Mitchada04

If the new maze is up to the quality levels of recent stuff then I wouldn't say it's a quiet year. And TotT is having a slight layout change it seems so not all the same. They're definitely still growing Scarefest and I'd rather 4 mazes with just 1 average one than 3 mazes. Especially as Terror is better than some of the stuff Thorpe is capable of producing.

Welcome to Movie Park! A place I had very little expectation or care for and honestly had it not been for the Mack, we wouldn't have gone. This meant we had a fab day We started with Star Trek as there were loads of school kids arriving. We thought it was by the entrance. The coaster is, the attraction plaza and queue is not. The ride itself is very average, decent for the park but not a great product example. The music was cool though and the transfer table. And if you like Star Trek the preshows etc were probably fab! Does look nice around the entrance plaza though. And we got a reride as they messed up the pre show batching so the station was empty. Near the entrance is their immersive tunnel though. The queue line was fab, the ride very average. But yeah the queue line is stunning. Pretty queue Also by the entrance is Bermuda Triangle, the parks wtf boat splash dark ride thing. We were all so confused but happy. We really wanted a reride but got spited due to weird closing times of rides The less you know about this ride the better so I'm leaving it at that The parks nice main street style street Woop top spin. Yeah this was awful. Like terrible. Platform 15 bad. Nicely themed I guess? It's a struggle to say anything positive. Especially for a 5 euro upcharge! Now we enter the "left" side of the park. Complete with; A rundown style pier A not awful SLC but literally smelt like dung. A woodie that is neither good or bad. It isn't like fun, and it also isn't torture. It doesn't feel like any type of woodie basically. And a rotating standing tilting uncomfy drop tower. Yeah. So we'll leave this area now There was this simulator with John Cleese! That was kinda quirky but very rough So we went to Nickland which features a rapids in its own area. The rapids area starts at the rides entrance and ends at the rides exit. Good job guys It is however very well themed and had some decent rapid sections Nickland was atrocious. Filled with standard rides with minimal theming We also got spited by (not this one) a Jimmy Neutron 'themed' suspended vekoma flyer family thing. You can get wet by Dora though so there you go lads But we'll end on a few highs! The parks stunt show was fab. One of my faves out there was a very good show. I was very happy! And then the true gem of the park This ride is so simple as a coaster. It is just a Gerstlauer bobsled but the whole experience is fab. It's punchy, well themed, good effects and some great music. Again, the less said about it the better but yeah and the queue moved really well! you can have a photo of the car And to end our day we went into the shop MUG. Next time we go to Efteling for the Symbolica opening weekend and their summer festival thing! And then maybe, just maybe we make it Liseberg before I get too busy again

Purely for time saving purposes and the fact I've done a Plopsaland blog two years running I'm combining it with Plopsa Coo! Woo! After being spited by Heidi last year, and Bat and Rox Flyer on both visits, would this year be any better? For Heidi, yes! Cred 199. This great little coaster is fast, twisty and has good pops of air. In a lovely themed little area it is perfect for the park Lovely little area And this, the most random carousel ever Uncomfy, slow and has a minimum height restriction. The star flyer was also open! Now all we needed was The Bat to be open and finally, after 3 years we'd have completed the park And to our amazement it was open! Thus meaning, my 200th cred is The Bat; Left track. Yay much fun. They also ruined their amazing slide by giving it new mats that have higher friction, such disappointment. After a night near Leige where the hotel people were ironing in the café bit of the hotel, we ventured into the hills of Belgium PlopsaCoo! A stunning park With a chairlift up this hill to a watchtower thing. And the views at the top are amazing. On the right is the parks toboggan ride, but more on that later! Just the hills of Belgium! Has me even more hyped to go to Spa De Francorchamps next month! New for 2015 is the still new DinoSplash! A slide complex featuring the green one which is bog standard slide, orange one where you can pick a soundtrack and has lights and the blue wall air time hill slide thing. Much fun! Then one of the 2 creds, Halvar An odd vekoma single seater style ride that was actually pretty good fun! The park also has a hedge maze that was also an escape room with doors and codes throughout. Very confusing and not helped by the language barrier at the start. They randomly have spider monkey's too. Cos yeah. There was a free mini golf course where the lady doesn't trust you enough to have a ball each so you have to share in your group. Oh and there's only 17 holes in use as one of them just doesn't have a hole for the ball. Another star flyer but smaller and also operational. What joy! A free go kart track which was a good layout, decent number of laps just always had a long queue. And one random single seater car that was so much faster. We had fun commentating the races prior to ours! Then there's this. Vicky. Arguably the thing that made this park noticed a bit more by enthusiasts. It's just disappointment the ride in my eyes. Never held enough speed, didn't spin, just very lacklustre. And a horrid slow moving queue full of school kids (yes they are there permanently I asked and that's totally what they said) The facing in meant the cars do look very nice but the ride experience is lost. Now due to the weather of keep raining on and off we were going to be spited by the one thing I was excited for. They kept sweeping the track trying to dry it but nope. Then finally, without 2 hours to go the weather held up and boom! It opened The huge toboggan with a backwards lift! There were two tracks, both seemed to just like race until about 1/3 of the way down where the left one just vanishes off and gains endless speed. We did the ride twice and I only did the left as it was certainly the better track (Josh and Jack did both and they'll vouch for it). So much fun, so fast, such a gem in a gorgeous park. So Plopsa Coo. If you're nearby go, it's only £20 and a visually lovely park with a few quirks, don't go out of your way though. Our evening was spent in Cologne going to the Hard Rock and a bit of meandering in the city We went to Phantasialand the next day. However to save time and as Josh will no doubt do a Phantasialand one and yeah I've done one the last 2 years, the next report will be Movie Park!

