valleyfairfanatic

I think Valleyfair has a good niche and I think cedar fair notices this. Why drop a lot of money when the park is doing fine with cheaper events and additions? From a purely corporate perspective, I think if a park like valleyfair is able to easily get by with the occasional 100k investment into an event compared to a 10 million dollar roller coaster, why even bother? I think the biggest shock to me was the removal of haunt. Valleyfair seems to have a very kid-gloves approach to security now as compared to when I started my time working at the park, and I think that contributed to the removal of haunt. Good security is expensive, and sometimes events like the 2018 fight night at haunt can give valleyfair bad PR. Even so, third party security contractors can make things worse and I genuinely believe the temporary agencies that were hired in during the 2018-2019 seasons did more harm than good during haunt. Looking at the security guards most of them don't have much outside of a radio, body cam, and maybe pepper spray. This is a pretty stark difference to how they were equipped and would deal with situations in 2014-2017. I think a lot more is handled by Shakopee PD and Scott Co Sheriff's Office as they have officers patrolling the park as well. I could certainly see Valleyfair raising prices to keep trouble makers out similar to what Six Flags and Knotts has done. This isn't to say valleyfair isnt making things happen though. The park i started working at in 2014 and the park I left in 2021 when I ended my time there is a night and day difference. I started at a park that was disorganized and had a very mom-and-pop feel, and now it feels like valleyfair is an organized corporate business. I'm still holding out hope that haunt will return given the negative feedback that decision made and that we will hopefully get something new. I do think the marketing "false teases" are annoying and the dead horse has been beaten enough. This is my sole opinion and no one elses. Not trying to represent anyone or any company.

I hate being right. With that being said, I am wondering how long this lasts. Anyone who has been to valleyfair in the fall or has worked there knows that fall days/afternoons are some of the most dead times around attendance wise. I will be interested to see if shifting to this, but all day will make any remarkable difference compared to haunt attendance. Hopefully its a one off thing and they listen to the overwhelmingly negative responses to this decision.

They didn't mention haunt in any capacity. They just said "Halloween celebrations at Valleyfair are transforming in 2022 with an all-new décor, lights, entertainment, and unique Halloween experiences" which, after being a park goer for almost 10 years now, is valleyfair speak for "we're doing something way worse but we don't want to say it yet because people will get mad" Halloween Celebrations sounds nothing like haunt.

I'd be interested to see where the future of the park goes personally. My time there is over, and I felt like towards the end they were putting more emphasis on entertainment and special events. Which is ironic considering it sounds like they cut haunt from the fall lineup in their most recent announcement for 2022. The company is well aware people want a coaster, its just a question of whether or not they are motivated to give us one.

Halloween celebrations sounds less like haunt and more like a family festival if anything. (i.e. severs, etc.) Which would be a shame because haunt seems to be super busy when I visit.

I think its purely boredom. I'm beyond believing that Valleyfair will add anything substantial after 2020 and 2021 which I sincerely believe hurt the park. They're not gonna give us a coaster when they can't even staff the food stands.

I love this so much. It does seem weird that they used this day to point all the comments out though.

I trust the state will give parks enough of a warning when things are expected to go "live". From what I can tell, a lot of the larger rides do have trains on the transfer tracks but the ferris wheel and smaller flat rides lack gondolas. I know there are some murmurs of maintenance workers being allowed back to start preparing the park but I don't believe any employee training has occurred. If valleyfair will open, they will be ready when governor walz allows them to open. From my understanding, governor walz's plan is to ease business back in rather than opening everything up on a given date, so I'd imagine before valleyfair opens they would have the ability to get maintenance and employees in well before they will be given the OK to open.

Looks like holiday world has an opening day set for June 14. I know that Indiana handles coronavirus differently than Minnesota, but it is nonetheless a good sign that there are at least intentions to open some parks this summer. Let's hope cedar fair follows suit in a safe and effective manner.

As unfortunate as it is, I'm going to have to agree. Without a vaccine I couldn't see Valleyfair opening let alone having enough people attend to keep the park open.

I'd imagine if the state allows Valleyfair to open, they will open. Whether or not that is a good idea or not is up to debate. I think the biggest thing to watch is what state legislation is gonna say about non-essential businesses opening after the lockdown starts to taper off.

It will be interesting to see if the park opens on time because of corona.

Considering they worded it as a "hallowed out Viking ship" I'm gonna assume that they'll use it for haunt.

Very interesting article... https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/news/2019/10/02/report-valleyfairs-parent-company-might-merge-with.html

It was probably one of us sliders. Most of what we do is completely improv and there isn't a ton of formal training on what we should do outside of your typical slide scares and safety procedures. (I am not a representative of the sliders or Valleyfair, however) Those areas that you mentioned are very much within slider country. Looking forward to sliding again this year.

Looks like this year's haunt lineup has been announced. What does everyone think? https://www.valleyfair.com/valleyscare/haunt

This is Valleyfair we're talking about, not Cedar Point. Just because a large attraction is being removed doesn't mean we're getting a new coaster. I think something like Forbidden Frontier is far more likely to replace dinosaurs alive than a new coaster. While I would agree with your first two sentences, however I would have to say comparing this to Frontier is like comparing apples to oranges. Most people are focusing on this because it was announced before the season even started, which has not happened for a very, very, long time. Even with major rides like enterprise being removed, there was not much notice even though it had considerably more traffic on a daily basis than dinos ever did. The same goes with when Route 76 was being built. I'm not saying its gonna be a roller coaster, but many people are leaning that way because A: they announced it so early, and B: that is a huge plot of land.

They're going to fill that entire area with bathrooms.....as far as the eye can see

I think VF is headed in the right direction. Is it the direction enthusiasts want? No. But what do we know about running amusement parks? The reason I say this is because we are not the target audience. Families, who spend money on food, games, etc are more valuable to the park profit wise than your typical season passholder who goes 50+ times a year. While im sure everyone would want a new coaster, we have already had immense expansions in the previous years in a considerably short time. That's better than nothing.

It was pretty obvious that tease wasn't for us to be honest.

I really hope we keep the asphalt in some areas. If you're gonna change it, change it to brick. For uh.....haunt reasons *cough cough, wave pavement is amazing cough cough*

I have heard some rumblings in the jungle that Valleyfair is taking a huge interest in getting their infrastructure up to speed. To be completely honest, it was pretty apparent this year that Valleyfair was not adequately prepared/up to date in a lot of areas other than attractions.

Yep. I had a really good role to scare in so it was pretty consistent.

Thank you!!!! I was extremely honored to be chosen. I don't have any specific stories because that would totally give me away, but I did make a fair amount of people cry/pee/fall over.

Considering how much they have been investing into haunt and entertainment annually for how small the park is, there may be a shift in focus. I would not blame them either if that is the direction they are headed in, as haunt brings in the most profits for the park. As I said previously, its not common for a park as small as Valleyfair to get multi million dollar mazes like Undertakers on a yearly basis.