Inferno

Last week I decided to do a couple of European parks for the first time, Plopsaland and Parc Asterix. Ride To Happiness has been high on my bucket list for a long time and I've always wanted to do Asterix, especially since Toutatis opened.
 
I looked at a few different options, originally I was going to do Walibi Holland and Efteling too but doing this solo meant it would’ve been quite expensive, and I didn’t know how comfortable I was going to be driving in Europe on my own. Another option I looked at was Liseberg but flights from Gatwick were about £200 for a return, so I could do Plopsa and Parc Asterix for the same price as 1 day/night at Liseberg.
 
I knew it was the holidays but looking at the queues in previous years, that week didn’t seem particularly busy.

Day 1 - Plopsaland
 
I set off around 5am for the 8:15am ferry over to Calais, which arrived in Calais for 11am, aiming to get to Plopsa for 12ish. I could’ve got an earlier one to get there for opening, but it was open till 7pm and I've heard you didn’t really need a full day there anyway, and I didn’t want to knacker myself out too much.
 
I’d heard that food and drinks were very expensive at Plopsa so I went to the supermarket a couple of mins away to grab myself some lunch before I went in. I drove past Plopsa to get to the supermarket and realized how close it was, so I decided to leave my car parked at the supermarket and walk to the park (took about 5 mins) which saved me 15 euros on parking.
 
I got to the park at about 12:15, and there was obviously 1 ride I was going to go for first, Ride to Happiness. First impressions of the park were nice, the entrance plaza was cool.
On my way over, I noticed there was some work taking place on Heidi on the turnaround section so it was looking unlikely that it was going to open. Turns out it had actually been closed all month, but reopened the day after I went, on the Friday. I wasn’t too fussed about not getting on it, the main reason for visiting was Ride to Happiness and with the park being very easy to get to I’ll most probably be back there at some point anyway.
 

 
I love the plaza and the area music, very calming. The food unit did have pop music playing though which was a shame though.
 

 
Brilliant theming in the queue, it was running 1 train but only queued around 10 minutes, I went straight for the backrow which is normally my favorite seat on most coasters.
 
The trains are comfy, and it was interesting to see the bars come down automatically so there was no need for the staff to check restraints. The trains also have an onboard sound track and lighting.
 
I came off my first ride feeling very meh. It was good, and different to any coaster I've done before, and absolutely loved the on-board soundtrack, that really added to it. But was I blown away? Absolutely not. Didn’t live up to the hype for me at all.
 
After that I decided to have a wander around the rest of the park, did the log flume and Drakk the parks mack powered coaster which were good. Dinosplash the log flume was cool, although the water was an interesting color…
 
 

 
Next I did Nachtwacht Flyer which is the parks Starflyer, as I thought it would be a good way to see the rest of the park, and then went onto do Anubis, a Gerstlauer launch coaster. I did go past a couple of other little coasters but these had large queues so decided to go back to them later.
 
Anubis has a brilliant station building and indoor queue line, running 2 trains with no queue. This was a good little coaster, the launch is very snappy and the top hat is great, however the ending is a little dull. It was very smooth for a Gerstlauer.
 
I did the Superspash as I noticed people didn’t look particularly wet, which just consisted of a lift, drop and then a slow return to the station. The lift is quite cool though.
 


 
I also did the Big Wave which was the parks Disk’O coaster. This was the best themed one I've ever seen, even had a little water feature on it and had great interaction with the nearby Splash battle.
 
At this point I had pretty much done the rest of the park so I went back to the Ride To Happiness, this time I went for the front row. Now, this absolutely blew me away, completely different to my ride earlier. I was laughing and smiling to myself the whole way round, and the hangtime you get on that first inversion on the front car is great. It's rare I prefer a ride on the front row but getting pushed into the airtime moments and other elements on this was better in my opinion.
 
The rest of the day just consisted of lapping this, with the occasion ride on Anubis. It didn’t really build up much of a queue all day and in total managed to get on it over 20 times.
Operations were okay, but with no batcher and no effort from the staff to fill up seats there were a lot going round empty. I even had a car of 4 to myself at one point even though there was a queue. The queue was around 10 minutes most of the day and peaked about 30 minutes at one point.
 
At first I wasn’t really taking empty seats due to the language barrier but as the day went on, I got more confident getting on earlier trains taking empty seats which saved a lot of time with it being on 1 train.
 
Each ride I was laughing the whole way round, and left me smiling on the brake run. Every single ride is different no matter where you sit, and experiencing all the different elements facing a different way each time is so fun. Its so re-rideable, the front car was definitely my favorite.
 
The airtime at the end of the ride is brilliant. Everyone is so happy on the break run and the on board soundtrack fits it perfectly.
 
It is a little inconsistent though, and some rides on it are better than others.
 

 
The queue closed at 7pm, and the staff kindly let me stay in the station for a few rides taking empty seats. Sunset rides on this were brilliant, it didn’t quite get a dark ride but the area looks brilliant in the dark. Lots of great lighting, including lighting on the train too.
 


 
I exited the park, grabbed some dinner and had a 2.5 hour drive to my hotel for the night near Parc Asterix ready for the following morning.
 


 
Overall, I had a good day. Shame about not getting on Heidi but I'll be back. Plopsaland is a charming little park, and although I was originally a little disappointed with Ride to Happiness I finished the day absolutely loving it. Plopsaland is obviously more aimed for kids so without Ride To Happiness I probably wouldn't return, but with how easy it is to get there, I'll definitely be back.

It's not secret that Europa Park is by far my easily favourite theme park in the world. Every metric is ticked with over 50 rides across the resort including 8 dark rides, 14 rollercoasters, dozens of family friendly rides and amazing restaurants and shows. It also ticks many of my personal metrics in how a theme park should run; capacity and efficiency should be the name of the game when you're attracting a high number of guests a year but the beauty of Europa is how effortless it all feels. So I'll do a bit of a run down in this blog about the major rides and then just some general observations. We were there were three days in total and I will never get bored at this superb park.
 
Alpine Express and Wildwasser Bahn
In June 2023 a vast part of these two rides was completely destroyed in a fire. In 2024 they have both reopened, one a complete retrack and the other a complete rebuild. Whilst I wouldn't say the replacement of the mine is better then what has gone before, I will say that it had far more people exploring and going around it then the mine ever did. Lots of lovely little interactive areas and a lot more engaging for kids. Whilst I preferred zooming through the caves on Alpine Express then now, I must admit that this is probably the best we were going to get in such a short space of rebuilding time. They've done a really good job. The VR and new restraints have completely wrecked Alpines capacity though, it was by far the worst operating coaster at the park with 3 minute dispatch times seen.

 

Blue Fire
This ride really is timeless to me. Along with this and Maverick, it has truly changed the game in modern rollercoasters. Without those two rides we would not have Voltron, Toutatis, Hyperia, Gotham City Escape and so much more. Those two rides alone killed the coaster height wars and gave us these dynamic, exciting rides and rollercoasters have only got better and better. Blue Fire can feel a bit tame at times with a more mid layout but in my opinion it is aging superbly. It never feels rough and it doesn't have the vibration of the newer rides by Mack. The park run a four train service flawlessly. It eats through queues like nothing else and is a perfect showcase for the Mack launch coaster. Oddly on day three Blue Fire was really struggling with the colder weather. Frequent rollbacks and closures and then eventually stalling at the top of the top hat/stall turn thing at the start of the ride with guests on. A surreal sight to be sure but it was quickly fixed and opened about two hours later. For the first time, Blue Fire has fallen out of my top ten, however there's no denying the importance of Blue Fire. 
 
Wodan
Running superbly. It has had sound deflectors added to several of the higher points which don't detract as such, just make the ride look weirdly blocked off from view. It has been surpassed by Thunderhead in my personal GCI ratings though as that is just a superior ride to Wodan.
 
Silver Star
Again, running fantastically. I noted in my review of Nitro last year that it was running just as well as Silver Star to its credit. What I've come to realise is that the American way of running rides is to shout and talk constantly over the PA to get guests moving. The difference at Silver Star is that it's effective and efficient despite using no communication at all. PA systems aren't used, instead guest intelligence is relied upon. I noticed that guests are the ones doing the batching, filling seats, asking for twos and getting 36 riders on those trains. Silver Star is now the only major rollercoaster at Europa Park without a batcher and it is interesting to see guests performing the role themselves. Silver Star is aging superbly as well, it is running very well and is very well maintained, but I think the queue and surrounding area could do with some work as there was broken TV's, music wasn't working properly and the Monte Carlo theme of the exhibition hall is looking a bit tired. This opened late on Day three due to the cold weather and opened on two trains but was easily managing its 10 minute wait.
 
The Can Can Coaster
Now that this isn't the big new rollercoaster, it's fallen back into its support rollercoaster role and is better for it. Still popular and still a good laugh, its hard to really fathom if this is an improvement on Euro-Sat but as time marches on, the memory fades and what is left is Can Can coaster, a lot of fun and a nice varied layout.
 
Euro-Mir
I know a lot of people despise Euro Mir for being quite rough and janky but I will always love this ride for feeling quite raw and aggressive. It has a bite to it that a lot of modern rides don't. A lot of rumours are flying around that Euro Mir is the next ride to see either a refurbishment or a replacement (X-Treme spinner????). Whatever it is, I know Europa Park will nail it.

 
Poseidon, Pegasus, Atlantica Supersplash, Arthur, Schweisser Bobbahn & Matterhorn Blitz
Covering all of these off at the same time as there hasn't really been that many changes. These were all great and fantastic support rollercoasters in their own right. 
 
 
And finally

 
Voltron
The brand new Voltron is an absolute masterclass in my opinion and highlights everything that is good and fantastic about modern day rollercoasters. This is a ride built to pump through numbers, achieving between 1400 and 1600 people per hour. I've waited the whole queue line, it takes around 45 minutes and you never really stop moving. It is a spectacle of modern day engineering and it's almost a shame that every little thing they've done to speed up waits and get through the numbers will never be used by other parks. Just imagine if Hyperia could achieve even half of what Voltron does every hour...(I'm being mean, ignore me)

 

 

 
Voltron is a ride that I think absolutely slaps. It has so many unique little flourishes and quirks that I don't want to spoiler in this review. I'll talk about the things you can see such as the amazing vertical launch which has some wicked hang time at the top. It's so weird and hard to describe. The inversions are probably the least impressive thing about this ride though, it's all about the air time. Every moment where the train wants to fling you out of your seat, it will. For those that have done Ride to Happiness, it's the two air time hills at the end of the ride. That's pretty much most of Voltron. The zero-g stall is excellent too. I've done so many this year and it's between this and Taiga that are my favourites. Skipping ahead, the turntable part way through does break the flow and I wish there was more theme to this part of the ride as it does break up the pacing. It is definitely necessary but it's my biggest bug bear. Luckily the ride explodes back with a backwards launch which I think many don't know is going to happen as it's pretty hidden from view. For a Mack the launches are very good and the return journey to the station absolutely kicks arse. Ejector after ejector, constantly throwing you around and up into the restraint. The finale from the drop off the mid course into the final break run is one of my favourite sequences of any rollercoaster. It is relentless and full of g force and intensity. I love Voltron. I rode it ten times and I could not get enough of this absolute showcase of ride design. 

 
I had heard it has a rattle and roughness but I personally did not feel this. The outside seats are naturally more aggressive than the inner ones but I wouldn't say I felt any vibrations on my rides. I want more Strikers because Voltron delivered on everything I would have wanted. 

IMG_0944.mov  
 
There's so much more to explore at Europa Park and I've only covered the rollercoasters. Even now, a few weeks later I am eager to return as it just has so much to offer.

12th September 2024: PortAventura Park Day 3
It was our final day in PortAventura Park today before heading home! We weren’t really able to have a full day today, as we had to be out of the park by 3:30pm to catch our shared transfer back to Barcelona Airport to fly home, but we nonetheless headed back into the park to mop up some more goes on some of the best attractions!
 
I headed into the park early on my own this morning, with my mum and dad joining me later. I headed down to the Hotel Gold River entrance at around 9:50am, and entered the park a bit before the 10:30am opening time:


Upon entering the park, I decided to repeat my winning strategy from yesterday and head to China first. Resultantly, I started my day on…
Shambhala
Shambhala had a very short pre-queue, so I decided to start my day on there. I was in the queue early enough to be batched onto the very first train of the day… but unfortunately, wind (well, “adverse meteorological conditions” as per the tannoy announcement) meant that the ride didn’t open until 20 minutes after park opening. Curiously, they had to take off a train and run the ride on 1 train for it to be able to open in the wind; I’ve never seen this on a coaster before. Whether it’s a case similar to The Big One where the ride supposedly has slow and fast trains for different weather conditions, I don’t know, but to be fair, it was windy enough that I can believe it might have caused a 250ft coaster to experience difficulties with operating. Anyhow, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in the back car, and it was absolutely sublime; it was possibly in contention for the best Shambhala ride yet! The airtime was strong and phenomenally sustained, the ride was so fast (and felt faster than usual in the windy conditions), and overall, it was every bit as sublime as I’ve come to expect from Shambhala! That ride was a wonderful way to kick off the day:



After Shambhala, I then decided to head onto the other coaster in the area…
Dragon Khan
Dragon Khan was on an advertised 30 minute queue, so I decided to take a ride on there. Like Shambhala, Dragon Khan had been forced to drop down to 1 train to operate in the windy conditions, so capacity was reduced, but the queue still took only 35 minutes nonetheless, which I didn’t think was too bad, personally. But how was the ride? Well, I was seated in an outer seat on the very front row, and it was similar to previous rides; it was a bit rough in places, but overall not too bad, and the ride had a decent layout with good forces, good pacing and decent inversions:


After I got off Dragon Khan, my mum and dad had entered the park, so I met up with them in the square in China before we headed to an attraction we hadn’t yet done…
Templo del Fuego
Templo del Fuego was on an advertised 20 minute queue time and we hadn’t yet done it, so we decided to give it a go. I’ve often heard that this attraction doesn’t open very often, and I’ve also heard that it’s very good, so I was intrigued to try it out. The queue ultimately only took around 5 minutes, and we were inside the attraction promptly. So, how was it? Well, this style of actor-led attraction isn’t entirely my sort of thing, but I have to concede that it was rather entertaining! Even though I didn’t understand too much of the speech, as it was in Spanish, the actor did a good job of entertaining the crowds, the premise was quite clear even without knowing too much of the script, and the special effects were spectacular! There were also some surprises that I wasn’t expecting… overall, Templo del Fuego was quite an entertaining detour for a few minutes, and I’m glad I got to do it:

After Templo del Fuego, we started to gradually work our way around to Meditarranea, firstly stopping off at…
El Diablo
El Diablo was on an advertised 10 minute queue time, so I decided to take a ride on there. As advertised, the queue took 10 minutes; you can never complain about that! So, how was the ride? Well similarly to yesterday, it was a fun mine train coaster with some fun helixes and good bits of speed, and it also felt a bit smoother than yesterday:

After El Diablo, we decided to head over to Street Mission, which was advertising a 10 minute queue, for another ride after enjoying it yesterday. However, it unfortunately broke down while we were in the queue for it, so after 10 minutes or so with no action, we eventually bailed:


We then decided to head down to Meditarranea for lunch, after which my parents took the train from Meditarranea to Far West to leave the park. Being left to my own devices for a little longer, I initially decided to check out Hurakan Condor, as I hadn’t ridden it yet, I’m a fan of a good drop tower, and it was on a 30 minute advertised queue time. However, as with yesterday, it unfortunately was a pretty much static queue; I stuck it out for 10 minutes or so, but I left after it didn’t move. This proved a sound decision, as the advertised queue time had shot up to 1h 30m by the time I left:

I then decided to head to China and scope out Shambhala for a reride, but it was unfortunately closed for a weather delay (it was still pretty windy at this point). As Dragon Khan was still on 1 train at this point due to the weather and had an eye-watering 2.5 hour advertised queue time, I decided to veto a reride on that too. However, a favourite from earlier in the trip that I had yet to reride was on an unusually low queue, so I decided to head to…
Uncharted: El Enigma de Penitence
Uncharted was advertising a 40 minute queue time, so I decided to take a ride on there. This was the first occasion where I’d seen it on an advertised queue time of much below an hour, so as I’d found Uncharted an excellent coaster earlier in the week, I decided to take full advantage of this! The queue time was in fact overstated; the queue only took 30 minutes, and moved fairly decently. You can never complain about that! But how was the ride? Well, my thoughts were very similar to what they were on the first ride. The coaster hardware itself is excellent, with the launches, fun twists and turns and various tricks making for another excellent example of an Intamin family thrill coaster, but the on-ride theming leaves much to be desired for a ride of this style, with the ride largely taking place in a pitch black warehouse and the screen scenes being really rather poor in terms of theming. I find the on-ride theming (or lack of) on Uncharted baffling, as the queue is gorgeous and Street Mission across the park shows that PortAventura clearly has strong dark ride prowess and can make absolutely superb immersive attractions. Nevertheless, the coaster itself was still excellent and put a smile on my face, and as much as I can nitpick, that is the most important thing after all:

After getting off, I pondered another ride on Uncharted, but it was getting closer to 3:30pm and reriding Uncharted at the queue time it was at would have been cutting it a bit too fine to get back to the hotel for 3:30pm. I scoped out other attractions, but a lot of things either had a queue too long to get back in time for 3:30pm, would have taken too much walking from my current location in the park to get back in time or both. As such, I decided to call it a day there, bid PortAventura Park goodbye for the last time and head back to the hotel to meet my parents and get our transfer to the airport:


So, that wraps up my final day at PortAventura Park! Today was definitely a weaker day than others on the trip, but PortAventura can’t help the weather. It really was very windy; if we had been in Florida, it felt like a very “there’s a thunderstorm coming imminently” sort of wind, and seeing as I saw Alton Towers practically grind entirely to a halt in similar, if not weaker, wind back in March, I don’t think PortAventura dealt with the circumstances badly at all. We also never went into today under the pretence of it being a full park day; we always knew we had to be out before 3:30pm to catch our transfer, so we were pleased with anything we got, realistically. Given I was only in the park for around 4.5 hours, I’ve done far worse than 5 attractions in that sort of timeframe before!
 
That isn’t just the end of the day, but also the end of the trip. I’ll write a longer summary post when I’m back in the UK, but in short; I’ve had an absolutely fantastic trip! I loved PortAventura World, and it’s definitely right up there as one of the strongest theme park resorts I’ve visited in Europe for me!
 
Thanks for reading; I hope you’ve enjoyed this report, as well as the wider series of reports from the rest of the trip! I’ll post a longer review of PortAventura as a whole when I’m back in the UK, but trip reports-wise, I think that’s probably it from me for theme park trips this year. It’s been a terrific year, and PortAventura was an excellent way to end it!

9th September 2024: Travel
Hi guys. Today was an exciting day; the start of my big foreign theme park trip for the year. This year, that trip is my first ever trip to PortAventura World in Spain! This will be my first time ever experiencing the likes of Shambhala and Red Force, amongst other major rides, as well as experiencing a pretty major European theme park resort in the form of PortAventura World for the first time and seeing the delights it has to offer through a fresh set of eyes! It’s also my first time ever going to Spain despite doing a GCSE in Spanish… there are quite a lot of firsts this trip!
 
We set off early this morning, leaving our Gloucestershire home at a little before 7:30am. With us living in the South West of England, we flew from Bristol Airport, our nearest airport. Despite us not living very far from Bristol, it took us over an hour to get there; I can see why my dad jokingly calls Bristol Airport “Bedminster International”, because it’s miles out of Bristol… anyway, when we got there, check in and security were nice and prompt. Bristol Airport has a fancy new check in system where you don’t take anything out of your bag and it just checks the bag… other than me needing to take my shoes off and have them sent back round the carousel due to some sort of anomaly, it overall worked well and we got through quickly!:


When we got into the airport, we then headed for our flight. It was an EasyJet flight to Barcelona El Prat Airport, and it was excellent! The plane was very nice, and everything ran to schedule; it took a little under 2 hours, and we even landed a few minutes ahead of schedule! The time went quite quickly on there; we ate lunch, and I played some games on my iPad and also read How Westminster Works… And Why it Doesn’t, an excellent book by Ian Dunt that explains how every part of the English political system is apparently structured to work against meaningful scrutiny and change. It’s a fascinating read… political books might be a fascinating new genre for me to delve into! Anyway, that’s besides the point; the flight was good, and immigration was also relatively quick:



After we landed, we headed to find our shared transfer, booked through PortAventura. This was interesting… it was relatively easy to find and set up, but they like to send you walking for this! We landed in Terminal 2C, but the desk to arrange transfers was at the very end of the check in desks in Terminal 2B, which was a decent walk from where we landed, and then we had to walk even further to all the way past the taxis to catch our bus:

The bus itself was easy to catch and we got on it with relative ease, but when we were on it, the flaws of coach travel began to emerge; I’m not sure how long the drive from Barcelona El Prat to PortAventura would normally be, but it took us around 2h 45m to reach our hotel from leaving our pick up point, in large part due to us spending at least an hour going on a whistle stop tour of the many different hotels of Salou to drop different people off. As such, we reached PortAventura at around 5:30pm despite leaving the original pick up point at around 2:45pm. On the positive side, however, I must say that from having driven along the road, Spain is probably one of the more picturesque foreign countries I’ve been to; the mountainous landscape and clear blue sea is absolutely gorgeous! I also found it interesting how large parts of the road network seem to be encased in tunnels; it was almost like being back in the Brynglas Tunnels on the M4 near Newport back at home, except without nearly the same volume of queueing!
 
Anyhow, after our bus ride, we arrived at our accommodation for the trip; Hotel Gold River, one of the on-site hotels at PortAventura. I’ve often heard deeply mixed reviews of PortAventura, which gave me some degree of trepidation… but on first impressions, Hotel Gold River is absolutely stunning! It’s impeccably themed, with so many little details around the place, our Superior Callaghan Room is lovely, the place is pristine, it has a lovely ambience about it, and overall, the whole place is just wonderful! From a theming and ambience standpoint, it’s as nice as any theme park hotel I’ve ever been to, and that includes the ones at Europa Park; from the hotel, I’m getting a real Europa Park vibe, and given how excellent those hotels were and that park was, I think that’s encouraging:








(I apologise for the bombardment of photos… Gold River is such a photogenic hotel, and there was so much I wanted to photograph!)
 
After arriving and checking in, we initially went for a little stroll around the hotel complex to explore our surroundings (where many of the above photos were taken) and had a drink in one of the bars. My mum and dad were thrilled at the drink prices; 2 large Estrellas for them and a Diet Coke for me only cost €13.30, which seems very cheap!
 
Later on, we then went for our evening meal at the Grand Hall buffet. This was lovely; the food was really nice, and we all enjoyed it! Although it was nothing too fancy, the food was lovely, and I’m not a huge foodie, so that suits me fine. Another interesting thing that happened during our meal is that at one point, the waiting staff all suddenly erupted into a song and dance show to a song with the primary lyrics “Hola, hola!”, where they were dancing and clapping along to the music! I’ve never seen that in a restaurant before, and I thought it was quite a fun touch… the restaurant also erupted into a chorus of “cumpleaños feliz” a couple of times for people’s birthdays, where the waiting staff were going through the restaurant clapping with cake to tables where people had birthdays, but I’ve seen that in plenty of restaurants. I’m already getting the impression that PortAventura is quite a “showy” park where they like to do a song and dance, and I’m sensing that that “hola, hola” song could be a recurring theme during the break, as we also heard it from one of the shows in the saloon bar…
 
After our lovely meal at the buffet, we then got more drinks from the bar and sat outside in the central plaza area of Gold River. The hotel just has such a lovely ambience about it, and with the pleasant Spanish climate, being sat outside with drinks soaking up the night time ambience of Hotel Gold River was just lovely:


After that, we headed back to our room for the night, ready for our first day in PortAventura Park tomorrow.
 
So, that wraps up the first instalment of this series of reports from my first ever visit to PortAventura World in Spain! I have to say that based on my experience at the hotel tonight, it’s looking very promising for the park itself; Hotel Gold River is wonderful, and with its wonderfully detailed theming, nice food and lovely ambience, I could not say enough nice things about it! It’s made me very excited to set foot in PortAventura Park and see all of the delights it has to offer tomorrow; I can’t wait for Shambhala in particular, and I’m just excited to see what’s on offer at a new major European theme park!
 
Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed this report! I’m sorry that it’s a bit more of a boring one today, but tomorrow’s will be far more interesting, as we’re setting foot into PortAventura Park for the first time!

18th August 2024: Thorpe Park
Hi guys. Today was an exciting day; the day of my return to Thorpe Park to finally ride Hyperia! I was going to Thorpe today seeking sweet, sweet redemption… I’d already been unsuccessful on a previous attempt to ride Hyperia back in June, with me having to agonisingly watch it test before it reopened 2 days later… that tasted particularly bitter, and to rub salt in the wound, I then watched tons of other people, including my sister who isn’t overly into coasters, go on it and tell me how brilliant it was. Today, I was finally going to find out whether I agreed!
 
That was not the only exciting aspect of the day, however… the other exciting aspect is that after two successful visits to Alton Towers that he absolutely loved, my grandad decided to join me and my dad at Thorpe Park today! After he loved Alton Towers, me and dad thought that Thorpe Park would be the next logical step for him, and I was excited to show him the sights and sounds of the UK’s most thrilling theme park for the first time!
 
That’s enough of a prologue, though; let’s get into the meat of our day at Thorpe Park!
 
We left our home in Gloucestershire at around 7:40am this morning and after a relatively smooth drive barring some reduced speed limits and roadworks on the M4, we arrived at Thorpe Park 2 hours later, making good time for entry into the park a little after 10am following a brief wait for security:




On the subject of security, we actually had a rather interesting near miss with Thorpe Park security today…
 
As we were queueing for security, my dad was telling my grandad that he would need to take his watch and such off for the metal detector. Thinking that my grandad would be irritated by this, we were both taken by surprise when he said “I’m more worried about the f***ing knife in my pocket!”. Before anyone gets any ideas, I should clarify that this was a small penknife that my grandad uses for gardening and had simply forgotten to take out of his pocket, but it still gave my dad fear that Thorpe Park security staff would get the wrong idea if my grandad tried to go in with it, and he sternly directed my grandad to the sign clearly stating “No Knives”! It didn’t seem to cause any issues (we were relieved, but I’m not sure whether the lack of drama is a good thing or not in the grand scheme of things…), but me and my dad were nonetheless concerned about how this could have been received by the security staff… I think we were very lucky!
 
