TheGreatOne

THIS. Free Cash Flow is great. Cedar Fair has outlasted Six Flags because they carried more cash and had a better profit margin (light years ahead). However, Just looking at CF's financials shows me they very well could be headed the way of Six Flags. They have a dividend that is currently 16%. That's great if you're a stockholder, but absolutely stupid for CF to payout. They have a VERY heavy debt-load from the Paramount parks. Their current Long Term Debt/Equity ratio is 8.55! Personally as an investor, I don't consider investing in any company with a ratio of 1.5 or higher..and I only consider anything above 0.95 to 1.5 if they have a massively successful product and an inordinate amount of cash. Cedar Fair needs to slash it's dividend and take that money and pay down their debt. If they don't, they are in for some big hurt. They paid out $102 mil in dividends alone last year. Take some of that money and pay the debt! Secondly, if CF goes to restructure their debt (which they will have to at some point, I'm sure), they will find much more difficult terms thanks to the awful credit market (it doesn't only affect individuals). In 2007, their Total Assets and Total Liabilities crawled closer to a 1:1 ratio than in 2006, which is scary. Their Net Tangible Assets went from $422 mil in 2005 to $31 mil in 2006 to -$106 mil in 2007. For the first time in a while (in 2007) they had a negative change in cash flow to the tune of -$24 million. The company really needs to start hitting grand slams to keep their momentum going, and they just aren't that company. The economy wouldn't have for anything like that currently, anyways. I can see them filing for bankruptcy somewhere down the road so they can re-organize and come back stronger. As someone who invests, I wouldn't touch this stock with a 10-foot pole. I've been snapping up great companies on the sell-off over the past few days that have low debt and good cash reserves. Cedar Fair does not even come close to that. They have debt the size of small banks...and we all know how those have been faring. BTW all the financial information can be found here: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bs?s=FUN&annual -Bryan "if you're going to buy stock in a park operator, the only one to buy is Disney" Wood

Ray Nagin screws up again, waiting too long for a mandatory evacuation. The storm is expected to maintain it's current forward speed because a High-Pressure ridge over the Mid-west to the south is not as strong as expected. This puts eye landfall around 2-4 pm Monday. The awful effects of a hurricane are often times felt well ahead of eye landfall. In Gustav's case, it's Southeast to Northwest direction could put the surge and winds in New Orleans 6-8 hours ahead of landfall on the Central LA coast. They better hope that the storm bends to the West before landfall instead of after landfall.

(6/3/08) Just a note to all your Holiday World enthusiasts out there who may be looking for any signs of what the park might be up to in 2009. If you see any sign of a new building going up soon, don’t even give it a second thought. Apparently this is just for a new receiving warehouse as well as a new freezer for food storage. From Screamscape

WWW's Sidewinder was purchased by Herschend and it is at Wild Adventures. Dixie Landin's is not the one from WWW.

That's been a recurring character on Late Night with Conan O'Brien for quite a long time. They should have trademarked it.

You pretty much nailed it on the head. I didn't buy into what Screamscape posted. It seemed over the top and was worded poorly. From every quote in local papers given by SFNE officials in the past week, they seem very happy about everything has turned out.

I fall into the category of believing enthusiasts are spoiled and whine too much about rough rides. Every time I ride Mean Streak, I walk away with a back ache or a headache. I used to love the ride back in the day. The fact of the matter is it's a shell of it's former self and if CP is really spending a lot of money annually on repairs, it needs to be scrapped. I remember a year or two back there were rampant rumors that CP was going to replace it with a bigger version of Lightning Racer. I realize it was a fanboy rumor, but part of me wishes it would happen.

Mean Creek is definitely one of those "great movies no one has heard of". I kept hearing a guy rave about it when I worked at a video store a few years back, so I watched it and loved it. Most recently, I saw Leatherheads... It was a good movie...except for the writing. The acting was very good and convincing. John Krasinski really pulled off the "conflicted" character well. The music fit the period piece well. The script seemed a little drug out and stretched too long. 7/10

This is sad...but pretty much inevitable. Fires at dormant parks aren't all that uncommon. Many people like to hang out and smoke in abandoned buildings inside the parks and it's lead to fires before. In an unrelated note...a guy was arrested Friday for arson and arraigned for burning down Conneaut Lake's Dreamland Ballroom. As a traditional park and classic woodie junkie, these things are incredibly disheartening.

He said it cost about $17mil US, so it better be the most pimped out Mad House ever (if that is what it actually is)! I translated their small page on the ride via Babelfish: In 2008, César puts to you with the test! César recruits spies to infiltrate the camp of irreducible Gaulois... Will you be able to fulfill the requirements of an intensive drive? The end of the test will mark your spirits forever.

THIS. Times a million. CP has a ton of coasters, but too many are just one big trick and it's done (MF, Dragster, Wicked Twister). I was incredibly happy they put a roller coaster like Maverick in that is so well-rounded. In the end, records don't mean anything except a little free marketing. I like SFMM's lineup a lot better than CP's. They have a better variety of well-rounded roller coasters.

I can sum it up in one word: Dinn. Predator, Raging Wolf Bobs, Mean Streak...pretty much all of his woodies aged like crap. It doesn't help that CF isn't the best at maintaining a wooden coaster, either.

I 100% agree with Robb. I'm not really a huge fan of most waterparks, but Blizzard Beach is far and away my favorite. Despite giving me a mega wedgie, Summit Plummet is my favorite slide and one of the few rides at a water or dry park that has legitimately scared me (the others being the StarFlyer on a windy day and Acrophobia). BB has a great atmosphere (bonus points for being ironic) and it has an overall great mix of water slides.

I'm surprised Kings Island had no increase despite adding Firehawk. This season could possibly be a bust in terms of a downturn in attendance. The park in starting to lack in personality and I've heard people grumble about this to me over the past year. Doing things like not running a side of Racer backwards and charging extra (even for season pass holders) for Haunt is not going to help their cause.

They already have a Wild Mouse there. Turning it into a Dark Knight coaster would make some sense. I haven't been there in a while, but do they have space around the ride to do that?