VF15's 2015 Summer Adventures

I've decided that I'm going to make trip reports for a lot of my park visits this season, so I decided to make this one thread for all of them instead of making a bunch of different threads.

I will probably be going this Valleyfair on Saturday weather permitting (there is a chance of thunderstorms on the 16th), and if I end up going, I will try to upload a TR by Saturday evening or Sunday morning.

I wish your good luck.

[TTD03]

Great! Can't wait to see your adventures!

After another long and cold winter, Valleyfair finally opened its gates for the 2015 season this weekend, so I went up to the park yesterday to get my coaster fix. Overall, I had a great time yesterday. The weather thankfully held up and the only rain we had was very brief. It was a bit humid in the afternoon, but nothing too oppressive. The crowds were pretty light (longest wait was 25 minutes). The operations were rather slow, but it's opening weekend, and they'll probably have their act together soon enough. It was a good day to get in plenty of rides after having not been on a coaster since February. Now onto the pictures...

The drive to Valleyfair features some of the most amazing landscapes in the world.

Driving through the city of Shakopee, Minnesota, which would be a pretty boring city without Valleyfair.

This is Valleyfair's new LED entrance sign that replaced the old classic neon sign last month. Even though I miss the old sign, this new one is very sleek and modern, and a good upgrade for the park.

The park's entrance at about 30 minutes before opening.

The cover of the 2015 Valleyfair Park Map. Looks nice.

Steel Venom, my first coaster of the season.

I really like these Intamin Impulse coasters. The third and fifth launches through the station have some decent forces.

There is some new pavement to the right of the main entrance plaza. You can also see High Roller in the background, which was running well since they retracked parts of it over the offseason.

Up next was Wild Thing. My first ride of the day on it might have been my best ever because the MCBR trims, which usually suck the life out of the return run, were very light.

The lines for Excalibur were MASSIVE yesterday.

It's a pretty jerky ride, but you do get a few decent airtime pops in the last car.

The entrance to Renegade.

Rode it three times yesterday. The first two were a bit sluggish, but the third one was great. Still my favorite ride in the park.

One of the many trash cans at Valleyfair.

New Corkscrew logo on the ground in front of the queue entrance.

Corkscrew's trains received a new paint scheme. Here's the orange train on the transfer track.

Yellow train leaving the station. The ride itself is still very smooth for a 35-year-old Arrow.

While I was there, I officially upgraded my Valleyfair Gold Pass to a Cedar Fair Platinum Pass for my trip to Ohio next month.

Here's a backside view of the new slide tower. I unfortunately couldn't ride it because the waterpark doesn't open until next weekend.

Power Tower and the slide tower.

The revamped midway path near the waterpark. I thought that they might put in a new waterpark entrance at the corner, but unfortunately they didn't.

Last but not least, I noticed these small markings on the ground near the amphitheater/train station. No idea what they mean.

Overall, it was a great day to kick off the 2015 season, and I'll be back in about two weeks to check out the waterpark expansion.

[Paradox]

START THE HYPE!!!!!

I'm going this weekend to test out those bad boys! Can't wait to ride the Plunge slides. I miss Valleyfair ^_^ even after Holiday World, KI, and CP last week. There's just something about one's home park...

Wow "Platinum Pass" looks as cool as a credit card does! You should be so proud to have that!

[Paradox]

The landscaping is beautiful.

The park desperately needs another looper.

^
I totally agree. Even though inversions are not what make or break a ride for me, it has to be a little embarrassing when a corporate park's only looping coaster is an old Arrow.

Since RCT3rox and TTD03 posted their summer itineraries in their threads, I might as well post mine.

Valleyfair - About twice a month.
Cedar Point - June.
Kings Island - June.
Arnolds Park - Probably July.
Adventureland (Iowa) - August.

Maybe but not definitely
Worlds of Fun
Carowinds
Six Flags Great America

^^Still crossing our mother f&$%ing fingers for 2016. It's the parks 40th anniversary, and they have been overdue for a new coaster for a minute.

Also p.s. Breaker's Plunge looks big as f

[TTD03]

I feel you, it's time for Dorney to get a "New" coaster as well. The last new one was Hydra. 10 years ago.

I'm at Valleyfair right now, and I rode Breakers Pipeline and Breakers Plunge (the new waterslides) for the first time a few hours ago. They were awesome, though a little rough on the splashdown. I'll provide a more in-depth review and some pictures when I get home.

Had a great day at Valleyfair today. It was quite crowded early in the day, but got better when most of the school groups left. Finally had a chance to ride the new water slides, and I thought they were awesome. Breakers Pipeline was my first experience with trapdoor waterslides, and I was impressed. The sensation of the floor dropping out from underneath is very interesting. Breakers Plunge was also very fun, I especially enjoyed the freefall sensation. My favorite was the trapdoor slide with the helix because that turn was quite intense. I would equate it's intensity to Steel Venom's 3rd launch through the station. The splashdowns on all of the slides were a bit rough on the back, although this roughness is water-induced and there is no headbanging. I personally think the walk to the top is worse than the roughness . Overall, they're great slides, and a good addition to the park.

