VF's High Roller

I would too give up the new topspin anyday for a Wildier Thing anyday!

I second that!!!

I wonder if its too late. Lets start a petition!! ;)

Hey did I say anything about Wild Thing? We're discussing High Roller here. ;)

Every hyper I've been on has had some serious trims or a MCBR somewhere. It's just expected at this point--by me anyway.

Visiting VF was just a surreal experience for me. There were so few people in the park that day that I ended up on trains all by myself several times, hit the first train of the day on no less than 3 coasters... it was cool, but it needs more patrons, less trims, and some better advertising.

If you ask the guest service people at Camp Snoopy just a few miles away how to get to VF! from CS, good luck. I was huffed at, and then they grudgingly told me what freeway to get on. There's this huge tourist trap of the Mall of America a few miles from the park, and yet the park is empty on days the mall is full. If Cedar Fair did some sort of both parks in one day pass during the summer, or just had fliers around (and there may be some, but there certainly weren't any that I saw on any trip I've had over there) maybe the park would be more full....

VF! is definitely a nicely kept park, but it *is* a little tame--you've got to admit that part. ;) But the park's managers have no real reason to make it the wildest thrill park on the planet while they are mainly catering to local families and the occassional tourist, plus groups from Wisconsin. These people can easily visit the Dells, Camp Snoopy, and VF! (VF! having the largest collection of rides) and can occassionally take hte longer trip down to Six Flags. VF! doesn't need to be a thrill park.

On the other hand, I see no bloody reason to have a trim on the tip of every airtime hill. Gimme a break. ;)

What I don't understand like I've said before especially with High Roller is that it ran for a very long time with ZERO trims like at least 7-8 years so why do they need to turn it into a kiddie ride? I was really POed at last year's Coaster Craze an enthusiast's event with the trims on HR even harder than usual during the ERT! I though most parks would open up their brakes during ERTs. I have to give them credit for running WT a little better than usual. At least some of the trims were off. Usually WT seems to have EVERY trim on tight in the MCBR and if it is a problem with the final BR why don't they invest some money into making it run the way it was meant to run? Even with WT at its full glory VF still was able to cater to families. WT is still VF's BIG ride and VF needs to have just ONE really good airtime machine. Do that with WT and let all of the other rides be family rides and I'll be happy for life! :-)

I'm sorry but I don't get why anyone is really impressed with Wild Thing or High Roller. Even with the trims off I can't see either of these being anywhere near my top 10. I think VF is a nice park and the coasters there are fun but none deserve any high praise in my opinion, but again that's just an opinion.

VF's not a destination park and I doubt if it ever will be. It's a park in Blandsville USA that draws a solid million butts a year, even after 9/11 and two seasons without any new rides whatsoever. If you visit on a weekday before July and after student days, you'll own the park. If you visit when it's packed, you'll still board most of the coasters (except HR) within a half-hour.

When in Blandsville, you do as the bland folk do. You sell fried 'state fair' food on a stick, keep your ads kinda dorky and your attractions varied. If you ask me, the Foam Ball Factory was one of the best additions in years and it's too bad Da Midget will be too tall to get me in. I'm gonna miss it.

WT's problems are more a design problem than a VF problem. The return run after the MCBR is just too short...so short that an untrimmed train's speed will trigger an 'hard stop' on the first brake run. Do that all year and you have a brake run to replace each season--in addition to the track to be replaced, painted, inspected etc as a course of normal wear and tear.

An reworked, untrimmed WT isn't gonna draw more butts in the park. That's not going to appeal to more than a few stained T-shirt folk in the first place. Besides, those folk should know the 'rules' of catching WT on a good day.

There's not gonna be any more VF/KCS-MOA cross-marketing. CF won't manage the park after next month. The Mall management who signed that contract no longer manage there.

But if they really wanted to gun for 1.5 million visitors a year? They'd figure out how to get a wavepool on the premises. Would you believe there's only one in the state? Count 'em. One. I hope they're watching the GL relocation project with as much interest as I am...

-'Playa

*** Edited 2/27/2005 3:53:12 PM UTC by CoastaPlaya***

Playa any word on what's goiong to happen to KCS after the new management takes over? The news article made it sound like the actual park will be bigger but I don't know how they'd do that. There is also an article which I've seen that has plans to at least double the mall size (most likely the old Met Center lot) which would include a casino. They could expand KCS (and the mall) in that area by the south entrance. That would allow them to put in a steel coaster the size of the Edmention Mall's Mindbender and a drop tower. A Maurer Sohne Xtended roller coaster and Xtended Power Tower would be great addtion to that park. MN near a few year round extreme rides with airtime to make it a livable state for me!

There are no plans to start hacking away at the original mall. Phase II plans are outlandish enough as they are...with a casino, NHL-size hockey rink and canal with gondolas among other things.

You can never accuse the Ghermezian brothers of thinking small.

-'Playa

PS - As coasters go, we've had SV, TT, Avalanche and Hades within the last three years. Not bad.

