Mega-Lite

Quick update time! Mostly due to Taron not living up to how I remember it but also in time I've realised maybe I rated Piraten a little too high. So nothing new, I just think it will be fun tracing back through this thread over time and seeing how things change. 1) Helix 2) T Express 3) Karnan 4) Wildfire 5) Taron 6) Piraten 7) Expedition GeForce 8) Balder 9) Flying Dinosaur 10) Nemesis

Day 2 After no where near enough sleep we were soon up again and on our way to... Movie Park Germany - https://rcdb.com/4869.htm I had only ever seen average to negative reviews of this park and I'll happily admit I was expecting the worse. Being directed to the over overflow car park in the shadow of the SLC and Bandit didn't help reassure me. The smell of actual s**t greeted us as we opened the car doors too, lovely! Continuing to assume the worse as we went through the gates, we decided to be super nerdy and run to Star Trek, which isn't easy when you don't really know where the actual entrance is! Star Trek: Operation Enterprise - https://rcdb.com/13796.htm We were one of the first groups of people to arrive at this brand new Mack shuttle launch coaster. I won't pretend for a second I know anything about Star Trek, I spent most of the nicely themed queue lines and pre shows asking my friend what was meant to be happening, something about a big cube is the best I can explain. I'm sure the pre shows would be quite exciting to Star Trek fans but were completely lost on me and during our reride they became quite annoying. The coaster then, it's great fun. I found the launches to be a little less thrilling than the Gold Rush ones but at the end of the day they are only there to get things rolling so it's no big deal. Once the full layout starts it's a fantastic little coaster, full of airtime, silly Mack moments (the double down being the best bit) and funky inversions, it's great. The coaster of course has the fantastic modern Mack seats, or as I call them Helix seats, a seating arrangement that has yet to be beaten in my opinion. Van Helsing's Factory - https://rcdb.com/9539.htm Moving fast from Star Trek straight to what we assumed was the second most popular ride at the park, Van Helsing's Factory. This Gerts Bobsled coaster was fantastic, it's about time this coaster type was done justice. The whole experience is really well themed, from the exterior, to the queueline, to the actual coaster section and even an added bit of fun on the exit path. It's fast, it's surprisingly intense in places, it's just fantastic fun. We then powered over to the kiddie creds noting how well we had done to get 2 of the most popular rides done in super quick time. It was at this point we cut our losses and purchased the 29 Euro one go on everything (except Star Trek) pass, owing to the fact we wanted Van Helsing again and all the kiddie creds had long slow moving queues. We weren't in the mood to queue over an hour for a Vekoma Junior! Backyardigans: Mission To Mars - https://rcdb.com/968.htm +1. Ghost Chasers - https://rcdb.com/966.htm Mack wild mouse coaster, the Mack ones are better than the Maurer ones but still a +1. Jimmy Neutron's Atomic Flyer - https://rcdb.com/3675.htm Ugliest and dullest Vekoma suspended family coaster yet. It was now time to check out the park's rapids ride, Mystery River, it was really good! Good rapids sections, crazy speed at parts and loads of strange theming, what's not to love! Time for lunch now, the park has a great deal of different and exciting foods to choose from, it's not often that happens believe me! We opted for noodles and spring rolls from the Asian place, because of course. While eating it dawned on me that I'm really enjoying my time on park and that once again I'm going against the enthusiast grain because I can't see why this park gets so much slack, day was young I told myself, maybe the terrible stuff is to come. Lost Temple next, my first ever immersive tunnel. The theming on this attraction is fantastic and maybe because I went in with low expectations I found it really good fun. The T Rex on the exit path is brilliant too. We rerode Star Trek on our way to the other creds, this time in the back row, even more fun. MP-Xpress - https://rcdb.com/969.htm Might be one of the funniest coasters ever etched into steel. The presentation of this coaster is so bad it's funny, it must take effort to make something look this bad. SLC itself rode fine apart from several moments of it riding like something awful was unfolding, hit the brakes laughing my ass off, can't complain. Bandit - https://rcdb.com/967.htm So this is meant to be one of the worst coasters in the World is it? F**k off! It rode no worse than the Vekoma woodies and because of the statement worst in the World not even slightly coming true I ending up laughing so much it hurt. Next up was Time Riders, a simulator ride that was more intense than Taron, was brilliant. Still not understanding what the problem with this park is, we rode Van Helsing again, this time in the back of the car and noticed even more funky theming! I then spunked some Euros on some lovely crepes, I told you there's alot to choose from here, probably second only to Lotte World in terms of food. We ended our lovely stop off at Movie Park with a go on Burmuda Triangle, Christ it was great! As we headed for the exit, we caught the end of the parade and watching all the staff have a great time dancing along once again made me think why is this place disliked? We had a couple of hours left before we needed to start the long drive back to Amsterdam airport, so we opened Coast2Coaster and assessed our options. Schlossbeck is literally outside but Zierer Tivoli's are starting to drain the life from me. BillyBird - https://rcdb.com/6038.htm It was decided our only option was BillyBird or bust. Sat Nav told us we would arrive 5 minutes before the stated last admission. If there was a ever a time to get fruity it was now! Pushing the stupid little car to it's limit (which was more intense than Taron) and doing a fuel stop that involved me jumping out of a moving car and fueling up while friend waited in the shop for the signal, meant we made it with time to spare! Famileachtbaan - https://rcdb.com/4479.htm My first "tub coaster". Such a cute little thing and gave us a lovely little sit down. The park itself was really well presented and truly did look like a lovely day out, if you are into relaxing on the fake beach and sailing a boat onto the lake, not for me but I could see the appeal. Grabbed a slush, relished in our victory and relaxed for a while before making the 1 and a half hour drive to Amsterdam airport. Read Mark's recent post in the rant thread to help explain what happened to us when we arrived, Easyjet you heartless bastards! Got home and slept for 12 hours, was great. Thanks for reading.

