GCI Wooden

I'm probably more excited for this than I should be. I really enjoyed Windseeker, so I'm sure I'l love the more thrilling version of it. Solid addition in my book.

The Stars Align In 2017 For New Thrills At Valleyfair! Thrill seekers, get ready to reach for the stars as Valleyfair announces plans for a 230-foot-tall Starflyer ride in 2017. North Star - named to celebrate the region’s affinity to being “up north” and the great outdoors - is a 230-foot-tall tower that will spin riders more than 20 stories above the ground. Seated in two-person chain-link swings that will allow their feet to dangle, riders will slowly begin rotating in a circular motion reaching speeds of up to 40 mph as the swings ascend and descend the tower. “The annual trip to Valleyfair has always been a family tradition in Minnesota,” says Dave Frazier, Vice President and General Manager of Valleyfair. “The addition of North Star certainly adds to the continued commitment to provide lasting family memories for our guests.” By comparison, North Star will rank as the second tallest ride in the park next to the 275-foot Power Tower and will occupy the spot soon-to-be vacated by Enterprise, which will be retired later this month. The location positions North Star at the front of the park where, living up to its name, it will serve as a beacon to guide and greet guests on their journey to the park. North Star is the only ride of this type in the upper Midwest. North Star is manufactured by Australian-based Funtime. Construction on North Star will begin this month and be complete by early to mid-December. The ride will open to guests in the spring of 2017. The best way to experience the new North Star is with a 2017 Gold Season Pass, on sale now at the lowest price of the season. Season Pass holders enjoy unlimited visits all season long, including Soak City Waterpark and Valleyscare, free parking, in-park discounts, exclusive offers and events and so much more. For more information: https://www.valleyfair.com/what-s-new/introducing-north-star-for-2017 [fbvideonew] [/fbvideonew]

Is Renegade affected by this too?

You just have to wonder if Cedar Fair would go for Great Adventure's "Just run it until it valleys" weather policy. I would love it if my local park went ahead with a winter event, but I kinda doubt it happening near me where highs in the 20's are considered a warmer day in January.

Steel Hawg is incredible coaster for it's size. An amazing drop, really strange inversions and the outward banking is just some added quirkiness. I think I rode that more than anything else in the park when we went. That is an incredibly under-rated coaster in my opinion, probably because everyone gets on the Cornball hype train and overlooks it.

We appreciate all of the time and effort you poured into this cause.

Where do you suggest they put one? The DInos aren't going anywhere until the contract is up As far as we know, the permit to toothpick Excalibur and fill in the swamp in the back hasn't been approved The aren't going to spend a zillion dollars to move a zillion things around inside the park when these locations will become available in a few years. Exactly. The Dinos will more than likely become a "Deckerated" coaster as Matt Ouimet has called recent front gate coasters after VP of Design Rob Decker, but that will not happen until the Dino's useful life is complete. Who knows how long that will be. People have mentioned that they are 7 year leases, which means they will be around until at least 2019, making 2020 the earliest year that land is available for re-development. I don't know if anybody has ever offered up any proof as to the length of the lease though, so it could be 10 years...who knows!! As long they keep making respectable profits, they could be around for forever!! I made it to the park last Saturday night for my first and probably only visit this season. The park was actually not as busy as I thought it would be for a Saturday night in early August. I took advantage of the starlight admission and was at the park from about 4:30 to 10:30. The park looked great!! Everything was super clean and operations seemed to be running very efficient. I rode Renegade 4-5 times (2 night rides), Wild Thing 3-4 times, and the following once: Power Tower (red), Xtreme Swing, High Roller, Corkscrew, Mad Mouse, Enterprise, Steel Venom, Northern Lights, Excalibur, and the Bumper Cars. Having done all that in a little under 6 hours, I can honestly say I was ready to leave. In my opinion the park has a great collections of rides and has almost every category covered, but it is obviously missing a modern steel looping coaster and an extra thrill ride or two. Next year should take care of the thrill ride, so hopefully the modern looping coaster isn't far behind! I'm not sure if this is possible, but if there's 3 years left on the lease, couldn't they move it to another park for the remaining 3 years???? New for Michigan's Adventure in 2017... Honestly, I think that moving them would be way more work than it's worth. It was the Cedar Fair fad for a few years, and I think we've seen the end of installations, and they'll just sit until the contract is done.

