Benin

+1 for Taron second launch (plus it has the sexy noise to go with it <3) I'd put Novgorod's up there, the indoor vertical drop leading right into the rolling launch outside with copious amounts of smoke is fab... Also TTD goes in here for the sheer level of force involved in it... Anubis at Plopsa has a surprisingly good one too (apart from the roughness in the back row)...

If they're not on the map they might as well not even exist... Not gonna go searching through whoever owns a certain Spinning Wild Mouse just for a few extra notches... If I wanted boosted numbers I'd just count Butterflies!

If I can ride it (or if parks allow adults to ride it), then why not count it? It's why Flamingoland will be an eternal red dot on my map

Some ITV guff on the ride...

Worse "I'm going to China" post ever... Plus travelling creds don't count </3

There was a phase 1?

What existing space is there at Thorpe that doesn't require the removal of something? And that includes Loggers and Slammer areas...

No point it'll be closed for good in 2 years

It would make sense for it to go... You could literally do ANYTHING more worthwhile with the space (and maybe an accidental bulldozer incident could take Storm Surge with it)...

Unfortunately we were never going to get something like Troy, Joris, etc. through either current budget restraints or planning permission (it's a real shame they couldn't really use the woods for this, certainly would've made it more interesting from the off)... I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up being in the same bracket as Thirteen for guest satisfaction though... Of course we'll always never see that rumoured launched RMC before the incident happened...

It'll have been 21 years since Megaphobia opened; and modern woodies are pretty much a different beast nowadays... To have an actual modern wooden coaster built in an UK park is still something to be grateful for, even if it's not the layout many wanted... Especially if the thing is actually enjoyable to ride, rather than an unforgiving terrifying death trap (Wild Mouse), bouncing along the track (Big Dipper) or barely maintained (Megaphobia)...

It's a definite occurrence amongst the continent, and I think is mostly done to prevent 45/60+ minute queues still being processed come the end of the day... Given where the likes of Efteling and Phantasialand reside in extremely close proximity to neighbours, I wouldn't be surprised if it was part of keeping locals onside... I've never been in Fantasyland when Disney close it off for Dreams/Illuminations, but the Mouse tends to work like clockwork on this sort of thing... Whilst the quality of our parks aren't necessarily on par, we have been quite often spoilt on an operational side (well, until things have been cut to pieces, but general park hours such as midweek openings and keeping queues open after park close are often better than our European and American cousins)...

Sounds like most of the better parts of Haunting in the Hollows (like the mortuary scene and the finale sequence)... Though I'm still unconvinced that such a scare attraction will be at Chessie for a long period of time (probably likely to be scaled down next year should it return)...

But you cannot judge an atmosphere of a park without actually having been there, so..... I've never felt rushed or unfriendly there, probably because I've always treated it as a two day park...

Getting Thorpe vibes from Phantasialand? Yeah, definitely not worth listening to that nonsense... Operations are pretty standard, just because a park might run one train when empty doesn't mean that they'll do a Thorpe and not add one when necessary... I've seen 2 blokes at Mirabilandia add a second train to Katun without even noticing they'd left the platform...

China =/= Hong Kong As Mark said, the financial troubles the park got into due to various problems were the main cause of the stagnation... Plus a fair few last minute budget cuts towards park opening... There's still a lot of land available for playing with, Indiana Jones dark ride, Fantasyland dark ride, Soarin in the Studios are just 3 potential additions we could see used in the future as sites, let alone doing something with the boring end of Frontierland and a potential removal of the Tram Tour opening up even further potential... Though of course we'll just get Autopia removed for Star Wars Land...

If you were to stay in central Paris I'd recommend staying within spitting distance of one of the train stations that goes to Marnee la Vallee, if only for sake of simplicity of travelling there and back... Trains run early and late (mostly filled with staff)...

Depends really on your transport options, hiring a car makes things easier, but here's some parks which are simple to access sans car: Phantasialand - Cologne Heide Park - Hamburg Europa Park - Basel/Stuttgart (this is the hardest public transport one really, mostly due to it being in the middle of a small village) Efteling - Amsterdam/Rotterdam Walibi Holland - Amsterdam Walibi Belgium - Brussels Disney Paris - Paris Parc Asterix - Paris (shuttle from CDG airport) Liseberg - Gothenburg Grona Lund - Stockholm Tivoli Gardens/Bakken - Copenhagen Gardaland - Verona Port Aventura - Barcelona Warner Bros Madrid - Madrid I highly recommend using http://coast2coaster.com/ for planning such trips. I'd definitely recommend on-site for Phantasialand, Europa and Efteling. Everywhere else is a case of seeing what's nearby (Disney is a definite stay at Val D'Europe unless you want to take out a loan). Times are similar to UK, though I did two weeks in August in Germany and most parks were manageable bar Heide and Legoland, both of which have Q-Bots anyway. Just keep an eye on any local holidays that would be worth avoiding.

That grey is gonna blend in perfectly to the glum Blackpool sky...

It's a marketing thing, and it's a peculiar angle to take (although many other park operators are following suit, Six Flags' claims are about as equally ridiculous) considering you could literally build anything and people would visit it because it's new...

Just build a bloody Chiapas clone and be done with it...

Joravision

What could a park in such a situation offer AP holders as compensation? In extreme cases the park(s) have to consider the safety of customers... A storm coming right in off the Irish Sea would not bode well for the park, and I doubt they would've taken the decision to close early lightly either... Without knowing the full details of what was and wasn't open at 5/6 it's hard to judge whether the decision was merited...