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Matt N

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Everything posted by Matt N

  1. Hi guys. Over the years, I’m sure that most of us have done a number of coasters and a number of parks quite a few times. With this in mind, I’d be interested to know; what are your most ridden coasters and your most visited parks? For me, my answer to these questions would not have been exhaustive and exact until a couple of days ago. I always started my coaster and park counts and visit log from an arbitrary “enthusiasm start date” of 28th September 2013, the day I rode Alton Towers’ big coasters for the first time, as my recollections of exact orders and dates before that was spotty. However, my dad recently found an old hard drive with all of my parents’ pictures from when we were kids on it. This meant that I was able to ditch my “enthusiasm start date” and go right back to the very start of my life to the degree of exactness I desire. And it’s unveiled some interesting stats about my most ridden coasters and my most visited parks across the course of my entire life… not to mention that changing my coaster counting method gained me a bonus +3 from 2011 that tipped me over 100 coasters! Following the discoveries of the other day, my all-time unique coaster count is 102, and my all-time unique park count is 22. I have had 451 coaster rides in total, so I have averaged 4.4 total rides (to 1dp) on each coaster I have ever ridden. I have had 113 park visits in total, so I have averaged 5.1 total visits (to 1dp) to each park I have ever visited. My top 10 most ridden coasters of all time are as follows: Nemesis and Runaway Mine Train at Alton Towers - 29 rides (Nemesis first ridden 28th September 2013, RMT first ridden 30th May 2009) Oblivion and Thirteen at Alton Towers - 25 rides (Oblivion first ridden 28th September 2013, Thirteen first ridden 15th August 2010) Wicker Man at Alton Towers - 24 rides (first ridden 25th March 2018) The Swarm at Thorpe Park - 20 rides (first ridden 27th July 2014) Galactica at Alton Towers - 19 rides (first ridden 28th September 2013) The Smiler at Alton Towers - 18 rides (first ridden 29th September 2013) Rita at Alton Towers - 16 rides (first ridden 28th September 2013) Spinball Whizzer at Alton Towers - 15 rides (first ridden 15th August 2010) Stealth at Thorpe Park - 12 rides (first ridden 27th July 2014) Nemesis Inferno at Thorpe Park - 11 rides (first ridden 27th July 2014) My top 5 most visited parks are as follows: Alton Towers - 40 visits (first visited 30th May 2009) Universal’s Islands of Adventure - 11 visits (first visited 29th August 2012) Thorpe Park and Universal Studios Florida - 10 visits (Thorpe first visited 27th July 2014, USF first visited 31st August 2012) SeaWorld Orlando - 5 visits (first visited 28th August 2012) Legoland Windsor - 4 visits (first visited 28th July 2009) My first ever theme park visit was to Drayton Manor on 18th April 2008, and my first ever coaster was Troublesome Trucks Runaway Coaster on the same day. However, I have only visited Drayton Manor twice more since; once on 8th August 2018 and once on 9th June 2022. I have only ridden Troublesome Trucks once more since my first ever ride on it. Of the 102 coasters I have ridden, 42 of those are coasters that I have only ridden once, which equates to 41.2% of my count (to 1dp). Of the 22 parks I have visited, 3 of those are parks that I have only visited once, which equates to 13.6% of my count (to 1dp). If I extend that to encompass coasters that I have ridden 3 times or less, the number of coasters that I have ridden 3 times or less is 75, which represents 73.5% of my count (to 1dp). The number of parks that I have visited 3 times or less is 16, which represents 72.7% of my count (to 1dp). So overall, then, the bulk of my coaster rides and park visits are concentrated around a relatively small number of parks and coasters, with there being a significant outlier at the very top; Alton Towers. Of my 113 park visits since 2008, 40 of these have been Alton Towers visits, which represents 35.4% of my total visits (to 1dp). Of my 451 coaster rides since 2008, 201 of these have been at Alton Towers, which represents 44.6% of my total coaster rides (to 1dp). I have to say that I found this a very interesting insight into my coaster riding and park visiting habits… I’ll post my full visit log spreadsheet later when I’m not on the move and using 4G. But I’d be keen to know; what are your most ridden coasters and most visited parks?
  2. Yes, Alton Towers has had YULLBE in the Hospitality Suite as an upcharge attraction since some point last year. After Merlin’s ill-fated experiments with VR in the form of Galactica and Derren Brown’s Ghost Train, I’d be incredibly surprised if they ever put VR on a major ride again. Personally, I’m still leaning towards an indoor coaster of some description. I reckon an Intamin Multi Dimensional Coaster with some sort of dark ride element, similar to Uncharted at PortAventura, would be a logical fit, but I’m open to surprises. Whatever it is, though, I’m thinking it’ll be a family thrill ride (1.2m height restriction at most) rather than an out and out thrill ride.
  3. Trip Summary All right, then! Now I’m back in the UK after a 7.5 hour flight from Orlando to London Heathrow, I think it’s about time I posted the trip summary I promised at the end of the last report! To cut to the chase; this was an absolutely fantastic trip! I loved getting back to Universal, SeaWorld and Busch Gardens after 7 years, and I loved getting on some of the brilliant new rides that have been installed since my last trip! As well as that, Volcano Bay was also a real positive surprise (I’ll touch on that more later), and I thoroughly enjoyed myself there! I’ll start by ranking all of the parks I went to in this trip, and I’ll say a little bit about each: Islands of Adventure - This is still easily one of my favourite parks ever, and I dare say that it now has possibly the most well-rounded selection of top-class major rides I’ve ever seen. I always felt that the coaster selection at IOA was one of its relatively weaker links in the past, but the additions of Hagrid’s and VelociCoaster have strengthened its credentials as a coaster park considerably, in my view, with both of these rides providing absolutely top-class experiences. The park also has some truly top-class dark rides and water rides, with Spider-Man being my favourite dark ride and Jurassic Park River Adventure being my favourite water ride out of the non-coaster offering! The theming is also wonderful throughout the park, in my opinion, and overall, I think it’s a truly stunning theme park! I’ve always loved how Islands of Adventure is a bit of a “jack of all trades”, and masters quite a number of different areas of the theme park experience, and I feel that the additions since my last visit have only strengthened that, personally! I will say, though, that if I’m being phenomenally picky, I think it can sometimes feel like the park has quite a hectic atmosphere with not much room to relax, and that is one thing that I feel the other Universal park does better. Overall, though, I absolutely love IOA; the combination of amazing rides and amazing theming make it easily one of my favourite parks ever! Universal Studios Florida - I may prefer Islands of Adventure, but it’s a close race between the two for me, and this is still definitely one of my favourite parks! The ride selection isn’t quite as varied as Islands of Adventure’s, and I don’t think that any of the individual rides quite match the best IOA has to offer for me, but there are still some absolutely fantastic headliners, with Revenge of the Mummy, Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts and Transformers being real headline draws of the park for me! There are some other really solid rides at the park too, and I also think that the overall theming is better than I’d remembered. Diagon Alley is the big standout thematically, but the rest of the park is also wonderfully detailed and has loads to look at! As I inferred above, the park also has a somewhat more relaxed atmosphere than IOA, in my view, with it often feeling slightly less crowded and there being more areas to slow down and take a breather. My whole family apart from me actually preferred USF of the two parks due to the more relaxing atmosphere and the fact that they felt that the theming was “way better”, as well as the fact that USF’s rides were more “grandparent-friendly” on the whole than IOA’s. Overall, while I may prefer Islands of Adventure overall, Universal Studios Florida still has a lot going for it, in my view, and it’s also one of my all-time favourite parks! Busch Gardens Tampa - I had a great day here! The coaster selection is second to none, there are some decent non-coaster rides, with the flat ride department in particular really shining, and the park is nicer in terms of landscaping than I’d remembered, being very green! It’s not the most heavily themed park I’ve ever been to, but I also feel that Busch does decently in terms of theming in numerous places, with the Egyptian section containing Cobra’s Curse and Montu being a favourite of mine. If I’m being picky, however, I personally found the park to have a somewhat confusing layout. Something I noticed a fair amount during my day is that attractions would look very close as the crow flies, but you’d try to find them and struggle, with them turning out to be absolutely miles away in path terms, which would see you passing numerous other totally different attractions on the way. The park also lacks indoor attractions despite being faced with the ever unpredictable Florida climate, and while stormy weather wasn’t a problem on our visit, some indoor entertainment might have been nice as a respite from the humidity. Overall, though, I had a great day at Busch Gardens, and it’s a fair amount nicer than I’d previously remembered! SeaWorld Orlando - Despite this park being last, I actually find it to be a really nice park that I seem to like more than most, and I had a great day here! The coaster selection is getting to be really excellent, queues are often short, and the park generally has a really nice, relaxed atmosphere; what’s not to like? While not particularly heavily themed, the park also has nice theming in areas and generally looks nice. However, I think the reason it’s not as high as the other 3 for me is because the park fundamentally doesn’t have that much to do rides-wise. In particular, it has very little to do rides-wise aside from the coasters; the only major non-coaster I can think of is Infinity Falls (which I was unable to ride due to unreliability and lightning). Similarly to Busch Gardens, I do feel that an indoor attraction of some description wouldn’t go amiss here, both to provide some entertainment in the event of a thunderstorm and provide a respite from the Florida humidity. This wasn’t a massive problem for me overall, though, as I’m pretty content just riding coasters all day! Overall, SeaWorld is a great park, and I really enjoyed my visit! Let me move onto some of my personal highlights of the trip in terms of new stuff… there were so many, but I’ll try to name just a few! New Highlights VelociCoaster - My favourite new attraction of the trip was VelociCoaster, a stunning Intamin LSM Launch Coaster! This sensational ride has a stonker of a layout with some really impactful elements, including a euphoric second launch, a top hat with some sublime ejector airtime, and a final heartline roll that really whips you out of the seat and leaves you blown away upon hitting the brake run! There are also loads of other great elements including some great inversions and excellent pops of ejector airtime, the ride maintains a great sense of speed throughout, and all of this is also packaged within a wonderfully comfortable and rerideable coaster, with absolutely superb restraints! Overall, I loved VelociCoaster; I had high expectations, and it did not disappoint for me! Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure - Hagrid’s may not have many standout moments of extreme thrill, but what it does have is a truly spell-binding sense of pure fun throughout! Despite having high expectations, the whole thing was a huge amount more fun than I’d expected, with the launches being great fun and surprisingly punchy, the low-to-the-ground twists and turns being surprisingly thrilling, and the whole thing just being magically fun overall! This coaster always left me with a huge smile on my face, and overall, it was a definite highlight among the trip’s new experiences for me! Iron Gwazi - I may not have rated it quite as highly as many do, but my first RMC coaster was still a definite highlight of the trip for me! The ride had some absolutely ludicrous ejector airtime, it was absolutely relentless throughout, and the layout had some truly spectacular elements; that first drop in particular was absolutely absurd! I did find it a tad much for me in terms of violence and being thrown around towards the snappier end portions of the layout, which is why it wasn’t my favourite coaster of the trip, but it was still an absolutely phenomenal ride overall! Universal’s Volcano Bay - This isn’t a theme park, but a new attraction I did manage to experience and was absolutely floored with was Universal’s Volcano Bay! The consensus towards this waterpark is somewhat mixed, with the chief complaint being the TapuTapu system and associated problems. However, I thought it was brilliant, and it definitely exceeded my expectations! In general, TapuTapu worked really well for me, and Volcano Bay is a really great waterpark with some brilliant attractions; some particular favourites of mine include the Krakatau Aqua Coaster, Honu, Taniwha Tubes and the enormously fun TeAwa: The Fearless River! Overall, Volcano Bay was brilliant for me and my family; I’d firmly recommend a visit! Those are just some of the highlights; that isn’t necessarily an exhaustive list by any means! Now I’ll move on to my main positive surprises of the trip… Biggest Positive Surprises Universal’s Volcano Bay - I’ve already spoken at length about Volcano Bay in the above section, so I won’t dedicate too much to it here, but it was a big surprise for me and the rest of my family, so I thought I’d mention it here! Skull Island: Reign of Kong - I had never ridden this dark ride at Islands of Adventure before; it was the big new thing at IOA when we last went in 2016, but we didn’t manage to get onto it. I went into this ride with low expectations, as reviews are generally quite negative, but I have to say that this ride was a massive pleasant surprise; it’s an absolutely fantastic dark ride, in my opinion, and a real asset to Universal’s dark ride lineup! The 3D is excellent, with some awesome action sequences and a brilliant 360 degree screen, there is some excellent physical scenery (including a stunning Kong animatronic that's absolutely huge!), and overall, I just thought it was a brilliant attraction! Kong far exceeded my expectations, for sure! Ice Breaker - I had pretty low expectations for this coaster, as its reviews are generally middling to negative, but I ended up absolutely loving it! The swing launch was my first ever swing launch, and I found it brilliantly fun and punchy! The backwards spike provided some brilliantly fun floater airtime, the ejector airtime got surprisingly strong towards the end of the swing launch, the top hat provided some more brilliant (and surprisingly sustained) airtime, and the rest of the layout consisted of some more surprisingly brilliant pops of airtime and some really fun twists and turns! Overall, I thought that Ice Breaker was a phenomenal ride that was just so much fun, and it hugely exceeded my expectations for sure! Let me move onto a slightly less positive category... my biggest disappointment. Biggest Disappointment You may be wondering why I have named this category "biggest disappointment" rather than "biggest disappointments". Well, that is because I only experienced one new attraction that I would call a true disappointment for me. Yes, I was slightly less enamoured with 1 or 2 big hitters than most, but they were still excellent, and I think it would be terribly harsh of me to consider them "disappointments" because they were still incredibly, phenomenally great. For me, I'm afraid to say that the main damp squib of the trip, by a considerable distance, was the new-for-2023 Pipeline: The Surf Coaster. I had heard some very positive initial reviews, so I went in with high hopes that it could be a top 10/20 contender and a ride that I really enjoyed. However, it just didn't do it for me. In short, the ride has everything on paper (fun layout, punchy launch, surprising airtime, an interesting new idea in the form of the jumping seats... it has so much going for it!), but it's ruined for me by the fact that it just isn't very comfortable, in my view. The "jumping" airtime is an interesting idea, but it just hurts in numerous different places for me, and in general, I think standing up on a roller coaster is an inherently uncomfortable riding position that Pipeline hasn't really improved, in my view. I went into Pipeline really wanting to like it, but it just didn't do it for me, I'm sorry to say. Finally, let me display some stats: Unique coasters ridden: 18 Unique parks visited: 4 (Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios Florida, SeaWorld Orlando, Busch Gardens Tampa) New coasters ridden: 8 New parks visited: 0 Total rides: 45 Total coaster rides: 29 Total park visits: 10 (4x Islands of Adventure, 4x Universal Studios Florida, 1x SeaWorld Orlando, 1x Busch Gardens Tampa) Favourite coaster ridden: Mako (overall #1/99) Favourite new coaster ridden: VelociCoaster (overall #2/99) Favourite non-coaster ridden: The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man Favourite new non-coaster ridden: Skull Island: Reign of Kong Most surprising coaster: Ice Breaker Most surprising non-coaster: Skull Island: Reign of Kong Biggest disappointment: Pipeline: The Surf Coaster So, that summarises my June 2023 Florida trip! Thank you so much for following this series of trip reports; I really hope you've enjoyed reading them as much as I enjoyed this trip! I'm unsure when my next trip report will be, but I should be back at you with another trip report before too long (September at the latest, as I've got a locked-in park visit booked for that month...)!
