Has your homepark inproved since SF took over?

Just wondering how SF's has changed your homepark for the better or worse?

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Cedar Point's Mean Streak and World's Of Fun's Dentonator both share the same logo......That's cheap!!!!

Six Flags did add 5 roller coasters to Geauga Lake and bought out Sea World from across the lake but they made some really bad business choices for the park. They spent tons of money on building coasters, buying the rights to the warner brothers characters, and buying sea world and finding animals to fill the park. They basically spent all their money and had nothing left over to run the park with.

The park was in terrible shape and the employees didn't care. Last season was the worst because there was never a day when I went to the park when all the coasters were open. Even if they were open, most rides ran at a fraction of capacity. The park was dirty and the sea world side of the park was abandoned.

This year is a little better because most rides are open and operating at a higher capacity despite the devistating pay cuts reported for employees. When i went last Saturday, the parking lot was almost full but the waits weren't that long for most of the rides. This year it seems to be inproving but Six Flags caused the park to lose popularity and acclaim in the years immediatly following the switch.

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Riding on top of the world with Cedar Point

I must say that Six Flags changed Kentucky Kingdom to the good. Even though Kentucky Kingdom is still not a Top 10 Park, it has changed much. I belive that small changes could make this my *GREAT* homepark!

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Past, Present, and Future? Holiday World holds the past and the present, Cedar Point holds the future!

The net result for SFMM has been a negative. We've gotten cool, unique rides like X, Deja Vu, Goliath, and Superman, but the park lags badly in the flat ride department and two should-be-classics (Revolution and Colossus) have REALLY been treated badly. The park used to have a lot of personality but it seems to have no "soul" nowadays. I still have fun here, but it's NOTHING like it used to be.

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Mike Miller - Would so love to take a whack at fixing the Mountain, with an unlimited RCT budget of course!

SF Elitch Gardens has deffinitely improved with all the coasters they got when SF took over. Someone decided to move the park and it lost a lot of good rides and great theming, and when SF got it, they tried to make it a newer, updated park and got new coasters for it. Unfortunately, due to the unavaliability of open land, I don't think it can expand any more.

For SFWOA they improved in the number of coasters but I wouldnt say they are great coaster, and the addition of the wild life area but over all I think the park is a dump, it always was from what I remember, but it seemed worse after SF took over. To go with that the advertising they have been usuing is kind of brainwashing making you think you really have somthing with the park, even worse than other parks advertising. As for me we use to hit that park every year along with CP, PKI, and CLP, but I honestly only go there when we get free tix, I wouldn't pay to go there even if it were the only park in the area, which it is not.

I think SF has definitely improved The Great Escape for the better, and the same thing for SFNE but with SFNE, not as improved. Yes, they have added a world-class hypercoaster, a great addition to the waterpark, and a great floorless coaster, but with the additions came more people(mainly from Boston and NYC) and I don't think the park could handle the amounts of guests it received. Now, what 3 or 4 years later, that problem has been mostly covered but I still see it in some places(the waterpark, large lines for Superman) but I don't know of any ways to improve the problem.

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If Milli Vanilli fell in the woods, would someone else make a sound ?

Wild World was a mediocre waterpark with a few flat rides, a diving show, and a badly in need of repair wooden coaster that the state had closed due to a major kink at the bottom of the 1st drop which was causing back injuries.

When Tierco bought it, they added the western section, got the wild one going again, added the Python, Roar and Mind Eraser, revamped the kiddy area, and renovated and rethemed most of the buildings in the park.

Unfortunately many improvements have fallen to the wayside because the county government is slow to stagnant when it comes to granting SFA permission to expand.

Now that SFA has permission to expand, the parent company doesn't have the cashflow to do what they truly want with the park. When Kieran Burke came to AW to announce the flagging of AW he mentioned in the press release that with the land they have they clearly can create the flagship park they envision. times change, it's not happenning. But SFA currently has a fine line up of quality rides, and is doing fine attendance wise. they're safe from the ax for now, but proper cash management from the home office is the only thing that can help continue expansion.

