How busy will Waldameer be next year?

With that new Ravine Flyer 2 coaster on the way and with GL gone it will be interesting to see how much attendance increases at Waldameer. It is a no brainer for WP to promote the park next year in NE Ohio and many who are looking for a reasonably priced, family oriented park might head to Erie next season.

Also, what does WP plan to do to handle the bigger crowds. Will they start opening on Mondays? Will they open on September weekends? Will they start to charge for parking or park admission? What about infrastructure such as rest rooms, etc.

It will be an interesting year for this park, that is certain.

Waldameer claimed to have 500,000 visitors this year.

That was enough to fill all overflow lots and the T.R.E.C. lot every weekend. I agree that they need to put another bathroom stall particularly in the exscream area. They are not likely to change hours or days.

I know that I am already planning on going to Waldameer next summer for the first time. The new coaster plus the loss of Geauga Lake should make for a nice increase in attendance for them.

Just a hunch, but I think Waldameer is going to realize they've severely outgrown their small parcel of land and limited infrastructure ;)

I'm going, that might make a little busier.

I'm sure I'll be up there at least three or four times, up from the one or two visits I usually make in a season. Probably with my daughter and/or my mom.

I would say they'll be very busy.
We're planning on going.

With :)New Woodies:) going in at Waldameer & Knoebals you can bet I'll be there next year!

I've been to Waldameer on Fathers Day with my wife and kids for 3 straight years and the park has been empty. All the rides have been walk-ons including Spinning Dragon. We have had entire picnic pavilion to ourselves each year. On the other days it still hasn't been all that crowded. The thing that they are going to have to do is advertise HEAVILY, just like Kennywood has. Most people here have asked me about Kennywood since seeing their ads, they never knew that Pittsburgh even had an amusement park let alone one that has been around for over 100 years. The same thing will go for Waldameer. I've mentioned casually that we go there at least once every year and people here are astounded to learn that Erie has an amusement park, with free parking AND admission no less! The problem some people will have is the distance, especially those to the west of Cleveland. It's a lot shorter to go to CP than a 100 mile plus drive to a small park on the shores of Lake Erie when they can drive 50-70 miles to a big one on the same lake.

Tom

^^^^ Which is why I am shocked they let go of the land they owned for to the Tom Ridge center. If they still had that land they could potentially expand into one of their two parking lots.

2006 - 400,000 visitors

2007 - 500,000 visitors (due in part to closing of Conneaut Lake Park)

2008 - with addition of Ravine Flyer 2 Wooden Coaster....600,000 -700,000 easily

2009 - 700,000+ with expansion of waterpark

^^ Their lot is pretty small. I can see parking becoming a huge issue in the future. Too bad they passed on the opportunity to do something about that, even if it was down the road at the time.

Rob,

Paul Nelson bought the neighboring trailer park, which will give more parking area beginning in 2008

That's excellent news... because it gives the park more room to grow and because it gets rid of a trailer park ;)

Don't know if this has been mentioned at any point but Waldameer has added an RF2 page to it's website with pictures and the promise of more pics to come.

http://www.waldameer.com/RavineFlyer2.html

Tom

---

MidwavePC said:
2006 - 400,000 visitors

2007 - 500,000 visitors (due in part to closing of Conneaut Lake Park)

2008 - with addition of Ravine Flyer 2 Wooden Coaster....600,000 -700,000 easily

2009 - 700,000+ with expansion of waterpark

---

You're predicting a 40% increase in attendance in two seasons? (and a 75% increase across three!?)

Get back to me in 2009 and let me know how that worked out for you. :)

Good news about the trailer park purchase. It seems like they have been moving towards the direction of the trailer park with their new additions and makes sense that they would want some of that secondary parking lot to continue expanding if needed.

Just looked at the site, since when does it have a 90 degree bank? Was that just added?

I've seen Waldameer in many ways.

1. A very busy day might mean you have to wait a few ride cycles or 30 minutes for the Whacky Shack.

2. Normal days consists or walk-ons or maybe 10 minutes for Whacky Shack.

3. Early on the season. Let's just say that ride operators wait for you to come to the ride.

4. Hot days mean Water World is packed and Waldameer is comparable to a normal day.

The Ravine Flyer II will probably see little more of an increase overall to each of the situations, nothing drastic. The biggest change will be early in the season where RFII will be debuting after the long and drawn out battle for it.

The parking will be an issue on weekends, and worse case is that the Ridge Center is right across the street. The future wave pool will make Waldameer seriously have to rethink their parking situation. *** Edited 9/24/2007 7:38:43 PM UTC by AJFelice***

Yeah, the only place for the Waterworld to expand is into the main parking lot.

Anyone have any ideas where any of the 6 tunnels will be?