Mark9

Isn't a top spin good enough for you Josh. I'm shocked! I'd throw in a pair of nebulas and an intamin gyro swing just for starters. This is Towers, they can work around the height and nebula are the greatest flat ride ever created. They can't go on like this.

Are you saying several billion for a Loggers Leap boat isn't worth it?

It's pretty shocking actually. I completely understand that Blade is coming to the end of its life, arguably it has been for years. But why are they not replacing it with anything? Not even another 'Pirate ship'. It leaves Forbidden Valley as a completely 1.4 metre area. Flavios Fandango; Their little text is absolutely laughable. Talking about how it was required because of how capacity stricken everything was because of covid. What a load of rubbish to remove it now then, if anything the capacity issues remain the same if not worse now. I'm not surprised about dungeons, another completely misjudged attraction built because some marketing guru thought it would make sense but did nothing for the park at any point. Beyond the wonderful way they bought back Nemesis, this season has been shocking and it doesn't look to be getting any better in 2025. A top spin doesn't even scratch the surface.

They'll start putting in little food carts there soon. Slap down a few benches and boom, new food area.

I'm probably more bothered on a personal level because it was closed the entire time I was there and opened like two days later. Yes that's selfish, but it's a spite that I can never get now and the park made sure of that.

It actually feels like there's more closures than there actually are. A lot of them are closed and relocated because their respective parks have closed for example. Desert Race - Operational no issues Formula Rossa - Remains closed, rumoured that its launch system is damaged. Has been down since February and the park have been very coy about what's actually going on Furius Baco - Operational, no issues (beyond being an atrocious rollercoaster) Kanonen - Relocated to the USA as Matugani Kingda Ka - Rust in Pieces Rita - Operational, no issues Senzafito - Closed down due to the park closing completely. Now in Canada and converted to LSM launch. Skycar - Operational no issues Speed Monster - Operational, no issues Stealth - Operational, no issues Storm Runner - Operational, no issues Superman The Escape - Operational, no issues Top Thrill Dragster - I mean.. I'm not delivering lectures on this. Xcelerator - It's currently operational. It spent over a year closed and under refurbishment and opened at the end of last year. Zaturn - Park it was located at in Japan closed down, and the ride now sits in pieces in Russia. I wouldn't worry about Stealth or Rita to be honest. As some of the later models, the technology is slightly perfected from the originals and I would say the reliability of both rides is far better than their American counterparts.

Out of nowhere (unless you follow the various American vloggers), Kingda Ka and Green Lantern closed permanently on the 11th and have both been retired. To be honest with you I'm really unhappy about the lack of send off, particularly for Ka. This wasn't just another ride, it was the worlds tallest rollercoaster for 20 years and for many, was the last coaster of the 'coaster wars'. There are many, many reasons as to why Kingda Ka's life seemed limited after looking at what happened to Top Thrill Dragster, but nonetheless, it seems incredibly short sighted to me, to not give the ride the goodbye it deserved.

When everyone has RAP, nobody has RAP.

I'd fill the beach with more flat rides, maybe a coaster or two.

