Benin

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

continuedAs we made our way out of the park, we found that the parade was starting meaning it was very difficult for us to get out. We found a spot and watched it go past.Just seeing the sign now has the song stuck in my head already.It felt a bit short but did have some cool moments.Got to see my favourite princess Belle though I prefer the solid yellow dress.And at the back of the Princess float the newest Prince and PrincessOnce the parade had moved on we could start to head towards the exit but we were still going against the crowd. We decided to get the ferry back to the transportation centre as we didn't fancy the huge slope up to the monorail station.By this point my feet had had it after the day at Epcot so I had to be unstylish and wear socks with my sandals. I could face the shame so that my feet weren't in that much pain.We crashed out at our hotel for a while before heading to Downtown Disney for tea. We chose House of Blues and quickly had our burgers which were again really too big to be eaten. I really wanted to eat dessert but there was never room for it. We had an early night as we were going to Tampa the next day.

Very very delayed Day 5 - 11th AprilThis was our trip to Magic Kingdom. Now that we had a car we didn't have to rely on the hotel shuttles even though they weren't that bad. Parked up and then got the tram to the Monorail station. It was annoying that you ended up parked so far from the actual park though the monorail wasn't that bad.We have our bags checked by security before wandering into the park.The first view of Cinderella's castle. Now I don't know whether this is just because I've seen Sleeping Beauty's castle at Paris but for some reason this seemed to be lacking for me.Since it was still early we decided to head for Big Thunder Mountain so it was off to FrontierlandWe grabbed a fastpass before joining the normal queue. It was walk on. We had the added surprise of when we pulled into the station at the end as long as no one was waiting for your row you could go round again. This was the first time that has ever happened to me. After two times round we decided to move onto other attractions while they had little queue. Next up was Splash Mountain. All I thought of this was that it seemed to go on forever. It just lacked something. The drops were good but the inside bits seemed to go on and on. This may be because I wasn't familiar with the source material. I finally worked up the courage to go on Haunted Mansion. This may sound stupid but I really struggle with dark rides and rides that are meant to be scary. For example it's only recently that I have managed to get on Duel. With the help of my Dad as a hand to cling onto, I managed to get on it with my eyes open. I was determined not to get home and regret not going on it. It wasn't as scary as I was expecting apart from the odd jumpy moment that made me swear under my breath. After HM it was our FP time for Thunder Mountain. They use one station for the normal queue and the other for FP which was great when you had the FP. Overall, Thunder Mountain was good but I still preferred Paris's version because of the scenery that goes with it.Pirates next and it was so good. Jack Sparrow's model was so life-like if you didn't know better you would have definitely thought it was Johnny Depp in the ride, especially at the end.Jungle Cruise next since we walked past it. The queue was out of the actual line for it but it was only because they hadn't opened the switchbacks.There was loads of little injokes in the queue line if you took the time to read them. We reached the front of the queue and our boat turned up. Bomokandi BerthaI wish that I was younger and could be taken in whole heartedly by the journey as there is always part of you thinking that this is corny but it just takes time to get into it. We then crossed the park to the opposite side to get to Space Mountain but not before a picture of me in front of the castle...well to the side.We grabbed a FP before joining the normal standby queue. It barely took any time to get through it so we walked past all the interactive games that would take part every few minutes like with Soarin' at Epcot. We ended up on the Alpha side not that it makes much difference. I enjoyed it even though it does take it out of you as you can't predict which direction you need to go in to stop yourself from being jolted. The seats are a bit awkward to get out of and I feel sorry for any who is quite large as it would be quite difficult since they are really low down. You don't realise how far away from the entrance you actually are until you have to get on a travelator to get back to the entrance. Having always had a fond spot in my heart for monorails (I spent too much time on the monorail at Blackpool when I was younger) we went on the people mover. It slows down as it goes round the station but is really deceptive at how fast it actually is. We had our carriage to ourselvesTime for a picture of my Dad.It goes into the Space Mountain building but this time the lights weren't on inside so you couldn't see much other than hearing the odd screams as you went past it.Since Stitch is one of my favourite characters we decided on that show next. I was really disappointed with it and just felt uncomfortable. I can imagine how scary it would be for any children and there was definitely a few kids crying. It just seemed to overstep a level that children are comfortable with. The over the shoulder harnesses don't help and prolonged periods of darkness.Buzz Lightyear was next and Dad beat me on this. It just seems like I am only good at Toy Story Midway Mania. It was a good ride with a lot of UV colours.We popped back to Space Mountain for our FP time and watched a mother and child in front of us was measured and was just on the height line that it was too close for the cast member to call. She warned that the child might be stopped before they got on the ride and that when he stands up he needs to think tall but not stand on his tiptoes. Every cast member we encountered measured him and he got through just each time.It was now time to brave Fantasyland, which would better be described as Strollerland. It doesn't help that it is slightly smaller due to the construction work but it is just so crowded. We decided to get It's a Small World out of the way first. I haven't been on the one at Paris and while I have heard the song I have never really found it that annoying up until going on the ride. It really didn't help that we ended up stacked in the final room so it was just going round and round. How can a song be just so annoying?!!Seeing the queue for Peter Pan's Flight meant that was avoided but I was expecting that. We grabbed fastpass for Winnie the Pooh and got a "surprise" fastpass for Philamagic at the same time. We had resorted to bringing our own sandwiches for lunch but then grabbing a desserty snack so I tried my first funnel cake today. It was weirdly awesome, especially with the amount of cinnamon and sugar on it. It was bigger than the plastic plate it came on and bigger than my head. There is definitely a saying about eating something that is bigger than your own head. I didn't manage to eat all of it before I was stuffed. Sorry for the lack of photos here I just seemed to forget I had a camera all together even though it was sat in my pocket. We used our "surprise" fastpass for Philamagic which was basically just a way to get people to go onto it. I was amazed at how good it was. I was so engrossed in it I missed when the curtains moved and the whole screen expanded. It just showed how good the music is from Disney and how easily it is recognisable. Snow White and Winnie the Pooh were next. They are pretty much the same ride apart from Winnie the Pooh bounces for quite a lot of the time which is a weird experience. Since we had FP we didn't get to experience the normal queue line but we could hear it. They have installed games and small play areas for the kids who are queueing which do generate a lot of noise. I guess it is better than listening to them crying because they are bored. By this point we were getting tired and it was getting warm and busy. We decided to head for Monsters Inc Laugh Floor before heading back to the hotel. This was done really well with so much audience participation. It blends seamlessly with the pre-recorded bits with Mike. We had a family from Leeds which lead to a very large cheer from quite a few people. They pick on one guy continually who gets a sticker at the end of it.

