Benin

BobbahnCertainly the biggest Bobsleigh I’ve encountered on my travels, and it does certainly use the hilly terrain to it’s advantage very nicely, involving some sections that actually go UP! Practically unheard of with the Bobsleighs I’ve on... However, it was excessively rattly, which meant it was not the most enjoyable experience ever... Give them credit for the layout though, would’ve been fun if not so rickety...Was also the only Butler ride that involved going up the exit, and preventing people going on a train... Oh the looks we got were funny, but at least everyone avoided (for some reason) the front row, so the main queue got that...6/10 Quick aside, Wildwasserbahn 2 also resides in this area, and has quite an amusing finale for unsuspecting guests... Yeah looks like an ordinary terrain following drop don’t it? But the bottom involves the splash getting people returning to the station... Much amusement is had watching this, as people suddenly realise that they aren’t finished getting wet... But we couldn’t do this for long, as our Butler bleeped that our doom was approaching...LimitA SLC... That should be enough to describe what this ride is all about... It’s the usual rough thing and this is the sort of reason why we also got the Butler, as I would’ve felt excessively miserable if we had queued very long for this...Rough as hell is an understatement...4/10 Next up, Nicky was really desperate to ride the park’s Breakdance, so we headed over to their recently rethemed Huss Land... This area is quite well done (Even if some of the names are still bland genericness) but is very very compact and does not work well with a busy park...Nicky sauntered onto the Breakdance alone, as I wanted a drink and didn’t particularly feel like being thrown around... I despised being ill over this trip... After this we opted for a quick Butler ride on Desert Race, opting for the back row this time and again it was SMOOTH... Still as shocking as it was the day before... Was good times... Why can’t Rita be like that?So after this we had another long space for Krake, so elected for some nice relaxing rides which began with...MonorailStarting next to Grottenblitz and going around the lake, it’s a nice and airy car and provides some really close-up views of some of the coasters... So after that it was time for Onion Boat 2, or....MarchenfahrtBasically this is part of the traditional German ride thing of going past small scenes depicting some random fairytale... In these cases we spotted Snow White, Cinderella and some ones we didn’t know... And as per the norm, the animatronics were SCARY... That finished, we had a quick saunter around again with time still before Krake... Including walking past this very secure area... In Germany, that small chain is a deterrent... If that was here it would be a challenge... Why are we so crap in comparison to our well-behaved European cousins?We meandered back to the entrance for some last minute shopping before Krake, and decided to hop on the train over to it... Upon arrival to Krake, we were surprised to see the Q-Bot queue full, but we went in (as the time moves on if you are late), and once again into the insanely claustrophobic station, train came in, but... The floor remained down...EPIC SPITE...This resulted in lots of annoyed guests leaving the station through fire exits and arguments happening which were all amusing... But eventually they evacuated the queue and we decided that enough was enough so we dropped off our bots and returned to the hotel...So Heide is a very weird park... There’s some really nice parts but also some really bland areas too... The Pirates area is very poorly done as an area and the same can be said of all of their ‘themed’ areas bar the Mayan section... Most of the rides are just average and it’s so similar to all our Merlin/Tussauds parks in many ways... Not sure what my final thought of it was... It needs more continuity with theming and several more additions to the level of Krake... Re-doing Big Loop and Limit would also help... I think they have a fair area to expand too so the park could easily build more rides... Hopefully more filler as to me there wasn’t too many flats surrounding rides like Colossos, Desert Race, Limit and Krake, so it’s a lot like Towers in that respect... Plus the lack of shade needs to be sorted, so much like Thorpe...It’s a weird park... So it’s hard for me to give a final score... But... I feel 6/10 is a suitable number... It just seemed very Merliny with the staff as well as once we had paid that was it... Very little niceness and lots of staff just nattering...Hansa was a far superior day out in the end...Regardless, it was a good trip and entirely worth it for FLUCH!Thanks for reading...

Final part woo!Day 5 – Heide Park Part 2So after the sheer pain and mehness of the park being stupidly packed, an alternative plan needed to be devised... So we left the hotel at 9, and sauntered against the tide of people entering back to the entrance to grab an Express Butler... After waiting for the place to open (park opens at 9, rides open at 10, Butler building opened at 9:30... Sense, it made none), we handed over 28 euros for the two of us and my driving license (ID security) and we had my first ever Q-Bot... I’m gonna have a natter about this, now I thought this worked very well for us as part of our relative one off trip as it included every coaster (bar Grottenblitz and Indy-Blitz), and considering my desperate need to not be stood in the sun for numerous hours we essentially spent all our time waiting for the time slot sat down in the shade somewhere... Now I think these worked very well, with the time frames meaning that there was barely any Q-Bot based queue (aside from one time which I’ll come to later), which is relatively good news for both sets of queues... You feel like you haven’t wasted your money, and there wasn’t 20 seats taken up by Q-Botters (aside from the Bobsleigh)... It definitely worked better than the none-time-frame based Fast-track we have over here in my opinion... But as we were trying to take the day slow it wasn’t a major issue for us...As we couldn’t use it till 10, we decided we’d hit a ride first, and the nearest one was...Wildwasserbahn 1For some reason Heide have TWO log flumes, on opposite ends of the park and they are very different from each other, but we only hit up the one nearest the entrance, and it was quite fun... A small drop followed by big drop combo on it... And not much else to say about it... It’s a log flume for crying out loud...6/10 It appears I only took one photo of this one... Sure I had more... Oh wells...Just before we went on the ride we elected for Colossos to be our first Butler ride, and after a quick saunter over after the flume, we headed straight into the front row queue...In the front, the best thing was seeing how steep the drop actually was... It’s something you didn’t notice much in the back, but it was actually rather cool seeing it just disappear away from you... Again, it was just too smooth for a woodie, though was slightly rougher in the front than the back, but that may have been due to my head pounding more than anything...We placed ourselves in the Krake Butler queue, and faffed over to one of the two Onion Boat rides the park has...Kapt’ns TornLike most of the Pirate area, it seems that just a quick rename means it’s piratical... Minimal pirate theming seemed to be a general theme of the area... Oh wells... It’s a nice relaxing boat ride very much out of the way of the rest of the park as the hotel means that few people head over there... We had a bit more time till our Krake ride, so we faffed around the area... One of the two epic playgrounds on the park... Love Germany... Like all good B&Ms, it’s a very photogenic ride and just glides about... And as I said in the last part, it’s a real hit with the guests... Just hope they put in the mouth proper next year... So we had a go in the second row this time, and it was again, a fun ride... I really like it and think it actually could kick-start Heide a fair bit into putting some more quality rides into the park... Certainly my fave ride out of all of them...So after buying some merch (KRAKE BEAR <3) we went to watch the unshaded pirate show... Which had some fun moments in it with the audience as seen below... Really random songs and stunts in this... Still better than the Mutiny Bay show though...Time for another Butler coaster, and this time it was up the hill and past Scream to...

