RCjunkie

It's not that everyone wants a B&M coaster, most on this thread just think that if VF does get a new coaster that it would probably be a B&M based on CF's friendly relationship with B&M over the last 5 years and that VF is one of the only two CF parks without a B&M coaster. It would be nice to see CF try a new manufacturer like Mack, Gerstlauer, S&S, Premier or someone else but I don't see them doing that with a smaller park like VF. Anything can happen though. Maybe they will surprise us.

A link to the story about how the TV show American Restoration restored a Tilt-A-Whirl car for the city of Fairbault, MN. The Tilt-A-Whirl was invented there in 1926 by Herb Sellner and built there until 2011. A classic fair and theme park ride. A text and video report at: http://www.kare11.com/story/life/2015/06/18/a-homecoming-like-no-other-in-faribault/28959659/?csp=nbcnews

Me too. It is shorter than most but just as popular as all other lazy rivers. If they get the new parking lot in back and build the water park up from where it is now to reach the new lot I would even like to see an entrance bridge to the gate that could go over an extended lazy river. Basically what they did with Fury 325 at CW but with a lazy river ride and of course on a much smaller scale but same idea.

A new 33ft. kiddy coaster was added to the Como Town park in St.Paul this week. Below are links to local papers with a story and video about the ride. Article: http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_28324262/como-towns-new-roller-coaster-roars-start Video: http://video.startribune.com/

The Dino's are not going anywhere though. They are still at other CF parks like KI and CP which have had them even longer and they are still there. Plus there is no announcement to remove them from any CF park. But if VF gets an additional parking lot in the back they can take out some parking spaces in the front to add a coaster and even redo the entrance if they want so I agree the next coaster will be in the front of the park. And with all CF parks getting a dark ride in the future I see the Amphitheater as the only viable area to build a building of that size without moving or removing other attractions. Anything though is possible if the new parking lot gets approved. That opens up many more options for the park to expand.

"Why did my Atari 2600 game have to suck so bad?" - Glad someone had the guts to ask this very important question from my childhood.

Interesting, yes. Good? No. It is a walk on for a reason.

Excalibur will eventually be gone. If the plan they submitted for approval to add another parking lot in the back is approved it will be gone this year. This has been in the works for a while, it is just a matter of time. They close Excalibur every year after the summer operating season, the only coaster in the park they do not keep open for Haunt. It is also the only coaster in the park not on the Fast Lane pass. Plus they removed the Excalibur soda station in the back next to the ride last year. And this year they still have yet to put the second train on the tracks which they have never done before either. Signs are everywhere that the end is near so if you want that credit I would get up here this year to be sure. It may last another year but I doubt it. SFGAm is a half way point between Sandusky and and Minneapolis and a nice park to visit. With Columbus not too far from Sandusky you could use SFGAm as a half way stopping point and get in another park if you wanted too if you decide to drive. Something to think about if you come visit.

Valleyfair: 1) Still waiting after 35 years to add a full circuit steel roller coaster with inversion(s) to the park. 2) Removing the original Colonel Omp Pa Pa as mascot of Valleyfair; could have existed along side Snoopy and friends. 3) Adding Excalibur or removing the Flume (Tie); your pick.

What yellow area are you talking about? I am just talking about the land between the new proposed parking lot and the water park which Excalibur sits on now along with the current frontage road. You would not have to fill in any more wetlands in that space and they could add more water park attractions there.

Not necessarily. The permit application is to prep the land back there and lay down a parking lot. It is a federal request since it affects wetlands and a nature preserve. Once/if approved they don't need federal approval to build on that land once it is prepared. They could easily file a building permit with the city to build an attraction after the approval. I am not saying it will happen but it could. We will know in the next 75-80 days one way or another.

It was due to maintenance issues, same thing with one at CP. At the end of it's run the ride was down about as much time as it was up and running. People really liked the ride, it was just too much work and money to keep it running.

I heard they removed that experience after the kids started drinking heavily at the end of their work day. What a neat and fun learning experience for kids.

Once we saw the new queue line for it this year I assumed it was staying put for a while. Saw him doing the same thing Saturday. Either a great leader or maybe they are that short on staff. He even had that broom in hand when I also saw him while riding Mad Mouse. He was checking out the new construction area for Haunt behind Mad Mouse. Thanks for the update and information. So your saying Excalibur may have some more operating time after this year if this plan is not approved? Bummer. Rode it again Saturday and it reminded me how I would not miss it at all. Next time ask him if he knows when they will receive an answer of whether they can proceed or not with their plan for the extra parking lot. It is expected he can't tell you. But then he says we will know once we see footings in place and then within two years a new coaster will be built. So there is hope is sounds like. But it also sounds like they are waiting to hear on their proposed plan for a new parking lot before proceeding or making any final decisions on something new. Thanks again for keeping us updated garyman6. And to all VF park goers this year make sure to look for any markings that look like they are spaced apart enough to be footings for supports.

Just checked the Shakopee city website to see if there were any new building permits for Valleyfair and there is one for a new Haunt building that was issued today. If you look at the valuation at the bottom of the form it has a value of $100,000. Things are looking very interesting for Valleyfair in the future. Tuesday's rumor/map and now this. The building permit for VF that was issued today for a new Haunt building.

You nailed it djoles! After the information that was released today your parking lot 'prediction/speculation' is now true. I would have never thought they would put that much money into that area of the park and move the service road but now this will all be happening. Sorry to doubt you before but it seemed very unrealistic at the time so my apologies. Also, I would like to ask....what else do you know? Has your contact in the physical plant shared any more information with you?

