djoles

Cedar Fair parks have gotten a couple years of the very immersive experience of Grand Carnivale which is FUN for all!

Well merging with Cedarfair they had better squash some of those capital projects in favor of some “immersive experiences”, they are much cheaper and attract the coveted 3 to 9 year old demographic….

It has gotten stuck there before I know not long after it was put in, usually because it was too cold but they rectified that by heating under the trains in the station to keep the bearings warm and possibly using different grease I don’t recall but I’m surprised it still happens though other than the unusually cold weather recently

The maintenance shop is still the original building from 35+ years ago, they have talked about expansion or moving it to build a bigger one since I worked in the physical plant 25 years ago, I’m sure it has nothing to do with rides etc they have been bursting at the seams for many years it’s just overdue. You’re right the acquisitions they made I think did change the priority of the lower parks investments unfortunately but they do need to invest to sustain the business, it’s true of any business or retail chain.

There was a grander plan back post wild thing before Cedarfair grew so large for VF to get a hotel on site and to expand further into the flood plane but that was lost in the company’s growth. The park has seen growth in attendance from valleyscare but attendance has been disappointing otherwise and when you ask most people who aren’t season pass holders why they haven’t gone to VF in a while they say what’s new there? One major investment won’t permanently solve the attendance problem it will only be temporary but it keeps the park relevant and that counts for something otherwise it’s just stagnant. You make major changes/investments every four or five years and it keeps the park current.

They will never make an investment like they did with WildThing which at the time was a world class coaster (before they ratcheted up the braking), the park is lacking however in the area of coasters so a mid sized but unique coaster would draw people and be a good long term investment for the park. There is a ceiling for the kind of draw a park like Valleyfair has but they haven’t hit it in decades, there biggest success has been Valleyscare which has brought up their attendance figures. I don’t know that the current management/board at Cedarfair will do anything though, the company grew too big and their priority is the destination parks so smaller regional parks like VF will just get left at the bottom of the barrel. The best thing that could happen is they would sell VF to a smaller owner who would have more of a vested interest in giving the park the attention it deserves.

Welcome 2021s big new addition! This is so embarrassing that it’s funny only the sadness quickly sets in as this park becomes more irrelevant with each passing year.

These are traditionally the biggest attendance weekends of the year, I doubt it was GC, from the video it’s embarrassing and isn’t drawing more than casual bystanders, and waiting for people to attend to see if it’s worth investment will not bring people into the park, that’s what you have to invest in the park for.

The people in the physical plant know all to well what people want as does the company, they did polling a few years back and what people said was they wanted a big coaster but management at Cedarfair didn’t know what to do with that. CF view VF as a low priority property and are satisfied with it sustaining itself and squeezing whatever they can out of it financially to invest in other properties because it hasn’t traditionally had sizable competition in the past to need to invest in it. The guys in maintenance get their pride and joy from infrastructure projects and something like Grande Carnival is a bit of a let down to them. I feel bad that people like Tom and others who have been with the park for their entire careers and want to see one more big addition before they retire probably aren’t going to get that wish.

I wouldn’t hold my breath. The current management at Cedar Fair have no clue what people want, they are focused on “immersive” experiences (if I hear that word one more time ), that’s fine if you’re a large well rounded park like Cedar Point etc but a smaller park like VF lives and dies on rides and the time effort and money they have thrown into Grande Carnival is senseless for a park this size. It will not bring people to the park and has no legacy after it has left like a ride or attraction does. We have plenty of “immersive” experiences within forty miles of VF like Ren festival and Aquatennial and the state fair, the institute of art, the science museum and on and on, people don’t need to go to an amusement park for that. It’s a self fulfilling prophecy that they continue to ignore big ride additions and attendance continues to disappoint which then leads them to think a big investment isn’t warranted because they won’t get a return on it.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Adventure Land saw an opportunity with Valleyfair being so stale the last ten years or so and no sign of major improvements in sight. I don’t see Valleyfair engaging them though aside from finally completing the next phase of the water park expansion. They are going to have continued pressure from competition and I don’t think they are too keen on trying to keep up with the competition. When they surveyed guests a few years back the overwhelming demand was for a new big coaster but management didn’t know what to do with that, they just don’t get it, they are all about “immersive” experiences which are fine in addition to adding major infrastructure but not instead of. Unfortunately the park has been lost in the shuffle as the company has acquired more and bigger parks and I don’t see it changing any time soon. I could see cedarfair trying to unload it again if the economy improves, I think under different ownership it would be a more profitable park.

Dave is leaving, no decision on his successor yet

The first phase was the wave pool, the second is the new slides. Not smoking dip and dots, that is the current plan, it's not written in stone but it comes from someone in the know in the physical plant.

The current plan is to remove Excalibur next year to make way for a parking lot that could be used by season pass holders using Soak City. A further expansion could include moving Looping Star Ship to make way for another wave pool but this is not for sure yet. The CEO is banking on getting bang for his buck from the expansion of Soak City. This is phase 2 of a 3 phase plan for the water park. There are no plans for a coaster at this time, only the removal of Excalibur. They are looking at expanding the dyke to encompass the west side of the park (Thunder Canyon and where Excalibur is now), possibly in a couple years.