Phill Pritchard

Tom Baker always = Wow!

That ride looks shocking, how was it fastened to the platform? Cocktail sticks and pritt stick?

That's ok then

Thanks... I think.

That would be great, thanks javs!

Did you see Barry and Paul on celebrity Coach Trip? I don't normally watch reality shows but that one was great with them on there. They really did seem like really nice friendly guys, they didn't really want to say anything bad about anybody for the whole trip.

^ Some great posts on this topic. I can see where you are coming from Mikey I would still personally have to say experience rides. Although I also love thrill coasters (not so much the thrill flats) one thing that I definitely feel some parks lack are some great Dark Rides! Having grown up riding all the different incarnations of Chessington's 5th Dimension, Terror/ Forbidden Tomb, Tomb Blaster, the classic orginal Professor Burp's Bubbleworks, Thorpe Park's Magic Mill/ Mr Rabbit's Tropical Travels and Phantom Fantasia/ Wicked Witches Haunt I feel I may have been a bit spoilt for great local Dark Rides when I was younger and that may be one reason why I really feel sad that Thorpe Park no longer has such an immersive ride.

Original Source are a brand of shampoos, shower gels etc that sponsored Tidal Wave from 2006 to 2009. Original source is owned by PZ Cussons which also own the Imperial Leather brand (former sponsors of Bubbleworks at Chessington WOA and the Flume at Alton Towers). See website.Previous to this sponsorship the ride had been sponsor free for 6 seasons and many fans could not understand why it suddenly need one. The sponsor's logos and advertising slogans were pretty much plastered all over the area, ok that may be a bit of an exaggeration but it was some pretty heavy handed 'branding' I don't think it helped that the colours of the logos, signs and sponsored theming were so brightly coloured, new looking and not faded or weathered to fit in with the Amity theme. They would also have people walking around the outside of the ride handing out samples of the Original Source shower gels etc. But to give you an idea as to why Original Source would have been interested in sponsoring a ride like Tidal Wave here is one of their old TV ads that helps to show how they used to advertise their product as having an intense, refreshing hit to it: http://www.visit4info.com/details.cfm?adid=14898 I was personally quite pleased to see that the replacement Dr Pepper sponsoring was a lot more subtle.

Phineas and Ferb is amazing, the best Disney TV cartoon/ animation since the early 90's!

Hi Kevin, nice to learn a bit more about you. I'm with you on the whole football thing, I can't stand it either.

^ In the past 4 years? Don't you mean the last 8+ years

We are going to see Harry Potter at the BFI IMAX the day before you Not in the premium seating though but we are also planning on going for a nice meal afterwards.Have you been to the IMAX before?

This was Treasure Island Railway and it was at the park from 1983 - 1993. I used to love this ride when I was younger, I don't think I was ever given the Black Spot though although my Wife says that she did and you could also trade the voucher in for a can of Coke.From what I can remember the trains were separate to those that went to and from the farm, you could walk to the ride area/station on a road alongside the CCR tracks from the Thunder River (Rumba Rapids) area up towards the farm, it was kind of half way between the two.I have many great memories of this ride, it is a shame that they closed it when they did but even if RMC had kept it operating I don't think Tussuads would have kept it.

I am currently watching the 90's animated X-Men series on Disney XD at the moment and I had forgotten how good it was! Plus Spider-Man was on before.

Looks great and that animatronic in the video must be one of their best I've seen.

One more for Last Stand.

Thanks for a great trip report so far and for some excellent shots of the rides. I look forward to reading more!

Revenge of the Mummy is definitely our favourite, off the top of my head I can't remember how many times we went on it definitely many more times than any of the other Universal coasters. Duelling Dragons/DC was having a bit of an identity crisis when we went as it was still in the process of changing over to Dragon Challenge so we were still calling it Duelling Dragons and Fire was my favourite. I loved HRRR but only got to ride it the once and I found the Hulk to be a bit of a disappointment after riding it twice as it was just too rough, especially on my neck.