CaptainUnknown Posted May 28, 2015 Share Posted May 28, 2015 On my way out of the employee parking lot yesterday, I saw that the old sign is still in the back part of the lot. It's still on site for now, if that means anything or not... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowyowl1028 Posted May 28, 2015 Share Posted May 28, 2015 I understand Excalibur is a Frankenstein of a coaster, but how bad is it? It is really not as bad as people make it out to be, in the right seat you can get a very good ride. It only has a few rough spots, the trains are nice, it provides a way better ride than your typical arrow looper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VF15 Posted May 28, 2015 Share Posted May 28, 2015 I understand Excalibur is a Frankenstein of a coaster, but how bad is it? As long as you sit in the front row or any non-wheel seat, it really isn't that bad. Personally, my biggest problem with Excalibur is it's length. I'd probably like it better if it had another 500-800 feet of track, but in its current state, it's okay at best, and I would not be surprised if it we hear a closing announcement later this season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCjunkie Posted May 28, 2015 Share Posted May 28, 2015 I understand Excalibur is a Frankenstein of a coaster, but how bad is it? As long as you sit in the front row or any non-wheel seat, it really isn't that bad. Personally, my biggest problem with Excalibur is it's length. I'd probably like it better if it had another 500-800 feet of track, but in its current state, it's okay at best, and I would not be surprised if it we hear a closing announcement later this season. I agree with VF15, it really is not that bad. It is just not good and I think that is because of the design. Most do call the ride rough but I think it really is just 'jerky' and not rough. What I mean by that is they decided to use box car trains with a high center of gravity and run them through a hard figure eight. This combined with the 'half barrel' backed plastic seats which hold your lower torso still while your upper half flies around during the figure 8 your head and neck get 'jerked' around pretty good which most people call rough. If they would have used just open bench seating in the trains or a lower profile train this effect could have been minimized instead of accented. After that it does come down to the length of the track. With only 2400 feet of track, between a third and half of it is used in the figure eight so all the ride does is: drop hill, banked turn, figure 8 and then back to the station. They needed to add 600-800 more feet or just not use all that track for the figure 8 in a different way. Either way I think the ride could have been improved. And once they removed the air time hill at the bottom of the first hill that took away an element of the short ride and also had them trim the first hill at the top so the speed would be reduced that the hill used to do. Again, not a bad or painful ride but just not a good one. The figure 8 is probably one of the most intense experiences at the park after SV's launch and Rip Cord which I give it credit for. But with VF's limited space and the public's lack of interest in it I would not be surprised to see it go either. VF needs quality over quantity because it will never be a big park. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VF15 Posted May 28, 2015 Share Posted May 28, 2015 It looks like Valleyfair's new waterslides are going to be featured on the Travel Channel show Xtreme Waterparks sometime soon. Nice to see the park getting some more public recognition. From Valleyfair's Twitter page. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowyowl1028 Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 Too bad I missed the age range, that sounds like fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dboor129 Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 I'm glad that Valleyfair will be featured on the Travel Channel, I've been waiting for the park to get some kind of publicity. Hopefully they will be featured again when they get their record breaking coaster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garyman6 Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 It looks like Valleyfair's new waterslides are going to be featured on the Travel Channel show Xtreme Waterparks sometime soon. Nice to see the park getting some more public recognition. This is really exciting news for Valleyfair. Having a nationally broadcast show feature our slide package? How cool is that? It's exposure like this that will bring in more visitors that have not come to Valleyfair before. Now we are beginning to see the wisdom of Cedar Fair in building this attraction. They must have known that a slide tower like this would most likely attract some attention! I am slightly offended by the casting call however. I cant imagine why they would not want a 48 yr. old, slightly overweight man with hair trying to turn gray being featured on this segment. Hmmm! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garyman6 Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 I understand Excalibur is a Frankenstein of a coaster, but how bad is it? Actually Excalibur is, in my opinion, a pretty fun coaster. It's just too short! The ride really isn't that much different than a woodie. Unfortunately they took out the best part of the ride after only one season. At the bottom of the first drop was a bunny hill of maybe 25 to 30 ft. tall that provided massive ejector air. It was the high light of the ride. My guess as to why they took it out was that people were probably getting neck and back injuries from it. It really was that extreme. It also must have put a lot of stress of the train itself. Nowadays that ride is pretty quiet. Even on the busiest days it's almost always a walk on. It's not a good enough ride to get people to walk to the back of the park to ride. That's why there is so much talk of replacing it with something else. The whole back of the park has been kind of neglected but I think that is going to change real soon. The only other ride back there is Thunder Canyon. That too has been in decline because they let a lot of the waterfalls go dry and it became boring. Last season they started bringing it back by repairing a couple of the most popular parts of the ride. This also leads me to believe that BIG things are in store for the back of the park! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptainUnknown Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 Can we just talk about Looping Starship for a second? I know it's the product name, but why call a Viking-themed ship "Starship?" And another thing about the park: a large number of rides have very little decorative signage. On these rides, the only place that it says the name is on the safety bulletin board and the park maps. Like Northern Lights and the Scrambler. Some food/merch stands have better signage. The trash cans have better signage and they're every five feet! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dboor129 Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 I am slightly offended by the casting call however. I cant imagine why they would not want a 48 yr. old, slightly overweight man with hair trying to turn gray being featured on this segment. Hmmm! If you've ever seen an episode of "Xtreme Waterparks", you would know why they want young and fit people to be featured Back on Exaclibur though, when I was last at the park, basically if you didn't have someone waiting to take your spot when the train returns, you can ride again. There were two young girls who had ridden it 26 times in row. Need I say more? It has to leave and with one train on the track I have no doubt it will go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ariznglori Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 Can we just talk about Looping Starship for a second? I know it's the product name, but why call a Viking-themed ship "Starship?"And another thing about the park: a large number of rides have very little decorative signage. On these rides, the only place that it says the name is on the safety bulletin board and the park maps. Like Northern Lights and the Scrambler. Some food/merch stands have better signage. The trash cans have better signage and they're every five feet! They could rename it Ragnarock but it's in the "Western" themed area to boot! I completely agree about Valleyfair lacking decent signage. They could take a page out of Dorney's book and get fantastic signs for the big-ticket attractions at least. People love to pose with cool signs (Excalibur's most superior quality). More photo ops for the GP=more free publicity when those photos are shared online. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
