Cedar Fair is one of the largest amusement park companies in the world, with 17 locations in North America. Each location is very different as far as what it offers guests, and so each largely acts autonomously, making its own policies and procedures. This makes today’s news a pretty big deal as nearly all Cedar Fair amusement parks have now implemented an identical chaperone policy for teens, which appears to be a result of a handgun incident that took place last weekend.
On Saturday, a 17-year-old male was arrested outside the gate of King’s Island in Ohio. The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that the police received a report regarding a suspicious person a little before 6:30 in the evening. When officers responded a juvenile was found in possession of a handgun and a dozen bullets. King’s Island temporarily suspended operation in the action zone area of the park as a precaution. Saturday was the first day that the park was open for the 2023 season.
Today, each of the Cedar Fair amusement parks, from North Carolina's Carowinds, which recently shifted to a year-round schedule, to California’s Great America, including King’s Island, independently announced a new chaperone policy that will require each guest of 15 and younger to be accompanied by a guest that’s at least 21 years of age, beginning at 4:00 pm each day. The policy will go into effect on Saturday, April 22.
PARK UPDATE 4/20/2023: California's Great America will implement a chaperone policy beginning Saturday, April 22, 2023. For more information, visit https://t.co/qLOjJovR5M pic.twitter.com/LZndCgr87wApril 20, 2023
The King’s Island incident likely didn’t lead to this company-wide policy on its own. Rather, this was just the latest in a handful of similar incidents to take place at a Cedar Fair park, which likely led the company to make the decision to no longer handle such things on an individual park basis.
One Cedar Fair park implemented a similar chaperone policy after multiple fights broke out inside Knott’s Berry Farm last summer. The park was forced to close early to the violence. The policy was eventually revoked after things calmed down, However, Knott’s announced the new chaperone policy as well today alongside the other Cedar Fair parks. The fights took place a year after two people were injured in a shooting near the Knott’s entrance in 2021.
Certainly, nobody wants to be worried about even the threat of violence when visiting an amusement park. Time will have to tell whether this policy is successful. It will be interesting to see if this becomes a temporary policy that is removed sometime later as it was at Knott’s Berry Farm initially. We could also see each individual park make modifications to it over time as each park sees how well it works.
One reason that seems likely is that not every Cedar Fair park announced the policy today. Cedar Point, the company's flagship location, did not, and neither did Canada's Wonderland. However, those parks aren't set to open until early May. It's possible those parks will announce similar policies closer to opening.
Cedar Fair was the target of a takeover by rival SeaWorld about a year ago. The bid to purchase the company was ultimately rejected by Cedar Fair.
