Improving Geauga Lake Standards

SF saw attendance steadily decline every year except for the first year of Six Flags Ohio. Attendance in 2003 was less than what was advertised, according to the grape vine.

GL had poor attendance last year because of what people experienced in the Six Flag years and because the animal park was gone, not because of anything Cedar Fair did.

They estimated a drop to 1.3 million, not to 700,000.

You seem to forget that when SF moved out, alot of people everywhere was told it was closed. The typical family that comes to the park, and dosen't "research it" would think the park is closed, and that is that.

So all season, I still had people asking me, whats Geauga Lake? I said, you would remember it as Six Flags WOA .

When I said that Geauga lake was the actual name of the park for most of its life, they were suprised. I couldn't believe it. you would be suprised how many people actually thought the place was closed for good.

That's still an unfair and flawed way to look at it, 'Playa.

It's the equivalent of me not paying my mortgage for 6 months, then signing it over you you.

Then when the bank takes the house back in the first month you're there, telling everyone you must not be very good with your money. I mean I never lost the house - you did.

Or in other terms, I'm of the belief that the same 50% dropoff would have happened if SF held on to the park. Why else would they have sold. They were on a sinking ship and they knew it.

It was said countless times when the deal went through and most people understood that 2004 would be a 'transitional' season for the park and CF.

2005 is the year they'll be expected to keep the boat afloat, so to speak. See an attendance drop again and it becomes an issue.

I don't see how CF jumping on the giant runaway snowball rolling downhill a breakneck speeds can be blamed for having to stop the snowball before rolling it back to the top of the hill.

(can my new nickname be 'Mr. Bad Analogy'?)

*** Edited 3/9/2005 8:15:44 PM UTC by Lord Gonchar***

Its because SF advertised heavy, and got familes that didn't really know about Geauga lake, but they knew SF was a tradmark park. So, with crappy service, and the fact that many are oblivious to the new ownership, it crushed the attendance, but CF knew people would not come for both reasons. And now they are going to fix that problem for good.

But there were still headlines about the SFWoA sale.

There were headlines about the Aquatic side closing.

There were headlines about the DARE coupons being worthless--or not.

There were still mailings to the existing passholders with a list of (apparently unpalatable) choices.

Some folks didn't know they were open, some folks didn't know they existed and a number of the folks who did were ticked off by the options they were given. It wasn't simply a matter of confusing the general public. It was a failure to think ahead.

When you tell a buncha schoolkids their free tickets are worthless, do you realize you'll have to pick up the phone and pitch them to pay for a school picnic later? Think the faculty will stay on the line for more than five seconds?

CF isn't infallible any more than SF is nothing more than a bunch of total idiots. They got it all wrong in '04 and they have to learn from the mistakes THEY made, not someone else for them.

-'Playa

this is a big deal

Not really, It shouldn't be. Although when I attended last year, there was a couple who didn't hear of the change till a week before, and they decided to go. Yes, last year was a hard transition year, but Cedar Fair will do anything possible for this park, and show people what they are good at. You all need to give this time, sit back and relax, watch how the park does.

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SFDLdan said:
..Now If your still unaware of what Im trying to say I don't know how much more I can help.

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You could tell me what J/W means. Us old farts don't understand you kids' fancy internet lingo.

And you were quite clear in the second post, yes.

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CoastaPlaya said:
Greater than 50%? In a single season? That's catastrophic.

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I hate to play the role of fanboy (but hey, I didn't got GL either last year), but there really is no attendance baseline for what the park became. They effectively closed half of the park compared to its last year under Six Flags. In that context, it doesn't seem that odd to me that they'd have such a "decline" in attendance. Considering how cheap the park was, I still think they're ahead of the game.

Going forward, now we have a baseline for revenue and attendance because we can make a logical apples-to-apples comparison given what the park's lineup of attractions is.

I didn't say the park was gonna sink into a hole in the ground.

Nevertheless, you have to admit it was a humbling lesson for the CF folk. Sure sounded like it on the conference call before last (or was that the last one?) Sometimes they blow 'em, too.

-'Playa

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kpjb said:

You could tell me what J/W means. Us old farts don't understand you kids' fancy internet lingo.

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J/W = Just Wondering, another one similar to that is, J/C = just curious.

Does anyone know when Cedar Fair's quarterly report comes out, or around what time?

What difference does it make? First quarter only one park is open!

I know Geauga Lake won't be included, but I need it for a report.... I can't wait to see how better the park is. Last year when I attended the ride ops and all the emoployees were so friendly!

Does anyone know how long it takes to put together part 1 of Geauga Lake? it seems like its not going fast enough, lol.

Im sorry but what do you mean by part 1?, did I miss or over read somthing?. If you mean (part1) by rides being placed back up and what not. Don't worry it may seem like their far from finished but trust them and believe me when I say, they'll get some work done fast, when they good some good wheather days with no delays they know what there doing out there.

Phase One will be complete Memorial Day weekend.

I wanted to interject: This past weekend, I attended a Football clinic at the Bertream (sp?) Inn down the street from GL. I took 15 minutes and drove around the areas on both sides of the lake viewing the construction. I, for one, am completely impressed by the photos on the website, and now with my own eyes, the positive outlook for this park. Year by year, this park may become a destination park instead of the "park near Cleveland." I am NOT saying that it will rival sister down the street since that's not its purpose, but it will attract its fair share of visitors, including myself this summer.

The separation of Rides and Water may appear physically empty at first, but in time, those vacancies will replaced by first class rides, restaurants, or even a casino boat (That's another story, since Aurora and Solon probably will shoot that down <Jeff probably knows more here than I do>).

When I look into the next 5 years in Aurora, I see quality. No matter if they build big, bad-arsed rides or not, this will be a solid park in the CF chain. Heck, Big Dipper may even receive some paint (it looks creepy right now!). But, the overall point that will make this park better to visit is customer service. I'm excited.

Hrm well let's see....
Until GL is offered on the same season pass as the rest of the Cedar Fair parks I'm not likely to go back. I plan on spending the next few seasons traveling and riding things I haven't ridden before, and since I can get into most SF and CF parks by buying two passes total, I have no intentions of going to a park that is sort of left off on its own.

I loved the park as SFWoA. I can't explain it, but despite what most people thought was sucky customer service I really liked the overall feel of the park. One of my friends who was studying animal science (this was back in 2001) talked to some of the dolphin trainers about what they do and what types of degrees they have and so on, since she might have liked to do that some day. We had great food on the "seaworld" side too. We had a lot of fun with some of the costumed characters, played games, rode everything, and enjoyed the shorter lines than Cedar Point tends to offer. It was a great day.

I cannot and willnot classify either day I spent at the new Geauga Lake as great. I'm not a big fan of waterparks, so that improvement won't get me back there any time soon. While on Thunderhawk I heard the ride ops griping about how "ghetto" the ride was and how much they hate it--which was pretty funny but I also though unappropriate. When there arne't long lines (like in the mornings) the ops on "Dominator" were pretty darned slow getting everything done and weren't particularly friendly.

The park felt like a ghost of its former self.

If all we're worried about is attendance, CF should really put GL on the same season pass deal as all the other parks: buy a pass at one, be able to attend all the others... including CP and GL. That would raise attendance a lot, and hopefully people would buy merchandise and food in the park as well. I have no idea how much that would increase their running cost, but it would make me (and others I'm sure) pretty excited about the park being owned by CF.