Benin

The sign will light up an eerie white/blue/insert colour here...

Well, if you compare Towers' event, of course Thorpe's is going to be scarier, as they don't have the family element to consider when creating their attractions...

Or someone COULD post it on here, so I don't have to go galavanting off to some random Facebook page...

Odds on it dying on the first day it reopens... Likely...

Wasn't it the "Greatest" experience for Inferno? Cool hashtag there, #getcorrected, parks need to use social media and would not be surprised to see it constantly being plastered across the park...

New World Beating Coaster... It's like Inferno's marketing all over again

Based on previous Fright Nights experience, you can't really blame anyone for considering buying Fastrack especially when going with someone who hasn't been before... Kinda one of the reasons it does exist (even with the "HOW MUCH?" aspect and the inevitable overselling causing 3 hours queues on everything)...

It's the Daily Mail... Do we expect any different from them? And calling Slammer reliable? Even though the overall issue is S&S's fault for using air pressure for EVERYTHING, Thorpe's decision to keep it could well be a mistake if it continues to act like it has been, much more expensive to source out parts for it now than it would if S&S gave a damn about it... Half and half really... Regardless though, Thorpe does have issues with reliability, surely that cannot be denied? And Marc didn't even mention Stealth's long list of issues... (and Inferno's, and Det's, and Colossus', and so on)...

