General Discussion

Manufactures Ride mechanics love and hate Interesting video by a ride mechanic on their favourite and least favourite ride manufactures to work with. Favourite - B&M, Vekoma, Gerstlauer, GCI Least favourite - Zamperla, Intamin, Larson, Skyline, Undecided - Premier

Unfortunately in the world of themepark saw we receive many new/updated attractions every year, we also see many close & disappear. What's everyone's top 10 attractions in the uk/world they sadly never got to try but would most want to ride/experience. Mine are (uk only) 10/ vampire- pre 2001 bat trains Chessington 9/ Trauma Towers Blackpool 8/ Runaway Coaster Rotunda 7/ Magic Mountain Blackpool 6/ Noah's Ark Blackpool 5/ Magnum force Flamingo 4/ Knightmare Camelot (assuming it doesn't run again in the uk) 3/ Toyland Tours Alton Towers 2/ Corkscrew Alton Towers 1/ Black Hole Alton Towers Rides I've ridden but miss the most Phantom Phantasia, nutty…

Theme Park Insider Article

Hi guys. Queues are a fact of life at theme parks; the attractions only have a finite throughput, and demand can often outstrip supply at a given moment. Therefore, queues formed on a first-come-first-served basis are a necessity to ensure order within theme parks and to ensure that everyone is treated fairly when trying to experience an attraction. One increasing school of thought within the theme park industry is to incorporate virtual queueing instead of a physical queue, where guests can go off and do other things, such as eating, drinking, shopping and watching shows, whilst “queueing” for an attraction. Many theme parks have incorporated this principle i…

Hi guys. The TEA/AECOM Theme Index for 2021 came out today, and it makes for interesting reading: https://aecom.com/wp-content/uploads/documents/reports/AECOM-Theme-Index-2021.pdf As I said, this report makes for thoroughly interesting reading, in my view! Some particular points of interest include: The attendance recouped at parks seemed to drastically vary; some parks had increases of over 200% and nearly reached 2019 levels, while some remained a considerable way off. Magic Kingdom remains the world’s most visited theme park, with 12,691,000 guests passing through its gates in 2021 (an 82% increase on 2020). Interestingly, Disney’s cast …

Disclaimer: I apologise in advance, as this post is quite long. There is a TL;DR at the bottom for those who would like one. Hi guys. As many of you probably know, Duel, Alton Towers’ interactive haunted house-style dark ride, recently closed for a retheme and is reopening in 2023. Speculation is rife throughout the UK enthusiast community about what this retheme could entail and what it might be like, but one thing I’ve noticed is that there are a considerable number of people who wish for the park to go down the nostalgia route. These people are clamouring for the ride to be returned brick by brick to exactly how it was when it first opened in 1992, as though the 2…

Hi guys. As of late, I've noticed that roller coaster names seem to have become a lot more divisive than they used to be. From tongue twisters like Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure to nods to modern slang like Sik, enthusiasts are increasingly beginning to question some of the decision making that goes into naming roller coasters at times. So the question I ask you today is; if the names that parks are churning out are sub-par, then what unused roller coaster names do you feel would be better? What are some of your favourite potential roller coaster names that haven't been used? What names do you think would sound really cool if applied to a ride? …

Hi guys. With the recent announcement that Duel at Alton Towers is closing on 6th September, and the ever snowballing rumours about it being rethemed, a lot of discussion has taken place recently about Merlin and dark rides. And rightly or wrongly, Merlin appears to have somewhat of a poor reputation among enthusiasts when it comes to dark rides; most of the ground-up dark rides and dark ride rethemes they’ve done have not been particularly well received at all. So with that in mind, I’d be keen to know; of all the dark ride projects Merlin have undertaken, which is your favourite? I’m including both ground-up dark rides and rethemes here. Personally, I don’t …

Hi Guys! Next week I’m off to Florida for a couple of weeks and will be doing all of the theme parks (Disney, Universal, Busch Gardens, etc.). I’ve not been before so very excited but wondered if anyone has any quick tips or things to be aware of? Done a lot of research but just realised that here is probably one of the best places to ask!

