Matt 236

Guess it is time to update my top tens for 2026. Coasters: 1/ Steel Vengeance 2/ Velocicoaster 3/ Zadra 4/ Mako 5/ Eujaneika 6/ Stardust Racers 7/ Oziris 8/ Hyperion 9/ Hyperia 10/ Wildcats Revenge Dark Rides: 1/ Monsters Unchained 2/ Rise Of The Resistance 3/ Tower Of Terror 4/ Battle At The Ministry 5/ Beauty & The Beast 6/ Indiana Jones (DL) 7/ Symbolica 8/ Pirates In Batavia 9/ POTC (Cali version) 10/ Runaway Railway Parks/resorts: 1/ Universal Orlando 2/ Tokyo Disneyland 3/ Europa Park 4/ Disneyland Resort 5/ Cedar Point 6/ Efteling 7/ Universal Osaka 8/ Phantasialand 9/ Disney World 10/ Energylandia Bucketlist: 1/ Dollywood (even more so now) 2/ Silver Dollar City 3/ Shanghai Disneyland 4/ Busch Williamsburg 5/ Canadas Wonderland 6/ Carowinds 7/ Grona Lund 8/ Gardaland 9/ Carowinds 10/ Universal Singapore That’s it for now.

Whilst I’m excited for the restored/revived Space Mountain attraction, let’s just hope they watch refurbishment timings carefully, especially with both Crush and Indy being under long refurbishments soon as well. There’s been some good progress with Paris Disney, however one must wonder what will be happening sooner, a new attraction in Disneyland Park (the last being over 20 years ago) or that third gate, which apparently must happen by the end of the next decade. Crazy stuff. For now though, we have the Up ride and Lion King to look forward to I guess.

Finally visited Epic Universe last month, in what is amongst the most speculated theme parks out there currently. Avoid reader for spoilers. IMG_1564.mov The Entrance: It’s a bold striking open area, which feels like it’s taken strong inspiration from a number of European parks, such as Port Aventura, Port Laguna at Toverland and Efteling. They were definitely went for a Disney/European enthused entrance and design without a doubt. It looks beautiful. Areas/ The park currently has five areas featuring four portals and the central Celestial park, which is home to the impressive Stardust Racers. It’s a fun thrilling and impressive ride and an excellent signature coaster for the park. Less thrilling than Velocicoaster, but perfectly well paced. It’s better at the back. The carousel in the area is a unique and quirky addition. The Paris/Ministey area is striking without a doubt. They’ve definitely raised the bar from Diagon Alley, which still holds its ground with some amazing areas. Battle For The Ministry is an incredible ride and it feels like the Potter Version of Rise Of The Resistence essentially. The performance show in the area shouldn’t be missed, especially as it feels like a Westend show on a lot of places. The area just needs another ride or attraction, which they might receive in time. Dark Universe was my second area I ventured into and possibly my favourite. The Monsters Unchained Dark ride was phenomenal and is easily amongst my favourite dark rides out there. The Werewolf coaster is fun for what it is, but does feel a bit like an after thought for the area and maybe as if the budget was starting to waiver maybe. The Isle Of Baerk area feels like the underdog area in some ways, but still impresses. The hiccup glider coaster makes for a fun family coaster with a cheeky backwards bit. Hearing the flight theme made me excited for a moment. I didn’t do the other two rides in the area. The Nintendo Area is chaotic yet beautiful, much like the one in Japan, except this one requires an escalator to access which perhaps detracts a little bit, but I guess differs the area than the others. Bowser’s challenge still remains a sound interactive dark ride and Minecraft Madness is a highly enjoyable coaster despite the alarming capacity. Food/ I managed to visit two eateries on my 1.5 days in Epic. Meads Tavern in Baerk and Pizza Moon in celestial park. I had a sausage based dish in Meads which was delicious and nicely served, a bit like Rutmoores Tavern in Phantasialand perhaps. In Pizza Moon, I went for the Space Cowboy pizza, which was tasty despite the slightly strange addition of chips. Numerous pizzas there had strange and wacky toppings, one was even purple. The park looks beautiful at night, with striking lighting and a closing show, featuring music from the park. Think Aquanura meets World Of Colour. We watched the show from Bar Helios, which made an interesting view, however missing the fireworks is the only setback. Overall, it’s a stunning park with so much potential. There are still creases to iron, whether it’s operational, ride selection or anything, but it’s already made a great start so far. Until next time.

