Benin

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14430072Now THIS is the sort of PR I want parks to do more of... Not bollocky bad breath related stuff...

Freestyle Music Park (the park formerly known as Hard Rock Park) might get a 3rd chance to prove it's worth to the theme park world... http://www.thesunnews.com/2011/08/03/2314039/freestyle-music-park-bought-out.html

After Knightmare, it was time for something a bit more gentler...Junior Dragon CoasterWe did it, it was rubbish (not so if you’re a child though), let’s move on...4/10Nearly lunchtime and since we had brought sandwiches we wondered back to the car to grab them, (as Nicky said the food was dire, proven by it having TWO Wimpys, though the chips were nice apparently), but first, one last coaster...Caterpillar CapersIt’s a Big Apple... Do you expect anything else?4/10Food grabbed, we headed to the Jousting show (as did the rest of the park), and this was probably the best thing in the park... The fact it wasn’t taken seriously was perfectly done, and was better than any of the shows I’ve seen Merlin conjure up at their parks... Perfect blend of entertainments, crowd interaction, dodgy jokes and action made it an actual must see for anyone going there... Show over, we wandered over to the random farm/zoo/animal area to waste some time before the bird show...Back to the jousting area, which was rather emptier this time round for the random bird show... Rather entertaining and worth the faff, since the park wasn’t going to provide time wasting with its rides (didn’t do anything other than coasters and shows, blergh)...And that was it, we wondered back to the exit and drove away, with me pondering whether or not the park would be worth saving or not... To be honest, if someone was willing to put in time, money and effort and not demand an instant profit back for a few years, it has potential... It’s probably only clinging on just because of its location (stone’s throw from the M6 and about an hour away from about 5 major cities), but it would take a lot of time spent on fixing the infrastructure and bringing in good quality rides (and keeping the maintenance up) so it might not even be worth it in the end...It’s dire, but the shows and Knightmare were good, not worth £22 to get in though (£26 on the day, no wonder it’s in the crappola)...

Since Nicky lives rather close to Camelot, and I’d never been and it keeps opening and closing more than a traditional British high street shop, we ventured forth onto the M61 and drove to CAMELOT! What’s this, a picture of the journey? Something must be terribly wrong here...OMG NICKY’S DRIVING AHHHHHHHHHHHH!And as if by magic, we left one hell to enter yet another... We arrived at a rather interesting (yet decent looking) entrance area...Rain was pouring down onto us, but oh wells, onto the first coaster...Dragon FlyerThis is an unique ride... Even for a powered coaster, in that the way in which is powered is by a diesel motor and generator which sits accompanied at the front row of the ride by an attendant (for fire safety)... If this doesn’t say enough about Camelot I don’t know what else could... It’s ridiculous and hilarious that this could be considered a safe approach to a ride anywhere, let alone a ‘proper’ theme park... Still, it picked up some speed and did a nice tour of the area, missing trees and the like... Good for kids, not much else for adults...5/10Now Camelot is of course a very silly place, for the entrance and valley area are relatively decently done (for what the park must have spent), and the landscape is used very well... Then you venture into the so called “Land of the Brave” and it all changes into Lightwater Valley and just plonks rides here, there and everywhere with not a thought or theme in mind... No wonder this went downhill... Oh well, more coasters to ride... Starting with...WhirlwindA travelling coaster put into a permanent park? Well it works with flat rides doesn’t it? Such could be the thought process put into Camelot’s purchase of this Mauer Sohne spinning coaster (same layout as Crush at WDS), but it works exceptionally well as a complete failure...I’ve ridden some crap and rough rides in my time, but this is quite possibly my second least fave coaster ever, possibly because all the others are of such good standard and the simple fact that this is NOT meant to be into such a crap state says it all... Let alone that the station still sits on the truck-bed it probably came in the first place...Rough, rough, rough just about covers it... AWFUL... Least it broke for a short time prompting many to leave the queue in front of us...2/10Walking past Excalibur 2 (another EVIL looking contraption which I would never ever go on ever), we headed towards Camelot’s Ultimate, Nemesis or whatever other landmark coaster you want to name... The rather imposing...KnightmareFew rides scare me or make me nervous... Top Thrill Dragster was the last one to do so because of the height factor, but Knightmare looks like a death trap... The tight helixes that make up the end of the ride look like they will maim rather than entertain, so I was rather nervous in the queue to be honest... The seating is weird, with a car seatbelt and lapbar combo (which are nicely padded) holding you in, though the seatbelt tightness can seriously hamper the rider’s enjoyment in a similar vein as Slammer’s shoulder bars, as Nicky discovered... Another short breakdown and eventually we were off with the loud honk of the horn, spiralling up the lift and before long staring down the sharp turning drop, slowly clambering over until we were twisting down into the overbanked turn, jolting along the way before returning back into the rather crazy close confined course that Anton Schwarzkopf’s creations are well known for... Tight twisting drops and heavy helixes combined before the excessively powerful stop the brakes introduced to finish...In the end, I liked it... Probably because we weren’t in the back, but tbh, it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting it to be and came off it rather bemused by the existence of this ride at Camelot... Not brilliant but if it had some TLC it could probs become very good indeed...7/10

Hmmm, forgot about this topic, oh well... Who wants sexy B&M pics?Of course, since TPM seems to HATE the links from PotionMagix, here's the link to their construction page... http://www.potionmagix.fr/forumix/nouvelle-zone-attraction-2012-parc-asterix-t1271-990.htmlLooks different and brilliant... Bear in mind that the first drop is before the Dive Loop.