After thankfully entering the park drama-free, we pondered going to Hyperia first, but as it had by far the longest queue and we wanted to give my grandad a proper first timer’s taste of what Thorpe Park had to offer, we decided to go for a different big coaster first…
Colossus
While some signs said it was closed, Colossus was in fact open on a 0 minute advertised queue, so me and my grandad decided to give it a go (my dad sat this one out, as he’s too tall for the restraints). As promised, the ride was indeed walk-on, so me and grandad waltzed onto row 7 very promptly; you can never complain about that! But how was the ride? Well, I’m not the biggest fan of Colossus, but I have to say that today’s ride in row 7 was not bad at all as Colossus goes, and maybe in contention for being the best ride I’ve ever had on it! It was a bit rough in places, but nothing overly terrible by any stretch, and the first half was pretty decent! The tight restraints definitely take away from the ride, and I’m still not convinced I overly enjoy the numerous consecutive heartline rolls in the second half, but in the grand scheme of Colossus rides, I could not complain too much! My grandad was a big fan of the ride; he described Colossus as “right up there with Smiler as one of the most insane coasters [he’d] ever ridden” and remarked that it “was the first time [he’d] ever felt like [he] was going to fall out of the restraint”!:


After Colossus, we decided to head to another big coaster nearby…
Saw: The Ride
Saw was on an advertised 10 minute queue, so we decided to take a ride on there. This queue was marginally understated, taking more like 15-20 minutes, but it still wasn’t overly long. So, how was the ride? Well, we were seated on the front row, and I’m afraid to say that it wasn’t an overly good Saw ride; there were a number of notable jolts, including a particularly head-splitting one on the first drop, and there was a general strong roughness throughout. Unfortunately, I’m sad to say that my grandad did not enjoy this one, or at very least, it did not seem to agree with him; he came off it feeling “sick as a dog” and didn’t seem to enjoy the roughness and jerkiness of it. To be honest, I sadly think it was a bit of a day ruiner for him, as I’m not sure he ever completely recovered from it:



After Saw, we finally decided to give into temptation and ride the big new draw after seeing that its queue time had dropped…
Hyperia
Hyperia was on an advertised 65 minute queue time, and my dad didn’t think that it even looked that long, so we decided to give it a ride. Despite my dad’s thinking that it didn’t look 65, the queue time board was true to its word and we ended up waiting 65 minutes. Even still, I can’t complain too much about a 65 minute queue for a brand new ride in the summer holidays; I’ve waited far worse! So, how was Hyperia after all the anticipation? Well, I was seated in row 8, and it was a phenomenal ride, with obscene speed and very nice airtime and hangtime… but I wasn’t immediately certain on whether it was absolutely top tier. I’m going to remain shtum on Hyperia at this stage in the report, however, as previous experience with hyped-up, revered rides has taught me that 1 ride is not necessarily enough to reliably get the measure of a hyped ride’s true greatness. When I went to Florida last year, for example, both VelociCoaster and Iron Gwazi grew on me considerably after a second ride, so I wondered if the same would be true of Hyperia… let’s just say that the story does not end there! In terms of my dad and grandad’s thoughts, my dad said that it was “undeniably excellent, but not as good as VelociCoaster” (my dad’s favourite ride), remarking that “it was absolutely mental”, and that “the first drop was mental”, but that he was “unsure on [his] feelings on this getting airtime by pushing you out of your seat sideways lark”. I didn’t get much of an opinion from my grandad other than relief that it was smoother than Saw (although I did think I heard a distinct “f***ing hell” fall out of his mouth as we hit the brake run… interpret that however you wish!):


After Hyperia, we decided to sit down on a bench and calmly eat lunch for a bit before heading to our next big coaster…
The Swarm
The Swarm was on an advertised 35 minute queue, so we decided to take a ride. This queue time ended up being understated, as we ultimately ended up waiting around 50 minutes. On a side note, the operations seemed notably slower than usual on here, with 2+ minute dispatches and stacking being frequent. But how was the ride? Well, we were seated in row 3, and it was really decent! I do really like Swarm, and today was no exception; I love the sense of speed (particularly on the first drop as you start it’s a smooth ride, and I also think that there are some very nice inversions on there! The vest restraints are a minor detractor for me, but not a huge one; I overall thoroughly enjoyed my ride! My grandad seemed a bit non-plussed by the experience, describing it as “a bit uneventful”:



After The Swarm, we headed over to our next big coaster…
Nemesis Inferno
Nemesis Inferno was on an advertised 30 minute queue, so me and my dad decided to take a ride on there. By this point, my grandad had clearly had enough of the rides and decided to sit Nemesis Inferno out. The 35 minute queue was marginally overstated, instead taking 30 minutes, and we took our seats on the back row. So, how was the ride? Well, I thoroughly enjoyed today’s ride on Nemesis Inferno; it was smooth, was forceful without being excessively forceful, and packed some awesome inversions and a brilliant sense of speed throughout! I do really enjoy Nemesis Inferno, and I don’t think the Nemesis comparison does it any favours; it’s a cracking coaster in its own right! My dad said that the ride was “good”, but that “it definitely wasn’t as smooth as the new Nemesis at Alton Towers” for him (I disagreed with him on this, but to be fair, I was seated in a middle seat while dad was sat in an outer seat):


After Nemesis Inferno, we met back up with my grandad to head over to Stealth and see whether he’d ride it, but it pretty much closed the second we got there. As my grandad wasn’t even sure if he wanted to ride it anyway and seemed like he’d had enough, we decided to leave the ride be for today. I would have liked to get a ride on there, as I do love Stealth, but I wasn’t too distraught not to seeing as I had 4 rides on my June visit; I can’t exactly say I haven’t already had a decent fill of Stealth this year:


After we abandoned Stealth, my grandad had no intentions of riding anything else and we’d covered all of the other big coasters, so my dad let me loose to go and reride Hyperia using the single rider queue. I had not one, but two additional rides on Hyperia using this, and both gave me a notable advantage over the main queue. The first ride saw me dodge a 65 minute advertised queue and only wait 35 minutes, while the second ride saw me dodge a 90 minute advertised queue and only wait 30 minutes. I can never complain about that! By complete fluke, I also got assigned to the back row on both rides, so I managed to take two rides in the back right seat, which is supposedly “the best seat on the ride” according to one of the designers!:


Now, I think it’s about time I talked in a little more detail about Hyperia than I did earlier. The million dollar question is; did Hyperia repeat the phenomenon of VelociCoaster and Iron Gwazi, where “the second ride was the charm”, so to speak? Well, the answer is yes! Oh my god, yes! I loved Hyperia the first time and thought it was phenomenal, but it was the rerides that made me see the height of its true greatness and declare with certainty that for me, this is definitely a top tier ride! Where to begin with it… in terms of some key highlights:
That first drop is absolutely unhinged, and so, so good! I love a big first drop, and this is a sublime one; the ejector airtime is absolutely absurd (you get absolutely ripped out of the seat!), the 180 degree twist adds an intriguing additional sensation, and the sense of speed you are hit with at the bottom is nuts! Hyperia definitely sits alongside Mako and Iron Gwazi as having one of my favourite first drops I’ve ever done! That outerbanked turn into the inversion is insane. I’ve never experienced an element quite like it; while I’m not necessarily convinced that sideways airtime beats good old straight airtime for me, the sustained sideways ejector was absolutely absurd! The Immelmann is just wonderful! The speed you get going up into it is brilliant, and you get an absolutely sublime pop of sustained ejector airtime coming out of it! This was a definite highlight of the ride for me! This is a fast ride, and you can definitely feel it! The sense of speed is absolutely absurd; Hyperia reminds you just how fast 81mph is! I’ll do a longer and more detailed review later in the relevant thread that has a couple of critiques as well, but overall, Hyperia is just absolutely sublime, in my view! It’s a stunning investment for Thorpe Park and the UK theme park industry, and it certainly lived up to the years of hype for me! In terms of comparisons and specific ranking spots; I’ve thought it over following my 3 rides, and I will say the following:
It is easily my favourite ride at Thorpe Park It is easily my favourite UK coaster In terms of overall rankings out of the 123 coasters I’ve ridden, I have conservatively opted for the #5 spot, with the ride currently being beaten only by Mako, VelociCoaster, Silver Star and Iron Gwazi in my rankings. It’s definitely a top 5 worthy candidate, folks! Overall, then; I absolutely loved Hyperia, and it definitely lived up to the hype for me!
 
To return to our Thorpe Park day; by the time I’d had 2 Hyperia rides, it was around 3:45pm. My grandad was clearly flagging and had had enough and my dad seemed like he didn’t to wait around any longer, so we left the park for the day.
 
So, that brings my day at Thorpe Park today to a close! Overall, then, I had a great day; I was thrilled to finally get on Hyperia for the first time, and it did not disappoint! That was my main aim for the day, and with 3 rides on it, I comfortably accomplished this aim! I also enjoyed getting on some of Thorpe’s other great rides; these always put me in a good mood, and while Hyperia is now the crown jewel, some of Thorpe’s other coasters are no slouches either! Thorpe has always had an excellent coaster selection for me, and Hyperia has just taken it to the next level!
 
I was disheartened, however, by the fact that my grandad didn’t seem to have an especially enjoyable day, and didn’t warm to Thorpe Park like he did to Alton Towers. I think I may have made a mortal error by directing us to Saw so early on in the day, as it was that ride that seemed to put him off for the rest of the day. He absolutely loved our first ride on Colossus, and declared that one of his favourites! Me and my dad also had a theory that his sickness feeling may not have been helped by the fact that he decided to forego wearing his glasses for the whole day instead of taking them on and off all day, so he was walking around the park with blurred vision all day. Nonetheless, he just didn’t warm to Thorpe Park at all. He apparently said to my dad that “it seems busy compared to Alton Towers… and I don’t like busy”, and whatever the reason, he just seemed to go off the park and the rides quickly and not warm to them at all. I was sad that he didn’t like it, but he’s never going to like everything and I’m glad that he came and tried it out. I don’t sense he’ll be in a rush to return to Thorpe with us, however!
 
But overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the day and was glad to both accomplish my aim of getting on Hyperia and hear my grandad’s first time thoughts on Thorpe Park!
 
Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed this report! My next trip report will be coming on 5th September, when I visit Drayton Manor to take my first ever ride on Gold Rush and ride the last of the new for 2024 UK coasters! I can’t wait to try that ride out!

11th August 2024: Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach/Joyland Children’s Fun Park
Hi guys. Today was an exciting day; today, me, my mum and my dad set off for our trip to East Anglia! I’ve never been to any of the parks in the region, and to be honest, me and my mum had never actually visited East Anglia full stop (unless Watford and Stansted Airport count, being part of what the ONS technically considers “the East of England”…). My dad had been to Great Yarmouth once back in the 1980s, when he still lived in Kent, but even for him, the area was relatively new. I was interested to get to some of the more major UK parks I hadn’t been to, and possibly the most significant place in the UK for theme parks I hadn’t been to, and I was excited to see what some of East Anglia’s finest parks had to offer!
 
We weren’t originally sure if we were going to visit a park today, as our original plan was to saunter steadily down to the area, see how the drive went, and maybe do Joyland, the smaller of the two Great Yarmouth parks, if the drive wasn’t too bad. However, we changed tack at the last minute and decided to try and tackle both of the parks in Great Yarmouth today, as my mum and dad were daunted by the thought of the long drive home and felt that we may not necessarily be keen to do anything on Tuesday with the drive ahead of us afterwards.
 
With this in mind, we set off early from our home in Gloucestershire, leaving at around 8am, and after a perfectly clean run (it was an absolutely idyllic drive in terms of traffic, and surprisingly, no one needed to stop for the toilet either!), we arrived in Great Yarmouth 4.5 hours later, at around 12:30pm, and parked up. After a brief stroll down the seafront from the car park, we headed to our first theme park of the day; Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach:


After getting our Fun Cards and heading in, we decided to go to the park’s principal draw first…
Roller Coaster
Roller Coaster was the principal draw of Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach for us and had a relatively short-looking queue, so we decided to give it a go. Even with a one-train service, the queue only took around 15 minutes; I can’t really complain about that! On a side note, I have to say that I found the boarding and sending process on Roller Coaster interesting; I’ve never seen a coaster pushed out of the station before, and they didn’t even need to check our lap bars! But how was the ride? Well, it was my first brakeman-operated coaster, so I was interested to see how it rode. I was seated in the very back row, and I have to say, I found it rather enjoyable! Yes, it’s nothing particularly mind-blowing on the world stage or by modern standards, but it’s a decades-old heritage woodie. For what it is, I thought it was a really pleasant, fun coaster! It’s definitely not a particularly intense ride and does peter out a bit in places, but it was smooth for a woodie of its age, it was a really long ride, it had some surprising airtime in places (which was accentuated by the loose lap bar design), and on the whole, I just found it a very pleasant and charming coaster! I felt that the whole thing just had a certain charm about it that made me smile and made the ride a very pleasant ride to just exist on, and sit back and enjoy the sensations of a wooden roller coaster on, if you get my drift. Overall, then, I thought the Roller Coaster was a really nice, enjoyable coaster, and I certainly found my lap on there pleasant:


After our ride on Roller Coaster, me and my mum went to ride the next coaster the park had to offer…
Family Star
Family Star was on a short queue, so me and my mum decided to take a ride. I very much know the drill with these spinning wild mouse coasters, and I’m not a fan of them at all having ridden 7 of the ubiquitous Reverchon models, but I was mildly interested to try Family Star, as I’ve never done one of the Fabbri models before and I was interested to see how it compared. So, how was the ride? Well, I’m afraid to say that I possibly found Family Star worse than its Reverchon siblings, which is quite impressive! It span from the get go rather than being unlocked halfway through, which I found interesting, but I found it more uncomfortable than the Reverchons for two reasons. Firstly, there was a really awkward seat divider that I kept getting smacked against around the corners, and secondly, it had some of the most awful sharp braking I’ve ever encountered, rivalling the now defunct Sand Serpent at Busch Gardens Tampa! To give credit where credit is due, however, I thought the operations were really decent on here for a park of this calibre. They had 5 cars on, and they were getting them sent out in not much over 30 seconds, which I think is pretty good for a park of Great Yarmouth’s calibre! In terms of the ride, though, I’m afraid to say that I wasn’t a fan at all. My mum wasn’t either; she turned to me during the ride and said “Matthew, how on Earth do you find this even vaguely enjoyable?”:

After Family Star, me and my dad decided to go for a dark ride detour…
Haunted Hotel
Haunted Hotel had a nigh-on non-existent queue, so me and my dad decided to give it a go. After two coasters, we thought it might be fun to try something different, and I’d heard good things about Haunted Hotel. But how was the ride? Well, I thought it was reasonably decent for a seaside ghost train in a park of this calibre! It wasn’t particularly scary in terms of jumpscares, but I didn’t mind that, not being a huge fan of horror, and I thought that some of the sets and effects were quite decent for one of these seaside ghost trains! Overall, then, I thought Haunted Hotel was quite an enjoyable ghost train:

After Haunted Hotel, we met back up with my mum and found a shady corner to eat our packed lunch in before I headed off to go and try a flat ride…
Sky Drop
I am a fan of a good drop tower, so I decided to give Sky Drop a spin. The queue was walk-on, and I waltzed straight into my seat on there; you can never complain about a walk-on ride! But how was the ride? Well, it didn’t exactly give Venom, Detonator or the late Apocalypse a run for their money in terms of UK drop towers, but for more of a family thrill drop tower, I thought Sky Drop was great fun! It packed reasonable force in its drops and launches, and it also had a really long cycle, and offered great views across Great Yarmouth! As a drop tower fan, I definitely came off it with a smile on my face, and for a more family thrill drop tower, I thought it absolutely hit the nail on the head! It had really good forces and a long cycle, and was just great fun for a family drop tower; I’d definitely take it over the SBF models like Croc Drop and Magma, personally:

After Sky Drop, I decided to head to another coaster that was on a walk-on queue…
Whirlwind
I was sceptical about whether Whirlwind would be too much of a kiddie coaster for my liking, as I don’t generally ride kiddie coasters, but it didn’t look too bad in person. It was also walk-on and had no one in line, so I thought I may as well give it a whirl! So, how was it? Well, I’ve surprisingly never done one of these figure-8 SBF spinning coasters before, despite how common they are, and I thought it was it was, really. It wasn’t anything spectacular, but I didn’t find it particularly offensive either; it was just a profoundly average small coaster that didn’t have any significant detractors, but didn’t have a huge amount going for it either. On a side note, though, they give you a really long cycle on this; my mum counted that I got 6 laps on this coaster, which is obscene:

After Whirlwind, I met back up with my parents, and me and my mum went to do something that I never thought I’d do…
Big Apple Coaster
Prior to our arrival at Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach, I did not think I would do this coaster. As I explained above, I don’t generally do kiddie coasters. However, my mother kindly offered to do it with me, and perhaps surprisingly, I dare say she possibly encouraged me to do it; when I said that I’d ruled this coaster out as it was a kiddie coaster, my mum’s words were “Who the f*** cares if you want to ride a kiddie coaster? I’ll go on it with you… besides, the website describes it as “family” and not “kiddie”!”. The ride was also walk-on, with space left on the train, so I thought “oh, what the hell!” and decided to finally lose my wacky worm virginity! I long thought that this day would never come, and I told myself for years that it would never come after an embarrassing experience on Octonauts at Alton Towers put me off doing kiddie coasters, but I must admit that being sat in that caterpillar train and rattling through that fibreglass apple for the first time, 117 coasters into the hobby, did feel like somewhat of a (marginally tragic) watershed moment! Anyway, that’s besides the point; how was my first ever wacky worm? Well, I thought it was perfectly OK, as kiddie coasters go! Similarly to Whirlwind above, it was nothing spectacular, but nothing particularly offensive either; it was profoundly average for a kiddie coaster. The trains were extremely tight, however; I, despite not exactly being astoundingly tall at 5’10”, felt very crammed in, and even my mother at only 5’3” had to sit sideways to get her legs behind the seat… you can definitely tell it’s designed for children, let’s put it that way! On a side note, I did find this particular wacky worm to have some fun historical value, as it used to reside at Alton Towers, a park very near and dear to me; mum and dad both looked at it and instantly said that they remembered it from Alton!:


After riding Big Apple, we met back up with my dad and decided to leave Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach at that point and take a walk down the seafront of Great Yarmouth. We had only been in the park for around 1.5 hours, but we felt quite satisfied with what we’d done in that time and didn’t feel like we needed any longer in the park:



After around 20 minutes, our little stroll along the seafront eventually took us to our second park of the day; Joyland Children’s Fun Park. I was interested to try some of the unique rides on offer here, such as Tyrolean Tubtwist and the iconic Snails:

We entered Joyland and got some tokens, and unlike in Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach, my parents had no intention of riding anything in Joyland, so I went on everything in there entirely alone (this tidbit of information may be relevant later…). After getting my tokens, I decided to head to the ride that was nearest to the token machine, and the one that’s known as the park’s real icon…
Snails
The Snails were on a short queue and were near to the token machine, so I decided I might as well give them a go first. I was interested to try the Snails, as it’s the park’s main iconic attraction, it’s really unique, and I was told that I had to give them a go if I went to Great Yarmouth. So, how did I find the Snails? Well, I have to say that I thought they were really quite cute and charming; the little dips were good fun, and the whole thing just oozed vintage charm! However, I must admit that I found the experience quite embarrassing. I felt like a bit of an idiot riding the snail on my own as I went past the path and people were looking at me, and being sat there while the ride host personally took my picture with a camera at the end did not help matters… that’s my problem, though, and if looking purely at my own personal enjoyment of the Snails, I thought it was a really cute and charming attraction, and I was really glad to take a spin on this Joyland icon:

After the Snails, I decided to head to my first coaster at Joyland…
Spook Express
Spook Express was on a short queue, so I decided to give it a go. Similarly to on the Snails, I felt excruciatingly awkward while the ride host stood there with a camera and told me to “do a big smile!” while they personally took my picture, and it did not help matters that I was the only adult on a train full of small children… if you’ve ever seen Elf, I felt a bit like Will Ferrell in that scene where he’s awkwardly sat in a classroom with all the tiny elves! Putting that aside, however, how was the ride? Well, I thought it was quite decent for a kiddie coaster! It was smooth, the helixes were surprisingly fast, the darkness added a fun element, and all in all, I thought it was quite an enjoyable kiddie coaster as kiddie coasters go, and probably a level above either of the two small coasters I did over at Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach:

After Spook Express, I decided to tick off my final ride in Joyland…
Tyrolean Tubtwist
Tyrolean Tubtwist was on a walk-on queue, so I decided to take a ride on it. I was quite excited to give Tyrolean Tubtwist a go; it’s such a unique coaster, being the only Virginia Reel coaster left in the world, and I’ve often heard it recommended as a charming hidden gem. But how did I find the ride? Well, I’ll start with a positive spin; it’s certainly different. It’s extremely unique, quite unlike anything else I’ve ever ridden and I’m glad I managed to do this piece of history once. I’m delaying talking about the ride itself, because I don’t want to hurt the feelings of the many people who love it, think it’s a hidden gem and have nostalgia for it… but if I’m being honest, uniqueness is where the positives end for me, because I’m so sorry to say that I absolutely hated this coaster. I thought it was absolutely vile, and it’s right down there as one of my least favourite coasters I’ve ever ridden. In fact, I think it may honestly be my least favourite coaster, usurping the likes of Infusion and Hero. I appreciate that that’s a very controversial opinion, and certainly not one I expected to hold, but I’d genuinely struggle to think of a coaster I enjoyed less, so hear me out for a second. For starters, the ride is pretty rough around the corners, but that’s not the main thing that did it for me. It was a definite detractor, but I could have put up with that to some extent; the roughness in isolation was not what made me hate it so much. The main thing that did it for me was that it was so, so spinny; far, far too spinny for my personal liking. I do not have a terribly high tolerance for spinning (I can take a bit, but not loads), and Tyrolean Tubtwist is by far the most sickeningly spinny coaster I have ever ridden, usurping any of the spinning wild mice I’ve ridden by a good margin. When I got off, my head was spinning like mad and I genuinely couldn’t walk in a straight line, and my mum almost had to marshal me down the exit stairs so I didn’t fall down them. I felt really quite sick for quite a bit afterwards, and that ride was right up there along with Air Race at Drayton Manor as being one of the only rides where I’ve ever felt like I might be physically sick upon getting off. I know I probably sound like a right baby, I’m sorry if I sound dramatic, and I’m sorry if I seem disrespectful of this piece of history that a lot of people love, but I will always be honest about these things, and as disappointed as I was about it, no coaster has ever made me feel as vile as Tyrolean Tubtwist did, when you combine the sickening degree of spinning with the fact that the ride was also quite rough. I did, however, wonder if me riding alone made some difference to the level of spin; I know weighting does often make a difference on these spinning coasters.
(I realise I did not take a photo of Tyrolean Tubtwist… sorry about that!)
 
After my ride on Tyrolean Tubtwist, I needed a minute to recover and my parents thought I looked I did, so we took a sedate, steady stroll back to the car, having completed all the parks I was hoping to do. After I’d recovered a little, we did get an ice cream along our journey; I had a salted caramel ice cream, and it was delicious! Eventually, we got back to the car and bade Great Yarmouth goodbye, heading to our hotel 10 minutes down the road in Lowestoft. We may have finished with both parks in less than 3 hours, including the walks, but I felt satisfied with my afternoon in Great Yarmouth:

So, that just about wraps up my day in Great Yarmouth visiting Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach and Joyland Children’s Fun Park for the first time! I had a really enjoyable day overall; I always enjoy going to new parks and getting some new credits, and it was really interesting to see the parks of Great Yarmouth for the first time! In terms of a key highlight; my favourite ride of the day was definitely the Roller Coaster. I thought it was a really pleasant, fun coaster, and I enjoyed getting on my first ever brakeman-operated coaster!
 
In terms of the individual parks; I had a fun time and enjoyed visiting them. I think both do really well for that they are and hit their target audience nicely. However, I thought Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach, aside from the Roller Coaster, felt more like Brean Theme Park than Blackpool Pleasure Beach in terms of vibe; there is some fun stuff there, but most of it is quite generic travelling rides that I could find in any small UK park or funfair, including parks far more local to me like Brean and Barry Island. It was good fun, I enjoyed my time there, and I think they do a good job at the park for what it is, but given I live 250 miles, and a 4.5 hour drive on a very good run, away, I think it lacks sufficient draws for me to want to specifically revisit in the absence of new major investment. I’m sorry if this makes me sound finicky, but given how far from Great Yarmouth I live, I felt it was a point I should raise.
 
Joyland down the promenade oozes charm, packs an impressive amount into the small space it has to work with, and has some really unique attractions. It’s a very cute park, and I’m glad I went to try these attractions out! However, I’ll be honest and say that riding these made me remember why I don’t normally do kiddie coasters, as I did feel a bit embarrassed. That’s entirely my problem, though, and I think the park works really well for a seaside children’s park in Great Yarmouth; it’s very charming!
 
With all that being said, I did enjoy my first ever trip to the parks of Great Yarmouth. I’m glad I came, I was satisfied with the day and there is some fun stuff here. I apologise for ending the report on such a picky and likely snobby-sounding note; I didn’t mean to make it sound as though I didn’t enjoy my day, as I did really enjoy my day and I enjoyed experiencing the parks for the first time!
 
Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed this report! Look out for another report tomorrow, when I make my first ever trip to Pleasurewood Hills in Lowestoft! It’ll be an interesting day; I’m excited to ride things like Cannonball Express and Jolly Roger, and I’ll also be interested to lose my virginity on another common coaster type in the good old Vekoma Boomerang, with Wipeout being my first ever ride on this ubiquitous coaster model!

You know those 'memory' notifications you get on your iPhone now and then, where it features a load of photos from a past trip?
One of those popped up for me recently from an old meet up we had on another site, which sent me on a bit of a nostalgic frenzy.
 
Since that happened, I've spent a bit too much time these last few weeks looking back through old photos and videos, and it's prompted me to reach out to some old 'theme park friends' who I haven't spoken to for a while. To be honest it's been absolutely bloody fab.
 
But it's got me thinking... Being a theme park enthusiast just isn't what it used to be.  I'm wondering if others feel this way too?
 
Of course I dearly miss the days in my teens where I'd regularly meet my friends at the parks, but equally I am finding myself really missing all the fan forums that there used to be, and how busy they were every evening.  The forums used to be buzzing with excitement and discussion about our weird shared favourite topic!  And that was just it, it was a discussion, often about the unknown.  It was rare that we actually knew what was going to be happening at the parks, so speculation and rumour really did drive the discussion and keep everyone interested!
 
Aside from the big forums and fan sites, there were also countless smaller sites, run by people who loved the parks just as much and just wanted to share their hobby and interest.
 
It didn't stop at the forums either - YouTube was awash with videos from enthusiasts everywhere, not just the big names, who now seem to have unlimited access to everything. I remember sat at my laptop in my room at my parents house, most nights I'd check my usual sites and channels for any updates I could find!  It was exciting - had someone managed to get a blurry photo from underneath a fence, or even better get a 20 second video clip of a scare maze entrance, or a trench being dug somewhere?  Or the rare holy grail, someone had found some plans on a planning portal somewhere! 😮
 
I absolutely loved the mystery and excitement surrounding everything - "what could be under those tarps?", "Did anyone see that crane today?", "There's a new poster for Fright Nights!"...
If you wanted to know what happened inside the Asylum, you would need to physically go into the Asylum and find out for yourself! There were no HD POV videos from press night, no behind the scenes videos, and no real construction updates to speak of. All you had to go on was the reviews and discussion from others who had been through before.
God... it was brilliant wasn't it?
 
There's no denying, however, that things are better now.  We got what we wanted.  We now have more access to information than ever before, with the parks being very open about what they're doing, and the YouTubers and Influencers of today being very detailed in what they show.  It really is good that we have access to all this stuff - but I have to admit I do miss the days when the 'news' came from everyone - whoever happened to be at the parks (or peeping over the fences) that day, with their blackberry camera out and ready to snap a picture or two!
 
I think the age of the influencer and all of this free and open information has nearly killed off the forums, and the way that theme park enthusiasm used to be.
It seems that now, the 'star enthusiasts' who run the major YouTube channels and social media pages, are in some ways an extension of the park's own marketing team, with some influencers quite literally being employed by the parks, even creatively responsoble for some of the attractions...
 
It would also appear that, although I have nothing against any influencers out there, that the enthusiast game has in some ways become about building up an audience and even making a living from it - it's not as much a 'hobby' as it used to be it seems?
 
Taking a wonky photo of the Curse arriving on the rain soaked beach, or Saw the Ride's brand new supports going in to the newly reclaimed land, and getting home to plug in your cable to transfer the image to your laptop to post it on the forums was never about seeing how many likes you could get - it was about sharing the joy with like-minded people from across the country, or it was in my case at least, then having a good chat about it.
 
Social media has killed off the forums really hasn't it, all those little hidden communities where friendships were made and interests were shared!
There's no denying that social media is better, and information is more readily available, but are we better off as enthusiasts?  I'm not convinced we are.

Disclaimer: This is a long, geeky post. If you don't like statistics or maths talk, turn back now! If you'd like a more concise summary, a TL;DR can be found at the bottom.
Hi guys. When you go to a park, you will often see advertised queue times all over the place to help you determine how long the ride queues are. But sometimes, you might find that these do not necessarily tell the truth. At times, you might get in a queue with a reasonable advertised time and wait far longer than expected, and at other times, you might get in a queue with a long advertised time and wait far less than expected. With this in mind, you might be wondering; how accurate actually are these advertised queue times? Can they be relied upon? Or are they largely hokum?
 
Well, dear reader, that is the question I'm aiming to answer today. Through the power of statistics, I am going to work out; how accurate are advertised queue times? 
 
Let's firstly start with the methodology of my statistical analysis...
Methodology
You might be wondering "Matt, how on Earth are you going to get hold of advertised and actual queue time data to conduct this analysis?". Well, the answer to that is that I had an idea... for years, I've been writing trip reports from various theme parks, and within these, I often make reference to the advertised queue time and how it compared to the actual queue time. And I was thinking that I could use my anecdotes from some of these trip reports as samples for the analysis. Yes, there's finally a day where my comparisons of advertised and actual queue times come in handy!
 
My method entailed reading my various trip reports from the UK Merlin parks from over the years and looking for anecdotes referring to the advertised queue time in comparison to the actual queue time of a ride. I chose the UK Merlin parks because these are where I have by far the most data from, and they are also likely to share similar technology, processes and the like for determining advertised queue times, which removes any uncertainty from working with companies with differing processes.
 
