Six Flags Ohio Media Day - May 4th, 2000 

Alright, who wants to tell them?

John McGuire What? Tell me directions to the park? I’ll use GPS.

The park doesn’t exist anymore right or is it just a water park

CoasterNick3157 Six Flags Ohio/Geauga Lake closed in 2007, and the water park closed in 2016. Barely any sign of the former parks there now.

The amusement park proper closed in 2007. Wild water Kingdom (aka Sea World Ohio) closed in 2016 both under Cedar Fair management.

Thanks, man! I appreciate that. Living in Ohio was a great time as a total of six new coasters opened in 2000.

What month was it when you visited Geauga Lake in 2001? Just curious.

Ha ha. It was definitely a cool time to be an enthusiast during those years.

@@SeanFlaharty I planned a trip to go to Geauga Lake during 2007, but it closed and I was not able to visit. I was bummed out. :(

@@SeanFlaharty do you have any more footage of the villain. My uncle used to run that and he telling me all the stories

@@JayGriefs Unfortunately, I doin't. I think RU-vidr David Elis has some though.

You are welcome, Greg.

I remember that. I think it was profiles for the coach captains on the ACE ECO tour. I still have my copy so I don't need you to e-mail me. Thanks though, Chris! I hope all is well.

Thanks for watching and leaving a comment.

I liked it but when it became SFWoA, a lot changed and it didn't seem nearly as fun. It got so bad that I stopped visiting as I just didn't want to go through the hassle.

@@SeanFlaharty curious what were your complaints? Also what was the traffic like in the area at that time with all those narrow roads leading in?

@@jtwigg23 The park just couldn't handle the crowds. The staff were usually rude and certain policies didn't make an ounce of sense. For instance, you were not allowed to take any photos of any of the ride while you were in the park. I am not talking about taking pictures while in line. I am talking about taking pictures from the midways. Anytime I would go to guest relations about this policy, they would tell me there isn't such a policy. This was an ongoing cycle for most of my visits. Only one time did someone in guest relations tell me that cameras were't allowed to be used in the park, even though they sold disposable cameras in the gift shops. I was told that duplicating any imagery of the Six Flags Logo or any of the ride logos was strictly prohibited and was a chain wide rule, which we all know isn't true.

@@SeanFlaharty I see. That's interesting considering there's a whole walk thru of the park that someone got when it was WoA. Even rode the rides with his camera somehow. I was just curious cause this park was a huge part of my childhood and I live only about 20 min away and my memories are a bit fuzzy at this point. I think I may have only visted it once as WoA. Mostly when it was Geauga Lake the first time and had season passes the first year it was Six Flags Ohio. I think your comment cut off I was just curious how bad the traffic was when they made it a destination park for a few years.

@@jtwigg23 I seemed to be enforced randomly. I was never able to do a full walk-thru because of the policy. The staff was really, really bad also.. They seemed to hate their jobs.

Thank you, Dale! It was a cool time but the park went south quickly. I thought it was fairly clear that it wouldn't survive very long. I really wanted the park to succeed but I guess it wasn't meant to be.

@@SeanFlaharty I think a lot of people held the same thoughts in terms of the parks future. I even recall my parents talking about how they thought it may close at some point in the future, though I don't think they realized how soon it would be. I had no idea being only 12 at the time. The last time we visited was a month or so, possibly less, before it closed forever.

Growing so quickly before crashing and burning in bankruptcy

Thank you @zachman15. It was a very exciting time to be involved in the hobby and living in Ohio. So much stuff to do.

Thank you for your service and thank you for sharing your story! It definitely was a unique time, especially in Ohio. Six new coasters all opening in 2000 then X-Flight in 2001 and TTD in 2003. I stopped visiting the park near the end of its Six Flags days as the operations and employees were terrible in my opinion. Once Cedar Fair purchased it, things were better but unfortunately the damage was done.

Ha ha, I guess so. It's strange because I guess I never thought anyone would be interested in seeing a backstage tour on video, back then.

@@SeanFlaharty exactly, and now thousands upon thousands will enjoy it. Strange, but very cool.

wow just saw the end, that was so cool!

Yep, that is Brian. We both were frequent posters in the old rec.roller-coaster newsgroup of the late 90's until......actually, I think its still around somewhere. I thought it had been closed. It was always cool to hang out with him at parks and media days.

You are welcome. Many thanks for watching it.

Thanks for watching,, Brad. I am not sure how much more of the archives that I have left but I am continually going through my archives to look for stuff I may have missed.

Thanks, Josh. Just got back to the hotel from a jam packed day at SFFT. Great park and great staff, oh, and great rides. :)

Thank you Derek!

