garyman6 Posted December 21, 2014 Posted December 21, 2014 While I'm not going to quote the whole thing, I need to comment on the previous 2 or 3 entries. First of all, Cedar Fair has said many times lately that they are focused on the customer experience. when ariznglori states that Wild Thing does not meet expectations and does not have the "WOW" factor anymore I know he is not speaking just from his own experiences. Someone riding Wild Thing for the first time will probably love it. Locals and those of us who love coasters may like Wild Thing but we realize that something is missing from this ride. I didn't understand this until I rode Intimidator at Carowinds this past October. It was an amazing ride! Only 20 feet taller and about as fast but because of the train style, it was way more fun to ride then Wild Thing. Breathing new life into Wild Thing by adding new trains is a very cost effective way of adding another 15 to 20 years of like to Wild Thing. And Mr. Frazier did tell me when I asked of this possibility that "anything was possible" so... Second, The information I am about to share and have shared before is first hand from Mr. Frazier to me. This is in regards to the flood plains that border Valleyfair on the West and North sides of the park. Extending the flood berms would be very difficult and expensive if not impossible to do because of federal regulations. However, I was told that Valleyfair could build coaster supports in the flood plains but not a station. What does this mean? Take the current boundaries that Valleyfair has now and look at everyplace that could accommodate a coaster station ONLY. Most of the track work could reach out into flood plains. Keep the track above known high water levels and even during flood years the coaster could operate as usual. I don't agree that the only place to put a new coaster is in dino land. My guess is that they will move the current maintenance building and expand the park there or expand to the North of High Roller. They did put a permanent haunt building there this year. There are several areas that could be easily cleared to make a path under High Roller to get access to a new coaster station. This is exactly what they did with Renegade and Excalibur. Excalibur's station is built on top the flood berm. The only problem was they did put the tracks high enough to avoid flooding. Last year was quite rare to have a flood during the operating season though. Most of the flooding happens during the spring and has gone down before opening day! Lots to discuss and only 5 months to opening day!
VF15 Posted December 21, 2014 Posted December 21, 2014 While new WT trains wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, I'm on the side of no new trains for now. I would much rather have that money invested in other things at the park. Besides, I remember hearing Robb say in TPR's POV of SD2000 with B&M trains "That is the new and improved but sort of feels exactly the same Steel Dragon 2000", and if Wild Thing is going to feel exactly the same with new trains, then what's the point? Maybe sometime in the future when the trains are nearing the end of their operational lifespan it could be possible, but for now, I think WT is fine with what it has.
GCI Wooden Posted December 21, 2014 Posted December 21, 2014 Maybe they could turn the trims off if the want to improve guest expierence. That would be an easier fix than buying new trains, right? I think if they let the train fly through the MCBR, those airtime hills might actually provide airtime! The first part of Wild Thing is great, I love the first three drops. The turnaround is strange, but it's actually a lot of fun. The thing about Wild Thing, is that you slow down so much on the MCBR that the "grand finale" is boring. I really think that the thing that makes people think Wild Thing is boring is the return trip. I say, keep the old trains and turn the trims off, that will give the ride it's "WOW" factor.
VF15 Posted December 21, 2014 Posted December 21, 2014 ^ I don't know if this is completely true, but I heard somewhere that if they don't trim the train at the MCBR, it hits the final brake run too hard and it messes up the ride's computer. Besides, the trims don't need to be completely turned off to make it better. When I rode Wild Thing in late September this year, about half of the MCBR trims were turned off, and therefore I had some of my best Wild Thing rides ever. If only they'd run it like that more often.
TCSCskater Posted December 21, 2014 Posted December 21, 2014 I really don't see Wild Thing getting new trains anytime soon. However, it would be an amazing hyper if it got the Steel Phantom treatment (Morgan track with Arrow Chassis's on the trains) or something similar. Does anyone know what the track-gauge is for Chance/Morgan's? I'm curious if Morgan and Arrow use the same track gauge width on their coasters, as Morgan is more or less an off shoot of Arrow.
CaliforniaPinto Posted December 21, 2014 Posted December 21, 2014 And Mr. Frazier did tell me when I asked of this possibility that "anything was possible" so... Hate to tell you this, but in the business word this is just a polite way of saying "no chance in hell"
ariznglori Posted December 21, 2014 Posted December 21, 2014 Hate to tell you this, but in the business word this is just a polite way of saying "no chance in hell" Perhaps, but once upon a time people used to say vertical drops and barrel rolls on wood coasters would never happen, now look at Six Flags turning one of their largest dueling wood coasters into one long inverting self-dueling machine like something out of RCT. These are interesting times.
VF15 Posted December 21, 2014 Posted December 21, 2014 Hate to tell you this, but in the business word this is just a polite way of saying "no chance in hell" Perhaps, but once upon a time people used to say vertical drops and barrel rolls on wood coasters would never happen, now look at Six Flags turning one of their largest dueling wood coasters into one long inverting self-dueling machine like something out of RCT. These are interesting times. Also, just checked the webcam and they appear to be doing a lot more digging. I wonder what for because it doesn't look like they're digging directly where the slides and splash pad are going.
CaliforniaPinto Posted December 21, 2014 Posted December 21, 2014 It's pretty much confirmed that this only the first phase of the waterpark expansion. With all of the dirt work, why not go ahead and do infrastructure upgrades for upcoming expansions -- wouldn't it make sense to do that now all at the same time instead of having to go back in later and do the dirt work all over again?
Mdcastle Posted December 21, 2014 Posted December 21, 2014 Now we can start to guess what the next phases are going to be based on where they're digging? Seriously, the one glaring omission that every waterpark has is tube slides. As much as I like the existing body slides, I can see them redoing that area and building a new slide tower higher and farther back that integrates some tube slides. As a little bit of trivia, those traffic signals on the waterslides are older than the slides. That particular style was made from the early 1960s to the early 1970s, with the lens style dating them from earlier in that period. The Go-kart signals by contrast were current products when the track was built.