I should note that I did not count every time I went on a ride. I only counted rides where there was one of:
An explicit comparison between advertised queue time and actual queue time given. A comparison between advertised queue time and actual queue time that heavily hinted towards the actual queue time given. For instance, words like "walk-on" or "I waltzed straight onto the train" would infer a 0 minute actual queue time, and words like "the queue time board stayed true to its word" would infer no discrepancy between the advertised and actual queue times. There were rides I did not count, as I felt that they would not be representative of the actual main queue. These are:
Any time where I talk about using a Single Rider Queue or otherwise benefitting considerably from single rider status (such as being called to walk past a long queue to fill an empty seat). Any time where I talk about using Fastrack or similar. Any time where I talk about waiting longer for a specific experience, such as the front row. Through these rules, I was able to gather:
15 days and 75 rides of data from Alton Towers, dating back as far as 23rd June 2019 9 days and 48 rides of data from Thorpe Park, dating back as far as 6th May 2018. 3 days and 9 rides of data from Legoland Windsor, dating back as far as 31st August 2017. 1 day and 3 rides of data from Chessington, from 17th September 2023. I should also give a few caveats. These are:
This is my data and mine only. There are multiple reasons why that means that it may not be a fully representative sample. For example, Chessington and Legoland are under-represented, whereas Alton Towers and Thorpe Park are over-represented. The actual level of understatement may be higher than what this analysis suggests, as this only factors in queues I have personally waited in. If a queue looks vastly understated at first glance, there's a good chance I won't join it. Where I provided a range of time for the actual queue length, I went with the upper bound. For example, if I described a queue as taking 20-25 minutes, I logged the actual queue time as 25 minutes. I should strongly emphasise that this is not a massively exact science. The measurement of actual queue time was me looking at my watch throughout the queue, and for a variety of reasons, the movement of a queue can be affected in ways that the advertised time can't account for. With this out of the way, let's move onto the actual meat of the analysis...
 
For each part of the analysis, I'll look at an individual park, as well as all 4 Merlin parks amalgamated together. For the individual park, I picked Alton Towers, as this is the park for which I have the most data.
 
Let's start with a simple correlation analysis to determine the strength of the relationship between advertised queue time and actual queue time...
Correlation
For those not aware, the correlation between two variables determines whether or not they are inter-related. The magnitude of a correlation lies between 0 and 1, with 0 indicating no correlation and 1 indicating a perfect strong correlation, and a correlation can also be positive or negative. A positive correlation means that as the value of one variable rises, the value of the other rises in unison, while a negative correlation means that as the value of one variable rises, the value of the other falls.
 
Now that I've explained a bit about correlation, let's have a look at what the data says about the correlation between advertised queue time and actual queue time! I'll consider two different correlation coefficients, Pearson and Spearman. Pearson's correlation coefficient assumes a linear relationship between two variables, whereas Spearman's correlation coefficient does not.
 
If we look at Alton Towers on an individual level, the scatter graph of advertised queue time and actual queue time looks something like this:

And the correlation figures are as follows:
Correlation Type Correlation Coefficient (2dp) Correlation Classification Pearson 0.67 Moderate Positive Correlation Spearman 0.74 Moderate Positive Correlation  
Whereas if we look at the UK Merlin parks overall, the scatter graph of advertised queue times versus actual queue times is as follows:

And the correlation figures are as follows:
Correlation Type Correlation Coefficient (2dp) Correlation Classification Pearson 0.65 Moderate Positive Correlation Spearman 0.70 Moderate Positive Correlation  
So if we look at correlation, I think we can conclude that there is a relationship between advertised queue time and actual queue time. Based on correlation alone, we can infer that on a general level, there is a moderate-to-strong correlation between advertised and actual queue time, so if the advertised queue time increases, you can generally expect actual queue time to increase along with it. However, the correlation is far from a perfect positive correlation, so this will not be the case in every scenario. In fact, the fact that the positive correlation does not even quite breach the threshold of "strong" (which I was told was 0.75) would suggest that this is not always the case by a long shot, and the relationship is far from perfectly proportional.
 
So in general, the correlation analysis would suggest that the advertised queue times are trustworthy to a broad extent to get a gauge of the broader picture, but perhaps with a notable margin of error for exact figures.
 
Let's now look at the average discrepancy...
Discrepancy (Vector)
Let's now look at the average discrepancy as a vector quantity. Vector quantities have both magnitude and direction, so this form of discrepancy will consider whether the queue is overstated or understated as well as its actual magnitude. Where the queue is overstated, the discrepancy is negative, whereas the discrepancy is positive where the queue is understated.
 
If we firstly look at Alton Towers on an individual level, here are the boxplots showing the ranges of raw and proportional discrepancies respectively. It's important to consider proportional discrepancy because if an advertised queue time is longer, there's bound to be a larger discrepancy in general:


And the raw and proportional discrepancy stats, as well as average queue time, are as follows. Both mean and median values are provided, as each metric has flaws in isolation and I felt that showing both offered maximum transparency:
  Average Advertised Queue Time (minutes, 1dp) Average Raw Discrepancy (minutes, 1dp) Average Proportional Discrepancy (1dp) Adjusted Average Proportional Discrepancy (1dp) Mean (Calculated Average) 28.3 2.2 8.8% 7.8% Median (Middle Value) 25 0 0% 0%  
I should clarify that Average Proportional Discrepancy is the average of the proportional discrepancies listed alongside each anecdote, which excludes those where the advertised queue time was 0 minutes and the actual queue time was a different number (you cannot divide a non-zero number by 0, so a percentage proportion cannot be provided). Adjusted Average Proportional Discrepancy is a simpler calculation of Average Raw Discrepancy as a share of Average Advertised Queue Time on an overall basis, which (sort of) takes these into account.
 
If we now look at the UK Merlin parks overall, here are the boxplots showing the ranges of raw and proportional discrepancy respectively:


 
And the raw and proportional discrepancy stats, as well as average advertised queue time, are as follows:
  Average Advertised Queue Time (minutes, 1dp) Average Raw Discrepancy (minutes, 1dp) Average Proportional Discrepancy (1dp) Adjusted Average Proportional Discrepancy (1dp) Mean (Calculated Average) 26.1 1.3 13.7% 5.1% Median (Middle Value) 25 0 0% 0%  
So looking at this, Alton Towers and UK Merlin queue times are understated by up to 1-2 minutes on average.
 
If we look at the median, that would imply that there's no discrepancy between advertised and actual queue time at all on average, and even the higher mean values infer that there are average discrepancies of less than 10% in some cases. At face value, these stats would give reason to believe that Merlin's advertised queue times are very accurate overall, with an average error of only 1-2 minutes and less than 10%.
 
However, you should note my use of the term "at face value"... because that's not the full picture. You might remember that earlier, I said about how the discrepancy being shown here is a vector quantity, meaning that it has both magnitude and direction. That means that understated queues have a positive discrepancy value and overstated queues have a negative discrepancy value, so the two balance each other out. So while you'd think that the low average discrepancies shown here mean that the queue times are very accurate... the use of vector discrepancies here mean that all this really shows is that understating and overstating balance each other out quite nicely, meaning that you can't really rely on Merlin parks to understate or overstate their queues. They both understate and overstate to broadly equal extents.
 
To get the true picture of how accurate these queue times really are, we need to convert the discrepancy values into a scalar quantity and look at the absolute values of discrepancy...
Absolute Discrepancy
To get the true gist of how accurate these queue times really are, let's now look at the absolute discrepancy values. Absolute means that only the magnitude of discrepancy is considered, and that the discrepancy values are scalar quantities rather than vector quantities.
 
If we firstly look at Alton Towers on an individual level, the boxplots showing the range of raw and proportional absolute discrepancy values are as follows:


And the raw and proportional absolute discrepancy stats, as well as average queue time, are as follows:
  Average Advertised Queue Time (minutes, 1dp) Average Raw Absolute Discrepancy (minutes, 1dp) Average Proportional Absolute Discrepancy (1dp) Adjusted Average Proportional Absolute Discrepancy (1dp) Mean (Calculated Average) 28.3 14.1 39.3% 49.6% Median (Middle Value) 25 10 27.5% 40%  
If we look at the UK Merlin parks overall, the boxplots showing the ranges of raw and proportional absolute discrepancy are as follows:


And the raw and proportional absolute discrepancy stats, as well as average queue time, are as follows:
  Average Advertised Queue Time (minutes, 1dp) Average Raw Absolute Discrepancy (minutes, 1dp) Average Proportional Absolute Discrepancy (1dp) Adjusted Average Proportional Absolute Discrepancy (1dp) Mean 26.1 13.5 58.7% 51.6% Median 25 5 33.3% 20%  
So looking at these stats, UK Merlin queue times are wrong by 5-15 minutes on average, and broadly, the average proportional absolute discrepancy ranges between 20% and almost 60%.
 
This would imply that the advertised queue times are not phenomenally accurate, and may not be 100% correct in terms of the exact figure on average. However, it would suggest that they are still quite good at a more general level to get a general gauge of how long a queue might be. If a queue is advertised at 100 minutes, it's unlikely to be walk-on, and vice versa. These figures suggest that the advertised queue times can generally be used as a broad gauge of the length of the queue, but should not be taken as gospel and the exact figures should be taken with some degree of caution.
 
Let's now look at some final conclusions...
Conclusion
So in conclusion, how accurate are these advertised queue times? Well, I think these results show that they're overall reasonable as a gauge of the broad ballpark the queue time is likely to fall into, but have somewhat weaker accuracy at determining exact queue times.
 
In terms of the correlation analysis, the advertised queue time and the actual queue time have a reasonable correlation, but not a perfect one. The two are moderately positively correlated, with a correlation coefficient of around 0.6-0.7, which would suggest that the two variables are broadly related and do increase in unison with one another in general, but this is far from a perfectly proportional increase and is not a perfect rule by any means.
 
On average, the vector discrepancy between advertised queue time and actual queue time was to be understated by 1-2 minutes, and the percentage margin of error was often to be understated by less than 10%. This suggests that understating and overstating overall happen to roughly equal degrees, and you can't really rely on Merlin to reliably do either.
 
On average, the absolute discrepancy between advertised queue time and actual queue time was 5-15 minutes, and the percentage margin of error for the advertised queue time was between 20% and 60%. This would suggest that the advertised queue times are rarely 100% accurate and should be treated with a degree of caution and a margin of error, but that they're generally decent as a way of gauging broadly how long a queue will be. If a queue is advertised at 30 minutes, for example, you can assume that it will probably be between about 15 minutes and about 45 minutes. That is quite a wide margin, admittedly, but the advertised queue times are unlikely to be amazingly wrong, on the whole. A 30 minute advertised queue, as an example, would indicate a roughly "middle of the road" queue time with a reasonable degree of reliability; the queue is unlikely to be obscenely short, but it's unlikely to be obscenely long as well.
 
So in conclusion, I think this analysis suggests that the advertised queue times are decent for getting an idea of broadly how long a queue is likely to be, but are worse at pinpointing the actual exact queue time, and the estimates should be considered with a good margin of error and not taken as exact estimates.
 
If you'd like to look at my data, here are the full spreadsheets for Alton Towers and UK Merlin queue times respectively:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1c2b05czi2xwwDxKRVBMJ9qyB3_-_b0RyMdc-N8n8JJI/edit?usp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jpqqpu2pErHY41vHTpDP_NEZqnjuMwgtVVp99JexjvI/edit?usp=sharing
 
So that brings us to the end of this statistical analysis! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed concocting it, and I hope you found it interesting! I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts; I'm receptive to any feedback, good or bad!
TL;DR: I performed a statistical analysis to try and determine how accurate advertised queue times are, using datasets of advertised vs actual queue times in Alton Towers and the UK Merlin parks taken from my past trip reports. A correlation analysis showed that there was a moderate positive correlation of magnitude 0.6-0.7 between advertised and actual queue time, indicating that they do generally increase in unison, but that this is far from a perfect trend and this is not necessarily a proportional increase. An analysis of average vector discrepancies showed that Merlin parks do not reliably understate or overstate queue times, with both understating and overstating happening to broadly equal degrees. An analysis of average absolute discrepancies showed that the queue times can provide a broad idea of roughly how long a queue may be, but are unlikely to be too accurate at determining the exact queue time.

I'm sure you've all heard of Kings Island. It's a part of the Six Flags chain now, but in June it was one of the premier Cedar Fair parks, sitting right under Cedar Point as one of its main gems. Its line up also reflects this with three B&M's, a GCI, an Arrow, classic woodies and several classics and frequent investment that Michigans Adventure could only dream of. Before my visit I heard about the fantastic operations, full train operations, how they operate the park flawlessly.
 
Well spoilers. They don't. I recently embarked on a 9 park USA trip and out of all of them, Kings Island sits as the most disappointing. But why? 
 
There's several reasons but first let's start with the rides themselves. The five main attractions are Diamondback, Orion, Banshee, Mystic Timbers and the Beast. Like Canadas Wonderland & Carowinds, the park has a hyper/giga combo and in my opinion this is the weakest combo of the three. Diamondback is the hyper coaster and is the best coaster in the park. It has a lot of air time, it has the second best layout (Behemoth, Diamondback and Thunder Striker) and is generally well paced and landscaped. Orion is pretty good but is too short. It also doesn't share the same principles as Fury 325 and Leviathan. Those two rides despite being gigas, keep relatively low to the ground and have fast paced corners interspersed with good floater air time. Orion on the other hand feels like it's missing the last third of the ride. It has a strong two thirds but hits the breaks way too early. It's a shame because it has good air time hills and an intense helix. I know some may say that I should enjoy what a ride and not what it doesn't. Too some extent I agree. However I rode Fury 325 a week earlier and that is a complete ride. Orion just lacks that something.
 

 

 
And finally Banshee. I feel fortunate to have got on this, a week prior to my trip, a guest had actually got into the ride area and was killed by a train. I found Banshee incredibly disappointing actually. It is a huge B&M invert with a beautiful colour scheme but my god it is so forceless. I don't really understand how they went from Oz'Iris which is a top tier invert, to this in just two years. I had two rides on Banshee and neither really did anything for me. The only bit I really enjoyed was the slow zero-g roll at the end of the ride. I can't even say that the restraints were the problem because they weren't. Banshee is the only Invert to feature the new restraints. Here the ride lacked that kick that inverters like Nemesis, Katun and Afterburn feature, that whippiness and aggressive pacing that takes them to the next level. 
 

 
I'd heard fantastic things about Mystic Timbers and to be fair this is pretty good. I liked the way the ride goes off into the woods (which is a very popular American woodie feature) and I liked the pacing. The shed itself is naff though and it feels like it's done purely because the train has to sit in the break run for 60 seconds so they attempted a show element. The Beast is probably Kings Island most iconic ride and we'd heard all about the legendary night rides. We only rode this at night for context so I couldn't really tell you what the layout does without watching a POV. It was absolutely class at night though. There's clearly an aura around this ride and night rides are legendary. Hundreds of people waiting way after 11pm to get on this ride. IMO it didn't disappoint and was a highlight of the trip. There's something so peaceful and yet nerve wracking about being on a ride and not having a clue of where you are going. It's just you, the stars and the night sky following you and the 35 other people traversing through the woods. It felt like a proper moment where theme park passion comes alive and you get off feeling so much better for having done it. 
 

 
With the highlights ticked off, next comes the lesser talked stuff. The Bat is an arrow suspended and is my least favourite of the five remaining. It never felt like it got going and lacked the swing that Vortex (at Canadas Wonderland) or Vampire has. Invertigo never opened and hasn't been open since my visit so that could be dead. The two wooden duelling coasters named Racer were excellent and the park clearly looks after them as they rode fantastically. Adventure Express was a very good arrow mine train, with actual theming and a non janky, exciting layout. I love an arrow mine train and each one is so different from the last. Truly unique. Backlot Stunt Coaster was just like the other two I have ridden, this one did have working effects though which makes a difference. Flight of Fear was fine, apparently reopened after track welding work. It's not a favourite but its relatively well themed and has a good layout. The new ride, Snoopys Car thing, was a good Vekoma boomerang and there was a good level of kiddy coasters in this area with Woodstock Express and Woodstocks Air Rail.
 
On the face of it the rides aren't the problem so what exactly was it that wasn't clicking about the park? Well simply put, I think whilst the park does run full capacity on rides and it does have very engaged ride teams, I don't think the way they operate their rides is particularly effective. For example the team absolutely blitz it down ride platforms, shouting to lift lap bars when trains park. But sometimes this frantic, over the top activity just creates confusion for park guests and puts them on edge. You stress out a park guest, they start to behave in odd ways. They start to do things like exit vehicles in the wrong way. They don't do seat belts up, they may try to walk up lift hills. It also starts to throw off other park employees. One example I have is we were waiting front row on Diamondback and we were told we wouldn't be on the next train because of disabled guests. Okay fine. But the disabled guests never turned up. The platformers just put the bars down, in their frantic race to roll trains. The miscommunication, the frantic action meant groups who have positioned themselves to ride together are thrown off, it means a premier seat goes out empty (one you are waiting longer for anyway) and to me is not good park operation. Just rolling out trains is no good if you aren't effectively filling the trains to maximum capacity. The other gripe I have is the idea that running three trains is how you deal with capacity but actually, the rides are effectively designed to have a train sit on the break run for 2 minutes whilst the one in the station loads. I've always found it curious that you effectively seat people for 2 minutes and ending the ride not in the giddy high of what they have just experienced, but in boredom because the adrenaline rush is over and they've been sitting in the breaks for what feels like a long time. The only hypers I have seen to run a good three train service is Silver Star and Nitro. All the others, particularly at Cedar Fair just run three trains out of obligation but with no actual benefits of doing so. 
 

 
Reliability was also a clear issue with numerous ride closures throughout the day. I can take poor reliability with good communication but the real issue was the impact that had with Fast Lane. The service at KI is relatively affordable but the problem is where the end of Fast Lane is. At Kings Island, it was nearly always at the ride platform and everyone seemed to have this problem of scanning their wrist bands. So the batching process was essentially paused whilst huge numbers of people pass through the skip the line service. Frequently trains would be waiting in the station for more guests to load because batching had effectively stalled. Because Fast Lane is obviously prioritised, it meant they had first choice on front row and back row so stand by is effectively left with all the in-betweens. That's if the disabled entry people didn't nick your seats on every train. Here they can choose what row they go in. Because despite there being a batcher, the communication only took place that you wouldn't be on the next train, the batcher wouldn't necessarily not load an area of the train for the disabled guest. So you were hobbled frequently by exit riders. We also had a park wide power cut with only two small flat rides unaffected. For about two hours no rollercoaster was available. So when rides did reopen, they were immediately hit with massive queues and fast lane waits. Add in the frequent break downs and it made for a more frustrating day then it needed to be. Adventure Express only on one train and was advertised as having long waits at the entrance. Racer seemed like a gamble whether they were running both sides or not. 

 

 
All of the issues we faced at Kings Island had not been present at any of the parks we had been to previously. It was really eye opening and frustrating because it should have been a highlight park, for many it's a bucket list park. But I came out of it preferring a lot of the other parks like Dorney and Carowinds. Kings Island didn't even really have the ride hardware, that real stand out attraction to put the more negative thoughts out of my mind. Is it worth a visit? Yes. But it isn't outstanding..
 

 
Thank you for reading. 😃
 
 

You know those 'memory' notifications you get on your iPhone now and then, where it features a load of photos from a past trip?
One of those popped up for me recently from an old meet up we had on another site, which sent me on a bit of a nostalgic frenzy.
 
Since that happened, I've spent a bit too much time these last few weeks looking back through old photos and videos, and it's prompted me to reach out to some old 'theme park friends' who I haven't spoken to for a while. To be honest it's been absolutely bloody fab.
 
But it's got me thinking... Being a theme park enthusiast just isn't what it used to be.  I'm wondering if others feel this way too?
 
Of course I dearly miss the days in my teens where I'd regularly meet my friends at the parks, but equally I am finding myself really missing all the fan forums that there used to be, and how busy they were every evening.  The forums used to be buzzing with excitement and discussion about our weird shared favourite topic!  And that was just it, it was a discussion, often about the unknown.  It was rare that we actually knew what was going to be happening at the parks, so speculation and rumour really did drive the discussion and keep everyone interested!
 
Aside from the big forums and fan sites, there were also countless smaller sites, run by people who loved the parks just as much and just wanted to share their hobby and interest.
 
It didn't stop at the forums either - YouTube was awash with videos from enthusiasts everywhere, not just the big names, who now seem to have unlimited access to everything. I remember sat at my laptop in my room at my parents house, most nights I'd check my usual sites and channels for any updates I could find!  It was exciting - had someone managed to get a blurry photo from underneath a fence, or even better get a 20 second video clip of a scare maze entrance, or a trench being dug somewhere?  Or the rare holy grail, someone had found some plans on a planning portal somewhere! 😮
 
I absolutely loved the mystery and excitement surrounding everything - "what could be under those tarps?", "Did anyone see that crane today?", "There's a new poster for Fright Nights!"...
If you wanted to know what happened inside the Asylum, you would need to physically go into the Asylum and find out for yourself! There were no HD POV videos from press night, no behind the scenes videos, and no real construction updates to speak of. All you had to go on was the reviews and discussion from others who had been through before.
God... it was brilliant wasn't it?
 
There's no denying, however, that things are better now.  We got what we wanted.  We now have more access to information than ever before, with the parks being very open about what they're doing, and the YouTubers and Influencers of today being very detailed in what they show.  It really is good that we have access to all this stuff - but I have to admit I do miss the days when the 'news' came from everyone - whoever happened to be at the parks (or peeping over the fences) that day, with their blackberry camera out and ready to snap a picture or two!
 
I think the age of the influencer and all of this free and open information has nearly killed off the forums, and the way that theme park enthusiasm used to be.
It seems that now, the 'star enthusiasts' who run the major YouTube channels and social media pages, are in some ways an extension of the park's own marketing team, with some influencers quite literally being employed by the parks, even creatively responsoble for some of the attractions...
 
It would also appear that, although I have nothing against any influencers out there, that the enthusiast game has in some ways become about building up an audience and even making a living from it - it's not as much a 'hobby' as it used to be it seems?
 
Taking a wonky photo of the Curse arriving on the rain soaked beach, or Saw the Ride's brand new supports going in to the newly reclaimed land, and getting home to plug in your cable to transfer the image to your laptop to post it on the forums was never about seeing how many likes you could get - it was about sharing the joy with like-minded people from across the country, or it was in my case at least, then having a good chat about it.
 
Social media has killed off the forums really hasn't it, all those little hidden communities where friendships were made and interests were shared!
There's no denying that social media is better, and information is more readily available, but are we better off as enthusiasts?  I'm not convinced we are.

As we approach the start of the preparation for Fright Nights 2024, I thought I'd do a few more blog post ramblings on some nostalgic Thorpe memories I have.
 
I started off a couple of years ago now, with Dr Pepper Sun Scream, then Brave it Alone in Cabin in the Woods back when it opened in 2013...  Now it's time for another trip down memory lane, to Brave it Alone in Studio 13, 2014 (a staggering 10 years ago somehow).
 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 
We did Studio 13 way back in 2014, the second ever year of Brave it Alone, and I believe the last year they let you choose which maze you wanted to experience?

So... with our brave it alone tickets booked for the brand new Studio 13, here's what happened!
 
10PM came around on a surprisingly quiet Fright Nights at Thorpe.  We had been fortunate in that we'd managed to experience all of the mazes multiple times that evening, including I believe 3 or 4 runs through Studio. I think unfortunately the days of the lucky quiet evening at FN have long since gone!
 
Much like the previous year when we'd braved it alone in Cabin in the Woods, we met up with the other participants at the Clypso BBQ, and were asked to sign the waver form.
One notable difference this year was that there were far fewer staff running this, there were no managers present as there were in large numbers the previous year, and the bar was closed and we weren't offered a drink as part of the experience, although the Director was there again chatting to us along with a couple of members of park staff.
As far as I remember, there were 2 of us (my friend and I) doing Studio, 2 others doing Cabin, and 1 doing My Bloody Valentine. So in all honesty you can see why Brave it Alone had to change - they were having to keep 3 mazes open after hours for very little money really....
 
After chatting with the director for 20 minutes or so, we were taken by one of the members of staff down to the iconic and formidable blue door at the entrance to Studio 13, where we waited and chatted with the member of staff for another 10 minutes or so, the memorable Studio queue music still playing!
 
This was a stark difference to last year, where we were very much outnumbered by concerned staff and Thorpe management who were I think quite stressed about the whole affair... This year it was very much cut back in terms of a single member of staff with us, having a nice chit chat!
 
Anyway... the time had come!
While we were chatting at the door, it suddenly swung open, and an actor grabbed my shoulder and screamed at me "YOU'RE LATE! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?", as she pulled me inside, shut the door, and held me against the wall opposite.
Here, she stood very much in my face and warned me that if my lateness made her look bad, I'd be dead.
I was given the hurry up and told to run down the iconic first corridor, while she pushed me along it.
 
When I reached the end of the corridor there were multiple actors waiting for me, all seemingly very upset about how late I was!
 
I was pulled and pushed around, backwards through various doors as far as I remember, then was stood against the wall while they took my 'photo', which involved a blinding flash, before I was spun around multiple times and sent on my way through the next part of the maze alone.
 
I don't think I made it far before I made it to the makeup department scene.
I was sat down in to an office chair and as far as I remember I was taped to it, to stop me from 'wasting any more time'!
Here I had the unpleasant experience of multiple actors putting makeup on my face!
This only lasted a few seconds before I was released and sent on my way through the rest of the maze.
 
I am finding it a struggle to remember the middle part of the maze, but from memory I think much of it was a similar idea to the Asylum, it was very much a case of following the fences through the maze, with no particular scenes as such for a short while.
What I do remember though is spending the entire middle portion of the maze being utterly crowded by the actors, who were all seemingly taking it in turns to get right up in to my face to tell me to hurry up!
 
I distinctly, however, remember the ending of the maze...
 
As I approached the bedroom scene, I was surprised to realise that one of them had managed to get a bottle of water in to the front of my jeans and had proceeded to empty the contents in to my nether regions...  I have to admit at this point I did think to myself... ok, wtf is this?
 
The majority of the actors then disappeared, and I was left at the entrance of the bedroom scene with a single actor, who had interacted with me earlier on after the makeup scene!  He had complimented my pretty eyes and told me "You'll do nicely".... The reason behind all this then became apparent, as he said he wanted me to meet his daughter.
 
I don't specifically remember at what point during the maze my hands had been tied in front of me (or was I wrapped in tape with arms by my side? Can't remember), but I was tied up regardless.  The actor pulled me in to the bedroom where I saw his daughter (a live actor I think?) led on the bed. He told me to say hello and give her a kiss, which of course I denied. He pushed me towards the bed, and I believe other actors then came to his aid and also assisted in getting me to be on the bed with her...
 
He then asked me what I was doing, and seemed very angry when he discovered how wet the front of my trousers were 🙄
He had the chainsaw in his hands at this point and told me he'd never let me do this to anyone ever again, before the chainsaw was very abruptly pushed up between my legs, and off we both went down the exit corridor and out of the doors!  I was half way across the path before the chainsaw was eventually removed from my damp crotch.
 
The member of staff was waiting at the exit, where she said to me "... you ok?" 🤣.   A few moments later my friend came out, who had suffered the same fate, and off we went (still tied up by the way) to collect our bags from the BBQ before heading out.  Unfortunately there wasn't an opportunity to chat to the other participants at the other mazes this year as there was previously.
 
--
 
In conclusion, I will say that I did enjoy Brave it Alone in studio 13, although this was a very different approach to Cabin in the Woods the previous year.
Where the Cabin BIA experience focused on a lot of physical pushing and shoving, shouting, being physically picked up and moved, crawling, and even bodily fluids to some extent, the Studio experience was more about making you feel uncomfortable and awkward, and it was a lot less 'hands on' when it came to all the pushing and shoving.
It certainly was a less 'scary' experience than the previous year.
 
I don't want to be a bore, but I wouldn't have gone with the bedroom scene, and if I'm honest the wet underwear was something I could have done without on the drive home!
I also found the "You're late" storyline (which seemed to fade away during the maze) meant that the experience was very quick as it really was a fast run through the maze.
 
I have to say that I did also miss the 'meet-up' at the bar with everyone at the end, as this was a great way for everyone to chat and compare experiences as you all left the park.
 
All in all, this is a great memory I have of 'old thorpe' - I commend them for trying something niche, and for daring to be different.
 
I love the idea of brave it alone, and who knows, maybe one day it'll make a return in some form or other. But until then, I'll never forget it - Fright Nights a decade ago was Thorpe at its peak in my opinion.

You know those 'memory' notifications you get on your iPhone now and then, where it features a load of photos from a past trip?
One of those popped up for me recently from an old meet up we had on another site, which sent me on a bit of a nostalgic frenzy.
 
