RCjunkie

Xtreme Swing is a fantastic flat ride and the best flat ride in the park! And I doubt it is leaving anytime soon. Even though I am a coaster junkie at heart I like it better than Excalibur and would call it a tie between it and Cork Screw for overall fun factor. If it wasn't for Wild Thing's first drop I would even like it more than WT. Extreme Swing for me is a better total ride experience from start to finish than WT because once WT hits the turn around it gets very boring.

Exactly. Taller and faster does not necessarily mean better. I think Wild Thing is the perfect example of that. Totally. Renegade has a smaller lift hill, shorter track and runs 20 mph slower yet crushes Wild Thing for all around thrills and is a much more fun ride. Add another 400-500 ft. on to a Batman clone (just to add one more element or turn to make it slightly different) and it would become the most thrilling ride at VF. #BringSomethingThrillingToVF

Testify! Hallelujah! Keep preaching the gospel. Let's just hope after 9-10 years when the park gets a new coaster that CF does not treat VF like a red headed step child. The park could use a good investment in something thrilling.

From the VF Facebook page we can see the slide supports are really coming along today. Water Slide supports.

Now major US museums are banning selfie sticks to protect art works (yes, some morons have actually touched pieces of art work with them when trying to take a selfie). Now all theme parks need to do is put up art at the front gate and claim the same thing. http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/museums-ban-selfie-sticks/

^ I totally agree. CF must leave it up to the park on how what extent they use their website, blogs, Facebook, Twitter etc. for the park to interact with their customers because all of the 11 parks are managed so differently and at different levels. CP and KI really use their website and social media in a big way compared to the other parks in the chain.

I agree and hope the trend continues with the next coaster. I like your positive outlook on Excalibur. I'm hoping this year an announcement will happen indicating this will be the last time to ride it due to it being replaced the following year.

My wish list is pretty much the same as VF15's. A Floorless or Invert works for me, pure fantasy would be a Maverick like Intamin. I would just use the last $2 million for restoration of the Carousel (just because it is my guess that the $50 million dedicated to Carowinds does not include general maintenance). Maybe it is because I am just old but that Carousel is a classic, built in 1925 and was the one ride that came from the previous Excelsior park before it closed down creating a market for VF to be built. Plus I just think that for about 90% of people their first ride as a small child is on a Carousel and every park needs one because of that in my opinion. Plus they just don't make them like that anymore with the real wooden horses and I would like to see that part of park history preserved for as long as possible.

I really like them, it gives me another option when visiting a park on how I want to spend my time. Maybe I am lucky but a Fast Pass being used by other people when I don't have one has usually only delayed me getting on a ride for one cycle and never more than 2 cycles. Also I have yet for it to 'affect me' like more than twice in one day during a visit to a park. Until that changes I am all for them.

^ They are going to have to remove the old slides on the other half of the park to create more room. Just like they removed Hydro Blaster (even though that was external to the water park it still was adjacent to it so the same idea.). Looping Starship can be re-located also to create more room.

Most of what I would have suggested has been mentioned here already so run with that. You can tell their Marketing Director to call the Marketing Director at CP and ask them about what they do for coaster walk backs, camp outs and winter tours to get some ideas of what already works and how to do it. You could suggest to do a winter walk through this year to check the park out in winter and see the progress on the new slides. From that they could judge by feedback from those who show up and by how many that show up if they should do something more in the summer. I would definitely be interested in any behind the scenes tours of the park.

My home park is VF and it has lost a little luster for me but what do you expect when I visit the place a dozen times in a year because I only live 15-20 minutes away. I still enjoy going but just cannot stay longer than 4-5 hours unless I am with a big group or someone who has never visited the park before. This is just due to my familiarity with the park. The good news is that because of this it makes you want to travel to other parks and see what they have to offer.

^ Also per the concept art the two tallest slides will be blue and light blue with alternating sections of both colors from top to bottom. It does not look like those slide parts (plus more of the colors shown) have arrived yet so it should look even more colorful when done.

Any three or four color combination of the following colors: blue, light blue, dark blue, purple, white or silver and it would be called The Blizzard or Polar Vortex. I could also support reviving an old coaster name from the park and call it 'Wild Rails', that way you could use any color combination you wanted to support that name with theming colors.

There only B&M's best ride Exactly! At least when done right like Banshee and Raptor.

if you are working there again this summer keep your eyes wide open and report here what you see. If VF is getting a new coaster you will probably be one of the first to know by seeing construction markings sometime in late July or early August. If a new coaster also involves removing an older one then we will see markings even earlier than that. If a new coaster is coming in 2016 I am sure we will see other signs of it happening before they make the official announcement so be on the lookout for sure.

What are you talking about when saying "One of the only"? Over half of CF's 11 parks do NOT have a Wind Seeker.

Let us know if you get anything because I am just as curious. The Sandusky Register is not some fanboy amusement park site that doesn't run articles unless it really thinks it has something. Are they right all the time? Nope. But they are right more often than they are wrong and have some credibility due to their past reports and articles about the biggest thing in Sandusky. If true this does not necessarily mean that VF will not get a new coaster in 2016. CP is the flagship park that is always adding new attractions (along with CW) while other parks in the chain still get big attractions during the same year. If it is true it just reinforces that the rich just keep getting richer.

The flooding happens every year in April and sometimes May but rarely affects open operations of the park. In 38 years that was only the third time I have seen it affect park operations. And this was the longest time is affected operations and happened latest in the season that I have ever seen. Last year was a record. And unless we see that happen more often it will probably take another 38 years for it to be this bad again. Until this is happening every 1-3 years I don't think CF is too concerned, they have dealt with it before and will again. If you raised the tunnel you would have to raise the service road entrance road also. That road used to be the back of the park and nothing was beyond it until 1987 when they put TC in. Putting a tunnel in was much cheaper than raising that area up to put in a tunnel and raise the road.

^ Too close to call. You will have to get Vegas involved to set a line on that bet.

The ride premiered at the State Fair. Yes it did and VF opened in 1976. Just saying that is was good that VF refurbished theirs last year since it was 38 years old and looking ugly. Since it was invented in this state it was just nice that the park now has a very good looking one to represent.

VF posted this on their Facebook account. It is an article about how the Tilt-A-Whirl was invented by a guy here in Minnesota 88 years ago today. I never knew this so thought I would share in case others didn't know either. Good thing VF they just refurbished theirs last year. http://www.startribune.com/local/285725681.html

^^ Thanks for posting those pictures! I have never seen so many off season pictures of dismantled rides and the maintenance being done to them for VF. Very cool to see the wheel carriages for Steel Venom being worked on. Thanks for sharing with us who don't get the opportunity to take pictures of the park like this. Really liked the shot of the Renegade break run. As just a visitor to the park I never get to see that angle. Seeing this gets me excited for opening day, only 136 more days.

Hate to tell you this, but in the business word this is just a polite way of saying "no chance in hell" I have to disagree! Mr. Frazier has flat out told me "no" or "I can't go there" many times when asked a question. He really does not beat around the bush. He is a friend of mine and I don't believe he would purposely mislead me unless he had a really good reason and I was asking too direct of a question. some times I just want to pat you on the head and say "who's a good boy?" When was the last time you called the GM of Valleyfair and he asked you to come out and walk the park with him? Oh, that's right.....never.

They have to put those water pumps and filters some where for the new slides and splash pad to work properly. That is my guess as to why they are digging there.