Valleyfair

[medford]

I don't typically read or write trip reports about KI, other than early in the season, there's not much to learn, though a few are entertaining.  However, I figure someone, at some point, may find themselves in the Twin Cities and wondering if Valleyfair is worth the time.  so anyways: here it is:

 

We had originally talked about visiting Valleyfair while up in the twin cities, but with the wife pregnant, we ultimately decided to skip any parks (The Dells were also in discussion) as a whole day at the park hanging out with the 3 year old, mainly on rides she couldn't ride wouldn't be very fun.  However, when we got to Wisconsin to visit with her cousins, we found out one of her cousins was going to be at Valleyfair! the same time we were in Minneapolis.  My wife decided some extra time with family sounded great, and I wasn't going to complain about riding coasters with our 7 year old, so we made the short trip over.  For quick refence, from our hotel next to Mall of America, it was about a 20 minute drive out to Valleyfair.  Leaving the hotel around 9:30, it was a brisk 59 degrees early in the day, but warmed up to around 72.  With near full sunshine, it was a picture perfect day for an amusement park.

 

First thing I noticed, we got to the park right around opening, probably a shade before 10:00 and there wasn't much of a line to get in like you would expect at KI.  The 2nd thing I noticed, if you think KI's parking lot is in need of repaving, you haven't been to Valleyfair.  Parking lot is in rough shape, its also a lot less organized than KI's park.  I know Valleyfair doesn't see the attendance that KI sees, but it was pretty obvious from the parking lot that they don't typically get large crowds, much smaller than KI's parking lot.

 

We got into the park, and first thing we looked for was a restroom.  While there is one right outside the park (similar to KI) there were none right inside the park, something that could be improved as a good chunk of your attendance is probably coming from an hour or so away, and if they've never been, they may not think it use the restrooms prior to entering the park.  My wife's cousin and his family/friends were still in route, so my wife and kids got on the carausel adjacent to the front gate while I went over to use the restrooms.  After I hit the restroom, my wife took our daughter to the restrooms while my son and I stood outside of the Dino exhibit.  We never entered their dino area, but I liked the way its right by the front gate and kind of calls out to the park patrons to take a look inside.  KI's has always felt more tucked into the back.  I think Valleyfair's exhibit is smaller, but w/o going in, I can't say if its better or worse overall.  While standing outside one of the exhibit dinos out front, my son spotted a "rare" item, a dino tooth sitting on the grund below the dino.  I thought for a minute or two about letting my son keep it as a souvenior, but figured the right thing to do was turn into an employee so they have the option of "fixing it".  While waiting for my wife, we spotted a suit with a name tag walking by, so we called him over and gave him the tooth.  Sadly, I have my doubts that the tooth ever gets replaced (or at least glued back in), but my conscious can breath a little better.

 

Still waiting for my wife's cousin, my son and I hoped on Corkscrew.  Its been about 20 years since I've been on Cedarpointe's version, so I'm not sure how similar they are, but you do get the proper head banging you'd expect on an Arrow looper.  Short ride, not all that great in my opinion, but 1 ride checked off the list.  After getting off, my wife's cousin and his family/friends showed up, with Corkscrew being the closest roller coaster or major attraction for that matter to the front gates, it was the first thing they planned on hitting.  My son wasn't thrilled (apparently something about the 6 loops on Vortex being ok, but the 3 inversions on Corkscrew were the exact number he couldn't do), but I forced him to ride it again, telling him to imagine he was a fighter jet making manuevers to get the bad guys.  That tricked seemed to work a bit, as he enjoyed it a bit more, but I don't think he was ready to get on it again anytime soon.  No problems, I didn't have much desire to ride it again either.

