Benin

A trip designed to visit one of the lesser countries in Europe known for its parks, even if it has 6 big parks, including one of the most visited in the continent, not much ever seems to come out of Denmark, so as such, this trip was created, organised and visited. Day 1 - Arrival and Copenhagen We arrived in the afternoon to a warm and humid Denmark, a certain surprise to the 4 of us who were travelling along, and it wasn't long until we realised the Danish way of life was completely different to our own. Very laid back, no expectations and a good versing in foreign languages, leading us to just speak English all week, such is the way of life. We picked up the car, found our hotel in central Copenhagen (near Tivoli and the central station) and began our adventures through a quick wander around the city. We headed to the main plaza where they were setting up a big screen for Eurovision later, whilst the Gumball derby was also taking place. We later learnt that this was a Bank Holiday Weekend for the Danes, so we had clearly timed our trip well to coincide with these events. We went down towards the Royal Palaces to have a quick look at them, before hunger struck us and we went back to the plaza in search for food. In the end, McDonalds was our port of call. Afterwards we decided to head back to the hotel via a small supermarket to stock up on drinks and snacks, and we had a mini-Eurovision night. Great fun, especially as Denmark took the honours, the atmosphere outside our hotel was bouncing around and it was great to be part of a country that won for a change. And with that, the first night ended on a high, and we hadn't even ridden a ride yet.

Decent find, explains a lot about the initial delays to the project... Just seems to make it seem less of Towers' direct fault really... Couldn't prevent the weather related issues which really was the next major delay... Right shame really then that it decides to crash as well, just to really complete the set... Dunno why people are shocked June is likely right now considering it's next week...

By one person... Cannot see how it's a valid comparison though... You can see on Juvelen, another ride new for 2013, it suffers a similar issue... What happens when new wheels are being run in, friction will take the paint off after some time of running on a constant basis... Fact of life, but to compare it to Colossus is slightly over-exaggerating the situation...

Don't really see how it looks that bad... Especially in comparison to the rust covered Colossus...

Since that paint 'loss' is down to the train wheels running along the track, an issue that plagues ALL rides, nope, won't be repainted...

Yeah lets go back to being owned by DIC, those were fantastic days!

Since I'm currently in Denmark enjoying more open Gerstlauers (though the Spiteful Spinner was shut), I'm not being as in-depth as normal as I couldn't care less about this opening and basing it off the odd bit of stuff other sites have mentioned... Amusingly, a ride opened late today because the queue had been flooded... It opened 2 hours after opening... We are dire in the UK...

If it is H&S reasons, then it's still down to the extremely fine time frame Towers gave themselves to build this... Of course, risk assessments are required, but our ones sound so stupid... Hell I technically evacuated myself off a ride this week since the restraints didn't open on it upon our return to the station... Can't think of another ride anywhere which has gone through as many problems during it's construction... Edit - And if it is H&S, Gerstlauer cannot be the scapegoat... This is the park with 10 miles of scaffolding under Rita...

Smiler music keeps getting stuck in my head... Not sure if it's a good or bad thing right now though...

I had that happen in Disney, I made it clear that I had a job and told them that I had no interest in moving on... Their fault for being so slow in contacting me... In SOE news, I passed my 6 month review... Horray! We also have a new Chief Executive, President AND Patron coming in... All change please!

Do it like they do on Thirteen, where the single rider cuts off from Fastrack before getting to the batch point... Be interesting if it actually works on Smiler...

Mack Also has one of the best coasters in the world... And even the worst coaster (Bobsleigh) is the best of it's kind... There are very few (if any) bad aspects to it... Truly, the perfect park...

I like the music... No point basing it off small snippets of it as it could be a very long and variating piece of track (indeed, past records for Merlin music are quite good)... And of course the quality of music recorded through any form of camera ALWAYS fails... Looks like a typical rush to the finish whilst they sort out the details... Fun times... Look forward to returning to the country with half the enthusiast population killing themselves because this ends up being crap

Let's not mistake over-exaggerating marketing speak for what ACTUALLY happens on the ride yeah? Lest we forget Thirteen being the ultimate coaster...

Considering even the likes of Swarm and Thirteen only (just) hold around 90-120min queues, I would suggest someone is making stuff up to completely troll the enthusiasts... Let's not forget that Fastrack will not be running on Smiler for the initial bedding in period as well, so that will prevent any further issues with a long as hell queue... Indeed, it might well get up to 3 hours on the Bank Holiday weekend/Half Term, but 6 hours is just ridiculous...

Giant tin building =/= Giant shipping container...

There's another POV milling about from Capital Radio which basically confirms that absolutely nothing of any mechanical interest occurs before the first lift hill... So basically, whatever happens indoors will not be a washing machine... Huzzah!

ATG That's some bush!

But by THAT reckoning, the old Count's Cauldron facade NEVER fitted into the original idea of Translyvania???????!

Since the retheme was just done for monetary purposes, was more that new Bubbleworks came into Translyvania... I don't think revisiting the original concept would be ideal either... It needs a complete revamp of ideas and themes... No point attempting to link or better nostalgic memories...

Indeed Europa are run by Mack, but for me, the real clincher is how they treat guests, with a fantastic viewpoint on throughputs, and the overall feel and cleanliness of the park... They also have something for everyone, and it's not just the rides that are the focus, the shows, the vibes, the look of the park are what set it apart from the majority... In reality, they only have a few 'quality' coasters out of the 11, but they are perfect for their guests... But for those who don't like big rides, there are walkthroughs, hidden dark rides and of course the shows... They just seem to know what people want from the park, hence why their 5 hotels have a 98% occupancy rate, meaning they need a 6th hotel to be built...

Hey look, an unladen testing train going slowly through a layout, it's such a shock... Tests will of course involve seeing what the minimum ride load can be... In a similar vein to Thirteen needing X amount of people to ride (14? I dunno, but there's a minimum limit), 8 on this one in the middle (which is in itself unlikely with actual riders) two rows seem to be that minimum amount... It still picks up a hell lot of speed on those drops...