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Cedar Fair

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Cedar Fair L.P.
Company typePublic (NYSE: FUN)
IndustryAmusement Parks
Founded1978
HeadquartersSandusky, Ohio, United States
Area served
United States
Canada
Key people
Richard L. Kinzel,
Chairman and CEO
Jacob T. Falfas, COO
Revenue$916.1 million (net) US (2009)
Increase$185.5 million USD (2009)
$35.4 million US (2009)
Number of employees
1,300 (2005) (excluding seasonal)
Websitewww.cedarfair.com

Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, legally known as Cedar Fair, L.P.,(NYSE: FUN) is a publicly traded company, based in Sandusky, Ohio, USA at its Cedar Point thrill park, that owns and operates amusement parks in North America. Cedar Fair owns and operates 11 major theme thrill parks: 10 in the United States, and one in Canada, plus a small one in the San Francisco area.

Based on stock value, Cedar Fair is the most successful amusement park corporation behind Disney. Cedar Fair is the seventh largest amusement park corporation in the world by attendance with 22.7 million guests (2008). Cedar Fair operates four amusement parks that attract over 3 million visitors a year: Knott's Berry Farm, Kings Island, Canada's Wonderland, and the company's flagship park, Cedar Point.[1] Cedar Fair parks have earned 15 major Golden Ticket Awards for roller coasters and amusement park operation.[2]

Readers of Amusement Today, a trade newspaper which ranks amusement parks and roller coasters, continually rank Cedar Fair parks highly. Cedar Fair's flagship park Cedar Point has been voted The Best Amusement Park In The World for 11 consecutive years.[3]

In December 2009 it was announced that Apollo Management would acquire Cedar Fair shares and the company would be become private underneath the management group.[4] The deal includes a cash payment of $635 million and assumed debt which gives the transaction a value of $2.4 billion. Cedar Fair planned to hold a meeting to decide if Apollo should acquire Cedar Fair on March,16,2010, but postponed the meeting to April,8,2010.[5]

Properties

Theme/Amusement parks

Note: Parks with their names in bold text were purchased from Paramount Parks in 2006.

Water parks

The following parks are included in the admission price of the listed amusement park:

The following parks are either standalone properties or require separate admission:

Lodging and campgrounds

  • Hotel Breakers (Cedar Point)
  • Breakers Express (Cedar Point)
  • Sandcastle Suites Hotel (Cedar Point)
  • Camper Village (Cedar Point)
  • Lighthouse Point (Cedar Point)
  • Castaway Bay Indoor Waterpark Resort (Cedar Point)
  • Knott’s Berry Farm Resort Hotel (Knott's Berry Farm)
  • Worlds of Fun Village (Worlds of Fun)
  • Carowinds Camp Wilderness Resort (Carowinds)

Other

Former

History

Cedar Fair was formed in 1978 as an operating partnership between Cedar Point and the then one-year-old Valleyfair. Cedar Fair's name is constructed from the names of its first two parks. In recent years, Cedar Fair has expanded the number of parks it owns. Dorney Park was purchased in 1993. Worlds of Fun was purchased in 1995. Knott's Berry Farm was purchased in 1997. Michigan's Adventure was purchased in 2001. Cedar Fair purchased Geauga Lake for $145 million in 2004.[7] Cedar Fair announced the purchase of Paramount Parks for $1.24 billion on May 22, 2006.[8] On September 21, 2007, Cedar Fair announced the closing of Geauga Lake, due to falling attendance. The property will operate solely as a water park for the 2008 season.[6]

Previously, Cedar Fair operated Camp Snoopy at the Mall of America, Star Trek: The Experience, in Las Vegas, and the Geauga Lake Amusement Park, in Aurora, Ohio.

2009 Additions

Cedar Fair had built a number of new rides and attractions in their parks for summer 2009:

  • Carolina Cobra (Carowinds) - moved from Geauga Lake to Carowinds in Charlotte, North Carolina, Carolina Cobra is a Vekoma boomerang roller coaster with six inversions (three forwards, then the same three backwards). Standing 116 feet (35 m), it was, at the time, the park's 2nd tallest coaster. It was also the first roller coaster to be retrofitted with a new train design created by Vekoma to improve the ride experience.[9]
  • Diamondback (Kings Island) - Kings Island in Mason, Ohio added Diamondback for the 2009 season, a Bolliger & Mabillard megacoaster with a drop of 215 ft, making it the park's tallest and fastest roller coaster. It is similar in many aspects to its sister rides, Behemoth at Canada's Wonderland and Intimidator at Carowinds (new for 2010 - see below.)[10]
  • Prowler (Worlds of Fun): Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, Missouri added Prowler, a Great Coasters International wooden roller coaster. It features articulated Millenium Flyer trains made by Great Coasters International. Prowler also features an 85 ft (26 m) drop, and features a unique layout meant to give the coaster an isolated feel, based on the world famous The Beast at Kings Island. Prowler also received the Best New Ride of 2009 title, awarded by Amusement Today Magazine (the same poll that has awarded Cedar Point "Best Amusement Park" for 11 years, Kings Island with "Best Children's Area" for nine, and Maverick with "Best New Ride of 2007").[11]
  • Soak City (Valleyfair) - Opened as Whitewater Country, Valleyfair in Shakopee, Minnesota rethemed their waterpark to the popular Soak City format popularized by Cedar Fair and Knott's Soak City waterparks in an effort to unify the Cedar Fair chain of waterparks (while all of the former Paramount Park waterparks are unified under the Boomerang Bay theme.)
  • El Dorado & Americana (Kings Dominion) - Kings Dominion introduced the El Dorado and Americana family rides in the park's Grove section, both installations brought from Geauga Lake. El Dorado is a typical pendulum ride and Americana is a Ferris wheel.
  • Starlight Experience (Cedar Point) - Cedar Point debuted the Starlight Experience, a nighttime light extravaganza that takes place at dusk each night on the Frontier Trail.[12]
  • Several parks notably debuted a variety of live shows, including a brand-new ice-skating show at Dorney Park, and the expansion of the “All Wheels Extreme” stunt show, featuring BMX-style bikers, skateboarders, gymnasts and in-line skaters, to several properties like California's Great America.
  • Cedar Fair announced that it will not renew its contract with Viacom. 2009 will be the last year Nickelodeon will be featured in the 5 former Paramount parks.[citation needed]

