garyman6

I just read newsplusnotes and they have an interesting article from a Cleveland newspaper about Cedar Fair. The link is below. While it does not say anything about Valleyfair it does give some information that is of interest. First, it sounds like Cedar Fair is doing very well and is looking to keep expanding rapidly. This is great news for Valleyfair and all Cedar Fair parks. The article says that announcement for what is coming next for Cedar Point will be announced in August. Also, it looks like Vortex at California's Great America will get a floorless transformation for 2016. It keeps looking like CGA, Valleyfair and Carowinds will be the main growth targets for the next few years. I almost want August/September to come soon this year so we can get to announcements! But then again this is Minnesota. I'm not ready to deal with cold weather for 7 months yet. http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20150614/NEWS/306149989/surging-cedar-fair-isnt-just-enjoying-the-ride?utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter%20Subscribers&utm_campaign=b5d89e3e5c-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN+*|RSSFEED%3ADATE|*&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3f6f2faad7-b5d89e3e5c-85675429

I wouldn't give up hope yet. Remember he did not want to give a percentage of a new coaster in the next two years and then said that when you see footings we are "within" two years. My original questions was two years out. His saying within two years could still very well be next season. We will see soon enough! Keep your eyes open for anything out of place or suspicious. I'm hoping that they will put out some teasers. I still have not heard back from Matt McCormick about a coaster craze event. Perhaps they are waiting until they have an announcement. He did say they were working on something. Hmmmmm?

I'm guessing the heat had more to do with it than anything. I kept my eyes open the entire time and didn't have a problem. I think these slides are awesome! The intensity is insane and in my opinion they don't hurt much at all. One trick I used is when your sliding and especially at the splash down, keep just the heal of your foot that's on the bottom and your shoulder blades in contact with the slide. The water then builds up under your back and slows you down without much pain. Bottom line, we asked for more intense rides and Valleyfair delivered!

I should have said that the permit hasn't yet been approved. It is still being debated.

I was also able to meet up with ACES today.

So i spent the day at the park with my daughter. We had a great time! The park looked fabulous! A few things to report. I now dont think the panic falls slide tower is going anywhere soon. The fencing is ether new or painted and was quite popular today. With the possibility of expansion it may not be necessary to remove it. Looping starship is not going anywhere either. It was very popular today. Most cycles i saw it was running 90 - 100% full. It may be moved but its staying. The park was the busiest I've ever seen it for an early June weekday. Even without the school groups. The parking lot was 2/3rds full. Good news for the park. I saw Mr. Frazier today and talked with him for a few min. What a great example of a leader. He was sweeping the midway. Here is what i learned. He said that so far the new Soak City expansion is showing a good return for the money. Thats great news for the park! He confirmed a new permanent haunt structure is being built behind mad mouse. I dont remember the maze but he said they are moving to more permanent structures for ValleyScare. He also confirmed the grading plan submitted by the army corp of engineers for the back of the park. He said they are looking at what the can potentially do before they decide what to do. The permit has not been approved but they are seeing if the submitted plan is a possibility. Then maybe the most telling news. I mentioned to him that these plans have a ton of people very excited and a lot of speculation is going on. I ask a pretty direct question. I ask if he could tell me what are chances were of getting a new coaster, such as a b&m invert, in the next two years. He laughed, thought carefully about his answer then said that he could not give me an answer.He followed that up by looking around and then said you'll know we are within two years when you see footings going in. We were standing in the shaded area next to breakers plunge. that's what i know!

Water parks are huge right now even up north! Wisconsin Dell's has dominated this industry for many years. Check out Noah's Ark. It is a massive waterpark. What Valleyfair is doing with Soak City is very smart. Each summer 10's of thousands of people drive the 3 hours to the Dell's area. Why not build a waterpark that will temp them to stay closer to home? Add the rest of the park to the ticket and you have a winner! It is a short 4 to 5 month season but it brings in huge revenue for the park. Valleyfair is going to continue an aggressive Soak City expansion schedule and in doing so tap into a very hungry waterpark market in the north. As for the park in general, the future is bright! Valleyfair now has a season that stretches from May to November. There are many new attractions headed our way im sure. Our next is most likely a new B&M.

