Mark9

The majority of the parks target audience would want free entry for everyone, unlimited fastpasses and 10,000 foot high rollercoasters with twenty inversions. They can have their radio tunes on Vortex, Zodiac, Quantum, Rush and Flying Fish as long as they keep the themed music on Colossus, Inferno and Swarm.

Whats more stupid is peoples obsession with taking their shoes off in the first place.

Yo Spider, I went to PortAventura last June (the 12th-15th) and to be honest its a gamble on how busy it would be. When we arrived on the Tuesday, Shambhala and Khan were on one train operation and there was barely anyone in the park. On the Wednesday, Shambhala and Khan were on two trains and queues ranged from 10-30 minutes. On the Friday, the park was packed out with hour queues for the majority of the big rides. If you're staying in the hotels (which I'll get to in a second), the best bet is to get the fastpass package. Benin and I are going in September and we have fastpass included and whatever you pay is for the whole of your stay. We opted for the front row package as there are no proper front row queues at PortAventura. As for hotels, we stayed in the Western themed one and it was really nice and quite relaxed. There wasn't many small kids around as I think the family groups tended to go for the other hotels which are slightly cheaper. The Western hotel had an awesome view as well like this:- which for a coaster geek like me, kept me entertained for hours.

The majority don't, hence why it's been stuck on one arm operation for ten years.

Zodiac (the I) was a knackered old funfair ride. Zodiac (the II) was a brand new model from Huss. And lets be frank here, the motions an enterprise goes through are nothing in comparison to a top scan being run on even a low setting. We would literally be seeing history repeat itself if a new top scan was to be introduced.

It was 'buggering' about after 4 years of hard operation at Chessington, for example it spent a lot of 2003 closed for maintenance as it was being run into the ground. They thought the refurbishment would extend its life a lot longer then it has proven to. Whilst a new one would make sense, I would hope that Thorpe are slightly more ambitious with a replacement ride.

Batman the ride is pretty well rated. I didn't think much of the clone in Spain though, too many sections where the train is just coasting slowly between inversions.

Ironically, it's you and EC that are the haters.

I had someone say that on Griffins Galleon. I wouldn't read anything into that one persons opinion.

The Worlds first stuff works unfortunately. As was proven with The Swarm, if you don't capture the publics imagination with these epically large tag lines, they don't visit in their droves. The 14 inversion record may only last a year (unlikely considering the track record of Goudurix, Khan and Colossus), but it will be enough to secure The Smiler for the public. Really though, this is a rollercoaster that so far has something for everyones. Its got enthusiasts tongues wagging with the videos and the promos and the public will become aware of it far more with the 14 inversion tagline.

Seems to be a general attack on Merlin over the last page or so. Can we keep in mind that for 20 years, Tussauds did next to nothing with Runaway, Falls and Tomb and when they did do something with Falls, they just destroyed the rockwork with no intention of replacing it. I am sad for the loss of all the fantastic theming but that is nostlagia talking. When we talk of 2012 Runaway for example, decaying rockwork and scaffolding barely standing is not fit for purpose. I truly hope that Merlin are going to do these original rides justice because without them the park wouldn't be where it was in the 90's and the park would be a far worse a place to visit.

Any ride that tries to make Submission make sense needs all the praise I can physically muster. Edit to add - Just watched the first video and actually jumped at the end.

Train is the best way from Strasbourg in my opinion. You need to be warey though, when I went three years ago you have to to buy one ticket from Strasbourg to Offenburg and then when you are there you buy the next ticket to Ringsheim. You can't buy a single ticket from Strasbourg to Ringsheim.

And why not?!

My friend James and I rode Loggers Leap for 7 hours in 2004. If you get in contact with the park they can advise you on what rides they will let you do it on and so forth. It's good for the parks as they get publicity and what with it being for charity, everybody wins. Anyone in their right mind who likes theme parks should be aiming to go here.

I can't see this thing opening on the rumoured 18th. That support issue and the fact a car hasn't even gone round yet. It's two weeks away. If the park did manage to get it going in two weeks time I'll take my hat off to them.

I don't think there are many people in the UK left who aren't going to PortAventura this year

Thanks to vhcoasters.com, India's first B&M is taking shape. It's called Nitro and it is a B&M floorless. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-22331660 A report on the park from the BBC website.

1) Learn to drive a Car 2) Road trip across central America 3) Visit Africa and do charity work. 4) Visit Florida, California, Paris, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo Disney Parks 5) Visit Australia and New Zealand 6) Emigrate to Denmark 7) Attempt University 8) Takes 6 months out of employment and explore Asia (Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, India, China etc) All I really want to do is explore the world I suppose.

Thanks to Benin's facebook. How good does Runaway train look now guys!

I'd love to do a Disney 24 hour day. It would be exhausting but worth it.

You haven't lived until you've seen a single rider almost die on a ride. That's all I'm saying.

When Alton Towers went down the theme park route it was obviously inspired by Magic Kingdom's method of getting to the park. However unlike Alton Towers, Magic Kingdom has an even worse problem with the only way getting there by a very slow boat, train cars or a monorail system. You can't do the walk unlike Towers. Considering that park has 70,000 people on average getting there way to the park, Alton Towers monorail problem seems so much more irrelevant. It's 12,000 on average a day seems rather small fry. Besides those 12,000 people won't all be arriving at the same time. I've been visiting for years and I've never waited more then ten minutes for the monorail. I think the monorail is a great way to get to the park as it helps stagger people getting to the entrance, gives you a sneak peak onto your day and allows less over-crowding at the entrance and on any hand, if 3,000 PPH is its absolute minimum then it must be able to get through much higher when it has more trains going round.

I've added Disneyland Paris (with the Studios park) for four nights at the beginning of September and PortAventura at the end of September for two days. This was supposed to be a quiet year.

Later openings just aren't viable for the majority of the time at our parks. The problem is that there is no reason to stay, it's not like you get a special closing show or a firework stay or a visual spectacular to be anticipating. The ride teams just close the gates and thats it, get out. Staffing is an issue that can be solved quite easily if the park wanted to do it. The only issue is ride operating but if they were prepared for this (ie year round opening for example) then that wouldn't be as much of an issue.