See, this annoys me. Realistically a brand new rollercoaster is going to last another 20 years and will make back its return within the first few seasons. Look at rides like Oblivion, 13 years on and it's still the ride with the most merchandise in Alton's shops. Same with Air, same with Stealth.I know there's a fine balance between getting a good ride out there and having the budget to do it, but when it all said and done, these aren't little things that will last a month, they are million pound experiences which will be seeing the park through at least two decades. Sometimes parks attitudes astound me.

KrakeSo the newest addition naturally had the longest queue (90 minutes), and the queue is very boring, with just a view of the brake run, and neither is it well designed, with many hidden cattlepens and lack of shade... Did they use Thorpe’s ideas of queues?Eventually we reached the bag drop area, where you get lanyards (a weird idea), and you eventually head into one of the most disorganised stations I’ve ever encountered...Firstly, it’s compact, with very little room to breathe at the bottom of the staircase (especially with Q-Bot merge coming in at the same point), but the main problem is that every single person is waiting for the front row... Which causes a bottleneck of people waiting for it, then no-one heading into the other two rows... Why the hell they don’t have a member of staff allocating seats is beyond me, especially when you are used to decent German efficiency... It’s actually terrible and I don’t think even one of the UK parks would allow it...Since we couldn’t be arsed, we headed straight into the empty back row on the left hand edge, and after the incredibly quick lift hill and turn, we found ourselves semi-cresting the drop (a common problem with 3 car Dive Machines), and after 3 seconds, the rather forceful descent happened past the mouth of the Kraken before we hit the splash zone... Which resulted in me getting lots of water down my back due to my seating position, which was beautiful... Then the loop happened followed by the floaty airtime hill and we hit the brakes...Now Krake is a hit... Plain and simple, enthusiasts may not like it, but the Germans LOVE it, and that’s not an understatement... Everyone in the area was watching or riding it, and they were all so excited about it... Heide have a real gem on their hands, but was it as good as Blivvy?No... It definitely isn’t, but it is still a really good coaster in my view, it felt more forceful than SheiKra and didn’t outstay it’s welcome in a similar way of Oblivion... It is also nicely spectator orientated with the splash and drop being visible from all around the lake area... Unfortunately the Krake mouth does look rather pathetic in its current position, and hopefully they do fix that, because I reckon this ride would gain an extra point or two if that happened...8/10 This was the result of my sitting in the back edge... Cannot stress how nice it was in the heat... After Krake, it was certainly time for some lunch, so as we walked towards an Information Centre in the hope of finding out when the park closed (which didn’t work, some poor organisation again), we passed a small BBQ area, which had epic Bratwurst... Caption Comp much?After lunch, more meandering followed, looking at the general niceness this park had in places... And the fact that Germans can be trusted not to try and drown themselves... Vekoma corner is not my favourite place...With more long queues around the park, we decided that more Intamin would happen, so we hit up...ScreamThis is their noisy Gyro Drop Tower with awesome soundtrack that Det stole a few years back... With the queue snaking around the base of the ride as well, it provided some amusing times with the reactions of people coming down off the very tall drop... At one point the staff had rage towards silly guests who HAD to sit together... I do dislike people like that, cos when you’re on the ride it won’t make a bloody difference if you’re together or not... Gah...Anyways, we got on, and after the long rotating ascent, the spinning stopped, and the drop began...And kept going...And still kept going...It was just so constant... It kinda got boring after a while because you just hit terminal velocity and it seemed to last about 3/4 of the way down... Give me Det (or Extremis) anyday of the week in that regard...Still, another solid ride...7/10 After again ignoring the Vekomas, we headed towards their Aztec show (which in hindsight, was a mistake), which lacked ANY shade at all... I’m all for park shows, but they need shade/shelter to make it actually enjoyable... It was a pretty decent show with some random stunts and clever ideas, but the unbearable heat of DOOM didn’t help...After the show, we headed towards the entrance to investigate shop based times, and I brought a Krake hat (too late to prevent anything though) before it was time for some credit whoring...IndyblitzCha-Ching, it’s a kiddie credit, and not a very good one at that... Regardless, we went on it and then straight away ran off to avoid any strange looks...It’s not even greatly themed tbh... And it’s just... bland... I dunno... Just a bit blergh about the whole ride... Oh wells...5/10 So after this, it was time for a Vekoma, this one was...Big LoopOh boy... This needs retracking/removal... This was rough... Corkscrew was smoother, and now one of it’s trains is on it... Bugger...Yeah as soon as you hit the loops that was it, rough, rough, rough... Not a lot else to say about it really aside from OW...5/10 After that we elected to queue again for Krake to finish off the day... Still good but lack of organisation... We then returned to the room when the sunstroke finally hit and completely killed me... Urgh... The lack of shade was not a good thing throughout the park... It was so weird in that respect because it was very much a mis-mash of all our Tussauds parks... It had a bit of each with both pros and cons...Final part of Heide and the trip is next...

