Benin

Cars Land will replace this I reckon... Lots of rumours of it coming to the Studios anyway...

So still on the same train, why you moaning? Bet if there were empty seats you'd be moaning at them for not filling them... Go Chessie, fill those seats up...

Would why a ride workshop need extending?

Not on to lie to parents either, even little white ones... Perhaps she's treating you like a child cos of all these whites lies making you untrustworthy...

It's amazing how Merlin don't have someone proof-reading their websites, since Towers has just as many mistakes as well... Ridiculous really...

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?