Benin

Some pics from Liseberg's Facebook... This will keep me warm this winter...

Good show from Towers there... Must be said, the Entertainments department this year have really been a beacon of light amongst all the other issues... Well done to them...

Sporting events anywhere that have paid-for parking zones tbh... I wonder if the other countries where this is the norm feel the same way? I mean I paid €7/8 for Walibi and Plopsaland last weekend but it didn't feel that bad... Maybe because the entry fee was €35 for Walibi and €28 for Plopsa? Definitely works better that way than the way we do it over here as it doesn't really feel like it's part of the park cost...

Is Europa less than 8 euros then? £6 or equivalent tends to be the trend across the continent... Then again, Europa charge for car parking must mean that Merlin aren't THAT awful for having it... Though would be nice to park on tarmac yes...

I wish I was cool enough to break park rules...

They don't put people off though... Otherwise no-one would visit their parks, so a rather strange comment to make... $65 to enter Great Adventure, so tis about $90 for the day... Which in English (approx £56) is about the same as what you pay over here for Towers/Thorpe on the gate... Considering Great Adventure have 11 coasters, and Cedar Point even more, it's certainly not that comparable though...

Doesn't say how long for though

I think they mostly always have, especially the Intamins... Imagine if Thorpe had such a website over the last few years... That wouldn't have provided a good indicator...

Most parks do this actually, closing queues early if they're excessive... Walibi closed a 2 hour queue for their woodie a hour before park close... Makes sense if it's down to the fireworks, even Disney do that...

Seats 4 per plane, and I would love to see one built outside of Copenhagen, but throughput would be a major issue for a 'normal' ticket park... If only Mingoland stopped buying Zamperlas...

Weren't allowed to take photos inside unfortunately, especially when most of the time you had an actor with you so not even sneakily like... It looked fab though...

In what will probably be an unsurprising development, our 2nd park of the weekend was Plopsaland, because we all love it to bits. It also has an immense amount of new things at the place this year, from a new MASSIVE theatre, two new rides in a newly themed area, and two rethemed rides (the kiddie cred and onion boats) which is really fantastic to see. Add this to the hotel development which is on-going and it does seem like the park is going places. They had a good amount of Halloween stuff going on as well, and numerous walking characters because why not? We faffed about the entrance area and K3 Museum before the park opened and we headed over to Vleermuis, the Batflyer since I had only the one side of it and both are separate creds (cue arguments). I forgot how much of a burden it was to get into it and I eventually sat in the child seat. Urgh. Still, plus 1. After this we meandered a bit and found the Lapins, a bunny variant on the infamous porn ponies, so naturally we had to ride them because they’re FAB. It was then time for our favourite ride on park, Anubis, which has led to us becoming quite massive fans of the TV show (Nickelodeon’s version, not the Dutch one) and very goony about it. Hell, we even played the Board Game in the hotel on the Friday night. Either way, the ride is still very good, aside from the awful rattle you get off the launch; everything else is pretty damn smooth. It also gains points for finale in-line times. Up next was the brand new Wickieland and its two new rides. On my last visit this was but a circus tent, but now it’s a lovely themed area with one of the best themed flat rides I’ve ever seen. We first did the Splash Battle of Burden, as the queue is unfinished and people waiting to get off can just fire at you without fear of retribution. In addition to that, you can also get people on the Disko Coaster, which is a hilarious concept indeed. The ride itself was a Splash Battle though, so nothing special really. The Disko was next, and unsurprisingly that too rode like one, only sans bouncing which disappointed me slightly. However it does look immense and puts Kobra to absolute shame. We fancied a bit of dark ride action so went to the Forest of Plop, which is still as fab and weird as before. We also petted a moody cow in the farm area before electing to have some food because hungry times were abound. This resulted in Waffles of JOY <3 After the waffles we went into Maya Land, which is a lovely indoor themed area. We did the Slide before the Waterlillies (a Demolition Derby) and finishing on the Flying Flowers of Burden, which were Dumbos but with annoying water fountains. Mergh. We decided for another 2 goes on Anubis before heading off towards the newly partially rethemed area. It so far looks a lot better than it did 2 years ago that’s for certain, and hopefully when they finish doing the other coaster and the Teacups it’ll look even better. We did the Onion Boats and found a rubber ducky before Victor’s Race, a Zierer Tivoli with very happy planets and a dinosaur control box. It was then time for the first show in the new Theatre, and the entire park seemingly decided to go and see it. It was our first glimpse into the new building and all I can say is wow. There is a MASSIVE reception area which can be used for business functions and probably the hotel in the future. Then inside the theatre itself it looks fantastic, with comfy seats and just all modern stuff. Pete the Pirate was the show in question with a Halloween theme, and the guy doing it was the same who appears in the TV show and epic looking Film. Chalk another for the European park shows, as it had catchy shows and typical kid-friendly amusements. We then went in search of other shows, but this led us to the amazing doughy balls of sugary joy! They even had raw dough within them! OM-NOM-NOM! The Roller-Skater was next, with it’s weird theme and covered in old theming from the rethemed Zierer. The painting techniques on the back of the washing machine were fab though. Into the Castle area and we watched the Witches show, which involved dancing, interaction and sweeties! After a quick run around on Draak, the Mack powered coaster of epic music and weird layout, we sat down for the Ron and Jon show. This was basically a lot of slapstick between two guys which was then exacerbated by a giant monkey of WHY?! It was still quite funny though and it was nice to see a show we could understand. After that it was 2 more goes on Anubis, a bit of shopping and the journey home. We could’ve stayed for the last show, but I think Walibi took a lot out of us the day before. Unfortunately our trip home was a disaster, as we were turned around from the EuroTunnel due to a stuck train to the ferry, which was delayed so we had to wait around 2 hours to even leave the country, by which point the trains had started up again. Then the ferry was a burden as well. And the rain, the constant miserable rain. URGH. Got back at 12:30 Monday morning and went straight to bed, making a disappointing end to a fantastic weekend.

