thrillrider

You guys are lucky! Try living near Michigan's adventure.

And the carousel?

I was thinking about a Primeval diorama sort of deal on the MK railroad, similar to the one at Disneyland. But hey, new stuff for Dinoland is always welcome. It's still a rumor at this point, but I hear that dinorama may be going by by. It's rumored to be replaced with an indiana Jones section. Dinosaur is also going to be turned into an indiana Jones ride like the one at Disneyland.

My final prediction.... I'm gonna take a shot in the dark, and say it's going to be a coaster. Possibly a RMC. I heard a rumor that it's going to be located in frontier town.

More pictures from our mega trip stop at six flags great America. I am having an issue finding a big block of pictures I took, so I posted what I could right now. We started day 2 with another rude on raging bull. I'm glad we took the time to check out the EFX show. This show blew us away. Definitely one of the best theme park shows we have ever seen. This show was packed with special effects and lightning. Amazing show! I highly recommend checking it out. After the show, our family was invited up to check out some of the effects, and get our picture taken with the staff. I want to thank them if they are reading this. Back out into the park, we hit goliath. Very fun ride, bit a bit on the short side. This is one of the reasons I like six flags parks over cedar fair. Look at the theming. The line for superman was pretty long, and we have been on it several times before, so we skipped it this visit. Another fun ride. I kinda miss the pre show for this ride though. This Is a ride that I really enjoy, however my family does not. That's us! This wing coaster blows gatekeeper away. That's all from six flags. Next park is kokomos.

Me too! I think we are heading back in October this year.

Ok...so let's get back at it. Let's take a look at our stop at six flags great America. We made it This was the busiest park of our trip. The first ride we hit was the new joker ride. Crazy ride, but too short. Station shot It looks like the enterprise ride was removed, and they are replacing it with the river crawler. They were working on it while we were there They have a staging area with all the parts for the ride where the roads course used to be. They added a new kids ride area since I was there last. The kids loved this ride. Since we didn't get there till later in the day, there was not a lot of sunshine left. The park has a decent night time parade. On our way out of the park, the American eagle dominates. The next morning, after it taking us an hour to get thru parking and security, we made it into the park. Not only was the view great, but the weather was as well. Today's first ride was a special one. My son was tall enough for his first big coaster...the wizzer. He loved It! This was his second ride on it. We ended up riding it multiple times. Our home park is cedarpoint, and there is not much for him to ride there, so this was a treat. Station shot of this classic ride. This used to be one of my favorite rides...untill they trimmed it to death. Nine the less, it's still a great ride. Raging bull dominates the sky in the southwest territory. One of the things I like about six flags, is the attention to theaming. While in the southwest territory, I highly recommend checking out the mega nachos. These things are HUGE, and enough for 3 people. It's also an option on the meal plan. Another ride in the southwest territory is chabasco. This is the 3rd bfm dark ride of the trip. Not much of any difference between this one and the others. I think these are a great addition to the park. This ride was very popular. Next coaster is the American eagle. This coaster is huge! I could only imagine how long it takes to paint this thing. This is a racing coaster. Station shot. Looks like a antique car ride used to reside near the eagle. Lots more from Six Flags Great America coming soon.

How would you guys compare the ride experience between a scat, and a tempest? It's been probably 25 years since I've been on a tempest, and can't recall.

Scat is an insane ride. I think that Beech bend park in Kentucky has one that runs all season if that's closer to you. The six flags great America update will be up in a day or two. I'm in an area with crappy service at the moment.

Things that make you go hmmm...

Thank you.

Choose wisely. Because the the two you don't choose will become Valleyfair's new 2018 attractions. CF could not give that much bounty to just one park. At least vallyfair got a star flyer.

Thank you. The coaster may not be the biggest, but it sure was fun. I definitely recommend checking out this park if your ever in the green bay area.

