Benin

Hopefully their recent troubles with Cobra and T'Edge and the locals have been smoothed over enough for them to get another cred... Would be a shame if the park couldn't capitalise on the success of Peppa Pig...

Guess who just won the Golden Ticket for Best Amusement Park? This one... Presumably annoying all the Cedar Point fanboys in the process and the only European park to actually win one (making a change from, none)... Excellent news, even if the awards don't really matter... Tis a testament to how good the park is...

Depends when you go, but yep those 3 have the biggest queues... It may be worth investing in a qbot if you're visiting in busy season, if only so you don't have to queue for the crap creds at the place...

Pro Tip - Don't ride River Quest if that's your fear... Of course, a waterproof bag or placing deliacte objects in those little plastic bags you get in airport security (or IKEA) are other options available...

Blackpool used to be like that though, since I dont visit if often (nor care how it operates), and given that its the only UK comparison to Liseberg's pricing structure, does it really matter?

LotD 'stage' and Madagashcar are the most likely areas for any shows... Unless they do a temporary job...

http://liseberg.com/en/home/Amusement-Park/Tickets-prices1/ Gotta buy park entry AND ride wristband like Blackpool, which equates to £42 odd...

There is a bus straight outside the arrivals area that stops outside the main entrance... Forget how long it took though, probs 30 odd minutes...

Never really understood why they kept the original name, and why they didn't try to theme it to Canada Creek (which in turn would have meant that the original Haunted Sawmill concept for Saw would have been kept as well)... No point doing it now though, although wouldn't put it past Merlin if they're struggling for filler ideas for next year...

Wouldn't say Cedar Point is in the middle of nowhere, given that it's located on one of the biggest tourist spots in the state of Ohio... Problem is with Towers is that the locals would probably oppose any form of later opening, plus it's not easy to tell whether or not people would stay till 9pm either, given that even during Halloween events the latter hours (apart from the REALLY busy days) tend to just have people leaving rather than staying around... Wouldn't any extended opening times be put up on the big old queue boards? Perhaps they need the Europa method of deciding on the day and then sticking up a piece of paper by the op box on every single ride...

I like how Blair Witch has a brand new ambient soundtrack, because that what made it so awful...

Swear Universal hold exclusivity rights on any Robo-Arms on track for ages...

Hey look, it's a park that markets stuff towards enthusiasts as well! (from Twitter)

Messers B&M, your seats are now reserved on Furius Baco in the back row...

