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2 years. A lot can happen in that time, and for me that has involved a baby. So that has also meant 2 years without theme park trips (unfortunately a 2021/22 New Years Trip to Europa Park got spited by Covid rules changing) and it's been a interesting time. So behold a trip report to Chessie. My first theme park many a year ago, felt only right to continue such a rite of passage to my own spawn who will be forced to endure terrible football (already done) and varying quality theme parks. Chessie has changed a lot since my last visit over 7 years ago, or has it? First stop (after many toing and froing from the entrance to Guest Services), was the new hot thing in [b]Mandrill Mayhem[/b]. I've posted some brief comments on this in the relevant topic, but will do a little bit of deeper looking here. The area is... lacklustre. Obviously not helped with the small area upon which it resides, completely encircled by the cred itself and security fences, nor is it helped by the jungle theme and distinct lack of actual jungle currently present. The single pathway around also seems to be a problematic bottleneck, since the central area is cut through with planting and activities, it's certainly a design choice and not one that particularly works for a dead end area hosting the first coaster seen since 2004. The jaguar centrepiece is typical Merlin fair, and due to the layout of the coaster itself lends to great views of it. The coaster itself is just, ok. It is a good addition for the park it sits in, but as the new headline coaster fails to solve the issues that have plagued the park over the years. The queue looks god awful (presumably why the virtual queue system was put in place), and not being able to stand in the air gates until the train is coming into park confuses me. Remember when many were claiming the John Wardley said they had solved the throughput issue? Still waiting for the answer there, as the ops are still fairly slow and not helped by the single train (also, they sent RAP queuers to the right side via stairs, which is just... no guys). The actual experience is fun, but doesn't stretch much further beyond that. The launches are surprisingly punchy (yet the beginning backwards one has zero fanfare?) and it's very floaty. The helix spike is uncomfortable as predicted. It's a missed opportunity. I think a clone of the Wing-Rider built at Lego Germany would've been just as good an addition, with potential for decent throughput. I guess Swarm's existence put paid to such a thing, but there's so many potential options out there these days that whilst it's fab to see a B&M at Chessie, why did it have to be this one? Anyway, up next we headed over to [b]Gruffalo[/b]. Big old change from Bubbleworks and baby's first ever ride, so a big milestone that. She enjoyed it, and actually I did too. Almost cosy I think is a good description of it, even if it's fairly basic in terms of things to look at (compared to the older days of things EVERYWHERE). Cutesy and twee and the moved ORP makes far more sense than the original location. Have the middle fountains been taken out in the finale section as well? In traditional fashion, followed up with [b]Vampire[/b]. Running 2 trains but the operations were slow. Running fairly well though so that's something at least? Also what have they done to the station music? Awful. Went to Pizza Pasta for lunch. Doesn't seem to be a great deal of options for proper sit down meals at Chessie if you don't want to get poisoned at Burger Kitchen and I got out-voted for Smokehouse. God the prices are obscene for food there now, but guess it's just a reflection of modern life now. It was acceptable. Wandered around the zoo for a bit. Forgot how much got spited by the addition of the second hotel around Amazu which is a bit depressing. Zoo hasn't really changed beyond that though, though Wanyama's area is poorly designed in terms of pathway width and the ridiculous walk to Zufari. Which I sat out of to babysit but apparently is even more of a Depressing Cave these days. Went to see the Tigers and whilst out that whole area seems really oppressive with the giant fencing now. Didn't do Tiger Falls either cos weather. Decided to go on [b]Tomb Blaster[/b]. My gun didn't work but jeez the ride is in a bit of a mess. Another shoed-in storyline which... Yeah. The boulder seems to be missing completely and the areas around the Anubis statue and Snake are just... lacklustre without the old soundtrack. Feels like it would need far more than the Alty Mans treatment to make it somewhat more acceptable. Bit annoyed that they've changed the cars on [b]Jungle Truckers[/b] to reduce the number of adults. Toadies used to be a staple in the day! It was fine and the Capybaras were out. Also did [b]Sea Dragons[/b] which made me nostalgic and [b]Dragon's Fury[/b] where had just 2 adults and it was spinning like mad. Cemented as the best coaster in the park by miles. Did the [b]Carousel[/b] and [b]Jumbos[/b] as well to up the baby ride count as well, but very little to really say on those. Back to other new things, [b]Room on the Broom[/b], where the ride host got plus points for keeping us separated by the awful group of teens who were going on it. This was a real surprise here, especially compared to what Hocus Pocus Hall used to be. Lots of interaction for the kids and didn't feel like it was put together for about £5. Sure baby would enjoy it when older should it still exist in the future. Did Sea-Life where the staff were very chatty, then hit up [b]Blue Barnacle[/b] after some did the Vile Villager walkthrough which was apparently good. The best thing about the new ship (which looks really small) are the goats that watch over you. After some drinks it was back over to Gruffalo and one more spin on Mandrill Mayhem. Must note here that the booking vanished for me the second time around but the staff member was able to find it so at least was solved. Would've put a really bad spin on the day if hadn't been able to ride it. Second time round was really bouncy which is concerning for a ride not even a year old. And that was it. As we were very out of the theme park mode called it about 6:30 and went to Monkey Puzzle for dinner. I've certainly missed the theme park experiences over the years and going around with the additional mindset of baby (on top of the wheelchair using aspect) makes things a bit different. Chessie was always good for a meander and giggle though over the years when visiting and at least it still is in that respect. Although I must admit the park is very hit and miss in terms of the quality. Croc Drop wasn't spinning and generally didn't bother with it, and don't even think we went into Mexicana more than just to walk through it. Areas like the old Alpine Cafe which is now extended depressing cattlepen land and others are just really weird to look at in terms of a distinct lack of decent thought processes to make it look half decent. The two Julia Donaldson rides are really sweet but even on a quiet day the operations were little to be desired. Jumanji probably should've been a big step for the park in the right direction. I mean it's the biggest addition since Zufari (maybe even Wild Asia) and yet it does little to solve the flaws of the park. The reliability also didn't seem great as Kobra was dead all day, as well as Griffins and Scorpion Express. Rattlesnake opened late as well. I dunno, it's itched the theme park bug and hopefully next year will be a bit more substantial in terms of numbers. Though having to go to Thorpe does depress me somewhat. We shall see.

I wouldn't say that Californias Great America is a park that anyone has a huge itch to get to. Unlike some others in the Cedar Fair group, its investments are on the lower end of the scale. Flat rides are the name of the game and even its planned hyper that it was rumoured to get was given to another park instead (Orion). Eight years ago, it was either this or Discovery Kingdom and bizarrely I chose DK. I thought that was a great little park, but this time it was CGA's turn. It's relatively easy to get to, sitting in San Jose and it took about two hours of train journey from San Francisco. I'd heard very little about this place before so upon arriving I didn't really know where anything was or what support rides there were. The entrance for example looks very similar to other Cedar Fair parks but also Six Flags Great America. I've since learned that and CGA were once owned by the same group. Our first destination was Flight Deck which has the distinction of being B&M's first custom inverted rollercoaster. Built in 1993 the ride features three inversions and is a very old school B&M. It looks stunning in its bright red attire and the ride looked well maintained. My first reaction was how small the station was. It's very cramped and its the same with Patriot and many of the original gang of B&M's are the same (Batman clones tend to have tiny stations too). Also, for all the criticism I saw that Emperor has no station at Seaward, well.. there isn't a station here either. Geek, be consistent. Once getting on, after waiting one train off we went. Very positive G Force heavy, really nice inversions and a well paced layout. There is an odd bit in the middle of the ride where the train travels in a straight line over the station which felt at odds with everything else. The ending is particularly great with an intense helix over a small lake. There was no second train. Unlike Cedar Point which runs three trains to a fault or Silver Bullet which had its second train in bits scattered all over the break run, Flight Decks second train doesn't seem to exist. This isn't an extra-ordinary inverter and neither is it a dud. It's a good, solid B&M which has clearly served the park well. It just made me so glad we have Nemesis. I know its very easy to compare every inverter to Nemesis but the reality is, Nemesis is outstanding. From a layout perspective, a theming perspective, an efficiency and capacity perspective. Every park could learn a lesson from our grubby white alien. I next wanted to get on Patriot but we went the wrong way and ended up exploring all the park instead. Some of my favourite flat rides passed (KMG Afterburner, Huss Breakdance) before we just ended up getting lost. I checked the app and it said that Railblazer was 0 minutes. Staying cautious we decided to take a chance. Now this has two trains running. Which is good as at 8 people a train it has serious capacity issues. We ended up waiting half an hour which I was pretty happy with. To be honest, as good as it is, it's too fast. It zooms through the layout at break-neck speed and it feels very hard to take it all on board. Air time hills, inversions. it's like a blur. No major park should get the off-shelf model. It's too popular for what it is and it just cannot handle a park with crowds. The legend that is Josh C has been tweeting about Jersey Devil, so when he reviews, I'll be very interested in that one. With that out the way we took a ride on Demon, an arrow looper. I like the old arrow loopers. Whilst rougher then most modern rides there's something about a ride with janky track design that just appeals to me. As they start to arrive at the end of their lives, I'm just glad to have got on some of them. Next was Patriot. This used to be a stand up before it got converted to a floorless (like Rougarou and Firebird). Whilst I do get why parks are running away from stand up, I dunno. The floorless train doesn't add much beyond making the ride rideable? Maybe thats the point. My husband made the observation that if it wasn't for the height restriction, this would be an excellent 'starter' rollercoaster for an aspiring thrill seeker. And it got me thinking about rides like this and Daemonen at Tivoli Gardens. And he's so right in the observation. Very few inversions, mildly intense without being mind-blowing. Considering this is a B&M from 1991, its aged pretty well from what I could tell. Still, no second train to be found. After lunch it was time for the wooden coasters. We started with the CGI Wooden coaster, Gold Striker. This had a second train! wow. This was a fantastic ride. Really fast and intense. And with most of the ride hidden from the walkways, it took me by surprise. It probably sits just under Wodan for intensity. Some of the turns it was doing, for a traditional woody, were fabulous. Heavily recommended and the best ride at CGA by a country mile. And onto our final new rollercoaster Grizzly. Quite easily the worst operations I have ever seen on a ride. It took over seven minutes to unload, load and dispatch a train. Part of this seemed to be staff training, the other part was sheer incompetence. You're running one train around your mildly interesting rollercoaster. This shouldn't be that difficult. But it was. What looked to be a twenty minute wait ended up taking around 70. I was done after this, Didn't even want to attempt the low capacity Arrow wild-mouse which was displaying a 40 minute wait. So instead we went on two flat rides including the breakdance. Every park should have a breakdance. They are the best flat ride by far. And we called it a day around 4pm. This park needs investment. On the surface everything looks fine. But it provides a middling day out in a state that has Disney, Knotts & Magic Mountain. Hard to compete, yes, but CGA isn't really even trying. It has great support rollercoasters in Flight Deck and Gold Striker but it needs that killer, triple A attraction to make the difference. And two trains on its rides.

I'm sure you've all heard of Kings Island. It's a part of the Six Flags chain now, but in June it was one of the premier Cedar Fair parks, sitting right under Cedar Point as one of its main gems. Its line up also reflects this with three B&M's, a GCI, an Arrow, classic woodies and several classics and frequent investment that Michigans Adventure could only dream of. Before my visit I heard about the fantastic operations, full train operations, how they operate the park flawlessly. Well spoilers. They don't. I recently embarked on a 9 park USA trip and out of all of them, Kings Island sits as the most disappointing. But why? There's several reasons but first let's start with the rides themselves. The five main attractions are Diamondback, Orion, Banshee, Mystic Timbers and the Beast. Like Canadas Wonderland & Carowinds, the park has a hyper/giga combo and in my opinion this is the weakest combo of the three. Diamondback is the hyper coaster and is the best coaster in the park. It has a lot of air time, it has the second best layout (Behemoth, Diamondback and Thunder Striker) and is generally well paced and landscaped. Orion is pretty good but is too short. It also doesn't share the same principles as Fury 325 and Leviathan. Those two rides despite being gigas, keep relatively low to the ground and have fast paced corners interspersed with good floater air time. Orion on the other hand feels like it's missing the last third of the ride. It has a strong two thirds but hits the breaks way too early. It's a shame because it has good air time hills and an intense helix. I know some may say that I should enjoy what a ride and not what it doesn't. Too some extent I agree. However I rode Fury 325 a week earlier and that is a complete ride. Orion just lacks that something. And finally Banshee. I feel fortunate to have got on this, a week prior to my trip, a guest had actually got into the ride area and was killed by a train. I found Banshee incredibly disappointing actually. It is a huge B&M invert with a beautiful colour scheme but my god it is so forceless. I don't really understand how they went from Oz'Iris which is a top tier invert, to this in just two years. I had two rides on Banshee and neither really did anything for me. The only bit I really enjoyed was the slow zero-g roll at the end of the ride. I can't even say that the restraints were the problem because they weren't. Banshee is the only Invert to feature the new restraints. Here the ride lacked that kick that inverters like Nemesis, Katun and Afterburn feature, that whippiness and aggressive pacing that takes them to the next level. I'd heard fantastic things about Mystic Timbers and to be fair this is pretty good. I liked the way the ride goes off into the woods (which is a very popular American woodie feature) and I liked the pacing. The shed itself is naff though and it feels like it's done purely because the train has to sit in the break run for 60 seconds so they attempted a show element. The Beast is probably Kings Island most iconic ride and we'd heard all about the legendary night rides. We only rode this at night for context so I couldn't really tell you what the layout does without watching a POV. It was absolutely class at night though. There's clearly an aura around this ride and night rides are legendary. Hundreds of people waiting way after 11pm to get on this ride. IMO it didn't disappoint and was a highlight of the trip. There's something so peaceful and yet nerve wracking about being on a ride and not having a clue of where you are going. It's just you, the stars and the night sky following you and the 35 other people traversing through the woods. It felt like a proper moment where theme park passion comes alive and you get off feeling so much better for having done it. With the highlights ticked off, next comes the lesser talked stuff. The Bat is an arrow suspended and is my least favourite of the five remaining. It never felt like it got going and lacked the swing that Vortex (at Canadas Wonderland) or Vampire has. Invertigo never opened and hasn't been open since my visit so that could be dead. The two wooden duelling coasters named Racer were excellent and the park clearly looks after them as they rode fantastically. Adventure Express was a very good arrow mine train, with actual theming and a non janky, exciting layout. I love an arrow mine train and each one is so different from the last. Truly unique. Backlot Stunt Coaster was just like the other two I have ridden, this one did have working effects though which makes a difference. Flight of Fear was fine, apparently reopened after track welding work. It's not a favourite but its relatively well themed and has a good layout. The new ride, Snoopys Car thing, was a good Vekoma boomerang and there was a good level of kiddy coasters in this area with Woodstock Express and Woodstocks Air Rail. On the face of it the rides aren't the problem so what exactly was it that wasn't clicking about the park? Well simply put, I think whilst the park does run full capacity on rides and it does have very engaged ride teams, I don't think the way they operate their rides is particularly effective. For example the team absolutely blitz it down ride platforms, shouting to lift lap bars when trains park. But sometimes this frantic, over the top activity just creates confusion for park guests and puts them on edge. You stress out a park guest, they start to behave in odd ways. They start to do things like exit vehicles in the wrong way. They don't do seat belts up, they may try to walk up lift hills. It also starts to throw off other park employees. One example I have is we were waiting front row on Diamondback and we were told we wouldn't be on the next train because of disabled guests. Okay fine. But the disabled guests never turned up. The platformers just put the bars down, in their frantic race to roll trains. The miscommunication, the frantic action meant groups who have positioned themselves to ride together are thrown off, it means a premier seat goes out empty (one you are waiting longer for anyway) and to me is not good park operation. Just rolling out trains is no good if you aren't effectively filling the trains to maximum capacity. The other gripe I have is the idea that running three trains is how you deal with capacity but actually, the rides are effectively designed to have a train sit on the break run for 2 minutes whilst the one in the station loads. I've always found it curious that you effectively seat people for 2 minutes and ending the ride not in the giddy high of what they have just experienced, but in boredom because the adrenaline rush is over and they've been sitting in the breaks for what feels like a long time. The only hypers I have seen to run a good three train service is Silver Star and Nitro. All the others, particularly at Cedar Fair just run three trains out of obligation but with no actual benefits of doing so. Reliability was also a clear issue with numerous ride closures throughout the day. I can take poor reliability with good communication but the real issue was the impact that had with Fast Lane. The service at KI is relatively affordable but the problem is where the end of Fast Lane is. At Kings Island, it was nearly always at the ride platform and everyone seemed to have this problem of scanning their wrist bands. So the batching process was essentially paused whilst huge numbers of people pass through the skip the line service. Frequently trains would be waiting in the station for more guests to load because batching had effectively stalled. Because Fast Lane is obviously prioritised, it meant they had first choice on front row and back row so stand by is effectively left with all the in-betweens. That's if the disabled entry people didn't nick your seats on every train. Here they can choose what row they go in. Because despite there being a batcher, the communication only took place that you wouldn't be on the next train, the batcher wouldn't necessarily not load an area of the train for the disabled guest. So you were hobbled frequently by exit riders. We also had a park wide power cut with only two small flat rides unaffected. For about two hours no rollercoaster was available. So when rides did reopen, they were immediately hit with massive queues and fast lane waits. Add in the frequent break downs and it made for a more frustrating day then it needed to be. Adventure Express only on one train and was advertised as having long waits at the entrance. Racer seemed like a gamble whether they were running both sides or not. All of the issues we faced at Kings Island had not been present at any of the parks we had been to previously. It was really eye opening and frustrating because it should have been a highlight park, for many it's a bucket list park. But I came out of it preferring a lot of the other parks like Dorney and Carowinds. Kings Island didn't even really have the ride hardware, that real stand out attraction to put the more negative thoughts out of my mind. Is it worth a visit? Yes. But it isn't outstanding.. Thank you for reading. 😃

You know those 'memory' notifications you get on your iPhone now and then, where it features a load of photos from a past trip? One of those popped up for me recently from an old meet up we had on another site, which sent me on a bit of a nostalgic frenzy. Since that happened, I've spent a bit too much time these last few weeks looking back through old photos and videos, and it's prompted me to reach out to some old 'theme park friends' who I haven't spoken to for a while. To be honest it's been absolutely bloody fab. But it's got me thinking... Being a theme park enthusiast just isn't what it used to be. I'm wondering if others feel this way too? Of course I dearly miss the days in my teens where I'd regularly meet my friends at the parks, but equally I am finding myself really missing all the fan forums that there used to be, and how busy they were every evening. The forums used to be buzzing with excitement and discussion about our weird shared favourite topic! And that was just it, it was a discussion, often about the unknown. It was rare that we actually knew what was going to be happening at the parks, so speculation and rumour really did drive the discussion and keep everyone interested! Aside from the big forums and fan sites, there were also countless smaller sites, run by people who loved the parks just as much and just wanted to share their hobby and interest. It didn't stop at the forums either - YouTube was awash with videos from enthusiasts everywhere, not just the big names, who now seem to have unlimited access to everything. I remember sat at my laptop in my room at my parents house, most nights I'd check my usual sites and channels for any updates I could find! It was exciting - had someone managed to get a blurry photo from underneath a fence, or even better get a 20 second video clip of a scare maze entrance, or a trench being dug somewhere? Or the rare holy grail, someone had found some plans on a planning portal somewhere! 😮 I absolutely loved the mystery and excitement surrounding everything - "what could be under those tarps?", "Did anyone see that crane today?", "There's a new poster for Fright Nights!"... If you wanted to know what happened inside the Asylum, you would need to physically go into the Asylum and find out for yourself! There were no HD POV videos from press night, no behind the scenes videos, and no real construction updates to speak of. All you had to go on was the reviews and discussion from others who had been through before. God... it was brilliant wasn't it? There's no denying, however, that things are better now. We got what we wanted. We now have more access to information than ever before, with the parks being very open about what they're doing, and the YouTubers and Influencers of today being very detailed in what they show. It really is good that we have access to all this stuff - but I have to admit I do miss the days when the 'news' came from everyone - whoever happened to be at the parks (or peeping over the fences) that day, with their blackberry camera out and ready to snap a picture or two! I think the age of the influencer and all of this free and open information has nearly killed off the forums, and the way that theme park enthusiasm used to be. It seems that now, the 'star enthusiasts' who run the major YouTube channels and social media pages, are in some ways an extension of the park's own marketing team, with some influencers quite literally being employed by the parks, even creatively responsoble for some of the attractions... It would also appear that, although I have nothing against any influencers out there, that the enthusiast game has in some ways become about building up an audience and even making a living from it - it's not as much a 'hobby' as it used to be it seems? Taking a wonky photo of the Curse arriving on the rain soaked beach, or Saw the Ride's brand new supports going in to the newly reclaimed land, and getting home to plug in your cable to transfer the image to your laptop to post it on the forums was never about seeing how many likes you could get - it was about sharing the joy with like-minded people from across the country, or it was in my case at least, then having a good chat about it. Social media has killed off the forums really hasn't it, all those little hidden communities where friendships were made and interests were shared! There's no denying that social media is better, and information is more readily available, but are we better off as enthusiasts? I'm not convinced we are.

I finally did it: I finally went to America for some creds. Before my trip at the start of June, I'd only done European parks, so it was hugely exciting. Before getting to it, here's a setting the scene sorta dealy. This trip had been a long time in the works. Early plans can be traced back to March 2021, which was going to be a Cedar Point + others trip. But that fell through. Still wanting to go out to the States for some creds, I looked at other possible ideas. I could do Orlando / California or similar, but not being a big Disney fan, their draws were weak, and I didn't really have a clue where to start with booking that sort of trip. Resorting to the easier-for-me-to-plan road trip, I quickly honed in towards flying to Philadelphia, and then hitting up some of the big parks there. The plan was to fly into Philly, have a day to get accustomed to the country, then do Hersheypark, Kings Dominion, Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Six Flags America, Knoebels and Dorney (in one day) and Six Flags Great Adventure. There were some long journey times between the parks, but heyho, I've done long drives and was fine, so I'm sure this'll be fine. The build up to the trip was...hectic. The day after I landed, I was moving flat (for a new job I started last week). My mum is also in the process of moving flat, so I'd been helping her out too. I had finished my temp job only a couple of days before flying out too, which didn't give me much time to generally sort out everything in life. But anyway, I made my way to Heathrow bright and early...and headed to the wrong terminal. My flight was from Terminal 3...I got off the free shuttle bus at Terminal 2. D'oh! Fortunately, it's only a short walk between the terminals, and soon enough I was checked in and in a long security line. Small spoilers: the security queue was one of the longest of the trip! But soon enough, I was on the plane and ready for the 7-8hr flight. Long haul flying was fine for me. Wasn't quite sure how I'd find it, but my American Airlines flight was comfortable, the food was acceptable, and I was able to pass the time by watching Stranger Things 4. Soon enough, I'd landed in Philadelphia. And oh boy, it was hot. Midday local time and it was 35C (oops, I'm in America now, that's....95F). I'm not someone who particularly enjoys the heat (another reason why I was unsure about doing a trip to Orlando). But hey, I'd manage, America has aircon in most places, and I'd adjust soon enough... I collected my hire car no problems. This was actually the first time I'd ever hired a car, and my first time driving on "the other side" of the road. On top of that, it was my first time driving an automatic, and only the third different car I'd ever driven since passing my test 4 years ago. So just a few firsts. I took my time to get used to it before heading off to a nearby-ish Walmart to get some drinks and snacks. This 20 minute drive to Walmart didn't serve me well though. Driving wasn't difficult, but I made the odd little mistake and just didn't feel wholly comfortable whilst driving. I guess that's understandable and to be expected within context, but still, it played on my mind a bit. I carried on to my first motel of the trip and arrived in one piece. Woo, much success. But I still didn't get that comfortable feeling with driving. My excitement and elation for the trip and parks ahead turned to one of worry. "How on earth will I manage all the driving to come feeling like this?". Of course, I was hot, bothered and tired. And then thoughts came flooding into my head..."If I feel like this now, how will I feel after 8 hours outside at a park, then having to do a 1.5-2hr drive?", "How will I manage that for a week straight?", "I'm not sure if I can do this". I'm, err, not the most confident person, and I think this whole thought process shows that. I tried to cast these thoughts to one side and had a spot of dinner from a lovely little restaurant just opposite the motel I was at. But these thoughts played on my mind still. I tried looking at all the drives I had for the next couple of days to try and ease my concerns, but that did little to help me. The first two parks were to be Hersheypark and Kings Dominion, and they weren't a short distance apart. Knoebels and Dorney, parks much closer to Hersheypark, were shut the day after my Hershey trip, so I couldn't change the order to do shorter drives before doing longer drives. In the end, I got inside my head so much that I changed the trip a bit more dramatically. I hadn't booked park tickets due to my lack of organisation. Most of the motels/hotels I booked were free to cancel until 23:59 the day before arrival. So I wasn't going to lose any money. Gone were Kings Dominion, Busch and SFA, the three parks which were a huge drive away. The one motel I couldn't cancel was one which was between Dorney and SFGAd. So the trip changed into: Hersheypark: 2 days Knoebels Free day Dorney SFGAd It made the trip feel less daunting with the driving. It did take out a big chunk of creds, and I was particularly looking forward to Busch / Pantheon. But ultimately, in the moment, I just didn't feel I could do it. In hindsight, it all feels a bit stupid. I'm sure everything would have been fine. I got more used-to and comfortable with driving quick enough. Maybe I should have planned the trip better to build up to longer drives? Maybe I should tried hiring a car on a smaller like (like my recent Hamburg one, where I changed my mind late on about driving too)? Maybe I should have gotten out of my own head / slept on it? Maybe I should have booked everything earlier to force me to do these things? Whatever I should have done, it's done now. And now onto Day 1, which was my first day at Hersheypark... It was June 1st, and again it was hot. The drive from my motel to Hersheypark was about an hour, so I set off in good time. I passed Dutch Wonderland en route - a park which was closed on that day, but I made a note that I could possibly do it on my free day if I wanted. The drive to Hershey wasn't without stress, with my phone losing internet connection just before I was due to go on Route 283, making me very nervous I was going the wrong way. Fortunately, I rolled up at 10ish - huzzah, I was finally at my first American park! I really enjoyed the entrance plaza area: smart and well-presented, with the lovely view of a B&M hyper to boot. Plus, with the shop open, the hour before open flew by. Whilst waiting for the park to open, I realised I hadn't planned out my day at all. I knew roughly what creds the park had, but didn't know the layout of the park or anything. Candymonium was open for season pass holder ERT and right by the entrance, so that was a no-go. Skyrush is bound to be popular, so maybe not there. After a brain wave, I remembered about a particular ride which gets long queues. So whilst the masses made their way to the park's hypers and whatever else, I made a beeline to... Laff Trakk! Yep, my first American coaster was an indoor spinner. It was...okay. There's an attempt with theming and all that, but it just comes across as a bit tacky sadly. And the layout didn't really do it for me. So very much a one and done for me. Carrying on the theme of low-throughput, bog standard coasters, I ticked off the nearby Wild Mouse. It was bog standard. Jesus, I've flown 3500miles for some tacky rubbish I could have gotten at the British seaside...It's time to throw in something better. So it was time for Wildcat. GCI's first coaster - a fact I'd forgotten at the time - does have a decent layout, and is filled with some neat moments. At the same time, it does give off vibes of 'Our first coaster', but you can see what they wanted to do, and how they've refined their coasters with newer models. A decent family-thrill ride for the park. The park had only been open 15 minutes, and I'd ticked off 3 creds. The temperatures were soaring, so now felt like an appropriate time to ride Celsius. Wait, no, I'm in America. Let me try that again. It felt like an appropriate time to ride Fahrenheit. An Intamin multi inversion coaster with a vertical lift and beyond vertical drop - it's either going to be amazing, or bloody dreadful right? It was at this point I learnt to not trust the Hersheypark app too much. The app does give queue times for all the rides, but it said Fahrenheit was only 5 minutes, despite it clearly being more. I hesitated a guess at around 20 minutes, and an update came from soon enough advertising 15 minutes. Ended up taking a nice, round 40 minutes. Ooft. Thank goodness for the misters in the queue line though - they were a godsend! I'll channel my inner MattN now...how was the ride? Well, it wasn't amazing, but it wasn't bloody dreadful. It fell firmly into the "good" category. The layout is surprisingly fun, and the airtime towards the end of the ride took me by surprise. The cobra roll was extremely "vibrate-y", but not in a rough way, which was...odd. I wasn't a fan of the clunky restraints though. So it was definitely good, but this was also something that really needed a reride at some point to determine just how good. It has a pretty colour scheme too I then double-backed on myself to go to the park's duelling woodies: Lightning Racer. I hadn't done them earlier as they opened late, but now seemed like a good time to pick them up. And I have to say, I really enjoyed these. Quick-paced, nice interaction with each other and great coasters in their own right. I wasn't a fan of how it seemed like the Thunder side would win every single time; seems like a bit of a flaw there. Whilst I didn't want to make immediate comparisons, I make it no secret that I love Joris en de Draak at Efteling, so it was hard not to. And to be honest, Lightning Racer definitely feels like an attraction that walked, so Joris could run. Joris sees what Lightning Racer does, learns from its mistakes, and refines what it does well. Hersheypark is filled with "learning GCIs" it seems. Aside #1: I didn't take photos of Wildcat or LR. Clearly I have something against taking bad photos of GCIs. Aside #2: The Lightning (right) side of Lightning Racer was my 250th. Yay. With the creds in that area ticked off, I went a bit more centrally into the park. With stomach grumbling, I decided to pick up a snack. Oooo, finally time to try out some American park food!! A funnel cake standard was nearby, so naturally I gravitated towards there... It was blooming huge! Is this just American portion sizes? Are they meant to be shared? Did I buy a sharing one? I dunno, but I wasn't going to complain. After eating a bit more than expected, I decided another cred might not be best straight away, instead opting for the nearby shooting darkride, Reece's Cupfusion. I like shooters, and I was intrigued by this. I was taken back a bit by the layout going up and down; thought that was a bit quirky. But the best way to describe this (from a European's standpoint) is like a discount/budget Bazyliszek at Legendia. It has screens as well as 2D props (some move, some don't). But it all feels a little bit on the cheap side, and a little bit lazy. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad, and I had fun, but really, for a park of Hershey's size and grandeur, I was expecting something a bit better. With that done, it was time for another cred. And I opted for hopeful quality over 'just a +1', and went to Great Bear, the park's B&M invert... Another 40-ish minute wait for this. And I didn't really enjoy waiting for this. Obviously queueing becomes more boring when you're alone, but with no sort of themed music (just generic pop music, which was fine, but meh all the same), and limited views of anything in a painfully dull cattlepen queue, it does drain you a bit. Wasn't helped further by the fact operations were pretty poor, partially due to slow staff, partially due to people being idiots and faffing. Oh well. Anyways, I was on and sat near the back. What followed was a decent, albeit unremarkable, ride. It very much peters out by the end though. Before this trip, I'd ridden 4 B&M inverts: Oz'Iris, Nemesis, Black Mamba and Nemesis Inferno. These are all fantastic examples of the ride type. Great Bear is an example which shows B&M Inverts are good rides, but can also be incredibly paint-by-numbers. "Let's chuck in a big drop, a vertical loop, a zero-g roll, a corkscrew and something else, boom, there's your B&M Invert". That's possibly a little harsh, but really, that's what it is. It doesn't have the location/terrain of Nemesis and Mamba, It doesn't have the scale and 'extra-ness' of Oz'Iris. The layout isn't as polished as Inferno. It just does every part well. It'd be interesting to know what my reaction would be if this was my first B&M Invert. Maybe I'd rate it higher. But for me right now, whilst I enjoyed it and don't have anything overly negative to say about it (ending aside), it just doesn't do it for me. Following the path along, I stumbled across another cred, the comically named Sooperdooperlooper. Obviously the historical nature of the ride shouldn't be ignored, but it very much feels like a ride which was designed to have the loop and nothing else. Literally after the loop, the ride feels like it was designed by RCT's "auto complete" feature, to get the track back to the start in a weird and funky ride. Next up was the big attraction of Hersheypark, the famous Intamin known by Skyrush. Since it had a surprisingly short queue (probably about 2-3 trains' worth of wait, if that), I opted for a front row ride. This turned out to not be the smartest idea, since after 3 cycles, it shut down for a bit. I decided to stick it out for a bit, and 10 or so minutes later, it came back up. And shortly enough, I was on. And WOW. This thing lives up to the hype and is insane. You get lifted / chucked out of your seat every couple of seconds. It's relentless. And yet it remains glass smooth, and even 10 years after opening, hasn't developed an infamous Intamin roughness. Yes, the extreme airtime does kill the thighs - and that does take away from the experience a little bit for me - but that's the point of the ride. Skyrush is clearly a ride designed to try its absolute best to fling you out your seat so you land into the lake, whilst not compromising and things like speed. And it makes a spectacle out of its elements: there's no mini airtime hills that you'd find on a RMC, say. It's loud and proud with what it does. There's no stand out element either, because so many elements are just incredible in their own right. I also liked the mini lapbar release it does whilst on the brake run - much appreciated. Given the lack of queue, I decided to run round for another ride, and got to do a back row ride. Again, bloody insane - moreso with some of the intense airtime moments too. I just about preferred the front, just for the pure thrill of getting the wind in your face, and it being slightly more comfortable. But damn, it's a bloody good ride. The lift hill is comically quick too Hopefully it's clear here that Skyrush is a ride I rate very highly. It's easily a "Top 10%-er", and even a "Top 10-er". For me, it slots nicely into the Top 5 too, slotting above Helix, but below Taron, Taiga and Untamed. Ultimately, the ride comfort is what stops it going above the others, but the craziness of the ride definitely cements its place. From one hyper to another, it was time to ride Sweetsmonium. Wait, no, I keep forgetting I'm in America. Let me try that again. It was time to ride Candymonium. (I'll stop with these terrible jokes now, promise) I'd been keeping an eye on the ride's queue time during the day - despite not really trusting the app - and it had seesawed between 20 minutes and 180 minutes. I decided to risk it on a supposed 20 minute wait. This was my first experience of a "no bags in the queue line" rule, which they were being strict on. Interestingly Skyrush has the same rule, but wasn't being applied. I'm fine with the rule and like the free lockers, but it felt like there weren't enough screens and lockers, and having to wait for a locker was painful. After about a 30 minute wait in the warm tin shed queue, I was on. Given how slow the operations were, I dread to think what it would be like if bags were allowed in the station. I'm understanding to how hard it is to work on rides in hot conditions, but when you have a coaster running 3 trains and you have the 2 out of the station stacking every single time, something ain't quite right sadly. Anyways, I'd managed to bag a back row ride for my first go on Candymonium. And this was my first B&M hyper too. I was quite excited for this. Andddddddddd....it didn't live up expectations. To be honest, all I really remember from this first ride is fixating on the two trims that are on the ride. They are extremely noticeable, and it disappointed me quite a bit. I'll leave my review of Candymonium there for now, but note I will come back to this later! There was now just over an hour left before the park shut. Despite having agreed with myself I'd be back tomorrow, I wanted to try and get all creds done in one day (just to see if my original plan was possible). So I went over towards Storm Runner - arguably the last major cred in the park. It had been closed all day, but I had noticed a couple of test runs. En route to the Intamin accelerator, I found Trailblazer, the park's Arrow Mine Train, looking very shut, and with fencing blocking off the entrance. Well, there's one spite. There were staff stood outside Storm Runner too, that was also shut, and they said it probably wouldn't open today. I didn't press for a reason, but I wonder if it was down to the heat - I know the likes of Stealth and Rita struggle in 30C+ heat, and at 33-35C, maybe it was just too much? To settle that disappoint, I decided instead to ride... Jolly Rancher Remix Previously known as Sidewinder, the park's Vekoma Boomerang received a makeover for this. Because of my immeasurable disappointment about missing out on 2 creds, I didn't take any photos of it on this day. The retheme is nice and vibrant, and the ride gives me 'Speed of Sound at Walibi Holland' vibes: they've taken a Boomerang, added some flashing lights and loud, thumping music. The presentation for it works. The ride itself is an above average Boomerang, which is still a below average ride. I then ticked off the park's kiddie cred, Cocoa Cruiser, and rode the park's old skool woodie, Comet. Really these were just a quick +2 and nothing more to me, though I guess Comet was pretty neat, and also my first taste of a Philadelphia Toboggan Coaster. With a bit of time leftover, I rounded Day 1 off with a couple more laps on Skyrush. Still a breathtaking ride. I possibly could have gotten a couple more goes in, but it broke down again. Intamin, ey? My hastily arranged motel was only a 15 minute drive from the park, close to shops and restaurants, and was reasonably cheap. Huzzah! So Day 1 Hersheypark thoughts: I enjoyed the park. It was busier than I expected, and the heat was a bit much at times. It immediately gets points for the amazing Skyrush, and even though there were some rides which didn't live up to expectations, others beat expectations, so swings and roundabouts. I was certainly looking forward to a second day, getting some rerides on the good creds, and trying some of the non-cred things I missed, all in a more relaxed setting. I have two bugbears about Hersheypark. One is their queue lines: they are all so boring, and the coaster queues don't give you views of the rides. Two is the lack of themed audio. Their newer areas (Chocolate Town and Jolly Rancher Land...not its official name btw) do a good job at creating a cohesive area with some neat audio bits. But really, the atmospheres in and around the stations for the likes of Skyrush, Great Bear, Fahrenheit would all be infinitely better with some loop of special audio. I know it's kinda an American thing, but still. I returned to Hersheypark the next day. It was another hot one, of course, but it was a bit more overcast. I did a strange thing, and arrived at the park even earlier than yesterday though. Why, you ask? Well, to visit Chocolate World of course! Located outside the park, and I guess extending the exterior of their 'Chocolate Town' area, Hershey's Chocolate World is I guess the American answer to Cadbury World (not that I've ever been there, mind!). There's loads of stuff in there to do: a 4D cinema, create your own chocolate experience, plus tram tours and other things. All of that along with a huge sweet shop and a couple of food outlets. Chocolate World opens at 9am (2 hours before the park). I wasn't bothered by the upcharge stuff, but there is a free attraction: Hershey's Chocolate Tour is basically a dark ride, taking you through the process of how the chocolate is made. After seeing the quality of the park's dark ride, it was nice to see how well-polished this is: lots of neat effects and animatronics, and all-in a fab little experience, definitely showcasing the place off well. The queue line serves as a walk through too, giving the history of the company. And at the end of the ride, you get a piece of Hershey's chocolate for free. Resisting the temptation to go round again for the sake of another freebie, I had a look round the shop to kill some time, picked up a Blueberry Muffin KitKat (which, sadly, wasn't all that nice), and then went back outside to get in line before the masses descended to wait for the park to open. Unlike yesterday, there was entertainment outside the gates. Well, I say entertainment, a single member of staff tried rallying some people up to get them excited, and got some kids to play a game. Or something like that, I don't know: he had a microphone, but it wasn't working. Anyways, at 10.45, he got everyone to do a countdown from 10 to 0, at which point.......nothing happened. A couple of staff behind the gates ran around panicking, wondering what was going on. I don't know what on earth was meant to be happening, seems like no one did. But in any case, this countdown to 0 did nothing, and the park opened bang on 11. Noting that the park felt a bit quieter, and not being in a rush to get creds, I decided to head to Candymonium first - maybe it's a morning ride? I got a front row ride and... Damn, that was impressive! Going in knowing a couple of the airtime hills had trims, I didn't fixate on them, and instead was able to just...sit back and enjoy. And it was just great fun: some nice floater airtime, but also some pops of ejector too. It was a class ride, and just really fun from start to finish. I'd've loved to jump straight back on and see what on earth was up with this hot and cold ride, but everyone was making their way over, so I decided to leave it and make my way to something new... Storm Runner was storm running (best pun I have, sorry), so made sense to tick it off before it got a potential long queue. This was a ride I was quite looking forward to, and it kind of lived up to the expectations. It was a nice, fast-paced ride which does what it sets out to do. It's short, but doesn't need to be any longer, as it packs in some cool elements. But at the same time, it doesn't quite hit the 'Wow' moments it should have for such a short, punchy ride. In part, I think it's because coasters have come along quite a bit since this was made, and so there's more modern, quirky elements out there. I can imagine that an RMC-inspired Intamin could make a much more fun Storm Runner today, for example. Also, the restraints are a bit restrictive, and do take away from the experience a bit. I then returned to another Intamin, Fahrenheit, for my much awaited re-ride. It provided a fun ride again, but was perhaps a bit weaker than my original ride. So it cemented it as a "good, but not great" ride for me, and probably not something I'd bother with again for the day. The "theme" (if you can call it that?) of Fahrenheit confused me. I get the idea of it being a 97 degree drop and using it as a temperature and angle (that's clever), but I thought the idea was it was also a 'blazing hot' ride? So why would the temperature be falling? And why am I overthinking this so much? Moving away from coasters, I went to something new and different: Mix'd Flavoured by Jolly Rancher, to give it its full name (sigh) forms part of the new Jolly Rancher Land, and is a Zamperla NebulaZ - one of these new rides which seem to slowly be becoming all the range. They're pretty neat to look at, and though I don't like spinning, I thought it looked tame enough to give it a go. Ultimately, it wasn't awful, but by the end of the cycle, I did feel queasy. The good thing is, though, is as much of a spectator ride as this is, it's still pretty fun to go on too! Turning my attention back to coasters, I then went for to take my reride on Great Bear. The big thing that stood out to me was that it had a much shorter queue, and I now realised how much quieter the park was compared to yesterday. Maybe not having to wait 40-ish minutes for the ride in blistering heat would make me more fond of the ride? Nope, not really. In fact, it just cemented my thoughts, and meant it was another ride I could tick off as "Don't need to ride again". I decided to get a snacky-American-sized lunch: The bucket of pulled pork chips gets my seal of approval Still adjusting to American-sized portions (or just eating sharing portions and not realising it), I opted away from creds for a bit. I ticked off the park's log flume, which was good fun - I particularly liked the calm looking section which was actually on a gentle slope, creating a fun few seconds, and the nice camel hump at the bottom of the drop. I then returned to Reece's Cupfusion, the park's dark ride I decided to try out a feature with the park's app, HPGO, which you can link up with the ride. Basically, it's a free wristband with a QR code. You can use it to load up photos, Fastpass things and all of that. But you can also scan it just before you board Cupfusion, and it then sends your score and on ride photo to the app for free. As you can see, I get very focused on shooters, even if their quality is patchy. Clearly not that good though, ranking 12th of all signed up players of the day, after only a couple of hours of park-opening. That's enough time without creds, so I went to GCI corner of the park to, well, reride the GCIs (ignoring the bog standard Wild Mouse and tacky spinner). A solid duo/trio of woodies there, and I found myself enjoying the Lightning side of Lightning Racer a bit more than yesterday; a good choice for 250 in the end! I even took a terrible photo of Lightning Racer, see! Something I had only learnt the previous day, and that had only truly dawned on me the previous night, is that Hersheypark has a zoo. And whilst it has its own separate ticket, you also get it included for free in your day ticket. So why not have a quick wander through I thought! It's a nice area, not too big, away from the park but not too far away, and a good way to break up the day. Didn't take any photos, but yeah, was nice. Anyways, it was time for creds again. And I surprised myself with how restrained I was in getting back to the one and only... Skyrush! Remember how I said yesterday they weren't enforcing the no-bags-in-queue rule? Well today they were. Eurgh, fine. Don't see the need really; the stupid station design means bags vs no bags is a mute discussion in my mind. Anyways, I got a couple more rides in, including at the back again, and it lived up to my memory from the day prior. Absolutely fantastic experience, and well and truly cemented itself as my #4. Not wanting to completely wreck my thighs one park in though, I left the yellow beast for now to return back to Candymonium, and see what on earth was up with this hot and cold beast. Fortunately it didn't have much of a queue, only 5-10 minutes, and I decided to mimic my ride from the previous day and go for the back row. And you know what? It was fantastic again! It was a ride that was just a ton of fun, and filled with neat airtime moments. Whatever disappointment I had yesterday had dissipated, and I truly liked this sweet ride. I went back round again and bagged another front row ride, which I guess shows my enjoyment of it. So now for my Candymonium review. It's a really fun ride, with lots of neat airtime moments. It's got good pacing with it too, which is great. And what I realised, most importantly, is that whilst it has trims at two different moments, those trims are needed. You still get some good airtime on them, and if they weren't there, you'd be getting airtime more akin to Skyrush's. That wouldn't be a bad thing for the ride really, but it then means you have two rides offering the exact same experience, which you don't want. The trims help differentiate Candymonium from Skyrush, and give the rides separate identities, whilst not taming down Candymonium. Huzzah! My one concern about Candymonium - I really enjoyed my rides where I didn't have to queue, but didn't get the same sense of fulfilment when I did queue. That could also be put down to first ride expectations. So whilst I rate Candymonium, would I be willing to queue for it? Honestly, I don't know. The Kisses fountain is a bit abstract, but I can see what they tried to do. As the photos show, the clouds had become a bit more ominous-looking after my rides on Candymonium. And sure enough, the dreaded "R" word followed....rain. It wasn't unexpected by me: the forecast did predict a short shower. But checking my weather app, it said this shower would last for a good 1-2 hours now. Bugger. Hersheypark close their big outdoor rides in the rain; certainly anything I wanted to re-ride was down. After a quick snack and think, I decided to do what a good chunk of people had done, and ride one of only two indoor rides on park. Not wanting to bother to trek to the other side of the park, I went for another go on Reece's Cupfusion... I got another delightful, free mugshot More importantly though... I claimed the current high score for the day...BOOM! Guy at the exit said he hadn't seen a score above 300k for a while too - whether he said that as a generic customer servicey comment thing, or if he was genuine, I don't know, but yeah. Take that everyone who visited Hersheypark on June 2nd! (I'm not competitive at all......) I had hoped the long wait and doing the ride would mean the rain would pass, but it didn't. It was still going strong. I really wasn't interested in doing Laff Trakk again, so I decided to wander over towards Skyrush, find somewhere undercover, and see what happens. For reference, at this point, it was about half 4, and park closed at 6. So I sat, and I waited. Rain still coming down. I don't mind the rain, but with little to do, I didn't see the point in wandering around too much aimlessly. In hindsight, now would have been a good time to do the zoo, and I could have used my earlier zoo time for rides, but oh well. The rain stopped a little after 5 - woohoo, the clouds have been kind! I didn't know what the rules would be exactly with rides reopening, but I hung back and waited patiently for Skyrush to come back to life. 15 minutes later, still no sign of life. Hmmmm, that's less good. Asked the staff at the entrance whether it would reopen - turns out it wasn't set to reopen for the day. Well bugger. Did it die before the rain? Was it a post-rain thing? No idea. Ah well, back to Candymonium then.... Or not, that was also closed. And there was no committed answer as to whether it would reopen at this point. Other bigger rides were running around the park. But I didn't have much inclination to go on something like Great Bear or Fahrenheit again. The app listed Storm Runner as shut, though I wasn't wholly convinced. Equally though, whilst it would be nice to get a reride on it, I wasn't that fussed in tracking back and giving it a shot. So I decided to call it a day, with only 20 minutes of park time left. So though my visit to Hersheypark finished on a bit of a damp downer, it was still a fantastic couple of days. Skyrush and Candymonium are a great one-two punch for the park, and they have a wide variety of "good" rides too. There's obviously a solid selection of flats too, which I didn't really go on, and an included water park, which isn't my thing. So it's super well rounded too. I hope they continue going for the more 'themed area' approach, even if only lightly, as Chocolate Town and Jolly Rancher Land are wonderful, cohesive pieces. I'd also love to see them get another indoor ride - there's definitely scope and potential for something really cool. Wait no, I'm in Hersheypark. There's definitely scope and potential for something really sweet. Coming soon: Knoebels, filled with nice food...and not-so-nice spites...