So that was the two new coasters since my last trip, now it was time to revisit the other nine and see if they've changed or if my opinion has, as it was nearby, we started with... Atlantica Supersplash The first thing you notice is the music here, how much did Europa pay for the rights of the Pirates of the Caribbean music (both film and original song appear) I wonder... The queue is still well themed and mazey, like all the newer rides really... Running 4 boats meant that if there had been a queue we would've moved fast, but since the weather seemed to be taking a turn for the worse and everyone was going to Blue Fire/Wodan we walked straight onto the back row... Up the hill to the first turntable... WHY does it rotate 1 and a quarter times? So so pointless that is... The drop was quicker than I remember, providing some airtime, and the main drop is certainly accented with the addition of Wodan diving over the track... Fairly wet really, but it's a decent water ride really... Nothing spectacular, but like many big water rides, it's much more of a spectacle to non-riders and only exceptionally enjoyable when it's the middle of summer... 7/10 Rain was starting to fall, so we quickly ran back to the hotel to grab coats before heading towards the Austria area... AlpenExpress The classic example of Europa's operational policy here... Load train, visual check, dispatch, put down any bars that might still be up as the train leaves the station... Classic and it's so amazing to see some of the operational procedures over here when really, there is no need for them (aside from the fact that the Germans have tonnes of common sense)... As for the ride, it's still one of the best Mack Mine Trains in my experience... Exceptionally themed cave section with random fire and a surprisingly big drop inside... Only 2 goes unfortunately but you don't feel too short-changed by that... Fab ride... 7/10 WildWasserBahn Didn't go on this last visit, and since there was no queue, we elected to have a quick ride on it as we were there... It gives a nice relaxing view of the cave it shares with the Mine Train, and again gives some level of dampness... Kinda basic really for a Flume ride, meander in woods, first lift, small drop, meander in cave, second lift, big drop, meander to station... Done... Next it was time to head towards the nearest coaster, the classic spinning rave machine that is... Euro-Mir Ahhhhh bless Euro-Mir, the classic track has made it somewhat of a cult ride amongst enthusiasts, especially when the layout itself isn't particularly inspiring or the spinning great due to the controlled element Mack put into it back when it opened... Of course modern Mack Spinners aren't controlled anymore, so it would be interesting to see if Euro-Mir would get a refurb with new trains (with on board music please) in the future... Anyways, the ride's famous lift hill rave sequence is always fun, with the random pointless spinning and spaceship in the middle... I totally forgot it had a trommel as well, that's awesome and should happen more... The layout as mentioned isn't fantastic, since half the ride is Wild Mouse esque with more controlled spinning, and then the actual coastery section is quite rough nowadays, although the finale helix is still pretty good, and rather intense when going backwards through it... Like any cult ride, it's not for everyone, but I find it incredibly silly and fun, one day I'd love to get a load of glow-sticks and rave it up on a night ride... 7/10 We continued on our tour of Europe to Greece next, home of one of my favourite dark rides ever, a little hidden gem if it were... Abenteur Atlantis ABENTEUR! I don't really know why, but I really like this ride and just find it so fun... Even after the epicness of Huntik's visual and physical effects, even the simplicity of Atlantis works well into the theme, story and the park... It's a little hidden dark ride guilty pleasure... It's like Duel in a way, because it has immense throughput and is relatively out the way, it never seems to get a queue, indeed, the numerous times we rode it, we walked on every single time... So fab... Shame they don't do the cuddly turtle anymore though Just so much fun, it might look cheap in comparison to other shooters, but it just seems to work for me... 8/10 After 2 rides on Atlantis, the next creds were spotted, and so for the YoungStar/Water coasters of Greece... Pegasus You do have to feel sorry for Mack sometimes, no-one buys Blue Fire, and no-one buys Pegasus, which is a very fun 'kiddie' coaster and easily better than the Vekoma counterparts... The first drop is pretty intense considering the target audience, and the rest of the ride is all overbanks and relatively tight helices... It's weird really, maybe parks don't wanna risk it with this coaster, with Vekomas being pretty well known about it... But considering the superiority, it's such a shame... Also, that lift hill music <3 7/10 Poseidon Another ride type Mack have struggled to sell well, although sometimes you can see why with these, what with Journey to Atlantis and Poseidon, it's a weird niche ride that might not fit every park... And even slightly looks out of place at Europa... It's one of the first rides on park that lacks a consistency of theme, purely because it is a tall ride compared to the rest of it, indeed, the coaster portions stick out like a relatively sore thumb, whilst the water sections and station/pre-lift are extremely well themed... It's jarring and inconsistent really, and a shame... Would've been interesting to see if they could've done sommat to make the coaster portions look more interesting, but with Pegasus underneath it now, that's not going to happen... The ride then, well it's gained a bit of roughness since I last visited during the coaster section, but it's still reasonably fun and enjoyable... Doesn't seem to get you too wet either, but it's an alright ride... Don't think it's that amazing really, looks a lot better than it rides (aside from the coaster section doesn't look that good)... 6/10 At this point we were feeling pretty hungry so dashed past Switzerland to France and grabbed some chocolate Crepes... They were naturally delicious and full of chocolately goodness, wasn't sure if it was proper Nutella or not, but still, so fab... We headed back to the Swiss area to grab the skipped creds... Matterhorn Blitz Mack Wild Mouses aren't that good are they? I think the layouts are a bit meh in comparison to the Maurer's, especially the finale section... However, the beginning of them are quite good, this one especially due to the elevator lift section of surprise if people don't know about it... Interestingly it's being used for Halloween, so the final straight of the queue had been partially covered in black material for later use, a different finale for a scare maze, they'll have to hide the house theming too so it isn't tooooo jarring... The ride was alright, kinda uses it's trick first off and then it's just a Wild Mouse... Oh wells... 6/10 Bobbahn Yay Bobsleigh coaster... I dunno really, after doing Blackpool's version the other weekend, this felt a bit too smooth and lacking in picking up any form of speed really... The use of an actual drop is good, but it just was a bit meh in the end... Some decent interactions later on but it's probably Europa's worst coaster... 5/10 Back to France for the final two coasters then... Eurosat Horray for EuroRave, such an underrated ride this is really...Whilst 4 years ago I felt the lift was silly and burdenous, I found it to be awesome... Like Mir, would love to do a glowstick rave on this ride... It feels like a Schwarzkopf really... The first drop is really good and the tight turns with the build up of speed all provide a surprising experience, very akin to Space Mountain really... Plus the retro Space theming and waving astronaut at the end are made of joy <3 7/10 Silver Star The final coaster of the trip, and we headed for the front row again... The theme as well is slightly jarring in comparison to the rest of the park really, maybe because the rest of the park is so well themed, especially Wodan and Blue Fire, Silver Star just looks a bit sterile... The ride however was much improved from my previous trip 4 years ago when the trims killed it completely, this trip, the ride was untrimmed and was a real indicator on how good B&M Hypers can be... Full of pure speed, floater AND ejector airtime, and just generally a fun and enjoyable ride... I adore the finale on this, the random tight turns providing a good balance to the airtime hills throughout the rest of the ride... 8/10 We found Silver Star so enjoyable and lacking in queue we rode it again, before we decided it was lunchtime and headed towards... Foodloop After last year's failure at visiting the original rollercoaster restaurant in Hamburg, I was happy to get the chance to experience the reasonably unique experience, with the added loop of course... So after a brief queue to enter, we were given a card and led to one of the many circular tables on the ground floor, it's quite cool to see how it's all set up and how the tracks intertwine with each other... The loop is located in the middle of the bottom floor of the restaurant and is visible from near enough every table, although it only services one table, it's cool enough to watch and pass the time over... Unfortunately the menu isn't particularly great, and still full from the earlier crepe, we only had chips and then some dessert, which was pretty good... Especially the dessert... Nom nom nom... After some food and a quick go on the Football Dodgems (very good, responsive, quick, but not worthy of an actual full on discussion), we wandered back to the Italy area to begin meandering around the smaller rides, starting with... Volo da Vinci New last year, this is a weird variation on the suspended monorail attraction, it's got a well themed station, with lots of buttons for various models of some of da Vinci's inventions, my favourite being the turtle tank thing... It looks fab... The ride itself is pretty basic, going over some of the other smaller rides, it's longer than you realise really, and with the whole extra pedal increasing the speed of it gives a weird sensation as you can certainly feel the speed change when pedalling... A decent ride for the target market... Good atmosphere and just relaxing if you want it to be... Piccolo Mondo Random small dark ride number 2 here, with the nicely themed gondola cars into the relatively weird animal version of Italian only It's a Small World... Strange ride really, but it's quite cool that Europa have these hidden dark rides in their line up... We then headed towards back towards the other side of the park, stopping off at Abenteur once again (a common theme throughout the trip upon every passing of the ride), before ending in the Dutch area... Piraten in Batavia Continuing the weird dark ride theme, here comes Europa's version of the Disney classic, indeed, it shares a fair few similarities with Drayton's Pirate Adventure in that sense, but actually has a whole load of working animatronics and actual fire coming out the cannons... Dunno if I would like to see them update the look of it, as for each bit that looks tatty (the animals) it looks just as good thematically... It's good really... Continuing our journey back towards Blue Fire and Wodan, we went through the Scandinavia area and decided to ride... Fjord Rafting Wooo Rapids, especially European ones, they are always good really, and Fjord was no different really... Good mixture of rapid parts, well themed cave part and also burdenous geysers which cause much soaking... Actually really enjoyable and an amusing exit pathway with excessive mist confusing/scaring everyone... We finally reached Blue Fire, and rode it once again, before following it in up with Wodan... This process was then repeated as we hit 6pm and the first day came to an end... Back at the hotel and dinner abounded in the Medici Restaurant, unfortunately the dinner this night was not particularly great due to the poor service we received from the staff, taking forever to serve us drinks and take food away and give us the bill... Not great but the food was good on the other hand... Right shame though from the park that meal, as it kinda put a bad end to what was a very good and enjoyable day...

