RCjunkie

That is so good to hear! If it is an Invert hopefully it is an original layout somewhere in halfway in between Patriot (3,018 ft long) and Raptor (3790 ft. long) which could be realistic if CF truly believes VF is a 'growth' park. Personally I would take a Raptor clone myself. An original layout at about 3400-3450 long would give it one more element (turn, loop, helix or whatever) and make it a truly unique layout. Here's to hoping!

I don't know if Valleyfair has awesome coasters, in my opinion they have one awesome coaster in Renegade and a rock solid one in Steel Venom but after that the park has average to below average coasters. Don't get me wrong, I still love the park though. My other opinion is that VF will not get a 9th coaster just yet, they will replace one first. VF needs quality over quantity. Plus, where do you plan to put a 9th coaster? I am guessing Excalibur will be removed for the next new coaster.

Interesting... I wonder when "official" Haunt announcements will be made. My guess would be sometime in the last 2 weeks of August. Carowinds has dropped hints that their new coaster will be announced on 8-21-2014 and I am assuming VF will be on that day or close to it also. This is also the same day the Minnesota State Fair opens and why not announce the water park expansion and Haunt that day to keep VF in the news as summer winds down. No matter which day they choose to announce it my guess is they will announce both additions so they can promote the Gold Pass for 2015 and say, "Come see the new Haunts this fall and the water park in 2015 at 2014 prices.".

Not really, the first day of Haunt on September 20th is less than 60 days away now. Not big on Haunt personally but it is exciting to see VF building new structures for it! It means they are spending money on trying to grow the park and that means better things for everyone who visits the park. With Buck Hill not doing their version of Haunt this year crowds should be a little bigger and with new attractions to experience this can only help the Haunt season this year and going forward.

Thanks for sharing Bmckenziee but where did you get this information for new Haunt attractions? I am not a big Haunt guy but this looks to be some nice additions if they were added to the park.

If VF does get a B&M I would prefer a Invert like almost everyone else here but after that I would prefer a floorless, wing and flyer in that order. A floorless provides more forces and a more thrilling ride than a flyer or winged coaster and VF needs a thrilling steel coaster. I like winged coasters and flyers about the same but would prefer a winged coaster because flyers take longer to load. If VF was a bigger park and had more coasters then a flyer might work but not right now in my opinion, the park has more pressing coaster needs. Carowinds is dropping hints it will make an announcement on 8-21-2014 for their new Giga coaster, I am wondering if VF will make their water park announcement that day or sometime that week also. I am curious to see what VF will get and how big it will be. Once we find out the details we will see how much CF thinks of VF as a 'growth' park.

From the Minneapolis newspaper StarTribune a short video of the new zip line at NU that will open next week. A little POV and third person views. It will play after the commercial. http://www.startribune.com/video/267687551.html#hpmfv

^ Since your friend is from Ohio he probably has been to KI and CP and hopefully VF does not disappoint him too much and you still have fun. I would like to go tomorrow but I have to work.

Just as busy as a Saturday day, nothing more or less. No more than 20-30 minute waits as usual. After the fireworks at 10 pm it starts to clear out so use the last 90 minutes wisely. You can see the fireworks from the Renegade queue pretty well so you might want to be in line around 9:45/9:55 pm there. On another note, summer is moving fast. Do any VF regulars in this thread want to get together for 3-4 hours and make a run at hitting all 8 coasters? I think it could be fun, post comments if you would be interested and what day or time you think would work best and we could set something up if we get enough interest.

The exact same thing happened at Valleyfair in 2010 with their wave pool and sent 26 to the hospital with them all being released within a few hours with no serious injuries. Hopefully that is the same situation here.

And I am old enough to remember when McDonald's fries were deep fried in beef tallow back in the 70's that made them taste so much better than today. Of course that came with a greater health cost to my arteries but damn did they taste good!

Remember to take a phone or camera for pictures if you find anything new.

^ Nothing that was not expected, but it is nice to see confirmation now that this area will be used for the water park expansion. With obvious markings like these along with all of the orange dots on the ground must mean they are getting reading for construction soon and my guess would be the day after Labor Day now. The announcement will probably come sometime in the 2nd half of August and it will be fun to get all the details of how big in scope and what this expansion will bring with it.

