Key Lime Cove Bankruptcy

[dabolton98]

Parent of Key Lime Cove filed for bankruptcy yesterday.

http://www.suntimes.com/business/194499 ... 17.article" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[tp41190]

I just spit up my drink from laughing when I first read this. I had a feeling it would happen. Maybe if the water park was better and the rooms where cheaper, then maybe they could have gotten more people to come.

[david]

At first I thought: Hey how bout a SF buyout? but then I remembered they're in bankruptcy to! HAH!

[monsterfan99]

This shows what happens when you put the hotel before the water park. This place never stood a chance, especially during summer with SF less then 5 minutes away.

[FParker185]

Yeah, I think Keylime could have done better if the Dells were further away. I haven't been there myself but from others I know that went there there is like an hours worth of stuff to do in the waterpark. Now I've never been to any of the Dells indoor waterparks, but just from passing by, I can tell they are quite a bit more substantial than what Keylime has. Keylime can co-exist with SFGAm probably just on offseason sales, but when people from Chicago can drive 2 hours further and find a superior product and a real vacation, then it's just tough.

[tp41190]

I got bored of the place in 10 mins. But I used the free pass that came with your season pass so it didn't matter.

[tillenterprises]

Boy, this comes as no surprise. We never stayed there, but used our free pass from the Season passes, and also ate there a couple times, and everytime we've been there it was completely dead. I think would could save them if they would open the waterpark to day passes to the general public on a regular basis, instead of just having it for the people staying at the hotel. They could make a good business with kid's birthday parties, and people just going for an afternoon break with the family, especially during winter. Country Springs does that here in the Milwaukee area, and they're usually pretty busy.

[monsterfan99]

^They can't open it up and stay in business. The hotel stays are where their money is made, the water park is just the lose leader.

[Ilovthevu']

I feel also this place should have day passes if the waterpark is not jammed enough. The problem with hotels and waterparks is that a lot of people don't need to stay at a hotel because they are around that area. When people stay at a hotel when you only live 10 minutes away from the park? That's just stupid to do that in my opinion.

The problem I see with this waterpark is first off Great America. They say we have the "best waterpark in the nation" so why go to Key Lime Cove? That waterpark is so much bigger. Well, you say go to Key Lime Cove during the winter, but yet if you live really close, you still aren't going to go Key Lime Cove probably because it's what, $200 to stay? Yes, you have Gurnee Mills Mall as a tourist destination type of thing, but the reason for a hotel is to stay there, and many people would stay there because of Great America. Usually the bigger waterpark is going to win.

Another reason why it might have done bad is because of what SFGAm put in the past 2 years. You had Dark Knight which to some poeple was a flop, and Buccanneer Battle. SFGAm put in those rides, and thus less people came to the park, and thus less people came near the hotel.

Sure, hotels make a lot of money on rooms, but if the pool isn't filled, why not get more money on them?

Key Lime Cove to me is way too expensive. They give you a $100 off a night, and it's still ridiculously overpriced. What I can't believe though is that are declaring bankruptcy only after 1 year. They spent $3 hundred some million, and they didn't get any of that money back. For spending that much, that's going to take a long while to recoup that money. When you spend that much money, I would think they would think well, we might get it all back in 10 years (not bailout in 1 year). All of Great America's roller coasters combined don't even cost that much.

In IL, they should just have an indoor waterpark for people that live nearby that's big enough. At SFGAm, they get some 2.8 million, so why can't somewhere they have an indoor waterpark not connected to a hotel?I think they should even make it bigger than Coco or Key Lime Cove.

[vprlvr456]

What I can't believe though is that are declaring bankruptcy only after 3 years.

Well, if you mean years open to the public, it's only 1 year and 10 months old

[Ilovthevu']

^I think I was talking about the other one (Sheraton - 3 years), but mixed this one with that one -topic. I messed up. Thanks for telling me it was only a year.

[david]

Well, essentially everyone pays kids price at all the Six Flags parks, so Why pay $200+ for a stay, isn't going to cut it. For $35 families can come to the park and get over 10 hours of cheap "value" entertainment. Along with the Starburst Concert Series, you've got a killer park. If people really want to get away, they can go to St. Louis and get some fun there, reaping the same benefits, I wouldn't recommend KK though.

[forddude1416]

let me just chime in and say what everyone else has already said.

I really wanted this place to take off, I mean I freakin hate the dells. everything is 10% more up there and you have to drive so far to get to the middle of nowhere (im at the southern tip of 294). When me and my girlfriend first walked around there, it seemed like a very decent place. Their layout led something to be desired (I couldn't find the arcade... seriously) but all the staff seemed very helpful/friendly even though we weren't guests.

So later on I went to go price rooms. 300 bucks to stay up there was a total rip. If I was going to SFGAm for a weekend, I'd much rather stay at the Gurnee Grand or something. Crap you could even stay like 15 mins away and get a nice room with a full kitchen. Now if it was 100 bucks and I could split it 4 ways, I would have done that in a heartbeat, maybe even 200 bucks (50 dollars per person isn't bad). After all the taxes, fees, extra people and everything else, the value is just gone.

Also, like my ex always told me, with the recession, no one wants to invest in entertainment. I mean yeah blame TDK or BB for low attendance but families just don't have that extra income to spend on entertainment. Probably about 10 years ago it would have had a better chance.

Also, they really should have opened it up to the public. It's not a loss leader per se, if you can get 200 people in there that would be 3000 dollars. Add that to the money they'd spend on games, food and other minor stuff, it becomes a profit pretty quickly.
Wouldn't it be kind of ironic though if the mariott chain bought it out? That'd be awesome.

[Trailblazer Tony]

We just stayed here on a wednesday in the beginning january...absolutely NO ONE in the waterpark or hotel!!! They had to open the bar up just for me, and the lifeguards were playing basketball with us cause they were so bored! The waterpark didn't have much to it, but it was still lightyears ahead of the Grand Bear Lodge in Utica!!!!

[Ilovthevu']

^^Entertainment is one of those things in which people will still do especially in the economy. It's just the big price of the entertainment in which they might not do. For the bad economy the news created, people have this mindset to not spend (the people that are doing fine now), and they might still go to SFGAm, but maybe they would rather go to a cheaper hotel because they are scared because of the mindset of what the news set on people. Now, people don't want to chance stuff.

The movie theaters are still booming even though the prices I'm sorry to say are ripoff city (especially night prices). Other venues are still packed (besides movie theaters). Didn't that Wicked show downtown do especially good? I was at a monster truck show, and it looked to be almost sold out.

[monsterfan99]

^Time sensitive entertainment will always sell. The once a year Monster Jam, a musical that will only be around X amount of time. However, things that will be there year in and year out tend to take a down turn. Museums, amusement parks, national monuments and even sports have seen a downturn. People tend to think "It will be there when money is better, might as well wait." Problem is, financially, some companies can't wait for that to happen.