C.P.A.Guy

Which is probably one reason why we do not have one. I also don't see us ever receiving one due to some of the problems other Cedar Fair parks have had in the past.

It looks like they are landscaping along the fence in the last of those photos laying either red mulch or red decor rocks. Another photo has a giant pile of rocks it looks like. I would guess just landscaping, but I know that doesn't excite anyone.

I'm about 2.5 hours away from Valleyfair. 40 Minutes from Arnold's Park. I usually make it to Valleyfair once or twice a year. I didn't make it there last year though, not a huge deal as I hit up Worlds of Fun and some other parks/water parks. My family had season passes 2003-2006 when gas was a tad cheaper and would make it probably 5-6 times a year. Decided to purchase season passes due to the addition of Steel Venom. We would hardly spend a dime in the park when we'd go. We'd pack lunches and go eat in the picnic area, not really into games or buying crappy souvenirs. About the only thing we'd buy is mini donuts at the front of the entrance right before we'd head home. Good times. Wish I was closer to make it more often, but I usually don't feel like I'm missing out only visiting once per year. The park is small enough to do in one day. Usually go late or early in the season on a Sunday so lines aren't terrible at all. I'm usually ready to go home by 5pm if I get there at opening. Ride each coaster 2-3 times and hit a couple other rides. Not a huge flat ride/spinning ride guy like Enterprise/Monster/Riptide. Love Xtreme Swing! I'll probably go labor day Sunday this year to get my last ride in on Excalibur. I do make it up to the cities 2-3 time per month in the summer for random events, so a new coaster probably would lure me into getting a season pass again.. That's my story..

Magnum is much more thrilling than Wild Thing. Wild Thing just glides over hills with really no forceful airtime. Magnum ejects you out of your seat and has a much better pace to the ride. I'm not a fan of break runs. Magnum wins by miles!

I wish Cedar Fair would sign some kind of management contract with Mt. Olympus. That place has so much potential, but the people running it have no idea what they are doing. If it was in any place but the Dells it would of been closed years ago. It feels like there was no planning at all in the layout and operation of that place. I'm personally not a fan. Spent a day there last year and probably will never go back. I think Valleyfair adding another wave pool is slim to none. Even if they put an new entrance somewhere in the vicinity of where Excalibur's station is now, and they tear down the old waterslide complex and changing area, there isn't going to be a ton of new room for new water park attractions. My concern is I believe a new revamped water park is going to be a huge attendance draw and slides are not really capacity movers. I have not been to Valleyfair yet this year, but I went on Worlds of Fun's similar new slide complex last year and the lines were 45 minutes - 1 hour long per slide on a slower weekday (Patriot and Mamba were walk ons that same day). Road the slide once, said fug this, went back to drinking beer at the swim up bar. So what I guess I'm trying to get at...Valleyfair is going to need a swim up bar more than anything in my opinion. Yes, even a coaster.

Goose Island 312 is the bee's knees!!

Well it was the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard in my life.. I don't even know what to say.. Carry on..

I'd assume, like any other upcharge attraction, Dinosaurs Alive will last as long as it is meeting financial expectations.

I am at a loss for words.. Anyway, I agree that the interest in dinosaurs is kind of at a high point right now with Jurassic World, which probably bought Dinosaurs Alive a few more years of operation and added profit. A new slide complex or two, additional water park infrastructure, new parking lot, new entrance, and a new access road. That all sounds like a 10+ million dollar investment. I'd say that that will take care of any chance of a coaster for the next 2-3 years, and it is probably money better spent. In Frazier we trust..

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. A reason I mentioned that the Dino's location would be an option for a coaster in the near future is because Valleyfair doesn't seem to do very well with additional charge attractions. Skyscraper only lasted a couple seasons, the go karts and mini golf were removed. I don't see any of those attractions being removed if they were making decent money. It wouldn't surprise me if Valleyfair's Dinos were the first to go in the chain despite being one of the later parks to add the attraction. If the Dinos weren't free with a season pass, I can honestly say I'd never pay to go in there. I don't have kids though, so maybe that would make it a different story.

