AstroDan

What people fail to recall was that the gimmick on The Smiler wasn't the main focus of the marketing. It may have taught Alton Towers that they don't need a gimmick...

We're reporting it on Towersstreet too - been widely rumoured for months now so they're certainly intending on a wooden coaster. After all these long years.

...I guess these things depend on what you're looking for from a ride. These offer nothing other than the constant spinning. If that floats your boat then it's for you. If not, there's little point riding.

...have you forgotten Cheetah Hunt? Hopefully this will be more like a Blitz coaster than Cheetah Hunt.

The quality of the food at Europa-Park is relative to the general standard of food at Europa-Park - which is generally very high. FoodLoop is nowhere near the best food/best value food at Europa-Park - that said, choices last week included veal, duck or beef dishes together with simple staples like fried pork Schitnzel, spaghetti bolognaise and chicken wings. It regularly commands long queues (up to 30 minutes at peak times) just for a table - even now it is 4 years old. The food offering at Alton Towers will no doubt be entirely different. I have also been to the restaurant in Hamburg which was open into the evening and offered a larger menu.

From TowersStreet Facebook today: Alton Towers have submitted plans for a FoodLoop style restaurant in Forbidden Valley, taking the place of the current Air shop. Does this suggest that a new large shop is likely to replace it in the near future...and therefore that a large new ride is imminent for the area? Link to plans Pretty cool, hey! Here's a short video of the Europa-Park one:

Piraten has inadequate throughput for Thorpe Park.

It takes around 3 to 4 minutes for a full cycle - load/ride/unload. This is based on my observations at Nigloland in France. I should estimate throughput per hour between 180 and 240.

Rather than answer constructively, you just shoot me down. Gee, thanks. Who mentioned Alton Towers? It's hardly any better; I don't really refute any of what you say about it nor the images which you feel you needed to post to somehow disagree with me - how can I? Clearly those hotel rooms are nicer than most at Alton Towers. I am not some sort of blinded idiot and if you knew me personally, you certainly wouldn't have tried to post negatively about Alton Towers because I am well behind much of that sentiment, too. You obviously do entirely refute me about Chessington, though, such is the stressed way you have clearly posted the above. I wanted a sensible discussion, you know. I wasn't trying to antagonise anybody, it was a genuine question having been travelling to visit Chessington for many years now.

I did the one at Nigloland. Meh is my view. Not to mention a capacity nightmare.

Towers queues peaked today at 15 mins for The Smiler. Because they run more trains... Thorpe are a joke in this regard.

Plopsaland is fun, although I confess I didn't find much to do. There's some delightful theming though and the woodie will really help.

I don't know why people bother with Chessington in many respects. They don't build new rides and half the rides are clapped out, rotten and many have been for years. Do people just cling to the past? It's such a sad state of affairs with CWOA.

It's been released in ENGLISH! www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5DBNyhlpTc

Europa-Park OWNED BY MERLIN? GOD FORBID! Europa-Park is the most successful independent, family run theme park in the world. No Merlin profiteers here! The mere contemplation of it has left me feeling ill.

To be fair, Sonic Spinball has a soundtrack (full of great tunes!) but due to the noise of the ride, you can't really hear it.

They weren't exactly splashing the budgets out when there weren't shareholders either...

It's not just the N word. The S and the F words also appear, although they're harder to hear since the scene audio in Paradise Alley drowns out some of the on board audio!

But Josh, it mostly is.

It's been gone 18 months at least. No idea!

Who's she? Never heard of her.

Operations have declined at BPB in recent years.

Nice to see such artificially high queues.

I've been 3 times now. Efteling is a lovely park which finds a theming balance somewhere in the middle of Phantasialand and Europa-Park. It does, however, lack in terms of ride stock and on busier days queues get long and they don't extend. Operational standards vary, too. In fact, they close rides earlier than ride close to run off the queue which is very irritating. It isn't perfection but is a lovely place to just 'be'. Some of their thematic detail is truly wonderful.

Good to know they're planning on opening rides.