Benin

Hopefully Paris' will follow... Never dif Florida's, I assume it was just as bad as Paris?

Starting with a GCI Woodie...

We don't even know what 2015 will bring, let alone 2016... That being said, 2016 is anticipated to be a new cred year... So mayhaps we won't be so, 'disappoint'...

There's no real space for another coaster unfortunately, expansion is pretty difficult for the park... It has the long opening times because of being a pier park... Turn up at opening and it's dead, but I assume later on in the day it gets a lot busier... It's not a full day park at all...

*You're

This is the main issue, since there are currently no parks in the UK officially building a wooden coaster at the current time... Hence why it all sounds wrong, it's about as accurate as saying Plopsaland are building a wooden coaster in place of the Bat ride, but they've actually said it's on the shortlist of consideration... This does sound familiar though I must say, probably from an European Expo event as opposed to IAAPA... Probably asking the bloke from RMC about future plans and he responded with a wink of the eye...

Surely rides built by a high market designer such as B&M would be designed to generally* endure the wear and tear of an average season of operation? Or am I just thinking sensibly? *This is of course ignoring potential issues that may suddenly crop up in a train unexpectedly, as things do in mechanical components...

This is a good change, because I've never met a Stand-Up coaster I've enjoyed... Personally I'd rather see them burn, but retro-fitting to an alternative train type is a decent option as well...

Jungle Coaster was crap anyway, not exactly a ride of nostalgic value in comparison to say, Dragon...

Another park that’s changed a bit since my previous visit, what with Plopsa getting their hands on it recently, Holiday Park would serve as our penultimate park purely because it was easier to head down to Europa Park afterwards. We turned up to find it rather empty and a sign stating that the Spinning Barrels and Holly’s Autofahrt would both be spiting us. Was only when I returned I realised what had actually happened with the Barrel ride, grim. We dossed around in the Museum for a bit looking at the old stuff before the park opened and we headed for our first destination. Expedition GeForce is over-rated. It’s that simple really. And like most Intamin’s has a good first drop but everything else is just so meh. What doesn’t help is that the lapbars are really uncomfortable on the thighs, so of course what happens on every airtime hill? It digs into the leg. What does the ride have a lot of? Airtime hills. Sigh. It just isn’t the best thing ever, if it ever was in the first place. After that disappointment we headed over to the new for 2014 Sky Scream, a weird Premier contraption indeed. The exterior which is now finished looks fantastic, unfortunately inside the building the only piece of theming was a spider, which had moved in rather than actually been placed deliberately. Oh well. The restraints have a real burden to them as well, in the shin guards of WHY? Being a flat block of foam doesn’t particularly work well for shins, what with the curvature of the human body being as it is, so it’s another set of restraints that just did into you. 2 for 2 in the bad design choices. The ride itself is actually quite good fun I felt. Quite intense and a fair amount of hangtime throughout, but the shin-guards prevent it from being really enjoyable, and they became more noticeable the second time around. A shame really, and I hope they get around the theming the inside, cos it’s utter crap currently. Time for a rethemed ride next, and the first Plopsa themed ride in Wickie Splash, the Log Flume which was good fun, managing to do 3 reversing log flumes in 3 days was very weird though it must be said. We wandered past a random show on the way to the next ride Tabuluga Boat Ride, which was one of those slow boat rides with random scenes and no music in the boat. We put that down to the random unplugged component underneath the seat. We faffed about for a bit wondering what to do next, and ended up on the Carousel before hitting up Donnerfluss the Rapids of reasonable wetness. We had some food and decided as there weren’t many other rides we really wanted to do (due to a distinct lack of filler rides really at the park) we would watch the other shows. Starting off with the delightfully European Gooseparade, which is exactly what you imagine it to be, before the Festival der Tiere animal based stunt show. It was reasonably cute and involved a giant rabbit. Finally we watched the Talking Dead Show, a jet ski show randomly themed to zombies due to the addition of Sky Scream. It was rather entertaining, with lots of interactive bits and stunts and general silliness abound, including a Wrecking Ball moment right above the crowd. Shame the finale explosion was a bit poor, especially for a German show. We decided to ride the two coasters again, both being still rather meh before hitting up the House of Anubis Free Fall Tower, which clearly has the best queueline ever because you get to watch episodes of the show. It was a smaller version of Apocalypse (3 sides) and alright rather than spectactular. It was then time to head for Europa. Holiday Park was a bit disappointing really, whilst what Plopsa have added so far looks really good (Sky Scream interior aside), it just seems to lack a lot of things to generally do. Lots of dead space around certain points in the park and a lot of crap rides to boot doesn’t really add up to much, given that the two major coasters are both disappointing (but at least for those who like GeForce, it is back on two trains). Plopsa have a lot of work to do with the park I think. After a drive, we started seeing the signs that make many enthusiasts very happy. We parked up at the Bell Rock Hotel, ready to chill and get some dinner in the bar, but as we checked in the staff member said to us that because the park was open until 9pm, we could have some free entry for the final hour of operation. Of course the answer to this a resounding yes, so we dumped our bags in the room and headed to the Spirit of St Louis bar for a delicious Black Angus Burger before heading into the park. Choices were of course at a minimum, what with only an hour to play around with, so we headed to Blue Fire because it’s amazing. Whilst Helix has of course overtaken it because of being bigger and better, Blue Fire is still a fantastic ride, smooth as glass with the odd bit of airtime and intensity throughout it. It still resides in that top 10 of mine as a result. Up next was Wodan, which was its usual relentless self so late on in the day. I don’t rate it as highly as many others seem to do though, possibly because of experiences like the Beast at night being something that can very rarely be topped in the wooden coaster stakes. It’s still very good mind. We had some proper night-time Blue Fire before we headed to the Colosseo for the Imperio Show, which was ok I guess. I dunno, it just didn’t click with me for some reason, all a bit too random and lacking much in the way of a progressive story for such a show. Why was the scantily glad lady dancing in a champagne glass? I’ll never know. It was then time for bed, as the next day was going to be a long one.

