Rumors of the removal of GL's X-Flight

People do not die at the Point. ;)

No longer a rumor...

Park dismantling coaster for move
http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/news-28/116418647144830.xml&storylist=cleveland *** Edited 11/22/2006 11:03:22 AM UTC by HAMMER***

Just the thing to bolster the Lake's already stellar local reputation. More money, less to do. Why would they announce that a ride is leaving before announcing anything about improvements? This could have been handled better, but it looks as though the Lake will reamain that "other" Ohio park.

Well, thats that. Geauga Lake management has passed Paramount's Great America as most retarded park management besides SFMM.

Wow. Here's a similar article from Akron Beacon.
http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/16073445.htm

I'm actualy pretty suprised about this. It seems to me that moving a ride wouldn't be very cost effective. But then again, what do I know.

Now that it's offical, I would have to say that I hope this leads to a better entrance way into the park. It always bugged me when Six Flags encroched into the parking lot like that. The whole parking lot seems to bottleneck into the entrance. With the removal of Monorail and X-Flight, and with the old Hurricane Hannah waterpark gone, the front-right side of the park is going to be pretty empty.

To think about it, X-Flight wasn't doing much for the park. If there's one park in the Cedar Fair chain that could benefit from removal of thrill (take the Boomerang, too!) and the addition of family-friendly rides, it's Geauga Lake. As long as they leave Dominator there, it shouldn't be too bad.

Fill the space with a spinner (like Mr. Six, or even Knott's upcoming ride), a dark ride, some flats, and you still come out with a good park. Not a Cedar Point- (or PKI-) beater, but a combo amusement/water park that caters to the whole family? That's something you don't really have in the area (...except Kennywood).

Plus, they've got to have some plan for that part of the park. I'd like to think management has a master plan for the park. *** Edited 11/22/2006 12:45:48 PM UTC by Arson***

Jason, is Hurricane Hannah's gone? I have been hoping to hear of her demolition since the area was abandoned.

Here's hoping there will be some additions and renovations to soften the blow of *losing* a ride.

Ok, I guess "gone" might not have been the right word. How bout this, No longer being used, cut off from the rest of the park, and rotting away like a puss filled boil. ;)

I really hope the demolition and cleaning up of that part of the park is part of this years expenditures. It would be money well spent imo.
*** Edited 11/22/2006 12:49:33 PM UTC by Jason Hammond***

If 2007 rolls around with Hannah's still standing, I will completely believe that CF has no faith in the Lake.

I too am hoping that this is part of a new entrance plaza, with at last a new flat on the 50's midway.

I, for one, welcome this change.

I have been saying for months (if not even years now), that GL needs less monstrous roller coasters, and more traditional stuff. I'm extremely happy to see this starting to take place.

Besides, X-flight was an eyesore in its current location, not to mention a capacity nightmare. No one wanted to wait in line for it because the line moved so slow.

Here's hoping they bring back the 50's feel to that whole area.

-Josh

I'm hoping we'll know more on or by the 2nd when we have the regional ACE Holiday party. I already have a whole buch of questions already lined up. I'm sure there will be a Cedar Fair Rep there. Last year we had Tony Clark, Bill Spehn and Lexi Robinson. With Maverick, I'm sure someone from Cedar Point will be there. But, I'm hoping Bill Spehn will be there too. *** Edited 11/22/2006 2:01:04 PM UTC by Jason Hammond***

X-Flight had a limited audience and terrible capacity. Get that piece of crap out of there, I say.

Face it, Six Flags built too much at the park, and the attendance makes it too expensive to maintain all of that. Scaling down the rides side and boosting the water park puts it on scale with many of the other parks in the chain, like Dorney or Valleyfair. Makes a lot more sense.

Well, there goes a really good reason that I visit Geauga Lake. To me, this is one of the coasters that set GL apart from the others.

The only way it set it apart, was that it was the only coaster at Geauga Lake that actually had a line at any given time. With the light crowds and most of the other rides running 2 trains, capacity around the rest of the park was pretty fair. X-Flight, however - if even 2 of the queue rows were filled, the wait was horrendous.

I dunno.

Everytime I went to GL this past season, X-Flight was a walk-on.

Sorry for you peoples that think this is a bad move, but business is business. Why spend the money for maintaining 10 coasters when you're not bringing in the people and $$ to justify even having 10 coasters?

I'm not the least bit surprised that this ride is leaving. Hopefully they'll reclaim that plot of land for parking. Something that they NEED on busy days!

~Rob Willi

Wow...no guesses yet as to where it might end up?

I'm going to place a bet for MiA which hasn't seen a coaster since Timbers. Although with all the new paramount parks in the picture...we could even see it go to Canada.

http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/16073445.htm

Already posted but the article strickes me as funny and one of the worst written and researched articles I've ever read.

The Park Manager doesn't know where it's headed, B.S! How about refueed to comment on?

The park suffered years of declining attendance under SF? again B.S! 2001 had almost two million visitors with a slight drop in 2003.

Like Raven Phile and some others have said, Theres way to much operating expense for 700 thousand.

This isn't the only move I see in it's future.

I can easily see thunderhawk, Steel Venom and Head Spin going bye bye as well as Texas Tornado.

Chuck

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Jeff said:Face it, Six Flags built too much at the park, and the attendance makes it too expensive to maintain all of that.

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Half agree, half disagree...

I considered the whole "Ohio experiement" to be a BIG gamble for SF. Thinking of X or Sonny, only on a MUCH bigger scale. I didn't then (and don't know) think it was NECESSARILY bad for SF to try and take a big bite out of CP's domination of the northern Ohio market. They felt they needed to make GL (SFWoA, SFO, whatever) able to *compete* with CP...probably s slower-growth model that focused more on the "included" animals and waterpark might have been smarter than just ploppling down many millions of dollars on coasters....

Now that the park is *owned* by CF, there's no reason to create competition for your own product...so GL needs to be "re-engineered" to be less competitive, and more *complementary* to CP...and those coasters that SF plunked down so quickly, they're still valuable - just not at GL... :)

edit: Since I'm here, and will probably be at least partially *blamed* for the loss of X-Flight (LOL!)....is it time for PCar to start prepping land for the arrival of their "new" Impulse coaster? ;)

*** Edited 11/22/2006 4:04:34 PM UTC by rollergator***

But Bill, Didn't you ride it, Not once, But TWICE last time there??

Love the hate scenarios :)

Chuck: I agree completely with everything you said.
BS big time.
I liked X-flight and rode it easily over 100 times. That was my favorite ride next to Batman/Dominator.
I wonder if Dominator's next...
Venon, T-Hawk and Mind Eraser i can see leaving...

I hate to say this, but I'm done with GL.