VF15

I don't necessarily think it's a waste. It will make that area of the park look much nicer, and bring more people to that area, since most of the few people at that area of the park are there just there to ride Steel Venom. I want a new coaster badly too, but this was probably more of a priority for the park. I think the new coaster won't be until 2016 because as of now, all signs are pointing to a 2015 Soak City expansion.

Route 76 looks like it's making progress, but I can't tell what that is in-between the flags. Maybe a large footer? Route 76 making progress...

Haven't been seeing much progress on Route 76 lately. Probably the frigid weather has been slowing things down. I guess it'll still be ready by opening day. I'm looking forward to visiting it this May.

He said in the video that he predicts Valleyfair could get the world's tallest B&M invert. I don't see that happening.

Has this person ever even been to Valleyfair? Clearly, he doesn't know what he's talking about. Let's recap: RMC Coaster: Obviously unlikely. However, I can see CF testing the waters with RMC on an Excalibur redo. B&M Flyer: Again unlikely. FLOORLESS: To date, CF has only ever bought one Floorless (hydra). Unlikely, but I wouldn't say impossible by any stretch of the imagination. STAND UP: No. Just....NO! GIGA: 275ft height limit. LAUNCHED: Possibly, but I think the next thing will be a multi-looper. Wing rider: if Six Flags in Chicago didn't have one, I'd say perhaps. Also if we already had an invert, we'd have a better chance. INVERT: this is where I put my money. Only CF park other than MiA not to have one. Yeah. I agree that most of those ideas aren't reasonable. I would be happy to see a B&M invert, but the "world's tallest invert" just doesn't sound like it would happen at a park like Valleyfair. A medium sized one would be just fine.

I said "interesting" because I don't really think that some of those ideas in the video are reasonable (ex. Wing rider, tallest invert, giga coaster, etc.).

Interesting video about someone's predictions for a new Valleyfair coaster: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC5BzfYfbQM

I think a possible reason for opening day being on a Friday is to make up for being closed on Sunday, June 8th for a private event. Personally, I don't think it's a great idea to have the park closed on a weekend day in the summer because I feel that a lot of people will go on June 8th and get turned away (most people seem to assume that the park is open every day in-between Memorial Day and Labor Day).

Valleyfair just posted it's operating schedule for 2014. Opening Day is on a Friday (May 16th), so that's interesting. Also, opening weekend is one weekend later than usual, but so is closing weekend. I like this idea because ValleyScare will be open on Halloween, and into November. https://www.valleyfair.com/hours-directions/valleyfair Also, I take back what I said earlier about Matt Ouimet and Cedar Fair. All of you were right about needing to build more family attractions, since the whole chain had been lacking in them until a few years ago. Still, Valleyfair needs a new coaster after the Soak City expansion is finished.

Ageed. You can't say Ouimet isn't concerned about thrill rides. Year #1- Gatekeeper. Regardless of thrill value. A $20m+, 4,000ft+ B&M is for thrill seekers more than anyone else. Let's not forget about CGA's GCI, either. Year #2-Banshee. See Gatekeeper comments Beyond that, Carowinds is rumored to have a giga coming. I don't think Ouimet has forgot about the thrill seekers, they just may not be his biggest priority. Yet! I didn't say that they completely forgot about thrill rides. I just feel that they have been overall family based recently, and that it might not be the best news for enthusiasts at parks like Valleyfair.

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. Another reason I feel us thrill seekers and coaster enthusiasts are getting left out is Matt Ouimet. Ever since he took over Cedar Fair, their parks have become much more family based. I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing, but I'm noticing a trend towards more family additions and fewer thrill rides (e.g., only new Cedar Fair roller coaster for next year is Banshee at KI), and this seems to really hurt the thrill ride community at smaller parks like Valleyfair, Michigan's Adventure, and California's Great America (they did just get Gold Striker, but it's still a "meh" park). Also, Cedar Point had five year period of no new coasters from 2008 to 2013 (Maverick and Gatekeeper), and it's usually a lot shorter, so I think that says something. Honestly, I love my home park, but it has so much wasted potential in the thrill ride category.

Although I would love to have a new coaster in 2015, Valleyfair needs a Soak City expansion more than anything. They haven't received any new slides for a very long time. Several communities in Minnesota have their own small water parks, so if Valleyfair wants to keep bringing people to Soak City, they really need some new slides. I believe that this is what they will be getting for 2015 because the IMAX theater, which was right near Soak City, has left a good area of land for an expansion. Plus, Valleyfairzone posted a story about the likely downfall of Hydroblaster, which would give even more room for something better.

This isn't really relevant to the recent posts about Route 76, but anyway... Whenever Valleyfair gets a new coaster, I think that it will be some sort of B&M, and I think that because from what I've seen and read, the two main coaster companies Cedar Fair has been going with recently are B&M and GCI, and we already have a GCI. Cedar Fair has basically parted ways with Intamin, so we probably wouldn't be getting something from them. As for a B&M, I think an inverted coaster or a floorless coaster would be possible. A wing coaster or a flying coaster would be cool, but I wouldn't count on it. Also, if Valleyfair has to get rid of a coaster to build a new one, it would probably be Excalibur because it is not very popular (it is always a walk-on), and a new coaster back there would bring more people to that area of the park. A lot of people have said that High Roller or Corkscrew should be removed for a new coaster, but a) there really isn't enough space to put even a small B&M in either place, and b) High Roller and Corkscrew are true Valleyfair classics. However, Valleyfair could remove Corkscrew, use the original ride area for the lift hill and brake runs, and then have the rest of the coaster take place over the midways (Manta at SeaWorld Orlando does an excellent job of this). Still, my choice for removal would be Excalibur.

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. Well, Wild Thing opened in 1996, and that was before bigger companies like B&M and Intamin made hypercoasters, so I really don't blame them for going with Morgan (Morgan hypercoasters are a lot smoother than Arrow hypercoasters). However, when you consider that $14 million for Wild Thing is the most that Valleyfair has ever spent on a roller coaster, and that most modern B&Ms cost $20 million+, I unfortunately feel that Valleyfair will go for something cheap when they finally get another coaster.