So the morning came along, and Heide opens the park at 9, yet opens the rides at 10... Since hotel guests don’t get anything ERT based, we decided we’d go in at 9:30 thinking it wasn’t going to be busy... Oh....Turns out half term started the same day we were there... Meaning THIS... On every ride... In the entire park... Why on earth the Germans have their half term start in the middle of the week I don’t know, but this was NOT the best start to the day... Still, Krake looks very good... Impressing everyone in the vicinity... But as we did not approve of the long queue, we went elsewhere... It’s a nicely landscaped park here... Another ride with a queue leaving the entrance... Urgh...I really don’t see the point in parks opening the entire place up for an hour... There was certainly enough room further from the entrance to have a rope drop like thing a la Towers/Chessie... But... This lacked that, and as a result, hotel guests get absolutely no benefit from the super secret entrance bar getting to Krake first, if you’re up at 9 of course...Rant aside, we eventually found a ride that did not have a long queue in the sun...GrottenblitzWooo Mack... This powered mine train was interesting... And not really in the good way... After NOT having our bars checked (taking one man op to the next level) we dashed around a helix and headed into a tunnel, where the ride just got weird as...You see giant horses fighting, with some form of small bear (I think, I was too confused to care) in the middle as you do a MASSIVE helix around this cave before leaving and repeating the circuit once more...Tbh, this is one of the worst types of this ride I’ve been on... Even Runaway Train at Chessie is more fun than this... It’s definitely precisely average and nothing more...5/10That out of the way, time for a proper coaster... ColossosHeide is a strange enough park, but using music you’ve heard at Thorpe forever is really strange, especially as this is a relatively silent (bar the top of the airtime hills) woodie... It also stands as the only ride at Heide that displays a queue time at the entrance... That’s not a good thing to be...After a 30 minute queue, we boarded on the back row, expected that our idea would backfire on us... And once at the top of the quick lift hill, the slow turn over towards the steep as hell drop was cool, then... SMOOTHNESS...Yes, I believe this ride has no soul, as a wooden coaster is not MEANT to be smooth, it’s meant to have that rickety feeling, but this lacked it... Only in the random helix did it rattle, but every hill was taken so smoothly you’d be forgiven for thinking you were on a B&M hyper (aside from the fact it makes silly noises at the top of each hill)...Not to say that it’s a bad ride though... It is actually good fun, and fairly more re-rideable than some other wooden coasters in the world... But... To me, it just isn’t a proper wooden coaster... Even in the back row it’s smooth... That’s wrong...8/10 Not sure why, but it seems parks around the world seem to be developing Intamin corners... So our next stop was the Rita clone...Desert RaceIt’s weird seeing this... It looks so tiny in comparison to Rita, but, at least it has a covered station and the most epic bag cage system I’ve ever seen at a park... This has one of the old X:/NWO soundtracks, which is very annoying after 10 minutes, let alone 30 or more... Regardless, we got up to the front of the train, and got to see the bag system in action...Essentially, they have several turntables which are split into 3 sections... 1 empty waiting the next lot of riders, the next is hidden away with the bags of those currently on the ride, and the final section holds the bags of those on the exit... It’s a brilliant idea and saves having to have extra staff giving out stuff that could be lost...The ride itself was a surprise... It was SMOOTH! Two smooth Intamins in an hour is bad enough, but this is a Rita clone... Considering how much I despise Rita, this is the complete opposite, and was actually really enjoyable... A shock... 7/10 So after that, it was time for a meander and search for short queues... Which didn’t happen, but we did find this... Ich liebe Germany...Since everything I was interested in going on had a long queue, the bullet was bit and we headed into the Krake queue... Or we would have done if it wasn’t outside the entrance...

