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The C. View

A blog by JoshC. in General

  • Entries

    62

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    136

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    58474

About this blog

Detailed, sometimes rambling, entries about rides and attractions..

Entries in this blog

Why Thorpe shouldn't have left at the Dead End.

With Fright Nights, Scarefest and all other things Halloween drawing ever nearer, I guess it's time for some Halloween-themed blog entries! Dead End was seemingly a one-off scare zone that hit Fright Nights in 2010, and Thorpe's first attempt at a scare zone since about 2002 / 2003, when the event first started out. Located on the pathway next to Zodiac and The Crust, it was perhaps a typical Merlin scare zone, in the sense that it wasn't technically a scare zone, but rather a set route with a

The Walking Dead - The Review

So, I figured I may as well give a bit more insight about my views on The Walking Dead - The Ride.   I know plenty of people have pretty much written it off already, and it's almost trendy to hate the idea, but I do think it's worth going into this with an open mind.  The overall experience is good, well themed, and does justice to what the ride and building was designed to achieve.     The entrance portal is nice.  It is standard run down Thorpe style, but it is still good. 

15 Years of Fear - Act 2

Hope you all grabbed some popcorn or something during this brief intermission.  Anyways, here's the second half...   #7 - Cabin in the Woods (2013-2016) Years experienced:  2013-2016 To be honest, Cabin has gotten progressively worse each season for me.  I'm sure that's partly down to getting used to it all, as newbies in the maze really are blown away by the idea.  However, the original version in 2013 was by far the best.  The idea of the maze was that you would enter a roo
  • JoshC.

The 2017 Challenge

Parks in the UK have been subject to much scrutiny over the past couple of years.  In fairness, a lot of the scrutiny and negativity that the parks receive is justified; there are things which do happen which shouldn't happen.  And when we compare to our European cousins or American brothers, it does seem like UK parks aren't up to scratch.  But at the same time, there is an awful lot of nitpicking that goes on at times.     However, despite this overwhelming negativity, a large majori
Hersheypark Trip Report

JoshC. goes to America - Hersheypark

I finally did it: I finally went to America for some creds. Before my trip at the start of June, I'd only done European parks, so it was hugely exciting. Before getting to it, here's a setting the scene sorta dealy. This trip had been a long time in the works. Early plans can be traced back to March 2021, which was going to be a Cedar Point + others trip. But that fell through. Still wanting to go out to the States for some creds, I looked at other possible ideas. I could do Orlando /

Halloween Horror Fest - Movie Park Germany

Last week, I visited Movie Park for their Halloween event: the 21st anniversary of their Horror Fest.  The park has 8 mazes, 4 scare zones and a variety of other things to bolster the number of attractions up to 19, with the park claiming the event to be the biggest Halloween event in Europe. We visited the park on Thursday, hoping it would be quiet: the park is open 10am-10pm for Horror Fest, with most Halloween attractions opening at 6pm and closing at 9.30pm. So it was a LOT to do. So, withou

BelGerAnd Day 8 - Bobbejaanland

The last day of BelGerAnd is here! And unfortunately it's not ending with a bang, but rather a slur of 'b's and 'a's in one word - Bobbejaanland. For those curious, it's pronounced Bob-e-yan-land (we didn't fully know this until about half way through the day). Being close to the park meant that after our free breakfast, we arrived with plenty of time for the 10am opening. We got there at about 9:45 and let through the main gates, where we were immediately bombarded by a costumed character a
  • JoshC.

JoshC.'s Review of the Thorpe Season - 2015

Yeah, I'm doing this thing again. It's my 5th season doing a 'season review', and it's interesting seeing not only how the park has changed, but also how my general views of the park have changed, in that time. Here's some links to 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014's reviews if you're interested. This entry will be a lot less photo-heavy than the rest, mostly because I've taken less pictures this season, so I'll try and keep the writing to a minimum too. With the boring points out of the way, "prepare f
  • JoshC.

BelGerAnd Day 4 - Phantasialand

[Apologises for the length delay between reports - I've had an interview to prepare for recently, as well as a few other bits come up!] After a surprisingly nice sleep in the hostel of meh-service, and a slight accident where Adam reserved into a lamp post (don't worry, no damage done to us or the car!), we set off to Phantasialand! Collectively, it was probably the park we were looking forward to most. We arrived at the park for their 9am, and headed into the park. Our first port of call wa

FreBelGerAnd - Movie Park Germany

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

BelGerAnd Day 1 - Plopsaland de Panne

So, as some on here might be aware, myself, scarycoasterboy (Adam), J.S217 (Jack) and Peaj did a bit of a European road trip at the end of last month / beginning of this month. 8 days, 7 parks, 3 countries - it was a big'un. Parks we visited were... Plopsaland de Panne (27th June) Bellewaerde (28th) Walibi Belgium (29th) Phantasialand (30th) Toverland (1st July) Efteling (1st-3rd) Bobbejaanland (4th) As we were visiting Belgium, Germany and Holland, we squished the three countries togeth

Halloween Scream Nights - Twisted Attractions

Last year, a new, independent, scare company burst onto the scene - Twisted Attractions. Opening up in Birmingham in a disused nightclub, 'The Morgue: Live' caught the attention of many people, and got amazing reviews from the scare industry. Fastforward to May this year, and Twisted Attractions had moved to an old warehouse, bigger than the nightclub, with 'The Facility'. The reviews of The Morgue caught my attention, and upon hearing about The Facility, I really wanted to go try it out, bu

What 'The Passing' Needs to do to Make Everybody's Grade.

