Valravn reviews

Wow. I don't know how anyone could hate Busch Gardens. It's such a beautiful park with high quality rides. But I agree that no park holds a candle to Cedar Point.

Coaster Cam, the bush gardens thing is probably an issue of taking for granted what's nearby. But my kids through years of band and chorus days, have been at kings dominion and bush gardens yearly since about 5th grade. Bush gardens is lovely, but it's spread-out, and there are not that many big coasters at the park (Not criticizing, the coasters they have are great) but good food, theming, and great live shows are not high on a teenagers list. I'm sure they will grow to appreciate it more as they get older, but I will say most of the high schoolers in the area would choose Hershey park over both KD and BG if given the choice (Skyrush is a HUGE hit with that group). For example they view lochness monster has an old and dull ride, but I being older have great appreciation for what it meant and the worldwide attention it commanded for years, just as grizzly and rebel yell at KD are beloved even though they are older wooden coasters, (Hurler at KD is hated on the way I see the locals up there refer to Mean Streak)

Griffon is a wonderful coaster with the whole splash element, but my kids thought Valravn was vastly superior. I compare the smoothness of Valrvn to the short lived hypsersonic XLC launch coaster at Kings dominion, which is still one of the smoothest coasters I've ever ridden (and apparently was a prototype they just couldn't keep fixed I guess)

I am a high schooler myself so I completely understand. I have absolutely zero interest in shows. Never been to Hershey, but I have been to both BGW and KD. I would place BGW just a little higher than KD. Both parks pay close attention to detail and I love how forested and landscaped they are. I have yet to ride Valravn, but I loved Griffon so I expect to love Valravn as I love most B&M's.

Food and coasters are all I care bout, as a teenager. Also, am I the only one here that thinks Valravn is really rattley, like almost as bad as Rougarou?

The lift hill was a little noisy yesterday, but no more so than gatekeeper was as well.

I thought it was the smoothest ride in the park.

I Rode Valravn finally, liked it very much. The ride looks incredible in that area. Thy did an amazing job with the Marina Entrance as well. I still like MF, Maverick, TTD, and GateKeeper better than Valravn but it's a great addition. One thing that surprised me though, and I saw someone else's mention it, was how much it rattled. It wasn't a headbanger by any means but it certainly wasn't super smooth. That really surprised me. I was expecting a super smooth ride. Overall I have it a 7.5/10. Really nice addition. I still think Griffon is a better a Dive Coaster. I haven't ridden Sheikra. We are super spoiled by Cedar Point though. We are lucky!

I love the noise of the train climbing the lift hill. I think it's a B&M thing, at least this particular noise. Fury 325 sounds similar. It's a deep sound. Hard to explain.

Anyway, current ride count is 8. Back row is my favorite. Not sure about left, right, or center of train.

I didn't read the whole thread, sorry if it was addressed, but how's the capacity and line speed been for everyone

My first ride was the Friday preview night when the weather was perfectly comfortable, and I sat in the left-most seat in row 3. It was unbelievably smooth. Then on Saturday the 21st I rode in the exact same seat in the morning, but the weather was colder and drizzly. It also appeared the ride was running a little slower, which I wrote off as my imagination. But while riding it seemed slower too, and this time it was a little bouncy. Not as bad as GateKeeper's outside seats, but a similar sensation. I was kind of surprised at the difference.

The wider the train the more bounce (or as some of you say Roughness) you're going to have the further away from the center of the train you sit. There is not really anything that can be done to stop this from happening, Other then making the train unnecessarily heavy by bracing and bulking up the cantilevered seats to withstand the forces on the ride, which in my opinion is not worth the extra money or engineering to negate the little bouncing that is experienced on the ride.

I've only rode it once so far but my next crack at it is Coastermania next Friday. I'm going to ride it quite a few times. I'm anxious to try different seats and see if it's smoother that day. Hope it's running great!

M005, I would say the line speed is fair to a little slow. Not quite the painful slow that Maverick can be, but it definitely doesn't move like GateKeeper's does. Part of that is the Fast Lane merge being right at the station. I just think those lines tend to be harder to efficiently integrate the Fast Lane line with the regular line.

The other thing that irritated me just a little on Thursday was when we rode it at about 4:00, they were not only filling the front row exclusively with Fast Lane, but also allowing Fast Lane to wait an extra train for the front. When we asked if we could do the same we were told no in a not really friendly voice. I understand paying for Fast Lane allows you to skip the line but it says nothing about getting exclusive access to the front seats.

Bret,

They were doing the same thing on Valravn this past Tuesday, allowing fast lane to wait for the front and pushing the normal line to rows 2 and 3. If you ask to wait, they said no and still allowed the fast lane to walk in front. The front queue line was not even 8 people deep.

That's just plain wrong if they are doing that consistently. I'm not the type to file complaints, but if that continues consistently, it may be worth an email at the least.

Remember when Fast Lane first appeared? On TTD, the entire front train was for Fast Lane. It changed to the current merge at the bottom of the ramp. Hopefully, they will do something similar with Valravn.

Man, this sort of thing is why some people really resent Fast Lane. I understand the whole premium service for premium price thing, but like Bret said, the advertised service is a quicker wait, not preferential seating. I would very much like to sit in the front when my trip comes and I take my first dive- I'm sure I'll have fun wherever I sit, but it'd be a little disappointing to think I have no chance for a front seat ride because a Fast Laner will get it every time.

Having just got back from a Sunday -Thursday trip:
We did not use fast lane and our first ride was front seat, the ride host asked us what row we wanted when we got to the station ( we did not ask her).

The other times I wasn't paying much attention, except that there was a lot of FL users and it didn't really stick out that they were allowing anyone to wait.

It's an excellent move having Fast Lane go right to the station, adds value to Fast Lane. I was hesitant to get Fast Lane because of the merge situation on MF and TDD still making for a wait, but with Maverick and Valravn having direct station access, it may entice me to get it.

I agree that the fast lane going right to the station gives the perception of a longer wait, but isn't that already only on low(er) capacity rides anyways?