John Peck

I think with two years in a row with not having all attractions up and running (understandably) by opening day (or Memorial Day), they really wanted to make sure this was ready to go in 2016 and therefore gave themselves enough time.

The permit said "Razing" which is demo. Not sure what I think about parks removing their amphitheaters... (Valleyfair, SFoG, SFGrAd) you'd think they would try to get more use out of them.

I would sure love to see a Boomerang where that Theater is.... plenty of room! But seriously, that would open up a lot of space. A spinning coaster or Eurofighter would be great there, but Nick U already have those.

Gemini ... one of my favorites.

I prefer the old ones for one selfish reason: I'm too big for the new ones—but I'm working on it.

And now for the opinion you've all been waiting for: Mine! - Noticed that many people are suffering from "anticipointment" where before the announcement they were excited and now are just ho-hum... this is also why I try to not follow leaked information, I really want to be surprised, even if the secret is out. - Love the logo and name (I haven't mentioned that before) - Looks like a good, solid ride for the park - Will be a capacity monster (easy to load trains and a shorter circuit) - Neat to see the newer restraints on this ride - Amazed how much coaster fits in such a small space (yes, it's a pretty small space when it comes to a 223' coaster... lots of layering going on) - I would have liked a water splash, (cause they look neat) but not enough room - I will wait for the final product before mentioning themes.... these are just renderings after all, people - Hoping an above-ground tunnel or "chopper effects" will be added - Bonus: shorter lines for everything else, at least for a few hours anyway - What's new for 2017? (just kidding!)

When I made my first-ever trip to the park last week, I took note of what the park has and what way I thought the park should go from this point. One thing i noticed was how popular the flat rides were, and how the park had a great selection of them. A ride like KD's upcoming Delirium (which is what Canada's Wonderland already has... the Mondial model) might be a little too much ride for that park, but a Chance Revolution 24 (Dorney, Knotts and Great America has one) would be a better size and be more comparable to what Nick Universe is getting. I could see that and a Flying Scooter as a new ride package with Looping Starship being retired and that area opened up a bit to a better traffic flow. The back off the park just has too many curves and could use more of a break or split of the paths. Other possible flat rides good for Valleyfair: - Starflyer (at or under 200') - Gerstlauer Skyroller (what Wonderland is getting)

I really like this trend of freshening up dated or uncomfortable rides instead or just removing them.

Cool. Riddler looks like a Zamperla Frisbee (Kennywood) and Catwoman's Whip looks also like a Zamperla Endevour, which is like an Enterprise. My question is, is one of those is a HUSS Trokia, and they already have "Crazy Legs", so is that being moved and rethemed?

Cool.

^ That is some scary stuff. Perhaps they have better employes now, or what you said, I was just lucky. I screwed up one of my posts... "you hear more about the BAD than you do the GOOD."

^ I never noticed anything unsafe while I was there and all ride ops were checking restraints. The most dangerous things were the curbs and me not realizing they were curbs until I stepped off of it.

Yes, the hard left turn was my least favorite part, it felt as though they could have taken that under the above track, done a banked horseshoe, and continued with the rest. Not sure when it will be gone, but I heard from several employees that the rumors are strong that it's leaving, just nobody knows when, and that's all it is right now, rumors. I personally think that it will close this year or by July next year.

From what I have heard, I don't think anyone benefits from staying on-site. Well, they do get an extra 3 hours of ERT once the park closes to the public. But yeah, I've read the horror stories on here. But with everything, you hear the good more than you do the bad, and I must say, as busy as the park was, people were getting off the rides smiling and cheering.

Magnum only had the upstop plates the first season as everytime the train would go over the small hills, you would hear it scrape and screech. So they replaced them quickly. After the first season, they also raised the drop between the third hill and the pretzel since it was slamming riders down too much.

I'm starting to think that Excalibur must have a generational appeal. While I have no love for it, my mother of all people finds it great! Weird. Agree about the dead ends of the park. Not much that can be done about it...maybe a chairlift? You know what really closed the deal for me on it? There are two spots where it launches you out of your seat and pulls you down—on e to the right, and one to the left—and this is almost exactly like the Raven at Holiday World. So that's why it hit home.. I love Raven, and it felt like it.