I just Googled it, it's a company based in Eden Prairie that specializes in medical devices. Interesting thing to advertise at an amusement park... http://www.surmodics.com/

Everywhere else that I've read says that it closes August 21st.

I haven't been to a waterpark in years, and I really don't plan on spending a day at one any time soon. It just isn't my thing.

This must be coasterbill's idea of heaven.

No. That isn't a problem. Do you really think S&S would accidentally look past that minor detail? Those trains are like a wing coasters where the seats rotate like a Skyroller. Instead of flipping vertically (Like X2), it just flips horizontally. So, it's not exactly like an Air Race, but it could provide a similar motion. Also, they could totally put an Air Race on a coaster and still support it. You just need to figure out where the car would be swung at any point of the track, and just put the support where the car wouldn't be. You don't need full 360 degree clearance just because the car has the ability to rotate 360 degrees, you just need clearance where the car would be at the moment the car passes the support. For example, if the car would be swung to the far left of the track, put the support on the right side of the track, or below the track, or on top. As long as the support isn't on the left, it's fine.

Oh, and I somehow forgot about FASCINATION! For like 50 cents, you get to play that incredibly awesome (And extremely addictave) game. Seriously, Fascination is amazing.

I feel the same way. I went to the park last year knowing basically nothing about it except that it had Steel Hawg, Cornball, and one heck of a drop tower, and was pleasantly surprised with the rest of the park. I really don't know why people complain about this place, none of the wooden coasters beat me up, they have a crazy intense Schwarzkopf that is somehow built on top of a restaurant, and it's reasonably priced. Maybe my opinion was impacted by the fact that no one was there when I went, but I really enjoyed the place.

Lost Gravity and Taron look really, really good. Someday, I will get to Europe. I really like these montage videos you guys have been posting recently. I like seeing all of these amazing rides back to back.

Well, Snoopy (And the rest of the Peanuts gang) is basically the park mascot, so it would make sense for him to be the spokesperson.

Nope. If you go between now and the 21st expect the park to be packed every day. This is Iowa State Fair time and the "SOP" for most families is to visit the fair and also go to Adventureland while in town. Seriously, the parking lot at Adventureland will be completely full and they'll be parking people over at Adventureland Inn as well. So if you do go, be prepared to wait in lines. You'll get to practice being patient. Thank you so much, I completely forgot about the Iowa State Fair! I'm thinking the last weekend of August, that shouldn't be bad, right? I would think it would be back to normal by then. It'll definitely be less crowded on the Sunday. Alright, thank you! Looking forward to Monster and all of the other rides at the park!

Nope. If you go between now and the 21st expect the park to be packed every day. This is Iowa State Fair time and the "SOP" for most families is to visit the fair and also go to Adventureland while in town. Seriously, the parking lot at Adventureland will be completely full and they'll be parking people over at Adventureland Inn as well. So if you do go, be prepared to wait in lines. You'll get to practice being patient. Thank you so much, I completely forgot about the Iowa State Fair! I'm thinking the last weekend of August, that shouldn't be bad, right?

I love this. Thanks for posting it, I find this type of stuff fascinating, as well. Thanks for posting!

So, thinking about taking a trip down to the park in the next few weeks. Does it make much of a difference in crowds to go on a Sunday instead of a Saturday, or does it not matter much? ~Josh

I'm excited to see another project! Your Airplane model looks really good, and I can't wait to see this one come together. Good luck with it!

Came across this: Say a number 1-5 I've seen a lot of dumb threads posted here, but this is up there with "Rate a Seagull" for the most pointless thread I've seen.

I'm using a Windows 10 with Chrome as the browser (I tried it again and the same thing happens on Microsoft Edge, too) When I try to watch it from the forum, I can't see it: I get this on this thread. Works on Youtube, though. When I click the "Youtube Videolink" URL

Great report again, Chuck. Your captions are hilarious. -Josh "Fully supports the Taco Bell Chiapas idea" Cameron

Listen man, that intern from Coastal Carolina's tourism program had to spend like 30 minutes reading animoto FAQs to get the video to this level. And before someone comments on how we're complaining about the video, we're not complaining. We're just complimenting them on that lovely Kaleidoscope filter. My only complaint is that they didn't put in like 800 more of them. So good.