They said they'd have shuttle buses from Ebbsfleet somewhere I'm sure of it...

Lol, that thing is ridiculous...

Perhaps a Gloomy Wood retheme could be an idea in the future, though whether to link it to Katanga or potentially produce a brand new area would be an interesting development... Given that only Duel resides there these days, anything could really be done to it, even a flat ride could be added in the old wooded area (assuming they can actually cut some trees down)... I've decided I want a Chiapas style Flume replacing the decrepid one Towers own currently as well, themed to Mutiny Bay of course... Make it so Towers!

If they do end up running Reserve and Ride, wonder what days they'll do it on... Given that half term exists and a lot of enthusiasts in large groups will be visiting over the course of Fright Nights... I'll sit back and eat my popcorn should it be the case...

But that has Disney characters in it as well! #OUTRAGE Here's an article from the other side of things - http://themeparkuniversity.com/critical-studies/top-4-misconceptions-frozen-replacing-maelstrom-epcot/

Don't forget, Thorpe will probably still sell the one shot Fastrack for each individual maze... That's what really kills the queues...

^Which Bizarro, I'm guessing New England's Intamin effort... I'm bored, have a top 10 theme parks list: 10 - Djurs Sommarland - With plenty of playgrounds, some really fun attractions and some decent theming dotted around, this Danish park was a lovely surprise last year. 9 - Port Aventura - Beautiful theming abound, with two great coasters whilst the others let the park down considerably, plus the Spanish operations/queue-jumping. 8 - Liseberg - Another beautiful park, which in some areas is surprisingly beautiful beyond the hillside. Helix will hopefully boost the park up further, and with a great supporting cast to boot. 7 - Alton Towers - The best UK park, whilst it's been up and down like most of them recently, it still has the best coaster line-up in the country, and the atmosphere/location is still one of the best around. Also Nemesis. 6 - Tivoli Gardens - Lacking in rides, but a gorgeous place to visit, amazing given the location in the middle of Copenhagen. With Rusty Banana being the stand-out ride here, well worth the expense. 5 - Parc Asterix - Probably a surprising entry, but Asterix is a lovely park. It has great theming, and Oz'Iris and Tonne of Air are both fantastic coasters, whilst the Stunt Show is one of the best I've ever seen. Shame it can't deal with crowds though. 4 - Dollywood - The only American park on the list, this place is full of charm and beauty. The location in the Smokey Mountains helps that, but the general atmosphere added in with some solid rides adds up to something really enjoyable. Also Dolly Parton. 3 - Phantasialand - Again, well themed and a great ride line-up put this park near the top. Two fantastic water rides support the likes of Black Mamba and Winjas, whilst there's plenty of other areas to explore and take in. 2 - Efteling - What it might lack in rides it makes up for in charm and atmosphere. With two of the best dark rides in the world, and the Fairytale Forest, it goes to show that a good park isn't just about having the 'best' ride line-up. 1 - Europa Park - How to run a theme park 101. With so much to see and do, fantastic theming and operations to blow your mind. Everything is done right at Europa.