First time back at Legoland in a long time. It looks a lot different to what I remember. We left home after the park opened because we're all lazy buggers. KP crisps are doing 50% vouchers so if your planning on going to Merlin attractions soon and paying have a looksie. So off we went, went and got Callum's ticket. The guy at the admissions desk we went to was brilliant. In terms of busyness it was barely any one. Got in to the park, one thing I don't miss is the bloody hills. The one leading down to Viking Land you literally turn a corner and I almost fell down it went that steep.So off we went onto Viking River Splash. For the landscape that it's on they've done well tbh, you get wet, go round some epic bends but the bumps aren't too fun. They kinda hurt tbh. Started heading towards The Dragon stopped off at the Jolly Rocker. More to come later on the Jolly Rocker. Headed to The Dragon and it was closed. Headed towards the ONLY smoking area in the park. I will agree with smoking areas in Legoland but they could at least give us more than one that's positioned in the middle. Went to The Burger Ranch grabbed milkshakes and chips. 5 odd quid for the chips and 6 ish for the milkshakes but worth it (just so you know that was for all three of us) but if you go I recommend the milkshakes. Now after being all refreshed and no rumbling tummies we headed for Atlantis Submarine Voyager. Woo new ride all nice and excited yes? Kinda. It's such a good concept the ride from when you leave the station to getting back is about 3 minutes. Story lines the typical every things going good but as it's Legoland instead of us almost dying, we were about to lose all our data we collected! Oh noes! It could be so much better if they were clearer about what buttons are what because you have screens telling you what the different species are but the buttons aren't that clear. Fairy Tale Brook next still as good as when I went on when I was little. Because there was 3 of us our boat either scraped across the floor at the back or leant to one side. That was amusing within it's self. Went to Miniland for a bit. Saw Wembley, last time I went to miniland it wasn't there. Next was Space Tower, the tower you pull yourself up on. I let Ciarran do it, I tried but it's actually not that easy. Callum wanted to go on Sky Rider and honestly so did I to see the views. It actually goes quite fast. Now time for the Jolly Rocker. 5 times in a row mainly to have adults on the end of the rows. I understand that the rule is in place for a reason but Jesus Christ they were trying to get adults to come on, schools were having difficulty's so as 3 adults we helped out for a bit because The Dragon was closed. I got off at one point because I felt sick but went back on because they couldn't find one last adult. The first time we went on during the day they called someone on the radio and got them to come and sit on it. But the rule is a tad ridiculous because if you in a massive group you aren't going to have 2 adults to every 4 children (that's how many you fit on the row etc). Headed to Pirate Falls, still a funny little ride, the drop seems a lot bigger off the ride. Picture was amusing because you couldn't see me and Ciarran other than my face just over Callum's shoulder and a bit of Ciarran's top. It's a bit of a forceful drop in all honesty. Laser Raiders, as bad as some of the queue line is and the theming inside the ride, I prefer it to Tomb Blaster because your laser has a bigger laser 'beam' so I hit more targets and won . Went back onto Viking River Splash, I'd had enough of getting wet so I got myself a poncho. Whilst just about to get on the pumps stopped and the ride stopped. As we headed up the exit the boats were stacked and were being evacuated so we watched and saw the engineers come so waited to see the pumps come on. When they did we decided to go back and wait for the ride to start again and off it did. I think people were standing up in the boats repeatedly and they e-stopped it. Me, Ciarran and Callum being the smart people we are put the bag in the middle then after it got a bit of a soaking from the waterfall things I put it under my poncho. As we were near the top we headed to the sweet shop and grabbed some pick'N'mix then got on the Hill train. LAWL some kids were behind us arguing because they were late and I quote 'We're late because you two were busy dancing around the entrance deciding where to go' continuously arguing all the way to the bottom. Headed to The Dragon, it was working! Woo so got on and had a flaming good time (eh good lil joke no?) Started heading to Wave Surfer and stopped at Boating School. Now then it's 2-3 to a boat and a maximum of 2 adults. There was 3 of us. So me and Ciarran went, Ciarran got off and Callum got in the boat with me. So I got two rides on Boating School! So we headed to Wave Surfer, queued a little bit but it's worth it. Each got our own boat and that was fun, I got the most wet XD Now we had reached the end of the day. Throughout the day there was laughs, a little arguing and a little kid running into me. All in all it was fun, proberly on of the best days I've had at a kids park, the way they have Lego models everywhere is amazing, I had to double take on one that was in a bush because I thought it was a kid. In my opinion I prefer it to Chessington even with Jungle Coaster being replaced by a hotel. It was such a good day and I enjoyed my self. Watch out guys though, I will bring my bright yellow poncho to Thorpe