  4. Following my recent trip to Florida, my top 10 has changed quite a bit. The composition of this new list did take a fair amount of deliberation, and even now, I should add that I'm still slightly undecided on some of the placements. This trip presented me with some very interesting conundrums in terms of coaster ranking, as in many cases, I was comparing incredibly different types of ride that were all truly, truly excellent in their own way. It really did test me, and I often second guessed the relative placements of certain rides. Nonetheless, I think I've managed to come up with a final post-Florida ranking. For clarity, I gained 8 new roller coaster credits during my trip, taking my total coaster count to 99. Of the new coasters I rode, 4 of these made my top 10 and 10/10 tier (which I should add are now one and the same; my 10/10 tier currently encompasses ranking spots 1-10), and the other "new addition" to my 10/10 tier is a previously ridden coaster that exceeded my previous memories of it. Some of the placements may seem strange. I'm more than happy to answer questions on any placements you find questionable, but I should state that at a basic level, my favourite coasters are rides that have the perfect blend of fun, thrills and rerideability. Out and out intensity is not everything for me; it's the fun factor and rerideability that ultimately matters. There are certainly tangible things that typically correlate with me ranking a coaster highly (for instance, most rides in this list have notable airtime moments to at least a certain extent), but the most important thing for me is a good blend of fun, thrills and rerideability, and I think one entry to my top 10 in particular taught me that the qualities of "what I like in a coaster" are perhaps less tangible than I had previously thought they were. So, without further ado, my current top 10 is as follows... (new entries are in italics, relocated coasters are underlined) Mako - SeaWorld Orlando: Even 7 years after my first ride, this coaster still reigns supreme for me, and my recent revisit to SeaWorld (where I had 5 rides on it) reinforced that! The sustained airtime is absolutely biblical (particularly in moments like the first drop, first airtime hill and speed hill), the sense of speed is wonderful, it's blissfully smooth, and overall, it's just such a fun, thrilling and rerideable coaster that I could (and indeed tried my darnedest to) sit on all day! I truly love this ride, and on my recent revisit to SeaWorld, it didn't disappoint! 10/10 Jurassic World VelociCoaster - Islands of Adventure: It may not quite be #1, but my goodness was it close, and VelociCoaster would certainly be a worthy contender for the top spot! There is so much that this ride does well; it packs a great sense of speed throughout, with the second section in particular feeling ridiculously fast, there are quite a few sublime moments of ejector airtime that really whip you out of the seat, there are some truly brilliant inversions, and overall, it's just a truly stunning, spectacular coaster, in my view! In terms of some specific highlights; it's hard to pick from the wonderful array of sensations on offer. But if I had to choose a few, the second launch is absolutely obscene, packing a euphoric thrill like few other rides I've ever experienced, the top hat is sublime, packing some breathtaking ejector airtime on the back in particular, and the mosasaurus roll is an absolutely mind-blowing inversion that throws you out of the seat with some sublime sustained negative g-forces and ensures that you fly into the final brakes blown away! Overall, VelociCoaster is a truly stunning coaster, in my opinion; its blend of stunning airtime, impactful elements, fun, comfort and rerideability certainly make it a firm favourite of mine! 10/10 Silver Star - Europa Park: I had quite low expectations for this coaster given that it's not overly well liked, but I have to say that I was blown away; I absolutely adored this coaster! It has wonderful sustained airtime, it's smooth and comfortable, it has an awesome sense of speed, the ending is absolutely brilliant, packing some phenomenal ejector airtime (particularly the MCBR exit), and overall, this is a stunning coaster that I absolutely loved! I did rank this below Mako of the two B&M Hypers I've ridden due to my feeling that its airtime, while stunning, never has quite the same impact as some of Mako's strongest moments, in my view, and while smooth in its own right, it isn't quite as blissfully smooth as Mako. I also felt it to be slightly less consistent, as I did have 1 or 2 slightly weaker rides on it during my trip to Europa. Nonetheless, Silver Star is a stunning coaster with phenomenal sustained airtime, and I love how it is incredibly rerideable and keeps the thrills going right to the end with that awesome post-MCBR section! 10/10 Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure - Islands of Adventure: Dismiss this as a “family” coaster all you want, but I think such quick dismissal would be a huge mistake, because this ride is phenomenal, in my view! Of the rides in my top 10, I’ll admit that this one probably has the least tangible reason to be there. However, the key reason why Hagrid’s ranks so highly for me is that purely and simply, it is a phenomenally, impeccably fun roller coaster! In terms of some specifics, the low-to-the-ground turns were a lot more thrilling than I expected and the launches were surprisingly punchy and great fun, but unlike many coasters, my love of Hagrid’s is for a much broader reason than any specific features of the ride layout. It is just so, so fun, and the ride will always leave you laughing hysterically and smiling on the final brake run, and that for me is really important. Riding Hagrid’s taught me a crucial lesson about my taste in coasters; it taught me that a coaster does not necessarily need greatness in the form of tangible elements for me to love it, and that fundamentally, all a coaster needs to be is fun. Hagrid’s is not the most intense ride by any means, but if you want pure fun, I’d struggle to recommend many better coasters than this one! 10/10 Wodan Timbur Coaster - Europa Park: Wodan strikes the perfect balance between pure demented insanity and amazing fun factor and rerideability, in my view! It’s an absolutely relentless coaster, with phenomenal pacing right to the end, and it has quite a few really surprising pops of ejector airtime, including an excellent first drop, but it’s also a really smooth and comfortable wooden coaster, and it just manages to be a ridiculous amount of fun! Overall, Wodan is such a fast, airtime-filled and fun coaster that I absolutely loved on my visit to Europa Park! 10/10 Iron Gwazi - Busch Gardens Tampa: This ride is phenomenal! In terms of some key strengths, it’s absolutely relentless in pacing and has some of the strongest ejector airtime I’ve ever experienced, and some of the big hitters in the layout like the first drop, outerbanked turn, death roll and wave turn are truly sensational elements that are right up there with the best, in my opinion! The first drop in particular is insane; whipping you far out of the seat with ejector airtime for a surprisingly sustained period of time never gets old! However, my reason for not ranking this coaster higher is that it’s almost a little… much at times. Iron Gwazi is not a rough coaster by any stretch, but it’s certainly fierce in places, and I did find the final few elements in particular to be toeing the line in terms of what I can handle from a violence and intensity standpoint. It does quite a bit of what I’d refer to as “snapping”, where it changes direction and exerts high forces very rapidly, and while this looks good on paper and probably looks good in NoLimits or whatever, it doesn’t ride quite so well in practice for me, and I did find Iron Gwazi ever so slightly uncomfortable in those snappier portions of the layout. If I’m being picky, I also wasn’t the biggest lover of the trains (and these could well have contributed to the slight discomfort I experienced in areas), although they’re admittedly far from the worst trains I’ve ever sat in. Nevertheless, these are minor niggles rather than total deal breakers for me, and the high points of the ride are high enough for me to override them to a certain extent; while I perhaps didn’t love Iron Gwazi quite as much as I’d hoped to for the aforementioned reasons, it’s still a phenomenal ride that I thought very highly of! 10/10 SheiKra - Busch Gardens Tampa: I had remembered liking this ride back in 2016, but my reride in 2023 was even better than I’d previously remembered! I love a B&M Dive Coaster, and this was a fantastic one! The sustained airtime over both drops was absolutely phenomenal, and the sheer size of them produced a brilliant sensation of speed throughout the ride! You typically think of Dive Coasters for their initial vertical drop, but interestingly, I actually thought that the second vertical drop on SheiKra delivered just as much as the first if not more! Overall, SheiKra was phenomenal, and a really pleasant surprise; I often said that I preferred Oblivion, but I’d now say that I comfortably prefer SheiKra, as I do feel that the added height and length really add something to it! 10/10 Icon - Blackpool Pleasure Beach: Icon is often maligned, but I absolutely love it, personally! Yes, the ride is not the most intense coaster by any means, but I just find it incredibly good fun! There’s some excellent ejector airtime on there, with some particular highlight moments being the top hat, the drop down into the second launch and one incredibly fun drop during the second half of the layout! I also think that the ride is fast-paced and thrilling throughout, and it’s also incredibly smooth and comfortable, with the overhead lap bars ensuring that the inversions in particular are negotiated comfortably in a way that ensures maximum floaty negatives! Overall, I love Icon for its fun airtime, fast pace, fun twists and turns and overall rerideability; it’s just such a wonderfully fun coaster, in my opinion! 10/10 Ice Breaker - SeaWorld Orlando: I had pretty low expectations for Ice Breaker, as its reviews are generally middling to negative, but I have to say that it massively exceeded expectations for me; it was a phenomenal little ride that I absolutely loved! I should say that the much-maligned “comfort collars” have been removed, so I experienced the ride without them, but I found it to be fantastic, with a fun and punchy swing launch, a backwards spike with some brilliant floater airtime, some surprisingly excellent pops of ejector airtime in places, some fun twists and turns, and a smooth and fun ride experience throughout! The trains are a little tight to get into and out of, but I found the restraints unobtrusive when I was sat down enjoying the ride, so I didn’t find them to be an issue overall. All in all, I thought Ice Breaker was a fantastic ride that hugely exceeded my expectations; it may not have quite been my favourite coaster I rode in Florida, but I dare say that coaster-wise, it was possibly the sleeper hit of the trip in terms of how much it exceeded my expectations! I expected very little, but I ended up absolutely loving the ride, personally! 10/10 Wicker Man - Alton Towers: It may now only be in my top 10 by the skin of its teeth, but Wicker Man is a fantastic GCI coaster that I absolutely love! It may not look like much on paper, but I find it to be an enormously fun and rerideable coaster that never fails to put a huge smile on my face! I find it to be a really fast-paced coaster with some really fun twists and turns and some surprising pops of airtime, with some particular favourite elements of mine being the initial s-bend drop, where you gain brilliant speed incredibly quickly, and the big drop out of the high u-turn and following airtime hill, with both elements providing some excellent airtime that really whips you out of the seat! Overall, I find Wicker Man a hugely fun and rerideable wooden coaster with awesome airtime, twists and pacing, and I think it’s a ride that is definitely far more than the sum of its parts, personally! 10/10 In terms of other notable new Florida additions, the only major new coaster addition I can think of that is missing is Pipeline: The Surf Coaster, which I found to be a big disappointment and is ranked at #52 out of 99. Overall, I thought that this trip was brilliant, personally!
  5. No problem; it was a great trip from my end, so I’m glad you’ve enjoyed my reports! The flight mostly went fine; we were delayed in leaving by about 30 minutes due to a thunderstorm, but we got back to London Heathrow at about 10:25am this morning problem-free.
  6. 24th June 2023 (Islands of Adventure/Universal Studios Florida) Today was the last day of our trip and the day of our flight home, so we decided to head to Universal Orlando for one last visit. If I’m being honest, today’s report will probably be short and quite dull, as we only spent around 4 hours in the parks themselves and it was one of those days where few things seemed to go right. Let me start from the very beginning. As we didn’t have to check out of our house until 10am and my family didn’t want to spend ages at Universal before heading to the airport, we left our house at slightly before 10am to arrive at Universal Orlando at around 11:15am: After going through security at CityWalk, we split up, with me and my dad heading to Islands of Adventure and the rest of our group heading to Universal Studios Florida. We got into the park at just after 11:30am: Our initial aim was to try and get on VelociCoaster, as we’d noticed that it was on only a 60 minute queue on the app when arriving. However, we were just a touch too late, as the ride was delayed and cycling empty trains. As such, we instead decided to look at a different headline coaster… Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure Even though Hagrid’s was on an advertised 110 minute queue time according to the app, we decided to scope it out anyway, as we’d noticed that its queue time was often substantially overstated during our trip. The advertised queue time fell as we got closer to the ride, hitting just 80 minutes by the time we got there. The queue looked a little longer than it had been on our previous rides, but as our longest queue previously had been around 40-45 minutes (breakdown aside), we decided to stay in the queue and ride. We got the pre-show again, which is always quite fun, but when we were in the cave section of the queue (around 40 minutes in), the ride encountered a “short delay”. We were initially optimistic given that these “short delays” elsewhere in the trip had traditionally been resolved in 10 minutes or less, so we waited it out, but this delay later turned into an “extended delay”, and when the emergency exit doors were opened by the staff, we bailed and left the queue after almost 70 minutes of total queueing. This was ultimately for the best given that many fellow guests near us in the queue seemingly left not long after and the ride did not reopen all afternoon: After our failed attempt to ride Hagrid’s, we headed back over to VelociCoaster, which had reopened and had an advertised 45 minute queue time according to the app. This had gone up to 50 minutes by the time we arrived in the plaza, and in the time we were walking towards it, the queue time was increasing exponentially, going up to 60 minutes and then straight to 75 minutes. With the queue time ever increasing and us needing to meet the others in Universal Studios Florida for food in less than an hour, it was decided that joining this queue was not a good idea. We were later vindicated according to the app, as the queue time did nothing but increase further and eventually peaked at 135 minutes: After this, we realised that quite a few other attractions in Islands of Adventure were either delayed or had rather long queues, and we needed to meet the rest of our group over in Universal Studios Florida anyway, so we declared our visit to Islands of Adventure a bust and headed over to Universal Studios Florida. We then met up with the rest of our group, who had ridden ET Adventure and watched the Animal Actors show. They described ET Adventure as being “very retro” with “some of the worst animatronics you’ve ever seen”, while the Animal Actors show seemed to go down quite well. We all sat down to eat lunch together before heading to ride… Men in Black: Alien Attack Men in Black was on an advertised 35 minute queue, so we decided to give it a go. The queue ended up taking around 30 minutes overall, so slightly less than advertised; it’s always great when that happens! Interestingly, my grandad even came on with us, making MIB only his second ride of the trip (with the first being Jurassic Park River Adventure on our inaugural visit to Islands of Adventure). But how was the ride? Well, it was just as fun as it had been the other day, with some great theming and an interesting touch in the way of spinning, and I got a surprisingly high score of 30,000! My grandad, however, did not enjoy the ride, saying that the spinning was a bit too much for him thrill-wise: After we got off of Men in Black, all outdoor attractions had gone down due to weather, so no outdoor attractions were open and the indoor attractions mostly had elevated queue times. I was informed by my mum that was allowed to go off on my own and ride Revenge of the Mummy on the condition that the single rider queue was open and not too long. Alas, it wasn’t to be as the single rider queue was closed and the main queue time had risen a fair amount since I set off: After my failed attempt to ride Revenge of the Mummy, I met back up with my family, who had decided that all of the open queues were too long and that even though we weren’t due to leave for the airport until 4pm and it wasn’t much after 3pm, their preference was to look through some shops and leave the park an hour earlier than planned. As such, we left Universal Orlando for the last time to make our way to Orlando International Airport: So, that concludes our day at Universal Orlando and the trip! It was good to go to Universal for one last time, but I’d be lying if I said that today was a highlight of the trip, and I was slightly sad that the trip had to end on a somewhat flatter note. I guess it wasn’t the worst day overall, as I did at least go on Men in Black and beat my earlier score, and weather, long queues and ride breakdowns can’t be helped. However, I was disappointed that I couldn’t have one last go on VelociCoaster and Hagrid’s, and what seemed like a litany of bad luck did, rightly or wrongly, leave me feeling a tad flat. I apologise, as I know that none of what happened was the park’s fault, but I can’t lie about how I felt. Still, at least I got plenty of Universal visits earlier on in the trip, and at least I managed to ride Men in Black today! Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed this report! I’m sorry that it was a shorter and slightly more negative one… I know that that isn’t always the best to read, particularly seeing as I’m probably being a tad unfair on Universal here; none of what happened was their fault. When I’m back in the UK and over the jet lag, I’ll write a trip summary talking in a bit more depth about some of the specific things I experienced!
