Cedar Fair buys PARAMOUNT PARKS!

[RBOrrell]

I think this good news for PCW, that area across the road is perfect for a Hotel and a "Lighthouse Point" type area... or employee dorms...

I see them tearing out most of the roller coaster there already: Topgun, Skyrider, Wildebeast, Tomb Raider... reaplacing them with B&M's, Intamin's and better Woody's.

I could see a B&M hyper going behind the 'pond' along the entrance road, that'd be rally neat.

 

I think the water park could use a bit of updating... better slides, and more colour...

 

Right now PCW is a POS amusment park, but with CF in control, I think it can win me back and get me to spend my money there again.

 

btw, I'm a pepsi guy

 

From a business point of view, it would make no sense to rip out anything at this point. PCW, as pointed out, had the highest attendance last year of any "seasonal" park. That would include CP, PKI, PKD, et al.

 

You have to remember that this park opened in 1981. The original coasters at that time were Dragon Fyre (with the "Y" thank you Paramount), Wilde Beast (with the "E"), Minebuster, Ghoster Coaster and a coaster that was later moved and became Thunder Run. In 1981 Gemini was the epitome of coasters at CP. I remember the opening year very well. You could walk up the mountain. People would go up there to watch airplanes landing at the Maple airport which is now thousands of houses east of the park.

 

The various owners up to this point in time have added something every year, albeit at the expense of some other things (ie. the old log flume ride to make space for Top Gun). The park caters to a family demographic and for those that visit the park once or twice a year really care less whether the coaster is a B&M or an Arrow.

 

I can see them perhaps installing a new coaster in a couple of years (the deal does not close until the 3rd quarter of this year) to solidify the new ownership and a direction. Perhaps at the expense of one of the existing coasters.

 

I do not think you will see a "dorm" situation there either. My son works there and most of his fellow employees are locals that take TTC, YRT or GO to get there.

 

As far as a hotel complex, perhaps CF would do this in conjunction with the current City of Vaughan that is trying to develop itself with a new City Centre development. However, Vaughan is looking for this Centre to be in the Jane/7 area which is significantly south of PCW.

 

I am a Coke guy personally but I don't care as long as they don't do something stupid and put Molson in there.

[Carnage]

Just remember Cedar FAir isn't playing RCT.

 

They're not going to spend another billion dollars to convert PCW to a B&M/Intamin park.

 

Even if they did the park would get the same amount of people.

 

ONe of the reasons PCW doesn't get those types of rides is that the park attracts millions of people from Toronto no matter what they do. Wether they add a $20 million dollar roller coaster, or a bunch of outhouses in the parking lot. The bottom line will be near the same.

[nitral]

I agree with you. PCW is the park with the most coasters Ontario so it attracts many ppl. Eventhough they didn't have a new ride this year, I still got a season pass. Also, PCW aslo attracts families, schools, and other social events.

[VoyageVinnie]

I personally am disappointed with this news. Kings Island has been one of the parks I really look forward to going to every summer. Now I have concerns as to how it will be maintained in the hands of Cedar Fair. While I still think Cedar Point is a great park it has slowly gone downhill since the days when I used to visit as a child and all through my teenage years. Cedar Fair is not exactly the best in the industry at maintaining a family park. Cedar Point doesn't have a flume ride anymore and their children's areas are just so- so. Kings Island has prided themselves on making their park a family destination and have been very good at doing so. Just because these parks are in the hands of Cedar Fair doesn't mean huge new coasters all around. Perfect example is Geauga Lake. Cedar Fair has done a very good job at driving the crowds away from that park by doing nothing but making the park smaller. Cedar Fair needs to watch that they don't fall into the same pit Six Flags did by becoming too big too fast. Also, knowing cedar Fair there will be an additional charge added onto any season pass purchase if you wish for your pass to include Cedar Point and Geauga Lake. The normal Cedar Point pass is $99, if you want to include Geauga Lake the price is $130. I just hope they don't rip the park apart like they did to Geauga Lake.

[jamesdillaman]

I personally am disappointed with this news. Kings Island has been one of the parks I really look forward to going to every summer. Now I have concerns as to how it will be maintained in the hands of Cedar Fair. While I still think Cedar Point is a great park it has slowly gone downhill since the days when I used to visit as a child and all through my teenage years. Cedar Fair is not exactly the best in the industry at maintaining a family park. Cedar Point doesn't have a flume ride anymore and their children's areas are just so- so. Kings Island has prided themselves on making their park a family destination and have been very good at doing so. Just because these parks are in the hands of Cedar Fair doesn't mean huge new coasters all around. Perfect example is Geauga Lake. Cedar Fair has done a very good job at driving the crowds away from that park by doing nothing but making the park smaller. Cedar Fair needs to watch that they don't fall into the same pit Six Flags did by becoming too big too fast. Also, knowing cedar Fair there will be an additional charge added onto any season pass purchase if you wish for your pass to include Cedar Point and Geauga Lake. The normal Cedar Point pass is $99, if you want to include Geauga Lake the price is $130. I just hope they don't rip the park apart like they did to Geauga Lake.

