yeah

Lol not just PA, we're heading to Barcelona for a Spanish trip, we're also going to the Nou Camp, and loads of Barcelona landmarks. We also get a 2 hour "extensive Spanish lesson" which would be fine (What else do you expect) if it wasn't straight after we get off the plane...

One little visit to Paultons Park has changed my list quite a bit. 1 - Galactica. Of course. If you don't know my love for Galactica, you must never have even seen one little bit of me on this website. 2 - Dragon's Fury. I always used to rate Vampire higher than Fury but since Summer began it's always been flipping back and forth. I've decided Fury beats it though. 3 - Flight of the Pterosaur. Vampire doesnt make it into my top 3 anymore which is quite astonishing considering how I was when it was my favourite ride. Flight would have been on the same level as Galactica and Fury had it been longer. I wasn't impressed on my first ride, but after one on the front and one on the back, and it was amazing. Nearly everything about this ride is perfect - the force, the airtime, the theming - all that let's it down is it's length. 4 - Vampire. I know right. Fourth. Speaking of fourth, it was after a ride on the fourth row of Vampire that I realised how rough this ride is. I still love it near the back row, but due to those jolts just before the second lift and tunnel I hit my head way too much. Padded seats is what it needs. Come on Merlin, I know you can! 5 - Thirteen. I like 13, but it doesn't come anywhere near my top 3. Really challenges Vampire. I'm really not sure if I'll be able to keep riding it though, the actual ride itself is great but that snapping sound before the drop is way too loud. 6 - Cobra (Paultons). Having never been on an inverting coaster Helixes are my favourite coaster elements and Cobra has plenty. Not to mention it's fair share of airtime, and I like the restraints too. 7 - Kobra (Chessie). I love Kobra. I'm putting it on my top 10 coasters because why not, but it's definetly my favourite flat ride. It's not scary, just fun (despite what my mum says), and the operator is great too. 8 - Velociraptor. I liked Velociraptor, but it lacked airtime imo. You barely get any near the back or in the middle, and there's not much force either. 9 - Spinball Whizzer. What can I say? I love Maurer spinners, and I like Spinball but it's very short and doesn't have a patch on Fury. 10 - Mias Riding Adventure. Once again, this is on my favourite coasters list because why not. I find Mias more intense than Kobra, but I find Kobra more fun.

Does taking friends help with getting on coasters? Asking because when we went to Chessie with my sister's friend her sister (confusing) who is the same age as me helped me get on Vampire, mainly because of the Ride Access Pass. There are loads of ways to conquer the fear of flying, or simply distract you from it - I've always hated flying but flying to Florida about 5 or so years ago I just sat watching the TV and that distracted me from the height or anything like that. You could also maybe shut the window or ask for a seat down the middle, or there are some tablets that can help, for example I have no idea what they're called but my mum takes some tablets to calm you down when flying (I'll be taking them on the way to Spain), or I know someone who's aunt takes sleeping tablets.

Well its pretty much confirmed that I'll be heading to PA on a school trip in May, so very excited! Id better get down to Thorpe (or Towers!) And get on a big coaster in time! I wanted to say something but thought Id better not as I wasn't on the trip yet.

Alton Towers' social media don't even have the slightest clue though, Thorpes are much more competent.

Oh trust me, I rate Paultons much higher than LEGO, and honestly the only thing that swings it in Chessie's direction is Dragon's Fury (), the fact Chessie is closer, and the theming (may not be well kept, and LK is the best in the UK, Peppa and Creek are good but the rest of Paultons is pretty bare in the way of theming imo, the shrubbery is great but I prefer Chessie's pre Merlin stuff). I prefer Flight to Vampire aswell. (Believe it or not)

Just checked and, including current traffic Thorpe is a 17 min drive

I saw "10 minutes" and thought "Oh I live closer than that!" And then saw by bike and thought "Ah". I'm about 5/10 minutes drive away myself, it's about as close to me as the local leisure centre lol.

You still get unlimited entry to the UK's biggest parks for a year though - don't know about anyone else but using Merlins calculator thing we've saved thousands of pounds with our passes.

Lol maybe we should reserve the VR jokes for coasters and not water rides. After all, electronic VR + Water probably = Death. I really hope Loggers reopens, even just once lol, its the only Merlin flume Ive never been on.

This is from quite a while ago (July) but I'm slowly turning my sister into an enthusiast Walking up to Galactica "Wow the theming's amazing" Needless to say I was very proud.