 

From there, my wife's cousin's kids wanted to get on Wild Thing.  At 200+ foot tall, its easily Valleyfair's talllest coaster, and from what I gathered, one of its more popular coasters.  Though built by a different manufacturer, it has some similaries to Magnum at Cedarpoint.  Its been 10 years since I've been to Cedarpointe, so my memory is a bit fuzzy, but that was the feel I got just looking at the coaster.  The first drop is solid, which leads into an awesome floating air time hill.  The end of the ride is a series of ejector air time humps through a tunnel similar to Magnum, however the middle of the ride leaves a lot to be desired.  Its a slow (relatively speaking) series of turns that keeps Wild Thing from being great.  Kind of like a crap sandwhich on arisan bread.  A great begining and end, but a very mediocre middle part of the ride.  Overall, its definently a solid ride, and very re-ridable; just wish middle portion of the ride from floating air time hill to the mid-course break run was a little better.

 

From there, we meet up with my wife in their version of Planet Snoopy.  My daughter wanted to ride their kiddie coaster and needed me to get on with her.  Cosmic Coaster, relocated from Dorney Park offers a nice set of laterals; what The Great Pumpkin coaster at KI offers in "air time" (relaively speaking) on a kiddie coaster, Cosmic Coaster offers in laterals.  It was pretty fun, you get 3 rotations on each ride.  I don't believe there is the need, but should KI ever decide it wants another kiddie coaster for the 36" crowd, something like this would compliment The Great Pumpkin Coaster.  From there, I took my daughter on their version of the Whip-it.  Where KI's version only allows small children, Valleyfair's version requires adults to ride with kids under 42".  I always thought the one at KI looked like fun, my daughter has a blast, so it was a nice surprise to get on something similar while there.  A fun ride going around the turns.  After that, my wife took the kids and one of her cousin's kids around Planet Snoopy.  Overall, their Planet Snoopy offers a little more for the 40" and above crowd that wants to ride with mom or dad, while KI offers much more for the 36" and above crowd that is willing to ride alone (or with other kids).  I think each park could benefit from getting similar rides at each of their kid's areas.

 

After that, my wife's cousin meet back up with us, leaving the older kids to themselves.  My son and I headed over to High Roller with my wife's cousin and his youngest son.  The ride is original to Valleyfair (1976), painted a similar white as The Racers, and in similar need of a paint job (Leed issues? Likely).  My wife said she heard several people commenting that they would never ride that thing, its "going to fall down anytime now".  However, I'm sure it was perfectly safe.  You don't see a ton of the layout from the park, it offers a bunch of air time hills.  While rough, as expected, it was pretty fun.

 

After a break for lunch, my wife's cousin and his family/friends headed over to the water park, while we decided to skip that part and keep on the dry side.  We headed over to their recently installed (2014?) antique cars.  My wife was going to ride, and we were planning to let my 7 year old drive us around, however there was a warning about pregnant women on the ride, so she skipped out.  That left my 3 year old and I in the back seat, and our son in front on his own to drive us around.  Truth be told, I was a bit nervous, would he let up on the gas if a car was ahead of us?  They leave pretty good spacing b/w cars, and he did an excellant job, was overly cautious is anything but was sure to stop at the stop signs near the end.  Wheel looked a little tough to turn, but I'm sure part of it was being his first experience and being scared that he cold actually drive off the road.

 

We walked past Steel Venom, but decided to skip it.  Its similar to Wikid Twister at Cedarpoint, not as high, only one side twists. 

 

We then hopped on the train near the front of the park that takes you to the middle of Planet Snoopy in the middle of the park.  Relaxing ride, a little smaller than KI's.  Not much to look at, at least on that portion of their train loop.

 

From there, my wife and I broke off, she with our daughter, I with my son.  My son and I headed over to their wild mouse ride, Mad Mouse.  I had never been on a wild mouse before, and was looking forward to this.  It lived up to my expectations.  Lots of sharp turns and sudden drops.  A ton of fun.  I don't recall the height requirement, but if one could be made that could fit the 44" crowd (think FAAC at KI) it would be an awesom add to Kings Island.  I've felt for several years that KI needs an additional coaster that would be accessable in the 44" range.  My won was riding Woodstock express when he was two, he was nearly 5 before he could get on The Beast, Vortex, Racers, etc....  FAAC was the only additional coaster added in those 2 years.  I'd love to see KI add 1 more.  If it could fit into the big box in the middle of the park, even better.