CaptainUnknown Posted December 22, 2014 Posted December 22, 2014 ^Though what's more likely to arrive first: new/more/better tube slides or mat slides? I'd love to see a Krakken Racer.
VF15 Posted December 22, 2014 Posted December 22, 2014 ^^ Based on what garyman6 has reported from his conversations with Mr. Frazier, they'll probably be removing the old Panic Falls slides to make room for new slides. A ProSlide Tornado could be a good replacement, or maybe a few mat racer slides would work. A FlowRider would be a cool addition too, but there's already one nearby in Edina. Maybe Hurricane Falls could possibly stay because that's still a fun ride, and it's relatively popular within the waterpark.
garyman6 Posted December 22, 2014 Posted December 22, 2014 And Mr. Frazier did tell me when I asked of this possibility that "anything was possible" so... Hate to tell you this, but in the business word this is just a polite way of saying "no chance in hell" I have to disagree! Mr. Frazier has flat out told me "no" or "I can't go there" many times when asked a question. He really does not beat around the bush. He is a friend of mine and I don't believe he would purposely mislead me unless he had a really good reason and I was asking too direct of a question.
CaliforniaPinto Posted December 22, 2014 Posted December 22, 2014 And Mr. Frazier did tell me when I asked of this possibility that "anything was possible" so... Hate to tell you this, but in the business word this is just a polite way of saying "no chance in hell" I have to disagree! Mr. Frazier has flat out told me "no" or "I can't go there" many times when asked a question. He really does not beat around the bush. He is a friend of mine and I don't believe he would purposely mislead me unless he had a really good reason and I was asking too direct of a question. some times I just want to pat you on the head and say "who's a good boy?"
garyman6 Posted December 22, 2014 Posted December 22, 2014 And Mr. Frazier did tell me when I asked of this possibility that "anything was possible" so... Hate to tell you this, but in the business word this is just a polite way of saying "no chance in hell" I have to disagree! Mr. Frazier has flat out told me "no" or "I can't go there" many times when asked a question. He really does not beat around the bush. He is a friend of mine and I don't believe he would purposely mislead me unless he had a really good reason and I was asking too direct of a question. some times I just want to pat you on the head and say "who's a good boy?" Just because you can throw out an insult doesn't make you right! End of story.
ariznglori Posted December 22, 2014 Posted December 22, 2014 As previously said, it would be nice to see the existing body slides replaced with colorful tube slides. That would visually give a lot of dimension and life to the older part of the waterpark. What may we see in the place of the current splash pad?
RCjunkie Posted December 22, 2014 Posted December 22, 2014 Also, just checked the webcam and they appear to be doing a lot more digging. I wonder what for because it doesn't look like they're digging directly where the slides and splash pad are going. They have to put those water pumps and filters some where for the new slides and splash pad to work properly. That is my guess as to why they are digging there.
RCjunkie Posted December 22, 2014 Posted December 22, 2014 And Mr. Frazier did tell me when I asked of this possibility that "anything was possible" so... Hate to tell you this, but in the business word this is just a polite way of saying "no chance in hell" I have to disagree! Mr. Frazier has flat out told me "no" or "I can't go there" many times when asked a question. He really does not beat around the bush. He is a friend of mine and I don't believe he would purposely mislead me unless he had a really good reason and I was asking too direct of a question. some times I just want to pat you on the head and say "who's a good boy?" When was the last time you called the GM of Valleyfair and he asked you to come out and walk the park with him? Oh, that's right.....never.
VF15 Posted December 22, 2014 Posted December 22, 2014 Not completely sure what these white things are (probably water pipelines/filters), but they're making some more progress.
CaliforniaPinto Posted December 22, 2014 Posted December 22, 2014 Have we figured out how the walkway will be now to get to the back of the park?
Mdcastle Posted December 23, 2014 Posted December 23, 2014 Old Splash Pad- It's so small that if they don't need it for the new slides or hopefully rebuilding that bathhouse I'd be fine with "lawn chairs" or a sand volleyball court. Mat slides: they tend to be long and skinny, so they can't fit everywhere. My original thought was where the trapdoor slides are going now, or else behind the wave pool if they want to expand that direction.
garyman6 Posted December 23, 2014 Posted December 23, 2014 Old Splash Pad- It's so small that if they don't need it for the new slides or hopefully rebuilding that bathhouse I'd be fine with "lawn chairs" or a sand volleyball court. Mat slides: they tend to be long and skinny, so they can't fit everywhere. My original thought was where the trapdoor slides are going now, or else behind the wave pool if they want to expand that direction. Here is what I'm hoping and thinking they are going to do with the old splash pad. If you combine that area with the sand field that was behind the subway, (Used to be the premium grassy lounging area), it would make a pretty large area for one of those giant water play structure/multiple slide towers. It's like a splash pad times 100! Mt. Olympus put one in recently! They are pretty cool. The only issue is that you have the lazy river in the way but they could build the complex right over the top of the lazy river! Just a thought.
ariznglori Posted December 23, 2014 Posted December 23, 2014 If the new splash pad doesn't totally eat up the land between looping starship and the waterpark, we could possibly see mat slides in a skinny stretch along the new splash pad's edge. That's really a good chunk of land to fill.
garyman6 Posted December 23, 2014 Posted December 23, 2014 Good news! I had a short conversation with Mr Frazier and he said the water park expansion was on time and under budget! He didn't know the exact schedule but we might see the tower going up soon!
garyman6 Posted December 23, 2014 Posted December 23, 2014 You can now see where the slides will end when you check out the web cam!
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now