BenC

Nice awards! Efteling (Best Park), Helix (Best New Coaster), Sky Fly (Best New Ride) - I'm with you on all of these. And I've not ridden Bandit, but Coaster Express - another RCCA classic - sits at the bottom of my "all time worst rides" list, so can believe you on that. But Heide Park sitting in the Honourable Mentions of Worst Park? Sure, it's a Merlin clone-a-thon, and everything seemingly needs to be painted white and green, but it's got some great rides (Colossos, Scream, Krake) and the setting around the lake is really rather lovely...

Thanks Mark - appreciated! And you're right, I hadn't seen the connection between Dream World's entrance and It's a Small World, but it's definitely there! Yet more similarities to Disney...

This is the final instalment in a 4-part series about my travels around Asia earlier this year, and some of the decidedly different Parks I encountered whilst I was there: SuốI Tiên, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Đầm Sen, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Siam Park City, Bangkok, Thailand Dream World, Bangkok, Thailand Of all the Theme Parks I visited during my Asia Adventure, the one most traditionally "themed" was undoubtedly Thailand's Dream World. Part 4: Dream World Not to be confused with the famous Park of the same name in Queensland, Australia, Thailand's Dream World is billed by much tourist paraphernalia as being the country's version of Disney World, Orlando. But whilst you can certainly see how the Park has been influenced by its American counterpart, the end result is a little different. As with Siam Park City, getting to Dream World is only really possible via car, especially given that the Park actually sits outside the city of Bangkok itself, in the Pathum Thani province. Getting there involves inevitably sitting in a henious Bangkok traffic jam, although my hour-long trip from my hotel (27 miles) clearly pales into significance compared to other horror stories: "...two or three weeks ago, travelling from Pathum Thani to central Bangkok, it took four and a half hours...". From the start it was clear that Dream World was the most developed of all the Asian Parks I had visited - the drive to the Park involves crossing a pink Dream-World-branded bridge with castles / turrets / flags aplenty on the way in. And it was also packed - clearly a popular choice for a day out for both locals and tourists alike (unlike the other Parks I visited, there was a noticeable tourist contingent in Dream World's customer base). The entrance to the Park is pretty impressive, with a colourful castle and bold signage standing amongst pretty and well maintained foliage. So far, so good! Surprisingly, given the clear increase in quality on offer, Dream World was not the most expensive Asian Theme Park I'd visited, at just 800 Baht (£15.58) for a "tourist" ticket, including all the rides and entry to the Snow Town (more on that later!). For comparison, Siam Park City had come in at 900 Baht (£17.25), although this also included entry to the waterpark as well. As with Siam Park City, the Park operates a two-tier entry policy, with locals paying significantly reduced rates vs. tourists... Entering the Park is a surreal but fun experience, with some of the most randomly placed themeing I've seen for a while. And the cutesy-Asian theme continued as you walk down the very pretty promenade to the large lake at the centre of the Park. I'm not sure whether this is supposed to be a cat / mouse / Pikachu? Once at the lake, a variety of mascots were there for photo opportunities including the Park's main mascot, a rotund red animal of some description, sporting a Dream World hat. Note the seriously impressive horticultural effort put into the Park, which far surpassed any of the other Asian Parks I had visited. Mr. Bean is reportedly one of the UK's biggest foreign entertainment exports, having been sold to nearly 200 TV territories worldwide, so it really should have been no surprise to find him at Dream World, complete with comedy wet umbrella. Reminded me at little of the Les Parapluies de Cherbourg umbrella effect in Walt Disney Studios at DLRP...! So the Park had made a very favourable impression on me so far, but what of the rides? Well, as with Siam Park City, Dream World had a pretty solid roster of original Western-made attractions, rather than anything cheaper / less reliable / less comfortable...! And the headline attraction was a rather rare Vekoma Swinging Turns ride by the name of Sky Coaster. Originally opened at World Expo Park in Queensland, Australia in 1988, and moved to Dream World in 1994, the ride is only one of three Vekoma Swinging Turns attractions ever made. I had ridden one of the other two at Bobbejaanland, Belgium, and the third is located in Mitsui Greenland, Japan. As with Dream Catcher at Bobbejaanland, this version of the ride had been retro-fitted with new Vekoma floorless swinging trains, rather than the original enclosed version - much like Vekoma did for Arrow's Vampire trains at Chessington. It also sported a fab dragon / Loch Ness Monster(?) topiary... As with Bobbejaanland's version, the ride was good fun, although more on the side of "pleasant" rather than "thrilling". Only towards the end of the ride and in the tighter helices did the train pick up enough speed to deliver any pops of real excitement. The experience was very smooth though and was a clear hit with the crowds - the ride had the longest queues I saw all day, at points reaching an hour! The ride also had an on-ride photography booth situated at the exit - the first I'd seen on my Asian travels. Alas the station wasn't particularly well themed, unless the theme was supposed to be "tin shed"... Next up, more Vekoma goodness in the form of Space Mountain. Now if ever the Park were inviting comparisons to Disney, they certainly were here...! Space Mountain was - as with Sky Coaster - relocated from World Expo Park in 1994, and uses Vekoma's MK-900 guage track, much like the overly-long Temple of the Night Hawk at Phantasialand and the shorter/sweeter Vogel Rok at Efteling. The ride was very well presented though, with solid space-based themeing throughout. And it, like Sky Coaster, was very popular with the crowds. As such, the queue was especially uncomfortable to wait in, given the large volume of people, fairly slow operations, and the fact it was still baking hot. Have I mentioned in this series of Trip Reports that Thailand in April is really quite hot?! It really is. Hallelujah for the queueline fans / misters! How many dark rides do you know where the track layout is stuck up on the wall by the entrance? No surprises about what was in store for us on Space Mountain then... Overall I liked Space Mountain - a good length family ride with some exciting turns and drops, largely because the entire ride is in pitch darkness, so riders have no idea what's coming. Alas some trademark Vekoma-roughness was present, but overall it was a lot of fun. Looking in the direction of the supporting attractions in the Park, visitors find a good set of Western-made flats and flumes, all presented in a very colourful way. Hurricane, the Park's Huss Top Spin for example, has to sport the most vibrant paint job that I've ever seen...! New for 2014 was Tornado, which stood resplendent in orange and yellow, and came sponsored by a famous Asian Green Tea company. I've not ridden many Technical Park (Italy) flat rides before, but this provided some impressive ejector airtime at the top of each swing. Strong Gs as well, which when combined with the heat, made me quite light headed indeed. The ride also had an on-ride photo offer - although the photos were taken manually, by a Park employee with a DSLR...! Dream World also boasts a Shoot the Chutes flume made by Hopkins, called Super Splash. This version was shorter (16m) than Tidal Wave at Thorpe (26m), although the splash just as drenching. But who's complaining in this weather?! Also welcome in the Bangkok heat: Snow Town. The attraction is very popular with the locals (Snow! In a tropical city!), and as such carries an extra charge on top of the usual entrance ticket. Happily, it is included as part of the tourist ticket, so I gave it a go. Temperatures inside Snow Town are around -5°C, a good 40°C difference between the temperatures outside Snow Town - so the Park gave out free puffa jackets and wellington boots to all those entering, in much the same way that Đầm Sen did for their Ice Palace attraction, Bằng Băng. Snow Town was a surreal experience, with one half of the building a heavily themed snow dome... ...and the other an icy speed slide! This was a lot of fun, but felt pretty precarious - lean too far backwards/forwards/sideways on the inflatable sleds and you'll topple out onto the hard, bumpy ice underneath. Thankfully I kept it together, but the runway at the bottom wasn't long enough, so I ended up careering headlong into the side of the building. I suspect the Park are aware of the potential for accidents here, choosing to station a good 4-5 employees at the bottom of the run to catch / comfort those who overshoot / have fallen out of their sled... If Snow Town wasn't a surreal enough experience, it's worth showing some of the other oddities in Dream World, which make the Park somewhat unique. For example, navigating the Park was more entertaining than usual, thanks to this guy. And the Park's toilets were often decked out with a statue of some sort, in this case of a grown man in a bath wearing a nappy... ...and in this case of a constipated baby on a potty. And this guy seems to just have that sinking feeling...! Anyway - back to the rides. And the last coaster of the day was Speedy Mouse, a Cavazza Diego kiddie model opened in 2006, in replacement of the Park's previous ride, Speedy Mouse! The original was a standard Big Apple ride, which ran from 2003 - 2005, but thankfully the replacement was not a like-for-like swap, but a new ride / layout altogether. The second Speedy Mouse, as seen below, was bought from a Family Entertainment Centre in Bangkok. The ride was surprisingly good, with a good whip-around during the first drop, and a tight helix towards the end - its bark was definitely weaker than its bite! Vastly superior to the previous Big Apple incarnation, I have no doubt. Other supporting rides at the Park included the Vikings pirate ship (background) and Bump Boat (foreground) - both pretty self explanatory. Disney-parallels abound once again with the Haunted Mansion walkthrough attraction, which featured multiple levels and all kinds of zombies / mummies / deceased people popping up / out at you. The Park also had a Cable Car transportation system, which seemed to require a lot of manual effort to move the cars around when in the stations... Alien was a similar ride in many ways to Alien Encounter: Extra Terrorestrial at, erm, Disney World (now replaced by Stitch). Clearly a newer ride at the Park, after a video-based pre-show, riders sit and watch an anamatronic alien sequence, which then turns more sinister as the attraction is plunged into complete darkness, and the "aliens" wreak havoc with riders seats etc. Pretty well done to be honest (if not a complete rip off of the Mouse), but not really my cup of tea. There was also a 4D Adventure attraction, but given that my knowledge of Thai is poor at best, I gave the screening a miss. And finally, one of the most weird and wonderful attractions at Dream World is Giant House, which is a short walk through a - you guessed it - Giant's House. Think of Honey I Shrunk the Audience, but "real"! This was really nicely done, with a bedroom, lounge and kitchen area for guests to walk through and investigate. Quite bizarre! And one final parting shot of Dream World: this was the entrance to the Fantasy Land area, where a lot of the kiddie rides were located. Great to see so much attention has gone into the presentation of this Park, with areas like this almost approaching the standards of major Western Parks. Dream World, then, is a great day out, and I can recommend it to anyone holidaying in Bangkok. What it lacks in thrill rides and coasters (see Siam Park City for those), it more than makes up for in presentation and theme. And it's pretty big too - there are many rides and attractions not shown in this Trip Report, including Grand Canyon rapids, Hollywood Stunt Show, and kids Water Fun play area. The Park's investment in appearance and focus on the family market is clearly paying off, as Dream World had the largest crowds of all of the Parks I visited on my Asia Adventure. The Disney model, it seems, is not a bad one to follow. And with one or two more "headline" attractions, I think the place would be a real winner. ~ That's the end of my Asia Adventure Trip Reports - I hope you enjoyed the tours! Comments? Please post below!

