Benin

Comparing the 'bouncing track' at the end of Winja's to Thirteen's drop is not great...Winja's bit is not a freefall, since the track is hinged (as the diagram shows)...And the spinning is freely controlled just like any MS spinner, although it gets stopped whilst doing the trick track sections of both Fear and Fury... But it continues spinning after...Thirteen does have the world's first freefall drop actually as part of a rollercoaster... Some Gerstlauers have the station track descend to go into the maintenance area (Mystery Mine is the first example I can think of), but none doing what Thirteen does...

The large amounts of snow didn't help either...At least they got it open on time, may have been unfinished, but there would've been a lot more backlash than if they weren't gonna open it...

Need to tell us which direction you're coming from...Since we can only guess atm and give rather generic advice rather than "Leave your house, go to ..., get the train to ..., change and get the train from ... to ..." etc...

Intimidator 305 is a hyper coaster with shoulder restraints...It also has the now typical snappy Intamin transistions...It looks like it'll do what Maverick did an attempt to sever your neck on some of those turns...Hence, the B&M will win out... As I really liked Diamondback and the different seating arrangement...

^In Japan there was, but that changed to Blue...I'm currently the proud owner of 9 badges of Soul Silver... And hopefully 10 in a minute...

Pah, Squirtle kicks Charizard's arse...

^I prefer the way the LEDs are done on Tomb Blaster since they're actually put on stuff 90% of the time... (Compared to Duel of course)There are some very good interactive dark rides in the world... Would love Sally Corp to get their hands on a revamp of Tomb (and Bubbles, but that's another story), and really add to the current experience...It's fun, and defo provides some great competition among groups...

What an awesome advert for a theme park...

Check up Zamperla's website?Flat rides are usually harder to get specific details for since they are generally the same, so the manufacturers' site is the best place to go...

They got rid of Market Square and Toytown music :DNot happy with that...But the new entrance music is very good and suits the new adventure thing they have going...

The new station annoucement was added last year for safety concerns and was done by a member of staff...Hence, it's rubbish

Watch me and find out!Some swearing and lulz involved...

Any annoying PicSolve Benin approves of since they annoy the rides teams by sending Express passers down the exit...

Kobra was only that at the start of the day as well, the rest of the rides had minimal queue aside from the usual suspects of Fury, Vamp and Bubbles...Of course, I sense that if someone else had turned round and said 'I spent 5 minutes at Thorpe, couldn't get in contact with anyone and left to go to Chessie, I park I much prefer anyways' there'd be uproar...And 6000 is a medium day... But it didn't feel like 6000 at all tbh... It was a nice, relaxing atmosphere... We felt able to sit down and have donuts/coffee, waste time in the lorikeets enclosure, and waste even more time standing by a talking tree for ages... Stuff Thorpe doesn't provide...

It's still awful...Please Chessie... Gut the damn thing and restart from the top...

Really, I don't think the queue line is well themed...They could add a few more stone ruins or something different to look at during the periods of loading/unloading...Those random mirror things as well... What are they for?

The detail in Wild Asia was so great, the dodgem cars all seemed to have piles of dust in them already...Probs only saying it needs a soundtrack because we've been used to the old one...

I didn't notice the new fountain until my mate pointed it out...The elephant has been on/off for a few years now... But it still needs a proper fix up, that trunk used to rise up as it sprayed the water onto the boat...I approved of the new dragon noise, but something needs to be put into that tunnel to make it... Interesting... Also, bring back the non-PC announcements from last year please...

Had that on Saturday... Don't tell the guests how bad you think the staff are, because it sounds bad and the guests will think you're a idiot of the highest order... The offloader should be wandering up and down and doing that, or yelling loudly and people with a good old fashioned point, that worked... But the old exit rider sign seems to have gone missing, so that needs to be put in so that those people don't walk onto the front end of the platform...

Give it time... After Easter that look will go...

^I don't think the current management will be resting on their laurels much... At least I hope not... Wild Asia is a fantastic benchmark for the rest of the park's future... They just have to keep the standard up...

