Valleyfair is the largest amusement park in Minnesota. This park features 125 acres
and 8 different roller coasters. Yet, it’s often considered one of the worst parks in
the Cedar Fair chain. Sure it’s no Cedar Point or Kings Island, but this is a good
park and I’ll explain why in this review. Valleyfair opened back in 1976. Just two
years later in 1978, Cedar Point acquired Valleyfair. The ownership of these two parks
led to the creation of Cedar Fair in 1983, as the name was derived from their first two parks.
One of the biggest criticisms with Valleyfair is that the park receives less investment than other
parks in the Cedar Fair chain. The park gets new attractions and special events, but their last
major coaster was Renegade back in 2007. In the decades prior, Valleyfair had much shorter gaps
between coasters. But Cedar Fair has expanded quite a bit- including acquiring the Paramount
parks in 2006- and the chain tends to prioritize largescale additions at their larger parks.
For several years, Valleyfair was earmarked for a sizable expansion in the back of the park.
The plan was to demolish Excalibur in order to expand the Soak City water park.
This would have included new slides, a new parking lot, and a new entrance.
However, the local government has rejected these plans due to the site being a flood
plain so we’ll see if Valleyfair goes for a different plan instead.
On that note, flooding has been an issue for the park. The park’s setting on the banks of
the Minnesota River offers great views from the taller rides. You also have a walking
trail adjacent to the park that offers some neat views of the park. But the back sections
of the park can become submerged from the river, particularly in the early months of the year.
Granted, this back section with Excalibur and Thunder Canyon may not be open if you
visit outside of peak season. And on days these rides are open, the back area tends to open late
and close early. If Excalibur is a priority for you, try to visit during the peak summer months
to maximize your chances of riding it. Let’s talk about this park’s layout. The
park is easy enough to navigate, but the layout is annoying. The park forms a long
strip. The center of the park forms a loop and is serviced by the Minnesota River Valley Railroad,
so this part is easy to get around. But the north and south sides of the park form dead ends.
You have Route 76 that juts downwards from the main entrance into the parking lot. This
is accessed by a single, narrow path. The dead end in back is much longer. Off to the left, you have
the Soak City water park. But for the dry rides, once you go past the Mad Mouse, you have just one
path. This is what you need to take to get to Renegade. And if you want to get to Excalibur
and Thunder Canyon, you need to keep on going through this tunnel underneath a service road.
The park as a whole does look good though. This park has a great skyline. You see
massive towers and Wild Thing from the parking lot, and the latter adds
a ton of energy to the park, particularly from the helix in the Route 76 section.
This park doesn’t have too much in terms of theming like most of the Cedar Fair parks,
but it is clean, colorful, and lively. These are hallmarks of the chain.
The park has a cheery atmosphere and it helps most employees are pretty friendly too.
In terms of operations, Valleyfair as a whole does a good job. The park is often open late on
weekends and I need to give credit to them in 2019 for remaining open through a massive thunderstorm.
There were torrential downpours and lightning for the first 2-3 hours of the day.
Many parks would have used this as an excuse to close early, but Valleyfair stayed open until
their scheduled 10 pm close, which basically gave me ERT for the second half of the day.
The major coasters will typically run two trains, but the dispatches are a bit slower than some of
the other Cedar Fair parks. The park is among the top 5 in the world for IROC compliance
and the park prioritizes protocols over raw efficiency. That being said, dispatches are
still decent enough except for two coasters. First, Wild Thing had really slow operations
in my recent visit. These Morgan hyper coasters are usually people-eaters with their simplistic
restraints, but the load procedures guaranteed stacking each time. The crew wouldn’t open the
air gates until everyone from the prior train had exited. Then the attendants had
to lock and unlock multiple different loose article bins before checking restraints.
Second, Mad Mouse is one of the least efficient coasters at a major corporate park I have ever
seen. Wild mice aren’t the best for capacity to begin with, but this one is particularly
atrocious. If you’ve ridden the Arrow mouse at Michigan’s Adventure or California’s Great
America, this one is operated similarly. The ride had 8 cars on the track, but only
one would be on the main course at a time. I rope dropped this attraction to avoid the
posted 1-2 hour wait it had most of the day, but I was seated on the ride for almost 12
minutes since it took that long to dispatch the other 7 cars before and after mine.
