Geauga Lake Opening Day: The Excellent, The Good, and The Bad

I'll just add mine to the end of this one for space-saving sake:

Impulse-ive's Geauga Lake TR:

What Cedar Fair did do that Six Flags couldn't:

- Get rid of the mold underneath Batm ... Dominator, and have the water moving so that it won't regrow

- Get two trains running on Serial ... Thunderhawk, not to mention everything else but X-Flight

- Make Villain run as the #1 wooden coaster in Ohio as it should be (sorry folks, Beast never appealed to me)

- Get all the ops paying equal or more attention to their jobs than each other

What Cedar Fair didn't do that Six Flags might have:

- Get Superm ... Steel Venom up and running on opening day at least ONCE since its opening year

- Fix the horrid layout of the season pass office - I got there at 2:30 and didn't get in-park until 3:45, and there was still a line at 6 when I left

- Smooth out an SLC (I figured if anyone could do it Cedar Fair could - yes, I'm a fanboy ;) )

- Smooth out a boomerang (same as above)

- Fix the queue rails that come out of the ground at X-Flight, or get X-Flight's double-station working, or get X-Flight to operate reliably

Overall I had a good day. I actually spent my morning drawing up paperwork for putting in a bid on my first house (eep!) but I got to the park just in time to wait in a long line at the season pass office. I was only in the park about 45 minutes when it started to absoultely POUR while I was on X-Flight. I got soaked on the ride, so I didn't care about being wet and continued to ride Dominator and Villain for another hour and fifteen minutes. I was bummed that Steel Venom wasn't working, but since it hasn't worked on opening day the last two years, it wasn't like it was anything new. There were no lines to speak of, especially during and after the rain, and the ops were as I said, paying more attnetion to their jobs than each other (not complete robots, I wouldn't expect that, but at least 50/50 job/people, unlike usual SFWoA ops). 5 Dominators, 6 Villains, and 1 each XFlight, Thunderhawk and Head Spin made for a good 2 hours and 15 minutes at the park. Cedar Fair didn't perform any magic ... yet, but the basis is there. I didn't look around and think "nice improvements this year, too bad this is where it'll top out", I'm expecting things to get better as the year progresses.

Thank you, 1EyedJack :)

The park was clean and the staff was friendly but for what its worth its still my least favorite park thats within 3-4 hours fo my house.

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midwave said:Loriu, what is the 'boneyard'? Is that a junkyard I can buy that at?

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Next time you ride Villain, look down to your right and you'll see the boneyard. Old rides, slides and whatnot sitting around.

Just a short version as most people have covered pretty much everything.

The place was very clean!! I saw bathrooms being mopped at least three times during our time there from 10:45 am until 8 pm. In fact, I heard many people exclaiming how clean the park was, and in one restaurant (gas station theme by Time Warp) a woman said "can you BELIEVE how clean this place is?"

The food there was good. I got chicken fingers with fries and paid $6.75 (5 strips and a ton of fries), and a raspberry ice tea. Prices seemed to be normal for an amusement park. The employee behind the counter was lively and kidding around with the guests, very efficient.

In fact, quite a lot of the employees were very friendly, smiling, and seemed to care about whether the guests were having a good time. Only surliness I saw was on Villian. It was obvious the supervisor was trying to get the team into shape as she was on them constantly.

Except for Superman/Steel Venom, RWB, and Mr Hyde (which I wouldn't have ridden anyway), it seemed most everything was running at one point in the day. I got a ride on Texas Twister which I hadn't been able to ride when I was there in 1992 as my son was too small.

Most everything was a walk on, except X-flight, but it ended at the bottom of the stairs both times we rode, and we never waited longer than 15 minutes for it. We had trains to ourselves twice, once on Thunderhawk and once on Dominator.

We never made it across the boardwalk as we met up with a friend with his two girls, 4 and 6, and that was too much walking for them.

We spoke with Bill Sphen who asked about what we thought was good, and what we thought was bad. The only thing my friend with the kids could think of was yellow jackets in the kid's area and near Beaver Land Mine Ride. Mr. Sphen pulled out a piece of paper and said he'd contact an exterminator.

