RCjunkie

I would have to agree with you on all of that. Yes it is considering the park has never gone more than 9 years in between coasters for the first 40 years. If it goes longer than 11 years people might mistakenly call VF Michigan's Adventure. (Maybe I should be crying instead.)

Screamscape is now echoing the rumor that VF is adding a Mondial Revolution ride that will probably be called Delirium. Plus, Valleyfair will join up with almost every other Cedar Fair park in adding a set of Larson Flying Scooters.

^ Don't forget the swim up bar.

This looks like another RMC winner! This cannot be good for or make GCI happy though when one of their coasters gets redone just 16 years after being built and by one of their competitors who is probably the hottest coaster manufacturer out there right now.

It is a great value. You will also get a Fast Pass for the day with the latest season pass offer. On another note, it is good to hear that the park has an announcement for 2016 next week. My guess is Flyers also. Maybe they will surprise us though and announce a new parking lot along with another water park expansion.

I think it will but it won't happen all at once and will take a while. What I mean is that we won't see a $300-400 million plus investment in one shot to make it a major park from opening day. It will have to start off small to medium sized and be in the right market to grow naturally into a major park.

You can say anything you want negative or positive about VF. I don't care, post all you want. But when you come into the VF thread where a lot of the people who regularly post here have rode Wild Thing at least a hundred times, then post in absolute terms that WT has NO air is stupid. If you would have posted it had weak air, only little pops of air or even qualified in your post by saying, "...at least when I rode it." then I would not have commented at all or just asked you to try the front car next time. But when you say all 36 seats on a WT train get NO air that is just factually incorrect and stupid. I am sorry that the TPR Welcome Wagon for the VF thread did not stop by to shower your post with high praise and instead you got my response.

I find Wild thing underwhelming too but you cannot say it has 'NO AIR' like Fingers. That is completely ridiculous. Weak air vs. strong air can be argued (and is subjective) but to say WT has NO air time is just stupid.

Really? No airtime on Wild Thing? Did you actually go over the the first hill? If so you might want to try the front car then if you didn't get any air from any of the other seats.

Bummer. Renegade is by far the best coaster in the park and it isn't even close. Maybe next time. Glad you made it on SV though. For a 35 year old CS the VF maintenance crew keep it running pretty well. Got to give them credit on that. You sick bastard! Happy you had a good time on it though. I love the 70's infrastructure too but that stuff is slowly disappearing as the park updates different area's and adds attractions. One thing you missed was the 'Disco Ball' fountain at the entrance that left after the 2011 Camp Snoopy remodel and was replaced with the new Snoopy fountain. The photo below is what it looked like. The 'Disco Ball' fountain which was at the VF entrance from 1976 to 2010.

^ Correct. There are still 3-4 weeks left that the park can make an announcement before they get to just a 'general improvement' year. Valleyfair has usually been last or close to last in the CF chain for next year announcements. I just wish there was a way we could find out what kind of time frame the decision process is for the expanded parking lot/service road move.

Good to hear you had the best seat on the train then. It must be a filter because the seats do look awfully dark in that shot.

I probably won't be able to go to the park on closing day this year, but if by chance I could go, it would be nice to meet some of you. I would be in for meeting at the park for a couple of hours to hit some rides. It doesn't have to be the last day either. Any Haunt weekend works too. Also either of the two weekends in between Labor Day and the start of Haunt are usually nice and not a lot of traffic in the park. Anyone up for any of those times?

No, incorrect. The red headed step child in the chain is Valleyfair. MiA is the abandon child left at the fire station.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Fences and warning signs are there for a reason. Darwinism working itself out.

It wouldn't even take a hyper, just a kick a** coaster of any type. This is why I want to see CF really treat VF as a 'growth park' like they say and add some attractions so VF does not become the next MiA.

CF used to share those numbers with shareholders in their annual report but have not since the Paramount purchase. So yeah, it is now just a guessing/estimation game with the broad numbers unfortunately.