Movie Park Germany was the park of the day, having been a stone’s throw from it the day before, so it was a bit weird to drive to it for a second day in a row. Upon arrival I grew frustrated by the park not opening up the turnstiles prior to the official opening, mostly due to the lack of space available to the large crowd building up outside and the low number of actual turnstiles available. Does annoy me greatly when they could instead let people into the park, get some early sales from a cold and miserable rainy day and reduce the crowd issues. Oh well, first port of call was a shop to pay an Express Pass. For €25 you could buy an unlimited one for all but two of the rides in the park (Jet Ski ride and the 4D Cinema), a ridiculous value that either the Germans don’t buy into because they don’t like the concept or they sell barely any of. Either way, judging by the early crowds, this was to be quite an intelligent investment. So to the rides and the first on the list was Van Helsing’s Factory, the indoor Gerst Bobsled which I had heard many good things about. We entered through the side door of the massive shed and quickly onto the ride, the station and ride cars are both nicely themed, and I do wish I had actually seen the queue line proper. The ride starts with some faff before the first lift hill, still quite well themed before the ride begins proper. The usual stuff really from this ride type, with swooping drops and turns, and naturally the wild mouse style turns in the dark (with no brakes) made an appearance before the second tyre lift hill. Some dodgy animatronics later we’re launched up into the rest of the ride, which I have no real recollection or knowledge of as it was all dark. Eventually you hit the brakes after defeating the evil vampire. This ride is good, very good. It’s fun, enjoyable and quite well themed throughout, with some decent effects to boot. Solid coaster to their line-up. Unfortunately, the horizon for coasters didn’t particularly look great, so we had a quick go on the Jet Ski Patrol because of the wish to delay the inevitable. It was time for MP Express, a Vekoma SLC. Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t very good. But the worst was still yet to come. The next coaster wasn’t open yet, so we decided to go on High Fall, an Intamin Stand-Up Gyro Drop Tower. Oh boy was that a mistake. Combining the tilting motion with the drop and the brakes and all of a sudden the entire ride is screaming in pain and agony. The most entertainment the ride presented was the subtle change in noise as the ride hit the brakes. Again, awful. Then it was time for Bandit, my second RCCA Wooden in the space of a month, and this was a clone of Coney Island’s Cyclone. What could POSSIBLY go wrong? Turns out, everything. Bandit is by a far, far margin the single worst ride I have experienced. It’s that simple. Worse than Coaster Express, worse than Baco, worse than a Volare, worse than a Screaming Squirrel. It was violent on a constant basis, shook around at every corner, juddered about and for good measure did the odd slam into the side. It was at this moment exactly that the Express Pass value came into being, as I didn’t have to queue up for the worst coaster experience of my life. I wish I had been able to burn it down; it would certainly be worth the arsony racket. Another go on Van Helsing was needed to experience what a good coaster was, before we headed over to Nickelodeon Land to grab the kiddie creds. Starting with Backyardigans – Mission to Mars, a Vekoma Junior, Ghost Chasers, a Wild Mouse and the infamous in German Top Trumps Jimmy Neutron’s Atomic Flyer. They were all as to be expected, though Atomic Flyer was easily the best coaster of the three. Next up was Ice Age Adventure, an indoor dark-water ride combo. It followed the plot (loosely) of the first film, with some typical dodgy animatronics and theming throughout. The interesting part came with the drop, which essentially made it a cred. Was pleasantly surprised by it. Time for a random crappy flat ride in Splat-o-Sphere. Had never done an Aileron before, probably won’t ever again since it was pretty dull. We saw a couple of shows around this time which were all pretty standard theme park affair (at least, with those who care about shows, not UK park level). Then it was time for the Van Helsing Show. Impressive set aside, the show fell quite flat. Lots of dialogue, weird plot and a really bad werewolf costume mixed in with some rather poorly done fight scenes made it quite a disappointment. Points for trying/effort, but not much else positive. As we were walking past it would have been rude to not ride Van Helsing – The Cred again before heading back to the main entrance where (strangely) two big rides sit. First up, was new for this year The Lost Temple, to which I was very excited about, and it was probably my most anticipated ride of the entire trip. And whilst it is not a flawless dark ride, it is still entertaining, and above all well themed. I think the major flaw with it is the actual ride system. It lacks throughput and if you’re sat in the very front (like myself) then you lose quite a lot of what is actually going on around you. That being said, the theming within the queueline and pre-shows are brilliant, and it has an actual lift rather than a fake Sub Terra style one (indeed, the ride does share some similarities with Sub Terra in some aspects). Good addition to the park and hopefully more a sign of things to come from them. Next door was Alien Encounter, a quite randomly themed water ride with extended dark ride (and backwards) sections. It was quite cool it must be said, with an awesome Pepper’s Ghost effect, but it is also very dated at the same time. We caught the parade (which was generic) before having a go on Time Riders, featuring John Cleese speaking German. It had an obscene amount of pre-shows that ended in a random tiny simulator. I remarked at some point that it reminded me of the Batman simulator at Madrid, turns out it WAS one once upon a time. It found itself in a similar position to the Batman ride in Madrid, so crap it was actually funny. Though it felt so wrong hearing Mr Cleese speaking German. We rode Van Helsing again before seeing the Crazy Cops Stunt Show, which was alright and typical of your basic stunt show. The guys did well in the very wet conditions mind. Least there wasn’t any audience participation faff this time. Van Helsing was ridden again before some food and show times again. Afterwards we did Van Helsing again (a pattern emerged very early on in the day it must be said, not helped by the central location of said cred). We had a look towards Lost Temple again but unfortunately it was shut (it’s been having LOTS of problems this year), so Jimmy Neutron was ridden again (for some reason, I’m still not sure why) before we did the Fairy World Spin Teacups, which were generic as well. Van Helsing was ridden again before we rode the Crazy Surfer Disko Coaster (which had a lot of bounce to it) and the Santa Monica Pier Carousel, which was actually a Chairswing. The hope was to finish the day on Van Helsing but unfortunately they had seemingly closed it early. Sad face. We stopped off at the Happiness Station for epic ice cream before heading home. Movie Park is ok, just full of utter, utter crap for the most part. The layout doesn’t help it much, since half the park is pretty much dedicated to Nickelodeon (Ice Age and Mystery River aside), two major attractions at the entrance is also a weird design choice. The major issue is that only one of the coasters is actually good, with the two big draws being crap, some future choices would be served well into getting some good adult rides, as the park is pretty well served for families/kids. Removing Bandit, High Fall and MP Express would be an excellent start and getting some heavily themed coasters that are good could help put the park on the map a little bit more.

