RCjunkie

As usual, thanks for the entertaining trip report Chuck. I was surprised when you mentioned that I-305 was only running one train during Haunt. I was at Valleyfair on Friday night and as usual like any other Haunt night Wild Thing was running two trains. I just figured all CF parks had their most popular coaster at every park running two trains if little old VF was doing it. It's just not right to have I-305 only running one train when Wild Thing is running two.

Great picture of Griffon from the top. Thanks for sharing.

That's the one! Boy, that seems like a million years ago. I lived in DInkytown and St. Louis Park between 1988 and 1991. Unfortunately is was a million years ago, when did I get old? Since you were here for four years and lived in Dinkytown my guess is you are a University of Minnesota graduate? And if you ever come back you can still go to Kahn's. They have added two more restaurants in the suburbs since you went to the one in Roseville. Still locally owned and not a chain so the food is still good. Were you here during the 1991 Halloween blizzard?

"But first we stopped for lunch at this Mongolian Barbecue place. Meh. Not as good as the one I used to go to in Minneapolis." Kahn's Mongolian by any chance?

Using it for the first time and it is much faster to view and respond in forums than Safari or Chrome. Will be using this going forward.

All of these are valid points and right on. I agree that a water park expansion or a new coaster are what the park needs next. Unlike you I am 50/50 on which should happen first but I would welcome either one. That being said what do other people think about the movement of rides (Scrambler and Tilt-a-Whirl) along with the movement of the old picnic area in the last 2 years? It looks like CF is preparing for a new addition of some sort with all this recent movement. So the question I am asking is what do you think they will add next and where? - If you add a coaster do you remove High Roller and put it there along with all the new room next to where the picnic area was? Or just put it next to High Roller? - Do you remove Corkscrew and use the new adjacent area provided by the Scrambler move with the 'former' Corkscrew area? Maybe you could also take out a few game booths next to Scrambler for even more room when combined with the Corkscrew area? I don't think this will happen because they just repainted Corkscrew and it fits pretty well with Camp Snoopy now but it's definitely a possibility. - For a water park expansion do you remove the IMAX theater and/or re-locate/remove the Looping Starship? Or do you remove the the Hydro Blaster and the old corporate food area across from Mad Mouse to create room that way for the water park? And with Tilt-a-Whirl moving you could move the Wild Thing photo both and exit queue to that area creating more, although small, space next to the water park? - If they add a new coaster do you remove Excalibur? I don't know the operating costs of this ride but when you close one of your coasters for Haunt and leave all the other ones open it cannot be that popular anymore and I don't know if it's worth the operating expense to keep it.Go ahead and comment and let me know your thoughts because all this movement in the last 2 years indicates we are getting something in the near future (1-3 years).

The former Scrambler and Tilt-A-Whirl spots would be very tight fits, especially in the Tilt-A-Whirl spot with Wild Thing so close. If they were going to add a Windseeker my guess is they would use the spot that the now defunct ampitheather sits on because it has more space than the other two sites you mentioned. Let's also hope the park does not get one of these, it has more pressing needs like a water park addition and a new coaster. If the park is going to get a 300 ft. ride that meets the requirements of the near by Flying Cloud airport let's hope it's something much more fun like a Giga coaster. One can dream right?

"Disneyland craps all over Disney World. I love Disneyland and I hate Disney World. Period. You may feel differently. That's fine. I respect your right to be wrong." Guess I am only half wrong since I hate both of those over hyped parks.

I forgot about that. Your right, it was a significant investment with the Wave Pool but so easy to forget because that just brought the water park up to 'average' for a brief moment and now it is in need of another upgrade due to what other water parks have done in the last 3-5 years.

Your forgetting the 2011 Camp Snoopy improvement to the kiddie area in 2011. They spent $11 million on the kids section which now looks great compared to the old dated kids area.

This is an unexpected (like G$ Kurt indicated) but a much welcomed addition to the park. I like that they are bringing in a family ride because it addresses a need at the park, another family coaster. The only other family coaster (Mad Mouse) usually has long lines do to popularity and the limitation of only seating 4 to a car which causes the line to crawl. Plus the expansion does a few other things: - It really tightens up that area which does feel disconnected and barren right now. Steel Venom and Rip Cord will have some new friends and it will make better use of all that land and fit in nicely with the new picnic area that was built last year from the looks of the art work. - It updates the Tilt-A-Whril and Scrambler. Both classic rides that opened with the park. With the updated LED lights and refurbs it reinforces the strength of the park (if it has one) which is flat rides, this is not SFMM. Too bad Chaos did not work out at the park. - It opens up the areas from where the Scrambler and Tilt-A-Whirl used to be. With Scrambler moved you have that area open now which is adjacent to the games row which could be reduced pretty easily and add something there. -It brings back a very popular and original ride that opened with the park in Antique Autos. Under the Quimet era it seems new rides and areas are more themed at CF parks since his takeover. Naming the area Route 76 (the year VF was born) and naming the coaster Northern Lights (which once you get north of the Twin Cities you can really see at night when they happen) brings a local/regional flavor to the park. Smart decisions all around by CF on this one, this should really add to the park. Thanks CF! Hopefully the next addition will be a major coaster for thrill seekers because we have been neglected for a while and they have focused on family areas lately (Camp Snoopy and now Route 76). If Banshee turns out to be a good invert that would be a great fit for this park because we have not had a new coaster with an invert since Corkscrew in 1980. Or since we are a smaller volume park maybe CF should test an Intamin Lite out here and bring the first one to the U.S. OK, yes, I am dreaming now and should just be happy with what the park just announced.