Valleyfair seems to get healthy crowds. Unlike some of the other quote-on-quote
low tier Cedar Fair parks, don’t be surprised to find decently long queue lines at this park.
If crowds are heavy, the park does offer a Fast Lane skip-the-line pass that’ll cost
you an extra $50-$80 depending on the day as of 2022. This can save quite a bit of time.
The worst lines in this park are typically for Mad Mouse and a trio of flat rides.
North Star, Power Tower, and Xtreme Swing can all develop sizable waits ranging from 30-60 minutes.
If you primarily care about the coasters, I recommend rope dropping Mad Mouse.
If you don’t get here at opening, this is a smart one to hop in line for right before close.
I would then head over to Wild Thing to get a ride or two before most crowds reach it. You
should then be able to go to Renegade and have a mini-marathon when it’s still a walk-on. You then
will be in a convenient location to get back to Excalibur when that area opens at noon most days.
For the coasters in the front half, their lines have peaked around the 20-30 minute mark for me,
but they will typically decrease as the day progresses. I then like to end my day with
a marathon on Renegade since it’s also usually a walk-on at this time. And if the park is open
after nightfall, riding Renegade in the dark is a must. There’s barely any light back there.
If you want to hit the big three flat rides, I would defer Mad Mouse until
close. I would instead start if North Star if you’re one of the first ones in the park.
Then hit Power Tower and Xtreme Swing as you make your way towards Wild Thing.
You can hit Mad Mouse on the way back to Renegade if it’s still a walk-on, but no guarantee it is.
I have always visited this park with a Cedar Fair Platinum Pass,
but day tickets cost $60 as of 2022. You can often save $10-$30 if you buy this in advance online.
Then there’s an additional $20 fee to park if you don’t have an annual pass. And it’s nice how the
parking lot is right by the main entrance, so you don’t have to start the day with a long walk.
Now let’s talk about the ride lineup. While Valleyfair’s coaster lineup can’t compete
with the largest parks in the Cedar Fair chain, it’s solid. There are two deficiencies though.
First, it’s shocking this park’s only inverting coaster has been and still is
Corkscrew. This park could desperately use a new coaster with inversions. It’s
their biggest coaster gap. And I think their attendance definitely warrants it.
Second, the park could use another coaster with a height limit below 48” for families.
Right now their only options are the Cosmic Coaster kiddie coaster and the Mad Mouse, and the
latter’s throughput is so miserable that families likely won’t want to ride it multiple times.
Renegade is the best coaster in the park by far. This Great Coasters International woodie
features a fast-paced and dynamic layout. The first half takes place in a backstage area.
You have the usually strong pops into and out of turnarounds
plus these speed hills that offer great sustained floater airtime, which is rare to get on a GCI.
Then the second half finishes with a few turns and quick hills you find on most other GCIs.
The ride does have a bit of a shimmy to it, but I had no trouble marathoning
this coaster as I noted in a separate review. This truly is one of the best rides from GCI.
The other wood coaster is High Roller. It’s oddly now located in Planet Snoopy,
but this was the park’s first coaster and it still has its moments. While the ride looks and feels
pretty slow, some of the hills will launch those in the front and back out of their seat. This ride
is also really darn smooth a 45 year old coaster and I also have a review going into more detail.
The park’s best steel coaster and arguably most popular ride is Wild Thing. This was the first
Morgan coaster to open and while it’s not as strong as other hypercoasters, it’s still a fun
attraction. The first half is good. You have some nice airtime on the first drop in back and the
second hill is one of the most sustained airtime moments in the world. You levitate out of your
seat for 4-5 seconds. Then the far turnaround has good speed. What kills this coaster is the
mid-course trim. This neuters the returning bunny hills, as you barely lift out of your seat at all.
This is what earns this coaster the dubious nickname of Mild Thing among coaster enthusiasts.
Steel Venom is one of the few Intamin impulse coasters out there and this is the last one that
still has an operable holding brake. This feature is finnicky and not the best for the longevity of
the ride, but it’s super cool. It messes with your mind stopping suddenly like that so high above the
ground. Beyond that, this coaster’s spikes offer positives at the bottom and nice weightlessness
at the top plus those scary visuals. Excalibur is a unique hybrid coaster from Arrow.
