Valleyfair (VF) Discussion Thread

While I agree that an SLC would be a tremendous disappointment, I have to call you out on that last line. When has Valleyfair ever received a coaster that wasn't first rate. Outside of maybe Excalibur (Arrow Mine Trains were all the rage when it was built), I think we have a damn good collection of coasters given the size of our market.

 

Arrow Loop Screw - was there a better option for a steel coaster in the early 80's? That I know of.

Morgan Hyper - By no means a second rate coaster. Third longest roller coaster in US when it opened.

Arrow Wild Mouse - Replaced a 30+ year old Wildcat with a brand new ride.

Intamin Impulse - Smallest Park in the country to have one. Only six in existence.

GCI - first in the Chain and great layout combining an out and back with a twister. 3000ft+

 

Again SLC would certainly be a letdown. And a used one? Ish. But with Valleyfair, second rate would be the exception, not the rule.

Sorry, should have made myself more clear. I wouldn't consider Renegade, Steel Venom, or Wild Thing second rate coasters in terms of ride enjoyability, I'm just a bit disappointed that the park hasn't invested in a coaster that costs more than $10 million when all other Cedar Fair parks have (except Michigan's Adventure). As much as I like VF's coasters, if just a bit more money had been invested in the coasters, they could have made them a lot better. If Excalibur had an extra 500-800 feet of track with some interesting elements, I'd like it a lot more, but instead it has one of the most simplistic layouts out there. While I really like Wild Thing, the turnaround should have been built a little smaller and tighter to make it more interesting. Sorry if I sounded too negative here, but I guess I'm just getting tired of waiting for a new roller coaster (I'm sure everyone else probably is too).

While I agree that an SLC would be a tremendous disappointment, I have to call you out on that last line. When has Valleyfair ever received a coaster that wasn't first rate. Outside of maybe Excalibur (Arrow Mine Trains were all the rage when it was built), I think we have a damn good collection of coasters given the size of our market.

 

Arrow Loop Screw - was there a better option for a steel coaster in the early 80's? That I know of.

Morgan Hyper - By no means a second rate coaster. Third longest roller coaster in US when it opened.

Arrow Wild Mouse - Replaced a 30+ year old Wildcat with a brand new ride.

Intamin Impulse - Smallest Park in the country to have one. Only six in existence.

GCI - first in the Chain and great layout combining an out and back with a twister. 3000ft+

 

Again SLC would certainly be a letdown. And a used one? Ish. But with Valleyfair, second rate would be the exception, not the rule.

Sorry, should have made myself more clear. I wouldn't consider Renegade, Steel Venom, or Wild Thing second rate coasters in terms of ride enjoyability, I'm just a bit disappointed that the park hasn't invested in a coaster that costs more than $10 million when all other Cedar Fair parks have (except Michigan's Adventure). As much as I like VF's coasters, if just a bit more money had been invested in the coasters, they could have made them a lot better. If Excalibur had an extra 500-800 feet of track with some interesting elements, I'd like it a lot more, but instead it has one of the most simplistic layouts out there. While I really like Wild Thing, the turnaround should have been built a little smaller and tighter to make it more interesting. Sorry if I sounded too negative here, but I guess I'm just getting tired of waiting for a new roller coaster (I'm sure everyone else probably is too).

I see where you are coming from completely. I've said in private conversations with RCJunkie that I think Excalibur is the perfect lab rat for CF and RMC. Make it taller, steeper, longer, faster, and more interesting.

Of note, I agree about Wild Thing's turnaround. But compare it to Mamba and Steel Force, I think it's the most interesting of the three.

I see where you are coming from completely. I've said in private conversations with RCJunkie that I think Excalibur is the perfect lab rat for CF and RMC. Make it taller, steeper, longer, faster, and more interesting.

And then I said that that they should just burn down Excalibur and replace it with a full circuit steel coaster with inversions that is taller, steeper, longer, faster and more thrilling.

^Never! There's more than enough room that's been made for new things from everything that's been taken out the last 5 years.

I see where you are coming from completely. I've said in private conversations with RCJunkie that I think Excalibur is the perfect lab rat for CF and RMC. Make it taller, steeper, longer, faster, and more interesting.

 

And then I said that that they should just burn down Excalibur and replace it with a full circuit steel coaster with inversions that is taller, steeper, longer, faster and more thrilling.