Quick run down of my trip to Florida last time. My last trip in February 2022 saw me lose a lot of trust in the Disney company, their parks were an absolute hassle. Magic Kingdom - Much better this time around. Even without Splash Mountain, the queues were just a lot shorter. Genie+ is relatively strong here and with a lot more rides, the spread across the rides is good. I really like Tron Lightcycle Run. I acknowledge that it is way too short but the strong launch and the excellent soundtrack make this an enjoyable ride. The outside area gives the ride a great visual and the lighting package is beautiful. Animal Kingdom - Now 6 years since investment, this has become the quietest park and as a consequence, remains the most enjoyable and relaxed of the four parks. It also for me has the most consistent rides with the only weak link being Kali River Rapids. Everything else is Disney's best. The park has the best food across the parks and remains strong to its central theme of conservation. Epcot - Meh. Just a one and done park for me. Each ride is fine but not worth going on more then once. Didn't even get on Testrack due to reliability issues. Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind is fine but it's a lot of faff to get on and I just find the eight minutes of pre-show beyond tedious and completely self indulgent. The ride is really fun with good air time. But we are essentially have a vekoma family spinning rollercoaster with hours of queuing that goes with it. The two songs we got were good but they completely drown out the commentary from the Guardians as you're riding. Hollywood Studios - This day was tough. Started out with no Rise of the Resistance, Rock 'N' Rollercoaster and Slinky Dog and that caused massive backlogs everywhere. The only ride that worked all day was Runaway Railroad and Star Tours, everything else was an hour wait or more with multiple bouts of downtime. This was the toughest day at Disney, Hollywood Studios just needs more filler rides. Everything is top tier but nothing is there to soak up the people. Genie+ is strongest here but if you're in stand by, it is a miserable day out. Seaworld - This park opens at 10 but the only ride open by 11 was Kraken. Dismal start to the day and it was unbearably hot waiting outside Pipeline with no cover. Pipeline is the worst B&M I have been on, a rare misfire for me. For some reason the vest restraints dug into my shoulders the entire time. Yuck. The ride itself, the seats clunk up and down and for a ride that is relatively full of air time, the seats thud up and down over the hills. I found the whole thing just really uncomfortable but I do realise this could just be me. Manta, Kraken and Mako were excellent as per usual. Ice Breaker was weird with awful restraints. The ride starts off fairly good but the restraint does keep getting tighter and tighter as it goes on. Busch Gardens - Williamsburg is far better. The ride line up is just a tad stronger. Iron Grawzi is well hyped and it is good. but best rollercoaster in the world I'm not so sure. For one the operations absolutely suck. 5 minute dispatches every single time. The ride is also.. for me.. too short. You race into the break run at full speed so it feels like it has a lot more to give. There are some great elements though such as the first drop which made me grey out each time. Some of the air time is pretty good, others is excellent. It has some of the odd transitions that Twisted Timbers and Wildcats Revenge has which are actually more painful than enjoyable. So yeah, I'm undecided on where I sit with it. Montu was fine, Sheikra didn't seem as impressive after Griffon, I liked Cheetah Hunt this time around. Tigris has vile restraints and Scorpion is excellent. Galatic Starcruiser - The soon to be closed hotel experience was by far one of the finest things I've ever completed in my life. It was so engaging, full of great plot twists and excitement and there's a part of me that thinks if it had been just a little bit cheaper, it could have succeeded. Thanks for reading. 😃

Hi there, This is just a write up of a trip that I've wanted to do for what feels like my whole life but in reality is about twenty years. When I first really opened my world to theme parks beyond Chessington, Alton Towers and Thorpe Park, there was three rollercoasters that were announced and about to begin construction. Those were Silver Bullet at Knotts Berry Farm, Storm Runner at Hersheypark and Hydra at Dorney Park. Silver Bullet was ticked off neatly a decade ago but a series of events has meant I've been waiting to hit the East Coaster for far longer then I'd have wanted. With 2022, the year of revenge travel kind of over, wedding done, honeymoon and 12 day cruise done it was time to think about where to go. And I straight away aimed for the East Coast, we got planning and this trip was very much designed around the idea of rest days and giving certain parks priority over others. At Six Flags Great America in 2018. we didn't give ourselves enough time so didn't get to really enjoy our day. A power cut scuppered several rides and it felt like a missed opportunity. Here I set up the trip so that big flagship parks got the time they deserved whilst the smaller ones got a day and less car travel to the next destinations. It went like this Day 1 - Kings Dominion Day 2 & 3 - Busch Gardens Williamsburg Day 4 - Six Flags America Day 5 & 6 - Hersheypark Day 7 - Dorney Park Day 8 & 9 - Six Flags Great Adventure Day 10 - Nickelodeon Universe Day 11, 12 & 13 - New York Tourism. Soo one thing that became clear on this trip is that the weather was not on our side. Unseasonable rain storms were a frequent occurrence and the sky was often grey and rainy. Kings Dominion is very much known for Intimidator 305, the Intamin giga that tries to anhailiate you from the word go. I'd write up about it but we never even saw it move. It was down for the entire time we were there and it would not be the first intamin that didn't open for us. For this park we did actually have fast lane. We wanted a relaxing day and it turned out to be a good move. We started the day by heading to Twisted Timbers, an RMC that opened in 2018. I really liked it. Chris did not like it. One thing this RMC does differently to the bigger ones is that at only 110 feet, it has a higher emphasis on lots of airtime and twisted track moments. This air time is pretty brutal. You are pushed each and every time into the restraint and you do this about 16 times throughout its layout. I prefer this smarter use of layout design to some of the others (Zadra) but I can understand that the variety is slightly lacking if all you feel like you're doing is being thrown up and down relentlessly. Our next ride was a classic, a racing wooden rollercoaster named Racer. As we got there fairly early on, only one side was running but later in the day, both sides were operating with one train a side. I really liked this and it rides well for its age. America has a lot of classic wooden rollercoasters and its nice to see they have retained these orders rides and kept them in such great condition. To keep up the wooden rollercoaster momentum we went to ride Grizzly which had some rebuilt track work in the last six months. I've come to expect that the old parts of the track are bumpy and the newer parts are silly smooth and Grizzly did not disappoint. It was a peculiar ride, very big but not particularly memorable. Chris loved it. I don't remember much from it aside from the entrance being in a gift shop. So far, so good. I was getting good feelings from Kings Dominion. The park wasn't crazily busy and the rides were running nicely. To keep the positivity up, we headed to Dominator, an absolutely huge B&M Floorless rollercoaster that used to live in Geauga Lake and then moved to KD in 2008. iIve seen POV's of Dominator and it always came across as bit weak, like the train just went off meandering with no purpose. it's nothing of the sort and I think it is actually my favourite floorless out there. It is absolutey huge, the vertical loop is a monster but I also like how the layout isn't atypical B&M. The train goes through high speed banked corners, up and over the station, down again with little air time moments peppered in there to break up the pacing. The interlocking corkscrews are full of force. This is a ride that hasn't got restrictions and is unashamedly big and bold. We took a dive into some dark ride that used to be Scooby doo themed, now isn't and is just sad. it was walk on so that was fine. We went to ride Reptilian, a mack bobsled which is my last one to do and I've done them all. We were about to get on when a code red was called. All rides were closed because of a thunderstorm in the area. Yes even the indoor ones. So whilst we waited around in absolutely stunning sunshine, nothing moved, nothing could be done. This closure ended up lasting three hours and that long in a park with no rides does take its toll. There was a five minute rain storm in that three hours. We didn't see any lightening or thunder. The park was in no rush to get things open is how it felt. We were about to see if there was anything we could do for our fast lane, it's not like we could just come again another day with a weather back guarantee. We then saw Dominator testing so thought we'd head back to intimidator to get on that when it reopened. We saw Backlot Stunt Coaster was back in operation so went straight on with the fast lane. These rides are just odd and I think without the Italian Job theme, just don't work. More and more rides were springing back to life. We got on Reptilian which was about what you'd expect from a Mack bobsled, got on Anaconda, a classic Arrow coaster with a terrifying dive into the lake followed by some inversions that I don't even know how the train got through them. We rode Flight of Fear which I was okay with but Chris absolutely hated. Like despised, easily one of his least favourite rides from the trip. At this point I started to lose faith that Intimidator was going to open so we did one last lap of the park getting rides on Racer red, Twisted Timbers, Woodstock Express and Dominator. We called it a day around 7pm, the weather had taken its toll on our enthusiasm to stay and something else was bothering me. The operations at Kings Dominion are not good. Cedar Fair are particularly guilty of running rides at full capacity but have you sitting on break runs for five minutes a go. Cedar Point is about the only place where the staff have energy. Here at KD they were quite happy to leave us waiting whilst they faffed around with something. So would I visit again? Not unless they add something of real value. I like Twisted Timbers and Dominator, but they aren't the solid main attraction. Maybe that ride is Intimidator 305. But that being down all day was a frustration that lingered throughout the day unfortunately. Thank you for reading.

My 100% favourite thing about rollercoasters is that sometimes, just on that odd occasion, something will completely take your breathe away. Something will remind you that your hobby is the best in the world. This trip was a little out of the blue. Initially, we were supposed to go to Towers but once we learned that the Saturday was fully booked and Sunday was supposed to see a high amount of travellers, we took the quick decision to book a ferry to Dunkirk. Plopsaland is a quick drive across the French/Belgium border. There's lots of loveliness to Plopsaland, I was a particular fan of the dinosaur themed log flume and Heidi the mini GCI wooden coaster. But frankly, there was only one ride that bought me here. The Ride to Happiness is one of those odd rides that does stick out like a sore thumb. I read the dedicated thread that said this ride does dramatically change the dynamics of this cute little family theme park. Whilst that is true, I actually think that its a good thing that there is something like RtH at the park as it definitely has something special about it. The queue line is a simple affair, two dedicated rooms with little theming areas and a little area under the break run that was never used. On our visit, the queues were minimal with about a 5 minute wait for the ride. Which was perfect to get a real proper feel for the ride. The station is nice and open and it becomes very clear quickly that this is a ride where it doesn't really matter where in the train you ride, the experience is similar. With that being said, the air time on the back carriage is probably the greatest. Like many of Mack's newer rollercoasters, the restraints are near perfect. Not too tight but enough to feel secure. The trains are exactly the same design choice as Time Traveller. With everyone seated and checked, the train is dispatched and your first inversion is a jo-jo roll. It's hard to describe because the sensation of being upside down whilst spinning is so peculiar and unique. It sets up the ride perfectly, this is no normal rollercoaster. Unlike most Mack launches which are normally pretty tame, this feels pretty forceful because of the spinning element and as a bonus, the train is forced to spin near the end of the launch track and it is fantastic. The train travels upwards into a top hate kind of element, the track is slightly banked which encourages the spin to continue and then you just fall. Oh the drop on this is sublime. It catches your breathe quite unlike any other rollercoaster. On a couple of rides, we were on the back carriage and it was in the right position to go down this track backwards and let me tell you, the ejector was exquisite. Absolutely superb. The ultimate adrenaline hit. I adored it and it became one of the many highlights in a ride full of them. The train traverses the banana roll which admittedly, was not my favourite part of the ride but the thing is, it was always excellent. With every ride just being that little bit different it always felt fresh and exciting. The vertical loop quickly following this was funky. I enjoyed doing it sideways or with a slight spin. The zero g is also excellent encouraging the train to spin just that little bit more each time. Just fantastic. Up next is the bunny hop second launch area which just gives the train that extra kick to get into the signature element which surrounds the entrance to the rides queue line. Just wow. Sometimes it was easy to see where the train was going, sometimes the carriage was spinning so much it was hard to tell just exactly where you were. Just completely disorientated. The train drops down over the area, around a lake and finishing off with two ejector filled bunny hops. Packed to the brim with air time you hit the break run happy. And thats really the key to this ride. It reminds me of the first time riding Taron, hitting the final breaks and just smiling. It was wonderful, it was a shock to the system, it makes you want to run round to do it all over again. And that, was what a lot of people were doing that day. There was a lot of us going round and round on this thing to experience it as much as possible. With each ride being so unique and different it was fantastic to just experience it. I've never known a ride like it. It was just something special, something completely unique and enjoyable. Huge smiles that I could not hide after each ride. Just hitting that break run, wanting to run around and experience it again. Sheer joy. I'm so grateful for what Blue Fire did for the Mack company back in 2009 because we are now really seeing the fruits of their labour. And what I love about it is that whilst it is forceful and a fast experience, it never feels overwhelming. Whilst spinning around on it, you can see the joy from all your fellow riders faces. We met a person who had been on it over 1900 times and still isn't bored. I've got this far and haven't even talked about the fantastic soundtrack which fits the ride to perfection. Themed around a music festival in Belgium, this could have easily failed but it works perfectly with the rides pacing. Gives me chills. Ride to Happiness isn't just a wonderful ride, it is in my opinion, the finest ride in Europe.

Day 2 - Parc Asterix Next up was Parc Asterix. A big bucket list park for me, and it didn’t disappoint. It was quite pricey at €62 for entry and €20 for parking. The park had their halloween event on which I didn’t look into at all before visiting, as I was mainly going for the coasters. Park hours were open 9 - 6 and then re-open 7-1am on selected nights. On nights they don’t open late its 10 - 7. I opted to just go during the day as I was making this trip as cost effective as possible, and staying till 1am would’ve meant buying another entry ticket and another night in a hotel. I was really unsure how busy it was going to be as it was the French holidays, and all their halloween nights were sold out. Thursday was also incredibly busy. The park offers filotomatix which is their fastrack service which uses the same system seen at Chessie and Legoland. Different tiers are available, but I decided to buy the bronze option which was only €20, which allowed me to virtually queue for 9 attractions. Turns out I didn’t really need this as it was one of the quietest days during the halloween period so far! I arrived at the park just before opening. And was greeted with this huge crowd being held. Bang on 9am, the crowd started to disperse and there was lots of running. So I joined in. I had no clue where anything was as I had done no prep but I followed the majority of people assuming they were running to Toutatis, overtaking a lot of Frenchies on the way. Sure enough, I could see Toutatis’ top hat in the distance and an empty train going round. Got straight in the front row queue and only had 6 people in front of me. The station building is awesome. One of my favorite stations ever. Great atmosphere in there too, with the dispatch sequence, and with the train going straight into a drop and a launch you get a lot of screams too. Noticed it was just running 2 trains, but ops were good and soon enough I had my first ride. Similar to RTH the day before, I came off my first ride feeling very ‘meh’. It was good, but I wasn’t blown away like I was expecting to be. I was going to go straight back on via the SRQ but noticed this was closed, so instead I went to the back of the park to Oziris, another bucket list coaster for me. Advertised at 5 mins, I also went straight into the front row queue and was on in about 10 mins. Absolutely loved this. The theme, the plaza and the area is all great too, and thats the first time I've come off an invert questioning if that was better than Nemesis. Throughout the day I came to the conclusion I still prefer Nemesis overall, but its close. Next, I did Tour de Numérobis, which was new for 2024, a starflyer. I noticed this tends to get high queues and it wasn’t included on the filotomatix so I could get it done early with no queue. I did this to try get an idea of the rest of the park, but the park has lots of trees and with this located in the corner I didn’t really see a lot. Was a good ride though, same as Flamingo lands the whole tower spins, this one had more seats though and airgates around the ride too. I jumped back in the queue for Oziris and waited around 10 minutes, and requested the back row which was honored. Again, brilliant ride. Noticed the SRQ was closed on this too for some reason. This one turned out to be closed all day. I wandered round the rest of the park and then could see Goudurix and Tonnerre 2 Zeus in the distance. I had a virtual queue to use for these but my thinking was if I could get these done now with little queues, I could use the virtual queue for a 2nd ride later on once it's busier. First up was Goudurix. Was quite interested in this, never got to do corkscrew at Towers and it has a reputation of being very rough. But I enjoyed it to be honest, nothing special. I loved the plaza for this. Very open area and partly over a lake. A lot of space for a new coaster once that time comes. Looking very spooky with a smoke machine infront. Operations were amazing on this. Smashing the trains out. Next up was Tonnerre 2 Zeus, which also has a reputation of being quite rough. This was advertised at 25 mins, but ended up taking 45 with a bit of downtime. My longest queue of the day by far. Worth noting, this was the only bit of downtime I saw at the 2 parks over the 2 days. No messing around either, no empty trains needed once back in operation. Had a mid train ride and quite enjoyed it. It was a little rattly but didn’t find it particularly rough, and had decent airtime. I would’ve loved to have tried the backwards seat but that was removed for this year unfortunately. Would’ve loved to have tried it with its previous trains too. Also in the area is another amazingly themed Zamperla Disk'o, this one has a fire effect too. I didn't bother with this due to a large queue and wasn't included with the fasttrack I had. I was itching to get back on Toutatis to give it another go, and this time the SRQ was open too. Was so interesting just watching the station, organized chaos, but it works. Having staff walking up and down the airgates with trolleys for bags (while people are trying to get to their allocated rows) is hilarious, but it works and means they can seriously speed up ops. Within 15 mins I was at the airgate, row 6 this time. They then sent a couple of empty trains, and engineers were present so I thought they may be adding the 3rd train. Turns out they were just swapping one. Not sure how often it runs 3? Maybe due to the extended opening hours they just switch between them so they have 2 available at all times? Anyway. Soon enough normal service resumed and I had my ride. And WOW. What a difference from earlier. Had a huge smile the whole way round. That swing launch is absolutely incredible. I’m not the biggest fan of the first section before the swing launch, and I don’t particularly like the top hat either, the trims really kill it. But the rest of the layout is amazing and has some of the best ejector I've ever experienced. On that swing launch, its hilarious just watching other peoples heads move back and forward. Its so aggressive. Some of the most aggressive airtime I've experienced. I had a little wonder round the rest of the area and had a look at the Nebula, which is raised up in its own little area. It had no queue and I’d never done one before so gave it a go. Better than I thought it was going to be, but nothing amazing. It fits in with the area really well though, and you get good views of Toutatis. It has airgates too for speedy ops. I then did the Rapids and grabbed a bite to eat. The rapids were alright, short layout but had a few water effects and splashes. Before having my lunch I got in the virtual queue for Pégase Express, the parks Gerstlauer family coaster which was 30 mins. A good little family coaster but nothing amazing. The backwards section was my favorite bit, pretty forceful. I loved the Greek area though and the interaction with the rapids. Great ops too, running 4 trains they were smashing them out. I then got in the virtual queue for Trace du Hourra (the parks Mack Bobsleigh) and had a little wander around. Once I got there I noticed it dropped to 10 mins, so I got in the main queue and then used to the virtual queue after so had 2 quick rides, a backrow and front row. Decent ride but I prefer Avalanche at Blackpool, much more intense. Crazy good operations though, running 5 trains and commonly had 2 trains going up the lift hill at the same time. The airgates and restraints fling open before the train even parks in the station which is hilarious, and bags on the ride means no messing around with that either. I joined the virtual queue for Oziris which was 30 mins and I was obviously back in the Toutatis area so it would be rude to not have a ride. Went for the SRQ again and was on in less than 10 minutes. At this point I was addicted, so I canceled my Oziris virtual queue and was lapping the SRQ. I thought I was in for a busy day so couldn't quite believe I was lapping it getting on within 10 mins. Ended up having another 5 rides on it on multiple different rows, including the back. Was really really enjoying it. I was thinking about where I rank it, its in my top 3 but its not a Kondaa beater for me purely because of the top hat and the weak start. But the swing launch and aggressive airtime is phenomenal, and watching others reactions was hilarious. Great ride. Eventually, I pulled myself away from it and used my virtual queue for Oziris and got straight on the front row. I loved the drop into this pit. You get a little splash of water too. I had a look at the SRQ which was still closed, and as I was walking round I noticed a scare maze in the corner which had no queue. As I previously said, I hadn’t looked into the halloween stuff at all, I didn’t know if the mazes were a night only thing or additional cost. But had a chat with the staff at the entrance who told me it was free, and got straight in the next group, there was only about 5 of us. It was called ‘Le tombeau des Dieux’ which means ‘The Tomb of the Gods’ in French, and it was 1 of 2 new scare attractions for this year. Now this was brilliant. Hands down the best scare attraction I've done in a long long time. It was a similar format to what we have here, the normal spiel from staff outside then inside the first room the actor had a mic where he set the scene of the maze. It was quite amusing doing a maze not understanding a single word anyone was saying. But I didn’t need to understand. The pre show ended with the lights going out and a jump scare effect, then I was in the maze. It was pretty dark, had lots of jumps and lots of actors. I then came across an area with what I thought was just a water fountain, and the floor was really wet. Then, an actor came out of the water! AN ACTOR WAS LAYING DOWN HIDING IN THE WATER. The most bizarre thing I've ever seen in a maze and really caught me off guard. It had a strong ending with actors coming from all angles, sides and from above. The whole thing was well themed and was most probably the best scare attraction I've ever experienced. Actors were fairly touchy. I then did Storm surges sister L’Oxygenarium. Great ops as it benefits from a larger station, 2 in offload and 2 load. It was pretty dull though, no music and theming was all looking quite old and tacky. I then came across 2 other mazes which both were displaying 5 minute queues. First up was Mission perdue which required 3d glasses. It was decent but nothing amazing. The 3d glasses made it quite trippy and it featured lots of clowns, moving walls, air cushions and the ending scene was a load of dolls similar to the ending on stitches. Great use of the 3d glasses though with lots popping out at you and fake steps. Catacombs was up next. Waited about 10 minutes for this one, but had an actor walking up and down the queue which was entertaining. This one was great. It looked like it was in a temporary building but once again the theming was excellent. Lots of tunnels and crawl spaces and very dark. One of the tunnels had water dripping on you from above. Actors all over the place and grabbing you from holes in walls. Was a strong maze! I continued walking round the park and walked into a castle which is part of the footpath, and there was a load of roaming actors too. My favorite was a guy with a chainsaw who was drawing a big crowd, and 2 people dressed up as spiders hiding in darkness in a castle. 1 of them was hanging off a web, and there was another on the floor, and as people walk near they move and make people jump. Was hilarious, and creates a great atmosphere walking round the park. Next I did Zeus again on the backrow, I used my virtual queue for this and was straight on. Again, really enjoyed this. I noticed they have a spare queue into the station which I assume used to be the queue for the backwards seat, would be cool if they turned that into a SRQ. I then came across another maze, this was the 2nd new one for this year and it was €5, the only upcharge maze which was intriguing. Got straight in, and was in a group of 3 for this one. There was an actor in the queue who jumped out as I went round the corner with a mic. Had to just awkwardly smile at him as no idea what he was saying. There seemed to be more actors in here, who were very touchy and grabby and constantly blocked me in my path, splitting us up, and followed throughout the maze. Once again amazing theming and sets throughout, came across another actor who was in water who was pulling me in, and eventually splashed and soaked me. It wasn’t till I came out I realized how soaked I was, more than what I got from the water rides. Was a great maze but didn’t top that first one I did. Next I did the log flume, was straight on this with my virtual queue although did take me a while to find the entrance! Was a good flume, and had good views of construction of the new coaster construction. I also noticed the tea cups next door seemed to have a halloween makeover so went and checked that out after. They had put walls up to make it dark and added a smoke machine and lights! Simple things like this go a long way, no reason why Thorpe or Towers couldn’t do something similar with theirs. It was coming towards the end of the day so I went towards Toutatis but unfortunately the SRQ had been closed and the main queue was overflowing out the entrance. I had a ferry to catch and didn’t want to risk it so I gave it a miss. I finished my day doing the final cred, Vol D'Icare which had no queue which was a kids Zierer Hornet coaster, then did a re-ride on Pégase Express as it had no queue. I didn’t realize the first time but you get wet from the show scene on this. I then grabbed some food, and set off to get the ferry back home. I had a great day, got on 23 rides including 7 on Toutatis and 4 mazes throughout the day. I had no intention of doing any mazes to be honest but I got more done than I thought, and after how good that first one was I thought it would be rude not to try some of the others. Parc Asterix is one of my favorite parks. It has a great selection of rides, great ops and overall is just a very pleasant place to be. Their halloween event is strong, I’m surprised I hadn’t really seen much about it before. The 4 mazes I did were all strong, and there was lots going on around the park too. I didn’t watch any of the shows, but the park was decorated really well and there was lots of roamers and cool sets. Great day, one of my favorite days at a theme park this year and I will 100% be back!

Last week I decided to do a couple of European parks for the first time, Plopsaland and Parc Asterix. Ride To Happiness has been high on my bucket list for a long time and I've always wanted to do Asterix, especially since Toutatis opened. I looked at a few different options, originally I was going to do Walibi Holland and Efteling too but doing this solo meant it would’ve been quite expensive, and I didn’t know how comfortable I was going to be driving in Europe on my own. Another option I looked at was Liseberg but flights from Gatwick were about £200 for a return, so I could do Plopsa and Parc Asterix for the same price as 1 day/night at Liseberg. I knew it was the holidays but looking at the queues in previous years, that week didn’t seem particularly busy. Day 1 - Plopsaland I set off around 5am for the 8:15am ferry over to Calais, which arrived in Calais for 11am, aiming to get to Plopsa for 12ish. I could’ve got an earlier one to get there for opening, but it was open till 7pm and I've heard you didn’t really need a full day there anyway, and I didn’t want to knacker myself out too much. I’d heard that food and drinks were very expensive at Plopsa so I went to the supermarket a couple of mins away to grab myself some lunch before I went in. I drove past Plopsa to get to the supermarket and realized how close it was, so I decided to leave my car parked at the supermarket and walk to the park (took about 5 mins) which saved me 15 euros on parking. I got to the park at about 12:15, and there was obviously 1 ride I was going to go for first, Ride to Happiness. First impressions of the park were nice, the entrance plaza was cool. On my way over, I noticed there was some work taking place on Heidi on the turnaround section so it was looking unlikely that it was going to open. Turns out it had actually been closed all month, but reopened the day after I went, on the Friday. I wasn’t too fussed about not getting on it, the main reason for visiting was Ride to Happiness and with the park being very easy to get to I’ll most probably be back there at some point anyway. I love the plaza and the area music, very calming. The food unit did have pop music playing though which was a shame though. Brilliant theming in the queue, it was running 1 train but only queued around 10 minutes, I went straight for the backrow which is normally my favorite seat on most coasters. The trains are comfy, and it was interesting to see the bars come down automatically so there was no need for the staff to check restraints. The trains also have an onboard sound track and lighting. I came off my first ride feeling very meh. It was good, and different to any coaster I've done before, and absolutely loved the on-board soundtrack, that really added to it. But was I blown away? Absolutely not. Didn’t live up to the hype for me at all. After that I decided to have a wander around the rest of the park, did the log flume and Drakk the parks mack powered coaster which were good. Dinosplash the log flume was cool, although the water was an interesting color… Next I did Nachtwacht Flyer which is the parks Starflyer, as I thought it would be a good way to see the rest of the park, and then went onto do Anubis, a Gerstlauer launch coaster. I did go past a couple of other little coasters but these had large queues so decided to go back to them later. Anubis has a brilliant station building and indoor queue line, running 2 trains with no queue. This was a good little coaster, the launch is very snappy and the top hat is great, however the ending is a little dull. It was very smooth for a Gerstlauer. I did the Superspash as I noticed people didn’t look particularly wet, which just consisted of a lift, drop and then a slow return to the station. The lift is quite cool though. I also did the Big Wave which was the parks Disk’O coaster. This was the best themed one I've ever seen, even had a little water feature on it and had great interaction with the nearby Splash battle. At this point I had pretty much done the rest of the park so I went back to the Ride To Happiness, this time I went for the front row. Now, this absolutely blew me away, completely different to my ride earlier. I was laughing and smiling to myself the whole way round, and the hangtime you get on that first inversion on the front car is great. It's rare I prefer a ride on the front row but getting pushed into the airtime moments and other elements on this was better in my opinion. The rest of the day just consisted of lapping this, with the occasion ride on Anubis. It didn’t really build up much of a queue all day and in total managed to get on it over 20 times. Operations were okay, but with no batcher and no effort from the staff to fill up seats there were a lot going round empty. I even had a car of 4 to myself at one point even though there was a queue. The queue was around 10 minutes most of the day and peaked about 30 minutes at one point. At first I wasn’t really taking empty seats due to the language barrier but as the day went on, I got more confident getting on earlier trains taking empty seats which saved a lot of time with it being on 1 train. Each ride I was laughing the whole way round, and left me smiling on the brake run. Every single ride is different no matter where you sit, and experiencing all the different elements facing a different way each time is so fun. Its so re-rideable, the front car was definitely my favorite. The airtime at the end of the ride is brilliant. Everyone is so happy on the break run and the on board soundtrack fits it perfectly. It is a little inconsistent though, and some rides on it are better than others. The queue closed at 7pm, and the staff kindly let me stay in the station for a few rides taking empty seats. Sunset rides on this were brilliant, it didn’t quite get a dark ride but the area looks brilliant in the dark. Lots of great lighting, including lighting on the train too. I exited the park, grabbed some dinner and had a 2.5 hour drive to my hotel for the night near Parc Asterix ready for the following morning. Overall, I had a good day. Shame about not getting on Heidi but I'll be back. Plopsaland is a charming little park, and although I was originally a little disappointed with Ride to Happiness I finished the day absolutely loving it. Plopsaland is obviously more aimed for kids so without Ride To Happiness I probably wouldn't return, but with how easy it is to get there, I'll definitely be back.

It's not secret that Europa Park is by far my easily favourite theme park in the world. Every metric is ticked with over 50 rides across the resort including 8 dark rides, 14 rollercoasters, dozens of family friendly rides and amazing restaurants and shows. It also ticks many of my personal metrics in how a theme park should run; capacity and efficiency should be the name of the game when you're attracting a high number of guests a year but the beauty of Europa is how effortless it all feels. So I'll do a bit of a run down in this blog about the major rides and then just some general observations. We were there were three days in total and I will never get bored at this superb park. Alpine Express and Wildwasser Bahn In June 2023 a vast part of these two rides was completely destroyed in a fire. In 2024 they have both reopened, one a complete retrack and the other a complete rebuild. Whilst I wouldn't say the replacement of the mine is better then what has gone before, I will say that it had far more people exploring and going around it then the mine ever did. Lots of lovely little interactive areas and a lot more engaging for kids. Whilst I preferred zooming through the caves on Alpine Express then now, I must admit that this is probably the best we were going to get in such a short space of rebuilding time. They've done a really good job. The VR and new restraints have completely wrecked Alpines capacity though, it was by far the worst operating coaster at the park with 3 minute dispatch times seen. Blue Fire This ride really is timeless to me. Along with this and Maverick, it has truly changed the game in modern rollercoasters. Without those two rides we would not have Voltron, Toutatis, Hyperia, Gotham City Escape and so much more. Those two rides alone killed the coaster height wars and gave us these dynamic, exciting rides and rollercoasters have only got better and better. Blue Fire can feel a bit tame at times with a more mid layout but in my opinion it is aging superbly. It never feels rough and it doesn't have the vibration of the newer rides by Mack. The park run a four train service flawlessly. It eats through queues like nothing else and is a perfect showcase for the Mack launch coaster. Oddly on day three Blue Fire was really struggling with the colder weather. Frequent rollbacks and closures and then eventually stalling at the top of the top hat/stall turn thing at the start of the ride with guests on. A surreal sight to be sure but it was quickly fixed and opened about two hours later. For the first time, Blue Fire has fallen out of my top ten, however there's no denying the importance of Blue Fire. Wodan Running superbly. It has had sound deflectors added to several of the higher points which don't detract as such, just make the ride look weirdly blocked off from view. It has been surpassed by Thunderhead in my personal GCI ratings though as that is just a superior ride to Wodan. Silver Star Again, running fantastically. I noted in my review of Nitro last year that it was running just as well as Silver Star to its credit. What I've come to realise is that the American way of running rides is to shout and talk constantly over the PA to get guests moving. The difference at Silver Star is that it's effective and efficient despite using no communication at all. PA systems aren't used, instead guest intelligence is relied upon. I noticed that guests are the ones doing the batching, filling seats, asking for twos and getting 36 riders on those trains. Silver Star is now the only major rollercoaster at Europa Park without a batcher and it is interesting to see guests performing the role themselves. Silver Star is aging superbly as well, it is running very well and is very well maintained, but I think the queue and surrounding area could do with some work as there was broken TV's, music wasn't working properly and the Monte Carlo theme of the exhibition hall is looking a bit tired. This opened late on Day three due to the cold weather and opened on two trains but was easily managing its 10 minute wait. The Can Can Coaster Now that this isn't the big new rollercoaster, it's fallen back into its support rollercoaster role and is better for it. Still popular and still a good laugh, its hard to really fathom if this is an improvement on Euro-Sat but as time marches on, the memory fades and what is left is Can Can coaster, a lot of fun and a nice varied layout. Euro-Mir I know a lot of people despise Euro Mir for being quite rough and janky but I will always love this ride for feeling quite raw and aggressive. It has a bite to it that a lot of modern rides don't. A lot of rumours are flying around that Euro Mir is the next ride to see either a refurbishment or a replacement (X-Treme spinner????). Whatever it is, I know Europa Park will nail it. Poseidon, Pegasus, Atlantica Supersplash, Arthur, Schweisser Bobbahn & Matterhorn Blitz Covering all of these off at the same time as there hasn't really been that many changes. These were all great and fantastic support rollercoasters in their own right. And finally Voltron The brand new Voltron is an absolute masterclass in my opinion and highlights everything that is good and fantastic about modern day rollercoasters. This is a ride built to pump through numbers, achieving between 1400 and 1600 people per hour. I've waited the whole queue line, it takes around 45 minutes and you never really stop moving. It is a spectacle of modern day engineering and it's almost a shame that every little thing they've done to speed up waits and get through the numbers will never be used by other parks. Just imagine if Hyperia could achieve even half of what Voltron does every hour...(I'm being mean, ignore me) Voltron is a ride that I think absolutely slaps. It has so many unique little flourishes and quirks that I don't want to spoiler in this review. I'll talk about the things you can see such as the amazing vertical launch which has some wicked hang time at the top. It's so weird and hard to describe. The inversions are probably the least impressive thing about this ride though, it's all about the air time. Every moment where the train wants to fling you out of your seat, it will. For those that have done Ride to Happiness, it's the two air time hills at the end of the ride. That's pretty much most of Voltron. The zero-g stall is excellent too. I've done so many this year and it's between this and Taiga that are my favourites. Skipping ahead, the turntable part way through does break the flow and I wish there was more theme to this part of the ride as it does break up the pacing. It is definitely necessary but it's my biggest bug bear. Luckily the ride explodes back with a backwards launch which I think many don't know is going to happen as it's pretty hidden from view. For a Mack the launches are very good and the return journey to the station absolutely kicks arse. Ejector after ejector, constantly throwing you around and up into the restraint. The finale from the drop off the mid course into the final break run is one of my favourite sequences of any rollercoaster. It is relentless and full of g force and intensity. I love Voltron. I rode it ten times and I could not get enough of this absolute showcase of ride design. I had heard it has a rattle and roughness but I personally did not feel this. The outside seats are naturally more aggressive than the inner ones but I wouldn't say I felt any vibrations on my rides. I want more Strikers because Voltron delivered on everything I would have wanted. IMG_0944.mov There's so much more to explore at Europa Park and I've only covered the rollercoasters. Even now, a few weeks later I am eager to return as it just has so much to offer.

