Geauga Lake announces water park plans, pricing

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...but they just want to analize some more stuff.

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Eww. Remind me to turn down any future GL job offers. ;)

The Shark Attack slides will not be part of the expansion. They were had-me-downs from another park. Geauga Lake replaced a sub-par waterpark with a beautiful, more efficient, and safer water park. Looks like the plan to bring the park up to Cedar Fair standards is under way. Remember the struggles Dorney went through, the Geauga Lake process is only 2 years in. I think ending the season after Octoberfest is the right way to go, its hard to justify opening the park in October for such small crowds. Lets not forget when Octoberfest was the traditional end to the season at GL. Hopefully that will become the parks signature event.

Personally, I find it a huge disappointment that the Haunt/Halloween festivities will end. It happens to be a tradition for us to attend for the past several years, of both the SFWoA and GL variations. As someone who only attended GL this year during the Haunt event, we saw a larger crowd than in 2004, and had a much nicer time this time around.

In my opinion, the GL Halloween festivities are some of the best of the bunch in our area, and the ONLY one that is close enough for us that would be considered 'For The Entire Family'.

I'm hoping that Waldameer adds a September/October weekend schedule and/or Idlewild continues their new Halloween event and/or Kennywood sees this as an option to make their Halloween event a split between family/youngster and teen/adult Phantom Fright Nights!

......October without amusement parks just isn't part of my vocabulary anymore.....

I'm surprised about the lack of Halloween commitment. But it might not be all bad.

Maybe they will combine GL and CP staff around Halloween so that more of th CP's flat rides will operate.

Maybe they will wait until October and let the weather determine how late in the season they will remain open. If the weather is crappy, no harm, no foul. If the weather is great, they can advertize a Bonus Weekend.

Or maybe they will follow the lead of Knotts Berry Farm and Kennywood and make a separately gated Halloween event. GL has a lot of potential. Halloween in 2004 was crazy -- I've never seen so much artificial fog.

There are lots of alternatives besides just skipping our favorite sugar-coated holiday. ;)

Just give it time. Everyone seems to be thinking this is a not so good thing for the park. But maybe it's the best thing that can happen. Geeze it's only going on the 3rd year of operation under Cedar Fair. Good things take time to come around. Just wait you'll see. GLP will have the best event for Halloween. Because I know that the Halloween event's not gone, it just won't be part of the park for a while.

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In reality, all they are getting is a 30,000 gallon wave pool

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There's quite a difference between a 30,000 gallon swimming pool (like a health club lap pool) and a wavepool 30,000 square FEET in size...

But not quite as large as the difference between a consistently profitable chain with ONE money-losing park and another up to its eyeballs in debt and POed investors.

A chain with parks that get shut down? Sold for a loss? With management that auctions their whole chain off? Sorry, you want those flag-waving guys!

-CO

john peck said:

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Im sure the Haunt will be back

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The Haunt will not be back. All the scenery and house stuff is being sent to another park.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I have to be honest...I agree with 'Playa...

The only "troubling" park right now is GL - all the others are fine.

Further, as it's been pointed out - GL is still a recent acquisition. Give it time, and I'm sure it'll be just as profitable as all the other parks. There's a reason that CF has stuck to buying only 1 new park every 3 years - they realize it takes time to turn the park around into a state where it's profitable. If you take on only 1 park at a time, the rest of the company can subsidize any intermediate losses until the park can stand by itself.

As for the Halloween stuff? I'm sure it WILL be back. Just not 2006, and likely not 2007 either. Build the park first, and bring back the accessories once you have a strong park. In the meantime, it doesn't make business sense for all the props, decorations, scenery, et. al. to lie dormant in storage when it can be used to augment the other parks' offerings. Then, when they're ready to bring it back, they can get new stuff (or ship a lot back and spread out the new stuff to all the parks) and advertise it as "new and improved" and all that other fun marketing jargon.

edit: typo & formatting

*** This post was edited by dannerman 11/15/2005 6:05:55 PM ***

It's gone. There is more to this than others may think.

It takes ALOT of time, effort, and money to build an event from scratch. You don't put all that into a park then send it off to only bring it back in year or two.

I don't think the boys up in corporate like the idea of Geauga Lake and Cedar Point competing for Halloween customers... which might explain why, by most accounts, GL's '05 "Haunt" was a major success.

The Haunt is not gone completely, it just might not be a part of GLP seasons for a while. I remeber reading somewhere, that Valleyfair had lost their Halloween event for like 10 years. Now being farther along into ownership, I am sure that whatever caused Valleyfair to loose their event, will not happen again.

I know that Mr. Sphen loves halloween, and it probably makes him even more sad, then one can think. But I am sure the reason it was cancelled is for the better of the park.

Better of the park, or better of the company?

"It wouldn't be wise to spend if your not getting anything in return... its bussinessAnd honestly, I don't think that the GP would even notice that the plans have changed, and I don't think they really care."

I thought part of business, or at least good business, was has having forcasts and all that business stuff? I'm not saying they should build this if the money is not there but does this park really need more negative publicity?

The GP, or at least the 700,000 or so of us who went to the park last season have no choice but to notice as this was advertised outside and inside of the park all of last season.

The fifteen or so times I went with my kid last season all Sally Soccer Mom and Holly Homemaker talked about was how huge and fun the 06' completion of the waterpark will be. People will notice and unless this is advertised a bit more then it is now they will be expecting their frozen magaritas served to them as they float around the pool as advertised.

This is sad...