When it comes to reviewing something, I try to be as honest, straight-talking and truthful as I can to the reader because above anything else, integrity to me is the most appreciated value I admire in someone when I am seeking for advice with their opinions. That way, if I decide to pluck down my own money, time and effort on something, I can be assured there is nothing being kept hidden when trying the product myself and therefore, trust can be built.
I believe this first paragraph
Something Stupid: Thorpe Half Marathon 2018
How far would you go, as an enthusiast, to build your collection of Theme Park tat?
...
Take out a Wonga loan to cover the cost?
Break up with your long term partner so you can free up some space?
How about run a half marathon to earn it...?
Well, last Sunday saw me do Something Stupid as I found myself running the 21 kilometres of the 2018 Thorpe Half Marathon, all in an attempt to nab the jazz
Phantasialand is one of my favourite theme parks, it may not be the biggest park out there, but they certainly know how to mix a combination of attractions within remarkable footprints.
Just over a year following my first visit, I decided to make a return visit for Winter to see the park beautifully lit up and decorated for Christmas.
Berlin Street, a beautiful park entrance (at least once you get past the street). It borrows some elements from Main Street but also makes i
If 2015 and 2016 were anything, empty would be the main word. I'd lost my coaster enthusiasm in a big way with only trips to the Disney parks across Florida, California and Paris being real highlights, their blend of capacity, good hours and efficiency being real draws. Any time I'd visited Merlin parks, I'd been frustrated with just how boring and badly run they had become. If I remember 2017 for anything, it would be the year that I got back into theme parks in a big way. It happened relativel
So I visited Liseberg back in July, and I just wanted to share a few thoughts on the park... Majority of my photos were like so bad so I'm just stealing photos from the park's website to break things up.
Ultimately, I was left a bit...unfulfilled? by the park. I don't know how to describe it. The quality of some of the attractions at the park is really good, but the park itself just do 'it' for me.
Helix
Let's get this out the way. Helix is truly fantastic. It's
Only taken me 3 and a half months to finish this TR...
We spent 2 and a half days at Efteling this year, and there was bucketloads of stuff going on during that time. We stayed at the newly opened Loonsche Land Hotel, experienced Symbolica on it's opening day (along with all the pomp and faff to accompany it), and had a 14 hour day on park thanks to their summer festival event starting. So I could probably pad this part of the trip into 2 or 3 blogs itself (and I kind of have alrea
So Halloween is over, and sadly its closed season
Though with last month being October, I thought it would obligitary for me to write about some of my Halloween Highlights and re-live
some of the happiness for the following months of depression and vodka which is the closed season..
(I would do photos but then I realise most of my pictures are sh**)
Best Theming/Costume Design
Honourable Mentions: The Final Cut, Skin Snatchers, The Colony.
Winner- The Welcoming
Like a seasonal special of a magazine, welcome to my bumper edition of all thing Halloween!
So this year, it started late September (we'll be doing it in August soon don't you worry, watch you backs Mickey's not so scary thing)
As per most seasons, it began with the press night at Thorpe
This is a fab way to try out the new rubbish
Before these metal fences get full of people
The two new Walking Dead mazes; Nightmare was lovely to look at, but far too
Screamland at Dreamland Margate is a fairly new event (only in its third year) though its managed to become well known in its first year for beautiful theming and
creative scare tactics.
In its second year (last year) the event seemed to get panned by a few, and I feel like last year the event kind of went under the radar, though
the "Paradise Foundation" proved that Screamland weren't running out of ideas, and all the mazes (bar their mirror maze) all proved to be well themed, and
f
It's no secret to those that know me well that I passionately believe Halloween as a whole is just an overblown annual event which leads to disappointment, scare-less attractions, cringy atmosphere and nothing but annoyance with masses of people flooding the events held everywhere across the country. The problem for me is for over 9 years in a row now between 2008 - 2017, I have only ever managed to attend one event during this entire time of year and that's Thorpe Park's Fright Nights and to be
Afternoon all.
As most of you would know, I've been on this forum for a good 5 years, starting as a complete weirdo before blending in nicely as time went on. Some might say I've made a lot of contribution to many discussions and therefore have been a decent addition to the community. But most importantly I've met a lot of amazing people on here and therefore made a lot of new friends over the last few years.
However, in explanation to my lack of activity on here recently
Scarefest is a event that has somehow lured me back every year despite the painful drive and the overpriced maze tickets..
The event I think just feels so much more complete and well rounded than Fright Nights, and the mazes on offer feel longer and more fleshed out than the Thorpe offering.
