VF15

I was right. Go to the Valleyfair Facebook page, and enjoy reading all of the whining complaints about today: https://www.facebook.com/valleyfair Sounds like some good plans for the park. They're probably moving those buildings back to make room for future expansion. I don't care for Halloween Haunt stuff, but I guess I wouldn't mind permanent structures. I knew Valleyfair isn't going to get a giant B&M invert, but I still don't think it's unreasonable to hope for a Patriot or Talon-like invert.

Eating

I have no idea how much it costs to rent out an amusement park, but it has to be a lot of money. I think it's big companies that rent out the park. For example, McDonalds rents out Six Flags Great America for a day in September every year (I know this because I know some people that work for McDonalds). As for Bring-a-Friend days, the park posts the dates on the website and social media shortly before they happen, so just pay attention for those. I believe the next one is on Father's Day, June 15th. On a side note, with the park being closed for a private event today, I wonder if the park will get blacklash from it, similar to what happened at Cedar Point yesterday. I know this date has been on the calendar for months, but not everyone checks the website, and just assumes the park is open any day between Memorial Day and Labor Day. I'm sure some entitled people will show up and act like "I drove 4 hours to get here! I should be able to do whatever I want!"

Hades 360 - Mount Olympus

...you feel jealous when your family or friends tell you about their trip to a park that you weren't with them for. (I'm guilty of this, as I was jealous when my cousin told me about her trip to Silver Dollar City.)

Saw this on CP's Facebook page: Early this morning, the City of Sandusky experienced a water main break on the main line that supplies water to Cedar Point. The City of Sandusky is currently working to repair the system. Without our normal water supply, and due to safety concerns, the park is unable to open today. All guest tickets will be honored on future dates this season. Please visit cedarpoint.com for the latest updates.

On the Facebook page for ABC 7 Chicago, there's a post about Goliath's station fire, and the amount of GP comments on there claiming that the ride is unsafe is absolutely ridiculous.

Gee, is this ride ever going to open? I know incidents like this can't be helped, but at this point in time, it is starting to get ridiculous. At least the coaster itself wasn't harmed.

Firehawk - Kings Island

McDonalds

Actor

Boomerang - Various parks

I've actually never been on Looping Starship, mainly because I've never heard a positive review of the thing, and for that reason, I'd rather see it get removed completely. It would give them more room to play with for the Soak City expansion. As for Michigan's Adventure, they deserve a quality thrill ride more than Valleyfair does, so I think Looping Starship should just go straight to the junkyard.

White Water West manufactured the slide packages that came to Dorney Park and Worlds of Fun this year and last year respectively, so I would not be surprised if VF gets the same thing. Considering how spread out these orange markers are, we may see more than just a slide package. The latest rumor from Screamscape: The latest rumors regarding the 2015 addition for Valleyfair say that the park’s focus will almost entirely be on the waterpark that year. More than just adding a few new things… apparently this will be a much more extreme makeover of the entire waterpark experience. Who knows… they could even re-brand it under a new name to get more attention, though it already carries the chain’s current popular ‘Soak City’ brand name, unless they want to transform it into a Boomerang Bay as was done with a few of the old Paramount Park waterparks several years ago.

Zeus - Mount Olympus

This question is a bit off topic from the Goliath conversations, but I'll likely be visiting Six Flags Great America on Monday, August 11th. How bad should I expect the lines to be? Last year, I visited on Monday, July 29th, and the shortest line I waited in all day was about 30 minutes for V2, and the longest line was 90 minutes for Superman: Ultimate Flight (which should have been shorter; it was down for ~15 minutes). I'm hoping it will be a little less busy, but you SFGAm locals know more about the park than I do. Would you recommend me getting a Flash Pass, and if so, which level should it be? I should be able to ride Goliath plenty of times because of the Single Rider line, but the other coasters don't have one. Any input is appreciated.

