Coaster

I hate to think.

Quality.

The issue isn't that the park is busy, it's that (by the sounds of it) they cannot cope with it. The attitude of "it's your fault because you visited on a busy day" stinks when operations are so poor.

Nice detailed review. I have to say I was a little disappointed with Tulleys this year, as you have mentioned above there were batching issues in nearly every maze for us meaning we caught up with the group in front; really ruins the experience as the idea is surely that you shouldn't be aware of other groups at any point during the maze? Made little sense either as it was a quiet(ish) evening with short queues, so they could have spaced the groups out a lot more. It felt like there were less actors than previous years, and some key effects were missing (car horn in Colony, spider dropdown on the Hayride etc). I didn't really understand the need for the strobe section in The Cellar, but the strobe rate wasn't very effective either way. Circus of Horrors is fab. Still a brilliant event, but definitely lower standards than the last 2 years IMO.

If something's crap, it deserves all the criticism it gets surely?

Looks nicer than Alton's £100+ one!

Oh, a shame to be losing the classic dark rides IMO

Screamland was excellent yesterday, the mazes were very different and had a lot of quality put into them; personal favourites were The Sleep Experiment (terrifying!) and Dead and Breakfast. The former has a bit of an E10 vibe to it actually, albeit different. Maze queues moved very slowly however once inside the experience was better as you never caught up with a group in front... happy medium needed though IMO. Rides in the dark were fun, mazes were amazing and overall a fantastic event.

Doesn't need a world's first, it's a quality long-term ride which is the most important thing. IMO.

