Either one of 2 things I see happening:
1) Next year you won't see many visual changes, but you'll start to see operational changes. CF hasn't stated
For Sure that they are or aren't keeping the Paramount themeing beyond 2006. They may, they may not. If they don't, changes in names could be made for Top Guns and Drop Zones. I doubt you'll see a different name on something like Hurler, as that really isn't 'themed' to Wayne's World anymore. Tomb Raider
could change, but the thing with Tomb Raider is that they could get a seperate license and just theme it to the game instead of the movie.
Also, when it comes to BORG, remember, they are getting Star Trek: The Experience along with this (unless something changes, as ST:TE wasn't on the CFLP site), so they may already have a Trek license in place. Trek is a Paramount property, but it is still a seperate franchise that could easily be kept. If CFLP keeps ST:TE, I'd expect BORG to stay the same for now.
Nick stuff will obviously be staying, as they're interested AND could roll that out to other parks. Nick is like Trek, under the companie(s), but still a seperate franchise. As for Boomerang Bay, they may decide to go with something like Soak City or Wild Water Kingdom, but the PCar Boomerang Bay has no licensing to it, just the name. They could easily just drop the Dundee refrences at PKI and PGA and name them all Boomerang Bay.
2) Next year or 2 you won't see anything Paramount at all and CFLP will be busy re-doing all the parks, removing licensed stuff (again, I doubt BORG will go as long as they keep ST:TE), and you will see the parks CFized.
Everyone likes to compare what CF did to GLP to what they'll do to the Paramount parks, however, that is a totally different scenario. First off, CF purchased and completed the transaction for GLP just a couple months before it opened. Not only that, it was one park with SFI and Warner Bros. Licensing, so it had to be stripped and things renamed.
Thats not the case here. CF can option to keep the License for a little longer as they slowly phase out Paramount (which I think would be a good idea). It costs a lot of money to License, but it also costs a lot of money to tear out and re-brand everything on the fly as well. At least now CFLP had the Paramount takeover probably in the works a few months before it was even official, and now that they're officially owners, they have the rest of this year to figure out if they need/want more time to un-Paramount the parks.
Then there's the fact that CF could decide to keep the Paramount themeing for the forseeable future. Right now, we don't know, and they haven't decided to let us know.
I think it will be a wise move if they cancel the HQs in Charolette. Thats less of an expense. I hate to see the PP Corporate peeps loose their jobs there, though, so I hope not a lot of that goes on. They did keep mentioning Sat. Offices when referring to that one. Heck, CFLP could decide to run PP as a branch of CFLP, keeping them as PP and with a corporate governance located near PCar for those 5 parks (but that, to me, seems unlikely).
One thing is for sure, CF picked up 5 potentially priceless investments. All the parks except PGA have a decent amount of land as well as resort opportunities. I wouldn't be suprised to eventually see Hotels and possibly indoor waterparks at PKI, PKD, PCar, and PCW. I also expect to see a campground back at PKI (which was the original plan after the Lodge was completed anywho).
Three things, though, have me wondering:
Bonfonte & ST:TE-They picked up the mgt. contract for Bonfonte, but it isn't on their map. Wonder if they'll keep it, or if Bonfonte will keep them? As per ST:TE, I see them keeping that, and since it isn't a park, I can see why it isn't on the map. If they do give it up eventually, however, they'll likely have to give the property mgt. up to someone else and licensing stays the same. Niether property is a new territory for them, as they had Camp Snoopy @ MoA until the Mall opted them out, so we'll see.
The proposed Paramount Theme Park in Japan. This was going to be a Paramount Studios park built and themed from the Ground Up. Paramount Parks was to Manage it, plan/construct it, and own a small stake along with another companie(s). I wonder if it is still being planned? It could still happen, since the (former) Paramount Parks only owned a stake, and the other companie(s) could option the Paramount Licensing, and just keep CFLP as the Mgt. company. I've heard NOTHING about this in a while.
Online tickets-Paramount's online tickets were a great savings over Cedar Fair's, I hope that that doesn't go away
.
