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Matt N

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Everything posted by Matt N

  1. Hi guys. Merlin Entertainments, the owner of the 4 biggest theme parks in the UK, has two Resort Theme Parks in the London area; Thorpe Park and Chessington. In spite of these parks’ identical owner and close proximity to one another, they are very different theme parks; Thorpe Park is aimed at thrillseekers, and has one of the UK’s biggest selections of thrill coasters and thrilling flat rides, while Chessington is aimed at younger families and has a zoo and various family-orientated rides. With that in mind, I’d be keen to know; which of these two theme parks do you prefer? Now I know you probably all think I’ve lost my marbles a bit here. I can imagine you all thinking “Come on, Matt; we’re all adults, and Chessington is a kid’s park. Obviously Thorpe Park and its thrill coasters and flat rides will win here!”. However, I made a poll because things I’ve read and heard would suggest that it isn’t quite that clear cut. It feels like most people absolutely despise Thorpe Park with every fibre of their being; no one ever has a good word to say about it. Chessington, on the other hand, seems to get fairly good reviews, and a lot of people heap praise upon it whenever they visit and cite good memories they’ve had there. So I was interested to know whether Thorpe Park’s thrill rides are enough to get it past some of its perceived inadequacies, and whether Chessington’s perceived advantages are enough to get it past its less thrilling ride selection, in your eyes. Personally, I would (perhaps controversially) vote for Thorpe Park here, and by a comfortable margin. I do have a soft spot for it, and I don’t think it deserves much of the criticism it gets. The coaster selection is really decent, with some excellent headliners, they have a really decent selection of support rides, including two brilliant flat rides in Detonator and Rush (and I’m not the biggest flat ride fan, so that’s saying something!), the theming is stunning in areas, the landscaping is surprisingly nice in areas as well, and I overall get a really nice vibe from Thorpe Park! I do like it a lot, and while I rate Alton Towers a fair bit higher as a park, it is up there with AT as a park I try and visit at least once annually. With Chessington, on the other hand… while I admittedly haven’t been since 2014, so I probably need a revisit with fresh eyes at this point, I’m not entirely sold on the hype it often receives. I don’t remember any of Chessington’s attractions really standing out to me even within the sphere of family attractions, and while it was nicely themed in places, I don’t remember the theming being anything spectacular. It wasn’t a bad park by any stretch, but even at only 11 years old (my last visit was just before my 11th birthday, so technically 10 years old), I remember me and my family had the overriding feeling that we were just a bit too old for it. Of the UK Merlin parks, I’d (surprisingly) even say I preferred Legoland on my recent visit there, although I would perhaps say I felt similar at that park. As I say, though, I do probably need a revisit to Chessington; I’ll see if I can get back there when the new coaster opens. But which of these London area Merlin parks would you rate higher?
  2. Is it known how Carnival will actually differ from Mardi Gras, aside from (presumably) this scare maze? The events look quite similar to one another at first glance.
  3. In rather sad and unexpected news, it has been announced that California's Great America will be closing within the next 11 years, as Cedar Fair has sold the land it sits on to a company planning to develop it for real estate: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220623005938/en/Cedar-Fair-Capitalizes-on-Opportunity-to-Sell-Its-Land-at-California’s-Great-America-Amusement-Park This money is being used to reduce Cedar Fair's debt. I don't know about any of you, but this comes as a big surprise to me; CGA had a very elaborate masterplan only a few years ago, if I'm remembering correctly, so something must have changed drastically.
  4. I'd possibly advise aiming for the front row of a car on Colossus if you can (odd numbered rows). There's discernibly more legroom in the front than the back. I can imagine someone of 6ft might struggle a tad for room in the back of a car. I'm around 5'9.5" myself (so around 2-3 inches shorter than you), and even I can only just get my legs behind the seat in front, if that's anything to go off of. I once rode in the back of a car next to a man who was a couple of inches taller than me, but not excessively tall by any means (perhaps 6' or 6'1"?), and his legs looked like they were straddling the seat in front in a rather uncomfortable fashion. As @jessica2 says, though, Colossus is quite compact in general, so I'd maybe try the test seat before joining the queue to be absolutely sure that you'll fit. Other rides have test seats as well; I know Stealth does, and I think Nemesis Inferno and Saw might do as well (?). But you appear to be below the chest restriction for all the listed rides, so you should be reasonably OK.
  5. I mainly commented on Nemesis because it was something I noticed. It hasn’t always had a rattle and the head banging moments on my past rides, so I thought it was something worth commenting on because it did detract from the ride slightly for me. I couldn’t agree more! I absolutely love Wicker Man, and even after having ridden Wodan at Europa Park, it hasn’t lost its shine for me! Thanks for bringing this up; I can certainly look for some synonyms or alternative ways of putting that phrase in future!
  6. 20th June 2022 (Alton Towers Day 2) We had Day 2 in the park today! We got up fairly early and as we were staying in the Alton Towers Hotel, we had somewhat of a head-start (or I did, anyway; my mum and Nan joined me later); even though Early Ride Time is no longer offered, the park opens its gates early to allow you to get to your first ride and queue for it before opening time, and staying in the hotel will naturally allow you to get here ahead of the regular day guests, which is always a bonus: As such, I decided to take advantage of this and head into the park at about 9:25am and head to an area that often gets long queues later on; Dark Forest. I started on… Rita Rita often gets a long queue later on, so I decided to give it a go early on. I watched the ride test for a bit, and I was one of very few people waiting in the area. As such, when the ride opened at around 10:05am, I discovered that I would be on the very first ride of the day, which is an achievement I’ve never had before! So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 5, and the ride was more pleasurable than yesterday’s, with less rattle and some phenomenal airtime, as well as a launch that’s punchy as ever and absolutely supercharged pacing! Perhaps controversially, I do like Rita, and it was a great way to start the day: After Rita, I decided to tackle the other coaster in the area… Thirteen Like Rita, Thirteen was on a walk-on queue, so I decided I may as well give it a go while I was in the area. I wasn’t 100% sure of this, so wouldn’t like to claim that I was, but it looked as though I may have made the first ride of the day on Thirteen as well; the train in front of me was empty, and the station looked deserted when I arrived! So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated directly on the back, and it was excellent; I once again experienced multiple moments of cracking airtime during the outdoor section, the twisty sections were great fun, the ride was blissfully smooth, and the indoor section was a good laugh as always! I‘ve got to say, I think Thirteen is definitely a back row coaster, based on my memories of the front: After Thirteen, my mum and Nan entered the park, and we attempted to ride Thirteen together. We got as far as the station, and I was even batched into the front row… but the ride broke down. We stood in the station for about 15 minutes or so, hoping that the issue would be resolved quickly, but they eventually closed the queue line. With that in mind, we left the queue. I initially went off to ride Oblivion, on an advertised 0 minute queue. However, the queue looked much longer than 0 minutes by the time I arrived in X-Sector, so I instead decided to rejoin my mum and Nan so we could all ride… Wicker Man Wicker Man was on an advertised 55 minute queue, so we decided to give it a go. Interestingly, the queue only took 35 minutes as opposed to the advertised 55, which is always a bonus! Although this could have been in part due to a rather interesting quirk with the pre-show, where both the doors remained open. As such, no one watched it; we were just filtered straight through the room, and the show just started running to no audience while everyone was piling into the station! My mum and Nan were very happy that we didn’t have to watch it, and I have to admit that as much as I do like Wicker Man's pre-show, not watching it did shave off some time getting on the ride and make the experience less uncomfortable. So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 8, and it was phenomenal; relentlessly fast and full of airtime just as it had been yesterday! We all thoroughly enjoyed it: After Wicker Man, I headed over to X-Sector to ride… The Smiler I hadn’t done The Smiler yet today, so I decided to give it a go. The advertised queue was 70 minutes, and it was spilling well into the pit, but I once again used my secret weapon... the single rider queue! But the question is; how much shorter would my queue be today? Well, today was where single rider really came into its own... that queue was walk on, and I waltzed straight into row 2! I actually felt a bit naughty using the single rider queue today, as it basically felt like I was using Fastrack without paying for it... even though single riding via the SRQ is technically allowed, it felt a bit wrong to walk onto the ride when the main queue was 70 minutes. But how was the ride? Well, I'm afraid it was similarly rough to yesterday's; definitely not the most enjoyable: After Smiler, I couldn't leave X-Sector without having a go on... Oblivion Oblivion was on a 25 minute advertised queue, so I decided to give it a go. I did wonder upon joining whether the queue might be longer than 25 minutes, as it was stretching all the way to the tunnel underneath the station where the Lord of Darkness talks about the psychological effects of Oblivion (the longest queue I've seen for it in a while). However... it only ended up taking 10-15 minutes, and this was due to some of the best operations I have ever seen on the ride; they were throwing shuttles out at a rate of knots, my measured throughput average for Oblivion exceeded 1,000 riders per hour for the first ever time, and on 5 shuttles, we were only stacking at the end for a few seconds at most (for some idea, seasoned visitors to Alton Towers will know that you typically stack for a long time on Oblivion). Phenomenal work! So, how was the ride? Well, I was on the front row, and I actually enjoyed it slightly more than yesterday's ride! The sustained airtime was once again phenomenal, but the sense of speed, while phenomenal everywhere, seemed slightly enhanced on the front, for some reason: After my ride on Oblivion, I met back up with my mum and nan, and me and mum rerode Wicker Man on an advertised 35 minute queue. Interestingly, we watched the pre-show this time; clearly the pre-show skipping on our first ride was just a one-time issue! The queue still only took 25-30 minutes, though, so that wasn't an issue by any stretch. As for the ride, I was seated in row 8 once again, and the ride was phenomenal once again: We then had some lunch before I wandered over to Forbidden Valley to ride... Nemesis Nemesis was on an advertised 25 minute queue, so I decided to give it a go. This queue ended up being pretty accurate, possibly slightly understated, taking 20-25 minutes; always a bonus! So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 6 on an inner seat, and it was good, although slightly jolty in places. This wasn't a dealbreaker by any means, and I've ridden far rougher coasters, but it did detract ever so slightly from the ride for me: After Nemesis, I took a ride on the other Forbidden Valley B&M... Galactica Galactica was on an advertised 25 minute queue, so I decided to give it a go. The queue was overstated, only taking 15 minutes in the end; always a bonus! The operations on Galactica were top notch this afternoon; the ride was running 3 trains and both stations, yet we didn't stack on the brake run at all. My throughput average for Galactica was 1,221pph, which was the highest I measured all trip; terrific work! So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in the back row, and as I said yesterday, it's not my favourite coaster; it's OK, but I do find the flying position inherently uncomfortable, and I'm also not a fan of the fly to lie, where it dumps you on your back for a sustained period. With that being said, however, the ride did feel a bit faster on the back, and bits of the layout itself are really quite good fun; it's just that I don't particularly enjoy that flying position at all: After Galactica, it was getting on for 2:30pm, and my mum and nan were wanting to head home. As such, we headed out the hotel entrance and closed out our day there. So in conclusion, we had a brilliant Alton Towers trip! It was great to get back to the park for my first 2022 visit, and I had many great rides! In particular, Wicker Man delivered as well as it ever did, with some of my best ever rides on it being had this trip, Oblivion was awesome, and Thirteen has gone up a fair amount in my estimations; it was unexpectedly brilliant this trip! Thanks for reading; I hope you've enjoyed my reports!
