So we get of the Hogwarts express and arrive at Kings cross. It's crazy, literally just like a London station. The posters on the walls, to the bins, the constant train announcements, and they even had buskers!? It's just themeing to a whole new level.
We then walked out of Kings Cross to enter Diagon Alley. You turn a corner around a brick wall and then boom. There it is, Diagon alley.
Literally one place everyone has there phones out taking constant pictures. So real, just like the movie
So it was the first day of our holiday, and waking up stupidly early due to jet lag we arrived at Universal after eating an IHOP. Yum.
We got our tickets, and we waited for IOA to open (even though studios opened at 8) not having a clue how busy it was going to be.
It opened a bit before 9, and after scanning our fingers we were in. We went straight to the back of the park for the Wizarding World.
Seeing the whole area, and Hogwarts for the first time is amazing. Photos, like of most places
So was in the park from around mid day. The event started at half 7, and the park closed for normal quests at 6. People for Howl O scream were aloud in at 5 and were given wristbands, so from 6 only people with wristbands were given access to all the rides. This was nice as it meant we didn't have to sit doing nothing for an hour like we did at Universal.
Was really looking forward to this event, open until 1am with 7 houses with all the main rides open. There was a also a show, live music and
If 2014 was a year with new rollercoasters left, right and centre, then 2015 was like returning to old friends and sharing a big hug. This was a first for me. Not a single new park in 2015 and only two rollercoasters to my name. Why was this? I wish I knew but my priorities seemed to be tried and tested parks rather then venturing out into the unknown in a quest too boost a coaster count.
To start the year, it took till May to visit my first theme park of the year; the amazing Europa Park. We a
Back again with more definitive decisions on whatever I've visited over this year. And it's been a VERY busy year, with trips far and wide (as far as the Netherlands at least), as once again Europe called to me on a much more regular basis than anywhere in the UK. Indeed, I only visited Towers once, and only because I would've been upset with that red dot on my Coaster-Count profile. Perhaps next year I'll look to complete the leftovers of the UK.
How does one define 60 odd park visits into one
2015 in summary has been one of the best years visiting theme parks myself, reaching some major milestones including visiting to major parks outside the uk [Disneyland Paris & Efteling] and my first ever coaster climb on the Swarm.
Previously, my end of year reports have involved fully analysing the highs and lows of all the parks I've been visited that year [amongst those I almost did or had some importance]. However due to the higher amount of park's I've been lucky to visit this year [
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
I got back from a trip to Italy ab out 3 weeks ago. Personally, I think the trip could've been better. This was down to several reasons;
1. The people on it were eh
2. The people running it were rubbish
3. We were 20 minutes from Cinecitta world at one point AND WE DIDNT VIST WHY
buuuut it's sop picturesque I can't really complain too much
Anyway, here's a little collection of pictures and talk through my 5 day trip to Naples and Sorrento and Capri (no sun).
Day 1.
So we spent most of the
Sup nerds,
I have to start this one by saying sorry. This blog is for me to apologise for the delay in writing the rest of my disappearance blog, as I'm afraid my laptop has lost all ability to connect to WiFi... Typical. And the last part was gonna be the best one too...
So part three will have to wait until I go home from university for Christmas, sorry! Got loads of great photos (especially of Scarefest) so I promise it will be worth the wait! I hope.
Cheers, see some of you at the Christ
Efteling is more than just about the rides, especially when a large chunk of park comprises of the Fairy Tale Forest.
The Fairy Tale Forest is a massive forested area in the park which features a large array of animatronics and models telling the story of numerous fairy tales. There are different types of settings, some that are outdoors, others that are inside and some that are somewhat a mixture of both. Some have said to me how you can spend hours looking around the whole area.
Believe me,
For the best part of at least three years, I have been looking at spiralling out of the UK circle of Theme Parks. Though doing Tivoli World many times [part of annual family holidays], it wasn't really to count as at the end of the day it was little more than a glorified fair ground [though the shows & fountains were half decent].
It was not until this year where I managed my first large non UK park in the form of DLP which was achieved in April this year, however this was to only mark the
October is behind us, taking with it potentially the biggest time of the year for events all over the country! Each year I have slowly been doing more trips relating to Halloween events and this year was no different.
Like previously, it's great to start off at Tulleys on the first Saturday of the month. Tulleys is a great, well established Halloween event and really shows where you can end up from starting with selling pumpkins (this seems to be a recurring story, more on that later!). Providi
I'm gonna start a annual Halloween awards, its gonna be quite a long post so lets start!
Most Awful Maze: Honourable Mentions- The Volt,My Bloody Valentine
Big Top- Big Top is awful. Big Flop starts off in a dull tent with dull black walls with little to no theming.
