Special Features: Valleyfair! is the place to be

Posted at 11:55 PM EDT (0355 GMT)

Aug. 11th, 2004 -- ThrillNetwork's own Jill Anne recently visited Cedar Point's "oldest sister" ValleyFair!, where she had the opportunity to study the history and check out its biggest attractions. Photos from her trip are available here.

I attended Valleyfair! on June 14th after an 8 hour flight in from Honolulu. It was a fitting end for a Hawaiian vacation for this coaster lover-since Hawaii’s only coaster is a traveling model set up at fairs. Valleyfair! is located just a short drive south of the Mall of America as well as Minneapolis/St. Paul in Shakopee, MN.

Valleyfair! first opened in 1976 at an investment of $7.5 million dollars. Their first coaster was simply called "Coaster" (but is now the ultra-smooth High Roller). It was designed to be a regional park themed "turn-of-the-century." Since the park was built in relatively recent history, many of these original buildings still stand which have kept the small regional park feel even though a hypercoaster now stands on the property. At opening, the park also had a "Runaway Mine Ride" for the kiddies (now Mild Thing), a haunted island, and trolley rides. Rides were added steadly after 1976 but most of them were small-a Monster and a Tilt-a-whirl.

However, in 1978 investors from Cedar Fair decided to purchase Valleyfair! which changed the park’s history forever. They added a Log Flume in 1978 and a steel roller coaster called Wild Rails in 1979-which suggested that bigger rides would work in the park well. In 1980, General Manager Dick Kinzel (yes, that one) expanded Valleyfair! further with the addition of the Corkscrew, which features a helix finale.

Since Cedar Fair has owned Valleyfair! the park has gotten new rides and restaurants fairly regularly in a slow expansion. Land is more limited here than Cedar Point, but the six coasters (seven including the kiddie ride Mild Thing) make this a worthwhile stop if you happen to be in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area during the operating season.

After entering the park, whose entrance plaza is very reminiscent of Geauga Lake, I headed to Wild Thing first. Wild Thing is a Morgan hyper built in 1996, goes 74 mph, and is 207 feet tall. This was Morgan’s first hypercoaster, but I’d heard so many good things about the company (especially in comparison to Arrows) that I wanted to give it a chance. It also touts the world’s longest zero gravity section over the second hill.

Wild Thing is very green-a color I couldn’t help but think of as "Raptor Green." It has green comfy trains with nice lapbars and retractable seatbelts. Nobody tried to staple me here-which left me fairly happy. The day I visited was special since there was a contest going on-Survive it and Drive it-in which participants were riding Wild Thing non-stop for days in order to win a car which was displayed near the station. Despite the contest the station was still virtually empty and I got to try out this Morgan masterpiece in nearly every seat.

My favorite seats are in row 1:3, just like Magnum. The very front seat and back seat in these trains are fun as well, but that row made me giggle (especially on that famous second hill). All the hills and drops are smoother than other hypers I’ve been on, which is what makes Morgans preferable I’d assume. The turn around on Wild Thing is also not dull-it makes a couple wide sweeping turns where it picks up a lot of speed before heading back toward the station. However, after this turn around there is a long mid course brake, which is common on these Morgans. The train nearly grinds to a halt. If this brake were turned off, the train would truly fly over the second half of the course and bunny hills. But the brake is on, permanently, even during one train operation. Even so, there is some nice air during the second half of the course, just nothing as violent as it could be. There also is a tunnel with absolutely wonderful head and hand choppers that probably is my favorite part of the ride. Overall, Wild Thing is a great ride, and though it isn’t nearly as scary as it should be, it still is a lot of fun.

Excalibur was my second coaster at the park. It was built in 1989 by Arrow, hits 55 mph, and is 100 feet tall. Its trains and track are very similar to Gemini, but its layout is vastly different. Until Steel Venom was built it had the steepest drop in the park (Steel Venom is the Intamin Impulse up near Wild Thing and the parking lot). The original layout to this ride included a hill after the first drop but it was later removed to create a smoother ride. Several brakes (I only remember two, but have been told there are as many as four) have been added to the first hill and throughout this ride to slow it down and apparently to keep it smooth. Despite the fact that this works and the ride is smoother than it would be without the brakes, hitting any of them is still disappointing to the enthusiast in me. I always want to try braked coasters without them simply to see why they were added to begin with-if the ride really is too rough-or how much fun a ride could be without them if they are added for structural reasons. Excalibur swoops repeatedly around-it’s actually a really entertaining ride, one that I would like to take at full speed.

High Roller, as I mentioned before, was the original coaster at Valleyfair! and it opened with the park in 1976. This is the single smoothest woodie that I have ever had the pleasure to ride. It was built by the International Amusement Service Inc., it’s 75 feet high, and supposedly reaches 50 miles per hour (though it doesn’t feel this fast, and might not reach this speed today because of brakes). According to Valleyfair! online (http://valleyfair.digital-coaster.com) it was inspired by Blue Streak’s layout. It is currently an ACE Coaster Classic. That this coaster has survived so long in classic condition gives me a lot of hope for Big Dipper at Geauga Lake. In any case, aside from some annoying trims, this is one heck of a ride. It’s not very fast, it’s not very tall, but it’s so smooth you feel like you’re rolling along on glass. It’s smoother than many steel coasters I’ve been on and yet retains the out of control feeling of good wood. It would get better airtime without the trims, but there is still some okay air on the return trip to the station. Its shiny and white (though the station could use some work) and its simply one of the best maintained woodies I’ve ever been on, period. Cedar Fair has done a great job keeping this one running well.