Video of Atlantis.Sorry about the writing didn't have my camera with me =(

KrakeSo the newest addition naturally had the longest queue (90 minutes), and the queue is very boring, with just a view of the brake run, and neither is it well designed, with many hidden cattlepens and lack of shade... Did they use Thorpe’s ideas of queues?Eventually we reached the bag drop area, where you get lanyards (a weird idea), and you eventually head into one of the most disorganised stations I’ve ever encountered...Firstly, it’s compact, with very little room to breathe at the bottom of the staircase (especially with Q-Bot merge coming in at the same point), but the main problem is that every single person is waiting for the front row... Which causes a bottleneck of people waiting for it, then no-one heading into the other two rows... Why the hell they don’t have a member of staff allocating seats is beyond me, especially when you are used to decent German efficiency... It’s actually terrible and I don’t think even one of the UK parks would allow it...Since we couldn’t be arsed, we headed straight into the empty back row on the left hand edge, and after the incredibly quick lift hill and turn, we found ourselves semi-cresting the drop (a common problem with 3 car Dive Machines), and after 3 seconds, the rather forceful descent happened past the mouth of the Kraken before we hit the splash zone... Which resulted in me getting lots of water down my back due to my seating position, which was beautiful... Then the loop happened followed by the floaty airtime hill and we hit the brakes...Now Krake is a hit... Plain and simple, enthusiasts may not like it, but the Germans LOVE it, and that’s not an understatement... Everyone in the area was watching or riding it, and they were all so excited about it... Heide have a real gem on their hands, but was it as good as Blivvy?No... It definitely isn’t, but it is still a really good coaster in my view, it felt more forceful than SheiKra and didn’t outstay it’s welcome in a similar way of Oblivion... It is also nicely spectator orientated with the splash and drop being visible from all around the lake area... Unfortunately the Krake mouth does look rather pathetic in its current position, and hopefully they do fix that, because I reckon this ride would gain an extra point or two if that happened...8/10 This was the result of my sitting in the back edge... Cannot stress how nice it was in the heat... After Krake, it was certainly time for some lunch, so as we walked towards an Information Centre in the hope of finding out when the park closed (which didn’t work, some poor organisation again), we passed a small BBQ area, which had epic Bratwurst... Caption Comp much?After lunch, more meandering followed, looking at the general niceness this park had in places... And the fact that Germans can be trusted not to try and drown themselves... Vekoma corner is not my favourite place...With more long queues around the park, we decided that more Intamin would happen, so we hit up...ScreamThis is their noisy Gyro Drop Tower with awesome soundtrack that Det stole a few years back... With the queue snaking around the base of the ride as well, it provided some amusing times with the reactions of people coming down off the very tall drop... At one point the staff had rage towards silly guests who HAD to sit together... I do dislike people like that, cos when you’re on the ride it won’t make a bloody difference if you’re together or not... Gah...Anyways, we got on, and after the long rotating ascent, the spinning stopped, and the drop began...And kept going...And still kept going...It was just so constant... It kinda got boring after a while because you just hit terminal velocity and it seemed to last about 3/4 of the way down... Give me Det (or Extremis) anyday of the week in that regard...Still, another solid ride...7/10 After again ignoring the Vekomas, we headed towards their Aztec show (which in hindsight, was a mistake), which lacked ANY shade at all... I’m all for park shows, but they need shade/shelter to make it actually enjoyable... It was a pretty decent show with some random stunts and clever ideas, but the unbearable heat of DOOM didn’t help...After the show, we headed towards the entrance to investigate shop based times, and I brought a Krake hat (too late to prevent anything though) before it was time for some credit whoring...IndyblitzCha-Ching, it’s a kiddie credit, and not a very good one at that... Regardless, we went on it and then straight away ran off to avoid any strange looks...It’s not even greatly themed tbh... And it’s just... bland... I dunno... Just a bit blergh about the whole ride... Oh wells...5/10 So after this, it was time for a Vekoma, this one was...Big LoopOh boy... This needs retracking/removal... This was rough... Corkscrew was smoother, and now one of it’s trains is on it... Bugger...Yeah as soon as you hit the loops that was it, rough, rough, rough... Not a lot else to say about it really aside from OW...5/10 After that we elected to queue again for Krake to finish off the day... Still good but lack of organisation... We then returned to the room when the sunstroke finally hit and completely killed me... Urgh... The lack of shade was not a good thing throughout the park... It was so weird in that respect because it was very much a mis-mash of all our Tussauds parks... It had a bit of each with both pros and cons...Final part of Heide and the trip is next...