And even funner 1 actor, IN THE WHOLE TENT. The Second Tent is ok, but with barely any actors in this tents it falls flat it in its face. Third Tent is good, but I had a couple of runs when I've saw no chainsaw. IMO Big Flop is th
For several years now, there's been something on my theme park bucket I've always been wanting to tick off now for a long time. No, not Baron 1898 [although soon hopefully], not Europa Park either I'm afraid, however keep an eye out for MC16 which is happening soon, some hints to what this may even appear in this very blog entry.
This something is of course on home soil and relatively simplistic in all honesty. It's Chessington's Howl O ween event. It's been something I've planned for over tw
Hi again, managed to get Windows 8 to play ball so I can upload my photos from since September
Early September me and SCB headed up north to Drayton Manor for my first time. It was a cold, damp day, but we got loads of rides done, including the "humpty bumpty oddity" that is G-Force, and my first standing coaster (Shockwave) that was... Challenging to get into due to being a little bit short :pardon:Eventually developed a technique by the end of the day though and really enjoyed it Also enjo
Hey again nerds!
I kinda went AWOL for a bit. I'm sorry. I disappeared somewhere around July but I'm back again! And I have so many blogs to catch up on... So I'm gonna try and smoosh them all into one
So late July I went to Holland with cadets to do my 100-mile hike. Owch, my god it was painful. But so rewarding
This year I did it as a member of the British military contingent, so we had to stay on this camp with the 5000 other military personnel from all over the world. On the first d
So Scarefest is back! And it's better than ever!
Day 1:
So I started the day by a small drive of 3 HOURS!
We arrived about 3ish, we got our maze tickets and then we were off.
We got on Blivvy quickly due to the long que of 5 minutes..
After that we went to sonic-flopball which had along que due to it raining and only 3 per car.
Then we went over to our first maze.. TOTT!
Great maze: 9/10
Then we walked over to Molly.
Unique maze 8/10
Sub Species The End Games:
Thorpe park apparently have been blocking people who tweet Thorpes twitter about the new ride. (WC16) Even if they are correct or not (about the theme), Thorpe instantly blocks them meaning other viewers of Thorpes tweet are not able to see what the person commented. I just think its slightly unfair, people should be allowed to guess what the new rides about? Without being blocked? People are technically not doing anything wrong... just guessing their opinions of what the ride could be. I just t
Good Afternoon TPM!
I'm starting a new series called 'Trolley Dollies Guide to...' which will be my take on reviewing/trip reports.
To start, lets begin with the UK's most premium Halloween event;
ALTON TOWERS SCAREFEST 2015
The Park
This year saw new theming added to Towers Street, including the new 'Scarefest' sign which saw as the back drop too many families photos this year, it felt very refreshing and exciting to walk down with the new audio & new decorations.
The lighting through
Captain Obvious Alert - This blog may contain spoilers.
So on Sunday, I did Containment, the new escape experience at Thorpe. I've never done one of these escape room things, and I've always been a bit sceptical about the idea - so many things can go wrong which can ruin the experience. But nonetheless, I was still excited to try it out...
One thing which is worth noting was our group was made up of only 6 people (4 TPMers and 2 randomers), rather than the full 10. This was at the 4pm slot, so
SPOILERS AHEAD!
So in the last week FN has been running, I sadly couldn't go until today but here's my review..
Big Top:
Now, people have said this maze is awful, but you may expect me to say Big Top is bad but...
I liked it, IMO Big Top is good.. It isn't perfect with sections feeling a little unispired with loads of black curtians from IKEA..
IMO the only bad part of Big Top is the first tent, it just lacks scares. The second tent is confusing and full of strobes and dead ends. The third
SPOILERS AHEAD
Sunday 11th October 2015
Went to Thorpe Park on Sunday from 10:30 till 10. Operations were really good all day, and didn't see any rides break down all day. Queues were minimal in the day, and all rides were walk on from 4 onwards. To give you an idea of how quiet it was, Stealth was on 1 train and the gate was still left open on the platform. MBV was walk on a lot of the night, and SAW Alive were allowing us to go on again, straight through the fast track queue.
It was a shame
[spoilerS AHEAD]
Now you may embark on reading this thinking it's going to be a crushing article on how disappointed I was with my first ever attempt at fright night mazes, however, it really isn't.
Today, for the first time I braved up enough to actually try the mazes at Thorpe Park. I've been to Fright Nights several times before but have only done 2 mazes once, and that shook my soul, so I wasn't expecting to do any mazes, simply because I was too pussy frightened to do so.
The day was spe
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