Now for some pictures...

The entrance sign for the slides.

Shot of the whole slide tower.

Another shot.

Barefoot Beach sign and the adjacent lemonade stand.

It looks a lot better in person than in pictures, and it's certainly improvement over the older one.

Splash station was fenced off...

...as was Panic Falls. Not sure if it means anything though.

Another first for me was walking through Dinosaurs Alive (only reason I did it was because of the long lines for everything else and it was free with my season pass). It wasn't a complete waste of time, but I'm still hoping that these Dinos are doomed soon.

Thought it was interesting that there was a Millennium Force POV playing on VF's FunTV. Can't wait to ride it in only six more days!

That's all for now.

[TTD03]

Great report!
Yea all the FunTV's are connected through KI. So they can all play every other park's POV's.
I saw Canada's Wonderland and KD POV's at CP.

Last week, I made the long trip from Minnesota to Ohio to experience two great Cedar Fair parks: Cedar Point and Kings Island. I had a wonderful time at both parks. Right now, I'll share my thoughts, opinions, and pictures from Kings Island.

Kings Island was my first of the two parks. While it's not quite as good as Cedar Point, Kings Island was still a great park. The park itself looked very neat and clean with some good landscaping. The weather on the days I visited was a bit hot, but not too oppressive. The efficiency and operations were good except for two rides (double-stacking on Diamondback and one-train operations on Firehawk). Last but not least, they have a pretty strong Big Three with Banshee, Diamondback, and The Beast. Overall, Kings Island was a wonderful park to spend a day at, and I look forward to going back sometime in the future.

Now for some pictures.

Walking up to the park entrance.

Obligatory photo of the park logo and Eiffel Tower.

First ride of the day was Banshee.

Banshee was seriously awesome. Forceful and relentless from start to finish.

Nice zero-G roll.

My only picture of anything Bat-related. Short ride, but still plenty of fun.

Vortex wasn't too bad as far as Arrows go.

The two loops were my favorite part of the ride.

Decided to take a spin on Windseeker since I've heard so much about these and wanted to do it for myself.

Even for someone that likes thrill rides, I found Windseeker a bit freaky.

Two Diamondback trains in one picture. Great ride with nice forces and floater air galore.

Splashdown.

Alright, let's get this over with.

If if wasn't for the horrible Vekoma restraints, Invertigo could potentially be a decent ride.

Racer wasn't a bad ride, it just wasn't very interesting to me. At least they were racing that day.

Now for some pictures from atop the Eiffel Tower. Here's Diamondback.

Banshee and Adventure Express. This is my only picture of Adventure Express. Decent Arrow mine train, but has the most anticlimactic ending ever.

Vortex, The Beast, and Windseeker.

Racer, Firehawk, and Flight of Fear.

Backlot Stunt Coaster was a pleasant surprise. A bit more intense than I thought it would be.

Cheesy queue line video for Flight of Fear.

Obviously couldn't get any pictures of the ride itself, but it was fun. Launch was weak, but the rest was fun despite the jerky transitions and the strong MCBR.

The sign for Firehawk.

One-train operations.

Actually a decent ride and not that rough. Not on the level of the B&M flyers, but still fun.

Another pic of Diamondback's lift hill.

Time to ride The Beast. Not an amazing ride, but still a very good one, and the two final tunnels are by far my favorite tunnels on any coaster.

It's too bad that it has so many trims, otherwise it could be truly insane.

Unfortunately didn't get a legendary night ride on it, though it was running much better in the evening than during the day.

That's it for my Kings Island trip report. Thanks for reading! Cedar Point trip report coming soon!

I paid my first ever visit to Cedar Point last week from Wednesday afternoon through Friday morning, and I had a blast! It was amazing to finally visit the park after hearing so much about it for so long and planning the trip for months. The park itself was very clean with nice landscaping and obviously very scenic being located on Lake Erie. The park's employees were very friendly and entertaining, and the operations were excellent with all coasters running the maximum amount of trains while the ride ops were working efficiently. Cedar Point has an awesome coaster collection with a great Big Three in Dragster, Maverick, and Millennium. It was definitely worth the long trip from Minnesota to get there. Overall, Cedar Point is an amazing park, and I will come back someday, however it probably won't be for a few more years since there are other bucket list parks I need to get to.

