Excalibur at Valleyfair to be removed :'(

^Yes. I want bruises.

I've been thinking, and I wonder if Valleyfair will put up a notice like "Last Chance to Ride Excalibur." A lot of people would be like 'what the hell is Excalibur'

And some intelligent people would give a shout like "Excalibur? Just try googling later!"

Assuming that the plans to create the new parking lot and employee road/remove Excalibur go through, I unfortunately think it means no new coaster in 2016. A decent coaster plus this expansion seems like too big of a capital expansion for the park to support in one year. My guess is they might add a few more slides to the waterpak, or maybe a small flat next year.

[TallonD83]

I can officially say that I have ridden excalibur before its remove; (not even 3 hours ago in fact)
It certainly is unique, and it is classic, but yeah, it kinda needs to go.
I could see several wooden support beams on the lift hill that had SPLIT.
it also only had one train. I wonder if they sold/scrapped the other already?

What is likely the issue (or at least one of them) is that spare parts are impossible to find at this point. I know Vekoma will sell you a new looper train, but I don't know of anyone offering new cars for the mine train rides. Probably not a huge issue on, say, Gemini because that's a pretty smooth ride, but I bet Excalibur was hard on the cars...

This is the same reason thing that has the suspended coasters either already removed or on the endangered species list.

In crazy bizarro world I wouldn't have minded seeing what RMC could do with that layout.

probably nothing if the structure is failing. So Sad, I've always wanted that credit. At least I got to drive by it. UGH, so mad. Stupid late opening day -_-

So, are they going to publicly announce that Excalibur will be removed? You'd think they would since Carowinds and Kings Dominion have announced the closing of Thunder Road and Shockwave respectively, but since Valleyfair never announced the removal of some earlier attractions like the GoKarts, Hydroblaster, and the IMAX theater, I'm not so sure.

^unless it will have another year of it running

At this point, I don't think Valleyfair will be getting a new coaster in 2016 because there aren't any markers or land clearing that would suggest one. Ugh, when is the coaster drought going to end?

[slosprint]

Park has literally 1 decent ride now. Good job Minnesota.

VF15 wrote:

At this point, I don't think Valleyfair will be getting a new coaster in 2016 because there aren't any markers or land clearing that would suggest one. Ugh, when is the coaster drought going to end?

You guys can have stinger.... both of dorney's coasters in the last 1 years has been 2 inverted shuttles, I think we could share . In all seriousness though, I think it would be great for either one to get a new coaster, not to mention WoF and Michigan's adventure lack of new anything in a while

I was taking a closer look at the processing times of permits to the Army Corps of Engineers (VF has to apply with them to use the wetlands for construction), and it looks like it could possibly take a while for their plans to be approved.

CORPS OF ENGINEERS URGES EARLY PLANNING FOR PERMITS - 5/15/2014: Special Public Notice: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, encourages project planners to carefully plan projects in Minnesota and Wisconsin requiring Corps permits. Currently, timeframes for general permit decisions, those with impacts generally less than 0.5 acres, are averaging 85 days. Timeframes for individual permit decisions, which include letters of permission, range from 4 months to more than a year, but are currently averaging around 8 months.

Source

I believe Valleyfair's permit was filed sometime in April, and if it takes until December (the current average) or later to get approved, then it might be possible for Excalibur to stay for another year (December might be too late to start construction and be done in time for the season).

[Mikey]

Silly rabbit, only idiots build world class coasters in climates that are sub arctic for more then half the year.

[Coasterkidmwm]

Mikey wrote:

Silly rabbit, only idiots build world class coasters in climates that are sub arctic for more then half the year.

I would laugh my ass off if they relocated Time Warp (Volare) from Canada's Wonderland to Valleyfair.

[Paradox]

Coasterkidmwm wrote:

Mikey wrote:

Silly rabbit, only idiots build world class coasters in climates that are sub arctic for more then half the year.

I would laugh my ass off if they relocated Time Warp (Volare) from Canada's Wonderland to Valleyfair.

Also if they put in a relocated SLC/boomerang

Mikey wrote:

Silly rabbit, only idiots build world class coasters in climates that are sub arctic for more then half the year.

That's why half of the coasters in Minnesota are indoors

Mikey wrote:

Silly rabbit, only idiots build world class coasters in climates that are sub arctic for more then half the year.

not to mention that there is a 300 foot height cap.

Yea, its safe to say that Excalibur is safe for now. They'd start advertising last rides by now if it was going this year.

I'm pretty sure Excalibur is staying since they haven't made any closing announcement yet. Then again, Valleyfair doesn't always give the public warnings about ride closings.

On another note, I've been hearing that markers have appeared in the area where Chaos used to be (roughly next to the amphitheater). That spot looks like it would be big enough for Larson Flyers or maybe some other small flat ride.

VF15 wrote:

I'm pretty sure Excalibur is staying since they haven't made any closing announcement yet.

Yeah, save that coaster! Oh please!

Screamscape is reporting that Valleyfair will announce its 2016 addition on Saturday, September 12th.

(9/3/15) I'm told that Valleyfair is expected to make the announcement about their plans for 2016, the park's 40th anniversary, on September 12th.

http://www.screamscape.com/html/valleyfair.htm

[Paradox]

Not getting my hopes up too high on this one.

OMG OMG So they are acknowledging the 40th anniversary. Gonna be something big I hope =D

[Paradox]

New dining options and flying scooters.

I'm not expecting a new coaster because we would have seen lots of markings somewhere earlier in the season if we were getting one. I'd say flying scooters are a good bet since they're fairly cheap additions, and most Cedar Fair parks already have them.