ajinaz Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 Saw this article and thought it might be of interest. Sorry I can't figure out how to post an article from The Daily. http://bit.ly/ef5HxD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beatle11 Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 Sorry I can't figure out how to post an article from The Daily. Yeah I hate when site's post text as images. Interesting article. Obviously southern water parks are much better off being able to operate most of year where in the North, you get maybe 4 months. It's definitely tough in this economy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shavethewhales Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 Terrible article. The writer is deliberately trying to push a sensational concept with misused facts and selective quotes. I love how she gets 'bowl slides' wrong. This is simply tabloid web vomit designed to get clicks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mightbeawannabe Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 ^I agree. The writer was clearly pushing a concept to try to prove a point. A point that wasn't very well executed. There was very little to back anything up. The quotes were carefully selected and misused. The writer is basing this grand assumption from a few negative quotes, poor backup indeed. No mention of the water parks that are continuing to thrive, and the most modern innovations were carelessly looked over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajinaz Posted February 7, 2011 Author Share Posted February 7, 2011 This is simply tabloid web vomit designed to get clicks. I really don't think that this article could convey a whole lot of information in two pages. No mention of parks attached to theme parks etc. This is Murdoch's new Ipad newspaper so the only people that would read this for the most part are already subscribers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davisal771 Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 I don't think waterparks are going anywhere, anytime soon. WaterWorld in Denver is crowded every hot day of summer. Which is why I get up there once a year, the coldest and cloudiest day of the year, I'm there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
montezooma Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 In stark contrast to this article I am HAPPY to report 25% increases in attendance. I can understand maybe some of the indoor parks are struggling as the capital costs are extremely high and tough to recoup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfc Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 ^I trust Shane's opinion much more than any knuckleheaded reporter's. Water parks are hardly "going away"--but I'm willing to bet that the weak performers are being weeded out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeemerBoy Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 ^ Same. A bad business model will almost always kill off the weaker competitors. This isn't really news. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alilstronger Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 I do not agree with this article. I LOVE water parks and I know there are lots of people out there that enjoy them too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ginzo Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 Water parks are going the way of the drive-in movie theater? I'll remember that next time I wait an hour for a slide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YoshiFan Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 I agree with others that waterparks are still very popular. There were days I went to WWK at Dorney on a school day in June or September and the more popular slides still had up to 20 minute waits. At the Boardwalk at Hershey, I have seen 45 - 60 minute waits for the lazy river and wavepool and lines just to get into the play structure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beatle11 Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 I would say that the opinion of 10 people on this board is worth more than that article. Water parks are still very popular obviously. But keep in mind, Northern Parks are only open 4 months a year (mid May to mid September). If your lucky a couple extra weeks. They still have maintenance and other upkeep to do the other 8 months of they year while not making any money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarienLaker Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 Water parks are O.K. but they're not as fun as "dry" amuesment parks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triggernel Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 This guy is crazy. My area has three drive-ins that sell out every friday and saturday night. The Wisconsin Dells are doing well. Mt. Olympus and Noah's Ark are still crowded as hell, so maybe a decrease in attendance wouldn't be so bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rcdude Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 Considering the waterparks I go to still have decent crowds, I'm guessing they'll be around for a while longer. What I could see however is older-style waterparks closing due to lack of attraction variety. In fact, the closest waterpark to me, Wild Rivers, has been in danger of closing for a long time. I'm not all that surprised since their last major addition was in 2002, but I like that park due to its unique attractons that just aren't found at modern waterparks. My guess is that we are going to see a decrease in small waterparks, especially in areas that already have a number of them. Larger waterparks will probably continue to attract crowds, and I don't see somewhere like Soak City or Raging Waters closing at any point in the near future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moose Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 Here in Rhode Island, Drive-in-Theatre's are doing better than waterparks. We still have a drive in, but don't have any waterparks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajc47 Posted March 12, 2011 Share Posted March 12, 2011 This guy is crazy. My area has three drive-ins that sell out every friday and saturday night. The Wisconsin Dells are doing well. Mt. Olympus and Noah's Ark are still crowded as hell, so maybe a decrease in attendance wouldn't be so bad. Agreed. The author of this trash has probably never even been to one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarienLaker Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 I've been to SplashTown at Darien Lake and it seems to be doing fine! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thrillrider Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 Waterparks will continue to do just fine. I really don't care much for waterparks, as I am more of a coaster guy. The way I see it, is that the waterparks help make the coaster lines shorter for me. Besides that, nobody wants to see me in a bathing suit. I do have an issue when people bring up the fact that the lines for waterslides are longer than coaster lines. The reason they are longer is because of the capacity of the slides. A slide can put thru (pulling random number out of my a**) say 50 pph, as where a coaster will put 1000 +pph. Just my 2 cents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David H Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 Notice that the article focuses on indoor waterparks not doing so well. Maybe that's because most people who go to water parks like the sun? Or maybe it's because they're generally MUCH smaller than their outdoor counterparts? Or maybe it's because the hotels that are usually attached to them are VERY overpriced? Like in any business area that has an explosion in popularity, the best of the businesses will succeed and the worst will fail. Water parks exploded in the past two decades. And more recently indoor waterparks, usually attached to hotels have exploded. And now, like with any product, the huge demand has somewhat subsided, and only the best will survive. How many water parks are there with a half dozen slides, a small wave pool, a small river, a small kiddie area and a lot of lounge chairs? And how many of them charge almost as much as the huge Schlitterbahns and Noah's Arks of the world? Is it any surprise that these parks don't do well? It's the same problem that so many small amusement parks are facing. They can't compete with the larger competitors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Porsmond Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 Its an interesting article, but I think Water parks will still continue to be around for some time yet, Whenever I've been to America,the water park section of a park is always pretty crowded and ones I've been too on its own have never been far from empty. Take Florida for example, I dont think I've ever been lucky to try and visit one of the waterparks to escape the crowds(always busy busy) but then obviously Florida does have hot weather nearly all year round to make them still successful. Here in England, the waterparks we have are mainly indoor ones(sometimes mixed with outdoor sections too) but most of them continue to be popular here too with no sign of them dying out anytime soon. It almost sounds like this person has had a bad experience at a water park and wants them to die out for some reason(Dont know why), well I know I really enjoy them and will continue to enjoy them,Infact cant wait to get back to Florida in May, and visit Aquatica(A new water park credit for me) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajc47 Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 I have been the indoor waterparks like Kalahari and Great Wolf Lodge, and all are doing quite well. I just don't go as often as I'd like to for mostly money reasons. But this 'writer' put no research or thought into this at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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