Here are my thoughts on Cedar Point's roller coasters, ranked from worst to best:

-Iron Dragon (1 ride): I get that this ride isn't meant to be a major thrill coaster, but I found Iron Dragon to be boring. The Bat at Kings Island was a much better ride. It does have a nice setting though. 4/10
-Mean Streak (1 ride): I rode in the front row and kept my back off the seat, so it wasn't that rough. It was just very slow and uniteresting. It took most of its turns at ridiculously slow speeds. The thing that made it more interesting than Iron Dragon was one brief airtime moment. Other than that, Mean Streak was a pretty pointless ride. RMC, please get your hands on this. 4/10
-Cedar Creek Mine Ride (1 ride): Decent Arrow mine train with some fun laterals and okay drops. Still, more for the younger audience than thrill seekers. 4.5/10
-Corkscrew (2 rides): My favorite part of Corkscrew was the surprisingly intense airhill before the loop. It was a fairly rough ride, though not as rough as I was expecting. 5/10
-Wicked Twister (2 rides): I wanted to like Wicked Twister more than I did, but it seemed rougher and less intense than the other impulse coasters I've been on (Steel Venom and Vertical Velocity). Still a fun ride, but slightly disappointing. 6/10
-Gemini (4 rides, 2 on each side): Probably my favorite racing coaster I've been on so far. Decent forces, not that rough, and got more airtime than I thought I would. It's also fun to interact with the riders on the other train. 6/10
-Gatekeeper (3 rides): I liked Gatekeeper better than X-Flight, mainly because it had a great first drop and the nice keyhole element, not to mention it looks great flying over the park entrance. Not the most intense ride ever, but it was better than I expected. I also have to give credit to the Gatekeeper crew for absolutely hauling it while loading the trains. 7/10
-Blue Streak (3 rides): A great old-school wooden coaster with good floater air over most of the hills. I personally didn't find it to have any more than your typical wooden coaster roughness. Probably one of the more underrated coasters I've ridden. 7.5/10
-Rougarou (7 rides): It's not as good as Kraken in my opinion, but Rougarou was still a great B&M floorless coaster. I never rode Mantis, but it seems like this was definitely a good upgrade from it's former self based on what everyone else has said. The first half was great with some nice forces. Unfortunately, the second half wasn't quite as forceful and had some minor headbanging, however I very much enjoyed Rougarou as a whole. 8/10
-Raptor (2 rides): B&M inverts are always awesome rides, and Raptor was no exception. Had the nice old school B&M snap while going through the inversions all while being forceful. It had a minor rattle, but it didn't detract from the ride experience. The Raptor smack at the end didn't really bother me either. I prefer Banshee and Dragon Challenge over Raptor, but Raptor still kicks butt. 8/10
-Magnum XL-200 (5 rides): Magnum was a very pleasant surprise for me. Didn't find it rough like some said it would be, just a little jerky in the pretzel turnaround. After that turnaround was some of the best airtime I've experienced on any coaster, and it didn't let up until the brake run. 9/10
-Millennium Force (7 rides): No, it's not the best coaster I've ever ridden, however it's still an amazing one and comes close to being the best. The first drop is by far my favorite first drop on any coaster. I partially greyed-out in the first overbanked turn every time I rode, very intense. The rest of the ride was forceful all the way to the end with some nice airtime thrown in. 9.5/10
-Maverick (5 rides): Maverick is certainly the most aggressive coaster I've ever ridden. All of the transitions were taken rapidly, but they weren't rough or painful at all with the soft restraints. I particularly liked the quick changes from strong positive-Gs to great ejector air, and the launch out of the tunnel was also wonderful. My biggest question after riding Maverick was this: Why aren't there more of these coasters?! 10/10
-Top Thrill Dragster (2 rides): I had a hard time deciding whether I liked Maverick or Dragster the best, but the incredible launch on Dragster was something that Maverick just couldn't beat for me. Sure, it's a one-trick pony that's only 17 seconds long, but they were 17 seconds of pure joy. 10/10

As for other rides, I rode maXair, Skyhawk, Power Tower (drop side), and the Sky Ride. maXair was just plain fun, Skyhawk was a great Screamin' Swing, Power Tower was okay, and Sky Ride provided nice views of the front half of the park.

Now onto the pictures... (I didn't take as many pictures as I probably should have because I was too busy having fun.)

Walking up to the park entrance for the first time.

The park's Ohio Historical Marker.

The first coaster I rode at Cedar Point: Wicked Twister.

While it's my least favorite impulse coaster I've ridden so far, the twisting back spike was certainly interesting.

Iron Dragon's station.

Rougarou was a little rough, but still very fun.

Dive loop.

There's nothing quite like a good old coaster race.

The Gemini Midway before sunset.

Millennium Force: big, fast, intense, and loads of fun.

Some love it, some hate it, but I happen to be on the side that loves it.

I liked GateKeeper's first drop quite a bit, as well as the keyhole element.

Top Thrill Downtime.

Despite all of the breakdowns, I was still able to get two incredible rides on Dragster.

One of the most pointless coasters in existence.

This is the wall that's next the construction site of the 2016 coaster, and it shows the history of Cedar Point's coasters on it. When I was there, it had been updated through Iron Dragon.

maXair was a very fun flat ride. I wish there were more of these out there.

Cedar Point's Beach Band playing a tune.

Had a pleasant ride on the Sky Ride.

Raptor heading down the first drop.

Millennium Force heading up its first airhill.

Corkscrew corkscrewing over the midway.

One last shot of the park before heading home.

[TTD03]

SCORE! Dragster wins again!

Nice trip report btw and glad you had fun!