West ate Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 Not to detract from the water park discussion (which is sweet after all), but as a former ride op at the park the reduction of Excalibur to one train is VERY intriguing..... My second year at the park a few years ago I was a ride op in another area of the park, but got moved to Excalibur for only two weeks in the second half of the season due to people going back to college and what not. In those two weeks (remember, in the second half of the season, not peak season) we operated Excalibur with two trains at least twice. So I would say this development either signals that one train has become a parts donor or that the train is being prepped to be sent to another park as a spare (CP for cedar creek mine ride/Gemini, for example?). Either way', that may signal that the ride will be replaced soon... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garyman6 Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 I am slightly offended by the casting call however. I cant imagine why they would not want a 48 yr. old, slightly overweight man with hair trying to turn gray being featured on this segment. Hmmm! If you've ever seen an episode of "Xtreme Waterparks", you would know why they want young and fit people to be featured HaHa! Yes I have and of course I'm joking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MinnesotaFriedOreo Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 Can we just talk about Looping Starship for a second? I know it's the product name, but why call a Viking-themed ship "Starship?" Since when is Looping Starship modeled after a Viking vessel? Definitely not Viking... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfc Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 Can we just talk about Looping Starship for a second? I know it's the product name, but why call a Viking-themed ship "Starship?" Since when is Looping Starship modeled after a Viking vessel? Definitely not Viking... Maybe it's for Viking astronauts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ACES Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 (edited) What kind of a new thrill ride could go here? Would a Max Air fit in here 150 feet I think there's enough space to put one there maybe a smaller one or a ride like Spin Cycle at Silverwood Theme Park could fit in there those are fun rides. Valleyfair needs to fill in these open areas with new rides. A new thrill ride location were the old tilt a whirl use to sit dead grass. Edited May 29, 2015 by ACES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ACES Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 The area over by Corkscrew and The Wave could be another spot for a new thrill ride lots of room. Location for a new thrill ride in that area? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VF15 Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 What kind of a new thrill ride could go here? Would a Max Air fit in here 150 feet I think there's enough space to put one there maybe a smaller one or a ride like Spin Cycle at Silverwood Theme Park could fit in there those are fun rides. Valleyfair needs to fill in these open areas with new rides. I doubt that Cedar Fair would invest in another HUSS Giant Frisbee after the problems that maXair and Delirium have had. However, it would be nice if Valleyfair could receive a similar ride from another manufacturer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowyowl1028 Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 If some has or can find a photo of Excalibur with the hill after the drop can you please post it? This is all new to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grsupercity Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 What kind of a new thrill ride could go here? Would a Max Air fit in here 150 feet I think there's enough space to put one there maybe a smaller one or a ride like Spin Cycle at Silverwood Theme Park could fit in there those are fun rides. Valleyfair needs to fill in these open areas with new rides. I doubt that Cedar Fair would invest in another HUSS Giant Frisbee after the problems that maXair and Delirium have had. However, it would be nice if Valleyfair could receive a similar ride from another manufacturer. They have also had issues S&S screaming swings, Mondial Windseekers, Huss top spins, and the Vekoma suspended boomerangs. Which is sad because those are all good rides lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VF15 Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 If some has or can find a photo of Excalibur with the hill after the drop can you please post it? This is all new to me. I had to do a bit of searching, but I found this picture of Excalibur with the airtime hill from an Arrow Development blog. You can also see how the entrance to the the turnaround looked before they retracked it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCjunkie Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 ^ Nice find. All I found was the 'after' pictures. And you can see where all the rocks are now at the bottom of the first drop was where that air hill was. And it was a pretty nice air time hill but was removed after the first 2 years of operation. Rocks where the old hill used to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowyowl1028 Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 I had a weird thought. I would take Shivering Timbers over Renegade, but I would take Renegade over Wild Thing. But then, I would take Wild Thing over Timbers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ACES Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 From the look of the second Excalibur photo they could fit a Nemesis sized inverted coaster in there. We're Excalibur sits it's either going to be were the water park expansion is or for a new inverted. This might be a idea how about adding Thunder Canyon as part of the water park expansion because that's the only other ride back there maybe referbush it by adding some new water falls or add a snake pit water slide package like Dorney Park has have it go on top of Thunder Canyon make the slides go down were Excalibur is? New rest rooms maybe a air condition sit down restaurant in the back of the park how about a sit down splash bar like Cedar Point has for adult beverages having a beer while at the water park with TVS to? I like to be creative. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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