Turns out they are 7 rows then...

It's open again...

Eh, basically the same as last year bar a Spinning Zamperla in a box... First of it's kind indeed... Tis hard to get excited about the over-pricedness of it all being a right old burden... Wristbands would be so much nicer...

I'm surprised our parks haven't thought that digital ticket machines (be they for pick up or on the day purchases) would be a fantastic and useful idea... Already have the system in place, why not do it?

Bleh that's weird how none of the pics work on here now... Work everywhere else... I dunno, John got put into a cage and according to Kristof/Jereon it sounds more like Face it Alone is ripping off Project Z but adding nudity because it needs to be 'edgy'... EDIT - Pictures now fixed... Stupid TPM...

I wouldn't say Thorpe need to do anything with their lighting, as it's always there and used for more than just the Halloween event... Audio, eh, whilst the stuff was fitting the theme, were the Director blurbs any better than previous years? They were rather cheap and corny jokes, which if the event is meant to be adult themed, should have no place within the park? Thing is, to me, the park struggled to have an atmosphere that was Halloweeny... Indeed, it felt exactly like my Summer Nights trip for the most part since the only differences were the audio and the odd roaming actor... I don't see what's wrong in the park trying out a theming splurge... If the park wants to make this event as good as possible, then they're gonna have to spend regardless... Be it on quality theming (which could easily be used BY roaming actors) or more actors... At any rate, how expensive IS a good quality fake weapon? Not one that looks like they got it from ASDA?

It depends on the quality of the theming... A budget could easily spread to have stuff like this: Hell, even covering the park in pumpkins would be an improvement... You can also use the Towers Freaky Fun Zone on a good example of how to do a reasonably decent Halloween zone for the family market, as that certainly had the best atmosphere in the park upon my visit... There is nothing really stopping any of our parks to really pushing the boat out on park-wide theming like Chessie used to do... Problem is with Thorpe, is that outside of the actual mazes, you'd be easy to forget it was a Halloween event... The only thing that changes in the park is the addition of spooky music and the mazes, which to me, isn't good enough to make it a truly decent event...