Since that happened, I've spent a bit too much time these last few weeks looking back through old photos and videos, and it's prompted me to reach out to some old 'theme park friends' who I haven't spoken to for a while. To be honest it's been absolutely bloody fab.
 
But it's got me thinking... Being a theme park enthusiast just isn't what it used to be.  I'm wondering if others feel this way too?
 
Of course I dearly miss the days in my teens where I'd regularly meet my friends at the parks, but equally I am finding myself really missing all the fan forums that there used to be, and how busy they were every evening.  The forums used to be buzzing with excitement and discussion about our weird shared favourite topic!  And that was just it, it was a discussion, often about the unknown.  It was rare that we actually knew what was going to be happening at the parks, so speculation and rumour really did drive the discussion and keep everyone interested!
 
Aside from the big forums and fan sites, there were also countless smaller sites, run by people who loved the parks just as much and just wanted to share their hobby and interest.
 
It didn't stop at the forums either - YouTube was awash with videos from enthusiasts everywhere, not just the big names, who now seem to have unlimited access to everything. I remember sat at my laptop in my room at my parents house, most nights I'd check my usual sites and channels for any updates I could find!  It was exciting - had someone managed to get a blurry photo from underneath a fence, or even better get a 20 second video clip of a scare maze entrance, or a trench being dug somewhere?  Or the rare holy grail, someone had found some plans on a planning portal somewhere! 😮
 
I absolutely loved the mystery and excitement surrounding everything - "what could be under those tarps?", "Did anyone see that crane today?", "There's a new poster for Fright Nights!"...
If you wanted to know what happened inside the Asylum, you would need to physically go into the Asylum and find out for yourself! There were no HD POV videos from press night, no behind the scenes videos, and no real construction updates to speak of. All you had to go on was the reviews and discussion from others who had been through before.
God... it was brilliant wasn't it?
 
There's no denying, however, that things are better now.  We got what we wanted.  We now have more access to information than ever before, with the parks being very open about what they're doing, and the YouTubers and Influencers of today being very detailed in what they show.  It really is good that we have access to all this stuff - but I have to admit I do miss the days when the 'news' came from everyone - whoever happened to be at the parks (or peeping over the fences) that day, with their blackberry camera out and ready to snap a picture or two!
 
I think the age of the influencer and all of this free and open information has nearly killed off the forums, and the way that theme park enthusiasm used to be.
It seems that now, the 'star enthusiasts' who run the major YouTube channels and social media pages, are in some ways an extension of the park's own marketing team, with some influencers quite literally being employed by the parks, even creatively responsoble for some of the attractions...
 
It would also appear that, although I have nothing against any influencers out there, that the enthusiast game has in some ways become about building up an audience and even making a living from it - it's not as much a 'hobby' as it used to be it seems?
 
Taking a wonky photo of the Curse arriving on the rain soaked beach, or Saw the Ride's brand new supports going in to the newly reclaimed land, and getting home to plug in your cable to transfer the image to your laptop to post it on the forums was never about seeing how many likes you could get - it was about sharing the joy with like-minded people from across the country, or it was in my case at least, then having a good chat about it.
 
Social media has killed off the forums really hasn't it, all those little hidden communities where friendships were made and interests were shared!
There's no denying that social media is better, and information is more readily available, but are we better off as enthusiasts?  I'm not convinced we are.

As we approach the start of the preparation for Fright Nights 2024, I thought I'd do a few more blog post ramblings on some nostalgic Thorpe memories I have.
 
I started off a couple of years ago now, with Dr Pepper Sun Scream, then Brave it Alone in Cabin in the Woods back when it opened in 2013...  Now it's time for another trip down memory lane, to Brave it Alone in Studio 13, 2014 (a staggering 10 years ago somehow).
 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 
We did Studio 13 way back in 2014, the second ever year of Brave it Alone, and I believe the last year they let you choose which maze you wanted to experience?

So... with our brave it alone tickets booked for the brand new Studio 13, here's what happened!
 
10PM came around on a surprisingly quiet Fright Nights at Thorpe.  We had been fortunate in that we'd managed to experience all of the mazes multiple times that evening, including I believe 3 or 4 runs through Studio. I think unfortunately the days of the lucky quiet evening at FN have long since gone!
 
Much like the previous year when we'd braved it alone in Cabin in the Woods, we met up with the other participants at the Clypso BBQ, and were asked to sign the waver form.
One notable difference this year was that there were far fewer staff running this, there were no managers present as there were in large numbers the previous year, and the bar was closed and we weren't offered a drink as part of the experience, although the Director was there again chatting to us along with a couple of members of park staff.
As far as I remember, there were 2 of us (my friend and I) doing Studio, 2 others doing Cabin, and 1 doing My Bloody Valentine. So in all honesty you can see why Brave it Alone had to change - they were having to keep 3 mazes open after hours for very little money really....
 
After chatting with the director for 20 minutes or so, we were taken by one of the members of staff down to the iconic and formidable blue door at the entrance to Studio 13, where we waited and chatted with the member of staff for another 10 minutes or so, the memorable Studio queue music still playing!
 
This was a stark difference to last year, where we were very much outnumbered by concerned staff and Thorpe management who were I think quite stressed about the whole affair... This year it was very much cut back in terms of a single member of staff with us, having a nice chit chat!
 
Anyway... the time had come!
While we were chatting at the door, it suddenly swung open, and an actor grabbed my shoulder and screamed at me "YOU'RE LATE! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?", as she pulled me inside, shut the door, and held me against the wall opposite.
Here, she stood very much in my face and warned me that if my lateness made her look bad, I'd be dead.
I was given the hurry up and told to run down the iconic first corridor, while she pushed me along it.
 
When I reached the end of the corridor there were multiple actors waiting for me, all seemingly very upset about how late I was!
 
I was pulled and pushed around, backwards through various doors as far as I remember, then was stood against the wall while they took my 'photo', which involved a blinding flash, before I was spun around multiple times and sent on my way through the next part of the maze alone.
 
I don't think I made it far before I made it to the makeup department scene.
I was sat down in to an office chair and as far as I remember I was taped to it, to stop me from 'wasting any more time'!
Here I had the unpleasant experience of multiple actors putting makeup on my face!
This only lasted a few seconds before I was released and sent on my way through the rest of the maze.
 
I am finding it a struggle to remember the middle part of the maze, but from memory I think much of it was a similar idea to the Asylum, it was very much a case of following the fences through the maze, with no particular scenes as such for a short while.
What I do remember though is spending the entire middle portion of the maze being utterly crowded by the actors, who were all seemingly taking it in turns to get right up in to my face to tell me to hurry up!
 
I distinctly, however, remember the ending of the maze...
 
As I approached the bedroom scene, I was surprised to realise that one of them had managed to get a bottle of water in to the front of my jeans and had proceeded to empty the contents in to my nether regions...  I have to admit at this point I did think to myself... ok, wtf is this?
 
The majority of the actors then disappeared, and I was left at the entrance of the bedroom scene with a single actor, who had interacted with me earlier on after the makeup scene!  He had complimented my pretty eyes and told me "You'll do nicely".... The reason behind all this then became apparent, as he said he wanted me to meet his daughter.
 
I don't specifically remember at what point during the maze my hands had been tied in front of me (or was I wrapped in tape with arms by my side? Can't remember), but I was tied up regardless.  The actor pulled me in to the bedroom where I saw his daughter (a live actor I think?) led on the bed. He told me to say hello and give her a kiss, which of course I denied. He pushed me towards the bed, and I believe other actors then came to his aid and also assisted in getting me to be on the bed with her...
 
He then asked me what I was doing, and seemed very angry when he discovered how wet the front of my trousers were 🙄
He had the chainsaw in his hands at this point and told me he'd never let me do this to anyone ever again, before the chainsaw was very abruptly pushed up between my legs, and off we both went down the exit corridor and out of the doors!  I was half way across the path before the chainsaw was eventually removed from my damp crotch.
 
The member of staff was waiting at the exit, where she said to me "... you ok?" 🤣.   A few moments later my friend came out, who had suffered the same fate, and off we went (still tied up by the way) to collect our bags from the BBQ before heading out.  Unfortunately there wasn't an opportunity to chat to the other participants at the other mazes this year as there was previously.
 
--
 
In conclusion, I will say that I did enjoy Brave it Alone in studio 13, although this was a very different approach to Cabin in the Woods the previous year.
Where the Cabin BIA experience focused on a lot of physical pushing and shoving, shouting, being physically picked up and moved, crawling, and even bodily fluids to some extent, the Studio experience was more about making you feel uncomfortable and awkward, and it was a lot less 'hands on' when it came to all the pushing and shoving.
It certainly was a less 'scary' experience than the previous year.
 
I don't want to be a bore, but I wouldn't have gone with the bedroom scene, and if I'm honest the wet underwear was something I could have done without on the drive home!
I also found the "You're late" storyline (which seemed to fade away during the maze) meant that the experience was very quick as it really was a fast run through the maze.
 
I have to say that I did also miss the 'meet-up' at the bar with everyone at the end, as this was a great way for everyone to chat and compare experiences as you all left the park.
 
All in all, this is a great memory I have of 'old thorpe' - I commend them for trying something niche, and for daring to be different.
 
I love the idea of brave it alone, and who knows, maybe one day it'll make a return in some form or other. But until then, I'll never forget it - Fright Nights a decade ago was Thorpe at its peak in my opinion.

You know those 'memory' notifications you get on your iPhone now and then, where it features a load of photos from a past trip?
One of those popped up for me recently from an old meet up we had on another site, which sent me on a bit of a nostalgic frenzy.
 
Since that happened, I've spent a bit too much time these last few weeks looking back through old photos and videos, and it's prompted me to reach out to some old 'theme park friends' who I haven't spoken to for a while. To be honest it's been absolutely bloody fab.
 
But it's got me thinking... Being a theme park enthusiast just isn't what it used to be.  I'm wondering if others feel this way too?
 
Of course I dearly miss the days in my teens where I'd regularly meet my friends at the parks, but equally I am finding myself really missing all the fan forums that there used to be, and how busy they were every evening.  The forums used to be buzzing with excitement and discussion about our weird shared favourite topic!  And that was just it, it was a discussion, often about the unknown.  It was rare that we actually knew what was going to be happening at the parks, so speculation and rumour really did drive the discussion and keep everyone interested!
 
Aside from the big forums and fan sites, there were also countless smaller sites, run by people who loved the parks just as much and just wanted to share their hobby and interest.
 
It didn't stop at the forums either - YouTube was awash with videos from enthusiasts everywhere, not just the big names, who now seem to have unlimited access to everything. I remember sat at my laptop in my room at my parents house, most nights I'd check my usual sites and channels for any updates I could find!  It was exciting - had someone managed to get a blurry photo from underneath a fence, or even better get a 20 second video clip of a scare maze entrance, or a trench being dug somewhere?  Or the rare holy grail, someone had found some plans on a planning portal somewhere! 😮
 
I absolutely loved the mystery and excitement surrounding everything - "what could be under those tarps?", "Did anyone see that crane today?", "There's a new poster for Fright Nights!"...
If you wanted to know what happened inside the Asylum, you would need to physically go into the Asylum and find out for yourself! There were no HD POV videos from press night, no behind the scenes videos, and no real construction updates to speak of. All you had to go on was the reviews and discussion from others who had been through before.
God... it was brilliant wasn't it?
 
There's no denying, however, that things are better now.  We got what we wanted.  We now have more access to information than ever before, with the parks being very open about what they're doing, and the YouTubers and Influencers of today being very detailed in what they show.  It really is good that we have access to all this stuff - but I have to admit I do miss the days when the 'news' came from everyone - whoever happened to be at the parks (or peeping over the fences) that day, with their blackberry camera out and ready to snap a picture or two!
 
I think the age of the influencer and all of this free and open information has nearly killed off the forums, and the way that theme park enthusiasm used to be.
It seems that now, the 'star enthusiasts' who run the major YouTube channels and social media pages, are in some ways an extension of the park's own marketing team, with some influencers quite literally being employed by the parks, even creatively responsoble for some of the attractions...
 
It would also appear that, although I have nothing against any influencers out there, that the enthusiast game has in some ways become about building up an audience and even making a living from it - it's not as much a 'hobby' as it used to be it seems?
 
Taking a wonky photo of the Curse arriving on the rain soaked beach, or Saw the Ride's brand new supports going in to the newly reclaimed land, and getting home to plug in your cable to transfer the image to your laptop to post it on the forums was never about seeing how many likes you could get - it was about sharing the joy with like-minded people from across the country, or it was in my case at least, then having a good chat about it.
 
Social media has killed off the forums really hasn't it, all those little hidden communities where friendships were made and interests were shared!
There's no denying that social media is better, and information is more readily available, but are we better off as enthusiasts?  I'm not convinced we are.

10th June 2024: Thorpe Park
It was the second day of the trip today, and another day can only mean another park; today, I visited Thorpe Park! Today marked my first visit of 2024 to the UK’s most thrilling theme park, so I was excited to get back on some of my favourites at the park for the first time in 2024!
 
After my night in the Premier Inn in Staines, my Thorpe day started at a little before 9am, when I took a short walk to Elmsleigh Bus Station in Staines to catch the Sullivan Buses 950, which is probably better known as the Thorpe Park Express bus, to Thorpe Park from stop 4:


Now, I had originally intended to catch the 9:10 service, which arrived at Thorpe Park at 9:20. However, lots of people wanted to get on at my stop and the bus was already extremely crowded. Therefore, I was at the back of the queue from standing aside to let others on first, so I ended up not being allowed on this bus and having to wait for the next bus at 9:25. However, the wait was only 15 minutes, and I still got to Thorpe well before opening, so I can’t complain too much.
 
When I got on the bus, it had to have been one of most crowded buses I’ve ever been on. The whole walkable area of the bus had patrons standing in it, and I was rubbing shoulder to shoulder with people at the very front of the bus. However, the bus was punctual, ran at a ridiculous frequency (15 minutes between buses is hardly any time at all!), and it got me there, so I can’t really complain! On an odd side note, the card machine on the bus was broken, and the bus driver waved me and others straight through and said "just get on" when I tried to present my bank card to pay for a ticket... so I actually got that bus journey for free!
 
After getting off the bus, I headed into Thorpe Park itself. By the time I got through security and past the turnstiles, it was around 9:40, so I was still in the park a good amount of time before rope drop even with me having to take a later bus:



Before I get into the main body of my day, I should probably address the main elephant in the room; Hyperia. The ride was one of the main motivations for booking this trip, but in the days leading up to today, I had a bad feeling that it might be closed, and this was unfortunately the case. It was disappointing to not get on the ride today, but I was determined to make the best of the situation and not to let it take away from my day at Thorpe Park. And even if I couldn’t actually ride it, it was quite cool to finally see it in person and see it test a little! It looks awesome; hopefully it can reopen soon:


Anyway, that’s enough about Hyperia. Let me get back to my day at Thorpe Park.
 
I decided to start my day by heading to the Saw/Colossus end of the park. My original plan was to start things off on Colossus, but the ride was still closed initially, so I instead decided to head down to…
Saw: The Ride
Saw was on an advertised walk-on queue, so I decided to take a ride on it. This queue looked as though it was quickly getting longer than walk-on, but as a solo visitor, I had a secret weapon I could use; the single rider queue! This worked very well indeed, with me getting on the ride in no time at all! So, how was the ride? Well, Saw isn’t an absolute favourite of mine, but I have to say that this morning run was one of the smoothest rides I’ve ever had on it! I was seated on the back, and while it was still a bit rough in places, it was nothing like it has been for me in the past; there wasn’t too much Gerst-ache here! As for the ride layout itself, there was some surprising airtime in places, and I think this might be the first time I’ve ever ridden Saw and had the water effect in the heartline roll actually work! I got very surprisingly wet from that effect! Overall, then, Saw wasn’t running badly at all this morning, and it was an interesting way to start the day:


When I was off Saw: The Ride, I noticed that Colossus was open, so I decided to head over to it…
Colossus
Colossus was on an advertised 5 minute queue time, so I decided to give it a go. This 5 minute queue time turned out to be overstated, as I waltzed straight into the station and straight onto the back row; you can never complain about that! But how was the ride? Well, it was OK; Colossus isn’t a favourite of mine, but as with Saw earlier, my back row ride on Colossus today was on the much more favourable end of the spectrum. It was a bit rough in places, but not nearly as overbearing as it has been in the past. As for the layout itself; I really like the first half of Colossus, with the loop, cobra roll and two consecutive corkscrews packing a punch and the airtime hill even providing a small pop of airtime on this occasion! However, I’m not a huge lover of the second half, as I find the multiple consecutive heartline rolls a bit nauseating, and I also think the train and restraint design makes Colossus a bit uncomfortable even excluding any roughness. Overall, Colossus, while not a favourite of mine, wasn’t running too badly today:


After getting off Colossus, I decided to head to another major coaster…
Nemesis Inferno
Nemesis Inferno was on an advertised 5 minute queue time, so I decided to have a go on it. The queue times board was true to its word, as I walked straight into the station; it’s always great when that happens! But how was the ride? Well, I rode in row 3, and I have to say that this morning’s Nemesis Inferno ride was absolutely fantastic, and possibly one of the best I’ve ever had on it! The ride packed such an awesome sense of speed throughout, it was thrilling and had really good forces without being excessively intense, it was smooth, and overall, everything about the ride just clicked! Perhaps controversially, I must admit that I struggle to pick whether I prefer Nemesis Inferno or Nemesis Reborn; it will be a continual struggle, but that morning ride certainly made a strong case for Inferno:



After Nemesis Inferno, I headed to the next coaster…
Stealth
Stealth was on an advertised 5 minute queue time, so I decided to take a ride on it. The queue time board was relatively true to its word, with the queue taking around 5-10 minutes. So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 5, and it was absolutely fantastic! That hydraulic launch is always phenomenal; it really takes your breath away and gets you up to speed ridiculously quickly! Aside from the launch, the ride has many other great attributes; the speed throughout is brilliant, and the airtime over the top hat is also excellent! Overall, then, my ride on Stealth was excellent, and I thoroughly enjoyed it:



After Stealth, my original plan was to head over to The Swarm, on an advertised 10 minute queue. However, the queue was spilling out of the entrance and looking far longer than 10 minutes when I got to the area, so I decided to change course and instead head to...
Rush
Rush was on an advertised 15 minute queue time, so I decided to give it a go. This queue time proved roughly accurate, with the queue taking 10-15 minutes. So, how was the ride? Well, I'm a fan of a good S&S Screamin' Swing, and Rush is no exception; the speed and weightlessness are awesome! I love the airtime delivered at each peak, and the speed delivered in the troughs provides a real rush! However, I must admit that Rush seemed to be running a slightly underwhelming cycle today, with only one full height swing. I don't know if it's just me misremembering, but it seemed like it did more on previous visits. Nonetheless, Rush was a fun ride, with some nice airtime and speed:


After Rush, I had a reride on Stealth, with a 25 minute advertised queue time. I was seated in row 10 this time, and the ride was just as fantastic as earlier, if not more so. Right on the back, the airtime over the top hat felt notably stronger; I got some excellent sustained ejector going over it!:


After my ride on Stealth, I headed to the final major coaster I was yet to tick off...
The Swarm
The Swarm was on an advertised 35 minute queue time, so I decided to take a ride on it. This queue time turned out to be somewhat overstated, with the queue taking more like 25 minutes; it's always a bonus when the queue time is overstated! But how was the ride? Well, I was seated in the back left row, and I have to say that it was absolutely great! The ride had a truly awesome sense of speed throughout, it had some decent forces without being overly intense, it had some great, floaty inversions, and it was overall really good fun! The very rigid and tight vest restraints were a bit of a detractor for me, as they really dug into my collar bones and made me feel quite tightly pinned to my seat, but I have to say that these didn't seem to be quite as bad as they've been in the past; have Thorpe altered Swarm's restraints? Overall, then, my ride on The Swarm was thoroughly decent, and I really enjoyed it:


After The Swarm, I headed back towards the rest of the park. But as I walked by, I sampled a ride that I haven't done in a few years...
Flying Fish
Flying Fish was on an advertised 5 minute queue time, so I decided to have a go on it. The queue time board was relatively true to its word, with there only being a one cycle wait, and I was on the ride in no time. So, how was the ride? Well, I was sat in row 6, and it was a fun little powered coaster; it had its odd moments of speed and some fun turns! It's not exactly a spectacular example of the ride type, but for what it is, it does the job. Overall, then, Flying Fish was a fun diversion along my way back to the rest of the park:


After my ride on Flying Fish, I had a reride on Nemesis Inferno, on a 45 minute advertised queue time. I was seated in row 7, and as with my earlier ride, it was absolutely excellent, with great forces and speed, and hit the spot very nicely! On a side note, the operations were also excellent; there was a brief stoppage while I was in the queue, but once the ride was back up, the Inferno team were banging the trains out with no stacking whatsoever! Great job, guys:


After my reride on Nemesis Inferno, I headed towards Hyperia and sat down with a Burger King lunch to watch it test for a bit. It is a very impressive-looking ride, and I'm sure it'll be brilliant when I eventually get on it:


After I'd had my lunch, I decided to try another quick go on Saw via the single rider queue while I was nearby. The queue was once again quick, but I rather wish I hadn't, in all honesty. I was sat in the front, and the ride could not have been more different to the one I had earlier in the day. It was very rough, with some horrific jolts; the first drop and the ending were particularly bad. I'll digress to being a little confused as to how the front was seemingly rougher than the back on Saw, but I came off with a headache after that Saw ride, for sure:


After my reride on Saw, I had a reride on Stealth. I was seated in row 8 that time, and it was every bit as fantastic as the earlier two rides had been; that launch is such an awesome gut punch:



After my reride on Stealth, I then had a reride on The Swarm. I was in row 6 on the left side that time, and as with earlier, Swarm was an awesome ride with some great speed and great inversions:


After my Swarm reride, I had a reride on Nemesis Inferno. I was in row 5 that time, and the ride was once again brilliant, with a nice amount of force and a brilliant sense of speed:


After that, I had another reride on The Swarm. I was seated in row 5 on the right hand side that time, and it was once again a thoroughly decent coaster. I also had this ride during a bout of pouring rain, which added an... interesting dimension to the experience!
 
After my Swarm reride, I then had one final go on Stealth to close out the day. I was seated on the back row, and it was absolutely fantastic, with that ever punchy launch providing an amazing rush and the top hat providing some great ejector! It was a brilliant way to close out a great day at Thorpe Park:

 
After that final ride on Stealth, I left the park to get on the Sullivan Buses 951 back to Staines train station. The bus was very similar to earlier; extremely busy, but very punctual and getting me to the right place. However, I did not get this journey for free, as the card machine was working this time:


After I got to Staines train station, I did the final train legs of the trip to get me back to Bristol to meet up with my parents. I took 2 trains; a train from Staines to Reading and a train from Reading to Bristol Parkway. This journey was relatively simple and went without a hitch, so I can't really complain about that:



So, that brings my day at Thorpe Park to an end! I had an absolutely brilliant day; it was great to get back on some of my favourites at the park multiple times, and I was thrilled to get 15 rides in over the course of the day! Stealth was fantastic, Nemesis Inferno was awesome, Swarm was really decent, and overall, it was just nice to get back to Thorpe Park and get back on some of their rides for my first time in 2024! In terms of a particular highlight; my favourite ride at Thorpe, pre-Hyperia, would have to be either Stealth or Nemesis Inferno. I'm struggling to pick between the two, as they were both brilliant today!
 
Not getting on Hyperia was disappointing, but it didn't detract from the day in the slightest for me. I still had an absolutely cracking day at Thorpe Park without it, and when I was in the swing of riding some of my existing Thorpe favourites, the lack of Hyperia didn't really occur to me at all; I only really clocked it when I noticed it testing from a queue or on a ride! It does look like an awesome ride, though, and I'll be back very, very soon (potentially imminently) once it reopens... I can't wait to get on it, and given I had a relatively complete Thorpe day today, I'm not sure I'd even mind waiting a potentially considerable length of time for it at the expense of other rides in the park! Given how easy the train between Bristol and Staines is, I could pop back to Thorpe for the day with great ease whenever Hyperia reopens... I have plenty of money, and having just finished university, I've also got plenty of time to kill over the summer, so I'm hardly short of potential Hyperia-riding opportunity in the not-too-distant future once it's back open!
 
All in all, I do have a real soft spot for Thorpe Park. I rarely have a bad day there, and today was no exception! I think the park has a brilliant ride lineup, and for pure strength of rides, I'd struggle to think of a UK park on par with or better than Thorpe aside from Alton Towers! I also think Thorpe has some nicely themed areas and a nice atmosphere, and overall, I do just really enjoy it!
 
As well as the day at Thorpe Park, that also brings this trip to an end. And I have to say that I've overall been thrilled with how it's gone; I was very gratified by how surprisingly easy I found the logistics of managing a solo stay away with some additional public transport complexities, the whole process of staying in a hotel alone was much easier than I expected, and all in all, I'm really pleased to have pushed my solo trip boundaries that little bit further! From a pure theme park standpoint, the trip has also been relatively successful. Yes, I didn't get on Hyperia, but the trip was far from fruitless in terms of +1s, as I still got both Minifigure Speedway credits. It also got me back to both Legoland Windsor, a park I hadn't been to in 3 years, and Thorpe Park, a UK park that I'm very fond of, so that can never be a bad thing!
 
Thanks for reading; I hope you've enjoyed this report, and the overall duo of reports from this trip! To be honest, my next report is very likely to be another Thorpe Park report if Hyperia reopens any time soon, as I am eager to get on that ride ASAP!

9th June 2024: LEGOLAND Windsor
Hi guys. Today was an exciting, albeit also somewhat nerve-wracking, day for me; it was the first day of my first ever solo stay away from home. For my first solo stay away, I decided to go for a trip to LEGOLAND Windsor and Thorpe Park, two of the London area Merlin parks. This was because I felt that I should try this with something that wasn’t ridiculously far from home what with it being my first time, and even putting aside my anxieties about doing my first ever solo trip away, both LEGOLAND and Thorpe Park have new coasters for 2024 that I wanted to get on!
 
That’s probably enough of a prelude, though; let me start the first day of my trip, my day at LEGOLAND Windsor, right from the beginning.
 
