Rails Across Minnesota at Valley Fair and Nickelodeon Universe Parks

For those of us who can’t make it to Orlando or Southern California to drop in on Disney or Universal, it’s your local regional park that scratches that itch for thrills. I began a major road trip starting in Minneapolis and had a revelation that the Cedar Fair Platinum Pass sitting in my wallet could be used in Valley Fair Park. Let’s take a look around to see some of the attractions in the Twin Cities of Minnesota.

Valley Fair Park

Valley Fair in beautiful Shakopee, Minnesota is like many small parks that sprouted around the country in the mid-70s. There’s an assortment of hurls and twirls, a few ways to get wet, and of course a handful of coasters. With a limited amount of time we had in the city, we spent it focused on the gravity trains.

Steel Venom

Steel Venom, the coaster closest to the park’s entrance, is an Intamin impulse coaster with a twin at Cedar Point known as Wicked Twister. The Bay Area’s Six Flags Discovery Kingdom also has its own version, V2 Vertical Velocity, with its main variation being one of the vertical towers bent at a 45 angle to comply with the city’s height restrictions. There was a small crowd at the opening, we decided to give it a go despite a 20-30 minute delay in operation. I was skeptical that I’d enjoy this coaster, mostly because of my experience with the one at Six Flags, but this one actually ended up being better than the one back at home.

Corkscrew

What can you say? It’s an Arrow Corkscrew. They made a bunch of ’em, and this one still survives. It’s in a pleasant spot, seems well maintained, and not that rough, but was the last one that we hit. If it had a long wait, we probably would have skipped it.

High Roller

The park’s original wood coaster is a standard out and back design. It’s not particularly rough, nor is it particularly fast. It’s an okay course, but overall not particularly compelling.

Excalibur

Both Cedar Point and Six Flags Over Georgia have tubular steel-tracked mine train type coasters with wood supports. Neither of them features the intensity of Valley Fair’s Excalibur. It’s a ride that packs a wallop and has several airtime pops, an underrated thrill.

Wild Thing

With its initial drop of 207 feet, hypercoaster Wild Thing dominates the Valley Fair skyline. Reaching speeds of 74 mph, airtime mostly comes on the initial drop and some bunny hills at the end. In between, it’s all positive G-forces as the track curves over the southern end of the park.

Renegade

Finally, we reach my favorite of the day: Renegade, a superb woodie from the masterminds at Great Coasters International. As you would expect, the pace is relentless without a dull moment, and better still is the tricky track layout, especially for those of us that prefer to dance the back seat boogie. The first drop turns one way, then twists back in the other direction in a completely unexpected manner; the hill cannot be seen from any park walkway so it’s a true surprise for the first or even second time rider.

Unfortunately, we had to cut our coaster riding time short because our road trip would take us almost to Canada, and we needed to hit the road. Valley Fair is a small park that packs a punch, even though we only stayed for a little bit. I was bummed that I wasn’t able to ride everything, especially as a coaster fan (They’ve got a Mad Mouse coaster from Arrow Dynamics built in the late 90s!!), but with the Passhold bring-a-friend ticket costing about $20, it makes even a quick trip worth it. The workers were all very friendly, which may be why we were willing to wait for Steel Venom because we enjoyed our conversation with the young woman spreading the disappointing news. It does have an odd linear layout between a highway and river, which apparently can be prone to flooding. If you want to walk to the back of the park you have to walk through the strangely placed water park, and for some reason, the service roads are oddly visible. Overall, it’s a clean and green place, and crowds built slowly despite it being Saturday of Labor Day weekend.

As always, the Mouse will get his cut.

While we were inside the park, we eventually got to be fairly hungry. When first seeing the phrase Nordic Waffles, I was intrigued. Turns out that it’s a thin fold-able waffle served with sweet or savory goodies. We both went savory, and enjoyed our selections, but feel a touch of regret for not experiencing the strawberries and cream variety. So if you live in the far north, you’re a long way from singing pirates or rampaging dinosaurs, but you can get a coaster fix in the greater metropolitan Minneapolis area. If it’s a hot day bring the swimsuit, or drop in for the frights of Valley Scare. And if you’re just passing through, here’s a good place to unwind for a while.

