VF15

Tomorrow night, Valleyfair will be having an early preview of the new slide tower for season passholders from 5 pm to 8 pm. I unfortunately won't be able to make it, but if anyone else is interested in going, here's the link to RSVP for the event: https://www.valleyfair.com/season-pass-soak-city-preview/?mobile=0 Hope anyone that goes has a good time.

I will likely be visiting Kings Island on Tuesday, June 9th as an add-on to my Cedar Point trip. Just a few questions. 1) How bad should the crowds be that day? I'll be at the park from opening time to about 5 pm or so, and I'd like to know if it's possible to ride all of the coasters in that time without Fast Lane or Fast Lane Plus. 2) In what order should I ride everything to minimize wait times? 3) Any specific seating recommendations on the coasters? 4) Anything else I should know about Kings Island? (food, rain policies, flat rides, etc.)

^ If I wasn't clear in first post, I meant to say that Excalibur's second train wasn't even on the transfer track. The second train's cars were all on the ground near the station. I don't pay attention to SuperCat very much, but it might get more riders if it were in a better area of the park. I think Larson Flyers are definitely going to come to the park sometime in the next 3 years. It would probably fit in best in Planet Snoopy, but there's a lot more open space near Route 76.

^ Yes, it can be a decent ride if you know how to ride it, but if the park is losing money by operating it like garyman6 says, then it only makes sense for them to remove it. At this point in time, Excalibur has basically run its course. I've never waited more than 10 minutes for it, it never runs its second train, and it always closes during Haunt. Plus, High Roller and Corkscrew have received some modifications in recent years, but Excalibur has gone untouched. Also, for what it's worth, when I rode Excalibur on Saturday, I noticed only one Excalibur train was on the track. The other train's cars were still sitting off to the side.

I would love to see any RMC coaster at Valleyfair, but I don't think they'll ever Iron Horse Excalibur because there really isn't much they could do with its layout. It would probably rather be a new RMC woodie from scratch, but I wouldn't expect it to happen for a while if at all because VF needs new steel first.

Mako would be an interesting name for the coaster, but I'm not completely convinced that it's going to be the official name yet because they could pull another Cheetaka/Diavolo on us.

I also noticed the slow operations yesterday, they're probably just opening weekend issues that will hopefully be resolved soon. Do you remember which row you sat in? I rode Corkscrew in the front row yesterday and had a fairly smooth ride. I felt the same way about Renegade, but wooden coasters tend to run better later in the season, so give it some time.

Yesterday at Valleyfair: -"Renegade goes 90 mph." - Yeah... no. -"I'm gonna die!" - I understand that this is a common GP saying, but you wouldn't believe how many times I heard it.

A few more notes about today... -All of Wild Thing's trains now have the yellow lap bars. Last year only one train had them. -High Roller was running smoother with the new trackwork, also nice that the trims were on light. -Only one of Excalibur's trains is on the track right now. Not sure why though. -I noticed these small markings on the ground near the amphitheater/train station, no clue what they mean.

Here's a picture of the control panel for Renegade at VF that I took earlier today.

Some more pictures of my day at the park. The lines for Excalibur are MASSIVE today. Renegade's entrance. Not running at its best today, but still my favorite ride in the park. What comes to mind here: Dick Kinzel Power Tower and the slide tower. New Corkscrew logo on the ground in front of its entrance. Corkscrew's orange train on the transfer track. Yellow train after leaving the station. The ride itself is still quite smooth for a 35-year-old Arrow. Today I officially upgraded my Gold Pass to a Platinum Pass for my Cedar Point trip next month . A few more pics to come later.

Currently at the park, and my offseason is officially over! Here are some pictures I've taken so far. The new Valleyfair entrance sign on my way in. It looks a lot better in person. Great to finally be back after another long offseason. The 2015 park map cover. Nice to see Renegade on it. My first coaster of the season... Running pretty good in the front seat. New strip of pavement to the right of the entrance. Wild Thing's turnaround is a bit rougher than I'd remembered, but I had probably my best return run ever because the trims were on pretty light. Renegade will not open until either 11 or noon. I hope this doesn't become a normal thing. That's all for now.

Thanks for the nice trip report RCjunkie. All of these little changes look really nice. Looking forward to seeing them in person. The green Monster cars are from Worlds of Fun. They apparently removed their version of the ride so that Valleyfair could have some more spare parts.

^ Did the back of the park open up at all today?

Happy Opening Day everyone! Those of you going today, tell us how it goes.

Probably not, the parking lot was flooded almost all the way up to Steel Venom. Photo from the StarTribune.

I will be at the park on Saturday, weather permitting (I can't make it tomorrow). I'm looking forward to seeing how Corkscrew's trains look in their new paint schemes (one train was painted orange and the other yellow). It should be interesting to see how the traffic in the corner near Mad Mouse flows with the new path there. My guess is that it will slightly better but not significantly better. I personally thought the High Roller retracking from the previous offseason was good, but it's nice that they're doing even more this year. I personally think the best way to improve High Roller would be to turn off the trim at the end of the turnaround, but that obviously won't happen . I also hope they did a little more track work on Renegade because there were still a few rattly spots on it last season.

I think it's a bit of both. Goliath being the park's new hotness + max. capacity of 1,000 people/hour + Six Flags' "amazing" dispatch times = 3 hour lines.

^ Whatever Valleyfair is getting in 2016 is probably already finalized (or close to finalized), so telling Dave Frazier that we need a coaster next year probably won't help anything.

From what I've ridden... B&M - Raging Bull Intamin - Steel Venom RMC - Goliath

^ Well, we are getting something thrilling this year with the new slide tower. Yes, it is in the water park and not the dry park, but at least it lets us know that Valleyfair is still aware of its thrill-seeker fanbase.

Based to the overhead view from Google Earth, it doesn't look like removing Thunder Road would create that much more space, but since the waterpark is landlocked as it is, I guess it might be the only way to go.

You have a good point there. Valleyfair may have been neglected a bit in the past, but it has been getting better in recent years with Planet Snoopy, Route 76, the waterpark expansion, and a lot of other general improvements. Still, I would expect the maximum price tag for a coaster to be no more than $15 million, and if they ever go above that, it won't be for quite a while. A new entrance plaza could possibly be in the works, although I don't know if it would be accompanied by a new coaster because Wild Thing could be considered VF's front gate coaster. Sure, it doesn't travel directly over the park entrance, but it comes close.

^ Yep, I feel the same way. It seems like we've be speculating about the same things since November (with a few exceptions). Fortunately, the season starts this weekend, and hopefully it will give us new stuff to discuss.

Is there anything new going on with the disturbed land near the employee dorms? I've haven't heard anything about that in a while.