VF15

Diamondback - Kings Island

Maybe they'll just be using the arcade for some new Haunt maze?

I agree that the park needs many other things before an extended lazy river, it's just something I'd like to see eventually. Neither the Galaxy Theater nor the arcade building seem like they would be large enough to fit in a dark ride, that is unless it's an extremely small and short one. I'm still convinced that the dark ride will be located in the amphitheater's spot.

I'd personally like to see them extend the lazy river if it's possible because it is rather short compared to most others. The lazy river is landlocked right now, but once Excalibur goes, that could give them some more room to extend it.

An Impulse coaster would probably be a good fit at Worlds of Fun, however, it has been 12 years since the last one was built (Steel Venom). Plus, Cedar Fair hasn't built anything from Intamin lately. Does anyone know if Timber Wolf is close to opening yet? I might be visiting Worlds of Fun sometime this summer, but I want to wait until Timber Wolf is open since I'd like to get the credit.

If Valleyfair was to take away part of the current parking lot to make way for a coaster, I'm sure they would plant grass/trees underneath since Cedar Fair cares more about park appearance than Six Flags.

False. The person below me has been to Cedar Point.

Vortex - Kings Island

Well there will only be one for 2016, Roar, despite all of the KBF GR rumors. GR can't happen until at least 2017... I've heard rumors that Ghostrider might just get topper track and not a full Iron Horse, and I'm not sure whether or not RMC considers topper track a major project, so I guess it's possible that Ghostrider could get something next year.

Ride op at Millennium Force: "Oncoming riders, you will be boarding the red train, also known as the Love Train."

Rougarou - Cedar Point

Cedar Fair is not going to sell Michigan's Adventure anytime soon. MiA has one of the largest profit margins in the chain despite its small size, and as long as it's pulling in decent money, there's no need to sell it.

I've gotta say that Valleyfair's website is getting much better. The only thing they really need to step up is that blog...it hasn't been updated in over a month! They also need to work on updating their attraction lists. Bumper Cars and MRVR are still listed as closed from last fall.

No, you probably won't need a Fast Lane pass. There may be a few crowds on Sunday, but you will probably be able to ride all of the coasters once in about three hours or so (probably less if you arrive earlier in the day). Have fun!

Updated list: First coaster - Can't remember; Favorite - Top Thrill Dragster First steel - Can't remember; Favorite - Top Thrill Dragster First wooden - Ozark Wildcat; Favorite - Goliath (SFGAm) First invert - Dragon Challenge (Chinese Fireball); Favorite - Banshee First and favorite flyer - Manta First and favorite floorless - Kraken First Wild Mouse - Sand Serpent; Favorite - Dark Knight Coaster First wing coaster - X-Flight; Favorite - Gatekeeper First coaster with inversions - Dragon Challenge (Chinese Fireball); Favorite - Maverick First launched - Steel Venom (VF); Favorite - Dragster First hyper - Wild Thing; favorite - Diamondback First and favorite giga - Millennium Force First and favorite strata - Dragster First B&M - Dragon Challenge (Chinese Fireball); Favorite - Banshee First Intamin - Avatar Airbender; Favorite - Dragster First Arrow - Thunderation; Favorite - Magnum First and favorite Gerstlauer - Spongebob Squarepants Rock Bottom Plunge First Premier - Revenge of the Mummy (Hollywood); Favorite - Backlot Stunt Coaster First and favorite Mack - Journey to Atlantis (Orlando) First Vekoma - Space Mountain (Dinseyland); Favorite - Firehawk First and favorite RMC - Goliath (SFGAm) First GCI - Ozark Wildcat; Favorite - Renegade

Probably just another sign that Excalibur is doomed at the end of this season. Even though the plans for the new parking lot and employees road haven't been approved, I assume they will be eventually. Do you think the park will announce Excalibur's closure ahead of time (as in "get in your last rides on Excaibur now!") I'm not so sure that they will because they never announced the other recent removals ahead of time (Antique Autos, IMAX, Hydroblaster), and Excalibur really wasn't much more popular than those attractions.

Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point.

In line for Millennium Force: "When you sit in the back, you lift off the tracks for a second."

California: California Screamin' (didn't visit SFMM or KBF) Florida: Dragon Challenge (Blue) Illinois: Goliath Minnesota: Renegade Missouri: Ozark Wildcat (defunct) Ohio: Top Thrill Dragster

If this ends up happening, I hope that they could somehow add one or two more elements to the ride since Vortex is already a pretty short ride with only two inversions.

Here are some pictures from my first visit to Kings Island last week. Walking up to the park entrance. Obligatory photo of the logo and Eiffel Tower. First ride of the day was Banshee. This ride is seriously awesome. Forceful and relentless. Zero-G Roll. My only picture of anything Bat-related. Short ride, but still plenty of fun. Vortex wasn't too bad as far Arrows go. The two loops were my favorite part of the ride. Decided to take a spin on Windseeker since I've heard so much about these and wanted to do it for myself. Even for someone that likes thrill rides, I found Windseeker a bit freaky. Two Diamondback trains in one picture. Great ride with decent forces and floater air galore. Splashdown. Alright, let's get this over with. If if wasn't for the horrible Vekoma restraints, Invertigo could potentially be a decent ride. Racer wasn't a bad ride, it just wasn't very interesting. At least they were racing that day. Now for some pictures from atop the Eiffel Tower. Here's Diamondback. Banshee and Adventure Express. This is my only picture of Adventure Express. Decent Arrow mine train, has the most anticlimactic ending ever. Vortex, The Beast, and Windseeker. Racer, Firehawk, and Flight of Fear. Backlot Stunt Coaster was a pleasant surprise. A bit more intense than I thought it would be. Cheesy queue line video for Flight of Fear. Obviously couldn't get any pictures of the ride itself, but it was fun. Launch was weak, but the rest was fun despite the jerky transitions and the strong MCBR. The sign for Firehawk. One-train operations Actually a decent ride and not that rough. Not on the level of the B&M flyers, but still fun. Another pic of Diamondback's lift hill. Time to ride The Beast. Not an amazing ride, but still a very good one, and the two final tunnels are by far my favorite tunnels on any coaster. It's too bad that it has so many trims, otherwise it could be truly insane. Unfortunately didn't get a legendary night ride on it, though it was running much better in the evening than during the day. That's it for my trip report. Thanks for reading!

