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Hey, we all have terrible theme park opinions. For example, I hate Holiday World and think that Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit and Mystery Mine are god-tier coasters so whatever. If Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Busch Gardens Tampa “didn’t impress” but Valleyfair, Michigan’s Adventure and Dorney Park did then more power to you. You’re insane though… like super insane.

I just want to say I love all of you and this thread has brought me more joy than most roller coasters!

I've worked for both companies for many years (not just a seasonal employee.) Busch USED to be amazing. When the Busch family owned the parks, there was a level and quality and service unmatched elsewhere. Once they sold to Blackstone, things went downhill fast. This past summer, Cedar Point celebrated its 150th with tons of show including a MASSIVE one with a cast of over 70 people. This past Christmas, Sea World could not be bothered to bring back "Oh Wondrous Night," their award winning Christmas show and instead got groups to fill in on weekends. It was lackluster and cheap and showed how different these two parks are in their commitment to entertainment. There is just no comparison between the companies and their two philosophies. Cedar Fair has been around for 150+ years and is an ENTERTAINMENT company. Sea World is owned by Blackstone, an investment firm. They just see the parks as money makers and way to make dividends off of their stocks. And until Sea World Orlando can retain a president for more than one year, they are in no business to be buying other properties.

It almost definitely won’t be but I’m going to enjoy every second of this while I can…

Agreed. I used to feel like SeaWorld was a step above Cedar Fair but I feel like lately they're trending in the wrong direction. That said, I feel the same way about Disney, Six Flags, Cedar Fair and basically the majority of the industry and at this point it seems like they're comparable. To me, I also feel like it's impossible to say which chain is better because they have such a diverse collection of parks (especially Cedar Fair) and I can't really fathom how anyone could do that. The top-tier Cedar Fair parks can go toe-to-toe with the Busch parks and I could see the argument either way. Michigan's Adventure / Dorney / Valleyfair / Worlds of Fun though? Ehhh... I'm not so sure. That said. SeaWorld San Antonio is also a huge step down from the rest of that chain and you can make the same argument in reverse. Sesame Place also exists, but I'll ignore that one for now. It's kind-of it's own thing. Or how about Soak City (or whatever) vs Discovery Cove? Operationally... same thing. Cedar Point's ops are amazing in the summer, but Michigan's Adventure runs 800 cars on a Wild Mouse and sends one around at a time. Busch Gardens Williamsburg's ops are fine, but SeaWorld routinely runs one train on Mako on weekdays regardless of crowd level.

No, Cedar Fair ripped out Wicked Twister so they can build a rooftop bar on it’s grave where I can go and scan my Busch Gardens pass for a discount on huge Funky Buddha drafts.

I really feel like all-season dining plans are going to become a thing of the past across the board… Oh crap, I just thought of one more thing in the SeaWorld win column: They’re the only chain where a pass gets you a discount on booze! Catch that L, Cedar Fair people.

Kraken--Steel Force Monster Mako--Blue Steel Vengeance Ice Breaker--Launched Breaker Zone Journey to Atlantis--Big Splash Tower Super Grover's Box Car Derby--Woodstock Express (What else would it be?)

What are they going to do? Sabotage the park by opening it like 6 months later in the year than the Busch park down the road and remove their most popular coaster and replace it with nothing? That would be ridicu.... oh

Knott's did almost 900k more guests than SeaWorld San Diego in 2019 so they would probably close Knott's and go balls-deep in the orca park... (Nothing, it would mean nothing)

Will they name the new company Seadar Fair?

Sea World Pepsi Chipotle, proud to be one of America's eight companies!

Man I never realized so many people were so critical of SW parks. I mean, I'm not as well traveled as some here but last year went to Carowinds for a weekend and SW/BGT multiple times and the overall experience at both chain's parks was pretty similar, really couldn't tell you which one was "better". I mean I've never had a bad day at SeaWorld in the last like 3 years, operations are efficient, it's always clean, looks great, it's pretty quick and easy to get some food (which wasn't the case at Carowinds), and the kids have fun. I see PianoJohn's point about the entertainment not being what it was once and that's a fair criticism, but at Carowinds this year on a Saturday in the middle of the summer I don't remember any entertainment. I don't really think the sale will go through, but don't really see one chain as being superior to another by any means.

