Mark9

I don't think Outfit was being stereotypical with his views here at all. He is here however.I understand your frustration Mr B, it really is a long game thing. if you really believe in 'the one' then it will happen.

We've had ten years of very solid investment in Thorpe and Alton. I'm not complaining about the lack of investment this year at all, it've given Paultons, Drayton and Blackpool a chance to shine.

You staff know next to nothing, no offence intended of course, but you have no idea if a ride goes down when it will be back in operation.Planned maintenance, fine (although I question why the new ride and the icon ride have to be closed for scheduled maintenance on the same day) but you guys are just as powerless as the guests when there's a mechanical problem.I'd actually forgotten about Thorpe's rubbish reliability. Seems like such a long time when Thorpe was relevant for discussion actually.

It's really noticeable on manta then what they wanted. The ride flows so beautifully from section to section. Looking back, it was easily my favourite B&M from the trip.It was One Ocean, so I was aware of how new it was. It just needed more of a point to it then whales jumping endlessly and splashing to be honest. I'm not denying how awesome the relationship is between whale and trainer though, it's amazing to watch. I think Kraken comes off badly because Journey to Atlantis and Manta are very well themed and landscaped. You then come to Kraken and it just isn't. Maybe because of its height and position in the park but it's just a small niggle in a very good ride.

