Cypress Gardens will close rides, expand water park for 2009

If the demographics of Cypress Garden scream "old"...I think I would be screaming upon entering the water park. Not sure that is a sight I want to see.

I agree the POP probably turned off a lot of the "older" generation. But, unless they installed some slot machines I don't know how many of them were actually going to spend the kind of money that CG might need in terms of a per cap.

I like the concept of the "local waterpark" - seems awfully familiar. I noticed this summer while at the park formerly known as Geauga Lake, now known as Wild Water Kingdom (TPFKNAGLNKAWWK :) ), that they seemed to be doing a lot of "local" type things you would find at a rec/youth center. Swim lessons, Friday night dance parties, family picnics and the like.

The only problem there is that it's kind of out of everyone's way to be "local". At least they're trying and I respect the hell out of them for doing that.

So do you leave the ride park alone, drop the gate price and go pay-per-ride/armband POP for the rides? I don't think that works either: you end up right where they are now, with nobody riding the rides and a bunch of old people coming to wander around in the gardens.

No, when I visited, it was a nice park, but I wasn't really thrilled (if I may use that word) with the ride selection. It was a bunch of kiddie rides, a couple of good coasters, and then back by the pond they had a kind of a bizarre collection of stuff. I don't know quite how to explain it; the ride selection just didn't seem well rounded to me. I mean, the first thing the new owners did with the place was to shut down and try to sell the Inverter, and that was probably one of the smartest things they could do even if they were planning to keep the rides.

I wonder if they would have been more successful to spread the kiddie rides around the gardens instead of putting them in the conventional kiddie ghetto. I'm thinking about the Hersheypark model, where the kiddie rides are scattered all over the park, so at Cypress, those rides become a reason to bring the grandchildren along, but don't interfere with a visit to the gardens. But then what does that mean for the "big kid" rides over on the midway?

I guess the real problem is that Business Model #1 failed, and Business Model #2 did not meet with as much success as was hoped for. It just seems odd that Business Model #3 now looks a lot like Business Model #1.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Or, it could just be that the Dinseyfied Florida has little, if any room for the "quaint attractions". Outside of Tampa and Orlando show me any screaming successess when it comes to the amusement park business.

And, since there aren't any, does that make a lot of sense when you consider the significant population in SE Florida, the $$ in SW Florida and so forth?

The market seems to have been cornered. Wayne Huzienga is a pretty savy business man but he was the last guy to come close to building a new park in South Florida and after some studies he realized it wasn't going to work. That guy could make money picking up garbage...literally, and if he didn't see the potential maybe the potential just isn't there.

I wonder if it's possible that the wood coasters will eventually remain as part of the mix, kind of like Waterville USA that features a wood coaster along with waterpark attractions. Maybe it would be good for the park to leave in place a few major mechanical rides?

If anything, I want to believe what Dave said about there being no rush to remove the wood coasters, and therefore little risk of them getting demolished. It would be a shame to lose two wood coasters in great operating condition, especially when both would make great additions to other parks.

I do not really post too much but ....This news disturbs both myself and my husband.

It is all about location I agree. We live about an hour and 10 minutes North of Cypress and we would go there every month. We bought our season passes back in May. Cypress holds a very big place in our hearts GRANTED it was not the BEST PARK nor were the coasters anything to brag about (Starliner is great) but coming from NY/NJ we hatesd SFGA(too crowded) and spent our summers at what we considered our "Home PARK" Knoebels, Though 2 hrs from home we love it and return every year at least once. We actually got engaged there. When we moved to Florida we found Cypress and that gave us the same family feel as Knoebels small and charming. Again the rides were not great (Knoebels are much better) but we liked the atmosphere . We we would always go and say that we "couldn't wait to have kids and bring them here"

It is in a crappy location and we too were wondering what will happen to Starliner...I am hoping it goes SOMEWHERE and doesn't not end up like the Villain - yet another very disturbing thing to know it went to scrap! I would Love to see it SAVED and bought somewhere... the best place that comes to mind is LakeMont Park. Though they never seem to have too much $$ coming in.

Does anyone know if the rides will be auctioned? if so please post it I want to attend the auction.

My hubby and I are going to bid farewell to the RIDES anyway this weekend...we plan to buy our Starliner t shirts and postcards with rides etc.... HOPEFULLY Starliner will be running I would like just one more ride on the classic before it disappears.

redman822 said:
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. -Albert Einstein

Crazy... I thought that ride was built in Vegas long after Einstein's death.. Course I pretty much expect the same feeling every time I went on it.

Going back on topic and turning to the hypothetical which typically yields no right or wrong answer, but thought provoking nonetheless:

I often wonder how Cypress would be today had BGE kept hold of this park. Granted it would have provided a nice middle of the journey stop off for AP holders that want to hit three BG parks off of 1 interstate.

I imagine it would have been built up a bit more though.. but I guess at the same time it wasnt in their best interest to siphon off the Tampa and Orlando market with a "park-in-the-middle", because lets me honest in its simplest form:

Tampa (BGA) is a theme/amuseument park that covers the land animals (for the most part) and Orlando (SWO) is a theme/amuseument park that covers the Sea. What theme would Cypress have been? Air? How exciting is a bird park?

Of course all moot thoughts.. but in my idle time waiting to get on Toy Story I sometimes wonder.

I've got to wonder how many other parks are out there in similar situations, bought land / parks at a high value and now have a large debt load in the midst of shrinking income and less than ideal financial circumstances. Think of how many palces have been sold / exchanged hands lately. Indiana Beach, the Six Flags sell offs, etc.

HI all - I uploaded a video to the "Save Starliner" group on Facebook, if anyone wants to see the last two days of Cypress open with rides. The video takes you through the entire day that I spent there on Sunday. Saturday I spent the day there shopping in the stores YES 4 hours and I went to only three stores!!! I do not think there were really prepared in the stores to handle the shoppers..... As you can see from the pics the lines for both Triple Hurricane and Starliner were over an hour wait (well For Starliner) - Triple was about 30 minutes or so... Well I hope you enjoy it if you watch it.