Thorpe get stick because quite often it's perfectly justified, like many parks do... Indeed, Thorpe can easily be criticised for it's poor maintenance standards we have seen over the years (although 2011 was good, it has this year descended back to earlier times), going in summer and having 8 of your rides/attractions down and 2 of your working coasters breaking every so often is not good service, regardless of rides opening later on... We can also criticise Thorpe for their lowest common denominator style PR stunts, which are quite frankly, worse than Morwenna's crap she spouted whilst at Towers... My main problem with Thorpe is the distinct lack of consistency, you come out of the Swarm area into some old tatty often closed beach area, with random chart music playing at it's tinniest form... Then Tidal Wave's immersiveness is ruined by the stupidity that is Storm Surge, and then Lost City is a mess of thematic music... Of course, this doesn't matter anymore, cos Thorpe have moved away from themed areas, but the problem is that these areas still remain in a sense, so the continuity and consistency just fails... Then they decide to trial a shopping container hotel before building an actual one... Decisions like that also don't help... Most on here are good with criticism, giving justified explanations behind it, rather than go "rar rar rar #thorpeisawful rar rar"... People do give the park credit (for Swarm, for opening rides early) but there are also things the park makes mistakes on (running one train on coasters in the morning, overselling of fastrack) and hence are criticised for it... As long as it is justifiable, no park is free from criticism... Hell I'm sure I have some criticisms of Europa Park to write up about in my report, and that truly is an outstanding park, same goes for Disney... It's just up to people to actually bother to give reasons for their criticism...