So off to Seaworld on day five of our trip. After four days of Disney family fun it was time for a change of pace. With two more Beemers, I was very excited for Seaworld. The entrance to the park is so unassuming comapred to the main streets of Disney. Seaworld instead has gone for a kind of harbour entrance. You walk past a lighthouse, some kind of port and then stop next to Manta. One side Flamingos, the other a flying coaster. Reminded me a bit of Kobra and the Parakeets at Chessington, albeit on a larger scale.Manta is a beautiful rollercoaster. It reminds me a lot of early Tussauds rollercoasters as it's dark blue structure towers over pathways and past water features. Like Air it runs three trains and has a dual loading station. The queueline is quite unlike anything I've ever done, it's more of an aquarium then a queue and really distracts you from the queuing experience. Why have a Sealife when you can incorporate it into the ride. The theming is second to none here and is beautiful.So the ride. Well in my opinion it's to long to do dual loading justice haha. Even when they were sending trains out whenever they could, there was still a long time in-between trains going out and the next coming in. Thats my only criticism. So the ride. Well instead of a drop floor, they just have wooden grooves where the train can tilt easily. The train launching sound is epic. I think it was supposed to be a Manta but it sounded more like a laser gun. So off you go. At first I wondered where Nemesis was and then it struck me just how high and steep Manta's lifthill is. And off you go, dropping swiftly to the right and into the much feared pretzel loop. I understand why people hate these elements. Forget B&M and that apparent forceless criticism, pretzel loops are the real deal and are incredibly intense. I loved it though, especially on the back when you look forward and see the train swooping downwards in front of you.Afterwards, I have to admit the ride becomes a bit of a blur and where major comparisons come with Air. On Air the ride takes things so sedately and, dare I say it, slowly, that you can brace yourself well in time for the next element. On Manta, the ride is so much higher and faster that elements come thick and fast and it is incredibly disorientating. There were several moments where I thought the train was about to inline or corkscrew and it would instead just turn around a corner. The seating (or should I say lying) position adds to this. The flying coaster concept still has a long way to go as you can see with Starry Eyed Ripper in China. So yeah, Manta was a bit hit and the good thing is we queued a maximum of ten minutes for the ride. I'd give it a 9/10 Unfortunately we did break a camera here so some photos are a bit blurred. Sorry So next ride, Journey to Atlantis. Apart from killing our camera was a nice decent ride, very wet and a very good attempt at telling a story. You basically follow a seahorse to Atlantis. The Seahorse is crap at protecting as instead you go down loads of drops and stuff. It failed slightly in comparison to Poseidon at Europa Park although I'm not sure Atlantis was trying to be a water rollercoaster. Big hint to people, never take a camera on a water ride in America. it would just be destroyed.And next, Kraken, the kind of ride I imagine that Thorpe would have got if Colossus had been a B&M. Certainly, the two rides are very similar. They both throw inversions at you in quick succession and they are both the same colours. Ok, so not much comparsion but anyway... Kraken was Chris's favourite ride at Seaworld and I only didn't like it as much because I preferred Superman de Acero's floatiness to Krakens BANG BANG inversion style.Again, the maximum queue for this was 5 minutes so we got a good idea of how it rides. The front is frankly uneffective and is only really noticeable on the lift hill. This is odd as on Superman you really feel that floorless element on the front better. The back row is far better and intense so thats where the majority of our rides were. It's a real shame most of the ride is over concrete and over staff buildings actually because, especially compared with Colossus, its such a visual ride. The best part for me was the smaller vertical loop and the helix/corkscrew through Kraken's lair. That bit for me was the best themed part of the ride. The ride was running two trains but even on that there was some long stacking times. A solid 8/10Next, the various shows around the park which were perhaps the main reason people go to Seaworld. One featured dolphins and birds in quite a stunning display of musical dance. The next was a comedy show featuring Sealions, an Otter and a Walrus. This was my favourite show as its mix of humour and animal stunts was right up my street. The other show was of course the Shamu show. It started with the performers saying"If you've worked in the American forces please stand up. Ok now a big round of applause for the US Army, the United Kingdom forces and all our allies for their continued efforts in the middle east" So this is the perfect place for a tangent. I love Americans. They are so patrotic and proud of their country. Each park had the American flag hoiseted proudly at the entrance, a lot of rides featured some kind of nod to America and it's quite something to see people cry when they see their flag. Americans themselves are so amazingly socialable at theme parks to. So many times we'd hear discussions of complete strangers about where they come from, what they do, how they are finding life. We even had it a few times, people running up to us to tell us they love our accents.And finally, when Americans go on rides or attractions they invest proper emotions into their experiences. The cries of laughter, the wooping, the applauding at the end of rides (particularly Soarin') is so joyful and infectious that you can't help but join in. It's so refreshing that the themed experiences are being appreciated and enjoyed by the people that go on them.So back to Shamu. It was fun although it did get to a point where the whales were doing the same thing over and over again, just splashing the audience with their fins. Cheers whales The other ride we went on was the Shamu Express. The worst kids ride I think I've ever done, painful, short, rubbish layout. Terrible. Oh and something called Wild Arctic. Now that was insanely fun. It led to the polar region with polar bears and walruses. And gays of course.So to really wrap up. Seaworld is less of a theme park then the other parks, more like a Zoo that just happens to have had two B&M's thrown at it. But what an excellent place to visit. my only question is, does Kraken ever have longer then a 5 minute queue.

Oh electricbill, your cynicism really depresses me. Especially as you hate online communities anyway, and now you piss on people getting excited over something. So what if it's fake, the fact people are excited is good. And if it turns out to be real then woah, well done Thorpe. Good effort in using technology to build your new attraction up.

You know, you are absolutely right. It's really affected me as I have major mood swings, I'm always hungry and I just want that sheer enjoyment back from the first day at Magic Kingdom. I would 100% do it again, I don't think anyone going to Florida would say no. I'd make my trip longer as trying to fit 7 parks, 2 water parks and all the things in between into 10 days is to short. We were going to sleep at 11, getting up at 7 and spending near enough 12 days up. Couple that with jet lag and its a recipe for disaster. I only put on half a stone! Philarmagic probably gets overlooked because of all the other iconic attractions around it but I think it actually does Philarmagic a favour that you just end up on it and not attracted over to it because of its reputation. I didn't cry but was close to during the Little Mermaid sequence. Gonna cover Seaworld next.

