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JoshuaA

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Blog Comments posted by JoshuaA

  1. JoshuaA

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Mark9 said:

    Agreed on most of your review. Phantasialand has moments of class mixed with areas of complete rubbish. For every Taron there's three rides begging to be destroyed. I can't say the same for Europa Park where every ride has a purpose and is looked after to the highest degree. Yes even snow bench the ride. I value capacity highly and I could rip my hair out waiting for either of the Winja brothers. 

    Yeah I'm similar with capacity. As marmite as Euro-Mir is, I bet it has a better throughput than Winjas's put together. Yeah not gonna lie, even though Bench is kinda bad, I still find it charming in a weird way.  Definitely agreed with some areas being better than others, China and Crazy Bats could be bulldozed and I don't think anyone would shed a tear lol.

     

    On 9/4/2020 at 10:20 AM, Martin Doyle said:

    The Europa vs Phantasia debate is a hard one for me

     

    They are absolutely Europe's two best parks. Without a doubt.

     

    Europa to me is an amazing overall park, but for me its all about the quality over the quantity. Europa has a massive selection of good to great rides but I personally would have Taron (and possibly Black Mamba) over any one of the Europa coasters and I would have Chiapas (and possibly River Quest) over any of the Europa water rides. Where I find Europas coasters to be good to great, Taron is simply world class and makes me want to go back to Phantasia as much as I can. Europa does not really have that one coaster that makes me want to do that in my opinion. Not to dismiss Wodan though!!

     

    Sooner TOTNH is ripped out the better!! Diabolical coaster that makes X look like Rock an Roller Coaster. As others have said, this very well could be the next area for investment (if not China)

     

    Foodwise, definitely try out Rutmoors in a future visit. One of the absolute best theme park restaraunts out there.

     

    Glad to see you enjoyed the park!! :)

    Coasterwise I guess Phantasialand has the edge on quality. Though honestly my main reason for liking Europa more is the atmosphere, theming, and operations. Also a huge dark ride fan. I think it really depends on how much you value those kinda things, Phantasialand does those things, but not quite as well as Europa IMO.

    Yeah TOTNH should be bulldozed via live stream, at least Vekoma get to redeem themselves with FLY. 

    And will do, I definitely think I didn't get the whole picture with the food.

     

     

     

     

  2. JoshuaA

    Posted

    1 hour ago, JoshC. said:

    Entering Phantasialand is a weird one as there's actually 3 'main' entrances. 

     

    Entrance 1: Berlin. This is the most "main" one in design,  but practically anyone who drives won't use it, since there's basically no parking for day guests. You enter with the carousel directly in front, and then look down Berlin street towards Wellenflug. It's small and tight but pretty cool. 

     

    Entrance 2: Mystery. Probably the most used one since the car park is accessed by using the road under the park next to the main entrance. 

     

    Entrance 3: China. The car park for this is found by driving past the main entrance, turning left at the roundabout (going past Hotel Matamba) and following the road along.

     

    Neither Mystery nor China entrance is great, in the sense that you just go straight into the park. It's a very harsh contrast (like a lot of Phantasialand's transitions between areas). They're practical, certainly not memorable. 

     

    Crucially, the park do know these areas all problems. They want to expand the land they own so more people can use the Berlin entrance, and so they can make it a bit grander, but they have experienced issues getting permission to expand.

     

    They don't own the land of one of their car parks (I think Mystery, but could be China). It's owned by a local who effectively leases it to the park and refuses to sell. A couple of years ago he tried building his own train through the car park... So it makes it hard to do work there. And even then, there's limited space to expand their car parks, meaning any work done to improve entrances outside the current perimeter costs valuable car parking spaces. 

     

    They do have plans and do want to improve, but their hands are very much stuck at the moment. 

     

    On top of that, each hotel has a dedicated entrance into the park (though Matamba's only happened this year). None of them are particularly great either. 

     

     

    I agree about Maus being on the long side. It is certainly an arm workout!

     

    It's probably a toss up between China and Crazy Bats/Hollywood Tour for what sees the chopping block next. Given the investment in Crazy Bats and current rumours, it's more likely going to be the China area that goes first.

    Thanks for the info. Yeah it certainly is unusual, the Berlin area definitely is the most entrance like. 

     

    And yeah either of those would be good tbf. The China area is meh, and Crazy Bats is just hilariously bad. I guess we're just getting FLY though. 

    Who needs the gym when you have Maus lol? 

  3. JoshuaA

    Posted

    22 minutes ago, Matt Creek said:

    Your thoughts share similarities to my own when I visited.

     

    Cologne is an interesting city with quirks but definitely not the best looking by any means and if anything industrial. The Cathedral is ace though! The Chocolate museum looks nice and I hope to visit there if I return again.

     

    2020 has been an unacceptable year, surprised that statue hasn’t been more vandalised.