This ride was rumored to be on the chopping block for years, but with the expansion plan rejected,
this coaster should be safe. The ride is short and janky, but it has some power. You really get
launched out of your seat on the first drop and the s-hill. Then that helix pulls some strong Gs.
I have an entire review on this coaster and you won’t find another ride quite like it elsewhere.
Corkscrew is a pretty standard Arrow looper, but it again is the park’s lone inverting coaster.
It’s smoother than a lot of older Arrows and the vertical loop has good force, but the rest of the
ride isn’t too eventful. See my review for more. Mad Mouse is one of three operating Arrow mice.
The ride has some flair to it with the banked turns, but it’s your pretty typical mouse
otherwise with some intense hairpin turns towards the start and a few mild pops of
airtime in the second half. I just don’t ride this much due to that aforementioned capacity.
The final coaster is for kids and it’s named the Cosmic Coaster.
It’s a nice starter coaster for kids. Cedar Fair parks sometimes ban adults from their junior
coasters, but enthusiasts can ride this powered coaster without any trouble if they please.
Another gap in this park’s ride lineup is the absence of a dark ride.
This isn’t a flaw exclusive to Valleyfair. Other Cedar Fair parks suffer from this,
which limits how much you can do during a passing thunderstorm.
Moving onto the flat rides, Valleyfair has a nice collection. You have plenty of spinning
rides plus a few pendulum rides. There are three flats worth highlighting and they happen
to be the ones that get the longest waits. Minus upcharges, the best flat in the park
is Power Tower. This 275 foot or 84 meter tall drop tower offers amazing views of the area.
This S&S drop tower isn’t the most intense, but the turbo drop side does have a sudden
drop that gives a quick burst of airtime. North Star is a bit shorter than Power
Tower at 23 stories tall, but it offers similarly great views. This Funtime
Star Flyer has a good cycle and a pinch of force as your spin high above the ground.
Xtreme Swing is a supersized S&S screamin’ swing. The airtime on the max swing is great,
but note how I said swing not swings. Screamin’ Swings have super short cycles to begin with,
but this one is extra short. Only ride this if it has a short wait for that reason.
For kids, you have a sizable Planet Snoopy area with over a dozen rides for the younger guests.
Kids could spend hours here bouncing from ride to ride.
Plus they can meet their favorite Peanuts characters as well. Then a few of the flats
and observation rides scattered about the park have low height limits to accommodate them.
Lastly, let’s talk about the water rides. You have two on the amusement side. The
Wave is a Hopkins shoot-the-chute with a zippy drop and a soaking splash.
Then Thunder Canyon is a really fun rapids ride. This one has a scenic course and you
can get absolutely drenched from the trio of waterfalls and a few of the rapids.
Just note that the water, which is likely from the nearby river, really reeks.
You also have the option to visit the included Soak City water park.
I have only visited the dry side, but there looks to be a nice mix of water slides.
You have some tall speed slides plus a few other slides more suited for the family.
Moving onto the food options, most of the food is your standard amusement park fare, but our meal at
Minnesota Eats was fantastic. We got a delicious, albeit heavy Monte Cristo, with these ginormous
tater tots stuffed with cheese. I highly recommend this place if you plan to eat while at the park.
So do I recommend Valleyfair? It is towards the bottom of the Cedar Fair parks,
but that’s more a testament to how strong the chain’s larger parks are. So yes I
recommend it. This is a good park. It’s the best thrill park in the Minneapolis
area. Renegade makes this park worth visiting for enthusiasts, especially if you love GCI’s work.
Then the park offers more than just coasters for families and kids, especially if you also
plan to visit for the water park. And all this is paired with a clean and inviting atmosphere.
How much time you’ll need depends on your interests. If you only care about the coasters,
you probably only need a half day here. I know plenty of enthusiasts who have paired
this with Nickelodeon Universe, which is roughly 20 minutes away. But I prefer to have closer to a
full day here because there are some non-coasters worth experiencing and I do like to have time for
rerides in case things aren’t complete walk-ons. I really hope this park gets their long overdue
coaster in the near future because the park and its attendance seem to warrant it.
So those are my thoughts on Valleyfair, the largest amusement park in Minnesota. What
are your thoughts on this Cedar Fair park? Let me know down below. If you enjoyed this review, I’d
appreciate it if you gave this video a like and you considered subscribing since there will be a
lot more roller coaster and amusement park videos here at Canobie Coaster. Thanks for watching!