  7. 19th June 2022 (Alton Towers Day 1) Hi guys. After having started 2022 with some slightly more unusual (compared to what I usually visit, anyway) parks, I today returned to slightly more familiar turf; Alton Towers, my most visited theme park of all time! My mum found a very good deal on an Alton Towers Hotel stay, with 1 night in a standard room with park tickets only costing £107pp, so we thought it would be an absolute no brainer to go and spend 2 days at Alton Towers! Interestingly, my Nan has also joined us for her first Alton Towers trip in 3 years (she came with us in 2019), with a ride on Wicker Man in her sights after it was closed on her 2019 visit (it was one of her most anticipated rides after we’d hyped it up). We left Gloucestershire at around 7:30am, with us getting to the resort at a little after 10am. One key upshot of staying in a resort hotel was that we were able to walk in through the hotel guest entrance, which I have never done before! As such, we were in the park by 10:30am: After entering, we headed to our first ride… Galactica Galactica was on an advertised 25 minute queue, so we decided to give it a go. Interestingly, this queue ended up being vastly overstated, as we waltzed straight into the station and only had a one cycle wait; always a bonus! So, how was the ride? Well, I’ve got to say that Galactica isn’t my favourite coaster, as I find the flying position and some of the extended elements on your back that come with it a bit uncomfortable, but it didn’t seem quite as uncomfortable as my last ride was, for some reason, which was good. Also, we got front row, which is always a bonus! Overall, while not my favourite ride, Galactica was all right, and a good way to start the day: After Galactica, I tackled the other Forbidden Valley B&M… Nemesis Nemesis was on an advertised 5 minute queue, so I decided to give it a go. The queue times board didn’t lie; it was a station wait! So, how was it? Well, I was seated in a row 3 outer seat, and it was good! Just the right amount of force, no headbanging; great stuff! There was a light rattle, but this was very negligible and had no major impact on enjoyment. Overall, it was a great ride: After that ride, I actually decided to go straight back round again for another ride on Nemesis; with a queue that short, it would have been rude not to! This time, I was seated in row 4 on an outer seat, and unfortunately, there was some headbanging present on 1 or 2 of the inversions, as well as a bit more of a judder than the last ride, which detracted from it a tad compared to last time. Still, this impact wasn’t major, and the ride was still very enjoyable! When all is said and done; as much as I don’t rate Nemesis nearly as highly as I know many do, and inverts aren’t as much my kind of thing as some other types of ride, it is a cracking coaster, and I’m very glad they’re saving it. Many of my niggles with Nemesis at this point are more signs of age than anything inherently wrong with the ride, which I’m hopeful the retrack might go some way towards rectifying. I look forward to seeing how it rides when it’s been retracked! After Nemesis, we met back up, and we headed over to… Duel Duel was nearby and on a walk-on queue, so we decided to give it a go. My mum tried to coax my Nan on Duel, but to no avail; my Nan refused to go in, so it was just me and my mum. Interestingly, the ride actually broke down for around 5 minutes shortly after we sat down in our vehicle. This meant that even when the ride did restart, we crawled through the initial scenes at a staggeringly slow pace, with the themed audio being replaced by a continuous loop of “please remain seated; the ride will restart shortly”, which made for an… interesting experience, to say the least; the themed audio didn’t start until a good couple of scenes in! So, how was the ride? Well, given that there has been a considerable amount of discussion online surrounding the ride’s future and the state that it is currently in, I was expecting it to be pretty awful, with a lot broken… but I didn’t think the ride looked nearly as bad as online comments suggest. Sure, it wasn’t working perfectly (a few targets were broken, and my mum’s blaster cut out halfway through the ride), and it is perhaps showing its age a tad now, but all of the main jumpscares were working, and overall, I thought it was a good, fun ride that still delivered on its intended theme and premise very well; my mum commented on how she thought it was surprisingly scary, so it’s clearly still delivering its punches! The breakdown also benefitted my score in an unexpected way due to the slower speed giving me more time to rack up points in the initial scenes; as such, I got a new personal best of 11,500: After Duel, we met back up with my Nan, and we headed on a little further to ride… Runaway Mine Train Runaway Mine Train was on an advertised 25 minute queue, so we decided to give it a go. This ended up being pretty accurate, which is always good! So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 10, and it was great fun! The ride kept up good speed throughout for a powered coaster, and that tunnel helix never disappoints! My Nan liked it as well; she commented on how “it’s faster than it looks”! Overall, I think RMT is a great, fun ride, and a definite guilty pleasure of mine; it’s definitely one of my favourite powered coasters, and a ride that definitely punches far above its weight in fun factor given its calibre, in my opinion: After Runaway Mine Train, we decided to head over to Mutiny Bay and warm up in Sharkbait Reef, as it was drizzling and getting surprisingly fresh at this point in the day given it’s the middle of June. It is a nice walkthrough to use as a 10 or 15 minute time killer; it’s well themed and has a surprising amount of animals in it: After Sharkbait Reef, we headed to a hotly anticipated ride… Wicker Man Wicker Man was on a 30 minute advertised queue, so we decided to give it a go. Now this was a hotly anticipated ride for everyone in our party; my mum and me, perhaps controversially, share it as a favourite ride on park, and my Nan was keen to ride after missing out on it on her 2019 visit; it was closed both days, and she’d been slightly bitter about it ever since! I was also very interested to ride Wicker Man again because since my last visit to Alton Towers, I have visited Europa Park and ridden Wodan, a larger GCI that really blew me away, so I was interested, and somewhat nervous, to see whether Wicker Man still held up for me. The queue time ended up being somewhat understated, with us ultimately waiting 45-50 minutes; the ride appeared to be struggling more than usual to maintain a consistent dispatch interval, and I think there may have been some form of reliability issues while we were waiting. Anyway, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 8, and I shouldn’t have been worried, because the ride was absolutely phenomenal; that was easily one of the best Wicker Man rides I’ve ever had! The ride was absolutely relentless, and had absolutely stacks of airtime; there were so many bits where I was hurled out of the seat brilliantly, and I wasn’t even on the back! The ride was brilliantly smooth as well, and really comfortable as woodies go; perhaps surprisingly given that I’ve now ridden Wodan, the ride honestly fared better in my memories than I’d remembered from my previous visit, and I’d genuinely say that there’s less of a gap between Wicker Man and Wodan than I’d previously thought! I’d still give Wodan the edge, as I think it does have slightly stronger airtime and a certain dementedness that Wicker Man can’t quite match, but there’s not tons in it by any means; Wicker Man was phenomenal, and my Nan thoroughly enjoyed it as well: After Wicker Man, we sat down and ate lunch for 20 minutes or so before I headed off to ride… Oblivion Oblivion was on an advertised 20 minute queue, so I decided to give it a go. I split off to do this while my mum and Nan were finishing lunch, as my mum hates Oblivion with a passion and my Nan instantly ruled it out on the basis of how thrilling and intense it looked. The queue only took 15 minutes instead of 20, which was a definite bonus! So, how was the ride? Well, it was fantastic; I do absolutely love Oblivion, and today’s back row ride was no different; the sustained air off the drop was absolutely sublime, and the sense of speed in the tunnel was truly unrivalled! Not to mention, the bonus airtime pop into the brake run delivered a surprising amount as well! Overall, Oblivion was running very well indeed, and it truly cemented the ride’s high rating for me; I apologise if this is controversial, but it’s my favourite UK B&M: After Oblivion, I briefly met back up with my mum and Nan before once again splitting off to ride… The Smiler The Smiler was on an advertised 30 minute queue, so I decided to give it a go. As I was riding alone, I decided to do something I’ve never done on Smiler before, and use a benefit very seldom seen at Merlin parks these days; I used the single rider queue! As such, I ended up halving the advertised queue time, only waiting 15 minutes as opposed to the advertised 30; great stuff! So, how was the ride? Well, I was situated in an outer seat on the front row, and I’m afraid it wasn’t one of the more pleasurable rides I’ve had on The Smiler. It did seem quite rough for a front row ride, with a fair few head bashing jolts, and when combined with the fact that the ride makes me feel somewhat strange anyway even when it’s riding smooth, it did leave me feeling a bit battered and bruised getting off. This might not have been helped by the fact that the restraint was surprisingly tight on my… sensitive area, and it got a proper walloping during one of the jolts, which did leave me feeling somewhat in pain getting off. Smiler is a ride I really want to like, and I do try to go on it with an open mind every time I ride it, as I do like the idea of the layout for what it is and I think it’s a very inspired piece of design, but I’m sorry to say that I never really warm to it, and that was exacerbated today with the fact it wasn’t overly comfortable either: After Smiler, I met back up with my mum and Nan, and we headed over to ride… Gangsta Granny: The Ride Gangsta Granny was on a 30 minute advertised queue, so we decided to give it a go. Me and my mum thought that Gangsta Granny was a ride that Nan might like, so we were intrigued to see her response. The queue didn’t look very long at all at first glance, but did end up taking the advertised 30 minutes, as it moved rather slowly; I did not time the throughput, but it can’t have been very high. So, how was the ride? Well, I really enjoyed it; I thought it was a very nice dark ride when I rode it in 2021, and I thought the same today; there’s some very nice physical set pieces and some very nice screens as well, and I do quite like the ride system! Nan liked it as well! On a side note, did it always have a bubble machine? I swear it didn’t have a bubble machine in 2021…: After Gangsta Granny, we headed over to Dark Forest to ride… Thirteen Thirteen was on an advertised 20 minute queue, so we decided to give it a go. This wait time ended up being pretty accurate, which is always a bonus! So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 8, and I have to say that that might have been the best ride I’ve ever had on Thirteen; it was absolutely brilliant! Thirteen, while never devoid of it by any means, was never a ride that I would have described as having overly strong airtime. But today, there were 1 or 2 pops of airtime that properly yanked us out of our seats and properly surprised me! The first drop was excellent, with a brilliant pop of airtime that had me well out of my seat, and there was an airtime hill elsewhere in the outdoor section that really threw me up in the air, as well as the odd fun tickles of floater air that Thirteen has always been good at providing! The ride also had good intensity throughout both the outdoor and indoor sections, as well as impeccable smoothness and comfort! Not to mention, that drop track and backwards section were a great laugh as always! Overall, Thirteen was fantastic; it’s a ride that has grown on me a lot over the years, and today’s ride took it up another notch in my estimations. Yes, it might not be the most intense coaster, but it is brilliant fun; I have grown to like it a lot: After Thirteen, my mum and Nan were growing tired and headed on to the hotel room, leaving me to my own devices for the reminder of the day. As such, I then went and rode… Rita Rita was on an advertised 20 minute queue, so I decided to give it a go. The queue ended up being slightly longer than advertised, instead taking nearly 30 minutes, but this wasn’t really an issue; I was hardly pressed for time. So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 5, and it was good fun, although a touch more rattly than many of my recent rides, which detracted slightly. It must be said, though, that the ride remains a damn sight smoother and more enjoyable than I’d remembered it being in years gone by; the rattle that it had today was more a minor niggle than a true dealbreaker like its pre-2016 roughness used to be for me. And putting that aside, I actually think Rita has a surprising amount going for it. Yes, the layout isn’t the most interesting, but the launch is brilliantly punchy, the ride is fast paced, and an often overlooked element of Rita that I think really delivers is its airtime. There are 2 or 3 legitimately strong moments of ejector airtime, and even though the ride has OTSRs, these still deliver! Overall, I had a good, fun ride on Rita; yes, the rattle detracted a tad for me today, but I still really enjoyed it overall, and I think it gets a very unfair amount of criticism, myself: After Rita, I went for a walk-on reride on Oblivion. I was once again seated in the back row, and it was once again awesome, with some biblical sustained air and speed: After my Oblivion reride, I closed out the day with a reride on Wicker Man. Even though I was seated in the middle, the ride was just as phenomenal as it had been earlier; the pacing was relentless, and I was almost standing over some of the airtime pops! It was a truly brilliant ride to close out the day with: After my ride on Wicker Man, I made my way to Towers Street and exited the park to head back to the Alton Towers Hotel for my first stay in 3 years. Interestingly, we were upgraded to a Moon Voyager Room in spite of having only booked a Standard Room, and I’m certainly not complaining; the room is lovely: After a sit down in the hotel for about an hour and a half, we headed back down the golden path for an evening meal at the Rollercoaster Restaurant. I’ve dined at this restaurant 3 times now, and I absolutely love it; it’s such a brilliant novelty, the food is perfectly nice for what it is, and it’s possibly one of Alton Towers’ greatest nostalgia moves, in my opinion; all the old concept art and footage of coasters is absolutely captivating: After our Rollercoaster Restaurant meal, we headed back to the hotel and closed out our day. So in conclusion, we had a brilliant day at Alton Towers! I got a fair amount done (14 attractions in total), and there were some brilliant rides ridden! Wicker Man was phenomenal, and on absolute top form on both rides, Oblivion was fantastic, Thirteen was surprisingly brilliant… I could go on, because there were so many great rides today! Thanks for reading! Join me tomorrow for Day 2 of our trip!
  8. Even though I don’t often comment on these types of threads, I overheard a conversation between a ride host and a group of pre-teen boys on Maelstrom at Drayton Manor last week while I was waiting for my restraint to be checked. Boy 1: *points excitedly at Shockwave* “That blue ting looks proper sick, bruv! It looks like a water ride; I bet you get proper wet on it!” Boy 1: *turns to ride host* “Is that one a water ride?” Ride Host: “No. Does it look like a water ride?” Boy 2: “Nah, bruv; that’s the one The Inbetweeners went on, init?” Ride Host: “No, we’re not even at the right park; The Inbetweeners went to Thorpe Park…” I felt a lot of second hand embarrassment for them… the ride host did not look very impressed.
  9. Apologies for getting around to this so late, but as some of you might know, I went to visit Drayton Manor last Thursday for a first look at the Vikings area. And I’ve got to say, it’s really nice! Let me break down each element of it individually… The Area The area looks really nice. The whole thing has a really nice wooden look to it, and considering that this area of the park was mostly unused land before, I think they’ve tarted it up very well! It all looks very neat, there’s lots of nice little touches around the area, and on the whole, it just looks really nice; good work, Drayton Manor! There have been a lot of comparisons with Tornado Springs at Paultons Park thrown around about this area. Do I think Vikings is as heavily themed and detailed as Tornado Springs? No. But I think it works really well as it is, and arbitrary comparisons with Tornado Springs don’t really do it justice; all of the wooden buildings, the rocks and the landscaping look lovely, and make for a very nice overall effect, and I do quite like the area soundtrack as well! I should also add that I think the new pedestrian entrance, which enters into the area, looks really nice; it’s been finished off very nicely, fits into the Vikings aesthetic surprisingly well, and I also think that it is more centrally located than Drayton’s old one, which works well. All in all, I think the area has been done very well, and works very nicely: The Rides During my visit, I was able to ride Thor once, Loki once, and Jormungandr four times. I’ll talk about each one individually in a short paragraph… Thor I was a little bit skeptical about riding my first Zamperla Disk’O, as I have quite a low spin tolerance, but I’ve got to say that it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting, and I did quite enjoy it! Riding up the ends was quite fun, and even though the airtime hill in the middle didn’t really give any airtime, it was still a fun element! As I said, the ride was not as nauseating as I’d feared, and the riding position felt less weird on ride than I thought it would, as well! Theming-wise; there’s not loads going on, but the ride looks nice enough, with a nice wooden aesthetic throughout the queue line and the area, some nice shields, and a nice Viking helmet on the ride vehicle as well! Overall, I thought Thor was a fun ride, and nicely themed too: Loki I was intrigued to ride Loki, as it’s the UK’s first Zamperla Nebulaz, and a rather unique ride. I’ve got to say, it’s a brilliant visual centrepiece, with all the arms interacting with each other making for a very captivating display! In terms of how it rides; I thought it was… strange. It’s not the most nauseating flat ride I’ve done by any means, but I’m sorry to say that that repeated lurching sensation did make me feel a bit odd, and unlike Thor, I’d argue that this ride is perhaps more intense than it looks. It does look really cool, though, and the fact I’m not generally a flat ride person isn’t something that it can help! It’s quite nicely themed as well, with some nice shields and patterns and a generally nice wooden aesthetic to it: Jormungandr Unlike the other two rides, Jormungandr was not new to me; I had done it in its previous incarnation in 2018, and it’s safe to say that 2018 me would have been very surprised that I was riding it in a new Viking-themed form in 2022, as I remember making special effort to ride it in 2018 on the pretence that it was being “removed imminently”. In terms of the ride itself, I’d remembered it being a perfectly fine, if not overly remarkable, powered coaster, and my rides in 2022 very much reinforced this view; I rode it in various different rows, and while it’s no Runaway Mine Train or Alpenexpress, it does its job perfectly well, in my opinion. There are actually some moments where it gains fair speed; those helixes are good fun, as is the s-bend sequence towards the end! The ride does very much blow hot and cold pacing-wise, however, more so than I’d remembered; it feels like it’s nearly going to stall going up some of the inclines, and there’s other bits where it just sort of meanders aimlessly along straight bits of track at a speed that I dare say feels more monorail than coaster. Overall, though, I think it’s a perfectly adequate coaster for what it is; it’s perhaps showing its age a tad, but that doesn’t really matter given its role within the area and Drayton Manor at large. Also, I have got to say that I think they’ve spruced the ride up very well; the new train design is great, I love the way that the track is now framed within the entrance to the Vikings area, and I think they’ve made the queue and station look very nice, with a really nice Viking soundtrack added: So overall, I think Vikings is a lovely area, and I think it bodes very well for Drayton Manor’s future in themed attractions! The overall finish is very nice, and there are some really nice details; I’d thoroughly recommend a visit! In terms of my visit to Drayton Manor as a whole; it was only my second ever visit to the park, with my first being in 2018, and it was an absolute stonker of a day, with 30 rides being completed in 6 hours on park! That’s a new personal best for me ride count-wise; the park was dead, with nothing on more than a 1 or 2 cycle wait all day! I did do a longer trip report of my whole day, but in terms of some key pointers from the day: Apocalypse is a great ride, but very much gives off the impression that it’s limping to the finish line. Only one sit-down tower was operating; the other 4 looked completely broken, and as though they hadn’t operated in some time. It is a really great tower, though; I’ve never quite gotten the hype for it, but it does still provide an awesome gut punch, and it will certainly be missed! Adventure Cove, the other recent area, also looks lovely, with some very vibrant colours throughout and a nice soundtrack that feels almost like WWTP Radio from Amity Cove at Thorpe Park! I was somewhat disappointed with Adventure Cove River Rapids, however; I came off it absolutely bone dry, and while I accept that I could have ridden it on an off-day, the opportunities for wetness were minimal. It was drier than both Congo River Rapids and Rumba Rapids, by my reckoning, which surprised me. It is a nice relaxing ride to sit down on, though, and it looks very nice, so I probably shouldn’t be so harsh! The Haunting is very impressive! The story is very well told, and the attraction has a surprisingly dark, foreboding tone throughout; as someone who is quite easily scared, I was legitimately somewhat unnerved by it! Shockwave seems to have gotten a fair bit rougher, with some nasty ear bashing present in quite a few sections; I had a sore ear for a good few days after my visit. I maintain that I don’t find the standup riding position that bad, however, and that zero-g roll is a truly epic inversion! Stormforce 10’s backwards drop is a real soaker! The initial drop and the final drop aren’t too bad, but the backwards drop got me fairly drenched! I have no idea why that second drop is such a soaker compared to the other two… If you want to read my more in-depth trip report, here’s the link:
  10. Matt N

    University

    Well, I’m not quite sure what to make of this, but by some absolute miracle, I somehow managed to get 91/100 on a university assignment! This was even in a module I really struggled with and I didn’t think I would do very well in, which makes it even more surprising… I’m not entirely sure that I deserve this grade, and a small part of me is worried it’s a joke, with the real feedback hidden somewhere else, but I’m certainly very happy to have attained this grade (well above the threshold for a First)!