     

     

    Yeah definitely worth going to if you are visiting Phantasialand (considering its just down the road). The chocolate museum is good fun, probably one of the best ways to spend time there. And yeah that statue was.. It didn't age very well lol. The cathedral is easily the best building there by a landslide. Agreed on it being ace. Its just so visually impressive.

  6. JoshuaA

    Posted

    6 hours ago, Mark9 said:

    A lot of my opinions are completely opposite to yours. I find Superman proper dreary compared to Air. Considering what it could do and what it does do, it's a real let down for me. Especially as its one of the busier rides there, it doesn't deliver. I liked Raging Bull and was gutted we only got on it once. Different enough from the other hypers to make an impression. V2 is tedious to me. Goliath on the other hand excellent, Batman the Ride sublime.

     

    We suffered a power cut unfortunately so will have to go back..

    Yeah I read your blog and we definitely have very different opinions, well except for Goliath.

    I do have to give credit to Raging Bull for being different, its layout is certainly interesting and the park doesn't really have the space for a out and back layout anyway so I understand why they went for that layout, I have heard though the ride is the best in the very back so if I went back I would try and experience it in the very back row.

     

    If I'm being honest Superman really for me was all about the pretzel loop, that element alone made me like it better than Air. 

     

    Its a shame about the powercut, I guess Maxx Force gives you more than enough reason to go back! Great America seems to second favourite child with Six Flags right now too, I wouldn't be surprised if we got another coaster in the next 4 years or so!

  7. JoshuaA

    Posted

    34 minutes ago, Loggers Creek said:

    I like Cedar Point and can say it is one of my favourite parks and arguably the best place for coasters in the world.

     

    Would say most of the above is agreeable, Steel Vengeance is fab, Maverick great, I love Millennium Force, Rougarou surprisingly good and Magnum is better than Big One.

     

    I like Raptor and didn’t find it too tough on both times I’ve visited, but probably still prefer Nemy. I like Gate Keeper.

     

    I think Valravn might be the biggest letdown in terms of major rides there, I just find it seriously lacks something and never seems to get going. Oblivion has the best drop of the three dive machines I have done.

     

    Its tricky to say what the park’s next coaster will be and where it’s going? They demolished the old staff dorms but they have Monster trucks there and their old flume/dinosaur area is now Forbidden Frontier. Cedar Creek going is speculation  I keep hearing, but then again the ride has much history too, so it’s tricky.

    Yeah certainly not a park short in coasters.

    I actually mostly did  Raptor towards the back so it might of been smoother in front, I think Nemesis is superior though. 

    But yeah completely agreed on Valravn, if it had a tunnel element and the old school restraints I would probably love it. It doesn't quite have the oompth.

     

    I think their next coaster is super intriguing, if they have removed the staff dorms I guess that could be a site for a new coaster?

    If not that site I think they're gonna have to get rid of something and the only rides I see getting the axe is Cedar Creek, Iron Dragon, or Wicked Twister.

    Iron Dragon and Twister both seem to be pretty small plots of land so I think their both safe, I would say Gemini but that ride seems to have a lot of history and its a fairly fun ride too so I don't see that going just this yet. It would be cool though if they could fit something in without removing anything! Would be interesting what coaster type they would add too, like maybe a spinner or a flyer?

    Like they are the only two types they don't already have, maybe a GCI?

     

    Yeah Cedar Creek is pretty classic but I think eventually that space will become too precious. Its hard at Cedar Point to axe anything tbh as everything is either historic or a great ride (or both)

  12. JoshuaA

    Posted

    @tomathy I guess it really depends on the actors and perspective when it comes down to these attractions.

    For me the only attraction that seemed to lack actors was Bloody Mirror, which I only saw like one actor.

    For me I was a tad disappointed with PearlyWhite not being in Festino, but the three actors holding our group hostage for a few minutes was more than enough!

    I guess the event overall is a tad more technical than other events from my experience, as most of the mazes are very theatrical compared to what

    you'd get at Fright Nights/Scarefest.

    For me a lot of jump scares came from large props or special effects in some of the rooms, actually, I was shocked too barely see any strobe lighting used in the mazes at all. I think this really made the event unique compared to other events, it was completely different to anything else I've experienced

    The event from my observations was dead at opening, but the event got quite busy the more the event went on.

  13. JoshuaA

    Posted

    18 minutes ago, Matt Creek said:

    I'll be doing all of those (except Screamland) plus Xtreme Scream Park and Legoland fireworks. 

     

    It will be a first time for all of them for me (except Fright Nights. I think I'm most excited for Scarefest personally. 

    Xtreme Scream Park looks amazing, especially after the SCAR award they won.

    Sadly its quite a long drive for me so I haven't got round to going yet.

    Have fun at Scarefest, it deffo looks brilliant like last year.

    Plus Sub Species is bloody terrifying! :wub:

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