Matt 236

Meh (appears on this members signature)

Out of Interest, how easy is it to get to Billund from Copenhagen?

Rumba for me is in a dire state at the moment, arguably worse than Loggers (which is mostly lacking a tunnel ATM). The sprinklers haven't worked at all this year and unless you every unlucky, you will come off Rumba almost bone dry currently.

A ride that seems to be continuing the trend of investments of the park it's in. Looks a truly amazing ride. There's some seriously exciting new rides in the works for Europe next year. Hopefully this beauty will be opening April time (I know Chiapas did and with the amount of detail that's already finished halfway through this year).

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The day Falls gets new theming is the day ticket prices don't go up. It definitely seems the park is in a very poor state currently and Glamping & High ropes are definitely not the solution.

Pity Windsor Cancel (council) are playing hard to get (and being blind as bats) and not seeing how successful the park is and how badly they need that ride which would probably be the most exciting thing the park would've built since Laser Raiders. If Copenhagen happens next year I will try to plan a day for Billund (depending how easy it is to get to from Copenhagen by train).

One must also remember PA & DLP are also (now) in build up areas where there's many third company hotels within close proximity (at least seven for DLP in under 20 minutes distance alone). Whilst at Towers (which is in the middle of nowhere pretty much) and the only third companies within close proximity are Chained Oak Bnb & another place I can't remember. Any other accommodation outside of towers is a 30-45 minute drive away in nearby towns such as Newcastle, Soke, Derby etc. so it makes sense for towers to steadily increase hotel numbers (as long as they continue to invest heavily in the park and other secondary onsite attractions).

It's happening so quick! I'm so excited! First trackless top spin!

Great! There goes my optimism for the park's future (Hello bland Cattle pens)

I would actually say the complete opposite. Disney parks might be comparatively similar in many shapes and forms but they're all completely different as they all have different rides and attractions, for example Cali & Paris Disney both have Star Tours rides whilst Disney World doesn't (though in Hollywood studios); Paris & Cali also have canal boats & casey junior rides but WDW does not, whilst WDW & DL have jungle cruise & Splash Mountain whilst Paris has neither. The list goes on. Even staple things at the park's like their castle centrepieces, staple rides like Small World, Pirates, Space Mountain & BTM plus even the areas and (to a lesser extent) layouts which are completely different too (see discovery land compared to the American equivalents). Back to Legoland though, locations may vary but on the ride front they're all very similar/identical in all parks as every park pretty much has driving/boating schools, Technic coasters (Windsor used to have one), squid surfer rides, dragon coasters etc. however Billund comes across as the most unique (and probably best) but the parks don't seem to have the uniqueness of Disney parks.

As long as the park continue adding/improving the 'in park' line up I don't have a problem with the park building a fourth hotel at the park, after all it's on land that couldn't be used for new rides/themepark expansion (unlike Chessington cough cough) plus there's not a lot of accommodation close to towers anyway aside from two BNB's & tower's three existing accommodation options. The hotel expansion seem a bit more of a nod towards further encouragement of weekend breaks & keeping up with big theme parks in Europe (even though theyre probably not quite up there), after all, Port Aventura has 5 hotels, as does Europa (with at least one more on the way soon).

Ramesis's queue line should've have money spent on it and been re-enhanced to its golden days, instead they did a cheap half cooked job of destroying the old entrance and moving the entrance to the ground near the shop and just plonking the restrictions sign there.

I still haven't booked it and though the online price is slightly cheaper there is a booking fee which makes the actual price not too different. Tour sounds interesting enough though so I'll see what people do on the day

Great! Chessington seem to be heading towards becoming a smaller Alton Towers (in the south) without the good bits, At least Towers has swarms of land and has been receiving a fair amount of investment over the last 10 years unlike Chessie who seem many steps behind even the UK Merlin parks (when once they were leading the UK park industry in large stops). Chessington needs (another) major decent coaster with good throughout and towards the thrilling end of the family market (on toadies & peeking's site), retheme &/or major enhancements to the park's main rides (Vampire, Fury, Tombs, Bubbles, Rattle, falls & skyway) amongst more new rides in general. What it doesn't need is further accommodation (cough cough Glamping) , secondary attractions such as high ropes and photo opportunity thingies whilst the main park continues decay (in most areas) resulting in further removed theming/toned down queue experiences and is generally short on areas to expand due to its iffy green belt location (the North car parks can't be tarmaced & the front field near fury be built on). The only thing that seems to be done right these days (decision wise) is the Halloween events. If Chessington was a car, too much effort would be going towards pimping up the radio & added extra systems whilst the body and paintwork continue to rust and the engine starts to strain the volume of items inside which gets heavier each journey.