That's about right, although Xtreme Swing can also form some long lines.

I paid my first ever visit to Cedar Point this week from Wednesday afternoon through Friday morning, and I had a blast! It was amazing to finally visit the park after hearing so much about it for so long and planning the trip for months. The park itself was very clean with nice landscaping and obviously very scenic being located on Lake Erie. The park's employees were very friendly and entertaining, and the operations were excellent with all coasters running the maximum amount of trains while the ride ops were working efficiently. Cedar Point has an awesome coaster collection with a great Big Three in Dragster, Maverick, and Millennium. It was definitely worth the long trip from Minnesota to get there. Overall, Cedar Point is an amazing park, and I will come back someday, however it probably won't be for a few more years since there are other bucket list parks I need to get to. Here are my thoughts on Cedar Point's roller coasters, ranked from worst to best: -Iron Dragon (1 ride): I get that this ride isn't meant to be a major thrill coaster, but I found Iron Dragon to be boring. The Bat at Kings Island was a much better ride. It does have a nice setting though. 4/10 -Mean Streak (1 ride): I rode in the front row and kept my back off the seat, so it wasn't that rough. It was just very slow and uniteresting. It took most of its turns at ridiculously slow speeds. The thing that made it more interesting than Iron Dragon was one brief airtime moment. Other than that, Mean Streak was a pretty pointless ride. RMC, please get your hands on this. 4/10 -Cedar Creek Mine Ride (1 ride): Decent Arrow mine train with some fun laterals and okay drops. Still, more for the younger audience than thrill seekers. 4.5/10 -Corkscrew (2 rides): My favorite part of Corkscrew was the surprisingly intense airhill before the loop. It was a rough ride, though not as rough as I was expecting. 5/10 -Gemini (4 rides, 2 on each side): Probably my favorite racing coaster I've been on so far. Decent forces, not that rough, and got more airtime than I thought I would. It's also fun to interact with the riders on the other train. 6/10 -Wicked Twister (2 rides): I wanted to like Wicked Twister more than I did, but it seemed rougher and less intense than the other impulse coasters I've been on (Steel Venom and Vertical Velocity). Still a fun ride, but slightly disappointing. 6/10 -Gatekeeper (3 rides): I liked Gatekeeper better than X-Flight, mainly because it had a great first drop and the nice keyhole element, not to mention it looks great flying over the park entrance. Not the most intense ride ever, but it was better than I expected. I also have to give credit to the Gatekeeper crew for absolutely hauling it while loading the trains. 7/10 -Blue Streak (3 rides): A great old-school wooden coaster with good floater air over most of the hills. I personally didn't find it to have any more than your typical wooden coaster roughness. Probably one of the more underrated coasters I've ridden. 7.5/10 -Rougarou (7 rides): It's not as good as Kraken in my opinion, but Rougarou was still a great B&M floorless coaster. I never rode Mantis, but it seems like this was definitely a good upgrade from it's former self based on what everyone else has said. The first half was great with some nice forces. Unfortunately, the second half wasn't quite as forceful and had some minor headbanging, however I very much enjoyed Rougarou as a whole. 8/10 -Raptor (2 rides): B&M inverts are always awesome rides, and Raptor was no exception. Had the nice old school B&M snap while going through the inversions all while being forceful. It had a minor rattle, but it didn't detract from the ride experience. The Raptor smack at the end didn't really bother me either. I prefer Banshee and Dragon Challenge over Raptor, but Raptor still kicks butt. 8/10 -Magnum XL-200 (5 rides): I used the "tighten the seat belt" advice I'd read earlier in this thread while riding, and it resulted in some wonderful rides on Magnum. Didn't find it rough, just a little jerky in the pretzel turnaround. After that turnaround was some of the best airtime I've experienced on any coaster, and it didn't let up until the brake run. 9/10 -Millennium Force (7 rides): No, it's not the best coaster I've ever ridden, however it's still an amazing one and comes close to being the best. The first drop is by far my favorite first drop on any coaster. I partially greyed-out in the first overbanked turn every time I rode, very intense. The rest of the ride was forceful all the way to the end with some nice airtime thrown in. 9.5/10 -Maverick (5 rides): Maverick is certainly the most aggressive coaster I've ever ridden. All of the transitions were taken rapidly, but they weren't rough or painful at all with the soft restraints. I particularly liked the quick changes from strong positive-Gs to great ejector air, and the launch out of the tunnel was also wonderful. My biggest question after riding Maverick was this: Why aren't there more of these coasters?! 10/10 -Top Thrill Dragster (2 rides): I had a hard time deciding whether I liked Maverick or Dragster the best, but the incredible launch on Dragster was something that Maverick just couldn't beat for me. Sure, it's a one-trick pony that's only 17 seconds long, but they were 17 seconds of pure joy. 10/10 As for other rides, I rode maXair, Skyhawk, Power Tower (drop side), and the Sky Ride. maXair was just plain fun, Skyhawk was a great Screamin' Swing, Power Tower was okay, and Sky Ride provided nice views of the front half of the park.

Sorry about the double post, but there is a new webcam on Valleyfair's website showing the construction of the permanent building for the Chateau Du Damne Haunt maze. Interesting.