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. Cedar Fair parks have earned 15 major Golden Ticket Awards for roller coasters and amusement park operation.
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.
Properties
Theme/Amusement parks
Note: Parks with their names in bold text were purchased from Paramount Parks in 2006.
- California's Great America (Santa Clara, California)
- Canada's Wonderland (Vaughan, Ontario, Canada)
- Carowinds (Charlotte, North Carolina/Fort Mill, South Carolina)
- Cedar Point (Sandusky, Ohio)
- Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom (Allentown, Pennsylvania)
- Kings Dominion (Doswell, Virginia)
- Kings Island (Mason, Ohio)
- Knott's Berry Farm (Buena Park, California)
- Michigan's Adventure (Muskegon, Michigan)
- Worlds of Fun (Kansas City, Missouri)
- Valleyfair (Shakopee, Minnesota)
Water parks
The following parks are included in the admission price of the listed amusement park:
- Boomerang Bay (Carowinds)
- Boomerang Bay (Kings Island)
- Boomerang Bay (California's Great America)
- Splash Works (Canada's Wonderland)
- WaterWorks (Kings Dominion)
- Soak City (Valleyfair)
- Wild Water Adventure (Michigan's Adventure)
- Wildwater Kingdom (Dorney Park)
The following parks are either standalone properties or require separate admission:
- Knott's Soak City (Buena Park, California)
- Knott's Soak City (Palm Springs, California)
- Knott's Soak City (San Diego, California)
- Soak City (Sandusky, Ohio)
- Oceans of Fun (Kansas City, Missouri)
- Geauga Lake's Wildwater Kingdom (Aurora, Ohio)
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
- Gilroy Gardens (Gilroy, California) By management contract
Former
- Camp Snoopy (Mall of America) Until 2005
- Geauga Lake (Aurora, Ohio) Closed Park, Fall 2007
- Geauga Lake Hotel "Until 2007"
- Star Trek: The Experience (Las Vegas, Nevada) Closed in September 2008
- Nick Jr. Scouting Campout (Muskoka, Ontario) Until February 2009
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. Cedar Fair announced the purchase of Paramount Parks for $1.24 billion on May 22, 2006. 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.
Previously, Cedar Fair operated Camp Snoopy at the Mall of America, Star Trek: The Experience, in Las Vegas, and the Geauga Lake Water 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.
- 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.)
- 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").
- 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.
- 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.
2010 additions
- Planet Snoopy (Former Paramount Parks) - Any remnants of Hanna-Barbera, Nickelodeon, or the generic "KidWorkz" 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.
- Shoot the Rapids (Cedar Point) - Cedar Point will debut a new flume in 2010. It will feature two lift hills, 85 and 49 feet respectively. It will be located on Millennium Force Island, where riders will enter from the Frontier Trail. The ride is to be manufactured by IntaRide LLC for 10.5 million dollars. Intamin AG and their American division, IntaRide, have also manufactured the Millennium Force, Top Thrill Dragster, Wicked Twister, and Maverick at Cedar Point.
- Intimidator 305 (Kings Dominion) - Kings Dominion will introduce Intimidator 305, the second giga-coaster (drop of 300 feet, speeds in excess of 92 miles per hour) developed by Intamin AG after their smash hit Millennium Force. Notably, Millennium itself has stayed in the top two for roller coaster by Amusement Today Magazine since it's opening year. The coaster is loosely themed after Dale Earnhardt, the NASCAR racer. Intimidator 305 will cost 25 million dollars to construct.
- Intimidator (Carowinds) - Carowinds will also construct a ride based upon Dale Earnhardt, called
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