So as the exit for Blue Fire spat us out at the entrance to Wodan, we elected to join the building up queue and await it's opening for a quick ride on it... Wodan Well the award for most epic ride entrance goes to this, that structure is pretty fab and certainly sets the ride up very well... The queue inside is also very well themed, with plenty of models and stuff to look at... I felt that it was very maze-like and when it runs on two trains it can feel quite a slow queue... But when on 3 trains it constantly moves, it's brilliant when that happens, but it only happened once for us... Regardless, we waited for the front, enjoying the atmosphere of the station, with the statues overlooking the trains departing and arriving, with the fly-through producing some interesting remarks from the crowd... Soon we were on and with a quick bar check (only the second ride that has physical checks at the park it seems) galloping off to the most epic dispatch music... The lift is quick, but not as quick as that turnaround before the drop, no time to waste before the huge (or least it feels huge) steep drop back into the support structure and some rockwork, before we dive up into a small airtime hill and the ride's interactive corner with Blue Fire... Unfortunately we never got any interaction, but I'm sure it can work if the timings are right... A slick drop under the entranceway is taken quickly up into the fly-through and the awkward bank it does (the second one in the ride, the first being the random outside bank that happens in the pre-lift section) with an interesting hop into an airtime hill, leading us into the second half of the ride, the twisty airtime section, a more traditional GCI thing here, with sudden directional changes and bumps... The Atlantica interaction is better than Blue Fire's, but again, never got to experience interaction, so disappoint Before long we hit the brakes though, after a good bit of airtime and twisting... A fair finale to what is initially a large and dominating looking ride... Overall, Wodan is a very solid and fun ride, which at times can be excessively wild (especially late in the day after heavy rain, as we discovered) and has a beautiful if sometimes burdenous feeling queue... It is a very re-rideable ride though, again a solid family coaster that suits the park down to the tee... Not as good as Blue Fire, but still a good ride... 8/10

European parks That station is really beautiful...

The area music was fab, the on ride music (when it worked) was also pretty good, just phwoar... I don't know where to put it on my top 10

Hah, don't worry, I look forward to the challenge of this trip report... Especially as each day involved something new, rather than the constant re-riding and whorage of empty queues

Day 1 An early morning and breakfast was to occur for the next 3 days, all because of the hotel ERT that starts from 8:30... Urgh, so damn early, but when there's Blue Fire awaiting, well, there's not much to actually complain about is there? Blue Fire Guess what, we rode this first... And what can really be said about it that many haven't before? It truly stands up to the hype and praise it has been given by enthusiasts, quite simply a brilliant ride, but why? First of all, the Iceland area, in conjunction now with the Splash Battle and Wodan, looks amazingly good, like all the areas of Europa do, but Blue Fire's layout delivers well to area interactivity, as it dominates a fair amount (not as much as it used to with Wodan I fear, but there you go), and the pathway parallel and level to the launch is a genius bit of landscaping design... The queue enters into the sponsors building... Gazprom made Oblivion's Fanta sponsor debacle look subtle... But it does fit (although I think my good view on this is because I didn't queue in the building, learning about Energy saving was already done at uni thanks)... Led outside under some rocks and the end of the launch provides a great look at the overbank, before we headed straight back towards the station and into the front row queue for our first ride... The station is gorgeous as well, with the music being a great accompany to the build-up of the attraction... And what German coaster with dark ride portion wouldn't be complete without DOORS?! Onto the train then, and good god it's comfy... The restraints as well, are simply great, being safe and secure yet free... Basically, Mack looked at the Intamin lap bars, and made them better and able to keep people from throwing themselves out of it... There's a lot of Intamin in this ride actually, but the trains go a long way to making Blue Fire better than the likes of Maverick and iSpeed... The Pulse monitors are a nice touch, if a bit tempermental... Seated then, and through the doors we go into the mini dark section... Again, so much detail and theming where most parks wouldn't really care much... Then we stop, have someone blab German at us, the doors slide out showing us the launch track, and then BOOM... It's not the most intense launch in the world, but it's soooo smooth yet carries a good bit of force on it... Then into the overbank, which causes a moment of "OMG I'M GONNA FALL OUT" for those sat on the left side of the train, which is a great element, before we dive towards the rocks and into the relatively forceful loop... The short overbank turn after is a lovely thing to follow, before the MCBR slows it down before giving us some amazing ejector into the next rock filled drop and first corkscrew... The terrain turn into the next one is quite good as well into the second corkscrew, with some tight turns and transitions leading into the defining element of the ride, the finale zero-g which is just as if not more intense than Swarm's finale... The final sweeping turn leads into the brakes and creates the perfect end to the ride... So what makes Blue Fire so good? It's a combination of all the elements working together, and working together well... If we compare to the Intamin rides akin to it, they suffer from poor restraint design, Blue Fire doesn't, and does near enough the same things... It's truly a perfect family thrill ride, but it's thrilling enough to satisfy those who like thrill rides... Add in the theming, soundtrack, smoothness, transitions and it just results in a near perfect ride... 10/10

Bell Rock... Obvs...