I left my home in Gloucestershire at a little after 7:30 this morning to make the 30 minute drive to Bristol Parkway, a nearby major train station. After my parents dropped me in Bristol, I was able to start my train journey to Windsor, which consisted of three different legs; a train from Bristol Parkway to Reading, a train from Reading to Slough, and a train from Slough to Windsor & Eton Central. Apart from a 5 minute delay in Swindon, this all went relatively smoothly; I arrived in Windsor & Eton Central around 1h 50m after I left Bristol Parkway:







After getting off the train in Windsor, my initial plan when I booked the trip 2 months ago had been to catch a bus from Windsor to LEGOLAND. However, I discovered a few days ago that today was the day of the Windsor Triathlon, which threw large parts of the bus route out of whack compared to my original plans. As such, I decided to resort to a backup plan and do something I’ve never done before; I actually caught an Uber. I have to say that this worked excellently; the process of securing an Uber was really easy, a driver turned up within a couple of minutes, and I got into LEGOLAND by about 11am after a 20 minute ride from near the train station:

After entering the park, I decided to make a beeline for the main purpose of my visit…
Minifigure Speedway
Minifigure Speedway was on an advertised 45 minute queue time, so I decided to give it a go. This queue time turned out to be quite notably overstated, with the queue only taking 20 minutes; the queue moved reasonably quickly! But how was the ride? Well, I rode the Allstars side for my first go, and I have to say that it was quite good fun! I was seated in row 5, and the ride had some good speed, it was smooth, and the backwards section was quite fun without being too intense! With this being the first of these models manufactured by Zierer, I was also interested to see how the ride compared to the two Vekoma Family Boomerangs I’ve ridden. If I were pressed, I’d probably say that it was a little weaker than either of the two Vekomas I’ve done (Velociraptor and Accelerator), as the layout didn’t seem quite as punchy and the ride didn’t seem quite as refined, for lack of a better term, as the Vekoma models. Nonetheless, it’s a good, fun ride, it’s a great addition, and I think it fits this park wonderfully (LEGOLAND really needed a marginally more thrilling family coaster, in my view):


After my ride on Minifigure Speedway, I headed over to the other coaster in LEGOLAND…
Dragon
The Dragon was on an advertised 55 minute queue, so I decided to take a ride on it. As with Minifigure Speedway, this queue turned out to be reasonably overstated, taking only 40 minutes or so. On a side note; is it me, or does The Dragon have an incredibly short queue music loop? I think it every time I ride it, but I swear that it only has about a 2 minute loop; it started to get a little grating after a 40 minute queue! But enough about the queue; how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 12, and it was a perfectly fine ride! The dark ride section was good, with some brilliant animatronics and smells! As for the outdoor coaster section, it was smooth, and towards the back, it did have some moments of better speed than I’d previously remembered. However, it is definitely showing its age a bit, and it does seem like it hardly gets going before you hit another lift hill or brake run. Overall, though, The Dragon was fun enough for what it is, and the theming in the dark ride section was great:



After my ride on The Dragon, I decided to head to…
Flight of the Sky Lion
Flight of the Sky Lion was on an advertised 60 minute queue, so I decided to have a ride on it. When I looked at the queue, however, I didn’t think it looked like a 60 minute queue. It looked notably shorter than the queue I waited in for it back in 2021, and that queue was itself less than 60 minutes. My hunch was proven correct; the queue was quite notably overstated, taking only 35-40 minutes or so. That’s enough about the queue, however; how was the ride? Well, I have to say that it was absolutely brilliant, and possibly better than I’d remembered from back in 2021! The film on the ride is brilliant; it draws some parallels with Flight of Passage at Animal Kingdom, and it’s a very original premise for a flying theatre! It also has a brilliant soundtrack and brilliant smells, and overall, I think it’s an excellent ride! It’s a very uplifting ride, with a brilliantly immersive film and storyline, and overall, I’d personally say that it’s among my favourite dark rides in the UK:



After my ride on Flight of the Sky Lion, I headed back over to Minifigure Speedway to try and get the other credit. I was psyching myself up to try asking for the Legends side, but I thankfully got assigned it by pot luck without needing to ask. As for the ride itself, I was seated in row 8, and it was similar to the ride I had on Allstars earlier in the day; fast, fun and smooth! However, I’d say it felt a tad punchier, and I’d probably say that I marginally preferred Legends to Allstars, if I had to pick. These coasters are an excellent addition to LEGOLAND overall, however; they’re really good fun and fit the park like a glove. I’ll write a longer review at some stage, but my views of the investment overall are definitely positive:

After my ride on Minifigure Speedway, I decided to head to a dark ride…
Haunted House Monster Party
Haunted House Monster Party was on an advertised 45 minute queue time, so I decided to have a go on it. Continuing the running theme of overstated queue times, the queue time for Haunted House Monster Party was fairly overstated, with the queue actually taking only 15-20 minutes. You can never complain when a queue is overstated, and that was a frequent theme for me at LEGOLAND today! So, how was the ride? Well, it was very good fun! The illusion aspect is always very cleverly executed on these madhouses, and while it’s not quite Hex at Alton Towers, Haunted House Monster Party is a fun and quirky take on the concept! I think the lighting sequence and the whole idea of the ride being a big disco is a really fun concept, and the ride has an awesome soundtrack that really serves to do the concept justice, in my view! Overall, then, Haunted House Monster Party was a good, fun ride that I definitely enjoyed my ride on:


After my ride on Haunted House Monster Party, I decided to head to yet another dark ride…
Lego Ninjago: The Ride
Ninjago was on an advertised 60 minute queue, so I decided to give it a go. I wondered if Ninjago would continue the theme of largely overstated queue times, but Ninjago‘s queue time stayed true to its word, with the queue taking 60-65 minutes. So, how was the ride? Well, I remembered really enjoying Ninjago on my last visit to LEGOLAND in 2021, and today was no exception; the ride was really good fun! I think the shooting technology is very clever, and a very novel concept, even if I probably looked like a complete idiot flailing my arms at a screen! I also think the 3D and screens are good quality in there, the ride system is quite good, and there’s some nice physical theming in there as well, although the ride is mostly screen-based. I will digress that the ride is a little taxing on the arms, with my arms definitely feeling a bit tired by the end of the ride, but overall, Ninjago was really good fun! In terms of my score, I got 45,500, which I was very pleased with given that I am typically very poor at interactive dark rides anyway and was basically flailing my arms around aimlessly with little strategy:

After Ninjago, I had originally intended to go for another ride on Flight of the Sky Lion, but my phone battery was unfortunately flagging. As I was on my own, I did not want to take any risks with regard to my phone battery (I needed my phone for my Uber, train ticket and hotel reservation), so I decided to end my day at LEGOLAND there. It was already around 4:15pm anyway, so given the park closed at 5pm, I would likely only have had one more ride even if I had stayed. Nonetheless, I think some form of portable phone charger or battery pack might be a good investment for the next time I go on a solo trip:

To get out of LEGOLAND, I once again decided to take an Uber. As with earlier, the process worked brilliantly, and I was back in Windsor town centre within around 10-15 minutes.
 
To get to my hotel, I had to go to the other station in Windsor, Windsor & Eton Riverside, and catch a 15 minute train to Staines. The journey went very smoothly, and the very flash South Western Railway train, complete with plug sockets, gave me a prime opportunity to give my phone some much needed charge:


After getting off the train in Staines, I took a short walk to the Staines Premier Inn, my hotel for the night. Check in was very easy, which made for a nice end to the day:

So, that brings the first day of this trip to an end! I had a really good day; it was nice to get back to LEGOLAND, and while I didn’t get on absolutely loads, I was pleased with what I did get on and managed to satisfy my primary aim of getting the +2 of Minifigure Speedway. Those two coasters are good fun, and a great addition to the lineup at LEGOLAND, in my view! LEGOLAND was developing a really solid non-coaster lineup, with dark rides being a particular strength, so it’s nice to see the coaster lineup getting a bit of attention.
 
On a personal note, I was also very pleased with how today went in terms of the logistics. As I mentioned earlier, this is my first ever solo stay away, and compared to earlier solo trips I’ve done, this one has entailed slightly more complexity, so I’m pleased that I’ve managed to pull it off without a hitch thus far (I’m hoping I haven’t tempted fate there…).
 
Thanks for reading; I hope you’ve enjoyed this report! Tomorrow, I’ll be heading to Thorpe Park, so keep your eyes peeled for that report! While my chances of getting on Hyperia aren’t looking terribly good, I rarely have a bad day at Thorpe, particularly on a midweek day in term time, so it should be fun!

15th September 2023: Thorpe Park
Hi guys. Today was an exciting day; it was the day of my dad’s trip to Wentworth, and thus my now annual solo trip to Thorpe Park! I know I’ve been to Thorpe Park many times, but I always look forward to my solo trip there, so I was excited for today!
 
My dad and I left Gloucestershire at around 7:25am this morning, and even with a stop for petrol and a stop at Reading services, we made it to Thorpe Park by around 9:30am. After making brilliant time, I was then dropped off by my dad, so I bade him goodbye before making my way into the park ready to wait for the 10am opening time:




When opening time came, I decided to deviate from my normal strategy of starting with the Stealth/Inferno end of the park and take a gamble on a different strategy. As such, I started on…
Colossus
Colossus was on a near walk on queue, so I decided to have a go on it before a queue built up (it’s a low capacity ride that often generates long queues later on). This queue took merely 1 or 2 trains, so I was on the ride in very little time. I was interested to see how Colossus felt having done Sik, its modernised clone at Flamingo Land, last month. But how was the ride? Well, it did feel notably inferior to Sik, but with that being said, that ride was probably the best I have ever had on Colossus by some margin! Don’t get me wrong, Colossus still isn’t a favourite of mine due to the uncomfortable restraints, a sequence of repeated heartline rolls I don’t overly like (and this sequence was definitely less enjoyable than on Sik for me), and some roughness, but the roughness was nowhere near as overbearing as it normally is; I was sat in row 13, and it was a bit rough in places, but it did not provide nearly the same degree of pounding as it normally does, and today’s ride definitely shot Colossus up a fair few spots in my rankings:



After my ride on Colossus, I had a ride on its neighbour…
Saw: The Ride
Saw was on an advertised 10 minute queue, so I decided to give it a go. My original plan was to use my secret weapon, the Single Rider Queue, to bypass this and take a gamble at reducing my queue time, but this was closed, so I had to get into the main queue. By the time I’d gone into the SRQ (which had an open entrance and 2 other people waiting in it), been ushered out by the operator and gotten into the main queue, the advertised queue time had gone up to 20 minutes, but this was slightly overstated, as I only waited for 15 minutes or so. The queue is besides the point, though; how was the ride? Well, as with Colossus above, that was possibly the best ride I’ve ever had on Saw! I was seated in the back middle seat, and the ride was a bit rough in places, but certainly not as headache-inducing as it has been in the past. There was also some absolutely brilliant airtime, and overall, I came off Saw pretty headache-free this morning! While I would still like it if the ride were smoother, my ride this morning was certainly not nearly as rough as Saw has been in the past:


After my ride on Saw, I headed east to ride my next coaster…
Nemesis Inferno
Nemesis Inferno was on an advertised 10 minute queue, so I decided to take a ride on it. This queue time estimate ended up being broadly accurate, with my wait being around 10-15 minutes; it’s always great when that happens! So, how was the ride? Well, I thought that it was thoroughly great; I rode in row 5, and I thought that the ride was fast and intense without being excessively intense, and it was also perfectly smooth, with not a modicum of headbanging anywhere! When a ride is fast, smooth, and just the right level of intense, what more can you ask for? Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my ride on Nemesis Inferno; I’ve always found it a thoroughly decent coaster, and today was no exception:



After my ride on Nemesis Inferno, I headed to another coaster situated nearby…
Stealth
Stealth was on an advertised 15 minute queue time, so I decided to take a ride on it. The queue time was accurate or possibly a little underestimated, taking only 10-15 minutes to get to the station. Operations were absolutely excellent on here, with a number of consecutive dispatch intervals as quick as 75-80 seconds being attained! As the queue was overstated and I was doing quite well on the ride count front given that I had only been riding for just over an hour, I decided to wait for a little additional time and ride in the front row of Stealth for the first time since my only prior front row experience in 2020, where I got it by chance in batching. So, how was my first front row Stealth ride in 3 years and only my second ever? Well, I have to say that the front row firmly lived up to my memories; it was absolutely fantastic, and it reinforced my prior view that front row is easily the place to be on Stealth! The sense of speed on that launch is absolutely ridiculous in the front, with the combination of the unshielded wind in your face and the view of that track being devoured at a phenomenal rate making the ride feel every single bit of its 80mph top speed, and perhaps surprisingly, I’d also argue that the airtime is stronger in the front, with the airtime being sustained for the entire way over the top hat rather than only dropping out of it like it is in the back and the braked airtime hill being notably more potent in the front. As an added bonus, it also seems slightly smoother in the front! Overall, I absolutely loved my experience of front row Stealth; it was absolutely fantastic:



After Stealth, I went for a ride on the final big coaster I hadn’t yet ridden…
The Swarm
The Swarm was on an advertised 15 minute queue time, so I decided to have a ride on it. This queue ended up being slightly underestimated, with the queue ultimately taking around 20 minutes. I must say that operations were absolutely brilliant on here; there were numerous cycles where there was mere seconds of stacking, and dispatch intervals as quick as 90 seconds were being attained for numerous dispatches in a row! So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in the back right inner seat, and it was a fairly decent ride; there was a very good sense of speed and some great inversions, and it was relatively smooth as well! However, it's not an absolute favourite for me anymore like it used to be. I'm generally finding myself a little less keen on some of the ride's more brain-draining moments of sustained positive g's, most notably the helicopter helix, with time, but my main bone of contention with The Swarm these days is its vest restraints. I'm not a fan of them at all; the rigid vest and the way they tighten throughout the ride do make these restraints detract noticeably from the overall experience. Nonetheless, my ride on Swarm was relatively decent, with all things considered; I'll be intrigued to see how Mandrill Mayhem compares in 2 days' time:



As I had already managed to have one ride on each of Thorpe Park's big 5 thrill coasters by before 12pm, I decided to stray away from the coasters for a little bit to go and ride...
Detonator
Detonator was on an advertised 5 minute queue time, so I decided to take a ride on it. This queue time proved relatively accurate or slightly understated, as the queue took 5-10 minutes and a couple of cycles overall. But how was the ride? Well, I'm a big fan of a drop tower, and Detonator is a very good one, in my view; that drop is so punchy, and you get a fair degree of airtime for such a small tower! Overall, Detonator is a brilliant drop tower that I absolutely love, and today's ride was no exception; these Fabbri towers are a real guilty pleasure of mine:


After my ride on Detonator, I decided to sit down for 15-20 minutes to have a drink and eat lunch, timing the throughput of Colossus as I ate. After my sit down, I headed to another flat ride in the immediate vicinity of Colossus...
Rush
Rush was nearby and on a 10 minute queue, so I decided to have a go on it. This queue time was pretty accurate, with the queue taking 10-15 minutes overall. So, how was the ride? Well, despite not generally being a huge fan of flat rides, I'm a big fan of an S&S Screamin' Swing, and Rush was fantastic; there was an excellent sense of speed and nice acceleration in the troughs, there was nice sustained floater at the peaks, and the ride was thrilling without being overly nauseating! I was also intrigued to see how Rush stacked up after having ridden Serengeti Flyer, the giant Screamin' Swing at Busch Gardens Tampa, earlier this year, and while Rush was not quite as impressive as its giant sibling over in Florida, it still offered a fantastically enjoyable experience in its own right, in my view. Overall, I loved Rush; I thought it was a fantastic flat ride, and I thoroughly enjoyed its airtime and speed:

After my ride on Rush, I headed over to Stealth for two back-to-back rides, as the ride was on an advertised 5 minute queue time which turned out to be pretty much walk-on. When my favourite coaster at Thorpe is on a queue that short, who would I be to resist a ride or two? I took a ride in the front, as well as a ride in the back, and both were absolutely fantastic, although as I inferred earlier, the front row does usurp the back row on Stealth, in my view:



After my two rides on Stealth, I headed over to The Swarm for a reride on a 10 minute queue. This time, I was seated on the row 5 outer right seat, and similarly to earlier, it was a pretty decent ride. It was perhaps a little less smooth, but in fairness, it was notably smoother than I'd previously remembered the ride's outer seats being:




After my Swarm reride, I headed for a reride on Rush on a 5 minute queue. As with earlier, it was a fantastic flat ride with great airtime and speed:

After my reride on Rush, I headed to do an attraction I'd never done before for the first time...
Vortex
Vortex was on an advertised 5 minute queue time and looked to be pretty much walk-on, so I decided to give it a whirl. Despite having visited Thorpe Park numerous times before, I had somehow never ridden Vortex before today, so I thought I'd finally give it a try. Despite controversially having not been a huge fan of the two other gyroswing-type rides I've done (Cyclonator at Paultons and Maelstrom at Drayton), I was interested to try Vortex, as I'd never ridden a KMG Afterburner before and I know these are slightly different to a regular gyroswing. So how did I find the experience? Well, I'm afraid to say that I still wasn't a massive fan. In my view, it suffers from exactly the same flaw as the other two gyroswings I've ridden in that the spinning makes it a little bit much and ruins it. There was some fair weightlessness and speed in places, but it wasn't as potent as on a ride like Rush, and when the ride properly got going, this seemed to disappear in favour of intense spinning, and as someone who has quite a weak stomach for spinning flat rides, I didn't personally find that overly enjoyable. Overall, Vortex is similar to other gyroswings in that I can see why people like it, but it's not really for me:


After Vortex, I decided to head and try out another flat ride that I hadn't done in a long time...
Samurai
Samurai was on a 10 minute advertised queue time, so I decided to give it a go. The queue looked to be a cycle or two long, but as I was a single rider, the host ushered me onto the cycle that was about to go pretty much as soon as I joined, as there was a spare seat; it's always great when that happens! But how was the ride? Well unlike Vortex, I had done Samurai before; it was one of only two rides that I did during a school trip to Thorpe Park in July 2018, with the other being Rush. At the time, I thought it was pretty decent and not too nauseating, and when I first rode it, I even considered that I might have preferred it to Rush out of the two flats I did that day. With this in mind, I was intrigued to see how it stacked up after over 5 years. I'm very sorry to say, however, that my recollections could not have disagreed more with the experience I had today... because I'm afraid that I personally found Samurai absolutely vile. Today's experience moved it down considerably in my estimations and has it in close competition with Air Race at Drayton Manor for the title of the most sickeningly vile flat ride I've ever done. It was horribly jerky, it did that horrible slow flipping like Air Race does (where I swear I can physically feel stuff moving around inside my stomach), it had horribly long periods of inverted hangtime, and overall, I'm sorry to say that I didn't like it at all. Overall, I did not enjoy Samurai, and I'm afraid that it did not live up to my relatively positive 2018 memories of it; I'm not sure if something has changed with the ride or if I've simply grown more fragile over the last 5 years, but for whatever reason, I just didn't like it at all today, I'm afraid:

After getting off Samurai, I felt a little worse for wear and needed a sit down, so I sat down in Angry Birds Land for 15-20 minutes or so to eat a snack out of my bag and have a drink, timing the throughput of Nemesis Inferno as I sat. After my sit down, I headed for a reride on Detonator with a 5 minute queue time, which was just as awesome as it had been earlier; that punchy drop never gets old!:

After my ride on Detonator, I headed back over to Stealth for two more back-to-back rerides on a 10 minute queue; I had a ride in row 9 and another on the front, and both were absolutely fantastic, with a phenomenal sense of speed and great airtime:


After my two rerides on Stealth, I headed for another reride on The Swarm on a 10 minute queue time. I was seated in the row 3 inner left seat this time, and as with earlier, it was a thoroughly decent ride:



After my ride on The Swarm, I headed over to Nemesis Inferno for a reride on a 10 minute queue. I was seated on the back row, and as with earlier, it was a great coaster, with excellent speed and some good inversions:


After my reride on Nemesis Inferno, I headed over to Saw for a reride on a 10 minute queue. I was seated in the back edge seat this time, and similarly to earlier, the ride was very much on the smoother and more enjoyable end of the spectrum as Saw goes; the ride had some excellent airtime, and I exited relatively headache-free!:


After my ride on Saw, I headed back towards the rest of the coasters, but the attendant of Rush saying "there's no queue here; you can get straight onto the ride!" was too much to resist, so I had a walk-on reride on Rush. Once again, it was fantastic, with great speed and airtime:
After my ride on Rush, I had a brief sit down with a bottle of water and a Magnum before heading back over to Stealth, where I had two further back-to-back rides on a 5 minute queue. I had one ride in row 9 and one ride in row 8, and both were just as fantastic as ever; Stealth is such a fantastic coaster, in my view:


After my two rides on Stealth, I headed over to Detonator for another reride on a 5 minute queue. It was a fantastic drop tower once again; that punchy drop and awesome airtime just keep on giving:

After my ride on Detonator, I had my three final back-to-back rides on Stealth for the day on a 5 minute queue. I had one ride in the front, one ride in row 5 and one ride in row 7, and all three were absolutely fantastic! On a side note; I clearly wasn't the only person hammering Stealth today, as the ride operator gave a shoutout to a couple who were having their 20th consecutive ride on it on one of my last rides:

After my final rides on Stealth, I had three back-to-back rides on Nemesis Inferno on a 5 minute queue which turned out to be walk-on. I had a ride on the back row, a ride in row 5 and a ride in row 6, and as with the earlier two rides, all three rides were great, with great speed, intensity and inversions! It was great to be able to make the most of an inverted coaster like this, what with the current absence of Nemesis at Alton Towers:

After my three rides on Nemesis Inferno, I closed out the day with a final ride on Detonator. As with the earlier 3 rides, the drop was fantastically punchy and there was great airtime to be had! I also had quite a unique experience in that I was the only member of the public on the ride, so numerous ride hosts joined me on it:

After my final ride on Detonator, it was only four minutes away from the 6pm close time and my dad was waiting in the drop-off zone in the car park, so I bade Thorpe Park goodbye for the day and headed home:


So, that wraps up my solo day at Thorpe Park! I had an absolutely phenomenal day; I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it's my favourite day I have ever spent at Thorpe Park and quite possibly one of my favourite theme park days ever! I managed a total of 30 rides during the 8 hours I spent on park; if you lost track, these are the rides I managed:
Colossus x1 Saw: The Ride x2 Nemesis Inferno x5 Stealth x10 The Swarm x3 Detonator x4 Rush x3 Vortex x1 Samurai x1 I was chuffed to bits with having done 30 rides; that is joint with my June 2022 day at Drayton Manor for the most rides I've ever done in one theme park day, and my 10 rides on Stealth are the most I have ever ridden one attraction during a theme park day! As an added bonus, the weather was lovely, the rides themselves were absolutely great and I had some brilliant runs on them, and overall, it was one of those wonderful days where the stars aligned and everything seemed to go just right! If I'm being sentimental, it's theme park days like today that remind me why I love theme parks and roller coasters as much as I do. My day at Thorpe today has left me with some absolutely wonderful memories to cherish, and I have to say that in some of the moments lapping rides like Stealth and Nemesis Inferno, I felt truly in my element and like there was nowhere I'd rather be.
 
In terms of Thorpe itself; I have to admit that today made me realise that as much as enthusiasts seemingly love to hate it, I personally absolutely love Thorpe Park! The coasters are great, there's some great theming and surprising greenery in places, and there's just something about the place that I really like! In terms of a specific highlight ride-wise from today; Stealth was absolutely fantastic. Today's rides definitely raised it a fair amount in my estimations, and I now view it as my comfortable favourite ride at Thorpe Park, one of my favourite coasters in the UK and in my high top 20 overall. Nemesis Inferno was also awesome, Detonator was fantastic, Rush was fantastic, Swarm was decent, Saw was OK, and even Colossus was not nearly as bad as normal!
 
Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed this report! My next trip report will be coming on Sunday, when I make a solo trip to Chessington for my first visit in 9 years! I can't wait to see what Mandrill Mayhem is like, and I'm generally very interested to see what Chessington is like after nearly a decade of not visiting. Today will certainly be a tough act for it to follow, but if my day at Chessington is even half as brilliant as today was, then I'll be very happy!

9th September 2023: Brean Theme Park
Hi guys. Today was an exciting day; I went for my first ever visit to Brean Theme Park, near Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset! Now I know that that might not sound too exciting to many of you, but I was glad to finally tick it off seeing as it’s actually my closest semi-major theme park! Oddly given that I’ve lived in the South West of England my whole life and amassed a coaster count of over 100, I had never been to Brean Theme Park (or any theme park in my local South West region, for that matter) before today. I’d walked past the outside of it during a camping trip to Brean when I was no older than about 8, but I’d never been inside and seen what delights it had to offer. With that in mind, I was excited to tick off my closest non-kiddie +3 and finally see what my closest theme park is like!
 
I was originally planning to do this as a solo trip via train and bus, but my mum decided she didn’t like the idea of me going to Brean alone and kindly offered to drive me there, and my nan decided that she fancied joining us. The 3 of us set off from Gloucestershire at a bit before 10am, and with the drive taking just over an hour, we arrived in Brean in very good time for the 11am opening time:

After parking up, we headed into the park and got Fun Cards. As I was riding the coasters, I put 14 credits on mine, and my mum and nan put credits on theirs to play a game of Congo Adventure Golf while I rode the coasters. After paying, I split off from my mum and nan and headed into the main theme park itself:

Upon entering the park, I was initially unsure whether any of the coasters were even open, as they looked very empty and showed little sign of being operational. However, I did find one coaster that was open upon closer inspection, so I headed over to it…
Astro Storm
Astro Storm was open and had a very short-looking queue consisting of around 6 people, so I decided to take a ride on it. This queue ended up taking around 10-15 minutes all in, which I wasn’t too displeased with, in all honesty. Interestingly, though, I noticed that the operators were very casually walking across the track and between the unload and load stations in a way that you definitely wouldn’t see at a park like Alton Towers, and it’s also the first coaster where I’ve ever had the operator push me out of the station! That’s not a criticism, but just something interesting I noticed. But enough about that; how was the ride? Well, I was interested to ride it given that it was a former resident of Blackpool Pleasure Beach, and I have to say that it wasn’t too bad at all for a ride at a park of this calibre! Sure, it’s not going to blow any minds on the world stage, and I’d argue that the claim that it’s “Europe’s best indoor coaster” is a bit debatable, but the ride was quite good fun for what it is, with some fun twists and turns! I was also quite pleasantly surprised by the theming; there were some nice effects, although there were quite a few air cannons that did make me jump! Overall, Astro Storm was a perfectly fine enclosed coaster with some surprising theming:



After getting off Astro Storm, I headed over to the next coaster…
Bulldog Coaster
Bulldog Coaster was open and on a very short queue consisting of only 2 other people, so I decided to have a go on it. The wait was very short, only taking the time that it took for the train to negotiate the remainder of the circuit and unload the riders in it; I can’t complain about that! So, how was the ride? Well, it was the second Pinfari coaster I’ve ridden, and the first looping Pinfari Zyklon I’ve ridden, and similar to the first Pinfari coaster I rode, Creepy Crawler at Oakwood, I wasn’t a huge fan. The restraint was very uncomfortable, and although the signature loop was admittedly quite forceful, the layout was pretty rough in numerous places, with a fair amount of bracing required. It’s admittedly an impressive headliner for a park like Brean, but I’m afraid to say that I wasn’t a fan:



After getting off Bulldog Coaster, I made my way to the final credit I needed…
Magic Mouse
Magic Mouse was open and had a relatively short-looking queue consisting of around 10-15 people, so I decided to take a ride on it. This queue, similarly to that of Astro Storm, took around 10-15 minutes, which I can’t really complain about. I did notice that they were only loading one group per car regardless of the group size, though, and it was similar on Astro Storm; I rode in a car on my own on both rides, even though I could quite easily have been batched in alongside other groups that came before me in both cases. It wasn’t really a problem today, but it was just something I noticed. That’s besides the point, though; how was the ride? Well, Magic Mouse was my 7th Reverchon spinning wild mouse coaster, so I’m quite well versed in how these coasters ride by this point, and I’m not a fan of them at all, as I’m not a fan of the wild mouse ride style in general. This was one of the smoother ones I’ve done, though, and with me being in a car on my own, it span a lot; I was a little bit light-headed getting off! Overall, Magic Mouse was pretty much par-for-the-course for these Reverchon spinning coasters; I don’t really rate them at all, I’m afraid:



After getting off Magic Mouse, it was around 12pm, so as my Fun Card credits had run out and I’d ridden all 3 of the coasters I wanted to ride, I met back up with my mum and nan, who’d finished their game of Congo Adventure Golf. They both tied with each other, but said that they’d very much enjoyed their game!
 
After meeting back up, we exited the park:

Before heading back home, we took a stroll along a very foggy Brean Beach. This must easily be the foggiest I’ve ever seen a beach; you couldn’t even see the sea!:




After our brief beachside stroll, we headed back to the car and headed home, stopping in Sedgemoor services for a spot of lunch on the way back.
 
So, that concludes our day (or, more accurately, morning) at Brean Theme Park in Somerset! I know this probably hasn’t been the most exciting report, and I apologise for that, but I was very glad to finally visit my closest theme park and grab the +3 that it had to offer, and if nothing else, it made for a fun morning on a hot day like today! None of the coasters are anything particularly earth-shattering in the grand scheme of things, but I didn’t go in expecting top 10/20 candidates or anything, and for a park of the calibre that it is, I think Brean is a perfectly fine place. Now I’ve been, it’s not somewhere I’d rush back to, but I’m glad that I finally went and ticked off my closest theme park, and I had a nice morning there.
 
Thanks for reading! Despite this probably not being the most interesting report, I hope you still enjoyed it! It won’t be long at all until you next see a trip report from me, as I’m headed to two theme parks next week; I’ll be taking my annual visit to Thorpe Park on Friday 15th September, swiftly followed by my first visit to Chessington in nearly a decade on Sunday 17th September!

20th June 2022 (Alton Towers Day 2)
We had Day 2 in the park today! We got up fairly early and as we were staying in the Alton Towers Hotel, we had somewhat of a head-start (or I did, anyway; my mum and Nan joined me later); even though Early Ride Time is no longer offered, the park opens its gates early to allow you to get to your first ride and queue for it before opening time, and staying in the hotel will naturally allow you to get here ahead of the regular day guests, which is always a bonus:


As such, I decided to take advantage of this and head into the park at about 9:25am and head to an area that often gets long queues later on; Dark Forest. I started on…
Rita
Rita often gets a long queue later on, so I decided to give it a go early on. I watched the ride test for a bit, and I was one of very few people waiting in the area. As such, when the ride opened at around 10:05am, I discovered that I would be on the very first ride of the day, which is an achievement I’ve never had before! So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 5, and the ride was more pleasurable than yesterday’s, with less rattle and some phenomenal airtime, as well as a launch that’s punchy as ever and absolutely supercharged pacing! Perhaps controversially, I do like Rita, and it was a great way to start the day:


After Rita, I decided to tackle the other coaster in the area…
Thirteen
Like Rita, Thirteen was on a walk-on queue, so I decided I may as well give it a go while I was in the area. I wasn’t 100% sure of this, so wouldn’t like to claim that I was, but it looked as though I may have made the first ride of the day on Thirteen as well; the train in front of me was empty, and the station looked deserted when I arrived! So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated directly on the back, and it was excellent; I once again experienced multiple moments of cracking airtime during the outdoor section, the twisty sections were great fun, the ride was blissfully smooth, and the indoor section was a good laugh as always! I‘ve got to say, I think Thirteen is definitely a back row coaster, based on my memories of the front:

After Thirteen, my mum and Nan entered the park, and we attempted to ride Thirteen together. We got as far as the station, and I was even batched into the front row… but the ride broke down. We stood in the station for about 15 minutes or so, hoping that the issue would be resolved quickly, but they eventually closed the queue line.
 
