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

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Jeff said:
There still is no south side to Geauga Lake.

Sounds like there's a great deal of training to be done regarding the correct carry-on procedures, as some people are still obviously making things up as they go along.

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It appeared that they working hard on making the policy consistent. On Dominator, I saw a supervisor type person giving instructions to the workers at the bottom of the stairs. For the rest of the day, those employees were very consistent in their enforcement of the rules.

The operators on Villian and Dominator were doing a great job dispatching the trains quickly. I wonder how soon it will be before they try a third train on Dominator.

My funniest moment was listening to the obviously new ride operator reading his spiel on Time Warp. 'Welcome back...um...riders. How was your....um....ride'.

On my second ride on Villain, there were some teenagers next to me who reached over the air gate to give their friends already on the red train a "high five" as the train departed. The ride supe gave them a major lecture which I was happy to see.

Six Flags ops would never have done that.

Again the Happy Harbor side of the park is going to need some major investment to get more people on that side of the lake, as reported by those already that it's basically a dead area. The upcoming waterski show might take care of that but looking long term, CF needs to take a good look at what they could do to improve that side.

X Factor

We have to install two pressure mats so we can have 6 bar checkers and 3 trains, till then 2 trains 4 bar checkers. We have a lot of confidence in that crew and its leads, same with Villain.

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loriu said:
Here are some pictures. Enjoy.

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Please dont take pictures from the Americana...we tell you when you board not to take pictures.

Im glad alot of you enjoy that Time Warp is running both sides. Hydes will be open Memorial Day weekend.

no pictures on Americana PLEASE...

Why no pictures on the ferris wheel, may we ask? Safety or park security?

Oh, and just to clarify, Time Warp ran both sides in 2000 and 2001, and briefly in 2002...some have been saying that it hadn't run both sides since 1999.

*** Edited 5/5/2004 8:34:21 AM UTC by midwave***

midwave, the ride ops were stating that still or video photography was strictly prohibited on both the Ferris Wheel and the Monorail.

ray p.

Well, it seems retarded not to be able to take pictures on the giant wheel of a monorail. Those are the two rides which it SHOULD be allowed. I've never been to a park which would actually prohibit that... and they can usually clearly see me carry the camera on-board, but I've never got b!tched about it before.

...this is especially true at GL/Worlds of Adventure, as one pic of ThunderHawk clearly shows (HERE) that it was taken on the wheel.

...I just don't get what their beef is. It's the slowest moving rides in the park, and the perfect Kodak opportunities for the park. Better than hogging up the midway as peeps are trying to push & shove their way thru while you're standing in the middle trying to line up that perfect shot!

It is a safety issue. We are told to not allow riders to take pictures while on the ride. A camera could be easily dropped.

Yeah, that's what they tell you. Nevermind that it virtually never happens. It's probably the one case I can think of where CF safety defies common sense.

still the rules...and if i see people with cameras i do tell them to put them away. It still is a safety issue. "virtually never happens" implies that it does happen...

Well, as the old saying goes... Rules are made to be broken! :)

Jeff, the other REAL instance of CF defying logic when it comes to safety is Xcelerator. *Strapped* glasses are simply NOT permitted on the ride....yet everyone who's ridden Dragster tells me they ARE allowed on that.

Gotta wonder when they'll simply prevent people from bringing cameras in the park at all...."you could drop it on someone's toe while strolling the midway"...;)

It'll happen when someone gets sued for it. Just wait, it's inevitable, because you know, lawsuits prevent every accident from happening ;)

--Brett, who feels that if cameras are banned from the ferris wheel because they could fall, I think the gondolas should be banned too, since they could fall - just leave a big steel wheel, I'm sure that will be entertaining ... then again, that could fall too, so you really outta just remove the ride so that there's a 100% chance no one would get hurt ... then again someone could trip on the concrete on the spot ...

some of you might be pleased to hear that the ride policies have changed since opeining weekend. Cameras ARE allowed on Americana ONLY when the ride is not in motion...

So, petie, are you saying that you can get on the ride with the camera, sit down with your camera, but before the ride starts moving, you have to give your camera to a nonrider, but once your bucket stops at the top, the nonrider can throw the camera up to you, you can take pictures, but before it starts moving again, you have to throw the camera back down to the nonrider...

What I'm trying to say is, I think you mean photography is only prohibited on the ride when it is in motion. Correct?