11th August 2024: Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach/Joyland Children’s Fun Park Hi guys. Today was an exciting day; today, me, my mum and my dad set off for our trip to East Anglia! I’ve never been to any of the parks in the region, and to be honest, me and my mum had never actually visited East Anglia full stop (unless Watford and Stansted Airport count, being part of what the ONS technically considers “the East of England”…). My dad had been to Great Yarmouth once back in the 1980s, when he still lived in Kent, but even for him, the area was relatively new. I was interested to get to some of the more major UK parks I hadn’t been to, and possibly the most significant place in the UK for theme parks I hadn’t been to, and I was excited to see what some of East Anglia’s finest parks had to offer! We weren’t originally sure if we were going to visit a park today, as our original plan was to saunter steadily down to the area, see how the drive went, and maybe do Joyland, the smaller of the two Great Yarmouth parks, if the drive wasn’t too bad. However, we changed tack at the last minute and decided to try and tackle both of the parks in Great Yarmouth today, as my mum and dad were daunted by the thought of the long drive home and felt that we may not necessarily be keen to do anything on Tuesday with the drive ahead of us afterwards. With this in mind, we set off early from our home in Gloucestershire, leaving at around 8am, and after a perfectly clean run (it was an absolutely idyllic drive in terms of traffic, and surprisingly, no one needed to stop for the toilet either!), we arrived in Great Yarmouth 4.5 hours later, at around 12:30pm, and parked up. After a brief stroll down the seafront from the car park, we headed to our first theme park of the day; Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach: After getting our Fun Cards and heading in, we decided to go to the park’s principal draw first… Roller Coaster Roller Coaster was the principal draw of Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach for us and had a relatively short-looking queue, so we decided to give it a go. Even with a one-train service, the queue only took around 15 minutes; I can’t really complain about that! On a side note, I have to say that I found the boarding and sending process on Roller Coaster interesting; I’ve never seen a coaster pushed out of the station before, and they didn’t even need to check our lap bars! But how was the ride? Well, it was my first brakeman-operated coaster, so I was interested to see how it rode. I was seated in the very back row, and I have to say, I found it rather enjoyable! Yes, it’s nothing particularly mind-blowing on the world stage or by modern standards, but it’s a decades-old heritage woodie. For what it is, I thought it was a really pleasant, fun coaster! It’s definitely not a particularly intense ride and does peter out a bit in places, but it was smooth for a woodie of its age, it was a really long ride, it had some surprising airtime in places (which was accentuated by the loose lap bar design), and on the whole, I just found it a very pleasant and charming coaster! I felt that the whole thing just had a certain charm about it that made me smile and made the ride a very pleasant ride to just exist on, and sit back and enjoy the sensations of a wooden roller coaster on, if you get my drift. Overall, then, I thought the Roller Coaster was a really nice, enjoyable coaster, and I certainly found my lap on there pleasant: After our ride on Roller Coaster, me and my mum went to ride the next coaster the park had to offer… Family Star Family Star was on a short queue, so me and my mum decided to take a ride. I very much know the drill with these spinning wild mouse coasters, and I’m not a fan of them at all having ridden 7 of the ubiquitous Reverchon models, but I was mildly interested to try Family Star, as I’ve never done one of the Fabbri models before and I was interested to see how it compared. So, how was the ride? Well, I’m afraid to say that I possibly found Family Star worse than its Reverchon siblings, which is quite impressive! It span from the get go rather than being unlocked halfway through, which I found interesting, but I found it more uncomfortable than the Reverchons for two reasons. Firstly, there was a really awkward seat divider that I kept getting smacked against around the corners, and secondly, it had some of the most awful sharp braking I’ve ever encountered, rivalling the now defunct Sand Serpent at Busch Gardens Tampa! To give credit where credit is due, however, I thought the operations were really decent on here for a park of this calibre. They had 5 cars on, and they were getting them sent out in not much over 30 seconds, which I think is pretty good for a park of Great Yarmouth’s calibre! In terms of the ride, though, I’m afraid to say that I wasn’t a fan at all. My mum wasn’t either; she turned to me during the ride and said “Matthew, how on Earth do you find this even vaguely enjoyable?”: After Family Star, me and my dad decided to go for a dark ride detour… Haunted Hotel Haunted Hotel had a nigh-on non-existent queue, so me and my dad decided to give it a go. After two coasters, we thought it might be fun to try something different, and I’d heard good things about Haunted Hotel. But how was the ride? Well, I thought it was reasonably decent for a seaside ghost train in a park of this calibre! It wasn’t particularly scary in terms of jumpscares, but I didn’t mind that, not being a huge fan of horror, and I thought that some of the sets and effects were quite decent for one of these seaside ghost trains! Overall, then, I thought Haunted Hotel was quite an enjoyable ghost train: After Haunted Hotel, we met back up with my mum and found a shady corner to eat our packed lunch in before I headed off to go and try a flat ride… Sky Drop I am a fan of a good drop tower, so I decided to give Sky Drop a spin. The queue was walk-on, and I waltzed straight into my seat on there; you can never complain about a walk-on ride! But how was the ride? Well, it didn’t exactly give Venom, Detonator or the late Apocalypse a run for their money in terms of UK drop towers, but for more of a family thrill drop tower, I thought Sky Drop was great fun! It packed reasonable force in its drops and launches, and it also had a really long cycle, and offered great views across Great Yarmouth! As a drop tower fan, I definitely came off it with a smile on my face, and for a more family thrill drop tower, I thought it absolutely hit the nail on the head! It had really good forces and a long cycle, and was just great fun for a family drop tower; I’d definitely take it over the SBF models like Croc Drop and Magma, personally: After Sky Drop, I decided to head to another coaster that was on a walk-on queue… Whirlwind I was sceptical about whether Whirlwind would be too much of a kiddie coaster for my liking, as I don’t generally ride kiddie coasters, but it didn’t look too bad in person. It was also walk-on and had no one in line, so I thought I may as well give it a whirl! So, how was it? Well, I’ve surprisingly never done one of these figure-8 SBF spinning coasters before, despite how common they are, and I thought it was it was, really. It wasn’t anything spectacular, but I didn’t find it particularly offensive either; it was just a profoundly average small coaster that didn’t have any significant detractors, but didn’t have a huge amount going for it either. On a side note, though, they give you a really long cycle on this; my mum counted that I got 6 laps on this coaster, which is obscene: After Whirlwind, I met back up with my parents, and me and my mum went to do something that I never thought I’d do… Big Apple Coaster Prior to our arrival at Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach, I did not think I would do this coaster. As I explained above, I don’t generally do kiddie coasters. However, my mother kindly offered to do it with me, and perhaps surprisingly, I dare say she possibly encouraged me to do it; when I said that I’d ruled this coaster out as it was a kiddie coaster, my mum’s words were “Who the f*** cares if you want to ride a kiddie coaster? I’ll go on it with you… besides, the website describes it as “family” and not “kiddie”!”. The ride was also walk-on, with space left on the train, so I thought “oh, what the hell!” and decided to finally lose my wacky worm virginity! I long thought that this day would never come, and I told myself for years that it would never come after an embarrassing experience on Octonauts at Alton Towers put me off doing kiddie coasters, but I must admit that being sat in that caterpillar train and rattling through that fibreglass apple for the first time, 117 coasters into the hobby, did feel like somewhat of a (marginally tragic) watershed moment! Anyway, that’s besides the point; how was my first ever wacky worm? Well, I thought it was perfectly OK, as kiddie coasters go! Similarly to Whirlwind above, it was nothing spectacular, but nothing particularly offensive either; it was profoundly average for a kiddie coaster. The trains were extremely tight, however; I, despite not exactly being astoundingly tall at 5’10”, felt very crammed in, and even my mother at only 5’3” had to sit sideways to get her legs behind the seat… you can definitely tell it’s designed for children, let’s put it that way! On a side note, I did find this particular wacky worm to have some fun historical value, as it used to reside at Alton Towers, a park very near and dear to me; mum and dad both looked at it and instantly said that they remembered it from Alton!: After riding Big Apple, we met back up with my dad and decided to leave Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach at that point and take a walk down the seafront of Great Yarmouth. We had only been in the park for around 1.5 hours, but we felt quite satisfied with what we’d done in that time and didn’t feel like we needed any longer in the park: After around 20 minutes, our little stroll along the seafront eventually took us to our second park of the day; Joyland Children’s Fun Park. I was interested to try some of the unique rides on offer here, such as Tyrolean Tubtwist and the iconic Snails: We entered Joyland and got some tokens, and unlike in Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach, my parents had no intention of riding anything in Joyland, so I went on everything in there entirely alone (this tidbit of information may be relevant later…). After getting my tokens, I decided to head to the ride that was nearest to the token machine, and the one that’s known as the park’s real icon… Snails The Snails were on a short queue and were near to the token machine, so I decided I might as well give them a go first. I was interested to try the Snails, as it’s the park’s main iconic attraction, it’s really unique, and I was told that I had to give them a go if I went to Great Yarmouth. So, how did I find the Snails? Well, I have to say that I thought they were really quite cute and charming; the little dips were good fun, and the whole thing just oozed vintage charm! However, I must admit that I found the experience quite embarrassing. I felt like a bit of an idiot riding the snail on my own as I went past the path and people were looking at me, and being sat there while the ride host personally took my picture with a camera at the end did not help matters… that’s my problem, though, and if looking purely at my own personal enjoyment of the Snails, I thought it was a really cute and charming attraction, and I was really glad to take a spin on this Joyland icon: After the Snails, I decided to head to my first coaster at Joyland… Spook Express Spook Express was on a short queue, so I decided to give it a go. Similarly to on the Snails, I felt excruciatingly awkward while the ride host stood there with a camera and told me to “do a big smile!” while they personally took my picture, and it did not help matters that I was the only adult on a train full of small children… if you’ve ever seen Elf, I felt a bit like Will Ferrell in that scene where he’s awkwardly sat in a classroom with all the tiny elves! Putting that aside, however, how was the ride? Well, I thought it was quite decent for a kiddie coaster! It was smooth, the helixes were surprisingly fast, the darkness added a fun element, and all in all, I thought it was quite an enjoyable kiddie coaster as kiddie coasters go, and probably a level above either of the two small coasters I did over at Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach: After Spook Express, I decided to tick off my final ride in Joyland… Tyrolean Tubtwist Tyrolean Tubtwist was on a walk-on queue, so I decided to take a ride on it. I was quite excited to give Tyrolean Tubtwist a go; it’s such a unique coaster, being the only Virginia Reel coaster left in the world, and I’ve often heard it recommended as a charming hidden gem. But how did I find the ride? Well, I’ll start with a positive spin; it’s certainly different. It’s extremely unique, quite unlike anything else I’ve ever ridden and I’m glad I managed to do this piece of history once. I’m delaying talking about the ride itself, because I don’t want to hurt the feelings of the many people who love it, think it’s a hidden gem and have nostalgia for it… but if I’m being honest, uniqueness is where the positives end for me, because I’m so sorry to say that I absolutely hated this coaster. I thought it was absolutely vile, and it’s right down there as one of my least favourite coasters I’ve ever ridden. In fact, I think it may honestly be my least favourite coaster, usurping the likes of Infusion and Hero. I appreciate that that’s a very controversial opinion, and certainly not one I expected to hold, but I’d genuinely struggle to think of a coaster I enjoyed less, so hear me out for a second. For starters, the ride is pretty rough around the corners, but that’s not the main thing that did it for me. It was a definite detractor, but I could have put up with that to some extent; the roughness in isolation was not what made me hate it so much. The main thing that did it for me was that it was so, so spinny; far, far too spinny for my personal liking. I do not have a terribly high tolerance for spinning (I can take a bit, but not loads), and Tyrolean Tubtwist is by far the most sickeningly spinny coaster I have ever ridden, usurping any of the spinning wild mice I’ve ridden by a good margin. When I got off, my head was spinning like mad and I genuinely couldn’t walk in a straight line, and my mum almost had to marshal me down the exit stairs so I didn’t fall down them. I felt really quite sick for quite a bit afterwards, and that ride was right up there along with Air Race at Drayton Manor as being one of the only rides where I’ve ever felt like I might be physically sick upon getting off. I know I probably sound like a right baby, I’m sorry if I sound dramatic, and I’m sorry if I seem disrespectful of this piece of history that a lot of people love, but I will always be honest about these things, and as disappointed as I was about it, no coaster has ever made me feel as vile as Tyrolean Tubtwist did, when you combine the sickening degree of spinning with the fact that the ride was also quite rough. I did, however, wonder if me riding alone made some difference to the level of spin; I know weighting does often make a difference on these spinning coasters. (I realise I did not take a photo of Tyrolean Tubtwist… sorry about that!) After my ride on Tyrolean Tubtwist, I needed a minute to recover and my parents thought I looked I did, so we took a sedate, steady stroll back to the car, having completed all the parks I was hoping to do. After I’d recovered a little, we did get an ice cream along our journey; I had a salted caramel ice cream, and it was delicious! Eventually, we got back to the car and bade Great Yarmouth goodbye, heading to our hotel 10 minutes down the road in Lowestoft. We may have finished with both parks in less than 3 hours, including the walks, but I felt satisfied with my afternoon in Great Yarmouth: So, that just about wraps up my day in Great Yarmouth visiting Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach and Joyland Children’s Fun Park for the first time! I had a really enjoyable day overall; I always enjoy going to new parks and getting some new credits, and it was really interesting to see the parks of Great Yarmouth for the first time! In terms of a key highlight; my favourite ride of the day was definitely the Roller Coaster. I thought it was a really pleasant, fun coaster, and I enjoyed getting on my first ever brakeman-operated coaster! In terms of the individual parks; I had a fun time and enjoyed visiting them. I think both do really well for that they are and hit their target audience nicely. However, I thought Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach, aside from the Roller Coaster, felt more like Brean Theme Park than Blackpool Pleasure Beach in terms of vibe; there is some fun stuff there, but most of it is quite generic travelling rides that I could find in any small UK park or funfair, including parks far more local to me like Brean and Barry Island. It was good fun, I enjoyed my time there, and I think they do a good job at the park for what it is, but given I live 250 miles, and a 4.5 hour drive on a very good run, away, I think it lacks sufficient draws for me to want to specifically revisit in the absence of new major investment. I’m sorry if this makes me sound finicky, but given how far from Great Yarmouth I live, I felt it was a point I should raise. Joyland down the promenade oozes charm, packs an impressive amount into the small space it has to work with, and has some really unique attractions. It’s a very cute park, and I’m glad I went to try these attractions out! However, I’ll be honest and say that riding these made me remember why I don’t normally do kiddie coasters, as I did feel a bit embarrassed. That’s entirely my problem, though, and I think the park works really well for a seaside children’s park in Great Yarmouth; it’s very charming! With all that being said, I did enjoy my first ever trip to the parks of Great Yarmouth. I’m glad I came, I was satisfied with the day and there is some fun stuff here. I apologise for ending the report on such a picky and likely snobby-sounding note; I didn’t mean to make it sound as though I didn’t enjoy my day, as I did really enjoy my day and I enjoyed experiencing the parks for the first time! Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed this report! Look out for another report tomorrow, when I make my first ever trip to Pleasurewood Hills in Lowestoft! It’ll be an interesting day; I’m excited to ride things like Cannonball Express and Jolly Roger, and I’ll also be interested to lose my virginity on another common coaster type in the good old Vekoma Boomerang, with Wipeout being my first ever ride on this ubiquitous coaster model!

Disclaimer: This is a long, geeky post. If you don't like statistics or maths talk, turn back now! If you'd like a more concise summary, a TL;DR can be found at the bottom. Hi guys. When you go to a park, you will often see advertised queue times all over the place to help you determine how long the ride queues are. But sometimes, you might find that these do not necessarily tell the truth. At times, you might get in a queue with a reasonable advertised time and wait far longer than expected, and at other times, you might get in a queue with a long advertised time and wait far less than expected. With this in mind, you might be wondering; how accurate actually are these advertised queue times? Can they be relied upon? Or are they largely hokum? Well, dear reader, that is the question I'm aiming to answer today. Through the power of statistics, I am going to work out; how accurate are advertised queue times? Let's firstly start with the methodology of my statistical analysis... Methodology You might be wondering "Matt, how on Earth are you going to get hold of advertised and actual queue time data to conduct this analysis?". Well, the answer to that is that I had an idea... for years, I've been writing trip reports from various theme parks, and within these, I often make reference to the advertised queue time and how it compared to the actual queue time. And I was thinking that I could use my anecdotes from some of these trip reports as samples for the analysis. Yes, there's finally a day where my comparisons of advertised and actual queue times come in handy! My method entailed reading my various trip reports from the UK Merlin parks from over the years and looking for anecdotes referring to the advertised queue time in comparison to the actual queue time of a ride. I chose the UK Merlin parks because these are where I have by far the most data from, and they are also likely to share similar technology, processes and the like for determining advertised queue times, which removes any uncertainty from working with companies with differing processes. I should note that I did not count every time I went on a ride. I only counted rides where there was one of: An explicit comparison between advertised queue time and actual queue time given. A comparison between advertised queue time and actual queue time that heavily hinted towards the actual queue time given. For instance, words like "walk-on" or "I waltzed straight onto the train" would infer a 0 minute actual queue time, and words like "the queue time board stayed true to its word" would infer no discrepancy between the advertised and actual queue times. There were rides I did not count, as I felt that they would not be representative of the actual main queue. These are: Any time where I talk about using a Single Rider Queue or otherwise benefitting considerably from single rider status (such as being called to walk past a long queue to fill an empty seat). Any time where I talk about using Fastrack or similar. Any time where I talk about waiting longer for a specific experience, such as the front row. Through these rules, I was able to gather: 15 days and 75 rides of data from Alton Towers, dating back as far as 23rd June 2019 9 days and 48 rides of data from Thorpe Park, dating back as far as 6th May 2018. 3 days and 9 rides of data from Legoland Windsor, dating back as far as 31st August 2017. 1 day and 3 rides of data from Chessington, from 17th September 2023. I should also give a few caveats. These are: This is my data and mine only. There are multiple reasons why that means that it may not be a fully representative sample. For example, Chessington and Legoland are under-represented, whereas Alton Towers and Thorpe Park are over-represented. The actual level of understatement may be higher than what this analysis suggests, as this only factors in queues I have personally waited in. If a queue looks vastly understated at first glance, there's a good chance I won't join it. Where I provided a range of time for the actual queue length, I went with the upper bound. For example, if I described a queue as taking 20-25 minutes, I logged the actual queue time as 25 minutes. I should strongly emphasise that this is not a massively exact science. The measurement of actual queue time was me looking at my watch throughout the queue, and for a variety of reasons, the movement of a queue can be affected in ways that the advertised time can't account for. With this out of the way, let's move onto the actual meat of the analysis... For each part of the analysis, I'll look at an individual park, as well as all 4 Merlin parks amalgamated together. For the individual park, I picked Alton Towers, as this is the park for which I have the most data. Let's start with a simple correlation analysis to determine the strength of the relationship between advertised queue time and actual queue time... Correlation For those not aware, the correlation between two variables determines whether or not they are inter-related. The magnitude of a correlation lies between 0 and 1, with 0 indicating no correlation and 1 indicating a perfect strong correlation, and a correlation can also be positive or negative. A positive correlation means that as the value of one variable rises, the value of the other rises in unison, while a negative correlation means that as the value of one variable rises, the value of the other falls. Now that I've explained a bit about correlation, let's have a look at what the data says about the correlation between advertised queue time and actual queue time! I'll consider two different correlation coefficients, Pearson and Spearman. Pearson's correlation coefficient assumes a linear relationship between two variables, whereas Spearman's correlation coefficient does not. If we look at Alton Towers on an individual level, the scatter graph of advertised queue time and actual queue time looks something like this: And the correlation figures are as follows: Correlation Type Correlation Coefficient (2dp) Correlation Classification Pearson 0.67 Moderate Positive Correlation Spearman 0.74 Moderate Positive Correlation Whereas if we look at the UK Merlin parks overall, the scatter graph of advertised queue times versus actual queue times is as follows: And the correlation figures are as follows: Correlation Type Correlation Coefficient (2dp) Correlation Classification Pearson 0.65 Moderate Positive Correlation Spearman 0.70 Moderate Positive Correlation So if we look at correlation, I think we can conclude that there is a relationship between advertised queue time and actual queue time. Based on correlation alone, we can infer that on a general level, there is a moderate-to-strong correlation between advertised and actual queue time, so if the advertised queue time increases, you can generally expect actual queue time to increase along with it. However, the correlation is far from a perfect positive correlation, so this will not be the case in every scenario. In fact, the fact that the positive correlation does not even quite breach the threshold of "strong" (which I was told was 0.75) would suggest that this is not always the case by a long shot, and the relationship is far from perfectly proportional. So in general, the correlation analysis would suggest that the advertised queue times are trustworthy to a broad extent to get a gauge of the broader picture, but perhaps with a notable margin of error for exact figures. Let's now look at the average discrepancy... Discrepancy (Vector) Let's now look at the average discrepancy as a vector quantity. Vector quantities have both magnitude and direction, so this form of discrepancy will consider whether the queue is overstated or understated as well as its actual magnitude. Where the queue is overstated, the discrepancy is negative, whereas the discrepancy is positive where the queue is understated. If we firstly look at Alton Towers on an individual level, here are the boxplots showing the ranges of raw and proportional discrepancies respectively. It's important to consider proportional discrepancy because if an advertised queue time is longer, there's bound to be a larger discrepancy in general: And the raw and proportional discrepancy stats, as well as average queue time, are as follows. Both mean and median values are provided, as each metric has flaws in isolation and I felt that showing both offered maximum transparency: Average Advertised Queue Time (minutes, 1dp) Average Raw Discrepancy (minutes, 1dp) Average Proportional Discrepancy (1dp) Adjusted Average Proportional Discrepancy (1dp) Mean (Calculated Average) 28.3 2.2 8.8% 7.8% Median (Middle Value) 25 0 0% 0% I should clarify that Average Proportional Discrepancy is the average of the proportional discrepancies listed alongside each anecdote, which excludes those where the advertised queue time was 0 minutes and the actual queue time was a different number (you cannot divide a non-zero number by 0, so a percentage proportion cannot be provided). Adjusted Average Proportional Discrepancy is a simpler calculation of Average Raw Discrepancy as a share of Average Advertised Queue Time on an overall basis, which (sort of) takes these into account. If we now look at the UK Merlin parks overall, here are the boxplots showing the ranges of raw and proportional discrepancy respectively: And the raw and proportional discrepancy stats, as well as average advertised queue time, are as follows: Average Advertised Queue Time (minutes, 1dp) Average Raw Discrepancy (minutes, 1dp) Average Proportional Discrepancy (1dp) Adjusted Average Proportional Discrepancy (1dp) Mean (Calculated Average) 26.1 1.3 13.7% 5.1% Median (Middle Value) 25 0 0% 0% So looking at this, Alton Towers and UK Merlin queue times are understated by up to 1-2 minutes on average. If we look at the median, that would imply that there's no discrepancy between advertised and actual queue time at all on average, and even the higher mean values infer that there are average discrepancies of less than 10% in some cases. At face value, these stats would give reason to believe that Merlin's advertised queue times are very accurate overall, with an average error of only 1-2 minutes and less than 10%. However, you should note my use of the term "at face value"... because that's not the full picture. You might remember that earlier, I said about how the discrepancy being shown here is a vector quantity, meaning that it has both magnitude and direction. That means that understated queues have a positive discrepancy value and overstated queues have a negative discrepancy value, so the two balance each other out. So while you'd think that the low average discrepancies shown here mean that the queue times are very accurate... the use of vector discrepancies here mean that all this really shows is that understating and overstating balance each other out quite nicely, meaning that you can't really rely on Merlin parks to understate or overstate their queues. They both understate and overstate to broadly equal extents. To get the true picture of how accurate these queue times really are, we need to convert the discrepancy values into a scalar quantity and look at the absolute values of discrepancy... Absolute Discrepancy To get the true gist of how accurate these queue times really are, let's now look at the absolute discrepancy values. Absolute means that only the magnitude of discrepancy is considered, and that the discrepancy values are scalar quantities rather than vector quantities. If we firstly look at Alton Towers on an individual level, the boxplots showing the range of raw and proportional absolute discrepancy values are as follows: And the raw and proportional absolute discrepancy stats, as well as average queue time, are as follows: Average Advertised Queue Time (minutes, 1dp) Average Raw Absolute Discrepancy (minutes, 1dp) Average Proportional Absolute Discrepancy (1dp) Adjusted Average Proportional Absolute Discrepancy (1dp) Mean (Calculated Average) 28.3 14.1 39.3% 49.6% Median (Middle Value) 25 10 27.5% 40% If we look at the UK Merlin parks overall, the boxplots showing the ranges of raw and proportional absolute discrepancy are as follows: And the raw and proportional absolute discrepancy stats, as well as average queue time, are as follows: Average Advertised Queue Time (minutes, 1dp) Average Raw Absolute Discrepancy (minutes, 1dp) Average Proportional Absolute Discrepancy (1dp) Adjusted Average Proportional Absolute Discrepancy (1dp) Mean 26.1 13.5 58.7% 51.6% Median 25 5 33.3% 20% So looking at these stats, UK Merlin queue times are wrong by 5-15 minutes on average, and broadly, the average proportional absolute discrepancy ranges between 20% and almost 60%. This would imply that the advertised queue times are not phenomenally accurate, and may not be 100% correct in terms of the exact figure on average. However, it would suggest that they are still quite good at a more general level to get a general gauge of how long a queue might be. If a queue is advertised at 100 minutes, it's unlikely to be walk-on, and vice versa. These figures suggest that the advertised queue times can generally be used as a broad gauge of the length of the queue, but should not be taken as gospel and the exact figures should be taken with some degree of caution. Let's now look at some final conclusions... Conclusion So in conclusion, how accurate are these advertised queue times? Well, I think these results show that they're overall reasonable as a gauge of the broad ballpark the queue time is likely to fall into, but have somewhat weaker accuracy at determining exact queue times. In terms of the correlation analysis, the advertised queue time and the actual queue time have a reasonable correlation, but not a perfect one. The two are moderately positively correlated, with a correlation coefficient of around 0.6-0.7, which would suggest that the two variables are broadly related and do increase in unison with one another in general, but this is far from a perfectly proportional increase and is not a perfect rule by any means. On average, the vector discrepancy between advertised queue time and actual queue time was to be understated by 1-2 minutes, and the percentage margin of error was often to be understated by less than 10%. This suggests that understating and overstating overall happen to roughly equal degrees, and you can't really rely on Merlin to reliably do either. On average, the absolute discrepancy between advertised queue time and actual queue time was 5-15 minutes, and the percentage margin of error for the advertised queue time was between 20% and 60%. This would suggest that the advertised queue times are rarely 100% accurate and should be treated with a degree of caution and a margin of error, but that they're generally decent as a way of gauging broadly how long a queue will be. If a queue is advertised at 30 minutes, for example, you can assume that it will probably be between about 15 minutes and about 45 minutes. That is quite a wide margin, admittedly, but the advertised queue times are unlikely to be amazingly wrong, on the whole. A 30 minute advertised queue, as an example, would indicate a roughly "middle of the road" queue time with a reasonable degree of reliability; the queue is unlikely to be obscenely short, but it's unlikely to be obscenely long as well. So in conclusion, I think this analysis suggests that the advertised queue times are decent for getting an idea of broadly how long a queue is likely to be, but are worse at pinpointing the actual exact queue time, and the estimates should be considered with a good margin of error and not taken as exact estimates. If you'd like to look at my data, here are the full spreadsheets for Alton Towers and UK Merlin queue times respectively: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1c2b05czi2xwwDxKRVBMJ9qyB3_-_b0RyMdc-N8n8JJI/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jpqqpu2pErHY41vHTpDP_NEZqnjuMwgtVVp99JexjvI/edit?usp=sharing So that brings us to the end of this statistical analysis! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed concocting it, and I hope you found it interesting! I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts; I'm receptive to any feedback, good or bad! TL;DR: I performed a statistical analysis to try and determine how accurate advertised queue times are, using datasets of advertised vs actual queue times in Alton Towers and the UK Merlin parks taken from my past trip reports. A correlation analysis showed that there was a moderate positive correlation of magnitude 0.6-0.7 between advertised and actual queue time, indicating that they do generally increase in unison, but that this is far from a perfect trend and this is not necessarily a proportional increase. An analysis of average vector discrepancies showed that Merlin parks do not reliably understate or overstate queue times, with both understating and overstating happening to broadly equal degrees. An analysis of average absolute discrepancies showed that the queue times can provide a broad idea of roughly how long a queue may be, but are unlikely to be too accurate at determining the exact queue time.

As we approach the start of the preparation for Fright Nights 2024, I thought I'd do a few more blog post ramblings on some nostalgic Thorpe memories I have. I started off a couple of years ago now, with Dr Pepper Sun Scream, then Brave it Alone in Cabin in the Woods back when it opened in 2013... Now it's time for another trip down memory lane, to Brave it Alone in Studio 13, 2014 (a staggering 10 years ago somehow). - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - We did Studio 13 way back in 2014, the second ever year of Brave it Alone, and I believe the last year they let you choose which maze you wanted to experience? So... with our brave it alone tickets booked for the brand new Studio 13, here's what happened! 10PM came around on a surprisingly quiet Fright Nights at Thorpe. We had been fortunate in that we'd managed to experience all of the mazes multiple times that evening, including I believe 3 or 4 runs through Studio. I think unfortunately the days of the lucky quiet evening at FN have long since gone! Much like the previous year when we'd braved it alone in Cabin in the Woods, we met up with the other participants at the Clypso BBQ, and were asked to sign the waver form. One notable difference this year was that there were far fewer staff running this, there were no managers present as there were in large numbers the previous year, and the bar was closed and we weren't offered a drink as part of the experience, although the Director was there again chatting to us along with a couple of members of park staff. As far as I remember, there were 2 of us (my friend and I) doing Studio, 2 others doing Cabin, and 1 doing My Bloody Valentine. So in all honesty you can see why Brave it Alone had to change - they were having to keep 3 mazes open after hours for very little money really.... After chatting with the director for 20 minutes or so, we were taken by one of the members of staff down to the iconic and formidable blue door at the entrance to Studio 13, where we waited and chatted with the member of staff for another 10 minutes or so, the memorable Studio queue music still playing! This was a stark difference to last year, where we were very much outnumbered by concerned staff and Thorpe management who were I think quite stressed about the whole affair... This year it was very much cut back in terms of a single member of staff with us, having a nice chit chat! Anyway... the time had come! While we were chatting at the door, it suddenly swung open, and an actor grabbed my shoulder and screamed at me "YOU'RE LATE! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?", as she pulled me inside, shut the door, and held me against the wall opposite. Here, she stood very much in my face and warned me that if my lateness made her look bad, I'd be dead. I was given the hurry up and told to run down the iconic first corridor, while she pushed me along it. When I reached the end of the corridor there were multiple actors waiting for me, all seemingly very upset about how late I was! I was pulled and pushed around, backwards through various doors as far as I remember, then was stood against the wall while they took my 'photo', which involved a blinding flash, before I was spun around multiple times and sent on my way through the next part of the maze alone. I don't think I made it far before I made it to the makeup department scene. I was sat down in to an office chair and as far as I remember I was taped to it, to stop me from 'wasting any more time'! Here I had the unpleasant experience of multiple actors putting makeup on my face! This only lasted a few seconds before I was released and sent on my way through the rest of the maze. I am finding it a struggle to remember the middle part of the maze, but from memory I think much of it was a similar idea to the Asylum, it was very much a case of following the fences through the maze, with no particular scenes as such for a short while. What I do remember though is spending the entire middle portion of the maze being utterly crowded by the actors, who were all seemingly taking it in turns to get right up in to my face to tell me to hurry up! I distinctly, however, remember the ending of the maze... As I approached the bedroom scene, I was surprised to realise that one of them had managed to get a bottle of water in to the front of my jeans and had proceeded to empty the contents in to my nether regions... I have to admit at this point I did think to myself... ok, wtf is this? The majority of the actors then disappeared, and I was left at the entrance of the bedroom scene with a single actor, who had interacted with me earlier on after the makeup scene! He had complimented my pretty eyes and told me "You'll do nicely".... The reason behind all this then became apparent, as he said he wanted me to meet his daughter. I don't specifically remember at what point during the maze my hands had been tied in front of me (or was I wrapped in tape with arms by my side? Can't remember), but I was tied up regardless. The actor pulled me in to the bedroom where I saw his daughter (a live actor I think?) led on the bed. He told me to say hello and give her a kiss, which of course I denied. He pushed me towards the bed, and I believe other actors then came to his aid and also assisted in getting me to be on the bed with her... He then asked me what I was doing, and seemed very angry when he discovered how wet the front of my trousers were 🙄 He had the chainsaw in his hands at this point and told me he'd never let me do this to anyone ever again, before the chainsaw was very abruptly pushed up between my legs, and off we both went down the exit corridor and out of the doors! I was half way across the path before the chainsaw was eventually removed from my damp crotch. The member of staff was waiting at the exit, where she said to me "... you ok?" 🤣. A few moments later my friend came out, who had suffered the same fate, and off we went (still tied up by the way) to collect our bags from the BBQ before heading out. Unfortunately there wasn't an opportunity to chat to the other participants at the other mazes this year as there was previously. -- In conclusion, I will say that I did enjoy Brave it Alone in studio 13, although this was a very different approach to Cabin in the Woods the previous year. Where the Cabin BIA experience focused on a lot of physical pushing and shoving, shouting, being physically picked up and moved, crawling, and even bodily fluids to some extent, the Studio experience was more about making you feel uncomfortable and awkward, and it was a lot less 'hands on' when it came to all the pushing and shoving. It certainly was a less 'scary' experience than the previous year. I don't want to be a bore, but I wouldn't have gone with the bedroom scene, and if I'm honest the wet underwear was something I could have done without on the drive home! I also found the "You're late" storyline (which seemed to fade away during the maze) meant that the experience was very quick as it really was a fast run through the maze. I have to say that I did also miss the 'meet-up' at the bar with everyone at the end, as this was a great way for everyone to chat and compare experiences as you all left the park. All in all, this is a great memory I have of 'old thorpe' - I commend them for trying something niche, and for daring to be different. I love the idea of brave it alone, and who knows, maybe one day it'll make a return in some form or other. But until then, I'll never forget it - Fright Nights a decade ago was Thorpe at its peak in my opinion.

10th June 2024: Thorpe Park It was the second day of the trip today, and another day can only mean another park; today, I visited Thorpe Park! Today marked my first visit of 2024 to the UK’s most thrilling theme park, so I was excited to get back on some of my favourites at the park for the first time in 2024! After my night in the Premier Inn in Staines, my Thorpe day started at a little before 9am, when I took a short walk to Elmsleigh Bus Station in Staines to catch the Sullivan Buses 950, which is probably better known as the Thorpe Park Express bus, to Thorpe Park from stop 4: Now, I had originally intended to catch the 9:10 service, which arrived at Thorpe Park at 9:20. However, lots of people wanted to get on at my stop and the bus was already extremely crowded. Therefore, I was at the back of the queue from standing aside to let others on first, so I ended up not being allowed on this bus and having to wait for the next bus at 9:25. However, the wait was only 15 minutes, and I still got to Thorpe well before opening, so I can’t complain too much. When I got on the bus, it had to have been one of most crowded buses I’ve ever been on. The whole walkable area of the bus had patrons standing in it, and I was rubbing shoulder to shoulder with people at the very front of the bus. However, the bus was punctual, ran at a ridiculous frequency (15 minutes between buses is hardly any time at all!), and it got me there, so I can’t really complain! On an odd side note, the card machine on the bus was broken, and the bus driver waved me and others straight through and said "just get on" when I tried to present my bank card to pay for a ticket... so I actually got that bus journey for free! After getting off the bus, I headed into Thorpe Park itself. By the time I got through security and past the turnstiles, it was around 9:40, so I was still in the park a good amount of time before rope drop even with me having to take a later bus: Before I get into the main body of my day, I should probably address the main elephant in the room; Hyperia. The ride was one of the main motivations for booking this trip, but in the days leading up to today, I had a bad feeling that it might be closed, and this was unfortunately the case. It was disappointing to not get on the ride today, but I was determined to make the best of the situation and not to let it take away from my day at Thorpe Park. And even if I couldn’t actually ride it, it was quite cool to finally see it in person and see it test a little! It looks awesome; hopefully it can reopen soon: Anyway, that’s enough about Hyperia. Let me get back to my day at Thorpe Park. I decided to start my day by heading to the Saw/Colossus end of the park. My original plan was to start things off on Colossus, but the ride was still closed initially, so I instead decided to head down to… Saw: The Ride Saw was on an advertised walk-on queue, so I decided to take a ride on it. This queue looked as though it was quickly getting longer than walk-on, but as a solo visitor, I had a secret weapon I could use; the single rider queue! This worked very well indeed, with me getting on the ride in no time at all! So, how was the ride? Well, Saw isn’t an absolute favourite of mine, but I have to say that this morning run was one of the smoothest rides I’ve ever had on it! I was seated on the back, and while it was still a bit rough in places, it was nothing like it has been for me in the past; there wasn’t too much Gerst-ache here! As for the ride layout itself, there was some surprising airtime in places, and I think this might be the first time I’ve ever ridden Saw and had the water effect in the heartline roll actually work! I got very surprisingly wet from that effect! Overall, then, Saw wasn’t running badly at all this morning, and it was an interesting way to start the day: When I was off Saw: The Ride, I noticed that Colossus was open, so I decided to head over to it… Colossus Colossus was on an advertised 5 minute queue time, so I decided to give it a go. This 5 minute queue time turned out to be overstated, as I waltzed straight into the station and straight onto the back row; you can never complain about that! But how was the ride? Well, it was OK; Colossus isn’t a favourite of mine, but as with Saw earlier, my back row ride on Colossus today was on the much more favourable end of the spectrum. It was a bit rough in places, but not nearly as overbearing as it has been in the past. As for the layout itself; I really like the first half of Colossus, with the loop, cobra roll and two consecutive corkscrews packing a punch and the airtime hill even providing a small pop of airtime on this occasion! However, I’m not a huge lover of the second half, as I find the multiple consecutive heartline rolls a bit nauseating, and I also think the train and restraint design makes Colossus a bit uncomfortable even excluding any roughness. Overall, Colossus, while not a favourite of mine, wasn’t running too badly today: After getting off Colossus, I decided to head to another major coaster… Nemesis Inferno Nemesis Inferno was on an advertised 5 minute queue time, so I decided to have a go on it. The queue times board was true to its word, as I walked straight into the station; it’s always great when that happens! But how was the ride? Well, I rode in row 3, and I have to say that this morning’s Nemesis Inferno ride was absolutely fantastic, and possibly one of the best I’ve ever had on it! The ride packed such an awesome sense of speed throughout, it was thrilling and had really good forces without being excessively intense, it was smooth, and overall, everything about the ride just clicked! Perhaps controversially, I must admit that I struggle to pick whether I prefer Nemesis Inferno or Nemesis Reborn; it will be a continual struggle, but that morning ride certainly made a strong case for Inferno: After Nemesis Inferno, I headed to the next coaster… Stealth Stealth was on an advertised 5 minute queue time, so I decided to take a ride on it. The queue time board was relatively true to its word, with the queue taking around 5-10 minutes. So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 5, and it was absolutely fantastic! That hydraulic launch is always phenomenal; it really takes your breath away and gets you up to speed ridiculously quickly! Aside from the launch, the ride has many other great attributes; the speed throughout is brilliant, and the airtime over the top hat is also excellent! Overall, then, my ride on Stealth was excellent, and I thoroughly enjoyed it: After Stealth, my original plan was to head over to The Swarm, on an advertised 10 minute queue. However, the queue was spilling out of the entrance and looking far longer than 10 minutes when I got to the area, so I decided to change course and instead head to... Rush Rush was on an advertised 15 minute queue time, so I decided to give it a go. This queue time proved roughly accurate, with the queue taking 10-15 minutes. So, how was the ride? Well, I'm a fan of a good S&S Screamin' Swing, and Rush is no exception; the speed and weightlessness are awesome! I love the airtime delivered at each peak, and the speed delivered in the troughs provides a real rush! However, I must admit that Rush seemed to be running a slightly underwhelming cycle today, with only one full height swing. I don't know if it's just me misremembering, but it seemed like it did more on previous visits. Nonetheless, Rush was a fun ride, with some nice airtime and speed: After Rush, I had a reride on Stealth, with a 25 minute advertised queue time. I was seated in row 10 this time, and the ride was just as fantastic as earlier, if not more so. Right on the back, the airtime over the top hat felt notably stronger; I got some excellent sustained ejector going over it!: After my ride on Stealth, I headed to the final major coaster I was yet to tick off... The Swarm The Swarm was on an advertised 35 minute queue time, so I decided to take a ride on it. This queue time turned out to be somewhat overstated, with the queue taking more like 25 minutes; it's always a bonus when the queue time is overstated! But how was the ride? Well, I was seated in the back left row, and I have to say that it was absolutely great! The ride had a truly awesome sense of speed throughout, it had some decent forces without being overly intense, it had some great, floaty inversions, and it was overall really good fun! The very rigid and tight vest restraints were a bit of a detractor for me, as they really dug into my collar bones and made me feel quite tightly pinned to my seat, but I have to say that these didn't seem to be quite as bad as they've been in the past; have Thorpe altered Swarm's restraints? Overall, then, my ride on The Swarm was thoroughly decent, and I really enjoyed it: After The Swarm, I headed back towards the rest of the park. But as I walked by, I sampled a ride that I haven't done in a few years... Flying Fish Flying Fish was on an advertised 5 minute queue time, so I decided to have a go on it. The queue time board was relatively true to its word, with there only being a one cycle wait, and I was on the ride in no time. So, how was the ride? Well, I was sat in row 6, and it was a fun little powered coaster; it had its odd moments of speed and some fun turns! It's not exactly a spectacular example of the ride type, but for what it is, it does the job. Overall, then, Flying Fish was a fun diversion along my way back to the rest of the park: After my ride on Flying Fish, I had a reride on Nemesis Inferno, on a 45 minute advertised queue time. I was seated in row 7, and as with my earlier ride, it was absolutely excellent, with great forces and speed, and hit the spot very nicely! On a side note, the operations were also excellent; there was a brief stoppage while I was in the queue, but once the ride was back up, the Inferno team were banging the trains out with no stacking whatsoever! Great job, guys: After my reride on Nemesis Inferno, I headed towards Hyperia and sat down with a Burger King lunch to watch it test for a bit. It is a very impressive-looking ride, and I'm sure it'll be brilliant when I eventually get on it: After I'd had my lunch, I decided to try another quick go on Saw via the single rider queue while I was nearby. The queue was once again quick, but I rather wish I hadn't, in all honesty. I was sat in the front, and the ride could not have been more different to the one I had earlier in the day. It was very rough, with some horrific jolts; the first drop and the ending were particularly bad. I'll digress to being a little confused as to how the front was seemingly rougher than the back on Saw, but I came off with a headache after that Saw ride, for sure: After my reride on Saw, I had a reride on Stealth. I was seated in row 8 that time, and it was every bit as fantastic as the earlier two rides had been; that launch is such an awesome gut punch: After my reride on Stealth, I then had a reride on The Swarm. I was in row 6 on the left side that time, and as with earlier, Swarm was an awesome ride with some great speed and great inversions: After my Swarm reride, I had a reride on Nemesis Inferno. I was in row 5 that time, and the ride was once again brilliant, with a nice amount of force and a brilliant sense of speed: After that, I had another reride on The Swarm. I was seated in row 5 on the right hand side that time, and it was once again a thoroughly decent coaster. I also had this ride during a bout of pouring rain, which added an... interesting dimension to the experience! After my Swarm reride, I then had one final go on Stealth to close out the day. I was seated on the back row, and it was absolutely fantastic, with that ever punchy launch providing an amazing rush and the top hat providing some great ejector! It was a brilliant way to close out a great day at Thorpe Park: After that final ride on Stealth, I left the park to get on the Sullivan Buses 951 back to Staines train station. The bus was very similar to earlier; extremely busy, but very punctual and getting me to the right place. However, I did not get this journey for free, as the card machine was working this time: After I got to Staines train station, I did the final train legs of the trip to get me back to Bristol to meet up with my parents. I took 2 trains; a train from Staines to Reading and a train from Reading to Bristol Parkway. This journey was relatively simple and went without a hitch, so I can't really complain about that: So, that brings my day at Thorpe Park to an end! I had an absolutely brilliant day; it was great to get back on some of my favourites at the park multiple times, and I was thrilled to get 15 rides in over the course of the day! Stealth was fantastic, Nemesis Inferno was awesome, Swarm was really decent, and overall, it was just nice to get back to Thorpe Park and get back on some of their rides for my first time in 2024! In terms of a particular highlight; my favourite ride at Thorpe, pre-Hyperia, would have to be either Stealth or Nemesis Inferno. I'm struggling to pick between the two, as they were both brilliant today! Not getting on Hyperia was disappointing, but it didn't detract from the day in the slightest for me. I still had an absolutely cracking day at Thorpe Park without it, and when I was in the swing of riding some of my existing Thorpe favourites, the lack of Hyperia didn't really occur to me at all; I only really clocked it when I noticed it testing from a queue or on a ride! It does look like an awesome ride, though, and I'll be back very, very soon (potentially imminently) once it reopens... I can't wait to get on it, and given I had a relatively complete Thorpe day today, I'm not sure I'd even mind waiting a potentially considerable length of time for it at the expense of other rides in the park! Given how easy the train between Bristol and Staines is, I could pop back to Thorpe for the day with great ease whenever Hyperia reopens... I have plenty of money, and having just finished university, I've also got plenty of time to kill over the summer, so I'm hardly short of potential Hyperia-riding opportunity in the not-too-distant future once it's back open! All in all, I do have a real soft spot for Thorpe Park. I rarely have a bad day there, and today was no exception! I think the park has a brilliant ride lineup, and for pure strength of rides, I'd struggle to think of a UK park on par with or better than Thorpe aside from Alton Towers! I also think Thorpe has some nicely themed areas and a nice atmosphere, and overall, I do just really enjoy it! As well as the day at Thorpe Park, that also brings this trip to an end. And I have to say that I've overall been thrilled with how it's gone; I was very gratified by how surprisingly easy I found the logistics of managing a solo stay away with some additional public transport complexities, the whole process of staying in a hotel alone was much easier than I expected, and all in all, I'm really pleased to have pushed my solo trip boundaries that little bit further! From a pure theme park standpoint, the trip has also been relatively successful. Yes, I didn't get on Hyperia, but the trip was far from fruitless in terms of +1s, as I still got both Minifigure Speedway credits. It also got me back to both Legoland Windsor, a park I hadn't been to in 3 years, and Thorpe Park, a UK park that I'm very fond of, so that can never be a bad thing! Thanks for reading; I hope you've enjoyed this report, and the overall duo of reports from this trip! To be honest, my next report is very likely to be another Thorpe Park report if Hyperia reopens any time soon, as I am eager to get on that ride ASAP!

