JoshC.

Did this the other day with a group of people who had no idea what to expect from it. General consensus was it was 'good', but felt like it missed the mark in a few places. Weirdly as well, the final scene played (all audio and effects), but the demon didn't appear. Certainly felt flat and even those who had no clue what was happening realised that something was missing. Hopefully a one off mistake and not a regular issue..

I guess I should have worded what I said differently. Opening a ride / part of a park 3 hours early is an incredibly difficult thing to do which isn't always going to be feasible. Of course, given the popularity of Harry Potter, it's something which should have been seriously considered, but I don't think it's 'bad' thing against the park that they couldn't; just a 'not good' thing. Hagrid never soft opened. It had its press preview and that was it. The plan had been to soft open it (I believe around the beginning of June), but there have been plenty of issues which stopped that happening. I did hear there was a possibility it may not even open on time. And since opening, there have been quite a lot of teething problems and it's still running on reduced capacity. It shouldn't be a surprise that an Intamin with 7 launches, omnimover station, special track features and the possibility of running 14 trains is having teething issues. But that would normally be ironed out during a soft opening. So it's a lose-lose situation for everyone at the moment.

An interesting take on things. I certainly don't doubt that the park could have done more to reduce the queue time, but in fairness: -Opening a ride 3 hours early isn't exactly a feasible thing to do -It's sometimes better to not introduce added complications like virtual queues at first -Weather was affecting ride availability, which no doubt contributed to the high queue time -There were many rumours about the ride actually being delayed, and a murmur that it's fortunate this opened on time. That could explain reduced capacity/number of trains Certainly not saying it's good or excusable, and I've no doubt they did it for a marketing thing, but I don't think it's all as doomy and gloomy as that article makes out. On a side note, this whole investment supposedly cost $300m. Just wow.

Fury at Bobbejaanland is testing... It already looks really fun!

I'd hazard a guess that this hasn't been as popular as the park had liked, since it has now seen a £3 price reduction: https://www.thorpepark.com/events/jungle-escape Pay on the day: £7 Book in advance: £6 Passholders: £5

Worst of school trips is in July. Late June is usually manageable; wouldn't expect queues to peak at longer than 30-45mins at worst. And if you're sensible and don't do Swarm first, don't do DBGT when it opens, etc, you'll be fine.

And just like that, the line up: https://www.altontowers.com/activities/events/scarefest/thrilling-frights/#mazes -Sub Species, Skin Snatchers and Project 42 all return, and are part of the 3 maze combo ticket. -The Attic: Terror of the Towers is new, with an £8 charge (much like Welcoming, which has gone) https://www.altontowers.com/activities/events/scarefest/family-fun/ -House of Monsters is NOT returning -New family attraction Darkest Depths: located in Mutiny Bay (possibly where Welcoming was?)

A Scarefest video... -More "scares" in the Dungeons -3 returning mazes -2 new "frights" Sub Species containers have returned and are in place, so that's likely staying. There's work happening around Nemesis Sub Terra so presumably Project 42 is staying. I reckon The Welcoming will go. Assuming they're classing House of Monsters as a maze, it's a toss up between that and Skin Snatchers going as well. In any case, I expect either HoM or a very similar style experience to remain, and one of these new things to be a scare zone..

So this opens tomorrow! There's been a couple of previews for people and, unsurprisingly, it's all been incredibly positive.. If spoilers are your thing, some queue line stuff (I haven't watched it, cos spoilers like, so don't know the quality)... And a video of the loading instructions / loading: Apparently, it has 14 trains, which will be dispatched at 35 second intervals. And, of course, this ride features seven launches in total and has a length just over 5000ft.

Yes, 100%. It seems to be an almost RMC exclusive thing (only other rides off the top of my head I can think of that have such slow turns are S&S El Locos and Lost Gravity, though the latter is barely noticeable). But it just looks weird and uncomfortable when being done at such a slow pace, and will probably feel exactly the same whilst riding.

For those who never did Robin Hood / can't remember it because it was such a forgettable ride, here's nice side-by-side of Robin Hood vs Untamed..

I mean, Flamingo Land is a pretty naff park imo and as nice as it will be to have a new headline coaster, it won't solve the issues the park have. In saying that, this is a huge statement from the park and I hope it works for them.

Comedian Chris Rock, for some reason

Taiga promo video: ?

And if you like POVs... https://www.facebook.com/173148719393593/posts/2773396009368838/

The Saw IP was very recently renewed and will be at the park for the foreseeable future. And given there's another reboot of the franchise next year, the park would be stupid to get rid of it this year.

It's testing! Looks rather slow tame..

https://planningregister.ryedale.gov.uk/caonline-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=PRWA8YNOK8S00&activeTab=summary Planning has been submitted - it's happening!

I'm under the impression the park are still planning on doing it. Why it's been delayed is anyone's guess..

POVs of Dual Dragon, the duelling sit down/inverted Intamin swing launch coasters... And yes, they're in sync! Fair to this this is a complete experience: two very solid looking coasters that look brilliant, along with a fantastic off-ride look too!

I mean it's a damned if they do, damned if they don't situation. People want high quality Scarefest mazes with lots of time put into them, and they want the Towers open as much as possible. But you can't have both. Granted, it's a situation of the park's own doing, but really, they don't have many other choices.

