geaugalakeinexile

I rode Predator yesterday and have to say the new trains are MUCH better. I never thought that they would make this much improvement. If you get to Darien Lake you have to try Predator again.

Courts are not in the position of determining market value (thank god), only if offenses are committed. If there's no evidence pointing at collusion, there's no reason not to allow the sale to go through, assuming the sale gets approved by stockholders. No evidence of collusion and no larger offers = that's what Cedar Fair may actually be worth. One of the arguments against selling now is that the economy will rebound in 2010, and the value of Cedar Fair will go up. That's a big if. If Cedar Fair bets on black again and the economy comes up double zeros for the 3rd year in a row, it could be ruinous. True, but. It may be like Kinzel and the management team that owns unit shares are planning to make up any losses in share value from the sale by keeping their jobs. If they have enough shares between them they could get this through. But the little matter of fiduciary duty could bite them. As board members they are to do what is best for ALL shareholders. So that may be a conflict of interest. This could get interesting.

Yes, it is in the OCC store at the rides exit.

Sorry for the delay in responding but I missed my usual Darien Lake search. These are all special event days. May 15th was Middle School Science Day. May 22nd, I am not sure of , but the 29th is Career Day. These are listed under "Group Events" in the "Events" drop down on the Darien Lake web page. I have been there on special event days and there is usually no problem. Just a little larger crowd.

We were in line for the Racer and saw you have to ride again. I was wondering why you had not gotten off until I realized that you couldn't. The trees being gone by the Racer makes the view much better. Phantoms re-tracking doesn't seem to add anything to the ride, IMHO. All in all, we had a great time. Well worth the drive from Cleveland.

First park for 2009 will be Kennywood on May 2nd. - their opening day. I will hit Phantom first. The next weekend will be at Darien Lake - their opening day. With my usual season opener on RoS.

First park of 2009 will be Kennywood. Because it opens 1 week earlier than Darien Lake. First coaster at Kennywood - don't care they are all good. First coaster at Darien Lake - Ride of Steel.

RoS at Darien Lake. At night, the first drop looks like you are dropping into nothing but darkness. In the fall there is sometimes fog over the lake making this drop even better.

Robb, I'll go through my Geauga Lake videos tonight to see what I have. I've also posted on Geauga Lake Todays forum that you are looking for Big Dipper, Villain, and Raging Wolf Bobs. I'm sure that someone there has what your looking for.

Golden Tickets are a "weighted" poll. While they give out ballots to selected people they also can do what ever they want in the "weighing" of the ballots. Therefore the desired result is assured. People vote with their feet and wallets. Golden Tickets are just P.R.

While Kennywood may be doing this to attract more locals some of us in Cleveland are planning to buy season passes. We come in from Cleveland where Kennywood tickets are sold for $22.00 at Discount Drug Marts. The Kennywood tickets are selling very well. But even at those low prices the season pass will pay off for us. Also "older" folks can buy a funday ticket for $15.00 at the gate now. Kennywood has a great park at really low prices. The road work is not too bad, at least coming in from the west. It adds about 10-15 minutes to our drive.

When the CEO says stuff like the following it's not too hard to feel a little miffed about the parks.

This map is perfect. I can upscale this easily and print it huge. Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks very much.

We're going on August 22-25 and the map from the Six Flags site is awful. When brought up to 100% view it is blurry. I've tried converting it and upsizing it via Adobe Imageready, but no luck. I did not have this problem with the SFMM map, just Great America. Any help would be appreciated.

Ultimately, the only thing that Six Flags did wrong at Geauga Lake was to sell it to Cedar Fair.

Nope, they stopped running it, along with the Monorail, after the original water park area was left to rot. You could see the green water, rotting building etc. from both rides. So rather than clean up the original water park, Cedar Fair decided to just not let anyone see the areas.

Great trip report. Really love your captions. We're going the 3rd weekend in August. Thanks for the Q-bot info, now I'm going to get one for sure.

