ariznglori

A Vekoma Stingray or LSM certainly wouldn't suck imo.

I know, I was just saying that even a clone of either ride would be awesome for Valleyfair as they're both excellent, and a clone may be more likely/affordable as the blueprints would be all drawn up (but of course a custom is preferred).

A clone of either would satisfy me honestly, but something original would blow me away. Been thinking of more potential names just for fun: Iron Eagle Black (or green, or blue, or whatever) Falcon Iron Thunder Warbird Divebomber Steel Falcon Asteroid Nova White Lightning Steel Comet The Invader The Storm Wraith Phantasm Iron Scream Turbulence Vengeance Skyhawk Wrath Jetscream

Honestly wouldn't be against an unusual layout, predrop or not. I'd love to see the invert highly visible and close to the paths like Great Bear, but I also want it to mimic Nemesis and use trees and ground as near-miss feet chopper moments. Totally agree about the intensity factor's importance. Larger inverts are not necessarily more intense just more massive, and therefore not guaranteed to be better ride experiences. Forces and airtime are what's important, not the tallest longest etc. Not saying Banshee isn't intense or awesome, but you can deliver great rides for a lot less cash than Banshee.

And the only surprise is BGW

Wow these are gonna be tall. Exciting!

Doesn't the slide package they're adding have tube slides? That should help along with the tall speed slides.

They could probably fit one of these on the sand volleyball pit or the site of the old splash pad, or even on the site of Looping Starship, without having to gut the older part of the park. They seem to go over well at most water parks.

I'm pretty sure it houses infrastructure too, its foundation is very deep and it's positioned so strategically between the new slides and the new splash pad. I'm loving how this slide complex is going to double the thrill options in the waterpark. It's really a very substantial addition and certainly bodes well for continued expansion. I wonder what else they will do in future expansions. Where can they go from here?

Yeah, dark green supports (I'm assuming you're talking about Wild Thing) would look a lot different than Millennium Force's white supports. I would like to see new lights on Power Tower, though. Y'all and your logic...now I unreasonably, unapologetically want Wild Thing to have a white lift hill for 2015. True about Power Tower though, when I rode it at night half of its uplighting was off. I asked the ride ops why and if the lights could be turned on and they didn't know. Majorly disappointed--I'm a freak for great lighting. But big LED floodlights aimed up the tower should be super cheap on the electric bill after the initial investment, and they'd be able to change the colors for different holidays with a press of a button, like red white and blue around the 4th of July and orange and green for Haunt.

That sort of raises the specter of a relocated Vortex (either CGA or Carowinds, don't matter which really) with floorless trains and paint job. Especially if Cedar Fair finds Rougarou's transformation successful, which it most likely will be, since it was said somewhere that they're looking into other stand-up to floorless conversions, and moving a coaster is cheaper than getting a new one. And will Carowinds miss Vortex with Fury there? Probably not. But if you squint at the video and imagine the cars are floorless, you can see it may still be a fun twisty ride with inversions that Valleyfair really shouldn't shun. It could probably fit in that parking lot space as well--compact, no height problems to speak of... come to think of it I wouldn't mind getting. But still hoping for more on the 40th anniversary. Edit: It does matter. I'd want the Carowinds model.

I know, but I think it needs to be brighter/more vivid. Like this...a new LED package would be cool and really enhance the whole park at night.

They were blue, yup. The yellow/orange will go better with the track, but the blue wasn't bad either.

Love that the coaster trains are getting painted. Great to see!

You got great shots of the park and Haunt on your blog--Corkscrew is incredibly photogenic in orange!

Found some old concept art from the Galaxy Theater and the arcade. I love the checker-stamped dyed concrete and hope they one day carry that out throughout that part of the park--right now it looks like the same color. When was the Galaxy Theater built, anyway? It must not have been too long ago if Wild Thing was already built at the time.

Tours of the maintenance buildings maybe? Looking at the hydraulics and motors under the coaster stations...stuff you would only usually see if you were getting paid to work on the rides. Maybe a walk on the MCBR on Wild Thing--but for sure going up the lift hill. Not sure what else...maybe the guide can talk about the coasters' histories, construction, maintenance hurdles (how they deal with the extreme cold, flooding, etc.), and talk about what rides the park really wants to get in the future, places where they are considering expansion, talk about all the stuff that goes into making the park a satisfying experience...so I don't have to speculate or guess on these things anymore...would be cool. Lol. EDIT: Looks like they're making a lot of progress on that new little building...I'm guessing housing for water pumps and piping, but not sure.

What ride should get the next new lighting package? I love the dramatic effect on the Ferris wheel. Kinda want to see Wild Thing's lift hill all lit up like Millennium Force.

I wouldn't put any ride at Valleyfair on par with ExtraTERRORestrial or anything at Magic Kingdom...and the biggest difference is you can see the ride you're going to experience at Valleyfair, you're not going on unaware of what happens. And those parents probably wanted to traumatize their kids, especially if there were signs everywhere indicating who the ride was for and they didn't take that into consideration. They just felt bad when the ride was over and the kids were still scared. And running Valleyfair rides more intensely for the last two hours of the day is not going to traumatize kids.

You'd think that the park would be more apt to return the tower to more intense cycles with Camp Snoopy catering to the families. There are hordes of teeny boppers that roam the park looking for something thrilling, and the rides there are capable of thrilling but aren't being run that way... Maybe to compromise, they could run the rides on more intense cycles later in the day, after the families usually start to leave. That way they can cater to families at their peak attendance hours and still hit up the thrillseeker crowd. They could market it as ValleyScare--oh wait...ValleyThrill? The Thrilling Hour--every night from 9-10, intense cycles not suitable for children.

Why would they tame it down? That seems so counterintuitive.

I have to agree that Power Tower is not as thrilling a tower as the drop towers of SFGAm or SFA, even though it's like fifty feet taller than those. Definitely great for views, though.

https://www.kingsdominion.com/images/uploads/image/14217_01%20Kings%20Dominion%20-%20Spray%20Pad.jpg It looks like our new splash pad will be very similar to the one being installed in Kings Dominion this year. Not enormous, but definitely a big step up in quality.

The Whitewater slides are definitely more visually appealing. Glad we're getting slides that will look so sleek, it really will make the park feel more vibrant and active.

Patriot was 14 mil, and I believe the Batman clone at SFGAdv was 8-10 mil. I haven't been on Patriot, but I have been on Batman at SFGAm, and I have heard that the Batman clones are a superior ride experience. I'd like to see us get a smaller B&M invert that delivers in intensity in the vein of the Batman coasters than a larger B&M that may waste millions on an inferior ride experience. Valleyfair has plenty of coasters that are fun for families with little intensity, and the invert would hopefully help shore up the gap.