Today's update comes from a little, city owned park that is typically off the radar for most....Bay Beach park. The crown jewel of this park is it's only coaster the zippin pippen. This coaster was located in Tennessee years years ago, and when the park closed Bay beach purchased the coaster. What's so special about the zippin pippen to where they would move it all the way up to Green Bay you may ask....well, it was the kings favorite ride. He actually rented the ride out for himself and some friends, and rode the thing for hours. He lost his belt buckle on the coaster, and it was returned to him the next day. I guess Elvis wss a coaster nerd. The rest if this park has a decent selection of flats and kiddy rides. Tickets were only 25 cents each, and it only took 4 tickets to ride the coaster. We only had a chance to spend 2 hours at this park, and could have spent much longer as it's just a fun place to be and it's cheap! Onto the pictures... Here is the entrance to bay beach. Free parking, and free to get in. Think knobles I bought $10 worth of tickets, and we had some left after 2 hours. Heck of a deal. With tickets in hand, we headed right to the star attraction. Yep... Not only was this a historical coaster, but it was running like new. Rules... Station shot The coaster only runs 1 train, but does have a transfer track to add a 2nd. The coaster and the park is located right on the water. This park has several classic rides. Each ride had a history marker on it that tells you about the ride and where it came from. Bumper cars As you van see, the park was doing quite well. You can see the scrambler here. They also has a falling star ride that I failed to take a picture of. The scat is just an evil ride that I can never pass up. This one was running in insane mode. That's all from Bay beach. Next stop is Six Flags Great America.

Just a few tips that we use, that save us a bunch of $$$ on our trips. 1. Try to book the mom and pop places over chain hotels. A perfect example would be near silver dollar city and Dollywood. We ended up paying $35 a night for what ended up being really nice hotels/motels, that were on par and better than most chain hotels. The nearest chain hotel wanted $85 per night. If mom and pop places are not an option, we book on hotels.com. Every 10th night is free thru the rewards program. 2. Buy your tickets before your trip on either theme park review, or other discount outlets. I also have gotten very lucky and saved over $300 on tickets buy going on ebay and buying a discount code for certain parks. We used a code (it only cost us around $2-$3 for the code on ebay) for silver dollar city, and got a 2 day ticket for less than the cost of a 1 day. The same thing for seaworld. 3.Look into meal plans and refillable drink cups at parks. If you don't want to go thru the trouble of leaving the park to eat, a meal plan usually pays for itself after 2 meals. If you don't want a drink cup, most parks will always give you free ice water. 4. Try to book acomidations that offer breakfast in the morning. Typcially, the room costs just a few bucks more, but you have to eat anyways and why not book a nicer place to sleep for a minimal amount more...or sometimes the same price. Sometimes you get lucky, and the nicer hotels also have a free shuttle to the parks, and that saves $$$ on parking. But ALWAYS read the reviews for the hotels before booking. What you think is a good deal, may actually be a nightmare. Always check if there are any additinal fees that are not included in the nightly rate. We have been hit with parking fees, and $100 a night deposits that were not listed...always call and ask about fees. We stay away from the hotels that charge a deposit for the night. It's happned a few times that we did not get our deposits back until a week later, and a big hit like that could impact your trip budget. Twice, we actually had to fight with a hotel because they claimed they refunded our deposit but did not. It's a big headache to have to deal with that, so stay away from those places. Plus, sometimes there is a reason they are charging a deposit to begin with. 5. Another suggestion about hotels, is to try and book one that's 10 miles from a park. Not only are they cheaper most of the time, but they are nicer in some cases. We saved $40 per night a bunch of times just for staying 10 miles away. Whats a 15 min drive to the hotel if your saving big $$$? 6. Take advantage of rewards programs for gas and hotels. 7.If possible, try to plan your hotel stays and park visits during the week, as the prices tend to be much cheaper. 8.Do not purchase fast passes until you arrive at the park and judge crowd levels. I couldn't tell you how many times I have seen people buy the fast lane before they arrive, and the park ends up being a ghost town. 9. Set a budget, and try to come in below it. 10. Map out your route and try to keep the parks 4 hours or less apart. We just got back from our mega coaster trip 2017, and it really did not feel like we did a ton of driving because we broke it up into 4 hour or less drives. This also really helps keep you fresh for those long hot days in the theme parks. 11. Always try to fill you gas tank away from large cities. Gas tends to be cheaper in less populated areas. Or if your a costco member, try to fill up there. 12. Months before your trip whenever you get a few extra bucks, buy gift cards for gas or the park you plan on going to. We do this for our larger trips like Disney, and its nice having those gift cards handy for souvenirs. 13. if your planning on hitting a bunch of parks that belong to the same chain (six flags, cedar fair, Busch...ect) look into a season pass. Not only will it save you money on admission and parking, but most season passes have other discounts as well. Six flags passes offer you 20% off in gift shops and food discounts for example. Most will offer you good discounts on fast lanes as well if you have a season pass. Figure if you visit 4 six flags parks and parking is $20 each visit, that right there will pretty much cover the cost of your pass. We also added the all season meal plans to our cedar fair and six flags passes. This has saved us a ton of money. It's about $100 to add it on, and its good for the entire year and at all of the chains properties. A typical meal at a park will run you around $15-$20 each time you eat. They typically pay for themselves in 3 visits. Hope this helps!

