Mark9

I really, really hate the X Factor. Get off my TV screen you talentless harpies.

No you weren't but the thing is, there were so many fan theories flying around that I chose to ignore them all and let the series do the talking. One theory was Rory is Amy's baby. I don't really know how that would have worked out to be honest.

Haha. Yeah same I really hated last season, but this one has been much more enjoyable to watch. I'm going to go back to Silence in the Library because A Good Man goes to War has changed the way I view River Song. Moffatt, seems to be the master of surprises and you really have to keep watching or you'll miss the smallest hint of whats happening.

You do Europa Park a great diservice by comparing it to Chessington, like comparing Tesco finest to Tesco value!I'd love to know what you thought of Euro-Mir Phill, thats always one of my Europa Park all-time faves.

Thats entirely up to you. Dark rides depend. Revenge of the Mummy is a rollercoaster, Duel is not for example.

:D Wishes, how I miss you

I wouldn't go to a park just to get a credit and I won't go wandering around clown coasters, big apple coasters and all the family coasters just to improve my coaster count.(I do know what my coaster count is though )

See for me, Inferno benefits from the music playing only at certain moments, not all the time. It's like modern day TV, everything is drenched in music trying to tell you what emotion you need to have. Inferno in it's first few years had the balance just right as the theme went and you felt the rumble off the train travelling below you. Now it's just another Thorpe ride with a soundtrack.

Last I heard it was open. To avoid the disappointment if it is closed, Topbuzz 2, an ultimately better run, more thrilling and better looking top-scan is currently in \Epsom this weekend.

Definitly would suit X..

Oh Europa Park, I adore and love and cherish your German charm. Lovely start to the report, isn't Colosseo just amazing. The reception roof is just so gorgeous.

Dragons Fury is a fantastic ride, absolutely brilliant and fun and the best spinning rollercoaster.But I rarely ride it becuase it's queue is ridicuously long because of its throughput. I will ride Everest over and over and over because it has an awesome experience coupled with a throughput that would make most Merlin rides faint. Throughput is important but obviously not the most important thing.Agreeing with what Sheepie said, at one point Nemesis was a gimmick and look how that turned out. Same with Oblivion and Air. Back in those days, Tussauds were so focused on the ride being a complete experience. Should have known once we saw that Air tunnel that things weren't the same anymore. What I would love is for a ride to have a gimmick that the ride doesn't focus all its attention on. Because, for instance with Thirteen, that drop is everything to the park and the rest of the ride is half baked and a bit meh.

Just passed his driving test.

I would love for Inferno to go back to 2003 days when the station was completely silent whilst it loaded and only when the train moves does the dispatch theme play. I feel that having music on in a loop and then having no dispatch music at all kills the atmosphere dead.

Haha. You have a fair point. However, as Thunder Looper hadn't been in the Uk for 9 years and Rita uses a somewhat more technical launching system, I now standy by my last comment

It's for the same reason that people buy Vauxhalls and Fords instead of BMW's and Audis. B&M's are premium range products and what you lose in money, you gain in quality. Colossus has had restraint changes, is considered rough and pops bolts left right and centre.Inferno runs and rarely has technical faults.The example you use of Maverick, that ride was so EXTREME, the inline it originally had was destroying track and train and had to be removed for an S-curve. (Colossus cost 10 million)

First launching rollercoaster in the uk. It was very unique when it opened in 2005.

This. The reason Alton is the the current number one is because the park has a character, a charm of its own that came purely by accident. It's so fondly seen in the public eye because it dared to be different with Corkscrew and continued this success with Thunder Looper, Nemesis, Oblivion, Air, Rita and Thirteen.I would love to see Alton go for a traditional, no gimmicks coaster.. but they never have so why break tradition now?

Oblivion :)I've been having a think about Oblivion, and you know what? It's a darn sight better themed then I ever realised. Alton Towers could have easily just built a dive machine and let the ride do the talking, but no they went for an idea that really works. Oblivion is something special.

The actual quoted cost for Inferno was 12 million.

Wow, that was actually a good episode and a very good cliffhanger there to! I'm amazed, my mind just can't see where this is heading and what's going on. And how does this connect to the regenerating girl in episode 2.... can't wait.

