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Blogs

A Year of Britain

McLaren Technology Centre: Special Operation

It may not be a theme park, it may only open its doors once a year to friends and family of staff. It is one of the elusive companies within England that few people get to witness. Hidden away in Woking just around the back of Horsell Common it lies, McLaren. (If you're not a fan of rides skip the majority of this report for something at the bottom). Welcome to McLaren's Motor Show 2014 (although I prefer that name!) The general gist of the day is for staff to bring in their vehicles and s
Benin's Bits & Bobs

Germany Road(works) Trip - Day 5 - Driving at the Beck and call

We were done with Hamburg, so today was a day of driving as we headed to our next base of operations in Dortmund. We decided that because there wasn’t much option of things to do in Dortmund as we were staying in a soulless industrial estate and Dortmund isn’t known for having much in the way of touristy stuff (Football stadium aside, but it had a game on that if I’d known about I would’ve gone to), we would visit Schloss Beck instead to pass a few hours. Schloss Beck is a tiny little park a st
  • Benin
Benin's Bits & Bobs

Germany Road(works) Trip - Day 4 - Serengetting Creds

Another day and this time it was off to the first random small park of the trip in Serengeti Park, which is Germany’s version of West Midlands Safari Park. But this one had two fantastic attractions which were worth the entrance fee alone. Unlike everyone else visiting, we weren’t doing the safari portion of the park, as a hire car and an animal safari would probably not combine well in my mind, so we walked into the ride area to find absolutely nothing open. Presumably because they assume th
  • Benin
Benin's Bits & Bobs

Germany Road(works) Trip - Day 3 - Flight of the Jahreskarte

Ah Heide, the weird red-headed step-child of the Merlin machine from my last visit, with its strange mixture of music and atmosphere seemingly stolen from other parks. It lured me back with the prospect of completing the European B&M collection (of course, until Garda and Efteling’s ones open next year), and an attempt to ride Colossos again to see if I can actually like it. First thing was first though, and that was to collect our German MAPs. The reasons for this were for the free entry
  • Benin
A Year of Britain

Lightwater Valley- The Ultimate Adventure!

Here we are, the park home to Ultimate things like Raptor Attack, Angry Birds and some random stuff. Here we see the Ultimate wheel that they have. It's so good that even on busy days they only load half the carriages. Much like the annoying Drayton, LWV opens its gates at 10 but the main rides at 10:30. However, you can't even go down towards them from 10 so this happens. And with Ultimate things behind the man a queue of stampeding people formed! So we went on the wheel which was open
Benin's Bits & Bobs

Germany Road(works) Trip - Day 2 - Hanseatic Gerstlauers

The first day proper of the trip led us to Hansa Park, a place which I really enjoyed on my previous visit 3 years ago. Unfortunately, not much has really changed to the park overall since my last visit aside from the entrance area being tarted up. But when you have one of the best Eurofighters around (potential damning with faint praise comments here), that sits in my top 10, of course a revisit was in order. Upon arrival a group of enthusiasts were spotted, evidenced by their gooniforms a
  • Benin
Benin's Bits & Bobs

Germany Road(works) Trip - Day 1 - Hamburg and the DOM

I’m already regretting this decision for a massive 2 week holiday featuring 12 parks, mainly because this is gonna be a long as hell TR, and I don’t want to spend ALL my time at work typing it up either. But, the show must go on, so here we go, Germany. A pleasant flight in with Germanwings (budget Lufthansa) led us to Hamburg and our Volkswagen Polo for the fortnight, and we drove off to the hotel. Quickly it was discovered that roadworks would be the bane of the holiday, as the Sat-Nav’s path
  • Benin
Matt's Expeditions

A Themepark in Europe

As part of my annual holiday, I would have the opportunity to see and visit one park [just one] outside of the uk and the Merlin circle. But the big question is, which park would it be? Well it's definitely not Port Aventura for starters. Nor is it Europa Park. And it certainly is not Disneyland Paris either [more to come on that tagline later]. But the big question is, which theme park in Europe did I manage to visit this year? The answer to that question is Tivoli World. But the
Benin's Bits & Bobs

Helix - The Review

Helix, Liseberg and Mack’s 2014 project has been at the forefront of many an enthusiast’s mind during the past year or so. With Blue Fire being reasonably rated by the community, hopes were high for Helix when it was announced. Two launches, multiple inversions, a terrain based layout and the odd airtime hill meant that this ride was ticking all the right boxes for enthusiasts around the world. The real proof though, was in the pudding of actually riding it. And this is a more detailed review o
  • Benin
Team Blog

A California Trip - San Francisco & Beyond

Two months later, with the dust settled on my trip I already look back with great fondness. I've talked about the theme parks but what about the culture of California. How different is it to the humid and tourist trap that is Florida. Many UK enthusiasts don't venture past the state with all the oranges for obvious reasons. First thing is people in California are thinner then the East side. Disney World is full of ECV's, California has very few. Florida theme parking is one big bubble of touris
  • Mark9
A Year of Britain

Drayton Manor: A "Humpty Bumpty" Oddity

Oddly placed sign in the trees Odd water slide effect at the entrance. "You calling my park odd?" Yes. The Lynx didn't want to argue That's a Fishing Cat. Odd that it wasn't fishing. Odd chimp (because there's one of them ) looks at Appocalypse. This seems more humpty bumpty Compared to this. This is just weird. But a good weird. How odd. BEST ENTRANCE EVER!!! AND QUEUE! This is odd. But so much fun! Rainy Shockwave With odd straight bits. Designe
The C. View

