Photo TR: Geauga Lake (6-16-08)

[robbalvey]

I am actually very glad that I never visited the park after CF bought it. We had a GREAT visit in 2003 as Six Flags Worlds of Adventure and that last memory will always stick in my mind.

 

Seeing how the park was left to deteriorate just confirms my thought that when they bought it, they knew exactly what would become of it.

 

--Robb

[TopThrill182]

You know Rob I've gotten to think the exact same thing. I always stuck up for CF with this park right until the bitter end. I always thought they had a plan, always thought they were just downsizing to have the park fit the attendance, but clearly I was wrong.

 

I think when CF initially purchased the park they were just happy to get rid of the competition for CP. I don't really think were looking very far down the road and certainly weren't looking down the road in terms of what the future would hold for the park, etc. I think they were just seizing an opportunity to alleviate competition.

 

The 2004 season begins, and since CF had virtually no time to work with the place prior to this, I think this was mostly just a "let's see what we've gotten ourselves into" type of a deal. So that season brings in 700,000, which obviously was a disappointment for CF. I don't think they really thought through the consequences of reducing the place to one park (well the combined amusement park and water park) through removing the animal side, I don't think they thought through the consequences of what SF did to the park, etc. I really don't think they thought anything through! I think they just took a step back and said "huh... I thought we'd get better attendance than this".

 

So for 2005 they announce Wildwater Kingdom. It will be a "mammoth" two phase water park which will be one of the largest in North America, a premier water park, yada yada. I think they thought that by adding a new water park on the Sea World side, they would recreate the two park illusion, and regain all those lost people when they eliminated the animals. Last time I checked water slides and killer whales performing tricks don't exactly always attract the same clientele, but I think this is what they were thinking. As we know though, attendance didn't substantially improve, barely at all in fact.

 

I think at this point CF took a step back and said whoa. What did we get ourselves into? Is this place really worth it considering CP is so close? What exactly do we want to do with this place? I think CF realized during this time they never thought this acquisition through and that they needed to take some time to do so. I think they came to the realization that they weren't going to turn this into a 2 million guests a year park overnight, and that it was going to take years to re-strengthen the place using careful investments, strategic advertising in correlation with CP, etc. And I think this is when they questioned whether or not they were really willing to do this.

 

So they cancel the second phase of WWK, well not according to them but I don't count a wave pool as a phase. In any event, they take away the "plethora of tube and body slides" and the adult lazy river and all the other touted attractions for this "premier" water park. I think basically CF management said "this park needs to shape up or its not worth the trouble of keeping it". And then in mid-2006 there was the Paramount deal... and I think this is when GL's fate was really determined. There's no question that due to this deal they had a larger amount of debt than they wanted, and placed them a bit over their heads (at least more for their liking). When GL's attendance really didn't show stellar results halfway through 2006, the decision was made that they would begin shutting the place down.

 

Steel Venom has an incident halfway through the season. There is a bit of work on it at first, but then all work stops and the ride remains closed for the rest of the season. Wait, isn't this CF? The company that prides themselves on always having their rides open, and if there is a legitimate reason one can't they immediately release some sort of a statement? Yup. But no statement here, and no work is being done. X-Flight and Steel Venom are removed at the end of the season. I really don't think Steel Venom was intended to be removed that season, I just think its incident triggered an early removal. However the removal work was sloppy and everyone could see that. The old water park continued to rot. Steel Venom remains were present throughout 2007 and looked quite bad (and yes they could be seen from the park). X-Flight was cheaply removed as well, with just another temporary fence put up to block its former path.

 

Late in the 2006 season they decided to turn the old lazy river into a Koi fish pond. They put up signs to advertise this, yet all the signs mispelled "currently" as "currenly". Food stalls continue to be abandoned along the 50's Midway in 2006 and 2007. Other areas of the park continue to deteriorate. Skyscraper continues to sit idle, and for a "family park", that is one of the most family rides there!

 

In 2007 the impending closure was very evident, and anyone that says it wasn't didn't visit the park. Raging Wolf Bobs has an incident in June. No work was ever really done, the ride remains closed for the season. Yet come auction time, there is no mention of any problem with the ride. It is capable of operating. So obviously the problem wasn't too severe. Light bulbs are burnt out all over. The last day of the operating season, if you looked around, you'd see that temporary construction lights were placed in the queues of Villain and Dominator, simply because all the lights were out. Head Spin's paint job was cancelled before the 2007 season as I mentioned. The only improvements for that season, Texas Twister paint job and video cameras for Thunderhawk, were coincidentally given to 2 of the 3 rides that would be moved to another park for the following season. And to top it off, at Octoberfest there were signs promoting the Platinum Pass, sign of a Geauga Lake pass even though one park passes for CP and KI had already been announced.

 

CF says they closed the park due to lack of attendance. But frankly, for the "family park" they wanted this place to be, 700,000 is fine. They kept saying how it couldn't even get over 1,000,000 guests, but frankly, how many family parks do? Heck most of CF's properties at that point got one million or below. MiA gets 550,000 but you don't see them complaining about that. GL was very inline with their other properties, and its obvious lack of attendance wasn't the real reason. I think after the Paramount purchase the park was seen better as debt reduction than as a continued operation. The park was really "fluff", as they had now two other strong parks in Ohio, and I sim

[CoasterGuru95]

That;s horrible that this park was closed down for good. if i owned the park i would give it 2-3 years refurbishment maybe put in a new coaster in that time period. but after that if the guests don't come then don't keep the park open