Thanks for the comments people! It truely was a fantastic holiday and the problem is there is just so much that I will remember for the rest of my life. From being picked on in Monsters Inc laugh Floor to the interaction with the various characters. I completely missed out rides and areas in my trip reports actually such as Adventure Land and Dr Doom's freefall. Woops.I haven't completely finished though, I'd like to talk a little about the hotel we stayed in and some of the restraunts we ate in to as they were just as much part of the trip as the theme parks.So we stayed in Port Orleans: French Quarter hotel. It's a beautiful hotel actually and due to its location, you are close to three of the Disney parks and just a boat ride away from Downtown Disney. The street names were all named after coffee, such as cafe au lait. Welcome to the room. The room was small but the thing with Florida is realistically, there is so much to do that you aren't really spending much time in your room; and it has the basic necessities such as shower, bath, fridge and a safe anyway.Our hotel featured the crocodile characters from Fantasia near the swimming pool and much fun was had posing with them.So to the restraunts. We were on the dining plan which meant a snack, quick service meal and sit down for every day of our visit. Food in America is good. I'd heard lots of things about ridiculouly large portions and everything covered with melted cheese. We didn't really experience this as each place had good sized portions and the variety on offer was excellent. I daren't list everywhere we ate because honestly can't remember but some of the higlights was the restraunt at the Animal Kingdom lodge and the food at Chip N Dales woodland feast at Epcot.Some of the snacks, weren't really snacks to be honest. For instance a cake shop at Animal kingdom sold full coure meals as cakes.Just wonderful

5 times on Dragon Falls5 times on Vampire10 times on Dragons Fury3 times on Rattlesnake10 times on Black Bucaneer10 times on Rameses Revenge

Epcot Part two.So... The Universe of Energy. The park map warns you that this is a 37 minute attraction looking at energy and how it is created. Well we had an hour to kill between food and the fireworks so dcided to give it a go. You wait outside another oddly shaped building, let into a big black square waiting room and Ellen DeGeneres (the voice of Dory from Finding Nemo) starts talking to you about.. stuff. She's watching Jeopardy on Televeision before Bill Nye 'the Science guy' lets himself in and they start talking about stuff. Ellen falls asleep and dreams she is in Jeopardy losing against her friend because the subject is energy. So you'll let into a large room consisting of several long rows. You sit and then all the rows start turning around to face the opposite way. You're in Ellens dreams and have been transported back to witness the big bang. Bang. Suddenly without warning the rows start dividing and going off on an adventure through a dinosaur themed area. This was so unexpected for us and made the ride so memorable just because I coulnd't work out how the ride was doing it. I still can't get my head around it. The rest of the ride doesn't really match up to be honest as it doesn't teach you much about energy to be honest, not as much as I think it wanted to. It's also so so so so long. You get your ride time and more here.Right, well the world showcase. Essentially, I am told that most Americans will never see much of the world, so self contained that they are, so Disney built an area representing 12 different countries around the world. Including themselves for some reason. We went round clockwise, buying ourselves an autograph book. The idea is, you find the person in each area and get them to sign it. These are always in shops to encourage you to buy more, bless Disney. So to start off is Mexico which is essentially a Mexican marketplace selling various pieces of jewellery. There is also a dark ride hidden away called the Gran Viesta Tour featuring the three Carbrellas. Very similar to It's a Small world. Next Norway. Like Norway, very expensive area with a big cake shop and another dark ride called Maelstrom, this time spanning the Viking times to the modern day. Following Norway is China which features a small museum of Chinese statues which represent the soldiers whio died/fought in battle. Next and covered in Laidahosans is Germany. Featuring an amazing caramel shop, and a minature railway you do come away from Germany wondering whats historic in Germany. Next and with beautiful architecture is Italy. And you'll never guess what kind of restraunts and shops are in the Italy area. The American Adventure follows on. Not sure it was really necessary in America.. but you know, they are patriotic after all. Next country is Japan, another scenic area and very beautiful with authentic looking buildings, streams and paogodas. The shop features cast members getting pearls from clams, gathered quite an audience to. Morocco was next, featuring lots of silky clothing and Aladdin. Onto France and the top of the Eiffel tower. There's a bakery and a perfumery in the area as well as a shop selling wine. And subtle advertisments of Disneyland Paris, how coy.The United Kingdom follows on from France. At Europa Park, United Kingdom is represented by the public transport system. In America we are all old style buildings, fish and chips, pubs and toy shops. Suppose it's true of Caterham. The final country is Canada whichf eatures a live band all day and log cabins. I really liked the world showcase actually and can understand the inspiration behind it completely. I did like how each cast member in each area was from the right country, for instance in the UK toy shop, some of the staff were from Devon, Hackney and Northampton. And all the staff member in the United Kingdom tea shop were gay. How apt!The finale to most a Disney day out is a big firework show. Illuminations, reflections of earth takes place on the water in the middle of world showcase. It's a great viewing area actually. we always watched from the front of the park but I can imagine the view from all the way round would have been decent. I really enjoyed the music and showmanship of the show. I prefer bangs and colours in my shows so it was right up my street.So that was all the parks we visited on our trip. It was the best holiday of my entire life to be honest. Ten days of pure happiness, joy, immersion and getting on that bus to the airport was the most gaulling moment of the year. I'll definitly be going back because I feel like I've only really scratched the surface of just how wonderful it is out there. If you've been there you know how brilliant it is and if you haven't, well I hope I've given you a taste and have persuaded you to start planning your trip for 2012.

