About five years ago Cedar Fair purchased Kings Dominion from Paramount. This has brought several changes to how Kings Dominion is run, mainly the exclusion of characters in rides bases off of Paramount movies such as Scooby Doo, Tomb Raider, and the Italian Job. So, My question to you is, Is the switch from Paramount to Cedar Fair beneficial to the park, not Beneficial, or Indifferent?
Cedar Fair: Good or Bad?
- Thread starter Ben
- Start date
Despite the crappy names and removing the old movie themes from the park, the park seems to have made a complete 180 in terms of rides/attractions and improvements.
Planet Snoopy, Windseeker, Dominator/305, Americana are all positive additions, plus it seems that CF is making tons of general improvements all over the place. Paramount loved to invest into their parks for some time, but didn't care for making improvements or keeping up with history, so their parks lost a lot of charm and atmosphere.
If this is the direction CF wants to take KD (and other former Paramount properties), I fully support this.
- Last time I visited, the park was still under Paramount ownership. I really hope that if I finally get to come back this summer, the park will look a lot nicer and fresher than it did back then.
Planet Snoopy, Windseeker, Dominator/305, Americana are all positive additions, plus it seems that CF is making tons of general improvements all over the place. Paramount loved to invest into their parks for some time, but didn't care for making improvements or keeping up with history, so their parks lost a lot of charm and atmosphere.
If this is the direction CF wants to take KD (and other former Paramount properties), I fully support this.
- Last time I visited, the park was still under Paramount ownership. I really hope that if I finally get to come back this summer, the park will look a lot nicer and fresher than it did back then.
Cedar Fair has done some great and some not so great. They are also not full attention to Kings Dominion to help improve the park. They take glances over at it every now and then and leave it for a bit.
It also seems they are trying to have the same stuff at each of the parks (Planet Snoopy, Dino's Alive, Intimidators, WindSeekers) Soon the parks will all consist of the same areas but with different rides. Minus Cedar Point because that is their stand point. At this rate all of the other Cedar Fair owned parks will be alike in one way or another.
It also seems they are trying to have the same stuff at each of the parks (Planet Snoopy, Dino's Alive, Intimidators, WindSeekers) Soon the parks will all consist of the same areas but with different rides. Minus Cedar Point because that is their stand point. At this rate all of the other Cedar Fair owned parks will be alike in one way or another.
Paramount was nice because it had a lot of familiar themes and it was cool to be experiencing stuff you had seen from the movies and TV, especially for me as a 5 or 6 year old because of all the Nickelodean and Hanna-Barbara areas.
It's funny though, I almost feel like KD has aged with me. I really think it has improved with Cedar Fair. Like Netdvn said, the rides/attractions are covering all groups of people, and all in all, CF is doing a better job than Paramount in my opinion. Sure KD's become more generic, but as a person who doesn't really appreciate the themes at that park more so the rides, I like the fact that I can go to a heavily themed park that enjoys capturing the essence of its background story and less with its excitement, and then right up the road travel to a ride-hording park with extreme thrills.
Cedar Fair is holding their own with all of their parks really, and I can't wait to see what they do in the future for KD. They've got off to a promising start.
It's funny though, I almost feel like KD has aged with me. I really think it has improved with Cedar Fair. Like Netdvn said, the rides/attractions are covering all groups of people, and all in all, CF is doing a better job than Paramount in my opinion. Sure KD's become more generic, but as a person who doesn't really appreciate the themes at that park more so the rides, I like the fact that I can go to a heavily themed park that enjoys capturing the essence of its background story and less with its excitement, and then right up the road travel to a ride-hording park with extreme thrills.
Cedar Fair is holding their own with all of their parks really, and I can't wait to see what they do in the future for KD. They've got off to a promising start.
I think they are better off now actually. When Paramount owned them the park was not in nearly as good shape as it is now. Today the park is beautiful in my opinion. I know they have some generic names but they are simply names the ride is the actual important part. Someone brought up they have of the same rides/names across their chain. Well so does Six Flags. A lot of the time even though something has the same name does not mean it is the same exact ride.
Whether or not cedar point is beneficial depends on your point of view. It’s a completely different style of amusement park under cedar fair ownership than under paramount’s. When paramount parks were designed, the cinematic themes of the rides and areas was integral to the park going experience. The rides were all themed well. The best example would be the old tomb raider ride at kings island. They took a simple topspin and made it one of the most popular rides in the park, all due to its incredible theming. Cedar fair manages its parks much different. Instead of themes, they rely on pure thrill. The rides in parks they acquire all become painfully generic in name and theme, but they either survive the rebranding because they’re thrilling enough by them self, or, in the case of tomb raider, they become boring and are removed in favor of more thrilling rides. Overall, cedar fair brings improvements to its parks from a monetary standpoint, and they are usually managed better. But, at the end of the day, the parks aren’t really better or worse for it; they’re just different.
John said:
How timely that this was just revived - I was driving yesterday and Apple Maps & CarPlay knew where I was going and started navigation automatically - and as it directed me to the exit on I-95 the label on the nav still said "Paramount King's Dominion"