GCI Wooden

Looks like Skyrush will be open today

Jack Rabbit at Kennywood back in early August. Kennywood was a new park for me this year, and this coaster really surprised me! That ride is running exceptionally well for being over 100 years old, and that double-down is unbelievably good.

Here's Dollywood's site listing the temperature cutoffs: https://www.dollywood.com/themepark/Rides/Ride-Temperature-Guideline

Looking through the Haunt site for this year and noticing a few (perhaps expected) changes. Firstly, they cut back October operating hours (Friday stays 7-Midnight, Saturday 2-11, Sunday Noon-6). I can't say I'm surprised by that move but it does seem a little strange that Cedar Fair is cutting back some parks (Like VF and Dorney having 11pm closings) but expanding others (CP/WOF being open Thursdays). Second, they cut a maze (Cornstalkers) and the scarezone by Renegade, but everything is planned to be up for operation. Likely a good move; better to have good staffing on fewer things than poor staffing on many, as far as haunts go. Finally, looks like there's no show in the Galaxy theatre this fall which is a bit of shame since that was a nice way to warm up on colder nights. Other than those couple things, it looks like everything else will be staying the same and it'll be a relatively complete event. I'm also happy that they're keeping weekend September operations even though there won't be Haunt during those periods. I don't expect to be able to get to VF this fall but those autumn days at the park are always my favorite.

Yep, even with about 180Mbps download it's taking around 15 seconds to switch from a thread to the topic listing page. I too noticed a slowdown once the forum switched away from the old phpBB forum style, but it does seem to be more dramatic recently.

Yeah I wouldn't read into that post either, seems like pretty standard language for bringing in a new season. This excites me though because in previous years they've only shown months with operating dates. Like yeah I know Winterfest in Minneapolis is a genuinely absurd idea and I shouldn't read into this, but if Toronto can do it I guess it's not that much more insane to have it in MN? I'd love to see Winterfest at VF, and if it does end up happening I'll be pleasantly surprised, but I feel like I can't reasonably expect or even hope for such an event considering how cold it gets here in mid-late December (I mean it rarely gets above 30°F)

It's looking like we'll be heading to PA for Kennywood, Hershey, and Knoebels which I'm super excited for. I've been wanting to go to Knoebels for so long, and it's looking like it will finally happen! I also might stop in at some of the small parks around me that I haven't gotten to yet, like Little Amerricka and Arnold's Park just for quick day trips.

I saw a graveyard spring up over by Berserkers so presumably it's right where Humane was.

Definitely, we would normally go to the Hacks show twice everytime we went to haunt, it was so so funny (especially as it got later - the 11:00 shows were always off the rails hilarious). I seldom left that theatre without being in physical pain from laughter. From my understanding though, the comedians came from ComedySportz Twin Cities and they lost their building since last year so that may be part of the reason they're not returning. Also I think Route 76 would be a wonderful place for CarnEvil now that there's all the new lighting in the area but it's fine where it is.

Where did you hear that Looping Starship won’t be open during Haunt? I don’t see anything about it on the park website. Looping Starship is not listed under rides for Haunt. https://www.valleyfair.com/valleyscare/haunt/attractions At VF it can be assumed that all rides are open unless explicitly stated otherwise. They don't have Excalibur or Thunder Canyon open, but I can't think of another ride in the main park that closes for the Haunt season. I'd be surprised if Starship isn't running, but I am curious about what's going on with Raging Rapids.

We discovered that Steel Vengeance makes every other ride outside of Frontiertown fantastic for early entry. We were there a couple weeks ago and were able to get 3 rides on Valravn, 1 on MF and were in line for Maverick before the park opened. We also noticed that during this time Raptor was sending mostly empty trains. I think that may be our strategy from now on, since Valravn is such a fun ride but it always pulls such long waits during the day.

Still not working as of last Tuesday.

I didn't even think about lockers being in short supply or inefficient to operate when this was announced, so that's just another blemish on the guest experience. Hoping that they can figure this out soon and get everything to work smoothly. Interestingly enough there were practically no bugs when we were there in late June this year. It was pretty dense when I was there that same week a couple years back, so I wonder if something just went awry with their typical season.

^Yeah Haunt stuff is up and I'm excited, there's a lot of change for this upcoming Haunt season. I'll put all the changes here in this post so people don't have to go over to VF's website. First off, scare-zone news. MaSCAREade is new this year, and Bloodcreek is out. I would think that MaSCAREade will take the place of Bloodcreek but they haven't updated their map so I can't say. I'm intrigued by the use of "labyrinth" and "endless circle" in the description of a scarezone, sounds like something you'd find in a maze description. I'm curious what this will look like. Maze news: Humane Habitat is out this year. Looks like it'll be replaced by Undertakers Zombie High is being reworked into a blackout maze - cleverly named "Zombie High: In The Dark" Finally, Entertainment news: - No more Hacks I'm really bummed about this, they were always a highlight of the experience. - Blood Drums is back at Gazebo this year. - DJ Tek is moving to Midway Stage. Something else I noticed is that they chopped an hour off of the Sunday hours this year, now closing at 6:00 instead of 7:00. Looks like a really good year for Haunt - other than the removal of Hacks all the changes sound really positive and I'm pumped for September 22nd when it all kicks off!

