Another installment of Off Season Fun featuring coaster enthusiast site: Coasterfusion!  Coasterfusion is a coaster fan site with forums and news about the amusement industry.  The thing that stands it apart from the rest is that you can join the Fusion Club for coaster enthusiasts for only $10.  Which is waaaay cheaper than other clubs.

OK, enough about the site, how can this help you through the off season?  Well, you can read and post to the forums, watch coaster and amusement park videos, and you can buy Coasterfusion gear in the shop!  Also, every Monday night, you can join in the open chat room to talk about coasters and amusement parks!  To start your off season fun, you can join or login if you’re already a member!  Have fun!

Cedar Fair Press Release

SANDUSKY, OHIO, March 2, 2010 – Cedar Fair Entertainment Company (NYSE: FUN), a publicly traded leader in regional amusement parks, water parks, vacation resorts and entertainment, has announced a summer-long, multi-dimensional partnership with MTV Games, a part of Viacom’s MTV Networks (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B) and the leading publisher of interactive music gaming worldwide.

An all-new interactive experience, called “Rock Band™, Live,” will pile into the tour bus and travel across nine Cedar Fair parks this summer. In addition, a summer-long version of the show will blast the speakers at Canada’s Wonderland near Toronto and the Company’s flagship park, Cedar Point in Sandusky.

The high-energy, concert-like stage show features talented singers from across North America. But the cast will be missing one key piece of the show – YOU!

Prior to each show, guests will have the unique opportunity to engage and play the Rock Band™ video game and compete against their “band mates.” Guests will compete playing the guitar, bass and drums gaming accessories. The rockers with the top score will be invited on stage during the live show to play Rock Band songs (on Rock Band instruments) along with the live singers. (The winners will play on a gaming accessory with the singers.)
The show will feature numerous songs straight from the Rock Band video games ranging from classic to contemporary rock.

“We’re extremely excited to merge the popular Rock Band video game with a unique, interactive live show for our guests this summer,” said Jack Falfas, chief operating officer for Cedar Fair. “Rock Band is a pop culture phenomenon and we know families have enjoyed playing the game together at home. But now it’s time for them to take it to the next level – on stage at one of our parks in front of a live audience.”

Christina Glorioso, vice president of marketing partnerships for MTV Games added, “We are very excited for Rock Band to contribute to the fun at Cedar Fair parks this summer. Music fans of all ages will have an opportunity to either rock out themselves or sit back and enjoy watching other park-goers transform into rock stars on stage!”

The “Rock Band™, Live” tour will kick off Memorial Day weekend at Dorney Park in Allentown, Pennsylvania and will travel to the Company’s other parks throughout the summer. The summer-long shows at Canada’s Wonderland and Cedar Point will kick off in May and June, respectively.

“Rock Band™, Live” is a collaboration between Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, MTV Games and RWS & Associates, a full service entertainment firm that provides custom-produced world-class events and live shows worldwide.

RWS will hold private auditions for the touring show on Thursday, March 4 at Ripley Grier Studios, 520 8th Ave (16th Floor) between 36th and 37th Streets (Press Room: 17B) in New York City. Auditions are open from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. Media representatives are invited to attend to learn more about the show, view story boards and concepts and speak with show representatives. For more information, or to inquire about an interview opportunity, please call 212.391.1795, ext. 26.

A workshop preview of the show will be held in April for invited guests and media representatives. Details on this event will be released at a later date.

About MTV Networks
MTV Networks, a division of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), is one of the world’s leading creators of entertainment content, with brands that engage and connect diverse audiences across television, online, mobile, games, virtual worlds and consumer products. The company’s portfolio spans more than 150 television channels and 350 digital media properties worldwide, and includes MTV, VH1, CMT, Logo, Harmonix, Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, Noggin, The N, AddictingGames, Neopets, COMEDY CENTRAL, Spike TV, TV Land, Atom, Gametrailers and Xfire.

About MTV Games
MTV Games is dedicated to creating, marketing and publishing high-quality, innovative interactive products that are relevant to the MTV audience and complement the core values of the MTV Networks brands.

About RWS & Associates
RWS & Associates is an Emmy®-Award-winning full service entertainment firm headquartered in New York City. RWS provides high quality, custom-designed and pre-packaged entertainment throughout the world in theme parks, resorts, shopping centers and more.