  7. Hi guys. I don’t know about any of you, but one thing I personally like doing at theme parks is timing ride throughputs and observing the operations on rides. With this in mind, I decided to make a thread for like-minded people who are interested in throughputs and operations to share their throughput timings and operational insights from parks around the world. Whether your timings and operational insights are from Chessington, Europa Park, Six Flags, Cedar Fair, Oakwood or anywhere else in the world, I’d love to hear about them and I’m sure many others would too! My reason for deciding to create this thread is because I have some throughput timings and operational insights of my own to share. Currently, I’m coming towards the end of a trip to Florida, so I thought I’d share some of the throughput timings and general operational insights I was able to log at Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios Florida, SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa. For various reasons, I could not time throughputs quite as comprehensively as I would normally like on this trip; things like metal detectors and themed queues obscuring sight of the rides at Universal and queues that were often too short to get a comprehensive average at SeaWorld and Busch Gardens meant that I had to rely more on chance occasions where I was standing within eyeshot of a ride at Universal in particular and as such, the averages are often based on lower amounts of dispatches than the 10 I normally aspire towards. Nonetheless, here are some of the throughput timings and general insights I was able to gain from Universal Orlando, SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa. Islands of Adventure Flight of the Hippogriff (Theoretical: 993pph on 2 trains) - 951pph (2 trains, 12th June 2023, average of 3) Note: I did not ride this, but I got a good vantage point from the queue line of Hagrid’s. Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure (Theoretical: 1,700pph on 12 trains) - 1,617pph (unknown number of trains, 12th June 2023, average of 10) Incredible Hulk (Theoretical: 1,920pph on 3 trains) - 1,138pph (possibly only running 2 trains (as I did not stack, which I didn’t think was possible on 3), 12th June 2023, average of 4), 1,608pph (unknown number of trains, 21st June 2023, average of 3) VelociCoaster (Theoretical: 1,800pph on 4 trains) - 1,489pph (unknown number of trains, 17th June 2023, average of 3), 1,566pph (4 trains, 21st June 2023, average of 6) Universal Studios Florida Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit (Theoretical: 1,850pph on 7 trains) - 1,329pph (unknown number of trains, 13th June 2023, average of 3) SeaWorld Orlando Ice Breaker (Theoretical: 650-750pph on 2 trains) - 564pph (2 trains, 16th June 2023, average of 2) Kraken (Theoretical: 1,500pph on 3 trains) - I did not get an exact throughput for this, but the ride was running 2 trains and stacking on the brake run was routine. According to the dispatch timer in the station, the ride’s average park time seemed to be around 3 minutes. (16th June 2023) Mako (Theoretical: 1,680pph on 3 trains) - 960pph (2 trains, 16th June 2023, average of 4). In terms of general insights, there was quite often a gap in the station between trains and the dispatch timer showed the train being parked for as little as 60 seconds on some occasions. Manta (Theoretical: 1,500pph on 3 trains/2 stations) - I did not get an exact throughput for this, but the ride was running 2 trains and 1 station, and stacking seemed fairly common. (16th June 2023) Pipeline The Surf Coaster (Theoretical: Unknown on 2 trains) - 474pph (2 trains, 16th June 2023, average of 7) Busch Gardens Tampa Cobra’s Curse (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 8 trains) - 527pph (unknown number of trains, 22nd June 2023, average of 2) Iron Gwazi (Theoretical: Unknown on 2 trains) - 493pph (2 trains, 22nd June 2023, average of 5). In terms of general insights, stacking was routine and park times in the station averaged around 2.5 minutes according to the station dispatch timer, sometimes going as high as 3 minutes. Kumba (Theoretical: 1,700pph on 3 trains) - I did not get a reading for this, but the ride was seemingly only running 1 train. (22nd June 2023) Sand Serpent (Theoretical: 1,120pph on 10 cars) - 331pph (4 cars, 22nd June 2023, average of 4) Scorpion (Theoretical: Unknown on 2 trains) - 357pph (1 train, 22nd June 2023, average of 2) I hope you find this interesting; I know I certainly found this data interesting to gather! If I’m able to do any notable readings at Universal tomorrow, I’ll report back, but as my Florida trip is mostly over, I thought I’d report my current findings. If you have any throughput timings and/or general operational insights from a recent park visit that you’d like to share, I’d love to hear about them in this thread!
  8. 22nd June 2023 (Busch Gardens Tampa) Today was a hotly anticipated day for me; today was our trip to Busch Gardens Tampa! I was really excited to get on Iron Gwazi, my first ever RMC, as well as to get on a couple of other new rides and get back on some of the other rides at the park! Me, my mum and my dad set off for the park today (my grandparents and sister did not accompany us today, as my grandparents don’t like intense rides and my sister wasn’t fancying Busch) at just gone 8:30am, and the drive took just over an hour (despite Busch being quite a bit further than Universal, the drive time was broadly similar, which speaks volumes about the amount of traffic on the I-4 going east!), so we arrived at Busch Gardens at around 9:45am and took the tram to the entrance ready for opening time. After the tram ride, we went through the turnstiles just in time for park opening: The day got off to a slightly disappointing start, as we’d looked at the weather forecast and it was showing as a 50% chance of thunder pretty much all day. We also ascertained that Montu, Tigris and Falcon’s Fury were all going to be closed for the day. Ride downtime and weather can’t be helped, but I’ll admit that I did grow slightly nervous based on the base we were starting from. Thankfully, however, things were much better than expected. Let me get back to our day at Busch Gardens. When we got through the park entrance, there was a rather ominous-looking grey cloud lurking over the area, so even though my original plan had been to leave it for later so that I could hit a milestone on it, I decided to start on a big anticipated ride so that I didn’t miss it altogether… Iron Gwazi Iron Gwazi was on a 35 minute advertised queue time, so me and my dad decided to have a go on it. The queue ended up being slightly less than advertised, taking around 25-30 minutes. I won’t lie, I was slightly nervous to ride Iron Gwazi. I wasn’t nervous because I was in any way scared of it, but I was nervous because it, and RMCs in general, is/are so hyped up; I was expecting something absolutely top-class based on the reviews. But after all the hype, how was the ride? Did my first ever RMC coaster live up to expectations? Well, I was seated in row 9, and it was absolutely sensational… but similar to my first ride on VelociCoaster last week, I perhaps didn’t love it quite as much as I’d hoped. Make no mistake, though, it was brilliant, and definitely a great ride. In terms of positives, there are a great many. There was some absolutely ludicrous ejector airtime in places (possibly some of the strongest I’ve ever experienced), the thing was so incredibly fast throughout (it felt unstoppable), and overall, it was definitely an absolutely fantastic coaster! However, one thing that meant that it wasn’t my absolute, undeniable top coaster like it is for most is that while not rough by any stretch, it was certainly quite a fierce coaster in numerous places. I noticed that the ride transitioned very quickly and sharply in numerous areas, and it was sometimes a little bit… much in that regard for me. The ending in particular did a lot of this quick transitioning, and while the ejector air was undeniably ludicrous, it almost hurt a tad at times. With that being said, that was the most minor of niggles rather than a total deal breaker, and overall, Iron Gwazi was a truly fantastic coaster that I loved, albeit not quite as much as most seem to. My dad was a little bit underwhelmed with the ride, stating that while it was “really good”, he found it “overhyped” and said that it “definitely wasn’t as good as VelociCoaster” for him. With regard to the common Iron Gwazi vs VelociCoaster debate, I’d be inclined to agree with my dad and say that VelociCoaster reigns supreme out of the two for me: After Iron Gwazi, we met back up with my mum and headed onwards, taking a look in the kangaroo exhibit as we walked by. With Tigris being closed, my initial roadmap for hitting 100 coasters at Busch Gardens had hit a considerable roadblock, but I did have a backup plan… in spite of me not normally riding children’s coasters, my mum had kindly offered to ride on the park’s kiddie coaster, Air Grover, with me, to ensure that I still hit 100 coasters at the park. So, to keep my race to triple figures on track while also ensuring that Air Grover itself was not my 100th coaster (I’m not sure I could quite bring myself to ride a kiddie coaster as my 100th…), we decided to continue along the path left past Iron Gwazi (well, sort of… as I would encounter a lot throughout the day, Busch Gardens is quite an unwieldy park to navigate, with a complicated layout) and ride Air Grover as we walked by. Or so we thought… because when we got there, the ride appeared to be in a state of complete inactivity. It was closed and cordoned off, and even though the park app later stated that it was open and on a 5 minute queue, it still appeared to be out for the count just like Tigris when we returned there with this information (on a somewhat related note, I should point out that the queue times and operational statuses shown on the app were often quite misleading and did not parallel the situation at the ride itself). As such, my mission for 100 conclusively failed at that moment, and I left the park, and will ultimately be leaving Florida, on a tantalising 99 coasters… I guess my 100th will have to wait until September, when I go to Chessington and ride Mandrill Mayhem for the first time. Ah well; what can you do?: After the blow of realising that I would not be riding my 100th coaster today as I had hoped, we decided to continue onwards, and my dad and I decided to ride a big coaster that had been a previous favourite for him in particular… SheiKra SheiKra was on an advertised 5 minute queue time, so we decided to give it a go. The queue times board was true to its word, as me and my dad quickly waltzed onto the back row. But how was the ride? Well, I’d remembered SheiKra being a brilliant ride last time I did it, and I have to say that it was quite possibly even better than I’d remembered; perhaps controversially, I absolutely love a good B&M Dive Coaster, and SheiKra was an absolutely phenomenal one! Both vertical drops packed absolutely sublime sustained airtime, the sense of speed was amazing, and overall, me and my dad absolutely loved it! My dad, who had previously held up SheiKra as his favourite coaster, was particularly enamoured with the ride, turning to me and saying that he preferred it to Iron Gwazi. In that moment, I dare say that part of me was almost inclined to agree with him (although I later concluded that I did probably prefer Iron Gwazi). Overall, though, SheiKra was a phenomenal ride that firmly exceeded my previous memories of it: After SheiKra, we decided to head on around the park, stopping to look in the orangutan exhibit in the way: Our original plan of action was to head to Pantopia, as Falcon’s Fury (the main indicator of the area from afar) looked very close by and the two remaining coasters I was missing from this park (I just forgot to ride them on my first visit, for some bizarre reason!) were located in this area. However, Pantopia was a lot further away in path terms than we’d anticipated, and we ultimately ended up stumbling along a completely different major draw. With this in mind, we decided to ride… Kumba We’d come across Kumba on our travels and it was on only a 5 minute advertised queue time, so my dad and I thought that we may as well take a ride on it whilst it was nearby. Even though the ride was seemingly only running one train, we pretty much walked on to the ride, and we were seated in row 4 in no time! So, how was the ride? Well, I’d remembered it being a relatively decent B&M looper 7 years ago, and my previous impression was reaffirmed; it was a thoroughly decent ride, and quite possibly my favourite B&M sit down/floorless coaster of the 3 I’ve ridden during the trip (well, I liked it considerably more than Hulk and maybe a little more than Kraken, anyhow; it’s very close between Kumba and Kraken for me). There was brilliant pacing and speed, with the ride holding its speed throughout and having some brilliant inversions, and remarkably given it’s easily the oldest of the B&M loopers I’ve ridden this trip, it was also extremely smooth, with no notable rattle or vibration present and only some very mild head banging in one place. I have no idea how Hulk, whose current track is technically only 7 years old, has a noticeable vibration and quite a few moments of headbanging when Kumba, which is 30 years old and has never been retracked, is as smooth as it is. I’ll admit that I did find one or two sections of high g slightly unpleasant; one area between the loop and the dive loop packed a particularly sustained grey out. With that being said, the ride overall was decent, and even though B&M loopers aren’t exactly a favourite ride style of mine these days, it was a good, solid B&M coaster that I enjoyed my lap on: After Kumba, we made our way around to Pantopia, where my mum and I went to ride one of two non-kiddie coasters that I had missed on my previous visit… Sand Serpent Sand Serpent had a fairly short-looking queue, so as it was a coaster that we hadn’t done on our previous visit and is closing permanently on 9th July, my mum and I decided to give it a ride. The queue ultimately took around 10-15 minutes, and we were on relatively quickly. But how was the ride? Well, I’m not a fan of wild mouse coasters at the best of times, so I had pretty low expectations, but the ride was somehow even worse than I was expecting, and is quite possibly my least favourite of the wild mouse genre and one of my least favourite coasters ever. I hate to give a negative review, but