Hi guys. Merlin Entertainments, the owner of the 4 biggest theme parks in the UK, has two Resort Theme Parks in the London area; Thorpe Park and Chessington. In spite of these parks’ identical owner and close proximity to one another, they are very different theme parks; Thorpe Park is aimed at thrillseekers, and has one of the UK’s biggest selections of thrill coasters and thrilling flat rides, while Chessington is aimed at younger families and has a zoo and various family-orientated rides. With that in mind, I’d be keen to know; which of these two theme parks do you prefer? Now I know you probably all think I’ve lost my marbles a bit here. I can imagine you …

Hi guys. Whenever the topic of records and stats comes up in discussion, I’ve noticed that enthusiasts often like to trot out the age-old mantra of “size isn’t everything”, “it’s not the size that matters, it’s what you do with it” or something of that general ilk. But one does have to ask whether this saying always holds true. So my question to you today is; do you think this saying holds true in every instance? Can a ride ever benefit from being bigger? Can a smaller ride ever be held back by the fact that it isn’t bigger? Personally, I’ll admit that I’m not sure that the adage of “size isn’t everything” is necessarily true in every instance, and I can raise…

Hi guys. I don’t know about any of you, but as a theme park enthusiast, I find that every theme park day is pleasurable in its own way. However, the pleasurability of these days does vary, so with that in mind; I’d be intrigued to know; what have been some of your most and least pleasurable theme park days? These don’t necessarily have to equate with your most and least favourite parks; you might have had a terrible day at a park you love, and equally, you might have had a great day at a park you don’t rate that highly! I’ll get the ball rolling with some of mine… Most Pleasurable Europa Park (29th April 2022) - I loved all 3 days at E…

Hi guys. Often when at a theme park, you'll find an attraction you really like and want to reride it. Sometimes, you might even be inclined to ride it over and over. You might ride it as many times as you can hack, or as many times as you're able to queue for it for. So my question to you today is; what is the highest number of rides you've ever had on one attraction in a single day? I'll get the ball rolling with my answer. My current record is 6 rides on Silver Star at Europa Park, and this was set very recently, on 29th April 2022. For some idea of previous record holders, here's my top 3: Silver Star at Europa Park - 6 rides…

I have sadly yet to do a 'proper' inverted coaster as I did Air (now Galactica) but whether you count it going upside down or not is a completely different question. Rita nearly scared me the first time and to make the ride worse, my head in the wrong position so my head banged from side to side of the OTSR. Th13teen meanwhile did not scare much as it didn't have inversions. This logic has made me wonder what is exactly the thing that scares people. Is it speed/ height (like Stealth) that scares people? Is it inversions (like me) that frightens people? Or is it something else? This thread will be about what exactly scares you on the ride and then tips for how to overcome…

Hi guys. In recent memory, two (as far as I'm aware) theme parks have won the Golden Ticket Award for Best Theme Park in the World. They're two pretty different theme parks, but they share the award in common, and they are Europa Park in Germany and Cedar Point in the USA (or Ohio, to be more precise). So my question to you today is; which of these two GTA winners do you prefer? I obviously can't pass judgement, having never visited Cedar Point. For what it's worth, though, I have visited Europa Park, and I have to say that I think the park is more than deserving of its high reputation; it's unbelievably versatile! You have awesome coasters (for me at least; S…

Whoever you are, we know you have an unpopular opinion. More or less every enthusiast does. So this topic is a chance to confess your opinions that many other enthusiasts will disagree with. Chances are, disagreements will occur but that's all part of the fun and you do have to accept that everyone has their own opinions. I'll give some of my unpopular opinions: I think Kingda Ka is better than El Toro. I actually enjoy Intamin Zacspins (basing it off my experience on Inferno). So far, I don't hate SLCs (this could change though, as the SLCs I've ridden aren't said to be that bad). I think G-Force is a fun ride. Space …

Disclaimer: This post is extremely long, and if you don't like data analysis and geeky maths talk, I'd suggest you run for the hills and don't look back, because this post has quite a bit of it! Hi guys. There are a lot of theme parks in Europe, as well as a lot of roller coasters. So naturally, people (myself included) tend to ask questions like “which park has Europe’s best roller coaster lineup?” or “which parks are quality-over-quantity and which parks are quantity-over-quality?”, amongst others. As such, while it’s not really a discussion thread as such, I thought it might be fun to try to take a quantitative look into some of these questions and try to answer t…