I think I'm done for the year to be honest. First off the new rides of 2024 list. This won't include Nemesis Reborn cos.. well it isn't all new. Coaster enthusiasm is complicated. 1. Voltron. An incredible ride, fully kicks your arse, full of ejector time and a sheer masterclass of ride design. 2. Taiga. A true bucket list ride and it delivered on every level. By far my favourite Intamin, this is just absolute excellence. 3. Fury 325. I really enjoyed Fury 325. I see why people call it their favourite B&M because it is an excellent ride. So so fast. 4. Afterburn. A very under-rated inverter. It's a very European style B&M with no MCBR and very intense. 5. Thunderhead. I loved this ride so much. It was honestly such a surprise to me because it's full of air-time, long and twisty and so re-ridable. I could have ridden all day 6. Hyperia. This probably wouldn't be so high if it wasn't for it being in the UK to be honest. It really lacks that final something that the very best rollercoasters have. I find it more and more frustrating the more I ride. 7. Copperhead Strike. I was a little surprised at how much I enjoyed Copperhead to be honest. It has some bizarre pacing but it is a lot of fun. 8. Aerieforce One. The joy of this ride is that it's very easy to ride. Literally no one visits this park so you can get a quick ten rides in an hour and then be on your way. It's a great RMC and surprisingly high on my list. 9. Goliath (Six Flags over Georgia). Fantasic B&M. Has a lot of ejector air time and a really vicious ending that I LOVED. Its worth a visit to over Georgia for this ride alone. 10. La Fianna Force. I'd heard how great this ride was and.. it is. It's so well paced and jam packed with intensity. The restraints are so freeing and un-restricting. You'll love it like I did. And finally.. the top ten of 2024. 1. Steel Vengeance (first ridden 2018). Yes.. the top ride for 2023 remains my favourite. We had several rides back in July and it more then lived up to my memory. We had some incredible rides with people we met in the queue for this during our night rides. They were so much fun. American theme parks just sort of.. encourage talking. This happened a lot. 2. Nemesis Reborn. (first ridden in 2024 or 2004 depending on your point of view). Nemesis has slipped to number two for the simple reason that Vengeance is just better. Nemesis Reborn still lives up to the original. I think it's astounding that it's just picked up where the original left off. I don't feel the roughness, I just sit there and enjoy a masterpiece of rollercoaster design. No other Inverter is so loved and respected. I saw this described as a legacy coaster. And it really is. 3. Ride to Happiness. (first ridden in 2022). This felt like Mack really giving it their all. Well it did at the time. This is a spectacular ride which rides differently every single time. I'm looking forward to going back and riding again. 4. Voltron (first ridden in 2024). I think Voltron is outstanding. It's already my top ride from the new for 2024. But it really is incredible and confirms to me that Mack are at the forefront of rollercoaster design. Any park that buys a Mack deserves to be noticed and rides like Voltron are why. 5. Taiga. (first ridden in 2024). Following up from before, I love Taiga. it's my favourite Intamin because it has an outstanding layout that constantly surprises. I love diving up and down the hillside, the ejector air time, the beautiful blue track winding around itself. Linnamaki is so easy to get to so I shall be back.. 6. Toutatis (first ridden in 2023). Another excellent Intamin slipping only slightly. I find Toutatis so unbelievably rerideable and so much fun. Pack Asterix run it superbly which really helps. A must do. 7. Fury 325. (First ridden in 2024). What I really appreciated about Fury was the operations. Cedar Fair can be a hit and miss with their operations. Fury was the ride that did operations right with an engaged and efficient ride crew that went out of their way to fill every seat and keep the queue moving. 8. Baron 1898. (First ridden in 2017). This of course isn't the best B&M dive machine ever with its chill heights and short layout. but the theme just sells to me every single time. Their dedication to still doing the train ticket loading is amazing because other parks would have ditched that years ago. It always delivers as well, with the ride being slightlier punchier every time I go. 9. Wildcats Revenge (First ridden in 2023). A fantastic RMC that went surprisingly under the radar when it was being constructed but has sometime how opened to be a full on favourite. 10. Blue Fire (First ridden in 2010). This ride somehow still stands up. Its still smooth, its still run more efficiently then any other rollercoaster I've ever ridden. It's not as impressive to me as it once was but that's purely because Mack are at a whole different level. But without Blue Fire, we wouldn't have Voltron, Copperhead or Ride to Happiness. See ya in 2025

I remember liking Magic Mountain when I visited 10 years ago. We missed out on X2 and Revolution so it's certainly true you are guaranteed to miss out on something. For all of Six Flags poor reputation, I've never really felt let down on visits to any of them. I've done 6 SF parks and they were all good days out. Cedar Fair, I find far more frustrating to visit.

Parc Asterix is such a great park and Toutatis and Oz'Iris are the perfect one two punch. They are just quality attractions. 😍

It's a wide open trip and if I'm being honest there's so much potential for stress in there. I'm with Benin, I'd sack of Spain completely and keep it to North Western Europe. I'm not too sure on train travel with this but I'd definitely consider Efteling, Plopsaland, Heide Park and Hansa Park instead of traversing down to PortAventura. Really exciting though, if it's your first visit to Phantasialand and Europa Park, give them more days as they will change your perception of theme parks and you'll want more time at both.

This is true. Then you factor in that out of those rides only Blade and Curse of Alton Manor are open all day as Hex, Granny, Sub terra open at 11 and Battle Galleons closes at Dusk. It really stuck me on Monday how one decision can literally make your entire day. We headed to the Smiler (due to open at 10:30) and at 10:45 it was clear that it wasn't going to open. I've been stung by the Smiler before and we decided to bail. Good move too as it broke down around 1pm and we wouldn't have got our ride, we would have wasted the first three hours completely. We actually headed to Hex, as we got up there, Thirteen went down. Nothing open at all at the back of the park. It was absurd to be honest.

I was there Monday and to be honest had a good day but the problem is, I went in fully knowing it was going to be a disaster. For thousands of others it's incredibly disappointing. I went three weeks ago and everything ran smoothly with no issues at all. The moment a bit of pressure takes place, that's it, the park struggles. With all the ride removals over the last decade, there is no buffer for when things go wrong and the whole of CBeebies land closing at 5 and no Congo River Rapids, it just compounds the issues. Something not really ever mentioned at the time but, at 10am opening day, Nemesis Reborn was really the only rollercoaster open on time. Everything else aside from Wicker Man was delayed opening. And there's no easy fix. I think all of the things Benin mentioned plus extra procedures introduced after the Smiler crash just leads to Towers unable to prevent shutdowns and a quick recovery from them.