  11. Hi guys. Today was a rather exciting day; my first visit to Drayton Manor in 4 years, and my first ever solo train trip to a theme park! I was keen to do this after noticing that my university train route (Lydney-Cheltenham Spa) had trains running directly to Drayton Manor’s nearest station, and I’m so glad I did it! It was one heck of a day, so let me kick off right from the beginning! Today started quite early, with a 7:24am train from Lydney, my local train station, to Wilnecote, the nearest train station to Drayton Manor. This took around 1h 40m, and all went well. Interestingly enough, this was my first ever time travelling north of Birmingham New Street on the train (albeit only slightly north of it): After getting off the train, I did a roughly 40 minute walk to the park, and got there at around 9:45am. The walk was very easy, and left plenty of time before opening: After a brief 45 minute wait, I was admitted into the park, and I headed to my first ride. I initially pondered doing the new Vikings area first, but I ultimately found myself stumbling onto… Apocalypse Apocalypse was on a practically walk-on queue (only a group of 4 were in front of me), so I thought it would be rude not to give it a go! One of the things bringing me to Drayton in 2022 was this ride’s final year, and sadly, I think you can tell that the ride is coming to the end of its life. Of the 5 towers, only 1 sit-down tower was operating (the others looked like they were completely broken and hadn’t operated in some time), and the queue never got above 1 cycle or so all day; the ride was often waiting for the tower to fill. Putting all this aside, though; how was the ride? Well, as much as I’ve never entirely gotten the enthusiast hype around Apocalypse, I’ve got to say that it was awesome; the drop was really good and punchy, and on the whole, it was a real rush, and a great way to start the day! Most interestingly of all, no one joined the queue after me, so I rode Apocalypse completely on my own; I was legitimately the only one in the entire ride area, which was quite surreal: After Apocalypse, I headed to my first coaster of the day… Accelerator Accelerator was right there next to Apocalypse and appeared pretty empty, so I decided to give it a go. I waltzed straight onto this, and the host gave me free rein on where I wanted to sit; I headed for the back row. So, how was the ride? Well, I’ve got to say that it was a fun little coaster, and more enjoyable than I’d remembered! It was very smooth, packed a solid pace, and overall, it was just a good, fun ride! I’m not the biggest fan of shuttle coasters, but this was perfectly good fun: After Accelerator, I decided to head into the new for 2022 Vikings area to ride… Jormungandr Jormungandr was nearby and looked quiet, so I decided to give it a go. Yet again, I waltzed straight onto this; my Drayton Manor day was going very well so far, as I’d only been riding for 10-15 minutes and was already on my 3rd ride! I’ve got to say, I think they did a nice job with the Viking overlay of this ride; it looks much nicer than it did as the Buffalo, the music is really nice, and I really like the new train design! So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 7, it was a perfectly fine little powered coaster; it does the job for what it is! There were some sections where it actually picked up some decent speed, although it did seem as though it was struggling somewhat in others; it felt like it was nearly going to stall up some of the inclines. Nonetheless, Jormungandr was a nice enough ride for what it was: After my ride on Jormungandr, I headed to my first of the new for 2022 rides… Loki Loki looked pretty quiet, so I decided to give it a go. This ride was where the advantages of being a single rider began to present themselves; I was admitted straight on, as there was a seat going spare! So, how was the ride? Well, I was intrigued to try it, as I’ve never done a Zamperla Nebulaz before, but I’m not sure I was the biggest fan, in all honesty. It is a really cool visual piece, what with all the arms interacting with each other, but it was quite spinny; some people might like that, but I have quite a weak stomach for flat rides, so while it wasn’t the most nauseating flat ride I’ve done by any means, it did make me feel a bit odd. Nevertheless, it was nice to experience such a unique ride type for the first time, and I can see the appeal of it; it's quite the visual spectacle, and good if you like spinning: After Loki, I did the other new flat ride in the area… Thor Thor was walk-on, so I decided to give it a try. I’d never ridden a Zamperla Disk’O before, so I was interested to see how it rode, although I’ll digress that my aforementioned low spin tolerance did make me apprehensive as to whether I’d enjoy it. So, how was the ride? Well, I’ve got to say that in spite of my apprehension, it wasn’t as bad as expected intensity-wise, and was actually quite enjoyable! I still wouldn’t have said it was one of my favourite rides, but it was enjoyable, and well within my low spin tolerance; certainly not as bad as it looks, for my money: After Thor, I left Vikings and headed over to the other side of the park to ride… Shockwave Shockwave was the only non-kiddie coaster I hadn’t ridden at Drayton Manor at this point in the day, so I was keen to give it a go. I was interested to retry it, as I’d remembered quite liking it in 2018; I remember thinking that the standup riding position, while a bit weird, wasn’t as abhorrent as many make out, and the ride had some good elements and was fairly smooth. So, how was it? Well… I’m afraid I didn’t like it as much as I’d remembered. It wasn’t the standup riding position that caused me issue, though; I maintain that the position, while a bit weird, isn‘t abhorrent by any means. What my issue was was that it was a fair bit rougher than I’d remembered in 2018; the bottom of the first drop had an unpleasant jolt, and there was some horrid ear bashing in a few sections. Also; since when has the brake run been so harsh? I remembered it being a bit abrupt, but it’s so sudden that it always threw me forwards and really did my shoulders in. With that being said, I do like some of the elements on there; the zero-g roll in particular is a phenomenal inversion: After Shockwave, I decided to stay in Adventure Cove and do a flat ride… Maelstrom Maelstrom was walk on, so I decided to give it a go. I didn’t do Maelstrom on my first visit, so it was a completely new ride to me, and it seems well liked, so I was intrigued to try it, in spite of the fact that I didn’t overly enjoy Cyclonator, the first gyroswing I did at Paultons Park last year. So, how was it? Well, I’m afraid to say that like Cyclonator, it wasn’t really for me, so I think gyroswings in general are just a bit of a controversial dislike of mine. I do think I preferred Maelstrom to Cyclonator, though, as the restraints were more comfortable and it didn’t seem quite as intense spin-wise. It did still make me feel a bit strange, though, with the strong focus on intensity and spinning not being the best for my personal spin tolerance, and there seemed to be some rather uncomfortable doses of positive g’s in the troughs of each swing. I’m sorry to be a downer, but I think this style of ride isn’t really for me: After Maelstrom, I decided to try the other flat ride in Adventure Cove… Air Race Air Race was on a short queue, so I decided to give it a try. I was interested to try it again; I’d remembered it being absolutely vile in 2018, but I’ve done a lot more rides since then, and I wondered whether I might have built up a greater intensity tolerance over time. So did I enjoy Air Race more this time? Sadly not. Unfortunately, I found it equally vile in 2022 as I did in 2018; I could literally feel stuff moving around in my stomach with each slow flip (a proper churning feeling), and I came off it feeling horribly nauseous. I get why people enjoy it, as it is an intense ride, but it’s not really for me, I’m afraid: After Air Race, I needed a sit down, so I sat and had my lunch (it was getting to 12:15pm anyway), timing the throughput of Shockwave as I ate (I had a very good vantage point!). Once I’d eaten, I decided to go for something different, and perhaps unexpected given today’s not exactly hot weather… Stormforce 10 Stormforce 10 didn’t appear busy, and I’d never done it before, so I decided to give it a go. I’ve got to say, this is a very nicely themed ride; I walked through it too quickly to get any real look at it due to the low crowds, but the queue appeared to be incredibly detailed, and really well themed! The station appeared well themed as well! So, how was the ride? Well, I’ve got to say that it was a really good water ride, although perhaps a mistake given the weather and how wet I got! One of the drops was a surprising soaker; the first and third drops (the forward ones) weren’t too bad (a decent spray, but nothing overly wet), but the second backwards drop got me pretty drenched, which was completely unexpected! Another interesting thing about my ride on Stormforce 10 was that it was my second lone ride of the day; I was seated in row 2 (the ride staff expected me to sit in the middle of the row as well, for some reason), and I went round Stormforce 10 completely on my lonesome! Overall, though, I did think it was quite an impressive water ride; in all honesty, I’d say it’s probably my top UK water ride that’s still operating (I always loved Logger’s Leap), or at very least up there with the best: After my ride on Stormforce 10, I took another ride on Shockwave to dry off. I was seated in row 5, and it was similar to earlier. After that, I rerode Accelerator. I rode in the front this time, and it was great fun, just as it had been earlier: I then took another quiet ride on Apocalypse. I was not alone this time, however; I was accompanied by a group of Year 6 boys, one of whom asked me to hold his hand on the way up, which I did. In terms of the ride itself; it was as awesome and punchy as ever: I then tried to ride The Haunting; I waited outside for about 10-15 minutes, but everyone was then ushered away due to the ride experiencing a technical issue. With that in mind, I decided to try the other dark ride right next to it… Sheriff Showdown Sheriff Showdown was completely empty, right next door to The Haunting and a ride I’d never done before, so I decided to give it a go. Interestingly, this ended up being another lone ride; with there being noone in the area other than me and the operator,So, how was it? Well, I thought it was a good, fun interactive dark ride! There were some nice animatronics, some great sets, and I actually found the game element quite a bit easier to interact with than on other interactive dark rides I’ve ridden; my score was 5,800, which I was pretty impressed with given my shocking aim and the short ride duration! All in all, Sheriff Showdown was definitely a fun little ride: I then had a reride on Jormungandr. I was seated in a similar seat to last time, and the ride was very similar to earlier: I then headed back over to… The Haunting The Haunting had reopened, so I decided to join the small crowd waiting outside. After a few minutes, we were admitted to the attraction; one interesting thing I noticed is that it’s batched differently to other Madhouses I’ve done. It wasn’t like Hex or something, where one group can occupy each room; only one group was allowed to be in the whole attraction on The Haunting. It wasn’t an issue by any means, what with the low crowd levels, but it was just an interesting observation I made. So, how was it? Well, I’ve got to say that I was very impressed! The story of a paranormal investigation is told very well and very clearly, and it is genuinely quite unnerving at points; this is going to make me sound like a right baby, but as someone who doesn’t overly like horror, it was toeing the line of my scare tolerance at times. I did find bits of it quite scary, and it definitely vindicated my belief that I wouldn’t like an attraction that goes beyond that level of scare, such as a scare attraction; a scare attraction is a vastly intensified version of that, so god knows how I’d react to that type of thing with actual people! Overall, though, I thought that The Haunting was a very well done madhouse; it impressed me, for sure, and of the 4 I’ve done, I’d genuinely be inclined to say it’s my 2nd favourite behind only Hex: After The Haunting, I had another great ride on Apocalypse: That was swiftly followed by another great, and practically walk-on, ride on Accelerator; I was seated in row 7 this time, and it was great fun! An interesting thing that happened on this ride was that in the queue, I met a potential enthusiast in the making; I was tapped on the shoulder by a young boy who enthusiastically said to me “excuse me, but I just wanted to tell you that the back provides the best experience on this ride!”. I told him that I’d enjoyed the back earlier, and he seemed very impressed and in agreement with me. He then boarded the back in my train, and when we got off, he said “That was awesome! I’ve done it 15 times!”. That might seem small, but that’s how theme park enthusiasm often starts!: After that, I headed to a ride I’d never done before… The Bounty The Bounty was walk-on, so I decided to give it a whirl. I hadn't done a pirate ship in a while, but I always used to enjoy The Blade at Alton Towers, so I was looking forward to The Bounty. So, how was it? Well, it was a fun enough pirate ship; it had some good swinging, some decent tickles of weightlessness, and overall, it was a fun ride: After The Bounty, I decided to have another ride on Shockwave. I bagged the back row this time, and it was quite similar to the other rides, although it possibly seemed at its roughest yet on the back. That zero-g roll still packs a great punch, though: After my reride on Shockwave, I, possibly against my better judgement after the soaking from Stormforce 10, decided to try another water ride... Adventure Cove River Rapids Adventure Cove River Rapids looked quiet, so I decided to give it a go. It opened after my last visit, and I'd heard some rave reviews (a lot of cries of "best rapids ride in the UK!" get thrown around), so I was interested to ride it. Interestingly, I was not allowed to ride as a single rider, so I had to wait for another group to join me. This didn't take too long, and I was quickly off on the ride with a mother and her young son. So, what did I think? Well, I'm afraid to say that perhaps controversially, I was somewhat uninspired by this rapids. I'll grant them, the Adventure Cove buildings are painted very nicely, and it is quite nicely themed, but it's the only rapids I've ever walked off of bone dry. Even the likes of Congo River Rapids and Rumba Rapids, in the UK, get you with a couple of waves splashing into the boat and a little light spray, but Adventure Cove River Rapids gave me nothing; there didn't even seem to be any water splashing into the boat (if there was any, it was perhaps one tiny splash). Granted, I was somewhat glad to remain dry on this occasion, but I would have rated it higher had there been a couple of waves that came into the boat and did splash the riders somewhat. In fairness, though, I could have just gotten it on a weak ride, or Drayton might not have wanted it to be a wet rapids, so it's probably unfair of me to judge too harshly: After Adventure Cove River Rapids, I had a reride on Jormungandr. I was seated in the second row from the back, and it was perfectly good fun: After Jormungandr, I had another ride on Apocalypse, which was once again awesome; I like drop towers a lot, and Apocalypse is a very good one: After that, I had another fun ride on Accelerator. I was seated in row 8 this time, and it was great fun: I then had another ride on Shockwave. I was seated in row 4, and it was very similar to my earlier rides; the brake run seemed to hit particularly hard on this ride, for some reason: After that, I bought a cup of Diet Coke, and sat down for a few minutes to drink that. I then did another new ride... Drunken Barrels Drunken Barrels was a ride I'd never done before, so I was interested to try it. I knew that this was a unique style of tea cups, so I thought it might be worth a try. So, how was the ride? Well, I thought it was quite good fun; the tilting platform added a very interesting dimension to the teacups ride experience: After Drunken Barrels, I had yet another great ride on Apocalypse: I swiftly followed that up with another fun ride on Accelerator, in row 8: I then had another ride on Apocalypse: That was swiftly followed by a ride close to the front on Jormungandr: I then closed out the day with a final ride on Apocalypse: After that, the 4:30pm ride close had arrived. I went to the Walhalla food outlet to buy a Crunchie Blast ice lolly before heading out of the park and back on my way to Wilnecote station. I then closed out my day with a 1h 7m train ride home, from Wilnecote to Cheltenham Spa; I had to get picked up from Cheltenham due to the train to Lydney being cancelled: So, that was my day at Drayton Manor! I had a brilliant day; I was very glad to have completed a park visit on my own via public transport, and the park itself was a pleasant surprise too! I was expecting the park to be busy when I saw a plethora of school trip groups arriving, but my fears were unfounded, as the park was phenomenally quiet; nothing had more than a 1 cycle wait all day, and I got a surprising number of lone rides! If you weren't keeping track, and wondering whether all this riding had seen me break my personal ride count record (which previously sat at 21, obtained on my last day at Europa Park); my personal ride count record was not only broken, it was well and truly thrashed to death! If you weren't keeping track, my rides today were: Apocalypse x7 Accelerator x5 Shockwave x4 Jormungandr x4 Loki x1 Thor x1 Maelstrom x1 Air Race x1 Stormforce 10 x1 Sheriff Showdown x1 The Haunting x1 The Bounty x1 Adventure Cove River Rapids x1 Drunken Barrels x1 That makes for a final ride total of 30 rides in 6 hours! Yes, I managed thirty (!) rides between 10:30am and 4:30pm today! As a result, I did 26,000 steps today, which is my highest Fitbit step count by some margin, and I am somewhat achey, but I had an awesome day; my first UK park visit of 2022 couldn't have gone better! Thank you for reading! I'll be back at you with another trip report very soon, as I'm headed to Alton Towers on 19th/20th June!