Or maybe have set locations as to where they will hang out? That being said, Walibi had TONNES of roaming actors around their scare mazes and other scare zones... Maybe it's just a case of boosting the numbers if they really want to make the park the destination for Halloween events... Of course, making the park FEEL like it's having a Halloween event would be my personal focus...

So after a month of going to all the Merlin Halloween events the ‘last’ weekend of the month needed to be something different. As such, discussions were had and plans put in place for a quick jaunt over the Channel on a Friday afternoon to enjoy a weekend of Belgian creds and scary things. The Saturday was at Walibi, which has had an interesting life it must be said, and recently rebranded itself to a rather different park theme of a music band. They also hold one of Belgium’s premier Halloween events, including a character who has a 5 year history as part of the event, roams the park hurling abuse at people and is on Facebook. The event is so popular that the two days prior to our visit the park had to close early due to capacity reasons. Fortunately, as John had been talking to local enthusiasts, we had purchased the R.I.P (in peace) passes. These were €35 (or €25 on other days depending on opening hours) and got you Fastrack on 5 rides of your choosing, all the scare mazes, a visit to the Zombie Bar, priority seating area for Fireworks and 10% off in shops. Limited to 500 a day, this certainly screamed value for money, especially when there are 2 hour queues involved. The park opened at 10 to begin the 11 hour day, and we headed right to the opposite end of the park to the most famous ride in Belgium… Psyke Underground It’s a Schwarzkopf Shuttle Loop! Yaaaay! This has had a chequered history as well, including stalls, being put semi-indoors, noise complaints, closure, etc. But this year the park enclosed the entire thing and added a bit of theming to make it fit the ‘music park’ theme. They also turned the launch into LSMs, which made me happy. The queue was non-existent, so we were straight on and ready to go. A small pre-show occurs (although little context is provided to what’s going on) and we’re slowly set off on our way to a countdown. The launch then kicks in. Chalk another win up for rolling LSM launches above the other types, as you are propelled into the darkness and through the classically intense loop before heading up the first spike and then repeat the loop backwards, dash through the station with strobes going off and slightly up the backwards spike before returning back into the station. It’s simple, effective; it’s rather good in fact. I do hope that the park’s plans to continue improving the experience (the outdoor portion of the queue is dull, and could be turned into a disco scene, more lights and a requirement to play the rather epic soundtrack are also required) come to fruition, because it really is the best coaster on the park. 7/10 We rode it a second time in the front (because the ride experience really differs on your row), before heading off in search of other rides. Firstly, we hit up the Zierer Tivoli for 3 laps of +1, whilst next door was a dark ride I was quite interested in experiencing. Challenge of Tutankhamon A Sally trackless dark ride with multiple (3) possible endings and lots of awesome effects? Where do I sign up? This in the end was quite cool, and we managed to get the super-secret bonus ending first time around. Horray for us! There was however no fire which was disappointing. However most of the animatronics and other effects were very good. Be interesting to see what they do with this considering how it doesn’t fit in at all to the new branding. We next headed into the Wild West area, where Calamity Mine awaited, a Vekoma Mine Train of the standard two lift hill clone type. It was alright I guess; nothing really special to write home about. With the rumours surrounding the Western area in general however the ride could look damn awesome next year. Continuing our walk back to the park entrance we went into the 4D Cinema in French as we thought we might understand it better. We didn’t, but it was quite a decent show unique to the park’s brand. Decent level of effects without resorting to the burdenous leg ticklers either. Good. We then met up with Kristof, local Walibi enthusiast extraordinaire before deciding to go on Cobra, which he quickly backed out of. It is a Vekoma Boomerang after all, but certainly not the worst one I’ve ever done. Again this area of the park had a strange Arabian theme going on, a reminder of the park’s Six Flags days. Hopefully the park will get to a stage where all of the park is themed to WAB. We ventured ahead into the Palace of the Genie which was unsurprisingly a Madhouse. It made no sense at all as to what was going on, which is always a problem with Madhouses and their stories, more often than not they are too wordy to get across to us ignorant English people. However the alternative effects inside were decent and quite subtle in a way to