I don't mind at all. This is fun and exciting. The truth is that I am speculating just like everyone else. I really don't know any concrete evidence until something like this comes out. But having said that I try to take all the rumor, statements, speculation and combine it with what I have heard personally and piece it together. There is some information that I still cannot say. This information is still a rumor but when considering the source its a strong rumor. The recent developments support this rumor but not in concrete. We may know before the end of this year if what I have heard is true or not. Then there is of course what year it will happen. We all know there will be another waterpark expansion in the next 2 to 3 years, that's pretty obvious. The rest of the story is still up for debate but if I was a betting man, I'd put my money on 2016 or 2017 for a new coaster, regardless of how much money the new access road, berm and parking lot will cost. I don't think Cedar Fair is going to waste anytime in getting done what they have planned. Carowinds is our reference. Sure, it was already a bigger park with higher attendance but not by that much. It was still far from Cedar Point, Canada's Wonderland, Knott's etc. but yet Cedar Fair has invested heavily in the park. They are betting that the increase in attendance will justify the investment. I'm sure they are not done with them yet even after they add to their water park. Hopefully when this news becomes "official" we will have a better idea of what they are planning.

O.K. Right of the bat, this news is confirmation of everything I have been hearing! I have to give credit to djoles. I criticized him for throwing out unconfirmed rumors that seems so implausible. He so far has been right. We will see on the other things. I've read a lot of murmuring about replacing a Excalibur with a parking lot. Two things to note here; First, they can't build a new service road or a parking lot unless they build a new berm to push back flood waters making this area high and dry. Second, The fact that they believe they need new parking is great news because it means huge ride/attraction investment is coming that will bring larger crowds. I personally believe that the field in front of the dorms will become the new entrance plaza and some additional parking. They may even build some new dorms to house more foreign workers when the park grows. This news also confirms Cedar Fairs statement that Valleyfair is going to be a growth park. They obviously see the potential in this market and are now putting their money where their mouth is. It also solidifies rumors I have heard about a new coaster. It was already looking like the coaster was going to be located in the back of the park but It was just figuring out how to squeeze it in the existing boundaries. Now those boundaries are gone! I also believe that 2016 is still the year for our next coaster. The plans from the city state 2015 expansion. I'm guessing that most of the new berm, removal of the old road and maybe even the new parking lot will be done this year. Cedar Fair, I'm guessing, has separate budgets for infrastructure improvements and attraction expansion. All the above work is infrastructure! This is probably the most exciting news for Valleyfair since it opened its gates in 1976. Valleyfair is going to be getting a lot of media attention. It has already started with the Travel Channel coming to film for Extreme Waterparks this summer. I can't wait to get to the park again this year. I'll keep you all informed of anything else that I learn.

Sorry i have posted yet. Ive had family in town. I have lots to say but ill do it tomorrow. I had a post that was pretty long then my stupid computer decided it was time to update. Argh!

If you've ever seen an episode of "Xtreme Waterparks", you would know why they want young and fit people to be featured HaHa! Yes I have and of course I'm joking.

Actually Excalibur is, in my opinion, a pretty fun coaster. It's just too short! The ride really isn't that much different than a woodie. Unfortunately they took out the best part of the ride after only one season. At the bottom of the first drop was a bunny hill of maybe 25 to 30 ft. tall that provided massive ejector air. It was the high light of the ride. My guess as to why they took it out was that people were probably getting neck and back injuries from it. It really was that extreme. It also must have put a lot of stress of the train itself. Nowadays that ride is pretty quiet. Even on the busiest days it's almost always a walk on. It's not a good enough ride to get people to walk to the back of the park to ride. That's why there is so much talk of replacing it with something else. The whole back of the park has been kind of neglected but I think that is going to change real soon. The only other ride back there is Thunder Canyon. That too has been in decline because they let a lot of the waterfalls go dry and it became boring. Last season they started bringing it back by repairing a couple of the most popular parts of the ride. This also leads me to believe that BIG things are in store for the back of the park!

