Geauga Lake - You Guys have it Good $$$

^Villain DID have track work done over the last off-season. Just not the entire ride. The sections that did get work feel great.

Having the straight track after that second drop feels so much nicer and also gives you a bit more speed going into the first turnaround.

Are they gonna continue the work this off-season? That I don't know... *** Edited 6/5/2007 7:55:34 PM UTC by lakecrystal***

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rollergator said:
^Dave...nicely done!

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J7G3 said:Indiana Beach has a great Jet Star (or whatever Anton model it is) called Tig'ger. Runs like a gem, looks like new too! Better than most of the B&M's I've been on.

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You're just trying to get on my good side....it's working...

I'll be the one marathoning said Jet Star at Lost Coaster weekend. The one wearing the goofy smile, riding solo while EVERYONE else has gone elsewhere, asking the ops for "one more time".

Back to GL...Big Dipper, new wood or not, is a really sweet ride. Honestly, getting back to a few small steel rides and having the three woodies in top, going for the picnic crowds and such, and focusing like a laser on waterpark goodies, GL could be *differentiated* enough from CP to get some attendance back WITHOUT hurting CP's turnstile clicks. Just a theory...

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Thunderhawk and Dominator arn't really "small steel rides". What they should do in terms of marketing is market to both teens and familes. A HUGE percentage of people that go to Geauga Lake are teens who go after school or on Saturday Afternoons. I know a few people who are heading out there Wednesday and Thursday because we have finals on those days and only go in for 2 hours.

I went to Geauga Lake last Friday for the first time, and I thought it stunk.

Every Rollercoaster had 1 train operation, the employees were generally very slow, Every coaster inflicts some amount of pain except Dominator, and there are waaaaaay too many of those Guess Your Weight games. It smells bad in a lot of places, looks bad in quite a few, and lots of food stands are closed.

The Head Spin part of the park is just rediculous. There's one really bad generic coaster, an empty plot where the best/2nd best ride in the park used to be, a half dismantled rollercoaster that was also in the top three best rides, Skyscraper and El Dorado were closed, every food stand was closed, and oh yeah, the dilapidated and seemingly abandoned old waterpark. It looks nearly as depressing as some old japanese theme parks.

All of that said, I am willing to pay twenty bucks for the well-started (it needs a few more slide complexes) Waterpark, Plus four or 5 for a few rides on Dominator, so the admission price is very fair. But even if I lived in Cleveland, I'd be willing to spend the extra 20 bucks in gas to go to CP anyday.

Why the hell are you complaining about 1 train ops? Was the park busy? Did it warrant 2 train opperation? No...You obviously haven't been paying much attention to anything going on at the park in the last 3 years.

I live in the state with monstrous ticket prices, Florida. BGA is $55 a pop now.

But the advantages and perks of high admission overrule the high price. Immaculate park, healthy and happy animals, killer coasters, etc. Plus the $10 upgrade to a season pass is too good to let pass. 55 bucks is a norm in Florida now. So of course I glee at Cedar Point's reasonable ticket prices, along with other parks. But there can be great disadvantages to being cheap. Sometimes when you win you lose kind of thing.

Geauga Lake is cheap, cheaper than one of my previous home parks, a little place called Lake Winnie in Georgia.

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Kennywooddude said:
Why the hell are you complaining about 1 train ops? Was the park busy? Did it warrant 2 train opperation? No...You obviously haven't been paying much attention to anything going on at the park in the last 3 years.

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On Villian the line was about 25-30 minutes. A wait that long warrants two trains to me.

Not to mention at Cedar Point the day before, Corkscrew, Gemini, Mantis, Cedar Creek Mine Ride, Raptor, all had 2 train operations (maybe Blue Streak if I remember right). Mean Streak and Iron Dragon had 3 trains. They were all walk ons.