The third and final day of the Pleasure Beach Experience European park event took place at Phantasialand, where we were expecting a 30-minute ERT on Black Mamba and lunch included. Before I review the park itself, can I just say what incredible treatment we had from their corporate/events team. Having expected the above, we also got a night time ERT on Taron (joining the hotel guests) followed by 2 PBE group rides, early morning rides on Maus au Chocolat and Chiapas (before the park opened) as well as both cycles on Mystery Castle at the end of the day. In addition, we were given four fast passes each and of course the lunch, it was truly incredible and the park went above and beyond to make sure we had a good day. Onto the park itself, I was absolutely blown away by the scale and detail of some of the theming, it puts anything in the UK to absolute shame in that respect; from the dark tone of Klugheim to the vibrant areas elsewhere, and queueing for Talocan felt more like watching a show! The landscaping, theming and audio truly sets this park apart from anywhere else I’ve ever seen in terms of a themed experience park. The park was incredibly busy on the Saturday however operations were slick meaning we managed to ride most things, unfortunately River Quest was only using one of the two elevators and the queue moved extremely slowly as a result but apart from that, everything else was run very efficiently and queues were always moving. Saturday Ride count Taron x11 (10 during night time ERT) Black Mamba x8 (ERT) Chiapas x2 River Quest x1 Talocan x1 Winjas Fear x1 Winjas Force x1 Raik x1 Colorado Adventure x1 Mystery Castle x1 Maus Au Chocolat x1 Geister Rikscha x1 TOTAL: 30 Sunday Ride count (non-event day, in park 10:30 – 4pm) Taron x1 Black Mamba x1 Raik x1 Winjas Fear x1 Colorado Adventure x1 Talocan x1 Feng Ju Palace x1 Temple of the Night Hawk x1 Hollywood Tour x1 Wurmling Express x1 Geister Rikscha x1 TOTAL: 11 Onto the rides! Taron Taron is truly an incredible coaster in every respect, from the landscaping, theming through to the coaster itself it’s near-perfection. Entering Klugheim the twisted metal track becomes visible through literal mountains of rockwork, with the audio blaring out, it’s just stunning and features such as the waterfall, launch audio and night-time lighting all add to the experience. The queue-line starts well but unfortunately goes through to a poorly-decorated cattlepen area, a shame really as all the work building that immersion into the area is lost the moment you enter that. Queue aside, you enter the station, board the train and the launch audio kicks in… following a short corner you’re launched forcefully into an overbank, followed by an incredible airtime hill (it looks tame but is crazy!) and a sharp turn then snap to the right; following a few more meandering turns, you’re dropped down into the second launch which is INCREDIBLE. The surrounding walls and nearby theming adds to the sensation of speed as you enter the second launch, and the sound is just amazing… following this you’re thrown up (getting splashed slightly by the waterfall if you’re on the left) and into a fantastic second half; it has all the qualities of the first and more, with closer interactions with the theming, sharper transitions and some very forceful turns. The only criticism I have is the trim brakes on the final airtime hills. Overall, Taron is an absolutely spectacular roller coaster. I actually like the fact that it isn’t flat-out intense all the way through, with some of the turns offering breathers before you enter the next section. The theming is incredible for the most part, audio is fantastic and the coaster holds its own and would be amazing even without everything else. 10/10. Black Mamba A very fun B&M invert, again the theming is incredible and some of the near-misses are terrifying, I’d go as far to say it’s the most effective use of near-miss elements I’ve ever seen on a coaster. I really enjoyed not knowing where the layout was going next due to all the theming, and the spiral section at the end adds a lot to the ride IMO. The queue line and station are very atmospheric, with the station area being in near-darkness until the train enters the station. Very fun coaster. Chiapas A fantastic log flume, I loved the catchy music and it’s clear the ride system is very smart and manages to do a lot very efficiently. Much like everything else the theming/landscaping is just incredible, walking over the bridge with the drop on one side and the splashdown on the other feels quite surreal with all the decoration. River Quest River Quest is absolutely insane, having not done much research my reaction upon exiting the elevator and seeing what followed was basically, what the...?! Good ride, came off drenched, only downside was the capacity issues. Winjas Fear and Force How haven’t I heard about these before? They look like standard Maurer spinners in a building on first approach, but caught me completely off guard with all the surprises. Absolutely excellent coasters. Mystery Castle is absolutely amazing IMO, the queue theming is stunning but the ride itself is just so much fun, without ruining too much I’ll just say it’s become my favourite drop tower ride by a country mile. Talocan is a topspin, but with the added thematics it's transformed into a really good experience; with the audio, fire and water, it feels more like watching a show from off ride! Colorado Adventure is decent enough, the pitch-black section was fun and the capacity excellent. Raik is okay, but much more about the theme than the ride experience itself IMO. Temple of the Nighthawk – how can you do so little in so much time? May be an unpopular opinion, but I really enjoyed the dark rides Geister Rikscha and Hollywood Tour – definitely in the “so bad, it’s good” category but IMO parks need rides like this to fill a gap, and they were great examples of how dark rides used to be. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Phantasialand, from the rides themselves, theming and of course the way the park treated us, it has instantly become my number 2 park. Thanks for reading

In my opinion, they need to start thinking long-term and not just short attention-grabber IPs hashed onto existing attractions. Priorities, IMO, should be; 1 - Complete the necessary work to get Loggers Leap back open, aiming for Easter 2019 reopening. 2 - Either reopen Slammer, or take it down so that a replacement can be installed. No point leaving it sat there when it could be replaced, something like Loke for example would fit in well. 3 - Park entrance procedure reviewed and major changes to efficiency, they have had these issues during busy times for years and 90 minutes to gain access to the park is frankly ludicrous. 4 - Vast improvements to Fright Nights. 5 - Build on last year's late night openings but no need to open horror mazes during the summer, put the budget into ensuring ride operations and availability remain good. 6 - Install permament lighting to enable night operation on Rumba and Loggers.

^ In fairness, that isn't a photo of the finished product. 1) It had a lot more decoration than that once it was finished, and was filled with fog. 2) It was amongst some of the best scare mazes in the UK and was an "extra" rather than carrying the event like the current attractions are.

Just leaving this here... The park map/guide from what was, in my opinion, the best year of Fright Nights. Experiment 10 was truly Thorpe at its best, when they led the scare industry and were able to be innovative with original themes, and it was a different approach to any scare maze the UK had seen before. Of course, who could forget the roaming clowns (and the massive cake) to celebrate 10 years of Fright Nights! Compare that to what we have now

It was about an hour away from Efteling I think, we travelled there early morning from a hotel near Efteling and then drove to a hotel near Phantasialand after the day at Toverland.