Breaking Free from the Merlin Machine - Drayton Manor

For the first in about 10 or 11 years, I visited a non-Merlin theme park. It's been a long time coming, and anywhere was a start. And that start was to be Drayton Manor. After such a beautiful week, Saturday decided to take a turn for the worst, and give us rain, thunder, lightning (though with a couple of breaks of sunshine during the day!). Adam picked me up and we arrived at Drayton around 9ish. Even though we were early, we could tell it was gonna be quiet day, and thank goodness, aft
A Year of Britain

Shakespeare Visits Ye Olde Legoland

Yesterday we decided to take an important English man to a place of Lego. Mr Lego William Shakespeare. I'll hand him over to you for this report Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind. And this hand is suspicious, but I'm not guilty. Welcome to the very merry land of Lego. Let's not read that rubbish book though, lets read a few of my plays. This life, which had been the tomb of his virtue and of his honour, is but a walking shadow. Certainly a big walking shadow! Look mum it's
Luke's Blog

Spain part 1: PortAventura

At the end of June I spent a week in Salou. This of course meant that some trips to PortAventura would be happening! As well as a trip to Barcelona and the somewhat little known park of Tibidabo. First off, Salou is a lively large town situated right on the coast of the Costa Dorada, we stayed in a hotel in Salou and couldn’t fault anything about the place. Right in the centre & 5-10 mins walk to the beach. Loved it. One thing I particularly enjoyed about the stay was on the evening of the
THORPELAW's Blog

Why I love Great Yarmouth's Pleasure Beach

I have always, and will always love Great Yarmouth's Pleasure Beach. Here, I am just writing a short post about why it will always have a place in my heart, and will always be a must do attraction every year. First of all, the location. My favourite place (second to TP ) - where I take all my holidays, and practically have a second family, is just 45 minutes away from Great Yarmouth. Great Yarmouth itself is, in my opinion, is a wonderful place, although I never really venture away from the f
denmills57's Blog

First blog here so just testin'

Thursday 10th July, today my brother is 68, a month today and I'm 57.... Sat here at home this late afternoon, chilling and listening to internet radio (1.FM - Country One), updating Facebook and my profile etc here, not much else doing at moment apart from watching YouTube videos of various roller coasters and other amusement/thrill rides. Think I've seen most of them now, they just make me wish it was August already! That's all for now, TTFN
Benin's Bits & Bobs

Must be getting creds in Madrid - Day 2 - Parque Warner

Day 2 – Parque Warner Here was a park I was rather excited about, with 2 B&Ms, a Vekoma GIB and some gorgeously themed areas, how could I not be? The journey to the park was slightly longer than the other, purely because it’s seemingly in the middle of absolutely nowhere, so first step was get the Metro: Then the RENFE train to Pinto: Then a bus straight to the park entrance: Rather simple in the end, who needs to spend lots on hire cars? My excitement also truly got the better o
  • Benin
Benin's Bits & Bobs

Must be getting creds in Madrid - Day 1 - Parque de Attractiones

Day 1 – Parque de Attractiones After a late evening flight and a taxi to a hotel, Madrid’s parks beckoned. This trip was mainly done as a “Benin wants to get all open European B&Ms this year” trip, and it also combined with a birthday. So it happened. After a morning of searching for a McDonalds that became sadly fruitless (and McMuffin-less), we hopped upon the Metro (of which a 3 day unlimited pass on all transit options costs €35) towards Batan station, where Parque de Attractiones live
  • Benin
A Year of Britain

Nemesis: The 20 Year Old Beast

After my weekend at Towers I thought I'd explain why Nemesis is my favourite. Even before this point you can hear it roaring around its twisted layout which can be quite intimidating. It is the roar of a monster! An untamed alien that wants to escape! The British weather was brilliant to help set the scene! But you can stand directly under element of Nemesis with no netting ruining your photos. Unlike Smiler Without the netting these photos would have been half decent! Nemesis i
The C. View

Why Angry Birds Land is better than Diagon Alley

Next month, Universal Studios Florida introduce their 'Diagon Alley' expansion to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It sees the headline attraction 'Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts', the Hogwarts Express, as well as numerous shops from the Harry Potter universe. As to be expected, everyone is excited about the development. However, why should we be so excited? We've got a newly opened area which is much better than Diagon Alley ever could be - Angry Birds Land at Thorpe Park! Trav
Team Blog

A California trip - Disney 24 hour day

Alarm set for 4am. Check Pin badges and Oswald hat ready. Check Coffee. Check It was time to take on the ultimate theme park challenge, 24 hours in two of the busiest theme parks in the world. Even on paper it doesn’t sound easy. Luckily there was things on our side. We knew Pirates of the Caribbean and ‘it’s a small world’ would have reopened so extra capacity at Disneyland. We knew kids wouldn't be able to take on this challenge and we knew many wouldn’t attempt such a feat so the
  • Mark9
A Year of Britain

Behind the scenes: Stealth & Swarm

As part of the 2-4-1 deal TPM was given for the new VIP experiences, a group of us went down to go behind the scenes and ascend 127 feet. We began our day going into Stealth's bunker where the launch system sits. The size of it is ridiculous! There are a few photos of Inatamin accelerator hydraulic systems around the internet but they don't do it justice! It also makes the coolest noise ever when it launches unfortunately, no picture were allowed down here so here's one of everyone's favourite
Team Blog

A Californian Adventure - Disneyland Day 1

Please note my heart loves Disneyland. It’s the original theme park and deserves to be loved for this fact alone. In saying that, objectively, the park has some crippling faults which if I wasn’t a sympathetic enthusiast, may have completely ruined my day. After our two days at Magic Mountain it was time to quicken the pace with the Disney parks. Gone were the five minute queues and here were the 30 minute plus waits to get on Haunted Mansion. Here is the grand daddy of them all, the pa
  • Mark9

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