Commitments and Contingencies (Details 2) (USD $)	1 Months Ended	8 Months Ended	12 Months Ended						50 Months Ended	12 Months Ended		24 Months Ended	12 Months Ended					12 Months Ended
	Jan. 31, 2013 ground	Dec. 31, 2010	Dec. 31, 2012	Dec. 31, 2011	Dec. 31, 2012 Domestic time	Nov. 15, 2003 Domestic	Nov. 15, 2002 Domestic	Dec. 31, 2012 Domestic and Canada	Dec. 31, 2008 Domestic and Canada	Dec. 31, 2012 Multi-layered general liability policies	Dec. 31, 2012 Workers' compensation claims	Nov. 15, 2003 Workers' compensation claims	Dec. 31, 2012 Information security and privacy liability insurance policy	Dec. 31, 2011 Information security and privacy liability insurance policy	Dec. 31, 2012 HWP Guarantee Y	Nov. 05, 2007 HWP Guarantee	Feb. 28, 2006 HWP Guarantee	Dec. 31, 2012 Personal injury due to altercation individual	Dec. 31, 2012 Termination of employment	Dec. 31, 2012 Tax and other contingencies item	Dec. 31, 2011 Tax and other contingencies
Insurance
Excess liability coverage per occurrence										$ 100,000,000
Self-insured retention per occurrence					2,500,000	2,000,000	1,000,000							250,000
Number of times additional self-insured retention taken					1
Additional one time self-insured retention									500,000
Deductible per occurrence applicable to all claims in the policy year								2,000,000			750,000	500,000
Insurance value maintained													10,000,000
Number of grounds on which defendants moved for summary judgment that United States Patent No. 5,277,125 was invalid	4
Litigation
Numbers of individuals who allegedly participated in the altercation																		4
Amount of interim award																			23,700,000
Restructuring charge recorded to reflect the full settlement and related costs after consideration of amounts previously accrued		37,417,000	(47,000)	25,086,000															25,100,000
HWP Guarantee
Payment guaranteed for construction term loan incurred by HWP																	32,200,000
Ownership interest in the managing member of HWP (as a percent)															49.00%
Refinance of construction term loan with new term loan																33,000,000
Period in which the limited guarantee will be released (in years)															5
Amount of letter of credit as additional security for the loan															1,000,000
Tax and other contingencies
Accrued tax liabilities and indemnification contingencies																				500,000	7,900,000
Number of large claims related to parks closed																				2
Losses from discontinued operations recovered																				$ 7,300,000