Gosh so trying to keep up with this park is hard. 2020 the park are of course putting in the new themed area Dragon's Castle, which will have Zadra, a kiddie coaster (made by Preston & Barbieri), dark ride and some other stuff. They're also getting the Vekoma double launch in a separate area. Few weeks back I posted about purple Vekoma track being at the park for the double launch. Turns out I was wrong... Surprise! A new Vekoma family coaster in the Dragon's Castle area, which is in addition to the already announced family coaster. And now, we have light blue Vekoma track at the park, which is presumably for the double launch. But with this park, who bloody knows... So come next year, Energylandia will have 16 open and operating coasters; the most in Europe (not counting Wonderland Eurasia in Turkey since like only 9 of their 17 are currently open). The long term plan has also indicated that they're looking into getting a Vekoma mine train and the long-rumoured new-gen Vekoma tilt coaster in the next 4 years. No doubt they'll sprinkle in some other stuff too. Totally expect the park to be aiming for the highest coaster count in the world, and that certainly seems possible within the next five years. Though there are rumours that the park are already considering removing some of the weaker attractions that are poorly themed, including some of their kiddie creds. So yeah, watch this space.. And whilst I'm here, let's chuck in some Zadra photos.. Source: https://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=159449439&postcount=19044

After a day spent doing some random stuff in Berlin, the weekend was the main reason for the trip: the two random small parks just outside Leipzig. The first one was Belantis; a medium-sized park owned by Parque Reunidos (who also own the likes of Movie Park Germany, Bobbejaanaland, Mirabilandia,...). It was sadly an extremely wet day, with showers pretty much non-stop from about 8 in the morning. Fortunately, it meant the park was dead, and the park didn't close anything major in the weather. So, moving on... Huracan Arguably the park's headline attraction is Huracan, a Gerstlauer Eurofighter which opened in 2010, but was largely retracked this past winter. It rides as you'd expect a Eurofighter to ride really: fun, little bit uncomfortable, but nothing extremely intolerable. It has a nice unique layout, but doesn't really have any stand out moments. So yeah, in short: a fun enough but somewhat bland experience. Fun fact: Belantis also opened up a kiddie coaster called Huracanito, a ride where you have to be less than 1.2m tall to ride! tbh, it looked too intense for me. Cobra des Amun Ra The park's newest coaster is a Gerstlauer family coaster. Themed around a snake belonging to the Egyptian god Ra, this had a surprisingly nice indoor queue which was rather well themed. The coaster itself was actually really good: nice and whippy, well paced and you get two circuits on it. A nice surprise coaster! Drachenritt The park's final coaster is a Gerstlauer (see the trend?) bobsled, and actually a mirror clone of Paultons. Having not done that yet, I didn't know what to expect, but it was a ton of fun, with lots of fun pops of airtime, and a nicely themed experience! Again, a really fun ride. On paper, the park has a nice selection of non-coaster rides too. The true highlight has to be Fluch des Pharao, a log flume ride with Stormforce 10-style boats, which takes you into a 31m high pyramid. Though not very wet, the ride has a few quirky tricks, is nicely themed inside the pyramid and caught me off guard a couple of times. Very much a typical 'wtf' ride you'd find in Europe! The park also has a Gerstlauer sky fly in Götterflug, though I didn't see anyone manage and flips (hard to tell how much the weather played a part in that) and a random pirate drop tower that sways side to side which was equally very fun. There's a lot more too (including a random mini zip line which is free), but it's all pretty bog-standard and not worth mentioning.. The park has one major dark ride in Verlies des Grauens (Dungeon of Horror): a madhouse ride which very much feels like it could be taking place in a dungeon. Of course, madhouses in a foreign language can be difficult to grasp, but this hasn't stopped me enjoying some out there, and with my basic German knowledge I was able to get the gist (some sort of crystal had been stolen and it relates to the wizard Merlin and only we can get it back or something). But even with that vague context, the madhouse portion was weak: very little seemed to happen, and it was all rather unimpressive, and probably the worst madhouse I've done. Even if I'd fully understood the story (I think the madhouse section is something to do with guests being tricked by the supposed good-guy in a massive plot twist), I doubt I'd have enjoyed it much: everyone around us looked rather unenthusiastic. This is probably making Belantis sound like a pretty alright park, but honestly, it was very mediocre. No doubt the bad weather didn't help, the lack of people on park and the fact I bruised my ribs the days before and was in a reasonable amount of pain probably detracted from my fun even more. But really, the park just didn't feel like it had much to offer. The Eurofighter isn't something anyone will really be clambering to re-ride. The family rides are fun but pretty standard. And whilst some rides are nicely themed (in particular the newer ones), the park as a whole is very devoid of anything fun and interesting to make you feel like you're at a theme park. When the park has such an average line up, that doesn't help. One final thing though: the staff on park were fantastic. All very friendly and helpful and super upbeat despite the weather. They were all really chatty, most spoke good English too (handy when my German failed me!), and just in general made the day a tiny bit brighter. So that's always nice to see. The park closed at 5 (though staff were telling us they were considering closing early due to the weather and lack of people), but we ultimately left at 3ish to dry off and prepare to spend the evening in Leipzig. Before heading into Leipzig, we stopped off at the Völkerschlachtdenkmal, which is a monument to the Battle of the Nations, and stands at an impressive 300ft tall. You can pay to enter, but we just had a look around the outside. We wandered around Leipzig for a bit, had some food, then ended up going to a bowling alley near our hotel on the outskirts of the city centre. The city was heaving following a football game, and we quickly found out that Leipzig was quite a 'hipster' city, leaving us with little to entertain us really. Völkerschlachtdenkmal So yes: Belantis left me ultimately unfulfilled but equally, I wasn't surprised. Leipzig is a bit meh too. Could Freizeitpark Plohn save the weekend? Find out soon... NB: all pictures stolen from online as my phone hated the rain

Not open yet, but I am under the impression that it has had at least one test cycle. Progress!

POV of Mystic at Walibi Rhône-Alpes.. Loving the music and looks like a neat ride!