The Mad Mouse is a 1999 model by Arrow that is pretty much just like every other ordinary Mouse coaster out there. It’s 50 feet high, goes 30 mph, and thankfully, does not have trim brakes. Like most mice, it focuses on laterals but does have one little pop of airtime near the end (near the queue as well, which makes it fun to take pictures of people going over this pop of airtime). This Mouse is particularly nice because it runs exactly as it was intended to without trims or alterations (unlike most of the other coasters at the park).

The Corkscrew was Cedar Fair’s first coaster investment in Valleyfair! which opened in 1980. Arrow built this one very similarly to Cedar Point’s model, except that the final of the ride is a fun little helix. It’s also blue and white-just like the one at Cedar Point. It goes over a pond, with a fountain. In general, this ride runs just about as smoothly as any other Arrow looper I’ve been on. It’s rough in places but at my height (5’7") it is possible to brace your head and neck to keep from being in any severe pain. The helix is memorable and fun since it is different from most of the other loopers out there.

Last, but certainly not least, I rode Steel Venom (it didn’t open immediately in the morning). This Impulse coaster was built in 2003 by Intamin. It’s 185 feet tall, and reaches 68 mph. Steel Venom features a front spiral and a back brake just like the ride by the same name at Geauga Lake (and is the ex-Superman’s namesake). Even after being on Wicked Twister, I was not truly prepared for the brake on the back spike. For one, I wasn’t sure it was on. But more importantly, I was not prepared for the squealing noise that the brake makes that my brain was very emphatically telling me meant something was broken. Of course, it wasn’t, but the squeal, stop, and suddenly hitting the restraints makes a very interesting ride that I could easily jump on over and over again. It was interesting though: this particular ride’s track is higher up from the station floor than its cousin down in Sandusky, which means when I tried to jump up into the seat as I do ever time on Wicked Twister I managed to nail my tailbone hard on the leg divider on the seat and feel like a complete moron at the same time. Warning: seats are higher than they appear. This is probably my favorite ride at the park, though Wild Thing comes in a very close second.

Nearly ever coaster in Valleyfair! has one or more sets of trims on it. After going there. I’m far less likely to complain in a park where a single coaster, or even two, have a trim for safety or speed reasons. If you are truly angered by trims consider yourself forewarned-they exist in abundance here.

However, Valleyfair! is still a regional park, and the coasters aren’t the only enjoyable rides around. In fact, there is a far more fun and extensive collection of flats here than at Cedar Point. They have a monster ride, run at a reasonably high (and highly nauseating) speed. Their Chaos ride is set against the Wild Thing, which makes a really nice back drop for it. They have a Looping Starship and a Tilt-a-Whirl, both of which are becoming increasingly rare at parks. Their Power Tower offers 3 towers-2 down and 1 up at 275 feet tall. There is also a Trabant, a "Falling Star," a swing ride, scrambler, carousel, Ferris Wheel, caterpillar (do not know if it is operating with the cover, but I assume not), bumper cars, and auto ride. For an upcharge they offer Ripcord, GoKarts, and Bumper Boats. They recently added a Rockin’ Tug by Zamperla, which we rode and was actually a lot of fun.

In Valleyfair! is the Whitewater Country Waterpark. Its open May 29-August 22 (although if cold weather persists it may not be open on certain days). The waterpark is included in general admission, and is 3.5 acres of the park located near the back. There’s a lazy river, five water slides, a 4-person raft ride called River Falls, and a few other attractions. As part of the admission price, this is a pretty decent waterpark.

There are also several other water rides not in the waterpark itself. One of these is "Hydroblaster." Hydroblaster is actually a ride on slide like the one you can build in Rollercoaster Tycoon-which amused me to no end. They also have a boat ride by O.D.Hopkins called The Wave complete with bridge to get soaked on when you disembark, a flume, and a rapids ride called Thunder Canyon.

Staff at Valleyfair! were friendly, especially one girl who was guarding the back of the park (which opens later than the front). She seemed to deal with stupid guest questions and comments very well. Ride ops worked quickly to check restraints but never made them overly tight either. The park was small, friendly, and clean.

The gift shops offered many strange items that I had not seen in theme parks before, so they are definitely worth going into. I picked up a pair of wind-up hopping lederhosen and a Sigmund Freud action figure (as well as some Valleyfair! magnets) before heading to the Mall of America for another ride on Timberland Twister and home.

Valleyfair! is a good themepark, especially for families, as there is a wide array of rides and things to do. Coasters have not completely taken over the land here, as there still is a good collection of flats and water rides to keep all family members equally entertained. There’s a nicely themed kiddy area, lots of games, and a decent waterpark at no extra charge. In other words, this park is one that is probably definitely worth the trip-even with the many trimmed coasters. It’s hard to say what’s in this parks future-they have a good hyper, a good woodie, an impulse, a looper, and a steel twister. An inverted coaster would be nice (I can hope for B&M though I do not know how it would fit in their given space) as would any of the Huss flat rides. But really, this park is mostly complete and serves its community very well.

For photos, please visit the Gallery for ValleyFair!.