This is the third in a 4-part series about my travels around Asia earlier this year, and some of the decidedly different Parks I encountered whilst I was there: SuốI Tiên, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Đầm Sen, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Siam Park City, Bangkok, Thailand Dream World, Bangkok, Thailand Having left the colourful Đầm Sen behind in Vietnam, and spent a few days in Cambodia enjoying the magnificent temples at Angkor Wat, I crossed the border into Thailand and made a beeline for my third Asian Park: Siam Park City. Part 3: Siam Park City Siam Park City is located to the east of Bangkok, unfortunately well out of reach of the city's 2-line metro - so getting there meant jumping in a taxi. And compared to the (pretty bustling) Ho Chi Minh City, traffic in Bangkok really is crippling, meaning the 20 mile journey from my hotel to the Park took a little over an hour... and this was using the faster toll roads! It is worth saying here that Thailand is a far more developed country than Vietnam (or Cambodia for that matter), making it far more "familiar" for the average Western tourist. It also means it is bigger, busier and more commercial; and this unfortunately means more scams to watch out for. A pretty common one exists in the taxi industry: many Thai taxi drivers approach tourists and suddenly their meter "doesn't work", so they quote a fixed price for the journey. Never accept these journeys! The "fixed price" is often up to twice as expensive as the metered fare... and that meter isn't really "broken"... To get to Siam Park City, I had to negotiate with 3 taxi drivers (all who offered me a flat fare of between 350 - 400 Baht) before I found one that would take me on the meter. Meter cost: 160 Baht. And much as Thailand seemed more "grown up" vs. my other Asian destinations, so seemed its Amusement industry: Siam Park City was a far more developed Park than either of the two I had visited in Vietnam. As I said - bigger, busier and more commercial, which in Siam Park City's case even meant the presence of original Western-manufactured rides, rather than any knock-off versions...! So, onto the Trip Report. And Siam Park City has one of my favourite entrances to any Theme Park I've been to, mostly due to the large portrait of "Phra Chao Yu Hua" / "The Lord Above Our Heads" hanging above the gates. Thai people absolutely revere their monarch (King Rama IX), so this was not a huge surprise: their devotion is so embedded in the culture that legally speaking, any offence against the dignity of the monarch may be (and often is) punished. For example, at the start of any movie shown in a Thai cinema, a short video is run to which all viewers must stand: failing to stand can lead to arrest... Anyway, I digress. Can you imagine Thorpe Park displaying a portrait of HM The Queen above its entrance just before the bridge...? Probably not. Siam Park City operates a two-tier ticketing system: one price for tourists, and another price for locals. Alas there was no way for me to get around looking like a Westerner! Tourists pay 900 Baht (£17.25) for entry and access to all rides, whereas locals pay only 500 Baht (£9.57) for the same deal. Tickets are purchased from booths just to the left of this photo of the rather grand entrance foyer: The Park is anchored in the centre by a large rotating Siam Park City globe atop a fountain, complete with pink cat mascots holding hands. There were many of these plastic cat statues dotted around the Park, many larger than the ones here. Not to everyone's tastes, but effort had clearly been made with the presentation of the Park...! Time for some rides: the Park headliner being Vortex. Your eyes don't deceive you - this is actually a legit Vekoma SLC, and a pretty long one at that! The Park advertising is not wrong: Vortex is one of only 2 extended Vekoma "Susperded Looping Coaster"s in the world; the second being in Suzhou Amusement Land, China. It has a track length of 765m vs. the more ubiquitous standard 689m version, although the track packs in the same number of inversions (5) - just over a rather different layout. But would this be a good thing...? It's also worth mentioning that the 'coaster is not remotely new: it originally opened in 1997 in Jerudong Park, Brunei, and later bought by Siam Park City second hand in 2005/6, along with a Vekoma Boomerang and a Zamperla Powered Coaster - more on both of these later. As you can see, Vortex did not garner a huge crowd when it first opened for the day... ...which meant that I was able to take the front row. And to be honest, the ride showed some good promise in the first half, with a good first drop and relatively smooth transition into the initial Roll Over inversion - although the standard SLC "shake rattle and roll" was ever present. However, what did me in was the transition after the Roll Over and before the train dived into the Sidewinder, on a relatively straight piece of track - the whole train just "shunted" and flung me up and forwards out of my seat, such that the bottom of the restraint ended up winding me in my manly area. I didn't enjoy the second half of the ride so much, as I was still smarting after the attack on my nether regions. Ouch. Arguably the Park's second headline attraction - and unusually not a rollercoaster - is the imaginitively named log flume, called, er, Log Flume. This featured some impressive rockwork as well as monster lion and tiger statues, and gained the longest queue that I saw all day. It's a long flume featuring both forwards and backwards sections, and plenty of much-needed splashing. I visited the Park during April - the hottest month of the year - where tempurates regularly hit 38°C, and it often feels even hotter due to the humidity. Bangkok in April has to be the most scorching, sticky environment that I've ever been in, and my day at Siam Park City was one such blisteringly hot day. As this website notes, "try and avoid April, unless you plan to be permanently submerged in the ocean...". Needless to say, my ride on Log Flume was much appreciated. The Park invested significant sums on building this attraction following a 2007 accident on their previous version of the ride (of unknown manufacturer). 1 woman died and 5 others were injured when a boat crashed off the crest of the drop. The log veered off the edge due to a sudden cut in electrical power, which caused a water pump to fail that controlled the water level of the ride. The ride vehicle fell 20m to the ground from the top of the drop. Rather than try to repair the old ride, the Park scrapped it completely and gave Mack a call, who worked their magic and produced a really cracking replacement. Life lesson #62: wherever you go in the world, you're never too far away from a Haystack Dryer. On with the tour, and the next large attraction is found close to the Park entrance: a Vekoma Boomerang called, er, Boomerang (there's a pattern here...). This is a standard Vekoma model set amongst some pretty nice landscaping: as was the case with Vortex, the Park clearly present their rides with care and attention - great to see. I should caveat what I'm about to say by restating that it really was a blisteringly hot day during my visit to Siam Park City... but... I greyed out on the Boomerang. This has never happened before! So either this particular Boomerang was unusually intense, or my body just really wasn't coping with the heat/Gs that day... There are actually 50 Boomerangs in the world - 21 called Boomerang - but this one sports fab retro silver trains with BOOM written on the side The third 'coaster of the day was Grand Canyon Express - alas a lot less exciting than the first two 'coasters; a Zamperla Powered model acquired again from Jerudong Park in Brunei. From the outside of the ride it looks another decent, well presented attraction, with