Walliams Land definitely aged like curdled milk. Was never a fan of the area, much preferred Cloud Cuckoo Land, though Gangsta Granny was a fun and competent addition. But that’s the only positive really. They could really do something with Sir Algernon and create a fun upbeat original idea. But I guess that’s beyond Merlin’s funds and creativity right now, because they could do something much with the area. Wouldn’t be surprised if the area remains shuttered next season, with the way it’s going.

Rumba is a strange one, considering its a a substandard support/water ride that offers something for groups and less intense, but given running costs (including higher staffing requirements) and risk/safety assessments with such rides, it does seem closure is highly likely, if not imminent. I have fond memories of Rumba, from its early Ribena years to when I worked on it, during my year at the park. It’s an interesting one with a noticeable amount of history, especially being one of the park’s first major rides as Thunder River in the early/RMC (not that RMC) days. Especially after nearly 40 years of operation. Should it close permanently, I’d like the park to put in another water ride somewhere, maybe a water coaster. However given current circumstances especially with Merlin, that seems unlikely.

I mean if we’re going by the original iteration, then yes. It has been passed and gone.

Guess it’s time for mine. Parks: Thorpe Park 4x Chessington Once Towers Once Paultons Park 1 Pleasure Wood Hills 1 Great Yarmouth PB 1 Brighton Pier 1 Phantasislsnd 2x Efteling 2x Port Aventura 2x (no Ferrari land, closed) Parque Warner 1 Parque de attractions Madrid 1 Coney Island SF Great Adventure Dorney Park Hershey Park 2x Knoebels Cedar Point 3x Kings Island Kennywood Tokyo Disney 2x Disneysea 2x Universal Japan 2x Fuji Q highland Nagashima Spa Land Edit- Babylon Park Madrid New creds 2025/ 67 New parks/ 13 Favourite new (for me) coasters Eujaneika- Mad and incredible at once Wildcats Revenge- Another excellent RMC El Toro- it lives up to its name Phoenix- I doent more time off my seat than sat down Over new (for me) rides I loved: Danse Macabre, Jaws (USJ), Mine Craft madness, Beauty & the beast, TOT (Disney sea), Frozen (Disney sea (yes)) Best new park/ Tokyo Disney (both parks) HM, US Japan, Knoebels Better than expected park Knoebels - Very surprised in the best ways HM, Dorney Park, Most disappointing park moment: Being spited Steel Dragon 2000 DHMs/ Being spited KA (because those SF maniacs blew it up) Hershey not meeting expectations (for some reason) Parque D’attractions Madrid being a dump 2026 will probably be a quieter year, at least on the new park/cred front, but am sure will still have dom epic moments.

I visited both Tokyo Disneyland and Disneysea, as part of a recent trip to Japan. The resort has an interesting layout in how the main park is practically by the main train line and sea had to be accessed by a monorail loop. With the shopping village between the two, which looked more standardised then ones in the other parks. Leaving the resort is perhaps one of the main gripes, as the large amount of guests leaving by it feels a bit like leaving a large scale concert from somewhere like Wembley. Now onto the parks. Tokyo Disneyland: The park has a mixed design balance between Cali and Florida’s Magic Kingdom, which understandably makes sense as the third Disney resort in the world. The classics varied, with POTC better then floridas but not Cali & Paris, my favourite Small World but possibly weakest Mansion (variant), Peter Pan and Tomorrowland. However the latter may be unfair at the moment due to the extreme renovations especially with Space Mountain 2.0. However what makes up the park is the current old school classic Disney feel. The extremely friendly enthustic cast members, non scheduled meet and greets and other superfluous changes. There were lots of parades ( including an electric one) and the delight of riding Splash Mountain (albeit in Japanese). The new Beaty & The Beast dark ride was incredibly delightful in every way and Pooh’s Honey Hunt still stands its ground, ad the first trackless dark ride. It just had that classic Disney feel which MK Florida lacked so loved it here. Disneysea Visiting this park has always been a bucketlist for me and it didn’t fail to disappoint. Except being spited Journey & Indy. Darn. Despite this, it was a wonderful place to visit, bearing some of the most strong and immersive theming to be seen in any park in the world. From Venetian canals to the striking mount Prometheus in the centre. Tower might lack the thrill of the others, but the design and story is incredible in every way, 20,000 leagues is highly unique and Sinbad ride delightful with a catchy soundtrack. Fantasy Springs is just wonderful. Frozen is clearly the showstopper here with mind blowing effects (even for those not the biggest fans), Neverland Adventure an interesting and modern variation of Pan and Tangled a delight, if a bit on the short side. Other additional attractions were pleasant to experience both unique and copies, the alien motchi balls are a must when visiting (subject to dietary guidelines). For a variety of reasons I consider Tokyo Disney my favourite resort, even surpassing Californias and surpassing Orlando in a number of ways IMO. Would recommend.