Doctor Who

I saw these photos on the Valleyfairzone Twitter page. It appears that there are orange marks in several areas close to Soak City, including near a nearby building, near the former Hydroblaster spot, and in Excalibur's queue. At this point, I think the park is just screaming "2015 Soak City Expansion". If they put a mark right near one of those buildings, perhaps a waterslide's top will be built over the park midways. I'd rather have Excalibur's land used for a new coaster if it ends up getting removed, but whatever happens happens. If the waterpark expansion ends up stretching out to all these points, then we could be looking at a truly new waterpark next year.

Cobra Roll

I haven't done a trip report yet on here, so I felt that today would be a perfect day to make my first one. Since it's my first TR, feel free to tell me what I could do better for next time. It was overall a great day at the park. The crowds weren't too bad, and most of them were school groups. The weather was nice, not too hot or humid. The coasters, in general, seemed to get better as the day went on. Operations were okay, but I've seen this park do better. One thing I forgot to take a picture of was a bunch of red flag markers near the volleyball courts. They had Xcel Energy labels on them. While nothing is certain at this point, this increases my confidence in the waterpark expansion taking place there for next year. I heard a few good ones from the GP today. -In the Renegade queue - Elementary school boy: "I love wood rides! You're more likely to fall out on them!" -On the Wild Thing brake run - Girl 1: "My favorite ride is the Cat Trap!", Girl 2: It's called the Mouse Trap, you *******!" -Going up Corkscrew's lift hill - Elementary school girl: "Corkscrew is a larger version of Rock Bottom Plunge." Anyways, on to the photos... The front entrance of the park at the beginning of the day. Snoopy welcomes us. Rotating Antique Autos car and Route 76 logo. One of the many trash cans at Valleyfair. Rode Northern Lights for the first time. It exceeded my expectations. Its not something I'd wait in a long line for, but it was fun. Steel Venom in action. It was running great as usual. Dear Amphitheater, Please get removed to make way for something useful. Sincerely, VF15 The Wave. Reminds me of a movie I've seen it in. Rode Corkscrew once. Nothing different from last time. Wild Thing heading up the lift hill. It was kind of sluggish in the morning, but the airtime really turned on in the afternoon. Wild Thing going down the drop. Excalibur is usually bumpy, but today it was flat out rough. Not as good as it usually is. Power Tower from a distance. High Roller was great on opening weekend, but today it was just okay. Renegade was flippin' amazing today. The airtime, the Gs, and the laterals were awesome. Renegade is my #1 all-time favorite wooden coaster, and it's that way for a reason. Renegade and Excalibur in the distance. This is suspicious. I saw this near the old dining patio. What could it mean? The new performance area where Scrambler used to be. The sign near the front with the new Route 76 info. Steel Venom and Wild Thing in action. Bye bye Valleyfair. See you later.

I was at Valleyfair today for a few hours, and the longest I waited was about 25 minutes for Renegade. I can imagine that Friday will be slightly busier since it is closer to the weekend. Ride Corkscrew and High Roller first, as they can quickly produce lines that make it not worth waiting. After that, go to Renegade and get a few laps on it because they don't put on the second train until around noon. Excalibur won't be a problem, as it's always a walk on. I'd only ride Mad Mouse if it's a walk-on, or if you desperately want the credit. Wild Thing and Steel Venom shouldn't be any longer than a 20 minute wait. Keep in mind that if you have a gold or platinum pass, you can enter Route 76 at 9:30, before the GP gets in. Hope you have a good time.

Cars

Actually, I saw this recently on the City of Shakopee website. Looks like VF wants to get an electronic sign. There are some pros and cons to a new sign. It would be a good upgrade for the park, as most other Cedar Fair parks have an electronic sign. The current sign is one thing that helps Valleyfair retain it's unique charm, but the park has unfortunately lost some of that charm in recent years, and a new sign would contribute to that. Still, I'll probably be okay with whatever happens.

Dragon Challenge (Chinese Fireball) at IOA. It's a bit extreme for a first inverting coaster, but I'm definitely glad I went on it.

There's this iPhone app called RideHopper, and it basically allows anyone to submit a wait time for a given ride at given park. It has most of the major parks in most countries, as well as a bunch of smaller parks. The problem is that it is always empty for most parks on there, probably because it's not very popular. If more people downloaded it and used it, it would be a much more useful app, but until then, I'll probably still be seeing a lot of stuff like this...