Geauga Lake's X-Flight being relocated to another park

As a lifelong member of the geauga lake attendees, i can see this as a logical move. Right now the focus really is on the water park. It has been the bread and butter that has drove the park the last few years. Its no secret anymore. X-Flight we hardly knew ya for the five years you were here, but it seems like a good move. It hopefully will add to them doing some better work cleaning up that area of the park. I remember the days when the flats dominated that area, and the corkscrew. It was better organized in that area, and the water park was there.

It seems like the cohesion that was there with sea world had something. Six Flags and Cedar Fair have hurt this park in ways that have shown their ugly heads in recent years. The marketability has been lost to an extent with the animals MIA over the past three years. Its hard to have that family atmostsphere which geuaga lake promotes with all of these things. The rides they have are geared towards the thrills, which in my opinion they didnt ever need. A few noticeable exceptions were the dominator, and thunderhawk which were added over the years since we had the four measely coasters which did just fine.

The allure of the park has been lost when you can turn your attention west for thrills, and you lost something that made you unique. Which wasn't competition for many years that i was young. Call me crazy but i loved Geauga Lake and never knew Cedar Point existed till i was like seven. They had me hooked on what we might call cheesy flats, and cutting your teeth on much milder coasters. It seemed like families could have a good time doing just about everything there. Now my dad and my brother dont ride much there, and take in more of the smaller rides the older coasters, and they seem to like the water park. It was built on the small water park and the rides that people could enjoy together, with this idea that six flags brought in shows that thrills weren't for everyone, and that you need to find the things that people are willing to ride and do together. X-Flight wasnt that, so its identity best suits it for a place where people come to ride something like it. My opinions, but for sure i wont miss it all that much there.

The ride in my opinion was iffy at best. To me, it's a bad decision. There are a lot worse rides in that park that should come down instead of that ride. I know they are just doing it to add it somewhere else because it costs so much money, but you are still left a lot of rough coasters over there.

Everyone blames Six Flags, and they can for taking out, and changing a lot of rides in there, but Six Flags still added Dominator, and they added this ride. These rides aren't horrible. Villain, previous Raging Wolf Bobs, and others are horrible in my opinion. I don't see Steel Venom as a problem either. I would still like to go to the park, but I wouldn't ride half the rides there. Who's fault is this??

Six Flags even added an Inverter to the park. Those are just horrible. If you don't like the roller coasters, there aren't that many flats really if you think about it. I counted 20 bigger ones. SFGAm has 38 while SFStL, and SFMM are around the same not inlcuding the extra waterpark now. Even though I like Yo-Yo's, that one is a disappointment. It barely tilted.

I even don't like there River rafting water ride. I also don't care for a Huss Top Spin. Freefall's are dying all over the place now, and that's why that's gone. The Head Spin is a good ride, but I'm sure people think it's rough. Monorails are boring, and the Gyro Tower air-conditioning didn't work. The ride isn't that crowded at Six Flags Great America for goodness sakes. The Spider is good, and the Pirate Flight is good along with the Hay Bailer. I'm not crazy about 1001 Nachts rides. I haven't ridden the Swing Around because it was disassembled, but it might be good. Of course, you have bumper cars, and a Merry-Go-Round.

They also have a flume ride, the O.P. Hopkins ride, and the Chance Wipeout. Dino Island was the roughest simulator in the planet, and Mars wasn't that bad. The flats weren't the worst in the world, but without great roller coasters in the park, you are stuck with flats, and not much else. Let's go to Cedar Point where they have 17. I would have loved Maverick, or some class coaster to come to this park instead of Cedar Point. Let some other park deal with Vekoma's SLC, the Villain, Raging Wolf Bobs, and maybe the Double Loop. The Head Spin is quite rough, but I still like it. It would be another bad ride in some people's eyes (not mine though). I doubt there attendance would go up after a couple years of the ride being thing. The only ride in the park with no line is one of these rides.

If you go to the park today, and ride all the roller coasters, tell me how many roller coasters you really would love to reride over there? Pretend like the waterpark doesn't exist. Would you choose Cedar Point, or GL? I'm not bashing GL, but it's my honest opinion. I do still want to travel to this park while near CP, but I honestly now care about 4 coasters (Head Spin, Dominator, Double Loop--It's still too short, and Steel Venom even though I have it at SFGAm). That's kind of sad for a park that has 9 coasters. X-Flight was iffy. The GP would probably knock off Dominator, and Double Loop. These aren't the people that ride roller coasters all day either. What are they going to do? Of course, they have the waterpark installed. I still think it's a bad decision. I would love a roller coaster on the other side of the park, or replace one that isn't up to par.