 

PKI is a great family park.... if by "family" you mean "children only!". PKI has not had a decent thrilling ride put in since FoF. I would never argue that their children's area is the best in the country maybe, but as a coaster lover I haven't had a reason to visit except for the occasional beast ride for nostalgia's sake and some airtime on backwards racer (don't worry, I love vortex in the back seat, too, pkifanboys). I've actually had a cedar fair pass for the past two years, and not a paramount pass, even though I live withing biking distance from PKI. I think we will have to wait and see what cedar fair does with the parks, but I don't foresee them changing any as you call "family" areas (such as the newly-painted and re-themed kids area at PKI) as this is what they want at these parks. The only thing PKI NEEDS is a new THRILL ride, and the last thing it needs is another "family" coaster. (i.e. IJ:ST)

 

Additionally, CF has poured a BUNCH of money into fixing up GL with a decent waterpark, and putting it on the old Seaworld side of the lake, which I think is a good idea, then they can add more rides where the old waterpark was. If you think the park looks bad now, you should have gone when it was Six Flags...

-James

[VoyageVinnie]

Additionally, CF has poured a BUNCH of money into fixing up GL with a decent waterpark, and putting it on the old Seaworld side of the lake, which I think is a good idea, then they can add more rides where the old waterpark was. If you think the park looks bad now, you should have gone when it was Six Flags...

-James

 

Just so you know, I worked at Six Flags in Ohio ever since it was a "Six Flags" park. I know how it was and I know how it is now. There is a reason that the attendance went from 2 million when it was SFWoA down to 700 thousand as Geauga Lake. To say that PKI is a children only park is a little ridiculous. If you are going to say that then you might as well say that Cedar Point is a 48" and up park only. There are too many people out there, especially enthusiasts, who want only these huge roller coasters to go in these parks and criticize every park who doesn't do that. I would much rather go to a park like Kennywood or Holiday World than to a park like Cedar Point due to the quality of the coaster and the excellent variety of flat rides at each (especially Kennywood). As you will see, the move of the waterpark at Geauga Lake was a bad one for a few reasons. The biggest reason it was a bad move was because the local people who only attend the park once or twice a year, who make up the majority of the attendance, had an emotional tie to Sea World. Six Flags new this and instead of trying to build something all new they used what was there and people loved it. By Geauga Lake tearing all that out, they have really upset a lot of people. Plus if you haven't realized it yet they moved the water park in order to charge a separate gate admission. Boo to separate gate admissions. I fear for The Beast, that it's fate may be the same as Mean Streak

[jamesdillaman]

I agree that cedar point is a 48" and up park... lol but PKI has a great childrens area, and with a couple good coasters, it could be an incredible park, also Six Flags Ohio, when it still had the wildlife (old seaworld) area, of course saw more attendance than when that side was closed down.

[Superdasher]

 

Wow. Either Cedar Fair is really smart or really stupid. It's very possible that they're going to make the parks more fun to vist, and it's also very possible that the Paramount Parks will all become shadows of their former selves, but I'll be prepared. You saw what happened to Knott's, right?

 

So since CF is the new owner of five well-known parks, what does this mean? Where will we be going from here?

 

Well, one of the things that worries me is this: Cedar Fair had to remove quite a bit of Six Flags copyright theming when it bought SFWOA (which is now Geauga Lake). X-Flight and Villain weren't affected, but BKF became Dominator and S:UE became Steel Venom. Like Six Flags, Paramount has copyrighted theming. What happens when CF takes over all of this? Does Top Gun become Thunderhawk and Rugrats Reptar become Scooby Doo's Wacky Flying Machine or something like that?

 

Also, what happens to the park operations? Will CF be able to go ahead and add new rides so that they have rides in the Paramount parks built by them? Will the new pass system now be effective at Paramount parks as well as other CF parks?

 

I gotta agree, the Pepsi change is lame, as I'm a Coke fan. But in my opinion, the worst thing about this change would be if they end up having to demolish the Flight of Fear rides because of copyright reasons and it's too difficult to retheme. That would totally suck...FoF was a good ride.

 

I don't know what I think of this, but it's bound to be an exciting year. I have to confess I did not see this coming.

 

Super "Hope CF knows what they're doing" Dasher

[CoasterFanatic]

PCW is a beautiful park and while the fact that their coaster collection may not be the best, people still come in droves. Also, what is a spectacular ride to you and me could be a completely different scenario from what the public wants.

 

Example: Dvorak (Columnist from MSNBC) completely blasted my site's rating system about a year or so ago. After a visit to SFMW, we stated that any site that gave "Roar" an 8/10 has no credibility and should not be taken seriously. Later in the same blog he gave Kong an A- rating.

 

This type of thinking must be the reason that we waited over two hours to ride Top Gun two summers ago.

