RCjunkie

Went to preview day today and rode Renegade a few times. The majority of the off season work was on the hill after the first drop and at the start of the horseshoe turn. Otherwise it is just a few other small places with just a few new boards here and there. It is already running great, some real good rides today and of course saw Renegade Mike. The new seat belts help with checking their secureness since they are on the side now and make it faster. Good crew today but they only ran one train. Then I saw Wild Thing getting stuck on the lift hill already this year. Luckily it only lasted a few minutes. The work done by IOE did not affect the over all ride but it did break easier coming back to the station and the mid course brake was quieter so it should at least improve the operations of the ride. WT crew was under staffed but they were hustling. As mentioned before the metal detectors are now where the ticket booth's used to be so they are permanent. North Star looked good but had an hour plus line so I will have to try it another time. So far they have not painted the new wood on High Roller. Forgot to check out the work they did on the carousel. Excalibur as expected was closed due to embarrassment or something like that.

Maybe a refurbished Enterprise over by Wild Thing in the old Tilt-A-Whirl spot. The new version if the park is lucky. No reason to believe the proposed water park expansion with the removal of Excalibur will happen in 2018 even though the plan was submitted for approval over two years ago, but that would be a great announcement for the park. A newly expanded water park with an adjacent parking lot so you don't have to walk through the park I think would go a long way towards some new season passes and repeat visits. Plus CF usually replaces roller coasters that are removed with new ones so that would bring hope for a new one of those in the following years. Drove by VF yesterday and saw them testing North Star and Power Tower. Looking forward to Season Pass preview day next Sunday.

Thanks for the update! That is a much smoother brake run vs. what was there before. It will be interesting to ride it in a few weeks and see what they did to the mid course brake. Hopefully some more speed for air time on the return bunny hills.

Does anyone have any updates on Irvine Ondrey Engineering and the work they said at IAAPA they were going to perform on Wild Thing? Did it happen or is it still going to happen before pre-view day? I cannot find anything and was looking forward to checking out any improvements it would bring to the ride.

"It sort of has a 'Freemont Street' kind of vibe except with a lot more Ferrari's and a lot less Coors Light." Thanks for all the pictures of the classic stand up video arcade games, it is always good to relive my misspent childhood. And now I will 'waste' even more time checking out your Retro Games Fan page. If/when you visit VF, WOF or Adventureland check out (Google) a place called UP/DOWN. They call themselves an Arcade Bar with craft beer. All classic stand up or table top video arcade games and pinball. It started in Des Moines and now they have the three locations. I have yet to visit the one in Kansas City but the other two are good fun with the Minneapolis one being a bit better just due to size and having more games. If you love retro arcade you will want to check them out sometime.

^ I hope so. I love the way if your a season pass holder that you can just scan your pass at the gate and roll through. So much faster and easier.

VF just had four new work permits issued to add four new light poles with Verizon Wireless cell antenna's attached to them at $25,000 per antenna. So if you use Verizon as your provider your reception and data usage while at the park should be improved this year They indicate that all four will be placed near High Roller. One of the permits for an expensive light pole.

"We were hoping by making the planets align it would make Trump disappear. Sorry world, no luck! We tried!" At least you tried. Maybe if you say his name backwards three times in a row that might do the trick.

^ Good question. Why start testing unless the new IOC changes are in place? Otherwise you would have to do it twice. Checked IOC's Facebook page and no announcements about that yet like they said they would at IAAPA. Of course that means nothing, they could be working on it as I type. Hopefully they are or plan to soon because in their announcement they said they would be able to get it to go faster which may provide some airtime on the return bunny hills like it used to be and improve the ride.

That is a lot of new wood. Do they just paint the new wood or do they re-paint the entire coaster? It could use it. Just good to see they are giving it some off season love.

Looks like your typical GCI fun packed ride. Nothing that will blow you away but packed with good time air hills and turns. From the video it moves faster than I thought it would.

^ Did not see this change coming. They do not look too cumbersome so I agree that is should only improve transition time between trains making it easier for people to get in and out of. Funny though how High Roller went from one retractable seat belt to individual stationed seat belts (before being replaced by 'new' trains last year) and now Renegade goes from individual stationed seat belts to individual retractable seat belts. We can only hope the next step is one retractable seat belt and a buzz bar for Renegade. I miss the buzz bar experience on HR.

Why all the hate? What did VF do to you?

Valleyfair and Silver Dollar City. So I could have cinnamon bread at my home park (VF) on every visit. Outlaw Run would be the kick a** bonus.

^ I should have book marked it then. I just want to see what light packages they will be 'testing' before it opens. Speaking of opening day for VF, they are down to less than 70 days until then. I have not seen any updates from Irvine Ondrey Engineering on their project for Wild Thing upgrades this off season.They said at IAAPA to follow their Facebook page for updates but they have not provided any yet. Does anybody else know anything? Please share if you do.

^ Where did you get that shot from? They removed the construction camera link last month from the main webpage. Or moved it to where I have not seen it yet.

They limit how many Fast Passes they sell for yearly passes per park and also daily passes to avoid this. If it ever gets out of control they can make adjustments to prevent that.

Guess you missed the wink at the end of that.

^ You forgot High Roller. That doesn't look good from someone who works at the park. Just insert High Roller after Corkscrew and I agree that would be a good path that can be done in 3 hours. Another option is Mad Mouse first (because it has capacity issues), then CS, HR, Renegade, then by that time Excalibur is open to hit, Renegade again because you will be passing by it again and it is the best coaster in the park, Wild Thing and Steel Venom on the way out. If you have time, hit up the Swings between WT and SV and ride them also.

An old Son of Beast train on the track which you can wave at as you go by.

What did VF do to you? Why would you punish VF by taking away their only Intamin and replace it with a Vekoma?

Was it ever fun for you or was it always a pain to run the tours? Or did it start out as a minor pain that grew to be just unbearable after dealing with so many stupid people as time went on?

Monster is definitely a fun ride. Had not been to the park in over 15 years until last year and I will be visiting it again this summer because of how fun Monster is.

Possessed at Dorney still uses the brake Valley Fair's impulse did as well when I went, which was 2 years ago I believe. It was definitely a cool part of the ride, I hadn't experienced one yet and I'm glad I got to! VF still operates the brake on the back spike for Steel Venom. Which is nice.