Avatar? What's that? You honestly wouldn't know Disney had built an Avatar land, no one cares as expected. Star Wars has expansion pads built in for a 3rd ride at both sites with Florida's able to grow more around Muppets 4D. Great Movie Ride was nothing special from my memory, just really slow. But to have another ride closed at that park is just brilliant. And still no new name announced. I know they take a while to build stuff, but to rename a park? Come on guys. Woo at Tron although it is just so they can close Space Mountain and fully refurb it, Ratatouille is an easy fix and very loose Guardians ride announcement. Yay. From what I've heard Universal and Disney had chats about the contract and came to some agreement that suits both parties (I.e Universal getting a new Marvel ride too, anyone remember the Iron Man flying suit concept thing?) I'm impressed Disney announced so much stuff, especially as a lot of it isn't opening till 2021 but hey, Iger wants to leave on a power high (if he ever actually leaves).

It's been a while since I've done a trip report but here we go. Another road trip which for me meant I would hit 200 creds! WOO. Where do we start? A French park with an inverted Vekoma boomerang cos why not. We left Dover on a meh British weather Saturday arriving in Dunkirk the Sunday morning. Before heading to the park we went into Calais for a meander as this is where we were staying. Apparently asking for a pain au chocolat is difficult even though it's how we both say it. Language barriers are great. Calais had this And this. Cos culture is nice Much nicer than the first thing you essentially see at the park. Bagatelle was an odd park. I don't know if I liked it or not. They had two coasters made by a company no one knows off cos they basically only made these two coasters. A bright orange torture device (that wasn't awful) A one adult per boat log flume which shows you the border around the park with local basketball courts. A pirate themed area aka a pirate boat, orange ferris wheel and a chain with a no entry sticker on to stop you leaving the park border. An actually okay rapids with moments of decent theming. An Autopia type ride but with a really good layout. Best ride here. A brand new air race with themed surrounding buildings on lovely fresh tarmac A normal sized log flume with stupidly fast lift One of these but allowing adults to ride And the 2nd of the 2 random coaster manufactures coasters. They also have; a monorail which leaves the park and shows you goats, a spinning wild mouse which was horrific, a single seater tea cups ride for kids, an awful simulator and I'm sure some more awful stuff. Didn't take many photos as the park entertained me so much I ended up watching the F1. So definitely visit. This put me on 198 creds. Yay. We did however have a nice evening in Calais I had alcohol There was this This stunning building And we played a few games of pool at the hotel with you guessed it... Alcohol. Woop. I will try and do the rest of the trip when I get time but it might take a while

I shall be there

The volcano itself is stunning and once fully settled the landscaping will too. But they've rushed to the finish line. Parts of the park round by Turkey Lake Road are still being built as they bumped opening up by a week to get the Memorial Day weekend crowds this weekend. TapuTapu has on the whole worked well with only a few glitches (not bad for its first real use with a park nearing capacity on the first day). The ride queues are odd. So the slides right by the entrance got 200 minute waits earlier, now you can't tap another ride whilst waiting for one but you can ride one if it's in a 'Ride Now' stage as in it's just walk on. And because of the flow of people in a theme park, you aren't just limited to the wave pool and rivers after tapping that first ride as so many people are tapped on that ride that the others don't get busy. And this just moves around the park. And the pools aren't crowded so that's not a concern. The only issue they seem to be having is queues on the stairs of rides being quite large once its your turn to ride, probably not helped by express pass going straight on. Who knows, but for first day it doesn't seem awful other than the visisble construction. And a 5 acre expansion is planned and may start in a few weeks, which with the current predictions for gate figures, probably will.

Legoland on a bank holiday weekend with the opening of a new ride... sure, should be a laugh ?

