Your Planned Trips and Reports

Very unusually for me I have the period between Christmas and new year off this year. My theme park trips have been a little bit lacking this year so I was thinking of making a last minute rectification of that after noticing that Europa opens for a 'Winter Season' throughout December. As it will be my first time I don't want to go and visit half a park, and unless I'm being dense the info is a little bit lacking on their website. So has anyone been to Europa at Christmas before? Is it a full park opening (weather permitting, obvs), or is it just some rides and attractions? Do they run the shows and things like that? How busy does it get? They show a fairly full d…

Last month my Wife and I took a four day trip to Europa Park, Rust in Germany. It was our first time to the park, to Germany and this is my first ever trip report so please be kind To start off I thought I would quickly summarize our trip in numbers.Days away: 4 Days, 3 NightsDays in Park: 3 DaysNew Rides & Attractions Ridden: 38Shows seen: 3 ShowsHighest number of re-rides: 8 rides on Schweizer Bobbahn (Swiss Bob Run) coaster over the 3 daysTotal number of photos taken: 653Day OneThe JourneyWhen we first started planning the trip we realised that Europa Park did not seem to be the easiest of places to get to if you didn’t already know where you were going. Thanks to…

Hi guys, Been a long time lurker on here, thought I would show myself! Had a bit of a lull from theme parks over the last couple of years, but after following SW8 and going back to Fright Nights would like to start getting back in to it again, and thought maybe you guys could give me a hand to kick start it? So in the spring I'd like to go with Mrs Inferno on a theme park trip somewhere in Europe. I have done the UK and various US parks, but never Europe how ridiculous. Was wondering if I could ask some advice? Sooo... - Where's good to go? What's the best European theme park for adults? …

Friday 27th AugustDuring the day at work I was quite restless, the excitement for the impending trip of awesomeness was getting too much for me. Luckily work was great and the work load was small (yeah, I'll do a quality control on a film thanks). As soon as 6pm hit I was out of the door, suitcase in tow and I made my way to the annoyingly busy tube station at Oxford Circus. Underground trains + evening rush hour on a Friday = death.Eventually after what felt like forever but was a mere 10 minutes I was at Kings Cross station. I had yet to purchase my train ticket to Richard's place and the queue for the ticket office was long and just wasn't moving. I started venting my …

Stealth Owl and myself are planning a trip to the 2 parks mentioned on Saturday & Sunday August 11th & 12th and was wondering if any TPM members would be wanting to join us. We both really enjoyed the meet with TPM back in march and it would be great to see some of you guys again. We will be visiting Fantasy Island on the Saturday, travelling for an overnight stay in Hull Travelodge on Saturday night, and then onto Flamingo Land on the Sunday. If anyone wants to join us, please comment below.

Hi Everyone, I've never been to Thorpe Park before and I am planning a trip there on Sunday 9 April 2017! I never visit a theme park without doing some research first so I am glad I found this forum. I have wanted to visit Thorpe Park ever since they announced the SAW ride, as I am a big fan of the movie series. Would anyone be able to give me some advice on how to make the most of my visit? The park seems to only be open 10:00-18:00 the day I am going and I know it will be especially busy on a Sunday... I am going with my brother and we LOVE big rides like rollercoasters - it would be ideal if we could ride all the best rides at least once. We have …

So yesterday I visited Oakwood, a park I'd read and heard a lot about but hadn't actually been to yet. I was really excited about the two main coasters but curious as to what the rest of the park would be like. First off this park is a nightmare to get to. I'm a student in Swansea so got a direct train from there to Narberth then from there you can either get a taxi or walk five miles to the park. I figured out that if I got a taxi both ways it would cost almost as much as my train and park ticket combined so I bit the bullet and walked. The first few miles I had a great time, it was a sunny morning and the countryside was lush but the final mile was down a busy A roa…

So yesterday I took my first trip to Thorpe Park since April 2010, it was a last minute thing and booked the night before as me and my pals had decided whilst in the pub it was something we should do as we all had a day off. Drove down to the park for about 9.50, once we arrived I saw the entrance area was pretty busy. I was expecting a busy day having known college kids had just finished there exams and school trips. waited around outside the entrance for a about 10 minutes, noticed the massive screen, that was cool, defiantly an improvement over what was there before. I also like the new branding, much better then those big head guys and the promotion of pis…