finish the story. We’re still spoilt by Hex though. It was then time for the Music Battle Show, which was new for this year. There was a lot of pre-show pissing about due to some technical issues but eventually the show did start and it was pretty awesome. With awesome projection mapping and standard stunt show stunts before a decent finale. It was certainly worth watching and makes me wish we could have such things. Nic is SUCH a goon We broke for lunch at an Italian place, which was ok, before heading off to the Zombie Bar which was literally located on the park’s lake, to which you had to cross a bridge to access it. There we met Jeroen, another enthusiast who works quite high up on the park. We had our free drink and nattered for some time, being interacted with the Zombies as well for a good while. A very entertaining and unique idea, and probably the best part of our day, especially when one zombie led us on a conga line off the island. The mazes had opened and John, Kristof and Jeroen went onto their first, Project Z, which included a disclaimer and going around alone. After their go through, the report was that John got locked in a cage for several minutes, and there was lots of touching and weird things going on. It even ended in a waist high foam party for some reason. The vote for next things were for creds, so we went to the last two of the park, firstly, a SLC. Vampire wasn’t very good, and had some minimal theming. Others enjoyed it but I found it to be burdenous and juddery. Next door though the Wooden coaster Loup-Garou (or is it Weerwolf?) was much better, even with the set-square corners it had an abundance of airtime and generally I found it to be quite a fun ride. We wandered over to the Zombie River, which normally is a Jungle Cruise style affair, but for Halloween it has actors (3 of them) around to ‘scare’ you. It didn’t have a high scare rating and for good reason, it wasn’t very good. A lot of milling around doing not a lot where 1 actor sat there doing nothing, whilst the other 2 were a simple diversion and scare tactic. They are limited due to the nature of the ride, but they could’ve done better I’m sure. The scare maze doers did Insomnia, which was located on the Dodgems and had a tonne of actors inside, and it was rated as pretty good. We caught the magic show a second time because of being told of another show which unfortunately didn’t exist. We decided that we should head back towards Psyke and thus got the epically themed train over there. Off the train we suggested John and Kristof do the Virus Z1 outdoor maze, which they did, before we rode Psyke again closer to the back and received an even more forceful ride. Horray! We headed back towards the entrance via Villa 13 (which had way too many people going through at once to be effective), did some shopping with our discounts before settling down to watch the fireworks show. It was pretty cool; it had fire, explosions and lasers. What’s not to love? Standard fare really although it had be toned down from last year as they shut the mazes and brought the actors out for it. Made sense to not do that this year. At the point we bid Kristof a farewell as he needed to go home. After that we rode Loup-Garou again in the dark since it was the only other coaster we wanted to re-ride, before me and John headed towards Madhouse 3D but it was shut because of security reasons. On the way out we decided to ride the Breakdance, which we got 2 goes on because the ride op was being lazy and wanted to close his queue early by 5 minutes. Fine by us, because it was on a really epic cycle. I didn’t take any photos of the Breakdance, so have the epically lit Wave Swinger instead… And that was it. My thoughts on Walibi are that it is a park with great potential, but limited due to neighbours, hence all the issues with Psyke. They have a decent line up of rides if rather mediocre in a way, and a very unique theme and brand which they are pushing into the parks they own. I had a very enjoyable day at the park and it seemed to have very good intentions towards the future, and I hope that it succeeds. The Halloween event was good as well, with a fair amount of park theming and LOTS of actors roaming about most of the areas. I mean LOTS. More than our parks have in total numbers. It certainly was the most Halloweeny event I’ve been too this year, and they deserve plaudits for that. Well done.

Wasn't Mr Wann leaving the directing field after whatever he released this year? Evidently Lionsgate aren't doing very well to drag this back up...

It's only popular because of the attached brand, not because it's a good ride... Be interesting to see if it was equally 'liked' without the IP... I doubt it...

A closed season where we haven't got anything major being built to distract us... This is gonna be a crap few months then... Though of course, if people were REALLY desperate to ride things, sure some actual research would lead them to parks that remain open during the winter...

You're NEVER going to get consistency with mazes due to their nature...