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6 month break

Hello again, long time no see. It's been a quick six month break since I've been on here, since my 'emotional' breakdown a few months back. In that time, my love for rollercoasters has been reinvigorated without the related cynicism that forums can sometimes create. I thought I'd do a blog of somewhat of what I've been up to.    April 2017 - France/Germany road trip   Three months ago, (where has the time gone), myself along with Peaj, Dan and Fred went on a six park trip acr
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The new Germany

When I say to people I'm going on a holiday with a week of rollercoasters, they ask what do I like about rides. At first I said it was the rollercoasters and all the different rides but as I've grown up it is completely all about the immersion and escapism. And nowhere is escapism more true in the Netherlands which has seen massive park expansions in the last ten years. Theme parks are fully upping their games and as I've wanted to revisit Efteling and take my first trip to Toverland, 2019 seeme
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CGA

Californias Great America - Invest now

I wouldn't say that Californias Great America is a park that anyone has a huge itch to get to. Unlike some others in the Cedar Fair group, its investments are on the lower end of the scale. Flat rides are the name of the game and even its planned hyper that it was rumoured to get was given to another park instead (Orion).   Eight years ago, it was either this or Discovery Kingdom and bizarrely I chose DK. I thought that was a great little park, but this time it was CGA's turn. It's rel
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Mark9 in CGA

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Take me to Disneyland (16)

I must admit when reviewing Disneyland two years ago I was way to harsh. Part of the nature of theme parks is having high expectations and them not quite being fulfilled. Part of that is my fault, I'd built the place up to be the place that Walt built, when in reality the place has grown beyond recognition from when he was alive. The aspect I wasn't quite prepared for was just how small (in comparison to Disneyland Parc or Magic Kingdom) Disneyland is and how crowded it could become. Everytime I
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Florida

Florida 2023 - A snapshot

Quick run down of my trip to Florida last time. My last trip in February 2022 saw me lose a lot of trust in the Disney company, their parks were an absolute hassle.   Magic Kingdom - Much better this time around. Even without Splash Mountain, the queues were just a lot shorter. Genie+ is relatively strong here and with a lot more rides, the spread across the rides is good. I really like Tron Lightcycle Run. I acknowledge that it is way too short but the strong launch and the excellent
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Mark9 in Florida

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Banshee.

Kings Island

I'm sure you've all heard of Kings Island. It's a part of the Six Flags chain now, but in June it was one of the premier Cedar Fair parks, sitting right under Cedar Point as one of its main gems. Its line up also reflects this with three B&M's, a GCI, an Arrow, classic woodies and several classics and frequent investment that Michigans Adventure could only dream of. Before my visit I heard about the fantastic operations, full train operations, how they operate the park flawlessly.  
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Mark9 in Banshee.

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Cedar Point Part 1

I'm going to go via the park layout when talking about the rides here, its easier then trying to remember the order (Millennium Force will be the exception).   Ah Cedar Point. Ever since I first got properly into rides in 2003, seeing the Top Thrill Dragster documentary on Ch4 (I think), I've been endeavouring to get out there but things stopped me. But no more.  The first thing that surprised me really was the park layout. The front of the park is absolutely loaded with attractio
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Canada's Wonderland

The final park of the trip is a short skip and a jump from Toronto, Canadas Wonderland is a park boasting 16 rollercoasters and masses of flat rides. Whilst only two of the rollercoasters are really noteworthy, the park is well known for hosting the only Huss Jump 2 in the world as well as owning a Mondial Super Nova and top scan.    So.. first the elephant in the room.   The humongous and previously biggest B&M ever is an intimidating beast. Surrounding the park ent
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Disney

GOAT - Rise of the Resistance

Back in 2010 the first Harry Potter attraction opened at Universal Orlando and a single ride changed themed attractions forever. No longer were theme park fans really satisfied with cookie cutter themes with a hint of a story, immersion was now the name of the game. The area of Hogsmeade increased Islands of Adventure's attendance by 1.5 million guests, an astounding figure by any standard. Since the Harry Potter franchise has given birth to two further expansions and is now home in California a
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Mark9 in Disney

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Busch Williamsburg

East Coast USA: Park 2 - Busch Gardens Williamsburg

The threat of thunderstorms dominated day two. Cloudy skies and the threat of torrential rain was testing me as we made our way to the Old country. This is a park that is always looked at fondly for its stunning looks. I've never been the biggest fan of Busch Tampa, it just makes me feel hot even thinking about it. but Williamsburg is very different. Its European influences bring a different charm to other American parks and its cozy entrance makes you feel comfortable. The threat of rain meant
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Mark9 in Busch Williamsburg

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Six Flags America

East Coast USA: Park 3 Six Flags America

The little invested Six Flags America is an interesting place to me. It was by far the least refined of the parks visited on this trip and yet it had a certain local park charm. The main purpose of this visit was to get on the first B&M ever constructed. While B&M as a team and worked on other rides, this was their first ride under the B&M name. The previous day, Firebird had been closed all day. So I was concerned about that but my worries were unfounded. Firebird was open on time a
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Mark9 in Six Flags America