WOODEN cottage cheese tastes very niceING COASTER!I just came...

I have goosebumps...End of an era

You'll always be second Merlin... Especially as Disney are earning that much with fewer places...And FLAMINGOLAND?!!!! WTF?!Merlin you pillocks invest in Chessie and you'll have ALL your parks in the top 20...

Plus in excessively hot days when Colossus was the only other major ride at the park, I think everyone would have been queuing for Tidal Wave/Loggers/Rapids...So yeah, just because a queue can hold a certain number, doesn't mean the ACTUAL queue will begin OUTSIDE the constructed queue... I saw that WAY too much in Germany...

A busy Towers isn't that bad... I couldn't tell you how busy it will be on a Sunday, but since 90% of the main ride queues go very quickly it's not something that should stop you from going...

£100??????You'll be lucky tbh, cheapest National Rail gives me is £74 just to Stoke from Euston (return mind)... Young Persons Railcard is a lovely thing to have in these situations...

Oh go on then, me and Nicky shall be definites for this...I just wanna scan for fish tbh...

Did someone say EURO-RAVE?

Larger yes... Better? Well, at least Air has never tried to wrench my legs from their sockets like Tatsu did...Bigger =/= Better...

^Not all Eurofighters are rough though...Fluch is the same age as Saw (and goes through a LOT more stress due to the launch) and yet involved very little if any headbashing...

Slight update to mine...6 - Fluch von Novgorod (replacing Expedition Ge-Force which has been demoted completely)...Everything else remains the same until I go to Italy (where I fear I will have to do a LOT of re-jigging positions if Katun and Raptor make me go all gooey)...

^But on the other hand, Nemesis, Oblivion and Thirteen all really work with the Halloween atmosphere...It really is apples and oranges...

That awkward moment when.......................To quote Douglas Adams, "Don't Panic!"... I'm sure it'll be all finished for opening day next year and then break down in about 10 minutes...

Yep, so many times when they drive right up your arse when you're a learner... It's so much rage-filling...However, so gratifying when you over-take someone on a dual carriageway

99% of the time, it's not you, it's the other pillocks around you...So many people cannot drive... FACT...

Sounds like our time in the Thirteen queue on opening day when it did not feel like 90 minutes...Amazing what a constantly moving queue does...

Parks should not be solely judged on how intense their rides are... If that were the case, Disney would not be the best parks in the world...And Thorpe will eventually run out of room, there's only so much infilling that can be done by the park, and of course Towers has the bigger issue of having planning permission issues as well...It's all about experience with parks, and Towers provides a much more complete experience that no other park in the UK can compete with...

Continuing the theme of people getting interviews, I apply for a job yesterday, and get an interview invitation today...WHAT MADNESS IS THIS?!!!Bonus as well, is that it actually involves some form of engineering... Winning!

Not completely, a few scenes have still retained the duck quacking music... Backlash? I think there would be a queue of people outside the ride waiting to remove as much crap as possible (I.e. the entire ride's scenery)... I know I would be...And reverting back is definitely wrong... The ride does need to move on and I doubt any change would be generally regarded as good if they put as much effort into it as the original version received...And not just one person owns the old stuff, a fair few different people do... I know someone who has the finale Professor for example...

I really need to start claiming royalties... Or work for Merlin Studios... Post uni here I come

To disprove that point above, I queued for 2.5 hours for X and didn't enjoy it... If only human psychology was so simple... There's too many internal and external factors that need to be considered (I.e. How the ride is being run, location of queue (shade, coolness, etc), actual ride experience)...

A mixture of both tbh...A short launch going into a whole little twisty section in the woods of Dark Forest, followed by then the original epic double drop into the valley... NOM!

Attack the BlockA good little film that probably no-one else watched... Very Dr. Who esque is the way most of the film could well be spent hiding behind the sofa with plenty of jumps, gore and some actual going against the grain by actually as well...Decent CGI considering it's an Indie film funded by the National Lottery... I enjoyed it and a good recommendation...7/10