Made my trip to the park finally. I'll post a more in-depth trip report later. I liked it a lot with some minimal disappointments, including not being able to ride Renegade due to my ass size, but surprisingly I did get to ride Steel Venom as i tend to have trouble with Wicked Twister. Some initial thoughts: - Liked Corkscrew much more than Cedar Points. Very good in the back. - Love the 70's infrastructure with the Super Cat and Carousel and the chandeliers in the shops and the entrance area - Loved, Love, Loved Excalibur... glad I was able to experience it... da-dada-daaaaa! - the dead ends at each end of the park became a bit annoying - Very sad to miss the train. It was down all day - Liked Wild thing and High Roller - Park didn't have the Cedar Fair feel as much, seemed more independent. - Very disappointed with park merchandise - No recycle bins (popping up at most cedar fair parks now)

I just came back from my trip to MN/WI and hit the coasters in the Dells. First thoughts on Mount Olympus: I'll eventually have a trip report, but we took advantage of the $5 tickets (which turned out to be a little over $7 with taxes. - Hated the $20 parking but at least I could put it on a credit card. - Employees seemed very nice - crowds were INSANE... 75 minutes on Hades (loved the ride, though!) - Didn't like that adults were not allowed on Little Titans - Liked the duel loading go cart track configuration - very hilly and i kept tripping over curbs, but as far as safety, everything seemed okay - Park has great potential ... (second trains on two of the bigger coasters would help) - Zeus was fantastic... until the first curve after the hills, then it killed me - Really liked Matador - too cold to swim outdoors, so more people were riding than swimming, but we really didn't have time - wife hated the park... she didn't like the only wood coaster she rode which was Cyclops, so all she really could do was the swing ride and some go carts, but since it was so busy, we only rode 2 tracks - I think the true guests who benefit from this park are the resort guests - Had to laugh at the highly advertised "INDOOR theme park" since there are 4 small rides, a couple of stores/snack bars and an arcade in it (since Opa was removed)

I had no idea until tonight about the $20 cash-only parking. I had just called the park asking about tickets and confirmed that parking was free, (I didn't see these posts until a few minutes ago) and she's like no.. $20. Then I said, well it's not on your website and she says "oh, I never look at the website" I know it's only money, but holy cow, it's the principle!

Fantastic trip report! Very thorough and concise. Nice that you photographed almost everything.

Those were the posts for the queue rails. (A very large, unshaded queue, too.) You can see it at the bottom left of this picture I took back in 2003. SFKK. ©2003 John Peck

Oh good. Having never been to the park, the posts I have read mentioned 1 train running on Renegade, 1 on Excalibur, of course 1 on Venom, so I went the "assuming" route that most were running 1, even though most of the rides have 2 trains (besides Wild thing, and Mad Mouse (multiple cars))

Okay, I am a week out from my trip up north to valleyfair and mall of America. Since Chickies and Pete's is on the meal plan, I take it that's a sit down? If I go, I might want to bring some extra money for tips. Besides the coasters, the screaming swing and northern lights, and the waterpark, are there any other no-miss rides? Sounds like most coasters run only one train, too.

^ Compared to Six Flags only, yeah, i would say that Cedar Fair has gone the more conservative route of the two when it comes to building "wow factor" rides, the quantity, anyway). But here's the thing, Six Flags went through Bankruptcy, and Cedar Fair are still managing their debt, and with the new CEO running CF, we are seeing more spending on infrastructure improvements and enhancements than what Six Flags is doing—or at least what they appear to be doing. (sadly, i have not been to a SF park in quite a few years). I think that Cedar Fair are also putting more perks out to passholders as well, and coming up with better and more ways to separate you from your dollar while you think you're getting a good deal. (dining and drink plans, a decent fastlane program, etc). CF are also making their in-park food locations better. Again, since i haven't been to a six flags since 2008, and from reading forums, it just seems that Cedar Fair are doing a little more in terms of park enhancement. Do you guys and girls agree?

^ They used to have a train ride that circled the park and a Monster ride as well.