Steel Vengeance

As far as I can tell and from what I gathered from IAPPA interviews, there are no changes to the seats or restraints. All the changes are in the axel and underbelly. I believe RMC called it a steering axel train. I don’t know that much about the topic of axels so I can’t really expand on that.

^From the animation, the restraint is the same except for the hinges that hinge at a single point instead of two on the sides. But the part that touches you is the same. It just attaches to the train differently below the shin guards.

Kevinj said:

For those of you that did visit on busier days, did Valravn get those 3-4 hour lines that were so typical back in the 1990's? My assumption has been that those are rarer experiences, only because the park has exponentially more big coasters today than it did when I was growing up.

Valravn's wait hit 3 hours on opening day at its peak (1-2PM), but it went down by a large portion as the day went on--I got in line at closing, and I only waited 30 minutes. Beyond that, I never really saw it get over 2 hours at any given point during my weekly visits in 2016 or 2017, but it is important to note that it always had some sort of line over 30 minutes, suggesting that it is definitely a popular coaster. Of course, like you mentioned, there are plenty of popular coasters nowadays to choose from, so I think we can say that the age of 3-4 hour lines has passed, at least on average days of attendance. (Obviously, all bets are off for HalloWeekends Saturdays.) Also, don't forget that park attendance hit its peak in 1994, so naturally there's less people to line up (and more coasters for them to line up for) compared to the 90's.

I personally didn't ride Valravn last year. The weekend in August during peak hours it looked to be 2 hours. Just didn't get back to there in the evening. We was there second to last weekend and wasn't a chance we'd wait that long for the ride. Cues were full nearly to the entrance. The Fast Lane pass line was 45 minutes to an hour.

Our goal this year is to go during the week and forgo Halloweekends entirely. Want to go before Memorial Day during the week. I noticed that campsites at Lighthouse Point are a lot lower in price. Hope to see the park not as crowded. I'm very excited to ride SV. I want to be able to get more than one or two rides a day on it. But very stubborn about waiting in long lines. I predict that the lines will be very much like Millenium lines were when it opened. So not much interest in going on busy days. Might even leave the camper at home and stay at Breakers on a whim when the weather looks bad.

The company I work for is changing hands at the end of the month. So I can't book anything right now. We're being left in the dark about being able to use vacation between now and June 1st when their fiscal year starts. I'm sure we'll get a pro rated amount of vacation for the 4 months but haven't gotten the chance to talk with someone for the purchasing company who can answer questions about it. I got my fingers crossed that the sites don't sell out before I get the answers and can book. I'm more excited about SV than I've been in years. Probably Maverick.

As far a Halloweekends goes we are much closer to KI that we can comfortably make a day trip out of it. I don't want to drive home with my eyes half shut. We'll get our huants in at KI. I've only been through one or two of their haunts so that is also more appealing than going through haunts that we've already experienced.

bootymix96 said:

Valravn's wait hit 3 hours on opening day at its peak (1-2PM), but it went down by a large portion as the day went on--I got in line at closing, and I only waited 30 minutes. Beyond that, I never really saw it get over 2 hours at any given point during my weekly visits in 2016 or 2017, but it is important to note that it always had some sort of line over 30 minutes, suggesting that it is definitely a popular coaster. Of course, like you mentioned, there are plenty of popular coasters nowadays to choose from, so I think we can say that the age of 3-4 hour lines has passed, at least on average days of attendance. (Obviously, all bets are off for HalloWeekends Saturdays.) Also, don't forget that park attendance hit its peak in 1994, so naturally there's less people to line up (and more coasters for them to line up for) compared to the 90's.

Almost every time we went, if it wasn't early entry or a ride night, it was 2 hr. I think there was one time we got lucky with a 15-minute line when it reopened after breaking down. Those were almost all weekends, though, except for a random Wednesday we went and the line was 2 hr 30 from open till close.

I expect Steel Vengeance to have longer lines, though. Maybe even 4 hours on opening day!

Update to the CP website under Special Events. It describes a Steel Vengeance World Premiere Weekend on Saturday, May 5 and Sunday, May 6.

