Just got home from Valleyfair and I would have to say that I was impressed!
I was going to take pictures but my phone is no more. So me and my 2 boys got there at about 7 and was surprised at how many people were there. Last year we came on opening day and we were almost the only ones in the park, no joke. this year there were just enough people to give you the busy amusement park feel, but there was not 1 line in the entire park.
We started off with the new Disk'o "Northern Lights". This was my first Disk'o coaster and I was expecting a bit of a lame ride, but it was much more than I expected. Sitting in the back row I felt some nice forces, and my youngest one Dylan(7) almost pooped himself, being his 2nd coaster ride ever. When it was over everyone was happy and had fun.
Next we tried the Antique Cars and it was exactly the same as the one they removed 2 yeas ago. The one thing that made this one 100% better was the layout and placement. I enjoyed going under Wild Thing, and Northern Lights, and watching them zoom over head. Another thing that made it fun was getting back to station to see that my older son Devin(11) had crashed his car into another. Darn kids. Apparently it was an "accident".
Then we moved on to the Scrambler and Tilter and it was... well.... the Scrambler and the Tilter. Both had new paint jobs and new light kits and looked very nice. I could also tell they had undergone some hardcore renovations on the inside as well. I could feel the difference from last years rusty bucket of bolts, to this years well oiled machines. I remember riding the scrambler last year thinking "this thing is going to shear off" as the entire bucket you ride in shook and rattled. Not this time, not a single squeak or rattle.
Next was Steel Venom. I was disappointed here. I'm not sure why but the ride was kind of bumpy and there was a nasty jerk in the track just as it starts to climb. what did they do to it over the winter? it was so smooth before.
Then we hiked over to Camp Snoopy, for Dylan. Swings, Rocket express(my favorite coaster), Cosmic Coaster, and the Peanuts 500.
Devin loves the High Roller so we went there next and OMG THEY RETRACKED SOME OF IT!!! yup a few large sections of track had been replaced, and wow you can tell. Was much smoother in the new spots and seemed to get more airtime too. The second train was in storage with all the test dummies still in the seats, kind of weird.
Then on to Renegade
CLOSED!
they were running 1 train empty and the angry mob told me the reason was "a train had broken". I'm not sure what exactly that means and I'm pretty sure that's not really what happened, but anyway I don't like to wait so on we went. I also noticed that they added antiroll-back to the section before the end break run. Not sure why that's needed.
Not wanting to hike 3 more miles to get a ruptured disk on Excalibur, we decided to head back and hit up the Corkscrew and Northern Lights again on the way out.(we were hungry and was about 50?????? and getting colder)
some of the other changes around the park included
-TV's and speakers all over the place playing music and videos.(kind of cool but dumb at the same time, got very annoying)
-Lots of places had been cleared of nice old trees and replaced by little saplings.(why would they do this???)
-Hydro blaster has been removed
-IMAX has been removed, and was replaced by a sand volleyball court. whaaaat....
-Security was EVERWHERE in pairs even. maybe for first day but I have never seen it like that.
I didn't mean to write this much. next time ill get pictures and get to everything. we only spent about 2 1/2 hours.