VF's High Roller

http://www.rcdb.com/ig1920.htm?picture=5
There is Steel Venom. You can see it is behind the turnaround on Wild Thing and next to the parking lot. It is also parallel to the highway.

I have just found that High Roller was previously located at Excelsior Park. http://valleyfair.digital-coaster.com/highroller.htm

If you scroll down to quick facts it says it was the defunc. coaster at Excelsior.

The word misconception is key there ;)

Better read that page a little better, Corkscrewy!

Oh yeah.. now I remember what misconseption means :)

Its not my fault... I'm only in high school. I don't no anything. ;)

At least the link still settles any questions :)

I don't no anything.

Apparently. Not to get off-topic but is that an example of the state of our schools? I knew the difference between "no" and "know" long before high school.

Moosh, it's a frequent misconception that public education in the US sucks.

Wait...no it's not.

Or he was just making a joke. ;)

I believe that the original owners of Valleyfair owned Excelsior Amusement until its closing. To my knowledge Excelsior was getting TOO popular for such a small park that the owners decides to relocated the park on a larger piece of property. High Roller was a brand new ride in 1976 and was a MUCH BETTER ride during the first 7-8 years before the trims were added. Running at full potential it could easily be a top 40 ride. (Could be top 20 but so newer coasters would make it even hard for a brakeless HR to compete especially with Hades)!

A brake-free High Roller? I drool at the thought ;)

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Pink Floyd Fanatic said:
(Could be top 20 but so newer coasters would make it even hard for a brakeless HR to compete especially with Hades)!

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And you've ridden Hades how many times to make that judgement?

Yeah...I though so... ;) *** Edited 2/25/2005 9:04:40 PM UTC by Kick The Sky***

I have ridden a break-free HR (it happens sometimes) and even with no rides on Hades, my money is on Hades. Now a break-free Wild Thing when its running fast...I'll put that up against pretty much any steel coaster I've been on. That rules.

"Or he was just making a joke. "

O.. yeah, thats it!! ;)

When High Roller opened it was simply called "Coaster!" and was renamed High Roller later (possibly after Cedar Fair bought out the park and started expanding).

I've only been on all the rides at VF! with all the bloody trims, and I have to say I wasn't very impressed. On the other hand, they have a really nice collection of flats that you just don't see all at once anymore, so I had a pretty decent time.

High Roller is possibly the smoothest woody I've ever been on, and it would have given decent air had not all the trims been on.

My first trip to VF was in 1977 a year before Cedar Point Inc.(before they changed their name to Cedar Fair) purchased the park. The High Roller was still called that in 1977 one year after the park first opened. It may have been called "Coaster" in 1976 only since High Roller had that name since at least 1977. *** Edited 2/26/2005 7:36:48 PM UTC by Pink Floyd Fanatic***

I would just like to say High Roller was my 50th coaster and I chose that one to be it becuase it was also my first ACE coaster classic. Ok that's all, I know noone really cares but I just had to tell everyone.

Cliche: I'm no big fan of WT's trims on day's they're biting hard, no doubt about that. And there's room for improvement at any park anywhere, period.

But as far as the trims are concerned, which Morgan hyper are you comparing it to? Cuz they all have similar MCBR issues.

Frankly, you should be thankful for Excalibur's trim. One run without them into that midcourse turn would educate you nicely--I mean, shove your ribcage into your throat--well you get the idea. Or not.

Their Impulse is easily the best-run standard model, their PT is way out of KBF's league...there's enough stuff running right to convince you that they'd run WT better if they could.

As for HR runs sans trims...meh. There's hardly any difference. It delivered more air before the typical CF seatbelts, but you know they weren't getting outta that one.

-'Playa *** Edited 2/26/2005 9:48:08 PM UTC by CoastaPlaya***

Steel Venom is good but I don't know how the other ones like the SF parks are running. I think Power Tower had stronger airtime in 2000 than it does now. You still get a pop of air on the Turbo Drop but it seems that the airtime (drop) lasts longer when it first opens. I'm more impressed with the Fabbri Mega Drop @ the MN State Fair which is less than 1/2 the height of PT yet believe it or not had LONGER airtime than PT! :-) What I don't understand is why was VF willing to run WT better between 1996 all the way through the 1998 season and got scared to run it as they did before. It lasted three seasons running really good. That is what puzzles me. If the ride was too violent for the average guest from the start I'd think they would toned it down in the middle of the first season. A totally brakeless WT would be still in my top 5 and I have ridden it like it in its glory years! :-) In fact WT was my #1 steelie back when it was running its best. I'm sorry but I think there are some scared people running this park because Holiday World, Knoebels or even SFOG would never kill a ride all the way to the point that it does absolutely nothing. A lot of other parks may have brakes but they are used more lightly at most parks and they still tries to keep the rides thrilling. A very good example is another CF park WOF. When I was there 2 years ago riding Mamba and TW both which were braked pretty good BUT ALL of Mamba's hill still have airtime and a front seat ride on even a heavily braked TW is even faster than when Hunt owned the park before they changed the lapbar. The heavier lapbars may have made the brake neccesary (sp?). Valleyfair must be the most conservative park around but yet they run SV, Mad Mouse (only ONE light brake), and Excalibur (The steep drop still allows for airtime) well! Excalibur main strike against it is that it is way too short and only 2-3 spots of airtime because of its short layout. If Excalibur had at least 5 more airtimes hills it may have been a top 5 ride! :-) Or in other words a normal length ride. But VF rides that has the most airtime potential are the ones that are ruined the worse! :-(

What I was told about WT is that if they don't trim it at the midcourse, it hits the final break run too hard and they have to reset the computer. I don't know if it is true or not, but it made sense to me because we sat on the break run for a long time after the trim free rides at Coaster Craze. (and everyone was applauding practically the whole time)

I think the bunny hills on Mamba and Steel Force give much better air than WT when the trims are on. WT is just so awesome when the trims are off.

As for HR, it is kinda nice to have a trim free ride but it is still nothing special.

I wish they could modify WT to run trim free. I know most people would not agree, but I would give up the new topspin for a Wilder Thing. At least we still have Coaster Craze, but even then it was only the last run or two of ERT before they turned off the breaks. *** Edited 2/27/2005 6:13:03 AM UTC by RavenTTD***