With the new expansion information about VF this statement is even more plausible and probable now.

A few observations after seeing this new map for physical changes to Valleyfair. 1) Working with the Army Corp of Engineers on filing in wetlands or building a bigger water dike (hard to tell from the map) to add more land to the park for building means Cedar Fair is actually serious about VF being a growth park. I had my doubts, but not anymore. This is no small task and they would not be doing it unless they had plans for that land. 2) Land availability was one of VF's biggest issues for expansion and it looks like they are doing all they can to fix that even though they are next to a nature preserve. 3) Since they are doing all this to put in a parking lot in the back (which will be great for the waterpark) and moving the service road they can REALLY expand the water park now. With the service road out of the way and Excalibur's loading station gone, then you could possibly remove Hurricane and Panic Falls now. This would give them a lot of land to work with to make this a REAL waterpark and add in a Tornado with other new slides or water attractions. You don't do all this work, open up a new parking lot and leave the waterpark the same. The East side of the water park is all new now (2009 and younger attractions). It is time for the West side to get fixed and this new map certainly points to that. 4) Obviously Excalibur's days are numbered and it will be gone as most of us expected. The good news is when Cedar Fair reomves a coaster from a park, history tells us they usually replace it the following year or the year after that at the latest. 5) I think all this work puts finishing the water park a priority over a new roller coaster but one of those cannot be far behind then either due to the removal of Excalibur. 6) For those who want the Excalibur credit and don't have it yet better get to the park soon. My guess is they start removing it in August just based on the scope of this project. My questions are (and please share your thoughts below): - Do they keep Thunder Canyon and make it part of the waterpark? I think that would be great and it would see many more riders this way. But if they remove it then that just means more land to add other attractions. - With a new parking lot in the back can they now remove some parking lot spaces up front to redesign the entrance and possibly add a coaster like at CP and Carowinds? I sure hope so. - Or do they put in a new coaster in the 'yellow' area on VF15's map? It may now be possible. With the service road moving back and Excalibur leaving this opens up so many possibilities for the park that were not possible before at all. This gets me excited to see what they do with it the next few years. Let the speculation begin!

^ Nice find. All I found was the 'after' pictures. And you can see where all the rocks are now at the bottom of the first drop was where that air hill was. And it was a pretty nice air time hill but was removed after the first 2 years of operation. Rocks where the old hill used to be.

^ Shaking in a wooden coaster is welcomed, fun and expected! Jarring or jolting, not so much. At least for me.

As long as you sit in the front row or any non-wheel seat, it really isn't that bad. Personally, my biggest problem with Excalibur is it's length. I'd probably like it better if it had another 500-800 feet of track, but in its current state, it's okay at best, and I would not be surprised if it we hear a closing announcement later this season. I agree with VF15, it really is not that bad. It is just not good and I think that is because of the design. Most do call the ride rough but I think it really is just 'jerky' and not rough. What I mean by that is they decided to use box car trains with a high center of gravity and run them through a hard figure eight. This combined with the 'half barrel' backed plastic seats which hold your lower torso still while your upper half flies around during the figure 8 your head and neck get 'jerked' around pretty good which most people call rough. If they would have used just open bench seating in the trains or a lower profile train this effect could have been minimized instead of accented. After that it does come down to the length of the track. With only 2400 feet of track, between a third and half of it is used in the figure eight so all the ride does is: drop hill, banked turn, figure 8 and then back to the station. They needed to add 600-800 more feet or just not use all that track for the figure 8 in a different way. Either way I think the ride could have been improved. And once they removed the air time hill at the bottom of the first hill that took away an element of the short ride and also had them trim the first hill at the top so the speed would be reduced that the hill used to do. Again, not a bad or painful ride but just not a good one. The figure 8 is probably one of the most intense experiences at the park after SV's launch and Rip Cord which I give it credit for. But with VF's limited space and the public's lack of interest in it I would not be surprised to see it go either. VF needs quality over quantity because it will never be a big park.

With CEO Quimet indicating ALL Cedar Fair parks will be getting a dark ride in the future and VF having limited area's to build I agree with VF15 that the amphitheater will be the place for a new dark ride building. I like your idea's though if they do not use that area for a dark ride. And I am totally on board with Enterprise getting refurbed for sure and adding some Larson Flyers because they would fit in so perfect with the ride mix at the park.

Renegade started to run rough during it's fifth season in 2012. In 2013 it got much rougher and started to have jack-hammer roughness in some places even causing a mild headache at times. Before 2014 they did some retracking which made the ride good again. Then this last off season they did even more re-tracking for 2015 and it is running very good now just like in 2007-2010. This seems to echo what everyone else is experiencing. GCI's rides seem to decline early and without some love in re-tracking right away they seem to go bad. I don't know enough about coaster maintenance to know if it is sustainable for parks to re-track them year after year or if that will cause them to shy away from purchasing GCI's in the future. 3-4 years ago I would have said no to this question right away but now I think it is a real good question as time goes by. It should be interesting over the next 5 years to see these CGI's come of age at 10 years and see how they are running: Thunderbird (2016), Kentucky Rumbler(2016), Troy (2017), Renegade (2017), Evil Knievel/American Thunder (2018), Terminator (2019), Prowler (2019) and El Toro (2019).

Only if we're lucky. Thanks and please do! I am curious to see this. Seriously, I am not taking a cheap shot at you but I am wondering how you took a picture of Excalibur but not of the activity in the parking lot.