While the actual madhouse part of Feng Ju was a bit crap. I'm a sucker for Asian theming and there's no denying the exterior and pre show rooms are incredibly detailed. Benin, I was really only at Phantasia for night rides and to get River Quest and Feng Ju. It's just a shame and a learning experience that even that's too much to ask from the place!

Since it's announcement, Star Trek: Operation Enterprise, the brand new Mack shuttle launch coaster at Movie Park Germany has been hot on my radar and we decided to tie in some other new creds and a special event at Phantasialand at the same time. Day 1 Read Mark's recent post in the rant thread to some up how our day started, Gatwick you heartless bastards. Arrived at Amsterdam airport at about 10:30 and went to the hire car people. As you may know by now we don't get on with the hire car industry. This time we chanced our luck with Hertz, as of yet they haven't screwed us over with after rental changes but I will keep you posted. We ordered a Ford Fiesta (or similar) and got a hybrid baby Toyota, despite their being 6 Fiestas in the rental bays, spite. Slagharen https://rcdb.com/4842.htm After about an hour and a half we arrived at Slagharen, the second most visited theme park in the Netherlands, I assume they use their holiday park resort stuff to boost their numbers to claim that fame because the park itself on a sunny Saturday in the school holidays was very manageable. Gold Rush https://rcdb.com/14011.htm We went straight away to the brand new Gerts shuttle launch infinity coaster, Gold Rush. The colour scheme is beautiful, crimson track and black supports, a scheme I use far too often on RCT2. Coaster itself is very good fun. Soothing first launch to get you started, exciting backwards launch with silly hangtime in the back as you go half way up the dive loop and then a thrilling final launch to send you into the full layout. A layout that has intense moments of airtime (oh yes) and lovely flowing inversions. To cap it all off the coaster uses extended Karnan trains, which means lapbars and loads of freedom, sadly it also means the seats try to cut your legs off but that's a small price to pay. Great little coaster this, Gerts have done it again, more of these please. Mine Train https://rcdb.com/1031.htm + 1 Much to Benin's dismay, after 2 laps on Gold Rush and 1 lap on the stupid Vekoma Junior and a cheese toastie, we hit the dusty trail. There was literally nothing else of interest (to me at least) in the park. Gold Rush is a damn solid coaster, it's such a shame they don't have much else for the thrill seekers. As a park though, it was nice enough, friendly staff and everything looked clean and in good shape, nice to see. Phantasialand - You've probably heard of this park, I won't bother posting the RCDB... The reason we threw this little trip together so fast was to get to experience the midnight closure, special 50th Birthday event at Phantasialand, I wish we hadn't bothered and instead just hit more new stuff on the German/Netherlands border. I wasn't really a fan of Phantasialand "as a park" from my last visit and this time further enforced my opinions of the park not being what many call "the best park in the World". I proudly repped my Liseberg shirt while on park and looking back I couldn't stand by that statement more. After about 2 hours of driving, we arrived at Phantasialand at about 5:30, to a rather aggressive parking man screaming "NEIN" at the customers trying to park, friendly! We tried to enter entrance 2 as the only new rides we needed at the park were Feng Ju Palace and River Quest, which are at the back of the park. But no, wasn't allowed, this isn't a great start. Walked a million miles to the wrong end of the park to finally enter, the 2 staff women manning the gates not even caring were fantastic. We now learned for the fireworks, "selected attractions and pathways are closed before the 11:30 show", spite... Feng Ju Palace This attraction was closed on my last visit so we made sure to experience it first on this trip. It's a very good madhouse attraction, it's just a shame the story kind of doesn't get resolved, if the pretty Chinese girl still isn't united with her lover, let it be known I'm very much willing. River Quest River Quest was also closed on my last trip and I was gutted by that, I'm so glad I got to experience this torture device. This ride is actually scary, in both the silly amounts of water it dumps on you and the stupid things it does in order to dump that water on you. We actually had to save a man's life, as he was stupid enough to stand up between the 2nd and 3rd drops, we screamed at him to sit back down and he survived, idiot. I loved this ride so much, easily more fun than Chiapas in my opinion. With the 2 new rides out of the way, it was time to ride Taron until we bled. We now ventured over to read 2 awful things on the queue screen. 