impressive rockwork... ...but when you take a closer look inside you can see that the ride was clearly a terrain 'coaster in its previous life - almost all of the supports are amusingly propped up on large concrete footers. I can't help but feel that more could have been done to disguise these, as the ride looks very odd in its current state! Unfortunately, the ride experience was also pants. It gains points for being a long ride - and the tunnel section is fun - but really is very slow, and very boring. Time to take a look around other parts of Siam Park City, which contains plentiful palm trees and a "motorway road sign" approach to Park signage... A standard array of flat rides is on offer, including Enterprise, a Huss Enterprise, Condor, a Huss Condor, and Top Spin, a Huss Top Spin. Unfortunately the Top Spin and Aladdin Magic Carpet ride were both down during my visit, and looked as if they had been under repair for quite some time. There is also an indoor area containing less exciting flats, with a distinct aircraft-carrier feel to it. And Loop the Loop was definitely not in any fit state to operate, having been closed for at least the past 10 years. It's always a shame to see a SBNO 'coaster, but such was the lax Park security that you could have a sneaky look around the ride station, where the severely dusty - and rusty - train still sits! I later learnt that Loop the Loop is the oldest inverting roller coaster in Southeast Asia and was built shortly after the Park opened in 1980. My favourite flat in the Park was actually Giant Drop, which delivered a surprisingly effective punch from its 75m height. And again - no sign of any Asian knock-offs here, this was a legit Intamin model. Lots of fun, thanks to some serious airtime! The obligatory Haunted House, Big Double Shock, was also present, which was seemingly so scary that numerous Thai people came running back out of the entrance. I opted not to ride... And Siam Park City is not just a Theme Park, but also has a fairly large Water Park attached to the right of it. The tourist Theme Park ticket provides access to both the Theme and Water Park attractions. Its big selling point is the Wave Pool, which is the Guinness World Records-certified largest wave pool in the world at 13,600 sq m. So large is the pool, that the Park owners boast of it being "Bangkok’s inland sea"! It also has what is the most hairy water Speed Slide I've ever seen. It doesn't look much, but appearances can be deceptive - the taller red/orange/yellow/green slides are so tall, and so steep, that the average short / light Thai thrill seeker absolutely flies down it, spending more time in the air than on the slide... The splash pool was also eyebrow-raisingly short, meaning that most people nearly splashed into the far side wall of the pool upon landing. Serious air time. Serious pain on landing. The Water Park also features this collection of Super Spiral slides, noteworthy only because of an accident in 2008 where a joint in one of the slides collapsed, leaving a 1ft hole on the bottom of the final section of flume. 28 children were taken to hospital having fallen 2m down through this hole, to the rocks and plants below. Highly unfortunate, given the Log Flume accident only months earlier, although in this case the Super Spiral ride was repaired, rather than replaced. It's disappointing that Thailand still has no agreed safety standards for Amusement Park operators (unlike say, ADIPS in the UK). So, we're about 2/3rds of the way through this Trip Report now, and you've probably been reading for some time. Maybe it's time to take a comfort break? Well, comfort breaks are a little more difficult at Siam Park City, as none of the Park toilets come furnished with any toilet paper. Visitors can choose between either an unappetising long-drop bog or a marginally-more-appetising Western sit-down bog, but neither arrangement will furnish you with any loo roll. Or paper towels. So you are either expected to bring your own toilet paper to this Theme Park, or, well, you're on your own... Anyway - back on with the tour. And at the back of the Park sits one of the more surprisingly impressive attractions. Dinotopia stands proud as a huge building facade set amongst some very pretty plant and flower displays. The attraction is split into two halves: one half a semi-dark walkthrough around large motion-sensored dinosaur animatronics. This was well done, with impressive scale and pretty convincing models. The second half is slightly less exciting: a "museum" filled with fake dinosaur skeletons and exhibits. It reminded me of an inferior Jurassic Park Discovery Center at Universal's Islands of Adventure. And the dinosaur theme didn't stop there, with the Jurassic Adventure ride also a recent investment for the Park - a drive through "Dinosaur Country" in a Jeep. As you can see from the fonts / colours used, there was a fair bit of copyright infringement going on here against the Spielberg film, to the point where the queueline actually had TVs showing The Lost World for the waiting crowd. The animatronics and themeing used for this ride were not half as impressive as in Dinotopia, perhaps because they were all housed outdoors (and open to the harsh Thai elements) vs. being sheltered indoors. But the experience was still fun, largely due to the Jeep being "real" and not on a track. A squirty-water dinosaur model halfway round the circuit provided some laughs (and again - much needed rehydration for me...). Finally, the last ride of the day was Africa Adventure, also housed near Dinotopia and Jurassic Adventure. This promised a tour around the African savannah in two different ways: either via train, or via boat. Naturally I chose the boat which was, like the Jurassic Adventure Jeep, very real and not "tracked" in any way. It was a pretty full boat on my ride, and was unfortunately having difficulty staying afloat - the water level was quite high. I was initially glad to have been handed a life jacket, but as you can see, no-one else thought they would be necessary... The ride was good fun, with plenty of animal animatronics along the route. All the classic African montages were in there, including a scene of Lions engaged in an attack on a Gazelle, Elephants filling up at the watering hole... ...and native tribal people burning a white hunter guy on a cross. Standard fare for any African-themed ride. Oh, and King Kong also made an appearance at the end. I'll end with a few shots taken from the top of the Park's 100m-tall rotating observation tower, Siam Park Tower. Not only did this tower provide excellent views of the Park - and further afield into Bangkok - but it was also air conditioned, and for that reason alone easily made it into my top 3 rides at Siam Park City. Siam Park City is a solid option for any Theme Park tourist visiting Bangkok. More developed than either of the other two Parks I'd visited in Vietnam, it had clearly benefitted from recent investments in the excellent Log Flume and Africa Adventure, as well as the haul of rides and coasters it had purchased second hand from Brunei. The Park clearly favours established Western ride manufacturers too (Vekoma, Mack, Intamin, Huss), over the cheaper Asian alternatives, and whilst there is little in the way of themeing, the Park is generally very well presented indeed. That said, there were many areas of the Park that looked decidedly worse for wear (entire Loop the Loop area, some of the flats, most of the animatronics, the toilets...), and the Park's safety record is hardly stellar. With Bangkok beating London into 2nd place last year as the most visited tourist city, I can only hope that Siam Park City continues to build on its gate figures from both locals and travellers alike, and I look forward to seeing how it develops... ~ Comments? Please post below! Next up, and last in the series: Dream World.

