Benin

Why not complain at GS officially when on park (and claim the inevitable free Fastrack to make you go away quicker)?

Not every park has to be owned by a major company to be a success... Sometimes parks just need owners who care and produce a quality experience, which is easily possible at a park like Oakwood...

If Inferno had been built in Germany, it would definitely have fire, since they're obsessed with the stuff... The volcano needs a clean more than anything if I recall, being all mossy and mergh looking... Plus actually existing on the exit staircase as well would've been a bonus... The 2000s were really strange for the overall project quality...

One can only hope we're gonna get a Gerstlauer Bobsled rather than another dull Wild Mouse...

People got these passes for Scarefest, these will clearly sell just as well if not more so...

Probably trying to raise funds as no one visits the park... Tis difficult for me to justify the excessively long trip north for it when I've done everything there and nothing new has been added because they cant afford it... Shame they cancelled their lodge idea as it would've gone a long way to helping the park...

Why should people who live locally just "bare with it" though? Imagine actually living nearby and having traffic going past your house for several hours of the day... Certainly not something I would want to deal with...

With Efteling, it might not even open next year with their history... Worth holding off, Netherlands isn't expensive to visit at all...

Legoland won't have a bleak future because it'll still pull in the guests... Whilst the ride has been rejected, the reasons behind it are reasonably sound from locals, indeed, there's a good difference between parks that have a good relationship with locals and those without... It would probably be in Merlin's better interests to start helping locals out when they have such qualms about the nearby park... Perhaps further widening of the road to Lego is the best option? With some changes to light sequencing and other easier to do tasks as well...

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).