Geauga Lake Monorail Closed Indefinately!

Wasn't Sea World offering a season pass for the same price as a one-day admission during the last couple years?

I think Geauga Lake needs better marketing, and some more personality. It just feels rather bland without much personality. But I'm sure if Cedar Fair is capable of doing that. :)

The expenses to operate a Marine life park in northeast Ohio are very high. Year round they must tend to the animals and keep them well taken care of throughout weather conditions that are out of their nature. Being that the park only operated 4 months or so out of the year, the rest of that time was just sucking money out of the park left and right.

So Busch leaves the hassel up to SF, and look where they went. That on top of their poor customer service just really did them in. They spent huge on the rides side only to find out they probably will spend double that in the winter just to keep the animals alive.

Sea life in Ohio just wasn't meant to be. And so now it's WWK, a great use of the land and fixtures already avalible to them. Cheap in the winter. And I personally think it's one of the better waterparks in this country. Definately the BEST in Ohio right now.

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Chitown said:
However, alot of people aren't going to GL now because of the animals being gone. Say what you will but even Kinzel admitted to that.

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People weren't going when the animals were there! I can't find the total, but didn't Cedar Fair say when they bought the park that they had already slipped under a million under Six Flags rule? If that's the case, the 700k they're doing now isn't bad at all.

If sea life in Ohio wasn't meant to be, why did it exist for at least 25 years?

Sorry, I don't buy the argument. I believe Busch sold the park because they couldn't expand, couldn't add rides, and it was the least profitable although I am sure it still pulled in a profit.

Obviously Sea World must have been doing something right from the early 70's up until early 2000's. *** Edited 8/24/2006 6:11:11 PM UTC by Chitown***

Sea World Ohio held it's own but it wasn't growing and likely wouldn't have grown. Perhaps if they could have got their hands on Geauga Lake they could have turned it into a Busch/Sea World super park but I think they believed Six Flags involvement would keep that a pipe dream and not a realistic option.

Not only that, but they were virtually giving away season passes with one day admission.

There was no Internet, no water parks, no huge cineplexes, fewer malls when SeaWorld Ohio opened in the 70's. The game changed.

Jeff, the Busch parks do that now with the season passes.

I have a one day admission card in my wallet from April that is good until Dec. 31st.

With your logic of more technological varieties out there, I guess zoos should be on the verge of closing as well?

Just a friendly debate, not trying to start an argument. :)

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I guess zoos should be on the verge of closing as well?

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Some of them are. The detroit zoo was slated for closure earlier this year---it is run at a loss by the city. It was saved in the 11th hour, but who knows for how long. The toledo zoo is now independent, but is subsidized by a millage. I have no idea if it would be viable without it.

^but the Columbus Zoo is expanding, by probably close to 2 times its size, and I'm not including the waterpark! I believe we said it was city owned also. I'm looking forward to seeing the new exhibit space.

Most zoos have a dual purpose of education/entertainment and conservation. They are not supposed to be profit-making enterprises.

The Columbus Zoo only gets a small portion of it's budget through admissions. The rest comes from tax levies, grants, and large donations.

Right. Which means if they were profit-making enterprises---like Sea World Ohio was---they'd probably be screwed.

Which is probably why when PKS offered 110 million or so to Busch for SWO (which was was probably only a marginaly profitable seasonal operation), they were glad to give it away.

Yeah they lasted 25 years, using the money from the southern parks to keep it going. Not to mention the park was pulling in 1+ million visitors so it had the money. It's just after all those years, things started to take their toll.

What's funny is that everything mentioned about not being able to expand and what not, I whole heartedly agree, as my argument about the losing money factor was only a piece of what I think went on.

Instead of writing a book about it, I opted to go with the factor that played into the recent ownership of the park pre-CF and also why CF stayed out of it. Obviously they don't know animals that well, but also I'm sure they saw it as a money eater as far as care of the animals throughout the winter which in the end those two factors determined it's fate.

Kinzel said he overestimated the draw of the animals, but due to the above reasons, they decided to give the park a makeover that would be more cost friendly and is something they know. What it all boils down to is that factor right there. Foget all this history crap, CF bought it, said see ya later, took Shamu outback..........(bang!) end of story.

Ok I love Shamu so that was a little harsh, but I meant it in a comedic sense. You know, kinda like "Sorry Ed, gonna haft to put ya to sleep now......"What's that Wilbur?"...........(bang!)"

In all seriousness, I miss Sea World. I really do, I used to go there all the time as a kid. I understand things change, so with that said I'm greatful I can still walk the land and the theme of the property is still WATER. Although this time, you get to be the ones swimming around!

I think it really worked out well. It really did come out nice and they did a great job of changing the entire look of the place.

One last thing, wasn't this thread about a closed Monorail? lol

What everyone else said. Zoos are rarely self-sustaining, for-profit businesses. The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo is primarily funded as part of the park system and huge grants from the bigger companies in town.

The animal thing was a money losing proposition, and all of the affection for it in the world wasn't going to change that. It seems everyone forgets that you still have to feed the animals the other eight months out of the year.

^And they are not cheap to feed. Shouka ate like, 1-2 tons of shrimp a day by itself.

I think Geagua Lake is making a good come back. When I went a couple of weeks ago, the water park was packed to the gills. The ride side was fairly busy, but not nearly as busy as the water park. This is what is bringing the locals back.

I beleive it was about the Monorail, at least when I started the thread.

Back on topic, Geauga Lake really needs to do something about Crap Corner. Not only is the monorail closed, but lateley, Skyscraper and Steel Venom have also been closed.

Crap Corner has no life, and that area of the park is simply depressing! They need to get rid of or repair some of those rides. I can only imagine the number of complaints the park gets per day about alomst an entire area of the park being shut down. Luckily, on their end, they have signs outside indicating the closures.

-Sam

I didn't know about the other two rides being shut down. Maybe that part of the park is slipping into the pits of hell.
:)

I ran through the park at lunch today. I thought all the kids were back in school, but clearly I was wrong. There was a pretty healthy count of cars even on the ride side. Good for them.

Crap Corner, LOL.