Hershey Park was the one I most worried about. They have a notoriously strict weather policy and wirth predicted thunder storms all day for both days of our visit I was extremely concerned. Storm Runner, Skyrush and Candymonium do not operate in the rain, all the other big rides close in heavy rain. We arrived with giant black clouds hovering over the entrance but Canydmonium was running for extra ride time. Our goal was to hit as many rides before the heavens opened and I had purchased fastrack as I was most worried about Hershey being the busiest, this being the weekend. 10AM, park opens, here comes the rain. We dash to Candymonium and dun dun dun, rides closed due to rain. All that time running half empty and then the moment the rest of us get in, closed. My heart sunk. We made a swift dash to any ride that we could see with guests on and thankfully Great Bear was open. This 1998 B&M inverter, this being the second of the trip had big competition what with Alpengeist a few days earlier, its vintage is a classic, older B&M and relatively well reviewed. The operations are absolutely dire. This ride easily had the worst operations in the park with 3-5 minutes of stacking on every train. We opted for the back row and watching them, it's just not good. B&Ms are designed to be easy to run but some of these parks just don't run them like they should. Great Bear was alright. There are moments where it feels like the train just wants to get going but the layout just gets in the row. For example the drop off the lift hill where you helix over the midway. It's really cool actually, quite forceful but to get us to the rest of the layout, it has to rise and unfortunately loses quite a lot of speed. You drop into a vertical loop, an Immelmann and a zero g roll. These are all great in their own right but.. I dunno a bit generic of a layout. Then as the train repositions itself over the river, the train roars into life speeding through a straight piece of track (it is so weird) and into a really forceful corkscrew. Then the train meanders past Superdooperlooper to get back to the station. This ride feels like a generic inverter meets auto complete. And thats the theme for a few rides at Hershey. We got on the last ride for a while. Every outside rollercoaster was now closed and... I kind of got a bit depressed. It's very hard to get out to a park that you've' heard so much about, built expectations, planned for years to visit and then you arrive and you're defeated by the weather. We waited around in the rain, hoping for some let up in the weather. It came after about half an hour where we saw Trailblazer testing. This arrow mine train was pretty bad, it felt like it was built because it was the in thing in the 80's but without any concept for how to make it interesting. The rain was still pretty heavy but we managed to get over to Jolly Rancher remix, Chris really didn't like this a it hurt his head. I like the colour and music but it's a generic Vekoma boomerang so it's not going to trouble any top tens. We rode their nebula in the rain, in which their terrible operations meant we got drenched. We then went skipped a 15 minute wait for Fahrenheit , a surprisingly good Intamin looper. The only Intamin to feature a vertical lift in this style, this is a well paced, comfortable, intense ride with some of the best air time in the park. Our first ride in the pouring rain meant we were pounded with water and couldn't see a thing. But we know we enjoyed it. Monorail was ridden which was a nice little break from the park and from this we could see that the Boardwalk area of the park was all open. After initially struggling to find it, we eventually got down there for a ride on Wildcats Revenge. This is an outstanding RMC and I echo some of the thoughts out there that this and Aeriforce One in Atlanta are the very limits of what we can take in air time. Wildcat hurts. It is a violent, intense and vicious ride that rag dolls you across its layout and never lets up. No moment is wasted, not a single seat delivers a mediocre ride. I was incredibly impressed and this rates as my second favourite RMC after Steel Vengeance. It had great operations, a sublime layout with pace and some wild air time. I loved it. We then took a little walk to the mid way and had a go on Superdooperlooper which was on one train. This was average and also has the auto complete option on. Waste of a layout. Comet is a great old style woodie and highly recommended. Also one of the most consistently busy rides. Skyrush. Is a moment. It is vile. I don't mind out of control feeling rides, heck Wildcat is exactly that kind of ride. But Skyrush is nasty. It has this horrible feeling, like you're riding a horse and it's just trying to throw you off into the bushes. On a side seat is is rough and that feeling off being thrown to your death is amplified. Was also slightly concerning when you sit in the break run and your seat releases slightly. Not a fan. To make up for this ride, it was off to Candymonium which was walk on so we had three goes round. I think Candymonium is excellent. The evolution from Apollos Chariot to this ride shows how much better the B&M hyper has become and Candy is full of air time and nice little moments. Chris's description was 'they built Candymonium to apologise for Skyrush.' Rather apt I think. The final ride before the rain returned was Storm Runner, the 2004 intamin accelerator. I was slightly disappointed to be honest. I've been spoilt by Stealth which has an excellent and faster launch. Storm Runners lacked the punch that even Rita has. The layout is okay on paper but it felt rather lifeless to me. I like the colours of the ride more than the ride itself. With the rain back we opted for a few more rides on Wildcat and then riding Lightening Racer, both sides. I liked both sides of the GCI even if Thunder is the side that always wins no matter what. Now, Laff Trek. What am embarrassment. Hershey should do this ride a favour and shut it now and put it out of its misery. Absolutely atrocious. Poorly run in every respect. Maurer spinners are not good enough for any park like this and this needs to be wiped off the map. We did a second day here and topped up our ride counts, particularly on Storm Runner and Candymonium. I think the prospect of the rain had put a lot of people off visiting, it being a Saturday in the holiday season, queues were perfectly reasonable with walk on Skyrush and ten minute Candy waits. We both agreed that Hershey Park is a great park but Chris felt that it had an okay ride selection but nothing they have is the outstanding ride, the top tier attraction. And I sort of agree. The boardwalk type of park is one that doesn't appeal much to me, the Blackpool, ride on top of the other has never been a firm favourite. But I can see why this park would have such a following. Weather aside.. Yeah. This review feels rather mixed but the key is on those days, two weeks ago, this is what the park delivered.

The threat of thunderstorms dominated day two. Cloudy skies and the threat of torrential rain was testing me as we made our way to the Old country. This is a park that is always looked at fondly for its stunning looks. I've never been the biggest fan of Busch Tampa, it just makes me feel hot even thinking about it. but Williamsburg is very different. Its European influences bring a different charm to other American parks and its cozy entrance makes you feel comfortable. The threat of rain meant we just wanted to hit the big rides quickly before anything shut down from the weather. We headed straight to Apollos Chariot, the first B&M hyper coaster. They have got better, let's put it that way. I think for 1999 this was probably an impressive ride but hyper coasters have come a long way. This was weak and I'd say my least favourite rollercoaster at Busch. I didn't even expect Pantheon to open to be honest. I'd heard that it rarely opens on poor weather days so when I saw it running with people on, I was straight on. It was also walk on. There's quite obvious comparisons with Toutatis which is an absolutely sublime ride and whilst the highs on Pantheon aren't as good, there's something to be sad for Pantheon. it's a really good rides. It's nowhere near as aggressive as Toutatis, but thats fine. Pantheon hits you with much more sustained air time moments such as the banked curve which is as graceful as it fun. The top hat is also untrimmed so you get the full force of the air time compared to its French cousin which deliberately slows you down. It hits the breaks at the end pretty hard which makes me think it could have done more. A really great ride and I just adore the spikes on these rides. They are so. good. Next was Verbolten (RIP Big Bad Wolf). I'm going to pin myself here and say I reckon Verbolten is the better ride. It's just so much fun, full of force and really good moments. The sudden drop isn't as seamless as Thirteen but these drops are so punchy and such great moments that I'll forgive it. The iconic drop isn't as great as the rest of the ride funnily enough, Big Bad Wolf wins here. Really enjoyed this ride, at this point I was starting to believe that BGW might have one of the finest ride line ups out there. Next was Alpengeist, one of those rides that is pretty well known for its stunning first drop and not a lot else. I was hyped for Alpengeist I can safely say that it delivered in every aspect. The lift and first hill are absolutely humungous but thats not all. I love how the lift hill slows down towards the top, a trim right on the pre drop even tries to shave some speed from the train but it's not enough. The speed and sheer force as you drop down the valley is one of my favourite drops ever. It's just incredible. You rise into an Immelmann before diving down into a vertical loop. These are so forceful, not much more to add. You speed down into a cobra roll which just feels massive and its properly intense as well as you jerk through the snake head. The ride then takes a breather as it comes out of the valley and to a mid course. this shaves a lot of speed out of the train which is a shame but I think after the insanity of the previous parts of the ride, this might be a sigh of relief. A mid tier zero g followed by a really good corkscrew finish off the ride. This was, I'd say, my favourite ride of the trip and is definitely a top ten contender. In coaster circles we talk about how Nemesis and Black Mamba use the ground whilst American rides don't really. Alpengeist is like the best of both worlds as its uses the landscape to create this incredible rollercoaster. By this point I was full of energy. The last three rollercoasters had been superb and the next was a GCI woody. This reminded me of the Wicker Man except it had zero story or theming, no centrepiece. It was just a french themed wooden rollercoaster on a hill. It also ended up being my 400th rollercoaster credit. It was a fine enough ride but not my favourite GCI. We next ended up at Griffin. I love this ride. It's just stupidly big. I know Valravn is bigger but lord, Griffin just has that fear factor. I think this ride is excellent. Like Sheikra, I think it gets slightly overlooked as just a one hit wonder but I think these rides hit like no other, especially with the older style restraint system. This has such a hit of air time, my favourite weirdly being the jump into the water pool. By this point, I was really into this park. It has a really gorgeous look to it and the rides are top notch. We took a little walk to find Loch Ness Monster and ended up at the very bottom of the valley. I was blown away by this area with three of the most iconic parts of their big rides, all next to each other. Once we ended up on the other side, we got into Loch Ness. This did hurt a lot more then your average Arrow but its such an historic ride, it deserves its place. The helix in the dark was my favourite part of the ride. With all the major rollercoasters completed we took some time to enjoy this park. Whether it was the food which was excellent, the 50 cent beer or the fantastic rides, this park was a real highlight. On day two, the rain did not hold off and as a result both Apollos Chariot and Pantheon was closed all day. Everything else though, completely walk on with what felt like less than 1000 people on site. The park ultimately closed at 4PM (it was originally 9PM when we first booked) so clearly the weather kept people away. But nonetheless we had a great second day and would recommend this park to anyone. It's world class.

Iron Gwazi- A review Well its been a long time since I did my Zadra review on this page. So what better way to make a return than with a review for yet another RMC hyper hybrid with Iron Gwazi?? Intro. So Gwazi originally opened in 1999 at Busch Gardens Tampa as a GCI dueling wooden coaster. During its opening few years it was quite well liked and proved somewhat popular with park goers until later on in its life it became notorious for offering a rough and unpleasant experience. Full disclosure, the originally Gwazi was actually my outright most hated coaster out of all the ones I have ridden. I found it completely unbearable to ride and just unspeakably rough to the point I was begging for a ride on Furius Baco. So as you could imagine, when RMC made their rise to prominence in the coaster community I was very much one of those hoping to the heavens that Gwazi would be getting the world famous conversion. Sure enough, in 2015 Gwazi finally shut for the last time and instantly the coaster community leaped on the rumours of RMC finally coming to town. Years went by with no activity on Gwazi and then finally in 2019, Iron Gwazi was announced by Busch Gardens. On opening it would become the fastest hybrid with a speed of 76MPH,steepest with a 91 degree drop and would tie with Zadra for the tallest at a height of 206 foot. Originally booked for a 2020 opening, Iron Gwazi would be delayed due to the covid 19 pandemic which saw the entire Busch/Seaworld chain postpone all their new coaster additions across their parks back to 2021. In the midst of all this, reports stated that Busch still owed 9 million dollars to RMC for the construction of Iron Gwazi. So this further delayed the rides opening allegedly. Following a further delay, Iron Gwazi finally opened in the spring of 2022. It would open to rave reviews with many considering it the greatest coaster on the planet and the coaster to topple Steel Vengeance for RMCs finest work. So now I shall give my own thoughts on Iron Gwazi. First Impressions First impressions of Iron Gwazi are impressive. It is located right at the front of the park and as such is the first coaster you encounter on entering Busch Gardens. The large lift structure and drop making for one hell of a spectacle in front of you. For me personally it was a nice bonus to NOT have to trek right to the back of the park like you would have to do with Steel Vengeance and even more so with Zadra!! On walking to the plaza area of Iron Gwazi, you are greeted to the massive purple tracked hybrid with its station building which maintains the same aesthetic of the original coaster in a nice tribute whilst also having the rides signature wave turn over station as a centre piece element for those joining the queue. All in all, Iron Gwazi makes for a good and dominating first impression Queuing experiences and operations The good news, Iron Gwazi will not make you walk for 7-8 minutes to reach the front of the queue line like its polish cousin Zadra does. The bad news?? Iron Gwazi utilises a “stereotypical American amusement park queue" of many switch backs that take you from the lower level of the station building, up a ramp which offers nice views of the prelift and lift hill before reaching the station which features more switch backs which slalom towards the airgates to board the ride. So Iron Gwazi has far from the most exciting queue design in the world. However, on reaching the station, the back of the station offers some wonderful views of the coaster in action for you to take in as you await your ride. One positive with the queue is the audio sountrack present. Iron Gwazi utilises a zoned audio system with three soundtracks playing that get more ominous the closer you get to riding. A very nice touch. Iron Gwazi also utilises a paid locker policy for any bags. You WILL need to put bags in the locker and this is quite strictly enforced. For those with smaller items however, Iron Gwazi features zipper pouches under your seat on the train. Now, my negatives of Iron Gwazi are very limited. However one MEGA peeve I had with Iron Gwazi across both days I had at Busch Gardens was the operations. Now anyone who is familar with riding an RMC and have ridden either Zadra or Untamed will be familiar with the loading procedure of the rider puts JUST the seatbelt on and then the ride op does the bar. Well Iron Gwazi is an exception to the rule and allows the rider to do both. Sounds great right??. Wrong!! Once the rider puts his seatbelt on, they are made to await a recorded announcement to place the bar down. This announcement comes AFTER the staff have checked the seatbelt and to top it off, by the time the announcement comes, the previously dispatched train has already concluded its ride and is now sat in the breaks. So in other words, the previous train has navigated the whole layout before the current loading train has even had the bars put down. So dispatches very regularly hit the 5 minute mark. So all in all, the operations on Iron Gwazi was pretty diabolical The ride experience So on boarding the wonderful looking crocodile themed train with its familiar RMC restraints with the lapbar and shinguard which may or may not cause discomfort depending on the body time (RMC restraints don’t seem to agree with larger riders whatsoever), you are dispatched out the station with dispatch audio blasting out to accompany the train out the station. Turning round to the left, the train swoops down a small hop which may catch riders towards the back offguard before heading up the 206 foot lift hill The views from this lift are fantastic with riders able to see both out to the city of Tampa and across the park. As the train hits the top, it will slow down a little to build up some additional suspense before plummeting down the 91 degree drop which yes is the steepest on an RMC hybrid. This drop is sensational. Absolutely sensational!! If you are at the front you will get a nice moment of just hanging there before quickly building up speed and if you are at the back, you are absolutely pulled up and out of your seat. Now one difference the drop on Iron Gwazi has compared to Zadra and Steel Vengeance is that the drop banks out to the right a little towards the bottom of the drop whereas the other two come straight out. The twist at the bottom will slam riders back into their seat with some pretty strong positive G force whereas the straight out exit on the other two allows the rider to be out their seat for longer. So which drop is better will be down to your own preference but for me, the mixture of force on this drop and how it suddenly goes from negative to positive G force coupled with a pretty darn good headchopper towards the bottom with the support beams means Iron Gwazi has my favourite drop on an RMC. On exiting the drop, the train flies up into the rides outerbank turn. Comparions with the outerbank on Steel Vengeance are inevitable here. Now, whilst I personally prefer the Steel Vengeance outerbank, the violent side to side action you get on this one can not be sniffed at and it is a very good moment of airtime offered in both front and back rows. On exiting the outerbank the train goes through another moment of strong positive G force before heading up into the rides signature element and what I personally regard as the best inversion on the planet (sorry Velocicoaster and the Mosasaurus roll!!), the death roll!! The death roll is absolute amazing. With you leaning one way, the death roll whips you VERY STRONGLY in the other direction down a barrel roll drop which is both disorientating and incredibly violent. If you are in the back row, you are really going to get whipped through this violently it is simply the best inversion I have encountered. Following the death roll, the ride goes into its “second" inversion which is a cutback/overbanked turn (whichever you want to call it) which again offers a nice moment of airtime on the exit of the element as the train is pulled down towards ground level. This is one of the three advertised inversions that RMC and busch say the ride features. It is very much another inclined loop on the swarm style ones in regards to if you do or do not consider it an actual inversion. Nonetheless another good element before the train whizzes from this into another great element which is the wave turn over the station. This wave turn is manys favourite element on the ride and with good reason, the riders are suddenly thrown to the right with some amazingly strong sideways airtime before having yet another cool near miss with the rides lift hill. This is a much better wave turn than the one found on Zadra as its more sustained and allows riders to take it in a little more whereas the Zadra equivalent ends before you can really take it in. Another strong airtime moment follows as does another wave turn in the other direction before the train enters a zero g stall. This zero g stall whilst the least picturesque out of this,Zadra and wildfire is actually my favourite stall on an RMC with how it rides. The train still takes the element quite fast whilst also offering a really nice hangtime moment which personally I found a pretty weird but awesome combination. On exiting the stall, the train navigates a series of very strong airtime pops before taking a turn with yet more good positive G force before finishing with a bang as the train enters arguably its strongest airtime moment as it navigates a final airtime hop through yet another incredible headchopper before slamming into the breaks to conclude your ride on Iron Gwazi. Whilst it would have been nice to end with an inversion like Zadra or Untamed, I still thought this finale was a nice way to cap of the experience. Each airtime moment delivered with each getting stronger before the final one which was incredibly strong. So your ride on Iron Gwazi has ended. The train will then go past a nice tribute to the original Gwazi with the car fronts hanging on the wall of the shed on the right of the rider. After a long wait due to the ops, you return to the station to offload and go back round again...because why wouldnt you want to ride this incredible coaster as often as possible!? Final thoughts I really don’t think any compliment I can pay Iron Gwazi will do the ride its full justice. It is a pure elite level coaster. It is fast,intense,airtime filled and relentless from start to finish. Every element flows so well from one to the other with each element offering a different sensation from the last. It is most definitely the most violent and intense coaster out of the RMC I have done and yet also manages to be the most rerideable of them. In regards to front row or back row. Honestly?? They are both as good as each other. Where Steel Vengeance is definitely a back row coaster and Zadra is a front row coaster, Iron Gwazi is every bit as amazing regardless of front or back. The front row offers the greater sensations of speed and intensity where the back offers the more whippier and stronger airtime experience. Iron Gwazi offers front and back seperate queues so it is easy to get your desired row if you are willing to wait longer and I definitely recommend trying both. The use of headchoppers and near misses on this ride also massively add to the experience. It is simply one thing that RMC have perfected in their coaster designs. The drop and wave turn offer arguably the best headchoppers on the ride and when you have hands up, you do genuinely feel you are inches away from smashing them off the supports. This coupled with the rides ferocious 76mph speeds really does make for some incredible moments. Even though the drop to break duration is around 45 seconds, Iron Gwazi by no means feels short when you ride it. A lot of shorter duration coasters can somewhat leave you feeling short changed when you hit the breaks. Iron Gwazi is certainly not one of those coasters. You very much do feel you have got great value out of the coaster when it concludes. There are two big questions that often associate with Iron Gwazi. Is it the best RMC and is it the best coaster in Florida?? For as great as Iron Gwazi is, the answer to both is no. Velocicoaster for the sheer package offered with that to go with the already immense coaster means I lean more towards Velocicoaster for Floridas finest. That being said, Iron Gwazi joins Velocicoaster and to a certain extent Mako at seaworld in making a trio of elite coasters to be found on any Florida outing Now in regards to best RMC, the sheer length and amount of airtime found on Steel Vengeance still means that remains my top coaster. However, Iron Gwazi compares VERY favourably against the similar Zadra. Does Zadra have a better drop than Iron Gwazi? – No Is Zadra more intense than Iron Gwazi? – no Does Zadra have better airtime? – no Are the inversions on Zadra better? – no Is the wave turn better on Zadra? – no So all of these means that to me whilst Zadra is also an amazing coaster, it is completely outgunned by Iron Gwazi. That being said, all three of the RMC hyper hybrids offer an amazing ride and despite all having similar height and speeds, excel in their own area. Steel Vengeance brings the airtime and length, Zadra brings the speed and pace and Iron Gwazi brings the intensity and variety. They are amazing coasters and no matter which one you prefer, the others will also amaze. So awful operations aside, Iron Gwazi definitely lives up to its hype and is an absolute must with any visit to Florida!! It takes its place as my third favourite coaster behind Steel Vengeance and Velocicoaster and will likely be a top three for a long long time!! 10/10

Good morning. With Monster becoming my 351th rollercoaster credit it also has the distinction of being my 50th B&M in total. And as a celebration of my absolutely, 100% favourite rollercoaster manufacturer ever, this blog will be relatively brief and a look through the 50. 1. Nemesis Inferno - 2003. Ah Inferno. Not the bang start but as a ride this has got so much better over the last two decades. Great solid ride. 2. Nemesis -2004. My favourite rollercoaster, one of the best B&M's ever built, in fact just one of the best rides ever constructed. Renewal secures its future for years to come. 3. Oblivion - 2004. One hit pony but it is a great hit. Ironically, one of the best dive machines out there despite the advances the ride type has made. 4. Galatica - 2004. This is okay. One of the weakest in Europe and other of its type are far superior. 5. Silver Star - 2006. A real grower, I wasn't initially a fan but now I find this a really solid crowd pleaser. Capacity and Efficiency to die for. 6. Black Mamba - 2006. I really like Mamba. It does have a weak finale but the theming and excellent makes this a stand out inverter for me. 7. Superman de Acero - 2007. For a long time this was one of my top five rollercoasters. I really like the long layout and darting off into the fields of Spain is actually better then it sounds. 8. Batman la Fuga - 2007. Not the biggest fan of this version. Just a bit meh and its theming doesn't extend beyond the queue and station. 9. Manta - 2011. Wonderful ride, very intense. I love a pretzel roll, give me more. 10. Kraken - 2011. This has grown on me since my initial ride. It's new colour scheme is a bit jerk but nonetheless, a great example of the flourless ride type. 11. The Incredible Hulk - 2011. The refresh has worked wonders and this is a fantastically intense and brutal Sit-down. Really great. 12. Fire Dragon - 2011 (RIP). The better of the two and I was fortunate enough to ride them when they duelled. Much missed. 13. Ice Dragon - 2011 (RIP). I hate JK Rowling. The loss of these two is enough to hate Universal actually. 14. Katun - 2011. An excellent example of an American style B&M but in the hot Italian sun. Fantastic ride and full of force. 15. Raptor (Gardaland) - 2011. A really nice low to the ground wing rider. Love how B&M nailed the concept with their first attempt. 16. The Swarm - 2012. I love the Swarm and the one I've ridden the most. A little short but has aged wonderfully with a very intense helix. 17. Oz'Iris - 2012. Excellent. Near perfection. Varied, unique and different layout and an absolutely perfect zero g roll. Beautiful theming. Three trains What's not to love? 18. Dragon Khan - 2012. An iconic ride. I think this could do with a retracking as legend has it its starting to show its age. Very aggressive ride. 19. Shambhala - 2012. The TPW famous ride, I remember loving this and its fun layout. I'm not PA's biggest fan but this ride alone would attract me back. 20. SheiKra - 2012. Never understood the dislike for this. I really love the absurdly big look of the ride and have always enjoyed it. 21. Kumba - 2012. Retrack please. It rode amazingly but wasn't great when I went in 2017. Absolutely iconic. 22. Montu - 2012. Really not a fan. After the great start, it just meanders around at the end not doing anything particularly special. Batwing is over-rated. 23. Dæmonen - 2013. Very cute. Yeah it's not substantial but at such a short queue and in such a beautiful location its hard to dislike this ride. 24. Medusa (Discovery Kingdom) - 2014. I really liked this car park coaster. Lovely and unique inversions and pretty forceful. Worth going to DK for. 25. Tatsu - 2014. Fantastic ride. It works so well flying above the hills of Magic Mountain and its strange layout really is unique and inspired. 26. Riddlers Revenge - 2014. Another fantastic, long B&M. Unique in one of the last stand ups out there. Really enjoyed it despite the crippling capacity. 27. Batman The Ride - 2014. Ridden backwards so not a true reflection. This was okay but these things should be done facing forwards. 28. Scream - 2014. Under-rated. American B&M's have an advantage in being very long and forceful. This has had a refresh since my visit so looks great now even if its still a car park. 29. Silver Bullet - 2014. Bit meh. It has some nice moments but its a bit too soft for my liking. Rumour has it that it has got a lot better since I rode. 30. Baron 1898 - 2017. Excellent. One of the best rides out there. The story engages me on every level and I could ride it all day. So much fun. 31. Monster (Walygator) - 2017. American style B&M in a field. Very good as only slightly better then Raptor at CP because it has no mid course break run. 32. Mako - 2017. I didn't think this would be for me but it was actually a lot of fun and a really good hyper. The mid course kills the pacing though. 33. Oblivion: The Black Hole - 2018. I liked this. One of the longer dive machines out there and its got a nice bit of decoration around the drop. 34. Flug der Demon - 2018. One of my favourite wing riders. Really nice use of the landscaping to create a varied and interesting ride. Great air time as well. 35. Krake - 2018. Dull. Almost as basic as Oblivion but without the prototype excuse. I like the Krake monster but thats it. 36. X-Flight - 2018. Wish I'd ridden more, we got a front row on the first ride so it probably wasn't at its fastest. Basically the Swarm but longer and more inversions. 37. Raging Bull - 2018. Very unique. Not surprised no more twister style hypers were made as this is a real odd attraction. 38. Superman Ultimate Flight - 2018. Boring. It has one stand out moment in the pretzel and the rest is just meandering around above the ground. 39. Batman the ride - 2018. The original inverter and absolutely fantastic. You can see why this was cloned so much based on the quality of this version. Hasn't aged at all. 40. Gatekeeper - 2018. I love this ride. Instantly re-rideable and instantly iconic over the entrance of CP. 41. Raptor - 2018. One of the more aggressive rides out there. What it lacks in variety it makes up with its just sheer force and speed. Recommended. 42. Rougarou - 2018. This is just alright. I'm not sure if the flourless really adds anything to a layout based around being stand up. 43. Valravn - 2018. Boring. The vest destroys any air time and in a park full of big drops, it's not really interesting or unique enough to stand up. Rubbish capacity as well. 44. Leviathan - 2018. Great first drop, the rest of it is very much meandering territory. Legend has it Fury 325 does the concept much better. 45. Behemoth - 2018. An absolute classic. Very good ride full of airtime, great setting over the river and a really long ride. The seating doesn't add a whole lot. 46. Valkirya - 2018. Aside from being a longer dive machine, the vest restraint just kills it for me. Why it couldn't have the normal restraints, I don't know. 47. Fenix - 2019. I really like this, its one of the more forceful versions of the wing rider. Great setting as well. 48. Flight Deck - 2022. Interesting getting back on an older B&M. It rides really well despite its age and I hope it finds a new home. 49. Patriot - 2022. Will probably be scrapped. Is now showing its age and it isn't the most inspired of layouts. 50. Monster (Grona) - 2022. I adore this ride. How they managed to fit it in is just magic. The elements are just so odd and you get crazy elements of intensity in some of the oddest places. And therein lies my truth. Here's to the next 50.

Welcome to the fifth and final addition to my California trip report. You’ve heard of car park coasters, now get ready for car park theme parks! Ok, this place doesn’t look like a car park. At least not anymore! Opening in 2001 on the former original car park of Disney, the neighbouring Disneyland was a magical, immersive and well themed destination. This place had none of them and was seen as a disaster and embarrassment. Flash forward two decades, and through various updates and expansions, this park has now become its own whilst retaining the Disney magic. The park’s entrance, Buena Vista Street leans very much on the golden age of Hollywood. The 1920’s/30’s which seems fitting as that was Walt’s dream was starting to come to life. It’s a beautiful welcoming space that romanticises Hollywood (very much so) but manages be similar yet contrasting to Disneyland Park’s entrance. Attractions & Areas: Hollywood Land- One of the first main areas you come across, which continues on from Buena Vista street perfectly. Whether it’s the red trolley or other areas, it fits nicely. The area does have some similarities to Walt Disney Studios (Adventure World), just a little. Monsters Inc- Mike & Sulley To The Resque- A quirky dark ride based on the Monsters Inc movie. It was ok, enjoyable enough. Not the best (Disney) dark ride by any means but does what it needs to do. Except when it broke down for a lengthy period the first time we queued. Still a lot better than that short-lived Superstar Limo ride. Rumours say some of the animatronics were reused in this ride. Makes sense. Mickey’s Philharmafic- A charming and mesmerising show featuring many characters and music numbers from iconic Disney films. Avengers Campus- The new kid on the block, as areas go. Naturally this area by some will be seen as perhaps controversial, because of the guardians tower and arguably stripping back some of the park’s gleam during the improvement years. However I think the area looks fine and generally fits in enough for the park. Guardians Of The Galaxy- Mission Breakout, it’s crazy to think it’s almost been ten years since DCA controversially gutted out the former Cali Tower Of Terror ride (some whilst still open) and converted it into a Guardians style ride instead. Out is the mysterious theming and eerie music, replaced by a grand futuristic fortress with a selection of pop songs. I entered with mixed emotions, especially given my love towards the Paris & Florida rides and my thoughts when they changed this. However, I liked it, I really liked it, loved it even. Ok, it feels weird how different the whole vibe is, from the queue,pre-show and the ride itself. I really like the pre show actually and the Rocket animatronic is great. When it’s not in B-mode anyway. I can’t help but beat along to the catchy soundtracks whilst riding. It feels very uplifting, especially listening to Pat Benatar’s Hit Me With Your Best Shot playing. In the evenings, they did a Halloween overlay too, which was cool. Overall I really enjoyed Mission Breakout a lot more than I was expecting. Whilst I think I just slightly prefer the Hollywood Hotel theme, my general consensus that this was probably the weakest tower prior and hopefully the others won’t be touched, but we shall see. Spider-Man- Webslingers, Very much like the one in Paris, except more of the queue is outside I believe. The attraction is nothing extraordinary but another variation of a shooter type ride. I scored the highest in my group, so I can’t complain on that front. Cars Land- One of the most striking and iconic areas of the whole park. It certainly looks beautiful and encapsulates everything from both the cars movies and the route 66 setting, which is intentionally being drawn upon. From the mountains, diner and even the long road. It’s all there. Radiator Spring Racers- The star attraction of this area, which is basically a mixture between test track and a classic dark ride, this attraction mixes scenes featuring many of the radiator spring residents, before racing around the rockwork areas within the area. It was a pleasant and enjoyable attraction which I strongly enjoyed, however would argue it gets a little overhyped perhaps. Maters Junkyard Jamboree- A short but adorably hilarious variation of the crazy taxi ride at Europa Park. Very enjoyable. Pixar Pier & San Fransokyo Square Located towards the back of the park are Pixar Pier and San Fransokyo Square. San Fransokyo is more of a food and beverage area, including a unit dedicated to chocolatier Ghiradelli. Which did some delicious treats here. Pixar pier essentially bases itself around a turn of the century boardwalk, perhaps taking inspiration from places such as Santa Cruz, Santa Monica and Belmont park perhaps. Even with the Pixar overlay numerous years ago, the area still looks great. I loved the reference to San Francisco seals on one of the posters. Incredicoaster- Star attraction of the area (and of within the park), from a distance it looks like an old wooden coaster, but is actually an intamin in disguise. It has a great launch sequence, some fast and twisty turns, not to mention a loop within its lengthy circuit. Probably one of my favourite Disney coasters, except for the harsh brakes at the end maybe. Still an enjoyable ride. Other rides in this area include the crazy yet iconic Pixar Pal-around wheel, where we naturally went for the swinging gondolas. The first round was ok, but the second was definitely more crazy. Still a unique thing worth doing, if you don’t get too nauseous on swinging type rides. They also had a Toystory midway mania. The ride itself was very much the same as the one in Florida, but only had one track and a less grand queue too. Paradise Gardens Just infront of Pixar pier is paradise gardens, which generally continues the old boardwalk style pretty much. Goofy’s Sky was a highly acceptable wild mouse coaster and the Little Mermaid dark was simply adorable to experience. Quality scenery and animatronics. Grizzly Peak (and airfield) Essentially two sub-areas combined together, but most will probably still call it Grizzly Peak. It’s essentially a national park themed area with Sequoia Forest style vibes, plus the grand Californian hotel which has some similarities to Paris’s Sequoia lodge. The rides are a mixed selection here, you have the Grizzly River Rapids, which were great fun and delivered a decent amount of soaking too. They also had Soarin, which had resumed to playing the world version over the original, which was ok and perhaps a little better then the Orlando one, but maybe that’s just me. Finally, in true Disney tradition they have a night time show. World Of Colour. The current version titled One, features a selection of classic, Pixar and other properties such as Marvel under one show, celebrating over 100 years of Disney storytelling. I had some empowering messages especially when things become difficult. A lovely show to watch indeed. Conclusion: And that concludes my California trip reports, which will probably be the last ones I write probably. But wow it has been one crazy roller coaster ride. Magic Mountain was impressive with its vast coaster selection (especially X2), Knotts put on a phenomenal Halloween event amongst some interesting rides. Universal surpassed my expectations with its stunning location, backlot tour and of course. Horror nights. Los Angeles was probably the biggest let down, the place was deprived and rundown in many areas and there were numerous questionable characters around. That said the observatory area with the views of the city and Hollywood sign was great, and I liked Santa Monica. Disneyland (both parks) were honestly such a joy to visit and experience. I loved experiencing all the old and the new attractions there, which though a smaller scale was such a charming and delightful place to visit. This trip reminded me of my first Disney experience in Paris, almost ten years ago and for me brought back lots of the happiness I felt back then. Visiting Disneyland no joke has made feel the happiest I’ve been in a while. This is Matt creek signing off, thanks for reading.