While I do agree that VF should get rid of Excalibur for a new steel coaster, I would not complain at all if they RMC'd Excalibur because anything from RMC would blow everything else at Valleyfair off the map. It likely won't happen, but it could be awesome.

I see where you are coming from completely. I've said in private conversations with RCJunkie that I think Excalibur is the perfect lab rat for CF and RMC. Make it taller, steeper, longer, faster, and more interesting.

 

And then I said that that they should just burn down Excalibur and replace it with a full circuit steel coaster with inversions that is taller, steeper, longer, faster and more thrilling.

Irrelevant.

I really want an RMC, but I think that we will be getting something steel for our next coaster, something with inversions. Reason is that it will be 13 years since the last steel coaster (Steel Venom), and 17 years since the last full-circuit coaster (Mad Mouse) when 2016 comes around. I think we're due for steel. I don't care if it's B&M or Intamin or Mack, or if it has inversions ir if it's above or below the track as long as it's not a Vekoma (especcialy a relocated one).

Again, I would love an RMC, but it just doesn't seem realistic because we got Renegade as our last coaster.

I really want an RMC, but I think that we will be getting something steel for our next coaster, something with inversions. Reason is that it will be 13 years since the last steel coaster (Steel Venom), and 17 years since the last full-circuit coaster (Mad Mouse) when 2016 comes around. I think we're due for steel. I don't care if it's B&M or Intamin or Mack, or if it has inversions ir if it's above or below the track as long as it's not a Vekoma (especcialy a relocated one.

And it will be 35 years in 2015 since the last new coaster with an inversion (Cork Screw). If/when VF adds a new coaster I agree with you that it will be a full circuit steel coaster with inversions. Until then we get to speculate about the Type, Manufacturer and where it would fit into the park.

The mysterious cones have returned in the parking lot, and I noticed there are markings suspiciously going from the hydro blaster area to the administration building behind the scenes. Below are the outlines of the cones and the path of the markings. Let the speculation begin.

Markings bordering high roller passing by the administration building

The cones border has gotten larger suprisingly

^

I don't think we have enough information to speculate in detail about what these cones mean, but if the area has gotten bigger, then that might be good news.

^^ Woah, that's a huge border. This better be good. I can't really say anything about the area near Mad Mouse.

Where in the parking lot is that? Is it over by the Dinos, or is it the staff parking lot?

That is a REALLY big area so I'm excited to see what the future holds.

^

I'm pretty sure that it's the main parking lot near the Dinos. I wonder if they are planning to relocate part of the parking lot to make room for whatever's coming in 2016. That area would be a great place to put in a coaster without removing any others. However, I can't see them keeping that lot and building a coaster over it because of the risk of something falling and denting someone's car.

Edit: Just got to VF and the parking lot cones are gone. What that means, I don't know, but let's just hope for the best.

Mini-Photo TR - 10/26/14

Went to Valleyfair today to get in my final rides of 2014. Unfortunately, other obligations have precluded my closing weekend attendance . For those of you that go next weekend, I hope you can tell us how it goes. Some of you were requesting on ground photos of the waterpark construction, and I only have four because there really isn't much to see, but hopefully they are good enough for you.

The last visit of the season is always a bittersweet one, but I still had a great time. There were no lines for anything. It was a little chilly, but not bad at all for late October in Minnesota. Everything was running pretty good today, and it was overall a good cap to the year.

High Roller pulling into the brakes. Running decent today.

Wild Thing was fun as usual but the thumbs down is for the one-train operation.

Most of the trees around the park are already bare, but some still have nice colors.

The Taste of Valleyfair truck was over by Coasters and Atomic Pizza for some reason.

The one flat ride I always ride during VF visits.

Steel Venom right after launch.

I got E-stopped here twice on SV today. The second time it resulted in the holding brake being turned off. I guess it's just because of Intamin unreliability.

Wild Thing train getting trimmed (to be fair, I still got decent air on those hills).

The spot where the new slide tower is going is nothing more than a dirt pile right now.

Sign near the pretzel stand advertising the expansion.

The remains of what were the Mad Mouse restrooms. Assuming they turn this into pavement, it should allow for better visitor traffic flow next year.

The wall of corn blocking off access to the back of the park.

Excalibur hibernating. More to come later.

Garyman, when will the next hint be coming out?

Continuing my Mini-Photo Trip Report from the last page...

Renegade, running great like always.

Another shot of the demolition area.

Corkscrew pulling into the station. Nothing to report here.