I assume if me and my sister can persuade our parents to stay in the hotel (unlikely but apparently they're "looking into it") we should be able to get all three?

Do you think (and this is sort of related to the discussion before) I could handle it as a 13 year old with aspergers (meaning I am easily scared/distressed)

And that's exactly me if I am standing up. If I'm in a half hour queue after 10 minutes I'll get EXTREMELY agitated, and turn around and probably start annoying my sister or something. Not nice for anyone. When we broke down (I used SRQ and was with another RAP user) I kept calm, on the outside, and tbh was kind of excited because it was my first breakdown. On the inside, fair to say I was 75% bricking it, but having a staff member telling us what happened helped. What didn't help was setting off again (after being told we would) and seeing every other car still stuck at the top of the second lift hill. Tbh I never get half an hour, if the RAP even looks like a long queue we won't go on and wait for it to die down. I remember getting in the Fury RAP queue just after a breakdown and we were in that little corner, the ride host came out and said they'd be letting a few main queue riders on because they were near the front of the queue when it broke, and by the time she'd finished speaking the queue was down the bottom of the ramp. The worst park for RAP is LEGOLAND. It seems great on paper, but very little rides at LEGO have a designated entrance - less than Gullivers in fact - meaning we have to queue with the Q-Bot people. It's also not very clear - one time on Pirate Falls we queued through Q-Bot for about 10 minutes, then got told were allowed through the exit, then next time went through the exit, only to be told we're not allowed down the exit. Then next time we queued the longest queue I've ever had with RAP and they told us we shouldve gone through the exit! I remember going on the Helicopters ride once with my cousins (what is it, Whirlycopters, Whirlybirds, something like that) and (nearly, we left to go in the main queue) queueing longer than the main queue, which was 10 minutes. The RAP queue was at least 30. Anyway, back on topic, what is Curse like exactly?

I'm sorry but I don't see the problem exactly? The SRQ is 10 minutes at worst I can queue up to about that without any real problem. And I don't need an adult tbh, I'm a 13 year old enthusiast with Aspergers, I know not to stand up, and I also know how to keep relatively calm (on the outside) during a breakdown (case in point the breakdown I had while using the SRQ), all I have is problems with queuing long queues, besides 9 times out of 10 I end up next to an adult, and they've put an adult from the SRQ next to me when I've used the RAP before when my sister wanted to sit next to my mum so there cant be any problems there.

Single Rider, and well just go and do TOTW inbetween lol

Cool. Just asking because my parents remember them from the early 2000s lol We have RAP

Only ever been in TOTW and I've heard Curse has a few scary moments so don't plan on it. Never stayed until dark either (always had something else we had to do) but we are this year, looking forward to getting on Vampy Fury and Kobra in the dark as well as the lighting of course. I think we're even looking at hotel prices but doubt that'll happen. Do Chessie have roamers?

I didn't find it too gory tbh, and I am extremely squeamish. It just looked like a pile of meat from the Asda down the road.

Well one is (somewhat) skin and the other is a map.

It definetly has a wonky station just less noticable

Apparently Loki's is already completely gone, cant be long until construction starts. How big is the building in Billund? Do you think they'll have the room to build a little plaza area?

Those rides I'll give you, they where pretty much what I was referring to with the "pockets" but... This I don't agree with. I think the entrance looks fine myself (although yeah the South car park is annoying and the eyesores they call ticket booths stick out like a sore thumb), I cant speak for Dragon's Fury's queue but compared to Vampire and a few other coasters in the uk the track is gleaming, and the Single Rider queue is self explanatory tbh, I've used it many a time and only met one group that didn't know what it was, two little kids (who didn't even look tall enough) talking about what they'd do for the photo and sitting next to each other. They were adamant they knew what it meant though when I told them. Wild Asia doesn't really look too different to when I first saw it imo, although the rickshaws thing was weird. I thought the hotels where really nice when I stayed there but maybe things have changed since December 2014. And finally, I still find Chessie fun, even after about 30 visits this year the place still feels special, it's a park I have a genuine love for. Oh and btw you forgot to mention Toadies but I don't think you really need too... Good Lord am I glad it's going soon...

I'm sorry but Gulliver's Kingdom has to be the worst kept theme park in the UK. Not all of Chessie is badly kept, in fact only pockets of it are, whereas all of Gullivers looks derelict. Gullivers only redeeming qualities are Switchback, the theming in the adventure land thing and the Western area before it was forgotten, the views and the fact it's dead.

Rock bottom? Like have you even seen Gulliver's?