Mark9
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Posts posted by Mark9
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On 7/6/2025 at 7:20 PM, Benin said:
Voltron is really REALLY good.
Relentless in pacing and doesn't let up aside from the turntable and final brakes. A good variety of elements as well keeps things interesting and the airtime I don't think gets mentioned much.
And if people think it's rough then they clearly don't know what a rough ride is.
Blue Fire walked so Voltron could run. Straight into my top 3.
It's a top five for sure. The return journey to the station is some of my favourite sequencing on any rollercoaster, the pacing is just spot on. With Voltron and Helix, Mack prove that if you let them, they can push boundaries with even the smallest of elements.
On 7/6/2025 at 7:32 PM, JoshC. said:Agreed.
I think there were some issues early on but Mack resolved them.
I do have to say though that I think Voltron is an aggressive ride, to the point I found some of it uncomfortable. I wonder if that's what people refer to when they call it 'rough'
I guarantee, if you ask the majority of the general public, their favourite ride at Europa Park is still Silver Star. I remember a few years back, they did a general poll and I was so sure Wodan would be the guest favourite, but no it was the old reliable. As brilliant as Voltron is, it is just that aggressive and intense that it probably puts a lot of people off after their first ride.
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For context, 8.5 million is near the bottom of the Universal portfolio
Japan 16 million
Orlando 10 million (for each park)
California 9.6 million
Beijing 9 million
Singapore 4 million
Being bang in the middle of Orlando and the three Asian resorts, I think the scope is there for 8.5 million but the UK needs to get the infrastructure bang on. I really have doubts in Eurostar ever making it to Bedford, Disneyland Paris had Eurostar right on their doorstep and halted that right after Brexit so there's no way it's going to Bedford. Not with Thameslink from Kings Cross St Pancras already in place.
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I'm really impressed by the ride teams at Thorpe. We really take for granted how hard they work to keep the rides moving so efficiently. It's really telling how good we have it, The Swarm probably had the worst ops but they were still only stacking trains for about 10 seconds per cycle (and that is an exaggeration).
The Hyperia team must have been chosen by the goddess themselves, because they run that ride so well, never stacking, always dispatching as soon as they can. Also shout out to Inferno's team who were doing a great job. They need a batcher though as lots of trains going out with two empty seats next to each other.
And finally, the older I get the more I see myself preferring Thorpe's coaster line up to Altons. As much as I like Nemesis Reborn, I think the rest of the line up is either gimmicky nonsense, run awfully or just dull. Whereas Inferno is running the best Ive seen it (honestly, it's so good right now), Stealth and the Swarm are just so much fun, Hyperia manages to be open (
) and I still love hanging out around Colossus and hearing that music.
In general Thorpe is just a better experience all round. Better hours, better rides, better food, better operations. I would have never said that 20 years ago, but now, to me, Thorpe is in a different league.
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Riding this Saturday, it was incredibly smooth, couldn't notice a hint of vibration or roughness. And actually riding this so soon after riding Helix two weeks ago, it's amazing how forceless Hyperia feels. Maybe the new wheels making it faster has taken some of the weightless feeling out of the ride (well for me anyway). Majority of guests clearly still love it although I found it interesting on my trip that Inferno was far busier throughout the day. I was expecting Hyperia to range in the 100 minute wait time, especially with the beautiful weather, but it never went above 50.
As intimidating as it is, sometimes the majority of guests just want a smaller, more manageable ride like Inferno and the Swarm.
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2 minutes ago, JoshC. said:
The only thing worse than shops putting Christmas stuff in shops in August is the people who moan about Christmas stuff being in shops in August like it's something new though... 😉
I get the reference however..
The only thing worse than people moaning about Christmas stuff in shops in August is forums talking about halloween.
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Do we have to? It's worse then Christmas in shops in August..
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13 hours ago, Coaster_Contrarian said:
Reliability is so bad at this park. Three rides in 5 hours due to constant mechanical issues. This park is extremely overrated.
Yes it is. I actually like quite a few of the rides but it is a painful park to be in most of the time.
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10 hours ago, MattL28 said:
Just a general observation/thought.
I find my enthusiasm & excitement for Thorpe Park/ Merlin parks muted this year. It’s just simply “open”, no new things to do, no events to change things up every few months, no dramas or issues.
No 2025 TV advert, no real advertisement. No communication from parks e.g passholder page.
Simply there’s nothing going on and nothing going to happen in the near future (excluding fright nights). There’s no evolving, it’s a difficult one as we had a period of investment and events. To simply going back to basics and providing what they have already.
This is my first season since becoming a passholder which there has been no events or new attraction to keep it entertaining. I suppose what I’m asking, is this normal? Down periods in years gone by, with not much happening.
Yeah pretty much. These are the years where you work out if you actually like the parks or if you just got into them because of a particular ride that hooked you in.
Merlin are in a bit of a rut at the moment to be honest, the UK theme park market hasn't recovered like Europe has and I think they are vary cautious on any investment, only Chessington has anything in the pipeline and they are investing in the safest things possible. We do have Blackpool and Paultons but yeah.. troubling times.
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I visited this park three weeks ago and I had some thoughts. You can tell this was a Disney park on a budget and was obviously planned in the days where Disneyland Paris was seen as a failure and budgets were tight. When it opened, its major rides were Space Mountain, Jungle Cruise and at a push, The many adventure of Winnie the Pooh. Investment has come with an outer ring basically built on the left side of the park with it starting at Grizzly Bear Mountain Railroad, into Mystic Point, Toy Story Land and finally Frozen Land. The right side of the park hasn't been left behind though with the removal of Autopia in favour of the Ironman Experience, Buzz lightyear re-themed to Ant-man and a rumoured Tower of Terror ride themed to Spiderman.