this was absolutely dire. The hairpin turns were easily on the rougher end of the spectrum for a wild mouse coaster anyway, but the icing on the cake for me was the horrifically abrupt braking; all of the brake runs threw us forward pretty painfully like no other wild mouse I’ve ever done. Overall, I get that Sand Serpent does well and is popular in its niche of a family coaster, but it’s not a ride that I enjoyed at all and my mum seemed to agree; I’m sorry to say that I won’t miss it when it’s gone in a few weeks’ time, and I hope that its replacement is more enjoyable: After Sand Serpent, we decided to head to the other coaster that we’d previously missed in Pantopia… Scorpion Scorpion looked to have a short wait, and as with Sand Serpent, we’d missed it on our last visit, so we decided to give it a go. I was interested to try a Schwarzkopf looping coaster without the shoulder bars that Olympia Looping has, as I felt that those were a big detractor from the ride and were one of the most significant reasons why I didn’t overly enjoy it. So, how was the ride? Well, I’m afraid to say that I still didn’t particularly enjoy Scorpion, albeit for different reasons to why I didn’t enjoy Olympia Looping. I’ll admit that the restraints were a lot more comfortable, and the layout was a bit less uncomfortably intense than Olympia Looping, but I still felt a bit weird going through that circular Schwarzkopf loop, and the ride was pretty rough, which surprised me given Schwarzkopf’s general reputation for smoothness (and how smooth Olympia Looping admittedly was). It jolted horribly around every corner, and the slam into the final brake run was especially harsh. I apologise, as I know I’m probably being overly harsh given it’s a classic 43 year old Schwarzkopf looper, but I didn’t especially enjoy it and my mum didn’t either: After Scorpion, we headed on out of Pantopia in the direction we hadn’t travelled in yet, stopping to view the Asian elephant enclosure as we walked by: After viewing the elephants, I headed on to ride a new-for-2023 flat ride that I was keen to have a go on… Serengeti Flyer Serengeti Flyer was on only a 5 minute advertised queue time, so I decided to give it a try. This queue time was if anything overstated, as I walked straight onto the ride. So, how was it? Well, despite not normally being big on flat rides, I love Rush back at Thorpe Park, a similar S&S Screamin’ Swing, and my first ride on Serengeti Flyer was similarly awesome to that, with some absolutely brilliant speed and weightlessness! Overall, I loved Serengeti Flyer; it was a great flat ride! Upon getting off, I was informed by my parents that I had in fact ridden the “milder” version of the ride, with the “wilder” version commencing at 1:15pm according to a nearby sign; prior to riding, I’d honestly never have guessed that that was the mild version, as I liked it just as much as Rush: After Serengeti Flyer, we headed around to the cheetah section of the park, where I split off from my parents (who decided to look at the animals for a bit) and initially pondered a ride on Cheetah Hunt. However, I decided against this, as the queue was billed at 95 minutes on the entrance and looked massive when I briefly ventured into the queue. My parents later informed me that the ride broke down and shut for the day not long after I split off from them, so I think I made the right choice: After I vetoed Cheetah Hunt, I decided to scope out another previously ridden coaster… Cobra’s Curse In spite of the queue time for Cobra’s Curse being billed at 75 minutes on the app, the entrance advertised it at just 15 minutes, so I decided to take a ride. When I last visited Busch Gardens Tampa in 2016, Cobra’s Curse was the big new thing for the year, so we waited quite some time for it and there was a palpable buzz around it. I waited far less time for it this time around, with the queue starting all the way in the pre-show room (the pre-show was not on this time, I should add) and ultimately taking around 20-25 minutes. So, how was the ride? Well, I’d remembered it being a fun, albeit slightly underwhelming, coaster in 2016, and my impression was similar today, although I perhaps liked it somewhat less. The final spinning section was fun and just the right level of spin for my liking, and the controlled spinning at the start is certainly clever and novel, but if I’m being picky, I wasn’t huge on the first two sections, with the backwards section in particular feeling like it’s there for the sake of it rather than doing anything overly purposeful, in my view. I should also add that while the ride was by no means rough, it has picked up a noticeable degree of vibration that wasn’t there in 2016. Overall, though, Cobra’s Curse was a perfectly fine, albeit unremarkable, family spinning coaster, and I should add that it has excellent theming and a truly stunning queue: After Cobra’s Curse, I briefly met back up with my parents to reapply suncream and eat some ice cream before heading for a reride on Serengeti Flyer on a 20 minute queue, which had now transitioned to the “wilder” mode of operation. I have to say that I did notice a difference; the ride swung noticeably higher, and the airtime and speed were absolutely sublime: After Serengeti Flyer, I headed back over to Iron Gwazi for a reride, which was advertised at a 15 minute queue. I ride in row 6, and while I did perhaps appreciate it a little more than I had earlier, my opinion of it didn’t radically change unlike with my reride on VelociCoaster; my overall feeling towards it was much the same as it had been in the morning, and while it was an absolutely phenomenal ride, the minor flaws keeping it from being an absolute #1 for me were still very much there, and perhaps exacerbated with the ride having warmed up: After my reride on Iron Gwazi, I met back up with my parents before taking a 3rd ride on Iron Gwazi. The queue was advertised at 100 minutes by this point, but as I’d just gotten off and not waited very long for it at all, I was confused by this and decided to scope the situation out. My hunch that this was overstated was proven correct, as the queue wasn’t much longer and I waited only 30-35 minutes. For my 3rd ride, I was seated in row 9 and my opinion was very similar to before; a phenomenal ride, but almost a little much for me in areas, and definitely one that is quite fierce. After my 3rd ride on Iron Gwazi, it was heading towards 4pm, so I met back up with my parents and we left the park: So, that just about concludes our day at Busch Gardens Tampa! Even though there were some bad omens at the beginning, and I ultimately didn’t ride my 100th coaster as I’d hoped to, I had a great day! Iron Gwazi, although I didn’t love it quite as much as I’d hoped, was phenomenal, with some ludicrous ejector airtime, and I’m so glad to have finally ridden an RMC coaster! I was also really glad to get on other great attractions like SheiKra, Serengeti Flyer and Kumba, and overall, it was just nice to get back to the park after 7 years! It is a nicer park than I’d remembered, with generally short queues, nice theming and greenery, and some epic coaster hardware. I did find the park slightly difficult to navigate at times, and my parents were not pleased with the park app, but these are minor niggles, and overall, we had a really nice day at a great park! Thanks for reading; I hope you’ve enjoyed this report! The plan has changed a tad, as we’re no longer doing anything tomorrow, but there will be one final Universal Orlando trip report coming on Saturday before we fly home!
  9. 21st June 2023 (Islands of Adventure/Universal Studios Florida) After an empty day yesterday, we headed back to Universal Orlando today! I was excited to head back to the park and hopefully try to get back on some favourite attractions I’d ridden earlier in the trip, and it was also my nan’s first time at Universal Studios Florida of the trip! We left a little later today due to heavy rain, with us leaving at just gone 8:30am, so we did not arrive at Universal until after 10am: Upon arrival, we split up. My sister, mum and nan started in Universal Studios, while me and my dad started in Islands of Adventure: When we entered the park, we noticed that a certain headline ride was on an advertised queue time that wasn’t too bad (relatively speaking)… Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure Hagrid’s was on only a 70 minute advertised queue time, so we decided to give it a go. This queue was hugely overstated, as we were on the ride within around 30 minutes despite a queue that looked slightly longer than it did the other day; it’s always great when that happens! One interesting difference with today’s ride is that we saw the pre-show. This was a fun little touch, with Hagrid and Arthur Weasley giving us a little background along with the added bonus of a few blasts of air and water squirters! So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in the back row sidecar, and it was just as phenomenal and fun as it was the other day, with fun launches, fun low-to-the-ground turns and so much going on! However, I concede that I did prefer my initial back row bike seat ride last week, and my dad, who’d ridden up front last time, said that he preferred the front. Nonetheless, it was absolutely phenomenal, and definitely a firm favourite for both of us: After Hagrid’s, we headed over to another big headliner of the other day… Jurassic World VelociCoaster VelociCoaster was on an advertised 45 minute queue time, so we decided to take a ride on it. The queue appeared slightly shorter than it was the other day, so without the technical stoppage that we also had the other day, the queue initially only took 25-30 minutes or so. However, my dad and I decided to wait for the front, as the queue didn’t look that long, so we ultimately took about 35 minutes. Even with the extra wait for the front, however, our wait was still 10 minutes less than advertised, so you can’t complain! But how was the ride? Well… wow! That front row ride on VelociCoaster definitely seemed better than the row 9 ride I had last week; the front row ride was truly mind-blowing, with even the first half feeling more thrilling than it did last week and providing bits of airtime I definitely didn’t remember last time! The second launch was absolutely obscene on the front row; I’ve never done anything quite like that! The top hat was perhaps slightly weaker on the front row than the back, but you still got a sensational bit of ejector airtime there! The second half delivered just as much as it did last week if not more so, and the ride overall just seemed to resonate with me more than it did last week, for whatever reason. Overall, then, VelociCoaster was absolutely sublime, and has definitely gone up somewhat in my estimations compared to last week, even though it was already a phenomenal ride I absolutely loved to begin with: After VelociCoaster, the rest of our group informed us that they were taking the Hogwarts Express over from Universal Studios to meet us, so we walked over to Skull Island: Reign of Kong to meet them there. My mum, nan and sister had ridden Jimmy Fallon and the Mummy, with my nan thoroughly enjoying both. After sitting down for a bit around there, we decided to hop back over to the other park with them via a certain magical route… Hogwarts Express The Hogwarts Express over to Universal Studios was on only a 10 minute advertised queue, so we decided to take a ride. The advertised queue time was very accurate, with us getting on within about 10-15 minutes. So, how was the ride? Well, as with the other day, it was a fun way to park hop, with some simple, but effective immersive mechanisms creating an excellent experience: After getting off the Hogwarts Express, we took a brief stroll around Diagon Alley, taking in some of the sights for a bit: After that, everyone apart from my dad decided to head onto the area’s headline attraction… Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts Gringotts was on an advertised 35 minute queue time, so we decided to give it a go. This queue appeared to be somewhat understated, as the outdoor extension queue around the back was open, and we did ultimately end up queueing 45-50 minutes for the ride. That is still a far cry from when we rode Gringotts in August of its opening year, however; seeing those back extensions again today brought back memories of waiting for over 3 hours through every single one of them! So, how was the ride? Well, I have to say that as with our ride on Saturday, it was excellent, with stunning sets, brilliant 3D and a better coaster element than I’d previously remembered! My nan also thoroughly enjoyed it, having not ridden the ride since the aforementioned time we waited over 3 hours for it in its opening year: After Gringotts, we headed out of Diagon Alley to meet my dad again and have a brief sit down before I headed to ride a favourite of mine within Universal Studios… Revenge of the Mummy Revenge of the Mummy was on an advertised 35 minute queue time, so I decided to give it a ride using the Single Rider Queue, as I did the other day. The queue was not deserted like it was the other day, but I still got on in only 10 minutes; the Single Rider Queue moved quickly! So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 2, and it was just as great as it had been previously, with some excellent bits of airtime, some fun turns, and an overall fun experience provided: After I got off Revenge of the Mummy and met back up with the rest of my family, it was getting towards 3pm and my family were keen to wind down, so we looked through a shop or two before leaving the park: Our exit was actually very opportune, because a dark cloud was looming ominously on the horizon, and as soon as we made it back to CityWalk and the covered walkways, the heavens opened to unleash the mother of all thunderstorms, with lightning, wind fast enough to blow things over and all! So, that covers our day at Universal Orlando Resort! I had an amazing day; I was so glad to get back on Hagrid’s and VelociCoaster for rerides, and VelociCoaster in particular has definitely gone up in my estimations since my first ride! I also really enjoyed going on the two rides at Universal Studios Florida, and overall, I just really enjoyed going back to two of my favourite ever parks and hopping between them! Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed this report! Tomorrow’s report is one that I sense is hotly anticipated for a number of readers, as I’m headed to Busch Gardens Tampa to ride Iron Gwazi and other brilliant attractions!