I tend to agree. The large growth they've enjoyed year on year is fairly likely to be unsustainable; when you've opened a Midway attraction in every viable city in the world, then what...? Their "efficient" operating model may well have to change for the existing portfolio of attractions to continue to compete and pull in the crowds / cash.

For those that might be interested - an interview of Nick Varney by the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association held last month can be found on Vimeo. For all that some moan about Merlin attractions, the company is clearly a success story: Nick mentions that they have been able to post "double digit growth, year on year, for the past 14 years" - pretty impressive, especially given the recession from 2008 onwards. He also mentions their success lying in being "efficient" at capital expenditure spend (v.s. Disney where the word might be more like "extravagant") and the relative importance of IP licensing - he claims Alton Towers has grown in visitor numbers this year with CBeebies Land, even v.s. the year before when a major coaster was launched ("we got a really good deal with the BBC"). Sounds like the Merlin strategy over the medium term though is to continue to install clones of their Lego/Midway brands in new/emerging markets... (e.g. Legoland Dubai, Madame Tussauds Singapore, etc, etc, etc.)

Had a good time at Fright Nights this year - although I went on the weekend of 25th/26th Oct, and the Park was rammed. 17,000 gate figure, 45+ min queue to buy maze Fastrack tickets (then the same again in the actual maze Fastrack queue), and one Cabin in the Woods attendant was claiming a 4 hour standby queue at around 6pm. Grim. So the "Halloween" element of the event was only really enjoyed if you spent the £25 for the Director's Cut Fastrack. However, I thought the maze quality was pretty good this year, with noticeable improvements in MBV and Blair Witch Project. I had a very similar experience - I think the MBV actors this year were the most brutal I've ever experienced in a Thorpe maze! That said, Studio 13 is an inferior replacement for The Asylum, containing none of the disorientation and intensity. Far too many "dead spots", both in terms of themeing and scares. A shame because I liked the concept, but The Asylum was routinely for me the most impressive attraction of all those in the history of Thorpe's Fright Nights - so very hard to replace... As ever, full review and photos can be found on Total Thorpe Park!

Yeah absolutely - and being from Cambodia, he'd had to cross the border into a foreign country to ride it...!