Overdue Top 10 update. Top 10’s Steel/Hybrid Coasters: 1/ Steel Vengeance 2/ Veloci-coaster 3/ Zadra 4/ Eujaneika 5/ Mako 6/ Toutatis 7/ Hyperion 8/ Voltron 9/ Hyperia 10/ Nemesis Reborn Wooden; 1/ Wodan 2/ Ghost Rider 3/ Phoenix 4/ El Toro 5/ Twister 6/ The Beast 7/ Mystic Timbers 8/ Wickerman 9/ Coney Island Cyclone 10/ Joris Dark rides: 1/ Tower of Terror WDW/Tokyo Sea 2/ Rise Of The Resistance 3/ Beauty & The Beast Tokyo Disney 4/ Indiana Jones Disneyland 5/ Pirates In Batavia 6/ POTC Disneyland California 7/ Frozen Adventure- Tokyo Disney Sea 8/ Forbidden Journey (Orlando one) 9/ Danse Macabre 10/ Phantom Manor Parks 1/ Tokyo Disneyland 2/ Europa Park 3/ Universal Orlando 4/ Disneyland Anaheim 5/ Cedar Point 6/ Phantasialand 7/ Knoebels 8/ Energylandia 9/ Efteling 10/ Universal Japan Park Bucketlist: 1/ Epic Universe 2/ Dollywood 3/ Silver Dollar City 4/ Busch Gardens Williamsburg 5/ Shanghai Disney 6/ Universal Singapore 7/ Hong Kong Disneyland 8/ Canadas Wonderland 9/ Carowinds 10/ Linnanmaki N.B I like to have a variety of attractions on my favourites, just to keep it varied. Even if it is easy to dominate it with one ride type/manufacturer I.E RMCs. But this is just my opinion.

I feel the retheme in some ways worked, but in others less so. They’ve done an ok job integrating what’s there into an original storyline, but it feels less iconic/distinctive regardless of the many setbacks from the very beginning. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the ride mothballed in the near future, especially with the problems highlighted above.

Another retheme to the X/pyramid coaster/ ride system is perhaps the most likely choice, with investment likely stagnant yet again and Walking Dead feeling like a, well dead IP now.

It all feels a slippery slope to me, the companies profits are slipping and struggling due to at least a decade of unhealthy growth and numerous cut corners. A reduced credit rating is also a major concern. Merlin aren’t the only major operator with big issues (see Six Flags), but I think do have it worse personally.

Six Flags Great Adventure was the first major park I visited recently, as part of a larger north-east/mid-western park trip with a friend. At the time of planning this trip (late 2024), there were strange and concerning reports that Kingda Ka and other attractions would be closed at the park for the next season. These reports were unfortunately true. In-light of being spited at least two former major attractions, expectations for this place were noticeably diminished. However thankfully a mostly enjoyable visit was had. It’s an interesting park in how it’s not too far from New York, yet in the middle of nowhere, amongst a safari attraction too. Upkeep was mostly decent and operations mixed, though some of the clientele made for a more hairy queuing experience. El toro is certainly the show stopper here, incredible woodie with some rough and intense moments. The B&M collection is mostly excellent, Dare Devil thankfully opened and was better than Wonder Woman and the Flash was overall fun. The park also had a random DC show, Skull Mountain wasn’t anything special. Still worth visiting if you’re in that area.

Thorpe top this for me for reasons similar to the above. Rides are often operated well, especially the likes of Stealth & Hyperia and reliability has been better than from previous years. Towers contrary though has seen a noticeable decline in operations and reliability lately. Some rides like Thirteen still smash it but it’s not like how it was. Chessington is hit and miss, but I’ve seen some poor operations lately, with rides like Rattlesnake operating so badly now and too many rides on low or reduced capacity now. LEGOLAND is ok, but I still find it exaggerated where staff have to say “you’re secure” after checking a simple door or restraint once or even twice. It’s the most safety exaggerated park out there I’ve done!

I’d say Rumba’s days of operating are likely numbered. It’s an expensive atttaction to run ( in resources & staffing now), gets lower ridership most of the time and strict regulations and badly behaving guests adding up also. Rumba wasn’t a bad one as a former host, however after what happened at Drayton, it wasn’t the same and staffing and operating is much higher and stricter now. At nearly 40 years, maybe it has run its course now (no pun intended).