110 minute queue, CHRIST! Queue closes 9:30, are you serious?!?! They were closing the queue of Taron at half 9 in order to clear the area for the fireworks at half 11. I don't care if you disagree with me here, but the fact this wasn't mentioned on the website when I ordered tickets frankly insults me. To close the queue of your major new attraction 2 and half hours before park closing, without informing the masses on your website is stupid. What choice do we have then, 2 hour queue for Taron it is! During this 2 hour queue, everyone and I mean everyone was smoking or vaping around us, it was disgusting. At no point did the staff attempt to stop anyone. Taron I'm glad to say we managed to get on the ride without serious lung damage. I'm disappointed to say either the coaster isn't as intense as I remember it or being 200 coasters up since I last rode it has weakened it. Regardless it's still fantastic and easily one of the best coasters in the World. It isn't Helix though. Knowing in order to get 1 more go on Taron we'd have to almost instantly rejoin the queue, we opted to have almost pizza from the almost pizza place near Taron, the man on the bar next to this eatery, when I ordered a Sprite in English, was a idiot. The Taron queue was now full and extended back into the area, so we opted for the single rider queue, big mistake. We queued with a fellow ride geek, I know this because she had Helix as the background on her phone, at 1 point she looked visibly upset, probably knowing Taron isn't as good as Helix and if we were at Liseberg we could of ridden Helix 12 times in 2 hours. Just over an hour into the single rider queue, I needed to bail in order to use the toilet. While in the stall, I hear knocking on the door and a German women shouting, these things can't be rushed sweetheart. 10 minutes later I emerge and more German shouting happens, to which I reply "I'm sorry my German isn't good". She replies "you must leave!", "why?", more German shouting where I'm able to make out they were closing the Taron toilets, Christ. Knowing I'm not able to rejoin the now fully bolted up Taron single rider queue, I ditch my friend and go for a walk. German shouting and hand signals informs me I can't go that way out of the Taron area, ffs. Over the next hour I walk around the park getting increasingly more uncomfortable, as they are closing paths left, right and centre and the remaining ones are stupidly busy. I opt to wait for my friend and calm down in the Asia area of the park, when it doubt, go Asian. Black Mamba Now reunited we powered to Black Mamba to see if we could get in a ride before 11:45 close. We did and I'm pleased to say the experience we had was so good, it stops me for fully resenting the time I spent in the park. The staff were fantastic and being completely over the top and excitable. Pitch black Black Mamba is one thing but the fireworks show starting as you go up the lift then on every inversion you catching the show upside down is wonderful. Add this to the coaster finally delivering the experience everyone raves about and I was very happy. We got another lap straight away without getting off, staff still going bonkers, the fireworks getting even more intense and the coaster hauling even more ass. OK Mark, I'm finally a Black Mamba fan. We caught the end of the fireworks as we tried to make our way to exit, they seemed quite well done. Cue thousands of people leaving the park all at once and an hour to leave the car park.... So yeah, once again, I'm let down by Phantasialand, nothing big and awful happened, just small issues that all add up to take you out of the moment. Best park in the World it is not. Next time, one of the supposed worst parks in the World ends up being more enjoyable than Phantasialand, stay tuned!