Hey all, I initially thought that I would be handing in my blogging quill following my Florida trip 2 years ago. However I guess my passion and interest for parks and traveling has perhaps resurrected this. Until last month, I had never set foot in a Six Flags park (shock horror). However that finally changed, following a significant trip to California. After some sightseeing shenanigans in San Francisco, it was time to experience my first major park. Six Flags Magic Mountain. For me this had been a bucket list park for many years, from its vast array of thrilling coasters to its presence in Roller Coaster Tycoon and Wally World. Until Energylandia expands again, this park has thr highest number of coasters at any operating park. Thats if they all operate. During our time, we were spited both Goliath and Superman. A pity perhaps, especially given the latter may be on the chopping block. Least the former was getting a repaint I guess. As a 365 park (supposedly), spiting was expected and I have heard some disappointing trip reports. However this visit wasn’t too bad, all things considered. It’s certainly a vast and iconic park, its entrance is a little dated, but still seems fitting. Operations were a mixed bag, with some rides running fine on two, but others on just one train, even with noticeable queues, which was a bit of a shame. There are some rundown areas, but they didn’t look as bad as expected. Maybe sky tower will eventually reopen. Now, the rides: X2 An incredible coaster, it’s extreme, intense but largely unique and complex. It mixes the old with the new, no wonder it bankrupted arrow. Pity it’s difficult to photograph! Tatsu I have mixed reactions when it comes to flying coasters, I don’t mind Galactica but generally disliked Manta. Tatsu however I really enjoyed. Flying around the mountain, interacting with other rides, it was surprisingly comfortable and didn’t feel over-intense either. Possibly my favourite B&M flyer. Twisted Colossus Being my fourth RMC (Ibox) and predating the other (famous 3) I’ve experienced. Despite this, it certainly made a highly interesting ride with a decent variety of air and hangtime. The layout didn’t feel too competitive, despite its old life as a duelling woodie. It’s no Zadra, but still ticks boxes and an RMC lover. The DC Coasters- Riddlers Revenge, Wonder Woman & Batman Understandably Six Flags have a lot of DC Comic themed attractions in their parks, a number of which can be found in here. Including three coasters, two B&Ms and an RMC. Riddlers Revenge is a very solid standup coaster, featuring a variety of smooth yet forceful elements and easily my favourite standup coaster. Using a variation of Sash’s Ecuador in the station is one of the most upbeat tunes I’ve seen in a station since Euromir. Sadly the operations didn’t follow with a 1 train service. Wonder Woman marked my first RMC single rail and 300th coaster. It’s an interesting concept with one seat rowed trains flying through tight and nifty elements, however it doesn’t hit the same spot as other such coasters, even if it is a unique one. Batman the ride was overall great, though again like a number of coasters here rather tucked away from being visible. The station was one of the better themed and the ride experience feeling largely similar to Nemesis Inferno, albeit a little longer and more intense perhaps. Which is no doubt a good thing. West Coast Racers My experience with premier rides in Florida, left something to be desired, however it’s warmed up a little in California. I enjoyed this a lot more than expected, with some nippy little elements and interaction from the other half of the ride. It’s a strange entry, given it feels like it should’ve been two duelling coasters, rather than one large ride that duels against itself. The wait in the middle is therefore a little tedious. Full Throttle It might be one of the shorter (major) coasters in the park, but those launches really give this ride a kick, from its giant loop and airtime hill after the second and third launches. Could maybe do with a slightly longer length, but maybe that’s me. Apocalypse Another GCI coaster and one where theming/experience has perhaps been attempted. A near immersive queue line ruined by slow operations thanks to a single train op and large amount of Flash pass sadly. The ride was a little bumpy, but I’ve done both better and worse woodies. The station fly through does contradict the escape theme, as I heard another guest say. Whilst waiting in the station. Scream As a floorless coaster it’s an enjoyable and decent one, however it’s pretty obvious it was built on a car park, as you can still see some of the markings below. Right. Ninja & Viper- Classic arrows Ninja makes for my fourth entry of the endangered Arrow suspended coasters and could possibly be my favourite one yet. It features a long lengthy layout, swinging wildly on the hillside whilst interacting with the jet stream (lisebergesque) flume. The lift at the end to the station didn’t ruin the pace near as much as I expected. Gutted to have never ridden Eagles Fortress or Big Bad Wolf. As classic arrows go I really enjoyed Viper, which despite its age was not rough at all. It has interesting pacing and feels like one of the more photogenic park coasters surprisingly. Hopefully this old snake still has life in her yet, unlike others that have since been demolished. New Revolution Great classic coaster, which reminded me of lisebergbanen a little, albeit with a loop included. Relitively smooth for a ride such its age and so glad they ditched the VR from whenever that terrible fad happened. Only gripes was ride staff not allowing guests to lower the restraints (weird) and the entrance was surprisingly hard to find. Other attractions Believe it or not, Six Flags Mountain has other attractions that aren’t rollercoasters (shock). Besides a large kid area in one corner of the park, other attractions include: Jet Stream- Classic flume ride with several drops around the hillside. It reminded me of Flume ride and has some good interaction points with the other rides. Justice League- Battle For Metropolis I’d been so focused on the coasters ahead of this trip that I completely forgot they had a dark ride there. Something between a mix of Webslingers and Transformers, I actually enjoyed this dark ride a lot more than I was expecting, which featured some cool effects and animatronics. Surprisingly good. Roaring Rapids- Nice classic rapids ride with moments of crazy wetness and spinning action. A decent length too. Riding this at night is a stark reminder of not being at a U.K. park. Lex Luther’s Drop Of Doom- It’s no detonator but the views are impressive and the drop still has some moments of intensity They had a decent selection of flats including a high flying Gyro swing, spinning wheel and the like. Due to only having 1.5 days to visit, I had no chance to experience these. The funicular trams (formerly orient express) were both closed when I went. Fright Fest The park’s answer to Fright Nights or Howl’o scream. There was a vast number of mazes (11 in total) and lots of scare zones. Although the quality did not equate to some of the other events on this trip, it was still highly enjoyable with some lengthy mazes with some good scares and acting throughout. The mazes with stranger things, the ‘failed’ tv show and museum were the ones I enjoyed the most. The two outdoor houses were very impressive too, especially with how the actors hid away and all the fire effects too. It reminded me of a larger scale fright nights so it is definitely worth visiting, even if you do an evening only day. Conclusion: I’d heard some absolute horror stories about this place. Bad operations, availability and being a poorly up-kept park. Don’t get me wrong, this park is not without its perfections but I certainly enjoyed it a lot more than I was expecting with one of the most vast coaster selections I’ve seen since visiting Cedar Point. Whether it be during the Californian sun or dark evening. The atmosphere in the day was intermittent but maybe better at night. Food & drink was pricey but still better than Chessington’s. It’s worth a visit for its diverse selection and interesting location. But if you are a cred/attraction hunter, just don’t expect to get on everything!

Hello and welcome to part 2 of my California 2024 trip reports. This entry takes us Universal Studios Hollywood, the original universal park which has now been open for over 50 years, predating every other park considerably. Even the Orlando resort. As oldest Universal park, at first glance this park is significantly smaller than its other parks with considerably fewer attractions, especially compared to the Orlando resort. However this park makes up for much of that shortfall. Firstly, the park has a unique selling point, it’s adjacent to a working studio complex. This lends itself to the mesmerising Studio Backlot tour, more on that later. Not to mention a stunning and unique location, where the park is on different levels, requiring several flights of escalators to get there. Twice the amount of say Liseberg. You can get some stunning views of the surrounding area there too. Even if the attraction front is condensed, what they’ve got here is still a rather sufficient lineup, which will only be improved substantially by the Fast & Furious coaster eventually. Annoyingly Jurassic World unexpectedly shut during our visit and reliability issues also meant being spited of Hollywood’s Transformers ride too (darn it). Super Nintendo World (Hollywood version) Universal’s latest blockbuster area, Super Nintendo World.Opening last year, this is noticeably downsized version of the one in Tokyo, which opened two years prior. The main area differences are that this one only contains one ride and is all on one level pretty much. Walking around the area was absolutely stunning, with so many incredible details. Moving coins, characters, strong scenery and of course music too. There’s nothing quite like it (except Tokyo I guess) and was blown away by it all. There was always something new to find. The ride in this area is Mario Kart: Bowser’s challenge, which as the name suggests is based on the popular game, Nario Kart. The queue line is massive but is also beautifully themed, going through themed rooms and even a giant bowser statue. The pre-show/holding areas work in some ways, but not always others, due to some bottleneck areas. The ride itself was an absolute delight, utilising 3D glasses on a dual loading track circuit, where one can steer the car and fire and use objects from the game. A mixture between screens and animatronics are used. As someone who loves the game, this was a very enjoyable and addictive attraction, which was done four times during the visit. I also (somehow) won on all the goes Also inside the area are numerous interactive objects, which can be triggered by power up bands (additional cost) as well as a shop and the toadstool cafe, a restaurant where you can eat a variety meals in the mushroom kingdom. I had the meatballs and tiramisu block, both tasty enough, if a little pricey. The bowser attack sequence every 15 minutes made for an interesting touch. Wizarding World Of Harry Potter Just like Super Nintendo World, this version is also noticeably smaller than the others, still housing the impressive Forbidden Journey, within the grand castle as well as a variety of shops, restaurants and hippogriff coaster within the area. No Hagrid’s motorbike here unfortunately. Forbidden journey was just as enjoyable as last time, apart from the ride stopping both times we rode it and not fully resetting in the located scene. Oh well. Revenge Of The Mummy I’d heard a lot of reports saying the Hollywood version was noticeably weaker than the Orlando version and this is correct. However, it was still a greatly enjoyable ride, by going forwards, then backwards and then forwards again. There were fewer effects in this one, no fire or other bits, however space limitations are likely. Still an enjoyable dark ride coaster mind you. The first room gives me terror tomb vibes. The Upper- lot On a whole, most of the park’s rides are actually on the upper lot, the rest of the ride lineup, these include: A small Simpsons area featuring a few food places and the ride itself. Was about the same as the Orlando one, except maybe a little more bumpy for some reason. Despicable Me- Minion Mayhem, decent enough simulator ride themed after the popular despicable me films. Featured the usual gags and was a coool gimmick to become a minion. Secret Life Of Pets- Off The Leash- Charming dark ride using a mixture of old and new effects including a decent number of lovely animatronics too. Dream Works Theatre- Amusing Kung Fu panda show, featuring an open with many of the iconic dream works characters. Backlot Tram Tour One of the fundamental elements that makes the Hollywood park worth visiting is the backlot tram tour. This 45-60 minute experience passes many of the iconic sets and backlot areas used in universal films. Including the courthouse square, the psycho mansion and the jaws scene, although this was closed on the day. There were also Kong, earthquake and fast and furious segments in the experience too. The latter was definitely better than the atrocious ride in the Florida park. Halloween Horror Nights This was my second universal horror nights I experienced, only this time in Hollywood and not Orlando. The format is virtually the same, with numerous large scale house located in mostly soundstage like buildings, striking scare zones with numerous actors and set pieces as well as some shows too. The turnover especially for the latter is definitely impressive. There were eight scare houses/mazes located throughout the park. Some on the upper lot and others on the lower lot. A couple were relocated in completely different area, which was weird because you essentially walked a good 5-10 out of the way from the rest of the park. However given space limitations, this was probably logical. The typical maze involves one walking in an end-less group style way (a walking omnimover if you wish). Vast setpieces and design await, with various timers through. It’s great on the sense of design and immersion, but if you are after a more intimate experience perhaps not. Several Marshalls are hidden in some areas, prompting people on if the pace lessons too much. Out of the eight, the Ghostbusters and Texas Chainsaw Massacre were the ones I probably liked the most, with some awesome effects and interesting jump scares. The latter had some pretty gory set design for sure. Despite anticipation and missing out on it Orlando, I was rather disappointed by The Weekend maze, which besides his awesome music didn’t feel like one thing or the other. Besides some awesome scare zones, featuring 7-8 feet tall figures, we watched an awesome stunt show based on the Purge, in the water world theatre and an entertaining Chucky doll show in the dream works theatre. For me, this event definitely retains the awesome quality of the one seen in Orlando. And that’s the end of the report, it’s definitely still worth visiting despite being a park of only a dozen attractions pretty much. And here is Santa Monica.

12th September 2024: PortAventura Park Day 3 It was our final day in PortAventura Park today before heading home! We weren’t really able to have a full day today, as we had to be out of the park by 3:30pm to catch our shared transfer back to Barcelona Airport to fly home, but we nonetheless headed back into the park to mop up some more goes on some of the best attractions! I headed into the park early on my own this morning, with my mum and dad joining me later. I headed down to the Hotel Gold River entrance at around 9:50am, and entered the park a bit before the 10:30am opening time: Upon entering the park, I decided to repeat my winning strategy from yesterday and head to China first. Resultantly, I started my day on… Shambhala Shambhala had a very short pre-queue, so I decided to start my day on there. I was in the queue early enough to be batched onto the very first train of the day… but unfortunately, wind (well, “adverse meteorological conditions” as per the tannoy announcement) meant that the ride didn’t open until 20 minutes after park opening. Curiously, they had to take off a train and run the ride on 1 train for it to be able to open in the wind; I’ve never seen this on a coaster before. Whether it’s a case similar to The Big One where the ride supposedly has slow and fast trains for different weather conditions, I don’t know, but to be fair, it was windy enough that I can believe it might have caused a 250ft coaster to experience difficulties with operating. Anyhow, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in the back car, and it was absolutely sublime; it was possibly in contention for the best Shambhala ride yet! The airtime was strong and phenomenally sustained, the ride was so fast (and felt faster than usual in the windy conditions), and overall, it was every bit as sublime as I’ve come to expect from Shambhala! That ride was a wonderful way to kick off the day: After Shambhala, I then decided to head onto the other coaster in the area… Dragon Khan Dragon Khan was on an advertised 30 minute queue, so I decided to take a ride on there. Like Shambhala, Dragon Khan had been forced to drop down to 1 train to operate in the windy conditions, so capacity was reduced, but the queue still took only 35 minutes nonetheless, which I didn’t think was too bad, personally. But how was the ride? Well, I was seated in an outer seat on the very front row, and it was similar to previous rides; it was a bit rough in places, but overall not too bad, and the ride had a decent layout with good forces, good pacing and decent inversions: After I got off Dragon Khan, my mum and dad had entered the park, so I met up with them in the square in China before we headed to an attraction we hadn’t yet done… Templo del Fuego Templo del Fuego was on an advertised 20 minute queue time and we hadn’t yet done it, so we decided to give it a go. I’ve often heard that this attraction doesn’t open very often, and I’ve also heard that it’s very good, so I was intrigued to try it out. The queue ultimately only took around 5 minutes, and we were inside the attraction promptly. So, how was it? Well, this style of actor-led attraction isn’t entirely my sort of thing, but I have to concede that it was rather entertaining! Even though I didn’t understand too much of the speech, as it was in Spanish, the actor did a good job of entertaining the crowds, the premise was quite clear even without knowing too much of the script, and the special effects were spectacular! There were also some surprises that I wasn’t expecting… overall, Templo del Fuego was quite an entertaining detour for a few minutes, and I’m glad I got to do it: After Templo del Fuego, we started to gradually work our way around to Meditarranea, firstly stopping off at… El Diablo El Diablo was on an advertised 10 minute queue time, so I decided to take a ride on there. As advertised, the queue took 10 minutes; you can never complain about that! So, how was the ride? Well similarly to yesterday, it was a fun mine train coaster with some fun helixes and good bits of speed, and it also felt a bit smoother than yesterday: After El Diablo, we decided to head over to Street Mission, which was advertising a 10 minute queue, for another ride after enjoying it yesterday. However, it unfortunately broke down while we were in the queue for it, so after 10 minutes or so with no action, we eventually bailed: We then decided to head down to Meditarranea for lunch, after which my parents took the train from Meditarranea to Far West to leave the park. Being left to my own devices for a little longer, I initially decided to check out Hurakan Condor, as I hadn’t ridden it yet, I’m a fan of a good drop tower, and it was on a 30 minute advertised queue time. However, as with yesterday, it unfortunately was a pretty much static queue; I stuck it out for 10 minutes or so, but I left after it didn’t move. This proved a sound decision, as the advertised queue time had shot up to 1h 30m by the time I left: I then decided to head to China and scope out Shambhala for a reride, but it was unfortunately closed for a weather delay (it was still pretty windy at this point). As Dragon Khan was still on 1 train at this point due to the weather and had an eye-watering 2.5 hour advertised queue time, I decided to veto a reride on that too. However, a favourite from earlier in the trip that I had yet to reride was on an unusually low queue, so I decided to head to… Uncharted: El Enigma de Penitence Uncharted was advertising a 40 minute queue time, so I decided to take a ride on there. This was the first occasion where I’d seen it on an advertised queue time of much below an hour, so as I’d found Uncharted an excellent coaster earlier in the week, I decided to take full advantage of this! The queue time was in fact overstated; the queue only took 30 minutes, and moved fairly decently. You can never complain about that! But how was the ride? Well, my thoughts were very similar to what they were on the first ride. The coaster hardware itself is excellent, with the launches, fun twists and turns and various tricks making for another excellent example of an Intamin family thrill coaster, but the on-ride theming leaves much to be desired for a ride of this style, with the ride largely taking place in a pitch black warehouse and the screen scenes being really rather poor in terms of theming. I find the on-ride theming (or lack of) on Uncharted baffling, as the queue is gorgeous and Street Mission across the park shows that PortAventura clearly has strong dark ride prowess and can make absolutely superb immersive attractions. Nevertheless, the coaster itself was still excellent and put a smile on my face, and as much as I can nitpick, that is the most important thing after all: After getting off, I pondered another ride on Uncharted, but it was getting closer to 3:30pm and reriding Uncharted at the queue time it was at would have been cutting it a bit too fine to get back to the hotel for 3:30pm. I scoped out other attractions, but a lot of things either had a queue too long to get back in time for 3:30pm, would have taken too much walking from my current location in the park to get back in time or both. As such, I decided to call it a day there, bid PortAventura Park goodbye for the last time and head back to the hotel to meet my parents and get our transfer to the airport: So, that wraps up my final day at PortAventura Park! Today was definitely a weaker day than others on the trip, but PortAventura can’t help the weather. It really was very windy; if we had been in Florida, it felt like a very “there’s a thunderstorm coming imminently” sort of wind, and seeing as I saw Alton Towers practically grind entirely to a halt in similar, if not weaker, wind back in March, I don’t think PortAventura dealt with the circumstances badly at all. We also never went into today under the pretence of it being a full park day; we always knew we had to be out before 3:30pm to catch our transfer, so we were pleased with anything we got, realistically. Given I was only in the park for around 4.5 hours, I’ve done far worse than 5 attractions in that sort of timeframe before! That isn’t just the end of the day, but also the end of the trip. I’ll write a longer summary post when I’m back in the UK, but in short; I’ve had an absolutely fantastic trip! I loved PortAventura World, and it’s definitely right up there as one of the strongest theme park resorts I’ve visited in Europe for me! Thanks for reading; I hope you’ve enjoyed this report, as well as the wider series of reports from the rest of the trip! I’ll post a longer review of PortAventura as a whole when I’m back in the UK, but trip reports-wise, I think that’s probably it from me for theme park trips this year. It’s been a terrific year, and PortAventura was an excellent way to end it!

10th September 2024: PortAventura Park Day 1 Today was the day, folks; our first day inside PortAventura Park! I couldn’t wait to get inside, ride attractions like Shambhala for the first time, and just generally see what the park had to offer for the very first time! Now before I start this report, I should declare that perhaps controversially, we decided not to buy any form of Express Pass for our visit to the park today. We figured that if it was terrible today, we could always buy it for tomorrow and/or Thursday. Before spending all that money, we decided that we should at least try the park without Express first before assuming that Express was needed. Anyway, let me start off our day at PortAventura Park. After having breakfast in our hotel, we headed down to the Gold River entrance to the park at around 9:45am, and were ultimately let inside at just after 10am. This was very convenient, and put us in good stead to do our first attraction at the 10:30am opening time: As we entered into the Far West section of PortAventura Park, we decided to initially head to a nearby attraction that apparently had quite poor capacity… Uncharted: El Enigma De Penitence Uncharted was nearby and had a relatively short pre-queue, so we decided to give it a go. I had been informed that the ride had low capacity and often built up a substantial queue, so I thought that it might be a sound idea to get that one done first seeing as our hotel entrance put us very close to it. The ride had a technical fault, so opened 15 minutes later than planned, but our decision to do it first proved an astute one, as we only waited 15 minutes for it once it opened and the advertised queue time was 1h 40m when we got off! Anyhow, how was the ride? Well, I actually went in knowing remarkably little, as I purposely didn’t spoil it for myself, and I have to say that I thought it was great fun! In terms of the coaster itself, I thought it was excellent; it had some fun twists and turns and fun launches, it was fast and dynamic, and I really enjoyed some of the tricksy elements (I’ll try not to spoil what those are)! I must admit, however, that I thought the on-ride theming left much to be desired for a coaster of this style; aside from the very first scene, it was pretty much a pitch black warehouse, and the screen scenes had practically nothing aside from said screens, with maintenance sheds and blank walls visible all around them. It’s a shame, as the queue is gorgeous and the coaster itself is excellent and offers potential for a great dark ride roller coaster. With marginally better on-ride theming, this could have been something quite special. Nevertheless, I still thought that Uncharted was great fun, and an excellent indoor coaster that I really enjoyed: After getting off Uncharted, we headed to a hotly anticipated headliner of mine… Shambhala Shambhala was on an advertised 50 minute queue time, so we decided to take a ride on it. This queue ended up being marginally understated, taking more like 60 minutes, but I have to say that for all the tales of woe and horror I’ve heard about PortAventura’s supposedly dire operations over the years, operations on Shambhala were not nearly as bad as I was expecting, and the queue didn’t move terribly slowly. While I’d hesitate to call the operations fast, they were not half as bad as expected. The ride was getting just over 800pph and running 2 trains, and Express allocation did not seem excessive, so the queue didn’t move too badly. But enough about the queue; how was the ride? Well seeing as my current #1 is a B&M Hyper and Shambhala is often touted as the best of the type, it was a hotly anticipated ride for me; my most anticipated of the park, and possibly the whole year. I had very high expectations, but I was seated in the back row of the 6th car, and it did not disappoint; Shambhala is absolutely sublime! There’s so much good stuff to talk about with this ride! For starters, the first drop is absolutely phenomenal, with such strong sustained airtime all the way down; it sits proudly alongside Mako and Iron Gwazi as being one of my favourite first drops I’ve ever experienced! There’s also such wonderful sustained airtime, and it’s over every hill; Shambhala delivers right to the end! I think you also really feel the additional speed of Shambhala compared to the other B&M Hypers I’ve ridden, it’s absolutely glass smooth and comfortable… it’s just such a wonderful ride! My mum and dad loved it as well, and it definitely did not disappoint: After our sublime first ride on Shambhala, we initially planned to do Dragon Khan, but instead decided to stroll further around the park, eventually settling on something a little different… Tutuki Splash Tutuki Splash was on a 10 minute advertised queue time, so we decided to take a ride on there. The queue took marginally longer than advertised, taking around 15-20 minutes, but it still wasn’t a long queue, so we couldn’t really complain too much. So, how was the ride? Well, I had a mild degree of trepidation seeing as I’m not a massive fan of absolute saturation soaking on water rides, but it was actually good fun and wasn’t too bad wetness-wise; it was more Jurassic Park than Valhalla, which suits me better! The theming was also lovely; the volcano is really cool, and I liked the jungle surroundings! Overall, Tutuki Splash was good fun, and although pretty wet afterwards, we dried out quickly in the Spanish sunshine: After Tutuki Splash, we sat down and had lunch from a cafe in Meditarranea; I had a lovely margherita pizza slice! We then planned to do Furius Baco, as we’d previously seen that it only had a 20 minute queue, but after we had our lunch, it had broken down, so we instead headed back to Far West to do a different coaster (or duo of coasters) that had now opened… Stampida Stampida was on an advertised 10 minute queue, so we decided to give one of the coasters a ride. We opted for the Blue track for our first ride, and the queue ended up being very accurate, taking around 10 minutes. So, how was the ride? Well, I was sat in row 8, and the racing element was good fun, with John Wardley’s surprise tunnel touch being particularly fun, and it hasn’t got a bad layout, but I wasn’t a massive fan of Stampida Blue. It was quite rough in numerous sections (albeit I’ve admittedly ridden rougher woodies; something like Grand National, for example, was definitely rougher), and I also thought that the trains were very uncomfortable, with a lap bar that seemed to tighten noticeably and really clasp you in as the ride went on, ensuring that you got precisely zero airtime. It seems like the sort of ride that could be vastly better if they gave it new trains and/or some retracking work, because there are some very decent wooden coaster foundations there. Overall, then, I wasn’t the biggest fan of Stampida Blue, despite it having a decent, long layout and fun racing features: After getting off Stampida Blue, I whipped straight back round to nab the other Stampida credit, Stampida Red, while the queue was short. I was sat in the front row on the Red side, and it wasn’t an awful lot different to the Blue side, albeit it felt perhaps marginally smoother. This could have been caused by me being sat in the front, being sat on my own or both, however. Following Stampida Red, me and my mum nipped to ride the other Far West woodie while the queue was short… Tomahawk Tomahawk was on an advertised 10 minute queue, so we decided to take a ride on there. As with Stampida, the queue was bang on the advertised time, taking 10 minutes. So, how was the ride? Well, I thought it was perfectly all right for a family woodie, if somewhat unremarkable. There were some fair drops on there and it picked up some speed in sections, and I personally found the ride smooth enough and with comfortable restraints. My mum, however, was somewhat pinned in and found the train uncomfortable. Overall, then, Tomahawk was a perfectly fun, if somewhat unremarkable, family wooden coaster: After riding Tomahawk, we decided to go for another water ride… Grand Canyon Rapids Grand Canyon Rapids was on an advertised 10 minute queue, so we decided to give it a whirl. If anything, 10 minutes was slightly overestimated, as we were on the ride in only 5 minutes; you can never complain about that! So, how was the ride? Well, it looked like a somewhat unassuming rapids from off ride, but it was proof that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, as it was a very strong rapids! The river was fast, there were some good waves and some good water effects, and it was overall a very surprising rapids, with a certain ferocity that you don’t really get on a UK rapids anymore! While not Bilge Rats level soaked, we walked off surprisingly wet after being struck by a particularly vicious wave! The girls batched into our boat with us came off somewhat drier… proof if it was needed of the complete lottery rapids rides are! Overall, then, Grand Canyon Rapids was a very surprising rapids that packed many unexpected elements: After Grand Canyon Rapids, my dad and I headed back over towards China, with us stopping at another coaster on the way there… El Diablo: Tren de la Mina El Diablo was on an advertised 10 minute queue, so we decided to take a ride on there. The 10 minute advertised queue time was in fact overstated, as we waltzed straight onto row 15! But how was the ride? Well, I did not go in with very high expectations, as I’ve never heard overly good things about El Diablo, but it was surprisingly good fun and definitely exceeded my expectations! It’s a really long coaster, it’s not overly rough, and while not the most thrilling coaster, it has some really fun helixes and turns where it gains surprising speed! Overall, then, I definitely enjoyed El Diablo more than I expected to, and my dad liked it too; it was definitely a positive surprise: After El Diablo, me and my dad headed into China to tick off a big thrill coaster we hadn’t done yet… Dragon Khan Dragon Khan was on an advertised 10 minute queue, so we decided to give it a whirl. This queue was fractionally understated, taking around 15 minutes, but I still didn’t think that was an overly long queue for such a major headliner. So, how was the ride? Well, I’d heard that Dragon Khan was very rough, but I was seated in an inner seat on row 6, and I did not find it as bad as expected based on reviews, despite not having an overly high roughness tolerance. It has a bit of headbanging in places, and is perhaps one of the rougher B&Ms I’ve ridden, but it wasn’t anything overly terrible and the ride was overall not terribly rough. It was no rougher than, say, the retracked Hulk at Universal. The layout is also very decent, with some excellent inversions and good forces; it’s rather reminiscent of Kumba in that regard, even if it hasn’t seemingly aged quite as well. Overall, then, Dragon Khan wasn’t a bad ride at all; while not glass smooth, I didn’t find it massively rough, and the layout is very decent: After Dragon Khan, my mum and dad left the park and left me to my own devices. As such, I decided to go for not one, but two, rerides on Shambhala using the single rider queue. This worked well; on a 30 minute advertised queue, I got onto the ride within 15 minutes the first time, and even with a stoppage of 5-10 minutes while I was in the queue, I still matched the advertised main queue time of 30 minutes the second time. As for the ride itself, I was seated in the back row of the 7th car both times, and if anything, the ride was possibly even better than it was in the morning, and seemingly grew on me even more with each ride! The sustained airtime was once again glorious, the speed was once again glorious, the ride was blissfully smooth and comfortable once again, and overall, the ride was just absolutely sublime and such a joyous experience!: You may notice that earlier in the report, I steered clear of doing any direct comparisons and answering the question of whether Shambhala has bested Mako as my #1 coaster. After my first ride, I was unsure of Shambhala’s placement among my B&M Hypers (the other two I’ve ridden are Mako and Silver Star), but I knew it was in the conversation of top coasters… the second and third rides, however, made me think that it may have sealed the deal to become my favourite B&M Hyper Coaster, and that after 8 years, I may finally have a new #1 coaster! I’m not concluding that firmly just yet, as I still have 2 more days to ride it more and decide, but currently, I am thinking that Shambhala is a new #1 for me! In terms of what is spurring me to provisionally place Shambhala above Mako; there are a couple of things that I feel it does slightly better while maintaining all of Mako’s best qualities. Firstly, I think the additional speed really enhances it. Secondly, I also think that Shambhala flows better and keeps the thrills going right to the end marginally better than Mako does; on Mako, you have the harsh trim and the slightly weaker ending, but on Shambhala, the ride flows beautifully, every hill delivers sublime sustained airtime and it keeps the thrills going right to the end! I also thought that Shambhala’s speed hill was a bit better than Mako’s; on Mako, that hill, while wonderful, isn’t a particularly standout moment, but on Shambhala, it provides an absolutely stunning pop of ejector airtime! Mako is still an absolutely sublime ride, but when it’s the #1 spot you’re talking about, pedantry has to win out, and Shambhala marginally wins on pedantry for me! I pondered a 3rd reride on Shambhala, but the single rider queue looked longer when I got off after my 2nd reride, and I realised that there was still a key thrill coaster I needed to ride to get the clean sweep of major coasters in PortAventura Park. As such, I headed down to Mediterranea to go and ride… Furius Baco While Furius Baco had a single rider queue, it looked rather long, so I decided to chance the 50 minute main queue instead. The 50 minute main queue turned out to be perfectly accurate, taking the advertised 50 minutes; you can never complain about that! So, how was the ride? Well, I was morbidly intrigued to ride Furius Baco, as I’ve always heard deeply polarised opinions about it and it has its fair share of both passionate lovers and passionate haters. One common thread, however, is that the ride is generally agreed to be quite rough, and given what some of Baco’s haters say about it, I was morbidly intrigued to see just how rough it actually was. I was seated in a relatively unremarkable seat, being in the row 4 inner seat on the left, and I can’t say I was too much of a fan. The launch was excellent and incredibly punchy, as is always the case with these Intamin hydraulic launches… but it is definitely a pretty rough ride! Interestingly, I wouldn’t say it was overly rough in the traditional sense of head-splitting jolts or jerkiness, which I tend to be more sensitive to than rattling/bouncing… but it is perhaps one of the bounciest coasters I’ve ever ridden, to the extent where the sheer degree of bouncing bordered on head-splitting joltiness on odd occasions, and I definitely came off with a decent headache! In the seat I was sat in, I wouldn’t say it was quite uncomfortably rough enough to be “the worst coaster I’ve ever ridden” or in that very bottom 1/10 tier like some declare it, and I think I have ridden some rougher coasters… but it was still a bit too rough for me, and given how rough it was in the row 4 inner seat, it’s not too hard to imagine it being utterly vile on an outer seat! Overall, then, I’m afraid I wasn’t a huge fan of Furius Baco, despite the ever punchy Intamin hydraulic launch. For me, it’s simply much too rough to be something I overly enjoy or rate highly; even if it perhaps wasn’t the most uncomfortably rough coaster I’ve ever ridden in the row 4 inner seat, it was still too rough to fully enjoy for me, and it’s not too hard for me to imagine how it could be absolutely vile on an outer seat or further back in the train!: By the time I got off Furius Baco, the 6pm park closing time had passed, so I bade PortAventura Park goodnight for the day and headed back to Hotel Gold River to meet back up with my mum and dad: So, that wraps up our first day in PortAventura Park! I had an absolutely excellent day; Shambhala was a particularly huge highlight, but there were many other great bits too, and in general, I just thoroughly enjoyed the day and loved setting foot inside PortAventura Park for the first time and seeing what it had to offer! In terms of my first impressions of PortAventura Park; they are overall very, very positive, and I feel that the park is right up there as one of the strongest in Europe, of the ones I’ve visited (admittedly not too many compared to some)! It’s an utterly gorgeous park to walk around and just exist in, the theming is sublime and intricately detailed throughout, and there are some great rides (Shambhala being the main highlight)! Thus far, I’m absolutely loving the park, and I can’t wait to get back in there tomorrow; I dare say that it’s possibly exceeded my expectations so far! I also feel that I should address those old chestnuts that people always moan about with PortAventura; the operations, the queues and Express Pass. Overall, I did not feel that those things were nearly as bad as I was expecting. Express usage did not appear to be excessive, and while I’d hesitate to call the operations fast, I didn’t think they were overly awful by any stretch of the imagination; I’ve seen far worse. Shambhala was doing over 800pph on 2 trains, Stampida had 2 trains on both sides and was doing a combined 1,200pph, the water rides were sending boats at a decent rate, and in general, the operations did not seem that terrible. The queues also weren’t that bad either. I did not buy Express Pass today, and personally, I don’t think I needed it; on the whole, the queues today were no worse than on a busy day at Alton Towers or Thorpe Park, and I’ve certainly waited in longer and slower-moving queues at some of our UK Merlin parks. I’d also argue that PortAventura actually had an advantage over those in that it seemed easier to find major rides with a short queue; rides like Stampida, Tomahawk, El Diablo and the water rides seemed to have queues of 20 minutes or less all day. I was certainly very content with my ride count of 12 in 7.5 hours without using Express Pass; I managed to get on every major coaster, as well as 2 water rides, and get in rerides on Shambhala! Overall, though, I had a fantastic day at PortAventura Park, and my first impressions are overall very positive! Thanks for reading; I hope you’ve enjoyed this report! Tomorrow, we’ll be heading back into PortAventura Park, as well as also visiting Ferrari Land. I can’t wait to get on Red Force for the first time!

9th September 2024: Travel Hi guys. Today was an exciting day; the start of my big foreign theme park trip for the year. This year, that trip is my first ever trip to PortAventura World in Spain! This will be my first time ever experiencing the likes of Shambhala and Red Force, amongst other major rides, as well as experiencing a pretty major European theme park resort in the form of PortAventura World for the first time and seeing the delights it has to offer through a fresh set of eyes! It’s also my first time ever going to Spain despite doing a GCSE in Spanish… there are quite a lot of firsts this trip! We set off early this morning, leaving our Gloucestershire home at a little before 7:30am. With us living in the South West of England, we flew from Bristol Airport, our nearest airport. Despite us not living very far from Bristol, it took us over an hour to get there; I can see why my dad jokingly calls Bristol Airport “Bedminster International”, because it’s miles out of Bristol… anyway, when we got there, check in and security were nice and prompt. Bristol Airport has a fancy new check in system where you don’t take anything out of your bag and it just checks the bag… other than me needing to take my shoes off and have them sent back round the carousel due to some sort of anomaly, it overall worked well and we got through quickly!: When we got into the airport, we then headed for our flight. It was an EasyJet flight to Barcelona El Prat Airport, and it was excellent! The plane was very nice, and everything ran to schedule; it took a little under 2 hours, and we even landed a few minutes ahead of schedule! The time went quite quickly on there; we ate lunch, and I played some games on my iPad and also read How Westminster Works… And Why it Doesn’t, an excellent book by Ian Dunt that explains how every part of the English political system is apparently structured to work against meaningful scrutiny and change. It’s a fascinating read… political books might be a fascinating new genre for me to delve into! Anyway, that’s besides the point; the flight was good, and immigration was also relatively quick: After we landed, we headed to find our shared transfer, booked through PortAventura. This was interesting… it was relatively easy to find and set up, but they like to send you walking for this! We landed in Terminal 2C, but the desk to arrange transfers was at the very end of the check in desks in Terminal 2B, which was a decent walk from where we landed, and then we had to walk even further to all the way past the taxis to catch our bus: The bus itself was easy to catch and we got on it with relative ease, but when we were on it, the flaws of coach travel began to emerge; I’m not sure how long the drive from Barcelona El Prat to PortAventura would normally be, but it took us around 2h 45m to reach our hotel from leaving our pick up point, in large part due to us spending at least an hour going on a whistle stop tour of the many different hotels of Salou to drop different people off. As such, we reached PortAventura at around 5:30pm despite leaving the original pick up point at around 2:45pm. On the positive side, however, I must say that from having driven along the road, Spain is probably one of the more picturesque foreign countries I’ve been to; the mountainous landscape and clear blue sea is absolutely gorgeous! I also found it interesting how large parts of the road network seem to be encased in tunnels; it was almost like being back in the Brynglas Tunnels on the M4 near Newport back at home, except without nearly the same volume of queueing! Anyhow, after our bus ride, we arrived at our accommodation for the trip; Hotel Gold River, one of the on-site hotels at PortAventura. I’ve often heard deeply mixed reviews of PortAventura, which gave me some degree of trepidation… but on first impressions, Hotel Gold River is absolutely stunning! It’s impeccably themed, with so many little details around the place, our Superior Callaghan Room is lovely, the place is pristine, it has a lovely ambience about it, and overall, the whole place is just wonderful! From a theming and ambience standpoint, it’s as nice as any theme park hotel I’ve ever been to, and that includes the ones at Europa Park; from the hotel, I’m getting a real Europa Park vibe, and given how excellent those hotels were and that park was, I think that’s encouraging: (I apologise for the bombardment of photos… Gold River is such a photogenic hotel, and there was so much I wanted to photograph!) After arriving and checking in, we initially went for a little stroll around the hotel complex to explore our surroundings (where many of the above photos were taken) and had a drink in one of the bars. My mum and dad were thrilled at the drink prices; 2 large Estrellas for them and a Diet Coke for me only cost €13.30, which seems very cheap! Later on, we then went for our evening meal at the Grand Hall buffet. This was lovely; the food was really nice, and we all enjoyed it! Although it was nothing too fancy, the food was lovely, and I’m not a huge foodie, so that suits me fine. Another interesting thing that happened during our meal is that at one point, the waiting staff all suddenly erupted into a song and dance show to a song with the primary lyrics “Hola, hola!”, where they were dancing and clapping along to the music! I’ve never seen that in a restaurant before, and I thought it was quite a fun touch… the restaurant also erupted into a chorus of “cumpleaños feliz” a couple of times for people’s birthdays, where the waiting staff were going through the restaurant clapping with cake to tables where people had birthdays, but I’ve seen that in plenty of restaurants. I’m already getting the impression that PortAventura is quite a “showy” park where they like to do a song and dance, and I’m sensing that that “hola, hola” song could be a recurring theme during the break, as we also heard it from one of the shows in the saloon bar… After our lovely meal at the buffet, we then got more drinks from the bar and sat outside in the central plaza area of Gold River. The hotel just has such a lovely ambience about it, and with the pleasant Spanish climate, being sat outside with drinks soaking up the night time ambience of Hotel Gold River was just lovely: After that, we headed back to our room for the night, ready for our first day in PortAventura Park tomorrow. So, that wraps up the first instalment of this series of reports from my first ever visit to PortAventura World in Spain! I have to say that based on my experience at the hotel tonight, it’s looking very promising for the park itself; Hotel Gold River is wonderful, and with its wonderfully detailed theming, nice food and lovely ambience, I could not say enough nice things about it! It’s made me very excited to set foot in PortAventura Park and see all of the delights it has to offer tomorrow; I can’t wait for Shambhala in particular, and I’m just excited to see what’s on offer at a new major European theme park! Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed this report! I’m sorry that it’s a bit more of a boring one today, but tomorrow’s will be far more interesting, as we’re setting foot into PortAventura Park for the first time!