About Cedar Fair Entertainment Company
Cedar Fair Entertainment Company (NYSE: “FUN”) is a publicly traded partnership headquartered in Sandusky, Ohio. The Partnership, which owns and operates eleven amusement parks, six outdoor water parks, one indoor water park and six hotels, is one of the largest regional amusement park operators in the world. Its parks are located in Ohio, California, North Carolina, Virginia / District of Columbia, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Missouri, Michigan, and Toronto, Ontario. Cedar Fair also operates the Gilroy Gardens Family Theme Park in Gilroy, California under a management contract. Cedar Fair’s flagship park, Cedar Point, has been voted the “Best Amusement Park in the World” for twelve consecutive years in a prestigious annual poll conducted by Amusement Today newspaper.

Presenting our first installment of “Off Season Fun”!  In case your wondering, Off Season Fun will be a way to pull you through the remainder of the off season.  A new installment will be published every Monday up until opening day.  We will be featuring movies, pictures, multimedia, and other Cedar Point and coaster related fan sites.

This week we are featuring Cedar Point’s Coaster POVs.  In case you don’t know what a POV stands for, it means Point Of View.  Most of the POV are taped by Cedar Point, but a few are filmed by YouTube users.

Just for the record:

For safety reasons, taking pictures, videotaping and filming on rides are prohibited. Picture taking is permitted on the C.P. & L.E. Railroad, Paddlewheel Excursions and Space Spiral.

If your careful, you can get away with taking a picture or POV videos, but we DO NOT recommend it!

Offical POVs

Top Thrill Dragster

Top Thrill Dragster Reverse

Raptor

Millennium Force

Millennium Force Reverse

Maverick

Maverick Reverse

Unofficial, YouTube User’s Videos

Blue Streak

Iron Dragon

Wildcat

Mantis

Cedar Creek Mine Ride

Mean Streak

Gemini

Magnum XL 200

Corkscrew

Wicked Twister

Disaster Transport

Come back next Monday for another edition of Off Season Fun!

Cedar Point Press Release

SANDUSKY, Ohio, Feb. 19 — With Opening Day less than three months away, Cedar Point will be holding open interviews next Friday night and Saturday for summer jobs at the Sandusky, Ohio, amusement park/resort.

The interviews will be held on Friday night, Feb. 26 from 5-8 p.m. and on Saturday, Feb. 27 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.  The interviews will be held at the park’s Breakers Express Hotel, located at 1201 Cedar Point Drive, Sandusky.  Open interviews are also planned for March 26-27 and April 10.

The park will be looking to fill more than 4,500 positions for this summer’s operating season.

Prior to attending the interviews, all applicants need to complete an online application.  To apply, visit www.cedarpoint.com and click on “Jobs.”

Available positions include ride operator, food service attendant and merchandise and game associate.

There are more than 50 different job classifications available.  Other positions include admission employee, lifeguard, marina dockhand, parking/toll attendant and room attendant.  Many of the jobs will qualify for college credit for an internship at many schools including Hospitality Management, Culinary Arts, Recreation, Marketing, Finance, Human Resources and more.

Cedar Point offers positions starting at $7.30 per hour.  Employees under the age of 16 will earn $7.25 per hour.  Other benefits include low-cost housing for employees who are at least 18 years old and live more than 30 miles from the park, employee cafeteria, free uniform exchange, recreation center and employee activity program.

Cedar Point employees also have free admission to Cedar Point, the Soak City waterpark and the park’s sandy beach.

Cedar Point will be open daily Saturday, May 15 through Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 6.  The park will then reopen for weekend operations through Sunday, Oct. 31, 2010.

With thrilling rides, award-winning live entertainment, special attractions and resort accommodations, Cedar Point is one of the most popular amusement parks and vacation destinations in the country.  It has been named the “Best Amusement Park in the World” for 12 consecutive years.

New this summer will be Shoot the Rapids, an exciting river-ride adventure that will feature two hills, rocky canyons with spraying water and a splashy grand finale.

To obtain additional information about jobs at Cedar Point, please call 1.800.668.JOBS (5627) or visit cedarpoint.com.

From The Morning Journal…

Auditions took place at Cedar Point yesterday for three separate song and dance shows, two Snoopy children’s shows, ice show and extreme all-wheels show in Sandusky. Each of the three different shows are performed 25 to 30 times a week during the summer season. Today, the park will interview candidates for summer jobs such as ride operator, food service attendant and merchandise and game associate from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Breakers Express Hotel, 1201 Cedar Point Drive, Sandusky.

Click Here to Watch Video

Cedar Point Press Release

SANDUSKY, Ohio, – Midway through the winter on Lake Erie, construction crews on Shoot the Rapids, the new water ride at Cedar Point amusement park/resort in Sandusky, Ohio, are taking the park’s new river-ride adventure to a higher level.