This is really exciting news for Valleyfair. Having a nationally broadcast show feature our slide package? How cool is that? It's exposure like this that will bring in more visitors that have not come to Valleyfair before. Now we are beginning to see the wisdom of Cedar Fair in building this attraction. They must have known that a slide tower like this would most likely attract some attention! I am slightly offended by the casting call however. I cant imagine why they would not want a 48 yr. old, slightly overweight man with hair trying to turn gray being featured on this segment. Hmmm!

Is there an actual rumor going around that Excalibur is getting removed or is everyone just hoping it gets removed? I think everyone is just fantasizing about what they would do with the park if they owned it and money wasn't an obstacle, but I just want to make sure I didn't miss something. The big thing to see here is that only one train has been placed on the tracks. That has never happened before. Even if they never needed both trains going at the same time you would want to have two trains just to keep the wear and tear to a minimum. That's one reason the Steel Venom has a fair amount of downtime because there is only one train and maintenance has to be done on it. With two trains you can have one out of service and still run your ride. As for "actual" rumor, is there such a thing? If it is actual then it just becomes an announcement. I have heard unconfirmed rumors of a new coaster with locations that include Excalibur. Mostly I think that there is a lot of things going on within the park that seem to point to something big coming down the road. We will know soon enough!

So this may be a bit off topic but not really. Carowinds just confirmed that Thunder Road, their large wooden racer coaster will be demolished. Last ride is late July. They could double their waterpark if they wanted to or add an addition and have plenty of room for some other attraction. What does this mean for Valleyfair your ask? Plenty! Carowinds is getting another huge investment and they were one of three parks including Valleyfair and Great Adventure, to be specifically pointed out that significant growth is coming. Cedar Fair mentioned that they were spending $50 million on Carowinds. I'm not sure if the next expansion is still a part of that money or is this additional money. I'm guessing its part of the $50 million. Fury and the entrance were $30 million plus the Slingshot which is probably a 1 million investment. That would leave $19 million. They are not wasting anytime getting it spent. Hopefully Valleyfair's turn will start next season. In my opinion the past 3 to 4 years have just been to lead up to what their major investment push is going to be! Any word of Excalibur putting the second train on the tracks yet? See what I mean? Why, after a decade of Mad Mouse did they all of the sudden decide to fix the drainage problem? Why, all of the sudden did they decide to demolish a training building behind Mad Mouse? Yes, it was because they were going to build a new one but has that construction started yet? And will it be in the same location? Why has Valleyfair expanded their dining area to seat thousands and produce 3000 meal per hour and hire a top notch chef. Until this year, I didn't even know Valleyfair had a chef. Why build a second kiddie area for soak city? They could have just rebuilt the kiddie area where it sits and probably had a better area at a lower cost. On one tour I was on I was showed an area just in front of High Roller but behind the Chicken Shack. There was quite a bit of room there. Plenty room for tracks, track supports or even to bring the midway to the North of High Roller. On two different tours I was taken through the area North of High Roller. I was told that there would be little to no problem putting track supports in these areas that could flood as long as it was kept above flood levels. Putting a station in these area's is another thing but there is plenty of space all over the park to plant a station. There are many other smaller things that I could point out but it seems clear to me that preparations are being made for something big coming. Not all in one season but maybe 3 or 4 seasons. Oh one last thing for now. Don't be surprise if Hydro Blaster makes a comeback but as part of the waterpark. Mr. Frazier asked me before it was taken down if it would be better to have it in the dry park or in the water park. I told him waterpark but I thought it was interesting because the question was not whether we should have it but what part of the park should it be in. Just a thought!