Magic Kingdom part 3.Philarmagic. Amazing. I don't like 4D cinemas but then again my only experience of one was Pirates 4D. So Philarmagic was a breathe of fresh air. The story is Donald tries on Micky's Fantasia hat and gets sucked into a new dimension, the dimension of Disney films. So so so so good. It was Chris's favourite attraction at Disney fullstop which is testament to the attractions quality.And onto Tommorowland. I really liked the area actually such as the metal palm trees, the odd people-mover and all the interestingly shaped buildings.So I'll start with Space Mountain, a ride built in 1975 and has recently gone under an extensive, 12 million dollar refurb. It looks absolutely wonderful. The park have attempted to make the queueline trek (and it is a trek) mroe interactive by adding a computer game. A robot challenges to get the carge from the bottom to the top of the screen. Its a worthy alternative to looking at the floor. The ride itself is pure class. I can imagine Disney management in 1972 discussing Space Mountain now."We don't think this ride will have a decent throughput""Well just build two then"The ride itself is excellent, which seems to be a recurring Disney theme. The ride runs cars similar to Black Hole and is very fast and full of air-time; I could feel my bag attempting to fly off each time. On our last visits, the lights were on from the people mover and unfortunately you can see everything in the building. Really takes the edge away from the ride as in the dark you hold on tight, it's that jerky and fast. Reminded me a lot of Euro-Sat.So further on into Tomorrowland, next ride is The Carousel of progress. A lot of history behind this attraction, originally appearing in the world fair and eventually ending up at Disney World. It was another one of those rides that only Disney would come up with. It's essentially a room that revolves around scenes starting from the early 1900's and going on into the noughties. It;s about half an hour long and gets you out of the Floridian sun nicely. It was a nice novelty but wouldn't be something you'd want to go on all the time. The same could be said for Stitch's Great Escape. For me it was the epitome of niche. You go from pre-show to pre-show and even the main show feels like a pre-show to something that doesn't appear. The Stitch animatronic is very very impressive, but the attraction just isn't. Monsters Inc: laugh floor was a lot of fun and did get a lot of laughs for its sheer tounge in cheek jokes. Buzz Lightyears space ranger spin wasn't to good to be honest, was hard to tell if you'd actually hit a target or not and I didn't understand the scoring system. After 5 seconds of playing I'd somehow scored 300,000 points but failed to go much higher in the next 90 seconds. The animatronicin the queue was okay although not up to Mr Potato Head at Hollywood Studios. A bit odd that Toy Story has two rides themed around shooting things..Tomorrowland also features Astro Orbiter, essentially Jumbos but on the roof and the only way to get to it is via an elevator. I disliked this a bit as out in the baking Florida sun it felt like I was in an oven. The ride looks very impressive though, again themed to the max. The ride was just rubbish though. The People-mover is just bizarre travelling around the whole of Tomorrowland, through buildings. Think of Safari Skyway but without much interesting. It's best aspect is going through the centre of Space Mountain's lift hills. I liked that. And finally Indy Speedway, apart from being a Disney World original, I don't understand how it is still at the park.So with the rides done, it's onto the parades. Parades, simply are Disney and are incredibly popular. Magic Kingdom also hosts the Electrical Parade on late closing. The pics aren't up to much because we'd broken two cameras at this point. I tried. It's so beautiful.And finally, Wishes is the Magic Kingdom's night-time firework parade. For me it was the lesser of the three firework shows at Disney World. Based on wishing upon a star from Pinocchio it features Tinkerbell flying through the sky and a few fireworks. Fun fun fun..I really liked Magic Kingdom. With so many iconic rides, attractions, fireworks and parades it really does take all day to get round it and experience everything. It is the more traditional theme park of Disney's offering and as an outcome was the park with the highest ride counts of the trip.

I await your trip report. Europa Park really is sublime and we're lucky to have it relatively close to the UK.

Blackpool has the fountain. They win instantly.

