coming? I thought I heard attendance was FLAT, not down. In this economy thats not terrible news.

That sucks! I was looking forward to visiting that park during the Con next year! :(

From the article:
As we plan the re-development of the Celebration City property, we willfocus on projects with strong appeal to new and returning visitors tothe market

So not closing permanently, just until they redevelop it. I am not sure what that means exactly.

Also from the article, Andy:

The company is already exploring various new development concepts for the site including an aquarium, other family attractions, re-theming the current park and also destination retail and dining.

Why is the list so diverse? I would think that they would have wanted to capitalize on the park for as long as they could, make a decision what to do with it and then close it.

I'm not as upbeat as some of you. When I read "destination retail and dining" I get an "Opryland becomes Opry Mills" lump in my throat.

Even though Legoland opened an aquarium next to its park in Carlsbad this summer and Sea World recently added "destination retail and dining" to the front of its park in Florida, things like aquariums and destination retail are indicative of year-round strategic decisions that don't include a seasonal theme park.

They could do something similar to Kemah Boardwalk.

I would think that they would have wanted to capitalize on the park foras long as they could, make a decision what to do with it and thenclose it.

I think that's exactly what they did. This weekend is the last SDC/CC "regular" operating weekend. SDC is off next week, and starts the Holiday operating schedule after that. I found an old CC schedule; it was scheduled to be closed until May after this weekend.

They way I'm reading this: the notion of CC as an "evening gate" is not working out (or, working out well enough). They may already have a use for the land in mind, or they might not. Only they know for sure.

A question: anyone know what Branson's monthly tourism numbers are? Do they have a strong "non-summer" draw? If so, this might be a move to a year-round attraction, just as Paris suggests.

Here's another interesting tidbit. From HFEC's page announcing the closing:

You’re going to love Silver Dollar City’s newest evening event, Moonlight Madness happening July 21 through August 9, 2009 when you can enjoy Silver Dollar City rides under the Ozarks’ skies until 10 p.m.! Ride on into the night on PowderKeg, Lost River of the Ozarks, American Plunge & more!

Three weeks of extended night hours rather than a night-time park.

Paris said:
I'm not as upbeat as some of you. When I read "destination retail and dining" I get an "Opryland becomes Opry Mills" lump in my throat.

Even though Legoland opened an aquarium next to its park in Carlsbad this summer and Sea World recently added "destination retail and dining" to the front of its park in Florida, things like aquariums and destination retail are indicative of year-round strategic decisions that don't include a seasonal theme park.

I'd agree with this line of thought 100% - if this is still a park in any capacity come next summer, I'd be extremely surprised.

So are we going to hate Herschend for closing this park like we hate other companies when they close parks that aren't performing? :)

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