A distant shot of the soon-to-be gone Valleyfair sign. While the new sign will be a good upgrade for the park, I will miss the charm this one had.

The sun shining brightly behind Wild Thing.

Rode Renegade a total of 68 times this season. Really going to miss it this offseason.

It has been a great 2014 season at Valleyfair. I'm sad to see it go, but I'm looking forward to coming back next May.

The park was completely dead today, I had a private ride on Renegade, which has never happened to me before. Everything was a complete walk-on. I actually think that there were more people at my church this morning than there were at the park, it was really strange. I noticed something strange though, I rode Mad Mouse (there was no line, why not) and they were trimming it to death, does this happen often? I felt as if we were barely going to make it over the last hill.

I was really surprised at the amount of space this waterpark expansion is going to take up, it was much bigger than I thought it was going to be. It makes me really excited for the next coaster.

Corkscrew was actually running decent today. Renegade was relentless as always, High Roller and Mad Mouse were trimmed to death. Overall it was an amazing day!

I got to go to SCarowinds today (Oct. 26th) Had a blast on all the rides, the mazes mostly just made me laugh. I'll give a full report in the next couple of days. Sorry, no pics. My phone died before I could get any. I just gotta say one thing though. Valleyfair does a much better job of doing haunt attractions. I'll explain later but ValleyScare = 1, SCarowinds = 0

The park was completely dead today, I had a private ride on Renegade, which has never happened to me before. Everything was a complete walk-on. I actually think that there were more people at my church this morning than there were at the park, it was really strange. I noticed something strange though, I rode Mad Mouse (there was no line, why not) and they were trimming it to death, does this happen often? I felt as if we were barely going to make it over the last hill.

 

I was really surprised at the amount of space this waterpark expansion is going to take up, it was much bigger than I thought it was going to be. It makes me really excited for the next coaster.

 

Corkscrew was actually running decent today. Renegade was relentless as always, High Roller and Mad Mouse were trimmed to death. Overall it was an amazing day!

I did not ride Mad Mouse yesterday, but when I walked by it, I noticed that it was running slower than normal. They usually use the trims on Mad Mouse all the time, but it looked like they were slowing it to the point where even young kids would find it boring. I don't get why they have to trim Mad Mouse so hard. It's a pretty slow ride to begin with, so are the trims really going to save them that much money in the long run? Probably not.

Mad Mouse being trimmed to death seems strange to me. I remember the one at MiA barely being trimmed at all and giving a great ride.

Report from Carowinds part 1

Favorite coaster was Afterburner! Awesome invert! So much force and power it was really quite unbelievable! I am hoping and praying that Valleyfair gets a unique but comparable new invert in 2016.

Intimidater was simply amazing. Sat in back seat and literally had to hang on. First drop took my breath away. It really makes me upset when I read posts on tpr that people think its lame! Those people have got to be drug addicts to not get a rush from it.

I should note, every steel coaster was extremely smooth, not rough at all.

Even Vortex, a B&M stand up was very smooth.

More to come...........

Report from Carowinds part 1

Favorite coaster was Afterburner! Awesome invert! So much force and power it was really quite unbelievable! I am hoping and praying that Valleyfair gets a unique but comparable new invert in 2016.

Intimidater was simply amazing. Sat in back seat and literally had to hang on. First drop took my breath away. It really makes me upset when I read posts on tpr that people think its lame! Those people have got to be drug addicts to not get a rush from it.

I should note, every steel coaster was extremely smooth, not rough at all.

Even Vortex, a B&M stand up was very smooth.

More to come...........

Huh, I've never had a trimmed ride (at least I never felt it) on Mad Mouse before, I guess I just got lucky a lot...

Also, Garyman6, is there a reason you're posting your Carowinds trip report on the Valleyfair thread (e.g. as a hint, like 2016 has something to do with Carowinds)?

Also, Garyman6, is there a reason you're posting your Carowinds trip report on the Valleyfair thread (e.g. as a hint, like 2016 has something to do with Carowinds)?

I don't know, but I like to think that maybe it does ...

A redesigned entrance(like Carowinds) with a B&M inverted fly-over over the entrance(like Fury325 @ Carowinds)!! Hmmm ..........

Until I see something that proves other wise - I fully expect 2016 to be continued expansion of the waterpark. Sorry, a new coaster is just not needed right now. The needs to continue to expand the waterpark, especially now with the news of MOA planning to add a large indoor one in the near future.