Benin

I can currently confirm that the site is still dirt and mud... Based upon the markers throughout the park, the layout seems really random... Hopefully they'll release one soon...

Chiapas is so much fun, and has an acceptable amount of wetness allowing some re-rideability... Hopefully once the new Mystery area work is done they'll tear out Night Hawk because it's so awful... Their dragon mascots and the changes made to the entrance since my last visit in 08 are fantastic... Such a good park

March 2013 that is...

Most Top Spins are more performance than actually being a good ride... Still, riding it tomorrow... So excite <3

It's embarrassing how the park still does not have the infrastructure to deal with days that get busy... The lack of rides with any form of decent throughout kill it completely... Even if Fury and Falls had been open, there would just also be long queues for them, especially Fury...

Universal dont change their kids area during their event... Granted its not in the middle of the park but even so... Thorpe wont change anything, at most will just tell any roaming actors not to go in there... Though from what I saw last year kids don't give two damns about scare actors...

Sounds like a classic case of the Intamins to me... A very daft situation for the park to be suffering from, wont be doing much for their KPIs nor Six Flags' reputation...

They had to replace Roller Soaker to achieve that again... Eh, non plussed on it as I'd prefer an ACTUAL Fun House instead of a ride themed to one...

Now why would you want to go to some rubbish looking Disney park millions of miles away when you have the best ever theme parks in the world just around the M25? Daft Turtle is daft...

Looks a wee bit cramped, though probably no more than the normal hotel rooms are to be fair to it... S'ok, but nothing special tbh...

D23 expansion? Bit daft looking it must be said...

I'm still having nightmares from Coaster Express in Madrid... Awful, awful thing...

The Ultimate...

I think Thorpe can do much better than a 2nd hand Vekoma and Arrow combo...

Helix, Liseberg and Mack’s 2014 project has been at the forefront of many an enthusiast’s mind during the past year or so. With Blue Fire being reasonably rated by the community, hopes were high for Helix when it was announced. Two launches, multiple inversions, a terrain based layout and the odd airtime hill meant that this ride was ticking all the right boxes for enthusiasts around the world. The real proof though, was in the pudding of actually riding it. And this is a more detailed review on the attraction, so spoilers beware. Helix lives at the top of Liseberg’s hill, sharing a building with Atmosfear, the Intamin Gyro Drop, and a few other bits and pieces. Indeed, it feels more that Helix is budging in on the pre-existing attractions in the building, as the Helix ‘side’ as it were is rather small and under-stated. Perhaps it was designed this way, but it is a slight shame that for all the rest of the ride’s majesty the entrance is literally a door in a wall. However, from entering the queue, such understatement is forgotten. The queue-line itself is reminiscent of Westminster’s Jubilee Line area, with Escher references and the odd Goon-Window for goons to pry into the mechanical workings of the ride. It’s also a great example of how to do a concrete themed queueline, with lighting and rockwork complementing the style of the ride, as opposed to a theme. There is also a Helix game app available on Apple and Android devices, which is actually a live competition amongst those in the queue. It’s a random set of mini-games with a loose theme to the ride itself, but great fun to play and watch others. Certainly an ingenious way to pass the time in the constantly moving queue. Like Blue Fire and Alpina Blitz, the seats are incredibly comfortable; however the stapling from the ride ops is unfortunate to say the least. A considered warning for those planning to go in the future. The understated dispatch of changing lights as the ride drops down with some considerable airtime in the back before the slow corkscrew to ease us into the ride before we turn a corner and into the first launch. Whilst not the most powerful or fastest launch ever, it fulfils the need of the ride’s mass market ability, and is still an incredibly fun launch anyway, as it whips you into the first zero-g of the ride. A quick turn and airtime hill lead us back down to the base of the hill, and into the Snorwegian Loop, which was blatantly better than Speed Monster’s, mainly due to the speed at which it was taken here. Diving under Lisbergbanen’s lift-hill, we rise back up into a fantastic airtime hill. I’d adored Alpina Blitz’s ones, and Helix certainly topped them off for the level of quality, they’re even better when instantly followed by a zero-g. The final part of the first half of the ride involves a sharp overbanked turn into a diving helix, which ended up being my favourite part of the ride it must be said, because it again combines a sharp bit of airtime and transitioning in a way that Intamin can only dream about (unless lap-bars are involved). The second launch which provides an extra boost of speed if nothing else into the inverted top hat, which featured some hangtime towards the front of the train. The best airtime hill of the ride follows, as the drop out of it seems to go on forever, before we turn out into the most terrain bit of the ride, the rising s-bends. Which are again fun for an element of a pure design to just enforce the train to lose speed. The typical Mack finish of the inline is just as good as Blue Fire’s, even without the near miss theming. And that’s it. Although my first ride was in the middle, I still found that Helix fulfilled the hype for me. It does lots of things, and whilst it may not do any of these things in an overtly ridiculous fashion (say like, how Intamin do great first drops but everything else is poor comparatively), everything is done well. The pacing is pretty seemless, even with the second launch as the train still has a fair amount of speed going into it. And the use of interaction with the terrain (as little as there might be in the final form) and other rides (Upswingett and Lisebergbanen) allow it to gain extra brownie points. Some people think it needs on-ride music, but I disagree, as I find on-ride music on anything but indoor coasters tend to get lost with the wind and general being outside times, however awesome the ride’s music is. The only true negative of the ride is that the merch is crap. I loved it from my first ride, and a front and back row ride afterwards pretty much confirmed it was top 10 for me. At night, it’s a different beast as well. The lighting package with head and sidelights produces a different experience both on and off-ride. It makes the ride look even more beautiful. Mack and Liseberg have truly struck gold with Helix. And I hope that more parks start to pick up this attraction (Towers can replace Rita with one going into the valley).