I think people just didn't like what they saw, and the park went down to what it is from 2.7 million people. This was after the 2000 season in 2001 when the Sea World thing came in. I gave people more things to do.

It was bought by another chain for a reason. It's not just because Six Flags killed it. Actually Premier bought Six Flags, and then they started to take over.

Where is it going to go? Well, considering that CF most likely takes on SF's approach, they will probably give it to a better CF park. The reason is because they most likely feel that good rides (Again, I thought it was iffy.) deserve better (more produced) parks. If it was SF, they would give it to SFGAdv, or SFGAm. For CF, I would say Paramount's Kings Island.

Keep Big Dipper and I'll gladly return to GL anyday.

Seriously. As long as they keep Big Dipper and preferabky Villain as well, I'll be happy to return to Geauga Lake. Get rid of some of that steel and fill it in with flats, fascination and some nice shrubberies with varying height so they "get the two-level effect." ;)
*** This post was edited by Acoustic Viscosity 11/23/2006 12:42:50 AM ***

PKI makes a lot of sense. (and I don't mean that sarcastically).

First, transportation costs of the pieces will be significantly lower across state than across country to a lot of the other CF parks. I know that's a drop in the bucket, but when you have a 1.24billion debt from buying some parks, you take the gimme's where you can (yes, I know there's an extra .76billion in there, but that wasn't directly the sale of the parks).

Second, it's only going 2-3 hours away (drive depending on traffic and how you feel about the speed limit). So the die-hard fans of the ride out there don't have to go too much further to ride it. It may actually generate some business for PKI. Left Pocket-Right Pocket deal for CF since they're going to PKI instead of Geauga Lake until you consider that many of them driving the 2-3 hours may have never been to PKI before, so they will a) stay longer, and probably b) buy food, souvenirs (including the *NEW* PKI X-Flight shirts and paraphernalia) c) pay parking (or get the higher-cost ohio pass and MAXX pass to get into GL and PKI)

Third, it may not be a people-mover, but many of PKI's guests will have ridden it (or seen and not want to have ridden) it at GL. They do pull off many of the same markets after all. So the lines won't be as catastrophic as if it were completely new to the Ohio parks as a concept. Also, there are quite a collection of other outstanding coasters (and non-coasters) at PKI for people to choose from, so the "horrible lines" will shorten themselves. People will simply say "eh, too long for me" and move on to something else. Not everyone is credit-whoring the park and *NEEDS* to wait *HOWEVER LONG IT TAKES* to get on. Heck, I've witnessed this at Dorney with a 15-min wait for Talon, Hydra, and Steel Force.

Fourth, they're trying to go for the family niche -- that which made Geauga Lake what is was before SF -- and in order to do that, unfortunately for us geeks, some things have to go. So, trim down some of the mega non-family rides (i.e. X-Flight) move them nearby (for reasons stated above) to a THRILL PARK where they fit in. I wouldn't be surprised so see Dominator go to CP within 2 or 3 years (although I think the lake adds to the ride, IMO) and/or Steel Venom to go to PKI either (although this wouldn't be as ripe a move when considering my reason #5 below, since it would offer a similar experience -- SV and WT -- at both parks)

Fifth, Cedar Point doesn't have any type of flying coaster, regardless of the manufacturer so this will help differentiate PKI from Cedar Point when people who are torn between the 2 for thrills make a decision. There's a unique ride experience that will be available that you can't get at the point. Now that they own both parks, it's ok. If Joe Q. Public chooses CP, they win. If he chooses PKI, they win. If he decides to go to both, they up the dividends. :)

Thoughts on my thoughts?

Edit:
Reason 6: on Geauga Lake Today, they surveyor van was from outside Cincinatti, IIRC... which isn't too far from PKI if they wanted them to do some consulting/surveying work on both sides of the install -- removal from GL and installation to PKI
*** This post was edited by dannerman 11/23/2006 4:29:53 AM ***

It's all just speculation on where the ride is going right now,PKI might not make as much off of the ride in a market where more people know of it's history & may decide to pass on it as a result....Just because the park called in a contractor from Cincinnati <near PKI doesn't automatically mean that the ride will be going to PKI & is just a coincidence.