Opening Day was rather exciting considering the whole news about the re-launching...Although Chessie did spend most of the day confusing me with most new additions (I.e. the new traffic lights), it looks very nice at North Entrance and once the trees bloom it'll look great (as all parks do)...Went straight to Vampire where Keith was... But guys, if you're not letting people in the back two rows, block them off first thing before guests arrive, and then don't turn to us and say you can't go there and then as we return have people waiting... Especially when there's no-one at the exit...Indeed, the ride running felt a bit dodgy all day on some things... Bubbles suffered a break-down due to the onloader letting 6 on and pressing fast-stop for example... It was very on/off but hopefully it'll improve, otherwise I'll spend a year of wanting to jump over gates in order to do the platforming myself :mellow:After Vamp did Buccaneer, good as always, then wandered up to the new area...It's fab... Seriously fab... It looks so much better than Beano and has the two best 2010 new stuff of any park... Banyan Maximus and the Lorikeets...Although we didn't go on Kobra in the morning we went to meet the Lorikeets, and they've now a very close second to my Meerkats... Falls was followed before meeting Monsterdan5, after a donut we went to Tomb, then Rattlesnake (which was smooth and not as painful strangely) and Mine Train...Hopefully Rob Bishop and co have great plans for Mexicana... It does look poorer and poorer every year... Hopefully as well they'll be putting the Falls rocks back up... I've missed them so much...Bubbles was next... Another ride that looks worse and worse with each passing year... It needs gutting and restarting with the theming... No two ways about it... Make it related to Translyvania, but 'happy horror', meaning it's accessible for kids...Lunch was called after some faff at the Goblin, where didn't have to wait too long and the chicken skewers are quite nice...Hocus Pocus Hall has been repainted (and had a few new bits and bobs), and it looks much better now... The 'well' effect is looking superb and had all the guests standing around it in awe... Well done there...Chessie's 3rd best addition for 2010 followed... In Market Square... A new costumed character... Pip the Meerkat <3 Much love was given to Pip and more points to Chessie...Vampire again was followed by Fury, both of which are running well this year, Vamp not as rough and Fury just as spinny as always...Griffins Galleon is still awesome...Back to Wild Asia, and went on the Dodgems... Which looks great... Although new deceptive queue is not fun... And the pillars at the back did not look very themed... But I like the garage theme is has going...Kobra at this point had problems with it's platform, resulting in a million staff descending upon it, but after 10/15 minutes it reopened and we joined the mob entering the queue...It's a great addition to the park... Brilliant... Everyone was having fun and that's what Chessie wants... The bouncing as well loves it...Went back to the Lorikeets and then did Swinger in a shower, so ended up just as wet on the inside as I would've on the outside... Jungle Bus was ridden since it had no queue... Showing how empty it was really... And was fun if difficult to get in and out of...Meerkat times called as well as Savannah construction, it looks massive and could be another great addition for the park, especially if it evolves into a safari ride...Back to Kobra for one last go, and still a fun ride... So the day was amazing, Wild Asia is an amazing benchmark for the park's future additions, and if they keep it to that standard the future is very, very bright...Ride Count:Vampire - 2Buccaneer - 2Lorikeets - 3Falls - 1Tomb - 1Rattlesnake - 1Mine Train - 1Bubbles - 1Hocus Pocus Hall - 1Fury - 1Griffins - 1Tuk Tuk - 1Kobra - 2Monkey Swinger - 1

They redo the commentary every year it seems...But they need to re-route and refurb the entire thing... Maybe with the savannah area opening up and what-not, it could happen in the future...

One thing I don't like about Vamp's redone queue is that they've got rid of the graves as you walk into the building...I really liked that area... :mellow:Everything else is good though... Didn't get a good look at them though but least something else to look at now...

The park really has so many improvements all over the place... It's very entertaining to spot what had been changed since last season...The new entrance road layout threw me completely with the missing crossing...Shame Mine Train didn't get work done... And no air gates back on Buccy...The new safari section seems like it'll be bloody massive as well... The main building frame towers over that area by far...