Mark9

Pretzel Loops. What Air needs...... is more pretzel loops.

Thanks to AidanCKY from Towers Street I like this picture, it's almost like Oblivion is saying "Yeah.. I work properly"

That music. Makes me want to take the risk of having a closed Smiler just to hear that music. :give_rose:

First with the negatives. The mist no longer works so its back to travelling through a shed with some red lights And now the positives. Inferno is running at the best it ever has done and its hard to believe the changes it has gone in ten years of operation. Somehow it feels faster, it feels more intense and its zero g roll has some real power and kick to it. Yesterday it felt much nicer to ride then Nemesis which had a bit of a jerk to it. Inferno's finale such as the corkscrews feel great and the final helix has a real intensity to it. For me at least, it no longer resides down at the bottom of the list next to Batman La Fuga and Dæmonen, its fighting the big boys like Silver Star, Hulk and Sheikra.

Had my first ride on X yesterday, very peculiar ride experience. Once the novelty of it going forwards wears off, I'm not sure I'll be going on this very much at all. With a forward facing indoor rollercoaster it is immediately competing with Euro-Sat and Space Mountain at WDW and X doesn't come off very well at all. it's main problem is because of the new lighting rig, too much of the indoor section is visible so you know where you are heading at all times and nothing is surprising. That being said I approve of the new lap bar system and that the park has done something with the ride.

A clear example of... Intamin face

Thanks Spider, for me Djurs Sommerland was the best park. it's not all based on the top rollercoasters, it felt like a park that a lot of care and love has gone into and for me that counts for a lot. My next European parks are Disneyland Paris in September and then PortAventura, also in September. My next real aim for countries to hit is Sweden, Holland, Norway and Belgium as despite being so close, are all relatively ignored by UK enthusiasts and there is nothing better then arriving at a park and having no idea how its going to go. As for country trips, I've only done South Germany, Italy and Denmark and the easiest by far was Denmark. It's a relatively small country and the parks are all very close to the two largest cities so trips are relatively easy if you are able to drive. Italy was a challenge due to the way Italian drivers are and the huge distances between Rainbow Magicland, Miribilandia and Gardaland. With that being said, it's worth the effort when you get on things like Katun and Raptor and discover absolutely fantastic rides that really raise the bar.

I'd love to know why the Incredible Hulk is your favourite rollercoaster in the world.

Well impressed that I've been on the worlds first 7 looping, 8 looping, 10 looping and 14 looping roller coasters. Take that Alvey and your "I've been to China" rubbish.

It's valleyed again.. https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/1001636_10151732412883185_1288651133_n.jpg Thanks to Ash3 from TTF

Hats off to Thorpe staff yesterday they were running the park like it was a capacity day. Every single rollercoaster was running at the fastest speed possible. For example, the Colossus team were exemplary, the train barely stopped in the break before rolling into the station, The Swarm staff were sending out trains out as the other train was heading through the barrel roll above the station and Inferno had zero stacking. Despite all this, no downtime or problems. Adding to that, Inferno and Colossus are also running better then they ever have done. I shocked myself by declaring Inferno's ride this week, better then Nemesis on Monday. It just felt so good and enjoyable to ride. Colossus for me, luckily has not one jolt of roughness. Sublime job.

I think its testament to the ride that people are willing to wait 2 and a half hours for the ride.. for a second time. That was certainly the case for when I went and a lot of Towers forums are doing exactly the same. I think part of its success is the length of the ride. You do feel like you are getting your monies worth for every minute spent queuing so when getting off, the quality of the ride makes it all the more satisfying. With Thirteen I wasn't in a rush to get back, but thanks to the Smiler, I am as eager as ever to get back to ride it. Alton deserve a lot of credit for Smiler and finally, after 15 long years they've built a ride that can stand up to Oblivion and Nemesis.

Lets just get a Mack mega coaster instead and be done with it. I've no idea why Merlin continually ignore Mack rides as a ride similar to Storm or Blue Fire would suit our parks so well.

Interesting. I noticed on Monday that Nemesis is starting to take the zero g roll quite awkwardly. I swear before it used to be a smooth continuous feeling but on Monday it felt like the train was jerking from side to side through the inversion, particularly on the front row. It's something that the newer inverters such as Inferno and Oz'Iris don't do so maybe its just an example of how a 19 year old inverter ages. That said, I'm actually really fond of the Swarm's zero g, especially when as you say it almost grinds to a halt at the top and you then see the fire coming out of the fire engine. Shame it doesn't happen on every cycle because the fire really helps that inversion become a memorable moment. I think what you say about the wing rider in general is true. As Swarm is one of the earlier models, it clearly hasn't been enhanced or the ride position taken advantage of yet. Look at Air's relatively simple layout compared to Tatsu and Starry Eyed Ripper. At some point, a park will really go for it and put the wing rider through its paces. Raptor came close.

Great idea for Thorpe to do this. Instead of trying to push people out the door, let them chill out with a meal and a drink. Good move by the park here.

Ah sorry. I can't believe you called Euro-Sat rough.

Can't believe you called Wodan rough.

Wasn't a lot of those pictures actually the staff doing it themselves and nothing to do with budget from Merlin?