Hi guys. In a Thorpe Park trip report thread I was just reading over on CoasterForce, Serena from CoasterForce made this really interesting post: “Okay, I'll bite. Families with young children who go to Thorpe Park simply don't do their research. It's not the parks fault if they have a disappointing day. It's like going to a vegan restaurant and moaning there's no meat options. If you look at their marketing, Thorpe don't bill themselves as a family park. It's almost always groups of young adults / teens in their photos. That's their target demographic, clearly. When talking about "what is there to do for families…

Hi guys. I was reading a Merlin-bashing thread over on CoasterForce earlier, and I noticed a really interesting series of posts that a poster made in that particular thread talking about their recent trip to Alton Towers, in which they made numerous comments inferring that Alton Towers is not an especially relaxed park visit for them: The full series of posts I'm referring to begins here: https://coasterforce.com/forums/threads/wtf-merlin.38748/post-1132260 Their post really inspired me, and it got me thinking about some of the more relaxed and more stressful theme parks I've ever been to. So with that in mind, my question to you today is; what are …

Hi guys. If you do coaster counting, one means that many enthusiasts tend to resort to in order to up their coaster count is riding kiddie coasters. One thing I’ve noticed over the years is that enthusiasts tend to have different mentalities towards riding kiddie coasters and the level of care they have about getting kiddie coaster credits. Some have the mentality of “cred’s a cred”, and will travel very long distances to get the latest big apple or go-gator added to RCDB, while others tend to confine their kiddie coaster riding to when they’re available in larger parks, or even don’t ride kiddie coasters at all in some cases. So my question to you today is; what’s your m…

Hi guys. As technology advances, screens are growing ever more present within dark rides. Initially, it was Universal and Disney who pioneered the use of screens on rides, but regional parks eventually cottoned on, and most new dark rides built nowadays have some form of screen within them. However, screens are somewhat of a contentious topic among enthusiasts, with many complaining that their use has killed creativity within dark rides. So my question to you today is; how do you feel about screens on dark rides? Do you hate them? Do you not mind them? Do you like them? Or are you undecided? Or does it depend on the context? Personally, I don't mind screens at…

Hi guys. Europa Park and Phantasialand are Germany’s biggest, and arguably most revered, theme parks, and both of them get a high amount of praise from enthusiasts. But I’d be intrigued to know; which of the two do you personally prefer? I’ve visited neither, although I am rectifying that in April with my first visit to Europa Park, which I’m very excited about! But which park do you prefer? A similar thread done on another forum I’m on is currently seeing Phantasialand emerge victorious, but I’m intrigued to see how things play out on here!

Vekoma madhouses are a well loved ride type for UK enthusiasts, because, yknow, Hex exists. Arguably the best example of its kind. And in the UK we're treated to 2 other pretty decent ones too. But is it actually your favourite? And how would you rank the others you've ridden, be they Vekoma or from another manufacturer? [Basically I'm just trying to come up with some sort of thread to kill closed season/covid blues which isn't that ride game... ] Here's mine... 1. Hex, Alton Towers I'll be honest, I'm not as fond of this as many others (not even my favourite dark ride at Towers...), but it's still the best. 2. Le Palais …

Hi guys. You may remember the other day that I created a thread about parks you like more than most and parks you like less than most, and as a follow-up to that one, I thought it might also be fun to tackle that topic from the perspective of roller coasters; so, what are some roller coasters you like more than most and roller coasters you like less than most? I’ll get the ball rolling with some of my choices for each category… I could pull up quite a few nominees in both categories for this, but to keep it fairly short, I’ll stick to 5 coasters for each category. Coasters you like more than most Wicker Man, Alton Towers - To most, this is seemingl…

Hi guys. Ever since Disneyland first opened in 1955, the idea of "magic" has been a cornerstone of much of the theme park industry, and over the years, theme parks have become almost intrinsically linked with the concept of "magic", particularly in the case of parks that err more on the family-friendly and/or heavily-themed sides. Nowadays, "magic" is quite possibly one of the biggest marketing clichés in the theme park industry; many, many theme parks use magic as a key selling device within their advertising and propaganda. Building upon this, my question to you today is; what are some of the most magical theme park moments you've ever experienced? What are some of thos…