Mark9

That ride looks fantastic. I am so glad that this type of ride is staring to really catch on as after Blue Fire, the ride type seemed to enter the wilderness. Anyone fancy a trip

There is no way in hell that is sad. It's just beautiful music that epitomises a trip to Disney World. Reminds me of that first day at Disney World and brings a tear of joy of all the happy memories.

Welcome to the team guys. It wasn't an easy decision to make in the slightest, all the applications (aside from one, I'm sure you know who you were ) were excellent.

I think Thorpe cock up should be changed to Alton cock up personally. Thorpe have not cocked up in as many dismal ways as Alton have this season.

Memorable enough to visit time and time again for is the main point I'm making here

And to take that further, if the short term rides that were thrown in were any good, we wouldn't have to see this yearly investment that Thorpe in particular sees as important. As it stands, the rides at Thorpe are either not very memorable or don't offer that unique experience that people will visit time and time again for.

Flamingoland go for the hands on approach then.

October 12th 2012 - Final day at the Magic Kingdom Time to visit the Magic Kingdom for one last time. We headed to Peter Pan as we had done for the last two times, collected our fast pass and headed over to Winnie the Pooh. We noticed something perculiar. My tweets can explain my mood more. This prompted much discussion between us. Would the area be opening? Would Little Mermaid be running as well? Would we get a chance to look around the restaurants and shops? Who knew. We didn't think it was worth jumping in line and potentially wasting our whole day waiting for something that may not open. So we had a go on Winnie the Pooh. We came off and the queue had disappeared. In we went, how could we resist entering an area on its first ever day of operation to anyone. Not even Walt Disney World's cast members had had their opportunity to ride. This was a complete surprise and just another example of how no trip to Disney World is the same. The area is beautiful. There is not another word for it. The attention to detail is second to none and the join between the Beauty and the Beast area and The Little Mermaid area is seamless. Disney have truly excelled themselves. Sure its taken since the dawn of time to build but the wait was more then worthwhile. Little Mermaid queueline. More theming in the queueline. Continuing Disney's mission to provide queueline entertainment, there was a game involving helping blue crabs collect treasure from a sunken ship and disregarding human stuff. Theme Scuttle. He looks a little fake to me.. The ride itself is an omnimover. It's a fun little ride that has too much emphasis on the songs and not enough on the story. Being the first ever group of riders meant that a lot of people were disregarding the no flash photography rules on the ride. Flash after flash from peoples cameras exposed some of the mechanics behind the ride. A slight shame to be expected from a newly opened Disney attraction. Dead Ariel. So we headed back to the Beauty and the Beast section and just fell in love with the theming. Popular area. Uses Antlers in all of his decoration. We tried Le Feus' Brew, Disneys answer to Butterbeer. I prefer Disney's more fruity beverage, especially with the cream on top. There was long queues for the tavern especially with newly trained staff trying to get a grip on orders. The brew was very popular, as was the souvenir cup you can get with it. And finally a view of the Beast's castle When we had last visited in 2011, the castle had just been placed on top of the mountain. It seems to bookend this trip by seeing the castle closer up in this way. The rest of the day was filled with rides on Peter Pan, Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain, Dumbo, Philarmagic and a final ride on Big Thunder Mountain. And with that, twelve fantastic days of theme park fun was finished. Along with my other theme park visits of this year, I've come to really understand what I want from rides and attractions. I thrive in themed environments, on rides that may not push the boundaries but are enjoyable in their own right. Rides like The Swarm, Oz'Iris, Tonnerre de Zeus, Sambhala, Scorpion, Thunder Mountain are the kinds of rides I mean. It will be a long time before I get to Florida again. Since my last visit Cheetah Hunt, Despicable Me, Star Tours 2, Little Mermaid & Storybook Land opened. Who knows what shall be there when I get to go back. Till we meet again. (If you've been reading since the beginning, thanks for reading. You are my heroes. )

There is no ride here..

I feel out of the loop here..

People keep chucking around this peak/off peak thing. The parks don't actually do this anymore guys, everyday is the same price for entry. With this in mind, shouldn't the parks and its rides be on full capacity until proved otherwise.

love this image.

Could you PM me more on this please Smidget..

Aww. What a cute train, what a cute name for a roller coaster. Love those green restraints by the way.

It happens at parks with even longer operational hours (PortAventura, Europa Park, the Florida parks) so it becomes even less of a valid argument.

Maybe we should start adopting the Spanish method of queuing.

Maybe it wouldn't be a problem if the parks were quicker at getting trains on and off. If the queue for Inferno and The Swarm jumped to 30 minutes at a certain time then get the second train out for that period. Once the queue has been suitably killed, get the train off quickly. All the Merlin parks take their sweet time doing anything with the rides when really it should be a smooth and speedy operation. If Katun can get a second train on in 20 seconds with only two staff members then Inferno should be able to as well frankly.

I love Obama, he really is the sort of guy you could just hang out with in a pub with a nice cool beer. I'd be scared that I'd have to order peacock if I spent any time with Cameron.

