New Article Highlights Cedar Fair's Impressive Changes + Growth

© Funworld Magazine

The April edition if IAAPA's magazine, Funworld, features a wonderful look at the Cedar Fair of today, which is pretty different than the Cedar Fair of even 5 years ago.  Sure, big coasters still reign king at the parks, but behind the scenes the executive team at the company has hit the fast-forward button and worked tirelessly to bring the organization into current times.

As the article explains, nearly every aspect of the parks has been reviewed and rethought, incorporating technology and current trends in some areas, while beefing up some of the more stale aspects of amusements parks as well, like food offerings.

One (of many) interesting parts of the article details the company's efforts to do an in-depth study of each of their parks to truly understand what the visitors want, and why they were (or were not) still passing through the gates.  From these individual park studies came the recent changes at Knott's Berry Farm, including refurbishing classic existing rides to this year's restoration of GhostRider.  The team has completed the studies of Carowinds, Cedar Point and just recently finished Canada's Wonderland.

There's also some great information on the decisions behind Cedar Fair's recent move into dark rides and utilizing intellectual properties for them, like with Plants Vs. Zombies.  It certainly sounds like we haven't seen the end of these types of attractions in the parks!

From the elaborate special events that are now operating at the parks to Cedar Fair's serious look at more hotels, there's plenty of goodies in the story.  I'd say more - but just go read it yourself!