Ahhhhh, now this I've been looking forward to for a while now, especially after the original date for this trip was cancelled due to my appendix deciding to commit suicide... So this trip was rebooked, and the excitement built up once again... I vaguely remember my trip to Europa 4 years ago, when Silver Star was king, and a demonstration of the constantly moving (if maze-like) queues were abound on every single ride on park... Since then of course, Iceland and it's two coasters have appeared, so as such, it was time to revisit and do it properly... 3 days, on site... Hell yeah... The plan for departure was simple, leave in the middle of the day, get to the hotel mid-afternoon, chill and prepare for the 3 long days ahead... The flight over went well, and we arrived at Euro Airport and it's confusing border situation... Nevertheless, we got out, and found our shuttle man awaiting us... This is something that crops up with every Europa trip, how to get to the park from whatever airport you go to... The transport links are crap, there's no two ways about it, which is weird for such a big park in Germany where transport is usually pretty decent... So we were faced with the choice of the relatively burdenous looking route of public transport, or pay top dollar (€99 each way) for a shuttle car straight to the park... We took the latter option, and it was certainly worth it if only for the ease of which it worked... If in a bigger group of 4, it's even more worth it, and it negates the possible transport issue that can occur with trains/buses/etc. Our driver was nice, and mentioned sights and other things on our trip (in German of course, my broken knowledge of which made for some fun), and an hour later I got my first glimpse of Blue Fire, and much like the sight of Katun in Italy last year, my excitement began to truly build... So to the Colosseo, what an impressive sight it is, something that can be said for each of the hotels actually, and after a quick check in (where the European hotel tax rears its head, but you get a free guide book for your troubles), we entered a room that looked nothing short of amazing... And then we looked out of the window, and knew that paying the extra for the room with a view of the piazza was sooooo worth it... After some marvelling of the view we elected to explore our hotel and the others to boot, but not before grabbing some Smarties Ice Cream from the lobby to truly enjoy the sunshine Mainland Europe had kept to itself... The hotel is stunning really, it certainly puts Towers to shame, and indeed the lower end Disney hotels too... Hell even Hotel New York at Paris looks crap in comparison to this effort... To see how constant this awesomeness was, we headed towards the trio of Spanish themed hotels via a tunnel... Which decided to demonstrate how much effort Europa put into EVERYTHING... There is no need for them to theme the tunnel as such, but they did... Extremely well... Brilliant stuff... Anyways, onto the Spanish hotels, pretty nice actually, each one seems to have a completely different atmosphere and it is brilliant, from the happy Andaluz to the silent and grand Santa Isabel, each hotel tells a different story and has just as much effort put into them all... Simply outstanding... After sampling Spain, it was time to head to the brand new Bell Rock hotel, which has a path leading from the Colosseo to the back entrance with the lake (and World of Colour esque fountain show)... Again though, completely different atmosphere (that of a cosy family style thing), look, and approach... Each hotel made me want to stay in it, which can only be termed a good thing really... We headed back to the Colosseo and chilled in the room for a bit, catching our own hotel's fountain show (the first of MANY)... It then came to our dinner reservation back at the Bell Rock... We headed back and ventured into the restaurant, which they combine both the buffet and a la carte options together. We were doing a la carte, so ended up in a separate area which made us feel underdressed due to the poshness of it all... The meal was nice though, and we even had a character interaction with some random sea-captain... Who got the couple on the next table to take a photo, which was awkward for everyone involved... On our way back to the hotel we caught the Colosseo fountains at night, which made them look even more epic... We then ventured up to the Colosseo Bar (which looks so weird due to the American theme, probably the only issue with the hotel thematically), got some drinks and took in the view of the park looking forward to some early morning Blue Fire...

Considering I've just come back from Europa, yeah, critical

Because the staff will preview the room and nothing else... Least when the Chessie staff did it they got to try out a new bar/restaurant and be able to fit more than 2 people comfortably in a room...

Why do staff members need a preview? Like, the Thorpe staff aren't likely to stay over there are they? Unless Thorpe are going to put them up for free if necessary next year for those who live far away...

The big spider thing will end up being some form of evil monster... Cos that's how Candy Holland rolls...

Hmmm, I might invest into mob supplies in case this comes to fruition, easy money... But seriously, I would hate this to happen, Mouse is easily the best ride at the park, and is one of the most uniquely terrifying experiences in the country... A sad day indeed, and I sense that Amada would return to her original figure of hatred/displeasure... Blackpool have a happy niche in nostalgic/classic stuff, why keeping everything is unlikely to be a great idea business wise, Mouse surely isn't something that would be so far down the list of saving...

An increase of 250%? *I don't want to live on this planet anymore[/img]*

Even Tesco have standards... More like Poundland...

Maybe unable to use the Hospitality Tent this year... A shame, because the Krypt was actually very good (even though the finale was a bit meh)... Are we surprised Chessie's stuff has been scaled back? Oh wells... Not particularly desperate to go since 7pm closing...