I went to Chessington the other day and it was pretty good. I'm just saying this because I had heard the park has been pretty atrocious this year, but actually they were running things well and aside from Fury, everything was open at 10am. There's clearly staffing issues with platform staff having to shout at guests from afar to batch rows on Vampire and Tomb Blaster.. which for me just comes across as unprofessional. But they were making the best of a bad situation which I can't really blame them for.

Looks like Alton is crawling to the end of the season with Rita down for the foreseeable and Nemesis ending the year on one train. Something needs to change, this is the third year in a row where the park is limping along and it's just not good enough. It says a lot when out of your premier parks, Chessington has the best reliability.

God, I really wish they'd give Zodiac the same treatment they gave Samurai and Vortex. As unreliable as the old Zodiac was, it looked the part and had a gorgeous colour scheme. This version, still in its Drayton Manor look, has always stuck out for me.

End of season 'I don't give a toss anymore' settling in probably.

I personally think a third train on Hyperia, Inferno, Colossus and The Swarm should be the next big investment.

Tonight - BEST FRIGHT NIGHTS EVER Tomorrow - where did all the actors go?!

In my head, reliability is the ride is broken, not, the train has failed to complete the circuit. And when Hyperia has been running, it's been an incredibly solid, reliable attraction. It's just when it does go down, it goes down BIG. Also, I don't really care that the press (and social media vloggers) won't get their rides, it's the paying guests today and potentially tomorrow that will miss out. Still, at least we didn't get the boringly reliable B&M hyper ey.

It's not secret that Europa Park is by far my easily favourite theme park in the world. Every metric is ticked with over 50 rides across the resort including 8 dark rides, 14 rollercoasters, dozens of family friendly rides and amazing restaurants and shows. It also ticks many of my personal metrics in how a theme park should run; capacity and efficiency should be the name of the game when you're attracting a high number of guests a year but the beauty of Europa is how effortless it all feels. So I'll do a bit of a run down in this blog about the major rides and then just some general observations. We were there were three days in total and I will never get bored at this superb park. Alpine Express and Wildwasser Bahn In June 2023 a vast part of these two rides was completely destroyed in a fire. In 2024 they have both reopened, one a complete retrack and the other a complete rebuild. Whilst I wouldn't say the replacement of the mine is better then what has gone before, I will say that it had far more people exploring and going around it then the mine ever did. Lots of lovely little interactive areas and a lot more engaging for kids. Whilst I preferred zooming through the caves on Alpine Express then now, I must admit that this is probably the best we were going to get in such a short space of rebuilding time. They've done a really good job. The VR and new restraints have completely wrecked Alpines capacity though, it was by far the worst operating coaster at the park with 3 minute dispatch times seen. Blue Fire This ride really is timeless to me. Along with this and Maverick, it has truly changed the game in modern rollercoasters. Without those two rides we would not have Voltron, Toutatis, Hyperia, Gotham City Escape and so much more. Those two rides alone killed the coaster height wars and gave us these dynamic, exciting rides and rollercoasters have only got better and better. Blue Fire can feel a bit tame at times with a more mid layout but in my opinion it is aging superbly. It never feels rough and it doesn't have the vibration of the newer rides by Mack. The park run a four train service flawlessly. It eats through queues like nothing else and is a perfect showcase for the Mack launch coaster. Oddly on day three Blue Fire was really struggling with the colder weather. Frequent rollbacks and closures and then eventually stalling at the top of the top hat/stall turn thing at the start of the ride with guests on. A surreal sight to be sure but it was quickly fixed and opened about two hours later. For the first time, Blue Fire has fallen out of my top ten, however there's no denying the importance of Blue Fire. Wodan Running superbly. It has had sound deflectors added to several of the higher points which don't detract as such, just make the ride look weirdly blocked off from view. It has been surpassed by Thunderhead in my personal GCI ratings though as that is just a superior ride to Wodan. Silver Star Again, running fantastically. I noted in my review of Nitro last year that it was running just as well as Silver Star to its credit. What I've come to realise is that the American way of running rides is to shout and talk constantly over the PA to get guests moving. The difference at Silver Star is that it's effective and efficient despite using no communication at all. PA systems aren't used, instead guest intelligence is relied upon. I noticed that guests are the ones doing the batching, filling seats, asking for twos and getting 36 riders on those trains. Silver Star is now the only major rollercoaster at Europa Park without a batcher and it is interesting to see guests performing the role themselves. Silver Star is aging superbly as well, it is running very well and is very well maintained, but I think the queue and surrounding area could do with some work as there was broken TV's, music wasn't working properly and the Monte Carlo theme of the exhibition hall is looking a bit tired. This opened late on Day three due to the cold weather and opened on two trains but was easily managing its 10 minute wait. The Can Can Coaster Now that this isn't the big new rollercoaster, it's fallen back into its support rollercoaster role and is better for it. Still popular and still a good laugh, its hard to really fathom if this is an improvement on Euro-Sat but as time marches on, the memory fades and what is left is Can Can coaster, a lot of fun and a nice varied layout. Euro-Mir I know a lot of people despise Euro Mir for being quite rough and janky but I will always love this ride for feeling quite raw and aggressive. It has a bite to it that a lot of modern rides don't. A lot of rumours are flying around that Euro Mir is the next ride to see either a refurbishment or a replacement (X-Treme spinner????). Whatever it is, I know Europa Park will nail it. Poseidon, Pegasus, Atlantica Supersplash, Arthur, Schweisser Bobbahn & Matterhorn Blitz Covering all of these off at the same time as there hasn't really been that many changes. These were all great and fantastic support rollercoasters in their own right. And finally Voltron The brand new Voltron is an absolute masterclass in my opinion and highlights everything that is good and fantastic about modern day rollercoasters. This is a ride built to pump through numbers, achieving between 1400 and 1600 people per hour. I've waited the whole queue line, it takes around 45 minutes and you never really stop moving. It is a spectacle of modern day engineering and it's almost a shame that every little thing they've done to speed up waits and get through the numbers will never be used by other parks. Just imagine if Hyperia could achieve even half of what Voltron does every hour...(I'm being mean, ignore me) Voltron is a ride that I think absolutely slaps. It has so many unique little flourishes and quirks that I don't want to spoiler in this review. I'll talk about the things you can see such as the amazing vertical launch which has some wicked hang time at the top. It's so weird and hard to describe. The inversions are probably the least impressive thing about this ride though, it's all about the air time. Every moment where the train wants to fling you out of your seat, it will. For those that have done Ride to Happiness, it's the two air time hills at the end of the ride. That's pretty much most of Voltron. The zero-g stall is excellent too. I've done so many this year and it's between this and Taiga that are my favourites. Skipping ahead, the turntable part way through does break the flow and I wish there was more theme to this part of the ride as it does break up the pacing. It is definitely necessary but it's my biggest bug bear. Luckily the ride explodes back with a backwards launch which I think many don't know is going to happen as it's pretty hidden from view. For a Mack the launches are very good and the return journey to the station absolutely kicks arse. Ejector after ejector, constantly throwing you around and up into the restraint. The finale from the drop off the mid course into the final break run is one of my favourite sequences of any rollercoaster. It is relentless and full of g force and intensity. I love Voltron. I rode it ten times and I could not get enough of this absolute showcase of ride design. I had heard it has a rattle and roughness but I personally did not feel this. The outside seats are naturally more aggressive than the inner ones but I wouldn't say I felt any vibrations on my rides. I want more Strikers because Voltron delivered on everything I would have wanted. IMG_0944.mov There's so much more to explore at Europa Park and I've only covered the rollercoasters. Even now, a few weeks later I am eager to return as it just has so much to offer.