  10. 19th June 2023 (Universal’s Volcano Bay) Today, we decided to break up the theme parking with another waterpark visit; we returned to Universal’s Volcano Bay! Today was an interesting one, because until very little time before our arrival, we had no idea that the Juneteenth federal holiday fell during our trip, and as that day was today, we thought that a waterpark might be a better, more relaxing place to go than any of the theme parks. Federal holidays notwithstanding, we also really enjoyed our first visit to Volcano Bay last week, and there were some bits that we didn’t get to see, so we were keen to redo it at some point in our trip! As with last week’s report, I apologise for the fact that the intrinsic nature of Volcano Bay (a waterpark) means that there are no photos from today. Due to Volcano Bay suiting an earlier visit based on our experience last week, we left the house at just before 8am to arrive at Universal’s parking structures at around 9:15am. As with last week, we took a bus over to Volcano Bay itself, entered the park and got given our TapuTapus before finding sun loungers and getting changed. After getting everything sorted, me, my dad and my sister went over to Krakatau Aqua Coaster to book timeslots, as this virtual queue seemingly does nothing but get bigger as the day goes on. Similarly to last week, the virtual queue was already on 130 minutes, so we tapped in using our TapuTapus and were once again unable to join any other virtual queues for the first two hours of our visit. However, this didn’t stop us from riding attractions with no virtual queue, so we headed to a slide we didn’t do last week that was listed as “Ride Now”… Puihi The green Puihi slide on the Maku Puihi raft slide tower was showing as “Ride Now”, so as we hadn’t done it last week, we decided to have a go on it. I was interested to ride Puihi, as while I enjoyed Maku last week, it definitely looked like the less intense of the two slides, with Puihi having some interesting looking tricks up its sleeves. But how was the slide? Well, I have to say that it was great fun, and I do feel that I preferred it to Maku the other day; I liked the funnel-type features, and I thought that it generally seemed a bit faster! After Puihi, we had a reride on a favourite from the other day… Taniwha Tubes (Blue) The blue side of Taniwha Tubes was showing as “Ride Now”, so we decided to take a ride on it. Even though the slide was listed as “Ride Now”, there was a fair standby queue, so we did wait for a fair few minutes in the physical queue line. So, how was the slide? Well, as with the other day, it was excellent; it may not have any fancy tricks up its sleeves, but it doesn’t need them, with the twists, turns and speed providing more than enough fun in themselves, in my view! After this, we took a walk through the volcano and took a brief dip in the wave pool before heading back to our sun loungers for a bit. We then headed over to a non-slide favourite from the other day… TeAwa: The Fearless River TeAwa: The Fearless River was an attraction we all enjoyed the other day, so we decided to take a ride on it. Once again, we found it great fun, with a nice, speedy current providing a good thrill, and the mid-course waves providing an interesting touch! It’s also a very moreish attraction; whenever you reach the end of the circuit, you think “go on, let’s go one more time!”. As such, we ended up having 3 consecutive laps around the river! After our circuits around TeAwa, we headed for another quick dip in the wave pool and another quick sit on our loungers before our previously booked slot arrived… Krakatau Aqua Coaster Our timeslot on Krakatau Aqua Coaster had arrived, so we headed over there and gave it a ride. The virtual queue was shorter than it had been the other day, so we got on the ride very quickly. But how was the slide? Well, it was excellent, just as it had been the other day; if anything, it was even better, with the launches feeling more pronounced, the airtime being more discernible, and the slide overall feeling faster and more fun! After our ride on Krakatau Aqua Coaster, we met back up with the rest of our group and headed for a dip in the Reef Pool (a pool that goes up to 6ft in depth and looks over the Ko’okiri Body Plunge). There were some fun water features that could be activated by the TapuTapu, and it was interesting to look at the Ko’okiri Body Plunge riders as they shot by! After that, we took a group lap on… Kopiko Wai No one other than my mum and nan had yet done the gentler of the park’s two lazy river-style attractions, so we decided to take a spin on it. It was nice and relaxing, although I should add that my lap entailed many failed attempts at getting into a rubber ring; I tried to jump backwards into it so that my legs could stick out four times, but every time ended with the ring flipping over and me ending up flat on my face in the water, much to the amusement of my family! I eventually gave up and just floated along with no ring… when you combine that with getting in and out of rafts on the various slides and desperately trying not to hit anyone in the Fearless River, I think my dad may have been right when he said that “nothing about waterparks is vaguely dignified”… After our circuit around Kopiko Wai, we headed for two further laps of TeAwa: The Fearless River before me, my dad and my sister booked into a 30 minute virtual queue for Honu. When we sat down on our sun loungers for a bit, 30 minutes quickly flew by, and before too long, we were heading to… Honu Our time slots had arrived on Honu, so we headed over to take a ride on there. The standby queue for this was far shorter than it had been the other day, so we were on the slide itself in no time! So, how was the slide? Well, as with the other day, it was excellent, with the two walls being great fun and the slide packing awesome speed! After Honu, we headed back to our sun loungers to meet my mum and nan. As it was almost 2pm, and getting towards the time of day where the sand and paths were getting uncomfortably hot to walk on in bare feet, we decided to head home. So, that concludes our day at Volcano Bay! I’m sorry that the report probably wasn’t very interesting today, as I know it’s not a theme park, but I have to say that today was an excellent day at Volcano Bay; I dare say that I enjoyed it more than our first day, and my family seemed to agree! Volcano Bay has been great fun, and I easily like it as much as the other Florida water parks I’ve been to over the years, if not more so! Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed today’s report! I’m not actually sure what we’re doing tomorrow, but if we do visit a park, I’ll be sure to write about it!
  11. 17th June 2023 (Islands of Adventure/Universal Studios Florida) After a little detour away from Universal yesterday, my parents and I headed back to the Universal Orlando Resort today! It had been 5 days since we went to Islands of Adventure and 4 days since we went to Universal Studios Florida, so we were excited to get back to the two parks and reride some of our favourites, as well as go on a few attractions that we didn’t try the other day! Our original plan was to just visit Islands of Adventure, but we ultimately ended up park hopping, as I’ll explain later! Unlike the last few visits, we decided to try an afternoon/evening visit. As such, we did not leave our villa until gone 2pm, and as the drive was a little quicker at just under an hour, we arrived at Universal at around 3:15pm: After going through security and negotiating CityWalk, we entered the park at around 3:45pm due to repeated issues with our tickets scanning. One thing I have forgotten to mention so far is that our Universal tickets were initially printed with a small black spot obscuring part of the barcode, so their ability to be scanned has been somewhat inconsistent so far. Today, they did not scan, so the barcode numbers were inputted manually and we were sent to Guest Services to get our tickets reprinted. By the time we got our tickets reprinted and we entered Islands of Adventure, it was almost 4pm: Once we got into the park, we decided to start on a previous favourite that we hadn’t done yet… The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man Spider-Man was on an advertised 25 minute queue, so we decided to have a go on it. We were initially sceptical that the queue was only 25 minutes, as the queue was spilling out of the ride building, but the queue times board was if anything overstated, as we were on within 15-20 minutes; the queue moved quickly! But how was the ride? Well, I’d remembered absolutely loving Spider-Man back in 2016, and I’m happy to say that the ride lived up to my memories of it and then some; this is an absolutely phenomenal dark ride! Most enthusiasts seem to have a vendetta against anything vaguely screen-based, but perhaps controversially, I would easily take this over any wholly physical prop-based dark ride I’ve ever done; of the dark rides I’ve done, I think this may well be my favourite anywhere! I think that the screens are excellent and really well integrated with the physical set pieces, there are some truly incredible effects on there (that levitation and free fall still get me every time, and there are some more understated, yet incredible physical effects matching the events on-screen that I’d never noticed before), and all in all, I think it’s such a thrilling, dynamic and spectacular dark ride! Overall, I absolutely loved Spider-Man; it was a phenomenal dark ride that was possibly even better than I’d remembered, and even though I loved TransFormers the other day, I would say that I easily preferred Spider-Man of the two: After Spider-Man, we headed towards Hogsmeade, but we did take a detour on the way to ride another dark ride… Skull Island: Reign of Kong Kong was on an advertised 25 minute queue time, so as we’d thoroughly enjoyed it the other day, we decided to take a ride. The queue looked shorter than it did the other day, but it didn’t move quite as quickly, so the queue times board stayed true to its word and we were on within 20-25 minutes. So, how was the ride? Well, as with our ride the other day, we all thoroughly enjoyed it and thought it was an absolutely fantastic ride; we all noticed new details we didn’t notice the other day, and the physical scenery and action sequences on the screens were still just as awesome as they were before! Having now ridden Fast & Furious: Supercharged (a similar ride system) as well, I would say that I prefer Kong by a fair distance; the 3D definitely adds something to it for me, and the whole thing just feels a fair amount more impressive and overall more exciting than F&F, in my view: After Kong, we headed into Hogsmeade to ride the main Harry Potter ride in Islands of Adventure that we hadn’t yet done… Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey Forbidden Journey was on an advertised 25 minute queue, so we decided to have a go on it. By the time we headed to the area, the advertised queue time had dropped to 15 minutes, and this was initially looking pretty accurate, as we walked far further through the stunningly themed Hogwarts queue line than I ever have in the past before we met the back of the queue. However, the ride did go down for quite a few minutes, so our rapid entry was stymied and we ultimately waited around 25 minutes. With that being said, that is still considerably shorter than the 1 hour+ queues through Professor Sprout’s greenhouse that I remember from previous visits, so I can’t really complain! But how was the ride? Well, I’ll admit that I’m in two minds about Forbidden Journey. On the one hand, I think the effects, physical scenery and screen integration are all pretty impressive, albeit perhaps not quite as impressive as on something like Spider-Man earlier on for me; from an immersion standpoint, it does really well. However, I’m not a fan of the ride system; it does lots of jerky motions, and it does definitely make you feel a bit nauseous. It’s definitely one of the most intense dark rides at Universal in terms of ride system forces, in my view, and I didn’t personally find the motions the most pleasant to experience. Overall, Forbidden Journey is a great ride from an immersion standpoint, and the queue line is truly spectacular (it and Gringotts have possibly my two favourite queue lines anywhere in the world), but I do find the motions of the ride system somewhat unpleasant, so I probably like it a fair bit less than most: After Forbidden Journey, I pondered a ride on VelociCoaster or Hagrid’s, but the queues for both were absolutely huge (somewhere in the region of 2 hours), likely due to both having reopened not that long ago from stormy weather earlier in the day. As such, we instead decided to hop over to Universal Studios Florida via… Hogwarts Express The Hogwarts Express to Universal Studios Florida was on an advertised 35 minute queue, and a key attraction on our hit list at Universal Studios had reasonably attractive-looking queue times, so we decided to hop on the train over to the other park. The 35 minute queue time was most certainly overstated, as we were on the train within around 15 minutes; it’s always great when that happens! But how was the ride? Well, I have to say that while the ride is not massively complex, I find it to be incredibly effective, and really quite a magical, feel-good way to park hop! I’d say it might well be my favourite theme park transportation ride; I love watching the film on the way over, and while the immersive mechanisms are simple compared to, say, a full-blown dark ride, I think they create a very compelling immersive product! Overall, I really enjoyed our journey on the Hogwarts Express; I think it’s a great way to hop between parks, personally: Once we were in the other park, we quickly headed into Diagon Alley to ride the other major Potter ride we hadn’t ridden yet… Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts Gringotts was on only a 35 minute advertised queue time, and we had been unable to ride it on our first visit to Universal Studios due to downtime, so we decided to have a go on it. The queue time board stayed relatively true to its word, as it took us around 30-35 minutes to get on the ride itself, including the time we spent in the pre-show and fake lift. With memories of having waited 3 hours for this ride in its opening year lingering in the back of my mind, I was very happy with this wait time; I believe it’s the first time where I’ve ever entered straight into the bank lobby itself without queueing through the extended queue line out the back! So, how was the ride? Well, I have to say that it was a fantastic dark ride, and perhaps controversially, it’s quite easily my preferred ride out of the two Harry Potter dark rides. Even though the ride is quite heavily screen-based, there are some surprisingly impressive physical sets in the ride, and the screens and action scenes themselves were absolutely excellent, with the coaster sections themselves, although brief, also being better than I’d remembered! With that being said, I would still say that Spider-Man is my favourite dark ride, and I would also say that I prefer Revenge of the Mummy out of the two enclosed coasters in Universal Studios. Overall, though, Gringotts was a fantastic indoor coaster that I’m glad to have gotten back on: After Gringotts, I headed alone to ride a favourite of mine from the other day… Revenge of the Mummy Revenge of the Mummy was on an advertised 25 minute queue time, and I really enjoyed it the other day, so I fancied a ride on it. However, as I was riding alone, I used a secret weapon… the Single Rider Queue! I’ve always found the Single Rider Queue very useful on The Smiler back at Alton Towers, so I was interested to see how they stacked up at Universal. I was sceptical given I’d heard that rides like VelociCoaster and Hagrid’s often have Single Rider Queues longer than the main queue, but I have to say that Single Rider worked very well indeed here; the queue was empty, with me walking past switchbacks full of people in the main queue, and I got batched into row 4 the second the operator saw me! So, how was the ride? Well, as with the other day, it was great fun, with a great coaster layout, excellent theming and some absolutely immense fire effects: After Revenge of the Mummy, I waited for my parents (due to the walk-on Single Rider Queue, I was on and off the ride before they’d even made it back from Diagon Alley!), and as it was 7:15pm by this point, we exited the park together: So, that concludes our evening at Universal Orlando! We had a great evening, and even though we only spent around 3.5 hours in the parks, I got on 6 rides (5 if you exclude the Hogwarts Express), which I’d consider a pretty successful tally, personally! I loved getting back on some old favourites for the first time in 7 years, I was also really glad to get back on some favourites from earlier in the trip, and I also loved park hopping for the first time this trip! Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed this report! We’re having a rest day tomorrow, as it’s Father’s Day, but I’ll be back on Monday with what will probably be another Universal Orlando report of some description!
