Golddisk

Actually the park celebrated its 50th anniversary last year.

I think it was a response to a question someone posted on the page. The only ride that was actually confirmed though was ride of steel. But I assume the other coasters will run 2 trains based the happiness guarantee, which one part of that means giving reride vouchers if the line is over 45 minutes on certain rides.

Sorry, as koppen said, it cannot be rezoned. I didn't know about the stipulations that trees can't even be taken down though. That would make it very undesirable for anyone, I think.

These ideas are really far fetched. I don't understand why there are complaints about discussing a similar topic that has been discussed before if it actually has a chance of happening. Now instead we are discussing things that wouldn't make sense and to be honest I don't think I would even want to see. DarienLaker, I also don't understand you agreeing with the complaint that the same things are discussed over and over, you are one of the leading contributors of that, actually. Anyways, I really, really like the direction HFE is taking the park. They are making it very similar to its roots with a local, country/wilderness type theme. I also think they are managing the park very responsibly, certainly better than Six Flags did or PARC who just threw in a roller coaster over an old pool without even taking out the pool. Cedar Point would never buy Darien Lake, its too close to Canada's Wonderland. I would fear that if CP was to buy Darien Lake, it would have a similar fate to Geauga Lake a couple of years later. The video game idea is out. There's no way all three major companies would license their products on the same property, it would have to be just one of the companies. And honestly, I feel like that wouldn't be a good move for the park. If you wanted to make a video game themed park, I would do it in an area like Silicon Valley, Redmond in Washington, etc.

CNL is kinda a conglomerate of a lot of different things. They own a couple of parks, some ski resorts, senior living complexes, etc. But nonetheless I completely agree with your statement. I would love to see HFE buy the park but from what I understand is that CNL is trying to value the park at a much higher price then its worth which would create a hurdle for HFE if they want to buy it. I do agree that the park is morphing right into HFE's vision with addition ideas such as lake monster, sidewinder, and the restaurant (HFE is known for their parks having very good food, aren't they?)

I don't see the park taking out thunder rapids any time soon. Its a pretty popular ride and doesn't have mechanical issues that often like 'cuda did.

The past weekend was really nice but tomorrow isn't looking so good. According to the forecast we are supposed to get some more snow (was hoping we were done for the season) but the good news is it should be melted by Wednesday.

I decided to check back up on this and see that it still hasn't sold, and it doesn't seem like there's been much interest in it either. I've never been to this park (or any park outside of North America for that matter) but its always sad to see a theme park waste away. I just don't think anyone is interested in opening another park in its location. The land it sits on also cannot be rezoned until 2061 I noticed while I was rereading the article, so it may remain abandoned for quite awhile at this rate.

It could also be Hydroforce, I know riders used mats on those as well. Do you know what year you are thinking of? That would make it easier to identify.

Most parks don't know they are removing a certain ride 4 years ahead. Parks can be sometimes unpredictable when it comes to ride removal and other times they have logical reason (IE run down, maintenance issues, or selling the ride to another park). In 'Cuda Falls' case I could see Darien Lake selling the slides and the inner tubes for 'Cuda Falls to another park and using the money from selling said slides for something new! I doubt they would sell them and I don't think there's many if any parks that would buy them based on their age and that they were built to the teraforming of the ground under them which would require a buyer to also buy all new, custom made supports. Add to that the problems with the pumps (new owner would probably need to buy new pumps as well) and that all new piping would be needed... all in all, it would be very costly for a new owner to install 20 year old slides when they could probably buy new ones cheaper, for about the same price, or a couple grand more. Now let's just let 'cuda falls die and rest peacefully. By the way, about the painting of them - I don't think the problem was foreseen in advance because from what i heard originally the park was planning to open the slides last year.

I really don't mind that cuda falls has been taken down (All the parts from them were actually sitting in the parking lot the other day). I think I rode it only a couple of times and the last time was at least 8 years ago. They were fun, but the idea that something new and more exciting, especially compared to a 20 year old ride, excites me a lot more.

This was kinda funny the first time one of these jokes were posted but its not really now. Additionally, it doesn't add anything substantial to what we were discussing or even bring up any of the points. Flood gate falls didn't even work properly when it was operating. An attendant had to push riders through one section of it and it wouldn't even really help reduce any strain on the slides anyways since its a different type of ride.