The loss of the free maze being replaced by a Scarezone (or as I like to think of them, Scaremazes in the light by UK spec) is an absolute blow it must be said... I find it interesting how Scarefest is being cut to pieces budget wise, perhaps Thorpe's performance this year is a big indicator as to why they're going all out for Fright Nights... But Thorpe for all the flashy movie stuff last year still couldn't provide an atmosphere outside of the mazes... Whilst the roaming actors (mostly the Director character, as the You're Next people were very dull) added something, it was sheer dumb luck if you actually encountered them over the day if you were actually doing stuff... I'm sure when Studio 13 opens we'll find out how similar it is to Asylum... The PR description for it is quite amusing though, they always are for scare events cos it's always the same stuff from every park... Never heard of the American author... It would be disappointing to just have more "RAR I'M AN ANGRY SERIAL KILLER" roamers though... Still think that the UK parks still have much to learn though in creating a truly big Halloween style event mind, my visit to Walibi last year pretty much had the atmosphere, numerous scaremazes and zones with some family aimed stuff as well...

The New Orleans Batman relocation wasn't really out of choice though it must be said...

Whether it be via modification or removal, it'll be better than it existing in the current format... Stand-Up coasters are hideous...

We were done with Hamburg, so today was a day of driving as we headed to our next base of operations in Dortmund. We decided that because there wasn’t much option of things to do in Dortmund as we were staying in a soulless industrial estate and Dortmund isn’t known for having much in the way of touristy stuff (Football stadium aside, but it had a game on that if I’d known about I would’ve gone to), we would visit Schloss Beck instead to pass a few hours. Schloss Beck is a tiny little park a stone’s throw away from Movie Park, so close in fact, that they will use their own car park as an overflow to Movie Park, and offer guests money off their parking fee of €5 onto paying to enter the park. The man who greeted us in the car park was very bemused that we had come to visit the park itself rather than Movie Park, but that was for tomorrow. First stop was the cred, another Zierer Tivoli ingeniously named Family Rollercoaster. It had an enclosed lifthill but that was about as unique/interesting as it got. Now it was time for the stuff that really excited me, the manually operated attractions. These are really common in the small German parks, but I’ve never been to a park that has them. I was able to pretend I was a ride operator again! First up, the Nautic Jet, surprisingly terrifying when you realise all that’s holding you in is a flimsy bar and that jump hits you. The reverse climb as well has a wonderful sense of trepidation to it as well. Next was some Zip Wire style attraction, which (in another flimsy seat) raised the wire up to send you backwards on your way across the river. You’d then return and do the thing twice more. I had to yell at a German kid as he tried to jump on in front of us, little git. Then did the Pirate Ship next, which was a swinging cage with a dangling rope for riders to control the amount of swing available to them. Naturally, went the whole hog on full swing. Utterly terrifying. There were also some slides which were done. The death slide was a lot steeper when you got to the top. That was pretty much the ride selection exhausted (bar a dead spinning manual ride, a Dragon flat and some Dinghy Slides), so we grabbed some Dippin Dots and headed towards the nature walk that sits within the park grounds. Comparisons to Towers (what with the old house at the entrance) were quite high on the agenda, though not many parks where you can hear another major park’s show taking place. We found a play area and messed about in it before having a nose around the old house thing. Not quite the ruins of Towers, but still nice. Then we left, for what’s available (and for an entry price of €12 a head), it’s quite nice. Plenty of things for kids to do rather than adults but that’s what the target is. There was a nice atmosphere within the park and the raised nature walk was quite cool. Doubt it has the ability to expand further but it’s a nice enough place to visit regardless.

