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By David C. I don't think the general public of today, including the current owners of Geauga Lake, Cedar Fair L.P. realize how much Geauga Lake meant to us all. As for me I've been there every year for the past twenty years. I've seen all the changes during that period of time. I became obsessed and interested in everything that they did. I always felt at home when inside the park. I know to some people you may think that is silly but a lot had changed in the park. Everything from the booming to the wonderful. The okay to the great. Even the worst. I'll start off when I was really young, around eight years old, and Sea World was still around. I remember being at Geauga Lake, looking across the lake from Americana at Sea World. I'm pretty sure I begged my parents to do both that day. I can say one thing - Geauga Lake had a good thing going. They had amazing thrill rides that would get you time after time. Their kiddie area rocked having lots of little rides and this awesome wooden playground that I remember so well. I also remember the ever popular water park, oh was it crammed! The best thing about that was seeing everyone just waiting their turn to be soaked and cooled off from the summer heat that year. Shortly after I took my ride on Double Loop, my first coaster ever. I can't even tell you how much it just thrilled me. After that I was a coaster addict and rode every coaster put in the park. From that time on I realized it was a great, amazing park and a heck of a lot closer than Cedar Point. It was the perfect relationship. Over the years I kept up with the park. Six Flags Ohio, Sea World bought out and became a part of Six Flags Worlds of Adventure, and then back to Geauga Lake. As I now realize it had a faulting point early on as you could say it relied on Sea World as it was the double attraction of Aurora. The problem was when Anheiser Busch left Sea World and Six Flags would get its stab at trying to be super park. I'm not sure many would agree with me but I do think Six Flags did a lot of good and thinking about it if they had not given up, we may still be in operation today. Look at all the good things we got from Six Flags: Villain, Dominator (nee Batman Knight Flight), Thunderhawk (was Serial Thriller when Geauga Lake was just a member of the Six Flags family), X-Flight, Steel Venom (nee Superman Ultimate Escape). They did a lot to keep people coming. I give credit to Six Flags as many people won't give them the credit for since they at least knew how to bring people to a park and make it a success. I won't say they were perfect because we all know they were far from it . So on to Cedar Fair, which is where I see the most damage being done. In my opinion Cedar Fair's short four year operation of the park would be best described as a slow stab to the heart. It's like an illusionist giving us the understanding that everything will be okay when all in all it was just a trick. We all knew Cedar Point was Geauga Lake's worst competitor. Cedar Point remains, as it is today, the baby and most important park taken care of by Cedar Fair.
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