Part two.Splash Mountain. Essentially a log flume but the key difference between this and say Loggers Leap is the large amount of dark ride sections in Mountain. The ride takes a large amount of inspiration from Songs of the South (This short clip) and stars Brer Rabbit as he moves out of his house and tries to find his laughing place. I loved this ride a lot because the musical sections are so cheery and joyous. All the animatronics and effects work within and the characters actually have personalities. The ride has no less then 5 drops of various sizes and gradients. The final drop fools onlookers that the boat drops into thorny bushes but actually splashes under the pathways. I understand it that the ride has recently had lapbars added.. hardly effects the ride or its throughput. The ride can load three boats at a time, again a big people eater. My only real criticism is the ride runs too many boats. This is a good idea in theory but a big problem is that when the inevitable stacking starts you can be stuck at the bottom of each lift hill quite often. And then hearing Brer Rabbits final song over and over and over again can be quite tedious. Nonetheless, a real classic ride. The Haunted Mansion I don't really like dark rides that much really however... I really liked Haunted Mansion. Instead of just being another scary attraction that isn't scary, HM instead has a story that a ghost is showing you round, giving you the sights and sounds of the house. Really fun actually and also has a song section. Disney sure love music. Now onto Fantasyland. The busiest theme park area I have ever seen. Makes sense, the area has the most attractions and things to do in the park. There are 4 dark rides and of course Dumbo. I will never again look at Flying Jumbos at Chessington and think thats a long queue, Dumbos was consistently busy, so much in fact that we never got round to riding it. As part of the areas expansion, Dumbo is being moved to the back of the area and Disney are building a second Dumbo to try and solve the queue problem. I personally don't think it will work but meh. What surprised me is how new that ride looks and yet it was built in 1971. It looks immaculate and is a major Disney icon. So onto the next busiest ride, Peter Pans Flight. Each time we visited the queue for this dark ride was 45 minutes. Staggering really. We used fastpass to ride and well.. it was nice but the problem when you try and fit a 74 minute movie into a 2 minute ride is that the story jumps suddenly and major parts of the film are missed. Maybe the park knows that most people have seen Peter Pan and don't need the ride to explain anything.Opposite Peter Pan is the notorious It's a small World. Everyone knows this ride, whether you've been on it or whether youve heard the theme tune and it's got stuck in your head . I really liked it actually. It suffers from to many boats syndrome as well but the scenes are so jolly and there is so much going on all around you in terms of characters and animatronics that its staggering to think this ride is also 40 years old. Onto Snow White's Scary Adventure, suffers from the same problem as Peter Pan and is probably worse because the ride doesn't even follow the film in the correct order. It was quite scary though (not as bad as Dinosaur though )and it was kind of showing its age. Maybe that's why it's going soon.. or maybe having two snow white rides in the same area causes the world to explode. Now.. one of my favourite rides of the trip ( ) The Many adventures of Winnie the Pooh. I adored this ride completely, it's so beautiful and fun and so Disney that we rode it on each trip. The queue has two areas, one for the adults to wait, the other for the kids to play in. It works so well and keeps the kids distracted. And the ride, it's just so fun, really brings out the inner child.I'll cover Tomorrowland, Adventureland and the parades/firework displays in the next installment.

Why is it sometimes and not every day?

ROAR! click me for Lion fun.

Born This Way - Lady Gaga (CD)Order Placed B) Bring me Gaga for the weekend please Play.