  12. Hi guys. Whenever the topic of records and stats comes up in discussion, I’ve noticed that enthusiasts often like to trot out the age-old mantra of “size isn’t everything”, “it’s not the size that matters, it’s what you do with it” or something of that general ilk. But one does have to ask whether this saying always holds true. So my question to you today is; do you think this saying holds true in every instance? Can a ride ever benefit from being bigger? Can a smaller ride ever be held back by the fact that it isn’t bigger? Personally, I’ll admit that I’m not sure that the adage of “size isn’t everything” is necessarily true in every instance, and I can raise a number of case studies to explain why I think this. Before I begin, I’d just like to clarify that that doesn’t mean that I think it’s wrong by any means. There are absolutely instances where I think this saying can be vindicated. You can absolutely build a small ride that’s truly brilliant, and by the same token, you can absolutely build a big ride that’s a flop. For instance, the height record breaker Kingda Ka does not seemingly have a very high reception among enthusiasts on the whole, and many even rate Stealth, which is less than half the height and effectively does the same thing, more highly. Many of the other record breakers also often leave enthusiasts distinctly non-plussed, due to them either being uncomfortable, boring or a combination of both. By the same token, many rides that don’t leap off the page stats-wise are very highly rated. Nemesis. Phoenix. The Intamin Mega-Lites. There are way more examples than that, even. However, I’m not sure that the mantra of “size isn’t everything” is necessarily as true in every case as some make out. And I’ll use a few case studies to explain myself. I’ll start with one ride type that I possibly feel goes against this mantra; the B&M Hyper Coaster. There seem to be 3 subsets of this ride type in terms of size; the gigas (300ft+, 5,500ft+), the regular hypers (200ft-300ft, 4,500ft-5,500ft), and the mini hypers (<200ft, <4,500ft). And these subsets do seem to follow the same order in average rating as they do in size; as much as the length figures I used in particular are quite rough parameters, there does seem to be a correlation between size of B&M Hyper Coaster and average rating. The gigas seem to be rated higher than the regular hypers on average, and the regular hypers seem to be rated more highly than the mini hypers on average. And even if you delve into these subsets, it’s often the largest that is the most highly rated on average. Take the gigas, for instance; Fury 325 is the longest by a good 1,000ft and the tallest by a good 20ft, and it’s also the most highly rated on average. And if you look at the regular hypers; Shambhala is the tallest by a good 10ft, and also seems to be the most highly rated on average. While this isn’t a hard, fast rule by any means (there are some B&M Hypers that loiter right around the 200ft mark that are pretty highly rated, and some bigger ones that are seen as weaker), there does appear to be somewhat of a positive correlation between height and/or length of a B&M Hyper Coaster and how highly that B&M Hyper Coaster is rated. Now you could argue “B&M Hypers are designed to be big, so of course they aren’t going to follow that mantra”. But I would like to raise another ride type/manufacturer, one who arguably made their name by following the “size isn’t everything” mantra… it’s every enthusiast’s favourite 3-letter acronym, RMC. Over the years, RMC has made many smaller coasters with very high ratings; many of their earlier creations that made them their name fell firmly into the small/moderate size category, often being under 150ft in height and under 60mph in speed. But when they began making big behemoths, that neared and in some cases exceeded 200ft in height and 70mph in speed… it’s those massive RMCs that have hogged most of the column inches ever since. While this of course won’t be true for everyone, it appears that the current holy trinity of RMCs for most enthusiasts are Steel Vengeance, Zadra and Iron Gwazi. These are also the only RMC coasters to exceed 200ft in height at present. One does have to wonder whether that’s a coincidence. A lot of RMC’s small and midsize coasters seem to fly under the radar somewhat these days, even when newer; for instance, Twisted Cyclone and to a lesser extent the first two Raptors, while respectably reviewed, got a far more muted response than Steel Vengeance in 2018. SteVe is twice the size of any of the “competing” RMCs from the same year. In 2016, when the company built Wildfire, Lightning Rod and Joker, it was Wildfire and LRod, the two vastly larger coasters, that got all the praise; poor old Joker, at barely above 100ft, didn’t even get a look in compared to those two, and even now, it’s among the lowest rated RMCs while the big two from the same year are among the highest rated. Again, while this isn’t necessarily a hard and fast rule, it does appear that there might be a positive correlation between size of an RMC and how highly it’s rated on average. For yet another two examples of manufacturers who are arguably famous for following the “size isn’t everything” mantra; Gravity Group and GCI, the two traditional woodie manufacturers. Both of these companies produce many compact and small rides that are big hits among enthusiasts; Gravity Group in particular are renowned for getting big thrills out of small packages. But looking at the highest rated rides from each company would suggest that size might even benefit these champions of compact. If you look at Gravity Group; their most highly rated coaster in most polls seems to be Voyage by some distance… and Voyage is also their largest coaster, being a truly massive, sprawling ride. If you look at GCI; their most highly rated coasters among those who’ve ridden seem to be Mountain Flyer and Python in Bamboo Forest, and while exact stats for this duo are limited, they appear to be GCI’s two biggest coasters by a fair margin. And even if you look among more widely ridden GCIs; the tallest and fastest is Wodan, and that does often tend to fall among the most highly rated GCIs too. I could use other examples, but in essence; I do think size can be a contributing factor to how highly rated a ride is in numerous cases, and the saying of “size isn’t everything” isn’t always true, in my opinion. But what do you think? Do you agree with me? Or do you think that the age-old mantra of “size isn’t everything” is always true?
  13. I’m sad to be seeing Apocalypse go, as I did think it was a really good ride, but I’ll admit I didn’t think it entirely lived up to the hype. It was perfectly great in its own right, but even within the UK, I’ve ridden towers I liked more. I certainly like the Fabbri duo (Venom & Detonator, particularly Venom) more, from memory, and I’d also put HangOver at Hyde Park Winter Wonderland higher, even though that isn’t really a UK tower (that had the perfect storm of being both huge and forceful!). My last and only ride was in 2018, though, and I am riding it again next week, so that might well change! It will be missed, but I understand why it’s going. To be honest, I look forward to seeing what’s replacing it, particularly given the high likelihood of it being a coaster! I think it could be something really awesome, myself!
  14. Hi guys. I don’t know about any of you, but as a theme park enthusiast, I find that every theme park day is pleasurable in its own way. However, the pleasurability of these days does vary, so with that in mind; I’d be intrigued to know; what have been some of your most and least pleasurable theme park days? These don’t necessarily have to equate with your most and least favourite parks; you might have had a terrible day at a park you love, and equally, you might have had a great day at a park you don’t rate that highly! I’ll get the ball rolling with some of mine… Most Pleasurable Europa Park (29th April 2022) - I loved all 3 days at Europa, and all are easily in contention for the title of “most pleasurable theme park day” (but for the sake of not repeating Europa loads of times, I won’t mention all of them), but for some reason, the last day sticks out in my mind as being particularly pleasurable. It just felt like such a wonderful day! It could be the fact that I broke my own personal ride count record by some distance (21 rides ridden; the previous record holder was 16!) without even trying overly hard (we maintained a fairly relaxed tempo throughout the day), it could be the fact that I had an amazing 6 rides on my #2 coaster Silver Star (again, that broke the record for the most times I’ve ridden one attraction in a day, and I broke it on a coaster I absolutely loved), it could be the fact that we experienced a very varied range of attractions, with plenty of supporting attractions thrown in alongside the big hitters; I don’t know. But for whatever reason, this day left me with some phenomenally fond memories I’ll treasure forever. I was genuinely sad to be leaving the park at the end of it, which is a sure sign of a truly brilliant day, in my opinion! Islands of Adventure/Universal Studios Florida (28th August 2016) - Even though this day was 6 years ago now, and it was across 2 parks rather than one, my most recent day at the Universal Orlando Resort does stick out to me! We did both parks by using the Hogwarts Express, I got 2 rides in on Hulk, we did loads of dark rides, did some water rides; it just sticks out to me as a brilliant day, for some reason! A revisit to UOR is definitely needed… it’s such a cool place! Paultons Park (30th July 2021) - Paultons might not be as grand or as spectacular as the parks above, but my first and only day there was wonderful! We got on loads of rides (14, to be exact), and that was with an incredibly relaxed tempo; we didn’t rush around by any stretch, and we spent at least 2 hours of our 6 hour day not riding anything at all! And in general, the place was so relaxing, and so nice to be in, that I just had to mention it! Thorpe Park (7th September 2021) - My nomination from Thorpe Park was a toss up between 7th September 2021 and 2nd August 2019 (when we stayed at the park until 6:30pm) but I have to say, I think 7th September narrowly wins out! It was my first time visiting a theme park alone, and also a relatively quiet midweek day, and it was awesome! I got 16 rides in, the tempo wasn’t too rushed, and I got incredible personal satisfaction from having done a theme park on my own! Alton Towers (12th July 2020) - I could have picked quite a few days here, as I’ve had so many great days at Alton Towers over the years, but I think that this one stands out. In retrospect, it wasn’t one of my higher ride count days (although we still got 6 rides in, which I’d say is decent!), but I had some absolutely mesmerising rides on Wicker Man that well and truly blew me away, and it was just nice to be back at a theme park after the COVID lockdowns! Blackpool Pleasure Beach (24th August 2019) - I’ve got to say, I had a really nice time when I visited BPB for Late Night Riding. I loved getting in some of my first ever night rides, we stayed until 9pm, and on the whole, it was just a great day! Least Pleasurable If I’m being honest, there aren’t any theme park days that stick out in my mind as being wholly unpleasant, but there are some that fall lower on the pleasurability scale, for sure. Thorpe Park (16th July 2018) - This was an end of year school trip I took to Thorpe Park, and in retrospect, it wasn’t one of my more pleasurable theme park days. It was still fun to be at Thorpe Park, and I did get on Rush & Samurai for the first time, but it was very busy. We got on 2 rides during our 6 hours on park (it took close to an hour to get in, so we weren’t in until 11:30am), and no coasters were ridden; only Rush & Samurai were ridden. We also waited over 2 hours for Saw only for it to break down at the very end of the queue. That’s not to say it was a bad day by any means (2 rides is better than nothing, and I did get to experience Rush & Samurai for the first time), but it was perhaps my lowest ride count ever at a ride-focused park like Thorpe (relative to the amount of hours spent in the park, at least), and not one of my fonder theme park memories in the grand scheme of things. Legoland Windsor (31st August 2017) - Granted, this day may have been more due to circumstance than the park itself, but my first ever visit to Legoland was not one of my more pleasurable park experiences, I must admit. Our mum was in a wheelchair due to having fractured her ankle, which added an element of stress, and the park was extremely busy. The pathways were very crowded, and I found it hard to move about, which made me pretty anxious. I did get on Dragon, though, so at least I got the park’s singular non-kiddie credit in! And I did later get a revisit in July 2021, which was much more enjoyable and gave me the opportunity to properly take in the park! Alton Towers (25th March 2018) - Wicker Man’s opening weekend was exciting, don’t get me wrong, but in retrospect, the day where I first rode it was not one of my fonder experiences at Alton Towers. We started our day by attempting to ride Wicker Man during ERT, which we initially thought would be a brilliant idea… but it turned out that everyone else had the same idea, and a fair queue had already amassed by the time we reached the ride. That wasn’t the main problem, however; the main issue was that due to reliability issues, the ride didn’t open until 11:30am despite ERT starting at 9:30am, meaning that we waited outside the ride for 2 hours, and then it took us at least another hour to get on once it did open, due to a combination of a long queue and the ride’s reliability issues meaning that it went up and down like a yo-yo. We did get on, thankfully, but we broke down at the end of the ride, and were then stuck on the brake run for the best part of 30 minutes before being evacuated, which took the total length of our Wicker Man experience to around 4 hours. Even away from Wicker Man, the park was having a tough day; it was busy, and things were breaking down left, right and centre. After getting off Wicker Man, we had lunch, rode Thirteen with the priority passes we’d been given from the Wicker Man evac, and then left at 2:30pm because my family had had enough by that point. I am very thankful to have been a part of Wicker Man’s opening weekend and to have ridden it that day, and it was cool to be evacuated (the only time I’ve ever been evacuated from a coaster, from memory), but it wasn’t one of my more pleasurable days at Alton Towers, all things considered. But what have been some of your most and least pleasurable theme park days?
