General Discussion

hello pals, to cut a long story short but still quite long as this is me, I'm currently carrying out a research project that's basically looking at motion sickness on theme park rides (as well as how and why any treatments work by looking at how they react with the body on a molecular level... did you know the nhs suggests antihistamines to help?? ok I'll stop, I wont bore you with that nonsense) and before I can begin even thinking about trying to write up the dissertation, I need to do my research. for the whole cause and effect aspect of it I need to be able to ramble on about what triggers such adverse symptoms and I'm hoping to contact some parks and pote…

I've decided to steal a topic I saw on another forum because I think it's quite interesting and I'd like to know what you guys reckon. What is your favourite drop (including lift if you want) that you have experienced? Mine would be no questioned asked Karnan. The insane, intense, amazing stuff that happens on the lift is only the beginning. When the actual drop comes it's one of the most intense moments I've ever experienced on a coaster. Back row, left seat, ejected so forcefully it hurts as you are twisted to the right and it feels like mere inches from you crashing into the tower structure, life altering! Honorable mentions would go…

Us enthusiasts are commonly labelled as 'stupid' and 'weirdos', so I thought it'd be cool to see how everybody did at school as I know a lot of you guys are probably actually extremely clever! I myself got 6 A*s, 3 As and a B at GCSE and just found out today that I got 3 As at A levels! Not trying to brag but I am definitely not 'stupid'... the 'weirdo' one is debatable though!

Whilst browsing Facebook, I came across a video of some creepy stories from Disneyland California, and I was wondering if anyone else has a creepy ghost story or two from any theme parks? I've read some stories about the ruins at Towers, but not specifically about rides. If this isn't in the right place, please move it to wherever it belongs!

Being an enthusiast, there are a hell of a lot of "things" that trigger us. For example, things that trigger me: When a ride has assigned seating and they don't let you wait for the front/back (I know it's a policy and it improves throughputs so they have to, but surely if you're willing to wait longer you deserve the front/back). People holding up the queue leaving a 10 metre gap and taking 5 minutes to notice. Whenever Colossus runs on one train. GP friends who have been to Busch Gardens saying that Sheikra goes "inwards" on the drop (the amount of times I hear that, it drives me crazy). Anyone generally saying something about a ride w…

Hello everyone just wanted to let you all know on 21st/22nd March 2017 you can book stays throughtout 2017 for 50% off at https://www.altontowers.com/holidayclub50march/ with Promo Code : MAP50.

I decided to put this in General Theme Park Discussion, since this idea could easily be elaborated upon through discussion, but it's also something of a personal request. I'm in my final term of a film and television course at uni, and I've chosen to write my dissertation on the artistic qualities of rollercoasters, using Nemesis (and potentially, for comparison, Nemesis Inferno) as a case study. When I say "artistic qualities", I mean it in the broadest possible way: The architecture of the coaster itself. The ride's theme, both in terms of visual elements and of deeper thematic implications (e.g., what Nemesis' backstory implies about our natural…

I'm sorry if this is the wrong thread, I didn't know where to post it So in May I'm headed to Texas to stay with a friend for a month in San Antonio, then staying for a week in Arlington, we want to go to six flags, probably both Fiesta, and Over Texas, but we want to go multiple times, so we're thinking of just getting season passes as we will most likely go 5+ times during my stay, Because I'm from England, there won't be any issue with me getting a season pass for six flags will there? Just checking if anyone has any insight on this, I don't think there would be an issue but I'm posting here to make sure (:

Virtual Reality has made its debut in UK theme parks as well as worldwide, with mixed reception. In your opinion, does VR have a place in theme parks?

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 …

Everyone has that emotion, that plus 1 attraction you've queued an hour for expecting a dull or boring experience, when suddenly mid ride a moment of pure excitement erupts for a few seconds before the ride resumes it's rather bland affair with life... What are your standout moments of awful/dull/average rides? This could be any part of any ride... To start off, the tunnel dive on Vampire and Runaway Train are both memorable moments on bang average rides... Baco's awfulness is at odds with the launch sequence... Most Intamin coasters have that fantastic first drop then meander for ages... Let's try and have some proper discussion eh?

Figured we may as well have a Mack thread since they're awesome. At this year's IAAPA, Mack revealed their "Xtreme Spinning Coaster" concept... (Image from CF Twitter) In short: -3 launches -Spinning cars train -4 track inversions The interesting parts come with the ability to add a turntable in the station (like Pulsar at Walibi Belgium), so there can be 2 trains, with one in load and one on the circuit - see 1:18 in the video. However, more interesting is the ability to have two separate stations and a traverser between the circuit; allowing for 2 different types of trains, with the vi…

Recently I visited Warwick Castle and with it The Castle Dungeon which now leaves me only needing to visit York to complete the full set of UK Dungeons and as I left, I was asked what my favourite of the Dungeons is. So I'm going to ask you all your opinions as to what your favourite one is!! For me its 1st Edinburgh 2nd London 3rd Blackpool 4th Warwick Castle I will squeeze York into that list if I ever get round to it!!