According to a few forums, Oz'Iris has had its wheels changed and the ride is running slightly slower. Which is bad.

You know I think you're right sir. The park are just pissing money up a tree with this project, they have literally no idea what they are doing. At All.

Seaworld This is a park that has changed the least since my last visit. Despite getting there rather late we managed to do everything we wanted to which was a plus. So- Manta The queue was advertised as 30 minutes and the duration between trains going round seemed to indicate the ride was on one train. We went for it anyway, Manta was my favourite B&M after last yaers trip and it is worth the wait. The queueline is fantastic and it does its job of distracting you from the waiting. Eventually you make it to the station and it is then you realise the ride is on two trains, it's just the staff have no competence, no sense of getting trains out. I understand that it must be pretty boring to work on a quieter day at the park, but at least try and get rid of the queue Luckily the ride makes up for the contempt I was having for the staff. Many do not like pretzel loops, even people who boast 200 coaster credits do not enjoy the feeling of heading skywards and diving down towards the ground. But I love it, it gives me such a buzz and gets rid of the idea that B&M do not know how to make an intense ride. I would love to try Sky Scrapper for its vertical loop and triple turn over elements. It's true that once the pretzel loop is out of the way it takes on the identity of Air more. Thats okay for me, after that initial burst of thrill, going back to something more traditional works well in the context of the ride. I do like the sprays from the lagoon even if they always make me close my eyes. What I did not like was the five minute wait in the break run. Come on staff, it's not like the ride is difficult to load, just get the sodding trains out. Despite the staffs convenience, I sitll think this is up there on the B&M scale, it just is a lot of fun. Manta - Graded A- Next was Kraken, Chris's favourite B&M in Florida. Again they were running one train but this time there was no queue at all, showing that the back of the park always takes longer to attract guests then the front. We strolled onto the back row into those oh so comfortable seats and were let off. Despite this being as generic B&M as you can get I do think this is a good ride. It's intense in all the right places, it's zero g is a particular highlight as is the turn around through the Krakens cave. It's just a shame that the staff are so inept that they won't let you stay on it for another go. We had our second go and then it broke down with us stuck on it in the station. Hows that karma for you, ridiculous staff. The rarely spotted Kraken train! Kraken - Graded B+

And there was me thinking it would be one of the skyride stations.

Green and Yellow just works on any ride. It's so beautiful. Why we get stuck with sodding Black everytime I'll never know.

MEGATON!

October 8th - Mickeys Not so Scary Halloween party After what felt like the fastest week in living memory, it was back to Magic Kingdom. We thought the park opened at 9 but it actually flooded its gates with guests at 8am. This meant the park was going for an 8am to 12am the next day close. Incredible opening hours but then I suppose, expected for the most visited theme park in the world. So to start off we followed a similar formula to the previous visit. Grabbed a fastpass for Peter Pan and noticed that the row of trees at New Fantasyland had now become a single rope. Could the area be opening this week, maybe even that day? Turns out it wasn't due to open that day but the buzz was there all the same. Splash Mountain I'm going to go on record and say this is my favourite water ride ever. It's the perfect blend of comedy, water ride and dark ride mixed together to give a delightful and gorgeous ride. Using Zip- a-dee-dooh-dah as it's main theme means that by the end of the ride everyone will be humming along. It's an appropriate level of wetness, it's a good ten minutes long featuring five drops along its voyage, it eats people like a Mark eating cake. No point looking for faults. There are none. Splash Mountain - Graded A* Using foreknowledge, we knew eating early was key to less waits for food. We'd booked Ohana at the Polynesian resort for this very reason. Ohana, is essentially unlimited grilled chicken, beef, pork and shrimp as well as a fantastic cake to finish off. It's a fantastic restaurant and kids will love being entertained as they sing and dance around the place. Excellent fun. FOOD After food we made our way back to the Kingdom for some more Disney fun. Whereas in the UK, rides in the dark and having people run at you, scream then run away is the main draw, Disney is very very different. The park puts on a range of activities, events and shows to get the crowds in. Chris informed me that on these days, rides are second. This is evident by the five minute queues for Big Thunder and Space Mountain whilst getting some free sweets had a 10 minute queue. Odd people are Americans. Another major draw is the chance to get to see some rare characters and to see other characters in different clothing. Below are a few examples. These two had attitude and a mini-arguement during out meet and greet. Totally in character and completely awesome. Clown Eeyore. Butterfly Piglet! Eight drawfs and me. And onto the shows. Disney Villains Mix and Mingle is a chance to see the evil nasties from the Disney world up close. I was very fond of Doctor Facillier form Princess and the Frog taking the lead role with 'Friends from the other Side.' Under-rated song for an under-rated villain. Then there was Hallowishes, the normal show but taken over by the ghost host with the most from Haunted Mansion. This show was amazing with panoramic fireworks from all angles off the entrance plaza. And finally Mickeys not so scary boo to you parade. Great parade and very long. Some of the cast members were handing out sweets as they went along. We had an awesome time at Mickey's not so scary Halloween party. It was a fun event.