Besides where ever it's going it will not become a new for 2007 attraction,instead it will just probably sit in storage as I've said before while CF figures out where they want to put it up at.

Now they could very well send the ride to CP to boost the count<and their ego over that park> knowing that enthusiasts might show up to check it out & in the process at least try to run it at a decent capacity,then again they might not but the truth is we just don't know where it's going yet.

I am currently looking at the WOF 2007 operating schedule and map and I don't see anything on it that resembles X, or anything new for that matter.

Regardless, is there any CF park that has land work being done (other than the already mentioned KI by FOF)? Wouldn't land prep have to be started already if it was going to be installed in 2007?

I think the capacity fits a smaller park, such as MiA or WOF better than a larger park. It would be an offset to SOB at KI, but, does anyone really see them tearing that ride down? I don't. Reprofiling probably, not tearing it down, doesn't make a lot of business sense to me.

In closing, I have to say it's odd to me to think that CF is moving rides around....seems so six-flagish to me. :)

Fever

During Fear Fest it was obvious that work had begun at PCW on the land between Sledghammer and Italian Job. This area is currently home to Oribiter (Sol Loco as it's remembered).

As some may recall this area was closed off earlier in the year to prepare for FOF's arrival from PKD. Once that plan was cancelled, Orbiter was re-assembled and the area was re-opened.

A large construction fence was up, the paving stones on the ground were all dug up and buildings around Orbiter had been demolished by the last weekend of Fear Fest. These buildings included air brush t-shirts and a recording place to make music videos.

I doubt there's room here for X-flight, but the question was asked if land prep had begun anywhere, and it has at Wonderland.

Just to reassure the doubters out there, I guarantee you that CF is addressing the capacity issue. They're well aware of the ride's tendency to be slow to load and high maintenance. What better time to address these issues than during a move?

And several of you are sniffing up the right tree for the recipient park.

Of course It's going to MIA. They havent got a coaster in a decade. MIA has been working on the water park and since that's over they need to work on some thrills. I think X-Flight would fight perfect in their. So if any park deserves X-Flight it's their. MIA has been in operation for 50 years and only has 6 coasters. So i really hope it goes to Their!*** This post was edited by Coasterkid85 11/26/2006 6:18:53 PM ****** This post was edited by Coasterkid85 11/26/2006 6:21:02 PM ***

^ lol every other word didn't have to be MiA.

...but many of PKI's guests will have ridden it (or seen and not want to have ridden) it at GL.

I talk to people who have lived here in Los Angeles all their lives and could not describe the newest coasters at SFMM, KBF...or heck even Disneyland! I doubt that's unusual and suspect many of PKI's guests have never even heard of Geauga Lake, let alone X-Flight.

Moosh Gets it!

With X-flight leaving. CF is planning on changing that section of the park. The monorail, hanna's and Hyde are in that general area and like others have mentioned it ould not be to suprising to see some of the other attractions in that part of the park relocated/ removed.

SOB "Son of Bat"! I'm just saying.

timmyk

Otterkpr, isn't there some type rumour going around that GL is also going to remove Steel Venom as the thing practically blew up last year?? It would not surprise me to see that happen and open up that section of the park dramatically. I always thought that portion of the park was really crowede with three coasters all slammed into that one little section.

As for the final destination of X-flight. I highly doubt PCW as they already have a flying coaster. It could end up at either PKI, PKD, MIA or even WOF. I would highly doubt it would end up at Dorney, KBF, PGA. I guess we will have to just wait and see where it ends up.

It "needs" to go to a park that already has an assortment of "lesser technology" steel coasters like loopers, standups, launchers, inverts.

Giving a flyer to MIA would cause them great difficulty for marketing futiure installations. It would be like Magic Mountain installing a floorless or a flyer after X. Oh wait....never mind. ;)

Michigan's Adventure is not getting this coaster. They can't afford to operate it. Seriously coasterkid, lay off the MIAcrack.

haha....Fun pretty much took what i was going to say.

my guess is its going to PKI; i just dont see it really fitting in at any other CF park, but thats just my opinion.

So i want MIA to get the coaster so what. They havent got a coaster in 9 years. Their coasters are getting a little old what to ya.