Matt 236

In my opinion, Merlin are good but not great. They do very well in advertising and PR stunts as well as general investment. They have installed some rather good rides such as Smiler, Swarm and Zufari but also some bad ones too such as Storm Surge and the now closed Time Voyagers. There up keep on rides is not the best as there are several attractionss that do need some TLC including Colossus, the flume and in theory, half of Chessington's primary and secondary rides.

I have not been on a wooden coaster yet in my life and feel ashamed of it.

That was a great trip and the drinking story is pretty much correct of my encounters during the night. I had one rough hangover the next day.

Banned for Colossus

Banned for being too fabulous.

I really enjoyed the day overall and each ride on Inferno was awesome in it´s own right. Brilliant meet.

Here's the way I see it, Reasons for using 2 trains/ Faster throughput Takes a while to take train 2 off More rides for people in the night. Reasons why they may not use 2 trains/ Greater expense of running Trains need frequent inspection Not enough people there

Banned for being cookie dough

Banned for claiming to be a coaster god.

Apple, there's no comparison. Gerst. Or Intamin

Didn't seem to go as well as first round, clearly I'm not too knowledgable of parks outside Merlin.

My gosh, today has been a terrible day for themepark accidents. First the death on the New Texas Giant and now this boat overturning on the log ride at Cedar Point. I just hope those involved on the overturning boat are all fine and make a swift recovery as the death on the giant is already bad enough news for accidents. I feel sorry for the woman's children as they are now without a mother, I just hope they're grown up. In terms of how the boat overturned, I have no idea how it happened but maybe the chain snapped and pushed the boat back down. I do remember visiting a park in Spain a few years back and the belt apparently snapping and the boat crashing in to the next boat below. It could've well been bad friction instead. As for the giant, I can only see this being the cause of either a faulty restraint or poor safety checks unless the woman breached the safety warnings. I don't know what they could do to the ride to improve safety as there doesn't seem to be anywhere where they could place OTR and the only other thing I can see them do is add seat belts or stronger shoulder restraints. Not a good day for ride news and I hope it can all be sorted.

Looks okay, but doubt its anything brilliant in terms of experience and appearance. The rides probably marginally better than the old mouse coaster but it looks rather plain. Can't see it exceeding 500 pph throughput.

No brainer, The Smiler TidalWave or Drenched (Hydro)

Hot Final Destination or Saw

And here's part three of my trip report, and after reading you will now know why I've called it My Smashing Time at MOS Thorpe. http://forum.maniahub.com/blog/34/entry-478-mysmashing-time-at-mos-thorpe-part-3/ I feel gutted that I don't think I will make another meet until at least October now.

Gutted I missed this as I came home late from work. Does anyone know where I can catch up and re-watch the program, both on tv & online?

Double post (bang bang bang), but here's part 2 of my trip report. I'm still not at the end yet which is surprising as I never expected this to reach three parts. Enjoy though. http://forum.maniahub.com/blog/34/entry-474-my-smashing-time-at-mos-thorpe-part-2/

It does annoy me though that over safety reasons, a lot of the once impressive water effects are no longer on. If they were able to work, rumba could be a much better ride.

I think what makes Storm Slurge gain its queues and popularity (if it has any) is due to being on one of the main paths of the park, being the group ride as said, being in the middle of the park as well as having a rather low throughput. If Storm Surge were to be in a different park location (one less in your face) as well as obtain greater theming, the ride probably wouldn't be shunned as badly by everyone for being an absolute awful ride.

Here's part 1 of my trip report. http://forum.maniahub.com/blog/34/entry-472-my-smashing-time-at-mos-thorpe-part-1-the-day/ Part 2 shall be following shortly.

Sadly I'm out of the equation as the date I can't do has been chosen as I have work Sunday, Uni will have started and also I have a wedding on a sat. Gutted I can't make it.

I really want to ride Megaphobia, it looks an amazing coaster and the layout looks brilliant. As a fanboy, I feel disappointed and embarrassed that I have yet to ride a wooden roller coaster (mainly due to living too far from the parks that do as well as mainly only able to do Merlin parks).

Despite having only done my top 10 3 months ago, I thought it may be time to update it after riding the Smiler, here's the current standing of my top 10, 1/ Nemesis/ Amazing ride 2/ The Smiler/ love the inversions and weightlessness of the ride 3/ The Swarm/ Great drop and theming 4/ Oblivion/ love the drop part 5/ Stealth/ short but sweet 6/ Nemesis Inferno/ runs amazingly 7/ Dragons Fury/ excellent family ride 8/ Colossus, love the loops and seems slightly smoother this year 9/ Saw the ride/ good indoor section 10/ Thirteen/ the secret drop is very good And there you have it, Smiler has knocked Rage of the top 10 and having ridden some coasters this year, it has changed my opinions slightly about them making them rise or lower on the list.

Darn, I'm away for this one which means not only will I not be able to attend but my chain of meets has snapped. Have a great time though.