This is the second in a 4-part series about my travels around Asia earlier this year, and some of the decidedly different Parks I encountered whilst I was there: SuốI Tiên, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Đầm Sen, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Siam Park City, Bangkok, Thailand Dream World, Bangkok, Thailand My second Asian Park after the wonderful SuốI Tiên was also located Ho Chi Minh City: Đầm Sen. Part 2: Đầm Sen Đầm Sen is located much more centrally in Ho Chi Minh City vs. SuốI Tiên, and could be reached in only 25 mins via taxi from my hotel next to the Sông SàI Gòn river. And unlike SuốI Tiên, it's much more of an Amusement Park than a Theme Park: there is comparatively little in the way of style and decoration vs. its extensive Buddhist-themed brother. That said, the Park is far from ugly, with lily pads and flower themeing being the order of the day. This is the entrance to the Park - the Towers Street equivalent, if you will: And there's a very good reason for all the flora themeing - Đầm Sen is a circular Park built around a large lake, filled with lily pads, lotus flowers and other plant life. All very pretty - and this view across the lake provides some perspective on scale. Connecting the small pagodas is a walkway across the lake. Đầm Sen operates a pay-one-price entry model, with tickets at 130,000 Dong (£3.79). As with much of Asia, it was all exceedingly cheap for a Western tourist. I came for the afternoon and whilst not quite as low as SuốI Tiên attendance levels, the Park was pretty empty the whole time I was there. How do these places survive financially on such low gate figures, with such low entrance prices...?! As you can see, there were very few people around to enjoy the topiaries: And now onto the rides: the biggest of them all being Tàu Lỏn Vông Siẻu Tồc / Roller Coaster. This coaster is tucked away in dense foliage in the top-left hand side of the Park, and is quite a walk from the main entrance - I suspect some visitors don't even find it...! It's certainly a bigger ride than any at SuốI Tiên, and until a larger version was later built at nearby ĐạI Nam with 4 inversions, Tàu Lỏn Vông Siẻu Tồc / Roller Coaster held the record for having the most inversions in Vietnam with 3 - vertical loop, corkscrew, corkscrew. The ĐạI Nam coaster - built 10 years (2008) after the Đầm Sen version (1998) - is near identical, save for a second vertical loop after the first. Merlin take note: black / brown / grey / white are not the only colours available when painting a roller coaster! This one had green rails, red tubular spine, blue supports and yellow supporting structure. If you hadn't already guessed, the ride is an Arrow clone - you can see the corkscrew inversions bearing more than a passing resemblance to the classic Arrow corkscrew designs, with yellow "arch" supports holding the inversions in place. The layout is near-identical to the actual Arrow-designed Corskcrew at Cedar Point; the offending manufacturer at Đầm Sen is likely to be Hebei Zhongye Metallurgical Equipment (although RCDB doesn't know), given that HZME built the later version at ĐạI Nam... So how did it ride? Early impressions were not encouraging, with a lengthy wait in the station for the train to completely fill up - the ride operators refused to send the train off without it being completely full. Health and safety or cost saving? I assumed the latter. The waiting time did give me a good 10 minutes to inspect my surroundings though, where I found that the screws holding the back of the seat in front of me in place were so loose and wobbly that they were close to coming out altogether. +1 for maintenance! The ride itself wasn't bad at all - quite intense in places (especially the vertical loop) and not so rough as to be unenjoyable; serious bracing helped a fair bit. I was sat next to a guy from Cambodia - who can't have been any older than 14 - who told me on the lift hill in broken English that this was his first ever roller coaster and he was very nervous to ride. He came off grinning from ear to ear! Đầm Sen is also home to Tàu Xoay Cao Tồc / Spinning Coaster, which continues in the great tradition of Asian-clones by emulating the classic Maurer Söhne spinner. I am a big fan of the Maurer spinners - the excellent Tarántula at Parque de Atracciones de Madrid is one of my favourites - so was interested to see how this one would ride. It was built by the almost-ubiquitous Chinese manufacturer Golden Horse, who appear in most Asian Parks with cheaper clones of classic Vekoma, Zamperla and Maurer rides. Alas for Golden Horse, in recent years the original manufacturers have been fighting back, with trademark infringement lawsuits aplenty. The ride itself is a pretty standard spinner layout - there are currently 77 standard Golden Horse ZXC-24A models in existence, 76 in Asia - with flat hairpin turns in the first half, and more drops and longer curves in the second half. The ride wasn't bad, with a decent amount of spinning and some good drops. However, it all felt a little bit more rattly and unsteady than the Maurer originals, and special mention must be given to the car design: almost identical, save for added seatbelts and the usual Maurer "loop" handle bar having been swapped with a t-bar handle bar, akin to those on a bicycle. When seated in the car, this t-bar sits at about knee-height for your average grown adult, and proved to be very painful indeed... If you've ever ridden Dragon's Fury or Spinball, you'll know that the end of the ride features a fairly brutal "kick" from a long horizontal bar just above track-height which steadies the car and straightens it up. Tàu Xoay Cao Tồc / Spinning Coaster does likewise, although if anything in a more brutal fashion and with little warning, which resulted in both of my knees smashing into the t-bar handle in the centre. I still had brusies days later. Top tip for future riders: do try to sit with your legs as far apart as possible - pinning your knees against the side of the car may help. One go was enough! And I've read a few ride restriction boards in my time, but never one that informs guests that "no gamboling... is allowed while riding". Which is a shame, because I was quite keen on starting up a game of blackjack whilst on the hairpin bends. Walk further around the lake and you'll find Trò ChơI Rồng Bay / Flying Dragon - a standard Dragon ride much like the indoor Bí Mật Rừng Phù Thủy / Secret of Sorcerer Forest I encountered in SuốI Tiên. However, approaching the station I couldn't find an operator anywhere nearby; not wholly surprising, given the gate figure. After a minute or so of looking around, I found a staff member relaxing a short way from the ride leaning against a tree. She motioned for me to get into the dragon car. Once I was sat down - her still leaning against the nearby tree - she started the ride off using a remote control in her hand! No bar checks or anything, just a press of a button on her remote to set the train in motion. Bizarre. The layout itself was a standard Dragon oval, but the train did pick up some decent speed and I got a few goes around the track - pretty fun in all! Now time for a bit of a tour around the rest of Đầm Sen. I should say at this point that the Amusement Park is only one half of the attraction: the other half is a Water Park, with a separate gate and separate entry fee. If taking a taxi to Đầm Sen, make sure your driver knows to drop you off at the right entrance...! Whilst I didn't venture into the Water Park, it did look good fun, complete with Kamikaze drop slides, lazy river and recently-installed Boomerang ring slide. It apparently gets very popular at the weekends! Other notable structures on Park included this large theatre, which could seat ~300 people. No activity here during my visit, though! Đầm Sen also features this colourful (knock-off) Magic Carpet ride - a travelling version permanently installed in the Park... ...as well as the world's least-scary-looking Haunted House: Lâu ĐàI Kinh Dị / Castle of Horror. Save for the gargoyles and iron gates at the front, this looked more like Cinderella's Castle than Haunted Mansion...! There was also a set of marine-themed dodgems: Chính Phục ĐạI Đường / Conquer the Ocean. Alas these were not operational... ...as was the case with the Park's log flume. Onto the last coaster of the day: Vòng Xoáy TuổI Thơ / Childhood Spiral, which was operational! Points go to Đầm Sen for giving the ride a slightly more inspiring name than Roller Coaster or Spinning Coaster. Yes, it's a Big Apple, but it's a Big Apple that shuns the typical, erm, apple - for a watermelon! It was actually quite fast and enjoyable, although fairly rough even though it was just a Big Apple. Further points go to Đầm Sen for letting the foliage around the ride grow to such an extent that the bushes hanging over the base of the lift hill attack even the smallest of riders. Great entertainment. Colourful large grasshopper themeing was also a highlight. Perhaps the biggest surprise - and highlight - of the whole trip though was Bằng Băng / All Ice, which was an unexpectedly large ice-sculpture house at the top of the lake. Standing / sweating in the humid 30°C Ho Chi Minh heat, even if the sculptures turned out to be unimpressive, I figured this was a very welcome installation indeed. Given that the building had to be kept under sub-zero temperatures, and that most visitors (especially tourists) would not be wearing a great deal, the Park had the sense to provide warm puffer-jacket-style overcoats for guests to put on before entering. The sculptures were very impressive indeed: really quite large, nicely lit, and very detailed. This section included a lighthouse and Titanic-style cruise liner. To give some context on size, I'd say the lighthouse was at least twice the height of me - 12ft+! Other sculptures included the Greek Parthenon, a Roman Centurion, and a Chinese temple. After 10 minutes in Bằng Băng my nose and ears had decided they'd had enough of being in a freezer, so I took the cue to leave and stepped out again into the close evening air. By this time the sun was quickly going down, and the Park showed itself to be very pretty at night, with light installations such as the one below dotted around many of the walkways. Only at Đầm Sen: a purple pathway to love...?! A quick shout out to the attractive Ferris Wheel sporting a jazzy lighting package... ...and a final parting shot of the lotus flowers I had passed on my way in - this time lit up like a Disney parade float! And with that, I left Đầm Sen and grabbed a taxi to the newly-opened first McDonalds in Vietnam a few km away. Incidentally, McDonalds was absolutely heaving with locals, such that an extensive cattlepen queue had been erected outside the entrance to the restaurant and marshals were struggling to take orders from the crowds over the noise. It seems as if communist Vietnam is slowly seeing Western (capitalist) brands creep into their culture...! As I chomped down on my regional McPork™ burger, I reflected on my time at Đầm Sen: a nice little Park, if a little quiet and under-developed. With some TLC and investment it could really thrive: it has the space to expand and growing affluence in Ho Chi Minh City could provide a customer base with increasing disposable income to tap into. It has been reported recently that some of the rides from the now-defunct Freestyle Music Park in South Carolina, USA, could be heading over to Vietnam: could Đầm Sen be the lucky recipient of the goods...?! That'd do nicely. ~ Comments? Please post below! Next up: Siam Park City.

