General Discussion

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 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 saw this topic in Coaster Force and though this could prove interesting. ‐----- For me the 2010s mean quite a few things depending upon which country or continent or even park I look at.Europe:The Good:I am extremely pleased that parks are developing more coasters which are focused on providing thrills rather than trying to break records or out-do other parks. Rides like the Smiler and Formula Rossa appear to outliers, and I'm pleased to see rides like Taron, Lost Gravity, Baron 1898, Wicker Man etc. being opened.Generally mainland Europe's parks have been doing well with some of my favourite major parks expanding with an array of different ride …

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 I was wondering will there be a trip to Blackpool Pleasure Beach for Walk The Big One as I am sure many of you would like to do this its £35 per person? Reply if you think this would be a great thing to do. PS : If in wrong section can an admin move it to the correct section.

Easy thread for today. What rides have you been stuck on and what rides have you been evacuated from? For example I was stuck on Inferno's break run for twenty minutes once. So.. *coughs* - Icon. Stuck on the break run in the pouring rain for ten minutes. Got given a poncho. Nice. - Detonator. Stuck at the top for fifteen minutes. Had to be winched slowly down. We ate cookies that I had in my pocket. Got comped a free ticket to come back. Cheers Thorpe. - Dragon Falls. Boat stopped at the bottom of lift one. Got an exit pass. - Stealth. Kind of launched but then slowed immediately and stopped on the launch track. Eventually made it back to the…

Hi guys. I was curious to know; have any of you ever had any theme park related dreams? I only ask because I had a very weird theme park dream last night that I couldn’t not share… Basically, it revolved around my first day at Europa Park, which is coming up in real life in 6 days’ time. And it was one of those dreams where every little thing was stopping me from getting into the park and riding any rides… but far from a regular one. Buckle up, because this dream is weird… Things got off to a good start after a wonderful sleep in Hotel Castillo Alcazar (actually, I’m not sure what hotel it even was… it certainly didn’t look like Castillo Al…

Great article posted by Theme Park Tourist with details of a park planned by Tussaurds before they took on Alton instead. Really worth a read through, one thing particularly worth mentioning though... What's that? It's a racing woodie, that's what. Shame the local authority were so adamant they wouldn't allow any of this development, I'm sure in the long run it would have been great for the local area. Planning really is the scourge of theme parks in this country.

EDIT: DURING THE HALLOWEEN SEASON

I am currently a final year university student undertaking a dissertation on whether innovation can cause repeat visitation to the same theme park. I am trying to find out how significant an impact innovation has on potential visitors when deciding to visit theme parks. If you have visited two different theme parks I would like to know why you chose to visit a different theme park instead of returning to the first one you visited? Do you think that innovation such as new rides, shows, new areas of the park or improvements to existing rides, shows and the use of mobile applications and devices could have caused you to return to the first park instead of visiting a differen…

Rightio here goes - My niece turns 10 in March (I feel SO old) and my sister wants to take her somewhere - well I suggested Thorpe because my niece is a bit of a little thrillseeker and loves watching vids of coaster and such online (she said to me the other week "I watched a POV of Stealth ). Anyway, as it will be her 10th my sister was thinking along the lines of taking her away - she has looked into Disneyland Paris but told me some ridiculous price for it - so was just wondering, because a lot of you here have been to DLP, are there any reasonable deals or good places to stay? I went back in 2000 with college and stayed in one of the disney hotels but they are a …

I just found some footage shot by CoasterForce of the "World's Oldest Operating Steel Coaster" and wow, it even further proves the point that an attraction doesn't have to have a 'highest' or 'fastest' or 'loopiest' record attached to it for it to be a good ride. I just thought that there should be a topic where people could share rides like these that are brilliant but not massive or well known attractions. Enjoy

Hi guys, I'm Ellie and I'm an undergraduate student in my final year of study at Edinburgh Napier University. As part of my final year I need to write a dissertation and mines is focusing on challenges facing the UK theme park industry either currently or in the near future. As a result of this I'm undertaking primary research in terms of a survey in order to gain perspective on how UK theme park visitors perceive their visits. I need as many responses as possible and hence, would like to ask you all to take a couple of minutes to participate.The survey can be found here: https://survey.napier.ac.uk/n/zz4p6.aspx Any response is greatly appreciated.Thanks in advance!

Soo just wondered really, what people prefer most? Scarefest Mazes, or Fright Night Mazes? Why/who/what/where/how?

Guys I wanna know your choices on this!! This could be a close one!

Thoughts and opinions? I just purchased a Premium Membership for £15.99 a month

I was having a look at buying a MAP and I was wondering if there will be a half price annual pass sale at the begining of 2013? I would like to get it cheaper and still be able to save money Thanks

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…

I'm sure one was done last year, let's have a generic one anyways to bump it annually... So IAAPA is off once again, so far the most interesting things to come out of it is Maurer Sohne announcing a Wing-Coaster concept and Mack testing spinning cars on Blue Fire... Who knows what might come up the next two days... Seriously, a spinning car on Blue Fire?!

Hi guys. Here in the UK, we have four Merlin parks: Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, Chessington and Legoland Windsor. Operations are a contentious topic surrounding the Merlin parks, particularly as of late; people talk a lot about throughputs, ride availability and the like with regard to these properties. However, there’s arguably some variation between the four properties in terms of many of these metrics, so with this in mind, I’d be keen to know; which Merlin park is best operated, in your view? Which one performs best in terms of metrics like throughputs? Personally, I would put Alton Towers at the top of the pile. But if I were to rank them, I would say the …

So there's no denying that some are cred chasers. So here's the cred thread. Talk about any cred aims here and stuff. I'll start by asking, whats your coaster credit that you think no one else will have? Mine are Gebirgsbahn(12) and Grand Canyon Bahn(13) which burnt down at Phantasialand in 2001. I rode them in 2000 on a school trip. (RCDB) Burn baby burn.

So I was snooping around TPR of all places and I found this which was interesting. Seems very exciting, A win, win I feel as RMC get tonnes of extra contacts from Vekoma expanding their business model to around the world and Obviously Vekoma it just puts their name out there more. What do you people think of it, I feel it is quite exciting!

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…

As a regular theme park visitor for 9 years now, I've had many dreams. Usually nothing adds up and the layout is always different Anyone else had a crazy or normal dream about a park or ride or attraction?

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!!