New rides spotted at cedarpoint.

^^^^^^Hey now if we're going to rip the Blues Clues guy's latest efforts, lets at least get a video that's not from blues clues...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=iJMNhkb1I8c

Not quite my thing, but it's got a fun little groove to it.

Does anyone know for certain if Cedar Fair is permitted to use the Nick license in their existing parks (like Cedar Point, Knott's, Dorney, etc...)? Or, are they only allowed to keep the characters in the former Paramount parks (King's Island, etc...).

Like, are they grandfathered in, or do they have free reign to install Spongebob wherever they want?

I've seen people talk about them owning the license, but does anyone know for sure what that entails? Has this been written in a press release anywhere?

No idea. I can't imagine that the Paramount license was so generous to that they could add the characters to future parks without paying additional royalties. So while they may have an option to do so without having to negotiate a new contract, I wouldn't think it would be without cost.

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LdScotsman said:
LOL! The longest waits we had two Sundays ago were for Woodstock Express and Jr. Gemini. The load/unload cycle takes so long because they have those special seat belts with the tiny hole that they have to poke it to let you out, you can't get out on your own.

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I think that's a great idea with kids rides. Kids are the ones that always find a way to get out of rides, and they are the ones that show up on the news falling out of rides. That's probably why they did that.

They have a Dragon Wagon ride at Dorney, and it's the same way. At other places I have ridden it, it has a normal locking bar, but not there. If a kid wants to get free from riding a particular ride, they will, and they usually do get out. That's why this idea for kids rides is perfect. Yes, it might take a little more time, but I think it's well worth of it.

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halltd said:
Does anyone know for certain if Cedar Fair is permitted to use the Nick license in their existing parks (like Cedar Point, Knott's, Dorney, etc...)? Or, are they only allowed to keep the characters in the former Paramount parks (King's Island, etc...).

Like, are they grandfathered in, or do they have free reign to install Spongebob wherever they want?

I've seen people talk about them owning the license, but does anyone know for sure what that entails? Has this been written in a press release anywhere?

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I know Cedar Fair is using the licensing over at Mall of America, they are removing all of the Peanuts stuff and putting in Nick Universe, so I believe that Cedar Fair has the ability to use the Nick characters in any park in the chain, but I don't know all of the details.

Cedar Fair doesn't own The Park at Mall of America.

I thought they did. They at least operate it don't they?

CF never owned it, but they did manage it for a while. They lost the contract as the Ghermezian brothers wrested control of the mall from Simon Properties and decided to run the park themselves.

The mall couldn't get terms for Peanuts licensing they liked, so they switched to Nick.

It's a win/win for the consumer ask me. I sorely doubt we'd ever see the Nick Universe ride package at the Mall if CF had anything to do with it.

-'Playa

Oh, O.K. Then ignore my two previous posts. I'm a West Coast kid, so I don't pay much attention to Mall of America.

The Nick license has a fixed expiration, and as far as I know, it hasn't been determined if they'll renew it when it expires. My gut says they'll let it lapse. It depends on how UFS feels about expanding the Peanuts licensing too.

From what I gathered during the negotiations with the Ghermezians, sounds like UFS is under the impression that Peanuts licensing still has the cache it once had.

While I still believe that Peanuts has enormous upside *regionally* (despite Gonch's best efforts, LOL), it seems like Nick is something that's VERY familiar to ALL kids everywhere...at least here in the States. IMO...letting the Nick license lapse would be CF's biggest mistake since underestimating the importance of Sea World in Ohio.

Wiggles and Bugs are cool too (I'm esp. fond of Bugs since he's from my generation)...but it sure ain't NICK! ;)

Jeff - Do you know the answer to my question about installing "new" instances of the Nick franchise in parks that never had it - like Cedar Point? Or, is that unclear from what we all know about the license?

I'm reasonably sure they're not in any hurry to spend more on that license. What leads me to believe that is the thing I mentioned somewhere else about the merchandising, in that they keep a whole lot less in those cases.

I would have thought that cedarfair would use the kiddie rides from geauga lake to build a camp snoopy at Michigans adventure.

The kiddie rides at Mich adv, are not that great.

Wha? Drummer Boy at MiAdv is my favorite kiddie ride of all time!! Thanks to Kara and her non stop spinning of the tubs. Those things can spin like you wouldn't believe.

But yes, Winky the Whale is pretty lame.

I goota agree with Josh that Mi Adventure has some GREAT flats. I think Falling Star has become my favorite flat ride. Flying Trapeze is much better than it looks too.

I listened to that conference call, and it sounded like they are just going to be Peanuts themed. Sorry, no Nick.

What happened to all the rides from the kids section of GL. If I remember correctly at one time SFWoa had a top 10 kids area. Those attractions were better than some of the other CF parks...

They are sitting at cedarpoint right now.

^^I'm not sure if it was ever top 10, I don't have that info, but my experience with it back when it was SFWoA was not good. Sure, the theming with all the Looney Tunes characters was tremendous and the rides themselves were good, but the place was too small, the rides were packed in, and moving around was not fun. What do you get a lot of in a kids area? Strollers. In this day and age some strollers are flipping mini off road SUV's that take up a lot of space so when it was hot outside that place was a packed furnace of strollers, kids and frustrated parents. That's just me however, YMMV.

Tom