Always blows my mind how lovely other countries are to welcome me in with open arms, Korea and Japan easily being the loveliest. But then coming back to the place I call home, I'm treated like dirt and feel like I've done something wrong, why have you got to be like that England? I'll never understand the rush everyone has to get on the plane first, it won't leave without you and you are already booked on it, calm down! Did you really have to bring up Southern Mark? You've taken me to dark dark place just reading their name...

The original Annabelle was awful, one of the very few times I've wanted to leave the cinema mid movie, absolute crap. I keep hearing that part 2 is meant to be quite good, but with Cineworld now charging the Earth for any movie in any format, I'm not prepared to spunk petrol and a million pounds for a "quite good" movie. I think I'm going to have to limit myself to movies I can't wait 3 months to see when it comes to visiting anymore and it shouldn't be this way.

More like Mack design their coasters while drunk (or drugged up) and I love them for that, this thing looks so silly and fantastic at the same time. Parks should just allow Mack direct access into their bank accounts by this point!

Here come the pointless "World Records" again from Cedar Point. The air time one is silly because air time as an experience is so debatable between different people, getting a piece of software to say it has almost 30 seconds of something that's sometimes hard to define, is only going to lead to false expectations. So it's the FIRST hyper hybrid coaster, which in itself is a bit of a weird thing to promote, but then... Tallest, fastest and longest hybrid coaster is surely a given with it being the FIRST one over 200 foot? I thought Valravn had some silly claims to fame but these are equally as silly. I'm sure it's going to be an amazing coaster and yet another reason to visit Cedar Point, it's just a shame they pull these "World Records" as it spoils it a bit in my eyes.

Annette's Diner was probably both the worst meal of my life and the worst customer service of my life, I strongly cannot recommend that. Planet Hollywood is equally spiteful. Earl of Sandwich is a damn good shout though. Cafe Mickey does really nice food and you can get into intense bread stick fights with Chip or Dale. Disney Dreams, their night time castle projection show is absolutely amazing, you have not done Disneyland Paris if you miss that. Grab the free, return when it's your time fast track tickets from outside major attractions and do lesser ones while you wait for your time to ride. Be prepared for the French, smoking up in most queuelines and trying to queue jump through the smoke screen they have created. If you're staying on site, remember a Disney 4 star (at least in France), probably equates to a UK 2 star hotel. Final bit of advice would be pace yourself, when I went we did 3 non stop days, 10pm park close every day, midnight bed, up at 6 for magic hours and it killed me.

Volare's aren't that bad at all man! One of them over El Condor any day of the week. This park seems absolutely the definition of credit run, nothing worth the hassle apart from the temporary visit from Hollenblitz... On that note, I'm rather jealous of you for getting to ride that beast, I'm currently praying to Zeus nightly that it makes it's way to Winter Wonderland! Dinosaur Sub Terra does seem like a laugh though.

As it's France the cultural stuff is going to be unbearable, you'd be much better off tagging it onto a quest to get Alpina Blitz.

As a man who enjoys his shoulders, nothing can be more uncomfortable than those crap B&M wing rider vests, I certainly wouldn't want to imagine a situation where I'm laying down full weight onto the Swarm restraints! Looks quite interesting, I have faith in Vekoma!