Magic Kingdom.Three seperate visits.Right, this park will probably take two or three posts as there is just so much within the park and so much that is iconic that it would be rude to try and fit it into one post.The first thing that strikes you about Disney World is the sheer scale of the resort. Before my closest idea of a resort was Alton Towers and Europa Park. Walt Disney World sends this conception out very quickly. For instance you enter through the gatesand it can be a good ten minutes of solid driving before you even see the ball at Epcot or some of the hotels. The only way to really get around the resort is via their bus transportation system. Not the most reliable system to be honest, you can see three Epcot buses in the space of ten minutes before your bus decides to turn up.Eventually, it did, everyone piles on and of you go. You notice very quickly that everyone at Disney wheres some kind of Disney merchandise. From pin badges to hats, to bags and to little girls dressed as Cinderalla.What is the most striking thing about Magic Kingdom is the sheer genius behind the park entrance. It's a shallow hill towards the entrance and before the turnstiles you cannot see the Castle at all. The actors come out and perform a little dance before an announcer declares that Mickey and the gang are on their way via the train. You see steam through the trees and in comes the train. It's at this point that I decided Magic Kingdom is pure magic and I couldn't help be reminded of 8 year old Mark looking up at the Vampire train swooping through Transylvania. You don't see the actors or the scheduling or behind the scenes stuff. It's pure and utter magic and built to increase guest anticipation. Eventually the actors count down to 9 o clock, they reach one and fireworks are launched.So you walk through the gates battling strollers and disabled people. And that view. There are moments that wil be with you forever. September 11th, the birth of your first child, seeing your first Disney castle. Pure, unadultered bliss.So far, Disney sounds like one big drug trip but it's because everyone has known and loved Disney. It appeals to that childish nature and it helps that everything at Disney is spotless. There is no chipped paint, no litter, rides from the 70's look like they were built yesterday because they looked painted, modern, themed and beautiful. It all builds to this complete and utter utopia.So to start off on the ride side, I'm going to begin with Big Thunder Mountain. As for me it's only competition comes from Colorado Adventure in Phantasialand and a few Mack powered rollercoasters, it didn't have to do much to impress. The theming is genuinely second to probably its thunder mountain brothers as it's entensive, fun, well through out and interactive. I didn't get many photos to be honest as most of the ride is hidden behind the rocks but what I did get was a general sense of its area.What impresed most was the little touches such as the train making little whistle sounds as it would come off a lift off the chugging sounds that accompany the train through the rocks. The throughput on this is impeccable. We went on a very busy 9am-2am close day and the queue board said half an hour. Wow. Because of fastpass, one side of the loading station is for fastpass and the other for main queue. Even with this hinderance we only queued 15 mintues and we never stopped moving in that queue. Disney can run this beautiful thing so efficiently becuase it has 5 trains and they seem to literally chuck staff member after staff member at a ride to allow it to get bums on seats with as little interference as possible. I will never be able to queue a 10 minute Colossus or Saw queue again without wanting to cry a little inside.Wow, I already feel tired and over excited after reviewing entering the park and one ride. Part two coming up when I've calmed down.

This.It's after my trip to Florida that I've reaslied that family rides and immersion is so much more important then being scared silly all the time. B&M inverters are everywhere, Everest is one special ride that I enjoyed everytime. The day Chessington decides to grow some balls and build their own 'Everest' so to speak is the day that Chessington wins. Everything.

You enter their property, then you abide by their rules.

If you can't be helpful please don't post sarcastic responses.

Thorpe have become so damn clever to be honest, convincing the public that the only way to enjoy their day is to shell out more money.

Updated from February. 1. Expedition Everest 2. Hollywood Tower of Terror 3. Superman de Acero 4. Nemesis 5. Black Mamba 6. Manta 7. Space Mountain 8. Euro-Mi r9. Megaphobia 10. Splash Mountain

Just backtracking a bit, is anyone else just a little bit chuffed that Nemesis does so well every single year. It's the oldest ride in the top 10, it's the best rated B&M and the best rated looping rollercoaster. There's a reason why Nemesis is considered to be one of the best rollercoasters created and its testament to Tussauds ambition in the 90's to create the best they possibly could.Well done Nemesis, you are awesome.

Maybe they've cancelled the project.

DON'T MAKE THORPE PARK MANIA LOOK STUPID!

It could go as slow as Chessington Carousel and would still be TPR's number one ride. I for one thank Intamin for trying not to kill anyone with force and speed on Cheetah Hunt.