 

Next we decided to head towards the back of the park and hit Renegade.  I didn't know much of anything about this park prior to showing up, and looking at the map, it looked ok, but I wasn't expecting much.  There was a neat pass by near the station that looked solid, but you can't see much of the ride from the entry.  I could not have been more surprised with the ride experience.  From the first drop to the break run, it was awesome, never let up, just a ton of fun.  I would love to see KI get something like this.  While its a bit short, and under 100 feet, it instantly became one of my favorite coasters.  Now, I'll admit, I haven't ridden a ton outside of KI and Cedar Point, but this GCI building 2007 was great.  I see now that its been constantly ranked around the 20th slot in the Mitch Hawker poll.  If it were at a larger park, I think it would likely rate higher, but you could probably say the same thing with other rides in that poll.  At any rate, it was awesome.

 

From there, we headed to the very back of the park to get on Excalibur, a wooden support, tubular steel track hybrid similar to that found on Gemini at Cedar Point.  Built in 1989, it features some decent twists a solid 1st drop, but its farily rough. It was time to meet up with the wife and head back to our hotel as we had a big drive ahead of us, but despite the station wait, there was no feeling that I needed to get on it again.

 

Overall, I couldn't have asked for better weather.  The park's layout leaves something to be desired, it feels like a number of rides are a decent walk at the end of a dead end.  It doesn't have the open flow that I'm used to at KI.  As mentioned, Renegade was awesome and worth the trip alone, and Wild Thing was pretty darn good as well.  If I found myself in the twin cities again, I'd definently make a return trip just to ride those 2 rides.  Being the only large seasonal park in the area, I'm surprised the park isn't visited more often.  Aside from Renegade, most everything was staion wait or near station wait.  Renegade was only running 1 train, had it been running both trains, it would have been near a station wait as well.  Renegade was their last major coaster addition, back in 2007.  Seems like its time for something, a B&M invert or wing coaster would fit in well the the current lineup.  I don't know how much room they have, like most parks, they probably have more room that it appears to the untrained eye; don't know if they could justify the capital expenditure on something like that for a park with smaller attendance.

[IndyGuy4KI]

Thanks for the TR on Valleyfair, it sounds like you had a good time!

[Dalefan]

Steel Venom was at Geauga Lake

[PKIVortex]

Uh no!

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[IBEW_Sparky]

Steel Venom was ALWAYS at Valleyfair!, and one that should be ridden.  The rear spike has a holding brake at max height, and that alone makes it better by far than Wicked Twister.  Steel Venom at Geauga Lake, was moved to Dorney Park and renamed Possessed.  It also has the holding brake on the non-twisting rear spike.  Also note, that Wild Thing is a Morgan hyper coaster, and is the predecessor to Mamba at Worlds of Fun.  I LOVE Morgan hypers, and while quasi-similar to Magnum, the bunny hills on the Morgan hypers are insurmountably more comfortable than the pyramids that pass as bunny/airtime hills on Magnum.

[gad198]

Nice trip report!  Renegade is one of the best wooden coasters in the Cedar Fair chain and was actually in my top-10 wood for a long time.  I would love to see a ride like this at KI at some point, as it's one of the few rides that are fun for enthusiasts but also family-friendly enough to get the 48-inch riders on.  They've gone a long time without a new coaster, so it'll be interesting to see when and what their next large addition comes along. 

[medford]

I wonder if/when Dinosaurs Alive moves on if they would use that area for their next coaster, and in light of recent installs at other parks in the chain, it would be a good spot to include some sort of interaction with the main gate (may require the main entrance to be shifted/adjusted due to the location of Wild Thing in that area)