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Hershey Park

East Coast USA - Park 4 Hershey Park

Hershey Park was the one I most worried about. They have a notoriously strict weather policy and wirth predicted thunder storms all day for both days of our visit I was extremely concerned. Storm Runner, Skyrush and Candymonium do not operate in the rain, all the other big rides close in heavy rain. We arrived with giant black clouds hovering over the entrance but Canydmonium was running for extra ride time. Our goal was to hit as many rides before the heavens opened and I had purchased fastrack
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Mark9 in Hershey Park

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Europa Park

Europa Park September 2024

It's not secret that Europa Park is by far my easily favourite theme park in the world. Every metric is ticked with over 50 rides across the resort including 8 dark rides, 14 rollercoasters, dozens of family friendly rides and amazing restaurants and shows. It also ticks many of my personal metrics in how a theme park should run; capacity and efficiency should be the name of the game when you're attracting a high number of guests a year but the beauty of Europa is how effortless it all feels. So
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Mark9 in Europa Park

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End of year review 2017

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
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Six Flags Great America

Cedar Point. Magic Mountain. Islands of Adventure. When you think of American theme parks, these three really are the gold standard when it comes to Uk enthusiast interest. And for good reason CP and MM have a tonne of rollercoasters, IOA is a goldmine for theme lovers (if you can ignore the sheds). It sometimes amazes me just how many US parks fall completely under the radar like SF over Georgia, or Carrowinds or the park I'll be reviewing, Six Flags Great America. This is no run of the mill Si
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Cedar Point 2

(As if you havent had enough of Cedar Point already)   Blue Streak So this woody has a problem in that there's a part of the ride that travels past the bins and it absolutely stinks. Other then that this is a surprisingly fast and brutal wooden coaster and it took us a little bit by surprise. It had two trains running and never had a queue. I like.   Corkscrew This was pretty standard actually and apart from doing its thing over the pathway and has sentimental value
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East Coast

East Coast USA - Park 1. Kings Dominion

Hi there, This is just a write up of a trip that I've wanted to do for what feels like my whole life but in reality is about twenty years. When I first really opened my world to theme parks beyond Chessington, Alton Towers and Thorpe Park, there was three rollercoasters that were announced and about to begin construction. Those were Silver Bullet at Knotts Berry Farm, Storm Runner at Hersheypark and Hydra at Dorney Park. Silver Bullet was ticked off neatly a decade ago but a series of events has
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Mark9 in East Coast

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'Wicked' Man.

The Worst GCI in modern history. Wicker Man will be **** we all know it. Doesn't look very interesting, not very fast at all.   Just three ways Wicker Man has been described over the closed season on this forum. There's a wealth of material, of people lining up to give the first modern woodie in the UK in 22 years a good kicking. The point where coaster enthusiasts have already ruled themselves judge, jury and executioner on a ride way before anyone had even had the chance to ride. Her
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All aboard the Disney Wonder

Welcome back.   ?   After a week of travelling miles and miles across states and countries it was time to relax. Two years ago my fiancé and I had taken a cruise around the Med and we were instantly hooked. This time we wanted something a bit different and we chose the Alaskan cruise which sets sail from Vancouver. The ship this time is the second in the chain, the Disney Wonder. This is the sister ship to the Disney Magic and whilst sharing a lot of similarities as some minu
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B&M

B&M. A 50th cred run down.

Good morning. With Monster becoming my 351th rollercoaster credit it also has the distinction of being my 50th B&M in total. And as a celebration of my absolutely, 100% favourite rollercoaster manufacturer ever, this blog will be relatively brief and a look through the 50.    1. Nemesis Inferno - 2003. Ah Inferno. Not the bang start but as a ride this has got so much better over the last two decades. Great solid ride.   2. Nemesis -2004. My favourite rollercoaster, one of
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Mark9 in B&M

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Happiness

The Ride to Happiness

My 100% favourite thing about rollercoasters is that sometimes, just on that odd occasion, something will completely take your breathe away. Something will remind you that your hobby is the best in the world. This trip was a little out of the blue. Initially, we were supposed to go to Towers but once we learned that the Saturday was fully booked and Sunday was supposed to see a high amount of travellers, we took the quick decision to book a ferry to Dunkirk. Plopsaland is a quick drive across th
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Mark9 in Happiness

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Dorney Park

East Coast trip: Park 5 Dorney Park

After the craziness of Hershey Park, today was about the more chilled out, relaxed atmosphere of Dorney Park. This Cedar Fair park has a rich history and is the perfect park for a chilled out Sunday of B&M's, Intamins and Morgans?!   One of my biggest observations of the parks on this trip is that when there's a water park as part of the admission, thats where people want to be. The 100/200 odd people waiting at the entrance to Dorney made a swift right to Wildwater Kingdom.
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Mark9 in Dorney Park

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Great Adventure

East Coast trip - Park 6: Six Flags Great Adventure

Just like that, the final theme park of the trip was here. Known for Kingda Ka and the largest selection of B&M rollercoasters in the world. With the weather continuing to create issues we wanted to hit the problematic loading rides in Green Lantern and Superman Ultimate Flight. We always knew that King Ka was pretty much a no go with its incident and El Toro wasn't running. Green Lantern it was and it was fine. Nothing extraordinary, nothing awful just a solid ride. I liked that it was a pr
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Mark9 in Great Adventure

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