Valleyfair! 9/17/06

Hello all! My friend Kelly and I haven't been out to Valleyfair for a couple weeks (we normally go every weekend but she just started a new job that interfers with the weekly routine unfortunatly) but we finally had the chance to go this past Sunday.

We got to the park at 9:10AM, 50 minutes before the park opens. The weather was pretty chilly and the winds were strong, but that wasn't going to stop us. Three rides were closed today. Bumper cars were closed due to the construction of The Asylum, looping starship was closed for who knows why, and Thunder Canyon (which is probably because of Halloween Haunt construction maybe as well? Or 'Project2007', or just because of the weather being real cold). We were the only people there untill about 9:30, when two other groups arrived. A mom and her younger child, and then a guy by himself.

After the national anthem was over, we got into the park at about 9:40AM. We ran to Wild Thing (even though there was no one else heading over that way) and it was still testing (it was about 9:45AM now). We waited outside the queue for about five minutes, and we got on the first ride of the day, front row, train all to ourselves. :) A great way to start out the day!

We wanted to go over to Excalibur, but that area of the park wasn't open yet. The opened that area around 10:05AM, but Excalibur doesn't open till 11AM we found out. We were fine with that, and we went over to High Roller instead. We saw one other group of people in the park finally around 10:30AM. We got on the back. Pretty fun ride as usual, if only those trim brakes and seat belts were removed like the good ol' days..

We hit the usual rides after that (all the coasters, and the bigger flat rides), and everything was a walk-on all day long. We got on RipCord three times that day (we both have upgraded passes, so we don't have to pay to go on), and we got on our favorite ride, Skyscraper (also free with our upgraded pass), over 15 times that day, and everytime we got to do extra rotations due to knowing the crew pretty well, and with the fact no one else was going on that day except us it seemed.

We checked out some of the Halloween Haunt construction (esp. The Asylum) and got to talk with one of the construction workers working on The Asylum. He was telling us some details about the haunted mazes, walk-throughs, and fright zones. He told us that one of the mazes (CarnEvil) is already finished, and he has walked through it already (without the screamsters of course) and says that the theming is great with the 3-D glasses, without it, not as "dizzy-like" effects. I'm wondering if you're going to have to buy the 3D glasses like you do at Cedar Point or if they're going to do something like Universal where you wear them at the start of the attraction and return them at the exit? Oh well, guess we'll find out in October. There are also going to be some great theming I noticed in The Asylum. It is supposed to have a puke-scent through out the entire maze, there's "puke" and "blood" on the walls, it features animatronics that actually "puke" up liquids, etc. It sounds pretty disturbing to me, and I can't wait to try these all out.

We looked over at the construction site for the rumored new coaster coming in 2007, and noticed a new orange plastic fence is around the area with some more survey markers. I still haven't seen these GCI boxes people are talking about, but I have seen a lot of storage boxes that could probably be storing some secerts for 2007 around the employee parking lot. It's also nice to have friends working at Valleyfair because sometimes they'll send me pictures of some of the boxes, or any other updates such as the flags, etc.

We got on RipTide a lot of times today, too. They had the water off, which was very nice since I hate getting soaked on this ride. I love it however when the water is off. I like the continous flipping the ride has. Always makes me dizzy when I gett off :)

Low crowds throughout the entire day, everything was a walk-on. It warmed up towards the afternoon, but still a pretty chilly day. Great swings on Xtreme Swing, seemed like it was more in a "Skyhawk" type of an action where it swings a lot more than past vertical than the normal just vertical swing that it was having for a couple weeks. Great to see!

All in all, a super day at Valleyfair like usual! Won a big ValleyFair bear (again :)) from a claw machine, which was a nice. It is my second one now, except for this one I only payed six dollars for and not 30! :)

ValleyFair really seems to be hyping up Halloween Haunt. If you can, it'd be great to go! It seems like it will be an amazing event, and hopefully the crowds will be a lot larger than Halloweekends like they had a couple years ago. That was a flop. But anyways, thanks for reading my trip report.

By the way, I will be attending the BooBuzz event at Cedar Point for my 12th trip this year, can't wait to see some of you guys there!

*** Edited 9/20/2006 12:07:43 AM UTC by Dr. DOOM 1289*** *** Edited 9/20/2006 12:08:36 AM UTC by Dr. DOOM 1289***

Wow... I like the sound of this Aslyum Haunted House. Can I put some of that paragraph on my website?

Yeah, sure, as long as I get credit ;) Naw, I'm just kidding about the credit part, but that'd be great to see on your website! What is it, by the way?

www.freewebs.com/valleyscare
It's about valleyscare, I just put the URL thingy as valleyscare cuz it looks cool.

That's a pretty nice site you have up. Is it pretty new? Are you eventually going to add pictures and whatnot? I know some HTML if you need help for anything (doesn't look like you do, but I thought I'd offer).

Thanks but I think I got it covered. It's updated with some of your information now.

Alright, and thanks. I'm not absloutley sure if there is going to be multiple animitronics doing that, but I for sure know that there will be one, you can see it if you look in one of the windows of the bumper cars. However, there's puke all over the place, so yeah, there probably will be more than one, but only one is visible as of right now.

I don't know, it'd be kinda lame seeing more than one of the same animitronic. But maybe they'll all have their unique looks & whatnot.

Gosh, I just can't wait to see it all! I'm really excited.

Did they mention anything else about Carn-evil in 3D or Chatau du Damme?

No, they didn't mention anything about Chatau Du Damme. It will be in the Hi-Test Arcade which is now closed due to construction. You can see walls being built right now, but that's all that has been going on.

For Carn-Evil, that is actually finished right now according to him. He said he has walked through it already (without the screamsters) and that it is a lot of neon-paint type of stuff with black lights. Kind of like Pharoh's Secret in the begining and some other areas at Cedar Point if you have ever been in that.

Did you happen to see where the entrance/exit to the Asylum was? Also, did you smell the scent of the vomit from outside? Also, did he mention anything about the scare zone or the outdoor haunted house (the pirate themed one?)

And lastly, do you have email/AIM?

The entrance to The Asylum is just the regular entrance to the bumper cars I'm guessing, and I'm sure they'll be putting up a temporary queue by the empy path area outside the bumper cars where people can watch the ride. I'm not sure where the exit will be, sorry.

I didn't smell the scent of the vomit yet. I don't think it will be there untill the day of Halloween Haunt. It'd be kind of gross having that scent around the area when most of the general public isn't quite sure of what is to be done of The Asylum quite yet.

He didn't say too much about the pirate themed one. He did say that there will be ghosts just walking around the park, however, and not just in the pirate area. So watch your steps!

And yes, my AIM screen name is HeartCoreloser55.