You just made me realize...Goliath is being relocated to Darien Lake right next to their Boomerang and Ride of Steel is being relocated to SFNE so they can have two Intamin hypers. It all makes sense!

Without a doubt do the FL+, it is worth every penny. Also, imho for such a short stay I would stay at the Breakers, there is nothing like that experience and you will still waste time and have to get going extra early if staying at Express versus walking 5 min to the resort entry. However, the caveats to that are 1) If staying at the Breakers you better book now, it is already filling up for June 2) If you can only afford FL+ or Breakers then do FL+. Early entry rides vary some, kind of two strategies to that.......Gatekeeper and usually Valravn are almost always on early entry. That's because they are at entry points and it's cool optics to have riders on them whooping it up as people enter the park. They are also rides that the GP hits early since they are near afore mentioned entry points. So either do those and then as many of the open rides as you can to get them in before long lines OR use a lot of that time to line up at SV, TTD, MF or Mav and be first in line when they open. I will point out if you get the FL+ then you really don't have to worry about strategy or rushing in or doing the running of the coaster bulls. In that case you just use early entry to do (or line up for) anything that is not on FL+ or is one time use only.

And one train running.

^You mean, Disney doesn't have secret anti-gravity technology!?!?

After they turn this down, I guess next up will be a $2.8 billion offer from Parques Reunidos in 3 years...

Picture this: Orcas in Diamondback's splashdown pool enjoyed from the viewing deck of my favorite theme park patio while drinking free beer.

TERRIBLE weather tonight and thru next few days. . not letting it stop them!

^ and ^^

My only real complaint about the SW parks is when they changed their tier level of memberships a handful of years ago and then immediately changed them the year after which caused confusion when I was dealing with some staff. Like I have "premier" membership which gets me into all of their parks but they changed it the next year to "platinum" so while I still get access to all of the parks and the perks that go with it some of the staff get confused when they see premier on my passes but when they scan it then it still works. If this actually somehow goes through I'm curious to see if they keep the season passes separate or make an ultimate platinum premier pass to attend all the parks and what that price point would be. I've kept our SW parks premier/platinum passes because they are locked in at $20 a month but I've dropped our Cedar Fair park platinum passes for this year cause I simply don't see us getting to any of their parks since Dorney is the closest and Dorney alone isn't worth renewing it, especially with the lack of real benefits in terms of renewing. That has more to do with our travel plans for the year than the state of the parks though.

I'm seeing a lot people agree with me that CF is far superior. Glad to see not everyone here is some weird BGW fan boy.

I did, but worded it poorly. I edited it. Interesting fact: It looks like the highest voter turnout they’ve ever had was in the 70% range, and I’m sure that those people didn’t all vote the same way. A 2/3 yes vote when every absent vote is a no vote is going to be nearly impossible. This can’t be overstated.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

They have money. The reason that this is unlikely is simply that it requires a 2/3 vote from shareholders and failing to vote would have the same impact as voting against it. They need near-unanimous yes votes and an exceptionally high voter turnout. The’ll send a letter like this to shareholders begging for votes, but this is a nearly-insurmountable hurdle.

You can buy FL any time. Most likely even after you get to the park. However, I would suggest getting them as soon as they go on sale. They will not get cheaper. Highly likely they will go up in price between initial on sale and the day you are there. Season FL jumped at many parks over the winter in response to sales..

If Clyde, Seymour and OP are at Cedar Fair parks I'm in.

I'm with coasterbill, let's enjoy it while it lasts! Who wants to sit down Seven Dwarves Mine Train-style in line for Woodstock Express with me?

