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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.

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!

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!