Valley Fair Trip 7/15/08

[clbehymer]

So I am on my business trip to the Minneapolis/St Paul area and visited Valley Fair today. The weather showed that today would be the only good weather day while I was here. It was hot and sunny. I believe that it got up to 95 today.

After getting through all of the construction that is going on, I made it to the Valley Fair parking lot. I showed my platinum pass to the parking attendant and she looked a bit confused. I told her that it was a platinum pass from Knotts Berry Farm (from my Feb trip to LA) and then the lightbulb came on. As I was looking for a parking spot, I thought to myself that the lot and entrance looks a lot like CP.

When I tried to go through the gates with my pass, I was re-directed to the guest services office. Apparently, they do not have the equipment to scan the passes that come from other parks. While in the building I grab a park map and start to look where I can find everything and I notice that the park layout looks a lot like the layout of CP. Anyway, the lady at the desk takes my pass, writes the information down, and I'm on my way.

The first coaster that I came to was High Roller. Neat starter ride, lots of airtime hills. Reminded me of a smaller Racer.

Next ride was Wild Thing. This ride looked really cool and I was excited to ride it. Loved the first drop, but the rest was kind of a dissapointment. Don't get me wrong, it was a good coaster, nice airtime (I think that I was completely out of my seat on a few hills), but I think that I was expecting a Magnum type ride.

Next up was Renegade. This is an exciting woodie. A definite repeat ride. I rode the first time in the back seat. Nice airtime and surprisingly fast.

I then rode Excalibur. Nice ride, but I was distracted by the crying little girl in front of me.

It was smoking hot and I decided to ride the Flume. I love log flume rides and I was glad that I rode this one. Not only did I get some relief from the heat, it was a fun ride.

I then rode the Wheel of Fortune, Mad Mouse, Looping Starship, Xtreme Swing, Power Tower, and Steel Venom, and a second ride on Renegade (this time in the front seat).

I decided to grab a bite to eat and relax in some shade, and I went to Stadium Pizza for a slice and a beer. $13.64 later and I had a souvenier cup from my "tall" beer and a horrible slice of hawaiian pizza. I went back to the counter and asked for a different piece. I opted for just cheese, thinking it would be fresher. It was defintely better, but still not great.

By this time it was 3:55 and I remembered seeing the IMAX theater had a show starting at 4:00, so I went to the show. I don't know if I was just tired or the show didn't interest me, but I caught myself falling asleep during the show. 40 minutes of looking at fish isn't my idea of a good time. But that's just me.

I decided to end my day and started walking toward the front gate. I passed by Riptide and decided to ride it. What a thrilling ride. This topspin had the water sprayers and I had ridden the RipTide at Knotts, but the water wasn't on. I was surprized and woken up by the amount of water that actually hit me. My shorts were soaken wet.

After this ride, I went into a couple of the shops to look at the shorts, but as I suspected, they were very expensive. Most shorts were $44. I did find a pair of shorts for $19.99 but opted not to get them because I think that I am a little to old to have writing on my rear.

My botched shopping experience ended my day.

All in all, I enjoyed my day at the park. There was a traveling band, outdoor shows, and pretty good rides. Glad that I braved the traffic on 35W to get the park. For those that don't remember or don't know, 35W was the road that the bridge collapsed last year (I think last year). There are a lot of on and off ramps that are closed and lots of detours to get you where you need to go on 35W.

Thanks for reading. Tomorrow I'm going to the Mall of America after my conference. Will post if I do anything besides shopping.

[corn4ahead]

go on Avatar and Spongebob rock bottom plunge

[The Interpreter]

And even if you don't ride a thing, if you have walked through Nick Universe, please tell the rest of us how much it resembles the one at Kings Island, how it is different, and how close it is to Valleyfair. How very, very interesting that Viacom decided to license Nick Universe to a park so close to Valleyfair...and to the park that used to be Camp Snoopy, then managed by....Cedar Fair.