Blair Witch's makeshift queue gave it a fair run for being dreadfully located... Then again most halloween attractions worldwide tend to have such poor queues because of the temporary nature... Thorpe would be daft not to include a replacement for Asylum assuming it's gone... Just because they are being stum on the matter means nothing as to whether a replacement is due or not... Indeed, they're not wanting for potential themes to it with the Lionsgate partnership... Case of wait and see really... They'll probably start pushing the promotion hard soon enough, and a new maze theme will help push that promotion in itself... We've only just started the real summer season after all...

Glad I got the creds when I did then... It is an absolute DIVE though... Millenium Coaster is good fun and Odyssey is dire as soon as it does anything... It's a horrible, horrible sketchy place though... The giant market doesn't help this factor either... Worse than Blackpool is an apt description of the area...

Construction is starting, aiming for a Summer 2015 opening... Still no knowledge on the official layout and stuff mind...

Don't forget stealing the "Ultimate Coaster EVAR!1" tagline from Thirteen...

They're REALLY comfy and simplistic, with just a seatbelt over your lap holding you in... Combines the freedom of no restraints with the fear of falling out rather nicely I thought... Day 4 – Grona Lund The final day began with a long journey to Stockholm from our hotel. There were many weary souls staggering out of the hotel that morning, but we all eventually made it to the final park. We met the rather fab Annika who told us how the night before the park had closed due to the storm, with Eclipse (the 400ft StarFlyer) being struck around 3 times, which meant it was playing the spite game. We were then taken to Twister, the Gravity Group woodie for an hour long ERT. Before we entered the park it had been explained to me as “like Blackpool with class”, which in the long run means that many of the rides intertwine with each other and there’s not much space for huge rides. Twister is perhaps the epitome of this factor in the park’s design process, as it crosses over not only itself (26 times apparently), but also over and under other coasters that come within the vicinity, and the gaps certainly aren’t big enough. It also has the Timberliner trains, which are equally weird and fab with their Maurer Sohne esque lapbar system that comes over, only without ANY of the pinning that those suffer from. Absolute result. The ride itself is pretty much a blur still, even after 10 goes. Tonnes of airtime about though, especially when on one-click bar operations from the staff where I spent most of my time standing up throughout the course. Some highlights do include the teaser airtime hills, which lull you into expecting tonnes of airtime, but don’t provide one, before promptly giving you another change of direction and an airtime hill to make you feel better. It was at the end of the hour, a rather suited 400th coaster for me, and I want to see more parks pick up these little bundles of joy as they are getting quite highly rated. ERT over, we headed back into the rest of the park, starting with Vilda Musen, which is actually a Gerstlauer Bobsled. I usually find these good fun rides, but there was just something about this one which I couldn’t put my finger on. A strange thing, given the interaction available with Jetline on numerous occasions, but perhaps Twister had taken all the love I had to give that day. Jetline was then next with some classic Schwarzkopf action. It was alright; quite rattly it must be said as well though, and it is vastly improved by the interaction with the other rides nearby. I find myself struggling to remember most of it if I’m quite honest here too. A bad sign if ever there were one. Continuing the quest for creds led us all over towards Kvasten, one of the newer Vekoma Junior Inverts. The station building is beautifully