I will just throw this out there, not that it bothers me but it does bother some people. The weather in September can be pretty crazy, even for Florida standards, as it is peak hurricane season. All this actually means is regular thunder storms almost at set times that obviously close any outdoor ride/attraction or entire water parks But yeah September is good, if not, first two weeks of December! In between Thanksgiving and the crazy Christmas crowds, weather is more sensible and you get the Christmas stuff.

How are the public finding it though? Is it a ride it once and that's it type thing. It has been walk on from about 3 everyday this week and while you could argue that's because it's being reliable, well so are the B&M's and Saw on these days and they have queues all day. Purely because reriding roller coasters is fun. You ride Ghost Train, yeah it gets you once, but that's it. It doesn't change, and it isn't thrilling enough to warrant you wanting to go again. The ending catches you off guard once and that's it. It's another investment where they haven't thought long term. It's expensive to staff and I highly doubt it's going to hold up popularity wise over time. The ride still does nothing and you are sitting still watching a screen most of the time, it's not even like a motion simulator. Yes it's better than last year, but it is not built around the demographic Thorpe get or even want to get. I see it like a midway they've cut in half and plonked in the middle of an amusement park.

Regarding lifts, I'll be able to confirm soon spaces I'll have for this trip. As for from the hotel to towers, there is usually a spare seat or 2 lying around for that journey.

Oh yeah, I have to put up with you at Liseberg. Woo. Also going to Bagatelle, Plopsa Coo and Movie Park as new parks alongside Plopsaland, Phantasialand and Efteling including the opening day of Symbolica (more luck than anything as it's been booked for a while!) More interestingly for me, I'm finally going to see an F1 race in person at the stunning Spa circuit in Belgium in August

There is no such thing as a bad B&M. A 'bad' B&M is simply bland or lacking. It will still be more enjoyable than 90% of other coasters. B&M, yeah. Without them, Thorpe wouldn't have any working rides

And it's going in that dead corner of the park where the old clyesdale barns used to be back when it was Anheiser Busch, yes! Hopefully with this, and Blackstone being out and a new Chinese firm taking their stake we might finally see some improvements to gate figures! Look forward to what these new features are, it's a competitive market the rapids one in Orlando, competing with Popeye is quite something!

Do you mean 20th May? Cos my last exam is the 23rd and I'm pretty sure that ain't a Sunday... but yeah, I should be around that weekend as I only have one exam left by that point. Maybe from me!

The sign out front of it actually says Easter, not the Easter holidays, so as long as it's open by Sunday they're correct!

It misses us, that's why! It's awaiting our return

http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/news/business/video-name-revealed-for-blackpool-pleasure-beach-s-new-16-25m-rollercoaster-1-8485493 Their naming department is incredible. First Big One cos you know, it's big and now Icon. Amanda said; "Icon is going to be one of the most talked about, iconic rollercoasters of the future. The name speaks for itself as it will be one of the most iconic rides on the planet." I mean, there's only like a fair few of these Mack rides already out there and Helix looks better in my eyes as a layout and positioning (haven't ridden it yet so allowed to judge them the same way) but I'm sure it'll be a good ride and something different for the UK. The logo is very Asian, kinda like Ninja samurai, don't get why as I doubt it'll have any theming but hey ho. Icon, a name that I think would work better with a The in front.

Mer's keen to get the double win after winning spooning challenge on,maybe I'll bring my reigning champion flag... ?

The Inferno one is new, along with the Colossus cobra roll one

The problem with Thorpe is days like this happen far too regularly. Okay rarely to this level of bad and calling capacity when the park is on less the 10k people, but the underlying issues never go away. Towers may have bad operating hours and ride closures, but they can operate their park near flawlessly. If you look back at Towers when it was busy, they never had fastrack issues, reliability issues or anything major. Thorpe has it regularly. Fastrack is always an issue and never resolved, engineering is stretched often meaning minimal capacity or late openings in the morning. All parks have the odd bad day, but at Thorpe it is a major recurring issue that needs to be sorted. Why does it run so differently and poorly to other Merlin parks? That's what they need to be asking. As for Stealth, its catch car related issues. 2 trains offers more issues and nearly the same throughput as one atm due to these issues so it makes more sense to run just the one as it's less likely to break it.

I'll be amazed if they've hit capacity! Especially on a Sunday. I think they're just busy and have panicked as only Inferno is open out of the big 5 at time of writing.

I believe that's so they can work on the electrics under the boat easier. It isn't testing as the barrier is up on the side, that if testing the ride would have smashed down. It's just wedged like that.

If so it's probably this new contraption they're working on in Holland. The idea being the train is facing sideways, it'll then leave the station and twist into the flying position and in doing so also spin so it isn't going sideways.

I'll be there I guess.