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Forum Software Upgrade - Information

General

Phantastically Acceptable

2016 has certainly been one of my best years for visiting new amazing parks, being lucky enough to visit Europa Park, Liseberg, Paultons Park and Drayton Manor (I suppose).    This September though, things would become even more fantastic as I was to experience my first time. The first time I would be visiting Phantasialand. This is a park I've been wanting to visit now for a longtime, hearing how flawless the theming and attention to detail was here and the quality of the rides; at le

Drayton Manor 1st Visit (September 2016)

Upon arriving at the park, we were both very impressed with the location of the park, all the rides around the lake  looked stunning as we were driving to the car park. Excited to see what this park had to offer, we head for the park   entrance. The park opens and 09:30 and the rides open at 10:30, we turned up around 09:15 and there were already loads  of staff at the ticket booths which was great to see, this meant we could buy our tickets ready to enter the park when  it opened. As it

How do you solve a problem like enthusiasts?

Woah Woah Woah there friends!   Put down your pitchforks! Extinguish your flaming torches and disband that mob!   That title is what we call in the industry as "clickbait". A very clever way of getting people into a boring article with something shocking at face value, Now where as most people include an image of female speed bumps to get peoples attention, I thought I would offer a thought provoking question...   How do you solve a problem like enthusiasts?

Europa!

Well, this has been a hell of a long time coming, hasn't it? Partly because it's been sunny and I've had better things to spend half hour on, and party because I didn't really know where to start what with the park being so huge, and also because it seems I'm the last enthusiast on earth to get round to visiting so I don't feel I've got much to add on to what I'm sure you already know. Again I had tried not to spoiler myself too much, so other than the inescapable adoration for Woodan and Blue F
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Into the Mountains

From there it was the longest drive of our trip, into the mountains to the small town of Todtnau. I'll start with a TopTip: If you visit Tripsdrill and your journey takes you right out of the carpark, beware; just before the first town the 70kph road suddenly drops to 30kph for no apparent reason and then raises to 50 kph after about 100 meters. The 30kph section has a speed camera which duly took my photo as drifted through it trying to work out what was going on, a month later I've had nothing
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The Lost Creek

Somewhere in the rural Hamptonshire countryside, lies a mysterious theme park. But this isn't any ordinary theme park, which is home to dinosaurs, Cobras, wonderful beasts and a famous animated pig (to name a few). This is a park that is certainly on the up, investing in attractions that improve the park whilst retaining and complimenting it's character and values. It's a place so renowned for its greatness, legend has it adventurers have travelled to the depths of boots to witness it'

Tripsdrill Wildlife Park

...and what unusual accommodation it is.    Wood!   The Wooden Wagons are brilliant. Such a quirky way to provide accommodation that is not intrusive to the natural beauty of the place, but very comfortable and functional. Set in three little clusters, and with further larger treehouses in the forest, it's a small set up so feels so very secluded and natural when the sun goes down and you are surrounded by forest and darkness.   more prettiness  
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Colossus: The Power of Steps!

Can I have your attention please, due to some people climbing the lift hill the ride is currently unavailable.  We have E-Stopped the ride, padlocked it and thrown away the key!  And left the trains stranded. On Colossus, each wheel unit is inspected heavily every seven days. Fact Colossus is dirty, also fact   GEEK SHOT! And up we went! Trying to be all artsy but the ride was sinking which made it hard (fact! They blast air into the gr

20 Years Of Awesomeness

In 1996 within the Berkshire countryside, a defunct Safari park was invaded by bricks. Bricks that would mark the way for Legoland Windsor which would become the second Lego theme park in the world after Billund. Home to a boating school, driving school, Lego model village, A pirate log flume  and more, the park was truly a unique place especially in it's early years.  Twenty Years on, the park is now part of the Merlin machine currently operating six (and counting) Legoland parks and

Tripsdrill Adventure Park

Another early start for the longer journey to the second park and accommodation of the trip, trippsdrill. I'd recommend staying closer to this park than we did; it's in the middle of nowhere and the pretty long journey was a bit arduous before a long day on the park, especially as much of this was on winding roads with junction after junction. TopTip: You need a good map or satnav to get here; the road signs are sporadic to say the least with many junctions left for you to guess at.  
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BelGerAnd2 - Germany

I've wanted to complete my BelGerAnd2 "trip report" for a while, mostly for sake of completion, but I've really struggled to figure out what to say about Phantasialand.  It's easy to sing the praises for the park, and most of those praises would see me reiterate myself.  So let's get those out of the way...   Maus au Chocolat and Chiapas are the perfect examples of how to a shooting dark ride and water ride respectively.  Black Mamba is a great coaster that really turns into a beast in