Six Flags had a great mix in Geauga Lake. The animal side and ride side worked well. Unfortunately Six Flags needed money and Cedar Fair offered to buy it. This was before the other Six Flags park sales. I have no doubt that Cedar Fair bought it to close the ride side from day 1. Bottom line, Cedar Fair bought a park that drew 2.1 million guests a year and ran it down to 700,000. If they did not plan to close Geauga Lake then whoever oversaw the purchase should have been fired. So far no management at Cedar Fair has been canned. As for scrap, here in Cleveland you can get up to $100 a ton for clean unmixed scrap steel. I do not know what Double Loop weighed. Double Loop was a fun coaster, I'll miss it.

While that is Geauga Lake, if it was 1996 then the accident was from the Sea World show. That stadium is still standing at Wild Water Kingdom. Sea World used to do a water skiing show and a boat stunt show.

Discovery Channel is showing the Darien Lake chopper episode tonight. This coaster is on display at the OCC store next to Motocoaster. They filmed at the park when Motocoaster opened. If your going on the East Coast trip you can get a good view of the new coaster and some of the park.

I love Darien Lakes Viper. Noisy, rattles, shakes and the original 5 inversions. Some say it's rough but I still love it.

This did not have to happen. Six Flags sold the park when it drew 2.1 million guests. Cedar Fair dropped that to 700,000. Here in Cleveland we will not forget how this was handled. Cedar Point's attendance is down. Many of us are going to Kennywood. They closed a park that families went to for generations, and lied about it. This may seem like just another park closing to some people. But here in Cleveland this is going to resonate for a long time. Cedar Fair messed this up big, it will take years for them to get their good name back, if ever. They pissed off their local market. I think you need to get your facts straight. CP has not announced any attendace figures so why are you going around saying attendance is down? For the record also, EVEN if CP's attendance was down it was not be because of GL. You may think just because a little community called GLT hates CP for no reason means attendance is down because of that. Sorry your wrong again. Everyone is going to Kennywood? Another thing that is news to me. Everyone I know in the Cleveland area will be going to CP this summer. One of my frieds was at Kennywood the other day and said the park was dirty, a lot of rides were down, and it just isn't a fun park. People will be forgetting about GL trust me. Now that the auction and all the talk about BD is over, there is nothing left to talk about. People now from the Cleveland area will begin to go to CP. Believe me this is Cleveland.We forget nothing. Euclid Beack Park is still missed here. As for attendance, do your homework. WKYC is running newscasts about the attendance at CP. http://www.wkyc.com/news/local/news_article.aspx?storyid=91914&catid=3 Kinzel announced that the attendance was "Soft" http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080611/BUSINESS03/233588633 You CP fanboys can think what you want. Remember, karma is a bitch.

This did not have to happen. Six Flags sold the park when it drew 2.1 million guests. Cedar Fair dropped that to 700,000. Here in Cleveland we will not forget how this was handled. Cedar Point's attendance is down. Many of us are going to Kennywood. They closed a park that families went to for generations, and lied about it. This may seem like just another park closing to some people. But here in Cleveland this is going to resonate for a long time. Cedar Fair messed this up big, it will take years for them to get their good name back, if ever. They pissed off their local market.

[ ^Maybe ACE doesn't want their members to know they turned down a coaster that would have been demolished if not bought. Since ACE didn't get the coaster, and had it not been bought resulting in its demolition, some members might think that ACE went against its mission. However, the coaster was saved, and hopefully the new owners can take care of it. That does not make any sense. There is one fact that can be proven right now. ACE bid for the land. They put their money where their mouth is. So why would ACE refuse the coaster and then bid for the land? Cedar Fair has lied about Geauga Lake for the past 2 years. CF is getting bad press from this and just want to put the best face on it that they can. I am not an ACE member. But now I think I'm going to join.

WKYC TV blog is running a story that says ACE is disputing the offer. This looks like another Cedar Fair lie to cover the bad press that they are getting over this here in Cleveland. Looks like the ACE vice president was almost thrown out of the auction when she disputed the auctioneers statement about the offer. This story is going to have legs. http://www.wkyc.com/news/local/news_article.aspx?storyid=91687&catid=45