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KrakeSo the newest addition naturally had the longest queue (90 minutes), and the queue is very boring, with just a view of the brake run, and neither is it well designed, with many hidden cattlepens and lack of shade... Did they use Thorpe’s ideas of queues?Eventually we reached the bag drop area, where you get lanyards (a weird idea), and you eventually head into one of the most disorganised stations I’ve ever encountered...Firstly, it’s compact, with very little room to breathe at the bottom of the staircase (especially with Q-Bot merge coming in at the same point), but the main problem is that every single person is waiting for the front row... Which causes a bottleneck of people waiting for it, then no-one heading into the other two rows... Why the hell they don’t have a member of staff allocating seats is beyond me, especially when you are used to decent German efficiency... It’s actually terrible and I don’t think even one of the UK parks would allow it...Since we couldn’t be arsed, we headed straight into the empty back row on the left hand edge, and after the incredibly quick lift hill and turn, we found ourselves semi-cresting the drop (a common problem with 3 car Dive Machines), and after 3 seconds, the rather forceful descent happened past the mouth of the Kraken before we hit the splash zone... Which resulted in me getting lots of water down my back due to my seating position, which was beautiful... Then the loop happened followed by the floaty airtime hill and we hit the brakes...Now Krake is a hit... Plain and simple, enthusiasts may not like it, but the Germans LOVE it, and that’s not an understatement... Everyone in the area was watching or riding it, and they were all so excited about it... Heide have a real gem on their hands, but was it as good as Blivvy?No... It definitely isn’t, but it is still a really good coaster in my view, it felt more forceful than SheiKra and didn’t outstay it’s welcome in a similar way of Oblivion... It is also nicely spectator orientated with the splash and drop being visible from all around the lake area... Unfortunately the Krake mouth does look rather pathetic in its current position, and hopefully they do fix that, because I reckon this ride would gain an extra point or two if that happened...8/10 This was the result of my sitting in the back edge... Cannot stress how nice it was in the heat... After Krake, it was certainly time for some lunch, so as we walked towards an Information Centre in the hope of finding out when the park closed (which didn’t work, some poor organisation again), we passed a small BBQ area, which had epic Bratwurst... Caption Comp much?After lunch, more meandering followed, looking at the general niceness this park had in places... And the fact that Germans can be trusted not to try and drown themselves... Vekoma corner is not my favourite place...With more long queues around the park, we decided that more Intamin would happen, so we hit up...ScreamThis is their noisy Gyro Drop Tower with awesome soundtrack that Det stole a few years back... With the queue snaking around the base of the ride as well, it provided some amusing times with the reactions of people coming down off the very tall drop... At one point the staff had rage towards silly guests who HAD to sit together... I do dislike people like that, cos when you’re on the ride it won’t make a bloody difference if you’re together or not... Gah...Anyways, we got on, and after the long rotating ascent, the spinning stopped, and the drop began...And kept going...And still kept going...It was just so constant... It kinda got boring after a while because you just hit terminal velocity and it seemed to last about 3/4 of the way down... Give me Det (or Extremis) anyday of the week in that regard...Still, another solid ride...7/10 After again ignoring the Vekomas, we headed towards their Aztec show (which in hindsight, was a mistake), which lacked ANY shade at all... I’m all for park shows, but they need shade/shelter to make it actually enjoyable... It was a pretty decent show with some random stunts and clever ideas, but the unbearable heat of DOOM didn’t help...After the show, we headed towards the entrance to investigate shop based times, and I brought a Krake hat (too late to prevent anything though) before it was time for some credit whoring...IndyblitzCha-Ching, it’s a kiddie credit, and not a very good one at that... Regardless, we went on it and then straight away ran off to avoid any strange looks...It’s not even greatly themed tbh... And it’s just... bland... I dunno... Just a bit blergh about the whole ride... Oh wells...5/10 So after this, it was time for a Vekoma, this one was...Big LoopOh boy... This needs retracking/removal... This was rough... Corkscrew was smoother, and now one of it’s trains is on it... Bugger...Yeah as soon as you hit the loops that was it, rough, rough, rough... Not a lot else to say about it really aside from OW...5/10 After that we elected to queue again for Krake to finish off the day... Still good but lack of organisation... We then returned to the room when the sunstroke finally hit and completely killed me... Urgh... The lack of shade was not a good thing throughout the park... It was so weird in that respect because it was very much a mis-mash of all our Tussauds parks... It had a bit of each with both pros and cons...Final part of Heide and the trip is next...

I recently read an article regarding the fate of Beastly Kingdom. For the life of me I can't remember where I read it, but then I found it on Orlando United a couple of days ago. I'll quote it here- it's very lengthy but I promise, a great read if you're interested in Disney and Imagineering.Let the marathon commence!

Depends WHICH Bubbleworks you mean...If you mean the current version, then no sane enthusiast 'raves' about it... It's horrible...If you mean the old version, then anti-climatic? Usually when people say good things about Bubbleworks, it's in relation to the original Prof Burps version, not the sponsored turd that exists now...

Council estates normally...I can see it similar to the Child-Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang...But, at the end of the day...

Depends WHICH Bubbleworks you mean...If you mean the current version, then no sane enthusiast 'raves' about it... It's horrible...If you mean the old version, then anti-climatic? Usually when people say good things about Bubbleworks, it's in relation to the original Prof Burps version, not the sponsored turd that exists now...