Thanks for this but I don't think anyone was indicating that Darien Lake ever went crazy with additions. Rather, they were stating that if Darien Lake followed the plan outlined above, it would be "crazy". Additionally, with the information you listed, they were pretty evenly spread out over a number of years. There was no time where the park went crazy with investing tens of millions of dollars for several years in a row. I completely agree with the posts above about how the expansions should be done. Slow and steady is the key, especially as it makes mends to its relationship with locals after mismanagement by previous companies. Additionally, it wouldn't make sense to drop $100 million on it in 5 years because the park doesn't have as large of a population to draw from as Canada's Wonderland either. The campground and hotel certainly increase the range the park can considered its "base", but even so, a lot less people live within an hour of Darien Lake (~1.5 million, i think) compared Canada's Wonderland (~5 million, maybe more).

Is this actually confirmed? I was by the park last month and they were still up. I'm not sure how long it would take for them to be taken down but it seems a month would be a really short time.

It's already pretty short on handicap spots so taking even 45 would have an effect. Even without that area, the space is still pretty large.

There's no way they could cut into parking again unless they add more space elsewhere without adversely affecting parking overall. The Splashtown area already took a HUGE area of parking away, but at the time and still now none of that was really needed with attendance levels. The current parking setup can accommodate approximately 15,000-20,000 people depending on a couple of factors, and that includes parking all the grass areas around the theme park parking lots. Concert parking does actually regularly spill over into the general parking as well, although in general the park tries to avoid it.

I do agree with you. Maybe it has something to do with the piping and water pumps for the 'Cuda Falls? Maybe tearing it out would have caused damage to 'Cuda Falls piping. I really have no idea how they worked or why floodgate falls was never removed, but there must be a reason. Especially with how gross it would get over the course of the year. Sk610 - None of the expansion can spill over into the parking lot unless they decide to add more parking elsewhere. Especially handicap parking. That fills up very quickly on busy days, and on busy concerts days all the lots can get filled to capacity pretty quickly. Following up on those two points, if a major addition is installed and boosts attendance in the next couple of years, they will need all the parking they currently have plus possibly some additional parking.

SbSteveZ - Floodgate falls will likely be removed as well. The reason it hadn't been removed before was because it could undermine the stability of 'Cuda Falls, at least that's what I've heard. I think its exciting news to hear that 'Cuda falls is going to be replaced. They've had a handful of problems over the past few years plus there was the useless and obsolete floodgate gate falls that nothing could be done with. I think it'll be really cool to see the area redeveloped.

Robb, I completely agree with you. It sucks for Theme Parks because they are stuck in a 'damned if they do, damned if they don't' place. However, obviously letting anyone with a disability like this ride could have a lot worse consequences for the park then not allowing him to ride if something were to go wrong. It sucks that everyone in this world so sue crazy. I wouldn't be surprised if this guy later tries to sue the park for discrimination.

"Refurbishment" in this case is just like when a ride op tells you the ride is down for "technical difficulties". It was used as a way to explain why they were closed without giving out what was wrong with them. I don't think there's any planning for a "secret" ride or attraction either. Last time I was by the park the slides were still standing so no surprises this year at least anyways. I feel like the likes not being open should almost be non-news anyways. Does anyone know how long water slides normally last? I'm thinking 20 years is a long time for water slides especially when you factor in Buffalo's climate... Her0ofLime - I'm thinking some one has a cuda falls fetish lol

Probably not. They were in bad shape last year and it would cost a ton of money to fix them. Probably more than what's it's worth to keep them at their current age. I do agree that the park should just make an announcement about them one way or the other though. Just like last year they should have said the reason why they were closed. Not sure why it was kept as such a secret.

Darien Lake released their new webpage today. I think it looks a lot more like the other HFC parks' pages than what it did previously. Check it out: https://www.darienlake.com/

The additions are planned out for years in advance. That's how it is at every theme park (or any company, for that matter.) Although it looks like no new rides this year it does appear that more announcements related to entertainment and in-park events will be coming up. The following is from Darien Lake's FB: Also, does anyone know if the in-park concerts were popular back when they had those?

When I was younger I used to dream of owning an amusement park, which was actually kind of strange because I barely ever visited them despite living about 15 minutes away from one. I really became more obsessed with them in 2012 when I started working at one, though. Although originally it wasn't my dream job, I now wouldn't mind having a career in a theme park as a full time employee.

Hey all, I was thinking that most forums have a section for feedback and suggestions so I was looking for one on TPR because I had a couple of ideas. But then I noticed that we don't have one! I think TPR should add one of these even if it's just a subboard of the off-topic section. It could be used to suggest changes/additions to the forums, site, etc. It also could be place admins could get feedback on updates they are planning. What do you guys think about it? Should we add one of these sections?