With that in mind, we left the queue. I initially went off to ride Oblivion, on an advertised 0 minute queue. However, the queue looked much longer than 0 minutes by the time I arrived in X-Sector, so I instead decided to rejoin my mum and Nan so we could all ride…
Wicker Man
Wicker Man was on an advertised 55 minute queue, so we decided to give it a go. Interestingly, the queue only took 35 minutes as opposed to the advertised 55, which is always a bonus! Although this could have been in part due to a rather interesting quirk with the pre-show, where both the doors remained open. As such, no one watched it; we were just filtered straight through the room, and the show just started running to no audience while everyone was piling into the station! My mum and Nan were very happy that we didn’t have to watch it, and I have to admit that as much as I do like Wicker Man's pre-show, not watching it did shave off some time getting on the ride and make the experience less uncomfortable. So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 8, and it was phenomenal; relentlessly fast and full of airtime just as it had been yesterday! We all thoroughly enjoyed it:


After Wicker Man, I headed over to X-Sector to ride…
The Smiler
I hadn’t done The Smiler yet today, so I decided to give it a go. The advertised queue was 70 minutes, and it was spilling well into the pit, but I once again used my secret weapon... the single rider queue! But the question is; how much shorter would my queue be today? Well, today was where single rider really came into its own... that queue was walk on, and I waltzed straight into row 2! I actually felt a bit naughty using the single rider queue today, as it basically felt like I was using Fastrack without paying for it... even though single riding via the SRQ is technically allowed, it felt a bit wrong to walk onto the ride when the main queue was 70 minutes. But how was the ride? Well, I'm afraid it was similarly rough to yesterday's; definitely not the most enjoyable:



After Smiler, I couldn't leave X-Sector without having a go on...
Oblivion
Oblivion was on a 25 minute advertised queue, so I decided to give it a go. I did wonder upon joining whether the queue might be longer than 25 minutes, as it was stretching all the way to the tunnel underneath the station where the Lord of Darkness talks about the psychological effects of Oblivion (the longest queue I've seen for it in a while). However... it only ended up taking 10-15 minutes, and this was due to some of the best operations I have ever seen on the ride; they were throwing shuttles out at a rate of knots, my measured throughput average for Oblivion exceeded 1,000 riders per hour for the first ever time, and on 5 shuttles, we were only stacking at the end for a few seconds at most (for some idea, seasoned visitors to Alton Towers will know that you typically stack for a long time on Oblivion). Phenomenal work! So, how was the ride? Well, I was on the front row, and I actually enjoyed it slightly more than yesterday's ride! The sustained airtime was once again phenomenal, but the sense of speed, while phenomenal everywhere, seemed slightly enhanced on the front, for some reason:

After my ride on Oblivion, I met back up with my mum and nan, and me and mum rerode Wicker Man on an advertised 35 minute queue. Interestingly, we watched the pre-show this time; clearly the pre-show skipping on our first ride was just a one-time issue! The queue still only took 25-30 minutes, though, so that wasn't an issue by any stretch. As for the ride, I was seated in row 8 once again, and the ride was phenomenal once again:


We then had some lunch before I wandered over to Forbidden Valley to ride...
Nemesis
Nemesis was on an advertised 25 minute queue, so I decided to give it a go. This queue ended up being pretty accurate, possibly slightly understated, taking 20-25 minutes; always a bonus! So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 6 on an inner seat, and it was good, although slightly jolty in places. This wasn't a dealbreaker by any means, and I've ridden far rougher coasters, but it did detract ever so slightly from the ride for me:


After Nemesis, I took a ride on the other Forbidden Valley B&M...
Galactica
Galactica was on an advertised 25 minute queue, so I decided to give it a go. The queue was overstated, only taking 15 minutes in the end; always a bonus! The operations on Galactica were top notch this afternoon; the ride was running 3 trains and both stations, yet we didn't stack on the brake run at all. My throughput average for Galactica was 1,221pph, which was the highest I measured all trip; terrific work! So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in the back row, and as I said yesterday, it's not my favourite coaster; it's OK, but I do find the flying position inherently uncomfortable, and I'm also not a fan of the fly to lie, where it dumps you on your back for a sustained period. With that being said, however, the ride did feel a bit faster on the back, and bits of the layout itself are really quite good fun; it's just that I don't particularly enjoy that flying position at all:


After Galactica, it was getting on for 2:30pm, and my mum and nan were wanting to head home. As such, we headed out the hotel entrance and closed out our day there.
 
So in conclusion, we had a brilliant Alton Towers trip! It was great to get back to the park for my first 2022 visit, and I had many great rides! In particular, Wicker Man delivered as well as it ever did, with some of my best ever rides on it being had this trip, Oblivion was awesome, and Thirteen has gone up a fair amount in my estimations; it was unexpectedly brilliant this trip!
 
Thanks for reading; I hope you've enjoyed my reports!
 

19th June 2022 (Alton Towers Day 1)
Hi guys. After having started 2022 with some slightly more unusual (compared to what I usually visit, anyway) parks, I today returned to slightly more familiar turf; Alton Towers, my most visited theme park of all time! My mum found a very good deal on an Alton Towers Hotel stay, with 1 night in a standard room with park tickets only costing £107pp, so we thought it would be an absolute no brainer to go and spend 2 days at Alton Towers! Interestingly, my Nan has also joined us for her first Alton Towers trip in 3 years (she came with us in 2019), with a ride on Wicker Man in her sights after it was closed on her 2019 visit (it was one of her most anticipated rides after we’d hyped it up).
 
We left Gloucestershire at around 7:30am, with us getting to the resort at a little after 10am. One key upshot of staying in a resort hotel was that we were able to walk in through the hotel guest entrance, which I have never done before! As such, we were in the park by 10:30am:


After entering, we headed to our first ride…
Galactica
Galactica was on an advertised 25 minute queue, so we decided to give it a go. Interestingly, this queue ended up being vastly overstated, as we waltzed straight into the station and only had a one cycle wait; always a bonus! So, how was the ride? Well, I’ve got to say that Galactica isn’t my favourite coaster, as I find the flying position and some of the extended elements on your back that come with it a bit uncomfortable, but it didn’t seem quite as uncomfortable as my last ride was, for some reason, which was good. Also, we got front row, which is always a bonus! Overall, while not my favourite ride, Galactica was all right, and a good way to start the day:


After Galactica, I tackled the other Forbidden Valley B&M…
Nemesis
Nemesis was on an advertised 5 minute queue, so I decided to give it a go. The queue times board didn’t lie; it was a station wait! So, how was it? Well, I was seated in a row 3 outer seat, and it was good! Just the right amount of force, no headbanging; great stuff! There was a light rattle, but this was very negligible and had no major impact on enjoyment. Overall, it was a great ride:



After that ride, I actually decided to go straight back round again for another ride on Nemesis; with a queue that short, it would have been rude not to! This time, I was seated in row 4 on an outer seat, and unfortunately, there was some headbanging present on 1 or 2 of the inversions, as well as a bit more of a judder than the last ride, which detracted from it a tad compared to last time. Still, this impact wasn’t major, and the ride was still very enjoyable!
 
When all is said and done; as much as I don’t rate Nemesis nearly as highly as I know many do, and inverts aren’t as much my kind of thing as some other types of ride, it is a cracking coaster, and I’m very glad they’re saving it. Many of my niggles with Nemesis at this point are more signs of age than anything inherently wrong with the ride, which I’m hopeful the retrack might go some way towards rectifying. I look forward to seeing how it rides when it’s been retracked!
 
After Nemesis, we met back up, and we headed over to…
Duel
Duel was nearby and on a walk-on queue, so we decided to give it a go. My mum tried to coax my Nan on Duel, but to no avail; my Nan refused to go in, so it was just me and my mum. Interestingly, the ride actually broke down for around 5 minutes shortly after we sat down in our vehicle. This meant that even when the ride did restart, we crawled through the initial scenes at a staggeringly slow pace, with the themed audio being replaced by a continuous loop of “please remain seated; the ride will restart shortly”, which made for an… interesting experience, to say the least; the themed audio didn’t start until a good couple of scenes in! So, how was the ride? Well, given that there has been a considerable amount of discussion online surrounding the ride’s future and the state that it is currently in, I was expecting it to be pretty awful, with a lot broken… but I didn’t think the ride looked nearly as bad as online comments suggest. Sure, it wasn’t working perfectly (a few targets were broken, and my mum’s blaster cut out halfway through the ride), and it is perhaps showing its age a tad now, but all of the main jumpscares were working, and overall, I thought it was a good, fun ride that still delivered on its intended theme and premise very well; my mum commented on how she thought it was surprisingly scary, so it’s clearly still delivering its punches! The breakdown also benefitted my score in an unexpected way due to the slower speed giving me more time to rack up points in the initial scenes; as such, I got a new personal best of 11,500:

After Duel, we met back up with my Nan, and we headed on a little further to ride…
Runaway Mine Train
Runaway Mine Train was on an advertised 25 minute queue, so we decided to give it a go. This ended up being pretty accurate, which is always good! So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 10, and it was great fun! The ride kept up good speed throughout for a powered coaster, and that tunnel helix never disappoints! My Nan liked it as well; she commented on how “it’s faster than it looks”! Overall, I think RMT is a great, fun ride, and a definite guilty pleasure of mine; it’s definitely one of my favourite powered coasters, and a ride that definitely punches far above its weight in fun factor given its calibre, in my opinion:

After Runaway Mine Train, we decided to head over to Mutiny Bay and warm up in Sharkbait Reef, as it was drizzling and getting surprisingly fresh at this point in the day given it’s the middle of June. It is a nice walkthrough to use as a 10 or 15 minute time killer; it’s well themed and has a surprising amount of animals in it:

After Sharkbait Reef, we headed to a hotly anticipated ride…
Wicker Man
Wicker Man was on a 30 minute advertised queue, so we decided to give it a go. Now this was a hotly anticipated ride for everyone in our party; my mum and me, perhaps controversially, share it as a favourite ride on park, and my Nan was keen to ride after missing out on it on her 2019 visit; it was closed both days, and she’d been slightly bitter about it ever since! I was also very interested to ride Wicker Man again because since my last visit to Alton Towers, I have visited Europa Park and ridden Wodan, a larger GCI that really blew me away, so I was interested, and somewhat nervous, to see whether Wicker Man still held up for me. The queue time ended up being somewhat understated, with us ultimately waiting 45-50 minutes; the ride appeared to be struggling more than usual to maintain a consistent dispatch interval, and I think there may have been some form of reliability issues while we were waiting. Anyway, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 8, and I shouldn’t have been worried, because the ride was absolutely phenomenal; that was easily one of the best Wicker Man rides I’ve ever had! The ride was absolutely relentless, and had absolutely stacks of airtime; there were so many bits where I was hurled out of the seat brilliantly, and I wasn’t even on the back! The ride was brilliantly smooth as well, and really comfortable as woodies go; perhaps surprisingly given that I’ve now ridden Wodan, the ride honestly fared better in my memories than I’d remembered from my previous visit, and I’d genuinely say that there’s less of a gap between Wicker Man and Wodan than I’d previously thought! I’d still give Wodan the edge, as I think it does have slightly stronger airtime and a certain dementedness that Wicker Man can’t quite match, but there’s not tons in it by any means; Wicker Man was phenomenal, and my Nan thoroughly enjoyed it as well:



After Wicker Man, we sat down and ate lunch for 20 minutes or so before I headed off to ride…
Oblivion
Oblivion was on an advertised 20 minute queue, so I decided to give it a go. I split off to do this while my mum and Nan were finishing lunch, as my mum hates Oblivion with a passion and my Nan instantly ruled it out on the basis of how thrilling and intense it looked. The queue only took 15 minutes instead of 20, which was a definite bonus! So, how was the ride? Well, it was fantastic; I do absolutely love Oblivion, and today’s back row ride was no different; the sustained air off the drop was absolutely sublime, and the sense of speed in the tunnel was truly unrivalled! Not to mention, the bonus airtime pop into the brake run delivered a surprising amount as well! Overall, Oblivion was running very well indeed, and it truly cemented the ride’s high rating for me; I apologise if this is controversial, but it’s my favourite UK B&M:


After Oblivion, I briefly met back up with my mum and Nan before once again splitting off to ride…
The Smiler
The Smiler was on an advertised 30 minute queue, so I decided to give it a go. As I was riding alone, I decided to do something I’ve never done on Smiler before, and use a benefit very seldom seen at Merlin parks these days; I used the single rider queue! As such, I ended up halving the advertised queue time, only waiting 15 minutes as opposed to the advertised 30; great stuff! So, how was the ride? Well, I was situated in an outer seat on the front row, and I’m afraid it wasn’t one of the more pleasurable rides I’ve had on The Smiler. It did seem quite rough for a front row ride, with a fair few head bashing jolts, and when combined with the fact that the ride makes me feel somewhat strange anyway even when it’s riding smooth, it did leave me feeling a bit battered and bruised getting off. This might not have been helped by the fact that the restraint was surprisingly tight on my… sensitive area, and it got a proper walloping during one of the jolts, which did leave me feeling somewhat in pain getting off. Smiler is a ride I really want to like, and I do try to go on it with an open mind every time I ride it, as I do like the idea of the layout for what it is and I think it’s a very inspired piece of design, but I’m sorry to say that I never really warm to it, and that was exacerbated today with the fact it wasn’t overly comfortable either:



After Smiler, I met back up with my mum and Nan, and we headed over to ride…
Gangsta Granny: The Ride
Gangsta Granny was on a 30 minute advertised queue, so we decided to give it a go. Me and my mum thought that Gangsta Granny was a ride that Nan might like, so we were intrigued to see her response. The queue didn’t look very long at all at first glance, but did end up taking the advertised 30 minutes, as it moved rather slowly; I did not time the throughput, but it can’t have been very high. So, how was the ride? Well, I really enjoyed it; I thought it was a very nice dark ride when I rode it in 2021, and I thought the same today; there’s some very nice physical set pieces and some very nice screens as well, and I do quite like the ride system! Nan liked it as well! On a side note, did it always have a bubble machine? I swear it didn’t have a bubble machine in 2021…:



After Gangsta Granny, we headed over to Dark Forest to ride…
Thirteen
Thirteen was on an advertised 20 minute queue, so we decided to give it a go. This wait time ended up being pretty accurate, which is always a bonus! So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 8, and I have to say that that might have been the best ride I’ve ever had on Thirteen; it was absolutely brilliant! Thirteen, while never devoid of it by any means, was never a ride that I would have described as having overly strong airtime. But today, there were 1 or 2 pops of airtime that properly yanked us out of our seats and properly surprised me! The first drop was excellent, with a brilliant pop of airtime that had me well out of my seat, and there was an airtime hill elsewhere in the outdoor section that really threw me up in the air, as well as the odd fun tickles of floater air that Thirteen has always been good at providing! The ride also had good intensity throughout both the outdoor and indoor sections, as well as impeccable smoothness and comfort! Not to mention, that drop track and backwards section were a great laugh as always! Overall, Thirteen was fantastic; it’s a ride that has grown on me a lot over the years, and today’s ride took it up another notch in my estimations. Yes, it might not be the most intense coaster, but it is brilliant fun; I have grown to like it a lot:


After Thirteen, my mum and Nan were growing tired and headed on to the hotel room, leaving me to my own devices for the reminder of the day. As such, I then went and rode…
Rita
Rita was on an advertised 20 minute queue, so I decided to give it a go. The queue ended up being slightly longer than advertised, instead taking nearly 30 minutes, but this wasn’t really an issue; I was hardly pressed for time. So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 5, and it was good fun, although a touch more rattly than many of my recent rides, which detracted slightly. It must be said, though, that the ride remains a damn sight smoother and more enjoyable than I’d remembered it being in years gone by; the rattle that it had today was more a minor niggle than a true dealbreaker like its pre-2016 roughness used to be for me. And putting that aside, I actually think Rita has a surprising amount going for it. Yes, the layout isn’t the most interesting, but the launch is brilliantly punchy, the ride is fast paced, and an often overlooked element of Rita that I think really delivers is its airtime. There are 2 or 3 legitimately strong moments of ejector airtime, and even though the ride has OTSRs, these still deliver! Overall, I had a good, fun ride on Rita; yes, the rattle detracted a tad for me today, but I still really enjoyed it overall, and I think it gets a very unfair amount of criticism, myself:

After Rita, I went for a walk-on reride on Oblivion. I was once again seated in the back row, and it was once again awesome, with some biblical sustained air and speed:

After my Oblivion reride, I closed out the day with a reride on Wicker Man. Even though I was seated in the middle, the ride was just as phenomenal as it had been earlier; the pacing was relentless, and I was almost standing over some of the airtime pops! It was a truly brilliant ride to close out the day with:


After my ride on Wicker Man, I made my way to Towers Street and exited the park to head back to the Alton Towers Hotel for my first stay in 3 years. Interestingly, we were upgraded to a Moon Voyager Room in spite of having only booked a Standard Room, and I’m certainly not complaining; the room is lovely:


After a sit down in the hotel for about an hour and a half, we headed back down the golden path for an evening meal at the Rollercoaster Restaurant. I’ve dined at this restaurant 3 times now, and I absolutely love it; it’s such a brilliant novelty, the food is perfectly nice for what it is, and it’s possibly one of Alton Towers’ greatest nostalgia moves, in my opinion; all the old concept art and footage of coasters is absolutely captivating:


After our Rollercoaster Restaurant meal, we headed back to the hotel and closed out our day.
 
So in conclusion, we had a brilliant day at Alton Towers! I got a fair amount done (14 attractions in total), and there were some brilliant rides ridden! Wicker Man was phenomenal, and on absolute top form on both rides, Oblivion was fantastic, Thirteen was surprisingly brilliant… I could go on, because there were so many great rides today!
 
Thanks for reading! Join me tomorrow for Day 2 of our trip!

I finally did it: I finally went to America for some creds. Before my trip at the start of June, I'd only done European parks, so it was hugely exciting.

Before getting to it, here's a setting the scene sorta dealy.

This trip had been a long time in the works. Early plans can be traced back to March 2021, which was going to be a Cedar Point + others trip. But that fell through. Still wanting to go out to the States for some creds, I looked at other possible ideas. I could do Orlando / California or similar, but not being a big Disney fan, their draws were weak, and I didn't really have a clue where to start with booking that sort of trip. Resorting to the easier-for-me-to-plan road trip, I quickly honed in towards flying to Philadelphia, and then hitting up some of the big parks there.

The plan was to fly into Philly, have a day to get accustomed to the country, then do Hersheypark, Kings Dominion, Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Six Flags America, Knoebels and Dorney (in one day) and Six Flags Great Adventure. There were some long journey times between the parks, but heyho, I've done long drives and was fine, so I'm sure this'll be fine.

The build up to the trip was...hectic. The day after I landed, I was moving flat (for a new job I started last week). My mum is also in the process of moving flat, so I'd been helping her out too. I had finished my temp job only a couple of days before flying out too, which didn't give me much time to generally sort out everything in life.

But anyway, I made my way to Heathrow bright and early...and headed to the wrong terminal. My flight was from Terminal 3...I got off the free shuttle bus at Terminal 2. D'oh! Fortunately, it's only a short walk between the terminals, and soon enough I was checked in and in a long security line. Small spoilers: the security queue was one of the longest of the trip! But soon enough, I was on the plane and ready for the 7-8hr flight.

Long haul flying was fine for me. Wasn't quite sure how I'd find it, but my American Airlines flight was comfortable, the food was acceptable, and I was able to pass the time by watching Stranger Things 4. Soon enough, I'd landed in Philadelphia.

And oh boy, it was hot. Midday local time and it was 35C (oops, I'm in America now, that's....95F). I'm not someone who particularly enjoys the heat (another reason why I was unsure about doing a trip to Orlando). But hey, I'd manage, America has aircon in most places, and I'd adjust soon enough...

I collected my hire car no problems. This was actually the first time I'd ever hired a car, and my first time driving on "the other side" of the road. On top of that, it was my first time driving an automatic, and only the third different car I'd ever driven since passing my test 4 years ago. So just a few firsts. I took my time to get used to it before heading off to a nearby-ish Walmart to get some drinks and snacks. This 20 minute drive to Walmart didn't serve me well though. Driving wasn't difficult, but I made the odd little mistake and just didn't feel wholly comfortable whilst driving. I guess that's understandable and to be expected within context, but still, it played on my mind a bit.

I carried on to my first motel of the trip and arrived in one piece. Woo, much success. But I still didn't get that comfortable feeling with driving. My excitement and elation for the trip and parks ahead turned to one of worry. "How on earth will I manage all the driving to come feeling like this?". Of course, I was hot, bothered and tired. And then thoughts came flooding into my head..."If I feel like this now, how will I feel after 8 hours outside at a park, then having to do a 1.5-2hr drive?", "How will I manage that for a week straight?", "I'm not sure if I can do this". I'm, err, not the most confident person, and I think this whole thought process shows that.

I tried to cast these thoughts to one side and had a spot of dinner from a lovely little restaurant just opposite the motel I was at. But these thoughts played on my mind still. I tried looking at all the drives I had for the next couple of days to try and ease my concerns, but that did little to help me. The first two parks were to be Hersheypark and Kings Dominion, and they weren't a short distance apart. Knoebels and Dorney, parks much closer to Hersheypark, were shut the day after my Hershey trip, so I couldn't change the order to do shorter drives before doing longer drives.

In the end, I got inside my head so much that I changed the trip a bit more dramatically. I hadn't booked park tickets due to my lack of organisation. Most of the motels/hotels I booked were free to cancel until 23:59 the day before arrival. So I wasn't going to lose any money.
Gone were Kings Dominion, Busch and SFA, the three parks which were a huge drive away.
The one motel I couldn't cancel was one which was between Dorney and SFGAd.
So the trip changed into:
Hersheypark: 2 days
Knoebels
Free day
Dorney
SFGAd

It made the trip feel less daunting with the driving. It did take out a big chunk of creds, and I was particularly looking forward to Busch / Pantheon. But ultimately, in the moment, I just didn't feel I could do it. In hindsight, it all feels a bit stupid. I'm sure everything would have been fine. I got more used-to and comfortable with driving quick enough. Maybe I should have planned the trip better to build up to longer drives? Maybe I should tried hiring a car on a smaller like (like my recent Hamburg one, where I changed my mind late on about driving too)? Maybe I should have gotten out of my own head / slept on it? Maybe I should have booked everything earlier to force me to do these things? Whatever I should have done, it's done now.
 
And now onto Day 1, which was my first day at Hersheypark...
 
It was June 1st, and again it was hot. The drive from my motel to Hersheypark was about an hour, so I set off in good time. I passed Dutch Wonderland en route - a park which was closed on that day, but I made a note that I could possibly do it on my free day if I wanted. The drive to Hershey wasn't without stress, with my phone losing internet connection just before I was due to go on Route 283, making me very nervous I was going the wrong way. Fortunately, I rolled up at 10ish - huzzah, I was finally at my first American park!

I really enjoyed the entrance plaza area: smart and well-presented, with the lovely view of a B&M hyper to boot. Plus, with the shop open, the hour before open flew by.

Whilst waiting for the park to open, I realised I hadn't planned out my day at all. I knew roughly what creds the park had, but didn't know the layout of the park or anything. Candymonium was open for season pass holder ERT and right by the entrance, so that was a no-go. Skyrush is bound to be popular, so maybe not there. After a brain wave, I remembered about a particular ride which gets long queues. So whilst the masses made their way to the park's hypers and whatever else, I made a beeline to...
Laff Trakk! Yep, my first American coaster was an indoor spinner. It was...okay. There's an attempt with theming and all that, but it just comes across as a bit tacky sadly. And the layout didn't really do it for me. So very much a one and done for me.

Carrying on the theme of low-throughput, bog standard coasters, I ticked off the nearby Wild Mouse. It was bog standard. Jesus, I've flown 3500miles for some tacky rubbish I could have gotten at the British seaside...It's time to throw in something better. So it was time for Wildcat. GCI's first coaster - a fact I'd forgotten at the time - does have a decent layout, and is filled with some neat moments. At the same time, it does give off vibes of 'Our first coaster', but you can see what they wanted to do, and how they've refined their coasters with newer models. A decent family-thrill ride for the park.

The park had only been open 15 minutes, and I'd ticked off 3 creds. The temperatures were soaring, so now felt like an appropriate time to ride Celsius.
Wait, no, I'm in America. Let me try that again.
It felt like an appropriate time to ride Fahrenheit.
An Intamin multi inversion coaster with a vertical lift and beyond vertical drop - it's either going to be amazing, or bloody dreadful right?

It was at this point I learnt to not trust the Hersheypark app too much. The app does give queue times for all the rides, but it said Fahrenheit was only 5 minutes, despite it clearly being more. I hesitated a guess at around 20 minutes, and an update came from soon enough advertising 15 minutes. Ended up taking a nice, round 40 minutes. Ooft. Thank goodness for the misters in the queue line though - they were a godsend!

I'll channel my inner MattN now...how was the ride? Well, it wasn't amazing, but it wasn't bloody dreadful. It fell firmly into the "good" category. The layout is surprisingly fun, and the airtime towards the end of the ride took me by surprise. The cobra roll was extremely "vibrate-y", but not in a rough way, which was...odd. I wasn't a fan of the clunky restraints though. So it was definitely good, but this was also something that really needed a reride at some point to determine just how good.

It has a pretty colour scheme too

I then double-backed on myself to go to the park's duelling woodies: Lightning Racer. I hadn't done them earlier as they opened late, but now seemed like a good time to pick them up. And I have to say, I really enjoyed these. Quick-paced, nice interaction with each other and great coasters in their own right. I wasn't a fan of how it seemed like the Thunder side would win every single time; seems like a bit of a flaw there.

Whilst I didn't want to make immediate comparisons, I make it no secret that I love Joris en de Draak at Efteling, so it was hard not to. And to be honest, Lightning Racer definitely feels like an attraction that walked, so Joris could run. Joris sees what Lightning Racer does, learns from its mistakes, and refines what it does well. Hersheypark is filled with "learning GCIs" it seems.
Aside #1: I didn't take photos of Wildcat or LR. Clearly I have something against taking bad photos of GCIs.
Aside #2: The Lightning (right) side of Lightning Racer was my 250th. Yay.

With the creds in that area ticked off, I went a bit more centrally into the park. With stomach grumbling, I decided to pick up a snack. Oooo, finally time to try out some American park food!! A funnel cake standard was nearby, so naturally I gravitated towards there...
It was blooming huge! Is this just American portion sizes? Are they meant to be shared? Did I buy a sharing one? I dunno, but I wasn't going to complain.

After eating a bit more than expected, I decided another cred might not be best straight away, instead opting for the nearby shooting darkride, Reece's Cupfusion. I like shooters, and I was intrigued by this. I was taken back a bit by the layout going up and down; thought that was a bit quirky. But the best way to describe this (from a European's standpoint) is like a discount/budget Bazyliszek at Legendia. It has screens as well as 2D props (some move, some don't). But it all feels a little bit on the cheap side, and a little bit lazy. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad, and I had fun, but really, for a park of Hershey's size and grandeur, I was expecting something a bit better.

With that done, it was time for another cred. And I opted for hopeful quality over 'just a +1', and went to Great Bear, the park's B&M invert...
Another 40-ish minute wait for this. And I didn't really enjoy waiting for this. Obviously queueing becomes more boring when you're alone, but with no sort of themed music (just generic pop music, which was fine, but meh all the same), and limited views of anything in a painfully dull cattlepen queue, it does drain you a bit. Wasn't helped further by the fact operations were pretty poor, partially due to slow staff, partially due to people being idiots and faffing. Oh well.

