snorkymn

I use Facebook pretty much exclusively. I don't have time to check multiple social media sites for information from friends, family, companies, groups, etc.

Those wondering if Wildfire was really "that good".. The answer is YES. It was my favorite coaster on the trip. I rode Balder the next day and to me it couldn't compare to Wildfire, and many have Balder as their favorite of any kind of woodie. (Yes, I know they are different types, but still) That part where Robb says in the video something like "how is this legal" is my favorite part of the coaster... You seem to hang upside down for several seconds, while I'm sure it's probably about 1.5-2 seconds.. It's just a super reride-able blast and definitely worth a trip if you're in the area.

Here is the group photo for Valleyfair yesterday. Taken in the exit area of Wild Thing. The top three fundraisers are all Theme Park Review members, though two didn't happen to be on the team. (There wasn't a TPR Team at the time some people joined up) Due to rain and lightning, our start time on Renegade was delayed, but we basically got an hour on Renegade and Wild Thing, though Wild Thing's time ran into GP time.. except due to rain there was no GP.. plus due to rain, not as many members rode all times around since the pain of rain in the face at +70MPH was kind of a deterrent. But it did make for interesting pictures at the Photo Stop after the ride. Everyone seemed to have a fun time though, and even though they gave us tickets to get Fast Lane for the rest of the day, due to low park attendance it wasn't needed and you could walk on to about any ride without a line. So Fast lane tickets can be used on a different trip back to the park. I got to ride with one of the girls that had actually been a wish girl at Give Kids the World Village. She told me how fantastic they treated her and her family and how appreciative she was of the experience.

Yea, that's a fantastic amount of money raised! I'm glad I was able to participate this year and be a part of this. Though someone needs to do a sun dance for those of us going to Valleyfair. It's supposed to be cold and thunderstorms all day.. Ride on!

It's funny. The deadline came and went for Valleyfair yesterday, and I was in third place for money raised. Then this morning someone upped their personal donations enough to go barely ahead of me. So I upped mine to go ahead of her. So she pushed up her donation to go over me again, by $5. Then someone gave me a $5 donation so I tied her. Now she upped her donation again to push her back into third and go ahead of me by $25. I'm not sure how long to play the cat and mouse game to move ahead of her. If anyone else wants to help bump me ahead of her again, feel free. Though I know none of this matters for totals for prizes anymore. (Or isnt' supposed to?) But does help the kids. But I may just bump myself up just to "finish" in third. http://support.gktw.org/site/TR/CoastingForKids/General?px=1124587&pg=personal&fr_id=1239

I think the fast lane thing is great! Plus I heard from a participant last year that said there were only a small number that did the marathon of the coasters the whole time they allowed them, most just went off and did their own thing. So they probably took that into consideration a bit. With Fast Lane, you can not only make quick work of getting on the coasters, you can get on all the other top rides as well. I think that's pretty awesome. Plus we can hit the water park and not feel like we're missing out on the coaster time. 6:30am is going to come a bit early, but it's worth it for the kids we're helping.

This has been edited with new info posted about Valleyfair on Saturday after I emailed them about the bad info: Registration time: 6:30 a.m. - 7:15 a.m. at the front gate Event time: 6:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. Marathon taking place on: 7:15 a.m. - 8:15 a.m. ERT on Renegade 8:30 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. ERT on Wild Thing **Participants will receive Fast Lane vouchers to be used for the remainder of the day** Meal: Participants will receive meal vouchers to use when they are ready Awards ceremony time and location: 9:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. - Location TBD Regular park operating hours: 10:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m. Prizes: 1st place - Four (4) tickets and 50 Beagle Bucks (valued at $229.96) 2nd place - Two (2) tickets and 25 Beagle Bucks (valued at $114.98) 3rd place - Give Kids The World gift basket

^^^ Tough to compete with those top two who are getting corporate donations. I'm just hitting up FB friends and family. And most of them are broke.

Great job! I just joined this a week ago and I'm trying to be one of the top 3 fundraisers at Valleyfair. We only have until Thursday though since we ride on Saturday.

Thank you!!! Though it's the Children that are now $15 richer.

Steve is my husband. Using his credit card to donate. Shhhhh! Don't tell! -jason lol. Well he won't find out unless he reads the forums.

Thank you Steven Avery!

Donating $15 to Nicole right now. So feel free to hit me up under Valleyfair. Done.... Though I didn't see the total go up even though my name shows up in the complete donor list. Maybe takes a bit to update? --- It did update under the team page, but not the main page. Shows them at $10k now. Great work!!!! -Trent

I just signed up today for the TPR Team at Valleyfair. I would have signed up earlier but they switched days on me. I heard they have switched the rules a bit where you may have to get off the train every two times around. At a minimum to switch seats, at a maximum you may have to wait a full time around for the train to get back on, and have to use Fast Pass lane to come back on to the train. More details to be posted hopefully by end of the week. If anyone wants to help out, my donate link is: http://support.gktw.org/site/TR/CoastingForKids/General?px=1124587&pg=personal&fr_id=1239

Matteo, you going to be there?!?!?

Anyone know where I can find quick credit run advice to get through Hershey the most efficiently? Like what lines have the bad lines to try to get through right away, and the ones that are high capacity and won't have as bad of lines.. I'm sure someone's posted something, but it's nearly impossible to find.

Kind of an odd story.. I quickly checked emails last night, but didn't actually open any. Just saw that TPR was in Wisconsin.. So I went to bed and actually had a dream about why you were in Wisconsin. You two were there for a week (at some sort of small carny type amusement place) to learn how to operate all the rides. I think it was one of those things where you had basically ridden them all, so the only thing to do now was to operate them all. And my memory is a bit fuzzy about the whole thing after that, but I think next year you had planned to operate all the rides for everyone on one of the TRP trips. Good plan!

Just registered for NE!

Well, I also see it in this Carowinds commercial from last year, starting at about the 16 or 17 second mark. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7mjDNjGgNk lol. Cedar Fair, you cheap bastages!

Yup, a B&M type invert. The coaster looked kind of like an orange color, and seemed to be showing a fly by while the actors were standing there, and also showing the part of the coaster that seemed to be at the end that would circle around to slow the coaster before finish. Hopefully someone else will see it and capture it. They did show some actual ValleyFair coasters as well, I was just shocked when I saw that invert. Possibly the one in Knotts.. it was a very short segment so didn't have a lot of time to try to figure out which one.

Perhaps I have been sleeping for the past 6 months, but I just saw a commercial for Valleyfair a couple minutes ago and there was CLEARLY an Invert coaster in the commercial. Anyone else see that? Was I just dreaming?

I guess in 13 weeks I'll be riding 13 and finding out for myself. From the video, It doesn't "WOW" me, as some others have also mentioned above, but looks like it could still be fun anyway. Especially for a family type coaster. So I'll wait to form a real opinion until after I've been on it a time or two. How many riders can they really get through the ride in an hour with an element like that?

It's amazing how these corporate fat-cats can lose so much value in a company and still make so much money.. T

Well, there must have been a problem since initially they were trying to sell off a couple of parks to raise money to pay off debt. But that was probably only going to keep them afloat for a while.

But if they hadn't been purchased by a company, willing to pay their over 2 billion in debt, they'd have had to file bankruptcy. I doubt the creditors would renegotiate on the debt for them in these conditions.