SAM

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never met a coaster I didn't ride (except Junior Geminii) :(

IMO...

I would say the greatest improvement to ANY SF park that SF has done would be to SFWoA.

Of course there are many parks that you can look at and debate about this topic and all have good and bad points. But not one of the other parks except SFWoA has undergone SOOOoo much change.

You will also find people who are still die hard Geauga Lake fans (and that's not a bad thing). But SF when they bought out Geagua Lake said it would take 7-10 years for them to fully switch it over (that was in the many official press releases they gave.) It cracks me up all these people who expect it to be World Class over night.

MANY people who have gone this year are REALLY starting to see the change for the better this year...it really is unbelievable how things are drastically improving.

From what the park once was to what it is now is SOooo much better. GREAT new roller coasters, BKF, SUE, X-Flight, etc. They added what is considered to be with in the top 5 kiddie parts of an theme park in the World Now...Looney Tunes Boom Town.

The landscaping has MASSIVELY improved from recent years. Just walk around the park and look at all the VAST variety they have added and worked upon...including the Wild RIDES side. 2 years ago people were complaining about it a lot and now everyone is walking around the park commenting on how beautiful things look (and that's not me talking, you can really listen to the normal public talking about it.)

They have now more than DOUBLED the size of the old waterpark. SFWoA has added some very nice things to the waterpark (lazy river, state of the art wave pool and more.) This year, they even expanded the waterpark with the HUGE Hurricane Mountain slides, and Shark Attack. Those who have already ridden Hurricane Mountain can tell you many great things about that.

Then on top of all that when Sea World left with a lot of the animals SFWoA has since been drawing in many animals that they lost and then more. Some examples of course are Shouka, the white tigers, NEW Reptile Wild, 55 new species of aquatic creatures (15 just this year). Redone two aquariums inside the aquarium. Improved Shouka's tank, improved Dolphin's cove, 4 more sharks's for Shark Attack, 2 zebra's and more.

Than there are all the shows they have added, and Geagua Lake really wasn't know for their shows. Just go today and this is a no contest that they have GREATLY improved. SFWoA has also added an AWESOME sit down Mandrin Buffet food place that many people are still discovering.

Along with all the inside things that SFWoA is doing they have changed the management to be more customer service oriented (yes we all know they have failed in the past...but everyone learns from their mistakes.) Those who have gone can tell they have improved on and learned from their mistakes!

On the outside you will see a new entrance on the WRides side, new roads (yes, it's technically Aurora but, SF funded it.) SF has also funded the new Road that is being built so people don't have to cross Geauga Rd. anymore...that in itself is a drastic improvement.

The list can go on and on. But in short...get to SFWoA, it's a great price for all the MANY things to do there.

Ohio is a great place to be and don't limit yourself to one park! :)

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"The Future of Roller Coasters"
-RollerCoasterGod
OhioThemeParks.com

I don't have Sam's inside view, but since the Six Flags acqusition, SFA has improved and so has the public perception of the park.

I can testify from personal experience that permiting anything in Maryland can be a devastating process. I once spent over a year and $70,000 of engineering to get a permit for a water meter!

Wild World and Adventure World was a dirty, nasty, evil little park. Gangs hung out there when they were tired of drug dealing and shooting police. Prostitutes were looking for there next victims and family was no where to be seen. Marion Barry was smoking crack in the wave pool. Thugs were spraying graffiti on the Wild One. Cal Ripken was hired as a spokesperson, but was he ever really at the park...NO.

Then Six Flags came in, and threw Superman and Batman into the park and cleaned it up. Their superhuman abilities took out the trash, and brought in the sunshine and lollypops. Marion Barry was thrown in jail. Family came out of their houses, and took over the park, thus making the gangs, thugs and prostitutes look for another place to do their crimes. Now SFA is a excellent place to visit. Unfortunately though, the park employees still work under Wild World rules. Rule #1...always be the worst park employees ever.