Our seasons are still better than every single American park that doesn't open all year around... It's always amusing to see Americans going "OMG new season starts tomorrow!!11" in May...

Didn't Towers' pass have a bit more bonus Fastrack thrown in though?

IMAScore > Midnight Syndicate Besides, since it's not going to be Asylum anymore, why should they have the same music? They need to make the new one it's own identity, so new music should really be a given...

What's the betting that the package is for one visit and one go on all the mazes? That package will probably be the decider for MAP holders, especially Premium, since that's the only available benefit...

Can visit for all 16 nights and you get a (from wording, it was singular) Fastrack package... Not great value unless you visit at least half the amount of days the event is actually on... Defo not worthwhile for a Premium holder since the only real benefit is the Fastrack...

Another day and this time it was off to the first random small park of the trip in Serengeti Park, which is Germany’s version of West Midlands Safari Park. But this one had two fantastic attractions which were worth the entrance fee alone. Unlike everyone else visiting, we weren’t doing the safari portion of the park, as a hire car and an animal safari would probably not combine well in my mind, so we walked into the ride area to find absolutely nothing open. Presumably because they assume that all the sensible people will be driving around looking at animals for hours first. As a result, we waited for the AquaSafari to open. This is one of those hoverboat things you tend to see in Florida, so it was an interesting concept for this random park in Germany to have. No seatbelts or lifejackets for the riders to boot (children needed lifejackets), classic H&S there. It starts off like Jungle Cruise, with dodgy animal animatronics doing dodgy actions, before an open lake reveals itself and the boat bombs around it a few times, before it leaves for one last random thing to happen and head back to the dock. It’s insanely weird but I really liked it because of the crappy Jungle Cruise rip-off aspect to begin with before the fun of darting around a lake. Next up we decided to head towards their other safari attraction, DschungleSafari, which can only be described as “This is what Chessington wanted Zufari to be, only tonnes better”. Two ways it does this from just boarding the vehicle are being able to see out the front of the vehicle, and having a driver that interacts with the riders. You begin with a quick dart out into the real safari area on an off-road track not accessible to normal visitors, passing the usual array of Savannah animals until you head back into the jungle/woodland. This is where things get REALLY interesting. Once in the woodland, you go on this long trek through them, encountering various scenes of more dodgy animatronics, a danger cave, trick track and many other things. It’s hilarity at its finest, with the stand-out moment being some talking ostriches about half-way through. You begin to think after every scene that it has to be over now, but another corner leads into another scene. Absolutely brilliant and this should make people want to visit. After that we wandered around the monkey zoo they have, was quite good actually, with some proper walkthroughs dotted around. It was time for the two creds on the park. Firstly there was a Zierer Tivoli, Froschflitzer, which was meh. This meh was followed up by more meh as we rode the Huss Condor. Finally we rode my first S&MCo coaster (actually the company title) Die! Wilde Maus, which was a mental kiddie coaster with lots of scary airtime. We had a dodgy burger for lunch and settled to watch some shows, including another Trampolining Show, then the show after that got cancelled, so we hopped on the train and did their Wanyama Village style area. The huts pictured are actually part of the on-site accommodation. More wandering happened and we visited another walkthrough before seeing a Dive and Acrobatics Show. Then we headed back to the hotel. Serengeti is actually quite a decent park considering that the safari park is the main aspect of it. Interestingly the land it’s on is also huge and there is plenty of space for future expansion, be it for more animal enclosures dotted around (there weren’t THAT many aside from all the monkeys), or for some actual ride expansion. I’d like to see both personally but I’m greedy like that. A nice surprise to have from a park with quite low expectations.