5th September 2024: Drayton Manor Hi guys. Today was an exciting day; the day of my solo trip to Drayton Manor! With my last visit being in 2022, I was returning to the park to check out Gold Rush, the final new-for-2024 UK coaster for me to ride, as well as The Wave following the sit-down conversion, and to take in the various other delights of Drayton Manor! Today started early, with me making the 5 minute drive to my local train station at a bit before 7am to take a 7:24am train to Wilnecote, arriving in Wilnecote at 9:04am. This train was very prompt, and all went well: After I arrived in Wilnecote, I walked the 30 minutes or so from the station to Drayton Manor, getting to the park entrance at just gone 9:30am. Aside from one other small group, I was the first at the park entrance, putting me in good stead for entry into the park at 10:30am: After entering the park, my initial idea was to head to Gold Rush and get the new credit out of the way. However, I waited around the area for a few minutes, and the ride didn’t seem as though it was going to open any time soon, so I eventually changed course and went to the other “new” ride since my last visit… The Wave The Wave was open and on a practically walk-on queue, so I decided to have a go on there. I was interested to try The Wave out, as I’ve long held the possibly controversial opinion that Shockwave would have been greatly improved with sit-down trains. So, how was The Wave? Did it improve on standup Shockwave as I’d long suspected it might? Well, I was seated in row 2, and the answer is yes overall, but I think the ride’s flaws are still quite apparent. On the positive side, the new trains are generally very comfortable, and a considerable improvement on the old standing trains. As I suspected, this has allowed some of the ride’s more decent elements to shine through more; some of the inversions are quite decent. However, it is still a bit rough in places (albeit you feel it slightly less due to the lack of OTSRs), that brake run slam is still horribly abrupt at the end, and the ride also doesn’t have the most interesting of layouts. I also noticed that the lap bar occasionally had a tendency to tighten quite noticeably during the ride. Nonetheless, I do think it’s overall an improvement, particularly seeing as the new trains open it up to a wider audience and allow younger kids to ride. I think it fills the role of a “first big inverting coaster” quite nicely!: After The Wave, I decided to do another ride in Adventure Cove… Maelstrom Maelstrom was on a walk-on queue, so I decided to have a ride on it. I can never complain about a walk-on queue! But how was the ride? Well, I’m perhaps controversially not a huge fan of gyroswings, and Maelstrom isn’t really an exception to that, but I have to say that it is probably my favourite gyroswing of the 3 I’ve ridden. There is some nice speed in there and the odd bit of airtime, but I don’t find the sensations to hit as hard as they do on, say, an S&S Screamin’ Swing, and I’m not a huge lover of the spinning aspect. Overall, I’m not a huge lover of gyroswings, but to be fair, I must admit that Maelstrom is probably the strongest gyroswing I’ve ridden: After Maelstrom, I decided to try another Adventure Cove flat ride, but one that I’d never done before… Wave Swinger As with most things thus far in my Drayton Manor day, Wave Swinger was on a walk-on queue, so I decided to take a ride on there. I was interested to try Wave Swinger, as other than a solitary ride on Twirling Toadstool at Alton Towers as a very young child, I had never actually ridden one of these swing rides before. So, how was the ride? Well, I wasn’t the biggest fan, with my key gripe being that it felt rather spinnier than it looked off-ride, meaning that I found the experience mildly dizzying, to say the least. That’s down to my poor spin tolerance rather than being the ride’s fault, but overall, I wasn’t a huge fan: After Wave Swinger, I noticed that a key draw of my visit was finally open, so I decided to make a beeline for it… Gold Rush Gold Rush had now opened, so I decided to head on over and take a ride on there. Once again, this ride was practically walk-on, and I waltzed straight into the back row. I can never complain about that! But how was the ride? Well, I’d heard quite muted initial reviews of Gold Rush, so I went in with somewhat lowered expectations, but I have to say that it definitely exceeded my expectations. I thought Gold Rush was absolutely fab, and it was a very pleasant surprise! Don’t get me wrong, it is not the world’s most intense or thrilling coaster, but I thought it was just really great fun and very easily rerideable! There are plenty of fun twists and turns, the ride packs surprising vigour in places, it’s smooth and comfortable, it’s long, and overall, I just thought it was an excellent family coaster! The theming is also lovely, and overall, I think it’s an absolutely superb fit for Drayton Manor, and exactly the sort of fun, rerideable family coaster they needed, in my view: After Gold Rush, I headed to the final operating non-kiddie coaster I hadn’t yet ridden… Jormungandr As with everything else, Jormungandr was on a practically walk-on queue (you’re probably sick to death of me saying that by now…), so I decided to give it a go. So, how was Jormungandr? Well, it’s all right for what it is, but I wouldn’t call it an overly strong powered coaster. It has its fun moments of mild speed, but it seems to really struggle up any kind of incline and have considerable stretches where it goes very slowly. Between that and the fact that it’s also somewhat rough whenever it picks up speed, I’d definitely argue that Jormungandr is showing its age a tad now, but for what it is, I think it’s overall OK: After Jormungandr, I headed for another ride on The Wave. This time, I was seated in row 3, and it was similar to before; an improvement on the old Shockwave, with more comfortable new restraints and some decent inversions, but still not without some notable flaws: After my reride on The Wave, I headed for two back-to-back rerides on Gold Rush (one in row 7 and one in row 10). As with before, I found the ride to be a fantastic family coaster that was great fun and definitely proved a positive surprise: After my rerides on Gold Rush, I briefly sat down to eat my lunch, timing the throughput of Gold Rush as I ate (for those interested in such matters, my reading was 511pph). I then headed for a reride on The Wave; I was seated in the front row this time, and while it was probably the best ride I’d had on it so far, my thoughts remained quite similar: After my reride on The Wave, I then headed for a reride on Jormungandr; I was sat in the front row this time, and similarly to earlier, I thought that the ride was OK for what it was, with some fun moments of mild speed, but nothing particularly earth-shattering. Sat up front, however, I did notice some rather disconcerting creaking noises as we re-entered the station…: After Jormungandr, I headed to my first different ride for the day for a couple of rides… Thor Thor looked empty and like it was looking for riders, so I decided to give it a whirl while I was in the Vikings area. While I’m not generally a huge fan of flat rides, I didn’t remember Thor being too bad back in 2022, so I was interested to take a ride on there. So, how was the ride? Well, I’m sorry to say that it wasn’t quite as good as I’d remembered in 2022. While there was some good speed in places, the ride was a little spinnier than I’d previously remembered, and today, I also found the motorbike-style seats rather uncomfortable: After my ride on Thor, I headed for two more back-to-back rides on Gold Rush (one in row 2 and one in the back row), and I really enjoyed them once again. Gold Rush has been such an excellent addition to Drayton Manor and given them the rerideable, fun family coaster they really needed: After the two rerides on Gold Rush, I decided to do something slightly different and head for a dark ride… Sheriff’s Showdown Sheriff’s Showdown was walk on, so I decided to take a ride on there. I thought a dark ride might mark a nice change of pace at this point, and Sheriff’s Showdown was right there in front of me! So, how was it? Well, it was good fun! I’m not very good at interactive dark rides, but I found Sheriff’s Showdown to have quite a nice, self-explanatory shooting system. There are also some nice props and sets in there; I particularly liked how some of the props reacted to being “shot at”, which added a nice touch compared to something like Duel where you shooting targets had no impact on any of the surrounding scenery. Overall, then, Sheriff’s Showdown provided a nice dark ride diversion for a few minutes; in terms of my score, I got 7,800: After my ride on Sheriff’s Showdown, I had a go on the other dark ride directly next to it… The Haunting The Haunting was right next to where I was, so I decided to give it a go. This was the first time today where I had to wait for a few minutes; due to the manner in which The Haunting operates, wherein the experience only runs every 15 minutes, there is often a small wait outside. It didn’t take long, however, and me and one or two other groups with small children were ushered inside the building before we knew it. So, how was The Haunting? Well, I thought it was quite good! The various pre-shows are quite good and atmospheric on there, and while the madhouse portion itself is perhaps weaker in terms of ambience and effects than some others I’ve experienced, it still provides a solid conclusion to the experience nonetheless! I also had a rather eerie experience on here… you may remember that I mentioned that the two other groups joining me in the Haunting were groups with small children. Well, said small children were put off the ride portion of the experience by the spooky pre-shows… so they skipped the ride portion, meaning that I ended up being the only person in the entire Madhouse! I’ve done rides on my own before, but I’ve never done something like a Madhouse on my own and been the only person in the entire experience before… it was incredibly eerie! That certainly added an interesting angle to the experience for me, anyhow: After The Haunting, I then went for two more fun rerides on Gold Rush. I was seated in row 11, and I did both rides without leaving my seat!: After that, I went for another reride on Jormungandr. I was seated in row 13, and similarly to earlier, it was OK, with some fun moments of mild speed: I then went for another reride on The Wave, where I was seated in row 2. Similarly to earlier, it had some decent elements and felt somewhat improved over the standup version: I then went for two more back-to-back rerides on Gold Rush (one in the front row and one in the back row). By this point, the cycle had changed to Cycle 2, so that provided a different experience; I’m not entirely sure which of the two cycles I prefer, to tell you the truth: After my two rides on Gold Rush, I decided to go for something slightly more relaxing… Polperro Express The Polperro Express had only a short wait, so I decided to take a relaxing detour on there. I’d never ridden it before, so I was interested to see what it was like. I have to say that it was a very nice ride; there’s something quite charming about a steam train, and it was nice to just sit back and take in the sights of the park for a few minutes: After my ride on the Polperro Express, I went for two back-to-back rerides on The Wave (one in the front, one in the back). These were enjoyable enough, even if that brake run slam became no less abrupt with successive rerides: I then went to my final different ride for the day… Flying Dutchman Flying Dutchman was walk on, so as I’d never ridden it before, I decided to give it a go. My relatively poor spin tolerance is well documented at this point, so I wondered whether I’d find the ride too spinny, but it wasn’t too bad, with the ride being a relatively sedate experience: After my ride on Flying Dutchman, I decided to have a reride on Jormungandr in row 16: I then closed out the day with 5 back-to-back rerides on Gold Rush (4 in the back row and 1 in row 3). This was a great note to end the day on; Gold Rush is such a fun and rerideable coaster: After my final rides on Gold Rush, the 4:30pm closing time had arrived, and I headed out of the park. To get back home, I actually had to do something slightly different and go from Tamworth station instead of Wilnecote, so my good friend Uber once again came in handy. As with my South East trip in June, Uber proved excellent; I could not say enough good things about it. As for Tamworth station itself; this was a confusing station. The split level platform meant that it took me a good few minutes to get to the right platform… I also changed in Birmingham New Street on the way home, and that is an impressive station following the revamp work! I was a particular fan of the giant animatronic bull; I thought that was very cool! I eventually got picked up in Gloucester at around 7:30pm, thus bringing my day to an end: So, that just about wraps up my day at Drayton Manor! I had an excellent day; I was thrilled to get on both Gold Rush and The Wave, and I was thrilled with the deserted crowd levels, which meant that I ended the day on a ride count of 31 (!). That is a new record ride count for me in one theme park day (albeit only narrowly beating my previous record of 30)! For those who have lost track, my final ride count was as follows: Gold Rush x14 The Wave x6 Jormungandr x4 Maelstrom x1 Wave Swinger x1 Thor x1 Sheriff’s Showdown x1 The Haunting x1 Polperro Express x1 Flying Dutchman x1 I had a brilliant day both riding new things and reriding things I’ve done before, but I have to say that Gold Rush was a definite highlight! Apocalypse was a brilliant ride that left big shoes to fill, but Gold Rush is a more than satisfactory replacement, in my view; it’s a brilliant family coaster that’s fun and rerideable, and it thoroughly exceeded my expectations! It’s such a good addition to the park, and exactly what they needed! On a personal note, I was also happy for another solo trip to go well. I know I’ve been on a solo day trip to Drayton Manor before, but it does always give me a confidence boost when these things go well! Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed this report! You haven’t got long to wait until my next one, as I’m off on my first ever visit to PortAventura World in Spain on Monday! I can’t wait to get to another major European theme park, and I can’t wait to experience headline coasters such as Shambhala and Red Force for the first time!

18th August 2024: Thorpe Park Hi guys. Today was an exciting day; the day of my return to Thorpe Park to finally ride Hyperia! I was going to Thorpe today seeking sweet, sweet redemption… I’d already been unsuccessful on a previous attempt to ride Hyperia back in June, with me having to agonisingly watch it test before it reopened 2 days later… that tasted particularly bitter, and to rub salt in the wound, I then watched tons of other people, including my sister who isn’t overly into coasters, go on it and tell me how brilliant it was. Today, I was finally going to find out whether I agreed! That was not the only exciting aspect of the day, however… the other exciting aspect is that after two successful visits to Alton Towers that he absolutely loved, my grandad decided to join me and my dad at Thorpe Park today! After he loved Alton Towers, me and dad thought that Thorpe Park would be the next logical step for him, and I was excited to show him the sights and sounds of the UK’s most thrilling theme park for the first time! That’s enough of a prologue, though; let’s get into the meat of our day at Thorpe Park! We left our home in Gloucestershire at around 7:40am this morning and after a relatively smooth drive barring some reduced speed limits and roadworks on the M4, we arrived at Thorpe Park 2 hours later, making good time for entry into the park a little after 10am following a brief wait for security: On the subject of security, we actually had a rather interesting near miss with Thorpe Park security today… As we were queueing for security, my dad was telling my grandad that he would need to take his watch and such off for the metal detector. Thinking that my grandad would be irritated by this, we were both taken by surprise when he said “I’m more worried about the f***ing knife in my pocket!”. Before anyone gets any ideas, I should clarify that this was a small penknife that my grandad uses for gardening and had simply forgotten to take out of his pocket, but it still gave my dad fear that Thorpe Park security staff would get the wrong idea if my grandad tried to go in with it, and he sternly directed my grandad to the sign clearly stating “No Knives”! It didn’t seem to cause any issues (we were relieved, but I’m not sure whether the lack of drama is a good thing or not in the grand scheme of things…), but me and my dad were nonetheless concerned about how this could have been received by the security staff… I think we were very lucky! After thankfully entering the park drama-free, we pondered going to Hyperia first, but as it had by far the longest queue and we wanted to give my grandad a proper first timer’s taste of what Thorpe Park had to offer, we decided to go for a different big coaster first… Colossus While some signs said it was closed, Colossus was in fact open on a 0 minute advertised queue, so me and my grandad decided to give it a go (my dad sat this one out, as he’s too tall for the restraints). As promised, the ride was indeed walk-on, so me and grandad waltzed onto row 7 very promptly; you can never complain about that! But how was the ride? Well, I’m not the biggest fan of Colossus, but I have to say that today’s ride in row 7 was not bad at all as Colossus goes, and maybe in contention for being the best ride I’ve ever had on it! It was a bit rough in places, but nothing overly terrible by any stretch, and the first half was pretty decent! The tight restraints definitely take away from the ride, and I’m still not convinced I overly enjoy the numerous consecutive heartline rolls in the second half, but in the grand scheme of Colossus rides, I could not complain too much! My grandad was a big fan of the ride; he described Colossus as “right up there with Smiler as one of the most insane coasters [he’d] ever ridden” and remarked that it “was the first time [he’d] ever felt like [he] was going to fall out of the restraint”!: After Colossus, we decided to head to another big coaster nearby… Saw: The Ride Saw was on an advertised 10 minute queue, so we decided to take a ride on there. This queue was marginally understated, taking more like 15-20 minutes, but it still wasn’t overly long. So, how was the ride? Well, we were seated on the front row, and I’m afraid to say that it wasn’t an overly good Saw ride; there were a number of notable jolts, including a particularly head-splitting one on the first drop, and there was a general strong roughness throughout. Unfortunately, I’m sad to say that my grandad did not enjoy this one, or at very least, it did not seem to agree with him; he came off it feeling “sick as a dog” and didn’t seem to enjoy the roughness and jerkiness of it. To be honest, I sadly think it was a bit of a day ruiner for him, as I’m not sure he ever completely recovered from it: After Saw, we finally decided to give into temptation and ride the big new draw after seeing that its queue time had dropped… Hyperia Hyperia was on an advertised 65 minute queue time, and my dad didn’t think that it even looked that long, so we decided to give it a ride. Despite my dad’s thinking that it didn’t look 65, the queue time board was true to its word and we ended up waiting 65 minutes. Even still, I can’t complain too much about a 65 minute queue for a brand new ride in the summer holidays; I’ve waited far worse! So, how was Hyperia after all the anticipation? Well, I was seated in row 8, and it was a phenomenal ride, with obscene speed and very nice airtime and hangtime… but I wasn’t immediately certain on whether it was absolutely top tier. I’m going to remain shtum on Hyperia at this stage in the report, however, as previous experience with hyped-up, revered rides has taught me that 1 ride is not necessarily enough to reliably get the measure of a hyped ride’s true greatness. When I went to Florida last year, for example, both VelociCoaster and Iron Gwazi grew on me considerably after a second ride, so I wondered if the same would be true of Hyperia… let’s just say that the story does not end there! In terms of my dad and grandad’s thoughts, my dad said that it was “undeniably excellent, but not as good as VelociCoaster” (my dad’s favourite ride), remarking that “it was absolutely mental”, and that “the first drop was mental”, but that he was “unsure on [his] feelings on this getting airtime by pushing you out of your seat sideways lark”. I didn’t get much of an opinion from my grandad other than relief that it was smoother than Saw (although I did think I heard a distinct “f***ing hell” fall out of his mouth as we hit the brake run… interpret that however you wish!): After Hyperia, we decided to sit down on a bench and calmly eat lunch for a bit before heading to our next big coaster… The Swarm The Swarm was on an advertised 35 minute queue, so we decided to take a ride. This queue time ended up being understated, as we ultimately ended up waiting around 50 minutes. On a side note, the operations seemed notably slower than usual on here, with 2+ minute dispatches and stacking being frequent. But how was the ride? Well, we were seated in row 3, and it was really decent! I do really like Swarm, and today was no exception; I love the sense of speed (particularly on the first drop as you start it’s a smooth ride, and I also think that there are some very nice inversions on there! The vest restraints are a minor detractor for me, but not a huge one; I overall thoroughly enjoyed my ride! My grandad seemed a bit non-plussed by the experience, describing it as “a bit uneventful”: After The Swarm, we headed over to our next big coaster… Nemesis Inferno Nemesis Inferno was on an advertised 30 minute queue, so me and my dad decided to take a ride on there. By this point, my grandad had clearly had enough of the rides and decided to sit Nemesis Inferno out. The 35 minute queue was marginally overstated, instead taking 30 minutes, and we took our seats on the back row. So, how was the ride? Well, I thoroughly enjoyed today’s ride on Nemesis Inferno; it was smooth, was forceful without being excessively forceful, and packed some awesome inversions and a brilliant sense of speed throughout! I do really enjoy Nemesis Inferno, and I don’t think the Nemesis comparison does it any favours; it’s a cracking coaster in its own right! My dad said that the ride was “good”, but that “it definitely wasn’t as smooth as the new Nemesis at Alton Towers” for him (I disagreed with him on this, but to be fair, I was seated in a middle seat while dad was sat in an outer seat): After Nemesis Inferno, we met back up with my grandad to head over to Stealth and see whether he’d ride it, but it pretty much closed the second we got there. As my grandad wasn’t even sure if he wanted to ride it anyway and seemed like he’d had enough, we decided to leave the ride be for today. I would have liked to get a ride on there, as I do love Stealth, but I wasn’t too distraught not to seeing as I had 4 rides on my June visit; I can’t exactly say I haven’t already had a decent fill of Stealth this year: After we abandoned Stealth, my grandad had no intentions of riding anything else and we’d covered all of the other big coasters, so my dad let me loose to go and reride Hyperia using the single rider queue. I had not one, but two additional rides on Hyperia using this, and both gave me a notable advantage over the main queue. The first ride saw me dodge a 65 minute advertised queue and only wait 35 minutes, while the second ride saw me dodge a 90 minute advertised queue and only wait 30 minutes. I can never complain about that! By complete fluke, I also got assigned to the back row on both rides, so I managed to take two rides in the back right seat, which is supposedly “the best seat on the ride” according to one of the designers!: Now, I think it’s about time I talked in a little more detail about Hyperia than I did earlier. The million dollar question is; did Hyperia repeat the phenomenon of VelociCoaster and Iron Gwazi, where “the second ride was the charm”, so to speak? Well, the answer is yes! Oh my god, yes! I loved Hyperia the first time and thought it was phenomenal, but it was the rerides that made me see the height of its true greatness and declare with certainty that for me, this is definitely a top tier ride! Where to begin with it… in terms of some key highlights: That first drop is absolutely unhinged, and so, so good! I love a big first drop, and this is a sublime one; the ejector airtime is absolutely absurd (you get absolutely ripped out of the seat!), the 180 degree twist adds an intriguing additional sensation, and the sense of speed you are hit with at the bottom is nuts! Hyperia definitely sits alongside Mako and Iron Gwazi as having one of my favourite first drops I’ve ever done! That outerbanked turn into the inversion is insane. I’ve never experienced an element quite like it; while I’m not necessarily convinced that sideways airtime beats good old straight airtime for me, the sustained sideways ejector was absolutely absurd! The Immelmann is just wonderful! The speed you get going up into it is brilliant, and you get an absolutely sublime pop of sustained ejector airtime coming out of it! This was a definite highlight of the ride for me! This is a fast ride, and you can definitely feel it! The sense of speed is absolutely absurd; Hyperia reminds you just how fast 81mph is! I’ll do a longer and more detailed review later in the relevant thread that has a couple of critiques as well, but overall, Hyperia is just absolutely sublime, in my view! It’s a stunning investment for Thorpe Park and the UK theme park industry, and it certainly lived up to the years of hype for me! In terms of comparisons and specific ranking spots; I’ve thought it over following my 3 rides, and I will say the following: It is easily my favourite ride at Thorpe Park It is easily my favourite UK coaster In terms of overall rankings out of the 123 coasters I’ve ridden, I have conservatively opted for the #5 spot, with the ride currently being beaten only by Mako, VelociCoaster, Silver Star and Iron Gwazi in my rankings. It’s definitely a top 5 worthy candidate, folks! Overall, then; I absolutely loved Hyperia, and it definitely lived up to the hype for me! To return to our Thorpe Park day; by the time I’d had 2 Hyperia rides, it was around 3:45pm. My grandad was clearly flagging and had had enough and my dad seemed like he didn’t to wait around any longer, so we left the park for the day. So, that brings my day at Thorpe Park today to a close! Overall, then, I had a great day; I was thrilled to finally get on Hyperia for the first time, and it did not disappoint! That was my main aim for the day, and with 3 rides on it, I comfortably accomplished this aim! I also enjoyed getting on some of Thorpe’s other great rides; these always put me in a good mood, and while Hyperia is now the crown jewel, some of Thorpe’s other coasters are no slouches either! Thorpe has always had an excellent coaster selection for me, and Hyperia has just taken it to the next level! I was disheartened, however, by the fact that my grandad didn’t seem to have an especially enjoyable day, and didn’t warm to Thorpe Park like he did to Alton Towers. I think I may have made a mortal error by directing us to Saw so early on in the day, as it was that ride that seemed to put him off for the rest of the day. He absolutely loved our first ride on Colossus, and declared that one of his favourites! Me and my dad also had a theory that his sickness feeling may not have been helped by the fact that he decided to forego wearing his glasses for the whole day instead of taking them on and off all day, so he was walking around the park with blurred vision all day. Nonetheless, he just didn’t warm to Thorpe Park at all. He apparently said to my dad that “it seems busy compared to Alton Towers… and I don’t like busy”, and whatever the reason, he just seemed to go off the park and the rides quickly and not warm to them at all. I was sad that he didn’t like it, but he’s never going to like everything and I’m glad that he came and tried it out. I don’t sense he’ll be in a rush to return to Thorpe with us, however! But overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the day and was glad to both accomplish my aim of getting on Hyperia and hear my grandad’s first time thoughts on Thorpe Park! Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed this report! My next trip report will be coming on 5th September, when I visit Drayton Manor to take my first ever ride on Gold Rush and ride the last of the new for 2024 UK coasters! I can’t wait to try that ride out!

9th June 2024: LEGOLAND Windsor Hi guys. Today was an exciting, albeit also somewhat nerve-wracking, day for me; it was the first day of my first ever solo stay away from home. For my first solo stay away, I decided to go for a trip to LEGOLAND Windsor and Thorpe Park, two of the London area Merlin parks. This was because I felt that I should try this with something that wasn’t ridiculously far from home what with it being my first time, and even putting aside my anxieties about doing my first ever solo trip away, both LEGOLAND and Thorpe Park have new coasters for 2024 that I wanted to get on! That’s probably enough of a prelude, though; let me start the first day of my trip, my day at LEGOLAND Windsor, right from the beginning. I left my home in Gloucestershire at a little after 7:30 this morning to make the 30 minute drive to Bristol Parkway, a nearby major train station. After my parents dropped me in Bristol, I was able to start my train journey to Windsor, which consisted of three different legs; a train from Bristol Parkway to Reading, a train from Reading to Slough, and a train from Slough to Windsor & Eton Central. Apart from a 5 minute delay in Swindon, this all went relatively smoothly; I arrived in Windsor & Eton Central around 1h 50m after I left Bristol Parkway: After getting off the train in Windsor, my initial plan when I booked the trip 2 months ago had been to catch a bus from Windsor to LEGOLAND. However, I discovered a few days ago that today was the day of the Windsor Triathlon, which threw large parts of the bus route out of whack compared to my original plans. As such, I decided to resort to a backup plan and do something I’ve never done before; I actually caught an Uber. I have to say that this worked excellently; the process of securing an Uber was really easy, a driver turned up within a couple of minutes, and I got into LEGOLAND by about 11am after a 20 minute ride from near the train station: After entering the park, I decided to make a beeline for the main purpose of my visit… Minifigure Speedway Minifigure Speedway was on an advertised 45 minute queue time, so I decided to give it a go. This queue time turned out to be quite notably overstated, with the queue only taking 20 minutes; the queue moved reasonably quickly! But how was the ride? Well, I rode the Allstars side for my first go, and I have to say that it was quite good fun! I was seated in row 5, and the ride had some good speed, it was smooth, and the backwards section was quite fun without being too intense! With this being the first of these models manufactured by Zierer, I was also interested to see how the ride compared to the two Vekoma Family Boomerangs I’ve ridden. If I were pressed, I’d probably say that it was a little weaker than either of the two Vekomas I’ve done (Velociraptor and Accelerator), as the layout didn’t seem quite as punchy and the ride didn’t seem quite as refined, for lack of a better term, as the Vekoma models. Nonetheless, it’s a good, fun ride, it’s a great addition, and I think it fits this park wonderfully (LEGOLAND really needed a marginally more thrilling family coaster, in my view): After my ride on Minifigure Speedway, I headed over to the other coaster in LEGOLAND… Dragon The Dragon was on an advertised 55 minute queue, so I decided to take a ride on it. As with Minifigure Speedway, this queue turned out to be reasonably overstated, taking only 40 minutes or so. On a side note; is it me, or does The Dragon have an incredibly short queue music loop? I think it every time I ride it, but I swear that it only has about a 2 minute loop; it started to get a little grating after a 40 minute queue! But enough about the queue; how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 12, and it was a perfectly fine ride! The dark ride section was good, with some brilliant animatronics and smells! As for the outdoor coaster section, it was smooth, and towards the back, it did have some moments of better speed than I’d previously remembered. However, it is definitely showing its age a bit, and it does seem like it hardly gets going before you hit another lift hill or brake run. Overall, though, The Dragon was fun enough for what it is, and the theming in the dark ride section was great: After my ride on The Dragon, I decided to head to… Flight of the Sky Lion Flight of the Sky Lion was on an advertised 60 minute queue, so I decided to have a ride on it. When I looked at the queue, however, I didn’t think it looked like a 60 minute queue. It looked notably shorter than the queue I waited in for it back in 2021, and that queue was itself less than 60 minutes. My hunch was proven correct; the queue was quite notably overstated, taking only 35-40 minutes or so. That’s enough about the queue, however; how was the ride? Well, I have to say that it was absolutely brilliant, and possibly better than I’d remembered from back in 2021! The film on the ride is brilliant; it draws some parallels with Flight of Passage at Animal Kingdom, and it’s a very original premise for a flying theatre! It also has a brilliant soundtrack and brilliant smells, and overall, I think it’s an excellent ride! It’s a very uplifting ride, with a brilliantly immersive film and storyline, and overall, I’d personally say that it’s among my favourite dark rides in the UK: After my ride on Flight of the Sky Lion, I headed back over to Minifigure Speedway to try and get the other credit. I was psyching myself up to try asking for the Legends side, but I thankfully got assigned it by pot luck without needing to ask. As for the ride itself, I was seated in row 8, and it was similar to the ride I had on Allstars earlier in the day; fast, fun and smooth! However, I’d say it felt a tad punchier, and I’d probably say that I marginally preferred Legends to Allstars, if I had to pick. These coasters are an excellent addition to LEGOLAND overall, however; they’re really good fun and fit the park like a glove. I’ll write a longer review at some stage, but my views of the investment overall are definitely positive: After my ride on Minifigure Speedway, I decided to head to a dark ride… Haunted House Monster Party Haunted House Monster Party was on an advertised 45 minute queue time, so I decided to have a go on it. Continuing the running theme of overstated queue times, the queue time for Haunted House Monster Party was fairly overstated, with the queue actually taking only 15-20 minutes. You can never complain when a queue is overstated, and that was a frequent theme for me at LEGOLAND today! So, how was the ride? Well, it was very good fun! The illusion aspect is always very cleverly executed on these madhouses, and while it’s not quite Hex at Alton Towers, Haunted House Monster Party is a fun and quirky take on the concept! I think the lighting sequence and the whole idea of the ride being a big disco is a really fun concept, and the ride has an awesome soundtrack that really serves to do the concept justice, in my view! Overall, then, Haunted House Monster Party was a good, fun ride that I definitely enjoyed my ride on: After my ride on Haunted House Monster Party, I decided to head to yet another dark ride… Lego Ninjago: The Ride Ninjago was on an advertised 60 minute queue, so I decided to give it a go. I wondered if Ninjago would continue the theme of largely overstated queue times, but Ninjago‘s queue time stayed true to its word, with the queue taking 60-65 minutes. So, how was the ride? Well, I remembered really enjoying Ninjago on my last visit to LEGOLAND in 2021, and today was no exception; the ride was really good fun! I think the shooting technology is very clever, and a very novel concept, even if I probably looked like a complete idiot flailing my arms at a screen! I also think the 3D and screens are good quality in there, the ride system is quite good, and there’s some nice physical theming in there as well, although the ride is mostly screen-based. I will digress that the ride is a little taxing on the arms, with my arms definitely feeling a bit tired by the end of the ride, but overall, Ninjago was really good fun! In terms of my score, I got 45,500, which I was very pleased with given that I am typically very poor at interactive dark rides anyway and was basically flailing my arms around aimlessly with little strategy: After Ninjago, I had originally intended to go for another ride on Flight of the Sky Lion, but my phone battery was unfortunately flagging. As I was on my own, I did not want to take any risks with regard to my phone battery (I needed my phone for my Uber, train ticket and hotel reservation), so I decided to end my day at LEGOLAND there. It was already around 4:15pm anyway, so given the park closed at 5pm, I would likely only have had one more ride even if I had stayed. Nonetheless, I think some form of portable phone charger or battery pack might be a good investment for the next time I go on a solo trip: To get out of LEGOLAND, I once again decided to take an Uber. As with earlier, the process worked brilliantly, and I was back in Windsor town centre within around 10-15 minutes. To get to my hotel, I had to go to the other station in Windsor, Windsor & Eton Riverside, and catch a 15 minute train to Staines. The journey went very smoothly, and the very flash South Western Railway train, complete with plug sockets, gave me a prime opportunity to give my phone some much needed charge: After getting off the train in Staines, I took a short walk to the Staines Premier Inn, my hotel for the night. Check in was very easy, which made for a nice end to the day: So, that brings the first day of this trip to an end! I had a really good day; it was nice to get back to LEGOLAND, and while I didn’t get on absolutely loads, I was pleased with what I did get on and managed to satisfy my primary aim of getting the +2 of Minifigure Speedway. Those two coasters are good fun, and a great addition to the lineup at LEGOLAND, in my view! LEGOLAND was developing a really solid non-coaster lineup, with dark rides being a particular strength, so it’s nice to see the coaster lineup getting a bit of attention. On a personal note, I was also very pleased with how today went in terms of the logistics. As I mentioned earlier, this is my first ever solo stay away, and compared to earlier solo trips I’ve done, this one has entailed slightly more complexity, so I’m pleased that I’ve managed to pull it off without a hitch thus far (I’m hoping I haven’t tempted fate there…). Thanks for reading; I hope you’ve enjoyed this report! Tomorrow, I’ll be heading to Thorpe Park, so keep your eyes peeled for that report! While my chances of getting on Hyperia aren’t looking terribly good, I rarely have a bad day at Thorpe, particularly on a midweek day in term time, so it should be fun!

15th September 2023: Thorpe Park Hi guys. Today was an exciting day; it was the day of my dad’s trip to Wentworth, and thus my now annual solo trip to Thorpe Park! I know I’ve been to Thorpe Park many times, but I always look forward to my solo trip there, so I was excited for today! My dad and I left Gloucestershire at around 7:25am this morning, and even with a stop for petrol and a stop at Reading services, we made it to Thorpe Park by around 9:30am. After making brilliant time, I was then dropped off by my dad, so I bade him goodbye before making my way into the park ready to wait for the 10am opening time: When opening time came, I decided to deviate from my normal strategy of starting with the Stealth/Inferno end of the park and take a gamble on a different strategy. As such, I started on… Colossus Colossus was on a near walk on queue, so I decided to have a go on it before a queue built up (it’s a low capacity ride that often generates long queues later on). This queue took merely 1 or 2 trains, so I was on the ride in very little time. I was interested to see how Colossus felt having done Sik, its modernised clone at Flamingo Land, last month. But how was the ride? Well, it did feel notably inferior to Sik, but with that being said, that ride was probably the best I have ever had on Colossus by some margin! Don’t get me wrong, Colossus still isn’t a favourite of mine due to the uncomfortable restraints, a sequence of repeated heartline rolls I don’t overly like (and this sequence was definitely less enjoyable than on Sik for me), and some roughness, but the roughness was nowhere near as overbearing as it normally is; I was sat in row 13, and it was a bit rough in places, but it did not provide nearly the same degree of pounding as it normally does, and today’s ride definitely shot Colossus up a fair few spots in my rankings: After my ride on Colossus, I had a ride on its neighbour… Saw: The Ride Saw was on an advertised 10 minute queue, so I decided to give it a go. My original plan was to use my secret weapon, the Single Rider Queue, to bypass this and take a gamble at reducing my queue time, but this was closed, so I had to get into the main queue. By the time I’d gone into the SRQ (which had an open entrance and 2 other people waiting in it), been ushered out by the operator and gotten into the main queue, the advertised queue time had gone up to 20 minutes, but this was slightly overstated, as I only waited for 15 minutes or so. The queue is besides the point, though; how was the ride? Well, as with Colossus above, that was possibly the best ride I’ve ever had on Saw! I was seated in the back middle seat, and the ride was a bit rough in places, but certainly not as headache-inducing as it has been in the past. There was also some absolutely brilliant airtime, and overall, I came off Saw pretty headache-free this morning! While I would still like it if the ride were smoother, my ride this morning was certainly not nearly as rough as Saw has been in the past: After my ride on Saw, I headed east to ride my next coaster… Nemesis Inferno Nemesis Inferno was on an advertised 10 minute queue, so I decided to take a ride on it. This queue time estimate ended up being broadly accurate, with my wait being around 10-15 minutes; it’s always great when that happens! So, how was the ride? Well, I thought that it was thoroughly great; I rode in row 5, and I thought that the ride was fast and intense without being excessively intense, and it was also perfectly smooth, with not a modicum of headbanging anywhere! When a ride is fast, smooth, and just the right level of intense, what more can you ask for? Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my ride on Nemesis Inferno; I’ve always found it a thoroughly decent coaster, and today was no exception: After my ride on Nemesis Inferno, I headed to another coaster situated nearby… Stealth Stealth was on an advertised 15 minute queue time, so I decided to take a ride on it. The queue time was accurate or possibly a little underestimated, taking only 10-15 minutes to get to the station. Operations were absolutely excellent on here, with a number of consecutive dispatch intervals as quick as 75-80 seconds being attained! As the queue was overstated and I was doing quite well on the ride count front given that I had only been riding for just over an hour, I decided to wait for a little additional time and ride in the front row of Stealth for the first time since my only prior front row experience in 2020, where I got it by chance in batching. So, how was my first front row Stealth ride in 3 years and only my second ever? Well, I have to say that the front row firmly lived up to my memories; it was absolutely fantastic, and it reinforced my prior view that front row is easily the place to be on Stealth! The sense of speed on that launch is absolutely ridiculous in the front, with the combination of the unshielded wind in your face and the view of that track being devoured at a phenomenal rate making the ride feel every single bit of its 80mph top speed, and perhaps surprisingly, I’d also argue that the airtime is stronger in the front, with the airtime being sustained for the entire way over the top hat rather than only dropping out of it like it is in the back and the braked airtime hill being notably more potent in the front. As an added bonus, it also seems slightly smoother in the front! Overall, I absolutely loved my experience of front row Stealth; it was absolutely fantastic: After Stealth, I went for a ride on the final big coaster I hadn’t yet ridden… The Swarm The Swarm was on an advertised 15 minute queue time, so I decided to have a ride on it. This queue ended up being slightly underestimated, with the queue ultimately taking around 20 minutes. I must say that operations were absolutely brilliant on here; there were numerous cycles where there was mere seconds of stacking, and dispatch intervals as quick as 90 seconds were being attained for numerous dispatches in a row! So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in the back right inner seat, and it was a fairly decent ride; there was a very good sense of speed and some great inversions, and it was relatively smooth as well! However, it's not an absolute favourite for me anymore like it used to be. I'm generally finding myself a little less keen on some of the ride's more brain-draining moments of sustained positive g's, most notably the helicopter helix, with time, but my main bone of contention with The Swarm these days is its vest restraints. I'm not a fan of them at all; the rigid vest and the way they tighten throughout the ride do make these restraints detract noticeably from the overall experience. Nonetheless, my ride on Swarm was relatively decent, with all things considered; I'll be intrigued to see how Mandrill Mayhem compares in 2 days' time: As I had already managed to have one ride on each of Thorpe Park's big 5 thrill coasters by before 12pm, I decided to stray away from the coasters for a little bit to go and ride... Detonator Detonator was on an advertised 5 minute queue time, so I decided to take a ride on it. This queue time proved relatively accurate or slightly understated, as the queue took 5-10 minutes and a couple of cycles overall. But how was the ride? Well, I'm a big fan of a drop tower, and Detonator is a very good one, in my view; that drop is so punchy, and you get a fair degree of airtime for such a small tower! Overall, Detonator is a brilliant drop tower that I absolutely love, and today's ride was no exception; these Fabbri towers are a real guilty pleasure of mine: After my ride on Detonator, I decided to sit down for 15-20 minutes to have a drink and eat lunch, timing the throughput of Colossus as I ate. After my sit down, I headed to another flat ride in the immediate vicinity of Colossus... Rush Rush was nearby and on a 10 minute queue, so I decided to have a go on it. This queue time was pretty accurate, with the queue taking 10-15 minutes overall. So, how was the ride? Well, despite not generally being a huge fan of flat rides, I'm a big fan of an S&S Screamin' Swing, and Rush was fantastic; there was an excellent sense of speed and nice acceleration in the troughs, there was nice sustained floater at the peaks, and the ride was thrilling without being overly nauseating! I was also intrigued to see how Rush stacked up after having ridden Serengeti Flyer, the giant Screamin' Swing at Busch Gardens Tampa, earlier this year, and while Rush was not quite as impressive as its giant sibling over in Florida, it still offered a fantastically enjoyable experience in its own right, in my view. Overall, I loved Rush; I thought it was a fantastic flat ride, and I thoroughly enjoyed its airtime and speed: After my ride on Rush, I headed over to Stealth for two back-to-back rides, as the ride was on an advertised 5 minute queue time which turned out to be pretty much walk-on. When my favourite coaster at Thorpe is on a queue that short, who would I be to resist a ride or two? I took a ride in the front, as well as a ride in the back, and both were absolutely fantastic, although as I inferred earlier, the front row does usurp the back row on Stealth, in my view: After my two rides on Stealth, I headed over to The Swarm for a reride on a 10 minute queue. This time, I was seated on the row 5 outer right seat, and similarly to earlier, it was a pretty decent ride. It was perhaps a little less smooth, but in fairness, it was notably smoother than I'd previously remembered the ride's outer seats being: After my Swarm reride, I headed for a reride on Rush on a 5 minute queue. As with earlier, it was a fantastic flat ride with great airtime and speed: After my reride on Rush, I headed to do an attraction I'd never done before for the first time... Vortex Vortex was on an advertised 5 minute queue time and looked to be pretty much walk-on, so I decided to give it a whirl. Despite having visited Thorpe Park numerous times before, I had somehow never ridden Vortex before today, so I thought I'd finally give it a try. Despite controversially having not been a huge fan of the two other gyroswing-type rides I've done (Cyclonator at Paultons and Maelstrom at Drayton), I was interested to try Vortex, as I'd never ridden a KMG Afterburner before and I know these are slightly different to a regular gyroswing. So how did I find the experience? Well, I'm afraid to say that I still wasn't a massive fan. In my view, it suffers from exactly the same flaw as the other two gyroswings I've ridden in that the spinning makes it a little bit much and ruins it. There was some fair weightlessness and speed in places, but it wasn't as potent as on a ride like Rush, and when the ride properly got going, this seemed to disappear in favour of intense spinning, and as someone who has quite a weak stomach for spinning flat rides, I didn't personally find that overly enjoyable. Overall, Vortex is similar to other gyroswings in that I can see why people like it, but it's not really for me: After Vortex, I decided to head and try out another flat ride that I hadn't done in a long time... Samurai Samurai was on a 10 minute advertised queue time, so I decided to give it a go. The queue looked to be a cycle or two long, but as I was a single rider, the host ushered me onto the cycle that was about to go pretty much as soon as I joined, as there was a spare seat; it's always great when that happens! But how was the ride? Well unlike Vortex, I had done Samurai before; it was one of only two rides that I did during a school trip to Thorpe Park in July 2018, with the other being Rush. At the time, I thought it was pretty decent and not too nauseating, and when I first rode it, I even considered that I might have preferred it to Rush out of the two flats I did that day. With this in mind, I was intrigued to see how it stacked up after over 5 years. I'm very sorry to say, however, that my recollections could not have disagreed more with the experience I had today... because I'm afraid that I personally found Samurai absolutely vile. Today's experience moved it down considerably in my estimations and has it in close competition with Air Race at Drayton Manor for the title of the most sickeningly vile flat ride I've ever done. It was horribly jerky, it did that horrible slow flipping like Air Race does (where I swear I can physically feel stuff moving around inside my stomach), it had horribly long periods of inverted hangtime, and overall, I'm sorry to say that I didn't like it at all. Overall, I did not enjoy Samurai, and I'm afraid that it did not live up to my relatively positive 2018 memories of it; I'm not sure if something has changed with the ride or if I've simply grown more fragile over the last 5 years, but for whatever reason, I just didn't like it at all today, I'm afraid: After getting off Samurai, I felt a little worse for wear and needed a sit down, so I sat down in Angry Birds Land for 15-20 minutes or so to eat a snack out of my bag and have a drink, timing the throughput of Nemesis Inferno as I sat. After my sit down, I headed for a reride on Detonator with a 5 minute queue time, which was just as awesome as it had been earlier; that punchy drop never gets old!: After my ride on Detonator, I headed back over to Stealth for two more back-to-back rerides on a 10 minute queue; I had a ride in row 9 and another on the front, and both were absolutely fantastic, with a phenomenal sense of speed and great airtime: After my two rerides on Stealth, I headed for another reride on The Swarm on a 10 minute queue time. I was seated in the row 3 inner left seat this time, and as with earlier, it was a thoroughly decent ride: After my ride on The Swarm, I headed over to Nemesis Inferno for a reride on a 10 minute queue. I was seated on the back row, and as with earlier, it was a great coaster, with excellent speed and some good inversions: After my reride on Nemesis Inferno, I headed over to Saw for a reride on a 10 minute queue. I was seated in the back edge seat this time, and similarly to earlier, the ride was very much on the smoother and more enjoyable end of the spectrum as Saw goes; the ride had some excellent airtime, and I exited relatively headache-free!: After my ride on Saw, I headed back towards the rest of the coasters, but the attendant of Rush saying "there's no queue here; you can get straight onto the ride!" was too much to resist, so I had a walk-on reride on Rush. Once again, it was fantastic, with great speed and airtime: After my ride on Rush, I had a brief sit down with a bottle of water and a Magnum before heading back over to Stealth, where I had two further back-to-back rides on a 5 minute queue. I had one ride in row 9 and one ride in row 8, and both were just as fantastic as ever; Stealth is such a fantastic coaster, in my view: After my two rides on Stealth, I headed over to Detonator for another reride on a 5 minute queue. It was a fantastic drop tower once again; that punchy drop and awesome airtime just keep on giving: After my ride on Detonator, I had my three final back-to-back rides on Stealth for the day on a 5 minute queue. I had one ride in the front, one ride in row 5 and one ride in row 7, and all three were absolutely fantastic! On a side note; I clearly wasn't the only person hammering Stealth today, as the ride operator gave a shoutout to a couple who were having their 20th consecutive ride on it on one of my last rides: After my final rides on Stealth, I had three back-to-back rides on Nemesis Inferno on a 5 minute queue which turned out to be walk-on. I had a ride on the back row, a ride in row 5 and a ride in row 6, and as with the earlier two rides, all three rides were great, with great speed, intensity and inversions! It was great to be able to make the most of an inverted coaster like this, what with the current absence of Nemesis at Alton Towers: After my three rides on Nemesis Inferno, I closed out the day with a final ride on Detonator. As with the earlier 3 rides, the drop was fantastically punchy and there was great airtime to be had! I also had quite a unique experience in that I was the only member of the public on the ride, so numerous ride hosts joined me on it: After my final ride on Detonator, it was only four minutes away from the 6pm close time and my dad was waiting in the drop-off zone in the car park, so I bade Thorpe Park goodbye for the day and headed home: So, that wraps up my solo day at Thorpe Park! I had an absolutely phenomenal day; I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it's my favourite day I have ever spent at Thorpe Park and quite possibly one of my favourite theme park days ever! I managed a total of 30 rides during the 8 hours I spent on park; if you lost track, these are the rides I managed: Colossus x1 Saw: The Ride x2 Nemesis Inferno x5 Stealth x10 The Swarm x3 Detonator x4 Rush x3 Vortex x1 Samurai x1 I was chuffed to bits with having done 30 rides; that is joint with my June 2022 day at Drayton Manor for the most rides I've ever done in one theme park day, and my 10 rides on Stealth are the most I have ever ridden one attraction during a theme park day! As an added bonus, the weather was lovely, the rides themselves were absolutely great and I had some brilliant runs on them, and overall, it was one of those wonderful days where the stars aligned and everything seemed to go just right! If I'm being sentimental, it's theme park days like today that remind me why I love theme parks and roller coasters as much as I do. My day at Thorpe today has left me with some absolutely wonderful memories to cherish, and I have to say that in some of the moments lapping rides like Stealth and Nemesis Inferno, I felt truly in my element and like there was nowhere I'd rather be. In terms of Thorpe itself; I have to admit that today made me realise that as much as enthusiasts seemingly love to hate it, I personally absolutely love Thorpe Park! The coasters are great, there's some great theming and surprising greenery in places, and there's just something about the place that I really like! In terms of a specific highlight ride-wise from today; Stealth was absolutely fantastic. Today's rides definitely raised it a fair amount in my estimations, and I now view it as my comfortable favourite ride at Thorpe Park, one of my favourite coasters in the UK and in my high top 20 overall. Nemesis Inferno was also awesome, Detonator was fantastic, Rush was fantastic, Swarm was decent, Saw was OK, and even Colossus was not nearly as bad as normal! Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed this report! My next trip report will be coming on Sunday, when I make a solo trip to Chessington for my first visit in 9 years! I can't wait to see what Mandrill Mayhem is like, and I'm generally very interested to see what Chessington is like after nearly a decade of not visiting. Today will certainly be a tough act for it to follow, but if my day at Chessington is even half as brilliant as today was, then I'll be very happy!

