Valleyfair is the largest amusement park in Minnesota.
This Cedar Fair park doesn’t have the same coaster lineup as the chain’s larger parks,
but it still features 8 different roller coasters including a hyper coaster
and one of the best GCIs. Then there are some notable flat rides and water rides.
So in this video, I will rank this park’s top 15 rides and attractions at Valleyfair.
Before starting this countdown, I want to note two types of attractions that will be excluded.
First, there will be no water slides. The attached Soak City water park looks pretty good, but I have
only spent time in the dry park. Second, there will be no defunct attractions since all my visits
to Valleyfair have taken place since 2018. 15) Delirious- The lone Larson Loop in the
Cedar Fair chain is easy to mock, but it’s a good ride if you like hangtime like me.
You slowly invert over-the-top, so you hang upside-down for a few seconds on each rotation.
14) Monster- This Eyerly spider is a dizzying experience. If you strategically throw you
weight around, you can get some rapid rotations with good centripetal forces.
13) Northern Lights- This Zamperla skater coaster is pure fun.
That extra bunny hill in between the spikes makes a big difference.
I particularly love when you complete a rotation while dropping down the hill since you get some
good whip as you spin around. Then you get some faint weightlessness on the far spikes.
12) Corkscrew- This Arrow looper is surprisingly the only coaster in the park to invert riders.
I love this ride’s placement by the midway and water, but the ride itself is just ok.
It’s a little jerky, but thankfully headbanging is kept to a minimum. The vertical loop has some good
force to it and the corkscrews are fine, but the rest of the experience is fairly uneventful. This
feels like a slightly more fleshed out version of the classic Arrow loop + corkscrew model.
11) Xtreme Swing- This is one of the larger S&S screamin’ swings that was produced. The
added height over the midway is nice, as is the sustained floater airtime on the max swings.
But there are only 2 max swings per cycle, as this ride has an even shorter cycle than the
other screamin’ swings, which already have a short cycle to begin with.
10) Mad Mouse- This rare Arrow wild mouse has painfully low capacity, but it is one of the best
of the genre. The first two hairpin turns offer strong laterals before being slowed by brakes.
The ride regains its speed for the second half, so you get little bits of airtime on all the drops.
This doesn’t run as well as the one at Michigan’s Adventure,
but it’s still worth riding if you can avoid a long line.
9) North Star- This Funtime star flyer is one of the park’s tallest attractions,
standing 23 stories tall. The views of the park and river are fantastic. And along with
those visuals, you have some moderately forceful spinning to offer some thrills.
8) Thunder Canyon- This Barr Engineering river rapids ride has a fairly isolated setting.
Half the ride takes place in the woods while the other half is in a field overlooking Renegade.
The layout is solid too, as there are a handful of rapids, including two soakers.
Then the ride also features 3 drenching waterfalls and odds are that at least one will hit you.
The ride also used to have the most powerful water guns I had ever seen on a ride,
as they were strong enough to remove glasses. The biggest downside with this attraction
is that the water unfortunately reeks. 7) Power Tower- This is a solid drop tower
from S&S. For one, it’s massive. This one stands 275 feet or 84 meters tall. So you get an equally
as awesome view as North Star. The space shot side blasts you up, but I prefer the turbo drop side.
The drop isn’t the most intense, but it does give a quick burst of airtime at the start
followed by a minor stomach dropping sensation. This is about as wild as most S&S turbo drops,
but this one just has that extra height and view. 6) High Roller- This classic wood coaster doesn’t
carry much speed through the layout, but it does have some nice airtime moments. Most
hills give smaller bits of airtime, but a few of the hills, particularly the giant
camelback on the outward run and the final bunny hill, are capable of delivering ejector pops.
This ride is reasonably smooth in all rows, which makes it easy to appreciate the classic layout.
5) Excalibur- This is a weird Arrow creation. This coaster uses the track and trains of a mine train,
but it has a figure 8 layout with some airtime moments rivaling a hyper coaster. The first drop
is trimmed, but once you clear the brakes, those in back get delayed and violent ejector airtime.
The ride then blazes through its short layout, which also includes this upwards spiral into
an s-hill that offers another strong ejector moment. I wish there was more to this coaster,
but the mix of airtime, speed, and laterals make it solid as I detail in a review. And
thankfully the ride isn’t super rough; you just have some bumps in the valleys and turns.
4) RipCord- This 18 story tall SkyCoaster is an expensive upcharge,
but there’s something genuinely terrifying staring at the ground in a flight suit.
Then you initiate your own plunge by pulling the cord. The drop is incredible as you shoot
towards the ground and start to tilt backwards before gracefully swinging over the midway.
If you’ve never done a skycoaster, this is one of the tallest ones not in the Orlando area.
3) Steel Venom- This is the best Intamin Impulse coaster out there. This one has
the usual launches, which are particularly potent in reverse as you feel yourself pulled backwards.
But the spikes are the star. You get blasted with positive Gs at the bases and then you
get several seconds of weightlessness on both the twisted and straight spikes. Last but not least,
you have a holding brake which defies gravity. There’s something unnatural feeling coming
to a stop staring at the ground, only to have your body fall into the restraint.
2) Wild Thing- The original coaster from Morgan was the first of three hyper coasters
that Cedar Fair purchased from the now-defunct manufacturer. While Wild Thing may be one of the
worst hyper coasters out there, it is still a fun ride with some redeeming qualities.
The first drop gives nice floater airtime in the back and then the second hill is one of
the most sustained airtime moments in the world. It offers roughly 5 straight seconds of airtime.
The magnitude is only decent floater, but any airtime is magical when it’s sustained that long.
The turnaround section offers some cool visuals of Route 76, but the finale is ruined by a harsh
mid-course trim. Those final bunny hills should offer elite airtime and they can when the ride
runs untrimmed, but the trim is always going to hit nowadays. Check out my review if you want
to learn why and hear more about this ride. 1) Renegade- This is one of the best woodies
from Great Coasters International. I love this ride’s layout and placement. The first half is in
a secluded backstage area and the twister layout makes it impossible to predict what’s coming next.
Then the second half crosses over a service road and runs along the midway.
Renegade holds it speed well start to finish and offers some nice forces too. I love the sustained
floater airtime on the straight hills. It’s rare to get sustained airtime like this on a GCI. Then
the entries and exits to the turnarounds offer the quick airtime pops the company is known for.
There are some fun turns as well and the ride tracks reasonably well. It’s has a shimmy, but
the cushioned trains can absorb that without any issue. I have an entire review on this coaster,
but it’s the main reason coaster enthusiasts will want to and should visit Valleyfair.
So those are my top 15 rides and attractions at Valleyfair. How do you rank the attractions at
this Cedar Fair park. Is Renegade your favorite as well? Let me know your thoughts down below.
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