Based on the wording alone, it seems that a Passholder Preview Night for SV on Friday, May 4 might not be happening at all.

^Dang, we can still hope though...

KD is doing a passholder preview for Twisted Timbers, though. But obviously the management of each park is independent.

Now, what DOES exist is Ohio State Day on May 4, and OSU describes at as "being the first" to ride SV. So I feel like this might end up working the exact same as 2016. Which is rather unfortunate in my personal opinion. (I'm not going to elaborate, you saw my opinion on this in the thread discussing the possibility of a Media Day.)

It also could be they axed Passholder Preview entirely and made it 100% OSU day... That would be very disappointing if passholders wouldn't even get a chance to have a preview as we have for the last 3 new attractions.

(IIRC, Rougarou had its own Passholder Preview Night in 2015 and Valravn had it mixed with OSU day in 2016. 2017 had a CP Shores preview as opposed to a "dry park" preview, but it was very good besides the day being cold, which isn't something the park can control.)

EDIT: Link doesn't work for some reason, just look up Ohio State Day 2018, it's on their website, no details yet.

If they don't post anything by Winter Chill Out, I was planning on asking about the Passholder night.

My guess is they axed it because they knew how bad 2016 turned out with OSU Day and Preview Night on the same day and they want to keep friendly relations with OSU by giving them their own day.

However, after thinking about it, could they have Preview Night on Thursday, May 3? It sounds better for season passholders to be the first ones to ride SV instead of OSU students (that is, after the First Rider Auction). Plus, it'd be fun to have something to look forward to the day that I'm done with college exams :)

^Careful... somebody here is going to call you entitled. :P

But yeah, I hope they do some sort of passholder preview. It'd be a shame for it to end in the year of such a highly anticipated ride.

Wait a minute, would the preview be for season or platinum people?

In years past, I believe it's been both.

LightDark18 said:

It sounds better for season passholders to be the first ones to ride SV instead of OSU students.

Sure, it sounds better to you. I'm sure the general public would say that it sounds better to have neither event, and have it first come, first serve (after the auction). Honestly though, I've grown to care less about when I get my first ride. Sure, I'll try to ride it as early as I can. But what's the difference if I'm the 200th rider, or the 20,000th rider? If you want to ride it first, there's an auction for that. Or become a full-time employee. :)

Fair enough.

Although, as a Michigander, beating OSU at something is a win in my book :P

Haha. I admittedly can't stand OSU either, but if we're being honest, this seems to be one of the only things Michigan can possibly beat them at... Sorry :(

Naw, the Michigan people show up the week before Labor Day. They’re gonna be the last to ride.

But yeah, it kind of sucks that OSU day has shoved passholder day out of the way... hopefully they'll have one and just haven't announced it. I will imagine we'll find out before or on WCO, it's fairly common for them to make smaller announcements there.

It's just that passholders have had some sort of early access to the new attraction for at least 3 years now (not to mention 2 enthusiasts-invited media days before that), and it'd be really annoying to have that taken away in the year of the most anticipated ride yet this decade. Seeing OSU Day "replace" it almost feels like rubbing salt in the wound.

Yes, 2016 was mishandled to some extent, and from what I've looked up in the FB group for that event, CP actually sent out an email saying they'd take the feedback into consideration when planning future passholder perks. Little did we know that may have meant killing Passholder Preview, a day anticipated by some of the park's biggest fans (cue criticism related to per-capita revenue), in favor of making the only pre-season event OSU Day.

I'm not saying OSU Day shouldn't exist, I'm saying Passholder Preview should exist.

OSU day existed long before preview events.

^That's true, I guess, it just seems that passholder events become less of a priority over time. Maybe I'm just a smidge delusional.

GigaG said:

I'm not saying OSU Day shouldn't exist, I'm saying Passholder Preview should exist.

Passholder Preview does exist (for me anyway) - it's called going to the park during weekdays from mid-May to mid-June.

Your right GigaG. I've been to those passholder previews and your likely to get one ride in before the park opens at 10:00 am and sometimes you don't even get that. The same goes for coaster mania.