Mdcastle

Like we got posts to take a final ride on HydroBlaster or final show at Imax? As a side note while we're talking about the area, I wish they'd fix or turn on the half of the waterfalls that they've shut down on Thunder Canyon. Not sure if they're being cheap, the pumps are broken, or someone complained about getting wet on a water ride. CaroWinds: buried in the announcement is an emphasis on local cuisine. Which should be good because it's one of my favorite parts of the Carolinas. My last time at Carowinds I didn't notice the offerings there being substantially different from any other amusement park anywhere in the country. If the new coaster is anything like Intimidator 305 (easily within my top 10 rides) it should be a winner.

I wouldn't call Windseeker a "family ride". It and Nitro are the only two rides that have ever freaked me out.

I don't think this should be an issue at all. Just because they planted trees doesn't mean they can't use that space. They could move the trees if they needed or just discard them. Parks like this thrive on being beautiful and would think nothing of planting large spruce trees for just one season. Why did VF even bother to put in sand volleyball courts. We all know they are coming out. They could have just left it a grassy field for a year and nobody would have cared a bit. Well, I'll be thir first to say on this forum. HAPPY INDEPENDANCE DAY! God is good! Enjoy your time with family or friends or whatever else you plan for today! Take a moment to say a prayer of thanks to God for the great nation He has blessed us with! Thank the Lord for Amusement parks! It give us all a lot to talk about! The spruce trees are next to the existing main path. Unless our fantasy about demolishing the restrooms and moving Mad Mouse come to pass it doesn't look like they'd really be in the way of anything in the waterpark. It kind of looks like the intent was to discourage people from climbing over the rope and taking a shortcut to Soak City rather than walking all the way around the Imax graveyard and Looping Starship.

You really do feel like you're in a free-fall for a bit on the drops slides. The looping slide at Noah's ark also has a trapdoor, and that's the best part of it, not the loop.

Also, if you took Wild Thing's queue, and turned it 90* to the right, and moved the exit, even more space! (please note that I'm well aware of how crazy that sounds ) I had the same thought, moving the entrance and exit to next to the tunnel and taking out the restrooms and the pronto-pups stands frees up and immense amount of land next to the watepark. The problem is getting people too the area and you get a nice view of all the mechanical equipment for the wave pool; my thought would be to use it or a water coaster that loads near the Hydroblaster memorial plot.

A couple of old slides and a lazy river is "pretty decent"? Compared to Noah's Ark?, or any of the Hurricane Harbors?, or for that matter some of Cedar Fairs better ones like Oceans of Fun? Log flume may have had a decent line, but I bet there's several times as many people in the pool most of the time.

If VF gets an electronic sign next year, I think they should find some way to preserve it, but I can't see it going all the way to Minot. Maybe they can place it somewhere else in the park like Route 76, or if the park doesn't want to keep it, I could see it going to the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul because I think that Valleyfair has had enough of an impact on this state that something from VF would be worthy of display there. Saving it at Valleyfair would be ideal, the problem is at this point they'd have to spend money on the sign. Besides reinstalling it Argon/Mercury tubing (basically all the colors but red and orange) decay and need to be replaced periodically, and there's some sections that are totally dead, and some would undoubtedly get broken in a move. There's not a lot of places that have the interest and ability to take something that big- I thought of Minot because they took a Holiday Inn sign from Minnesota, but there's also a large sign museum in Cincinnati. But someone who knows the general manager please mention saving the sign.

Two comments: *Don't worry about being able to ride everything multiple times, even on a busy day: *Having said that, you might want to do Steel Venom and/or Mad Mouse first thing as those generally have long, slow lines later in the day (but they're nowhere near each other). Also if you want to visit the waterpark and want a recliner those tend to fill up within a couple of hours after opening on hot, sunny days.

That would be great if the carousel got a make over. It was made by Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters in 1926 for Excelsior Amusement Park then it was moved to Valleyfair and is the oldest ride in the park. It would be nice to see the horses and the rest of the ride restored. They painted the roof last year which was better than the rusting blue top but more certainly could be done so it is nice to hear that it might. Did he mention a time frame or hint at when? Never expected a Banshee size coaster but you would think a smaller one could be done like Patriot mentioned above. Thanks for sharing about your visit with GM Frasier. Well we can be pretty sure that the carousel redo will happen in 2016 or later as 2015 sounds like it will be waterpark, waterpark, waterpark. Don't be so sure. It isn't out of the question for the redo of the carousel to get done while the water park goes up. It's more of a general improvement than anything else. It's not really a marketable project. Nice little side story, but nothing headlining,. If anyone expects or was expecting a monster 7 inversion, 4100ft+ invert at VF, they're delusional. A B&M invert that's give or take 3100ft long with four, maybe five inversions.... Totally doable. Valleyfairfanatic, The GM CALLED on a SATURDAY? Impressive. Mr. Frazier is getting more and more personable with each page of this discussion! Speaking of that, I forgot to mention Dave Frazier said I could name the Intamin giga coming in 2020 if I wanted to.... Great guy! LOL It was a slow saturday, I didn't ask much about the future of the park because he looked pretty busy. But he said he does want to talk more so when I meet up with him next at the park I'll ask questions mostly towards the future of the park. I'll keep you guys updated. I did recommend selling old ride parts that were useless. I'm a roller coaster part collector actually and I think it would be cool to be able to buy a wheel off of wild thing or something. We discussed having an online store with merchandise,ride parts etc. if the demand is high enough. What do you guys think, would you want to see an online store with that kinda stuff? I'd like to see the neon sign preserved somehow. If Valleyfair doesn't want it there's a neon museum in Minot that rescued a Holiday Inn "Great Sign", a few other neon museums around the country, and Pioneer Village in Hastings took the old Cottage View Drive in Sign, along with Porky's sign and facade. A few other random things if you could mention to him *I think prices on the llockers are too high: $10.00 a day seems to be more reasonable. *I'd like to either see the cover put back on the Supercat, or else it be scrapped and replaced with something better. *I'd like to see the waterfalls on Thunder Canyon turned back on, each year there's fewer and fewer of them I don't know if they're broken or don't want to pay to run them, or if guests were complaining about being wet. *Along with B&M invert and a Windseeker, my dream would be something like Nighthawk- IMHO it's a much better ride than the Superman coasters and underrated. * May make me a heretic here, but I personally have no love for Corkscrew and Excalibur if something better could be put there. * Like everyone else, I'm looking forward to the waterpark expansion. I'd like to see a water coaster, a FLowrider, and a nice family play area