I think August will be the decider on bad the Smiler has impacted this year's attendance. On the plus side, hopefully this article may encourage some people to go to the park this summer.

Two Weeks later and the Creaky action is available for everyone all to see. Moments include Liam's reactions after his first ride on Slammer & the story of how Peaj's sunglasses broke plus more. Watch to find out.

Words don't describe my disappointment. Never got to experience it (very nearly did once), but it looked and sounded so good and breaks my heart I'll never get to hear the full raw soundtrack,ever.

Halloween for me is always the most exciting part of the UK themepark season for me, and this just makes me even more happy! Curse Of The Tomb sounds a very exciting addition (as another much needed park addition), maybe it will link in to the 'potential' Tomb retheme for next year. Trick Or Treat woods sounds is an interesting one, especially how it came out of nowhere and sounds like another exciting addition. In terms of where they will be positioned, I expect Tomb will be where the Krypt was when it was around and Trick or Treat Woods will go where that Christmas trail was (as I can't think of any other forested/open space areas in the park). We know Haunting In The Hollows will be back I'm certain Mystery Of a Hocus Pocus will be too (especially with all the money & effort spent when it opened) and think it's still got several years at the park. With 8pm closings hopefully, this could be the best Halloween event at the park yet. Merlin seem to be really pulling the stops at their parks for Halloween this year (though I expect a quieter year for Fright Nights though in comparison).

Well it seems to be every two years at the moment that we're seeing something new at the park with this year opening sky force, 2012 being Wallace & Gromit & 2010 being Nickland so unless we see something small next year the next new thing would be 2017. To be fair, the park is due another new major ride considering its been 15 years since their last major new ride (if you discard Infusion as it was at Pleasureland) and 21 since their last coaster (again if you discard Infusion) as Skyforce is really a small,ish investment, Wallace & Gromit a major retheme of an old ride (medium investment), even Nickland really is still the higher end of medium investments. What they'll get and where they'll put it I don't really know, but I would love to see a Mack launch at the park, as they're apparently they're smooth rides, generally reliable with high throughputs and not too expensive (at least compared to B&M's) and something like this could put them back in to the limelight again.

The closures being pushed forwards isn't surprising at all. Especially that the park has rarely been seeing queues over 15 minutes at all this month, it's a great shame to see all this happen especially how dead and quiet the park is currently (although good if you're visiting though).

I was sort of aware of this, I do remember Peaj telling me they'd blocked the discount t site or something for English customers so it doesn't surprise me much. Day tickets are overpriced anyway there which is why I bought an annual pass when I visited (buy the fantasy one as the one below is useless) which thanks to the guys I went with already having one I paid a bit less than the main price which I think is €180 now (it's cheaper to get a pass than doing 3 day tickets). Still think it's unfair the parks doing this but just shows us where we stand with the French

Europa as I'm aware is a definitely a park that can't be done or experienced properly on a one day visit unlike Thorpe park, Phantasialand, Blackpool or Alton Towers,Efteling & Port Aventura (on a rushed quiet day trip). I think it's a park where you're looking at 3 days in quieter times and 4 days in busier ones to get the best out of the park. At least you've been to Europa though (even if it's just a day) and you now have an incentive to return there for a bigger better visit in the future. I am yet to experience the many wonders here but when that time comes I'll make sure it's at least 3 days (that time will hopefully be some point next year)

Fury & Rattlesnake are Maurer (which are German) Vampire is Arrow (defunct) & Vekoma (trains) (the former were American and the latter is Dutch) Scorpion is Mack (which is also German) Unfortunately Fury is unreliable on the grounds of receiving simple faults being major problems whilst Vampire it's mainly due to age. Scorpion seems to the only coaster at Chessington that's actually reliable these days.

The more this project progresses, the more exciting I'm becoming. Paultons are really stepping forward the most of UK parks right now and could well put them on the map (if they're no there already).