themed it must be said, inside and out. It stands rather weirdly amongst the mess of the rest of the park, this rather majestic wooden house, but it’s so damn good to look at. The ride itself was fun if lacking anything remotely forceful, because family coaster. We need the trains on Vampire though, because they are the comfiest Vekoma trains going. Opposite Kvasten was the highly rated Ghost Train, Bla Taget. And it’s utterly fab, which is pretty high praise from someone who doesn’t usually do such rides. It has LOTS of effects, ranging from fab to UTTERLY FAB, makes absolutely zero sense (in the same way that the original Towers Haunted House didn’t), has a decent pace and is just generally a good attraction. This certainly puts the goal high when other parks refurb old dark rides. After that it was time for Insane, potential death cred ahoy! This was to be my first Intamin Zac Spin, and after watching this go around a few times I had my doubts as to whether I would enjoy it or not. Luckily I was able to get into a balanced car due to the odd number of us who had entered the queue, and I am very glad for that fact. Me and Intamin restraints don’t have a great history, usually with my neck. Insane decided to punish my stomach for a nice change of pace, with some of the spins/drops throwing me into the restraint quite hard; it’s not too difficult to see how someone could fall out. I did not find it enjoyable, and I now have another Intamin creation to glare at in anger. It was time for the kiddie creds, which consisted of a Zierer Tivoli Small in Ladybird, and a Zamperla Mini Mouse in Tuff Tuff Taget. Both were, as predicted, nothing worthy to write home about. Lunch was called, and I managed to watch a Pirate themed show as well as some roaming dancing gorillas right by the next meeting point. The meeting point was set outside the Lustig Haus, which is perhaps one of the best park based fun-houses ever. It had pretty much everything token in a fun house and more besides, with the particular stand-out being the conveyor belt slide, which when 20 odd people ride it there’s some bad times ahead, but in a fab way. It all ends with a massive slide back down to the bottom as well. Fantastic. We popped next door to the Tunnel of Love attraction. Which was a random dark ride in a boat thing, the scenes looked nicely done, but we were far too interested in creating a convoy of boats to care (we got 6). After that faff the group split up as it was nearly time to say farewell. We found time to shop for tat, enter one of those crappy corridor of mirrors things and even have ice cream. And that was that, we all bid farewell to each other and the park. Grona Lund is pretty nice really, with some decent rides in there. Unfortunately Eclipse was being spiteful due to being struck by lightning numerous times the night before but that’s the only ride that actually seriously spited us over the course of the trip, which can only be seen as a positive. Sweden is lovely and the people are as well, so I must advertise the fact that it’s so easy to get to two of the parks there, why aren’t people going? Gothenburg is 2 hours away! That means Helix is arguably closer to London than Towers is! Why aren’t you visiting?

Teaser for the new ride... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en4_qH-MfwA

Theme does add to a ride though, Blue Fire proves that when compared to it's unthemed clones... Black Mamba is a very good example too of how theming can truly make a ride something better (not that I rate the ride personally)... It's all about the quality of the theming, rather than the quantity...

Themed tunnel though

A timeline which indicates the expected opening year... http://www.londonparamount.info/the-project/timeline/ If the website is accurate of course (it doesn't particularly look it, but perhaps an 'official' site would only be launched when construction begins), we've only got to wait 5 years for this thing to open... Yay!