Matt 236

Interesting review there Liam.
 
I found the pre-show and middle section between the trains to be the strongest sections of the ride. Like you say, I definitely found the 1st section of the VR much better than the second as it felt too outstretched. They have time to improve it but it's the weakest part of the ride for me so far.
 
Still miles better than Galactica though.

Europa park looks amazing! How does it compare to Efteling?
 
Can't wait to get out here in a few weeks.

That water ski sounds hilarious, especially with the tongue and cheek Europa & DLP characters. I love it!
Holiday Park sounds a decent park to visit and am particularly fascinated by some of their rides that reminisce some of Thorpe's [now sadly deceased] veteran rides. 
Geforce sounds like a good coaster, but not a great one. I'd probably take Shambhala over that any day. Or Silver Star for that matter.

You need a website with your own reviews on. I love reading all your trip reports.

Really enjoy your write ups Ben.
 
I've always heard generally good things about Tripsdrill despite knowing little about it and I think your write up summarises it well. Judging from what's been said it reminds me a little of a smaller Efteling [on the nature side of things] in some ways.
 
It's definitely a park I  would like to see one day [likely once I've ticked off all the main European parks].

I'm glad this is so, as I wanted to make a joke believable but somewhat legit. This involved some serious planning and creative choice of pictures (selected to be good quality and comparable to ones I may take).

I would like to congratulate you Mr. Matthew Creek for having the one and only April fools to get past me today.

Judging from the photos, the trip. Doesn't come across as bad as you said it was, though it's a shame you never visited Cinecitta (which as a result has an uncertain future now as it stand still).
It does however look very picturesque on all the places you went, especially Rome & Pompeii and is a place I want to visit, not specifically for the theme parks.

Agree with the fireworks, weren't the best, not a patch on breaking coat hangers whilst re-enacting Thriller.
Megafobia though is fantastic and also my first wooden coaster too.

Ha - funny you should say that, because it did spend the morning down with engineers all over it, and staff standing outside telling people that it "might be open" later on in the day... thankfully it did.
 
 
Interesting question, and quite hard to answer... I think as an overall package, Gardaland leads the way in Italy, for its scale, themeing, and recent excellent additions - I had a great day there. Certainly rivals Towers as Merlin's best property. But honourable mentions should go to Miribilandia, Rainbow Magicland, Etnaland, and Cinecittà World (it just needed more people...) - all worth a trip out there for.

Thanks for another highly interesting report Ben.
Mirabilandia looks an impressive park with its rides such as Katun, ispeed snd shows,
Al Piopi sounded insane yet amazing at the same time, especially with that giant butterfly coaster.
Etna looks a loverly place as well.
Shame a lot of these Italian parks are very difficult to get to (sounds like they make getting to Europa very easy).
Where would you rate the park's from the whole trip in terms of favourites?

Gardaland is worth a trip Matt absolutely! Their dark rides are also top notch - they have a long and well themed Egyptian omnimover shooter ride called Ramses, and special mention should go to I Corsari, which is a hugely detailed (and again, very long) Pirates of the Carribean-like boat ride. You actually walk down into the bowels of a life-size pirate ship to access the ride; really impressive. Spoilers abound, but there's a good full length POV (11 minutes!) here.
 
Garda also has an Ice Age 4D cinema, in case you can't get enough of it at Alton .
 
Mammut (Mine Train) was fine but nothing more - well themed, and with a good downwards helix section, but too much Vekoma roughness for my liking...

I never knew Italy was full of such little wonders.
Gardaland is a park I've been wanting to visit for a while now as seems to have so much charm and love (2017 maybe).
Did you try out the dark rides there and how was Mammut?

Don't you mean Hexample

Don't you mean Hexample

Sounds like you had a Hexciting trip,
I'm certain that thunder was because it was my birthday that night

I am eating cheese on oatcakes at this very moment.

I'm preparing myself for Lego Bingo on the potential aspect your winning streak will continue.
Still can't believe how fast my empire Rose & fell, but that's empires!

Reading this was painful, very painful!

Matt, you should go they do authentic Disney merch and stuff! I haven't left the country this year but since my trip to GYPB I have got an authentic 2015 Disney pin badge!

Only authentic things here at Great Yarmouth Disney Beach

What is it with Alton and incomplete tunnel based experiences?! 

I love you're creative writing and narration for these blogs, was an interesting read.

It's okay guys, Jack will reappear in an April adventure... assuming he makes it out of Hobs Pitt alive

"The groundwork being so poor, it feels like you've visited the Alton Towers Waterpark"
I died inside.

Enjoyed reading this' strongly agree with Garda's dive.
Swarm was the best of Merlin's phase two coasters IMO.