ariznglori

Well, if they cannot blow the money on moving the service road and getting a new parking lot, I'd love to see RMC get their hands on Excalibur. Keep the station, lift hill and brake run, but let them go wild with the rest. An RMC in the back of the park would be well worth the long trek from the parking lot.

Nothing is known still i thought

^Absolutely gorgeous concept art! If we get any new stalls or buildings, I'd love to see them strive for that style. Valleyfair could use a bit more whimsy here and there.

Iron Roar?

I can see a Gerstlauer doing well for MiA. Maybe a launcher?

If the train is still down, this all seems rather convenient...

Plenty of news gets posted to this thread. The dearth you're feeling lately is because there just isn't that much right now. We're waiting to see what becomes of the new perimeter road plans (which is obviously a huge deal), and any announcements for Valleyfair come in late August I believe...if reading about speculation in the meantime bothers you, then it's best to probably ignore this forum until then. But if people want to talk about Valleyfair in the meantime, isn't that what this forum is for?

There's no reason to be upset that Adventureland is getting a new coaster...we've gotten how many in the time they've gotten nothing? Wild Thing, Steel Venom, and Renegade at least? We're leagues beyond them right now, and we are guaranteed a dark ride at this point, sometime in the next several years. I think that we will wait until Dinos is out for a new invert at the front of the park. In Dinos' last season, we may see the beginnings of footers being poured if they can squeeze them in, but probably not. I think that the amphitheater will go soon, and we will see either the dark ride there or another family-sized coaster. We have plenty of open spots around the park for cool flats in the meantime. No worries about the future here.

I wonder if rent for that mall space and the power/AC bill eat up a lot of that potential profit. What is the relationship between Nick Universe and the Mall of America? Anybody know? I'm intrigued.

This. The haunt building they're constructing still looks too small for a decent dark ride, and you know a dark ride will also more than likely have a themed indoor queue (a la Iron Reef), and that building site definitely cannot fit it. I think they're going to have several permanent haunt buildings constructed, it makes sense to have them ready to go for one main purpose. Then the buildings, even when unused during the majority of the season, can serve to build curiosity and anticipation by always reminding guests "Haunt is coming". The arcade is making money, why spend to mess with a moneymaker when there are other sites that can be used?

Larson flyers have been a hit everywhere they've been installed based on the feedback. I want to see them come to VF too.

Oh I hope not, rapids are one of those rides that are needed for a park to feel complete. I think it would be more popular if it wasn't such a long walk to the back of the park. Don't know where else one could go, though.

I can see Valleyfair eventually adding a second wave pool if they are allowed to by the Civil Engineers, something huge like Poseidon's Rage would take it up a notch.

When they do put in a dark ride on the amphitheater site, it would be nice to see a refurbishing of the carousel and Enterprise then as well. Would help make that part of the park feel really nice instead of like a "hurry-through" zone.

Is no one going to say anything about the misspelling of "Safari Village"?

There was a very informative chart floating around about EBITDA of certain Cedar Fair parks, from some investor report. They revealed that MIA performs way better financially than you would guess. One thing I took away from those reports was that Valleyfair guests actually spend more per-guest in the park than just about all the other parks. People here really like to indulge in the booths, games etc. That may also be reflective of the popularity of the upcharge attractions like Dinos Alive, come to think of it.

With a lot of Hollywood speculators now anticipating a Jurassic World sequel, do you feel it's likely that Dinos Alive may be renewed to stay open through that eventual sequel's release?

Honestly, I was thinking the exact same thing! if that land gets used for future expansion in addition to the site of Dinos Alive,that opens up a huge potential footprint for an invert. And that footprint for a proposed waterpark lot looks like it would make up for the loss of parking in the front lot just fine, it's roughly the same size as that chunk of main lot we'd lose.

^ But people love dinosaurs, and you gotta admit the fonts used for Dinos Alive are reminescent of the Jurassic Park franchise. They clearly can, have, and will piggyback on its success, which makes a lot of sense. It's a $3 mil upcharge attraction, they need to get every penny out of it.

The Dino's are not going anywhere though. They are still at other CF parks like KI and CP which have had them even longer and they are still there. Plus there is no announcement to remove them from any CF park. But if VF gets an additional parking lot in the back they can take out some parking spaces in the front to add a coaster and even redo the entrance if they want so I agree the next coaster will be in the front of the park. And with all CF parks getting a dark ride in the future I see the Amphitheater as the only viable area to build a building of that size without moving or removing other attractions. Anything though is possible if the new parking lot gets approved. That opens up many more options for the park to expand. With the quote earlier that we would see footer prep as the mark of being two years from a coaster, it's possible that we might see footers getting poured in Dinos Alive while it's still going in 2018/19, especially if they leave in 2019/20 as forecasted. In the meantime, 2016 could be a new lot/perimeter road and waterpark entrance and expansion 2017 a possible new flat (this may go in 2016 even, idk) and additional waterpark expansion (someone said it might be a 3 phase expansion instead of just 2?) 2018 could be a dark ride on the amphitheater's location 2019 could be the beginning of construction on a new invert on the Dinos spot that utilizees that coned-off section of parking lot as well. I suspect that may be another good reason for a new waterpark lot as they want to develop on the existing parking lot, but they don't specify what exactly that development is in any plans....so it suggests coaster usage to me (as expected? ). Could be a pretty big invert if that much space is used, to be honest. I wouldn't want to see a new coaster pushed that far out, but if there are a lot of good intermediate additions to tide the GP over, it could be worth the wait to have an overall better park. Does this type of plan seem likely given the info we're getting?

I've gotta say that Valleyfair's website is getting much better. The only thing they really need to step up is that blog...it hasn't been updated in over a month!

Maybe it's time to look into Arthurian mythology for potential coaster names?

With this application though, they're definitely getting their priorities straight. They need to get the infrastructure in place for future growth before they can get the rides and attractions. Also, setting a precedent of filling in the wetlands on their property now will make it more likely that they can do more in the future. And the top priority is making sure that ehy have as much room as possible to expand. So getting the access road and new parking lots in place has to come first. If it puts off a coaster for another year, it's still worth it in the long run.

No you're not. But first we need more park for the train to go through