Photo courtesy of ValleyFair, taken on Wild Thing.

I couldn’t come up with a clever article title that combined both the parks I went to today to save my life. Ahh well.

I’m staying in Bloomington, MN, near the Mall of America (which houses Nickelodeon Universe), but first on my list today was ValleyFair, about 20 minutes away in Shakopee. ValleyFair is a Cedar Fair park and since I have a Platinum Pass ($165) I didn’t have to pay for parking or my ticket. Woohoo! (Although, I guess since I paid $165 I kinda already paid for the ticket/parking, huh?)

I’m really enjoying the fact that the parks have been empty. I know this won’t last. As soon as the weather gets nicer and kids get out of school I’m gonna have some intense line-waiting in my life. (Unless parks are awesome to me and get me front-of-line, which may be a good possibility.)

I walked into ValleyFair and immediately headed for Steel Venom, which is exactly like V2: Vertical Velocity at Six Flags Great America. If you don’t remember, it’s essentially a pirate fair ride on steroids. You go in a U shape at high speeds. It’s really fun, but if I have to go on one every day it will get old quickly. Since I was the only person in line I had my pick of seats. Front it was. Good times. Nothing like wind-tears to wake you up in the morning. :)

Next I went on Wild Thing, which is the photo of me in my RollerCoasterTour.com shirt above. Actually, I went on it once, figured out where the photo was taken and then staged that shot you see. The camera goes off in a decidedly tame portion of the ride so the screaming fear on my face is my stellar acting (Hollywood agents dial (586) 265-4212). Wild Thing is a great ride … big first hill and really smooth all the way. In the interest of full disclosure, ValleyFair gave me that photo. Thanks y’all!

Nothing else too extraordinary happened until Corkscrew, so I’ll quickly recap the rest of the rides I went on in order:

Renegade

Wooden coaster that actually wasn’t as bumpy as a lot of them are.

Excalibur

Hybrid coaster (wood, but with steel tubular track) that was far too short. It was fun enough that I wanted it to be a longer ride.

High Roller

Yet another wooden coaster. Why’d I decide to do 3 wood coasters in a row? Because I want all the pain to happen at once. Like pulling a band-aid (or plaster as they like to call it in the UK).

Extreme Swing

This wasn’t on my list. It’s a swing. How intense could a swing be?

Answer: intense!

The best I can describe it is this is the only ride today that had me white knuckling the handlebar. Maybe I’m just turning into a baby and I should do a “swingset tour of the U.S.” instead? Whatever, this one was fuuuunnnn.

Corkscrew Beats Me

Corkscrew is definitely not on my list of rides to ride. It seems every Corkscrew is the same Corkscrew. Granted I’ve only done the Corkscrew at Cedar Point, Michigan’s Adventure, and now ValleyFair. But, besides slight track variations, they are exact duplicates.

The Extreme Swing left me with such an adrenaline rush I walked over to Corkscrew thinking “ehh, why not?”

I’ll tell you why not: I don’t fit in these baby rides. I did my best to contort my long frame into the Corkscrew seat and off we went. On the first little drop I already knew I made a mistake. By the first loop my back was in agony. By the third loop I needed my blankey.

What I’m saying is, I quit Corkscrew. White flaggin’ it. Consider my towel thrown. You win the battle and the war.

And that concluded my ValleyFair adventure. It’s a great park with a lot of fun rides. If you ever happen to go to ValleyFair be sure to go on Extreme Swing as it’s much more thrilling than it seems.

For more ValleyFair photos click here.

Onward to …

Nickelodeon Universe!

I got a tweet from Lynne Peterson saying she lives near Mall of America. I invited her and her daughter out to ride the rides with me. Lynne has the distinction of being the very first person to meet up with me at a park! It took 5 parks, but we did it America! Give yourself a pat on the back. What am I going on about? I don’t know …

I was a huge Nickelodeon fan as a kid (Are You Afraid Of The Dark?, The Secret World of Alex Mack, Double Dare, You Can’t Say That On Television, and the list goes on) so I probably can’t be too biased with a theme park bearing its name.

That said, I checked out the park last night (it’s dead center inside Mall of America) to see if there was anything I could get excited about. Oh, and there was …

Full disclosure: Nick Universe was kind enough to give me 2 unlimited ride passes. Regular price is $29.95 although you can also buy tickets on a per-ride basis and I think there’s a $19.95 unlimited evening pass.

Spongebob Squarepants Rock Bottom Plunge

You begin this ride by going straight into the air with your back to the ground, then going over a small hill, and dropping face first almost straight down into the rest of the ride. Although the drop isn’t massive you definitely feel it and I was quite impressed that they would put something like this inside a mall.

Photo of the lift and drop:

If I stopped there I would say that my time at Nick Universe was worthwhile. And, to be truthful, this is the best ride at the park.

Next I went on the Fairly Odd Coaster:

This combines a regular roller coaster with a carnival type free-form spinning ride. Let me try to explain: you sit in a 4 person car which spins as it sees fit. Think Disney tea cups that you can’t control. While it’s spinning you’re also treated to a regular coaster ride. It makes for a unique experience. That said, I don’t like spinning rides. I never liked carnival rides for the simple fact that I don’t like to see how many times I can spin in a circle before I feel sick. And that said, this is still a worthwhile ride to go on because it mixes the two worlds well.

Finally, I went on the Orange Streak, a long coaster without any loops or spins, and made for a younger crowd. It’s made for such a young crowd that I had to cross my legs “Indian-style” to fit into my car. :)

Thanks again to Lynne and Amy for meeting up with me at the park. And also thanks for the vegan treats! :)

More Nick Universe photos here.

Tomorrow I get up bright and early (6am) to drive to Des Moines, IA and Adventureland. It’s looking like rain so I hope they keep the rides open …