2010 additions

  • Planet Snoopy (Former Paramount Parks) - Any remnants of Hanna-Barbera, Nickelodeon, or the generic "KidZville" children's areas at the former Paramount Parks will be entirely replaced with Snoopy and friends, all being retitled Planet Snoopy to be consistent with parks already veterans in the Cedar Fair family. This means that all rides bearing reference to Nickelodeon characters will be renamed, re-themed, repainted, and changed to accommodate the new Snoopy theme. No new children's rides are expected to be installed at any of the parks directly because of this change, with the exception of three new kiddie rides at Canada's Wonderland. It is unknown if the SpongeBob SquarePants 4-D movie will continue daily screenings at each of the five parks in 2010. There's a rumor that Planet Snoopy is a test run for the Paramount Parks and that Scooby Doo and Nickelodeon might return for 2011.
  • Demon Drop (Dorney Park) - Dorney Park will receive an Intamin AG first-generation freefall ride that has been operating at Cedar Point since 1983. Demon Drop has been on sale at Cedar Point since 2005, but has been taken off the market to be moved to Dorney.[15]
  • Scooby Doo Dark Rides (Former Paramount Parks) - Four Cedar Fair parks formerly of the Paramount Parks chain have announced that their respective Scooby Doo dark rides (operating under slightly varied named at the parks - Scooby Doo & The Haunted Castle, Scooby Doo & The Haunted Mansion, Scooby Doo's Haunted Mansion, etc.) will be in some way altered because of the arrival of Snoopy (California's Great America never build this ride). It is yet unclear if this change will mean simply the removal of Scooby Doo references to be replaced with generic figures, the removal of Scooby Doo replaced with Snoopy, or closure of the rides as a whole. Each of the Paramount Parks was created with Scooby Doo and the other Hanna-Barbera characters present at their opening, with Scooby Doo remaining with the parks through three owners.[16]
  • Cedar Fair announced that the Starlight Experience would be coming to three new parks in 2010 in their 2009 Q3 Earnings report. Cedar Point installed the Starlight Experience in 2009 for 1 Million. So far World's of Fun and Knott's Berry Farm have announced the additions.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Theme Park Attendance Report 2007" (PDF). Park World. 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-20.
  2. ^ "Golden Tickets 2007" (PDF). Amusement Today. 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-20.
  3. ^ "2007 Golden Ticket Awards". Amusement Today. 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-20.
  4. ^ http://www.cedarfair.com/ir/press_releases/index.cfm?current_root=15&mode=story&story_id=210
  5. ^ "Coastal Business: Charleston Port activity studied". The Sun News. 2009-12-31. Retrieved 2010-01-01.
  6. ^ a b "2008 Press Release" (PDF). Cedar Fair. 2008. Cite error: The named reference "closing" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  7. ^ Potter, Derek (2004-03-10). "Cedar Fair Buys Six Flags World of Adventure". Theme Park Insider. Retrieved 2007-12-20.
  8. ^ "Cedar Fair to Acquire Paramount Parks". The Point Online. 2006-05-22. Retrieved 2007-12-20.
  9. ^ "Carolina Cobra Press Release". Cedar Fair. 2008. Retrieved 2008. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  10. ^ "Diamondback Press Release". Cedar Fair. 2008. Retrieved 2008. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  11. ^ "Prowler Press Release". Cedar Fair. 2008. Retrieved 2008. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  12. ^ "Starlight Experience Review". The Point Online. 05-25-20092008. Retrieved 2009-07-17. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. ^ http://intimidator305.com. Retrieved 2009-10-22. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |Title= ignored (|title= suggested) (help)
  14. ^ Carowinds Public Relations. "Intimidator Ride Statistics". Carowinds. Retrieved August 26, 2009.
  15. ^ http://www.buenapark.com/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=1409
  16. ^ "Planet Snoopy Comes to Kings Island in 2010". Retrieved 2009-10-22.

Cedar Fair park sites

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