Only bad part of the day (which actually showed off a great deal of good!) was having to spend a bit over an hour in First Aid when my coaster buddy got sick. It gave me a chance to talk with one of the EMT's who, BTW, was one who'd had his salary cut. I asked how he felt about it, and was surprised to hear he doesn't mind. Management is so much better, and things they literally had to beg for in the past they've been told they can have now. He said it will make caring for guests needing first aid so much easier.

He also said they had over 50 painters working in the park, and RWB had it's track completely removed and was being replaced. He said there are so many plans for further improvements.

On the whole, we were very surprised at how well everything seemed to be running. I expected a bit more "chaos", and was met instead with a freshly painted, clean park, with employees who were friendly and cared a great deal about interacting and with the guests and wanted to please. *** Edited 5/2/2004 6:31:41 PM UTC by CPLady***

I was, as I put it to some of the execs floating around the park, pleasantly stunned at how different the park was from my last visit pre-CF (the one and only time I went when it was owned by SF). I was also expecting more chaos and less cleanliness in the park, along with fewer rides operating.

All in all, I had a great day. Villain has topped my all-time favorite woodie list (I only rode the Beast once, years ago) and was quite amazed at how much I enjoyed Thunderhawk, which I almost didn't get on because I hated it as Serial Thriller.

The thing I am most looking forward to is watching how the park changes over the next few years, and even this season.

Laura

They're only opened weekends for the majority of May, right?

So during the week... mass chaos is going to ensue again to try to fix any of the bugs from the week before, I'm assuming.

Aside from a few downed rides... were there any truly negative sides to the park this year? Ignoring the fact that it's owned by Cedar Fair... is there anything that definately needs improvement that will be done such as signage, landscaping, paving, food, layout... etc?

As for the "negative" I would say it's two things. Happy Harbor...a few rides running, no shops opened up over there, food places under renovation and closed, the Happy Harbor Arcade was still closed (closed all last year two). They did have the Stadium Arcade open...though no one was over there, since there is nothing but a Stadium of course, and that little carousel is over there. They had a few of the rides running, but it just seemed "sad" is the best way to put it. This area needs some MAJOR work, which will probably take around 1 to 2 years to bring it to it's former glory.

As for the food. The problem with closing the Animal section is that it took out A LOT of food places to eat. Most of the places they took out where probably the top 4 places to eat, including the number 1 Mandarin Buffet. So I'm guesing/hoping CF realizes the park needs one or even 2 sit down places to eat (hopefully non-buffet style). *** Edited 5/2/2004 8:00:32 PM UTC by RollerCoasterGod***

Going way back to LuvRaptors comments: I've been next to people many times before who do nothing but complain, just as you have, ignore 'em. Even though it is now CF's, there's lot's to be done. Today may have been opening day, but for most parks, I'd have to say their really still in pre-season. Most BIG tourism for parks is typically around Memorial Day weekend. With CF in charge there'll be lots done in the next 3+ weeks

I was at the park today for a few hours. There were maybe twenty cars in the parking lot and a bus or two. Although it was very quiet with guests the park employees were fantastic!!! Every single one that spoke with was incredibly friendly, personable and smiling. Definately not like last year or quite a few years previous.

There were quite a few rides down. But, with the rain all day and the maintenance "catch-up" that needs taken care of I wasn't at all surprised. X-Flight was closed but being worked on by maintenance and doing test runs on occassion.

Every single ride that I did today was a walk-on with many trains on my own. I did about 6 Dominator rides, 3 Villian rides, 1 Thunderhawk ride (that was plenty!) and 2 Headspin rides.

And, although not open, I was pleased to see the "Spinners" food stand still there...hoping that it stays...I love those things! =)

Yes, those spinners are AWESOME! I too was wondering if they were going to keep that. Anyone know if Spinners is a SF thing or if CF can move them to their other parks? I totally agree with the whole Memorial Day thing. And I'll tell anyone that this year is really a transitional year. I also wonder if GL can pull off getting all 3 X-Flight trains on, or if the 3rd train is gone for good since it had to be use for parts the past 2 years.

