ariznglori

That may be true, but it doesn't help when the river floods later in the season, like last year. A preview weekend would be fantastic, I'd like to see Valleyfair do that when they add their next coaster! Does anyone know if High Roller's trains will be getting some love to go with the retracking? I remember the seatbelts in the last row on one of the trains were faulty, and the padding was in bad shape in a few places.

Do you think that the general public cares more about a coaster's statistics than the experience it delivers? I know a lot of enthusiasts roll their eyes at some of the "statistics" GP will mention.

Our lineup is not better than Six Flags America's, and their SLC is still performing well enough after however many years. I know it's not wanted, but to play devil's advocate, an SLC would be within the realm of possibility for Valleyfair, and well within budget. Michigan's Adventure has what many call a very smooth SLC, and if they got a hyper GT-X, their line-up would be pretty much on par with Valleyfair's (they've already got more inversions than we do). Factoring in their waterpark, they might be a better park overall. Especially if they get their Planet Snoopy soon. Random question: would you trade Wild Thing for a GT-X? Why or why not?

But you don't really need a cabana to watch your kids.... They put those there to make more money on rentals. There must be a demand for more.

The new splash pad looks like it will have cabanas by it on the park map. I think that they also wanted more space for lounge chairs. So maybe that means they're anticipating losing some lounge space in the old section when it gets redone? Edit: Now they're on the webcam.

With Dinos remaining until 2019-2020, a new coaster in that spot is...Not probable? But I just don't see Valleyfair waiting that long.

I'm just giddy about the new brick path. It looks gorgeous! And the splash pad looks like the same one they're putting in Kings Dominion. It's not a "skimp on Valleyfair" thing so much as a "skimp on splash pads chainwide" thing. And it's still an upgrade to what we have.

Those slides look great in any weather. I like the second entrance they're putting on the changing rooms. Feels like there may be a lot of good little changes coming.

North and South Carolina also have beaches and coastal towns to flock to--Myrtle Beach sees 14 million visitors spring-fall, and it's a town of 27,000 people. It would take an Intimidator and a Fury-sized coaster to cement Carowinds as a must-do for the summer for the general Carolina population. And Cedar Fair did it. And as much as it's been thrown around (by me) I must reiterate "growth park"...Carowinds probably was the first for a myriad of reasons that have been discussed in other threads. Great America is still learning how to deal with its new stadium neighbor and coordinating with the NFL for parking, etc... that may delay their expansion until the situation settles into something "normal". I think we are next for growth, and Great America will be last of the 3.Probably completely wrong though.

Don't forget the Minneapolis/St Paul CSA is a million people larger than Charlotte's. That's a million more people who are likely to visit frequently as the park is a pretty short drive. We have more favorable statistics than Carowinds does in many respects. Lots of potential customers to tap. Lots of potential growth.

Maybe it's an effort to make the slides seem like they're more family friendly?

I like the name Patriot too. Not too fond of the color scheme, just feel like it's done to death, but I also can't think of a better one, so there you go.

I'm saying we have several years to go before SFGA can consider getting theirs. So in the meantime you can't really count the towel as getting thrown in. Nor does it matter if they were to get theirs tomorrow, actually. They have an invert so good it's been duplicated more times than I care to count, but of course we all want an invert here even though it's pretty close and a common (but not staple) ride type.

