Benin

Parking... In central London?It IS right outside London Bridge station, so trains are quite simply the best bet... I cannot comprehend how awful it would be to park near there...

This...Raptor set the bar for this, and as long as they can produce some cracking pieces of theming, then it should certainly reach that bar and become easily the best ride in the park... And an icon for years to come...Slowly turning around onto this I guess... Who knew...

So... It's finished...Posed more questions than answers tbh... And once again it seemed to fit too much into too little time... Where's an hour long time slot when you need it?Oh well, the answer is blatently 42...

University is there to help students get into a rather work based lifestyle though, so complaining about 9am starts is a bit pointless is my point...They expect you to come in because YOU paid to go there... So if you get totally buggered up on alcomohol and don't turn up/puke/whatever else happens to people, then it's your own fault and not the uni...PLEASE NOTE that I am making a GENERALISATION here, since it happens at every uni, although for some reason Staffords main night out seems to be Tuesday, the day before no-one has anything... Perhaps more unis need to consider this policy?As for that timetable... Of course it will be full if you're doing about 6 modules in a semester... And the rest of that empty space is for personal learning... Again though, there's no point complaining about timetables because the simple fact is again, you're being prepared to go out and get a job... Who will be even stricter about work hours and the like...I repeat, welcome to university...

Once again I am in disbelief over how awful the park PR has been in recent years... Just how do they even come up with these ideas? Pick up some common/uncommon (last month's dwarf debacle) complaints out of a hat with several others helping what Mike Vallis will 'say'?JUST GO AWAY!

If they DON'T have unique music for this and have chart music it will be a stupid idea...Krake, Raptor, Thirteen, Wild Asia, Mutiny Bay and even Call to Adventure are all bloody brilliant tracks, would be a shame for Swarm to be the odd one out...

Welcome to... UNIVERSITY...It is weird sometimes... Fortunately yesterday my lecturers went, "You see those 9am starts and Tuesday and Friday? Not gonna have them unless we need them"... But everything for me gets lumped into Thursday due to Part-Timers... Resulting in yesterday's diabolical 9-7 day which had 4.5 hours doing NOTHING as it's the first week... And even then we finished early, so it felt even more pointless...In regards to your points... DON'T GO OUT THEN! If you're going to complain that your uni is forcing you to come in because you went out the night before and got hammered, only person at fault is you... Team Projects is a unit? Dunno what that is, but actually team projects are done regularly here (part of other modules coursework though)...

Done it in 1... No biggie... ;)Tomorrow is Fifa 12... Yay for wasting my money on frivolous items!

Well ACTUALLY, this was the truely first Flying Coaster... And as mentioned, the design time frame for Air was 8 odd years... So Mark is indeed correct to a degree... That's just wrong on so many levels I don't even have to make further comment... Let's look at what you wrote... You said one of a kind coaster... England both already has these (Towers having 3), Saw is arguably one of a kind due to the theme, Vampire as well is unique... Mark's point here was that we already have plenty of unique coasters... Especially in comparison to the US... Pot calling the kettle black here methinks...Let alone the comment on the construction being rushed... That's just wrong... Thorpe will have set this by a rather strict construction plan, with the deadline being March 15th... It WILL be ready to open on that day... Unless something breaks, which as long as Thorpe aren't trying to rush trains out or just generally break the thing, IT WILL BE FINE!

An Intamin is broken? Are we sure? Such a rare occurance indeed...

I'm sure when there's an update that's of actual worht (rather than MUD), there will be one on here...People need to chill and just sit back and watch the track rise from the ground...

Judging by reports it was the usual affair... It is after all one of the biggest rivalries in the UK... The police didn't help matters by not organising people away from the opposition fans... Oh look, the police are stupid, who'd have guessed

3 youngsters, from the academy, dominating your rivals...That dear friends, is what football is about... So estastic from last night still...

Let's all laugh at Brighton...You'll always be second best... No matter where you are and how much you have... Always in the shadow...EAGLES!

Interesting old concept from Disney...http://disneyandmore.blogspot.com/2011/09/d-archives-ss-disney-incredible-wdi.htmlNeedless to say, would certainly be an experience...

On-site workshop probably...

I thought the station was to be higher off the ground... Oh wells...Might be able to have some proper discussion now...

Surely the show being a 'hit' on 'BBC 3' tells us all we need to know about how good it will be?Plus, proposal at Thorpe has been done before. And I assume a proper marriage has happened too.

If ever there was a signal that the park need a brand new throughput eating coaster, this is it...

Vampire can rarely run 3 trains in Halloween though... Remember working on it in 08 when they tried it, and it constantly stopped at the base of the second lift... Plus the constant change in speed and the cold weather affects the chain a lot more, so from a mechanical point of view it could easily not be worth the extra hassle and higher chance of further problems (Indeed, the chain had issues in 08)...

Surely station framework will be built first before the track?Also, I was gonna ask if they were going to try and hide the maintenance shed like Raptor does (in fact, the queue goes on top of it) but looking at that pic, they won't... Hopefully they'll theme it to make it fit in...