  12. 16th June 2023 (SeaWorld Orlando) We went for our first day at a non-Universal park; we went to SeaWorld Orlando! I was excited to go back to this park to ride Mako, my current number 1 coaster, as well as take a ride on new rides like Ice Breaker, Pipeline and Infinity Falls! As per usual with our park days, we left our house at just gone 8am, and with a stop for petrol (or should I say gas seeing as we’re in America?) on the way there, we arrived at around 9:15am. When we arrived, I have to say that I was very impressed by SeaWorld’s coaster skyline; it’s really getting quite imposing now, and my dad even said “Wow, it looks like Blackpool with all the track everywhere!”: After getting out of our car, we headed through the gates pretty promptly and were in the park by about 9:25am. After getting into the park, I decided to head to a certain brand new ride… Pipeline: The Surf Coaster Pipeline was showing as 45 minutes on the app, so as it’s a brand new ride that opened less than a month ago, my mum suggested that we take the win and get in the queue. By the time we got over to the plaza, this had fallen to 30 minutes, so me, my mum and my sister decided to get in line. The throughput of the ride was quite slow, it must be said (I logged dispatch times of 3-4 minutes), but we were on within 20-25 minutes, so I can’t really complain! But how was the ride? Have B&M finally solved the afflictions of the much-maligned standup coaster? If I’m being completely honest, I’m not convinced. I was very excited after hearing many rosy initial reviews, and I was 100% ready to love Pipeline based on how much everyone has been raving about it, but I’m sorry to say that I was sorely underwhelmed. I rode in row 12, the very back row, and my thoughts are as follows. On paper, the ride has everything going for it; the “jumping” seats are an intriguing idea, the launch is fun, it’s smooth and the layout is pretty decent, with a few surprisingly strong airtime moments. However, the whole thing is ruined by the fact that the restraints and whole standing position are inherently uncomfortable. Personally, I found it tough to enjoy the sensations of the layout because when the seat “jumped”, I felt pain in multiple different places; the vest restraints really pinched my collar bones when you rose up into the airtime, landing back on the floor after the airtime really hurt my feet and knees from the positive g impact, and the seat being forced up was also somewhat painful on the… private area for me (although I accept that that is probably a bigger issue for males). It’s all well and good having a good layout with fun airtime moments, but where the airtime on most coasters is great fun and I look forward to it, I just found the airtime on Pipeline a bit uncomfortable due to the general riding position causing me discomfort, and that discomfort was a bit of a deal breaker for me; it knocks the ride down a fair peg in my rankings. I’m sorry if this is controversial, and I’m sorry to be negative, but I feel a duty to be honest in these reviews, and that is how I honestly felt. I was ready to really like Pipeline, but it was a disappointment for me, I’m afraid: After Pipeline, I pondered heading over to Ice Breaker to give it a go, but the ride appeared to be closed, as it was sending empty trains around the track. As such, I instead decided to head just around the corner to a hotly anticipated previous favourite… Mako Mako was only on an advertised 5 minute wait and just around the corner from where we were standing, so my dad, my sister and I thought we’d have a go on it. As it turned out, 5 minutes was, if anything, overstated, as the ride was walk on and we instantly waltzed into the back row air gates. But how was the ride? After 7 years of hailing it as my all-time number 1, and riding all of the other coasters I’ve ridden since, did Mako still stand up? Was it still my number 1? Well, I’m happy to say; yes, it absolutely is. I was right all along. 7 years have passed since I last rode Mako, and I’ve been on a lot more coasters since I last rode Mako, including another B&M Hyper in Silver Star. However, I still have to say that no other coaster has thrilled me, offered me the fun factor and made me truly happy quite like this wonderful coaster does. For starters, I have still never felt such biblical sustained airtime as the hills on this provide; that first drop whips you out of the seat for what feels like forever, and that first airtime hill has such strong sustained air and just goes on and on and on! You do feel the trim, but it doesn’t take away from the airtime, with a wonderful jolt of airtime still delivered on that hill, and the hill that curves to the side was better than I’d remembered, with an interesting sensation of getting airtime and being twisted to the side being provided. The speed hill is absolutely sublime, with another phenomenal moment of sustained airtime being provided there, and the ending is also better than I’d remembered, with the last airtime hill still giving some solid air and the banked turns being really good fun. The ride is also still phenomenally smooth and rerideable, packs a truly exceptional sense of speed, and overall, Mako is still easily my favourite coaster I’ve ever ridden: After our first ride on Mako, the ride was still very quiet, so my sister and I ran straight back round for another go! We were in the back row again, and it was still absolutely sublime! After our 2 rides on Mako, we decided to go elsewhere, so I split off and decided to ride… Ice Breaker Ice Breaker was on an advertised 20 minute queue time, so I decided to give it a go. This queue time actually turned out to be overstated, as I only waited through a couple of trains’ worth of queue and was on within about 5-10 minutes. But how was the ride? Well, I was interested to ride it. It had gotten generally middling to negative reviews previously, but the ride has recently had the dreaded comfort collars removed, which were many people’s main issue with the ride, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I went in with quite low expectations, but I rode in row 8, and I have to say that I absolutely loved Ice Breaker; it firmly exceeded expectations, and I thought it was an absolutely fantastic coaster! The swing launch was great fun; the launches were punchy, the backwards spike provided some very nice floater air, and the ejector airtime got surprisingly strong towards the end! The top hat itself was awesome, with a great moment of ejector air coming out of it, and the rest of the ride was excellent, with great pacing, a couple more surprising jolts of ejector air, and some really fun turns; what’s not to like? One thing I did notice is that the train was a tad tight to get into and out of, but the restraints weren’t problematic once I was sat down and on the ride, so that didn’t really take away from it for me. Overall, I adored Ice Breaker; I thought it was a phenomenal little ride, and while it’s not quite Mako, it’s a very, very firm second favourite in the park for me, with it comfortably exceeding my expectations: After Ice Breaker, I met back up with my family, and as we wandered into Sesame Street, my nan accompanied me in doing a little box-ticking… Super Grover’s Box Car Derby Super Grover’s Box Car Derby was walk-on, so we decided to give it a go. For clarity, I don’t normally do children’s roller coasters due to the embarrassment it gives me, but I’d been convinced that this one didn’t look too shameful (in all honesty, it is a relatively big kiddie cred), and I mainly did it for… tactical coaster counting reasons that will hopefully become apparent later in the trip. Thankfully, there was no embarrassment involved at all here; the host batched me and my nan without batting an eyelid, and we weren’t even the only lone adult group on the train! But how was the ride? Well, I was seated in the back row, and it was a perfectly fine kiddie coaster. It had some moments of mild speed, albeit was surprisingly a little jolty in areas, but you just have to take these coasters for what they are, really, and overall, Super Grover’s Box Car Derby was fine for a kiddie coaster. My nan actually really enjoyed it, saying it was “quite quick”: After Super Grover’s Box Car Derby, we met back up with the rest of our group, and we all went to watch… Orca Encounter My family wanted to see Orca Encounter, so we decided to give it a watch. We arrived at the arena around 45 minutes before the show started, so we were in the arena for just over an hour overall, and I have to say that in spite of reading about how much the orca shows at SeaWorld have changed since I last went, the show overall felt surprisingly similar to how it was 7 years ago; it still consists of orcas jumping in the air and flicking the first few rows in the audience with water using their tail to motivational song (which may even have been the same song as 7 years ago, come to think of it). With that being said, the show did have an increased onus on natural behaviours, and the trainers talked about their training methods and how the orcas at SeaWorld are cared for. They were also keen to stress that the orcas were never forced to perform, and whatever you think about the principle of keeping orcas in captivity, they did paint a picture that inferred that they were making the best of a tricky situation with the orcas. I won’t go into it any more, as I’m aware that it’s a very emotive and controversial topic, but that was just my perception: After Orca Encounter, my mum, my sister and I took a reride on Mako in the front row. I’d never done Mako in the front row before, but unlike Silver Star, where I was almost 100% convinced that I preferred the back, I actually think that I preferred Mako in the front, with the sense of speed seeming even better and the airtime seeming even stronger. The trim hill in particular provided an interesting pop of what almost felt like sudden ejector in the front; it really surprised me! It’s absolutely sublime in every row, and the difference is ultimately very small, but if I had to pick, I’d probably narrowly pick the front over the back: After Mako, I split off from the rest of my family to do a few additional rides while they looked around some of the animal exhibits. I started with a ride on a short queue that I hadn’t yet done… Kraken Kraken was on only a 5 minute advertised queue time, so I decided to give it a try. As with many queues at SeaWorld, this was if anything overstated, as I waltzed straight into the airgates. So, how was the ride? Well, I’d remembered Kraken being a pretty decent ride 7 years ago, and I have to say that today’s ride lived up to that memory; I was sat in the back row, and I overall enjoyed it! I was seated in the back row, and there was good speed and thrill through the inversions, and while there was a mild rattle, there was no notable headbanging either; what’s not to like? Overall, then, Kraken, while not my favourite in the park, was a decent B&M that I enjoyed my lap on: After Kraken, I decided to head over to the final B&M I hadn’t yet done… Manta Manta was on a 25 minute advertised queue time, so as it was the only big coaster I hadn’t yet done, I decided to give it a try. I was interested to go back on it, as while I didn’t remember overly enjoying it in 2016, I was interested to see if my tastes had developed. The queue was pretty accurate, taking around 20-25 minutes with 2 trains/1 station in operation. But how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 4, and I’m sorry to say that I still didn’t particularly enjoy it. The flying coaster as a general ride style is becoming less my kind of thing, as I find the prone position and the restraints that accompany it rather uncomfortable, and for a reason I can’t pinpoint, Manta somehow felt even less comfortable than Galactica. I also don’t enjoy the pretzel loop element on there; while Galactica’s fly to lie element is a bit uncomfortable but bearable, I find Manta’s pretzel loop really gets to me by the end of it with the sheer degree of forces rushing to your head, albeit it wasn’t quite as bad as I’d remembered back in 2016 (although I was sat in the very back in 2016, whereas I was sat further forward in 2023). Overall, while it looks pretty and I can understand why people like it, I’m not massively fond of Manta, unfortunately. In fact, I dare say I’d go out on a limb and call it my least favourite B&M coaster: I then headed back to Mako, which had developed more of a queue by this point. I had two further back-to-back rides; one in the back row and one in row 2. Both of these were still absolutely breathtaking; Mako is truly immense, and still easily my favourite coaster even all these years on: After Mako, I pondered another ride on Ice Breaker, as I’d absolutely loved it earlier in the day. Sadly, however, it wasn’t to be, as lightning in the immediate area saw all outdoor attractions cease operation not long after I joined the queue: Due to this, I headed to meet back up with my family, and we exited the park, as it was around 3pm and the clouds were only getting blacker on the horizon: So, that rounds off our day at SeaWorld Orlando! I had an absolutely brilliant day; if you lost count, I managed 10 rides in total, including 5 rides on my all-time number 1 Mako, and I managed to get on both of the new coasters I was hoping to ride! While I was unable to take my desired 2nd ride on Ice Breaker, and my family and I couldn’t ride Infinity Falls together like we were hoping to, I was pretty pleased with my ride count, with all things considered! I must also say that while I still rate it a little lower than Universal, the park has gone up in my estimations since my last visit! The coaster lineup is getting to be truly excellent, the queues are generally short, and the place has a generally nice, relaxed atmosphere; when you can ride great coasters with short queues in a park with a nice atmosphere, what’s not to like? Mako is a stunning headliner, Ice Breaker is an absolutely fantastic second place coaster, Kraken is a good, solid ride to bring up the rear of the park’s top 3, and while Pipeline and Manta aren’t my favourites, two more coasters in the lineup is never a bad thing and these two undeniably offer variety. SeaWorld may be a marine life park, but for me, the coaster lineup is easily on par with, if not superior to, that of many sole theme parks; it’s getting to be truly excellent, in my view, and the park overall is brilliant! Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed today’s report! Tomorrow, we’re headed back to Universal Orlando for an afternoon/evening at one of the theme parks; I’m thinking it’ll probably be Islands of Adventure, but the jury’s still out on which park we’re going to!
  13. Thanks for the recommendation! We’ve pencilled in Sunday as a rest day, though, as it’s Father’s Day.
  14. 14th June 2023 (Universal’s Volcano Bay) We went for something slightly different today… unlike the last two days, we went to a waterpark! And it wasn’t just any waterpark, it was one that none of us had ever visited before… Universal’s Volcano Bay! The last time we drove down the Universal end of the I-4 in 2016, this park was under construction, so we were interested to see what the park was like now it was open. Before I get started, I should apologise in advance for the fact that there are no photographs in today’s report. As Volcano Bay is a waterpark, the experience is not terribly conducive to whipping out a smartphone and taking pictures, so I’m afraid you’ll have to rely on only my writing today. We set off for the park at around 8am and got to Universal’s parking structures at around 9:15am, as per usual. Unlike with the other two parks, though, we did not set off over the travelators and into CityWalk. Due to Volcano Bay being separate from the other two parks, we had to take a shuttle bus over to the entrance. There was no wait for this at all, and it only took a few minutes, so it was very convenient and got us to the park in good time. We then arrived at the park and got given our TapuTapu wearables, which we would get very well acquainted with over the course of the day. After getting changed and renting a locker, we headed to the main wave pool to reserve a set of chairs to store our things on before my dad and I headed over to Krakatau Aqua Coaster to reserve slots, as we’d heard that the ride was prone to getting very long virtual queues. When we arrived, the virtual queue was already on 125 minutes, but we decided to reserve it anyway in case it got any longer. This later proved to be a very wise decision, as the virtual queue did nothing but get longer during the time we were in the park, eventually peaking at almost 5 hours. This reservation did mean that we were unable to reserve any additional queue spaces for another 2 hours, but thankfully, there were a fair few slides showing as “Ride Now”, so we headed to… Taniwha Tubes Both sides of Taniwha Tubes were showing as “Ride Now”, so me and my dad decided to try the blue slides. The virtual queue worked well here, as it meant that we only had a couple of boats’ wait at the top of the slide tower. But how was the slide? Well, I thought it was great fun! The tube gained surprising speed in places, and although there were no additional bells and whistles like some of these tube and raft slides often have, there were some really fun twists and turns and it was overall a very fun slide! After Taniwha Tubes, my dad and I wandered back over to the main wave pool so that my sister could join us on some slides. My mum and grandparents were not keen on doing slides, but my sister was keen to join us on some, so when she was with us, we headed over to another “Ride Now” attraction… Maku Maku was showing as “Ride Now”, so we decided to give it a try. As with Taniwha Tubes, the virtual queue worked well here, meaning that the slide had a reasonably short standby line when we arrived. So, how was the slide? Well, I thought that this was a fun slide; even though I think it was probably less intense than the green slide on the same tower whose name currently escapes me, it was good fun, and I liked the open helixes that went around water jets! After Maku, we headed onto another “Ride Now” slide… Punga Racers Punga Racers was showing as “Ride Now”, so we gave it a go. One interesting thing to note here is that any kind of cotton clothing or non-swimwear was not allowed, so I had to remove my goggles and my sister had to remove the cotton t-shirt she was wearing over her swimwear. I was unsure why this was the case when it wasn’t the case on any of the other slides, but I guess it could be down to these generating friction with the channel, what with it being a body slide. After Punga Racers, we headed back onto the blue side of Taniwha Tubes, which were still on “Ride Now”, so that my sister could have a go on the ride. Once again, it was great fun. After our Taniwha Tubes reride, we went back to the main wave pool to meet back up with my mum before the four of us headed into… TeAwa: The Fearless River We were interested to try TeAwa: The Fearless River, as it was billed as great fun in other reviews and we were intrigued to try out a slightly more thrilling lazy river. We ended up taking 2 circuits in total, and I have to say that I thought this was great fun! The current was nice and fast, and I really enjoyed the additional touch of waves coming along to spice things up every now and then. It wasn’t overly intense given you needed a life jacket, although having spent many hours on Center Parcs Longleat Forest’s often “rough and ready” Wild Water Rapids as a child, anything else probably seems pretty tame by comparison! After our circuits on TeAwa: The Fearless River, we met back up with my grandparents and headed for a quick dunk in the main wave pool. While the waves did not quite match “The Wave” in Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon for pure spectacle, they were still really good fun, and were much easier to have a leisurely relax in. After the wave pool, we sat down and relaxed in our sun loungers for a few minutes before me and my dad headed over to our slot for… Krakatau Aqua Coaster After a 125 minute virtual wait, me and my dad’s slots on Krakatau Aqua Coaster were finally beckoning, so we headed over and gave it a go. As per usual, there was a short physical wait, and we were on the ride quickly. So, how was it? Well, I thought that the ride was excellent, with some good pops of airtime and much punchier launches than I’d experienced on Typhoon Lagoon’s Crush’n’Gusher, an earlier iteration of the same ride style. The ride was also very long, with many fun twists and turns! After Krakatau Aqua Coaster, we headed back to the main wave pool to collect my sister so that we could re-ride Taniwha Tubes. We did the green side this time, and I have to say that it felt faster than the blue slide had earlier, with the outdoor sections also providing an interesting touch! We then went to reserve slots on Honu. The ride had a 10 minute virtual queue, so we reserved a slot and went to ride another attraction that was showing as “Ride Now” while we waited… Ika Moana Ika Moana was showing as “Ride Now”, so seeing as it was on the same tower as Honu, we decided to take a ride on it. The standby queue for this ride took a little longer, as our slot for Honu vibrated while we were waiting. So, how was the slide? Well, it was good fun, with some fun twists and turns and nice outdoor sections! After our ride on Ika Moana, Honu was showing as “Ride Anytime”, as our slot had opened up quite a few minutes ago by the time we came off. As such, we went to ride… Honu Honu was ready for us to ride, so we entered the queue and started to ascend the tower. As with Ika Moana, there was a lengthier standby queue for this ride, with us waiting a good few minutes to get on. But how was the slide? Well, I thought it was excellent, with the two walls providing great exhilaration and the initial drop providing some interesting airtime! After our ride on Honu, we headed back to the main wave pool to meet up with my mum and grandparents. By this point, it was well past 2pm, the floors and the sand were getting uncomfortably hot to walk on in bare feet (our final walk from Honu on the concrete paths in Florida heat felt as though it was physically burning our feet, and the sand was little better), and the wave pool had just been evacuated due to a “waterfall incident” (?), so we decided to head home. So, that just about wraps up our day at Universal’s Volcano Bay! I had a great day; I had 8 rides on the slides and a go on TeAwa: The Fearless River, and it was just nice to visit a brand new waterpark! Personally, I’d say that Volcano Bay was every bit as enjoyable as any of the other Florida waterparks I’ve visited (for reference, I’ve been to both Walt Disney World water parks and Aquatica Orlando); the rides were really good, there’s a wide range of different things to do (there were a number of things that we didn’t cover today), and the theming was also lovely, with the central volcano itself being particularly impressive! The park was also an interesting one for me because it was my first ever experience of wholesale virtual queueing in a theme/water park setting, and I have to say that it worked a lot better than expected! It wasn’t perfect (I don’t think the queue times for Krakatau Aqua Coaster would have been nearly as high had it been a physical queue, for instance, and one or two slides did still have a not insignificant standby wait when our time slot arrived), but overall, I did enjoy not having to physically queue as much, and I thought that my overall experience of virtual queueing with TapuTapu was pretty positive! With that being said, I still don’t think that wholesale virtual queueing is something that you could just take, slap into any old theme park and expect to work well. I think the reason for it working reasonably well in Volcano Bay was because the park had quite a number of non-ride activities to keep you occupied while waiting, as well as a number of slides with no wait, and I think the waterpark in general lends itself to the sort of copious non-ride entertainment that virtual queues require better than the theme park does. Overall, though, I had a brilliant day at Volcano Bay, and my family really enjoyed it as well! There is a chance that we may be returning to the park next week, so there may well be a second report from Volcano Bay! Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed today’s report, although I apologise for it probably being less interesting (after all, you’re on here to read about theme parks, not water parks, and I was unable to take any pictures). We’re not doing anything tomorrow other than going for a meal in Disney Springs for my nan’s birthday, so I won’t write a report tomorrow, but the next report on Friday will be from SeaWorld Orlando, where I hope to take my first ever rides on new rides like Ice Breaker and Pipeline and see if Mako, my current number 1 coaster (yes, it’s still on top, even post VelociCoaster and Hagrid’s!), still stacks up!