  15. As it turns out, the "sik" from Flamingo Land's last tweet was not a jab at Merlin or a typo... it was actually a hint towards the ride's name, as the ride is being called Sik, in honour of local clothing brand SikSilk: https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/new-flamingo-land-roller-coaster-24104725 It's... original, I guess! I'm not a huge fan, if I'm being honest, but I'm sure it'll grow on me over time. Names tend to sound weird at first and then stick a bit more as time goes on.
  16. Right then; it's about time I did part 2 of my North American investigation! And in part 2, I'll be working out... what coaster selections in North America have the strongest top end? Yes, I'll be focusing solely upon the parks' most highly rated coasters in this question! As I got a few comments about the slightly weird results in part 1, I'm thinking that this question should hopefully correct that and produce results more akin to what you might typically expect, as I'm focusing only upon "the interesting stuff" here! So how did I work this out? Well, I used 3 different ways of attempting to measure this. The first method I used was... Mean of Top 3 The first method I used was calculating a mean of each park's top 3. For those of you that don't know, the mean is the calculated average of each top 3, and the formula is as follows: Mean of Top 3 = Sum of All Ratings/3 (as the top 3 is being focused upon here, the count of ratings will always be 3) When this formula was applied to each park's top 3, the highest rated top 3s came out as follows: Ranking Park Mean Rating of Top 3 (1dp) Top 3 Coasters in Park (with ratings out of 10) 1 Cedar Point 9.8 Steel Vengeance (10.0) Maverick (9.9) Top Thrill Dragster/Millennium Force (tied at 9.6) 2 Six Flags Magic Mountain 9.6 Twisted Colossus (9.8) X2 (9.7) Tatsu (9.4) 3 Busch Gardens Tampa 9.5 Iron Gwazi (10.0) Montu (9.4) SheiKra (9.1) 4 Six Flags Great Adventure 9.4 El Toro (9.9) Nitro (9.2) Kingda Ka (9.1) 5 Six Flags Fiesta Texas 9.3 Iron Rattler (9.7) Wonder Woman Golden Lasso Coaster (9.5) Superman Krypton Coaster (8.8) 6 Kings Dominion 9.3 Twisted Timbers (9.9) Intimidator 305 (9.8) Dominator (8.2) 7 Hersheypark 9.3 Skyrush (9.8) Storm Runner (9.2) Candymonium (8.9) 8 Busch Gardens Williamsburg 9.3 Pantheon (9.7) Griffon (9.2) Alpengeist/Apollo's Chariot (tied at 9.0) 9 Silver Dollar City 9.3 Outlaw Run (9.7) Time Traveler (9.5) PowderKeg (8.6) 10 Canada's Wonderland 9.2 Leviathan (9.4) Behemoth (9.3) Yukon Striker (9.0) Let's move on to the second measure... Median of Top 3 The second measure I applied was the median of the top 3. The median is the midpoint of a dataset (I.e. the middle value), so as we're talking about top 3s, the median value is the 2nd highest rated coaster at each park. When I searched for the median of each park's top 3, the top 10 were as follows: Ranking Park Median Top 3 Coasters in Park (with ratings out of 10) 1 Cedar Point 9.9 Steel Vengeance (10.0) Maverick (9.9) Top Thrill Dragster/Millennium Force (tied at 9.6) 2 Kings Dominion 9.8 Twisted Timbers (9.9) Intimidator 305 (9.8) Dominator (8.2) 3 Six Flags Magic Mountain 9.7 Twisted Colossus (9.8) X2 (9.7) Tatsu (9.4) 4 Six Flags New England 9.5 Wicked Cyclone (9.8) Superman the Ride (9.5) Batman the Dark Knight (7.2) 5 Six Flags Fiesta Texas 9.5 Iron Rattler (9.7) Wonder Woman Golden Lasso Coaster (9.5) Superman Krypton Coaster (8.8) 6 Silver Dollar City 9.5 Outlaw Run (9.7) Time Traveler (9.5) PowderKeg (8.6) 7 Kentucky Kingdom 9.4 Storm Chaser (9.7) Lightning Run (9.4) Kentucky Flyer (6.2) 8 Busch Gardens Tampa 9.4 Iron Gwazi (10.0) Montu (9.4) SheiKra (9.1) 9 Six Flags Over Georgia 9.3 Twisted Cyclone (9.7) Goliath (9.3) Batman The Ride (7.8) 10 Canada's Wonderland 9.3 Leviathan (9.4) Behemoth (9.3) Yukon Striker (9.0) After those two measures, I used one final measure of my own... Matt N Formula for Top End Strength The final measure I used was my own formula. You might remember that I used my own formula to denote consistent strength in part 1. The formula for top end strength is slightly adjusted compared to that, only taking into account the highest rating and the upper quartile. The formula I'm using to work out top end strength is as follows: Matt N Formula for Top End Strength = (Highest Rating + Upper Quartile)/2 This formula does require me to touch upon the entire selection again as opposed to just the top 3, but the use of the upper quartile and highest rating mean that I can hone in exclusively on the more highly rated coasters while also considering the strength of the top end as a whole. For all intents and purposes, it's the average of the highest rating and the upper quartile, so the lowly rated coasters within a park's lineup still aren't considered. When this formula was applied, the top 10 parks were as follows: Ranking Park Matt N Formula Score (1dp) Highest Rating Upper Quartile (1dp) Number of Scoreable Coasters 1 Busch Gardens Tampa 9.5 10.0 9.0 10 2 Silver Dollar City 9.5 9.7 9.3 6 3 Cedar Point 9.5 10.0 8.9 16 4 Six Flags Great Adventure 9.4 9.9 8.9 13 5 Carowinds 9.4 9.9 8.8 13 6 Busch Gardens Williamsburg 9.4 9.7 9.0 9 7 Six Flags Fiesta Texas 9.3 9.7 8.8 9 8 SeaWorld Orlando 9.2 9.6 8.9 6 9 Kentucky Kingdom 9.2 9.7 8.6 6 10 Hersheypark 9.1 9.8 8.3 14 So, what did we learn in this part of the investigation? Well, I can quite decisively crown a winner for the park with the strongest top end based on my 3 measures, and that is Cedar Point. The park came out on top in 2 of the 3 measures, and even in the measure it didn't win, it still came 3rd. And I'll be honest, Cedar Point was literally a hair away from the top spot; the difference between Cedar Point and the winner in that measure, Busch Gardens Tampa, was only 0.05. (The reason the top 3 are all listed as 9.5 is because I rounded the Matt N Formula Score to 1 decimal place; there was a difference between each of their exact scores, albeit a very small one) Before I close off, here's my spreadsheet once again, so that you can peruse my workings at your pleasure: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1D_Zv3-Nb3B8oV7WRe3_G34tWDeAde_rJ8cMSeDN6KpM/edit?usp=sharing Thank you all for reading part 2 of my investigation into North America's major coaster selections, where I attempted to find the coaster selections with the strongest top end. I hope you found it interesting, and I hope the results are more in line with what you were originally expecting than they were in part 1! TL;DR: I attempted to find the North American coaster selections with the strongest top end. I used 3 different measures to calculate this: the mean of the top 3, a calculated average; the median of the top 3, the midpoint value; and the Matt N Formula for Top End Strength, which calculated the average of the park's highest rating and the upper quartile. The winner was determined to be Cedar Point, which won 2 of the 3 measures and came an extremely close 3rd in the measure it did not win.
  17. Disclaimer: This post is extremely long, and if you don't like data analysis and geeky maths talk, I'd suggest you run for the hills and don't look back, because this post has quite a bit of it! Hi guys. Some of you might remember that I recently did a multi-part data analysis investigation on Europe's major coaster selections; the topic is here if you don't know what I'm on about: In that thread, I asked numerous different questions about Europe's major coaster selections. So I thought that a natural next step would be to try North America; it would be rude of me not to pay the Americans a visit given how many coasters and parks are in the USA alone, let alone the rest of North America! But for those of you who have no idea about my previous data analysis investigation, let me just introduce what I'm doing... Introduction There are a lot of theme parks in North America, as well as a lot of roller coasters. So naturally, people (myself included) tend to ask questions like “which park has North America’s best roller coaster lineup?” or “which parks are quality-over-quantity and which parks are quantity-over-quality?”, amongst others. As such, while it’s not really a discussion thread as such, I thought it might be fun to try to take a quantitative look into some of these questions and try to answer them using some data science techniques. So join me as I attempt to perform a quantitative, multi-part analysis of North America’s major coaster selections! I'll split my investigations into a couple of posts, one for each question, to make it a little more digestible. Before we start, let me set out a few prerequisites and explain some of the facts regarding the investigation… Prerequisites of the Investigation I am using the coaster ratings on Captain Coaster (https://captaincoaster.com/en/) as of May 2022 to perform this investigation. If you look at each ride’s page on CC, it has a % score out of 100; this is what I have used and converted into ratings out of 10. For the rating out of 10 of a ride, I converted the percentage into a rating by dividing by 10 (so for instance, a ride rated 87% would have an average rating of 8.7/10). Building upon the ratings stuff; all ratings are rounded to the nearest 0.1 (so to 1dp). As a rule of thumb of what’s considered major, I went with; to be considered, a park must have 5 scoreable roller coasters. If you’re wondering why I get so specific in saying “scoreable roller coasters”, it’s because Captain Coaster does not score what it considers to be “kiddie coasters”, so not every ride in a park's lineup is scored. As such, this means that parks with 5 kiddie coasters wouldn't be eligible for this investigation; my rule ensures that a park in the study has 5 family/family thrill coasters, at the very least. It also doesn't score rides where the ridership is too low, but the effect of that upon this investigation is quite minor; only 1 or 2 parks/rides were affected. Off the top of my head, Tumbili at Kings Dominion and Wonder Woman Coaster at Six Flags Mexico (bizarrely given it opened in 2018) are not scored on CC due to their ridership being too low, therefore the investigation excluded them, but all the other new rides that have opened are counted. So the likes of Iron Gwazi, Ice Breaker, Pantheon, VelociCoaster etc are all included. However, one inconsistency is that Captain Coaster has a somewhat inconsistent definition of what it considers a kiddie coaster. Using some examples from my home continent of Europe, things like the Steeplechases at Blackpool are considered kiddie coasters, but Blue Flyer in the same park, which I personally would consider a kiddie coaster, isn't. I could have taken kiddie coasters into account, but I could not think of a fair way to do it, as rides that fall into this bracket that slipped through the cracks seem to have wildly varying scores. The site also has rides listed on it that some probably wouldn't count as roller coasters, but some do, such as SuperSplash at Plopsaland and Fuga de Atlantide at Gardaland. I just decided to go with the site's scores and the rides that the site scored, as even though I could calculate the mean rating of some unscored rides, I don't think CC's scoring system only uses mean rating, as I seem to remember it being mentioned that members' rankings are also factored in, so me attempting to meddle with CC's system risks introducing bias and skewing the data the wrong way, which you definitely don't want in a data investigation. However, I did think this was something I should raise before we begin. The most important prerequisite of all is that the results of this investigation are not necessarily the final answers to the questions I raised in my introductory paragraph by any stretch. All of this still comes entirely down to personal opinion, of course. Right then; I think that's everything, so let's dive into the dataset... The Dataset When searching through RCDB for theme parks that met my criteria, as well as cross-referencing with Captain Coaster to ensure that the criteria were met in terms of scoreability, I found 41 theme parks with 358 roller coasters between them. These parks, as well as the number of scoreable roller coasters they each contain, are as follows: Six Flags Magic Mountain (USA, California): 16 Canada's Wonderland (Canada): 16 Cedar Point (USA, Ohio): 16 Six Flags Great America (USA, Illinois): 14 Kings Island (USA, Ohio): 14 Hersheypark (USA, Pennsylvania): 14 Six Flags Great Adventure (USA, New Jersey): 13 Carowinds (USA, North Carolina): 13 Kings Dominion (USA, Virginia): 12 Six Flags Over Texas (USA, Texas): 11 Six Flags Over Georgia (USA, Georgia): 10 Six Flags New England (USA, Massachusetts): 10 Busch Gardens Tampa (USA, Florida): 10 Six Flags Fiesta Texas (USA, Texas): 9 Lagoon (USA, Utah): 9 Knott's Berry Farm (USA, California): 9 Six Flags St Louis (USA, Missouri): 9 Busch Gardens Williamsburg (USA, Virginia): 9 Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (USA, California): 8 Six Flags America (USA, Maryland): 8 La Ronde (Canada): 8 Dollywood (USA, Tennessee): 8 Six Flags Mexico (Mexico): 8 Kennywood (USA, Pennsylvania): 8 Six Flags Darien Lake (USA, New York): 7 Valleyfair (USA, Minnesota): 7 Morey's Piers (USA, New Jersey): 6 Worlds of Fun (USA, Missouri): 6 Michigan's Adventure (USA, Michigan): 6 Silver Dollar City (USA, Missouri): 6 Dorney Park (USA, Pennsylvania): 6 SeaWorld Orlando (USA, Florida): 6 Kentucky Kingdom (USA, Kentucky): 6 Luna Park (USA, New York): 5 Indiana Beach (USA, Indiana): 5 Great Escape (USA, New York): 5 SeaWorld San Antonio (USA, Texas): 5 Knoebels (USA, Pennsylvania): 5 Disney's Magic Kingdom (USA, Florida): 5 Nickelodeon Universe Theme Park (USA, New Jersey): 5 Disneyland (USA, California): 5 I think that just about covers everything, but if you feel I’ve missed an obvious one, then don’t be afraid to tell me. Let's move on to some fun stuff now... I'll start analysing some different common questions and see what answers I come out with. I'll use this first post to do... What is North America’s most consistently strong coaster selection? Yes, I’ll be finding out which coaster selection in North America is the most consistently strong! For clarity, this focuses on the entire scoreable selection and sees the consistent strength of a park’s lineup. This is not weighted solely towards a park’s more highly rated coasters (I’ll be examining the top ends of selections on their own in a separate question), but instead considers the consistent strength of a park’s whole selection. I’m basically asking “to what extent does each park in the dataset have a consistently strong, good quality lineup?”