So true, they NEVER show any real rides from Valleyfair. They only show rides from other CF parks. This goes for both print billboards and TV commercials. Makes you wonder if someone could sue them for false advertising. Of course if they did show real rides from VF it would be one boring commercial after Renegade and Steel Venom. I get that you produce one commercial and just change the name in print to save money on production costs but when new commercials run year after year after year that show all these rides with inversions for VF and that the park has nothing like those rides plus has not had a new ride with inversions since 1980 it borders on the line of false advertising to me. It would be nice if just once the park would get a ride that CF would actually want to use in a company wide commercial and quit going on the cheap for this park just once.

^ No kidding, with that big graphic it means they have been thinking about it. Did not expect that. Guess I am not the only one who thinks that is the best ride in the park and that if it is not running then it is not worth going considering the 100's of times I have been there. Time to cut out of work early and get some laps in.

That's strange. I usually visit the park on weekdays during the summer months, and Excalibur almost always opens along with the rest of the park. Maybe it's just my luck. Or it may be my luck. When I am there on weekends it usually opens at 10:00 am but on weekdays it is always roped off when I visit with that sign that says it will open at 12:00 pm. Due to the rain and flooding I have only visited on weekends this year except on opening day. VF posted on their Facebook account, "Great news...Excalibur will open today, and we expect Renegade in the near future!". And as indicated in a post above that the VF Twitter account indicates that they are currently testing Renegade so this is good news.

Thanks for the update. I have not seen Excalibur open up at 10:00 am on a weekday in years, so long I cannot remember when the last time that happened. Good to see they are recovering from the flood, hopefully Renegade opens soon.

Just got an email from Valleyfair for season pass holders and this is what it read: "We know many people may have questions on how the regions flooding is affecting the park. The high water levels have affected three rides, Renegade, Excalibur and Thunder Canyon. All other areas of the park are open including Soak City Waterpark, Route 76, the Corkscrew, Planet Snoopy and more! The waters are receding and we hope to have these three rides open soon! Updates will be posted on our social media accounts and webpage." Hopefully they can get these rides open by the weekend.

Exciting news. Anytime there is more competition among manufacturers and new ideas moved forward park enthusiasts like us will be the real winners. Should be fun to watch them grow and ride their new creations.

No, no and more no. The only revamping of Excalibur should be demolition, don't waste anymore money on it.

Unfortunately it is not that easy because park borders a nature preserve. It is the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge which runs along the length of the park which also has the Minnesota River through it. It became a wildlife preserve in 1976 (the same year that the park opened) to prevent commercial development from further affecting the area. Between the national and local protections on this area it becomes a real uphill battle for the park to get anything done along those lines in dealing with the river. If the original park owners when building it in 1974 and 1975 filled in low spots or even built levee's along the river they probably could have done it with little or no problems before it came a preserve but since that was not done at the time the park more or less just has to do its best to deal with it.

Just some more pictures from the local CBS station channel 4. Since they are aerial shots they really show the perspective of how much flooding there is and how much the Minnesota River is overflowing. The river is supposed to crest today in that area so hopefully it start to subside. Going to be tough to get those rides and parking lot open before the 4th next week, if they even can. River in the back ground and how it has flowed into the parking lot. How close it is the front gate. Getting close to High Roller too. Poor Renegade. Another shot of Renegade. Excalibur. Might actually make the ride better. Excalibur again. Wonder if they have a log car from the old Flume ride laying around that they could use? Get well soon Renegade! Hopefully this does not damage any of the off season re-tracking that made you ride so nice this year.

Check out the pictures of the flood below. Grab a Snickers because this is going to take a while to recede. The entrance into the parking lot. At least what is left. Steel Venom queue with water in the parking lot right next to it.

The flood water from the river must be really covering the north end of the parking lot because VF on their Facebook site said additional parking is down the road at the horse racing track Canterbury Park and that free shuttles are running from there to the park.

This park looks so fun that I am starting to think that I should get off my rear end and actually get over there. Nice TR. One question though, why does everyone who rides with KT feels they have to be her seat belt with their arm? Is she too small to ride? I doubt it since they let her on but cannot figure it out. There are other pictures in other TR's on this trip also. Two examples below. Picture 2. Picture 1.