JoshuaA

CLOSE THE PARK DOWN, CLOSE THE PARK DOWN! *drives car

I honestly think it was a clever move to re-theme and refurbish the rides they did throughout the past few years. Chessington doesn't seem to have much expansion space and a lot of the park was in high need of refurbishment (a bit like Thorpe Park rn).. Chessington recently has actually given me a little hope in Merlin oddly enough, the park seem very focused on improving their current offering before then adding in new exciting stuff. This is noted. Though I think a coaster will happen sometime within the next 5 years, I honestly think Chessington will get a new coaster before Thorpe tbh. I think ever since the mid 2000's the park became a bit of a joke to enthusiasts, sure Wild Asia was a little spur of hope but at that time you still had Bubbleworks and Falls in a state. I think now also because of Thorpe's current state people now actually appreciate Chessington more.

I think Chessington have a new coaster planned, it was on their LTDP anyway: https://www.southparks.co.uk/2017/04/26/ltdp-and-plans-for-lodge-accommodation-submitted-by-chessington-world-of-adventures-resort/ I honestly really enjoy this park these days, I know it used to be mocked a lot but I feel like recently it has seen some pretty smart additions and besides Buccaneer the park is looking pretty fine compared to how it did going into 2010. I do think a new coaster would really benefit this park, especially with Paultons adding Storm Chaser and Tornado Springs next year!

I disagree, I think the park should never look after or maintain anything, if anything needs fixing they should just leave it and they should never repaint anything, let it look sh**. At least the park is open.

Honestly I'm okay with it at Chessington, they have had a pretty good string of investments recently that has been actually beneficial to the park. Room On The Broom is far from perfect but at least they added that this year, thats probably why the bouncy castle is less advertised as Chessington actually made a investment this year.. What else are Thorpe gonna advertise? The worlds biggest collection of dust sitting around Loggers?

Have to admit I hope we do get a skyfly at a merlin park sometime soon, those things are bloody good fun! Re-ridable too, Skyforce is probably my favourite flat ride in the UK. Such a brilliant idea for a flat.

Scaretour said on their page that apparently the new maze (and probably the show) will be placed next to Chop Shop and Twisted's exit. They also said The Colony's replacement will be extended out past Chop Shop, how can that maze get longer? Really excited for Tulleys this year, hopefully I can experience the event as a guest this year at least once too considering I didn't last year.

I think with certain people RMC can make the best coaster in the world (which arguably they have already done) and people will still call them 'overhyped'. I think RMC really is the 'arrow dynamics' of this era, some people might doubt them but they are undeniably smashing down ground for the industry which I think people in this forum don't appreciate enough. When RMC finally make more rides in Europe maybe more people will appreciate the very fun and well crafted rides that RMC make. Sure they aren't 100% perfect, but no ride is perfect.

Wicked Witches Haunt is returning too, I saw this on reddit so it has to be true right? ?