Anyways, I was on and sat near the back. What followed was a decent, albeit unremarkable, ride. It very much peters out by the end though. Before this trip, I'd ridden 4 B&M inverts: Oz'Iris, Nemesis, Black Mamba and Nemesis Inferno. These are all fantastic examples of the ride type. Great Bear is an example which shows B&M Inverts are good rides, but can also be incredibly paint-by-numbers. "Let's chuck in a big drop, a vertical loop, a zero-g roll, a corkscrew and something else, boom, there's your B&M Invert". That's possibly a little harsh, but really, that's what it is. It doesn't have the location/terrain of Nemesis and Mamba, It doesn't have the scale and 'extra-ness' of Oz'Iris. The layout isn't as polished as Inferno. It just does every part well.
It'd be interesting to know what my reaction would be if this was my first B&M Invert. Maybe I'd rate it higher. But for me right now, whilst I enjoyed it and don't have anything overly negative to say about it (ending aside), it just doesn't do it for me.
Following the path along, I stumbled across another cred, the comically named Sooperdooperlooper. Obviously the historical nature of the ride shouldn't be ignored, but it very much feels like a ride which was designed to have the loop and nothing else. Literally after the loop, the ride feels like it was designed by RCT's "auto complete" feature, to get the track back to the start in a weird and funky ride.

Next up was the big attraction of Hersheypark, the famous Intamin known by Skyrush.
Since it had a surprisingly short queue (probably about 2-3 trains' worth of wait, if that), I opted for a front row ride. This turned out to not be the smartest idea, since after 3 cycles, it shut down for a bit. I decided to stick it out for a bit, and 10 or so minutes later, it came back up. And shortly enough, I was on.

And WOW. This thing lives up to the hype and is insane. You get lifted / chucked out of your seat every couple of seconds. It's relentless. And yet it remains glass smooth, and even 10 years after opening, hasn't developed an infamous Intamin roughness. Yes, the extreme airtime does kill the thighs - and that does take away from the experience a little bit for me - but that's the point of the ride. Skyrush is clearly a ride designed to try its absolute best to fling you out your seat so you land into the lake, whilst not compromising and things like speed. And it makes a spectacle out of its elements: there's no mini airtime hills that you'd find on a RMC, say. It's loud and proud with what it does. There's no stand out element either, because so many elements are just incredible in their own right. I also liked the mini lapbar release it does whilst on the brake run - much appreciated.

Given the lack of queue, I decided to run round for another ride, and got to do a back row ride. Again, bloody insane - moreso with some of the intense airtime moments too. I just about preferred the front, just for the pure thrill of getting the wind in your face, and it being slightly more comfortable. But damn, it's a bloody good ride.
The lift hill is comically quick too

Hopefully it's clear here that Skyrush is a ride I rate very highly. It's easily a "Top 10%-er", and even a "Top 10-er". For me, it slots nicely into the Top 5 too, slotting above Helix, but below Taron, Taiga and Untamed. Ultimately, the ride comfort is what stops it going above the others, but the craziness of the ride definitely cements its place.

From one hyper to another, it was time to ride Sweetsmonium.
Wait, no, I keep forgetting I'm in America. Let me try that again.
It was time to ride Candymonium.
(I'll stop with these terrible jokes now, promise)
I'd been keeping an eye on the ride's queue time during the day - despite not really trusting the app - and it had seesawed between 20 minutes and 180 minutes. I decided to risk it on a supposed 20 minute wait.
This was my first experience of a "no bags in the queue line" rule, which they were being strict on. Interestingly Skyrush has the same rule, but wasn't being applied. I'm fine with the rule and like the free lockers, but it felt like there weren't enough screens and lockers, and having to wait for a locker was painful.

After about a 30 minute wait in the warm tin shed queue, I was on. Given how slow the operations were, I dread to think what it would be like if bags were allowed in the station. I'm understanding to how hard it is to work on rides in hot conditions, but when you have a coaster running 3 trains and you have the 2 out of the station stacking every single time, something ain't quite right sadly.

Anyways, I'd managed to bag a back row ride for my first go on Candymonium. And this was my first B&M hyper too. I was quite excited for this. Andddddddddd....it didn't live up expectations. To be honest, all I really remember from this first ride is fixating on the two trims that are on the ride. They are extremely noticeable, and it disappointed me quite a bit.

I'll leave my review of Candymonium there for now, but note I will come back to this later!

There was now just over an hour left before the park shut. Despite having agreed with myself I'd be back tomorrow, I wanted to try and get all creds done in one day (just to see if my original plan was possible). So I went over towards Storm Runner - arguably the last major cred in the park. It had been closed all day, but I had noticed a couple of test runs. En route to the Intamin accelerator, I found Trailblazer, the park's Arrow Mine Train, looking very shut, and with fencing blocking off the entrance. Well, there's one spite.

There were staff stood outside Storm Runner too, that was also shut, and they said it probably wouldn't open today. I didn't press for a reason, but I wonder if it was down to the heat - I know the likes of Stealth and Rita struggle in 30C+ heat, and at 33-35C, maybe it was just too much?

To settle that disappoint, I decided instead to ride...
Jolly Rancher Remix
Previously known as Sidewinder, the park's Vekoma Boomerang received a makeover for this. Because of my immeasurable disappointment about missing out on 2 creds, I didn't take any photos of it on this day.
The retheme is nice and vibrant, and the ride gives me 'Speed of Sound at Walibi Holland' vibes: they've taken a Boomerang, added some flashing lights and loud, thumping music. The presentation for it works. The ride itself is an above average Boomerang, which is still a below average ride.

I then ticked off the park's kiddie cred, Cocoa Cruiser, and rode the park's old skool woodie, Comet. Really these were just a quick +2 and nothing more to me, though I guess Comet was pretty neat, and also my first taste of a Philadelphia Toboggan Coaster.

With a bit of time leftover, I rounded Day 1 off with a couple more laps on Skyrush. Still a breathtaking ride.
I possibly could have gotten a couple more goes in, but it broke down again. Intamin, ey?

My hastily arranged motel was only a 15 minute drive from the park, close to shops and restaurants, and was reasonably cheap. Huzzah!

So Day 1 Hersheypark thoughts: I enjoyed the park. It was busier than I expected, and the heat was a bit much at times. It immediately gets points for the amazing Skyrush, and even though there were some rides which didn't live up to expectations, others beat expectations, so swings and roundabouts. I was certainly looking forward to a second day, getting some rerides on the good creds, and trying some of the non-cred things I missed, all in a more relaxed setting.

I have two bugbears about Hersheypark. One is their queue lines: they are all so boring, and the coaster queues don't give you views of the rides. Two is the lack of themed audio. Their newer areas (Chocolate Town and Jolly Rancher Land...not its official name btw) do a good job at creating a cohesive area with some neat audio bits. But really, the atmospheres in and around the stations for the likes of Skyrush, Great Bear, Fahrenheit would all be infinitely better with some loop of special audio. I know it's kinda an American thing, but still.  
I returned to Hersheypark the next day. It was another hot one, of course, but it was a bit more overcast. I did a strange thing, and arrived at the park even earlier than yesterday though. Why, you ask? Well, to visit Chocolate World of course!

Located outside the park, and I guess extending the exterior of their 'Chocolate Town' area, Hershey's Chocolate World is I guess the American answer to Cadbury World (not that I've ever been there, mind!). There's loads of stuff in there to do: a 4D cinema, create your own chocolate experience, plus tram tours and other things. All of that along with a huge sweet shop and a couple of food outlets. Chocolate World opens at 9am (2 hours before the park). I wasn't bothered by the upcharge stuff, but there is a free attraction:  
Hershey's Chocolate Tour is basically a dark ride, taking you through the process of how the chocolate is made. After seeing the quality of the park's dark ride, it was nice to see how well-polished this is: lots of neat effects and animatronics, and all-in a fab little experience, definitely showcasing the place off well. The queue line serves as a walk through too, giving the history of the company. And at the end of the ride, you get a piece of Hershey's chocolate for free.

Resisting the temptation to go round again for the sake of another freebie, I had a look round the shop to kill some time, picked up a Blueberry Muffin KitKat (which, sadly, wasn't all that nice), and then went back outside to get in line before the masses descended to wait for the park to open.

Unlike yesterday, there was entertainment outside the gates. Well, I say entertainment, a single member of staff tried rallying some people up to get them excited, and got some kids to play a game. Or something like that, I don't know: he had a microphone, but it wasn't working. Anyways, at 10.45, he got everyone to do a countdown from 10 to 0, at which point.......nothing happened. A couple of staff behind the gates ran around panicking, wondering what was going on. I don't know what on earth was meant to be happening, seems like no one did. But in any case, this countdown to 0 did nothing, and the park opened bang on 11.

Noting that the park felt a bit quieter, and not being in a rush to get creds, I decided to head to Candymonium first - maybe it's a morning ride? I got a front row ride and...
Damn, that was impressive! Going in knowing a couple of the airtime hills had trims, I didn't fixate on them, and instead was able to just...sit back and enjoy. And it was just great fun: some nice floater airtime, but also some pops of ejector too. It was a class ride, and just really fun from start to finish.

I'd've loved to jump straight back on and see what on earth was up with this hot and cold ride, but everyone was making their way over, so I decided to leave it and make my way to something new...
Storm Runner was storm running (best pun I have, sorry), so made sense to tick it off before it got a potential long queue. This was a ride I was quite looking forward to, and it kind of lived up to the expectations. It was a nice, fast-paced ride which does what it sets out to do. It's short, but doesn't need to be any longer, as it packs in some cool elements. But at the same time, it doesn't quite hit the 'Wow' moments it should have for such a short, punchy ride.

In part, I think it's because coasters have come along quite a bit since this was made, and so there's more modern, quirky elements out there. I can imagine that an RMC-inspired Intamin could make a much more fun Storm Runner today, for example. Also, the restraints are a bit restrictive, and do take away from the experience a bit.

I then returned to another Intamin, Fahrenheit, for my much awaited re-ride. It provided a fun ride again, but was perhaps a bit weaker than my original ride. So it cemented it as a "good, but not great" ride for me, and probably not something I'd bother with again for the day.
The "theme" (if you can call it that?) of Fahrenheit confused me. I get the idea of it being a 97 degree drop and using it as a temperature and angle (that's clever), but I thought the idea was it was also a 'blazing hot' ride? So why would the temperature be falling? And why am I overthinking this so much?

Moving away from coasters, I went to something new and different:
Mix'd Flavoured by Jolly Rancher, to give it its full name (sigh) forms part of the new Jolly Rancher Land, and is a Zamperla NebulaZ - one of these new rides which seem to slowly be becoming all the range. They're pretty neat to look at, and though I don't like spinning, I thought it looked tame enough to give it a go. Ultimately, it wasn't awful, but by the end of the cycle, I did feel queasy. The good thing is, though, is as much of a spectator ride as this is, it's still pretty fun to go on too!

Turning my attention back to coasters, I then went for to take my reride on Great Bear. The big thing that stood out to me was that it had a much shorter queue, and I now realised how much quieter the park was compared to yesterday. Maybe not having to wait 40-ish minutes for the ride in blistering heat would make me more fond of the ride? Nope, not really. In fact, it just cemented my thoughts, and meant it was another ride I could tick off as "Don't need to ride again".

I decided to get a snacky-American-sized lunch:
The bucket of pulled pork chips gets my seal of approval

Still adjusting to American-sized portions (or just eating sharing portions and not realising it), I opted away from creds for a bit. I ticked off the park's log flume, which was good fun - I particularly liked the calm looking section which was actually on a gentle slope, creating a fun few seconds, and the nice camel hump at the bottom of the drop. I then returned to Reece's Cupfusion, the park's dark ride
I decided to try out a feature with the park's app, HPGO, which you can link up with the ride. Basically, it's a free wristband with a QR code. You can use it to load up photos, Fastpass things and all of that. But you can also scan it just before you board Cupfusion, and it then sends your score and on ride photo to the app for free.

As you can see, I get very focused on shooters, even if their quality is patchy.
Clearly not that good though, ranking 12th of all signed up players of the day, after only a couple of hours of park-opening.

That's enough time without creds, so I went to GCI corner of the park to, well, reride the GCIs (ignoring the bog standard Wild Mouse and tacky spinner). A solid duo/trio of woodies there, and I found myself enjoying the Lightning side of Lightning Racer a bit more than yesterday; a good choice for 250 in the end!
I even took a terrible photo of Lightning Racer, see!

Something I had only learnt the previous day, and that had only truly dawned on me the previous night, is that Hersheypark has a zoo. And whilst it has its own separate ticket, you also get it included for free in your day ticket. So why not have a quick wander through I thought! It's a nice area, not too big, away from the park but not too far away, and a good way to break up the day. Didn't take any photos, but yeah, was nice.

Anyways, it was time for creds again. And I surprised myself with how restrained I was in getting back to the one and only...
Skyrush!

Remember how I said yesterday they weren't enforcing the no-bags-in-queue rule? Well today they were. Eurgh, fine. Don't see the need really; the stupid station design means bags vs no bags is a mute discussion in my mind. Anyways, I got a couple more rides in, including at the back again, and it lived up to my memory from the day prior. Absolutely fantastic experience, and well and truly cemented itself as my #4.
Not wanting to completely wreck my thighs one park in though, I left the yellow beast for now to return back to Candymonium, and see what on earth was up with this hot and cold beast. Fortunately it didn't have much of a queue, only 5-10 minutes, and I decided to mimic my ride from the previous day and go for the back row. And you know what? It was fantastic again! It was a ride that was just a ton of fun, and filled with neat airtime moments. Whatever disappointment I had yesterday had dissipated, and I truly liked this sweet ride. I went back round again and bagged another front row ride, which I guess shows my enjoyment of it.

So now for my Candymonium review. It's a really fun ride, with lots of neat airtime moments. It's got good pacing with it too, which is great. And what I realised, most importantly, is that whilst it has trims at two different moments, those trims are needed. You still get some good airtime on them, and if they weren't there, you'd be getting airtime more akin to Skyrush's. That wouldn't be a bad thing for the ride really, but it then means you have two rides offering the exact same experience, which you don't want. The trims help differentiate Candymonium from Skyrush, and give the rides separate identities, whilst not taming down Candymonium. Huzzah!

My one concern about Candymonium - I really enjoyed my rides where I didn't have to queue, but didn't get the same sense of fulfilment when I did queue. That could also be put down to first ride expectations. So whilst I rate Candymonium, would I be willing to queue for it? Honestly, I don't know.
The Kisses fountain is a bit abstract, but I can see what they tried to do.

As the photos show, the clouds had become a bit more ominous-looking after my rides on Candymonium. And sure enough, the dreaded "R" word followed....rain. It wasn't unexpected by me: the forecast did predict a short shower. But checking my weather app, it said this shower would last for a good 1-2 hours now. Bugger. Hersheypark close their big outdoor rides in the rain; certainly anything I wanted to re-ride was down. After a quick snack and think, I decided to do what a good chunk of people had done, and ride one of only two indoor rides on park. Not wanting to bother to trek to the other side of the park, I went for another go on Reece's Cupfusion...
I got another delightful, free mugshot
More importantly though...
I claimed the current high score for the day...BOOM! Guy at the exit said he hadn't seen a score above 300k for a while too - whether he said that as a generic customer servicey comment thing, or if he was genuine, I don't know, but yeah. Take that everyone who visited Hersheypark on June 2nd! (I'm not competitive at all......)

I had hoped the long wait and doing the ride would mean the rain would pass, but it didn't. It was still going strong. I really wasn't interested in doing Laff Trakk again, so I decided to wander over towards Skyrush, find somewhere undercover, and see what happens. For reference, at this point, it was about half 4, and park closed at 6. So I sat, and I waited. Rain still coming down. I don't mind the rain, but with little to do, I didn't see the point in wandering around too much aimlessly. In hindsight, now would have been a good time to do the zoo, and I could have used my earlier zoo time for rides, but oh well.

The rain stopped a little after 5 - woohoo, the clouds have been kind! I didn't know what the rules would be exactly with rides reopening, but I hung back and waited patiently for Skyrush to come back to life. 15 minutes later, still no sign of life. Hmmmm, that's less good. Asked the staff at the entrance whether it would reopen - turns out it wasn't set to reopen for the day. Well bugger. Did it die before the rain? Was it a post-rain thing? No idea. Ah well, back to Candymonium then....
Or not, that was also closed. And there was no committed answer as to whether it would reopen at this point.

Other bigger rides were running around the park. But I didn't have much inclination to go on something like Great Bear or Fahrenheit again. The app listed Storm Runner as shut, though I wasn't wholly convinced. Equally though, whilst it would be nice to get a reride on it, I wasn't that fussed in tracking back and giving it a shot. So I decided to call it a day, with only 20 minutes of park time left.

So though my visit to Hersheypark finished on a bit of a damp downer, it was still a fantastic couple of days. Skyrush and Candymonium are a great one-two punch for the park, and they have a wide variety of "good" rides too. There's obviously a solid selection of flats too, which I didn't really go on, and an included water park, which isn't my thing. So it's super well rounded too. I hope they continue going for the more 'themed area' approach, even if only lightly, as Chocolate Town and Jolly Rancher Land are wonderful, cohesive pieces. I'd also love to see them get another indoor ride - there's definitely scope and potential for something really cool.
Wait no, I'm in Hersheypark.
There's definitely scope and potential for something really sweet. 

Coming soon: Knoebels, filled with nice food...and not-so-nice spites...

I wouldn't say that Californias Great America is a park that anyone has a huge itch to get to. Unlike some others in the Cedar Fair group, its investments are on the lower end of the scale. Flat rides are the name of the game and even its planned hyper that it was rumoured to get was given to another park instead (Orion).
 
Eight years ago, it was either this or Discovery Kingdom and bizarrely I chose DK. I thought that was a great little park, but this time it was CGA's turn. It's relatively easy to get to, sitting in San Jose and it took about two hours of train journey from San Francisco. I'd heard very little about this place before so upon arriving I didn't really know where anything was or what support rides there were. The entrance for example looks very similar to other Cedar Fair parks but also Six Flags Great America. I've since learned that and CGA were once owned by the same group.
 
Our first destination was Flight Deck which has the distinction of being B&M's first custom inverted rollercoaster. Built in 1993 the ride features three inversions and is a very old school B&M. It looks stunning in its bright red attire and the ride looked well maintained. My first reaction was how small the station was. It's very cramped and its the same with Patriot and many of the original gang of B&M's are the same (Batman clones tend to have tiny stations too). Also, for all the criticism I saw that Emperor has no station at Seaward, well.. there isn't a station here either. Geek, be consistent.  Once getting on, after waiting one train off we went. Very positive G Force heavy, really nice inversions and a well paced layout. There is an odd bit in the middle of the ride where the train travels in a straight line over the station which felt at odds with everything else. The ending is particularly great with an intense helix over a small lake. There was no second train. Unlike Cedar Point which runs three trains to a fault or Silver Bullet which had its second train in bits scattered all over the break run, Flight Decks second train doesn't seem to exist.

 
This isn't an extra-ordinary inverter and neither is it a dud. It's a good, solid B&M which has clearly served the park well. It just made me so glad we have Nemesis. I know its very easy to compare every inverter to Nemesis but the reality is, Nemesis is outstanding. From a layout perspective, a theming perspective, an efficiency and capacity perspective. Every park could learn a lesson from our grubby white alien.
 

 
I next wanted to get on Patriot but we went the wrong way and ended up exploring all the park instead. Some of my favourite flat rides passed (KMG Afterburner, Huss Breakdance) before we just ended up getting lost. I checked the app and it said that Railblazer was 0 minutes. Staying cautious we decided to take a chance. Now this has two trains running. Which is good as at 8 people a train it has serious capacity issues. We ended up waiting half an hour which I was pretty happy with. To be honest, as good as it is, it's too fast. It zooms through the layout at break-neck speed and it feels very hard to take it all on board. Air time hills, inversions. it's like a blur. No major park should get the off-shelf model. It's too popular for what it is and it just cannot handle a park with crowds. The legend that is Josh C has been tweeting about Jersey Devil, so when he reviews, I'll be very interested in that one.

 
With that out the way we took a ride on Demon, an arrow looper. I like the old arrow loopers. Whilst rougher then most modern rides there's something about a ride with janky track design that just appeals to me. As they start to arrive at the end of their lives, I'm just glad to have got on some of them.
 
Next was Patriot. This used to be a stand up before it got converted to a floorless (like Rougarou and Firebird). Whilst I do get why parks are running away from stand up, I dunno. The floorless train doesn't add much beyond making the ride rideable? Maybe thats the point. My husband made the observation that if it wasn't for the height restriction, this would be an excellent 'starter' rollercoaster for an aspiring thrill seeker. And it got me thinking about rides like this and Daemonen at Tivoli Gardens. And he's so right in the observation. Very few inversions, mildly intense without being mind-blowing. Considering this is a B&M from 1991, its aged pretty well from what I could tell. Still, no second train to be found.

 
After lunch it was time for the wooden coasters. We started with the CGI Wooden coaster, Gold Striker. This had a second train! wow. This was a fantastic ride. Really fast and intense. And with most of the ride hidden from the walkways, it took me by surprise. It probably sits just under Wodan for intensity. Some of the turns it was doing, for a traditional woody, were fabulous. Heavily recommended and the best ride at CGA by a country mile.
 

 
And onto our final new rollercoaster Grizzly. Quite easily the worst operations I have ever seen on a ride. It took over seven minutes to unload, load and dispatch a train. Part of this seemed to be staff training, the other part was sheer incompetence. You're running one train around your mildly interesting rollercoaster. This shouldn't be that difficult. But it was. What looked to be a twenty minute wait ended up taking around 70. I was done after this, Didn't even want to attempt the low capacity Arrow wild-mouse which was displaying a 40 minute wait. 
 
So instead we went on two flat rides including the breakdance. Every park should have a breakdance. They are the best flat ride by far. And we called it a day around 4pm. This park needs investment. On the surface everything looks fine. But it provides a middling day out in a state that has Disney, Knotts & Magic Mountain. Hard to compete, yes, but CGA isn't really even trying. It has great support rollercoasters in Flight Deck and Gold Striker but it needs that killer, triple A attraction to make the difference. And two trains on its rides. 
 
 

27th April 2022 (Europa Park Day 1)
Today, our first day in the park finally arrived! It’s a day I had dreamed about for ages, and quite literally dreamed about within the last few months… although unlike in my dreams, no vloggers stopping me from boarding rides or university staff with cricket bats were here to ruin it for me (if you don’t know what I mean, check out the theme park dreams thread)! And it was a very exciting day for sure… let me get straight to the good stuff!
 
We did not go into the park for ERT this morning, instead opting for a more relaxed start to the day. We headed into Europa at a little after 9:30am through the hotel guest entrance, which was very quick and easy:

After getting into the park, we initially considered starting with Alpenexpress Enzian, but we could not find the entrance, so we instead decided to start with a nearby ride that we were all hotly ancitipating…
Wodan Timbur Coaster
Wodan was on an advertised 40 minute queue, so we decided to join it. I was very excited to ride Wodan; Wicker Man was my #3 prior to visiting Europa, so I naturally had high expectations for its bigger, badder cousin. The queue for Wodan is an attraction in itself, with very elaborate theming throughout, and we also had the bonus of it only being 20 minutes as opposed to the advertised 40, which is always good! So, how was the ride? Well, we rode in row 8, and I thought it was absolutely phenomenal; the pacing was truly relentless like no other ride I’ve ever ridden, and every bit of the ride felt like it was trying to fling you out of the seat in some way, including some very unexpected moments of airtime! Interestingly, I thought it encapsulated elements from all 3 of the modern wooden coasters I’ve done previously (Wicker Man, Mine Blower and Megafobia); the initial sequence of elements reminded me a lot of Megafobia with the sustained air on the way down the first drop and the big turnaround directly after, while the fun twists and turns, the relative smoothness and the comfy trains reminded me a lot of Wicker Man, and the awesome little pops of air at the end reminded me a lot of Mine Blower. And it integrated all of these elements wonderfully to make it an absolutely phenomenal wooden roller coaster; Wodan definitely became my favourite wooden roller coaster I’ve ridden (yes, I concede that I definitely liked it more than Wicker Man), and it has definitely blazed its way into my top 3 for sure! My parents loved the ride, too:



After Wodan, we headed to the other major roller coaster in Iceland…
Blue Fire
Blue Fire was on an advertised 20 minute wait, so we decided to give it a go. Seeing as Icon was my #2 prior to visiting Europa, I was very interested to ride the prototype Mack launch coaster. Many had told me that Blue Fire was superior to Icon, so I was interested to see what I thought to it given my Icon love. The wait took a tad longer than 20 minutes due to a breakdown, but that certainly wasn’t for lack of trying on the part of the ride team; trains were being hammered out, and as I later found would be the case with every ride at Europa, the queue moved very quickly, and the boarding/checking process took very little time at all; they don’t mess around! So, how was Blue Fire? Well, I thought it was a very fun ride; it was smooth, the inversions were nice (particularly the first and last ones; the last one is challenging for my favourite inversion), there were some nice transitions and it was overall a nice, fun coaster! However… I did think it was lacking a little something relative to Icon. I can’t quite put my finger on what, but I wasn’t getting quite the same wow feeling that I get from a ride on Icon. It could be that it’s not the most airtime-y ride, and I do enjoy airtime on this style of coaster, so I was missing a little air on there, but I’m not sure that was entirely it; while it was a terrific coaster, I did think it was missing that little spark to make it a true 10/10 tier ride for me. That’s not to say that Blue Fire isn’t a great ride, though; I thoroughly enjoyed myself on it, and it still makes my top 10! Neither of my parents seemed overly keen, though; my mum said it was “sick-making”, and said she isn’t riding again this trip, while my dad said that it felt slow for a ride of 62mph:


After Blue Fire, we decided to wander for a bit and see where the path took us. It took us to Scandinavia, and Fjord-Rafting was initially considered as our next ride, but we then made the conservative decision to leave the water rides for a hotter day on our trip (tomorrow and Friday are due to be hotter), so we instead chose to ride…
Snorri Touren
I didn’t actually know how long the queue for Snorri Touren was, but I thought it looked intriguing, so we joined the queue. For such a hidden away attraction, I thought the queue was very nicely themed, with lots to look at and odd appearances from an octopus who I’m guessing is Snorri (?). So, how was the ride? Well, I thought it was a fun little ride for what it was, with some nice theming, a catchy soundtrack, good projection mapping, and a rather surprising and clever section that almost resembled a simulator-style ride, which I thought was interesting! Overall, I thought it was a fun and intriguing ride, and my parents seemed to agree:

After Snorri Touren, we decided to head to another dark ride that I knew a little more about…
Piraten in Batavia
Piraten in Batavia was on an advertised 20 minute queue, so we joined it. We thought the queue looked rather big from the outside, as it was spilling out of the building into the plaza, but it turned out that the sign was right, as the queue moved at a very fast pace and took no longer than advertised, perhaps even slightly less! The queue was also incredibly well themed, with some surprisingly massive rooms and lots to look at, which is always good! So, how was the ride? Well, I didn’t know too much about it other than that it was similar to Pirates of the Caribbean at Disney and replaced an older attraction of the same premise, so I went in (relatively) blind aside from people telling me it was brilliant. And I must say, I thought it was a truly excellent dark ride, and perhaps controversially, I’d take it over its Disney source material any day of the week (well, the WDW version). There was lots of theming to look at throughout, the scenes were really excellent (with some being surprisingly grand in scale), and other tools such as smells and projection mapping were also used very effectively in there; I thought it was a fantastic dark ride, and it seemed to be a hit with my parents too:

After Piraten in Batavia, we headed to our next roller coaster, which was very nearby…
Euro Mir
Euro Mir was on an advertised 15 minute wait, so we decided to give it a go. The ride looks very impressive from off-ride, with the huge glass buildings and the big rocket giving it a very strong presence within the surrounding area. The ride also has an… interesting indoor queue, with some fun UV lighting and a soundtrack that is bound to be stuck in one’s head after riding (as is the case with a surprising number of Europa’s rides)! So, how was Euro Mir? Well, I was interested to see what I thought to it, as it seems quite marmite; I’ve noticed that people seem to either really like it or not think much to it at all. And sadly, me and my parents all fell quite comfortably into the latter camp. Europa had certainly been buttering us the right way up to this point, so I hate to say it, but… oh dear. This was genuinely horrible, and I don’t think any of us enjoyed it at all. I thought it was quite a strange coaster, with an interesting start with some controlled spinning and a very long lift hill given the height, which was intriguing. The aerial turns were OK, providing some nice views of the park… but that’s where the ride went hugely downhill, both literally and figuratively. Interestingly, it didn’t spin at all in the main thrilling body of the coaster, so nausea wasn’t really an issue, but whenever it sped up or turned, it got horrifically rough. Me and my mum were facing forwards, and we got bashed around a hell of a lot (particularly our shins/knees, getting bashed against the hard side of the car), but my dad, who was facing backwards, seemed to get the brunt of the bashing, with him saying that it really hurt his shins. Granted, Euro Mir is a fairly forceful coaster for a ride of its type, and it’s certainly novel, so I probably shouldn’t be so harsh, but none of us especially enjoyed it at all:


After Euro Mir, we wandered into the Great Britain section of the park, where we had a spot of lunch in the sports bar before having a little stroll around the Great Britain area while working out where to go next:


I’ve got to say, Europa is the perfect park for just strolling around; it’s truly beautiful throughout, and never feels too busy given that it gets over 5 million guests per year!
 