IMG_0971.mov

I got a few throughputs on my trip, some which slightly surprised me (some didn't) Europa Park Voltron - 1382 people per hour (ppH) - (Theoretical 1600). Slightly down on its theoretical of 1600 but still a good number. My husband tracked a day before and it was running at 1598 an hour which is pretty much bang on. Swiss Bobsleigh - 963 pph (Theoretical 1100). Obviously it's not getting this number as a lot of carriages will only have one person in them. Nonetheless, a very good number for a support rollercoaster Matterhorn Blitz - 784 pph (Theoretical 960). Mightily impressive number for a wild mouse, its run remarkably well and the 20 minute queue board was accurate. Disneyland Paris Thunder Mountain - 1840 pph (Theoretical 2424). Not really sure where that theoretical number comes from, 1800 is still a good number. My only problem with Thunder is that every day it has a massive shutdown which takes it out of action for 2 hours minimum. As regular as a 2pm storm in Florida. Small World - 2723 pph. Amazing number. if you ever see Small World on a 30 minute queue, its a very busy day.. Indian Jones and the temple of peril - 925 pph. Not bad for a support rollercoaster but nowhere near the level required for Disney.. well at least it wasn't back in 1995. Nowadays this would be considered a fantastic number for a disney attraction. Buzz Lightyear Spin - 2450 pph. Not much to say here, great number. Phantom Manor - 2050 pph. Number affected by a stoppage for disability guests. However, this is still a great number. Efteling Baron 1898 - 692 pph (Theoretical 1000). This was on two trains with a 20 minute queue and to be honest the third train always sits on the breaks waiting so actually this was the best they can do on a 33% capacity drop. It was running very consistently and lets face it, its an amazing ride whatever the wait time. Python - 583 pph. Not bad considering it was on a one train service. Wait was 30 minutes but the staff were fast and effective.