The atmosphere is solid as always, and Nemesis in the back row at night is perhaps the most orgasmic experience of my life.. Thirteen is also a great night ride.
Anyway you're probably not her
It was the end of July, time for another trip
Norwegian was really cool to fly with, comfy seats, free wifi and cheap. Gatwick to Landvetter, easy.
After a very easy bus journey and dropping our stuff in the hostel, we were on park queueing for Balder
This is possibly the smoothest Intamin I've been on. Made some pretty cool noises over the airtime hills too and the tunnels were fun especially at night
Eh
Liseberg banana train! This was really fu
So Fright Nights is a event that I think pretty much everyone on the forum will know well.. well duh.
So with a massive new IP behind the park, what would 2017 bring to Fright Nights?
This will contain spoilers
Big Top
Big Top returns akin to last year, and the maze continues to be the chaotic fun that it was last year.
The acting was strong- the strobe section proved to be even more intense than ever, and the second half sees some new scenes including a m
I have intention of writing a bumper Halloween blog post with all the scare events I'm visiting. But to do this I should really catch up. So from a good 3 months ago, here is Efteling and their 13 hour day celebrating summer nights or something.
We were staying in the very nice Loonscheland Hotel. Our room was suitable for up to 5 people, not sure how comfy that would have been but for the 3 of us it was fine. Very nice bathroom, comfy beds. All good. We had a view of the service yard.
Tulleys, oh Tulleys..
Being on the scene as early as 1998 with Creepy Cottage, and then throughout the years adding more and more, Tulleys has really evolved as of recent into one of the best scream parks in Europe.
Now with 2015's massive changes, and the fairly large Coven last year, this year I think is more of a slow down year in terms of growth in the event.
Anyway with the re-do of Hellements, and the 3D transformation of the Twisted Clowns, how would 2017 far
Following the recent-ish announcement of The Walking Dead coming to Thorpe, I thought I'd share a review of TWD: Breakout, Movie Park Germany's 5 Euro upcharge scare attraction. And also share some expectations I have for Living Nightmare and Sanctum as a result..
I have to say, I was really looking forward to this. Movie Park are well known for this Halloween event, and they continually bring in big name IPs as well as original concepts (this year, they've got an 18+ maze themed t
So I'm skipping Phantasialand because everyone knows I think it's the best and I'm behind on writing TRs and stuff. So yeah, do excuse the delay and what will be rushed TRs, which will largely just be reviews of rides in no particular order of riding them...
Movie Park was a park I had reasonably low expectations about. There wasn't many raved about, and any reviews of the park I had read always mentioned long queues, that their Fastrack was a saviour and people always having a sou
Havin a Nice in New York n tha' - Six Flags New England, Lake Compounce & Coney Island
Just come back from spending 2 and a bit weeks in America. Fantastic time to say the least.
Coney Island itself is a bit of a wreck. Picture a depressed, ran down Adventure Island, and then bunch a whole ton of Russian and mob gangsters there, and a touch of history. Voila, you got Coney Island.
The old parachute drop makes a real cool impression from the beach
Welcome to Movie Park! A place I had very little expectation or care for and honestly had it not been for the Mack, we wouldn't have gone. This meant we had a fab day
We started with Star Trek as there were loads of school kids arriving. We thought it was by the entrance. The coaster is, the attraction plaza and queue is not.
The ride itself is very average, decent for the park but not a great product example. The music was cool though and the transfer table. And if you lik
After another refreshing night at our hotel, we trekked on over to Plopsaland de Panne for Day 2. I'll keep this brief as I've babbled on about this loads before...
We arrived at the park to be greeted by loads of school kids swarming about, so we headed straight for Heidi - The Ride, the park's coaster which was meant to be open last year but had loads of noise issues. It's a lot of fun. It holds its speed for most of the ride, features nice pops of airtime and the odd intense.
Purely for time saving purposes and the fact I've done a Plopsaland blog two years running I'm combining it with Plopsa Coo! Woo!
After being spited by Heidi last year, and Bat and Rox Flyer on both visits, would this year be any better?
For Heidi, yes! Cred 199. This great little coaster is fast, twisty and has good pops of air. In a lovely themed little area it is perfect for the park
Lovely little area
And this, the most random carousel ever
U
So Adam has once again beaten me to starting up the massive Trip Report, but hey, you know what they say, first the worst, second the best...
Once again, we went for a nice 8 day long road trip, hitting up some new parks and some old parks with new stuff. Day 1 was the wonderful French park Parc Bagatelle...
Bagatelle is about an hour away from Calais (which is where we were conveniently staying after arriving by ferry at 2am), and a reasonably straightforward drive. Th
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