Actually the space I've suggested for expansion of KCS is that large outdoor "vacant" space (currently used for parking) between the corners of Macy and Sears (or the SE department store, not sure it is was Sears or not). My proposale does not includes hacking at the original mall but rather adding on to the building on the south end. *** Edited 2/28/2005 3:07:54 AM UTC by Pink Floyd Fanatic***

I realize this thread is supposed to be about High Roller, but I was just looking at pics of all of VF's coasters on RCDB. I'm not sure if it still looks this nice since the pic is 5 years old, but Corkscrew might possibly be the most beautiful Arrow corkscrew coaster I've ever seen!

http://rcdb.com/ig118.htm?picture=5

And its a fun one to ride.. except the line is usually so long.

It's too tame! :-(

thrillerman1, that shot of Corkscrew looks to be pre-Power Tower. I think they have lost a few trees since then. Either way, I don't recall it looking that good.

MAGXL200, I did not think WT would be that good either till Coaster Craze. Magnum is my number 2 steel coaster for the airtime and WT blew it away. Not even close. I could not believe how good it was. Like playa said, there are some "rules" about finding WT on a good day, but usually they involve getting a light or no break ride when it is running slow. Coaster Craze was no breaks (last ride) when it was running fast. It was amazing with major sustained ejector air on all the bunny hills.

As for modifying WT, if they really can't let it hit the final break run fast all season, it would be nice if they could put some trims near the end like in the tunnel and leave the midcourse open when they are only running two trains. I know they won't, but they could if they wanted to.

edit: I got the same explanation for the trim on Timberwolf at WoF...that it was hitting the final break run too hard. Again, a trim right before the break run instead of the first hill would really improve what is already and excellent ride. *** Edited 2/28/2005 5:08:00 AM UTC by RavenTTD***

PFF: Tame, yeah. But it's about as tall as Arrow Corkscrews should be and maybe a second vertical loop short of perfect. While I secretly fantasize they'd clap it over for a Thorpe Park Colossus clone, I know it's not going anywhere.

RavenTTD: I'd hope against hope for magnetic fin brakes from Magnetar. After all, they have been successfully used on another Morgan hyper. I'm quite sure they know about them. I'd say it's a safe bet Magnetar's knocked on their door too.

But at what cost? I don't know. Then VF would have to pitch them to corporate and corporate would have to hand them the money for it, so who knows.

-'Playa

Playa, I have too thought about megnectic fin brakes. Is the Morgan hyper you're taking about Phantom's Revenge @ KW or another one? PR has magnetic brakes but I don't think they are fins. They looked like some type of very short skide brakes

RavenTTD TW (brakeless) may be hitting the final brake run harder than ever because I believed the ratcheting lapbars added more weight to the trains. A front seat ride on a braked TW was just as fast and full of airtime as it was with no brakes and the standard lapbars (Buzzbars). The only loss was airtime on the first drop in the back seat. It sucks (lack of backseat airtime on the first drop) but if you ride the front seat I don't think you'd feel a loss of airtime since first drops usually don't do nothing in the front seat anyways.

I'd like to know what's VF excuse for trimming HR to death. With the seatbelts added a few years ago I thought they wer not going to use the trims. Is the ride really tearing itseld up all that badly? It can't be unsafe to have negative gs if they have thos seatbelts on the ride. The ride was "safe" enough for all of those completely brakeless years with ZERO seatbelts. If they don't want to maintain it than they should replace HR with a steel structured woodie. I would not miss HR one bit if they took it out and put in a world class double out and back steel structured airtime filled TGG woodie with PTC trains in HR's spot. *** Edited 2/28/2005 5:14:26 PM UTC by Pink Floyd Fanatic***

Whoops. Actually it looks like PR has a magnetic brake on the last hill before the conventional system. I could be wrong there too.

HR trimmed to death where? There's antirollbacks on Hill #2 and trims before the return run. That's all. Other than that...it's still an ACE Classic, still the park's original coaster and people still stand in long (and slow-moving) lines to get on board. It might not make my Top 10 Woodie list, but it definitely belongs there.

-'Playa

Phantom's Revenge has magnetic brakes on the last two upward slopes before the standard Arrow brake run, which I believe has one or two additional magnetic brakes among the caliper brakes. Floyd Fanatic, the mags are designed to interact with the brake fins--I don't think that there is such a thing as a "magnetic skid brake" yet.

Playa, yes there are only two trims on High Roller but they are on so hard that it comes to almost a complete stop in fact it has happened (come to a complete stop and got stuck) to a friend of mine. That is what I mean by trimmed to death. The return run is 2/3 the ride and killing all the airtime just sucks! During Coaster Craze morning ERT last summer my friend and I were riding in the back of the otherwise empty train trying to get "lucky" and make it get stuck in the brake to show how extremely stupid they were running the extremely slow (because of EXCESSIVE trimming) ride. Do they really want to ride to be that slow and does nothing on those bunny hops? Even the SF parks (besides SFMM) don't usually trim their rides to the point that HR is trimmed where it is COMPLETELY forceless!

There's only one kinda woodie worth riding in the morning...and it's not a coaster.

For those who like that sorta thing, that is.

-CO

I don't think Cedar Fair will modify WT with magnetic trims unless it will address a safety issue.

Why? Morgan sold WT as a complete system and will put in recommendations for approved replacement parts as the ride ages. Unless it is recommended by the manufacturer or if Cedar Fair doesn't want to continue to keep their nose clean, they will not change a system. Period. Imagine the liability issues that will ensue if any changes were made.

As for High Roller, it was okay not top 50 material, but that was back in 2002. The trims were on pretty hard, but I thought it was a really smooth ride.

~Rob