Finally, Epcot. Standing for the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, it stands as the vision of Walt Disneys utopian vision of the future. Well it's certainly not a conventional theme park by any stretch of the imagination. The rides there aren't rides by normal conventions. One thing that struck me immediately about Epcot is the size of everything. The ball is massive, the buildings are massive, the scenery is massive. Everything is large scale. So as we entered, we headed (as with everyone else) over to Soarin'. Whereas the Californian version is about flying over California, the Florida one is going to California. This was another popular attraction and luckily Disney built two. You're split off and assigned loading areas. A cheesy pre-show is shown telling you where to stow loose belongings and to do your seatbelt up (with that most satisfying click). You enter onto a vehicle that actually closely resembles a flying coaster train. Everything is checked, a screen loweres and the whole thing rises up. What follows is two and a half minutes of wonder. Americans adore this ride. Out of any ride at Disney, this is the ride that most encapulates its audience in the experience. Every swooping moment caused rounds of applauses and sheer delight from people around us. It was rather nice actually. The soundtrack is also gorgeous and fit's the attraction beautifully. It was Chris's favourite thing at Epcot. We picked up a fastpass and continued onto Living with the land. I found this bizarre but amazingly interesting actually. You board a large boat and essentially go off through a short dark ride section and then out into Epcot's greenhouses and past it's scientific houses. All around you are vegetables and fruits that the resort grows itself. Very intriguing and an odd ride to recommend.. but I will anyway. So we left the Tardis like building and headed to The Seas with Nemo and Friends. Now I understand why they threw Nemo at the aquarium but it does seem very empty in there with not much attempt to incorporate the ride and characters with the aquarium. Compared to other Disney attractions it seemed to lack an atmopshere. But anywho, loved the dolphins in there who seemed to be having an underwater chat and for a large sea-life (essentially) it does its job well.By this point my camera had finally given up the ghost, so having grabbed a sugar pretzel, we now switch to Chris's camera. off to Mission Space we went. Chose the INTENSE ORANGE SIDE, where we were queued-jumped by a never ending group of Mexicans and into the pre-show. The guy from CSi New York is dressed as a spaceship commander and tells you some bits of the mission. You're all assigned jobs for the flight and you are warned to always look ahead on the attraction and to keep your head against the headrest at all times. Sound advice. So we entered our space shuttle and BANG OFF WE GO. The sensation is.. interesting and I have to admit to feeling that sugar pretzel wanting to re-emerge. I like hyper-sleep, shame it didn't cure my jet-lag. Definitly an experience kind of attraction and I honestly have no idea how I feel about it. Maybe we should have done green side first?NEXT! Testrack. Now I really liked this ride because it attempts something completely different. I'm not sure how percieved wisdom views it but I personally found it very enjoyable. Every 5/10 seconds a car flies past the main building so that gives you an idea of how fast the queue will move. The queue itself is a General Motors showroom showing the different car testing procedures they put their cars through. I really wish I'd been able to queue the whole thing because there's so much to look at and read.You're batched into the briefing room where you are shown what the car is about to go through. I liked this pre-show video, very tounge in cheek, You then go out and see the cars coming in and out. Interesting the cars have three in each row, perfect for the single rider queue. The cars are very comfy, a simple seat belt is the only restraint you need. The tests include a hill, belgium and german blocks, a break test, break test with ABS, putting the car through elements, cornering (avoiding a close collision with a lorry) and then the surprise test. Instead of smacking dead into a wall you emerge outside where the car quickly accelerates. What I really found interesting is that even though it isn't as fast as Stealth or Rita, I preferred the build up to 60 miles per hour, rather then the quick launch of the Intamin accelerators. Right, onto Epcot's quirky attractions, of which there are many. First, Journey into your imagination. Blimey, I mean I can take singing on attractions but the song was slightly cheesy and over the top. I'm not even quite sure what the ride was attempting to do actually. Something to do with looking beyond normal conventions maybe? Captain EO, aww bless it. Showing its age slightly but it's always nice to see Micheal jackson before his controversial days. Interesting film to. Loved the little puppets. Into Spaceship Earth which is in the Epcot ball, was one of my favourite Epcot attractions. I like having Judi Dench telling me about how far we've come and where we are heading. It's a very long dark ride but worth seeing. Wish we'd ridden it more actually.Right, so in my final trip report of the parks I'll cover World Showcase and the excellent Universe of Energy. See yas.