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Mitchada04

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  5. Mitchada04

    Posted

    I'll give a serious review here then :P It's a small park with most of it being generic stuff you see at all the parks (small coasters like Paultons have, an array of well run flat rides and so on). It's a beautiful park to walk around. The bottom half of it doesn't even feel like a theme park (reminded me of Virginia Water Lake for anyone who's been). Raptor Attack is so simple with the generic coaster etc yet so immersive with the small groups entering the mine, physically low beams and really well done animatronics. Great little dark ride. Skate Karts are brill and would be great if you were in a group of friends to race around! 

     

    The Ultimate is an amazing ride. Really is, yes it's rough, rattly and stuff but it feels like an old school coaster and the second half never lets up. Gutted we only did it the once! We were warned about it being on one train all day (think it has been most of the holidays as well actually as the red train is buggered). We queued 40 minutes for it just before 11, was probably 90 minutes most of the day. Although the track is long the ride only takes 7 minutes due to the stupidly slow lift hills. However you get 38 people on a train so it moves in nice bursts and the music they play is pretty awesome too! Wouldn't be a bad queue if it were on 2 trains.

  8. JoshC.

    Posted

     

     

    Okay, so dodgems aren't anything special, you can find them anywhere.

    Can't find them at Universal though, further proving why ABL is much much better.

     

    Plus only half of the train ride counts as the other half is in a whole different, separately ticketed theme park. And the queues, they'll be fun. At least with ABL the queues are no where near as bad as what Diagon Alley will be like!

     

    10492450_10204144829324020_3355632175426

    Importantly as well, Hedwig loved Thorpe! (Josh's photo :P )

     

    ABL shows why Merlin is second only to Disney :)

  9. Mitchada04

    Posted

    I can only reiterate Mark's point Matt :P it is just a fantastic park that is such a nice place to be! It is easily my favourite of the non Merlin parks in this country and that's just from 2 visits! It's great to see it being a success because it deserves it!

    It's difficult to compare it to Legoland and Chessington as they have completely different budgets/funding, but Paultons is a perfectly rounded family park. Toddlers, children, parents and even grandparents would have a great time! The only market it doesn't target solely is teens/young adults so you're unlikely to see groups of teenagers roaming around but as a family, yes. Great park, great place, just great! Definitely give it a visit Matt :)

  11. Mitchada04

    Posted

    It is a strange one, you stand outside the entrance and there are loads of people yet once inside it is dead bar Harry Potter world and even then the rides on there has short queues. Not being a massive fan of Potter I didn't care about meandering aimlessly in all the crowded shops for hours so the empty rest of the park was brilliant.

    What I'm worried about regarding the Mummy and Diagon Alley is surely the public are going to find Gringotts Bank just s bigger better version of the Mummy? I guess time will tell but at least the expansion should stop everyone going straight on to Minions giving that an 80 minute queue from the start.

  13. Mitchada04

    Posted

    It's certainly strange that a park of such scale has received little investment in new rides (especially its first 10 years of operation) yet it is still rated highly amongst enthusiast. Just shows, high quality rides and experiences in the first place will lead to success. I think Harry Potter world has made Universal realise Islands full potential especially with the talks of a Jurassic Park extension for 2015 ish (when JP4 is released) and other ideas that I'm sure are always in the works. What is staggering (in my eyes) is how by opening Harry Potter world (which is actually just one new awesome ride and a re-theme) Islands equalled Studios attendance yet they're regularly investing. Either way I think the future for Islands is brighter (even though it was never dull) and if they can utilise an evening show on the lake or something then it will feel complete.

  16. Mitchada04

    Posted

    Of course there was going to be a shed, it is a Merlin creation ;)

    I don't know if this an American thing or just how Legoland Florida chose to set them but both Wave Surfer and the Rocky Express whatever it's called seemed slower than they are over here. The Dragon; dark ride part is much better as a whole probably because it doesn't look/feel warn out. The tunnel out to the coaster is also a bit clearer with a story of the wizard. Boating school was smaller, Driving School looked bigger. The laser raiders had a few more effects interacting with the car and the audio is clearer but it is essentially a clone. Project X is run much better than Jungle Coaster ever was, even before the lids. They have 3 space towers in Florida which I bet helps the queues and they don't have the stupid seat belts that the operator had to unlock with a key. Their miniland is much better in my opinion but maybe that's because it looks new, has working effects and is of different areas to our one. I preferred it to the one in England maybe because there was more for the older generations to do? Plus the gardens which is a nice place to go from the manic Park. If you have a spare day out their and some money I'd recommend it, especially if you can get the 50% off with a MAP (didn't have any trouble doing this they even gave my ticket half price without my pass).

  17. Mitchada04

    Posted

    At Cypress Gardens I remember Storm Surge being a fairly decent ride. It did have tipping buckets and waterfalls down the slide and the horrid structure wasn't as noticeable as it was surrounded well be trees. It's amazing what trees can hide!

    And there is a squid surfer (think they called it Wave Racers?) And it is really clean, sparkling actually same with the water in the splash battle. It is a really clean park and hopefully it will remain that way and be a success.

  18. Mitchada04

    Posted

    In all fairness Storm Surge would have worked better their than it does at Thorpe.

    It was certainly the weather for a splash battle! The whole park was empty all day but all the parks were up until the 21st. At Busch Gardens me and my dad were the only people on Kumba at lunch time which was on one train op. Even Universal was quiet at the beginning of the holiday. Longest queue was 20 minutes for Minions and Rockit.

  19. Mitchada04

    Posted

    Inferno- Personally I find walking around Busch and SeaWorld the most relaxing of all the parks out there. They're nice in that they don't have a massive IP base, they are original ideas such as Kumba, Sheikra, Manta and so on. And the weather we had at Busch made it an absolutely lovely day out, it is a beautiful park!

    Mark9- I agree that it seems like they've tried to make a family coaster with thrill too, you've done Juvelen haven't you? What's that like in comparison (family based, thrill or the perfect mix)? :)

  20. Mitchada04

    Posted

    You sure can stroke them! And for $1 (or 2?) you can purchase a cup of fish (you could eat them yourself I guess) and you put the fish between your fingers sticking up and the stingrays will swim above it and just suck it up. It's an amazing experience, especially if you're obsessed (I know the feeling Han :P )

  21. Mitchada04

    Posted

    Thanks :) and Manta is a great flying coaster, it has the thrill and immense force with the pretzel loop at the beginning and then a more floaty flying finale with the water splash and waterfall entrance interaction. It's a whole different and much better ride to Air.

  22. Cornflakes

    Posted

    Couldn't agree more about the IP's being more of a restriction than an advantage. Whilst they will have helped with marketing they just limit everything. This was shown in MBV on the tour we got where everything was to such detail it replicated the film. Yes, it looked great but the creative teams job is essentially done or at least exceedingly limited. Credit to Thorpe moving away from traditional hands on shoulders mazes in recent years though and trying something new especially with Cabin (even though it became one route after the first few rooms).

    The thing that annoys me is that Chessington can create great story lines, atmosphere (even in broad daylight) and decent scares yet Thorpe can't. They're owned by the same company! I understand that each park has their own creative team dealing with these sort of things but surely they could share ideas with each other about what works well. The fact Towers can pull off a scare zone properly yet Thorpe's has an hour queue is baffling. It can't be that difficult for these creative teams to talk to each other can it?

    If we get something that uses a great story, atmosphere and tension like the Chessington mazes but with the ultimate fear Thorpe would provide as they are targeting an older market, then we would have something great on our hands!

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