It was pretty hellish this weekend - 17,000 gate figure on the Saturday, and not much less on the Sunday. Heard one attendant quote 4 hours standby queue for Cabin in the Woods on Sunday. Fastrack overselling was rife; even those who had stumped up the cash had to queue for up to an hour at times...

Confirmation also here: http://www.lincolnshireecho.co.uk/Red-Arrows-themed-ride-open-Blackpool-Pleasure/story-23347749-detail/story.html Delighted that it's a Sky Fly, which is more unique and underrated, rather than an Air Race, which is more common and overrated IMO. I absolutely loved Nigloland's version of the ride when I went earlier this year:

Thanks! Whilst all 4 of the Asian Parks I visited were certainly quirky, this one had to be the most weird and wonderful. SuốI Tiên regularly features in "Top 10 Weirdest Theme Park" lists like this one - along with UK's Diggerland and Denmark's BonBon-Land...

Earlier this year I was lucky enough to be travelling around Asia for a couple of months (a mini gap-yah, if you like), and took some small detours from the standard tourist path to visit some Parks. This is the first in a 4-part blog series about my Asia Adventure, which will cover the following Parks: SuốI Tiên, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Đầm Sen, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Siam Park City, Bangkok, Thailand Dream World, Bangkok, Thailand Hopefully the series will highlight some slightly different - and definitely non-Merlin! - Theme Parks that are on offer just 6,000 miles away. Part 1: SuốI Tiên SuốI Tiên is located just outside of Ho Chi Minh City; a 45 minute taxi ride despite being only 16 miles from the centre of town. It's the biggest Theme Park near Ho Chi Minh City and city planners are clearly invested in the Park, given that Ho Chi Minh's first metro line is having a station built right outside the entrance of the Park (a $2.8BN project, estimated completion 2017). Despite this, and having been open since 1995, my taxi driver had no idea where it was I wanted to go... so thank goodness for Google Maps and Smartphones. SuốI Tiên is one of the most unusual Theme Parks you are likely to visit: it is a Buddhist-themed Park where the attractions and landscaping illustrate Vietnam's history and legends. So as well as Buddhist-themed rollercoasters and dark rides, there are also plenty of Buddhist temples and statues located within the Park walls. And as you'll see in the photos below, the attention to detail in the themeing is second to none. Just take a look at the entrance... Entry is 50,000 Dong (£1.47) and then each attraction is at an extra cost, from 5,000 Dong (15p) to 60,000 Dong (£1.75). For 2014 the Park trialled a one-price admission for entry + all attractions at 350,000 Dong (£10.26) - quite reasonable really, but I went for the pay-per-ride option nonetheless. Before we go any further, it's worth saying at this point that the Park was absolutely dead. I counted maybe 50 guests inside it throughout my whole day, and the Park is not that small - roughly half the size of Alton Towers' sprawling grounds. There were at least 5 times as many staff visible as there were guests in the Park - so either this was an "off" day and the Park recoups the cost from much busier days, or the Park is otherwise propped up by the state... anyway, the Park felt even more deserted than my visit to Lightwater Valley on a rainy April Sunday in 2012, and that's saying something. Onwards with the tour: once through the entrance gates, the elaborate themeing continues. Move over Mickey and Pluto: this Park's mascots are the dragon, unicorn, tortoise and phoenix: It's a very pretty Park, with nods to Buddhist culture at every turn. Alas I never once saw this Ferris Wheel (CốI Xoay Của Thần Gió / Rotating Wind Spirit) move during the day - highly likely due to the lack of riders... This elaborate entrance leads not to any attraction, but rather a large Buddhist shrine (Long Hoa Thiên Bảo). And here's the temple itself, Long Hoa Thiên Bảo. This dragon looks like it could be the centrepiece to a flat ride or similar, but is actually just another elaborate themeing setpiece for the Park (Tứ Linh HộI Tụ / 4 Sacred Animals) that guests can walk around. SuốI Tiên also contains a saltwater waterpark (Biển Tiên Đồng / Fairy At Sea), which includes slides and a kids area. As you can see, it wasn't open... OK, enough with Park overview - onto the Trip Report. I started the day by doing the Vương Quốc Cá Sấu / Crocodile United Nations, which was unashamedly a lake filled with crocodiles with a walkway positioned slightly above it. Completely safe. The Park advertise this as the "territory of the swamp lord", with over 100 crocs in the water. Mostly they were escaping the 30°C heat by chilling out on the sides or submerging themselves underwater. And as it was a Vietnamese Park, for 20,000 Dong (59p) you could dangle a piece of chicken over at the crocodiles to feed/bait them as desired. I didn't do this, but did watch the only 2 other Western tourists in the Park have a go. Needless to say the crocodiles got a little fiesty. Having escaped the territory of the swamp lord, I decided it was time to give the Park's signature thrill ride a go - Tàu Lượn Siêu Tốc / High Speed Roller Coaster. This was a large sit-down coaster with a non-inverting track that shuttled around the Park's main lake. I'd only seen a train complete the circuit once in my time at the Park so far, and now understood why - the ride required at least 4 people to operate. I have no idea whether this was a commercial or safety-based decision by the Park, but it meant that I needed to find 3 others willing to get on with me in order to get the train dispatched. Alas, I couldn't find anyone. Honestly. I even offered to pay the ride operator (in my best Vietnamese) for 4 tickets (60,000 Dong / £1.76 each) myself, but she insisted that I needed 3 others. Thankfully at this point the 2 guys from the Crocodile United Nations were walking past the ride, and after a quick negotiation agreed to join me. We later found a fourth rider near the Dolphin Show / Cá Heo và Sư Tử Biển (which never put on a performance due to - you guessed it - a lack of audience) and we were set for a spin on Vietnam's longest roller coaster. The trains for the ride were a little odd - the seats looked like they'd been taken from a second hand car, and the restraints included both an over-shoulder seat belt and a silver OTSR. Only after the train had left the station and was ascending up the lift hill did I check the OTSR to find that it didn't lock - I could both fully lift the silver harness up and unbuckle the seat belt. Excellent. The lift hill itself took a good 2 minutes to climb, thanks to the tyre-powered mechanism trying its best to get the train to the top. It was clear that the tyres were so worn that the train wasn't being gripped tightly enough to pull it up quickly, resulting in a lot of slippage and a very slow ascent! The ride itself was good fun, although I spent most of it hugging my OTSR with both arms hoping that I wouldn't fall out. It was a relatively smooth affair though, and even included a fun shuttle through an artificial mountain. Having disembarked, I saw that the Park were making some pretty bold claims in their advertising for the ride - a 200kmph top speed! I'm no expert, but the ride didn't feel as if it were 50% faster than Thorpe's Stealth (80mph/130kmph)... I doubt if it topped 50mph to be honest... Onto coaster #2 - Bí Mật Rừng Phù Thủy / Secret of Sorcerer Forest. There are few hints that this building houses a coaster - it was only because I asked around that I came to find it. The beginning part of the attraction is a short walkthrough, which was actually quite unnerving as a solo traveller. To the right of the entrance below is a long pitch-black pathway, themed around a forest. Hidden sensors trigger various noisy animatronics, which seemingly light up out of nowhere. Further on in the walkthrough is a surprising shuddering floor effect, which in the darkness made me scream involuntarily. And once you get to the station of the ride itself, you see that after all of this buildup, it's actually just a basic powered Dragon ride. Talk about anti-climax! The ride itself was - as the rest of the Park - themed very impressively with trees, foliage and sorcerers, which more than made up for the fact that the track layout was a standard oval. Other attractions around the Park included this large aircraft-hangar filled with kiddie rides. And larger thrill rides are hidden next to the Rotating Wind Spirit Ferris Wheel, including a Disk'O which I'm fairly sure isn't a Zamperla original... This facade looks innocent from the outside, but houses Kim Lân Sơn Xuất Thế / Palace of Unicorns, which is a walkthrough attraction depicting the many stages of Buddhist Hell. The two crocodile-baiting Westerners from earlier told me that the attraction is immaculately themed but really quite violent and disturbing inside, using animatronics to portray gory Buddhist punishments for various offences, including drug addiction, gambling, and adultery. Think dismembered body parts and occasional jump-scares. I gave it a miss. And new for 2014 was - wait for it - Lâu ĐàI Phép Thuật Harry Potter / The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Yes, in the middle of Vietnam's authentically Buddhist Theme Park sits possibly the most incongruous new attraction they could have built. I think they just threw away the concept for this one and went for a crowd pleaser... Does Universal know that this exists? Do they care? Probably not. The attraction was hardly a competitor to the real Wizarding World, being just a glorified haunted house walkthrough with Daniel Radcliffe's face stuck on the front. And although the exterior was substantial, the inside was less impressive. I walked through 7 rooms in total, one for each of the books in the Harry Potter series, with standard ghost/witch/goblin statues popping out from all sides. There may have been an actor in there as well grabbing legs and shoulders as I walked past - who knows. Very little connection to the Harry Potter stories overall; the most startling moment came from a noisy dementor (possibly?) that flew overhead on a wire at great speed and nearly clocked me on the head. My overall feeling was that it was a shame that SuốI Tiên spent money on this, given how out-of-place it looks compared to the rest of the Park. Last time I checked Harry didn't have a whole lot to do with the Buddhist tradition. It may have yet saved itself if the quality was in line with the rest of the Park, but alas... Remember book 5? It's the Oder of the Pheonix! As you can see, just like the films... That said, it's good to see the Park continuing to invest - especially given that I have no idea where they're getting any money from. And it was clear that there was more to come both this year and next, with more construction happening by the indoor kiddie area. Notice that there is little to no protection of the public from the building work - I could just walk right on through! Also in the pipeline is Đĩa Bay Hành Tinh Lạ / Alien Flying Disk... ...and Phât Địa Mẫu / Buddha Model, another Buddhist themed set piece. And with that, it was nearing 6pm and the Park was shutting down for the day. I'd had a really unique experience here - nothing like any other Park I'd been to. Exquisitely themed (for the most part), strong religious themes running throughout and with some genuinely different attractions. It was just a shame there wasn't a higher gate figure; at times walking through the Park was a bit like touring an abandoned school - a bit creepy. So how to sum up SuốI Tiên? "Buddhist nirvana"? "Disney on acid"? "Plain strange"? SuốI Tiên is - at least in my experience - pretty incomparable as a concept. It's clearly taken a huge pot of cash to develop the Park in such an elaborate and large scale way, and I would encourage anyone visiting Ho Chi Minh City to take a trip out to District 9 to have a look around, because it's just so different. You can't help but smile at the colourful bizarreness of the place! ~ Comments? Please post below! Next up: Đầm Sen.