Accidental double post

As a local myself I totally agree with this statement. I think enthusiasts have a tendency to underestimate the power of those Larson loops. It actually garnered a fair bit of attention with people telling folks in my family stuff like "you gotta try the new Delirious". There's a surprising number of people talking about it, at least where I'm at, so I wouldn't say it's entirely ineffective. Is it a spike on the same level as a major coaster addition? Absolutely not, but there's definitely people excited about the ride (and it's a good ride that's new why wouldn't they be). I also find it hard to believe that a lack of a major coaster addition is the single cause of a less busy park (And I can't say I've noticed it's that much less busy, on my visits this year it has seemed pretty typical for crowds, but I'm not there as much as others in this thread are). Especially considering that this decrease in attendance appears to be affecting parks nationwide.

Yesterday afternoom pretty much everything was a station wait except for Renegade (and of course mad mouse). You won't have a problem getting on everything you want. I actually rode pretty much every ride at the park that isn't a kiddie coaster and it only took us about 6 hours - including eating, the dog show, and a reride on Steel Venom and Wild Thing. You'll be fine. Ride Mad Mouse first if you care, then take the park at your leisure.

It does this sometimes, I don't think it's anything out of the ordinary. On the other hand, I've never seen the holding brake turned off for this length of time before though so something is definitely up. After riding it today I realized that I completely underestimated how much it added to the experience, so I hope they can fix it.

I know that my Mom is self-employed so it would really suck if she was in a 2 hour line without her phone and a client needed to contact her. We're not stupid so we won't use it on the ride, keeping it in safe pockets, but I don't think I can overstate how massive of an inconvenience this is. Hoping that they figure out a decent policy by later this year so we can get her on this with some peace of mind. It also doesn't make sense with the huge push for the Battle for CP and the general CP app. I normally use time spent in line to explore food options and show times to decide what to do after the ride I'm queueing for, in addition to general entertainment. And as a previous poster mentioned, all the AR boards are losing most of their functionality and the park is likely going to lose tons of positive PR from people taking pictures in line (I mean, anyone who has stood in that line can attest to how many people will Snapchat a quick video of the train coming down that first drop to share). I'm really disappointed in this policy. You can do way better CP.

Yeah you don't have to enter the park. If you just park in the normal parking lot, there's beach access right over by Gatekeeper's first drop (There's a sign that says "Boardwalk", just go through that, take a little boardwalk stroll and you're there) I'm not convinced that attendance is down either. The park seemed pretty busy when we went earlier this year, moreso than our last visit (which was the same week, with similar weather when Valravn was new). I think we're creating a problem that isn't really there.

Yeah I don't have any compaints about roughness with this park, their wooden coasters are sweet (lost coaster was closed when I was there, so I can't comment). That on top of the drop tower with maybe the strongest airtime I've ever felt, Fascination, good and cheap food (for a park), and all the flats over the water makes this an awesome park. I'd definitely recommend stopping in - it's not a big park but it's a lot of fun (I actually visited before they got bought out, and I imagine it has only improved since)

You definitely don't need to worry about everything being an hour wait. I don't think I've seen an hour+ wait at this park since Renegade was new. I've never been to the park on the 4th before, but you should have plenty of time to do what you want if you stay most the day. I think 30-45 min is about right for Renegade on a busy day and just under that range for the rest of the rides. You can add High Roller to that list of rides that will probably have longer waits (most days it's longer than Wild Thing's wait), but even still I'd be shocked if it approached an hour. But of course, we can't say anything with certainty because weather is a big and unpredictable factor, but I think that if you don't expect to be in the area for awhile and want to give the park a visit, go for it.

Finally getting back on the forum here. I went on the Run and Ride weekend to volunteer and then try out Delirious. I wasn't really expecting to like it since I'm not a fan of just hanging upside down but it actually was a pretty fun ride! I think I'll chop this one up to butt-hurt enthusiasts complaining a lot for no real reason. Also I *LOVE* the new lights over Route 76, it looks so great at night. Yeah when I rode it before, the only thing I noticed was a land clearing located next to the grain elevators. I don’t know if that was there before, as I had never really paid attention to that area, or if it was recently cleared away, but is it even on Valleyfair’s land? I haven't seen the land clearing you guys are talking about, but it's very possible that if it's close to the grain elevators it isn't Valleyfair's property. Area outlined in red is Valleyfair's property All of the land immediately west to that red line is owned by the owner of the grain elevators.

I've been crazy busy for the past few months so I'm just trying to catch up with all the stuff that's been going on and I completely forgot that this thing was actually getting built. I love seeing some weird flat rides get installed. It's interesting that it has a unique ride cycle everytime, I suppose it makes sense for it to adapt to weight distributions but I didn't expect it. Also, regardless of the quality of the on-ride experience, you can't deny that it is a really cool ride to watch. Yeah, this is them! To be fair, they aren't explicitly Christian Rock, at least they weren't. Sadly, it seems they've trended in that direction recently... I literally saw them at a Christian music festival I went to with a friend last summer lol They're okay at best, I wasn't a fan.

I didn't actually expect to see anything this year so this is a pleasant surprise! I'm actually most excited about seeing the lights over that whole pathway back to Steel Venom, that's going to look so great at night! As for Delirious, I'm not sure it'll be my cup of tea, but I'll definitely be trying it out when it opens and maybe it'll surprise me again.