Throughout the fall, crews cleared the 2.5-acre site and completed a majority of the groundwork — mostly below the surface.  Trenches were dug, footers for support columns were poured and waterlines for the ride’s landing areas and special effects such as geysers and water sprays were installed.

Now the crews’ focus is higher — about 8.5 stories above the ground.

Earlier this week, crews began erecting portions of the ride’s steel track.  Although Shoot the Rapids will be the park’s third water ride, it will still use steel tracks and two lift chains to carry the boats to the top of two hills, one of several exciting features of the ride.  The $10.5 million project will be the most expensive water ride ever built at Cedar Point.

“Planning and timing are crucial to any major construction project on Lake Erie in the winter,” said Ed Dangler, Cedar Point’s Director of Maintenance and New Construction.  “All the underground work has to be completed before the ground freezes.  Working on frozen ground takes a lot more time which adds to the cost of the project.  Plus, after the ride is built, there has to be time for testing and training before the ride can open.”

The ride’s first hill, its largest, will be 85 feet tall.  It will be three feet taller than the park’s Snake River Falls that opened in Frontiertown in 1993.  It will also be one of the tallest water ride hills in the world.  After plunging down the first hill, riders will travel through a rustic setting with wooded areas and canyon walls that spray guests with water.  The second hill will carry riders up nearly five stories before sending them to the ride’s grand finale — a splash landing through churning rapids and spraying water from all directions.

Before the track can be erected, several steel support columns, some as tall as 80 feet, must be lifted into position and bolted onto the concrete footers.  Overall, 18 steel columns will be required to complete the project.  Under normal weather conditions, Dangler expects the lift hills to be completed toward the end of the month.

At the same time the lift hills are being assembled, crews on the ground are framing and pouring the ride’s concrete trough.  When completed the trough will be nearly 1,500 feet long and will require more than 5,800 cubic yards of concrete.  The slope of the trough and the ride’s pumping system, consisting of 12 pumps, will move the boats along the 2,100-foot-long course.

In March after the ride’s structure has been completed, the electrical and water-pumping system will be installed and the ride’s loading station will be built.

After that, it’s weeks of inspections, testing and training so that Shoot the Rapids will be ready to provide a brand new and exciting ride experience for park guests on Saturday, May 15 when Cedar Point opens for its 141st season.

For additional information about Cedar Point and the new Shoot the Rapids water ride, please visit cedarpoint.com or call the park’s general information line at 419.627.2350.

From the Sandusky Register…

SANDUSKY

The ‘no’ votes are piling up against the proposed $2.4 billion Cedar Fair buyout.

Neuberger Berman, an asset management firm in New York, has announced in an SEC filing that it opposes the proposed merger agreement. Neuberger manages 9.6 percent of Cedar Fair’s outstanding units, and has full discretion on voting for 8.6 percent of those units.

Neuberger’s disclosure follows an announcement from Q Funding, a Fort Worth company controlled by Texas investment banker Geoffrey Raynor, that it intends to vote against the proposed merger and is asking other unitholders to join it in opposing the deal.

The most recent SEC filing indicates that Raynor now controls voting rights for about 15 percent of Cedar Fair’s units.

Cedar Fair must win approval of the Apollo Global Management deal from votes representing two-thirds of its units, and unitholders who don’t bother to vote will have their units counted as ‘no’ votes.

The amusement park company is expected to mail out a final proxy statement within days giving a deadline on when to vote on the proposed deal.

The merger agreement reached in December by Apollo and Cedar Fair offers unitholders $11.50 per unit. Cedar Fair’s units closed Tuesday at $12.19 per unit.

The announcement that two entities controlling about 23 percent of the votes oppose the deal makes it “very difficult” for the merger to go through, said analyst Justin Lumiere, who runs the Special Situations/Risk Arbitrage Group for Summit Securities Group in New York.

Small investors in Sandusky also have not greeted the merger agreement with open arms, according to local brokers and lawsuits filed at the courthouse.

John Sprau, who lives in Sandusky, said he continues to believe the $11.50 offer is too low.

Stacy Frole, director of investor relations for Cedar Fair, said Tuesday the company will continue to communicate its message that Cedar Fair’s board believes Apollo’s offer was fair.

“We will continue as we go through this process to reach out to investors, including Q Funding and Neuberger Berman,” she said.

Asked if Cedar Fair believes the merger agreement now appears likely to fall through, she said, “We wouldn’t be able to speculate on the outcome of the vote at this point.”