I was thinking about this today. Chickie and Pete's opened last year in the back of the park. This is a major chain restaurant. I went there once to eat and it was almost completely empty. It was also expensive which I should not be surprised at. This year the exterior of the building got a complete new paint job and it looks great. Here is my question. Why would Chickie and Pete's want to open a large restaurant near the back of the park where the traffic really drops off, especially after Soak City closes. The only thing beyond it is Renegade, Thunder Canyon and Excalibur. Two of three which do not get much traffic these days. CaptainUnknown has stated that he is hearing rumors of major work in the back of the park for next year. Rumors have swirled that our next new coaster will be in the back of the park. Excalibur has only one train mounted to the tracks right now. Could it be that Chickie and Pete's opened where they did in anticipation of much larger crowds in the near future? Even Looping Starship got a cue line upgrade. Why? What does everyone else think.

Only a few more days till we get to try the new slide complex!

I have asked him and his response was that he doesn't want to loose any coasters. But lets face the facts here. While its great that excalibur is usually a walk onIy it doesn't make since to keep it cause it isn't a draw for the park. Its actually a money drain. Dont get me wrong, im actually one of the few fans of Excalibur but it had its short run of glory and now its time to retire it. If i were you id get my last rides on Excalibur! I have reason to believe that this may be its last year.

Dave tweeted that they took down a training building to build a new one in its spot. They also fixed several drainage problems. Looks to me like it could make a good spot for a coaster station. Just my opinion!

Haha, i didn't take it like you were bashing Valleyfair! I wholeheartedly agree that the second half of Cedar Fairs name, Valleyfair, should be treated more like a flagship park!

Valleyfair has been getting some great attention! Planet Snoop is one of the best in the chain. Route 76 last year is awsome . They built new facilities to feed 3000/hr. There are literally dozens and dozens of general improvements made over the last several years that have really modernized the park. Much work was done on many rides to make them run and look like new. High Roller in particular. It will turn 40 years old next year but its running like a teenager! Lets not forget this year. The new slide tower is world class! 4 capsule drop slides and 2 ninety foot speed slides! Its impressivejust to look at! What you dont see on a map is the absolute beauty of the park. Its spotless clean and beautifully landscaped. I saw older people walking the park on friday just taking it all in! The park is in good hands with Mr. Frazier who knows how to maximize space in smaller parks. He used to be GM of Nick U. and that park is regarded as one of the best indoor parks in the world. Valley does have expansion room but they are using up the available space first. Valleyfair has a very bright future ahead of it!

Valleyfair was looking good today. It was fun hanging with rcjunkie. I also met captain unknown at power tower. One thing that wasnt mentioned was new blacktop near the front entrance to right in front of corkscrew. Something interesting though is they left about a 50 foot section of midway untouched before it went to pavers. Why? Did meet Mr. Frazier at the front gate but unfortunately he was not able to take time to talk. High Roller was running like new today. Smooth and much faster. The trims were almost nonexistent. Renegade was the same, very smooth and fast. Even corkscrew, it felt like the trains got much more than a nice paint job. Very little side to side head banging. Valleyfair once again out did itself during the off season. Cant wait till my next visit!!!

Im planning on being there tomorrow morning!

You are correct. Its because of flying cloud airport across the river. However, i believe that restriction is true for the center portion of the park only.

OH MY WORD !!!!!!! You just figured out our theme for our eventual dark ride. An epic battle of pessimists verses optimists will be waged within the walls of the Valleyfair battle arena. No one will be spared, all will suffer! No rules is the rule of this game. All weapons of mass destruction are allowed. The victor, if there is one, will banish the loser to a snake infested pit for all eternity. The winner will enjoy an eternity of privilege, gluttony and thrills! HaHa, LOL! O.K. I admit it's a bit dramatic but so is this topic. We have a great park that is only getting better! Instead of complaining why don't we thank Cedar Fair for what they are doing. There is really nothing out of the scope of possibility but we have to be patient. I'd actually like to see Valleyfair team up with Nick U. like K.D. and Busch Gardens Williamsburg just did (I think its those two). What a great entertainment package that would be! And look at little Nick U. A new "Flyover America" attraction priced at $20,000,000? I'm sure MOA is working with them cause its a separate attraction but Nick U. will surly benefit from it. So let's not say "won't" or "can't" when it comes to what Cedar Fair will do the Valleyfair. You just never know!