[CedarPoint420]

The only reason Geauga Lake has generic names is because Cedar Fair bought it so close to opening day and needed to get all of the Dc comics out. They didn't have enough time to think up of more creative names, they needed to get the park ready for opening. As soon as they make a decision with the paramount contract, and if they decide not to go for it, then it will give them more time than with Geauga Lake to come up with mercandise, logos and names.

[VoyageVinnie]

Cedar Fair reuses the names within the entire chain. Cedar Fair knew they were going to purchase SFWoA way ahead of the opening day. In fact I was at WoA the last weekend during the Halloween season before it became Geauga Lake cleaning so the park would look nice for the Cedar Fair executives. So they had plenty of time to think up creative names for all the rides they knew they would not be able to keep the names for. Cedar Fair just isn't creative with their names. They really need to get someone on board with them who can think up more creative names. My RCT parks have some awesome names, maybe Cedar Fair should hire me.

[Sparebear75]

Another thought about branding between the former two chains. Peanuts is an aging theme, Charlie Brown is an American classic. But can you say that Peanuts has the same impact on kids today as it did 10, 20 years ago. Cedar Fair not extending the Nick theming beyond the current 3 year licencing agreement would be crazy. This is my own speculation, but Paramount/CBS may also want to continue the themeing without the hassle of being in the amusement industry.

[blacknite2oo7]

I think this is great maybe some new coasters at Carowinds instead of Nick stuff and water park stuff.

[jamesdillaman]

Well, Paramount used the same names at all of the parks, for example: Top Gun, Vortex, Scooby Doo Ghoster Coaster, Grizzly, FoF, Tomb Raider. Just saying that as someone said CF used the same names at their parks, but I think there's much more unique names at the CF parks than the paramount parks. As for FoF, paramount already got rid of the outer limits theming a couple years ago, so now it's just generically themed to a ufo ride, so there should be no problem with keeping them the same for Cedar Fair.

-James

[blacknite2oo7]

true

[coasterjoe1233]

Score Mabey wonderland will get a B&M or Intimin giga? only time will tell.

[steel]

I doubt CW will get anything of that scale for quite some time.

[mightypotato]

I doubt CW will get anything of that scale for quite some time.

 

If at all. A huge ride like that won't make a huge difference in attendance for PCW. People are still going to go in droves regardless of a new coaster or not.

[eli]

I hope they clean up and give Great America some attention. That place needs more shows. Long time ago I remember walking around the park seeing quite a bit number of shows. I loved PGA when I was growing up but the park has been on a down hill slope in terms of quality of entertainment.

[Gnome]

I haven't been to PGA in such a long time (although I'm planning on having that change this summer )

None the less, PGA really does need some more attention, at least from photos I've seen. It also needs a new star roller coaster. All they have is Top Gun, and they've never really built anything else to compete with that ride, imo, sure there's shockwave but all the reviews about it now say it sucks. Maybe they'll build that Intamin Hyper that was rumored to be built a couple years back!

Anyways, I had to do it seeing as how everybody else is all like, OMG an intamin hyper!!!!!111100000zzzzz

 

Anyways, I really hope CF keeps the viacom liscencing. I just can't see paramount without Top Gun, or other attractions like that.

[Red]

This should be interesting:

 

"PARAMOUNT PARKS, JAPAN TRADE AND GATEWAY ENTERTAINMENT GROUP TO DEVELOP MOVIE STUDIO THEME PARK" (News from 2004)

 

According to the article, "The park will be designed, constructed and managed jointly by Paramount Parks and the holding company." I'm not sure any other info was released since this announcement, but, nonetheless, I'd like to see how CF plays this one out.

[GADVFREAK99]

Now only Cedar Fair can buy Lagoon?

[Millenniumguy]

What a surprise .

 

I wonder now that Cedar Fair has a monopoly in Ohio, I wonder if they will go the old Rockefeller way, which is raise prices crazily.

 

I wonder how Cedar Fair will be able to manage their parks. I mean, Geauga Lake, it's not doing all that great?

 

Why would Cedar Fair acquire all these parks without "Cedar Fairizing" Geauga Lake?

 

Dosen't this sound like history repeating?

 

Remember 1998?

(When Premier bought out Six Flags?)

 

See where that led?

 

Hmm, I'm not pessimistic(Cedar Point is my favorite park), I am just looking for the part people seem to forget.

 

Mangement will be great, unlike Six Flags, but still isn't it a bit much for Cedar Fair?

[amir]

ｔｈｉｓ　ｉｓ　ｍａｄｎｅｓｓ．．．． Ｉ　ＬＯＶＥ　ＭＡＤＮＥＳＳ

[snapp0420]

Has to be some of the greatest news i've heard since i moved down here to Charlotte,NC from Oberlin, OH. I am a spoiled Cedar Point regular who was very dissapointed in Carowinds. However I must say that the Borg Assimilator was a gnarly coaster. Hooray for Cedar Fair!