Coaster

Barrel Roll. Airtime hill or loop?

Speed was only on one car when I was there with a long queue - absolutely appalling.

The Pasaje del Terror in Blackpool is still operating.

Valhalla at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. There's fire effects everywhere, (archways of fire that you go through, big explosions, fire on the track that you put out), huge special effects and it's themed up to the eyeball. It's not at it's absolute best at the moment but it's still a very good dark ride.

It does when the trims are off

I had an absolutely fantastic day at BPB today! The best part is that I'm at the park all week!

Maybe it'll have signage put on it.

I completely forgot about that! That hasn't been played for years

And Thorpe. Possibly even Towers, although it might not fit in with the surroundings there.

Yeah there are a few Abdabs in the Vampire queueline, they are in a very sorry state though.

Wow that's amazing!

That would be good, but the height restriction the park has would stop if from being able to compete with the likes of Shambhala - not that that necessarily matters.

That part I completely agree with, it runs horribly most of the time - although it was quite good last weekend. I wouldn't say that's it's aged awfully, more that it hasn't been maintained the way that sort of ride needs to be.

I'm not sure I like him...

It's not an amazing ending, but it's better than nothing. Smiler doesn't have anything in particular (unless you count the corridor of projectors), in fact I can't really think of many UK coasters that end with a scene/prop.

I'm not disputing that as I think that a lot of Merlin's theming is rubbish, but it's not just a puppet, there's dummies, bits of traps and plans etc. What would you suggest was put there?

To be honest I'd quite like to stay in them, but they are hugely overpriced IMO. They should not be more expensive than a travelodge, considering the space you get!

Enough B&M's, I want a rattler!

I find it quite memorable, especially when the screens under the lift hill actually work! Whilst it isn't the best, by Merlin's standards it's pretty good (doesn't make it good overall haha) and it's well thought out, but could do with a bit of perfection. Whilst it isn't all high quality theming, there's a lot of it to see. Even the area at the end where you wait has the dummies and billy the puppet congratulating you - they didn't have to put anything there but it's there to look at and makes a memorable ending to the ride. It could have been better. Much better. But that doesn't mean that it's rubbish.

At least the shipping containers have a nice(ish) entrance...

I never said that it was brilliantly themed, but to suggest that they haven't made any effort to theme it is ridiculous. I am well aware that the building is a warehouse, but the lighting is used fairly well to hide that - although I do think that there should be some more dividers between scenes. No it's not got multi million pound effects in it but, at the end of the day, it is a roller-coaster so the theming just comes as a bonus really.

Unfortunately they wouldn't do that as it would mean that they'd have to do maintenance...

The problem I have is that they aren't retheming the rides, they are just painting them in bright, horrible colours and they don't fit (green/yellow painted treehouse??)

Agreed, I used to go there loads as a child but I haven't been for years now The entry price has doubled since I started going!

How did you fit that many rides in?!