News: Geauga Lake taking a shift in a new direction

Posted at 8:36 PM EST (0136 GMT)

Feb. 5th, 2007 -- Striving for a more intimate and family-centered image, Geauga Lake will remove their X-Flight and Steel Venom roller coasters near the park's entrance to make the park more inviting to guests.  The removal of these two high-profile attractions is one of many changes currently underway at Geauga Lake to swap its thrillride laden reputation into a more intimate regional family-entertainment park.

Aesthetics, operating and maintenance costs and stagnant park attendance all factored into removing the two roller coasters and the park’s monorail, said Cedar Fair's Chief Operating Officer, Jack Falfas. Geauga Lake also removed the towering Mr. Hyde’s Nasty Fall ride from the same part of the park before last summer.

Falfas said the presence of several big rides near the park’s entrance made it “not as inviting” as a Cedar Fair park should be. As for the monorail, it toted passengers over land where Geauga Lake’s original water park once stood, and Mr. Falfas likened that part of the park to “scars on the earth” that he’d rather visitors not see.  It was recently announced that the X-Flight roller coaster has found itself a new home in 2007 at another one of Cedar Fair's parks -- Kings Island, near Cincinnati, OH.  Meanwhile, Steel Venom is destined for storage at another park once it's dismantled, said Cedar Fair chief operating officer Jack Falfas.

“Our intent is to clean up that whole front area,” he said. “They have a large number of roller coasters and rides in there. It’s more than what the guest demand is (justifying) right now, particularly the way we’re going.”

Falfas says it has become clear that Geauga Lake’s appeal lies as a cozy, regional attraction rather than a thrill-seeker’s paradise.

“I think at first, some people assumed — and maybe we did ourselves — that Geauga Lake was ‘Cedar Point East,’” he said, referring to the Sandusky park’s reputation as a coaster capital. “It’s not going to be a Cedar Point East. It is a local park, it’s a great picnic park, it’s a community thing.”

However, the attractions will not be ignored completely.  Falfas noted that two of the park's thrill rides are scheduled for new expensive paint jobs -- one will which will also have cameras installed in every seat so visitors can buy a video memento of their ride and a movie/simulator ride is being re-themed.  In addition, the Raging Wolf Bobs coaster has been completely refurbished and there are plans for new attractions, but details were not disclosed.