Mike240SX

HAHAHAHA. Too much. Here's the whole article. Hey, at least they were truthful when they said "unique and challenging location." Edit: Oh, and the world record? "Western US's steepest freefall drop without a holding brake." Really grasping straws here...

Queue Times crowd calendar for the month of July looks pretty good for mid-week days. Next week's daily operation was a late addition to the calendar, so they don't have predictions yet. EDIT: In other KD news, Haunt has been announced and the calendar updated - Friday/Saturday/Sunday in October, 7-Midnight on Fridays, 2-Midnight on Saturdays, and 2-10 on Sundays.

Yes to both questions.

If CF was trying to turn VF into a destination park, sure, that might hold true. But for a regional-draw park like VF, if their established crowd is enough to consistently earn the company a substantial enough profit margin, there is nothing really to be gained from investing $10+ million in a major attraction. I've never been to VF, but I do have Dorney, another low-tier CF park, quite local and go quite frequently, so I have some experience on this topic - Their dry park crowds are steady, even with no major new addition since 2012 (Stinger, which is now gone). Their water park is the money maker - it consistently is *slammed* during the summer months, and they haven't added anything substantial to that side since 2014, and their only "modern-style" slide complex are those drop-capsules. None of this has negatively affected their crowd draw, and Dorney has some major competition in a two-hour-drive radius (SFGAdv, Hershey, Knoebel's, Morey's, even Nick Universe). If VF, Dorney, or WoF, were to add a major coaster that would draw enthusiasts, it might increase crowds for a year or two while enthusiasts travel there to experience it. But that's it. Would that be enough to justify the expense? Probably not. The local crowd will continue to go even with only minor additions or no additions at all. Listen, I get it...we all want our "home parks" to get the biggest and best, or even anything new every now and then. But from a business standpoint, it makes no sense if the park continues to make enough to sustain it and appease the local "GP" crowd without one. All of this is doubly-true this year, where we see crowd levels at parks that have never been seen before, to the point where SEAS parks don't even see a point in opening their major additions - it would do nothing to draw additional crowds in when the parks are already packed. I fail to see how local parks care more about the "customer experience" than Cedar Fair, especially in the context of major ride additions. Knoebels, widely regarded as the one of the best parks in the country, hasn't had a "major addition" since 2015, and that ride (Impulse) wouldn't even be considered a "major" addition at a CF or SF park. Yet, they continue to draw crowds to an extent that sustains their business model. Of course CF cares about the customer experience...if they didn't they wouldn't have skyrocketed their pay rates to try to eliminate the staffing issues they've had this year. Sure, they cut back their hours to minimize the cut to the profit margin from that salary increase, but even Knoebels closed 50-60% of their rides mid-week. Look at SEAS, which has made massive improvements in "customer experience" at BGW recently by moving to a year-round operation. Yes, smaller, independent parks have their charm, but to say that they universally care more about the "customer experience" than major chains is over simplifying the issue. Like who, Palace/Parques Reunidos? We see how well they do managing their existing parks.

And sadly the fact that it continues to draw crowds actually hurts your chances of getting a new major ride. Simple fact is, Valleyfair is not a "destination" park. Very few people, other than hardcore enthusiasts, make it a specific point of going there or have even heard of it. Compare to Cedar Point, the Kings pair, Carowinds, and even Knotts....these are all places that people have heard of and will go out of their way to book vacations around. Cedar Fair's lower tier (Dorney, Michigan's Adventure, Worlds of Fun, CGA, and yes even Valleyfair) simply don't attract "destination" travelers like the top-tier parks do, thus they get minimal investment. Now sure, that's some self-fufilling-prophecy, because without major additions, they will never be destination parks, but I think that CF is okay with that.

Pushaw I say. The only thing I want them to do Beast is restore the skid brakes and replace the individual ratcheting lap bars with the original buzz-bars and lose the headrests. You can keep the seat dividers and seat belts if you want. It's already my #1 wooden coaster, restoring it to its original glory would only solidify that further. (Edit) As an additional thought, there are dozens of wooden coasters out there that are older than Beast, some nearing or exceeding a hundred years old, that have not had recent substantial changes to their layout - Beast can run correctly as intended, it doesn't need to be modified any further.

@budtbum Glad to hear you enojyed the Grand Carinvale stuff. I did too when it was at Kings Dominion in 2019. You're always going to get limited buy in from crowd participation, especially with the teen and young-20s crowd, but it's not really for them. I hope you guys do get a Halloween event, even if it's just a Tricks & Treats Fest like everywhere had last year. As far as I'm aware, Cedar Point is the only park in the chain to have announced a proper Haunt so far. The fact that you have October hours announced already is a good start (many parks in the chain haven't posted their post-Labor-Day schedule yet). As for a new major ride for VF.....keep the dream alive, man LOL.

I'm not sure if it's supposed to be this Dr. Diabolical, but yeah if it is, definitely a deep dive...the character has only had one comic appearance, in 1968. Either way, while I'm not a huge fan of dive coasters (they never seem to do very much and this does not appear to be an exception), great addition to a park that I one day hope to get to. Though I am confused as to the 7-across seating...why not just go with the standard 6 or 8?

Really? I booked this room like 2 weeks ago and plenty of places have their vacancy signs lit. I have no doubt about the weekends being booked up, but there's definitely space to be had on this Wednesday. Either way, in all my years of coming down here I've never seen it this bad, even on a weekend, except for like 4th of July or Memorial/Labor Day weekends. On a side note, as my hotel is literally one block away from Adventure Pier, I decided to go back right at closing to see if the line for Great White had died down. It had... I had a two train wait for row 4 (front would have been like 10 trains). Eh...it's better, but still quite headache inducing. Those Millennium Flyers or Timberliners can't come soon enough.

Apparently even Morey's isn't immune from the "everywhere is packed every day of the week" that is affecting all parks this summer. Despite pretty much every ride running (notable exceptions being Ghost Ship, Zoom Flume, and the Graviton) without any capacity restrictions, almost every single one of them had lines spilling out of the established queues, on a *Wednesday* night. Thus, no rides for me tonight. Full "report" and plenty of pictures of the massive lines when I get back to a computer.

Just makes my thousand dollar all season platinum FL+ all that more valuable. No complaints from me.

I got my voucher but I can't remember the last time I actually spent a cent in the park oh well

Is Flash Pass out of the question? You really should get a Flash Pass, at least Gold level if not Platinum.

I was referring to any of the other number of looping coasters that existed back in the early 1900s, but sure, I'm wrong on that particular coaster. Child.

Last I checked, the early 1900s was not the "Victorian Era." Either way, their statement is false and in no way accurate. They could say "world's oldest operating looping coaster" and have an accurate statement though. But still, they have the record over Corkscrew at Cedar Point (which does in fact have a vertical loop) by like a week, though, so I'm not even really sure if that counts. Anyway, this is a company that counts Larson Super Loops as "roller coasters" when they neither roll nor coast, so yeah, it's Six Flags.