In this part of the country, it would be unique. Exactly how big is "this part of the country" to you? Two less than 8hrs south of Valleyfair, and there will soon be one in Wisconsin Dells, and likely one at SFGAm in the future (yes, I'm counting Starflyers and other similar ripoffs) When talking about the footprint, it's not about whether they could do something. It's about whether they should. We have plenty of space for things considering how the park has removed or relocated a ride almost every year since 2008. There's Chaos's spot, Skyscraper's spot, Scrambler's original spot, Tilt-a-whirl's old spot, the old Corkscrew tot-spot, and an amphitheater that sits unused covering a large amount of space. Also, for 5-6 million, I think they could build something far better and more unique. *edit* - I just realized for roughly the same price tag, you could get Falcon's Fury... Of course, and I understand that. Your opinion is totally valid. That said, a park should consider what the majority opinion is, and I think it's fair to say that most of the general public (not even considering the enthusiast community) would never say something like "It's better than most coasters". The most common thing I hear from people who have seen them is "Oh, yeah, it's alright." Why would a park settle for that when they could do something so much more interesting and compelling? Obviously parks need some average rides. Cedar Point, for example, was already doing just fine in the thrill/intensity category. Valleyfair, on the other hand, has left thrill seekers out in the cold since 2007, as many in this thread say on a daily basis. Given what most are saying the park lacks, a windseeker is not the way to reel in thrill seekers from out of state. I would say within a reasonable day trip was what I was thinking, so about 4 hours one way max. Which puts the only one in reach at...nowhere. I don't count a star flyer at a tourist trap park that is horrible at maintenance as competition, but if you want to, go ahead. Nor will I count an "imminent" star flyer at SFGA as they seem more likely to get a dark ride at this point. Though if they got a star flyer it would not make a windseeker here worthless. And if these kinds of rides do become park staples, as they seem to have, would you want Valleyfair left out? It would just fall further behind expectations. It doesn't have to be the scariest ride out there to do well here and bring in the GP and their dollars. And I would LOVE a Falcons Fury, they could do that as well and become a tower-saturated park.

I enjoy Demon a lot, but likewise I like Corkscrew more. But if Demon got some love and was smoother, there would be no competition. Viper and American Eagle are not even trying to be what Renegade is. One is a Cyclone clone (a very good one) and the other a racer (which we don't even have). Renegade is definitely Valleyfair's best coaster, hands down. High Roller loses to Eagle and Viper, though. And nothing Valleyfair has begins to compete with Superman, Batman, Goliath, Whizzer, Bull, etc. Except Mad Mouse. It kills Dark Knight for enjoyability. Oh, and Steel Venom is so much scarier than V2. It's not hard, like you said, to see why Minnesotans go 'meh' for Valleyfair. But we're very close to being an incredibly fun local park. The new slides are definitely a promising sign.

In this part of the country, it would be unique. The parks Valleyfair would reasonably vie with don't have it. The ride being successful at other major parks in farflung and diverse regions (minus the first gen hiccups) really only reinforces how good one would do here. Not to mention its small footprint works for our land limitations...I'm not seeing a problem. I agree with your list of other rides that the park would do well with, I'd love to see them all here, but none make quite the same addition to the skyline as a windseeker.

Eh, let's see how Adventureland does with their new one before ushering windseekers into the grave. Hopefully all the kinks have been worked out by Mondial. I definitely don't want to have to go to Mount Olympus for their sky screamer...I'll take a "faulty" windseeker at a Cedar Fair park over a "reliable" sky screamer at Mount Olympus any day. I think that Valleyfair should try to get one before Six Flags Great America can get theirs. Either that or a full circuit launch coaster. There's nothing Valleyfair really has over SFGA, but that can change. Not that the parks even engage in that kind of competition, but for people who live halfway (me) Valleyfair does need to offer either more unique or just simply better ride experiences to be worth the drive. Right now its biggest strength is being the less crowded of the two parks. And its charm of course. I love rooting for it lol.

A windseeker would be great (in my head it's in the Wild Thing turnaround). A pendulum would look great near it too (can they kill the amphitheater already?). And those Larson flyers would be perfect near Planet Snoopy somewhere--in my head it's back by Wild Thing, where I believe the Tilt a whirl used to be. Would be so fun!

I'm starting to accept that cautious optimism is good for 2016 as the park isn't really taking "off years" lately, but 2017 feels coaster good for sure. There just seem to be a lot of hints at big things for the big parks in 2016 which will probably eat up Cedar Fair's budget. They're definitely not done with bringing Carowinds up to par--that park is becoming their new golden child. I think Cedar Fair has corporate offices in Charlotte, so they definitely want a major presence there. But that doesn't necessitate an off year for Valleyfair.

You can have mixed feelings about your park. You want what you want but you also want what is best, and they don't always line up. So you hope that either option is taken rather than none.

The Twin Cities CSA has a million more people than the Charlotte CSA. Population is not the problem.

If that doesn't get adrenaline pumping, then nothing will.

More white poles?

They could do running lights up the lift side, I think Fury got a package like that. Ground and running...Ehh not sure though. Dropped.

Maybe a new lighting package?