. There are numerous data science techniques we can use to find this out. Let’s start with the first one… Mean The first statistical method we can use is the mean. For those that don’t know, the mean is a calculated average, where the sum of all a park’s coaster ratings is calculated and then divided by the number of scoreable coasters in that park to work out the average rating. The formula for the mean is as follows: Mean Rating = Sum of all Ratings/Number of Scoreable Coasters When applying the mean to each park in the dataset, the top 10 most consistently strong coaster selections in North America were as follows: Ranking Park Mean (to 1dp) Number of Scoreable Coasters 1 Silver Dollar City 7.5 6 2 Busch Gardens Williamsburg 7.3 9 3 Dollywood 7.0 8 4 SeaWorld Orlando 7.0 6 5 Cedar Point 6.6 16 6 Six Flags Magic Mountain 6.6 16 7 Busch Gardens Tampa 6.5 10 8 SeaWorld San Antonio 6.4 5 9 Six Flags Fiesta Texas 6.4 9 10 Kennywood 6.4 8 But mean is not the only statistical measure I can use… Median Another statistical measure we can use is the median. For those that don’t know, the median is the middle value in a dataset; the midpoint, if you like. For instance, in a dataset of 9 scoreable roller coasters, the median value would be the 5th highest rated coaster, because there are 4 coasters rated higher than it and 4 coasters rated lower than it. When applying the median to each park in the dataset, the top 10 most consistently strong coaster selections in North America were as follows: Ranking Park Median (to 1dp) Amount of Scoreable Coasters 1 Silver Dollar City 8.6 6 2 Busch Gardens Williamsburg 8.3 9 3 SeaWorld Orlando 8.1 6 4 Busch Gardens Tampa 7.4 10 5 Dollywood 7.3 8 6 Six Flags Great Adventure 7.2 13 7 Cedar Point 7.2 16 8 Disney’s Magic Kingdom 7.0 5 9 Dorney Park 7.0 6 10 Six Flags Magic Mountain 6.9 16 However, there’s one final statistical measure of my own that I’d like to test out… The Matt N Formula for Consistent Strength So far, I have used two pre-existing statistical measures; the mean, a calculated average, and the median, the midpoint value. However, each of these has its own flaws and things that it doesn’t really consider. The mean is flawed in that it can be quite easily skewed by a small number of data items on the extreme ends of the spectrum, thus not providing an accurate picture of the whole selection. Whereas the median, while possibly providing a more accurate picture of the general quality of a selection, does not take the extreme ends of the spectrum into account at all; if a park's coaster selection had a median rating of 6/10, the top value could be a 7/10 or a 10/10 and it would make no difference. With that in mind, I decided to come up with my own formula to determine the consistent strength of a selection. A formula that takes into account both the extreme ends of the spectrum and the general quality across the board. So let me present The Matt N Formula for Consistent Strength; the formula is as follows: Matt N Formula for Consistent Strength = (Highest rating + Upper quartile)*(Lowest rating + Lower quartile) I included the highest rating and the lowest rating to take into account the extreme ends of a selection, while I also integrated quartiles to provide a stronger picture of general quality throughout a selection. Those of you who followed my Europe data analysis might remember that I initially attempted to use this formula to work out strength in general without really quantifying what strength was, but I later decided that this particular formula would work better to determine consistent strength. When I applied the Matt N Formula for Consistent Strength to each park in the dataset, the top 10 most consistently strong coaster selections in North America were as follows: Ranking Park Highest Rating Upper Quartile (to 1dp) Lowest Rating Lower Quartile (to 1dp) Matt N Formula Score (to 1dp) Quantity of Scoreable Coasters 1 Dollywood 9.9 8.0 3.9 6.4 183.0 8 2 Silver Dollar City 9.7 9.3 3.5 6.0 180.7 6 3 Kennywood 9.3 7.2 4.2 5.2 155.3 8 4 SeaWorld San Antonio 8.8 7.6 3.4 5.6 147.6 5 5 Knoebels 9.4 7.5 2.7 5.9 145.3 5 6 Busch Gardens Williamsburg 9.7 9.0 1.1 6.4 140.3 9 7 SeaWorld Orlando 9.6 8.9 0.7 6.7 135.8 6 8 Cedar Point 10.0 8.9 1.5 5.4 130.6 16 9 Six Flags Magic Mountain 9.8 7.8 1.3 5.4 117.9 16 10 Disney’s Magic Kingdom 7.1 7.1 1.9 6.3 116.4 5 Let’s now summarise what we’ve learned… Summary So, what did we learn from this investigation? Well, while the methods used did differ the results somewhat, there were some names that universally appeared in the top 10 regardless. And there was one park in particular that did shine, scoring highly on all 3 measures. As it came top when using 2 of the 3 measures and came second in the measure that it didn’t win, I am saying that my data concludes that Silver Dollar City has North America’s most consistently strong coaster lineup. When a park comes out on top 2 out of 3 times and comes second the 3rd time (and a very close second, at that), it’s hard not to declare it the winner! I’m aware that the results might not be what some expect, and in some ways, they weren’t what I would have expected either, but it is worth me reiterating that this is asking what North America’s most consistently strong coaster lineup is rather than what the strongest coaster lineup is in terms of the park’s highest rated coasters. If I honed in exclusively on each park’s strongest rated coasters (which I will do in a separate question), I can sense these results would look very different. Also, just because my algorithm is saying that Silver Dollar City wins this, that’s not “the correct answer” by any means; it’s all down to personal opinion. The answer I’m showing here is merely the conclusion that my data analysis came to based off of the average opinions of a subset of coaster enthusiasts. Just for reference, here is a box plot I created using Python’s MatPlotLib library to show the spread of ratings for each coaster selection and how they compare to one another in a visual way: I’m aware that that’s a bit of a mess, so just for some idea, here is the order in which the parks appear, from left to right (the number at the side is the number of scoreable coasters the park has: Six Flags Magic Mountain (USA, California): 16 Canada's Wonderland (Canada): 16 Cedar Point (USA, Ohio): 16 Six Flags Great America (USA, Illinois): 14 Kings Island (USA, Ohio): 14 Hersheypark (USA, Pennsylvania): 14 Six Flags Great Adventure (USA, New Jersey): 13 Carowinds (USA, North Carolina): 13 Kings Dominion (USA, Virginia): 12 Six Flags Over Texas (USA, Texas): 11 Six Flags Over Georgia (USA, Georgia): 10 Six Flags New England (USA, Massachusetts): 10 Busch Gardens Tampa (USA, Florida): 10 Six Flags Fiesta Texas (USA, Texas): 9 Lagoon (USA, Utah): 9 Knott's Berry Farm (USA, California): 9 Six Flags St Louis (USA, Missouri): 9 Busch Gardens Williamsburg (USA, Virginia): 9 Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (USA, California): 8 Six Flags America (USA, Maryland): 8 La Ronde (Canada): 8 Dollywood (USA, Tennessee): 8 Six Flags Mexico (Mexico): 8 Kennywood (USA, Pennsylvania): 8 Six Flags Darien Lake (USA, New York): 7 Valleyfair (USA, Minnesota): 7 Morey's Piers (USA, New Jersey): 6 Worlds of Fun (USA, Missouri): 6 Michigan's Adventure (USA, Michigan): 6 Silver Dollar City (USA, Missouri): 6 Dorney Park (USA, Pennsylvania): 6 SeaWorld Orlando (USA, Florida): 6 Kentucky Kingdom (USA, Kentucky): 6 Luna Park (USA, New York): 5 Indiana Beach (USA, Indiana): 5 Great Escape (USA, New York): 5 SeaWorld San Antonio (USA, Texas): 5 Knoebels (USA, Pennsylvania): 5 Disney's Magic Kingdom (USA, Florida): 5 Nickelodeon Universe Theme Park (USA, New Jersey): 5 Disneyland (USA, California): 5 And here is the spreadsheet with the complete raw dataset, for your viewing pleasure: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1D_Zv3-Nb3B8oV7WRe3_G34tWDeAde_rJ8cMSeDN6KpM/edit Thanks for reading part 1 of my analysis of North America’s major coaster selections! I’m hoping part 2 will be on its way before too long, and in that one, I’m planning to dive a bit deeper into the top end of these parks’ coaster selections, to see which parks have the strongest top tier; part 1 focused on the selection as a whole, but I know there is a lot of interest in the top tier of these coaster selections in isolation. But if any of you have any suggestions for questions about this dataset you’d like me to try and answer, then I’m very happy to accept suggestions!
  18. Hi guys. In recent memory, two (as far as I'm aware) theme parks have won the Golden Ticket Award for Best Theme Park in the World. They're two pretty different theme parks, but they share the award in common, and they are Europa Park in Germany and Cedar Point in the USA (or Ohio, to be more precise). So my question to you today is; which of these two GTA winners do you prefer? I obviously can't pass judgement, having never visited Cedar Point. For what it's worth, though, I have visited Europa Park, and I have to say that I think the park is more than deserving of its high reputation; it's unbelievably versatile! You have awesome coasters (for me at least; Silver Star and Wodan are in my top 3, and while it's not quite on the same level, Blue Fire ranks pretty highly for me as well!), but you also have all the strengths of a themed park as well, with a wonderful selection of dark rides, impeccable theming & presentation and a lovely atmosphere throughout! I certainly don't see Cedar Point being versatile in quite the same way (although as I said, I haven't visited), but being a pretty big coaster enthusiast at heart, Cedar Point's coasters could be so awesome that it would be enough to tip the balance... I really wouldn't like to pass judgement, and that's exactly why I never like to vote conclusively on these polls unless I've visited both parks or ridden both attractions! I was actually spurred to do this poll when I stumbled across this (now rather old) park battle by Coaster Studios on the matter: CS' battle saw Cedar Point come out on top by a pretty long way, although Taylor himself admits that his battle method is quite heavily centred towards thrill rides. But does Europa Park or Cedar Point come on top for you out of the GTA winners?
  19. Hi guys. Often when at a theme park, you'll find an attraction you really like and want to reride it. Sometimes, you might even be inclined to ride it over and over. You might ride it as many times as you can hack, or as many times as you're able to queue for it for. So my question to you today is; what is the highest number of rides you've ever had on one attraction in a single day? I'll get the ball rolling with my answer. My current record is 6 rides on Silver Star at Europa Park, and this was set very recently, on 29th April 2022. For some idea of previous record holders, here's my top 3: Silver Star at Europa Park - 6 rides - 29th April 2022 The Swarm at Thorpe Park - 5 rides - 7th September 2021 Megafobia at Oakwood Theme Park - 4 rides - 26th May 2019 After that, there are a fair amount of attractions tied at 3 rides in 1 day. But what is your current record for the most rides you've ever had on one attraction in a day?
  20. I noticed this last season; it was mainly around the entrance area. It is interesting to have it back; I think I controversially prefer the new IMAScore tracks, but the old music is still great!