  15. 13th June 2023 (Universal Studios Florida) Today, we did the other park at Universal Orlando that we didn’t do yesterday; Universal Studios Florida! My grandparents didn’t join us today, but those of us who did go were excited to get back into the park and ride a combination of previous classics like Revenge of the Mummy and new attractions like Fast & Furious: Supercharged! As with yesterday, we left our villa at just gone 8am and arrived at Universal Orlando at around 9:15am: After walking through CityWalk and entering Universal Studios Florida, we got into the park itself at around 9:30am: After entering the park, we noticed that a certain major coaster was on only a 10 minute queue, so my sister and I headed over to ride… Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit was on only a 10 minute advertised queue time, which seemed almost unheard of based on our previous experiences at Universal, so my sister and I decided to give it a go. As promised, the queue was very short indeed, and we were on the ride within 10-15 minutes or so. I was interested to get back on Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, as I’d always remembered enjoying it to varying degrees on previous visits. It provided the first time I ever remember experiencing airtime on a coaster when I first rode it back in 2014, so the novelty of the airtime, height and lap bars made me think it was the best thing since sliced bread. I liked it a bit less in 2016, but it was still a ride I thoroughly enjoyed and was pretty fond of compared to most. But how have 7 years of additional coaster experiences treated it? Well, I’m afraid to say that riding more coasters has massively lowered it in my estimations. Don’t get me wrong, it’s got a relatively decent layout, with 1 or 2 nice bits of airtime, but there was less airtime than I’d remembered, and it was a lot rougher and more uncomfortable than I’d remembered. The ride jolted and bashed us about considerably throughout, and I almost felt like I was getting punched in the stomach entering and exiting the various brake runs. Overall, I’m sorry to say that Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit was a bit of a disappointment for me; it’s got a fair layout, but it was a bit too rough and uncomfortable for me (and my sister seemed to agree), and even as someone who’s done under 100 coasters, it just feels somewhat outclassed in the height/airtime/lap bars genre by numerous other rides I’ve done including Mako, Silver Star, and VelociCoaster. I know that sounds a bit petty and negative, so I apologise for that, but that’s how I felt: After Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, we met back up with my parents and noticed that a new ride we hadn’t done was on a short queue, so we headed towards… Race through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon Race through New York had only a 5 minute advertised queue, so we decided to have a go on it. The queue ultimately ended up taking a lot longer than advertised, with us instead waiting around 30 minutes. Most of that was in the living room-type bit after the actual queue, though, so I guess it might not technically count as part of the wait. We were intrigued to ride Race through New York, as it was a new ride that we’d never done before. But how was it? Well, I’d heard starkly negative reviews for this attraction before coming, and I must say that I don’t think it quite deserves the level of vitriol often directed towards it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not the greatest ride ever built, and it’s pretty far down the list of draws within Universal Orlando for me, but I thought it was a perfectly fine simulator in isolation. Admittedly, there could have been a bit more going on in terms of smellpods, effects and such, but for what it was, I thought it was all right. It was nothing particularly groundbreaking, but it was perfectly fine for what it was, in my view: After Race through New York, we headed just down the street to what is a slightly more noteworthy draw of the park (in my view)… Revenge of the Mummy Revenge of the Mummy was on a 25 minute advertised queue, so we decided to take a ride. We were initially concerned about the queue taking far longer than 25 minutes, as it nearly filled the queue line and looked far longer than we’d ever queued for Revenge of the Mummy before, but it in fact took only 15 minutes; as with many rides at Universal, the queue was constantly moving at a rate of knots, and the operations were absolutely top-notch! Based on yesterday and today, I honestly reckon Universal Orlando is right up there with Europa Park for operational efficiency and queue moving speed, of the parks I’ve done! But how was Revenge of the Mummy? Well, I’d remembered it being a decent ride 7 years ago, but if anything, it was even better than I’d remembered; this thing is absolutely awesome! There are 2 really decent pops of airtime, the ride carries great speed throughout, it has some really fun twists and turns, and overall, the coaster itself was great fun! Not to mention that the dark ride experience with the theming and special effects was absolutely top-notch; it’s a wonderful overall experience, and the fire in particular is absolutely immense, with Revenge of the Mummy’s use of fire easily being my favourite of any attraction I’ve ever seen use fire! Overall, I thought Revenge of the Mummy was a fantastic ride; it’s not quite as good as the new IOA duo from the previous day, but it’s definitely solidly entered the 9/10 tier for me: After Revenge of the Mummy, we initially headed towards Diagon Alley to ride Gringotts. However, the ride was showing as “Delayed”, as was Fast & Furious: Supercharged, so we instead headed to ride… Transformers: The Ride Transformers was showing as having a 25 minute queue, so we decided to have a go on it. The queue ended up taking closer to 45-50 minutes, so it was somewhat understated. But how was the ride? Well, I have to say that I thought it was absolutely awesome! The ride was fast-paced, dynamic and full of action, with excellent 3D and loads of brilliant effects, and there was some nice physical scenery too! These Oceaneering 4D dark rides are almost invariably top-notch, from my experience, and I’m looking forward to getting back on Spider-Man later in our trip to compare it to Transformers. Overall, I thought Transformers was an absolutely fantastic dark ride, personally: After Transformers, we sat down briefly for a snack and some respite from the sun. I initially considered riding The Simpsons Ride alone, but I discovered that there was no Single Rider Queue and the standby line was 60 minutes, so I decided against it for the time being. However, we noticed that a ride we’d been pursuing earlier was back open on a relatively short queue time… Fast & Furious: Supercharged Fast & Furious was on an advertised 15 minute queue, so me and my dad made a beeline over there. By the time we got there, it was already up to 50 minutes, but as we’d gone all the way over there, we decided to go for it anyway. We ultimately ended up waiting about 45 minutes, so the posted wait time was pretty accurate. But how was the ride? Well, I was interested to see how it compared to Kong, a similar ride system which had massively exceeded expectations and been a firm favourite for all of us yesterday, and I have to say that it was notably inferior to Kong, in my view. I thought that the ride being in 2D took something away from it compared to Kong, and it just didn’t feel quite as substantial and impressive for me. I did feel that while the movement alongside the big screen itself was clever and surprisingly convincing, and the physical theming was decent in the places where it was present, the fact that the ride only really had the one big screen meant that it wasn’t quite as impressive for me, and I must admit that I felt a bit overwhelmed by the barrage of noisy air cannons at times. With that being said, I had similar thoughts on F&F to my thoughts on Fallon in that while it’s far from the greatest ride ever built, I thought Fast & Furious was all right in isolation, and not quite deserving of the sheer degree of vitriol it often receives. Overall, then, Fast & Furious was OK, albeit not anything spectacular; on a side note, I should also add that I honestly got wetter on F&F than I have on some water rides, with a surprising amount of unexpected water sprays being present: After Fast & Furious, we met back up with my mum and sister and decided to go for a walk around Diagon Alley. Gringotts was still closed, but we just decided to walk around the area and take in the sights for a bit. After that, we decided to go for something a little less simulator-based… Men in Black: Alien Attack Men in Black was on only a 20 minute advertised queue time, so we decided to give it a try. As promised, the queue was not overly long, and we quite quickly reached the pre-show. One interesting thing to note is that unlike other dark rides at Universal, loose articles were not allowed on this one, which I was a bit confused by before getting on. But how was the ride? Well, I was interested to ride it, as I didn’t really remember an awful lot about it from previous trips, and I have to say that I thought it was brilliant! There was great physical scenery, with loads of awesome little details present, the interactivity worked really well, and the spinning added a fun (albeit slightly nauseating) touch! Overall, Men in Black was a great ride; I’d say that it’s easily my favourite interactive dark ride I’ve done: After Men in Black, I headed alone to ride a previous guilty pleasure of mine… The Simpsons Ride The Simpsons Ride was on an advertised 25 minute queue time, so I decided to take a ride. I went alone onto this one, as none of the rest of my family liked the ride previously, and the queue was slightly overstated, taking 15-20 minutes in reality. But how was the ride? Well, I am a Simpsons fan, and the gags and script delivered as they always did, but I must admit that the ride system itself was less fun than I’d remembered, with some very disorientating motions and some pretty jerky moments; it was probably the most intense simulator of the day in terms of the nausea of the ride motions, and I did come off it feeling a tad worse for wear. Overall, then, while the ride film and gags in the queue were as fun as ever, the inherent intensity of the ride system did make The Simpsons Ride somewhat less enjoyable than it used to be for me: After The Simpsons Ride, it was 3:15pm and my family were feeling pretty tired, so we decided to head home for the day: So, that wraps up our day at Universal Studios Florida! It was a great day; I really enjoyed getting back on some old favourites as well as some new attractions, and it was overall really nice to get back to a really great park! I’ve heard quite a bit of negativity surrounding Universal Studios Florida as of late, but I have to say that I absolutely loved the park and still thought that it was brilliant! I have to say that the theming of the park was far better than I’d remembered, with loads of little details and things to look at, and it’s a very nice park to just exist in, in my view, with a nice, relaxed atmosphere. My family agreed, and had possibly more favourable views on it than I did; they seemed to prefer it to Islands of Adventure as an overall park. Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed today’s report! Tomorrow, we’re headed for our first ever visit to Universal’s Volcano Bay!