Went to Flamingo Land last Wednesday, was absolutely fantastic...We were staying in Scarborough, about 20-30 minutes from the park, we arrived at roughly about 10:45. First off I got a Q Buster ticket as a informant told me that it would be very busy, all the staff we met were polite and very helpful, so thank you for that FL!The zoo was good as well as the rides, we say some Meerkat babies So cute! The chimps were locked inside, their outdoor window was smashed, never under estimate these apes! Thats about it, it was a fun but pretty uneventful day!Ride Count:Velocity - 1 (Thrilling but painful)Dodgems - 1Corkscrew - 1 (ouch)Flip Flop - 2 (So much fun!)Mumbo Jumbo - 2 …

PARK OPEN:10am - 6pm RIDES CLOSED: Voodoo Having never visited Flamingo Land before, I was looking forward to getting to a new park and wasn't sure what to expect. We arrived at 9:30am and bought our tickets with no queueing, after which we entered the park to find that Cliffhanger was already open! On the way over we noticed that Mumbo Jumbo was also open, despite there still being 20 minutes until the opening time, so we did that followed by Cliffhanger - a very good start to the day. The park is set out fairly well with some nice theming in places, however some of it could do with some TLC, for example Kumali's entrance sign. …

You know there are times when you just think...when the bloody hell did that happen? Well That just happened to me at Flamingoland. I have had plenty of visits over the last few years whereby I've been impressed at the park progress, but this year, (partly due to the fact that I didn't really get a chance to ride much because we were there for my son's birthday, and he had his diminutive friend, brother and cousin in tow) it struck me just how far they have come from the concrete jungle they were in the mid nineties. It struck me how Merlin-like the park was starting to become, the Children's world interactive play area set amongst meercats and lemurs out-Chessingtonin…

For my 21st birthday, me and my Dad went to Florida for 12 nights just before Easter. We went on a package deal with Virgin (less hassle).Day 1 - 7th AprilFlew out from Manchester on a brand new plane. Shame it was 2 hours delayed because of technical difficulties. That was all we get told. "This flight will now leave at 1pm because of technical difficulties." Then we got listen to them announce the boarding from the flight to Las Vegas instead. So instead I abused the free 30 min wifi at the departure gateI've flown with Virgin before but this was a much more modern plane with nifty new cup holders so you didn't have to use the whole tableI watched Morning Glory and King…

Leaving one of the biggest theme park capitals of the world is a very hard thing to do. Both Chris and I left Florida last year with a large amount of sadness, the thought of how long will it be until you go back. Well, Chris felt we needed another go and so forth a trip for 2012 was planned. With all the experience you gain, your trip is bound to be better planned. And there we were, off on the 30th September. 30th September 2012 - Flight Day. Despite the disasters of the Uk train system, we arrived at Gatwick with time to spare. We went to see our carriage, a nice refurbished 747 with touch screen entertainment system, yay. Long flights do bore me slightly,…

Just been to Florida for 2 weeks and I am not sure if I will ever enjoy TP as much as I used to. Had an amazing 2 weeks and got to do lots of rides an attractions and the general theming of the parks is 100% better than any park in England. It makes me realise how tacky places like TP are in comparison to parks in Florida. I understand that parks in Florida probably have a higher budget but what they have done is simple and I am sure Thorpe could do the same with maybe a bit more effort. I was told before I went that I would feel different about TP when I come back and I am sure most people here would feel the same. Ride Count -:Sea WorldKraken - 5Journey to Atlantis - 5I…

It's been a long seven years since I last visited the Pleasure Beach. Back when I was a 17 year old I hurt my back viciously on the Big One, got thrilled within an inch of my life on a rainy Grand National, spun on Spin Doctor, Dazzled by Bling and thrown into another galaxy on Space Invader. But how had the park changed since 2005? Compared to my 2005 trip, the weather was beautiful. Sure it was dark and gloomy compared to the sunny South but it wasn't raining which really helped the atmosphere. One thing though, the park was very busy but thanks to the huge amounts of rides, shows and attractions queues were kept on the lowish side. So where to start? Oh yeah The …

Hi everyoneJust wondering who would like to have a mini meet on the 31st October as the atmosphere is better and it would be fun? Just wondering as I need people to go with

As always, me and Mer will be going to the Fright Nights passholders preview night. If anyone was able to get tickets this year and is going, feel free to join us.