Thank you Derek!

I loved it until 2001. I only went a few times in 2001 as the customer service was terrible in my opinion. Previous years were a lot better. Cedar Fair did a good job trying to get the park back into something more manageable but it was too late. :(

@@SeanFlaharty We visited 2003, 2004 and 2007. Can't say we had any issues with the staff, they were always friendly enough when we spoke to them. The park was always clean and tidy when we visited as well, maybe we just got lucky.

I agree. The damage had already been done. I had stopped going to Six Flags World Of Adventure after too many instances of being treated like dirt. The park just couldn't handle the crowds they got and most the employees acted like they didn't care. They also had the most ridiculous photo "policy" of any park I have visited. You were allowed to take a camera inside the park but would be yelled at if you took a picture of any of the coasters or rides, from the midway. It was aggressive and the park never once gave myself, or anyone else that was effected by this, a valid explanation. We were just told that is how it is and to deal with it. I mean, they even sold disposable cameras in there gift shops so it was very confusing.

Cedar Fair didn't purchase it to fix it, the purchased it for the assets and then to ship them out around the country for theother parks and remove a major competitor from cedar point. It's really sad the amount of Ohio theme parks that have come and gone, it's such a rich history and utterly crazy how many of them have eventually closed down.

I believe the only other footage I have was recorded during a video shoot for X-Flight. It's elsewhere on my channel but I didn't record a lot of footage in the park when it was around. I may have a few minutes of Geauga Lake in 1998 but I haven't found that in my archives just yet.

I wish I had an answer for that. I would hope it would have been better.

I agree. The damage was already done, well before Cedar Fair took over. I stopped visiting the park when it was Six Flags World of Adventure. It truly was a chore to enjoy a day there so I stopped going. I did visit the 'new' Geauga Lake but only during Coaster Con.

@@SeanFlaharty What some Coaster Enthusiasts don't realize is that when the PTC Trains were replaced by the Gerstlauer Trains on The Raging Wolf Bobs, Cedar Fair bought used Gerstlauer Trains from Holiday World because The Legend was getting new PTC Trains. This was an effort to save money to keep Geagua Lake afloat. Cedar Fair didn't go the route by adding corporate Cartoon Charters, just return Geagua Lake to the simple charm as an Amusement Park once again. As for the 3 Wooden Rollercoasters, we will never know the real reason why Cedar Fair chose not to relocate then. Everyone gets upset about The Big Dipper not being saved, Well what about the other 2 Wooden Rollercoasters. As we know Cedar Fair did remove and saved other rides because they still have plenty of life left in them. The 2 Arrow Rollercoasters for example. Double Loop wasn't saved and sold for scrap metal, yet The Corkscrew was dismantled and relocated. It has the same profile as The Corkscrew at Michigan's Adventure. Another mystery of why the Double Loop was scraped. I'm just glad that I had the opportunity to go to Geagua Lake. Yes it is a shame it wasn't saved. But I definitely don't blame Cedar Fair for what happened to that Beautiful Amusement Park..

I'm sorry I can't disagree more. They purchased the park for assets and knew exactly what they were doing removing rides left and right then putting the final nail in coffin by making it a water park only with very few water slides.

This is shown in the exact way it was recorded. My camera had a 16:9 mode in it and recorded that way. It wasn't cropped in post.

I fully agree. I really didn't have much a problem with the park (other than their incredibly ridiculous off-ride photo policy) but when the park became Worlds of Adventure, it became bad quickly. I stopped going to the park because it was such a hassle.

Thanks, Ryan! I hope all is well with you.

I thought it was great for a couple of years and then it became too rough for me to enjoy, unfortunately.

While it doesn't look nearly as good at Kings Dominion, in my opinion, from what I remember it does run better at KD. The operations at Six Flags Ohio/WorldsOfAdventure were terrible.

@@SeanFlaharty yea that’s true

@@SeanFlaharty in KD it keeps on breaking down and keeps on testing since it’s a old ride

@@jo.frmva1 That's no fun. I don't visit the park more than once every few years. Hell, it wouldn't surprise me if there are a couple rides removed by the time I visit the park again.

@@SeanFlaharty yea

The original Geauga Lake was opened for many, many decades. After Six Flags purchased it, it stayed open for a few more years with Cedar Fair eventually closing it for good after Six Flags sold it.

You are correct That is Jon Blakemore who was the president of G.O.C.C. at the time.

@@SeanFlaharty I did a rough outline timeline about how Six Flags should've done expansions, Would you like me to email it to you?