  16. Thank you! Unfortunately Poseidon’s Fury closed last month, so we won’t get to experience it on this trip.
  17. 12th June 2023 (Islands of Adventure) Today was a very exciting day; our first theme park day of the trip! As we had booked 14-day Universal Orlando tickets, we decided to start with one of those parks, and our choice was Islands of Adventure! We were really excited to get on both VelociCoaster and Hagrid’s, so we thought we may as well start in IOA! We left our villa in Haines City at about 8am, and the drive took about 1h 15m, so we arrived at about 9:15am. I must say that it was nice to be entering back into Universal Orlando after 7 years: After entering Universal, we had to collect our tickets and get our fingerprints scanned at Islands of Adventure to get the tickets activated for the 2 weeks, so we didn’t end up entering the park until about 10am: After entering the park, we looked at the queue times and noticed that a certain much anticipated ride was only on a 45 minute queue… VelociCoaster VelociCoaster was on only an advertised 45 minute wait, so we decided to take a ride. It was only me, my parents and my sister who did this; my grandparents decided to sit this one out, as they’re not so big on intense rides. The ride did go down briefly while we were in the queue, so it took a little longer than 45 minutes (probably 55 minutes to an hour). But seeing as VelociCoaster was one of my most anticipated rides of the trip, how was it? Well, I was seated in row 9, and it was an absolutely phenomenal ride! The second launch, top hat and mosasaurus roll were all sublimely brilliant, there were a couple of other very nice pops of airtime, it carried an excellent sense of speed throughout, and it was comfortable and extremely fun! The theming was also excellent, particularly in the queue; I was a big fan of the raptor animatronics in particular! If I’m being completely honest, however, it perhaps wasn’t quite as phenomenal as I’d hoped, and it didn’t quite live up to some of the obscene hyperbole it receives for me. Don’t get me wrong, it was an excellent, excellent coaster with some absolutely phenomenal elements, and easily 10/10 tier for me (one of my top coasters). I also feel it would be somewhat harsh to say that I was underwhelmed, because as I say, it was a truly brilliant ride. However, I was led to believe that it would be some absolutely life-changing ride that would comfortably obliterate everything else I’d ever ridden and be my instant, undeniable number 1, and it wasn’t quite that for me. Overall, VelociCoaster was an absolutely phenomenal ride with some brilliant elements, and my initial feeling towards it could well be down to my overly high expectations rather than the ride itself, but it did fall ever so slightly short of the sky-high hype for me. I apologise if that’s triggering or controversial, and I know I’m probably being unfair on it, but I would never be dishonest in a review, and those were my true, honest thoughts: After VelociCoaster, we met back up with my grandparents and headed for the other ride in Jurassic Park, which we could all ride together… Jurassic Park River Adventure Jurassic Park River Adventure was on only a 20 minute queue, so as it was a quiet(ish) ride that everyone could go on, we decided to give it a try. The queue ended up being slightly underestimated, only taking around 15 minutes; always a bonus! So, how was the ride? Well, I thought it was brilliant, and my family seemed to agree! The ride had some great animatronics and theming, the drop was exhilarating, the wetness level was perfect (refreshing on a hot day, but not unbearably wet), and overall, it was just a really fun, feel-good ride; it’s easily one of my top water rides: After Jurassic Park River Adventure, we decided to head to another ride that was new for all of us… Skull Island: Reign of Kong Skull Island: Reign of Kong was on an advertised 35 minute queue, so we decided to have a go on it. We were interested to ride Kong, as it was the big new thing at Islands of Adventure on our last visit in 2016, yet we were never able to ride it. It was only me, my parents and my nan who rode this one; my grandad had “hit his zenith” on Jurassic Park River Adventure, and my sister was unsure on the ride. The queue took 20-25 minutes rather than the advertised 35, which is always a bonus, and it was also one of the fastest moving queues I have ever stood in; it was basically a path of people gradually walking forwards, as it hardly ever stopped moving! The queue was also stunningly themed, with one particularly phenomenal animatronic of a tribal lady! But how was the ride? Well, I was going in with quite low expectations after reading many ambivalent to negative reviews, but I have to say that it massively exceeded expectations for me; I thought that it was absolutely brilliant! The 3D was excellent, with it being very good quality, and there were some really good action scenes with paired effects on the screens and in the motion base. There were also 1 or 2 very convincing freefall effects during the ride film, and some surprisingly nice physical set pieces around the screens! Furthermore, the Kong animatronic in the final scene was incredible; it was absolutely huge! Overall, I thought Kong was a brilliant ride, and a really pleasant surprise, and it was a big hit with my family too; my nan in particular really enjoyed it: After Kong, we walked into Toon Lagoon, and me and my dad pondered a ride on Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls. However, the ride broke down just as we were walking into the area, so that idea was quickly stymied. We instead decided to sit down for 15-30 minutes or so to reapply sun cream, go to the toilet and have a bite to eat. After this, we headed into Marvel Super Hero Island and pondered a ride on The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, which was on an advertised 40 minute queue. However, the queue turned out to be extending outside of the building, so it was deemed that the queue was too long. As such, me and my sister headed to a different Marvel ride that had a much shorter queue… Doctor Doom’s FearFall Doctor Doom’s FearFall was on an advertised 5 minute queue, so me and my sister decided to quickly hop into the queue; no one else joined us here, as no one else overly likes intense drop towers. As promised, the queue was very short, with us taking only 5-10 minutes to get on and off the ride. So, how was the ride? Well, it was good fun; the launch was reasonably punchy, there was a nice pop of airtime at the top, and I have to say that the ride was a little more fun than I’d remembered! From memory, it was certainly punchier than Blackpool Pleasure Beach’s Ice Blast, but I do still prefer a good drop tower to a shot tower, personally. Overall, Doctor Doom’s FearFall was good fun, providing a nice shot tower experience to vary things up: After Doctor Doom’s FearFall, we had a look at another ride in Marvel Super Hero Island, which had a shorter queue than earlier in the day… Incredible Hulk Coaster The Incredible Hulk Coaster was on an advertised 45 minute queue, so my dad, my sister and I decided to take a ride on it, with my mum and my grandparents sitting out of this one. As it turned out, 45 minutes was a vast overestimate, with the queue taking just 15 minutes in reality; you can’t complain about that! But how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 4, and it was a good ride; the launch and initial zero-g roll never fail to deliver, and the ride packs good speed throughout! However, I’m not sure that it’s one of my absolute favourites; the ride, while not unbearably rough by any means, was a little bit of a headbasher in places, and I do wonder if it’s a touch too intense in terms of sustained positive g’s in places for my liking; there was one particularly uncomfortable segment from the cobra roll to the end of the loop where I greyed out for an extended period, which I didn’t find the most pleasant, personally. Nonetheless, these are niggles rather than dealbreakers, and the ride was pretty good overall: After Hulk, we spent 15 minutes or so trying to find my mum and grandparents, who had gone elsewhere while we were riding. After we all met back up, we headed to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter to ride on another much-anticipated new coaster… Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure Hagrid’s was on a 70 minute advertised queue time, which seemed short relative to some of the queue times we had seen for it, so we decided to take this opportunity to ride it. Only my parents, my sister and I rode this, as my grandparents felt that 70 minutes was too long of a queue for them. Similarly to Kong, however, the queue hardly stopped moving, and it initially took only 40-45 minutes to get on. However, just as I was sat in the row 4 bike seat ready to go, the ride broke down, so we were evacuated and sent to wait in the exit corridor, where we waited for 10 minutes or so before being let back on. Even with the breakdown, however, we only waited for around 55 minutes, which was 15 minutes less than advertised. So, how was the ride? Well, I scored the back row bike seat, and I thought it was stunning; I was really quite floored by it! I had heard very good things about Hagrid’s, so I had high expectations, but in many ways, I was still pretty blown away and surprised by it; I thought that it was absolutely phenomenal! I had heard plaudits levelled towards the theme and experience aspects, and I do have to firmly reiterate those, but I must say that I was extremely surprised by just how fun and thrilling the coaster itself was! For a “family” coaster that only goes 50mph, the launches are really quite snappy, and it feels incredibly fast in areas! Overall, though, my main takeaway from the ride is that is simply phenomenally, enormously fun, and it just makes you laugh and puts a huge smile on your face throughout the experience in a way that very few rides can match! I’m also going to make a potentially controversial statement; I think I preferred it to VelociCoaster. While VelociCoaster does have some real standout moments of thrill in a way that Hagrid’s perhaps doesn’t, Hagrid’s is just so incredibly fun throughout that it made me laugh hysterically and smile hitting the brake run in a way that VelociCoaster couldn’t quite match. Overall, then, I thought Hagrid’s was absolutely phenomenal, and my family firmly agreed (including with the verdict that it usurped VelociCoaster; even though my dad and sister in particular were quick to declare VelociCoaster their favourite coaster unlike me, we were all in unanimous agreement that Hagrid’s was top dog out of the duo): After coming off Hagrid’s, we pondered a ride on Forbidden Journey, but the queue was 25 minutes, which my family thought was too long at that point in the day. It was around 3:30pm by this point, and my grandparents in particular were reaching their limit, so we decided to leave the park and go home: So, that concluded our day at Islands of Adventure! I had a brilliant day; both VelociCoaster and Hagrid’s were absolutely phenomenal rides that easily became two of my top coasters (my review of VelociCoaster makes it sound like I liked the ride far less than I actually did; I still absolutely loved it and thought it was a phenomenal ride, it just didn’t quite live up to the sky-high hype for me), Kong was surprisingly great, and I enjoyed getting back on some previous classics like Hulk and Jurassic Park! Islands of Adventure is still easily one of my top parks ever, if not my top park ever; I loved it back in 2016, and the additions of VelociCoaster and Hagrid’s have only strengthened it further, in my view! The ride selection is just amazing, and so well-rounded (by my reckoning, they have at least one top-class ride in most categories), and the theming and atmosphere are spectacular too! Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed this report! Tomorrow, I think we’re probably going to head to Universal Studios Florida, so stay tuned for a report from there!
  18. 10th June 2023 (Travel) Hi guys. Today was a very exciting day; the start of my 2023 Florida trip! This trip is my first time heading to Florida in 4 years, and my first time heading to the parks we’re visiting this time (Universal Orlando, SeaWorld and Busch Gardens) in 7 years, as well as the first time my grandparents have joined my family and I in Florida since 2014. There are so many new rides I’m excited to get on; VelociCoaster, Iron Gwazi, Hagrid’s, Pipeline… the list goes on! We’re here until 24th June, so today’s report represents the first in a series of trip reports posted over 14 days. I apologise in advance, as today’s report will likely be a bit dull; today’s report only covers the travel aspect of our trip. Nonetheless, I’ll start the day off from the very beginning! The start of the trip was actually a lot more relaxed than usual. Normally, our Florida trips begin with either an early morning dash to the airport at 4am or a stay at an airport hotel, but due to the combination of our flight being later than usual (3:40pm) and us going from London Heathrow (a little under 2 hours’ drive from us) rather than the usual choices of London Gatwick or Manchester (easily 3 hours’ drive from us on a bad run), we were able to leave Gloucestershire at a more reasonable time of around 9:45am. The drive was fine; there was no traffic, so even with a brief stop at Reading services, we managed to get to London Heathrow’s long stay parking by about 12pm, getting to Terminal 3 itself (the terminal from which our flight departed) by around 12:30pm after the bus ride from the car park: I’d never been to Heathrow before, and I have to say that it’s one of the most fascinating airports I’ve ever been to! I’ve never been to an airport where you can park so close to the runway before, and seeing all of the planes queueing up in the sky to land is quite a sight! I also have to say that check in and security were an awful lot quieter than I’d ever remembered in the past; security in particular was very efficient and took no time at all to go through! After that, we sat in the departure lounge and ate some lunch before heading to our gate and boarding the plane. Our flight was with Virgin Atlantic, and I have to say that it was really good; we’ve always liked Virgin, and today was no exception! While we flew, I did quite a few different things; I watched a few episodes of Ghosts and Young Sheldon, I did a theme park dot-to-dot drawing out of a book that I got given for Christmas (the drawing was of Parc Asterix!), and I spent some time trying to progress on Need for Speed: Most Wanted, which I recently re-downloaded on my iPad after having not played since I was about 14. Sadly, being a learner driver of 1 year has made me no better at it! Another cool thing I should mention about our flight is that we travelled on an Airbus A350-1000, which my dad helped to design! Initially, it looked like our flight was going pretty well in terms of scheduling. The captain’s announced flight time was around 8.5 hours, which was a fair amount shorter than expected, and we were supposed to land at 7:15pm local time. However… things went awry towards the end of the flight. As we got nearer to Orlando, we were informed that there was an unpredicted thunderstorm in the area, meaning that we were unable to land safely. As such, the plane circled above a patch of ocean just off the east coast of Florida for over an hour while we waited for the storm to clear. The repeated circling formed this interesting paperclip-shaped path on the flight map: The prospect of us being diverted to Tampa was heavily discussed, which would have really put a spanner in the works… thankfully, the storm eventually subsided and we landed, albeit with a fair amount of turbulence, in Orlando about an hour later than expected. The storm also meant that we were held on the runway for the best part of an hour after landing, so we spent about 10.5 hours on the plane in total and didn’t get off until gone 9pm local time. We then went through immigration and baggage reclaim, which were quicker than usual in fairness, and then we finally exited Orlando International Airport to get our rental car. I must say, seeing the grand foyer of Orlando International Airport was nice after the longer-than-expected flight: After collecting our rental car, we drove for around 50 minutes to our villa in Haines City, arriving there at around 11:30pm local time. After that, we unpacked and settled down for the night. So, that was the first day of our June 2023 Florida trip! I’m sorry that this report was so boring; the next one I write will be far more interesting, because it will be from an actual theme park! Given that they are the parks we have 14-day tickets for, I’d expect it to be one of the two Universal Orlando theme parks. Due to us all feeling pretty tired after our late arrival into Orlando, as well as us still needing to handle things like grocery shopping, I’m not necessarily expecting us to do a theme park tomorrow; if we do go to a park tomorrow, I’ll write about it, but I think our first park visit is more likely to be on Monday. Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this report; the next one will come either tomorrow or on Monday and will probably be from one of the two Universal Orlando theme parks!
  19. Apparently Ghost Train is closing for improvements from Tuesday to Friday next week, according to Thorpe Park on their Facebook group.
  20. It’s funny you should say that, because Chessington Buzz reported back in April that the ride is rumoured to be closing at the end of this season for a Nemesis-style retrack, reopening in March 2025 for its 35th anniversary: Take this with as much salt as you like, but Chessington Buzz seem to be very reliable for predicting Chessington’s future plans, for what it’s worth.
  21. According to Theme Park Insanity, Thorpe Park have stated in their pass holder group that they are taking on board feedback regarding Ghost Train: https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid02A84hB12ci1nW1vtTL1h24okGHmwk1Xe9fNn2iV1LTKmjgyiHmgwSBZb8KxUNpjN8l&id=100063806040092 Some of the key things they have said include: They are currently working to optimise the experience, and they are still fine tuning the effects and such. They are aware that Ghost Train is no longer primarily a ride and will try to stop referring to it as such. The implementation of timed tickets on Ghost Train is being considered to improve guest experience and throughput efficiency.
  22. On the flip side, however, Nemesis Sub-Terra’s new logo still uses the modern Nemesis font rather than the original one. I’m not sure if that’s necessarily indicative of anything, but I imagine it could mean something. If they were resurrecting the old Nemesis logo, surely they’d have updated Sub-Terra’s logo accordingly?
  23. I agree with the first point, but in terms of the second point; will Exodus necessarily be any more intense than, say, Ride to Happiness, which solely uses spinning trains?
  24. Out of interest, does anyone know how much involvement Derren Brown himself actually had in the design of DBGT? The PR material always inferred that he'd been very heavily involved in the design of the ride, but I've heard rumblings that most of the finer details of the experience had already been decided upon prior to Derren's arrival, and his role was merely as a marketing figurehead for the attraction. Indeed, I've heard rumours that Derren himself actually wasn't very fond of the attraction at all... Does anyone know how much involvement Derren Brown actually had in the attraction's design and development?
  25. I think the issue that this project always faced is that once you removed the VR and got rid of Derren Brown, there was only so much you could have done to improve the ride without spending huge amounts of money completely gutting the building. Unlike most dark ride systems, the ride system was very bespokely tailored to DBGT and the very specific sequence of events that happened within it. With something like Duel, for instance, the ride system itself had no particular quirks that were tailored to The Haunted House as it was per se, so Merlin were able to make The Curse at Alton Manor into a pretty different ride without performing any overly radical work. With DBGT, on the other hand, the very design of the ride system meant that the same basic structure of the original attraction would always need to be followed. Riders would need to sit on a train, be rushed out of the train for a live action sequence of some sort and then sit on another train to return to the offload station. And with the design of the ride vehicle not really providing much scope for added physical theming due to the VR being the originally intended vehicle for storytelling, that made the park's options very limited in terms of what they could actually do with the train portions in particular. With this in mind, I think it was complicated for Thorpe Park to make a new ride out of it because in the absence of a huge budget to demolish the whole thing and start again, the basic building blocks of the ride experience would always have needed to remain exactly the same, which would have limited the park's options massively.
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