After a brief stroll through Britain, we stumbled into Switzerland, where we boarded our next attraction:
Schweizer Bobbahn
Schweizer Bobbahn had a 15 minute advertised queue, so we joined it. I was interested to ride Schweizer Bobbahn; I’d remembered really liking Avalanche at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, so I was hopeful for quite a fun little coaster. So, how was the ride? Well, I thought it was rather good fun myself, with some nice helixes and turns! I didn’t think it quite stacked up to Avalanche, though; it didn’t seem quite as fast, and it had a slight rattle in some of the more forceful sections that I don’t remember Avalanche having, which detracted ever so slightly. Nevertheless, I thought it was a fun little coaster for what it was, and certainly something I enjoyed:


After Schweizer Bobbahn, we headed to do the other coaster in Switzerland…
Matterhorn Blitz
Matterhorn Blitz had an advertised 20 minute queue, so we decided to join it and give it a go. The queue felt like one of the longest queues of the day, however; Matterhorn Blitz is not the highest capacity ride at Europa, and the ride did appear quite popular. It was a fairly nicely themed queue, though, with a very nicely themed indoor section at the end, although I’ll digress that I found some of the animatronics a tad disconcerting! Putting aside the queue, though; how was the ride? Well, I thought the elevator lift was really interesting, and it was relatively smooth for a wild mouse, as well as well themed, but I don’t generally rate wild mouse coasters that highly, so saying it’s my favourite wild mouse coaster is damning with faint praise a tad. With that being said, though, I did like the theme, and it certainly looks pretty; this style of ride just isn’t really my thing, so I’m not sure I was ever going to rate it super highly:

After Matterhorn Blitz, we took a stroll and found ourselves in Greece, where we got in line for…
Abenteuer Atlantis
I thought Abenteuer Atlantis looked intriguing, and it was on a 1 minute advertised queue, so we decided to join it and give ourselves a brief respite from coastering. The queue board certainly wasn’t lying; we literally waltzed straight on, and interestingly, we boarded entirely by ourselves, with seemingly no host there at all! So, how was Abenteuer Atlantis? Well, I thought it was a fun little interactive dark ride, with some excellent theming and animatronics and an overall fun vibe; I really liked it, and my mum and dad seemed to as well. Mum & dad scored well, with them getting scores in the 20,000-30,000 ballpark, but being as shocking at interactive dark rides as I am, I got a truly abysmal 701; I have very poor aim, so I never score particularly well on these. Nevertheless, we all found it a fun little ride:

After Abenteuer Atlantis, we initially pondered riding Pegasus, but we were instead drawn to a somewhat more anticipated coaster located right next to it…
Silver Star
Silver Star was on an advertised 15 minute queue, so we decided to give it a go. One thing I must say about Silver Star is that I think it is quite possibly one of the fastest moving queues I have ever stood in; we were initially doubtful about whether it would actually take 15 minutes, as the queue looked quite large, but the sign wasn’t wrong, perhaps even a little pessimistic; we reached the station in around 10 minutes. I was going into Silver Star with very mixed expectations and feelings. My pre-Europa #1 was also a B&M Hyper Coaster (Mako at SeaWorld Orlando), so I had high expectations for SS, but I also had somewhat low expectations too, as it never seems to get very positive press; it appears to have marmite status among Europa’s coasters at best, with a fair percentage of people not rating it very highly at all while another percentage likes it, but doesn’t love it. As such, I was wondering whether to expect a pretty rough coaster lacking in airtime more akin to The Big One at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, as a number of reviews had implied Silver Star to be quite rough and severely lacking in airtime. I was excited to ride Silver Star, but also quite nervous as well. Would the B&M Hyper experience live up to my glorious memories of Mako from 6 years earlier now that I’ve ridden considerably more rides?
 
Well, I shouldn’t have worried. Unlike the similarly marmite Euro Mir, me and my parents fell firmly into the “love it” category with this ride, and I thought it was truly spectacular! I was a tad skeptical about how our first ride would be, as we were seated in row 5 (slap bang in the middle… not usually the best spot on airtime coasters) but it was absolutely breathtaking! The first drop provided stunning sustained floater, and it bought all of those glorious Mako memories flooding back. Each successive hill had glorious sustained air for seconds and seconds, and I thought the ride was pretty smooth and comfortable too (admittedly not quite the same wonderful level of glass smoothness as 2016 Mako, but that’s to be expected given that Mako was brand new when I rode it, while SS is 20 years old). The ending was excellent too; we got properly yanked off the MCBR with a phenomenal and surprisingly abrupt jolt of airtime, with each successive hill in the post-MCBR section being similar, and the s-bend rode pretty well too! Overall, I was truly blown away by Silver Star, and my parents appeared to be too; they both raved about the experience:


After an epic ride on Silver Star, we headed to the other roller coaster in France…
Cancan Coaster
Cancan Coaster was on a 25 minute advertised queue, so we decided to give it a go. As with many rides at Europa, this had a beautiful queue, with tons to look at, and it moved quickly too; what more can you ask for? So, how was the ride? Well, I thought it was really good fun, and definitely a surprising one; the ride was very smooth, and packed surprising pace throughout, with some really fun turns being packed in there too. I also thought the theming was very fun and whimsical, and I did like having the can can playing to you while you were riding! Overall, I thought Cancan was great fun; definitely one we all enjoyed:


After Cancan Coaster, we decided to relax for a bit and sit down in the town square in France to watch the fountain show for 10 minutes or so:

I must say, Europa’s France section is beautiful; it had a very nice atmosphere, and was lovely to spend time in! The fountain show was quite a fun watch, too!
 
After our sit down, we decided to spice things up with another random ride we stumbled across…
Madame Freudenreich’s Curiosities
I thought Madame Freudenreich’s Curiosities looked intriguing, so we decided to give it a go. As with Abenteuer Atlantis earlier, the queue was walk-on, which is always a bonus! So, how was the ride? Well, I thought it was quite a fun little ride! Certainly quirky for sure, but it was certainly a fun little detour, with some fun animatronics, a fun storyline, and surprisingly excellent theming:

After Madame Freudenreich’s, we decided to take a gradual stroll down to Deutsche Allee, Europa’s very nice entrance area:


We didn’t just stroll down to EP’s entrance area for the sake of it, however. While in the area, we took a ride on…
Voletarium
Voletarium was on a mere 5 minute advertised queue, so we decided to give it a go. The queue for Voletarium is almost an attraction in itself; it’s absolutely stunning, with some huge rooms and tons to look at! However, we didn’t get a lot of time to look at anything, as we practically waltzed straight onto the ride! So, how was Voletarium? Well, I thought it was a really nice ride, with some good cinematography, nice smells and some nice special effects on the side; definitely a good fun dark ride:

After Voletarium, we took a bit of a stroll through the gardens area by Europa’s entrance, as in all honesty, we weren’t really sure where we were going at this point:


We eventually found ourselves in Austria, where we briefly sat down to look at the fountains:

After our brief sit down, we headed over to ride…
Alpenexpress Enzian
Alpenexpress had a 15 minute advertised queue, so we joined it. VR was in operation on this ride, but on our train, there were no VR riders, so we managed to score a ride towards the back of the train; always a bonus with these powered coasters! So, how was the ride? Well, I thought it was really good fun, with two surprisingly fast helixes; it’s probably up there with Alton Towers’ Runaway Mine Train as one of my favourite powered coasters:


After Alpenexpress, we decided to gradually stroll back over to Iceland to take a second ride on Wodan. I was seated in row 7 for this ride, and it was just as phenomenal as earlier; in fact, it was possibly a tad faster, and I was genuinely somewhat worried for my unzipped jacket’s life over some of the airtime hills!
 
After that, I split off from my parents to go for one final ride on Silver Star. You don’t think of EP as being overly big, but the walk from Iceland to France is surprisingly hefty! In terms of my second ride on Silver Star; I scored the back row, and it was even more phenomenal than earlier! Even with the trim brakes biting somewhat, every hill had a truly phenomenal yank of airtime over it, and the ride was absolutely exquisite from start to finish!
 
You may notice that I have thus far steered clear of doing a direct comparison between Silver Star and Mako. So, has Silver Star dethroned Mako as my number 1 coaster? My answer is… not quite, but there’s phenomenally little in it; that verdict was not reached easily, and my rides on Silver Star today certainly had me second guessing Mako’s #1 placement more than any other ride has since Mako. It was a very tough decision, but I ultimately decided to keep Mako on top because while Silver Star is absolutely spectacular, I don’t think any individual element on it had quite the same wow factor as elements like Mako’s sublime first drop and first camelback hill, from memory, and while still very smooth and comfortable for the most part, Silver Star doesn’t ride quite as exquisitely as Mako did in 2016, and Mako’s completely glass smooth ride was one of the things I loved about it. I know that those sound like very pedantic reasons, but when two rides are both that good and it’s the top spot being fought for, I’m afraid that it has to be pedantry that ultimately decides which ride comes out on top. Nonetheless, Silver Star is a phenomenal coaster that truly took my breath away, and that back row ride in particular certainly had Mako quaking in its boots!
 
After a glorious ride on Silver Star, I met back up with my parents, and we headed out of the park for the day:

After that, we headed to Hotel Colosseo for a lovely meal in Pizzeria de Romantica before heading back to our room, saying goodnight to Europa Park for the day:


So in conclusion, we had a wonderful first day in Europa Park! The park is absolutely stunning, with stunning rides and stunning theming; it’s certainly a phenomenally well rounded park, in my view, and I can’t wait to see the rest of what it has to offer over the next 2 days!
 
I’m aware that our schedule was quite intense today (I was possibly further down the rabbit hole of “new park stress” than I’d have perhaps liked), so we agreed that we’re going to have a more relaxed day tomorrow, with some shows scattered in alongside rides we haven’t done yet (including water rides and the remaining 4 coaster credits), as well as rerides on our favourites.
 
Thanks for reading (apologies for the length; if you read it all, you deserve a medal!), and I hope you enjoyed my report; I’ll be back tomorrow with day 2!

26th April 2022 (Travel)
Hi guys. Today was a very exciting day; the start of my first ever trip to Europa Park! This might possibly be my most significant theme park trip in some time, and it’s quite a significant change in tune compared to the bulk of my recent trips, with a number of new experiences in store for me; my first time travelling abroad post-COVID, my first time at Europa Park, my first time in Germany full stop… I could go on, as there are so many firsts for me this trip! So join me over the next 5 days as I visit Europa Park, a major bucket list park I have legitimately wanted to visit for the past 7 or 8 years, for the very first time!
 
This was only our travel day, so I haven’t set foot into the park itself yet, but I’ve already gotten some glimpses of what Europa Park Resort has to offer. So let me start today from the very beginning.
 
Interestingly, today started out with the longest single leg of the trip there; a 3 hour drive from Gloucestershire to London Stansted. The drive actually felt quicker than expected given it was 3 hours, and my dad said it was very easy, so I guess that’s all you can ask for, really!
 
After that, we went into Stansted itself, where check-in & security were surprisingly quick; we were through it all very quickly compared to what I always remembered Manchester/Gatwick being like, which is always good! It felt very weird being back in an airport… the last time I flew abroad was to Florida in April 2019, so after the few years we’ve all had, it felt almost surreal being back travelling abroad again, with surprisingly few differences compared to pre-COVID! It was exciting, though; even though an airport in itself is perhaps not the most pleasurable of experiences, being in an airport preparing for a foreign holiday does give you a certain buzz that I can’t quite put my finger on, particularly when your destination is a park you’ve spent years dreaming of visiting!
 
After a wait of around an hour in Stansted’s departure lounge, we headed to our gate and boarded our plane to Baden-Baden:




This flight was my first ever Ryanair flight, which I’m led to believe is somewhat of a rite of passage for any theme park enthusiast, and I’ve got to say, it was quite good! The seats were perfectly comfortable, the flight was short (only 1h 25m); what more can you really ask for?
 
After getting off our flight, we headed through immigration in Baden-Baden, which was fairly quick, and that’s when it hit home that Europa Park really was well within my reach:

Wow, seeing that was exciting! After that, we got our hire car and headed down to Europa Park itself from Baden-Baden airport, which my dad described as a surprisingly easy drive. It took around 45 minutes, and I must say, I was stunned by quite how convenient Europa is to reach from the motorway; when people described it as being in a town/village, I was expecting something like Alton Towers, where you wind your way through all kinds of country lanes and villages for miles on end once you leave the motorway, but it was literally a case of “exit the motorway… wow, there’s Europa!” in an almost America-style fashion! I was also surprised at how much Europa Park dominates Rust; I was anticipating it being a case of Europa Park being in the middle of a large town that engulfed it, but it’s almost more like Rust is an add-on to Europa Park, which I found very interesting!
 
Then, we headed onto the resort itself. I have to say, first impressions are very good; the hotels are stunningly themed, and they’re all very grand in scale! My first view of a Europa Park hotel was the lobby for El Andaluz, where we checked in, and I must say, it’s stunning:


We’re staying in a Standard Room Plus in Hotel Castillo Alcazar, and the room is very nicely themed, as well as surprisingly big. The park view is also fantastic, and gives Blackpool’s similar park view a run for its money for sure:


After getting settled into our room, we decided to take a stroll around the Europa resort and see what some of the other hotels had to offer.
 
We firstly stopped at Hotel Colosseo, where we loitered around the piazza for a bit:



And then we went up to the top of the Colosseum replica, where I got some views of the piazza from above:

As well as Rulantica:

And also some of the surrounding Black Forest area; EP is surprisingly rural and in a surprisingly nice forest setting for such a huge resort:

After that, we strolled past Hotel Bell Rock:


And finally, we ended up walking past Colosseo again and going back to El Andaluz:


After our little stroll around, we headed into the Castillo Restaurant in Hotel Castillo Alcazar for an evening meal, which it must be said was very nice; the restaurant is also very nicely themed. I didn’t take any photos of the restaurant, but my mum did catch a photo of the very nice corridor leading up to it, which is very well themed indeed, and certainly sets the tone for the restaurant:

Finally, I caught a few photos of the stunning night time view from out of our window; Europa really does look stunning at night:



So, that was the first day of our trip! Apologies that this was a bit of a boring report today; I hope the next few days’ worth of reports are a bit more interesting, seeing as we’re going to be in the park itself on tomorrow, Thursday and Friday. I’m incredibly excited; I can’t wait to see what Europa has to offer after years of wanting to go! What I’ve seen of the resort so far certainly bodes well for what I’ll think of the park, as it’s all very nice!
 
Tomorrow, we’ll be stepping into the park for the first time… I can’t wait!

Rewinding just over two years ago, I and a few friends had booked a trip out to Hamburg, which would include one and a half days at Heide Park - plus a stay in their hotel - and a day at Hansa Park. It would coincide with two of our birthdays too. What better way than to spend a birthday at a new park?
 
At the time, this Covid-19 thing had just turned up on the British doorstep, and concerns were growing. But the idea of a lockdown was a far away thought. Obviously, come March, that all changed, and the trip cancelled (fortunately fully refunded). So instead of celebrating my birthday in some new foreign park, it was spent hunkered down in lockdown. "Ah well, maybe net year" I thought. Obviously I could go to Hamburg at other times, but I dunno, something felt kind of right about doing this trip over my birthday.
 
But the world had other plans. Lockdown III was coming to an end, but foreign travel was out of the question, and the UK parks were out of the question. Instead, my birthday in 2021 was spent playing some outdoor mini golf (which was a big deal at the time tbf). 
 
Early 2022 came around, and things seemed a bit more promising. Maybe I could spend a birthday out of lockdown for the first time since 2019!! And maybe, just maybe, I could finally get out to Hamburg. I tried to rally up those who I originally planned to go with, but after being met with radio silence, it became apparent if this was going to happen, I'd be going solo.
 
Ooft. Solo park trips aren't something I've done for a long time. Well, I haven't really done them at all. I've maybe spent a couple of hours at a park alone when someone had to leave unexpectedly early, or a bit of time when arriving early. But never a full day, and never at a new park. But to be honest, it wasn't a difficult choice..."ahhhh, screw it, let's do it!" was basically my thought process.
 
To keep costs minimal, this was going to be a short trip - fly in on a Tuesday evening, one park Wednesday, one park Thursday, fly home Thursday night. Ideally I'd've flown in Wednesday morning, but flight times just didn't work out. I had planned to drive too, but that was very costly (plus the rising fuel prices scared me), but I quickly realised both parks were pretty accessible by train. It increased the journey times, but it saved a lot of money really.
 
Anyways, enough pre-amble ramblings. Time to get to it...
 
Day 0
This was my first flight since January 2020. Things have changed a fair bit since then, with both Brexit and Covid. Gatwick airport was pretty chill, and boarding on the Easyjet flight was fine. As Germany require FFP2 masks in certain places (such as planes, airports and trains), crew were freely giving out these masks to anyone who didn't have that specific type of mask. Pretty chill.
 
A not-short queue through passport control followed. It was at this point where I expected to have to show my vaccine passport (the only requirement to get into Germany at the time), but I didn't. Oh well.
 
My hotel was a 20 minute walk from the airport, and was surprisingly cheap and nice given the location. Boom, easy.
 
Day 1 - Heide Park
I was faced with two problems for my day at Heide Park.
 
First thing, the weather. The weather had been pretty miserable the past few days prior; cold and wet with threats of storms. Having checked their park app in the days prior, that seemed to be affecting ride availability too. And the weather today didn't seem much better - cold and dark clouds, with high chances of rain. Just a tad concerning. 
 
The second was more of an "operational" concern. The park say on their website that the nearest train station to the park is Wolterdingen, which is a 20 minute walk to the park. Annoyingly, when travelling from Hamburg, you can only arrive hourly, at 48 minutes past each hour. So I was left with a choice: arrive to Wolterdingen at 08:48 and awkwardly wait outside the park for ages, but be one of the first through the gate...or arrive at the park late.
 
I expected the park to be quiet, so arriving late wouldn't be the end of the world, buttttttttt I like to get to parks for opening wherever possible. So I opted to get out of bed the hour earlier to get there earlier. Who needs a birthday lie in when there's creds to get?!
 
Getting from my hotel to Wolterdingen was straightforward enough. U-Bahn from hotel to Hamburg's main station. 20 minute wait time for connection to a random place called Buchholz, then a 15 minute wait to connect to Wolterdingen. Easy enough.
U-Bahn went smoothly. But then disaster struck. The connection was delayed...by 15 minutes. Ffs. The train pulled into Buchholz just as my connection left. And it was an hour until the next train.
 
I came to really hate Buchholz. It was a large station which was very windy and cold, and there was no indoor waiting area that I could find. Fortunately, the rest of the journey was easy enough, and the walk from Wolterdingen to Heide was a straight line, and only took me 15mins. And so, a little after 10, I was finally here!

 
Waltzing straight on through, with no whiff of security, my first port of call was the dump my stuff in a locker. I don't usually use park lockers (usually opting to visit light), but didn't fancy lugging all my stuff all day, especially with the ominous storm clouds hanging over. An all day, unlimited-entry locker cost 5 euro...not awful, but could be worse I guess.
 
Checking the app, it suggested that of the "big" rides, only Krake, Flug der Damonen and Big Loop were open. All with 0 minute queues, fortunately. But not a great start, and already cred anxiety was kicking in. But let's not focus on that, and instead let's get some B&M-goodness...

 
Krake wasn't particularly something that was on my radar. Drop, inversion, over, right? A fun +1, but I didn't expect any more. I was, however, pleasantly surprised. I walked on to front row straight away, and got a very nice ride. You seem to hang over the drop for a good few seconds (much longer than Oblivion and Baron at least), and the splash effect is really cool. The whole ride is filled with nice floaty moments, and even then those it's quick, it left me feeling fulfilled. Coupled in with the nice music and nice theming, I was quite happy. 


It's nothing special, but it does what it aims to do very well.
 
On an even more exciting note, I noticed whilst on ride that Colossos was running. And it looked like people were on it too! I checked the app and it said it was still closed. This left me with a choice...not head over and tick off the nearby creds, or trek to the other side of the park and see what's what. With Colossos being my most anticipated cred of the park, and with it's availability seemingly being sporadic over previous days, I decided to venture over. This turned out to be a very good choice; I saw it run again, and there were clearly people on it. Woohoo!
 
Colossos
Fortunately there was no queue, and even getting into the station, there was only a one train wait. The ride, like everything, was on one train, which gave me a good feeling about the level of busyness to expect. Opted for the back row for my first ride.
 
WOW.
 
I didn't really know what to expect from the ride. I hadn't heard much about it, and didn't know the layout. But having done Balder, I had high expectations for my second Intamin woodie. And damn, they were, pretty much, met. Climbing up the lift hill hearing the audio is a neat thing. The first drop is fantastic, lifting you out of your seat. The first airtime hill flings you out too. The second gives you nice really nice floater airtime too.
 
Then you hit the turnaround. This kills the ride a bit. It doesn't make anything bad, but it loses its ability to give decent airtime. You get little pops, but it feels weak compared to what you've just experienced. And this feeling carries on until the helix, where the ride picks up speed and its aggressive nature again. The final couple of hills have some good, consistent airtime, and leave the ride ending on a high note.
 
The "wicker monster", as I call it, looks really nice, and is a good first time effect on-ride as a near miss. It didn't have any fire effects going though, which was a shame.

 
After my first ride, I was itching to get on again. And with no queue, that's exactly what I did. In honesty, there's not many rides where I've had that immediate feeling of "Damn, let's do that again, like right now!"; it was very much a 'Top 10%' ride for me from the get-go. Taking advantage of there being no queue, I went for the front this time. I was surprised at how consistent the ride was compared between front and back. And the pure rush going down the first drop on the front row is something I really liked too.



Two rides in, and I decided - reluctantly - to move on. The park seemed like it was going to be quiet, but with the threats of storms still looming, I thought I should try to mop up the creds just in case, and then return to Colossos later if I could.
 
With that, I went to the neighbouring Desert Race. It's basically a Rita clone. I like Rita, so expected to like this. However, it fell a bit flat for me, for reasons I can't quiet put my figure on. Maybe the bare-ness of the ride? Maybe the slow ops, where they waited for an entire full train before dispatching? Maybe the annoying announcements? Just little fiddly things. This also feels like a very Tussauds investment: plonked down, minimal theming, very tacky in general. I hope the park do something with this sooner rather than later.
 
I then went back the way I came towards Big Loop

Bog standard old Vekoma. Not much else to say.
 
Then it was time to tick off the remaining B&M, Flug der Damonen. I had been intrigued by this, due to its tight layout and neat theming. Despite the app saying this had a 0 minute queue, there was a bit of a wait...about 10 minutes. No problem really though I guess. I really liked the station; had a real nice vibe to it.



I got a front row ride on the right hand side. And the ride...was not that good. It starts off nicely, standard B&M wing. But then it tries cramming all its elements into a small space, and it just seems to make the ride a bit juddery, and it lacks any sort of flow. A real shame, and definitely the weakest one I've done so far.
 
The app still listed Scream, Bobbahn and Limit as closed. These rides had all been closed any time I'd checked the app on previous days too. As they were nearby, I decided to check them out and see what's what. Scream had a sign outside saying it was waiting for a part, and should be ready to open for "Week 15". Sad times, as I like drop towers. Bobbahn had a sign outside saying it was too cold to open. Gah, spite
Limit, however, had no sign. It wasn't open, but there was a solid handful of people waiting outside, and staff in the station. I overheard a conversation between guests which I loosely managed to translate to as "it will open soon". So I decided to hang around.
 
To be honest, I can't believe I decided to willingly hang around and see if an SLC would open soon. Especially when it lunchtime, I was hungry, and I was in the same park as a walk-on Colossos. But heyho, a man's gotta get his creds. After about 10 minutes, it opened up. Yay...
I managed to get on the second train of the day. Second train of the season. I got a middle row seat, and braced myself in usual SLC-fashion. But something strange happened. It wasn't...awful. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't good. But it didn't try to massacre me, and I left the ride without my head feeling like I'd been in the ring with Drederick Tatum. Maybe the ride hadn't warmed up enough, so it was running slowly and, somehow, less rough?
So there we have it folks, if you want a not-awful ride on an SLC, make sure to take one of the first rides of the season on a cold and stormy day!

I also quite liked the music - nice rock track.
 
After a quick spot of lunch, I went to the other side of the park, where the water rides and a smaller cred lived. I did both the log flume - which had a long cattlepen queue you couldn't skip over thanks to Covid barriers still being in place - and the rapids in quick succession. They were nice; not too wet, not too dry, and solid, yet unremarkable, examples of their ride types. I ticked off kiddie cred, Indy-Blitz, too, getting a solo ride and a +1 for my troubles.
 
Next up was perhaps my second-most anticipated ride of the day...Ghostbuster 5D. I make no secret that I love shooting dark rides. I'm not big on the Ghostbusters franchise, but I acknowledged that it was something that had huge potential with this ride type. The exterior is very Merlin, in that it looks good in context of what the theme of the ride is, yet still a bit bland for a theme park. And it's kind of let down by the dodgy shipping container entrance. 



The mathematician in me feels obliged to take photos of any mathematical equations that work their way into theming within rides.
 
As for the ride itself...I dunno. I'm not sold. The idea is cool, especially the working together to take down ghosts. But the pacing feels a bit off. Some scenes are far too long, others far too short. There's not one which is 'just right'. There's not really anything between screens, and the attempted compensation is "let's spin and jerk the car around quickly". This left me feeling a bit motion sick, which was a shame. A bit better pacing in the scenes, and some better breathing space between scenes, and this would be SO much better.
 
On my way to the final cred, I took a nice slow wander round. On this random, meandering walk, I noticed a random fire effect, which was coming from the boat ride in the How to Train Your Dragon area. I don't particularly care for the franchise, but liking fire effects, I thought sod it, I'll give the ride a go. It was a nice little ride, with some neat effects and was largely indoors, protecting me from those pesky storm clouds (which were still threatening rain, but not following through!). Detour completed, I did the final open cred of the day, Grottenblitz, a Mack powered cred, with shared the same building as the previous boat ride. It had a nice layout. But I didn't get any photos (it was getting rather cold).
 
Now it must have been around 2 / half 2, and I'd ticked off all the creds and all the rides I wanted to do. Yes, there were loads of flats, but none appealed. The park have a monorail and train ride, which I would usually do, but both looked slow and burdensome to do in cold weather. So I took the chance to do re-rides, and a do a fair few of them at that.
 
Throughout the last couple of hours, I managed another two rides on Krake (on 2nd and 3rd row, both were nice, but not quite as good as the front, of course), and ride on the opposite side of Flug (which was even more juddery on the back row). I decided to give Ghostbusters another shot, but even being prepared for the spinning, I still felt a little queasy afterwards. More importantly, I managed another 6 goes on Colossos, including another front and back row ride. All in, it really cemented itself as a top ride for me. It had warmed up nicely, and the middle third was running better by the end of the day. Still a weak spot, but the first and final thirds more than compensated for it.
 
I also took the chance to just wander round the park and take some more photos. So here's a little final photo dump on my least terrible photos...





 
All in, I had a really nice day at Heide Park. The weather held off, the park was sufficiently quiet and it has a good selection of rides. It had quite a Merlin feel about it, and even moreso a feel of a park that's had three very different owners and directions. There's the older, classic rides which have a nice, integrated feeling. Then there's the Tussauds-era, plonking rides down and just rolling with it. Then the more recent Merlin-era, where theming and ride integration clearly plays a part, but can be a bit hit and miss. In saying that, I would happily go back again in the future - especially if they were to add a more traditional dark ride, and maybe replace Desert Race with something that uses the space better!
 
 
The day ended off by taking the train to Lubeck. It was a good couple of hours journey along 3 trains (Wolterdingen to the much-hated Buchholz, to Hamburg, then to Lubeck), but simple enough. Sadly, the weather decided to finally take a turn for the worse, and the heavens opened. The 20 minute walk up the hills of Lubeck felt so much longer thanks to the rain and bitter wind. Cheers for the birthday present, Lubeck...just what I always wanted!
 
Coming soon, day 2 of 2...a wet, cold and anxious day at Hansa Park...