Critters in a Cobra Kingdom

That's none of the above. But we're at Paultons! This bird is happy because of this. Paultons is lovely With some great landscapers! And a volcano! Want a really cool retheme of a section? Look no further! Simple, yet great Really wacky And fun which is perfect for families Themed staff area too And a little aquarium type thing Just really fun! Rest of the park is standard. The modern en

(SPOILERS) Trolly Dollies Ghost Train

WARNING - This review has very STRONG spoilers     Choo Choo... No this isn't Runaway Mine Train, this is MY Ghost Train (Well actually it's Derren's, but I got to experience it last weekend). Delayed for two months, a hype built higher than Kingda Ka and being the largest investment in Merlin HISTORY! I, of course, had low expectations. EXTERIOR I'll begin my review on the outside, we were greeted by a 90 minute queue in the baking heat, so I had lots of time t

Holiday Park - The Rest

With GeForce getting us on to a high it was in to the rest of the park to see what it had to offer, and it turned out there were a couple of other stand out bits. First up was something else I had little expectation of having not done the type before and thinking they looked awkward and a bit cheap and nasty, Premier Rides Sky Rocket Sky Scream.   Hanging   Again I was wrong and I loved it. The launch is fast and smooth, I think this was my first rolling launch and
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Holiday Park - Expedition GeForce

The first day proper began with a short easy drive to Holiday Park of about 15 minutes, Speyer really is an ideal base for a visit here. On a term time weekday with the Germans all tucked up behind their desks somewhere we were greeted with a practically empty park and some rather generous 09:00 - 18:00 opening hours.     Arriving a bit early we were let through to the little holding plaza where the two pathways into the main park were held with barriers, while some of the f
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The journey

My lack of having visited Europa had been hanging over me for far too long, so it was decided Germany had to happen. Not wanting to go all that way without seeing any of the country or other nearby parks, a plan was made to add Holiday Park, Tripsdrill and a mountain coaster to the week long trip. A plan which was made largely guided by trip reports and advice from the lovely members here and on TowersStreet, so thank you all, and I’ll try and include some bits which might help other thinking of
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Chessington - 22nd July 2016

I don't think I need to tell you how much I love Chessington.   We must be in double figures for visits this year by now and no plans of stopping yet.   Today was a fantastic day at my beloved, with no closed rides, only one breakdown (and a delay on Dragon's Fury while we were on that wasn't a breakdown), two fantastic rides on the bigger coasters, however the sad news that Bubbleworks would be closing in September.   First things first I went on Dragons Fury via S
  • yeah

Journey to Skull Island...and back

Fellow mortals. If you are reading this, it means I have literally just returned from a preposterous trek within the vicinity of the most dangerous place on Earth...Skull Island.   ...but of course for the most technically-minded (and gullible) of readers, this is only my report from my recent trip to Orlando.   No sooner than I arrived had I had an unexpected encounter with a mysterious creature. One of Skull Island's deadly inhabitants?   Anyway, the cal

Walibi- Mack Get Weirder

As we know, Walibi Belgium and Holland got new Mack's this year. Both new types of Mack's.  This is what Belgium asked for. It's really grand. Has a spectacular splash It's really cool And there's a cool turntable to improve throughputs and just be cool! Queue was cool too!   So that's what Walibi get when they ask for a ride (and Mack are the company that choose to do it).   Don't know what you want? Then roll up, today

Taron- A controversial view

Phantasialand is a stunning park. Up there was one of my favourites, and definitely my favourite non Disney/Uni park.  Look at the stunningness. Everything is just so well done. Immersion is great. Rides are fab. Like Maus Au Chocolat. It just has so much magic going for it! Midway Mania sounds tacky compared to this. The fun house down Berlin street is odd for a theme park but great.  Destroyed Josh on our second go as well   It's a beautiful park. And th

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

BelGerAnd2 - Belgium

This past week, I hit up a few European parks in search of some new creds, and to go back to some places I enjoyed last year.  Just thought I'd throw in a few thoughts from my visits...   Plopsaland de Panne Went here last year, and had a lot of fun.  With Heidi originally planned to open July 1st, we decided to return for some wooden coaster goodness.  Alas, it wasn't meant to be as Heidi Spiti is too loud at the moment, and sound barriers are still being constructed.  

Taron

Taron looks like burnt spaghetti.     Taron, the biggest part of Phantasialand's newest development; Klugheim is one of the better coasters I've been on.     The parks biggest and baddest ride has little mercy, and throws you around the majority of the track relentlessly, curving and hopping in ways previously unmatched in steel tracks, comparable to renowned wooden coasters.     The ride is a very generous length, and meanders its way

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