When going to Chicago the nearest park worth giving a sh** about is certainly Six Flags Great America (unless you're willing to drive to Cedar Point). They have been rapidly expanding in the past ten years or so with coasters being added left and right, heck Great America have probably got the best deal out of any Six Flags park in the past ten years. They received a kiddie woodie (wasn't too fussed on getting that cred), a B&M Wing, a RMC, a freespin, and recently a S&S launch. This park really gave me Thorpe Park vibes. The park is fairly compact with a lot of the rides being kinda on top of each other. Whizzer is right next to Maxx Force and Maxx Force gets quite close to Raging Bull and Raging Bull is next to Demon and Demon goes up right close to X Flight, ect, ect. Just like Thorpe a lot of the rides are very packed in to the space and walking around is fairly easy with that in mind. Goliath: Goliath is the park's groundup RMC woodie and despite not being anywhere near the level of Steel Vengeance the ride is pretty insane. The ride's first drop is certainly the highlight with a very steep angle and the signature ejector RMC's are known for. Other than the drop the ride has one more airtime moment before the dive loop which also gives great ejector. On the inversion front the dive loop is good fun and the zero g stall is orgasmic. Sadly the ride is kinda neutered by its shortness but I would still rank it in my top 10 because it still kicks ass. I think if this thing was longer and had more airtime I would like it more, though Zadra will probably show us what a longer Goliath would ride like anyway. Overall my favourite ride in the park but its short length makes it worse than New Texas Giant and Steel Vengeance IMO. V2: I have to admit I really was a fan of Wicked Twister, I really enjoyed the powerful launches and the spikes were brilliant fun. Vertical Velocity managed to wow me even more due to one of the spikes actually being just plain straight which gave the ride a brilliant drop if you were in the back! The ride like Wicked Twister is just a lot of fun and not anything mind-blowing, but V2's tight footprint and fun launches give it a pretty pivotal position in the Great America lineup. The Joker: S&S Freespins.. A incredibly divisive coaster model that due to the mass cloning seems to be fairly disliked, people seem to hate these things and honestly I don't know why. I loved The Joker, I actually preferred it over a B&M Hyper, don't @ me.. Why do I like this ride and model? Let me explain. The Joker is a incredibly unpredictable and re-ridable coaster that always left me wanting to get back in line for. Its a short ride but it packs a punch and you never quite know how your cycle is going to treat you, it might be a fairly tame cycle or you might get brutally spun for the duration, you never know. I know some people hate this coaster because of this but I liked it, I thought it made the coaster more re-ridable as every ride is vastly different from the other. When the ride does give you brutal cycles its utter insanity, heck this is the only coaster that me feel flat out scream, you feel so out of control on this thing. I think for its footprint The Joker is brilliant for this park and I would love this ride at a park like Thorpe Park. Batman: (no pics cos idgaf) Batman at Great America is the first of the Batman clones (and the first invert) and overall its a fun ride. I certainly prefer Raptor and Nemesis but its a solid invert with good intensity. The one thing that made me a little annoyed with this ride was pi** poor operations and stacking which made my Europa Fanboy heart break. Despite the Six Flags operations the ride was a solid invert that blows Inferno out of the water. American Eagle: American Eagle is the parks huge racing woodie built by Intamin. The ride overall was incredibly fun though it certainly shows its age. The ride has some brilliant airtime moments and a brutal turn-around, overall I found the bunny hills toward the end to be a particular highlight. The operations on this ride were honestly pretty shocking to be honest though- lengthy stacking, only one side operating for most of the 3 days despite a lengthy queue! Sure Gemini only runs one side a lot of the time but Gemini never had a queue and its throughput is still pretty great with just one side. The queue with one side operating on American Eagle was literally painful to watch.. Overall a great classic woodie though I would like GCI to perhaps re-track some of this ride as it certainly shows its age! I would also like Six Flags to be less like Six Flags. Viper: Viper.. Despite a unoriginal layout, what a brilliant wooden coaster. This ride is just plain fun with great airtime and overall just a complete classic that certainly stills remains a gem in the lineup. The ride is rough enough to have character but is smooth enough to be enjoyable, it really is what a wooden coaster should be. Unlike other rides in the park Viper had a really good crew running it and the theming was also