http://www.mvp.usace.army.mil/Portals/57/docs/regulatory/MN-Standard/2014004059P.pdf If you look at the very last page, the photo with proposed elevation grades. Where it says Wetland B and Wetland D, it looks like there will be two culverts installed to allow water to flow through the new road. If you look at where the culverts would let water flow through, there seems to already be a little valley like stream that would let water through at the Wetland D culvert and flow towards and out the Wetland B culvert. It looks like a dark line that cuts south right after it goes through Wetland culvert D, then cuts west along where it says Wetland A, and then would flow out the Wetland B culvert. Looking further at the plans, it looks like they are willing to let water flow through the back of the park, which in a bad flood year, this probably wouldn't protect much of anything in the back of the park below that 710-715 elevation level which much of Renegade and Thunder Canyon sit. It looks like from judging past flood photos that anything below that elevation 710-715 is probably in danger of flooding. It looks like only the parking lot and access road is being raised above that 710-715 mark and the rest of the new area inside the new access road will remain around that 710 mark. You can see the new elevation of the access road will be at 718.6. Those culverts kind of baffle me. Why would you make a new access road with a main purpose to protect future land from flooding, then have culverts let water in and flow through. This would probably be fine in an average flood year where it would simply just flow through and not back up flooding Renegade and Thunder Canyon. But in any bad flood year, I have a hard time believing those culverts wouldn't back up and flood that area anyway, or at least the north half of the area. Looking at these plans a littler further, it sort of seems like they were drawn up to ensure that water would flow past Renegade, protecting Renegade even if water is let in through the culvert, and to create an additional parking lot/entrance to the water park. Looks like the north half of the area inside the new access road would still be very flood prone. The proposed parking lot seems to end right next to that Wetland B culvert as well which leads me to believe water would flow through right along the end of the new parking lot. It does state in the application that, "These new parking lots would allow for some development of the existing parking lots within the levee." Besides some new water park attractions and a new water park entrance, I don't think the back of the park is going to see much change right away. Not saying that revamping the water park with a few new slide complexes wouldn't be a ton of change, because it would! I'd put money on the next coaster being in the front of the park at the Amphitheater or Dinosaurs Alive location. Unless more elevation grading happens in the following year to raise the land inside the new access road for a new coaster, which is more than likely possible. There would be a lot of head shaking going on if you build a brand new B&M in the back of the park and it's sitting under water on opening day. I think if a new coaster is built in the back, I'd look for it to be wood or have concrete supports up until 715 elevation mark.

Ding Ding Ding. We have a winner! Smart man... I'd be happy with the next 2-3 years all focusing on the water park, new parking lot, new access road, and additional infrastructure upgrades. Lets not forget how the water park was overdue for massive upgrades for 15-20 years! Surprised it took them this long to realize that they were missing out on a great opportunity to draw people in with how popular the dells are among people from the Twin Cities area. Then a new B&M invert or wing coaster to replace Dinosaurs Alive in 2019-2020.

Sounds like this wasn't a slam dunk and they may have been told to go back to the drawing board. Hope that is not the case and they are still in the process of the initial proposal.

IALTO!

C.P.A. Guy: We already on a waiting period 2007 Renegade was our last one were already going on eight years add five more years on top of that? I don't think people want to wait 13 years for a new roller coaster it's going to be my guess I'm hopeing for our 40th anniversary. I'm excited to here what's possibly coming to Valleyfair. Will there be another public hearing and what did the people say at the public hearing were they excited? I'm going to visit the park a lot this summer to see if there's anything going on. It's not like Cedar Fair is going to add a roller coaster to a park just because a certain amount of time period has gone by. From your train of thinking 2011 should have been a new coaster year, and they probably could of added a coaster with the $9 million dollars they spent that year as Renegade was between built for $6-7 million. Management felt Planet Snoopy was a better investment than a coaster and went that route. So if hypothetically we get budgeted $12 million in 2016 for new attractions and management feels a new access road, new parking lot, new water park entrance, and new water park attractions are going to return a higher investment than a new coaster...then management will go with the upgraded water park ten out of ten times. Like every business it is all about making money and getting the best return on your investment, not pleasing the ten coaster enthusiasts in the area. Public hearings are usually used for people who are opposed to the proposal to voice there concerns. For example, if you read the document it mentioned some bat species that is threatened or possibly endangered lives in the area. If some liberal hippies, which the twins cities area seems to be full of, wants to make a huge fuss about a couple of these threatened bats, then that public hearing would be the time to complain and could possibly delay the project. That's why I would be curious if this has all ready been approved. Somebody should read Shakopee's City Council minutes to see if there is any approvals so far. Just because it is a park's anniversary doesn't mean that it will get a major attraction. In 2006 we didn't get anything major for our 30th anniversary. I guess you could call Xtreme Swing major. Just trying to be a realist, not crush your dreams. I would vote coaster along with the rest of you!

Valleyfair fanatics should be more excited about this than a new coaster announcement. This will open up so many more options for the future of the park and shows that Cedar Fair is willing and planning to put major future investments into the park. On the application document it states the public hearing was until May 11, so I wonder if this has already been approved and onto the next step in the process. I imagine they will want to get this project started this summer since ground/dirt work during the winter in Minnesota isn't much fun. And lets not forget if the new roadway isn't built up and finished by next spring and we have a wet winter, all your progress could be washed away by flooding. I'm willing to bet that moving this road, paving a parking lot, constructing a new entrance, and adding a few new water park attractions will take up the next 2-3 years of investment dollars. For people rooting for a coaster, good things come to those who wait...5 more years. I guess it took 5-6 years in between the new wave pool and new slides this year. Maybe they will construct the new access road and wait 5-6 years to scrap Excalibur and build the new parking lot/water park entrance. Then a coaster could get put in next year or 2017 in the front of the park. I know its been said a thousand times, but for 15 years, I too have been dreaming of a shiny new inverted B&M swooping over the entrance in place of the old antique autos area. Maybe in a smaller version of Gatekeeper now since wing coasters are the new thing...