  21. Following my recent trip to Europa Park, as well as a bit of general thought, my top 10 and top 30 have some changes! Looking at my last post in here, I also think that I may need to update some of the descriptions for existing entries... Matt N's Top 10 as of May 2022 (Coaster Count: 91) (New entries and description updates in italics, moved entries underlined) Mako - SeaWorld Orlando: My first and last rides on this coaster were in August 2016, but the 3 rides I had on Mako stick out to me as 3 of my favourite coaster rides ever even 5 years on; my first ride in particular gave me a hit of pure joy no coaster has since! As for why this coaster sticks out compared to the rest; where do I begin? As soon as you board the train, the restraints are some of the most gorgeously comfortable coaster restraints I've ever sat in, and when the ride itself kicks into motion, there's so much amazing stuff going on; the sustained airtime is phenomenal throughout, with the first drop, first big hill and speed hill sticking out as 3 particularly biblical airtime moments (I know floater is often considered weak airtime nowadays, but 13 year old me remembers it feeling like I was being catapulted into space, and floating in the air for what felt like forever!), and even away from airtime, the sense of speed is amazing, and the ride is so blissfully smooth, negotiating each element with what feels like flawless precision! And on the whole, while it may not be an intense g-machine, Mako is a coaster where I felt a strong urge to run back round and give it another go each time I did it, more so than any other coaster I've been on; I think the balance between thrill and fun factor/rerideability is just perfect! Prior to riding this, I was a little lost as to why enthusiasts revered airtime so much, but Mako was the coaster that converted me, and made me understand that love for airtime that most enthusiasts have! I'll admit that I'm unsure if this should still be number 1 what with how long it's been (with some of the amazing coasters below like Icon, Wicker Man et al, I worry that this wouldn't stand up if I were to ride it today), but I've decided to keep it here for now on the basis of the memories. What do you guys think? Having recently ridden Silver Star and adored it, I am feeling a fair amount more confident about Mako's placement; the B&M Hyper experience still holds up! 10/10 Silver Star - Europa Park: I had high hopes for Silver Star what with Mako being my number 1, but at the same time, noone seems to especially rate it, so I had somewhat lowered expectations, and I was also extremely nervous to see how the B&M Hyper experience held up 6 years on from Mako. However, I shouldn't have had a single worry; Silver Star was a huge surprise for me! It well and truly blew me away, and the B&M Hyper experience well and truly lived up to my memories of it! I said a lot about Mako in the paragraph above, but by extension, a fair amount of that could describe Silver Star as well, as it encapsulates a vast percentage of Mako's great qualities; it has sublime sustained airtime, it's got an awesome sense of speed, it's smooth, it's rerideable, the trains are awesome, and it has so much more! One other thing I love about Silver Star is its ending and consistent pace; as well as the sublime sustained floater in the first half, you also have some phenomenal pops of ejector after the MCBR, which are both phenomenally strong and surprisingly sustained, as well as a fun s-bend that sends you flying into the brake run! In terms of why it's below Mako; we're honestly talking very pedantic differences here. While SS has sublime and breathtaking airtime, I'd say that no individual moment of airtime on SS had quite the same impact as some of Mako's very strongest airtime moments, like its first drop and first hill, and I'd also say that while SS is very smooth and comfortable on the whole, Mako has this sublime feeling of 100% glass smoothness that Silver Star can't quite compete with, and that was one of the things I loved about it. Nonetheless, though, Silver Star is a truly stunning coaster, and it well and truly had Mako quaking in its boots more than any ride I've ridden post-Mako; while it is #2 rather than #1, there's very little in it, and that verdict was reached after much deliberation! What a stunning ride type the B&M Hyper Coaster is; Mako and Silver Star are both truly phenomenal! 10/10 Wodan Timbur Coaster - Europa Park: Unhinged. Nuts. Crazy. Those are just some of the adjectives you could use to describe Wodan, yet I'm not sure any of them quite do it justice! Wodan is easily the most relentless roller coaster I have ever been on; this is a layout that has not a single dull moment, and it feels truly out of control from start to finish! The twists and turns are really fun too, and the ride is absolutely packed with airtime; every element seems to hurl you out of your seat with an awesome pop of strong ejector, even in places where you might not necessarily expect airtime! The first drop is awesome, with an awesome moment of airtime going down it, the turns in the middle are so fast and ride great, and the little airtime pops towards the end are awesome and provide some sublime ejector airtime! Overall, Wodan is an exceptional roller coaster, and while I wouldn't call it intense in the traditional sense, it is absolutely demented! Yet it's also so much fun; I love it, and it's an easy steal for #3, as well as my #1 wooden coaster spot! 10/10 Icon - Blackpool Pleasure Beach: Controversially, I do really love Icon! I’ve ridden it 4 times on 2 separate visits to Blackpool in 2018 & 2019, and it’s really struck a chord with me, hitting all the right notes each time! It’s fast, it’s thrilling enough to give you a kick but not too intense to be fun, it’s smooth, it’s rerideable, it has some amazing ejector airtime, the trains are lovely, the rapid transitions are great, and on the whole, I see little not to like about Icon from my personal perspective! Sure, the launches aren’t the punchiest (although I don’t personally think they’re as feeble as they’re often made out to be), and the ride as a whole isn’t exactly an intense, pedal-to-the-metal g-machine, but I just find it tremendously, tremendously fun, and it puts a smile on my face and gives me an urge to reride every time! And surely coming off a coaster smiling and wanting to go round again is the most important indicator of enjoyment, is it not? 10/10 Wicker Man - Alton Towers: I’m not usually a hardcore wooden coaster fan like a lot of enthusiasts, but I’d have to say that Wicker Man is most definitely a ride I make an exception for; I find it tremendously fun, fairly smooth and comfortable in wooden coaster terms, and very rerideable! The ride is really, really fast, it has some smooth yet exceedingly fun transitions, many surprising pops of ejector airtime, and as I’ve said with the rides above, it strikes the perfect balance between thrill and fun factor, in my opinion! And on the back row in particular, this coaster is a real hoot, with some excellent airtime moments, although I think every row is fun on Wicker Man, personally! Overall, I think Wicker Man is a hugely fun ride; even if it isn't the most intense coaster, it always puts a huge smile on my face! 10/10 Mine Blower - Fun Spot Kissimmee: I know that 2 3 wooden coasters in my top 5 10 might possibly contradict my earlier statement about not being a hardcore wooden coaster fan, but Mine Blower is the other another ride that I’d say I make an exception for! I should preface what I say about Mine Blower by saying that I only had one ride on it, in the front row, with a practically empty train. However, in spite of this; Mine Blower did impress me, and I think there’s a lot to like about it! The ride is fast-paced from start to finish, and I absolutely love that bouncing, darting sequence of airtime moments the ride incorporates! I also love the ride’s sole inversion; that zero-g roll provides a really excellent moment of sustained hangtime! I know it’s in stark contrast to the more abrupt, erratic sensations in the rest of the layout, but I really like how the start of the ride contrasts with the rest of it! I was slightly worried about Mine Blower’s roughness prior to riding, as I have a low roughness tolerance and I’d heard numerous reports about Mine Blower’s roughness, but on the front row, I’d personally say I didn’t find it overly rough; no more so than something like Wicker Man, anyway. One slight caveat I admittedly have is that I don’t like the trains as much as the GCI trains; the restraints are a bit tight, and I think the GCI rolling stock generally feels a bit more comfortable, in my opinion. Overall, however; even though I’d say the two GCIs just edges beat it for me in terms of woodies (the trains are far more comfortable, and I also really like the smooth twisty bits on Wicker and Wodan, and I think the pacing is on another level on Wodan in particular), I was very impressed by Mine Blower, and I’d say it’s a more than worthy candidate for a favourite woodie! 9/10 Montu - Busch Gardens Tampa: My memories of Busch Gardens Tampa are getting hazier with time, as it’s close to 5 years since my first and only visit, but I do remember very much liking Montu! I remember it being relatively smooth, as B&Ms mostly are, but also packing a real punch! It was a long ride, but one that kept its momentum throughout, and it had many awesome inversions and moments of positive force! The one ride I had certainly sticks out as my favourite ride I’ve had on a B&M invert, and I remember really liking it at the time, but I’m unsure whether I’d rank it quite as highly now, as my tastes have changed slightly towards rides with more negative g’s and a wider variety of forces on offer as opposed to rides with little aside from positive g’s. Still, Montu is a fab invert, in my opinion! 9/10 SheiKra - Busch Gardens Tampa: As I alluded to in my musings about Oblivion above, this is probably a tentative ranking until I get a reride on SheiKra, but in spite of me now saying I rank Oblivion a bit higher, I did still really like SheiKra, from memory! The ride is massive, which adds a certain element of fear to it, and I remember the drops and big, swoopy elements being really nice! I really do need a reride, though; based on my recent experience with Oblivion, it might well end up pushing SheiKra up a few spots… 9/10 Oblivion - Alton Towers: Perhaps oddly given the one-note nature of it, Oblivion is a coaster I've really grown to love with time! This could admittedly be a tentative opinion until I get back on SheiKra, but to be honest, I actually think I like Oblivion more nowadays I think I like SheiKra slightly more, but Oblivion is fantastic in its own right; I love how concise it is, and although it doesn't do a lot, I think Oblivion does everything it has in its arsenal extremely well! The sense of speed on the drop is phenomenal; my dad always says to me whenever we ride it together that Oblivion feels like the fastest coaster he's ever done, and I can certainly see why he thinks that, as it really feels like you're flying at warpspeed through that tunnel! The airtime is also great, in my opinion; the drop itself provides an excellent moment of strong sustained airtime, and the hill into the brakes also provides a surprising bonus pop! The ride is also really smooth and comfortable, in my opinion; for a coaster of 23 years old, I think it's aged phenomenally, and I think that as OTSRs go, B&M's traditional ones are about as unobtrusive and comfortable as they come! Overall, while it might be short, I think Oblivion is certainly sweet! 9/10 Blue Fire - Europa Park: This is a lovely ride! The launch is punchy, the inversions are nice, the trains are comfortable, the hangtime is nice, it's smooth... Blue Fire is just overall a really, really nice coaster. It's rerideable, it's fun, and definitely something I enjoyed; what's not to like? And that last roll is amazing; definitely up there as one of my favourite inversions! However, if I'm being phenomenally picky, it just lacks a little something to make it truly top-tier for me, and I can't quite put my finger on what. I did feel that it lacked airtime for a ride of its type (although it's not really designed to be an airtime machine, I guess), and 1 or 2 of the transitions felt slightly unnatural, but I'm not sure that it was either of those things on its own. It might not help that it's in the same park as the absolutely phenomenal one-two punch of Silver Star and Wodan, but it's definitely not quite hitting my 10/10 tier based on the rides I had, and I definitely rank it lower than Icon, which surprised me slightly based off of most people seemingly preferring Blue Fire. Nevertheless, it's a really excellent coaster that I thoroughly enjoyed, and certainly deserves its place at #10; it's a great ride! 9/10 Matt N's Top 30 as of May 2022 (Coaster Count: 91) (New entries in bold, moved entries in italics Mako - SeaWorld Orlando (10/10) Silver Star - Europa Park (10/10) Wodan Timbur Coaster - Europa Park (10/10) Icon - Blackpool Pleasure Beach (10/10) Wicker Man - Alton Towers (10/10) Mine Blower - Fun Spot Kissimmee (9/10) Montu - Busch Gardens Tampa (9/10) SheiKra - Busch Gardens Tampa (9/10) Oblivion - Alton Towers (9/10) Blue Fire - Europa Park (9/10) Nemesis - Alton Towers (9/10) Nemesis Inferno - Thorpe Park (9/10) Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts - Universal Studios Florida (8/10) Revenge of the Mummy - Universal Studios Florida (8/10) Rita - Alton Towers (8/10) The Swarm - Thorpe Park (8/10) Kraken - SeaWorld Orlando (8/10) Incredible Hulk - Universal's Islands of Adventure (8/10) Kumba - Busch Gardens Tampa (8/10) Cheetah Hunt - Busch Gardens Tampa (8/10) CanCan Coaster - Europa Park (8/10) Thirteen - Alton Towers (8/10) Megafobia - Oakwood (7/10) Rock'n'Rollercoaster - Disney's Hollywood Studios (7/10) Arthur - Europa Park (7/10) Pegasus - Europa Park (7/10) Slinky Dog Dash - Disney's Hollywood Studios (7/10) Avalanche - Blackpool Pleasure Beach (7/10) Seven Dwarfs Mine Train - Disney's Magic Kingdom (7/10) Flight of the Pterosaur - Paultons Park (7/10) I'm not sure I'll ever be truly content with my coaster rankings at this point... this list could look totally different in very little time!
  22. For anyone who might be interested, recreations of both the Exodus we’re getting and B&M’s bid have been made by Jamie Rogers: Perhaps controversially; having recently ridden Silver Star and had my love for the B&M Hyper ride type confirmed, I think I prefer the look of the B&M proposal to the ride we’re getting based on those recreations. To me, it looks to have far more of an overt airtime focus than the Exodus we’re getting (while I’m sure Exodus will have airtime, don’t get me wrong, and quite strong airtime at that, I’d be hesitant to call it an overtly airtime-centred layout based on what we know), which would have fitted the UK beautifully, in my view (particularly seeing as the country lacks sustained airtime like B&M Hypers offer far more than it lacks brief airtime, in my view). I also feel that the B&M proposal would have filled more of a gap within Thorpe Park’s lineup; a non-inverting, rerideable thrill coaster in the vein of a B&M Hyper Coaster is something that Thorpe and arguably the UK industry as a whole lacks at present, and Thorpe has no non-inverting thrill coaster aside from Stealth, whereas Exodus, as brilliant as it looks, will ultimately be another variation on a sit-down looping coaster. Granted, I’d imagine it’ll be quite a different variation on this paradigm to Thorpe’s other rides, but it will be a sit-down looping coaster with its elements almost predominantly consisting of inversions, like many of Thorpe’s other rides, all the same. I apologise if this makes me come across as “bitter that my prediction was wrong” or whatever, and I don’t want to imply that I’m not grateful for the ride we’re getting or don’t think it looks great (I think Exodus has an awesome-looking layout, and it’s certainly very unique!), but having now seen this alternative proposal, I do personally think it looks more my cup of tea than the Exodus being built. When I came off Silver Star last week, I’ll admit I did think “wouldn’t it have been great if Thorpe was getting something like this?” (although as I said above, that’s not to say that the Exodus we’re getting doesn’t look great; I’m very excited for it!), and I actually think the proposed B&M Hyper layout looks pretty neat, myself!
  23. A surprisingly unpopular one of mine following my recent trip to Europa is; I prefer Icon to Blue Fire, and by a definite distance.
