My two hours at Geauga Lake 06/14/2006

Coasterphan,

I'll admit I did make a large sweeping generalization. I should have said.........all enthusiasts not only make crappy amusement park employees, but also wear Holiday World T-Shirts tucked into khaki shorts, with phanny packs, black socks, white shoes, and Cedar Point Straps on their glasses. .........kidding, kidding......

It has been my experience than enthusiasts make poor employees......

The point is enjoy a park.......you notice things 90% of park guests don't.

I was at Geauga Lake on Memorial Day, and I found it to be EXTREMELY enjoyable. I didn't like the fact that the crowds were also extremely light. When there's virtually no lines for most rides, it just takes out a lot of the fun in a ride. What fun is it to watch the Shipwreck Falls go down the splash with 2 riders?

I go as a guest who just loves all the rides, but not from an enthusiast prespective since the buddies I go with are just casual fans, I can't really nit-pick anything... but the lite crowds just got to me because my visits in 2001 & 2003 showed HUGE crowds to the point of an hour or so wait for X-Flight, 20 minute waits for Batman, 20 or so minute waits for Superman & so forth. It's just like a night-n-day experience from Six Flags days.

I honestly don't know why everyone rags on the Six Flags days of Geauga Lake (Worlds of Adventure). The park never looked better from '01 to '03 with the Sea World addition, and attendance has never been better. If the transition was a little smoother & they didn't lose the Sea World animals, I bet the park would retain well over a million guests consistantly.

Cleanliness was a non-factor when I went on Memorial Day... very very clean, and no odor problems anywhere. Bathrooms had an attendant almost every time I had to use it & it was uber-clean. Employees were friendly & some even stood out with their interaction with us.

Basically, with the exception of yet another lite day at a park that should be seeing large crowds every day... our experiences seem to be Night & Day. My experience was clean & friendly. Yours was dirty & rude. Same park, different day, same employees, different experiences.

Ashame how this park feels like it's going downhill with all that it had & still has.

Personally, I don't see what miraculous thing Cedar Fair did to to Geauag Lake. Aside from some name changes, it seems about the same to me (and I never found the Six Flags years to really be so horrible to begin with).

But there is no excuse for a park to be dirty, especially on a slow day when employees are just milling about. Find something to do, pick up trash, it takes very little effort but it can make a very positive impression with customers (and your boss).

*I'm not confirming or denying the cleanliness of the park or the actions of employees since I wasn't there to see it, so spare me the defensive whining.

I don't think it's what CF *did* to GL, it's more what they're DOING (well, trying to do) that's DIFFERENT from what SFI did...CF is trying to turn a profit... ;)

HAVE to wonder what woulda become of SFWoGLAoO if SnyderCo had been in charge...."No new four-packs of coasters"... :)

*** Edited 6/15/2006 3:19:00 PM UTC by rollergator***

I was actually at Geauga Lake yesterday (6/14), my first time there. So you were actually there on the 13th, correct, and not the 14th like I was? Anyways, I will post a trip report soon, but I can say as a first timer I was fairly impressed with the park. Outside of maybe a little too much chit chat and goofing off from the X-flight ops, I found the employees to be pretty good overall. I did not notice the park to be dirty, and even noticed several employees actually picking up trash. After just coming from my annual Cedar Point trip 2 days earlier, it was hard to be be impressed with the coasters, some were good, others were bad. The only sad thing that came out of the day was how lonely the park was. I mean im not saying I enjoy waiting in line, and I still prefer no lines to hour long waits, but when a park is as empty as it was when I was there it just somehow sucks the life out of the park and the rides. Anyways trip report coming soon.

---

Fun said:
Avalanche Sam, you are just bitter about being demoted last year and given no rehire status for Cedar Fair. Stop harrasing the park and move on already!

---

Unless you're willing to back that statement up with some proof, you are really on shaky ground. Those are not the kind of accusations I'm willing to put up with. Consider yourself warned.

---

DawgByte II said:
I was at Geauga Lake on Memorial Day, and I found it to be EXTREMELY enjoyable.

---

I too enjoyed most of my Memorial Day visit, except for the part where I lost my cell phone on the Big Dipper (luckily, the crew, which among the BEST CREWS IN THE PARK* found it!)

-Sam
*** Edited 6/16/2006 2:32:26 AM UTC by Avalanche Sam***

Wonderful, another trip report with some real criticisms and more fanboys jumping in to defend their park no matter what.

You'd think it was the off season or something around here. Is it really that hard for us to just take someone's opinion at face value without all of this garbage? I fear eventually it will just disuade folks from writing honest trip reports, or writing trip reports at all.

Not to be snotty here, I just don't want to see the quality of the discussion here detiorate. *** Edited 6/16/2006 2:39:25 AM UTC by matt.***

---

Arthur Bahl said:
One of the things that GL should do to boost attendance is to promote school groups attending the park. As mentioned earlier, this is the reason why KW is so busy early in the season. School groups add about 20 good operating days to this park's schedule.

---

If only you knew how many school groups are at the park on weekdays.