The introduction of Thorpe's new maze to Fright Nights this year has been quite a hot topic. Since 'The Passing' was announced, many were left fearing (or, depending on your views, hoping!) that their underwear would be stained brown after going through a maze which puts a bag over your head and simulates your death. However, reviews have been mixed, with some feeling as though it is not worth the additional charge, feeling as though there's many wasted opportunities, whilst some - like mysel
  • JoshC.

2016 Containment Review

SPOILER WARNING   So after trying Containment again this year, it feels appropriate in some ways to do a review to mirror my review from last year, and see whether the improvements I wanted to see happened or not.   For a quick run down, here's some of the things I said could be improved, and some comments...   1) The preshow.  Last year, I felt the preshow either needed to be moved inside or just be given totally be an actor.  This year, it's given totally by

Premiere Soquet Grilling - Days 1-2, Parc du Bocasse & Festyland

With the 'new normal' in full swing and parks open again, I'd been itching for a European trip again. With my Heide/Hansa trip back in April cancelled, and my June Europa trip delayed before I booked, the Covid situation had dented some big plans for new parks for me.However, wanting to remain cautious, I didn't want to swing into big parks, and risk not visiting them in case something happened (having to self-isolate, a park randomly closing, etc). So something I bit smaller was needed. Back in

Soquet Premiere Grilling - Day 4, Parc Asterix

And now the big one, Day 4 - Parc Asterix! And this was, in fact, my first visit to Asterix.I'll start as ever with the Covid measuresFace coverings were obligatory on all rides and in queue lines. There were hand sanitising points at the end of every queue (just before you board the ride), as well as at ride exits and dotted around the park. There were social distancing markers in queues, but no one really followed them much tbh. However, park security had a major presence in queue lines, regul

FreBelGerAnd - Efteling

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
  • JoshC.

5 Rides Which Deserve a Bit More Attention

It's been a long while since I've done a proper blog post, but I've dusted off my keyboard to do one I'd been thinking about for a while..   Over the past couple of years, there's some rides I've done which are a ton of fun, but don't really seem to get the attention they deserve. Mostly for reasons that they're rides in parks that aren't high up people's lists, or there's better rides at those parks. So I figured I'd just throw a little list out there.   This isn't going to
Hansa Park Trip Report

Storm Clouds Over Hamburg - Day 2, Hansa Park

Lo and behold, Day 2 of 2 is here! After staying the night in Lubeck (in what was apparently a non-smoking hotel, but in a room which smelt strongly of cigarette smoke), I was energised for another day. The weather was cold and windy, but no rain. The journey from my hotel to Hansa Park was much simpler than the previous day: a direct train from Lubeck to Sierksdorf, and then a walk to the park. The walk was again very straightforward - pretty much a straight path which takes about 10-15 m

Bear Grylls Adventure - Review

Opening autumn last year, The Bear Grylls Adventure already feels like a forgotten Merlin attraction in some sense. No real fanfare when the attraction opened, and still no advertising, it's a weird scenario. Apparently a big advertising push is coming this spring though, so maybe that will help get the word out there a bit more.   What is it? This is one of the hardest questions to answer, but I'll try. BGA is split into several different activities, and you can pay to do basical

BelGerAnd Days 6-7 - Efteling

Better late than never ey? I've condensed down this entry so that it's easier for me to write / more people read it / I actually decide to write it... With Baron already ridden, and 2 full days (10-8) at Efteling left, we knew we'd be able to take our time with the park, and were in no rush to do anything straight away. We covered the whole park easily within those two days, and had plenty of time to reride our favourites too. So, to cut to the chase, I adored Efteling. I wasn't expecting to lo
  • JoshC.

BelGerAnd2 - Holland

Walibi Holland was the only new-for-me park of the trip, and there were two obvious draws for visiting:  the new Mack coaster Lost Gravity, and Goliath, the Intamin mega coaster.  We seemed to get lucky with our visit, as the park was very quiet, and we didn't queue over 15 minutes for anything if memory serves me correctly.  Overall impressions of the park are quite mixed for me; there's some great attractions around the park (and of higher quality to Walibi Belgium's offerings), but there's st

NeuroGen - Walibi Holland's Dark VR Experience

After visiting Walibi Holland last week, I got to do an attraction that I've been keen to try for quite a while now...NeuroGen.   For those unaware, Walibi Holland is quite an..in your face park. They quite clearly are targeting the young adult market, and are unashamedly brash. Think of what Thorpe was doing in the early 2010s with the 'fatheads', except not quite as awful, and with the balls to follow through and stick with it. Their current slogan of #HardGaan (Go Fast) keeps in lin

Premiere Soquet Grilling - Day 3, Parc Saint Paul & Jardin d'Acclimatation

"Day 3? What happened to Day 2 though Josh? Have I missed a magnificent report of a wonderfully obscure French park that most people don't care about?" I hear no one ask.  Well, it's been edited into my previous blog entry, to save me hogging all the blog entry space     When this trip was planned, it was prior to the Formule incident at Parc Saint Paul. For those who don't know: a woman fell out of one of their roller coasters (Formule1), dying. The ride has a poor history, also

FreBelGerAnd - Parc Bagatelle

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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