Which parks did you visit throughout the 2016 season, and how many times? If you are visiting more parks over the closed season then add them in as you visit. I'll start with: Blackpool Pleasure Beach - 28 Thorpe Park - 10 Alton Towers - 3 Chessington - 2 Oakwood - 1 Drayton Manor - 1 Adventure Island - 1 Lightwater Valley - 1 Flamingo Land - 1 Pleasurewood Hills - 1 Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach - 1 Joyland (yes I'm counting it!) - 1 TOTAL: 51 Overall a good year for me theme park wise, plenty of memorable days spent at Blackpool Pleasure Beach and I visited two new parks in the form of Adventure Island and Flamingo Land.

These two factors are what divide theme park enthusiasts, there will be people who prefer roller coasters to dark rides or vice versa or maybe even both. As you may know by my signature as of November 2016, I prefer the physical feeling you get at amusement parks as opposed to the theme given. I'm not saying I don't like theme because when it's done with a good physical experience, I absolutely love it (e.g. Space Mountain: Mission 2 or Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror). To summarise, my top 15 isn't made by the theme of the roller coasters but instead the actual force by them. So my questions to you all: Do you prefer the feeling of being out …

With the Halloween season now in full swing, I thought it'd be a good time to create this topic. What is, or was, your favourite scare maze of all time?

As spooky times are fast approaching I thought I'd create a little topic where we could express our creative ideas for potential mazes/scarezones etc. Not park specific either so go wild! The first idea I have is a maze for Thorpe Park, not too sure on a name yet so ideas are welcomed... UNTITLED A maze focusing and playing on the nostalgia of Thorpe Park. Taking you back in time to have your childhood memories distorted and warped into a mushy nightmare. Primarily the characters involved would be the old Rangers. Their severed heads would be scattered around and occasionally they'd pop out whilst the pitch changed carousel song would play, us…

Airtime for me is my favourite part of a coaster but here in the UK we're definitely missing a pure airtime machine. However there's a few nice negative G moments sprinkled across the coasters we have. The camelback on Speed definitely takes the crown for me, it's not particularly sustained but what there is is pure ejector. Honourable mentions go to the second speed hill on Smiler, the camelback on Saw and the drop after the first turnaround on Megafobia in the back seat. What do you guys think?

Yeah this exists on TowersTimes but also I don't care. Not sure if this goes here or nonsense, but stuff you overhear at parks. On Monorail: *Points at Galactica* "That's Air!" *Points at Nemesis* "Oh wait no, that's Air." I wonder if this guy had any trouble finding the entrance for Air. Worst thing is he was at least 18 and was taking some people there for the first time. He also claimed a boy fell out of Nemesis. Later that day on death tra- skyride: (Let's call him Bob) "Oh that's the log flume! Is it open, I couldn't find it on the map..." (Someone else in his group) "Does it f... look like it's open" About one of …

Relative newcomers to the coaster manafacturing world, RMC seem to be the current in vogue choice for parks worldwide looking for something a bit new and interesting. While wood purists argue the validity of their hybrids to be considered woodies at all, it's hard to deny the coasters they create sure look fun, whatever they are. Unfortunately not many of us in the UK will have ridden one with none having been built here. Do we want to see one in the UK, and when and where do we think one could be likely? I'm gagging for one, but can't see where one is likely to ordered. Thorpe is probably the most likely? Maybe Paultons? Also, it seems a …

So you all know of my love for Vampy, but these unfortunately pretty much died out with Arrow. The reason I'm making this topic is that designing rollercoasters is my dream job, and I think I may have come up with a way inversions could work on these (however, I'm probably wrong, so correct me if I am). Basically, I think a long inline twist could work on a swinging coaster, as the swinging would probably work in your favour (if I got the physics right) at the right speed (not too fast, not too slow). There wouldn't be too much swinging during the inversion, however a bit after. Could this work? Please let me know. We do…

The report is out! http://www.teaconnect.org/images/files/TEA_159_241229_160525.pdf Key notes: MK has hit over 20 million, Towers down 25% to just over 1.9 million as Merlin only gain 0.2% overall with Disney gaining 3.something and Universal 11% to go from 40 mill to 44 million guests a year.

Mods - if this is better placed elsewhere, please move! I'm fascinated by what people will pay for on eBay that's theme park related so thought I'd start a topic to discuss/share odd items etc. relating to our beloved Merlin Theme Parks. Some recent auctions I've found - these are "Sold" items, not unsold items with high start prices - real life money changed hands! I've omitted some listings for genuine old-skool memorabilia (Thorpe Rangers etc) as I can see there is actual value in that... I do know that everything has a price depending on how much people want it! Air Pin badge: £82.00 Thirteen Staff badge: £72.00 Alton Towers 2016 & DBGT Staff Ba…

After the brief discussion about DBGT's entrance sign a while back, I've been thinking about what my favourite ride signs / logos / entrances are. A couple of mine that spring immediately to mind... Challenge of Tutankhamon, Walibi Belgium. My personal favourite. Chiapas, Phantasialand Tidal Wave Huracan, Bellewaerde DBGT's is pretty decent too So share; what's your favourite?!

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…