Not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but the "Director's Cut" maze fastrack is now available to buy - £25. This is for all 5 mazes, so a fiver each. It's the same price as an actual entry ticket, if bought in advance! Easily the most expensive FN fastrack to date; last year was £18.50 for 4 mazes (as Blair Witch wasn't included). What are the chances of the price rise putting large numbers of people off buying it? I suspect low...

So I rode Helix last weekend and... drum roll... it was fantastic. Bloody good. Which will be of little surprise to anyone who's followed the ride's construction and read subsequent reviews from other members of this forum and coaster community. It's presented superbly, and certainly looks and feels like the "next generation" coaster that Liseberg are going for. The queueline is futuristic without being tacky, and the associated app of the ride was played by most waiting in line - every 15 minutes, the leading player would win a free Helix fastpass. I visited on a busy day so the game was certainly a welcome diversion from the 2 hour queue time... Helix is certainly a popular coaster; the next largest queue was Balder at 50 mins.... I'm a big fan of the Mack megacoasters (Blue Fire is high on my top 10 list and Alpina Blitz earlier on this year was similarly excellent), so had high expectations from the ride. I rode it twice; early in the day and later at night (Liseberg's Saturday opening hours: 11am to 11pm, as standard), and both rides lived up to the hype - the second one especially so. Everything that I loved about previous megacoaster installations was there: super-comfy lap bar seating, smooth tracking and plenty of ejector airtime. But Helix trumps both Blue Fire and Alpina for its length and variety, and I found Helix to be more intense than either of the other two rides: after a day's operation, there are some serious positive and negative Gs to be felt, and this will likely increasingly be the case as the ride breaks in over the next few years. The layout flows really well, with the LSM launches complimenting the ride rather than defining it - the ride has a fair bit of speed going into the launches, so there's no launch "whiplash" effect as may be felt when riding e.g. Stealth / Kanoenen. It's hard to pick a stand-out moment from the ride, as there are many. The initial drop out of the station into a corkscrew has to be one of the best openers to a coaster I've ridden. I loved the pretty intense Norwegian Loop in the middle of the ride, and the tight S-bends that hugged the terrain afterwards. The airtime hills are forceful, especially at the back of the ride. And the signature Mack inline twist at the end is just as powerful as Blue Fire's, albeit without the near-miss theming. It also looks beautiful, especially at night with the green and white lighting package - Mack have simply done a great job here. I'd encourage anyone to fly out to Gothenburg to give Liseberg's new toy a go - getting there from London takes less time than driving to Alton Towers, and the Park has much to offer (Balder is an excellent woodie, especially when warmed up, and Lisebergbanan was a surprise hit). Back row on Helix is worth the flight alone!

Talocan is sublime - certainly the most impressive flat I've ever ridden. Wonder how much it costs to run..? If Phantasialand's expansion plans get the green light (and it continues with the level of detail and themeing to date), it will grow into a truly world-class Park over the next 20 years.

