RCjunkie

There are a ton of things that could be happening at VF in the next five years. Did they relocate Scrambler so they could relocate Enterprise to that location so they can put: A. new coaster, flume B: Ferris wheel, THE WAVE (to add to the room created for a CS replacement) there once amphitheater goes. I'm really curious to see what happens in the back. A soak city expansion is coming sooner than later. I really don't know if Excalibur will be spared. Should be interesting!

X-flight and Gatekeeper are the only Wing riders I have been on and I would also have to choose Gatekeeper over X-flight because of the location. It is next to the water and now defines the entire entrance to the park. It looks great but just rides OK, just not thrilling enough for me. On a 10 scale I would give both a 6.5 but that's me.

^ I think I enjoy speculating the future of Valleyfair just as much as you. Especially with all the ride relocations and the new Route 76 addition catching me by surprise. I am just not as optimistic as you are in what CF will bring to the park in the future. It's probably because I have been alive the entire time the park has been opened and little jaded by the way CF has treated VF over all the years compared to most of their other parks. My biggest fear is after the water park expansion VF will get a B&M Winged Coaster when I think there are better coasters that could be added to the park instead. Hopefully I am wrong.

^ After today it's not dirt anymore. Shot from the park webcam today of that dirt patch from the opposite side. Winter has now begun.

Testify! CP does need some 'legit' wood for a park of that caliber. It's the one area where the smaller CF parks GA, VF and WOF are better than CP due to their GCI coasters. I would hope CP would go big as usual and get a record breaking RMC to top Goliath at SFGA.

VF just installed it's first webcam. Guess the park finally made the big time! It is a construction cam for the new Route 76 area. You can find it on their main web page under Online Fun.

Sorry to hear your updates suck most of the enjoyment out of your experience, thankfully for the rest of us you have not let that affect your reports. They are still very fun and informative to read. Hopefully in the future you can find a better balance to enjoy it a little more. From my standpoint it is MUCH APPRECIATED that you do make the effort to make us 'feel we are there' because it pays off in great coverage.

Valleyfair just posted two new pictures associated with the new Route 76 addition. A shot of the footings for the new Northern Lights Disk-O-Coaster. This is the spot where the relocated Tilt-A-Whirl will go. Notice how they removed the queue line rails for Steel Venom. Interesting, cannot wait to see how they redesign all that to fit in with this area now with the new rides.

Maybe if I was 12 again but definitely not now. Just cannot imagine doing that so many times in a row without getting motion sickness. Thanks for sharing though, interesting to see for sure.

The video for this coaster makes any Corkscrew look like a good ride.

Nice TR. It had pictures of pizza, cupcakes, broadway and great angles of the parade. Thank you for only mentioning your testicles and not providing pictures of them.

I was thinking the same thing. And since I'm going down the VF nostalgic road I would also like to ride the old Caterpillar (before it was called SuperCat). Back then it had a canopy that would open and close multiple times during a ride cycle and cover the trains.

That is their best feature, they are comfortable and roomy for sure. After that not too much excitement, old school design that would probably be better on a older wooden coaster. I'm sure they are appreciated though if you are Coasting for Kids and on your 30th lap in a row.

Try to keep it to a minimum: - Wallet (Season pass, Credit Cards, cash and ID) -Keys -Sunglasses with strap (Most important in my tiny world). -iPhone **Point and shoot camera only if I am doing a TR. *** It will be interesting to see if more parks copy the Disney model of wrist bands because then I could dump the wallet too.

I would love the B&M trains on Wild Thing but VF doesn't not get that kind of treatment. The best the park could hope for is a new Morgan designed train to update them, B&M trains would cost too much. 'Bathtub on wheels' is classic, never heard that phrase before but it definitely describes the feel when you sit in and ride a Morgan Hyper train.

SD 2000 got B&M trains. If Morgan brought another ride to VF they should design some new Morgan trains for Wild Thing as part of the deal. Personally I hope this never happens.

I don't even dream or fantasize that big. An RMC and a GCI in one park would be just too good to be true.

I think they will go with something cheap too. I would rather they not add a new coaster until they have a budget of $20 million even if that means more years without a new coaster as they save up more capital for an expenditure that large. I would like to see what an investment that big would bring in additional attendance to the park. Like when Wild Thing helped the park hit it first 1 million visitor year. But unlike CF I don't have to answer to shareholders for return on investment so that's easy for me to say.

And if Morgan does come back to add a ride maybe they could also update and design some new trains for Wild Thing similar to what happened with Steel Dragon 2000 as part of the package. Kind of like what Zamperla is doing with selling the park Northern Lights plus refurbishing Scrambler and Tilt-A-Whirl for next year. It will be interesting to see how Lighting Run turns out, hopefully it's a fun ride.

Great job capturing all the lights and rides at night. Thanks for the TR.

I like the new format better than last years, just as informative but more entertaining and better paced due to editing. Thanks for your efforts in all the coverage. Too bad Intamin could not have been available earlier to you. And I just I love hearing that RMC is fully booked.

"This is Jason Townsend. He is the "Robb Alvey" of NASASocial. Great guy. Filled with information. He is the fearless leader who goes out of his way to make sure everyone else has a good time and is taken care of. It's great to see this from the other side of the coin. He does an awesome job. Better than I do on our tours, to be honest! (He has WAAAAY more patience!) " - But did he use the phrase 'Twisty Goodness' anytime during the visit? Did he get you ERT on Maven? No. Don't cut your yourself short. Your good enough, smart enough, and doggone it, people like you.

The bad news is that most parks in North America are in their off season. The good news? That means IAAPA coverage by TPR! Looking forward to the updates. Going to be hard for you to top all the great interviews from last year but good luck.

Thanks for the TR and pictures, really liked the illuminated ears. But Christmas decorations, people in shorts and no snow just doesn't look or feel right to me. Then again, I am biased (and a little jealous) due to living in the Great White North.

So true. The length of track is one of the biggest peeves I have with the coaster among others. Adding track could have made this ride better for sure because it is so short but that is just CF treating VF like a red headed step child and not bringing the cash again. They went cheap on Wild Thing (Morgan) too compared to other Hyper coasters built by other companies. This left the park with a Hyper that is the biggest signature ride in the park but after the first drop hill is pretty average and boring. Even though I really like the ride and am happy Steel Venom is at the park it is VF's only Intamin ride and it is just an Impulse coaster and not a full loop one. Going on the cheap again. I don't understand how CF expects to grow attendance at VF when they always seem to go on the cheap side for this park. Renegade is a high quality ride but I think the park just got lucky that CF decided to try it's first GCI because the price was right ($7.5 million) and the park was just fortunate that GCI makes solid coasters. Maybe someday they will make an investment on a coaster that would have guests actually wanting to visit the park more than once a summer because the ride experience is that good.