The only "complaint" I have about the old wild-life side is they need some benches around the rides. In the area around Bounty, Pirate Flight, YO-YO and the scrambler, there is not one bench to sit and take a rest. Considering I forgot to take my dramamine, I wasn't riding, it would've been nice to give my feet a rest for awhile while my daughter and husband were riding.

Everyone's got things covered and CP Lady was with me so that about says it all. ;) Fun, great day at GL!

Thanks for the reviews everyone! I didn't get out to GL due to Kennywood opening the same day, but I'm glad to hear that CF is beginning to work wonders with the place. I can't wait to see what CF has in store for me, hopefully I'll have time for a trip sometime soon.

Here are some pictures. Enjoy.

I had an absolute BLAST Saturday at the park. I met up with some soon-to-be family members.

There was a choir thing going on and my future cousin-in-law and her daughter were there for it. I met up with them around 1pm or so. I spent the rest of the day walking around with 4 fifth graders who had never been to the park. It was awesome to see such amazement in them about the park. Everything was new and exciting. It was a wonderful day and I couldn't have asked for a more perfect day!

Some things that I noticed:

* DDR Megamix machine in the Gold Nugget Arcade (is this an older machine?)
* DDR 4th Mix in the arcade across from Kidzville
* "The Fun Is Back" slogan plastered on every food stand pricing boards. Are they implying that we didn't have fun the past several years?
* Seeing sweepers at the park was rather odd. After years of SF not giving a rat's behind about the condition of the midways, seeing several GL sweepers keeping things clean was definitely a good thing.
* A VERY nice selection of new GL merchandise. There was some older items available also (with the Premier logo), but in all, I was surprised they had that much merchandise available on Opening Day.
* They were selling stuffed killer whales in the Happy Harbor Gift shop outside the ski stadium. ANd like everyone else has mentioned, that side of the park is rather depressing. "Please accept our apologies"! ;)
* Time Warp running both sides was also strange as I have only seen that happen once- and I was at Sea World that day!
* Mr. Spehn is a very nice guy. It was very cool to see him go out of his way to talk to guests throughout the day.
* Villain's lap bar checkers were so efficient that the train out on the course hadn't even cleared the block area before we were ready to go. Major props to the ride staff.

Overall, the park I have visited every year since 1973 had a pretty decent day under its new owners. Yes, there were numerous breakdowns and other bits of chaos, but I guess after having transition years ever since 2000, I have gotten used to it.

ray p.

Just some observations:

1. Don't think I've ever seen as many sweepers going around the park than I've ever seen. Almost every part of the park had 2-3 sweepers.

2. You could tell who the supervisors were, they were wearing white shirts with the word "supervisor" sitch onto the shirt. And you saw a number of them walking around. Ran into one every 5 minutes it seemed.

3. The ride op uniforms are the same color(s) as CP uniforms. Just a darker color of blue shorts.

4. Lots of "suits" walking around the park. Saw people that had CP name tags and did see Bill walking around the park.

5. Some people were getting upset that they were allowed to bring their backpacks/prizes with them to the station.

6. The trick track on Villain is so smoothed, you think Intamin did something to it. The whole ride itself was running like it did back in 2000. Now hopefully it'll climb back up the wooden coaster rankings.

7. The seat belts on BD didn't matter much. Just wished they had the blue train on instead of the red one.

8. The old wildlife side is practically DEAD. There was hardly anyone even over there and had two employees tell us that MBT was open.

Only thing that they could add is put in some more lockers without the park or put some holding bins like the have on Raptor & Wicked Twister so people could put there stuff in them.

Other than that, can only see good things to come.

ProgRay said:

Mr. Spehn is a very nice guy. It was very cool to see him go out of his way to talk to guests throughout the day.

Myabe his doctor perscribed some medication for his anger problem or something. I would love to see what he looks like when he actually smiles. Good for him that he can be nice to guests for a change.

It sounds like the park is coming along nicely.

You have to wonder if Kiernan Burke is going to kick some major booty at SF and say, we could have/should have done all of these improvements.