I don't know if this has been reported before, but reading the July issue of Park World, Thorpe got the whole of Angry Birds Land for less than £1m... Seems pretty good value for £1m given that Alton spent 8 times that on CBeebies Land - although granted, CBeebies was a much bigger effort.

Had a great time on my VIP "behind the scenes" of The Swarm after Park close. Was especially lucky to be treated to an impromptu tour around some of the lesser-trodden areas of the ride...! Yes, it's a real aeroplane - it even still smelled like an aircraft interior when inside...! More shots at Total Thorpe Park.

Just want to say a public "thank you" to TPM and to Thorpe Park for putting on this deal for us - I had my VIP Day on Sunday and had a really great time. Unfortunately the standard Stealth backstage tour had to be shelved, because the ride broke down minutes before it was due to start (typical!) - so the engineers were having to spend their time attending to that, rather than giving me a tour. 5 minutes of quick thinking later, and the Park more than made up for it by sending the Head of Engineering over to give me a backstage tour around Nemesis Inferno's, SAW's and The Swarm's workshops instead! He was a great guy and more than happy to help out. As further "compensation", they also let me shut The Swarm down at the end of day, and guided me through operating the train transfer - very unexpected, but very cool of them. The lift hill walk at 7:30pm was also amazing (as others on here have already reported) - I was lucky to get a fantastic clear day, where from the top we could see as far back as Wembley Stadium and the London Eye - a good 18-20 miles away. Definitely gives you a different perspective on the Park from above, too. And we had a class sunset! I've posted more photos from the lift hill walk over on Total Thorpe Park. And thanks again to TPM and Thorpe!

Given that I'm still here writing this... erm, no I didn't die at the waterpark It's chlorinated water like most water parks, so no worries. And yes, it's one entrance ticket for both the theme and water park. Websites are here and here for more info. For both parks, your best bet is to jump in a taxi from central Bangkok. Taxi drivers tend to speak no English, so bring a map with you and be prepared to improvise! And it's usually a good idea to reject any taxi drivers that insist on a fixed rate for your journey: it's a common scam targetting western-looking tourists, where the fixed price they insist on is up to 50% higher than the metered journey... Enjoy! They're both a fair bit different to your average Merlin outfit...

Both Siam Park City and Dream World are good parks, and worth a visit if you're in Bangkok. Dream World is more a Disneyland, whereas Siam Park City is more a Six Flags. But the Thai versions, obviously... In terms of coasters, it's a Vekoma affair across both - Siam Park City has, as Tommy says, an extended SLC (being extended only prolongs the pain) and a Boomerang (pretty good - made me grey out in the heat), and Dream World has a Swinging Turns (fun if sedate) and a Space-Mountain-esq themed indoor coaster (akin to Temple of the Night Hawk at Phantasialand). Siam Park City also benefits from having a water park attached to it, with a particularly intense speed slide into a not-quite-big-enough splash pool. Of the two, I'd say Dream World is the better day out (it's better themed, and more popular with the locals), but Siam Park City has the bigger thrills. And as for Cambodia, I didn't venture into any of the parks there. You may be tempted by Dream Land in Phenom Penh, but it's more fairground than theme park, and has potential safety concerns...

Went to Nigloland this weekend and had a really fantastic time. I'll spare you all a full trip report, but there are two stand-out rides that are worthy of mention: Alpina Blitz I rode Piraten at Djurs last year and absolutely loved it, and rode Blue Fire at Europa in 2012 and absolutely loved it, so Alpina Blitz was pretty much the reason I made the 2.5 hour drive south east from Paris to Dolancourt. It's a beauty of a ride, both to look at and to experience - super smooth with bags of airtime, and really warms up throughout the day. Back row in the last hour of Park operations on Alpina Blitz delivers simply fantastic bum-off-seat ejector air. Which is better? For me Piraten is the more intense ride, although this is in no small part due to the less comfortable restraints pinning you in during the screaming airtime hills - but Alpina Blitz delivers just as much air and is definitely more re-ridable. Extra points also go to Alpina Blitz for its innovative ride merchandise: I picked up 2 Nigloland Stein beer glasses on my way out, both etched with the Alpina logo. Needless to say, I'm mighty looking forward to riding Helix soon... Air Meeting I first came to know of this ride type thanks to Benin's blog post, and was intrigued as to how it would ride. It's a Gerstlauer Sky Fly, and consists of individual seats mounted to a central claw, with the ability to rotate on their own axis. As the claw swings around, riders are encouraged to spin themselves through 360 degrees by maneouvering the 2 "wings" attached to the left and right of the seats. Holding the left wing down / right wing up will rock you in one direction, holding left wing up / right wing down will rock you in the other. Get enough momentum up and you can make it over the top and complete a 360. Keep your wings "fixed" in the wing position (up / down) that pushes you over the top, and you'll continue to rotate in that direction like a madman. Of the 12 guests per ride, usually 2-3 will grasp the concept and make it over the top. Simply put, if you get the "knack" of it, Air Meeting is an absolute hoot. After a bit of practice, I got myself into such a spin on my first go that I screamed with laughter like a little girl for a good 2 minutes of ride time, to the great amusement of onlookers. My second go was too intense for even screaming - I rocked left, right, left and then BAM over the top, where I continued to spin at such a high speed that it gave me a subconjunctival haemorrhage. I don't think I've had a more intense experience on any flat ride before - and it was all my doing. Amazing! In all, Nigloland is a lovely little Park; very pleasant and natural, with a good array of smaller rides (wild mouse, mine train, log flume, <insert Mack ride here>, etc). I hope they get the increase in visitor numbers they hope for and continue to expand. Well worth going out of your way to visit!

It looks like you got to the Park exactly the same way I did: train to Pinto then transfer bus to the Park... But Parque Warner did used to have its own train station - Parque de Ocio - that was situated right in front of the Park entrance. Trains used to run from Madrid through Pinto direct to the Park. It opened with the Park in 2002 and was (as predicted in the above article) shuttered in 2012 due to cost... Linky

Completely agree. Coaster Express is one of the, if not the, worst coasters I've ever ridden. Worse than Baco, worse than Goudurix. Ultra painful and boring to boot. But Parque Warner is fab! Orlando-standard theming for much of the Park. The best ride there for me is actually Stunt Fall (mainly because it's different - for me Superman and Batman were "standard" B&Ms, although obviously still fantastic). When I went the crowds were pretty small though, so I hope the Park's still making money. The loss of their direct train from Madrid must have hit them to some extent... http://www.tumbit.com/news/articles/5050-madrids-parque-warner-rumoured-to-close.html

I was surprised by how much I liked Parque de Atracciones when I went last year, too. Nice little Park, and so close to the centre of Madrid. Tarantula turned into my favourite Maurer spinner, purely because of the size of it. I seem to remember a good amount of spinning when I rode, but we might have just got lucky with an unbalanced car. And Abismo also surprised me - great ride! Forceful, fast and intimidating, without being rough. At night it's particularly good, as all the lights from the Madrid night skyline rotates in front of you at the top. Why has no other Park built this version of the SkyLoop yet?! So yeah - the Park's a good showcase for Maurer I think. Nice trip report!