Valleyfair set to announce "significant" expansion

From the article:
He did say it's something that park operators "hope will encourage families to continue to come out."

Planet Snoopy.

Damn, you beat me by less than a minute!

So I guess VF isn't for sale anytime soon. They do suffer from stagnet attendance, ie 1,000,000 per season, so whatever they do, its going to warrant an additional 50,000 to 100,000 more people for several more seasons.

I suspect you're correct with Planet Snoopy. There have been rumors about that for the last year based on similar announcements at other CF parks. The other thing that comes to mind when I read "expansion" would be the water park. They did open the wave pool for last season, but it is still a very small water park. Excalibur is on its last legs and I've wondered when they would remove it and expand the water park in that direction.
Valleyfair is my home park but I haven't gone there during the last two seasons. There's not the WOW factor that's making me die to go there. Right now I have the "been there, done that" mentality, although I've always had a great time every day that I've gone in previous years. I dropped my teenage daughter off at the park a couple of Sundays ago on a very hot day. The parking lot was full but my daughter said most of the rides had very short lines. Most of the people seemed to be at the water park.
So I would agree with Planet Snoopy being most likely, with an expansion of the water park next on the list.

sws said:
Right now I have the "been there, done that" mentality, although I've always had a great time every day that I've gone in previous years.

I feel that way about most of the CF parks anymore. Don't know why. I just know they don't click for me lately.

Agent Johnson said:
...stagnet attendance...

Sounds like a dating site.

I assumed this park already had a Planet Snoopy. Does VF have a children's area?

Chitown said:
I assumed this park already had a Planet Snoopy. Does VF have a children's area?

They've had a nifty pirate ship climber thingy since the 80s that from what I hear is still kind of neat, and I think they have one other kids area. Though maybe a more up to date kids area would do the park some good? Wouldn't mind an expansion on the water park either. Making a trip there next year with some friends, so it'll be neat to see whatever it is.

VF does have a small area that has children's rides, although it is rather tiny compared to other parks. The only kiddie coaster would be Mild Thing which is for very little kids. VF certainly could use more of an area dedicated to children/families. The current kids rides are in the center of the park, so geographically speaking, I'm curious about the logistics of an expanded Planet Snoopy.

Probably becomes a separate kids area. Seems like we ran into a few parks this year that have two dedicated kiddie areas away from each other.

Makes sense as these parks continue to get bigger and bigger, I suppose.

Actually, that would make the most sense. It would be difficult to expand the current location.

I think 2 or so decent sized kids areas, with smaller play areas in sections with adult rides is a great design. Have a place for the kids with some rides the fam can do, but have something for the kids to do whilst the adults are having fun.

Rokuchan said:
They've had a nifty pirate ship climber thingy since the 80s that from what I hear is still kind of neat, and I think they have one other kids area.

That "pirate ship climber" was pulled out ten years ago for Power Tower.

They could probably expand the current children's area/former Bernstein Bears area to the other side of High Roller, but my guess is they'll target the other kid's area (around Mild Thing).

Either way, I'm sure we're looking at even fewer trees next season. :)

-Nate

Valleyfair is suffering from attendance of one-million? Just because they expand or renew their offerings doesn't mean they have to increase their attendance to justify it. A theme park is going to have to make regular investments to simply maintain their existing attendance.

Valleyfair will probably NOT see an increase in attendance of 5 to 10% as Agent Johnson claims they need to warrant this expansion and they don't need the increase to justify it.

I think that depends on whether or not their attendance has declined.

Valleyfair has never used the Peanuts characters previously due to the fact the MOA had the rights until 2007/8. Now that MOA is Nickelodeon themed and enough time has passed - bringing in Peanuts/Planet Snoopy would seem to make the most sense.

While expansion of the water park would definitely be nice - they have such a short season for its operation - a kids area seems to make more sense. Also - Valleyfair lost their flume a few years back - hopefully that can be replaced in whatever the expansion is (not Intamin please).

The Valleyfair website has this posted, concerning Snoopy's 60th birthday celebration:

http://www.valleyfair.com/public/information/snoopy60.cfm

The dates certainly correspond to that of the big announcement for the new expansion. I think we know what Snoopy's birthday surprise will be.

When I first read the article A Camp snoopy with Family rides came right to mind. After reading all the posts I think it would be the best move. a solid family area with 4-8 rides with one being a family coaster.

Log Flume!

sws said: "The only kiddie coaster would be Mild Thing..."

You forgot about Wild Thing.