You called? T Express is second only to Helix in coasters I've ridden, it's brilliant. First drop is the steepest on any of the Intamins and you hit it running thanks to the cable lift (I've heard El Toro slows down as it crests the top?), these things combined make for one of the most intense drops I've ever experience. The rest of the ride is non stop intense ejector air, some moments like the first hill sustaining it for insane amounts of time. Bits inbetween the airtime are taken at silly speeds so don't have time to drag on too much. It's huge, it's brutal and it's just fantastic fun. It's not coaster perfection though, the way the air time is not consistent in every row bugs me slightly and I wish it offered a bit more variety (like the sideways airtime on Piraten). Riding it at night when you couldn't see what was coming, while reminding myself what a life changing country I was in, brought tears to my eyes and made me remember why I got into this stupid hobby. I wouldn't say the coaster ever gets bumpy or anything, it's butter smooth all round, smoother than Balder infact and that's hardly rough. It's so hard to find anyone who has ridden both El Toro and T Express and isn't either an American who'll die before he says El Toro isn't better or a showoff who'll say T Express to prove he's been to Korea. Really hope this RMCing everything idea fades out soon, Wildfire left me feeling a bit dry and I'd much rather Colossos reopened, each to his own though.

I'd love to state I'd never make my first visit to the park if they ever dream of removing Colossos, but who am I kidding I'd still want the other creds! Would be a shame to not be able to get the Intamin woody collection though, owing to the fact I have T Express and that's probably the rarest. The only slightly sliver lining if it closes would be my friend tells me it wasn't all that great anyway, though that may have been a sign of it's decline into closure...

The self entitled nature of a good proportion of Merlin Annual Pass holders makes me sick. Especially the ones who wear them round their necks like they are an all access pass or something, pathetic!

I didn't know the arm sheered clean off! I assumed it had broken bolts, I refuse to watch the videos, they aren't safe for life. That is extremely concerning, if a simple and extensive maintenance program for assessing this part of the ride can't be drawn up, could this be the beginning of the decline of the Afterburner?

Not sure the GP or even me for that matter care about minute perfect queue times enough to roll it out park wide. It's a theme park after all, so as long as the stated time is 10 minutes give or take from what you end up queuing I'd say that's fine.

God no! Plopsa and PR make Merlin look like Disney! The team behind Paultons would be my choice for Chessie. Like that's going to happen though! Thorpe is fine with Merlin I reckon.

I'm sure someone on here is the one I got this from, so they can eleborate more. First year it was outstanding! Top notch acting, fantastic special effects, THAT THEME, audio and lighting were spot on too. Then I read that a lot of the people involved in that master piece left the park, can see why. Following year it was crap. Just about everything great about it's first year was ruined. Shell of it's former self.

Or instead of once again extending the life of what is now a mediocre coaster with falling apart and god awful theming, scrap it! Put an Intamin family launch coaster there, like Juvelen. Keep it low to the ground like Juv and enclose both launches to quiet the locals. If they want to be really cheeky, make the running launch faster than Icon and go for the UK's fastest multi launch. Dream World though I know.

I was under the impression Vekoma had disabled the ride system from allowing 3 train operation? The whole thing Gruffalo included just needs another mysterious Merlin fire, that's the only way you're going to see positive change in that area.

Christ I love Mack!

With autobahns involved distance is no object, unless you're taking public transport, then you have failed.

Whatever this is, it won't make up for firstly ruining The Mystery of Hocus Pocus Hall and then removing it altogether.

Colossus is riding the best it has in years recently, there are so many other coasters out there that are rougher, Colossus is fine. All I reckon you would gain from putting lap bars on would be easier boarding (although I enjoy the challenge at the moment) and slightly more fun on the air time hill, no way to justify the cost with those gains. New trains wouldn't make it ride any "smoother", not that it's rough in the first place. Altair's square supports offend me, much prefer how Colossus looks! As for the comment about does Colossus ride it's inlines too slow for lapbars, go ride Karnan and see how messed up and slow it takes it's heartline.