9th September 2023: Brean Theme Park Hi guys. Today was an exciting day; I went for my first ever visit to Brean Theme Park, near Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset! Now I know that that might not sound too exciting to many of you, but I was glad to finally tick it off seeing as it’s actually my closest semi-major theme park! Oddly given that I’ve lived in the South West of England my whole life and amassed a coaster count of over 100, I had never been to Brean Theme Park (or any theme park in my local South West region, for that matter) before today. I’d walked past the outside of it during a camping trip to Brean when I was no older than about 8, but I’d never been inside and seen what delights it had to offer. With that in mind, I was excited to tick off my closest non-kiddie +3 and finally see what my closest theme park is like! I was originally planning to do this as a solo trip via train and bus, but my mum decided she didn’t like the idea of me going to Brean alone and kindly offered to drive me there, and my nan decided that she fancied joining us. The 3 of us set off from Gloucestershire at a bit before 10am, and with the drive taking just over an hour, we arrived in Brean in very good time for the 11am opening time: After parking up, we headed into the park and got Fun Cards. As I was riding the coasters, I put 14 credits on mine, and my mum and nan put credits on theirs to play a game of Congo Adventure Golf while I rode the coasters. After paying, I split off from my mum and nan and headed into the main theme park itself: Upon entering the park, I was initially unsure whether any of the coasters were even open, as they looked very empty and showed little sign of being operational. However, I did find one coaster that was open upon closer inspection, so I headed over to it… Astro Storm Astro Storm was open and had a very short-looking queue consisting of around 6 people, so I decided to take a ride on it. This queue ended up taking around 10-15 minutes all in, which I wasn’t too displeased with, in all honesty. Interestingly, though, I noticed that the operators were very casually walking across the track and between the unload and load stations in a way that you definitely wouldn’t see at a park like Alton Towers, and it’s also the first coaster where I’ve ever had the operator push me out of the station! That’s not a criticism, but just something interesting I noticed. But enough about that; how was the ride? Well, I was interested to ride it given that it was a former resident of Blackpool Pleasure Beach, and I have to say that it wasn’t too bad at all for a ride at a park of this calibre! Sure, it’s not going to blow any minds on the world stage, and I’d argue that the claim that it’s “Europe’s best indoor coaster” is a bit debatable, but the ride was quite good fun for what it is, with some fun twists and turns! I was also quite pleasantly surprised by the theming; there were some nice effects, although there were quite a few air cannons that did make me jump! Overall, Astro Storm was a perfectly fine enclosed coaster with some surprising theming: After getting off Astro Storm, I headed over to the next coaster… Bulldog Coaster Bulldog Coaster was open and on a very short queue consisting of only 2 other people, so I decided to have a go on it. The wait was very short, only taking the time that it took for the train to negotiate the remainder of the circuit and unload the riders in it; I can’t complain about that! So, how was the ride? Well, it was the second Pinfari coaster I’ve ridden, and the first looping Pinfari Zyklon I’ve ridden, and similar to the first Pinfari coaster I rode, Creepy Crawler at Oakwood, I wasn’t a huge fan. The restraint was very uncomfortable, and although the signature loop was admittedly quite forceful, the layout was pretty rough in numerous places, with a fair amount of bracing required. It’s admittedly an impressive headliner for a park like Brean, but I’m afraid to say that I wasn’t a fan: After getting off Bulldog Coaster, I made my way to the final credit I needed… Magic Mouse Magic Mouse was open and had a relatively short-looking queue consisting of around 10-15 people, so I decided to take a ride on it. This queue, similarly to that of Astro Storm, took around 10-15 minutes, which I can’t really complain about. I did notice that they were only loading one group per car regardless of the group size, though, and it was similar on Astro Storm; I rode in a car on my own on both rides, even though I could quite easily have been batched in alongside other groups that came before me in both cases. It wasn’t really a problem today, but it was just something I noticed. That’s besides the point, though; how was the ride? Well, Magic Mouse was my 7th Reverchon spinning wild mouse coaster, so I’m quite well versed in how these coasters ride by this point, and I’m not a fan of them at all, as I’m not a fan of the wild mouse ride style in general. This was one of the smoother ones I’ve done, though, and with me being in a car on my own, it span a lot; I was a little bit light-headed getting off! Overall, Magic Mouse was pretty much par-for-the-course for these Reverchon spinning coasters; I don’t really rate them at all, I’m afraid: After getting off Magic Mouse, it was around 12pm, so as my Fun Card credits had run out and I’d ridden all 3 of the coasters I wanted to ride, I met back up with my mum and nan, who’d finished their game of Congo Adventure Golf. They both tied with each other, but said that they’d very much enjoyed their game! After meeting back up, we exited the park: Before heading back home, we took a stroll along a very foggy Brean Beach. This must easily be the foggiest I’ve ever seen a beach; you couldn’t even see the sea!: After our brief beachside stroll, we headed back to the car and headed home, stopping in Sedgemoor services for a spot of lunch on the way back. So, that concludes our day (or, more accurately, morning) at Brean Theme Park in Somerset! I know this probably hasn’t been the most exciting report, and I apologise for that, but I was very glad to finally visit my closest theme park and grab the +3 that it had to offer, and if nothing else, it made for a fun morning on a hot day like today! None of the coasters are anything particularly earth-shattering in the grand scheme of things, but I didn’t go in expecting top 10/20 candidates or anything, and for a park of the calibre that it is, I think Brean is a perfectly fine place. Now I’ve been, it’s not somewhere I’d rush back to, but I’m glad that I finally went and ticked off my closest theme park, and I had a nice morning there. Thanks for reading! Despite this probably not being the most interesting report, I hope you still enjoyed it! It won’t be long at all until you next see a trip report from me, as I’m headed to two theme parks next week; I’ll be taking my annual visit to Thorpe Park on Friday 15th September, swiftly followed by my first visit to Chessington in nearly a decade on Sunday 17th September!

7th August 2023 (Flamingo Land) Hi guys. Today, I visited a new theme park that I’d never previously visited before; I visited Flamingo Land in North Yorkshire for the first time! This visit was a present from my parents for my 20th birthday last week, and I was interested to see what the park had to offer; prior to today, Flamingo Land was probably the most major UK park I was yet to visit, and Sik was probably the most revered UK coaster I was yet to ride! We’d actually made the 4.5 hour journey to North Yorkshire yesterday afternoon, so as we’d stayed in a local hotel only around 5 miles away the night before, we set off for the park at around 9:20am to get in just after the 9:30am park opening time: After getting into the park, we headed to the back of the park to ride our first coaster… Mumbo Jumbo Mumbo Jumbo was a coaster that I’d been advised to tackle first due to low capacity, so me and my mum decided to give it a go (my dad steered clear as he thought that the tight-looking turns might not do his back much good). There was pretty much no one in front of us waiting for the 10am ride opening time, which was definitely a good thing given that we saw a sign while negotiating the queue indicating that two switchbacks into the queue took an estimated 60 minutes to navigate, which definitely shocked my mum a bit… but how was the ride? Well, I’d never ridden an S&S El Loco before (or an S&S coaster, for that matter), so I was interested to try Mumbo Jumbo, but I’m afraid to say that neither of us were huge fans of it. I’ll admit that it’s a novel ride with the repeated slow hangtime, and a beyond vertical drop is always good fun, but I really wasn’t a fan of the shoulder bars on there. When the shoulder bars were combined with the repeated slow hangtime and tight wild mouse-style turns, I didn’t find it a terribly enjoyable experience, I’m afraid, and my mum seemed to echo my thoughts: After Mumbo Jumbo, we decided to try the coaster directly next to it… Kumali Kumali had a relatively short-looking queue, so we decided to give it a go while we were nearby. This queue was short, and only took about 10 minutes or so; I couldn’t complain too much about that! But how was the ride? Well, I had pretty low expectations given that my least favourite coaster was Infusion, a fellow SLC at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, but it was actually OK! I was seated in row 9, and it was a bit rough in places, which did detract to an extent, but it was not nearly as bad as Infusion, and the ride had some pretty decent inversions and was well-paced and reasonably intense without being excessively so! Overall, I still wouldn’t have said that Kumali was one of my absolute favourite coasters, but it was a perfectly all right ride that was only somewhat rough, unlike the very rough Infusion, and had some decent elements, so I couldn’t really complain too much: After Kumali, we headed towards Metropolis to ride a unique and highly notorious ride… Hero Hero didn’t look to have an overly long queue, so me and my mum decided to give it a go (this was another one my dad steered clear of). When we entered the queue, it became apparent that this not overly long queue could be longer than we’d previously thought, as I’d logged a throughput of 167pph, and it ultimately took 35 minutes. But how was the ride? Did Hero live up to its notorious reputation? Well, I have to say… yes, it did. It’s certainly a novel ride, but it wasn’t one I was keen on at all. The car and position are very weird; I’m not a huge lover of flying coasters at the best of times, and this car was extremely uncomfortable with the stepladder and how unrestrained you were, and it was very, very rough throughout for me, throwing you around a lot. I’m sorry to be negative, but I didn’t like Hero at all, and I’m very tempted to say that it’s usurped Infusion as my least favourite coaster: After getting off Hero, we got some ice cream before heading to our next coaster… Velocity Velocity was another coaster we were interested to do, so we decided to give it a go. Like numerous coasters at this park, I hadn’t really done anything quite like Velocity before; my closest comparison would have been Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure at Universal (which I loved!), and even that is a very chalk-and-cheese comparison given that Hagrid’s has a normal seat and is on a vastly grander scale. The queue here took around 30 minutes, which I didn’t think was too bad at all, personally! So, how was the ride? Well, I thought that it had a fun layout, with a few nice pops of airtime, a punchy launch and some nice fast-paced turns! However, I did find the actual motorbike position a bit odd and uncomfortable compared to a ride like Hagrid’s, what with how it has you riding so that all your weight is placed on your chest, and that was a big detractor for me. Overall, I thought that Velocity had a fun layout, but I wouldn’t have said that it was one of my favourite coasters due to the discomfort of the riding position being a fair detractor for me: After getting off Velocity, we headed around to the final big coaster that we hadn’t done yet, as well as our most anticipated… Sik Sik was on an advertised 30 minute queue time, so we decided to take a ride on it. The advertised queue time ended up being pretty accurate, so we couldn’t complain too much! But how was the ride? Was Sik… sick, as its name suggests? Well, I was personally intrigued to see how Sik rode, as I’ve never liked Colossus, but I’ve always felt that my biggest issues with that ride were the trains and the roughness, which were both issues that Sik looked to have solved. I have to say that I thought it was great; it was a thoroughly decent coaster, in my view, and the comfort of the overhead lap bars make a big difference! I also really liked the altered first drop, with the steep turn to the left being a definite enhancement compared to the original Colossus’ drop, in my view! The first half was much the same as Colossus elements-wise, and I’ve always felt that this is a pretty good first half; it works really well here. I’m still not 100% sure on the second half with the successive heartline rolls, as they are definitely a bit dizzying, but I’ll concede that the overhead lap bars do make them more comfortable than they are on Colossus. Overall, then, I thought Sik was a really decent coaster, with the lap bars and altered profiling being a definite game changer; it definitely lived up to my expectations, and I definitely enjoyed it! It’s not a top 10 coaster for me or anything, or one of my absolute favourite UK coasters, but that style of ride doesn’t tend to rank phenomenally highly for me anyway and I’ve never liked Colossus, so I wasn’t really expecting that to begin with. On its own merit, I thought Sik was a very good coaster that I definitely enjoyed overall, and my dad, who’d never ridden Colossus before due to being too tall for the restraints, thought pretty highly of the ride: After our ride on Sik, we got some lunch in the Muddy Duck Cafe before heading to look around the zoo for a bit. We initially decided to head onto… Zoo Monorail The Zoo Monorail was nearby and looked to have a short queue, so we decided to give it a go to get a panoramic view of the zoo and its animals. We hadn’t been in the queue very long, and had only narrowly missed the first and second monorail trains that went after we joined the queue, but we’d noticed that the first train had come to a stop not very far after the station, and the operator later noticed, abruptly stopped the second train, and told us that “the battery’s gone flat”. As such, we left the queue; I think we made the right choice given that everyone else left shortly afterwards, with even the operator swiftly abandoning the scene: After our ill-fated attempt at riding the Zoo Monorail, we headed around the zoo on foot for about an hour, looking at animals such as lemurs, the park’s namesake flamingos, kangaroos, wallabies, penguins, black rhinos, zebras, camels and giraffes, amongst numerous others. The animals seemed a bit inactive and not too keen to come out, likely due to the current British summer we’re having, but it was nice to walk around the zoo nonetheless. It looked like quite a nice zoo, and it was fairly big; have a few pictures I took: After leaving the zoo, we initially headed to try and do Twistosaurus, as I had thought that this and Zooom! might be two nice bonus family coaster +1s that didn’t look like embarrassing bonafide kiddie coasters (Runaway Mine Train, Dino Roller and Go Gator were all conclusively ruled out beforehand on this basis). We did get in the queue briefly, but it was quite long, the throughput didn’t look overly high, and my parents were put off after seeing a particularly spinny car containing a very perturbed-looking woman going around for a second lap… I ultimately decided that I wasn’t that bothered about doing Twistosaurus or Zooom!, so we decided to leave that queue: After we bailed on Twistosaurus, my parents decided that they didn’t fancy riding anything else, so they headed around the zoo while I headed for some rerides. I started off with a reride on Kumali. I was seated in row 9 once again (I’d initially gone to sit in row 7, but row 9 was empty, the operator later noticed this and moved me up, and the lady I had been batched next to said “let’s go to the back; it’s faster!”), and it was similar to how it had been earlier, with possibly a touch of additional speed from having warmed up: I then headed for a reride on Sik using the single rider queue, which was very useful as I pretty much walked straight on there! I was seated in row 2 this time, and as with earlier, it was a thoroughly decent coaster that I really enjoyed, although I think I preferred it towards the back of the train: After my reride on Sik, I went for a reride on Velocity. I was seated in row 2 this time, and it was similar to earlier, although I think I found it a touch more uncomfortable: After my reride on Velocity, I headed to try out a ride I hadn’t done yet… Pterodactyl Pterodactyl appeared to have a relatively short queue, so I decided to give it a go. I was interested to try Pterodactyl, as even though I’m not generally huge on flat rides, I’d never ridden a Star Flyer-style ride before. As with a number of rides at Flamingo Land, the “relatively short queue” was longer than expected, ultimately taking around 40 minutes, and I ended up not getting on Pterodactyl. I nearly did, as I was initially batched into a cycle that went as usual, but the operator realised they’d overbatched without considering exit riders and abruptly ushered me back into the queue. The cycle that I was then batched into looked promising, as I fastened my restraint and the operator went into their booth as normal to send it with no sign that anything was wrong, but they abruptly came back out and said “Ride’s broken, get off!”, so I was ultimately unable to ride Pterodactyl: After my ill-fated attempt to ride Pterodactyl, I went for one final single rider queue reride on Sik. I was seated in row 7 this time, and it was once again a very good ride: After my final Sik reride, I headed back towards the Muddy Duck Farm to meet back up with my parents. It was about 5pm by this point, so we decided to bid Flamingo Land goodbye and head back to our hotel: So, that just about covers my first ever visit to Flamingo Land in Yorkshire! I had a nice day; I was really pleased to get 9 rides in, I got on many of the things I’d hoped to get on, including all 5 big thrill coasters, and overall, I really enjoyed visiting somewhere different! There really is no feeling quite like going to a new park for the first time, and I had a really nice day discovering all that Flamingo Land has to offer! In terms of the park itself; sure, it’s not the greatest theme park I’ve ever been to, but I don’t think the park deserves some of the hate it gets, personally, and I certainly had an enjoyable day. The operations are slow (some of the slowest I’ve ever personally encountered), and the park is not the most cohesively themed in numerous areas (although I thought that some others were reasonably nicely themed), but overall, I think it’s a nice enough park that I certainly had a nice day at, and I do think that there is something to be said for the breadth of the park’s offering and the relative strength of its coaster selection for a park of its calibre. Sik is a very decent headliner, and while I wouldn’t have said that I rated any of the other coasters overly highly (I’d probably say that only Kumali makes my top 50% out of the other 4), they are certainly novel experiences that add good variety to the lineup and help to flesh it out. There are also quite a few other rides that I didn't do; for instance, Cliff Hanger was unfortunately closed today, but had I done it, I imagine that that would have been a really decent headline flat ride for me (I love a good drop tower!). The zoo was also nice and surprisingly expansive, and overall, I had a nice day at Flamingo Land! You can talk about the operations and such, but given what I got on, I don’t think I can really complain; the longest queue I waited in all day was 40 minutes, and I managed 9 rides in 7 hours, which I was pleased with! Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed this report! My next report will probably be from Thorpe Park at some point in early September!

Just like that, the final theme park of the trip was here. Known for Kingda Ka and the largest selection of B&M rollercoasters in the world. With the weather continuing to create issues we wanted to hit the problematic loading rides in Green Lantern and Superman Ultimate Flight. We always knew that King Ka was pretty much a no go with its incident and El Toro wasn't running. Green Lantern it was and it was fine. Nothing extraordinary, nothing awful just a solid ride. I liked that it was a pretty long ride. The ending did tend to fizzle out and the head banging did seem to get worse in the lower to the ground sections. Superman Ultimate Flight had a massive line and with dark clouds on the horizons, we decided that Nitro was a better option. Unfortunately it wasn't operational so we went for the single rail RMC Jersey devil instead. First thing to note is that nothing whatsoever is allowed in the queue. Security staff at the entrance and it was strict. Weirdly this ride never had a queue and is a significant upgrade on Railblazer at Californias Great America. I'd heard negative things bout Jersey Devil but I actually really liked it. Nice long ride, doesn't feel out of control on speed. The continuous loading is also an excellent addition, keeping the queue moving consistently. We then attempted a second go but the moment occurred, the bad weather hit. Unlike Kings Dominion which didn't really bother telling anyone what was happening, Six Flags was much better. Announcements were playing on all rides, staff were informing everyone and unlike KD, the indoor rides remained open. Sure there's only like three of them but hey, theres still things to do. And unlike KD, the rides reopened after an hour with announcements declaring the rides are back in operation. We went for a ride on Batman, my fourth clone and by now I'm used to what these rides deliver. This was good but the only one I really like is the one at Great America. It was also weirdly on one train and the only ride on a reduced capacity. With the school crowds still dotted around we went for a wander over to Medusa, the first B&M floorless. I had previously been on the mirrored version (Scream at Magic Mountain) and I really liked that version. After Dominator, this felt good but nowhere near as explosive or impactful. It had a really loud roar which I wonder if it has any impact on the animals as the trail is nearby. The first half is excellent with full speed and intensity. The trim break though, kills all speed and it feels like the train is barely making it through the final corkscrews. This was easily the quietest ride in the park as its all the way at the very back of the park on its own little pathway. We never had to wait for Medusa and it was easy to get lots of rerides as Six Flags let you stay on. Runaway Mine Train followed, almost at 50 years old and it was pretty crazy. I found it pretty intense if jerky. With a little walking we ventured over to the El Toro area where it remained closed. Good old Intamin. We instead headed to Superman Ultimate Flight. This is not a great ride, distinctly average. After the pretzel loop it just fades into obscurity. With the longest waits in the park, its only worth doing if the queue is less then ten minutes (or you need the cred). I don't think it's the ride operators fault either, they were working damn hard to get those trains out but these flyers just have so many technical issues that get in the way. On and upwards and Nitro was finally open. After walking through the insane long queue to get to the station we chose row 8 for our first go. I have to hand it to Great Adventure on so many levels. They were running this thing like it was Silver Star at Europa Park. Three train operation, no stacking, the operator using comms to 'gently' push guests to get on the train as quickly as possible. When you are operating a ride like the best theme park in the world, you're doing something right. And I really liked Nitro. The jump from Apollos Chariot to this is quite something. They are pretty similar rides but the forces on Nitro are so much better. I love the adventure into the forest, how you can barely see any of the ride from the park. We had several goes as with the operations, the ride never had a wait. Each ride delivered. After lunch (pizza for like $100), we went on some of the Justice League area rides such as Dark Knight (clunky), the Sally dark ride (fun) and Cyborg Spin (useless). We attempted to get back on Jersey Devil but.. the bad weather was back with a nearby thunderstorm. Beer was grabbed and we waited. A little rabbit emerged and did a little run around the nearly empty pathways. Surreal. Unlike the earlier storm, this lasted ten minutes and the rides opened up quickly. I was impatient and grabbed a ride by myself on Jersey Devil. My own train, lucky me. It delivered again, lovely ride. Chris then wanted a ride so back round we went. Then onto Skull Mountain which was a ride in a theme park. With the park essentially dead with all the school groups gone and the weather closure having an impact, it was easy to mop up lots of rides such as Harley Quinns Crazy Train and the Joker. The Joker incidentally, is the first time I've actually been able to get on an S&S 4D. The version at Great America was closed because of a power cut and the one at Kings Dominion closed and never reopened because of the thunder storm. It was fine, much better than the Intamin equivalent. But lets face it, they aren't great rides. It was around 5PM now and we thought we'd take one last chance at El Toro. We walked to a good viewing point and waited about five minutes to see if there was any chance of life. Nothing. We were about to walk away and then suddenly, there's a train. With people on. A sudden skip in our step, we raced over to it before downtime naturally happens. I'd heard a lot about this ride. Some have described it as a bigger Balder (which I don't really like), some have called it the best wooden rollercoaster ever created. My opinion is... this is a beast of a ride. It's a monster. It's an outstanding ride really. The reason I've never really got on with Balder is because it feels too controlled, the air time is great but it is the same on every single hill. But El Toro is just out of this world with fast hills, crazy sweeping turns and some of the most aggressive forces on a wooden rollercoaster. It's major downfall is the area which has had a retracking. It's still way to jerky and rough for my liking. Even with fresh wood, the train just does not like the speed and angle of the turn. It hurt my neck and back and after three goes in a way I didn't feel up to doing another ride. Even with this thought, this was the stand out ride at Great Adventure. it isn't necessarily my favourite ride (thats Nitro), but it's the one that left the biggest impression. This was a park with a second day and the only real difference in the days was that Kingda Ka was testing all day. Frustratingly it never opened but it was to be expected. I have to say Great Adventure was a nice surprise to be had. Six Flags has this reputation in the industry and at each Six Flags park I have been to, I have never had a bad day. Discovery Kingdom, Magic Mountain, Great America, America and now Great Adventure have been great parks to visit with some unique and interesting rides across them all. There's a whole sea of difference between the active operations that Six Flags has and the awful operations of the Cedar Fair parks. When your parks are all about the rides and less about experiences, then your park needs to deliver the operations otherwise the whole day becomes a frustrating mess. Next up: Nickelodeon Universe at New Jersey American Dream mall.

After the craziness of Hershey Park, today was about the more chilled out, relaxed atmosphere of Dorney Park. This Cedar Fair park has a rich history and is the perfect park for a chilled out Sunday of B&M's, Intamins and Morgans?! One of my biggest observations of the parks on this trip is that when there's a water park as part of the admission, thats where people want to be. The 100/200 odd people waiting at the entrance to Dorney made a swift right to Wildwater Kingdom. Without even trying we got to Talon first, front row, only two riders on the train. Weird quirk of Dorney is that the air gates don't open, you have to push them. Must be a slight frustration for ride ops, having to shout 'push the gates' on every ride. Talon is a very traditionally layout B&M inverter but it looks absolutely gorgeous. Yellow, orange and blue really works on that thick B&M track. It's all eerily quiet. I'd heard that the track was filled with sand but you struggle to even know the train is on the move. If no one is screaming on a train, it's as if the ride isn't even moving. There are some lovely forces on the ride but it is on the tamer side. The to the ground helix was definitely the highlight, nice and low to the ground and a fitting bit of iconography for a ride that holds you in the grip of fear. Next stop was Hydra: The Revenge. The last of those rides I spoke about in the first blog. Yet again we got to the train and were the only two people on board. This peculiar B&M floorless is very unconventional for this ride type. Odd order of inversions, everything taken at a gradual pace. The jo-jo roll is quite representative of the ride as a whole with the more graceful way it takes inversions being vastly different to the other Floorless I've done so far on this trip. It also had quite a severe rattle that really made itself apparent after the cobra roll. The operations were rubbish to say the least. Later on in the day the glacial pace was really causing an unnecessary queue. CHESSINGTON REPRESENT. Our next stop was Possessed, an Intamin impulse coaster which Chris hates. Yet again it was just us two so we opted on the front row and it was okay if not a tad repetitive. No, the real highlight of the park is Steel Phantom, a morgan hyper which is excellent and reminds me heavily of Magnum Force. It's a lovely long ride with huge amounts of air time. Would have ridden more if it had not broken down. Thunderhawk was the rides older wooden, previously named Rollercoaster. One thing I love about Dorney is how much it celebrates its history. What I don't like is how a lot of it has been removed and doesn't exist anymore. There are bits here and there such as Rollercoaster, the Whip and the Zephyr. But the rest has been eradicated and is completely gone. A few boards here and there are dedicated to remembering what else has been there. But all this talk of dark rides and there's none at Dorney now at all. Such a shame. A selection of classic funfair rides dots around the park and the ride operators have a lot of fun on the PA getting the guests pumped and ready to ride. There's a real contrast of Dorney with other Cedar Fair parks I've done; Dorney rates nicely because it has a charm and still has the feel of a family owned theme park. We took a ride on Wild Mouse. This has the worst operations of any ride ever. Well it is a maurer wild mouse so should have expected this. We took a couple of rides, were about to leave then noticed Demon Drop was open. This intamin first generation drop tower is surreal, so weird. Not recorded for multiple rerides but its fine as a novelty. We left to get ahead of the poor weather forecast. We had a lovely day. Sure the park is nowhere near the others in terms of park investments. But it is a decent, varied day out. I recommend. If they do get the B&M dive machine like is rumoured, this will be the second cedar fair park to get one just after I've visited. I shall return..

The little invested Six Flags America is an interesting place to me. It was by far the least refined of the parks visited on this trip and yet it had a certain local park charm. The main purpose of this visit was to get on the first B&M ever constructed. While B&M as a team and worked on other rides, this was their first ride under the B&M name. The previous day, Firebird had been closed all day. So I was concerned about that but my worries were unfounded. Firebird was open on time and ready to go. It initially being a stand up, this is the third stand up model I have ridden that has been converted to Floorless. Unlike Patriot this layout was okay and pretty substantial. However it doesn't ride particularly well with some rough moments scattered throughout. But it does have intensity and it's easy to see why this ride was just the start of a world leading company. We got three rides including the front and there wasn't much difference between them. Superman - Ride of Steel almost feels like a relic from the past compared to what Intamin can do now. This is a very odd layout with long straights and giant helixes. It was running one train (which is all it needed) and rode pretty well. Surprisingly enjoyable without being outstanding. And thats a great review. I personally prefer Goliath at Wailibi Holland which is a snappier layout but Ride Of Steel is fun. I managed to trick Chris onto Jokers Jynx which is a clone of Flight of Fear but outside. He hated it just as much as the other version. I preferred the other version just because of it being inside. Not much to say although it definitely needs a repaint and refurbishment. Batwing the Vekoma first generation flying coaster was fascinating and if it wasn't for downtime and reliability would have ridden a lot more. But I'm thankful for the one ride we did get. This was great but it felt so dangerous. The vest restraint is substantially different to the B&M version with essentially two flaps being seat belted together in the middle. Bizarre. This was great to get on with really unique sensations and a very different layout. Just not enough go's around to really get a good feel for it. We did a couple of flat rides as this isn't really a rollercoaster park and the staff were great. Less of this corporate feel like Cedar Fair and Disney has and the more raw local park flavour. I personally liked that it wasn't generic 'want to go faster' stuff and this tailored feel. it's hard to describe but it was just more what I value from guest interaction. We got to Wild One, one of the parks two wooden coasters. This was a classic wooden coaster built in 1917 and relocated in 1980 to Great America. Randomly on two trains this was the most popular ride at the park and it felt like it was going to collapse. Needs a bit of work as a lot of the paint has chipped away over the years. I really respect Americas treatment of their classic wooden rollercoasters, it feels like every park has one dotted away somewhere and they are always consistent, some of the busier rides at the parks they are in. Unfortunately both Rajun Cajun (Reverchon spinner) and Roar (GCI woodie) were closed so after a couple of re rides across the park we decided to leave early and get some classic American Mexican food. Would I revisit this park? Again, if the investment was put into it yes. But it is clearly a bit of an ugly duckling of the Six Flags chain. Thing is though, this is one of the better operated park across my visits. Each ride was well staffed and they were getting trains out at pace. It just needs some love.

Trip Summary All right, then! Now I’m back in the UK after a 7.5 hour flight from Orlando to London Heathrow, I think it’s about time I posted the trip summary I promised at the end of the last report! To cut to the chase; this was an absolutely fantastic trip! I loved getting back to Universal, SeaWorld and Busch Gardens after 7 years, and I loved getting on some of the brilliant new rides that have been installed since my last trip! As well as that, Volcano Bay was also a real positive surprise (I’ll touch on that more later), and I thoroughly enjoyed myself there! I’ll start by ranking all of the parks I went to in this trip, and I’ll say a little bit about each: Islands of Adventure - This is still easily one of my favourite parks ever, and I dare say that it now has possibly the most well-rounded selection of top-class major rides I’ve ever seen. I always felt that the coaster selection at IOA was one of its relatively weaker links in the past, but the additions of Hagrid’s and VelociCoaster have strengthened its credentials as a coaster park considerably, in my view, with both of these rides providing absolutely top-class experiences. The park also has some truly top-class dark rides and water rides, with Spider-Man being my favourite dark ride and Jurassic Park River Adventure being my favourite water ride out of the non-coaster offering! The theming is also wonderful throughout the park, in my opinion, and overall, I think it’s a truly stunning theme park! I’ve always loved how Islands of Adventure is a bit of a “jack of all trades”, and masters quite a number of different areas of the theme park experience, and I feel that the additions since my last visit have only strengthened that, personally! I will say, though, that if I’m being phenomenally picky, I think it can sometimes feel like the park has quite a hectic atmosphere with not much room to relax, and that is one thing that I feel the other Universal park does better. Overall, though, I absolutely love IOA; the combination of amazing rides and amazing theming make it easily one of my favourite parks ever! Universal Studios Florida - I may prefer Islands of Adventure, but it’s a close race between the two for me, and this is still definitely one of my favourite parks! The ride selection isn’t quite as varied as Islands of Adventure’s, and I don’t think that any of the individual rides quite match the best IOA has to offer for me, but there are still some absolutely fantastic headliners, with Revenge of the Mummy, Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts and Transformers being real headline draws of the park for me! There are some other really solid rides at the park too, and I also think that the overall theming is better than I’d remembered. Diagon Alley is the big standout thematically, but the rest of the park is also wonderfully detailed and has loads to look at! As I inferred above, the park also has a somewhat more relaxed atmosphere than IOA, in my view, with it often feeling slightly less crowded and there being more areas to slow down and take a breather. My whole family apart from me actually preferred USF of the two parks due to the more relaxing atmosphere and the fact that they felt that the theming was “way better”, as well as the fact that USF’s rides were more “grandparent-friendly” on the whole than IOA’s. Overall, while I may prefer Islands of Adventure overall, Universal Studios Florida still has a lot going for it, in my view, and it’s also one of my all-time favourite parks! Busch Gardens Tampa - I had a great day here! The coaster selection is second to none, there are some decent non-coaster rides, with the flat ride department in particular really shining, and the park is nicer in terms of landscaping than I’d remembered, being very green! It’s not the most heavily themed park I’ve ever been to, but I also feel that Busch does decently in terms of theming in numerous places, with the Egyptian section containing Cobra’s Curse and Montu being a favourite of mine. If I’m being picky, however, I personally found the park to have a somewhat confusing layout. Something I noticed a fair amount during my day is that attractions would look very close as the crow flies, but you’d try to find them and struggle, with them turning out to be absolutely miles away in path terms, which would see you passing numerous other totally different attractions on the way. The park also lacks indoor attractions despite being faced with the ever unpredictable Florida climate, and while stormy weather wasn’t a problem on our visit, some indoor entertainment might have been nice as a respite from the humidity. Overall, though, I had a great day at Busch Gardens, and it’s a fair amount nicer than I’d previously remembered! SeaWorld Orlando - Despite this park being last, I actually find it to be a really nice park that I seem to like more than most, and I had a great day here! The coaster selection is getting to be really excellent, queues are often short, and the park generally has a really nice, relaxed atmosphere; what’s not to like? While not particularly heavily themed, the park also has nice theming in areas and generally looks nice. However, I think the reason it’s not as high as the other 3 for me is because the park fundamentally doesn’t have that much to do rides-wise. In particular, it has very little to do rides-wise aside from the coasters; the only major non-coaster I can think of is Infinity Falls (which I was unable to ride due to unreliability and lightning). Similarly to Busch Gardens, I do feel that an indoor attraction of some description wouldn’t go amiss here, both to provide some entertainment in the event of a thunderstorm and provide a respite from the Florida humidity. This wasn’t a massive problem for me overall, though, as I’m pretty content just riding coasters all day! Overall, SeaWorld is a great park, and I really enjoyed my visit! Let me move onto some of my personal highlights of the trip in terms of new stuff… there were so many, but I’ll try to name just a few! New Highlights VelociCoaster - My favourite new attraction of the trip was VelociCoaster, a stunning Intamin LSM Launch Coaster! This sensational ride has a stonker of a layout with some really impactful elements, including a euphoric second launch, a top hat with some sublime ejector airtime, and a final heartline roll that really whips you out of the seat and leaves you blown away upon hitting the brake run! There are also loads of other great elements including some great inversions and excellent pops of ejector airtime, the ride maintains a great sense of speed throughout, and all of this is also packaged within a wonderfully comfortable and rerideable coaster, with absolutely superb restraints! Overall, I loved VelociCoaster; I had high expectations, and it did not disappoint for me! Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure - Hagrid’s may not have many standout moments of extreme thrill, but what it does have is a truly spell-binding sense of pure fun throughout! Despite having high expectations, the whole thing was a huge amount more fun than I’d expected, with the launches being great fun and surprisingly punchy, the low-to-the-ground twists and turns being surprisingly thrilling, and the whole thing just being magically fun overall! This coaster always left me with a huge smile on my face, and overall, it was a definite highlight among the trip’s new experiences for me! Iron Gwazi - I may not have rated it quite as highly as many do, but my first RMC coaster was still a definite highlight of the trip for me! The ride had some absolutely ludicrous ejector airtime, it was absolutely relentless throughout, and the layout had some truly spectacular elements; that first drop in particular was absolutely absurd! I did find it a tad much for me in terms of violence and being thrown around towards the snappier end portions of the layout, which is why it wasn’t my favourite coaster of the trip, but it was still an absolutely phenomenal ride overall! Universal’s Volcano Bay - This isn’t a theme park, but a new attraction I did manage to experience and was absolutely floored with was Universal’s Volcano Bay! The consensus towards this waterpark is somewhat mixed, with the chief complaint being the TapuTapu system and associated problems. However, I thought it was brilliant, and it definitely exceeded my expectations! In general, TapuTapu worked really well for me, and Volcano Bay is a really great waterpark with some brilliant attractions; some particular favourites of mine include the Krakatau Aqua Coaster, Honu, Taniwha Tubes and the enormously fun TeAwa: The Fearless River! Overall, Volcano Bay was brilliant for me and my family; I’d firmly recommend a visit! Those are just some of the highlights; that isn’t necessarily an exhaustive list by any means! Now I’ll move on to my main positive surprises of the trip… Biggest Positive Surprises Universal’s Volcano Bay - I’ve already spoken at length about Volcano Bay in the above section, so I won’t dedicate too much to it here, but it was a big surprise for me and the rest of my family, so I thought I’d mention it here! Skull Island: Reign of Kong - I had never ridden this dark ride at Islands of Adventure before; it was the big new thing at IOA when we last went in 2016, but we didn’t manage to get onto it. I went into this ride with low expectations, as reviews are generally quite negative, but I have to say that this ride was a massive pleasant surprise; it’s an absolutely fantastic dark ride, in my opinion, and a real asset to Universal’s dark ride lineup! The 3D is excellent, with some awesome action sequences and a brilliant 360 degree screen, there is some excellent physical scenery (including a stunning Kong animatronic that's absolutely huge!), and overall, I just thought it was a brilliant attraction! Kong far exceeded my expectations, for sure! Ice Breaker - I had pretty low expectations for this coaster, as its reviews are generally middling to negative, but I ended up absolutely loving it! The swing launch was my first ever swing launch, and I found it brilliantly fun and punchy! The backwards spike provided some brilliantly fun floater airtime, the ejector airtime got surprisingly strong towards the end of the swing launch, the top hat provided some more brilliant (and surprisingly sustained) airtime, and the rest of the layout consisted of some more surprisingly brilliant pops of airtime and some really fun twists and turns! Overall, I thought that Ice Breaker was a phenomenal ride that was just so much fun, and it hugely exceeded my expectations for sure! Let me move onto a slightly less positive category... my biggest disappointment. Biggest Disappointment You may be wondering why I have named this category "biggest disappointment" rather than "biggest disappointments". Well, that is because I only experienced one new attraction that I would call a true disappointment for me. Yes, I was slightly less enamoured with 1 or 2 big hitters than most, but they were still excellent, and I think it would be terribly harsh of me to consider them "disappointments" because they were still incredibly, phenomenally great. For me, I'm afraid to say that the main damp squib of the trip, by a considerable distance, was the new-for-2023 Pipeline: The Surf Coaster. I had heard some very positive initial reviews, so I went in with high hopes that it could be a top 10/20 contender and a ride that I really enjoyed. However, it just didn't do it for me. In short, the ride has everything on paper (fun layout, punchy launch, surprising airtime, an interesting new idea in the form of the jumping seats... it has so much going for it!), but it's ruined for me by the fact that it just isn't very comfortable, in my view. The "jumping" airtime is an interesting idea, but it just hurts in numerous different places for me, and in general, I think standing up on a roller coaster is an inherently uncomfortable riding position that Pipeline hasn't really improved, in my view. I went into Pipeline really wanting to like it, but it just didn't do it for me, I'm sorry to say. Finally, let me display some stats: Unique coasters ridden: 18 Unique parks visited: 4 (Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios Florida, SeaWorld Orlando, Busch Gardens Tampa) New coasters ridden: 8 New parks visited: 0 Total rides: 45 Total coaster rides: 29 Total park visits: 10 (4x Islands of Adventure, 4x Universal Studios Florida, 1x SeaWorld Orlando, 1x Busch Gardens Tampa) Favourite coaster ridden: Mako (overall #1/99) Favourite new coaster ridden: VelociCoaster (overall #2/99) Favourite non-coaster ridden: The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man Favourite new non-coaster ridden: Skull Island: Reign of Kong Most surprising coaster: Ice Breaker Most surprising non-coaster: Skull Island: Reign of Kong Biggest disappointment: Pipeline: The Surf Coaster So, that summarises my June 2023 Florida trip! Thank you so much for following this series of trip reports; I really hope you've enjoyed reading them as much as I enjoyed this trip! I'm unsure when my next trip report will be, but I should be back at you with another trip report before too long (September at the latest, as I've got a locked-in park visit booked for that month...)!