We all know this so it is not surprising, If VF's water park was bigger I think VF has a chance to catch up to WOF but that is just my opinion, no concrete evidence. What I want to comment on is this capital matrix chart, I have never seen CF put one out before. Some of the things covered: 1) A Major thril ride/coaster addition for the next 5 years. - With KI getting Banshee last year, Carowinds getting Fury 325 this year and CP getting Valravn next year hopefully VF is in that 5 year mix. 2) Interactive Dark Rides being added over the next 4 years. - Since Quimet said ALL parks are getting one of these we know VF will have one in the next 4 years according to plan. 3) Waterpark product in the next 4 of 5 years. - VF could be slotted to finish the water park expansion if the new parking lot gets approved. 4) Ride removal for the next 3 straight years. - If the parking lot is approved Excalibur would be part of this. - The good news is CF has never taken more than 2 years to replace a removed coaster from one of their parks. In the next 4 years VF can expect a Dark Ride for sure (like all the other CF parks.). IF the new parking lot is approved (and since it is labeled 'New Water Park Guest Parking Lot' in the proposal) odds are VF will see the completion of the water park expansion that will expand the water park to reach the new parking lot. If the water park expansion happens then Excalibur gets removed......and is eventually replaced. The next 4 years could be good for VF with a guaranteed new dark ride and IF the new parking lot gets approved for water park expansion. With those 2 attractions being added and the removal of Excalibur VF could see a new coaster in the next 5 years. If these 3 things happen then I will finally believe CF really thinks VF is a 'growth park' as they claim.

^^ Agreed. The only thing Excalibur needs is to be demolished.

Thanks for sharing, fun read. VF used to have a Rotor, Flyers and a Bayern Curve back when I was a kid and real dinosaurs still walked the earth. Flat rides were a strength of VF in the 70's and 80's and after reading this article it is kind of cool to still hear it is one of the top flat parks in the CF chain. I have never been to CW so I was shocked to read they do not have a simple classic Scrambler ride. Very happy with the refurb on that and Tilt-O-Whirl last year. Also happy VF got the Monster parts from WOF to keep that one going too.

So true! Mediocrity all over the place. If it wasn't for Renegade it would be one sorry coaster line up. Fighting for the #1 coaster slot then would be WT and SV. I would like to see the Dino's removed and a coaster up in the front of the park like everyone else but until I see another CF park that had the Dino's before VF remove them then I am skeptical this would happen. I keep reading in theme park forums about that they are on 'contract' for a specified time but have never heard or read that from CF anywhere officially. Is this true or just another 'wishful thinking' rumor?

The park has said nothing official about removing Excalibur. But,the park has filed for a permit to move the service road between the water park and Excalibur further back along with building a new parking lot in the back of the park. In the proposal is a picture with the proposed new parking lot and it covers half of the space currently occupied by Excalibur. So if the proposal is approved Excalibur will be gone. As of now though it looks like Excalibur will be around at least another year. But one approval and one announcement could change that.

I would be fine if Larson Flyers were the park's only new attraction next year, however since they don't cost very much (I believe they are around $200,000), I hope they spend the rest of their budget for next year on making some more general improvements. This might just be me, but I feel that Valleyfair as a whole is still a little outdated compared to some other parks. I agree that VF is a little outdated compared to most other CF parks. I also agree if they get something like the Larson Flyers (cheap compared to other additions and would fit in perfect at VF) that they spend the rest of the budget on general improvements for the rest of the park. Even though adding a new big attraction is the best way to update a park because so many 'general improvements' come along with it (think Route 76 or how the new water slides have transformed that whole walk way from the new slides to around the corner at Mad Mouse for the better) VF does not have the luxury of being a bigger park and doing that often enough so the 'general improvement' years need to have an impact to make up for that for sure. I wonder how much that would be? Who wouldn't want to see a fresh coat of paint on High Roller among other things? To me it is interesting what they are spending on the new Haunt building. $100,000 for the shell, $20,000 for the facade and now I see today another permit for $432,592 on the interior of the building. Shakopee City inside building permit for Valleyfair's new Haunt building.

I am going to have to go with Maverick. It just has so much to offer during a run. LSM lift hill, pops of air, force full turns, inversions, a mid coaster launch, plus nice transitions and flow between elements along with a little water makes it a great coaster for me. Lots of fun! Millennium Force is raw power (1st drop) and raging smooth speed so it is a totally different coaster that I love too but I had to pick one. Hard to pick between Intamin's because I have never been on one yet that I didn't like, both are great rides to me.

So reading 'between the lines' on Quimet's statement I interpret it as; 'If you build new attractions people show up to check them out.'. Weird. Funny how that works out.