Brilliant way of doing the water and making it see-through for the extra details at the bottom... TROLLLLLLLLL!I highly recommend this place to anyone visiting... It’s very awesome even if you have no interest in model railways and the like... It’s just full of win and deserves more recognition...Anyways, that finished, we elected for lunch, and due to knowing about the so called Roller-coaster restaurant in the city (sort of), we had planned a route there and headed back to the Hauptbahnhof and got the S Bahn number 31 to Harburg, and a short walk later we found it... Now notice something about this? It was open, lights on, music on, but no staff or customers... Staff saw us milling about inside but made no attempt to talk to us or indeed inform us of what to do... After a while we left rather disappointed by this lack of good form I expect from the Germans and it was really a wasted journey in the end... Right shame...So we headed back to Hamburg proper as we needed to catch our train towards Soltau for the final part of the holiday, Heide Park... And we got our MetroNOM (no joke) train over to Buchholz (Nordheide) for our connecting train to Soltau... On our way from Hamburg we realised that we had a 3 minute connection time between the trains, and our NOM arrived at platform 1, whilst the next train left from platform 11...This naturally, caused worry, until we reached Buchholz and we saw that, for some reason, 1 and 11 were right next door to each other... Confusion aside, we still ran to get on the train and enjoy the nice long sedate journey over to Soltau... Upon arrival, we waited for a taxi (as Heide is rather far away from the station, there is a bus but that is rather infrequent in non-peak hours), and eventually we arrived at the Hotel Port Royal...Gonna end this part of the report here and keep all Heide together, which will include a review of the hotel and of course, Krake... Woo...

All aboard the party boat! There were trains going around, and can go from the bottom of the Switzerland area alllllll the way through to the Scandinavian bit right on the opposite end... But they are definitely not the main draw of this place... FUNFAIR!!! And yes, with added working credit! Just to show how far down this place went... A fair few of the rides moved as well... They have gone all international as well, with a massive American area... Of course, they had to have a recreation of Hamburg as well... Watching this bloke fix sommat was just as impressive, as he was attempting to not knock anything over... Another cred, though it is a mixture of Manhattan Express and Speed in Vegas... Urgh... Hell yeah Pixar! Oh yeah, they also have space shuttle launches here... I love this short... So much...

Day 3 – Hamburg Part 2So after our night in the business style Travelodge, we checked out, left our bags and then descended upon the city once again... This was across the road from the hotel, a picture was indeed required... Good old fashioned translations going awry...Regardless of such buildings, it was time to get back on the U-Bahn... After the quick train journey to Baumwall (only a stop away from our journey yesterday), we sauntered through the construction site towards our destination, Miniatur Wunderland... Ah... Something’s wrong here... Yep, Merlin’s worldwide grasp is particularly strong in Germany, whilst we didn’t go in the Dungeons, it shared a few similarities to London, mainly with Labyrinth, the Judge, Traitor and Extremis... However some of the scenes interested me, such as the Haunted Library and some pirate’s execution... They do English tours as well which is quite a good idea, though I would love to do the tour in German cos of the interest in how amazing the accent would sound...Anyways, off to the Wunderland, which has a relatively steep looking price (for students it’s 9 euros) but when we went into the attraction (after having to put bags in a locker, again, very good idea) and saw this, we realised what we were paying for... Yep, this is one serious model railway... It goes through 2 floors, and several rooms with all different areas and with further plans to expand even MORE in the future... This is one serious piece of kit... With lots of interactive pieces as well to see, it was an absolute surprise and very worth the entrance fee... Scenes like the Flugtag reminded me very much of a Lego Miniland... Lots of little details and jokes dotted about to try and spot... Fully working concert... With camera flashes from the audience... Lots of PLCs... Each area had its own day/night alternation, and worked very well... This was their newest area, the working airport... Yes, the plane is coming into land whilst the other one is waiting... This was one bloody impressive area and I have no idea how they did it all... The sheer scale of this was just amazing...

Oh yes, damn those pesky commoners, being all... common and getting in the way of my suit as I meander around the park with my top hat and cane... Tally Ho!

Brilliant way of doing the water and making it see-through for the extra details at the bottom... TROLLLLLLLLL!I highly recommend this place to anyone visiting... It’s very awesome even if you have no interest in model railways and the like... It’s just full of win and deserves more recognition...Anyways, that finished, we elected for lunch, and due to knowing about the so called Roller-coaster restaurant in the city (sort of), we had planned a route there and headed back to the Hauptbahnhof and got the S Bahn number 31 to Harburg, and a short walk later we found it... Now notice something about this? It was open, lights on, music on, but no staff or customers... Staff saw us milling about inside but made no attempt to talk to us or indeed inform us of what to do... After a while we left rather disappointed by this lack of good form I expect from the Germans and it was really a wasted journey in the end... Right shame...So we headed back to Hamburg proper as we needed to catch our train towards Soltau for the final part of the holiday, Heide Park... And we got our MetroNOM (no joke) train over to Buchholz (Nordheide) for our connecting train to Soltau... On our way from Hamburg we realised that we had a 3 minute connection time between the trains, and our NOM arrived at platform 1, whilst the next train left from platform 11...This naturally, caused worry, until we reached Buchholz and we saw that, for some reason, 1 and 11 were right next door to each other... Confusion aside, we still ran to get on the train and enjoy the nice long sedate journey over to Soltau... Upon arrival, we waited for a taxi (as Heide is rather far away from the station, there is a bus but that is rather infrequent in non-peak hours), and eventually we arrived at the Hotel Port Royal...Gonna end this part of the report here and keep all Heide together, which will include a review of the hotel and of course, Krake... Woo...