Maybe I've just been spoiled by parks like SFOG, Holiday World, Cedar Point, Kings Island, Dollywood, Kings Dominion, and SF FREAKING KENTUCKY KINGDOM, which have all had two or three trains running on walk-on coasters in the past three years.

^ yay you! Wanna cookie for that?!?! I HIGHLY doubt Villain had a 35-40 minute wait. Blue Streak runs ONE train operation on slow days

I was at GL on a weekday last summer when Villain was running one train. The wait was easily 30 minutes. And the ride ops were lethargic.

I've seen it too. It's seriously annoying when they're running one train on that thing.

I've never been to Geauga Lake and seen more than one train being run on Villain. A long line in an empty park? That definitely shouldn't be... a true sign that something is wrong with operations.

But isn't this something only SF does?

Chuck, being sarcastic but CF has it's faults as well.

Everytime i'm at the park, Thunderhawk has a 20-30 min line even with 2 train opp.

I don't agree with you. I think that $27.00 is too much for Geauga Lake. If parking is $9.00, that is just crazy. The park is only removing attractions, instead of improving them. I can't think of any reason why I would go there again.

Ever since Seaworld left. The park just isn't worth the trip. Might be great for locals. But, I won't be going back again any time soon. X-flight and SUE were pretty much the best rides there.

Another park that has me stumped is Michigan's Adventure. Half of what there is to see at Geauga Lake, yet admission is $24.00. And, parking is $7.00.

Everything in the park has increased 200 percent, when it comes to prices for food. The food at Ma used to be a good deal. Not anymore. 11.95 for a cheeseburger meal...A cheeseburger!

guest relations says. Our pricing is in line with the industry...I say bull crap! I can go to Indiana beach and get a full service meal for your substandard snack food. Plus free parking, and cheap drinks.

Their responce. Well, if we had as much space as they do, we might be able to afford to do that. And, I said you don't know what you're talking about.

Indiana beach is land-locked. There is no extra space there. Parking is the only unused land there is. Where Michigans Adventure has an abundance of unused land. They said no comment.

I gave up. Like talking to a stone wall.

The food pricing, at Cedar Fair parks in general, is sure as hell not inline with the industry. When the park scoring for best guest relations makes soda "free" and Universal fountain soda is a buck less, people are going to notice.

I wouldn't travel out of my way to go to Geauga but since I live sorta nearby, I make an occasional visit. It has two of the best wooden coasters in Ohio (At least it did back when Villian was in good shape, and I'm ignoring Screechin' Eagle since that thing is in limbo) so it is worth a visit for that reason alone.

It has the cheapest admission of all the major Ohio parks, lines are short, and I can easily avoid being burned by food prices since there is an abundance of alternatives right outside the gates.

The place is "adequate" but seems to be missing something that I can't place my finger on.

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The place is "adequate" but seems to be missing something that I can't place my finger on.

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YES!

That's a perfect way to describe it. :)

I would like to see the big chains differentiate between their big parks and small parks. Overpriced food is bad anywhere but certainly has no proper place in the smaller parks.

In Six Flags case this means SFKK and TGE. FOr Cedar Fair the parks involved are GL and MiA.

MiA is the only decent sized park in the Wolverine State and used to be a family run park. TGE ued to be one as well. Compare these parks with IB (as mentioned above) or some other similarly sized parks such as LC.

It will be interesting to see what happpens with the food and drink pricing at DLk and EG now that the Flags have fallen.

It looks like Cedar Fair is now getting the flak over food pricing that was reserved last year for Six Flags. They should. They grabbed the Paramount parks and then decided to go with the Paramount food pricing everywhere instead of continuing their experiments with better pricing at some of their other parks.

HW, LC and those Florida destination parks may be onto something. Charge a bit more at the gate and make the drinks free or more reasonably priced than at a Six Flags or Cedar Fair park.

The trick with any Cedar Fair park is not to eat quick service, at least at CP you get more for your money and free refills on drinks at the Restaraunts.