Pssssst: They’re both getting worse

There is now a widespread opinion and evidence that Busch is getting worse and Cedar Fair getting better. For example, CF's new coasters are well themed, Seaworld's is relatively lacking -- although they built more, and are finally opening them. Food at BG has become inconsistent, KD's opening another reimagined restaurant. Whether CF has caught up or not, that's the trend. The merger would decrease competition and probably involves increased total debt. Rich guys getting richer., card houses reaching higher.

That's not literal enough for Cedar Fair. However there is another ride that could become Flight Deck:

My daytrader senses are tingling on this one. The statement from CF makes me think that they are at least heavily considering the offer. Interesting to see SEAS make a move like this.

Sea World Shakopee. Ice Breaker would make a lot more sense lmao

Premier Sky rocket II's and Screaming swings for for the smaller Cedar Fair parks, along with food and wine festivals. sesame street replacing peanuts would be a good choice as well in my opinion

I can't imagine leaving Busch Gardens Williamsburg and thinking "I don't want their food, employees, or operating procedures at Kings Dominion." I'd love to hear an elaboration on this because I'm genuinely curious.

Then they can bring back SeaWorld Ohio!

Yeah I don't really have anything bad or good to say about this, seems like new pass offerings in SoCal with Knotts and SWSD could be a really nice option to offer people there. I wonder if any parks would get rebranded? I'm guessing probably not to a SeaWorld park, but maybe Worlds of Fun adds some animal exhibits and becomes a Busch Gardens park? I could see that maybe working. Is it possible SeaWorld would be interested in building some stand alone branded aquarium attractions to existing Cedar Fair park kind of like SeaLifes? I could see a year round SeaWorld Branded aquarium in Charlotte, Kansas City or Minneapolis potentially being successful.

In all seriousness, I see nothing not to like here. Both chains are similar levels of quality (see: they're both clusterfucks) and both actually compliment eachother's weaknesses reasonably well. I doubt there would be much of a noticeable change from a guest perspective other than probably more aggressive operating calendars (especially at parks like CGA and Carowinds) and some coasters actually running after October. I would love for someone to explain to be how SEAS is any more f*cked up than Cedar Fair though aside from the total fanboy answer of "THEY OPENED ORION ON TIME!!!1111" or whatever that doesn't matter going forward... If they turned down a 4 billion dollar offer from SIX in 2019 and accept a 3.4 billion dollar offer in 2022 then l...o...f*cking...l though.

Wasn't SeaWorld having trouble paying their vendors last year? I seem to remember an article about some of the ride companies filing liens against them. I find it hard to believe they now have the funds to take over Cedar Fair.

I really wanted it the other way around to see Manta become Flight Deck!

So you think that they’re going to build a worse hypercoaster right next to their much-better hypercoaster right in front of the park that’s been there for years? What kind of idiotic and probably supremely-overhyped park would do something like that? While they’re doing dumb shit, why don’t they just move the drop tower from Darien Lake too and put it right next to their other one? At this point just throw all logic out the window…

Well it should be broken in by now considering it’s a two-year-old ride…

While in line for Ice Breaker on Friday some random people walked by and said, "Oh, Darien Lake has this same coaster". I am still desperately trying to figure out what they could have confused Ice Breaker with at Darien Lake!?!??! LOL!!!

Bacon now costs as much as lobster, yet people are more concerned about Six Flags raising prices and cutting costs.

Hi. . .

Update: THE OFFER IS REAL!! https://ir.cedarfair.com/news/news-details/2022/Cedar-Fair-to-Review-Unsolicited-Non-Binding-Proposal-From-SeaWorld/default.aspx "Cedar Fair, L.P. (NYSE: FUN), a leader in regional amusement parks, water parks and immersive entertainment, today confirmed that it has received an unsolicited non-binding proposal from SeaWorld Entertainment, Inc. Consistent with its fiduciary duties, and in consultation with its independent legal and financial advisors, the Cedar Fair Board of Directors will carefully review and consider the proposal to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interest of the Company and its unitholders. Cedar Fair unitholders do not need to take any action at this time. Perella Weinberg Partners L.P. is serving as financial advisor to Cedar Fair and Weil, Gotshal & Manges is serving as legal counsel."