Valleyfair, Wisconsin Dells, SF Great America TR 6/26/10 - 6/28/10

[gad198]

This won't be a full-fledged trip report due to the quick hitting nature of our trip, but I'd just like to throw in a few highlights about each park:

Valleyfair:

Valleyfair was much smaller than I thought it would be. We arrived in the parking lot and I was shocked when I saw that the lot was probably contained within an area about the size of three Gold Pass lots at KI. You can definitely tell you're at a Cedar Fair park when you come to the park entrance. The park felt like a miniature Cedar Point. Unfortunately we got there just before a nasty line of thunderstorms came through so we had to wait until Sunday to ride. None of the rides really stood out that much, but there was one that is worth mentioning:

Renegade is really good. It's not quite as good as Prowler or Thunderhead but it packs a nice punch. It has lots of nice direction changes, good speed througout and good (but not great) airtime. The newer GCIs (after Thunderhead) have all been very good, and this one is no exception. Back seat is the way to go here. The bigger Cedar Fair parks (KI, CP, KD, Canada's Wonderland) could all use something like this.

Wisconsin Dells:

Mount Olympus now has a "Night at the Park" promotion where if you buy a ticket to the park you can add the Night at the Park for $5. We were staying at a hotel where they gave you a wristband good for the day of your stay and the day after, so you essentially got two days for the price of one. Very nice! Even though we had the wristbands we still had to ante up the additional $5 per person. They advertised this as "a way to experience Mount Olympus with shorter lines", and they gave you from 10 pm - 1 am to enjoy the park; 3 coasters (Hades, Zeus, and Cyclops) and most of the go-kart tracks included. Sounds good so far.

Unfortunately, our visit was nowhere near as good. Perhaps it was a case of being on the road for a while but it felt like:

(1) the people there were much more inconsiderate. Line jumping was a huge problem, and in our three coaster rides we got jumped on three separate occasions.

(2) the ride operators didn't care. Operations here were the worst we've encountered at ANY park. We actually had two ride ops attempt to jump into our seat on Hades after we had waited for an hour (with maybe 300 people in front of us). Um, hello! Don't worry about us, I mean, we're only customers after all right! Unbelievable.

(3) whoever thought it was a good idea to only have one train on each of the coasters? Sure, it doesn't look like any of the coasters were designed for two trains, but that's really at the heart of my argument. You had coaster lines that were all longer than half an hour at one point on a Sunday night. I'm sure that the park probably gets much busier than this during the summer. This was a HUGE oversight on their part. It speaks volumes about your park when you're only maxing out at 500 people per hour on your best coaster, and that's when operations are good. Simply unacceptable.

On the brighter side, I absolutely loved Hades at night. It felt like a slightly smaller version of the Voyage and they rode remarkably similar. I didn't think I'd like this ride as much as I did, but it's absolutely a top 10 coaster. Good stuff.

Avalanche (also known as Hellcat) at Timber Falls was nothing but fun. Great first half of the ride, and even though it loses a little steam in the second half it was still a great ride. I liked the front slightly more than the back due to the smoother ride up there. Probably just outside of my top 10.

I won't be returning to Mount Olympus anytime soon. I loved Hades but it's not worth the aggravation. If I hear that things are changing there for the better I'll consider it, but I'm not holding my breath. I actually liked Timber Falls way better, which I never would have thought after doing my trip homework. The Dells feel like Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg but without the charm. Ugh.

Six Flags Great America:

We hit this on our way up and on our way back. We only managed to hit Raging Bull and Viper because of the lines both times. Raging Bull is really starting to grow on me. That trim brake going up the first airtime hill is still absolutely egregious, but the ride has moved up probably 10 places on my top steel list. I never thought I would say this, but it's a very solid ride now. Viper on the other hand felt really slow. It was still better than average but not anywhere near the rides we've had in the past.

I have to give Six Flags kudos for their operations, however. Lines were moving and you could tell that they made getting people through lines quickly was one of their main focal points. Very, very pleasant and attentive staff was the norm there this time around, and that was even more impressive because the park was VERY busy. I will definitely make it a point to not visit this park again between mid-June and Labor Day again, but we did enjoy our stay here.

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One quick sidenote. DO NOT SPEED THROUGH WISCONSIN. I got a speeding ticket here, which wasn't a big deal until I got the ticket and saw the fine: $200.50. I actually asked the sheriff to come back and explain why the ticket was so high. He mentioned that the MINIMUM ticket that you can get in a 65 mph zone is $200.50, and can actually go up to well over $500. Double these figures in a construction zone. Somebody's gotta pay for the state's expenses and it looks like they're targeting out-of-state folks.

Thanks for reading!

[The Interpreter]

I have always found Timber Falls far, far preferable to Mt. Olympus. Heck, I even like Avalanche better than Hades. Then again, I'm quite the contrarian at times.

Thanks for the report. I'm sorry Mt. Olympus wasn't nicer to you. Not surprised, just sorry...