Tinker Tailor Soldier SpyThis was a strange one... Expecting a talky film, wasn't a lot of that, but also not a lot of action... Having not read the book, I might well be missing some major things, but it's certainly a weird film, with random violence for little reason and long silences...However, a very strong cast with strong performances, Oldman and Cumberbatch being excellent... And it's so British they eat in a Wimpy and have a discussion whilst buttering toast... Just for that it deserves points...7/10

Strangeness over, we headed back to John and photographed Raptor lots more, as well as riding it 5 more times...To say this ride is photogenic is an understatement, so damn beautiful to look at and watch... After the 5th time (8 times each on both B&Ms, score), we decided that it was time to say farewell to the park and head back to the hotel for one final night... Overall, Gardaland needs more high quality coasters in there, as without Raptor it really lacks a really good ride to take over the role of star attraction... Maybe Merlin have good plans for the park, but out of the 3 we visited, it certainly felt like the weakest ride line up...Still, Raptor is definitely worth it... Just a question now to see if Swarm/X-Flight/Wild Eagle are to be as good...

After a burger of buccaneer proportions, we headed off to start our dark ride double bill, starting with...I CorsariProbably the most hidden dark ride in existence, the entrance itself is tucked away in a dead end, hiding within the giant ship of the area... I doubt many people even realise where this ride is, let alone what it does...And so begins the most random dark ride I have ever encountered, there is apparently a story, and some really good animatronics in there, but... Just...I don’t even know...You jump from scene to scene, including traditional PotC rip-offs, to swamps and jungles, and perhaps the scariest thing ever to appear in a dark ride, before ending under the sea and then it’s over...But it’s AMAZING!Seriously amazing, no idea why, but it’s just something of sheer random quality that I loved it... Great atmosphere, great theming and just great times...9/10After that random bout of fun, it was time for...RamsesMore down to earth theming abound, as it does what Tomb Blaster tries to, but excessively better, as it involves amazingly detailed sets, animatronics and I always like a shooting ride that has things react to you shooting them...Not gonna spoil things, but the ride really transforms into something different after the initial scenes, and the constant story updates in the televisions are a neat idea, helping the narrative evolve along with you... Add in some stylish music and the ride is set for what is a very good dark ride, probably in my top 5... No Huntik but it’s still awesome...9/10Now what could be the best way to possibly follow those two epic dark rides? By going to the corner that no park ever wanted, apart from Gardaland’s original owners (thankgod we can’t blame Merlin for this)... A Vekoma looper and our first ride, a S&S Screaming Squirrel...Sequoia AdventureAWFUL AWFUL AWFUL! WHOEVER DREAMT UP THIS IDEA IS A FRIGGIN MORON!Ahem...Never have a felt such a displeasure on a ride... Even Cedar Point’s Mean Streak is better than this... Constant 3 seconds of headrush does not a good ride make... Especially with the throughput being terrible as they can only have one on the track at any time... WTF?Seriously, this is the worst ride I’ve ever been on... FACT...1/10Magic Mountain (Fanta – The Ride)Following the S&S travesty to the coaster world, anything would seem better, even a Vekoma... Interestingly this also has the new Vekoma restraints, which are their attempt at being like B&M...It doesn’t work...But, it’s definitely a better attempt than before... Still rickety but at least it didn’t try to pummel my head to a pulp... Just want to know why I craved a Fanta after riding this... Only the heavens must know...5/10After that disasterous 30 minutes, we needed something nice, so went onto the final new coaster of the day and trip...Ortobruco TourA Bigger Apple coaster... And it was like one of the rides on RCT where the builder has realised it can’t get over the hill normally, so has put lift hills everywhere so it can finish the course...It was stupid really... But certainly a better idea than a normal Big Apple...5/10All the coasters done and the heat not leaving, we decided to go on the nearby log flume...Colorado BoatMuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu! Says the sponsorship on this amusing little flume ride... Again nicely themed and landscaped, with a surprising amount of wetness once more, this time from just milling about in the trough rather the drops... Random times... Still another fun ride though... 6/10That done, John split off from the group to go and watch the Raptor Magic Show, whilst the rest of us headed off for some magic of our own...Magic HouseSituated in the massive tree is yet another strange Madhouse, with yet more lifts and a strange story...However, this one is punctuated with the one, the only, PERVY WIZARD!Perhaps the greatest fail in a Madhouse build up ever, the pre-show is quite cool with the park’s mascot Prezzemolo going on about something, only for the perv to turn up and ruin our fun and make us go on the ride...So the ride has some epic music, which as per the norm builds up, with some good scenery and light changes really making it impressive... It builds up to the finale... And then...THE WORST PROJECTION OF THE PERVY WIZARD APPEARS IN THE ROOF...It’s so awful it’s funny... Never has such a good ride be let down by something so pathetic... But Magic House did it... Tiny projection onto a massive roof? IT MAKES NO SENSE!A real shame... Though with the lifts on exit it makes me wonder if they are such a good idea, as they really do ruin the mood after the finale... Maybe they just need to be done well?5/10