When we were there just over 3 weeks ago, pk only had 1 train and a 25-30 min wait.

The park just released a poll, asking what you would like to see them add in 2018. Here are the 3 choices they gave.... Choice #1 A new park bench to sit back and take in all of what the park has to offer. Choice #2 A new ash tray to help keep the park clean Choice #3 A hanging basket of daisies to brighten up the games area.

As Captian Unknown mentioned, High Roller is an original roller coaster that was made in 1976 to open the park. It is still the biggest misconception repeated and told today by many locals that it was a relocated coaster as you heard on your visit. Valleyfair has pointed this out more than once on its Facebook page but a lot of people still say it is a relocated one. The reason for this is that the Excelsior Amusement Park that closed in 1973 had a similar white wood coaster called 'The Cyclone'. And with Valleyfair opening in 1976 many thought it was just relocated. Kind of amazing that 40 years later people still think this. Typical GP. And your assessment is correct, it is now heavily trimmed. It may be due to its age but I don't really know why. Back in the day when it was new the airtime on the bunny hills back to the station was great. Unfortunately, not anymore. Plus, when they removed the old trains with the buzz bars and bench seats last year they replaced them with the PTC trains and it lost a little bit of its soul. But families still enjoy it and it is still a good first 'big' coaster for newbies to get their feet wet on. It was cool that you checked out the carousel, this actually DID come the from Excelsior Amusement Park after it was shut down and relocated to Valleyfair three years later. The carousel was built by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company in 1925 and it has been restored over the last 3 years. It is a classic. Also you took a picture of the Ferris Wheel which supposedly has the only 6 seat cabin cars in North America. It is fun to hear from others what they think of my home park and the pictures they take so thanks for sharing. Your assessment of the park is pretty dead on in my opinion. It is a slightly above average park with a 'corporate' feel but the staff and operations make it a good time. It is not a destination park but if you are near by you can stop in and definitely have a good time. Maybe a new modern steel coaster and a water park expansion can take the park from above average to good some day. Good to see you got to try Monster at Adventureland too, defintely a fun ride. And I was just curious, how many times did you ride Renegade? It can give rough rides at times but it is usually the best ride in the park overall. I actually only went on it once. I came off with a migraine, so I passed on giving it another chance. If there was some track work done on it, it would be a great ride.

High Roller opened with the park in 1976 as a custom for Valleyfair coaster with buzzbars & no seat dividers. (That was changed last year). Kids areas were added around High Roller, so when the major Planet Snoopy expansion in 2009, it was retroactively added to Planet Snoopy. A similar coaster to High Roller operated at the Excelsior Amusement park, but was demolished with the park. VF's carousel did come from EAP, though. Thanks for clearing that up. I overheard some people at the park talking about the coaster, and they were saying it was relocated.

It's pretty sad(and desperate) when we are actually "wanting" a boomerang coaster.

If you had to drive 7 hours to just go to vallyfair, you probably "would" be disappointed. But if your ever in the area, I would definitely swing by. It's not a destination park....more if a local park. If your going to do the drive though, you could do mall of America as well as it's only 25 min away. If we didn't get food poisoning, we would have done just that. It's honestly not that big of a park. I don't know if you have ever been to Kennywood, but it's about as big as that. With that being said, as long as the parks not that buisy you could do it in half a day if you go just for the coasters.

Under that logic, log flumes and rapids rides would be considered coasters as well.

Vallyfair pictures part 2.... Vallyfair day number 2 Wild thing is a HUGE hyper coaster that dominates the skyline of the park. It is a Morgan coaster. Even from the parking lot Lift hill Wild thing has an airtime filled layout The helix turnaround Airtime! There is also an awkward looking tunnel with plenty of airtime inside as well. One last look at wild thing The comic coaster is a powered kiddie coaster. It was actually quite fun. Steel venom! Steel venom is an intamin impulse coaster Station shot Twisty Next stop is the corkscrew Corkscrew is right in the middle of the park. Corkscrew over the water Lift hill Station shot One last look Landscaping in kids area Classic ferris wheel The parks antique car ride, gives some good views of wild thing. The park also has a train ride that runs thru the park And a tunnel. A few more random shots around the park. That's all from vallyfair. Stay tuned for our next park....Bay Beach

Was it originally intended to be located in the kids area? I'm not real knowledgeable on vallyfair history, but was it always located in a kids area? Also, I though I heard that this coaster was transplanted as well.