Day 3 – Hamburg Part 2So after our night in the business style Travelodge, we checked out, left our bags and then descended upon the city once again... This was across the road from the hotel, a picture was indeed required... Good old fashioned translations going awry...Regardless of such buildings, it was time to get back on the U-Bahn... After the quick train journey to Baumwall (only a stop away from our journey yesterday), we sauntered through the construction site towards our destination, Miniatur Wunderland... Ah... Something’s wrong here... Yep, Merlin’s worldwide grasp is particularly strong in Germany, whilst we didn’t go in the Dungeons, it shared a few similarities to London, mainly with Labyrinth, the Judge, Traitor and Extremis... However some of the scenes interested me, such as the Haunted Library and some pirate’s execution... They do English tours as well which is quite a good idea, though I would love to do the tour in German cos of the interest in how amazing the accent would sound...Anyways, off to the Wunderland, which has a relatively steep looking price (for students it’s 9 euros) but when we went into the attraction (after having to put bags in a locker, again, very good idea) and saw this, we realised what we were paying for... Yep, this is one serious model railway... It goes through 2 floors, and several rooms with all different areas and with further plans to expand even MORE in the future... This is one serious piece of kit... With lots of interactive pieces as well to see, it was an absolute surprise and very worth the entrance fee... Scenes like the Flugtag reminded me very much of a Lego Miniland... Lots of little details and jokes dotted about to try and spot... Fully working concert... With camera flashes from the audience... Lots of PLCs... Each area had its own day/night alternation, and worked very well... This was their newest area, the working airport... Yes, the plane is coming into land whilst the other one is waiting... This was one bloody impressive area and I have no idea how they did it all... The sheer scale of this was just amazing...

Oh yes, damn those pesky commoners, being all... common and getting in the way of my suit as I meander around the park with my top hat and cane... Tally Ho!

Double post but hey, I have a review here...So I popped to the Dungeons with John (peep) so we could investigate the new ride and see what Neil said was true... But not before I got picked for the torture sequence earlier on which provided much merriment, even if the girl refused to hear my retorts :DThere's two major differences in the first bit before Vengeance compared to the last time I went a few years, and that's the new positioning of Fire of London, which is very jarring and random and doesn't really do much... A bit poor considering how major the thing USED to be... The other is the new style surgery room, which is a lot more intimate and works much better, although not when the actor fails to close the curtain correctly at the finale :lol:Oh wells, Vengeance, which happens straight after old Sweeney Todd and involves just a small corridor with a TV saying a few bits about Berkeley Place, which is something I am not personally aware of in the long run, but still, sounds like a decent enough idea for an attraction in the Dungeons, but more information on the house rather than snippet based sentences (in varying languages) would have worked better...We get batched into the room and any bags and loose items are stowed in some boxes to the left as you enter, before you board the surprisingly comfy seats and everyone pulls down their bar (really, no automated stuff? Dungeons are poor on this lazy buggers)... We don the cardboard advertisement glasses, remove our guns and the ride begins...Now, I'll start with the postives, the spinning was a hilarious addition... Actually rather forceful and the noise it made wasn't toooooo bad as people seem to make out, too busy laughing about the force tbh... The animation was iffy but at least the extra effects worked well on everyone, and the 3-D wasn't bad either... But the guns are completely pointless... They don't do anything, there's no scoreboard, why they exist? I know not... This attraction would work perfectly without the guns and it seems that it was atypical Merlin thinking that they needed a World's First to attract new guests to the attraction... I don't mind such things when they make sense or work well, but the guns are just pointless... Still, I thought it was fun... It's not terrible but it's not amazing either... A solid 6/10 but needs more story behind it (like the other rides have) and needs to give reason for the guns... After that, the new Jack the Ripper is rather entertaining now (even if the pub scene was apparently there when I last went, I forget it personally, maybe due to the awe of the FIRE), though after the second room I was worried that it would be rather anti-climatic... But it wasn't...Then Bloody Mary involved John being the heretic (I blame him not liking Lord of the Rings personally), and hence being burnt at the stake... Again a new section to me and really amusing indeed... Though I don't know why they have barely changed the old Fire of London area... It makes no sense and just atm seems to filler between Mary and Extremis... Shame...I love Extremis, though toooooo much airtime due to a fatty in our row... Such the opposite to Scream at Heide which made me laugh... And the new pre-queue area works well... Overall, a very enjoyable tour of the Dungeons... I should go more often really... The actors were rather good (as well as the ride staff on Traitor), and I now have another Bear to add to my ever-growing collection (taking me up to 6 now)...