That was my thinking too- the old slides being replaced with new, higher, longer ones pushed back over the park road. The old ones still have thrill value, but even if they don't need the space right away keeping them is not free- you have to pay for water pumps and staffing, 3 people if you count the one shared with Raging Rapids. Add another two for the speed slides. If they were planning to build a significant coaster later they could work around the slide towers. I think that's the reason Raging Rapids types rides have lost popularity, you need a large number of staff and the capacity is low and while I think they're fun the wow factor just isn't there. Have done some playing around with Google Earth and Paint Shop Pro- I've fit in a water coaster like Noah's Ark where Hydroblaster was and behind the wave pool into the underused land by Wild Thing; a kiddie play area like at Mount Olympus, a racer slide, and a Flowrider where Imax and Looping Starship are; and new slides where the old ones are.

I've heard other people say that the height limits get taller the farther to each end of the park- Wild Thing's hill and Power Tower are in the exact center of the flyway. WIndseekers- let me say this as far as the thrill factor. Windseeker and Nitro are the only two rides that actually scared me.

Probably put LED lights on the carousel...

Friday should be nice, crowds aren't normally too bad on Fridays early in the year. There may be a bunch of school groups that tend to leave around 4-5. Longest lines are usually Steel Venom and Mad Mouse, both which have low capacity. Renegade lines are usually slightly long to modest, Wild Thing modest to short, and the other coasters short to nonexistent. Lines were Extreme Swing last year, but so far shorter this year now that they're running both sides. The Monster takes a long time to load and unload so you may want to wait until crowds thin out if you're interested. If I were trying to do everything the most efficiently I'd probably head straight for Steel Venom, then straight for Mad Mouse as fast as possible hoping it takes a while for families to get in and get to the back. Then I'd do Renegade and Excalibur since they're in the same general area. If you want to go to Soak City there's not nearly enough recliners on a nice, busy day so I'd claim one as soon as it opens as the entrance is in that area too. As I noted earlier they open the Soak City gates a bit early for season passholders, but at least last Sat. they weren't actually checking for passes. But realistically you'll have plenty of time so it's not necessary to think too much about things.

Raging Rapids is a fun ride and still gets used a lot, but I wouldn't be surprised if it goes, I imagine it's expensive to operate because it requires several lifeguards to staff and a lot of water to be pumped up. Noah's Ark used to have something similar years ago but they got rid of it. Either they just retire the ride, or they replace the entire slide tower- as I pointed out they could build it higher and over the road even with Excalibur still there. Other notes: *The neon sign still has some dead tubing. I really hope they restore it rather than putting up an LED video board like everyone else (I've done business with a local neon shop- there's still people left that do this). *Lockers have been replaced with electronic PIN codes that you can rent with a credit card at a kiosk, rather than coins. $13-$15 seems a bit high, but at least you don't have to bring cash and carry a key around anymore. *They claim passholders get early access to Soak City, but I went there a half hour before it opened, and there was no one stopping anyone who wanted to enter, pass or no. *Route 76 is concrete slabs, rather than paving stones. I'm assuming there was already concrete in the area that was serviceable so they added more rather than rip it all out and redo it. The new walkway lights (I still miss the old ones they took out years ago) are LED. * Every year they turn off more and more of the waterfalls on Thunder Canyon. I don't know if pumps are failing, or they're too cheap to run them, or if guests were complaining about actually getting wet. * Riptide wasn't operating the first two times I was there. Extreme Swing now can use both sides. * Price of food seems to have gone up, big surprise

A few other thoughts on Soak City If you shortened and moved Wild Things queue to be next to the train tunnel and demoed the Pronto Pup and Funnel Cake stands and yet another set of old, cramped restrooms you'd have a lot of land behind the wave pool (although it would be awkward to get to from the rest of the waterpark and you'd get a nice view of all the wave pool mechanical equipment. It would make a good spot for a water coaster, with the entrance in the old Hydroblaster area. The Viking ship I wouldn't care if they removed it now, the new higher headrests really wreck the ride for me. If they took out the existing slide towers they could build something higher and cantilevered over the road. A Flowrider packs a lot of wow into very little space. Mad Mouse looks like it would be easy to move, and the main path could go behind the games area. I'd like to see a new main entrance. I know Valleyfair wants you to walk by as many food stands as possible, but it's about as far as you can get from the parking lot, and the walkways by whatever they call Red Garter now are often congested.