Photo TR: Geauga Lake / SFWoA

[Invertalon]

Yep, that was that section! Poor tracking when they had to re-route it due to the wave pool so they had it crawl through there.

[geaugadan]

Looking back at these old pictures, it reminds me that the best thing about GL was also the worst thing about GL: no lines. After Six Flags sold the park to Cedar Fair, GL's attendance leveled out at 750,000 for its last four years. I remember going to the park for the first time in 1991. It was an early in September, probably the before Oktoberfest, and the place was packed to the gills. In the first two years of the Six Flags era, I remember waiting forever to get onto rides like Batman: Knight Flight, X-Flight, and even the Double Loop. By 2003, though, it was clear that people had gotten fed up with the operations, service, and upkeep of the park, and attendance had declined by nearly 1 million. When Cedar Fair bought the park, many were hopefully that the park's fortunes would change, but I think the thing that killed GL was the closure of Sea World. While GL was a great local draw, Sea World was a destination throughout the Great Lakes. Geauga Lake was where you went after you went to Sea World, and not having the unique identities of two separate parks made Six Flags Worlds of Adventure a poor man's version of what once was. That being said, my happiest memories of my adolescence all took place at Geauga Lake under the management of CF.

[Josh Linn]

I wish Villain could've been salvaged; I've always wanted to ride that for some reason. Got a chance to ride S:UE and Knight Flight in their new parks and enjoyed them both.

[Invertalon]

Dan, I also feel the short lines was the parks kryptonite in a way... People would show up, ride everything and be ready to go after a few hours. People did not stay in the park all day like you want them to. As much as we all love short waits and walk-on's, for a park that is obviously bad news.

 

In 2005 at X-Flight, we rarely had a wait longer than the station steps. When we did, the whole crew was excited. We had motivation to work faster/harder to get everyone through. But generally it was nearly walk-on all the time. In 2006 on Steel Venom I bet I can count on two hands the amount of times we actually had some type of wait out of the station. It was unlikely we even filled the trains completely.

 

I know there was all the bad operation stuff in 2000-2003 or whatever, but I find that hard to believe that is what killed GL. I have been to other parks which are a million times worse than SFO/SFWoA was, yet those parks continue to go on just fine. I think Cedar Fair closing the wildlife side though was the thorn that killed it completely.

 

Either way, not here to discuss what/why, there is a topic for that elsewhere Just wanted to share my experience though.

[Invertalon]

Uploaded another 70+ images today that we came across. Some from when we worked at the park including plenty from our lift walks on X-Flight and some old Fright Fest stuff and so on. All POV shots were given permission to be taken by the operators, nothing was 'illegal'. Here are a few more from the collection... More can be found here:

 

 

Here we go round 2!

 

MindEraser.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

CoolZone.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN4781.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN5136.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN5141.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN5145.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN5148.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN5149.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN5152.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN5159.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN0673.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN0675.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN0677.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN0681.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN0683.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN0691.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN0703.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN0720.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN1278.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN1279.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN1280.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN1281.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN1282.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN1284.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN1286.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN1287.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN1288.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN1325.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN1332.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN1339.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN1409.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN1413.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN2866.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN2867.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN2875.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN2877.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN1337.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN0727.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN2779.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

 

DSCN0339.jpg by invertalon, on Flickr

[pkdcoaster]

Great pics!, thanks for sharing

 

JEFF

[firewalk13]

thanks for posting those, really great pics. My last trip there was the first year was when it was newly worlds of adventure. I really hated to lose the park because of all my childhood memories of the place.

[Chris Benvenuto]

I miss this place dearly at times. The only time I went was back in 2003 during it's last year as a Six Flags park, it was a nice lakeside park and I found when they were run by Six Flags they were quite wonderful. Well, then again, I was 12 years old then and I didn't know it all about park operations and brand names of parks which decided what quality of service they had.

 

I still wish it was around today, there are a few folks I wish I could've taken there today. It was a nice change from Cedar Point, it made you realize there was just more then (Paramount's) Kings Island and Cedar Point down in Ohio.