Benin

Wasn't the incident last year only really escalated cos Chessie took so long to sort it out someone managed to phone the fire brigade? Or did I imagine that...

I’m already regretting this decision for a massive 2 week holiday featuring 12 parks, mainly because this is gonna be a long as hell TR, and I don’t want to spend ALL my time at work typing it up either. But, the show must go on, so here we go, Germany. A pleasant flight in with Germanwings (budget Lufthansa) led us to Hamburg and our Volkswagen Polo for the fortnight, and we drove off to the hotel. Quickly it was discovered that roadworks would be the bane of the holiday, as the Sat-Nav’s path to the hotel was blocked by some, causing circles to be completed. Eventually we arrived to the hotel, and promptly left it to go into Hamburg proper, and more specifically, the SommarDOM. I was excited to go to a German funfair, especially excited that you didn’t have to purchase tickets but paid with cash upon entry to each ride, a rather novel idea when you think about it. We did a lap of the massive area, tending to watch rides rather than actually ride them, two week’s worth of Euros couldn’t be spent all on madly run Breakdances and the like. However we did ride Rock & Roller Coaster, which was one of them Wildcat type rides, without anything interesting cred wise (Wilde Maus XXL and a Wacky Worm, yawn), we elected to play the Fun House game instead. I can’t exactly remember how many were done. I think 4/5 odd, each reasonably different from each other, and including the Winter Wonderland visitor of Alpen Hotel. There was also a fab City themed one which had a water room and plenty of other random effects. The final one was topped off with a classic German death-slide too, which was amazing death-like as I kept getting stuck in it. As someone who doesn’t really care for fairs too much, this place was still amazing and pretty much even puts the likes of Winter Wonderland to shame. Didn’t stay too long but I can imagine at night it would look absolutely incredible. Defo worth a visit if you’re into fairs because of the mental settings the flats are run on (the Shaker was vom-worthy just via watching it).

Europa Park can get 3 trains ready for Blue Fire for 8:30am, why can't Thorpe expand their budget to ensure that their guests can have full capacity rides first thing in the morning?

Insane was really, really awful... I wouldn't hold my breath on a S&S version being any better unless it actually holds you tightly in and reduces bodily movement...

Ermmmmmmmm, I think many people will beg to differ on that statement...

The constant closure reminders remind me of when Towers started up ridetimes and all we had was constant "lol Nemesis is down for 5 minutes" posts... A ride being closed for more than half a day is news, not half a hour...

Six Flags are seemingly trying to out-generic Cedar Fair then... Am glad sometimes that we are in Europe, if only for the majority of parks having some unique aspects rather than being cookie cutters...

Always hard to compare rough wooden coasters to steel ones, but even so, Mean Streak, Coaster Express and Bandit make even Baco look smooth...

If this is the case, perhaps Thorpe needs to look into improving the engineer situation to ensure that they can begin the day suitably prepared for the crowds, instead of having to delay queues as they do currently...

American Adventure - Can it be saved?

Well, this was certainly the unexpected result of the RMC reboot... Great concept it must be said, even though I'm not a fan of the dullness of Six Flags' choices of additions recently...

Yep, such a waste to have a wonderfully themed station building, silly Europa...

I'm 100% sure if you visited any other park in the world which had a ride closed at the start of the day and was testing there would be a queue developing for it... Definitely not just a British trend to queue outside closed rides in the hope it'll open soon...

*cough*stationexterior*cough* Some form of object/building in the Staffs Knot pit wouldn't have gone amiss, but Smiler's layout doesn't really lend itself to having lots of theming elements dotted around... The station building is the issue, rather than the ride, theming wise...

I think that's what needs to be considered, currently, the scheme is operating with BOTH the normal standby queue AND Fastrack in operation... As a result, those who are using it get to have Fastrack for free as has been mentioned, being able to skip 45 minute queues for free will of course create some bias towards the scheme's point and overall existance... As a result, the next trial needs to follow the conditions that are planned to be set out and not involve the standby queue existing at all... Only then can we truly judge the success of this scheme...

Wouldn't say it's lazy, as the product certainly wasn't selling (as evidenced by the two that were built worldwide) and both of them were extremely unreliable... S&S's decision to essentially cancel any further work with the Sky Swat project makes a lot of sense from the business perspective...

S&S still exist and trade, they just completely gave up on producing parts for the Sky Swat because it was a burden on their resources...

They do need a coaster AND a water ride... Mack Supersplash it is then! Or a water-coaster wouldn't be a bad option either... Problem is with Merlin's new budgeting methods Chessie will forever be at the bottom of the pile...

"Take a flight into Paradise" didn't NEED the crossing out or hell written on it though, that's my point... They basically went Rainer Wolfcastle on it... Besides the fact that only the back two rows can actually see that part properly when on the ride... "Don't Lose Your Head" side is fine, though again I can't help but feel if they had just done it as adverts rather than add some random graffiti on top then the overall final product would've been a lot better... It's that sort of detailing that Merlin get badly wrong...

Falls, Monkey Swinger, Rameses and Bubbleworks are the only rides that can be seriously considered as rides involving water (Scorpion Express and Zufari do not count, as they both involve more than just water)... Out of the rides added in the last 10 years, well, erm, NONE involve getting you wet in some way, so I'm not sure what you're actually on about Bill... Out of all the rides I've mentioned, only one can be considered a true water ride, so I think it can be said that Chessie could do with another water ride (or indeed, anything)... It might not be a top priority right now, but it's something that needs to be considered...

Amity Cove has lost a lot of details over the years though... Certainly though there is a lack of details in many of the UK investments... Indeed, you compare Swarm's church with the waterlogged details of Amity's buildings and there is a massive difference in what's been done... Scorched pavements are a start but the details need to be in the aspects of the ride that people will be looking at as well... The billboard is not a detail, but a theming element... Big difference... And the detail in it is done so badly, with the stupid graffiti that ruins the "Flight in Paradise" joke... The little things are the most important, but there's not enough of them at Merlin parks (to take the Phantasialand example, their water pump themed drop towers include a pipe of water turning on and off as the ride rises and falls, THAT'S attention to detail)...

Can't build rides on that land though, only reason Zufari was able to be put there was because it was part of the animal stuff...

Tbh, a Rapids is unlikely due to the high amount of land required for a decent one... I'd like to see a Supersplash tbh, decent throughput if run well and can provide a good thematic experience if done properly (I.e. an actually themed elevator lift)... And can be quite compact too...

I do remember once complaining at Towers (few years back when they were all, MAP holders must use a gate, but no sign stating which gate), and on my next visit they had a sign up... Best methods to complain are either in person on the day, or by phone... Emails just be forgotten about way too easily... On the phone they have to sort you out (since you cant just get given Fastrack)...