We visited Valleyfair on our second anniversary, which was particularly fitting since our honeymoon was a midwestern coaster tour, including stops at Six Flags Great America, Cedar Point, Paramount's Kings Island, and Kennywood. For this visit, we took advantage of the Twilight Admission, which was a great deal - the park was not at all crowded, and we had plenty of time to ride the coasters we wished to ride.

We were with some coaster-phobic people, so we worked up to the Wild Thing. Some quick thoughts on each coaster:

Corkscrew: It's a fairly typical Arrow coaster of the era (1980); identical, I think, to the same-named coaster at Cedar Point. Single loop, corkscrew, probably 45 mph and maybe* a minute long. When going to Valleyfair in junior high school, the Corkscrew was the "scary" one. What a difference ten years or so makes. It's a fine little coaster; utterly unimpressive, but not quite laughable.

High Roller: this coaster has a special place in my heart, since it was the first wooden coaster I recall riding. It was the first coaster at Valleyfair (which opened in 1976), and is a pretty good out and back. I've been told that it was moved from the old Excelsior Park, but I'm pretty sure that's not true. The last few hills have some nice lift to them, it's got nice chasing lights on it, and it's pretty nice-looking. It's no Texas Giant, of course, but not much is.

Rails: (previously named Wild Rails, renamed presumably to avoid confusion with Wild Thing): compact steel state fair-like coaster. Some of the drops are fun, but the sudden stop at the end is annoying. Oddly, we probably waited longer for this coaster than any other except Wild Thing's front seat.

Excalibur: virtually no line - we waited at most one cycle. That's too bad for the rest of the parkgoers, as I think this is really a pretty good coaster. It's another Arrow coaster, with a wooden structure and steel tracks. No loops, so no annoying shoulder harnesses. The first drop is still quite astonishing at 60 degrees (but only 105 feet), but the brakes at the top of the drop make me very angry. (Anyone know why they're there?) Nice speed (55 mph), a bit rigid (though I think the wood frame helps soften it some). I also wish they had taken further advantage of the relative isolation of its location (other than, of course, the highway). Further landscaping could make the ride a bit more like The Beast, where not all of it is visible in advance. But I quibble.

Wild Thing: All I can say is wow. I've always felt steel coasters could be much better than most of them are, and here's evidence. I put it at the top of my non-inverted steel list; my wife gives the Magnum XL-200 a slight edge. (We both give an honorable mention to the Steel Phantom's second drop, but not to the rest of it.) It's entirely steel with no inversions and a 200+ foot drop. It's essentially an out-and-back with the bulk of the ride along one end of the park and some curving around at the "out" part. The combination of speed, smoothness, and length makes this a great ride. I never felt like I was being thrown around. The lift hill is marvelous, specifically the slowdown at the top (though the bumps at the top of the hill did concern my wife some). The far end of the ride is aesthetically very pleasing even if you're not riding - the long curves in the parking lot are just great, and I'm glad they resisted the temptation of adding lights long the track. The final series of hills (including the tunnel) provide nice negative g's, and I particularly like the digital camera's location in the tunnel - surprised me the first time through. I only had two fairly minor complaints: (1) I'd like the tunnel to be more completely dark (other than the flash bulb) and/or longer, and (2) I really dislike the brakes prior to the final series of hills. I seem to recall the other review saying that they didn't use the brakes the evening he was there; unfortunately, that was not the case when we were there. They really interrupted what had previously been a very smooth ride. The line was remarkably short and quick. The first time we waited for the front seat we waited perhaps 20 minutes; when we took what opened first we waited 5 or 10 minutes.

Employees were friendly as always, and the little food we bought was fine. All in all, Valleyfair has improved tremendously ride-wise since we first visited; with one more good wooden coaster (or perhaps an inverted coaster), it could be significantly more than a regional park.