Compared to Kings Dominion, SFA is your local fair. But compared to Wild World and Adventure World. SFA is Disney World. So yeah, Six Flags made a huge impact on SFA, but major work is still needed.

This topic doesn't really apply to me, MM was SFMM long before I arrived in SoCal ... but I am interested to hear about any changes that have been made to Frontier City. I haven't been in several years now; the idea of calling that park a Six Flags just seems so wrong.

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paul ruben
ran lube up

Excellent job RCG. You are so right about SFWoA. Sure they have gone through some growing pains, but look what they started with. To put in four excellent coaster in that first year, blew me away. The fact that they even built another wooden coaster that blows away the ones in Sandusky speaks volumes to me. I was always hoping that it would be the wake up call for that other park.When I go to Aurora, I go to ride almost all the coasters. When I go to that other place, I look forward to only riding five out of sixteen. Albeit that other place is a beautiful park otherwise.

Even though SFWoA fell pretty hard last year with all their problems, I too think that they have improved tremendously this year. I feel like they have turned a new leaf. They are still not perfect, but neither is that other place. There's always room for improvement in any park. It's when you think you're the greatest, that you will faulter. Now if we could only convince SF to put the Rocket Ships back up!!

The lake will always be called Geauga Lake

Wood - anything else is an imitation

All they did to SFDL was add Superman and the park has gone downhill from there. When Premier Parks owned it we went a stretch where we got 4 coasters in 4 years

I don't know. My homepark opened as a Six Flags park. ;)

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It IS as bad as you think, and they ARE out to get you.

My homepark is SFEG, formally Elitch Gardens. Elitch's moved in 1995, and was having some financial troubles the following season, which is when Premier(now SF) came and bought them out, possibly saving them from going bankrupt. So in that sense, I believe SF has helped.

But as far as the park goes, they changed what it was supposed to be. Elitch's was never meant to be a theme park, instead more of a classic park. Six Flags came in and added clones and upcharge attractions. If Elitch's was not a corperate park, I think the park would have a very different look today. We would still probably only have 2, maybe 3 coasters. But the park would have a much better feel to it I believe. So has SF helped Elitch's? I believe so, but sometimes I just wonder what it would be like if it wasn't a corperate park.

Thankfully, the SFEG management has tried hard and succeeded at keeping as much of the old park flavor alive, notice the Trocadero Theatre, original Carousel, Orchard Cafe, and the list goes on and on.

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"Here's my ten cence, my two cence is free"-Eminem

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RollerCoasterGod said:
I would say the greatest improvement to ANY SF park that SF has done would be to SFWoA.

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While I do agree, you can't forget about Six Flags Holland adding four coasters in one year, too. Adding Goliath, Robin Hood, Superman, and Flying Dutchman Gold Mine has definitely put the place on the map.

As for my homepark (SFEG), I certainly was excited to hear that Six Flags would be coming into the picture. Unfortunately all we've received is a standard Boomerang (where is my Invertigo? :() and the Flying Coaster. Hardly huge improvements in my opinion.

I think Premier has done more good for the SFEG than SF, all together Premier has added, XLR8R, Disaster Caynon, Shipwreck Falls, Tower of Doom, Island Kingdom Waterpark, and Mind Eraser.

Six Flags has added more than Boomerang and TFC, they have also added Batwing, Chaos, and Turn of the Century. But they have also taken away Western Round-Up, Mindshaft, and A LOT of kiddieland rides.

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"Here's my ten cence, my two cence is free"-Eminem
*** This post was edited by RubberDucky 7/15/2003 1:02:47 PM ***

SF took over my home park? Argh! On the bright side, at least IoA *has* no wooden coasters to castrate...;)

Added competition?

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