With them doing more work in area 1 again this year that may happen. If not this year then maybe next year or the one after. I am curious to see what they do with the old amphitheater in area 1 that has not been on the park map the last 2 years. Pretty big foot print there. I think it would be a good place to relocate the Pirate Ship, tear down the IMAX theater next to Pirate Ship so they could expand the water park. Of course I would welcome a new flat ride or something there too.

I completely agree. I respect you ValleyfairFan, you are a fan of Valleyfair and the Cubs so that must be tough. Every year around August you usually have to utter the mantra, "There is always hope for next year..." for both of those interests.

That makes sense because the one I saw out on Saturday looked immaculate and brand new, I just assumed it was restored because it looked so good. You were right about a change coming and also about 'not to get too excited' so whatever that 'something' is telling you about them being brand new cars is probably 100% correct. Thanks for sharing. It brings back a classic ride and makes better use of the park's space over by Steel Venom and the new picnic area so it improves the park and I'm all for it. But with no water park addition, no new thrill ride since 2007 and all the other CF parks (Except MiA so far) announcing new attractions for next year CF really needs to step up for VF in 2015 and bring the park something substantial because it is getting rather old after the last 3 years of basically getting nothing. Dino's don't count! Even the closest park in the CF chain in terms of revenue which is Worlds of Fun has received Prowler (2009), Planet Snoopy (2011), Waterpark Expansion (2013) and Steelhawk for (2014) without VF getting anything since 2007 except Planet Snoopy (2011).

Not necessarily . . . An Antique Autos vehicle was spotted by the Go-Karts in the past few hours. (Keep in mind they were removed last year — Hint Hint at a Resurrection) I saw that yesterday, they have a shiny Antique Auto car on the edge of the Go-Kart track in the grass under the Wild Thing turn around. They also had wooden pallets dropped on the track and around it. They were shrink wrapped with something on all of them but I could not tell what they were for sure, they looked like bricks that you would use for landscaping and I counted a dozen of them that I could see. VF posted on Facebook last week to "Come out and get your last ride on the Go-Karts" so I guess that was their hint at this change. That combined with the fact that there was not a new head stone for the Antique Auto's in the ride grave yard set up for Haunt this year confirms it! If this does turn out to be true I think it is a good move to bring the AA's back which were more popular than the Go-Karts. It would be nice to have a ride that opened with the park back from the dead with a new track layout and restored cars to freshen it up even though it was at the expense of losing all of the trees that used to surround the old track which the Dino's took over. This would be a time where something is definitely better than nothing and better than just 'General Improvements' for sure but this just doesn't excite me to renew my season pass next year. As the mantra for VF goes, "Maybe next year...".

Whatever type of Giga coaster they decide to put in the park it is the biggest part of the $50 million investment over 3 years to attract 500,000 more visitors a year. If they do it right (hopefully Intamin ) and they attract that many more customers a year that will provide the future revenue to refresh those areas you talk about. I got the 500,000 visitors from www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/outside_the_loop/2013/09/carowinds-could-get-city-county.html

Nothing at all. If they have not announced anything new for 2014 by now with no sight of survey makers there is no way there will be any major addition to the park. With winter coming they would have had to start construction already if it was something major. G$ Kurt in a few posts ago indicates he knows we will be getting at least some minor change but I will believe it when I see it. Valleyfair, CF's park of 'General Improvements'.

Good question, it would be interesting to know. CF must get enough to make it worth their time because they have kept this relationship up over the years and they list them on their main site as one of their 13 parks. In their quarterly reports all I have been able to find for revenue is their pie charts with no dollar values assigned to it but just a graphic representation of how much each park contributed to the whole piece of the revenue pie. And they don't split out their 'fee' for running the place or how much of a percentage of sales (if any) that they get towards revenue. If anyone knows where to find this information please let me know because I too am curious. I just read the quarterly reports for CF, do people who own stock get a more detailed picture?

I totally agree. Cedar Fair should relocate Wild Thing to this park. It's already green and would fit in with the heavy foliage surroundings. Perfect fit. Then VF could get a new Hyper.

Testify! Hallelujah! Spread the gospel. Great close up pictures of Maverick and the rest of the rides. Thank you for sharing PKI.

Nice report(s), thanks for posting and sharing your view from the trip. Especially the behind the scene shots of MF that I have not seen from those angles. Glad you enjoyed Cedar Point as much as you thought you would after coming all that way. Now that you have seen the 'Cedar' part at Cedar Point you can come and visit the 'Fair" part at Valleyfair. Not really, the only thing VF has over CP is a better wooden coaster and less garbage cans.

Defintely my favorite non-coaster ride at VF too.

No on VF and MIA announcing anything new for next year, at least not yet. And yes, it does seems a lot of the time that Cedar Fair (Cedar(Un)Fair to these 2 parks) has forgotten these parks exist. But when your the runt of the revenue generators for the chain you get treated the like the red headed step child of the family.

No worries, I just copied the URL and watched it from there. Thanks for posting the nostalgia. A pretty nice video for 1999 and Excalibur's 10th anniversary.

Good to hear MiA did not make their announcement until December last year so there is some hope then. Usually VF has made their announcements by Labor Day. Good to hear about the Q3 call with CEO Quimet. A water park expansion is exactly what this park needs next. Ever since the Camp Snoopy addition in 2011 crowds, especially families, have increased at the park and the water park is always packed on a nice day now. With local cities adding water parks that have wave runners and slides VF needs to step up to stay ahead and keep the crowds coming. Something like WOF got last year for their water park or what Dorney Park will receive this year would be nice. "....Aside from business, as Robb says, crazy things have happened in this industry. Anything can be unpredictable..." The mantra of anyone who has a home park with no new announcements for the next year.