I'm not denying Colossus was a success and indeed a great hook for Thorpe's development to really take strides, but over the years (and being impressed by it when it first opened), it just quite simply has aged badly with a mixture of poor train design and it generally being Intamin...

Damning with faint praise I sense here... :blink:Seriously though, this could well be a kick up the backside for all the UK Merlin parks in regards to ride investment, but there could well be too much focus on the big set-pieces and not enough on the little details that make the difference between good and great...

Still doesn't make the ride itself any good...

*points at Dan*Why else would Thorpe remove them anyways?

Captain AmericaDid the job of both setting up the Avengers and introducing another solid Marvel film into the collective, although certainly played with tongue in cheek throughout (THAT SONG SEQUENCE), it was actually a rather solid and memorable film... The two stand-outs were Tommy Lee Jones (as expected) and Hugo Weaving, who was channeling Herr Flick from 'Allo 'Allo almost perfectly, and was absolutely amazing... I do hope they find some way of bringing him back should the Captain have legs as a franchise after Avengers...9/10 Mainly losing points for the dodgy action montages and some of the really silly moments...

Best times for the waterpark are probably the middle of the day when everyone else is on park...Easy to access, head into Splash Landings Hotel and down the stairs and you appear right at the entrance of it...There's essentially about 5 slides, longest queue will probs be MasterBlaster and that's about it for slides... There's the tipping bucket and lazy river and of course an outside section should the weather be good...And that's it...

Universal Halloween Horror Nights just got more epic... Alice Cooper

Thought I'd post a picture of the Skyrush trains as they show how the seating arrangement will work...INTAMIN *shakes fist*

Just to be a voice of alternative on the "Thorpe concentrating on being a Thrill Park is a great thing", it needs to be wary of not treading down a similar route that Six Flags Magic Mountain did a few years back where it completely over-compensated and was full of unreliable rides, awkward guests and very little atmosphere...I want Thorpe to actually prove me wrong with this though, but I know I will definitely not be heading to the park for opening (mainly cos of uni commitments and the well known fiasco that was Saw), so if a potentially well themed B&M can't even convince me to go to the park, what can short of adding a chav based shooting range?N.B. The chav based shooting range is and always was a joke, anyone who takes it seriously, needs to get their sense of humour checked out...

Why do we have TWO topics with the same name? Not gonna be looking at the sub-forum heading am I?

Wait a mo, why has all the stuff from last night been deleted?See this is why I brought this up in chat rather than straight on the forums... I was actually bringing up a good point and now I'm worried that nothing will be done about it cos it's all been deleted...Can we have some clarity please?

You mean this plans I posted earlier?http://maps.kingston.gov.uk/isis_main/Planning/Planning_DETAIL.aspx?strCASENO=1110182&strHeader=Y

Hersheypark have announced SKYRUSH, a new Intamin ( ) Wing-Rider, which seems to have involved them going "Ohh, maybe launching it isn't a good idea?"... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmRo6l9yxr4&feature=youtube_gdata_player Also making this different to Baco aside from the lift hill, only the outside seats will be floorless... For... some reason... So there you go... A Hyper-Wing-Rider Coaster...

^Promos are often just exagerration though... With a hint of realism...But it's kinda pathetic that they're broken already, but I guess it's a vandalism issue due to bored people in the queue...

Just want to know really what on earth is that bloke doing in the second row in regards to the fire... Most random pose ever...

Soon, it is the best part of the park NOW (though since they moved the Fennec Foxes to backstage to keep a closer eye on the injured male, it's become less so)... ;)Besides, Wanyama Man > Everything else...

What with the new zoo addition plans being put about, it's high time there was a dedicated topic to the zoo, which is as mentioned, the actual reason why the park exists...There are of course many areas, ranging from the old Sealion Bay to the brand new Wanyama Village, and certainly many of us MUST have memories of both the past and present of wandering around and enjoying the animals...This topic can also be used for any news for new animals, movement of animals and other things...So bring on the wild side and let's talk about the zoo!

As Nicky has whispered in my ear, create a fake account for people to send the PMs to...

People have to post a clear and concise reason why they think the person they have voted for should be chosen?If you vote and don't post, your vote gets discounted...