pretty decent for Six Flags. Overall a complete classic that deserves to stay in the park for years to come. Raging Bull: I wasn't expecting much going in, what I got was booooorrrrrinnnnnng. If you think Silver Star isn't all that great you'll fall asleep on Raging Bull, Silver Star at least has a great second half and is actually interesting! Raging Bull is nicknamed by many as 'Raging Dull' and honestly it lives up to the name, the ride is just a bunch of forceless turns with a few airtime moments that give no airtime. I actually prefer Titan at Six Flags Over Texas, that ride was kinda boring but the helixes after the mid course made me grey out every time, Raging Bull was literally forceless. Don't get me wrong this isn't a bad coaster, but its certainly one of the worst if not the worst B&M Hyper. I get why it has a twister layout due to space but they could at least could of made this more.. Interesting? On the upside the crew on this were hauling with operations, they ran two trains and managed to dispatch trains before the other train even made it to the final breaks! That is pretty amazing for Six Flags! Dark Knight: Dark Knight is a pretty fun enclosed wild mouse, It certainly doesn't have the most intricate theme, but its fine. Nothing less, nothing more. I think having a indoor coaster is good for the park though. Superman: This ride was kind of a tragedy to me. Let me explain. Superman is a great B&M flyer that completely blows Air out of the water, easily one of the top rides at the park and something you'll wanna ride a fair amount. Then you remember this is Six Flags. It takes YEARS for trains to dispatch (like 4 minute+) and this ride team seemed especially unmotivated and miserable. What could of been a 10 minute queue was 30 minutes, and the staff seemed about as cheerful as someone at funeral. Its a shame cos Superman is probably my favourite B&M at the park and maybe even the best B&M of the trip. It really sucks that the operations are god awful and so dreary, hopefully the team in other years are nowhere near as bad as this years. Sure a bit of stacking would be okay as flying coasters aren't the easiest rides to load but Superman was just stupid with stacking trains on sitting on the brake run for what seems like eternity. Overall an amazing B&M ruined by really depressing operations. That pretzel loop is sexy though. Demon Demon was a fun arrow coaster, I probably wouldn't rank it above Corkscrew though due to Corkscrew's really fun airtime hill. Unlike Corkscrew, Demon had some cool theming throughout its layout and it interacts with X Flight towards the end which is cool. All in all, a fun ride but nothing to shout at. Whizzer Whizzer was a fun family coaster but I wouldn't say its anything to scream about. Its got a cool lift hill and a fun tree hugging layout, like for a family coaster its cool. The operations were truly awful though- stacking was nearly as bad as Superman and it made a 5 minute queue at Europa into a 40 minute queue as staff just stood like statues in the station. Not the best Schwarzkopf (Shockwave is the sh**), though Whizzer is a fun family coaster. X Flight X flight as a whole just reminds me of Swarm. They both have a similar-ish layout, similar stats, and just overall I would rank them about the same. X flight feels a smidge bit longer and the layout doesn't have that awkward turn around like Swarm does so I think I give X Flight a slight lead, though honestly they are about the same in my rankings. If you have ridden Swarm you know its a very graceful ride (perhaps a little too graceful) and the ride overall is all about the wing sensation, these wing coasters aren't really built for high forces or crazy elements. Overall X Flight pretty much rode how I thought it would, its a fine coaster and its something different in the lineup. Operations: After such great operations at Cedar Point and Europa I think Six Flags was a bit of a shock. Cedar Point and Europa are incredibly efficient with operations and Six Flags Great America just weren't.. These ops were probably the second worst I have ever seen at a major park, only behind Portaventura. If you haven't guessed from this review, I value operations quite high when I visit parks so this kinda got on my nerves. Overall: Six Flags Great America overall is a park with a great lineup of coasters (especially now they have Maxx Force) which is certainly a fun time for credit whores. I do think when it comes to operations and beauty Great America really is very lacking which means this park is really about the rides and nothing else. On the upside the food is pretty decent and Six Flags is pretty reasonably priced, so in terms of cost its a pretty good deal. I think Great America is a park that you should do at least once if you have the opportunity, I don't think its a park I would visit again unless they added another big coaster but its a good park nevertheless. I'm certainly not itching to go back like Cedar Point but its certainly a good park. Anyway hope you enjoyed, peace.