  24. Matt N's Ode To Europa Park: A Review from my First Ever Visit For those of you that don't know, I recently returned from my first ever visit to Europa Park in Germany. I wrote a trip report series which can be viewed in earlier entries in this blog. Now I know that I did a brief summary of my thoughts on Europa Park at the end of my recent trip report series. However... now I've been back for a couple of days, I'm finding myself wanting to say a lot more than I said in that summary. It feels like I hardly scratched the surface of what I wanted to say about Europa in the closing summary of this trip report series. I apologise if this comes across a tad random or soppy, but I wanted to talk about Europa in more depth and talk about what I thought of it and why I fell in love with it, as both a way to inform the Europa regulars on here that having now been, I get it, as well as to reassure anyone who hasn't visited and is possibly a little sceptical as to whether Europa will be for them. So; Europa Park. Where do I begin? To say that I've wanted to visit Europa for a while would be an understatement; ever since I livestreamed the GTAs back in 2014, when I was only 11 years old, and saw Europa Park get awarded the award for "World's Best Theme Park", I thought to myself "I need to go there". And then I read TowersStreet/EuropaStreet, where all the members absolutely waxed lyrical about Europa even back in 2015 or whenever I started lurking around there, my excitement intensified, and Europa Park became the first big bucket list place I felt like I needed to visit. I'll be honest, I did not know a huge amount about the park at this point, but I knew that everyone loved it, which was all the incentive I needed. I would always say to my parents about Europa Park, and their response was always "we'll take you when you're 18". Seeing as I was probably no older than 12/13 at the time, this seemed a very long way off. And when I finally turned 18 in July 2021, COVID had happened, meaning that the much mooted 18th birthday trip to Europa Park was unable to happen. I did get a nice trip to Legoland Windsor and Paultons Park, though, so every cloud has a silver lining, I guess! So it's safe to say that my first trip was a very long time coming. However, my parents did stick to their word, and finally ended up booking our trip for April 2022. The excitement began. However, I'll digress that after the trip was booked, my skepticism and trepidation began to grow. I'd often heard Europa compared to Disney (I like the Disney parks, don't get me wrong, but I never really fell in love with them), and I'd heard a number of reviewers say that EP was "mediocre" and "massively overhyped", particularly through the lens of thrills (I am personally quite thrill-centred when reviewing theme parks, although they're admittedly not the be all and end all for me). So I had very high expectations, but also a degree of trepidation. I was thinking "Will it really be as good as they all say? Will I even like it that much?". So, did EP live up to its insane hype, and were my years of wanting to visit worth it? Most definitely. I had phenomenally high expectations and hopes, and somehow, there was not one single thing about Europa Park that disappointed me. It truly is absolutely exceptional, in my opinion, and there are numerous reasons why. Ride Selection Let's start with one of the principle elements of any theme park; the rides! Europa Park's ride selection delivered and then some, in my view. Of all the theme parks I've been to, I honestly think Europa Park has the most well-rounded ride selection. By my reckoning, it has at least one really excellent ride in each category of coasters, dark rides and water rides, with a plethora of others accompanying it, and that's without even getting onto the array of other wonderfully random attractions; Europa has you covered whatever your taste in rides is and however high your appetite for thrills is! Yes, the park isn't the most thrilling theme park on earth, with drop towers, huge RMCs and nuts launch coasters rammed around every corner, but I think the thrill coasters that EP has are plenty satisfying enough to quench any coaster lover's thirst for thrills; I'm reasonably thrill-centred, and they were certainly more than enough to leave me feeling fulfilled! I know that none of Europa's thrill coasters are especially intense per se, but what they are is extremely fun and rerideable. And as someone who values fun and rerideability in a coaster more than out-and-out intensity, that suited me down to the ground! Silver Star, my favourite coaster at EP, is truly euphoric and absolutely breathtaking, in my view; an epically fun and intensely rerideable coaster with phenomenal airtime, and it shot straight into my #2 spot! Wodan, a close second for me, is also truly exceptional; it's absolutely demented, packed with airtime, and is so much fun, in my opinion! And Blue Fire is also a really excellent ride; with how I've been referring to it as "a distant third among Europa's big 3", you'd be forgiven for thinking that I didn't think much to it, but that couldn't be further from the truth. BF is great fun, in my opinion, with some lovely hangtime, a punchy launch, and a smooth ride experience, and that last inversion is absolutely amazing! When a ride like Blue Fire is being relegated to "distant third" status, I know that a park's thrill credentials are delivering for me, and I was slightly stunned at how one park can have two coasters as phenomenal as Silver Star and Wodan (both in my top 3!)! Even pushing aside Europa's big 3 thrill coasters; many of Europa's plethora of sideline coasters are really great fun, and will put a smile on your face whether you're a young child, a teenager or a grandparent! And the park also has some really big hits, with truly universal appeal, in terms of dark rides and water rides as well; Piraten in Batavia is a truly spectacular dark ride (my favourite outside of Florida, and I like it a fair bit more than the original POTC at Magic Kingdom), and Voletarium is also a really solid, well-done dark ride as well. And I thought Fjord-Rafting was a really strong water ride too (I'd probably say it's my favourite water ride outside of Florida). Not to mention that for every big-ticket ride, there are about 5 smaller ones; in my opinion, one of the wonders of Europa Park is how many smaller sideline attractions there are. And in many cases, I don't think relegating them to "sideline attraction" status does them justice at all, because EP still weave a lot of magic and care into them; many of the smaller dark rides, for instance, are really quite fun in their own right, and even though some admittedly aren't as strong as others, in my view, something about stumbling across that type of attraction is really quite wonderful, and their presence makes EP's lineup so expansive, and you're never, ever short of things to do! I spent 3 full days at Europa, and there are still plenty of attractions I didn't experience and plenty of nooks and crannies I didn't even set foot in; it's truly massive! Theming Let's now talk about Europa's theming. I was unsure how well themed Europa would be, as they don't have the same types of budgets as the big duo of Disney & Universal, so I have to admit that I was stunned at how beautiful Europa is. Some of the vistas are absolutely stunning, and the general standard of theming and presentation at Europa is absolutely impeccable, in my opinion! Every crevice of Europa Park is packed with charm and detail; even many of the sideline attractions have stunningly detailed queue lines and great theming! For my money, Europa's general standard of theming is easily on par with the big 2; while they never hit quite the same highs as Disney & Universal in terms of raw scale and detail of themed vistas, I'd argue that the park is very consistent, and is easily on par with, if not more strongly themed than, a surprising proportion of Disney & Universal stuff. I also found that the themes really resonated with me; perhaps controversially, I've always liked the world style of theming, and I really enjoyed World Showcase at Epcot. When I left Epcot in April 2019, my thought was "World Showcase was great! If you removed Future World from the equation, gave each country a bit more depth and added considerably more rides, I think you'd have a truly epic park!". And as I was walking around Europa Park, I realised; 3 years ago, I was essentially describing Europa when describing the Epcot of my dreams. Theming-wise, I think the park is easily on par with World Showcase, and when you have countries with far greater depth and the amazing ride selection that Europa has, then I think 2019 Matt N was right; it did make a truly epic park! Atmosphere/Warmth Another thing that makes Europa great in my opinion is the atmosphere. I'm not someone who likes busy places, so with Europa being a 6 million a year theme park, I was unsure if I'd find it too crowded for me, but I found Europa to have a consistently relaxing and wonderfully pleasant atmosphere throughout, which made the park absolutely wonderful to be in, in my opinion; I never once felt uncomfortable within Europa Park! Adding onto this point, I found the whole place to have a wonderfully warm feeling about it throughout that I can't quite place my finger on; it almost reminded me in many ways of somewhere like Paultons Park, and I found it very heartwarming! I don't know quite what causes it, but the place feels very warm, special and magical throughout; "magic" is a cliched term within theme parkery by now, but I genuinely felt a very true sense of magic within Europa, and even setting foot in the place put a huge smile on my face; it's just so nice to be in! Efficiency/Operations I somehow haven't even mentioned the efficiency yet. My word; they don't mess around, do they? On the whole, Europa is a phenomenally well oiled machine, and that's perhaps most evident when you set foot into their coaster stations. It feels like you hardly have time to blink between sitting down and the train being dispatched; the hosts are literally running up and down the platforms, in some cases, and queues move phenomenally fast as a result. I attempted dispatch timing, and my results ended up being very unreliable, as you're never stood still long enough to get a good reading! With very limited levels of Fastrack compared to the average theme park also being added into the equation, queues that look massive do not take long at all; me and my mum rode Silver Star one day when the queue was bursting out of the Mercedes-Benz Hall and through the outdoor switchbacks, and we guesstimated that this queue would ordinarily be in the ballpark of an hour. It only took 15 minutes. Talk about efficient! Before I ramble too much (as I'm conscious that I've already rambled quite a bit), I'll just conclude by saying that the key thing I love about Europa is that it is a true chameleon of a theme park. More so than anywhere else I've ever visited, it is well and truly shape-shifting; it can be whatever you want it to be at a given point in time. You want to endlessly reride coasters? You can do that! You want to discover dark rides and go on a world-class journey of immersion? You can do that! You want to just relax and take in pleasant, well-themed surroundings? You can do that! You want to eat & drink from various different outlets? You can do that! Europa Park just says "yes" to absolutely everything and delivers upon whatever your demand is extraordinarily well; you can spend a day focusing on just about anything at Europa Park, and every day will be equally fulfilling! Most theme parks I've been to seem to hone in on either thrills or immersion, but Europa Park is a wonderful cocktail of both, and I truly love that. I find it absolutely amazing how I can go from repeat riding 2 coasters in my top 3 to experiencing wonderfully themed dark rides to just strolling along taking in pleasant, well-themed surroundings all in the same park; that is no mean feat, but Europa somehow pulls it off! So the big question is; after all the hype and obscenely high ratings, is Europa my favourite theme park I've ever visited? I can answer that rather decisively; yes. Of what I've visited, Europa Park is my favourite theme park in the world. Don't get me wrong, Islands of Adventure in Orlando, my previous favourite, is an absolutely phenomenal theme park, with an amazing ride lineup and exceptional theming making for a truly impeccable theme park experience that never stops giving and always feels well and truly magical, but Europa just nails every single aspect of theme parking, and is just so expansive and wonderful and consistently high quality in thrills, theming and everything else in between that it's absolutely unrivalled within the sphere of theme parks I've been to, in my opinion. I may have only visited once, but I got it and I felt the magic right from the off; it is a truly stunning theme park, and one I've truly fallen in love with. I can't wait for my next visit!
  25. 30th April 2022 (Europa Park Hotel Resort, Travel Home and Trip Summary) Today was considerably less busy than the last 3 days, so as such, my report of our actual day will be far briefer. We had no 4th day on our entry tickets to Europa Park, but our flight out of Baden-Airpark was not until 7pm, so after checking out of our room at 11am, we had time to kill. And as we were on a huge resort and hadn’t explored too much of the other hotels aside from our own (Castillo Alcazar), we decided to have a relaxed amble around the Europa Park hotel resort for the day. As we didn’t really have anywhere to be, we didn’t leave our room until close to the 11am checkout time. After breakfast and packing were done, I spent my time timing the throughputs of various different rides out of the hotel room window; I could see Wodan, Blue Fire, Atlantica, Euro Mir and Silver Star very easily, which made for perfect dispatch timing conditions! After leaving our hotel room, we initially had a little amble around El Andaluz and the exterior area of that hotel: Then, we crossed over the road and strolled over to Bell Rock to take a look in that hotel: I’ve got to say, all of Europa’s hotels are stunningly themed; we were looking around Bell Rock, and that has so many stunning little details, but on reflection, all of them do! After a stroll around Bell Rock, we headed down a path into the town of Rust to briefly explore, passing by the other side of Bell Rock while we were there: We then headed into Hotel Colosseo, where we ambled around the piazza area for a bit. We wandered back up to the Colosseum to take in the views of the surrounding area, including of Rulantica and of the piazza and fountains: After that, we sat and watched the fountains for a good few minutes. I must say, they really are captivating to watch, and such a cleverly designed little touch! (I apologise, as after the Colosseum, my picture taking stopped for a good few hours…) We then headed into Pizzeria La Romantica for some lunch after having a delicious evening meal there on Wednesday. I’ve got to say, sitting outside in Colosseo’s piazza eating lasagne was a very nice way to kill time; it’s such a nice environment! After that, we then went inside the Hotel Colosseo lobby and had a look in the shop before having a sit down and also looking at all the pictures on the walls (the IAAPA Wall of Fame and such). The Mack family have certainly hosted a lot of celebrities at Europa over the years, and I don’t think I’ve ever been to a theme park before that displays its array of industry accolades so prominently! We then headed into the Colosseo cafe for a little dessert. I had a lovely bowl of caramel ice cream, and that was certainly a nice way to finish off our trip! After that, we headed back over to El Andaluz and sat in the lobby for a few minutes just taking in the surroundings: After our brief sit down, we then headed to our car to leave Europa Park Resort and head to Baden-Baden for our flight back to London Stansted. Interestingly, the travel home is where we encountered quite possibly our longest wait of the trip; getting out of London Stansted took nearly 1.5 hours all in. So, that was our final day! I apologise for today’s slightly dull report; I tried to make it sound as interesting as possible, but we really didn’t do that much. It was a nice relaxing end to a wonderful trip, though! To add a bit of heft onto today’s slightly dull report, I may as well do my final summarising thoughts… Trip Summary Well, the trip has now ended. And what a trip it’s been! As most of you probably know, it’s one I had been planning for some time, and it was my first ever trip to Europa Park, a heavily revered theme park and a place that was high on my bucket list! So, did Europa Park live up to the hype, and was it worth my many years of wishing to go there? Definitely. Without a doubt, it was all worth it. Europa Park is truly phenomenal. Stunning. Breathtaking. Joyful. I can think of so many superlatives to describe it, and when I say them, I mean every single one of them. In my opinion, Europa Park is a truly exceptional theme park for so many reasons, and despite my sky-high expectations, it did not disappoint in the slightest! It delivered in so many different ways for me, and there is so much I could say about it, but a few particular things that stood out to me were: The ride lineup is phenomenally well-rounded, and incredibly expansive: Europa has an incredibly well-rounded and expansive ride lineup. Rides-wise, you’re totally covered regardless of your taste. Europa has a plethora of coasters, including some absolutely phenomenal thrill coasters, yet it also has an expansive lineup of dark rides, a solid selection of water rides, and a wide array of very light-hearted, relaxing filler rides to stumble across! Yes, it might not be the most thrill-packed theme park on earth, with giant drop towers and huge coasters around every corner, but the thrill rides they do have are excellent, and more than satisfy anyone yearning for thrills, in my opinion! Silver Star is intensely rerideable, and such an epic ride in my opinion, and if you get bored of riding Silver Star, you’ve got Wodan, which is an exceptional coaster in its own right, and even though Blue Fire isn’t quite on the same level of brilliance as the other two in my opinion, it’s still a really excellent coaster, and an incredibly solid ride for thrillseekers! And I think EP caters to the whole family demographic wonderfully; I can think of so many Europa rides that would have young children, teenagers and grandparents alike all stepping off with huge smiles on their faces! So all in all, Europa Park has a exceptional ride lineup with almost universal appeal, in my opinion! The park as a whole is phenomenally well-rounded: Building upon my point about the park’s phenomenally well-rounded ride lineup; I think the park is extremely rounded in other aspects too! Everything has been thought about with Europa; ride hardware is not everything here. The theming and presentation are absolutely impeccable. The food is really nice and there’s a wide variety of things to pick from. The park is filled with nice little touches of flair and things to notice and look at. The atmosphere is lovely and relaxed throughout. I don’t think there’s one element of theme parking that the Mack family haven’t thought about and attempted to include within Europa Park, and for that reason, I would challenge anybody to visit and not find something to enjoy. Even if you’re not overly into rides, there’s a hell of a lot you can enjoy at EP. It is a true chameleon of a theme park, more so than any other I’ve yet visited; you could have totally different days at Europa Park and they would all be equally fulfilling. Do you want to hammer coasters non-stop? You can do that! Do you want to ride dark rides and discover wonderfully random rides you never knew existed? You can do that! Do you want to have loads of different food & drink? You can do that! Do you want to just sit back and take in a really pleasant atmosphere without overly exerting yourself? You can do that! At Europa Park, you can spend a day doing just about anything and it will always be fulfilling! The theming is surprisingly phenomenal: One thing that did surprise me about Europa Park was just how phenomenally well themed it is throughout. With it not being a Disney or Universal park or having the same kind of budgets, I was unsure how well themed it would actually be, but I was stunned at how beautiful every area is and how much effort is put into theming each ride and making it really special. The theming is absolutely exceptional at Europa, and while it’s not as grand in scale as the best parts of the likes of Disney and Universal, it’s very consistent, and there are so many little details interwoven around! I’d go as far as to say that while it doesn’t hit the highs of the big 2 theming-wise, I’d argue that Europa is generally more strongly themed than, or at very least matching, a fair proportion of Disney & Universal stuff. I certainly think the general level of theming and detail at Europa is at least up there with, if not above, some of the more weakly themed parts of the big 2, which really surprised me. The park has a wonderful vibe throughout: Interestingly given it’s quite a big player with huge visitor numbers, Europa feels remarkably relaxed throughout, and the vibe is absolutely wonderful in every area of the park; even as someone who doesn’t particularly like large crowds, I did not find one moment in Europa even vaguely stressful! Also, the park has a real feeling of warmth throughout that I can’t quite place my finger on; in a bizarre way, it almost reminded me of the warmth of somewhere smaller like Paultons Park, and it was very endearing! There are so many things I could say, but those are just some of the main ones! So all in all then, I was blown away by Europa Park. The place felt special; the second I stepped through the gates each day, I just felt my face curl into a grin of wonder! I probably looked quite silly, but it was truly brilliant and it truly made me happy; I could have spent many more days there! There are just so many things I loved about the park, and it truly resonated with me on so many levels. For that reason, I’m going to drop a far more decisive bombshell than last night’s, that I don’t see myself u-turning on tomorrow morning; Europa Park is my new favourite theme park in the world, of what I’ve visited. There, I said it. I love the theming, I love the coasters, I love the dark rides, I love the atmosphere; there’s just so much I love about it! Islands of Adventure (my previous favourite) is without doubt a phenomenal theme park, but Europa’s raw breadth of attraction lineup, consistent theming quality and phenomenal coasters are just something else for me! In terms of some key stats of interest; let me just break it down: New coasters ridden: 12 Coaster count after trip: 91 Favourite ride: Silver Star Favourite roller coaster: Silver Star (#2 overall out of 91… after some careful thought, Mako remains top dog) Favourite non-coaster: Piraten in Batavia Favourite dark ride: Piraten in Batavia Favourite water ride: Fjord-Rafting Overall ride count: 50 (over 3 days) Highest 1-day count: 21 (on 29th April 2022/Day 3) Most ridden ride: Silver Star (ridden 10 times) Thank you for reading this report over the last 5 days! I’ve loved recounting my first experience of Europa Park to you each day, and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my reports!
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