How are they even stargazing pods when they have a wooden ceiling?

The second day of the Pleasure Beach Experience European park trip took place at Toverland, where we had a full day at the park followed by 30 minutes ERT on Fenix, and then a behind the scenes tour of the ride. Toverland is a lovely theme park located in the Netherlands with lots of nice theming/landscaping, an indoor area of the park and some really unique attractions mixed with a few exceptional coasters. The park has lots of extra features such as the fountain show, assault courses and it’s clear that they put a lot of effort into the quality of the overall park. The park was quiet during our visit meaning that one train operations was all that was needed – in addition, the queueing areas are all incredibly well presented meaning you never felt like you were waiting around for too long. Ridecount: Fenix x11 (9 on ERT) Troy x8 Dwerlvelwind x2 Booster Bike x2 Djengu River x2 Expedition Zork (log flume) x1 Maximus’ Blitz Bahn x1 Toos-Express x1 Merlin’s Quest x1 Villa Fiasko x1 TOTAL: 30 Onto the rides! Fenix Approaching the ride’s area, the landscaping is beautifully done with lakes, fountain features and low fences meaning fantastic views of the ride are possible. As you approach, smaller features (such as a stream running down the path?!) become noticeable, and the effort that has gone into the area becomes evident. This place is stunning! Entering the queue-line you find yourself navigating dimly lit passageways with spiral staircases, tunnels and terrifyingly steep stairs into and out of the station. There are a few areas once the ride starts that feel incomplete, but I believe the park are planning to add to this over the winter. Passing through a mist effect you begin ascending the lift-hill, before taking a turn and entering the first drop. This felt a lot more forceful than Swarm’s, with there being much more of a “pull-over” at the back despite the shorter trains. You then enter an excellent airtime hill, diving through a near miss before going up, over and into an incredibly forceful helix. Out of the helix you enter a zero-g-roll taken at a ridiculously fast pace, and then dive into the last few turns. Fenix is an incredible coaster, and (IMO) infinitely better than The Swarm. Where Swarm takes elements slowly and crawls over the top of inversions, Fenix throws you into them at a much faster pace whilst still retaining the smooth nature of a B&M. This, combined with the incredible landscaping makes Fenix a truly fantastic coaster. My only criticism would be that it’s fairly short, but even then, it packs a punch so you don’t feel short-changed. Troy Oh. My. Word. As someone who holds wooden coasters in very high regard, I was excited to ride Troy but also conscious that I didn’t want to overhype it. Similar to most rides at Toverland it’s very well presented, with the queue-line and surrounding area offering stunning views of the ride’s imposing structure. Navigating the first corner and lift-hill, views of the ride’s obscene layout come into view, but before you realise you’ve reached the first drop. Plummeting down the twisting first drop is incredible, and what follows is an extremely fast banked turn, then two minutes of pure joy. I won’t even try and go through the layout because it’s taken at such a pace that it makes it impossible, but you’re thrown side-to-side, out of your seat on occasion (though airtime isn’t really the focus of the ride) and the station fly-through is awesome. The ride is just utterly relentless from start to finish, yet still manages to retain a sense of comfort whilst throwing you around and really bringing a new meaning to the “out of control” sensation associated with wooden coasters. I think it’s become my new favourite coaster. Dwerlvelwind A really fun family spinning coaster with some surprising force in places, and the onboard audio is fantastic. With it being compact I’d say one of these would be perfect for a UK park with limited space, and of course with it being Toverland it was fantastically decorated both inside the station and around the ride’s area. Booster Bike A fun coaster, the launch is more forceful than I was expecting and the turns/hills at the end are good fun; also, the unique seating position adds to it. Probably not quite as good as Velocity, but still good. Merlin’s Quest was a little bit of a disappointment as it was taken far too slowly, and felt like an ordeal waiting to get back into the station. With that said, the indoor section is excellently themed though I didn’t appreciate the bugs on the outdoor section! Maximus’ Blitz Bahn is a unique ride, and a lot of fun. The rapids were a bit terrifying in a full boat, and the log flume was good (though very weird!) During the behind the scenes tour of Fenix we were treated to a walk along the brake run, as well as a look into the ride’s control panel, a walk round the first turn after the station and a long look into and walk round the maintenance shed (it’s huge!) with the second train in storage – we were only allowed to take pictures on the brake run and in the station. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Toverland; it’s a lovely family owned park and they clearly put a lot of pride into everything they do. With investments such as Fenix I think it’s definitely one to watch. A few more photos below Spot anything strange about this picture? Hmm... There were YouTuber's filming a stunt show of some sort at the park, earlier on in the day they jumped onto our boat on Merlin's quest and then back off again whilst being filmed by the park! Thanks for reading