Saturday 24th May: Evening Wristband 5pm - 9:30pm Sunday 25th May: Daytime Wristband 10:30am - 5pm The two dark rides are the main draw for us at Fun City (namely Astro Storm and Terror Castle), but there are various other rides and coasters which make a visit worthwhile. Astro Storm is a ride I really enjoy, partly because I like the ride and what Brean have done with it but also for sentimental reasons. In my opinion it is better at Brean than it was at Blackpool because it runs faster and it's better in the pitch black with effects triggering as you go past them. Terror Castle is a ghost train in it's most extreme form. It's a constant bombardment of graphic horr…

So, I have been up to see Ben for the past four days and during that time we went to Fantasy Island, Skegness and Alton Towers. I thought rather than doing just a Towers trip report, I may as well mention FI and Skeggy, plus the Capriolo we went on at a fair on the way back, it totally deserves a mention! Fantasy Island...hmm well it was fun, that's all there is to say really! The rides aren't bad, the place is a bit random though; they have a market there which makes it feel pretty tacky and you get some strange, shouty people! And it's quite strange seeing a main road basically going through the place! My favourite ride there was probably The Beast, best topscan I'v…

Is there a better way to spend a glorious bank holiday Sunday than going on a roadtrip and mopping up creds? Wait don't answer that... Yesterday me and my credit hunting buddy (freshly returned) went on an over 600 mile round trip to knock off the parks in the South West. Our day began with an over 5 hour drive to Flambards, which is the most southerly park in the UK. Nothing memorable to report about the drive, other than that we found a statue of a wicker man dropping to his knees at the entrance to an obscure services, he must of heard the news that Wicker Man is running slow at the moment, I hope he feels better soon. After wh…

Hi everyone! Me and Peaj are planning a trip to Gardaland from the 8th September to the 12th. Neither of us have been before and so we were wondering if anyone has any advice as to what to do and how to make the best use of our time We are planning on spending a day and a half in Gardaland, a day at the Caneva water park and a day at Movieland. We should also have time to explore the local area and so if anyone knows where to go/ what else is there that would be great too We're planning on staying at a hotel 2-3 miles from Gardaland but any recommendations would be useful. Many thanks!

Guten Tag! With a week off at the start of July myself and the wife are heading over to Germany for some riding and adventure. We were originally thinking of trying to do the whole west side from Phantasialand / Movie Park and surrounding parks down to Europa, but soon realised we'd spend the whole trip either riding, driving or sleeping and see none of Germany, which seemed a shame, so we've scaled it down a bit to the southwest corner. I've never been to Germany before (other than a days skiing a couple of years back), so this is all new to me. Flying out on Tuesday afternoon to Baden Baden, hiring a car, the current itinerary is... …

Missed me? I've just returned from an almost 3 week trip to the shores of Australasia, a trip which covered Singapore, Australia, China and Hong Kong. Our story begins with me and my friend boarding a Norwegian Air plane (bursting at the seems with the unwashed masses) destined for Singapore. The decision to fly with a budget airline, long distance, was forced upon us and not something I'd recommend, it wasn't too disgusting though. Day 1 I physically cannot sleep or get at all comfortable on planes, so after a 12 hour flight of not sleeping and thinking why do I put myself through this crap, it was decided the first day was…

PARK OPEN: 11am - 8pm RIDES CLOSED: None! Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach is a good amusement park, it takes advantage of walking trade with ride tokens as well as wristbands, and the 8pm close was good. It's worth noting that it poured down with rain from 1pm - 5pm which cleared out the park, but despite it being absolutely dead in the afternoon, they still stayed open until 8pm rather than closing early - BPB take note! Obviously the park isn't full of high quality theme park attractions, but it's an amusement park and doesn't pretend to be anything else. The atmosphere is fantastic with music playing on several of the attractions and the park b…

Two fresh new parks this time, Hansa which I knew very little about and Heide, Merlins German endeavour. Travel to both is easy and both very accessible from Hamburg. I'll start with Hansa Park. Hansa Park is a delightful little park with big ambitions and a great working relationship with Gerstlauer. In it lies a euro fighter, an infinity coaster and a family coaster. All delightfully realised and with great stories. Our first ride though was a Maurer wild mouse, exactly the same as Rattlesnake. It was a little bit more heavily trimmed but looks good. Our next stop was Karnen. This thing is a beast. The only other ride that makes me th…