Lumiere said Cedar Fair no doubt has lawyers advising Frole and other company officials about what to say. Once Cedar Fair signed an agreement with Apollo, its spokespersons have little choice but to repeat that the board supports the deal with Apollo, he said.

“They’ll just keep repeating it over and over again,” Lumiere said.

He issued a new report about the proposed merger on Monday. In it, Lumiere applied the latest financial numbers from comparable entertainment companies to arrive at an estimate for what Cedar Fair’s units might really be worth. He arrived at a possible value of $13.19 per unit.

“It could feasibly trade where it is trading right now, without a deal,” he said.

Cedar Point Press Release

SANDUSKY, Ohio, – This will be an important weekend for people interested in working at Cedar Point this summer.

On Friday, Feb. 5, the Sandusky, Ohio, amusement park/resort will hold auditions and interviews for performers, musicians and show technicians for this summer’s live shows.  The auditions will be held in the Live Entertainment Office at Cedar Point from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

To audition, applicants must be at least 18 years old by May.  A CD player and piano will be available, but other instruments and amplifiers will not be provided.  Applicants should also bring a one-page resume with references to the audition.

For more information about the auditions, interested applicants should contact the Live Entertainment Division at 419.627.2388, by e-mail at liveshows@cedarpoint.com or online at cedarpoint.com.

The next day, Saturday, Feb. 6, Cedar Point will be holding open interviews for summer jobs in the park such as ride operator, food service attendant and merchandise and games associate.

The interviews will be held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the park’s Breakers Express Hotel, located at 1201 Cedar Point Drive, Sandusky.  Open interviews are also planned for later in February, March and April.

The park will be looking to fill more than 4,500 positions for this summer’s operating season.

Prior to attending the job interviews on Feb. 6, applicants need to complete an online application.  To apply, visit www.cedarpoint.com and click on “Jobs.”

Overall, there are more than 50 different job classifications available.  Other positions include admission employee, lifeguard, marina dockhand, parking/toll attendant and room attendant.

Cedar Point offers positions starting at $7.30 per hour.  Employees under the age of 16 will earn $7.25 per hour.  Other employee benefits include low-cost housing for employees who are at least 18 years old and live more than 30 miles from the park, on-site employee cafeteria, free uniform exchange, recreation center and extensive employee activity program.  Summer employees are also eligible to enroll in a seasonal health care program.

Cedar Point employees also have free admission to Cedar Point, the Soak City waterpark and the park’s sandy beach.

To obtain additional information about jobs at Cedar Point, please call 1.800.668.JOBS (5627) or visit cedarpoint.com.

From BusinessWeek…

Cedar Fair LP said Tuesday that it is proceeding with its proposed $635 million acquisition by asset manager Apollo Global Management.

The amusement and water park operator said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it reached out to 32 other potentially interested parties during the 40-day period in which it was allowed to try to find alternative bids. In that time Cedar Fair, based in Sandusky, Ohio, said six of the parties wanted confidential company information in order to evaluate a possible deal but none of them wound up making an offer.

Now that the go-shop period has ended, Cedar Fair said in the filing that its board still believes the proposed deal with Apollo maximizes value for its unitholders.

Cedar Fair owns and runs 11 amusement parks, six outdoor water parks and five hotels, including Cedar Point in Ohio, Canada’s Wonderland near Toronto, Dorney Park in Pennsylvania and California’s Knott’s Berry Farm and Great America.

The potential acquisition comes at a time when the company has struggled to keep consumers coming to its properties. With the economy still fairly fragile and unemployment numbers high, many consumers have pulled back on their discretionary spending, which has pushed amusement and water park attendance levels lower.

Even rival theme park operator Six Flags has succumbed to recessionary pressures, filing for bankruptcy protection in June.

Cedar Fair accepted Apollo’s $11.50 per share offer last month. The transaction’s total value is estimated by the companies at $2.4 billion, which includes the assumption of debt.

At the time Cedar Fair agreed to the acquisition, the offer price was a 27 percent premium to its closing stock price of $9.08. The shares fell 29 cents, or 2.3 percent, to $12.49 Tuesday morning, or 8.5 percent above the offer price.

The acquisition is expected to close by the start of the 2010 second quarter. It is dependent on regulatory clearance and holders of two-thirds of the company’s shares supporting the transaction.

Purchase a four pack of 2010 regular Cedar Point admission tickets for just $140 – that’s a total savings of $43.96!

Or, get more thrill for your buck and pick up a four pack of 2010 regular Platinum Passes – each Pass is just $144 when you buy four, for a total savings of $64!

Hurry – these two offers are only good through January 15, 2010.