Now the thing is... At this point only Oblivion and The Smiler are closed. Considering that over the last four days, Oblivion has been largely ignored by the public (We queued five minutes yesterday at 3pm whilst the Smiler was advertised at 3 hours), the only reason these people can be complaining is because of The Smiler. Does it not seem ludicrous to anyone that people are willing to wait in that long a queue outside guest services to have a moan. To have a moan when everything else is going, when there is beautiful sunshine all around them. The queues are displaced of course because of the Smiler valleying but even so it just seems beyond me that people travel across the country for the sole purpose of wanting to ride one attraction.

You'd get worked up if you were going and got spited by the Smiler because a train stalled. You'd understand but it is still frustrating for those that go up there. Just saying

My UK top ten. 1. Nemesis 2. Oblivion 3. Grand National 4. The Smiler 5. The Swarm 6. Speed: No Limits 7. Dragons Fury 8. Nemesis Inferno 9. Megafobia 10. Stealth

A guest yesterday said "They'll have to rename it as I'm certainly not smiling" I was surprised to find out it wasn't Marc actually :angel:

It was time for the final park of the trip, Fàrup Sommerland which featured delights such as Lynet and Falken. Unlike the rest of the parks on the trip, here you pay for entry as soon as you drive into the car park. Thank god we had money with us in the car. The front gates have no turnstiles so you just stroll into the park. Interesting system. Naturally our first target was Lynet, a Gerstlauer launching roller coaster featuring six seater cars, a cool launch and two inversions. Whilst this had the odd shoulder bashing moments this is a top ride. The launch for example is very good as is some of the ejector airtime featured throughout. The inversions are taken quite slowly meaning there is a good level of hand time at the top of the inversion and the ride is long enough to not make you feel disappointed. Love the green We then headed off for our next roller coaster, the fantastically named Flagermusen. A spinning reverchon which was closed due to someone seeing their dinner making a return. So instead we headed to the vekoma junior skater which was diabolically rubbish. Just so bad. We took a moment out to play on some climbing frames before decided to ride the log flume with the stupidly aggressive last drop which literally halts the boat in its tracks and sends everyone flying forward. Good ride though and suitably wet. It was time for Ice Age 4D, Danish style featuring an insane Danish woman who decided to spray us with misters at every opportunity. This version features seats that move with the film. This gets tiresome very quickly as everytime a larger character touches the floor, the seats move like they are on acid and they try and throw you off at every opportunity. It was becoming apparent that the rides are not the main appeal of Fårup. Instead its the large adventure areas which wouldn't get past Health and Safety in the UK such is the nature of the attraction. I do admit these aren't my kinds of things to do but nevertheless I joined the group in running through tunnels, using boats to cross streams and jumping over stepping stones. The final rollercoaster of the trip was Falken, an S&S wooden rollercoaster built by Gerstlauer. This had some excellent air time throughout but it was pretty rough and ready and felt like riding a milk van on steroids everytime it attempted to turn a corner. The others seemed to enjoyed its merriness in any respect so maybe it was just me. So with 6 new parks and nearly 30 new rollercoasters completed it was time to say goodbye to the Danish way of dreaming up rides. It is worth doing at least once in a coaster enthusiasts lifetime because some of the rides such as Piraten, Juvelen and Ruschtebanan are truly excellent quality. It's a land where Intamin and Gerstlauer rule the roost and this sometimes come up with some pretty crappy rides (Tornado, I'm looking at you). But for a country which is forward thinking and logical, I recommend a trip to Denmark full heatedly Danish top ten 1. Juvelen 2. Piraten 3. Ruschtebanen (Tivoli) 4. Ice Pilots 5. Dæmonen 6. Thors Hammer 7. Lynet 8. Polar X-Plorer 9.Laser Raiders 10. Svend Svingarm For those that have read any of my Danish endeavours, thanks for taking the time to read. This topic will self destruct in 5....4.....3...2....1 =@

It was up and at them onto the fire academy thing where Holly and I got bored of trying to save the Lego men and decided to let them burn instead. Then onto Laser Raiders which is far better then the UK version. The Billund one is more like an omnimover then ours and features a Terror Tomb tribute as its finale. Everyone loves Egyptian rock music. Next was the Mack wild mouse which was pretty rubbish. Legoland seem obsessed with trimming these rides down to ridiculous levels which is fine if the ride didn't start with a fantastic first drop. If you don't want speed why add that in the first place. I don't have any photos of some of these rides because.. I didn't We made our way onto the Mack Powered dragon coaster. Good ride this although it really needs a second train as the queue spirals pretty quickly. I do think this is one ride where the UK equivalent is better. More rides were undertaken such as the rapids with its huge drop, a Pirate cruise ride which was pretty standard dark fare and we saw a show where one of the characters was referred to as Danish Mark9. I disagree. As the day wore on, we had a look through their version of Atlantis which had some cool props in the tanks which did things at the push of a button, had a ganger at model world, watched a terrible show featuring idiotic animals being powered up by cheese and then had a few goes on Polar X-Polar, Dragen, Laser Raiders and Ice Pilots before descending on the shops and home. This is a great park really and puts ours to shame. Even though it felt busy, the queue-times were minimal. Considering some rides were on lower capacity.. this was welcomed.