I will say this, it is most definitely a one day park, maybe even a half day. The queues here are minimal (which is refreshing for a Disney park) and a lot of the rides are basically filler (again, quite refreshing). The longest waits are for the Duffy and Friends characters near the park entrances. If you aren't interested in queuing an hour to meet Lina-Bell, you have a problem.
Grizzly Bear Mountain is the parks Big Thunder Mountain equivalent and It's a really good family coaster, it lacks the jank of thunder Mountain and its backwards section is pretty weak but the rest of the ride is great. The bears are used for comedy, one rubbing its bum on a points changer, another two setting of the dynamite in the mountains. The launch is pretty powerful and there's great forces on the turns through the valleys of the mountain.
Mystic Manor was closed. This absolutely sucked.
Toy Story land is exactly the same as Paris's, just slightly bigger.
Jungle Cruise is excellent. When we went you could wait for either mandarin or english skippers. Because the English was done in slightly broken English, it made it an absolutely hilarious time. The skippers were so fun and over the top. The finale is sublime and puts this as the best Jungle Cruise in the Disney parks.
Frozen Land was fine. It still pains me that this Frozen Ever After is the big new hope for Disneyland Paris when at its heart, it's a very mid fantasyland reject and isn't really good enough. The Disney Sea equivalent is far superior. Onkens sleds is fine if a bit basic. Its best bit is the lift hilll animatronic. The rest of it is junior rollercoaster fluff.
Small World is the best of the five and was in good condition. All figures and effects are working.
Hyperspace Mountain is the same as the Disneyland version and is pretty fun if unremarkable. Its permanently hyperspace mountain so does need a proper refurbishment.
Antman and the Wasp is dull. All the sets are just grey and brown as you are shrunk down to destroy micro-chips. This leaves you with a very bland experience. Iron Man experience is pretty good, a more modern version of Star Tours. I personally.. prefer star Tours as it feels more mechanical and less fluid. However there's no denying it is a fun and unique experience.
When we went there was no parades or special entertainment as the trip was during the parks off-season. The only offering was the fireworks display at the end of the night, called Momentous which was fantastic and a beautiful display. I was pretty emotional towards the end.
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I don't think there's a reason to panic at this point. Both Rita and Stealth being long term closed at the same time is a pretty wild coincidence. But the thing for me is that over the last three years both Formula Rossa and Xcelerator spent months and months closed only to return and still operate so Stealth could easily just reopen this month with no fanfare.
I think this is just a problem with the accelerator model which is why we're actually down to 9 operating models now (Skycar has been SBNO since last August). I do agree with Inferno, enjoy our rides on Stealth whilst we can.
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Do they want to explain how similar sky rides run in hotter (and colder) temperatures then.
Sounds like one of those 'Merlin enforced rules' which makes absolutely no sense and severely prohibits the ride from providing its basic function.
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Kingda Ka cursed it. I'm telling you all. As a baby Kingda Ka, it has been cursed.
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5 hours ago, MattyMoo said:
Just spotted. Definitely something very wrong with the proper Queen of Speed this year it appears so far.
She's been possessed by Kingda Ka.
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It's a curious thing with Colossus actually. Unlike Vampire and Nemesis which I couldn't imagine their respective parks being without, Colossus is majorly overshadowed by pretty much every rollercoaster they've built since. I actually quite like it but there's no denying that guests aren't the biggest fans of it. It could be easily replaced by a more modern, multi looper and not be as rough.
With that being said, I find it rather harmless and does its thing rather well. The first half in particular is so well paced and I personally find it really enjoyable.
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11 hours ago, Martin Doyle said:
I do look forward to seeing what excuses this country's famous exquisite collection of NIMBY's will have to try and stop it.
However, this is exciting stuff and if/when it happens will majorly shake up both the UK and European theme park scenes!!
Astoundingly, we have a project that the locals are heavily for. Don't bother reading social media comments though, complaints about muslims, poor pensioners and cost of living is all the blue ticks have.
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Genuinely the most exciting announcement European announcement in my lifetime. There's a long way to go of course but the prospect of this park is so exciting.
I can see myself heading up there after work just to hang out in their version of city walk
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6 hours ago, Dylsbrim said:
Anyone know what going on with stealth? Been down all day for the past few days now
It's restarted its silent protest at the removal of Kingda Ka.
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I was lucky to experience a valley on Mandrill on Sunday, we just came to a stop at the boost launch area before the helix. I found it quite exciting as we would have to experience the rides swing launch to get it going again. I really enjoyed it as well. Mandrills launches are quite punchy as it is so going back and forth through the section was pretty satisfying.
I am actually quite a big fan of Mandrill tbh, I've heard all the arguments about it being the wrong fit and whatever, however every time I go on it, it gives me a lot of joy and the queues for it never seem crazily unreasonable.The team always seem really on it when it comes to batching, loading and dispatching. It also has the B&M quirk of being incredibly reliable, 3.8% downtime for the last 7 days, and beaten only by Nemesis Reborn.
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Will we be tracking Hyperias opening time everyday this season or is this just a March/April thing?
- MattyMoo and terrortomb
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2
Europa Park
in International Attractions
Posted
Smiler is constantly Towers busiest ride but that doesn't make it the most popular 😘