Mall of America

When I told my family that I was making an executive decision to visit a mall after landing in Minneapolis St. Paul Airport, my family must have thought I had gone off my rocker. I almost never willingly go to the mall except to visit See’s Candy or Godiva before promptly leaving. But the confines of the Mall of America in Bloomington include the Nickelodeon Universe amusement park as well as a Soarin’ type of attraction. With a 7PM flight arrival and a 9:45PM mall closure, it was going to be a tight squeeze to see any of it, but we got a little taste on a whirlwind tour.

Flyover America

The priority was Flyover America, and in an increasingly rare moment of international cooperation, the film was alternating with another, Flyover Canada. You can choose to view either or buy a combo ticket for both like we did.

After our tickets were scanned, and we were sorted into our designated row, it became clear that the Flyover America folks didn’t have Imagineer Mark Sumner’s erector set to figure out how to raise the seats before the screen. Instead, they used this new thing called stairs, and lots of them.

We were led to our seats, looking familiar right down to the seat belt loop for smaller aviators. Once secured, the front barrier dropped, the room was plunged into darkness and we moved forward along the heavy, horizontal steel beams above each of the three rows. It was a bit spooky in a near total darkness, but soon the music kicked in and we were seeing Canada, and then after a brief pause, the USA. It was an orchestral track, and certainly adequate, but not as memorable as the Soarin score (of course there will be direct comparisons, and you wouldn’t have it any other way). The clarity could have been better, with the left side being fairly close to blurry. Beyond that it was a good ride, each version lasting 10 minutes. In addition to scent, wind and motion, there was a light mist such as when passing through a cloud, not the spray generally experienced on screen attractions. While iconic locales were certainly featured, with Niagara Falls appearing in both films, there were also more daily life views from locales like Johnson City, Texas and Muskoka, Ontario. The edits were smooth, and particularly in the Canadian film, managed to end one scene with the same basic shapes in the next, such as the round lake in the first becoming a round field in the next. With a gate price of $18.95, I’m guessing there aren’t many repeat flyers, but if one desires to do it all on the same date, one can with a day pass. There’s also an option that includes the Sea Life Minnesota Aquarium, although not for the adjacent amusement park.

Nickelodeon Universe

From what I could gather from the layout of the Mall of America, it is essentially a large, multi-level square, with the Nickelodeon Universe amusement park at its center.

Everyone can enter free and points can be purchased and shared, which was good for us with less than an hour for riding.  They also have day and annual passes, plus some combos with other mall attractions. There are a few coasters, and we chose to ride Spongebob Squarepants Rock Bottom Plunge, a custom Euro-Fighter from Gerstlauer Amusement Rides, and a fun circuit. With enough points for 5 total rides, my son Colin graciously let me use the odd one to go on the spinning Fairly Odd Coaster (the favor was returned with an extra Incredicoaster FastPass later that month; life’s a balance), shared with some very odd local teens, but fun nonetheless. None of the rides have much of a Nick connection beyond a name and a bit of decor here and there, but it must be a welcome respite from Minnesota winter by late January. I did notice that during those times some of the lesser rides are only open 20 minutes per hour, half at the top of the hour, with the rest of them operating on the 30. My guess is the ops are trained on multiple rides (4th photo below by Colin Ricketts).

It wouldn’t have been the end of the world to have missed it all, but just before the trip started I read some good reports of the park’s Log Chute, an actual themed flume in a sea of colorful steel. And although it can be a bit strange inside a mall, and that owl seems awfully different from the one in Splash Mountain, it’s a fun float culminating with Paul Bunyan and Babe the ox, before the final plunge.

I save my pennies and collect cans for trips to Southern California and Central Florida, and I bet many in the Great North do as well. But when we need a bit of that thrill of confusion, that space cadet’s glow, it’s nice to have a local alternative. And if you’re only passing through the Twin Cities with some time to fill, don’t say there’s nothing to do.

We were passing through as we began a journey leading to four national parks on or near the Canadian border, and when winter rolls in and most local parks slip or stop completely, I’ll show you the highlights; so look for that when we spend the first of our Days by The Border coming soon to MiceChat.