It still exists though.. Some people refuse to acknowledge it, but it exists, they didn't magically remove it with a fairy wand back in 2014. The system at Europa has a one thing I think Merlin could implement: A limit on carers. Merlin parks currently have a fairly high limit of carers for rides, when having a RAP some people seem to bring their entire extended family. At Europa you can only have 1 carer, with the exception of 6 chosen rides to which you can have more than 1 carer.

Saw Alive is the tip of the iceberg. Look at the state of Loggers Leap and Slammer. Most other parks would of dismantled or at least kept those rides looking presentable (Noah's Ark at BPB), Thorpe just leave it and let it rot. I would prefer them to clean/clear areas like this than add a giant tacky bouncy castle! So when a ride closes at Thorpe just leave it, no matter how neglected or filthy it looks, who cares? Its not a matter of repaint, its a matter of keeping it from looking horrendous, which Loggers does and Slammer looks completely untouched. Even Blackpool keep their SBNO rides looking decent and they are a independent park.. I don't see Noah Ark's covered in dirt, rotting. Maybe, cos they care?

This ^^^^ Just because a ride is gone doesn't mean you can let it sit and catch dust.

I used a wheelchair due to a severe illness back in 2014 at Europa and I rode rides, though obviously I could walk. If you can't walk then yeah it is kinda bad but I think thats just German laws. The system isn't perfect but I think it works well considering German Laws. Agreed. This would probably be the only option that would be fool-proof, though obviously it would make things hard for people who don't have those any of those. The current system certainly is accommodating for many different illnesses and people who don't have a PIP, DLA, or Blue Badge, though I think that accommodation really has been thrown back in their face with people cheating the system time after time.

They do run a system but you literally have to have a blue badge or a obvious psychical issue to use it. I think there is less motive to use it too considering Europa don't have fastrack and the queues there are usually pretty reasonable anyway due to the stupid throughputs their rides achieve.

I think the park should just make the requirements a lot more difficult like it is at Europa. I also think they need to max the groups out at 3 (including the user). Sounds great on paper but I don't think that would actually function properly. Like, the abusers usually have good stories and a script, I'm unsure whether a doctor could judge whether the person is telling the truth (especially with any mental illness). There is many conditions and illnesses that a onsite doctor can't just confirm within a few minutes.

This looks like Goliath at Great America on steroids. This ride will certainly solidify Energylandia as a must do in Europe.

I'm pretty sure you get single shot on the day. I don't blame you to be honest, Sub Species is bloody brutal! I went to Scarefest when I was 13 in 2015 and did it the year after too. If they ask her for age just say 15, they can't really ID 15 year olds at a theme park anyway. Like what are the chances someone is bringing their passport and driving license to a theme park at age fifteen Lol?

I would like to hope for Big Top but I honestly see them just putting Sanctum in that space again.. I think the people behind Fright Nights don't care anymore tbh, it'll still make money so who needs quality. If enthusiasts want quality just go Scarefest I guess.

It certainly splits opinion, I think this sometimes can make people either have sky-high expectations or not many at all. I do think in the overall lineup of CP it is really good considering the pretty intense machines around it. I still honestly don't know why its still put on the 'best coaster in the world' pedestal. Each to their own though.

RMC and Nemesis have nothing on the beautiful overhype train of Millenium Force- a ride that is very often called the best when it literally just has two good moments followed by a bunch of nothing.

I would disagree. Saw Alive was pretty poor in 2012-2013 but after Scarecon in 2014 it ran pretty great! The maze itself didn't have many changes, though from 2014 and onwards it seemed to be flooded with actors to make it a fun short sharp shock.

Kinda glad its gone to be honest. Saw Alive was a strong maze but it was at the end of its life and something new would be appreciated. I really hope that they have a new maze in this location, Platform, Blair Witch (with the deadcreek woods layout), Living Nightmare, and Big Top. I honestly don't why they got rid of such a fun and well done maze such as Big Top! I will certainly try and visit this year.

Intamin, Mack, and B&M have all made rides with flaws. Intamin's early restraint system was god awful, Mack built jerky rides such as Poseidon or Eurosat, B&M built Dragons Khan and recently implemented restraints that heavily restrict you from feeling airtime which is arguably worse than RMC's. Remember too that Wildfire was made before the 2nd gen trains came to fruition. The trains have slightly changed and one RMC doesn't reflect the ENTIRE company, Iron Rattler and New Texas Giant have Gerstlauer trains anyway and everything 2018 and onwards will probably ride different I think the key to RMC being so popular is due to the forceful and smooth rides they usually give. They typically have a lot of airtime and unique and fun elements to boot. Sure the restraints can be a little uncomfy for people on the taller side but hopefully the company will adjust the restraints as they go along. I would broaden my views outside of Steel Vengeance but outside of that ride I see Goliath and New Texas Giant, rides that are brilliant in their own right.

Might open before we leave the EU I guess..