Major Park Closing?

Someone told me that a major amujsement park is going to be closing because of dropping attendence, but they forgot the name. Anyone know anything about this?

Knott's Berry Farm will be closing its doors indefinitely on 3/27. Hurry and visist while you can!

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Is that a Q-bot in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

Well, some have said that LeSourdsville may not open this season. Not exactly a major park in my book, and not for sure, but its been said.

I don't think that this would be true of any corportate park, for all of those parks have the backing needed to reverse sliding attendance...

EDIT: Whatever you say, general public, whatever you say. ;) Just remember that KBF is one of few So Cal parks that actually made gains in attendance last year.

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The Trip: CP, SFWoA, PKI, KW, HW, IB, SFGAm, MiA and LeSourdsville too.
8 Days- 10 parks. May 2003

*** This post was edited by CoasterFanMatt 4/11/2003 1:56:51 AM ***

I think GP was joking. Anyway, this is how rumors get started.

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Krimson n' Kream, Spr 98

I was joking about KBF. But I have heard (this is real) that Cypress Gardens will close its doors this weekend.

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Is that a Q-bot in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

The last I heard, LeSourdsville will open this Spring, although I don't see anything new on their website yet.

-Tina

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Feel The Adrenaline....
www.intenserides.com

Some small park in Winter Haven, FL is closing. They don't have any coasters that I know of.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com - Sillynonsense.com
"The world rotates to The Ultra-Heavy Beat!" - KMFDM

While it is a small park and doesn't really offer any rides, it was still Florida's first Theme park opening in 1936. It's more of a park for looking at and going to see shows.

Personally, I'm not just a coaster enthusiast but a theme park enthusiast. Therefore, I'm saddened I never had a chance to visit. Maybe Anheuser Busch will buy it back? ;)

The park Jeff and RT are referring to is Cypress Gardens, I do believe.

Yes it is Cypress Gardens. They are closing their doors for good on Sunday the 13th. They are blaming 9/11 for a 42,000 decrease in attendance.
*** This post was edited by NoLimitChic 4/11/2003 9:27:21 AM ***

That 42,000 person drop happened within a month.

Cypress Gardens did not have any coasters.

Also I checked, and it's website is now offline.

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Shaggy

Proud A-lister!

Cypress Gardens is a relitively nice park. I visited there in 1985. Its mostly a park with (get ready for this) Gardens... it's got a lot of animal exhibits and a few childrens rides. Several shows, and really beautiful themeing. Too bad its closing, it was very enjoyable.

That's too bad. Didn't they also have water ski shows? I think it was a bit like Marine World Africa USA....or MWAU was styled after it. I think my grandpa went there after WWII.

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"It's not a Too-mah!" - Arnold after riding Batman the Ride

you can still get into their non-frame site as of 11:30a CDT(they didn't remove all of their pages) ;) ;)

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--George H
---Superman the ride...coming to a SF park near you soon...
Currency tracking experiment... http://www.wheresgeorge.com (Referring to The "George" on the $1 bill - Not Me)

I visited Cypress Gardens many times in my youth. It's way more of a botanical park than a ride park.

I have fond memories of the park, yet its not one that I would go out of my way to see. I don't think its the economy, or terrorism, or war, or anything, just perhaps that the park belongs to a simpler, kinder time.

On my last visit, over half of the park is botanical gardens, mind you some of the prettiest botanical gardens I've seen. Tropical style, and a lot of southern influence with the famous Cypress Gardens ladies strolling the park in antebellum outfits and all.

The middle of the park featured what may be one of the most famous water ski shows ever, as well as all the shopping facilities. (Trivia: If you owned a boat, or knew soeone who did, Cypress Gardens used to allow you to travel by boat to the back of the ski show area, and watch the show from your boat, for FREE.)

The other half of the park went through numerous transformations: zoological park, kiddieland, more gardens. They have/had a very unique Intamin Flying Island. An observation tower type ride that is just freaky. Nothing too thrilling.

I suppose the begining of the end was when they started charging to park, used to be free, last time I went past there it was $5. Admission price was also always kind of steep for what they offered.

Mind you we used to go on Easter Sunday, where for a long time they held a Sunrise Service at the water ski show grandstand on the lakes. If you attended the service, you got to stay for the day for FREE. (You just couldn't get a re-entry stamp)

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David Bowers
Mayor, Coasterville

Well we all know Bonfante will probably remain open for 5 more years now but after that who knows

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It isn't so bad. . .
Once you're used to it

Most of the site is offline, but I found the press release page via Google...

http://www.cypressgardens.com/pressrelease/

or

http://www.cypressgardens.com/pressrelease/displaynews.asp?newsid=1028

I don't remember much about this park, but I did visit with my family when I was about 10 or so. I seem to recall that it was quite beautiful... It's a shame that it couldn't remain open.

I heard CP is closing.

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YOUNGSTOWN 2010

This is such depressing news. Cypress Gardens is a classic and a beautiful park. I hope someone else can step in and resurect it before it is plowed over for a condo development or something.

Cypress had a canta-lever (sp?) observation tower billed as "One of only 3 of its kind in the world" called Island in the Sky sponsored in 1995 by Kodak. It was really cool. It was mostly kiddie rides though they had a really neat walk-thru Butterfly Greenhouse and some of the best theatre shows in Central Florida (including Disney). Their Water-ski Shows were their biggest draws and broke several records including being the first to perform a 4 tier pyramid. One of the neatest things they had were 15 passenger boats that transversed the canals through the gardens. It was always a nice calm relief from the enormous other parks in Central FL and it was absolutely beautiful come X-mas.