I'm sure the director's voice was used for the Do or Die before-maze announcement, albeit without announcing itself as "the director."

What relevance does this have to Thorpe Park or Rumba Rapids?

I did Carnival, unfortunately Fata Morgana and Villa Volta were closed for maintenance.

Day 1 of a three-day event with Pleasure Beach Experience took place at Efteling Theme Park in the Netherlands, where we had an hour’s ERT on Joris en de Draak before park opening as well as a full day at the park. First and foremost, the park was very accommodating to us, and the staff were all excellent and friendly. With it being my first visit to Efteling I wasn’t too sure what to expect, but I’d probably describe the park as very quirky and unusual. There are a lot of nicely themed attractions and some fun coasters, and I really liked the large spanning lakes, exceptional use of audio and some weird and wacky features around the park. Operations seemed very good aside from Baron, with multiple trains running and queues moving fast. Unfortunately, on my visit Bob was closed (to then open a week later – spite!) as were Fata Morgana and Villa Volta. Ride Count: Joris en de Draak x17 (ERT & a few afternoon rides) Flying Dutchman x3 Python x2 Rapids x2 Baron 1898 x1 Rogel Vok x1 Carnival Festival x1 Droomvlucht x1 Symbolica x1 TOTAL: 29 Onto the rides! Joris en de Draak Joris en de Draak is a fantastic racing wooden coaster with some incredible moments of airtime, strange banking and a very fun layout. Similar to Wicker Man, the ride’s queue line is landscaped around the ride well with some good viewpoints of the ride and interaction over the lake. I really enjoyed the racing element of the ride, with the trains breaking off from each other and then joining back side-by-side for the final section of the race. There were some fun interactions throughout the layout, too. The sweeping turns at both ends of the ride’s layout were great fun and felt very forceful, especially the first one where you dive suddenly to the right-hand-side – brilliant! Whilst both sides were brilliant I marginally preferred the blue one, due to an insanely brutal airtime hill that seems to appear out of nowhere… absolutely fantastic. I liked the features the ride has such as the flag announcing the winner, cheering/booing in the station and the flags being draped for the winning train; fun little extras which the park didn’t have to do, but they make the experience better. Baron 1898 Having enjoyed Valkyria I was fairly confident that Baron would at least be a fun coaster, but unfortunately, I just didn’t enjoy it. The theming is excellent. The way the music outside differs to that inside, the station building, pre-shows and everything else are just incredible, and it’s clear that a lot of detail has been put into the attraction. Ascending the (incredibly well themed) lift hill with the ghostly singing ringing in your ears, you approach the top. I found the drop was too small to achieve the freefall sensation, and the ride that followed fairly weak; the inversions didn’t feel overly forceful, the helix felt a bit awkward and the airtime hill didn’t produce any airtime. Baron 1898 is a visually impressive ride and a good themed experience, but that’s as far as it goes for me. Flying Dutchman Wow! What a brilliant attraction. From the incredible theming in the queue to the highly detailed station, the presentation of this ride is superb both internally and externally. Giving a false sense of security, you deport the harbour and things soon take a turn for the worse… I really liked the use of atmospheric lighting and audio here, and the mist screen effect is so well executed. The indoor section had a few surprises, and the outdoor section was good fun too. Python Really enjoyed this, despite it being a fairly short coaster. The inversions were forceful, as were the helix’s, and the entire ride was very smooth (I’m guessing due to the recent re-track). I wasn’t a fan of the vest restraints though, they felt very restrictive when compared with B&M’s version. Vogel Rok was awesome, a really fun indoor coaster with some interesting visual effects, fun audio and a really good sensation of speed. Symbolica has a really clever ride system and I enjoyed it, even if I didn’t fully understand what it was about! External presentation is fantastic here also. Other attractions included Droomvlucht and the Rapids, both of which were done to a very high standard with some surprises. Also, that rapids music is so catchy! Overall, I really enjoyed Efteling. It’s a big contrast to parks in the UK, and offers something different to any other park I’ve visited. I did feel that one day wasn’t enough to take everything in, as there were a few other attractions I’d have liked to experience. A few more photos below Thanks for reading