Eh, never rode Maelstrom, but never heard amazing things about it either... Unpopular ride being ditched for something insanely popular that Disney cannot meet the demand for, from the business perspective, there's no reason Disney shouldn't be doing this... No reason Frozen can have some educational stuff towards Norway, it's not like the country has developed popularity as a result of the film...

Why you blaming the council when it's the residents who are the reason Ghost was declined? This could be anything, it could be a revival of the old Explorer's Institute attraction, or a dedicated Lego Friends shop... Without seeing any plans no sound conclusion can be made...

Helix Glad to hear you liked Liseberg, shame about you liking Kanonenenenenen though... What about the rest of the park?

To celebrate my birthday there was only one park out of all the ones we visited that made sense to visit in the area we were in, and that was of course, Legoland Germany. With German MAP in hand, we headed in, though their gate organisation is a bit burdenous, as you have to use certain gates if you have a MAP, but this is a lottery when you’ve never visited before and you can’t see the signs to direct you when the main gate is down. The opening ceremony was cute though, with the Ollie the Dragon character coming out in a wizard costume and using magic to open the gates. Neat little touch really. We grabbed our QBots for the day and went for the first coaster of the day. One of these rides is not like the others… Jr Dragon isn’t actually on the QBot system, so it made sense for it to be our first ride as it had all the hallmarks of a One & Done, being a Junior Gerstlauer. It decided it didn’t want to work just as we were about to board for some reason, forcing the engineers to turn up and fix it. It was an acceptable kiddie cred, but there were bigger (for Legoland) rides on the horizon. Fire Dragon is pretty much the staple of any Legoland park these days, and this one started interestingly in the queue, as some American woman decided to yell loudly at the person at the batch point to go through to spite us QBot people. It’s a shame the ride host didn’t come back earlier as he looked very confused as to why people had been entering the airgates area without his permission. I felt sorry for the woman at the front who clearly didn’t want to go in because Germans are sensible people, but the loud woman was very horrid. I had hoped we’d spite her later on in the day, but we never saw her again. Onto the ride, it starts like all the others, with a dark ride section before a hidden drop under the dragon leads you to the outside portion. I think this was a Zierer, so it’s like a weird variant of a Vekoma Roller Skater. It was alright really, with again a bit of surprising force hidden within the ride, and again it’s not a kid’s ride that patronises that target audience, which gets bonus points. Up next was Hero Factory, the Kuka arms things that Lego also seem to like (apart from Windsor). I adored the ones at Billund, so it was disappointing to discover that you couldn’t build you ride setting on this one. Coupled with the awful throughput as half of it has been spited it was a good thing we had the QBot. Setting 5 was good though, and it does have a ride photo, but I just missed the brilliant very Lego concept of making your own cycle. New for 2014 and the spiter of the other half of Hero Factory is the X-Wing Exhibition a huge Lego recreation of the Star Wars ship. It looked amazing to be fair to it, though I do hope that when it eventually moves on they’ll replace the Hero Factory stuff back (most of the circuitry is still there). It was then time for Flying Ninjago, a Gerstlauer Sky Fly, which I loved at Nigloland, and this would get the same reaction. Probably because I have a real knack for getting the spinning aspect of it right (dat BEng degree). I’d like to see more of these built, just wish they had a higher throughput. Walking back to the entrance I grabbed a birthday badge cos I’m cool like that. We also had a snack and a sit-down. The final coaster of the day was Project X Test Track, a crappy Mack Wild Mouse. We were once again glad of the QBot as the queue for this was awful, certainly worth the purchase of the MAP on this trip. We did the Teacups afterwards because they were also on the QBot. Off to the Adventure themed area, which started with another staple of Legoland, Temple Expedition, the interactive dark ride. Again