Valleyfair photos added to Negative-G

Great to hear Renegade is already squealing around the track...good job CF.

Those pics were taken on May 27, only two weeks after Renegade opened. I am no expert on wooden coasters, but it's probably just breaking in and not CF already ruining the ride.

We were out to VF this past weekend. Had not been able to go back since opening day. Renegade seems to be running alot faster now than it did earlier in the season.

First post and already some whining. I rode it a dozen times after Paul did and it did not squeal.

Great pics, Paul!

Renegade is running fantastic. There's nothing to worry about there. There was one thing that I did find sad though. We were at Valleyfair on opening day and I sincerely thought Renegade was a thing of beauty. The smell of fresh wood was intoxicating. It was sad to return this weekend and already see the wood enclosures of the queue lines covered in graffiti after only a few weeks. I know it is inevitable, but it was still sad to see a work of art defaced like that.

All those damned decidedly non-urban kids!

If they had flags, they'd probably slam it in into a two-by-four and claim the coaster in the name of Finland, Sveden or maybe Woodbury...instead of writing 'josh' or 'becky' or scribbling each others phone numbers down 'for a good time.'

Somebody tried to get a gum wall started under the transfer track, too.

It's a real shame kids don't know how to act.

I have heard wheel bearings singing on Renegade, but I can't say I'd describe any lap I've taken as 'horrible.' It's decidedly different from a GG/PTC combination, but you have to remember Renegade's doing things that a GG coaster would shred track, train and your ribs trying to duplicate. Mind you, I just did Mt. Olympus Father's Day...so the differences are rather fresh in mind.

-CO

*** This post was edited by CoastaPlaya 6/27/2007 3:40:01 PM ***

The one thing that did surprise me about this ride though is that they did not do any defensive queuing, which is something the Cedar Fair parks generally do well. In other words, you don't let people close enough to vertical surfaces to vandalize them. Think the Disaster Transport queue, which is entirely inside. You have halls just wide enough, with the rails keeping the walls just out of reach. You can't easily do that with the stairs up to the platform, but most of the Renegade queue could have accommodated this, especially under the transfer.

It appears they've taken to darkening out personal info (i.e. phone numbers) with permanent marker. It's a sad thing. It's a very sad thing.

They built a great coaster on a cap ex budget not much larger than last years, attempted to give it an all-over rustic feel--and this is the 'thank you' some guests give it.

I'd love to see a few dozen kids get hauled away from the queue and ejected from the park for this...

-CO

I'm looking forward to giving Renny another try next month. It sounds like it's picking up speed nicely.

That's too bad about all of the vandolism. Even as a kid, I never understood why anyone would want to do that. Stupid.

6 hours from Santa Claus, IN to Shakopee, MN?? I wish.

Renegade has squeeled off and on but last time I was there it was fine.

Wild Thing did have the longest airtime section at one point but it does not anymore.

Nice pics. Edit: regarding that ban guns sign, that is the mark that Jesse Ventura left on MN. His concealed hand guns law allows them in premises that do not ban them so you see those signs in MN now.*** This post was edited by RavenTTD 6/27/2007 6:51:34 PM ***

^On his site, Paul mentioned that he moved from Santa Claus to Western Illinois, which is why it only took six hours.

I've ridden plenty of wooden coasters 2 weeks (and around that) after opening and squealing is not part of the normal breaking in process.

I'll also add that singling my first post out as some sort of enthusiasstic whining epidemic is a bit much. I wasn't there to ride the ride, and was merely responding to what I was reading in the trip report. I have no first hand knowledge of how the ride is running but I'm not going to read "squealing" and then reply with "sounds great!"

The two days that my girlfriend and I visited the park, it looked like schools had sent their children on field trips "senior trips" I'm guessing by how everyone was writing "class '07" on the wood. All the children apparently upset this twenty-something female in-front of us as she just about punched out this kid who wouldn't stop bouncing his basketball in line, even after she asked him several times...each time more and more angry sounding.

One of the two days we rode it in the rain, got on the ride in about fifteen minutes, that was fun. Then the next day it was really nice out and all the teenies waited for it, an hour wait with one train running. I asked the ride-op if there wasn't enough people in line to run two trains, he agreed, later coming up to me and saying that the staff had to work too hard to run two trains, he later turned out to be a manager that was having to fill in for a staff member.

I agree with what Paul says about the raft ride. THEY DONT LET YOU STORE YOUR ITEMS IN THE STATION, YOU MUST TAKE THEM ON THE RIDE...THEY WILL GET SOAKED!!! Even if you dont get trashed by one of the three waterfalls the ride slams you under, at the end of the ride is an evil little part that dumps vicious amounts of cold water on you while you are helplessly going up the lift hill. My phone got ruined, I though this was going to be a ride similar to Fury of the Nile, where there is a good chance you wont get wet.

Last Sunday we arrived at VF at 11:30 and went straight to Renegade. The initial wait was ~30 minutes for a front row seat. They started up a second train during that wait and had to do a practice run, which added to some of that wait. Once the waterpark next door opened up, waiting time was only 10-15 minutes with two trains running. The last couple weeks in May and first week in June, VF does "school days" for the local school districts. I will never go there during school days - not worth it.