When you think back to the effort that has gone into FN even in recent years (considering things such as the different characters each week in Cabin, actors doing the "charge" thing around Stealth back in 2014, and of course the quality of the mazes), this year really is a disgrace. Lighting in particular... what on earth happened? Small touches such as under-lighting the Blair Witch sign were great in previous years, yet Dead Creek Woods has a floodlight pointing at you meaning you can't even see the sign, and the atmosphere is completely lost. Also, what's with the UV "disco lights" - how is that scary/spooky?! I mean, even thinking back to the introduction of the horror film mazes in 2013, think how good that year was compared to now.

I remember the days when Rumba had Halloween decorations and horror audio around the entire layout, and actually operated into the night (closing at 10 along with the rest of the park).

My thoughts based on this evening unfortunately echo the above, parkwide atmosphere felt poor (apart from some decent audio in places) with flood lights completely killing the atmosphere, no attempt made to disguise mazes from the queuelines, the entire event felt very rushed, last minute and lazy. Dead Creek Woods A few actors here and there doing a decent job, not much in the way in the theming aside from some old toilets. Ehh. 1/10 Vulcan Peak What. The. Hell. This has to be the laziest most poorly executed scare attraction I've ever come across, there were no actors (apart from a Thorpe Park staff member holding some noisy box thing) and it was just generally an uneventful walk through IAC without being able to see the theming. 1/10 Blair Witch Much shorter than previous years, and lit up far too much meaning that the previous ambience and element of surprise was completely lost. 2/10 Platform 15 Sadly we were ushered through the first section without being told any of the storyline, the only dialogue we got from the actor was "stay together" - extremely poor when in previous years there's been the storyline told, a short walk followed by another stop before completing the rest of the maze. A few actors in the last section, house section was still good. 3/10 Living Nightmare Some nice theming but felt very dull and not many actors, the ending seemed to not work properly (it was clear the actor went to try to set something off, but alas nothing happened). 3/10 Walking Dead Do or Die If the brief was to use the shipping containers from MBV/E10 but strip the theming out first, they're onto a winner. The section where you were forced to push through the hanging meat was well executed and there were some decent props here and there, but overall it felt very lazy with the majority of the maze being made up of black hanging cloths and floodlights illuminating everything way before you approached. Also what is "do or die" actually referring to? What does it mean? 3/10 Sadly I'd have to say it's probably the worst year I can remember, we're talking about an event that has produced gems such as Asylum, E10, Cabin and Big Top (the latter version) yet this year felt like the laziest most ill-thought out scare event ever. Everything feels like it's been done on a shoe-string budget with no effort put into making sure actors know their lines, awfully "thin" sets and just a general lack of care. How have standards been allowed to fall this far? On a completely separate note it was also a shame that night rides weren't possible as almost everything was closed for the majority of the evening due to weather; this also created a backlog of people meaning the maze queues were much longer than they would have otherwise been. Didn't get time to do Saw Alive unfortunately.

Indeed, because closing another ride is a definitely the way to attract more guests and spread good word of mouth.

It's absolutely naff to just close it to save on costs, there's no logical reason a rapids ride can't operate in October. If it was having a huge refurb then fair enough, but last year it closed before Fright Nights then opened in exactly the same state the year after.