this appeared to be an omnimover, so I have no idea why they stopped building them for Sally variants. It wasn’t great though, so perhaps the change was to produce a more immersive theme around the ride, rather than big mostly lifeless rooms. Next on the agenda was the Jungle Expedition flume ride, which was actually fab, and yet another reversing section was found within the heavily themed indoor bit. There were also Lego dinosaurs, which always gains extra favour with me. Finally we hit up the Safari Tour, having never done the one at Windsor, it was good to actually do one. The animatronics were ok and we produced an entertaining (but not enough to purchase it) on ride photo. We then did the Observation Tower, which really showed how tiny the park is and how far away the resort area is from the park. Time for a show, and this time it was brought to us by the Cuban Circus, who were rather entertaining it must be said, with some decent acts and some great crowd interaction which the Germans do seem to love. It also seems that Lego here gets loads of different acts over the year to come along as part of a touring section. Good idea really. We decided to go on Flying Ninjago again, upon which the ride op gleefully yelled out Happy Birthday (indeed, there were lots of staff being all interactive with me, guess they’re not used to adults having a badge and just automatically do it all) before I proceeded to go absolutely mental sitting in the front. It just started spinning and then got FASTER, hence I aborted and ended up having extended upside down times as a result. Ew. Lego Frabrik followed because I needed to get my head back in one place, so a fake Factory Tour was exactly the ticket required. Had a cute little video to start it off then a ‘tour’ of a ‘working’ ‘factory’. Still informative and had the actual machines that they use giving practical demonstrations, which got the engineer in me all excited. After our informative mini-tour we re-rode Hero Factory before heading to the Boating School, which was actually fun to ride one again since I haven’t done it for YEARS! I think Windsor’s was a lot better though, but I literally cannot remember it. We then had some ice cream as we explored Miniland, time for a photo attack! A quick run on the Lego Express happened, which essentially showed us most of Miniland again and some backstage sheds before we hit up the Kid’s Power Tower, which was full of manual labour and effort. We re-rode Fire Dragon and the Boating School before heading over towards the Pirate Ship, which was a Heave Ho clone and a bit meh. We also had an epic meal at the Dino Grill, which was basically a mixed grill of various meats, it was so nom I wish we had one over in the UK. We re-rode Jungle Expedition and Hero Factory again before doing the Spinning Knight Ride, which was surprisingly intense for a Legoland ride and went both forwards and backwards for extended periods of time. We finished the day off on the Fire Dragon once more before heading to the shop and heading back to Stuttgart. I really did enjoy my day, although this was heavily helped by the QBot being in my possession, as the park was very busy. But like most Legoland’s is has a decent lot of theming dotted around and this one probably has some of the better ride options around it, particularly Jungle Expedition and Flying Ninjago. Though small, there’s a fair amount of stuff to do but I think it needs something like Viking River Splash (which I honestly thought they had in the first place) and another high throughput cred just to keep things fresh.

No one would visit Thorpe because of a Top Spin though... Not a big nor interesting ride in comparison to the other flats available already and not unique, even if they added theming to it... As said, stuff aimed at the middle market should be Thorpe's prerogative right now, if they're intent on keeping the family market intact...

Not if you're on the front facing side of Talocan, those fire effects are Top Spins are one of those rides though which always gain a crowd to watch it, rather than ride, and I can rarely be arsed with them when visiting any park... Even Talocan rarely gets a proper queue once you realise half the people down the bottom are actually just watching it...

Why does everyone suggest that all future rides should have some link to Swarm? Like, can't we have a brand new idea that'll be half baked and poorly visualised by Merlin?

Hardly anyone rides Griffins full stop...