14th June 2023 (Universal’s Volcano Bay) We went for something slightly different today… unlike the last two days, we went to a waterpark! And it wasn’t just any waterpark, it was one that none of us had ever visited before… Universal’s Volcano Bay! The last time we drove down the Universal end of the I-4 in 2016, this park was under construction, so we were interested to see what the park was like now it was open. Before I get started, I should apologise in advance for the fact that there are no photographs in today’s report. As Volcano Bay is a waterpark, the experience is not terribly conducive to whipping out a smartphone and taking pictures, so I’m afraid you’ll have to rely on only my writing today. We set off for the park at around 8am and got to Universal’s parking structures at around 9:15am, as per usual. Unlike with the other two parks, though, we did not set off over the travelators and into CityWalk. Due to Volcano Bay being separate from the other two parks, we had to take a shuttle bus over to the entrance. There was no wait for this at all, and it only took a few minutes, so it was very convenient and got us to the park in good time. We then arrived at the park and got given our TapuTapu wearables, which we would get very well acquainted with over the course of the day. After getting changed and renting a locker, we headed to the main wave pool to reserve a set of chairs to store our things on before my dad and I headed over to Krakatau Aqua Coaster to reserve slots, as we’d heard that the ride was prone to getting very long virtual queues. When we arrived, the virtual queue was already on 125 minutes, but we decided to reserve it anyway in case it got any longer. This later proved to be a very wise decision, as the virtual queue did nothing but get longer during the time we were in the park, eventually peaking at almost 5 hours. This reservation did mean that we were unable to reserve any additional queue spaces for another 2 hours, but thankfully, there were a fair few slides showing as “Ride Now”, so we headed to… Taniwha Tubes Both sides of Taniwha Tubes were showing as “Ride Now”, so me and my dad decided to try the blue slides. The virtual queue worked well here, as it meant that we only had a couple of boats’ wait at the top of the slide tower. But how was the slide? Well, I thought it was great fun! The tube gained surprising speed in places, and although there were no additional bells and whistles like some of these tube and raft slides often have, there were some really fun twists and turns and it was overall a very fun slide! After Taniwha Tubes, my dad and I wandered back over to the main wave pool so that my sister could join us on some slides. My mum and grandparents were not keen on doing slides, but my sister was keen to join us on some, so when she was with us, we headed over to another “Ride Now” attraction… Maku Maku was showing as “Ride Now”, so we decided to give it a try. As with Taniwha Tubes, the virtual queue worked well here, meaning that the slide had a reasonably short standby line when we arrived. So, how was the slide? Well, I thought that this was a fun slide; even though I think it was probably less intense than the green slide on the same tower whose name currently escapes me, it was good fun, and I liked the open helixes that went around water jets! After Maku, we headed onto another “Ride Now” slide… Punga Racers Punga Racers was showing as “Ride Now”, so we gave it a go. One interesting thing to note here is that any kind of cotton clothing or non-swimwear was not allowed, so I had to remove my goggles and my sister had to remove the cotton t-shirt she was wearing over her swimwear. I was unsure why this was the case when it wasn’t the case on any of the other slides, but I guess it could be down to these generating friction with the channel, what with it being a body slide. After Punga Racers, we headed back onto the blue side of Taniwha Tubes, which were still on “Ride Now”, so that my sister could have a go on the ride. Once again, it was great fun. After our Taniwha Tubes reride, we went back to the main wave pool to meet back up with my mum before the four of us headed into… TeAwa: The Fearless River We were interested to try TeAwa: The Fearless River, as it was billed as great fun in other reviews and we were intrigued to try out a slightly more thrilling lazy river. We ended up taking 2 circuits in total, and I have to say that I thought this was great fun! The current was nice and fast, and I really enjoyed the additional touch of waves coming along to spice things up every now and then. It wasn’t overly intense given you needed a life jacket, although having spent many hours on Center Parcs Longleat Forest’s often “rough and ready” Wild Water Rapids as a child, anything else probably seems pretty tame by comparison! After our circuits on TeAwa: The Fearless River, we met back up with my grandparents and headed for a quick dunk in the main wave pool. While the waves did not quite match “The Wave” in Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon for pure spectacle, they were still really good fun, and were much easier to have a leisurely relax in. After the wave pool, we sat down and relaxed in our sun loungers for a few minutes before me and my dad headed over to our slot for… Krakatau Aqua Coaster After a 125 minute virtual wait, me and my dad’s slots on Krakatau Aqua Coaster were finally beckoning, so we headed over and gave it a go. As per usual, there was a short physical wait, and we were on the ride quickly. So, how was it? Well, I thought that the ride was excellent, with some good pops of airtime and much punchier launches than I’d experienced on Typhoon Lagoon’s Crush’n’Gusher, an earlier iteration of the same ride style. The ride was also very long, with many fun twists and turns! After Krakatau Aqua Coaster, we headed back to the main wave pool to collect my sister so that we could re-ride Taniwha Tubes. We did the green side this time, and I have to say that it felt faster than the blue slide had earlier, with the outdoor sections also providing an interesting touch! We then went to reserve slots on Honu. The ride had a 10 minute virtual queue, so we reserved a slot and went to ride another attraction that was showing as “Ride Now” while we waited… Ika Moana Ika Moana was showing as “Ride Now”, so seeing as it was on the same tower as Honu, we decided to take a ride on it. The standby queue for this ride took a little longer, as our slot for Honu vibrated while we were waiting. So, how was the slide? Well, it was good fun, with some fun twists and turns and nice outdoor sections! After our ride on Ika Moana, Honu was showing as “Ride Anytime”, as our slot had opened up quite a few minutes ago by the time we came off. As such, we went to ride… Honu Honu was ready for us to ride, so we entered the queue and started to ascend the tower. As with Ika Moana, there was a lengthier standby queue for this ride, with us waiting a good few minutes to get on. But how was the slide? Well, I thought it was excellent, with the two walls providing great exhilaration and the initial drop providing some interesting airtime! After our ride on Honu, we headed back to the main wave pool to meet up with my mum and grandparents. By this point, it was well past 2pm, the floors and the sand were getting uncomfortably hot to walk on in bare feet (our final walk from Honu on the concrete paths in Florida heat felt as though it was physically burning our feet, and the sand was little better), and the wave pool had just been evacuated due to a “waterfall incident” (?), so we decided to head home. So, that just about wraps up our day at Universal’s Volcano Bay! I had a great day; I had 8 rides on the slides and a go on TeAwa: The Fearless River, and it was just nice to visit a brand new waterpark! Personally, I’d say that Volcano Bay was every bit as enjoyable as any of the other Florida waterparks I’ve visited (for reference, I’ve been to both Walt Disney World water parks and Aquatica Orlando); the rides were really good, there’s a wide range of different things to do (there were a number of things that we didn’t cover today), and the theming was also lovely, with the central volcano itself being particularly impressive! The park was also an interesting one for me because it was my first ever experience of wholesale virtual queueing in a theme/water park setting, and I have to say that it worked a lot better than expected! It wasn’t perfect (I don’t think the queue times for Krakatau Aqua Coaster would have been nearly as high had it been a physical queue, for instance, and one or two slides did still have a not insignificant standby wait when our time slot arrived), but overall, I did enjoy not having to physically queue as much, and I thought that my overall experience of virtual queueing with TapuTapu was pretty positive! With that being said, I still don’t think that wholesale virtual queueing is something that you could just take, slap into any old theme park and expect to work well. I think the reason for it working reasonably well in Volcano Bay was because the park had quite a number of non-ride activities to keep you occupied while waiting, as well as a number of slides with no wait, and I think the waterpark in general lends itself to the sort of copious non-ride entertainment that virtual queues require better than the theme park does. Overall, though, I had a brilliant day at Volcano Bay, and my family really enjoyed it as well! There is a chance that we may be returning to the park next week, so there may well be a second report from Volcano Bay! Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed today’s report, although I apologise for it probably being less interesting (after all, you’re on here to read about theme parks, not water parks, and I was unable to take any pictures). We’re not doing anything tomorrow other than going for a meal in Disney Springs for my nan’s birthday, so I won’t write a report tomorrow, but the next report on Friday will be from SeaWorld Orlando, where I hope to take my first ever rides on new rides like Ice Breaker and Pipeline and see if Mako, my current number 1 coaster (yes, it’s still on top, even post VelociCoaster and Hagrid’s!), still stacks up!

Welcome to part 2, my list and ratings will now continue. 7/ Busch Gardens Home to three excellent B&Ms, a good RMC and other mostly decent rides that complement the lineup. Busch Gardens was one of the parks I was most anticipated about. Well, the rides I can happily say met their expectations. Montu is a fine invert and Sheikra is probably my favourite dive coaster. Iron Gwazi may be the lower of the three RMCs, but it’s still awesome. Cobra’s curse was disappointing but the water rides weee good. Now, for some reason or another, there felt like something missing here, and for once I don’t think it’s the rides. The place seemed to lack atmosphere for some reason, like there was nothing there. I don’t know why this was the case, but would controversially say some of the UK parks are better in that regard. Secondly, the operations. Bad, maybe not terrible but still bad. Most coasters were stacking with 4/4.5 minute dispatches that make Merlin’s look like Europa Park :o. The food was ok, but probably the weakest of all the parks out there. It’s a one day park that can’t be overlooked if you are into decent rides. But I was perhaps expecting a little more. 6/ Sea World Busch somewhat didn’t fully meet my expectations. But Sea World kind of exceeded them. To some, there will always be controversy held against this park, due to the Orca captivity. However one must remember the park’s mission to preserve and help such wonder lis creatures. Moving on, the park is certainly taking the right direction now, by focusing more on themed rides and experience to distance itself from it’s original roots. The calibre of attractions are mostly good. Mako is absolute bliss, Kraken definitely one of the better sit down loopers and Journey To Atlantis a well rounded attraction. Mantis wasn’t my favourite coaster, but it packs some interesting elements and Ice Breaker is just one slightly flawed train design from being an ideal family coaster. Must get on Infinity Falls someday! 5/ Universal Studios Now, this is where it starts to become more difficult, because basically the top 5 is full of parks I largely adore. The first (and original) of the two Florida Universal parks. The studios packs a lot into it’s action filled park. Unlike Islands Of Adventure, the park doesn’t feel like it has too many contrasting themed areas, although they do exist. Diagon Alley is definitely the flagship area of this park, with it’s stunning theming, shops, entertainment and culinary treats. Escape from Gringotts is a phenomenal attraction from the moment you join the line until when you exit. I think Diagon Alley is better themed than Angry Birds Land. Sorry Josh! The rest of the park is hit and miss I guess. You have older classics rides which feature greater theming and details, then you have the newer stuff which is a lot more screen based. Men In Black was Fun and the ET ride was lovely. Revenge Of The Mummy was adorable and I enjoyed the Simpsons ride for what it was (I like the show). Transformers was ok, but there are better out there. Don’t bother with Fast & Furious, it makes Derren Brown’s Ghost Train look like Rise Of The Resistance! Maybe. 4/ Epcot Weirdly enough, Epcot was probably the Disney park on this I was most excited for. It’s basically a park of two halves. Future world which houses the majority of the park’s attractions in pavillions and world showcase, which I will get back to in a second. The selection is strongly varied. You have the classic attractions which are seemingly more educational and the newer items which are more tied to their catalogue of popular IPs. A blend I think works perfectly well. Spaceship Earth (not to be confused with Eurosat) is a highly educational attraction and charming one at that. It reminded a little of the Spirit Of London, which was likely inspired by this resultantly. Guardians Cosmic rewind was incredible and felt like a mix between Crush’s coaster and (the Paris) Rock N Rollercoaster. Mission Space was intense but better than expected and I largely enjoyed Test Track. Living with the land was interesting but maybe drags on a little. I felt slightly disappointed with Soarin to be honest. I ran out of time for Figment. World showcase is the more unique and picturesque area of the park, featuring numerous themed areas to several countries of the world. Each area is unique, beautiful and even features cast members from that region working there. Numerous places serving food and drink are also there. The pizza in Via Napoli located in the Italy Pavilion was sublime. Numerous attractions also operate within World Showcase. Frozen Forever After is a highly sophisticated attraction which features stunning animatronics and set pieces. Even if one isn’t a Frozen fan, it’s worth it, so don’t let it go (couldn’t help myself). Ratatouille is almost identical to the one at the Studios park in Paris but still good. The Cabalerros boat ride was an uplifting attraction. 3/ Disney’s Hollywood Studios We’re on the final three. There’s something I like about parks themed to movies and this place is no exception. This park has clearly seen much expansion and redevelopment in the last 5+ years and I would guess most of it may be for the better. Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge is more than just an area, featuring some stunning theming, effects and places selling unique beverages. Blue milk was rather nice but pricey. Rise Of the resistance is nothing short of a masterpiece and Smugglers Run is also enjoyable. The rest of the park isn’t too over shadowed either. The original tower is just spectacular in every way and I hope it’s left alone. Toy Story Land is a pleasant area, Slinky makes for an excellent family coaster and Midway Mania is fun. I prefer it to Maus if I’m honest. Star tours is wonderful and surprisingly doesn’t look out of place despite being another Star Wars ride, Muppetvision is a joyous show. Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway is a genius modern dark ride which perfectly balances screens and physical effects yet almost feels overlooked by the other wonderful additions in this park. Rock N Roller coaster was alright, but it isn’t a patch on the one that used to be in Paris. Shame. Whilst the park seemingly gets longer lines and potentially lacks some ‘filler’ a lot of the attractions are actually worth their wait IMO. 2/ Animal Kingdom One of the more relaxing parks you’ll find in Florida. Animal Kingdom may lack the ride selection of other parks have, but it compensates this with some stunning shows, theming and rides. Avatar Land is one of the most stunning areas ever created. Flight Of Passage is super immersive, I loved it and I’m no massive Avatar fan. The boat ride was nice enough too, alongside exploring the whole area. Kilimanjaro Safaris is both entertaining and educational, to levels Zufari wishes it was. Dinosaur is a great dark ride that I think sometimes gets overlooked by the others and the Kali rapids are mostly decent. Now, Expedition Everest. The ride looks good, the setting, the theming is all very nice. The ride? I’ve got to be honest was disappointing. Don’t get me wrong, there are worse coaster out there (much worse), but for me it just didn’t do much and rides like Slinky Dog and Big Thunder I personally preferred. It has some good shows, I liked Tough to be a bug and the entertainment in the Harambe area. All it really needs now is another major roller coaster to fill in the gap the Primeval coasters left and the park will be great! And before I announce the winning park, here’s some of the other bits and pieces there are to do, besides the parks. Old Town Kissimmee- An old western style town with shops, bar, restaurants and more. It’s very American and very lively, however I wouldn’t recommend the Pizza Hut at all. Disney Springs- It’s basically a giant shopping outlet, but somewhat Disneyfied. It has a vast selection of shops and restaurants ranging from Lego, Planet Hollywood and Raglan Road (an Irish pub). Theres also several Disney based stores there including the giant World Of Disney. More substantial than say the Disney village at DLRP, but maybe lacking the charm. City Walk Universal- Universal’s answer to Disney springs but substantially smaller. Has a nice vibe and outlets, Voodoo Donuts are nice and I do like a Hard Rock Cafe. Icon Park- Not a bad place to chill, assuming no crazy people are holding protests but otherwise nothing special. All your usual Merlin midways nestled under one roof. I wouldn’t bother with the 7D dark ride unless your trying to kill time. The adventure golf 2 minutes away is decent though. I didn’t do the Kennedy Space centre, nor Legoland Florida. I know some of you will be disappointed by this. And now, our winning park is (drum roll). 1/ Islands Of Adventure This was probably always the park I was most excited for, but yet it still managed to exceed my expectations. This place basically has everything I want in a theme park, thrilling roller coasters, immersive dark rides and more whilst perfect nestled within several immersive lands. Plus Mythos, my favourite theme park restaurant without a doubt. I love Veloci-coaster, which is easily my favourite non-RMC coaster and perfectly blends itself as something between Helix and Taron. Hogwarts is a beautiful area with a stunning dark ride and magical coaster which now makes for an excellent tribute to one the films best characters (RIP Robbie Coltrane). Pop eye is without doubt the craziest yet stunning rapids out there and I also adore the Jurassic River Adventure, even if it is starting to show it’s age in places. I’m not the biggest of Marvel fans, but Spider-Man was amazing and you could say I’m something of a fan myself. Hulk I enjoyed, but for a 6 year old B&M, it was a little bit rougher than I was expecting, which concerns me slightly. Kong was ok and Zeus’s landing is fun for what it is. Sadly got spited by Dudleys. Dream trip, complete! Maybe I’ll return one day. Maybe.

Creek’s Orlando Adventure- Park Ranking Orlando! A prime tourist destination and a paradise for lovers of theme parks. After nearly 5 years of waiting, I was finally able to experience this wonderful place. In what is without doubt my favourite park trip to date. Having experienced numerous attractions out there, rather than write full on reports which might be longer than the upcoming Avatar sequel, I’ll just condense it into a rating list. Where I’ll focus on the main aspects. Right let’s begin. 13/ (Un) Fun Spot Orlando Probably the most depressing and underwhelming park experience I’ve experienced to date. Lack of atmosphere with next to no crowds, tonnes of rides closed with staff who are clearly bored. The GCI & inverting afterburner ride were fun, but everything else was largely forgettable. We were done in just over an hour and happy to leave. 12/ Fun Spot Kissimmee Definitely the better of the two fun spots. This one had crowds,atmosphere along with more rides running. The sky swing is better here, but it’s all about the sky coaster, which is the tallest you’ll find out there. It was honestly the craziest thing I have ridden in my life, but awesome too. Sadly their wooden coaster Mine Blaster has aged like curdled milk and is remarkably rough, very concerning for a 5 year old ride. They should rename it Spineblower by this point! Almost as bad as the Pizza Hut in Kissimmee. 11/ Typhoon Lagoon What this place may lack in slides, it makes up for in vibes. The wave pool is nothing short of incredible, alongside a soundtrack comparable to WWTP radio in some ways. The lazy river is highly enjoyable and decent in length and the slides generally good all round. 10/ Volcano Bay Right, the first water park and major attraction. Volcano bay with it’s theming, setting and interactive features should be something of a stellar attraction. That’s before considering the vast selection of slides, the drop ones at the top of the volcano are great. Now there’s one slight problem deterring this places rating, the mismatch of the Tapu tapu system. On paper, this should be a blissful development helping one to have an easier and enjoyable day at the place. Unfortunately in reality, it’s something of a mess, unreliable system with errors and loop holes making what should be a more chilled attraction more stressful. Want to ride the water coaster? Get there first thing or you may miss on your lifetime trip! Edit/ My second visit was generally better, but I still lay by the fact that Tapu needs improvement. The water coaster was actually underwhelming if I’m honest but still fun. 9/Aquatica Ok, I see the visible confusion seeing this as my favourite Florida water park. But I can explain. Typhoon Lagoon has the quality and Volcano Bay has quantity, whereas there’s something of a compromise here. Highly enjoyable slides, including the iconic dolphin ones, a decent wave pool and several fun lazy river courses and overall good vibes. The place is also much more relaxed than say Volcano Bay, so can rightfully say it’s eligible for a rest day. And now we get onto the main parks. 8/ Magic Kingdom Magic Kingdom, the busiest and (arguably) most iconic theme park in the world. Disney’s flagship attraction; Supposedly. If you enjoy fast thrilling rides and experiences, this place isn’t really for you and the likes of Universal, Sea world and Busch Gardens would definitely be much more appealing. But anyways, the park certainly has a vast selection of attractions crammed into it’s ‘first floor’ park space. The classic attractions are pleasant enough for what they are, but Paris ones are arguably better. Big Thunder Mountain lacks those extra ‘frilly’ sections, POTC is more condensed and It’s A Small World lacks the grand facade amongst being plonked opposite the ridiculously popular Peter Pan’s Flight. Haunted Mansion was great though. Now for it’s flaws, this park still has its upsides. There’s much more to do than the Paris park and the staff are definitely friendlier. Splash Mountain was highly enjoyable even-though they are clearly running it into the ground. I didn’t get chance to do Jungle Cruise unfortunately. The one concerning thing though here was the surprising amount of wear and tear, especially for a Disney park. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen far more rundown areas, but when there numerous broken effects, chipped/worn queue lines/buildings and places around it doesn’t go down well. Buzz Lightyear was an absolute mess with it’s broken animatronics and ceiling that looked like it needed decorating. Chapek needs to go! Spited by this one, May well need to go back after all. Part 2 coming real soon.

2022, we’ve seen many hellos and goodbyes this year especially the latter. Carters Steam Fair, as we know it is another which will end in 2022. Although it won’t disappear completely, the current owners (The Carter family) intend to sell the collection to a permanent site. Making this year their final tour. I was thankful to get a chance to visit them in Croxley Green (near Watford), where they have stopped for a number of years. The last time I visited may be as far back as 2012. Where life and numerous commissions or setbacks likely prevented future visits, so a return was massively overdue. In that time, there have been some changes. The ride selection has been refined somewhat, no dive bomber? They have also reverted to a token system over real cash, which has its ups and downs. Thankfully, the warm friendly atmosphere and interaction from the staff remains very much the same. Something you probably won’t get at your usual fun fair. A number of rides are available (albeit maybe not the biggest white knuckle ones). The Octopus offers quite the swirling sensation and is enjoyable both on and off-ride. The Skid offers a thrilling sensation, especially if you time it correctly with the car pedals. It’s a mixture between a whip and a Walter mostly. They have a charming carousel A surprisingly thrilling Chair-O-plane, packs at a lunch. The crazy Steam Yachts (which I didn’t ride I’m afraid) There is also a classic set of dodgems, filled with the retro charm and character you will find throughout the fair. Other attractions include swing boats, jets, a classic arcade and numerous children's rides. They have something for most. Tokens are £3 a piece, which gives you access to one ride, which are all the same price. I recommend buying in advance online, as you can get free rides included depending on how many tokens you buy. This concludes my tour of Carters. They are in Croxley for an extra weekend and will then tour numerous places until their final stop in Reading around mid October. You can find their dates here/. Insert. Visit if you can, before they gallop away into the sunset!

20th June 2022 (Alton Towers Day 2) We had Day 2 in the park today! We got up fairly early and as we were staying in the Alton Towers Hotel, we had somewhat of a head-start (or I did, anyway; my mum and Nan joined me later); even though Early Ride Time is no longer offered, the park opens its gates early to allow you to get to your first ride and queue for it before opening time, and staying in the hotel will naturally allow you to get here ahead of the regular day guests, which is always a bonus: As such, I decided to take advantage of this and head into the park at about 9:25am and head to an area that often gets long queues later on; Dark Forest. I started on… Rita Rita often gets a long queue later on, so I decided to give it a go early on. I watched the ride test for a bit, and I was one of very few people waiting in the area. As such, when the ride opened at around 10:05am, I discovered that I would be on the very first ride of the day, which is an achievement I’ve never had before! So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 5, and the ride was more pleasurable than yesterday’s, with less rattle and some phenomenal airtime, as well as a launch that’s punchy as ever and absolutely supercharged pacing! Perhaps controversially, I do like Rita, and it was a great way to start the day: After Rita, I decided to tackle the other coaster in the area… Thirteen Like Rita, Thirteen was on a walk-on queue, so I decided I may as well give it a go while I was in the area. I wasn’t 100% sure of this, so wouldn’t like to claim that I was, but it looked as though I may have made the first ride of the day on Thirteen as well; the train in front of me was empty, and the station looked deserted when I arrived! So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated directly on the back, and it was excellent; I once again experienced multiple moments of cracking airtime during the outdoor section, the twisty sections were great fun, the ride was blissfully smooth, and the indoor section was a good laugh as always! I‘ve got to say, I think Thirteen is definitely a back row coaster, based on my memories of the front: After Thirteen, my mum and Nan entered the park, and we attempted to ride Thirteen together. We got as far as the station, and I was even batched into the front row… but the ride broke down. We stood in the station for about 15 minutes or so, hoping that the issue would be resolved quickly, but they eventually closed the queue line. With that in mind, we left the queue. I initially went off to ride Oblivion, on an advertised 0 minute queue. However, the queue looked much longer than 0 minutes by the time I arrived in X-Sector, so I instead decided to rejoin my mum and Nan so we could all ride… Wicker Man Wicker Man was on an advertised 55 minute queue, so we decided to give it a go. Interestingly, the queue only took 35 minutes as opposed to the advertised 55, which is always a bonus! Although this could have been in part due to a rather interesting quirk with the pre-show, where both the doors remained open. As such, no one watched it; we were just filtered straight through the room, and the show just started running to no audience while everyone was piling into the station! My mum and Nan were very happy that we didn’t have to watch it, and I have to admit that as much as I do like Wicker Man's pre-show, not watching it did shave off some time getting on the ride and make the experience less uncomfortable. So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 8, and it was phenomenal; relentlessly fast and full of airtime just as it had been yesterday! We all thoroughly enjoyed it: After Wicker Man, I headed over to X-Sector to ride… The Smiler I hadn’t done The Smiler yet today, so I decided to give it a go. The advertised queue was 70 minutes, and it was spilling well into the pit, but I once again used my secret weapon... the single rider queue! But the question is; how much shorter would my queue be today? Well, today was where single rider really came into its own... that queue was walk on, and I waltzed straight into row 2! I actually felt a bit naughty using the single rider queue today, as it basically felt like I was using Fastrack without paying for it... even though single riding via the SRQ is technically allowed, it felt a bit wrong to walk onto the ride when the main queue was 70 minutes. But how was the ride? Well, I'm afraid it was similarly rough to yesterday's; definitely not the most enjoyable: After Smiler, I couldn't leave X-Sector without having a go on... Oblivion Oblivion was on a 25 minute advertised queue, so I decided to give it a go. I did wonder upon joining whether the queue might be longer than 25 minutes, as it was stretching all the way to the tunnel underneath the station where the Lord of Darkness talks about the psychological effects of Oblivion (the longest queue I've seen for it in a while). However... it only ended up taking 10-15 minutes, and this was due to some of the best operations I have ever seen on the ride; they were throwing shuttles out at a rate of knots, my measured throughput average for Oblivion exceeded 1,000 riders per hour for the first ever time, and on 5 shuttles, we were only stacking at the end for a few seconds at most (for some idea, seasoned visitors to Alton Towers will know that you typically stack for a long time on Oblivion). Phenomenal work! So, how was the ride? Well, I was on the front row, and I actually enjoyed it slightly more than yesterday's ride! The sustained airtime was once again phenomenal, but the sense of speed, while phenomenal everywhere, seemed slightly enhanced on the front, for some reason: After my ride on Oblivion, I met back up with my mum and nan, and me and mum rerode Wicker Man on an advertised 35 minute queue. Interestingly, we watched the pre-show this time; clearly the pre-show skipping on our first ride was just a one-time issue! The queue still only took 25-30 minutes, though, so that wasn't an issue by any stretch. As for the ride, I was seated in row 8 once again, and the ride was phenomenal once again: We then had some lunch before I wandered over to Forbidden Valley to ride... Nemesis Nemesis was on an advertised 25 minute queue, so I decided to give it a go. This queue ended up being pretty accurate, possibly slightly understated, taking 20-25 minutes; always a bonus! So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 6 on an inner seat, and it was good, although slightly jolty in places. This wasn't a dealbreaker by any means, and I've ridden far rougher coasters, but it did detract ever so slightly from the ride for me: After Nemesis, I took a ride on the other Forbidden Valley B&M... Galactica Galactica was on an advertised 25 minute queue, so I decided to give it a go. The queue was overstated, only taking 15 minutes in the end; always a bonus! The operations on Galactica were top notch this afternoon; the ride was running 3 trains and both stations, yet we didn't stack on the brake run at all. My throughput average for Galactica was 1,221pph, which was the highest I measured all trip; terrific work! So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in the back row, and as I said yesterday, it's not my favourite coaster; it's OK, but I do find the flying position inherently uncomfortable, and I'm also not a fan of the fly to lie, where it dumps you on your back for a sustained period. With that being said, however, the ride did feel a bit faster on the back, and bits of the layout itself are really quite good fun; it's just that I don't particularly enjoy that flying position at all: After Galactica, it was getting on for 2:30pm, and my mum and nan were wanting to head home. As such, we headed out the hotel entrance and closed out our day there. So in conclusion, we had a brilliant Alton Towers trip! It was great to get back to the park for my first 2022 visit, and I had many great rides! In particular, Wicker Man delivered as well as it ever did, with some of my best ever rides on it being had this trip, Oblivion was awesome, and Thirteen has gone up a fair amount in my estimations; it was unexpectedly brilliant this trip! Thanks for reading; I hope you've enjoyed my reports!

19th June 2022 (Alton Towers Day 1) Hi guys. After having started 2022 with some slightly more unusual (compared to what I usually visit, anyway) parks, I today returned to slightly more familiar turf; Alton Towers, my most visited theme park of all time! My mum found a very good deal on an Alton Towers Hotel stay, with 1 night in a standard room with park tickets only costing £107pp, so we thought it would be an absolute no brainer to go and spend 2 days at Alton Towers! Interestingly, my Nan has also joined us for her first Alton Towers trip in 3 years (she came with us in 2019), with a ride on Wicker Man in her sights after it was closed on her 2019 visit (it was one of her most anticipated rides after we’d hyped it up). We left Gloucestershire at around 7:30am, with us getting to the resort at a little after 10am. One key upshot of staying in a resort hotel was that we were able to walk in through the hotel guest entrance, which I have never done before! As such, we were in the park by 10:30am: After entering, we headed to our first ride… Galactica Galactica was on an advertised 25 minute queue, so we decided to give it a go. Interestingly, this queue ended up being vastly overstated, as we waltzed straight into the station and only had a one cycle wait; always a bonus! So, how was the ride? Well, I’ve got to say that Galactica isn’t my favourite coaster, as I find the flying position and some of the extended elements on your back that come with it a bit uncomfortable, but it didn’t seem quite as uncomfortable as my last ride was, for some reason, which was good. Also, we got front row, which is always a bonus! Overall, while not my favourite ride, Galactica was all right, and a good way to start the day: After Galactica, I tackled the other Forbidden Valley B&M… Nemesis Nemesis was on an advertised 5 minute queue, so I decided to give it a go. The queue times board didn’t lie; it was a station wait! So, how was it? Well, I was seated in a row 3 outer seat, and it was good! Just the right amount of force, no headbanging; great stuff! There was a light rattle, but this was very negligible and had no major impact on enjoyment. Overall, it was a great ride: After that ride, I actually decided to go straight back round again for another ride on Nemesis; with a queue that short, it would have been rude not to! This time, I was seated in row 4 on an outer seat, and unfortunately, there was some headbanging present on 1 or 2 of the inversions, as well as a bit more of a judder than the last ride, which detracted from it a tad compared to last time. Still, this impact wasn’t major, and the ride was still very enjoyable! When all is said and done; as much as I don’t rate Nemesis nearly as highly as I know many do, and inverts aren’t as much my kind of thing as some other types of ride, it is a cracking coaster, and I’m very glad they’re saving it. Many of my niggles with Nemesis at this point are more signs of age than anything inherently wrong with the ride, which I’m hopeful the retrack might go some way towards rectifying. I look forward to seeing how it rides when it’s been retracked! After Nemesis, we met back up, and we headed over to… Duel Duel was nearby and on a walk-on queue, so we decided to give it a go. My mum tried to coax my Nan on Duel, but to no avail; my Nan refused to go in, so it was just me and my mum. Interestingly, the ride actually broke down for around 5 minutes shortly after we sat down in our vehicle. This meant that even when the ride did restart, we crawled through the initial scenes at a staggeringly slow pace, with the themed audio being replaced by a continuous loop of “please remain seated; the ride will restart shortly”, which made for an… interesting experience, to say the least; the themed audio didn’t start until a good couple of scenes in! So, how was the ride? Well, given that there has been a considerable amount of discussion online surrounding the ride’s future and the state that it is currently in, I was expecting it to be pretty awful, with a lot broken… but I didn’t think the ride looked nearly as bad as online comments suggest. Sure, it wasn’t working perfectly (a few targets were broken, and my mum’s blaster cut out halfway through the ride), and it is perhaps showing its age a tad now, but all of the main jumpscares were working, and overall, I thought it was a good, fun ride that still delivered on its intended theme and premise very well; my mum commented on how she thought it was surprisingly scary, so it’s clearly still delivering its punches! The breakdown also benefitted my score in an unexpected way due to the slower speed giving me more time to rack up points in the initial scenes; as such, I got a new personal best of 11,500: After Duel, we met back up with my Nan, and we headed on a little further to ride… Runaway Mine Train Runaway Mine Train was on an advertised 25 minute queue, so we decided to give it a go. This ended up being pretty accurate, which is always good! So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 10, and it was great fun! The ride kept up good speed throughout for a powered coaster, and that tunnel helix never disappoints! My Nan liked it as well; she commented on how “it’s faster than it looks”! Overall, I think RMT is a great, fun ride, and a definite guilty pleasure of mine; it’s definitely one of my favourite powered coasters, and a ride that definitely punches far above its weight in fun factor given its calibre, in my opinion: After Runaway Mine Train, we decided to head over to Mutiny Bay and warm up in Sharkbait Reef, as it was drizzling and getting surprisingly fresh at this point in the day given it’s the middle of June. It is a nice walkthrough to use as a 10 or 15 minute time killer; it’s well themed and has a surprising amount of animals in it: After Sharkbait Reef, we headed to a hotly anticipated ride… Wicker Man Wicker Man was on a 30 minute advertised queue, so we decided to give it a go. Now this was a hotly anticipated ride for everyone in our party; my mum and me, perhaps controversially, share it as a favourite ride on park, and my Nan was keen to ride after missing out on it on her 2019 visit; it was closed both days, and she’d been slightly bitter about it ever since! I was also very interested to ride Wicker Man again because since my last visit to Alton Towers, I have visited Europa Park and ridden Wodan, a larger GCI that really blew me away, so I was interested, and somewhat nervous, to see whether Wicker Man still held up for me. The queue time ended up being somewhat understated, with us ultimately waiting 45-50 minutes; the ride appeared to be struggling more than usual to maintain a consistent dispatch interval, and I think there may have been some form of reliability issues while we were waiting. Anyway, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 8, and I shouldn’t have been worried, because the ride was absolutely phenomenal; that was easily one of the best Wicker Man rides I’ve ever had! The ride was absolutely relentless, and had absolutely stacks of airtime; there were so many bits where I was hurled out of the seat brilliantly, and I wasn’t even on the back! The ride was brilliantly smooth as well, and really comfortable as woodies go; perhaps surprisingly given that I’ve now ridden Wodan, the ride honestly fared better in my memories than I’d remembered from my previous visit, and I’d genuinely say that there’s less of a gap between Wicker Man and Wodan than I’d previously thought! I’d still give Wodan the edge, as I think it does have slightly stronger airtime and a certain dementedness that Wicker Man can’t quite match, but there’s not tons in it by any means; Wicker Man was phenomenal, and my Nan thoroughly enjoyed it as well: After Wicker Man, we sat down and ate lunch for 20 minutes or so before I headed off to ride… Oblivion Oblivion was on an advertised 20 minute queue, so I decided to give it a go. I split off to do this while my mum and Nan were finishing lunch, as my mum hates Oblivion with a passion and my Nan instantly ruled it out on the basis of how thrilling and intense it looked. The queue only took 15 minutes instead of 20, which was a definite bonus! So, how was the ride? Well, it was fantastic; I do absolutely love Oblivion, and today’s back row ride was no different; the sustained air off the drop was absolutely sublime, and the sense of speed in the tunnel was truly unrivalled! Not to mention, the bonus airtime pop into the brake run delivered a surprising amount as well! Overall, Oblivion was running very well indeed, and it truly cemented the ride’s high rating for me; I apologise if this is controversial, but it’s my favourite UK B&M: After Oblivion, I briefly met back up with my mum and Nan before once again splitting off to ride… The Smiler The Smiler was on an advertised 30 minute queue, so I decided to give it a go. As I was riding alone, I decided to do something I’ve never done on Smiler before, and use a benefit very seldom seen at Merlin parks these days; I used the single rider queue! As such, I ended up halving the advertised queue time, only waiting 15 minutes as opposed to the advertised 30; great stuff! So, how was the ride? Well, I was situated in an outer seat on the front row, and I’m afraid it wasn’t one of the more pleasurable rides I’ve had on The Smiler. It did seem quite rough for a front row ride, with a fair few head bashing jolts, and when combined with the fact that the ride makes me feel somewhat strange anyway even when it’s riding smooth, it did leave me feeling a bit battered and bruised getting off. This might not have been helped by the fact that the restraint was surprisingly tight on my… sensitive area, and it got a proper walloping during one of the jolts, which did leave me feeling somewhat in pain getting off. Smiler is a ride I really want to like, and I do try to go on it with an open mind every time I ride it, as I do like the idea of the layout for what it is and I think it’s a very inspired piece of design, but I’m sorry to say that I never really warm to it, and that was exacerbated today with the fact it wasn’t overly comfortable either: After Smiler, I met back up with my mum and Nan, and we headed over to ride… Gangsta Granny: The Ride Gangsta Granny was on a 30 minute advertised queue, so we decided to give it a go. Me and my mum thought that Gangsta Granny was a ride that Nan might like, so we were intrigued to see her response. The queue didn’t look very long at all at first glance, but did end up taking the advertised 30 minutes, as it moved rather slowly; I did not time the throughput, but it can’t have been very high. So, how was the ride? Well, I really enjoyed it; I thought it was a very nice dark ride when I rode it in 2021, and I thought the same today; there’s some very nice physical set pieces and some very nice screens as well, and I do quite like the ride system! Nan liked it as well! On a side note, did it always have a bubble machine? I swear it didn’t have a bubble machine in 2021…: After Gangsta Granny, we headed over to Dark Forest to ride… Thirteen Thirteen was on an advertised 20 minute queue, so we decided to give it a go. This wait time ended up being pretty accurate, which is always a bonus! So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 8, and I have to say that that might have been the best ride I’ve ever had on Thirteen; it was absolutely brilliant! Thirteen, while never devoid of it by any means, was never a ride that I would have described as having overly strong airtime. But today, there were 1 or 2 pops of airtime that properly yanked us out of our seats and properly surprised me! The first drop was excellent, with a brilliant pop of airtime that had me well out of my seat, and there was an airtime hill elsewhere in the outdoor section that really threw me up in the air, as well as the odd fun tickles of floater air that Thirteen has always been good at providing! The ride also had good intensity throughout both the outdoor and indoor sections, as well as impeccable smoothness and comfort! Not to mention, that drop track and backwards section were a great laugh as always! Overall, Thirteen was fantastic; it’s a ride that has grown on me a lot over the years, and today’s ride took it up another notch in my estimations. Yes, it might not be the most intense coaster, but it is brilliant fun; I have grown to like it a lot: After Thirteen, my mum and Nan were growing tired and headed on to the hotel room, leaving me to my own devices for the reminder of the day. As such, I then went and rode… Rita Rita was on an advertised 20 minute queue, so I decided to give it a go. The queue ended up being slightly longer than advertised, instead taking nearly 30 minutes, but this wasn’t really an issue; I was hardly pressed for time. So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 5, and it was good fun, although a touch more rattly than many of my recent rides, which detracted slightly. It must be said, though, that the ride remains a damn sight smoother and more enjoyable than I’d remembered it being in years gone by; the rattle that it had today was more a minor niggle than a true dealbreaker like its pre-2016 roughness used to be for me. And putting that aside, I actually think Rita has a surprising amount going for it. Yes, the layout isn’t the most interesting, but the launch is brilliantly punchy, the ride is fast paced, and an often overlooked element of Rita that I think really delivers is its airtime. There are 2 or 3 legitimately strong moments of ejector airtime, and even though the ride has OTSRs, these still deliver! Overall, I had a good, fun ride on Rita; yes, the rattle detracted a tad for me today, but I still really enjoyed it overall, and I think it gets a very unfair amount of criticism, myself: After Rita, I went for a walk-on reride on Oblivion. I was once again seated in the back row, and it was once again awesome, with some biblical sustained air and speed: After my Oblivion reride, I closed out the day with a reride on Wicker Man. Even though I was seated in the middle, the ride was just as phenomenal as it had been earlier; the pacing was relentless, and I was almost standing over some of the airtime pops! It was a truly brilliant ride to close out the day with: After my ride on Wicker Man, I made my way to Towers Street and exited the park to head back to the Alton Towers Hotel for my first stay in 3 years. Interestingly, we were upgraded to a Moon Voyager Room in spite of having only booked a Standard Room, and I’m certainly not complaining; the room is lovely: After a sit down in the hotel for about an hour and a half, we headed back down the golden path for an evening meal at the Rollercoaster Restaurant. I’ve dined at this restaurant 3 times now, and I absolutely love it; it’s such a brilliant novelty, the food is perfectly nice for what it is, and it’s possibly one of Alton Towers’ greatest nostalgia moves, in my opinion; all the old concept art and footage of coasters is absolutely captivating: After our Rollercoaster Restaurant meal, we headed back to the hotel and closed out our day. So in conclusion, we had a brilliant day at Alton Towers! I got a fair amount done (14 attractions in total), and there were some brilliant rides ridden! Wicker Man was phenomenal, and on absolute top form on both rides, Oblivion was fantastic, Thirteen was surprisingly brilliant… I could go on, because there were so many great rides today! Thanks for reading! Join me tomorrow for Day 2 of our trip!