Mark9

Top five parks that I love with all my being and would recommend whole heatedly. But please bare in mind this doesn't always have the groundbreaking rides, its all about that sweet, sweet theme as I at heart prefer escapism to just being thrilled. 5. Chessington. Nostalgia is important. Chessington has that nostalgia for me and every time I go I enjoy it far more then a lot of bigger, high budget parks. Whether its exploring the Zoo which makes this the more unique Merlin park or sitting in the hotel bar overlooking the savannah, this feels like the chill out park that I love. Vampire is a classic, Fury is great and the nostalgia for operating these rides will always make it a special place for me. 4. Phantasialand. Wonderful place. Naturally Chiapas and Taron are the standouts. There are parts of the park that are pretty weak such as the awful Winjas Force, Temple of the Knight-hawk and the tedious Chinese Vekoma madhouse. But the charm remains around the rest of the place and its always hotly anticipated. 3. Disneys Animal Kingdom. Immersion is the name of the game and this is the most consistent, natural and beautiful parks that Disney offers. From the wonderful food and drink (siting in Nomad lounge is a pleasure) too the unique Kilimanjaro Safari which is the ultimate E-ticket, a trip to Animal Kingdom has become more and more integral the more I go to Disney World. Pandora has only made the park more important. 2. Efteling. I don't think any theme park is as timeless, beautiful and charming as Efteling. European theme parks can be divided into two categories, the modern like Phantasialand and PortAventura or the classic like Alton Towers and Efteling. This place is gorgeous and a pleasure to explore. 1. Europa Park. Yeah this is an obvious Number one. It's a theme park I've been going to for nearly twenty years and it has everything that I require from a theme park. Whether its escapism with well themed rides or beautiful resorts, Bundles of rides and walk throughs, good food and lots of cheap beer. Yeah this has it all. My personal favourite is walking through the diamond cave and watching Alpine Express zooming through every two minutes. It's wonderful.

Top five parks that people love but I don't really enjoy as much as others and I won't use the word over-rated because that implies that I think the place is rubbish when it actually isn't apart from the Number 1 park which really is awful. 5. Blackpool Pleasure Beach. I don't mind the pleasure beach as such. I like Icon and I like the Wallace and Gromit ride. Big Dipper is okay as well. But everything else is just a bit bad. It doesn't help that Blackpool as a place really needs to sink into the sea and never return. 4. Islands of Adventure. I know why people love this place but I've never felt any love for it. Sheds. Thorpe Park on steroids. The first park to destroy not one but two B&M's. Thats a cardinal sin. It also has that really bad log flume where you just travel past cardboard scenery but nobody talks about it because the final drops look pretty on instagram. 3. Disneyland (CA). The grand-daddy of the Western themed area, Disneyland holds an amazing amount of nostalgia for so many people. It was Walt's park, he walked those streets, came up with the groundbreaking hub and spoke, the man was a genius. But this was a park for a different generation and these days, Disneyland is a struggle. It's tiny, full of low throughput attractions and is frustrating when all queues spill out into walkways all over the place. Nah. 2. Liseberg. I like Liseberg. But its a park that gets ridiculously busy all the time and is a real hassle to get around. I've been twice and I like Helix a lot, Lisebergbananananananana is wonderful, I liked Kanonen and I don't so much mind Balder. Valraven is boring. I find this park such a pain to get around because it was clearly designed with a smaller amount of people in mind. During my last trip when it was open 6pm-12am, the park was empty and it was lovely to be around. We could appreciate the rides and layout and how beautiful parts of it are. But on a busier day, forget it. I don't like the escalator up to Helix and the drop tower and I find the park annoying to get around. 1. PortAventura. The typical love for this place comes down to two things; It's hot and has good opening hours. For me it has two rides worth doing in Shambhala and Dragon Khan, a pretty good show and then you have 10 hours of wasting time because there's nothing else that I enjoy to ride or see. And worse is the queue-jumping. This isn't exclusive to PortAventura (The Madrid parks have exactly the same problem). But PA is far busier and full of queue skipping children. The only park where I recommend buying Fast-lane because if everyone queue jumps anyway you may as well do it within the park rules.

That's just British people. Dennis first hit Ireland so its technically travelling through freedom of movement now.

I'm bored of this ride now, I'll wait for the next one to open in August to reignite my interest.

Besides, Chessington proves your theory completely wrong. They've not added a big coaster since 2004 and they are currently going from strength to strength with smarter, more targeted investment. It goes back from what we've said before, CwoA knows exactly what it is, what its target audience values and it just works. Do the managers at Thorpe Park know what attracts people to the place? I would adore Thorpe to get an RMC. Deep down I know they won't.

But endless speculation and hyping and then being disappointed by the actual reveal is an enthusiasts bread and butter.

I mean it's like you read the last sentence and that's it. I know they are the most attended and most profitable parks on the earth, they are still run to maximise sales as much as possible. If two resorts, not one, are closed for two months, that will still hit the company financially and as I said it will affect future investment, not current. Thats based on how Disney have reacted to things previously whenever a resort has done badly or gate figures drop for some reason.

100% not going now. Well done Flamingoland on making your new exciting ride look like it belongs in a Merlin park.

The opposite actually, the Chinese new years is a huge time for any Chinese theme park, to be closed over that period will have hit hard. Hong Kong historically has not been a huge success, hence the huge drive to build and invest, upgrade the castle, throw in the Frozen area. If you have any look at Disney when the parks do not do as well as expected, you see massive cuts across the board. Most of the time its entertainment or resort hotel closures, sometimes its hours, amount of trains available. Now, because HK and Shanghai aren't fully owned by Disney the impact may be lessened, however what with Galaxy's Edge not delivering as expected across the two resorts when it first opened and with Tokyo potentially facing Coronovirus issues if this continues, it leave Paris as the only one that's been doing good numbers for the period. Disney also don't really cross money across sections. Money made on the film side of things doesn't cross over into the theme parks and cover that sector if it makes less.

https://deadline.com/2020/02/disney-175m-hit-shanghai-hong-kong-parks-closed-1202851646/ If you're TLDR, then Shanghai and Hong Kong Disneyland could potentially be closed for two months which is unprecedented in Disney theme park history. In comparison, Disney World has had a total of 9 unscheduled closure day in the last twenty years. This, if continues for as long as they say could have a huge impact on long term future investment. Hong Kong in particular is in huge trouble with first the protests and now coronavirus.

Blue Buccaneer. Someone has probably already said that.

That's more like a never ending dragster where you go over the top, that euphoric moment of leaving the Eu and then you crash through the earths surface, straight through to the other side of the planet and the only benefit you have is that you've probably melted in the Earths molten core.

Ok. Who wants to play the odds. Which will open first, this, or F.L.Y.

2020 Or 2021?

Whats the opposite of 'sick'? Is it 'unsick' or 'desick'?

Man, if 'typical average theme park' had things like Everest, Galaxys Edge and Pandora, how awesome would theme park enthusiasts truly have it!

Technically no. Because that's a Chinese themed area... But yes, a lot of European parks go all in on theming and immersion. Phantasialand is one of the best.

The Capybara understandably, hates all the children judging by that image.

Disneyland Paris for Pride Disneyland California and Californias Great America for Honeymoon. I'll end up at Paultons at some point. I should go to Alton Towers and Thorpe Park because I need to remember how low the bar does go.

Haha, long awaited. They'll be announcing their next giant rollercoaster before this one even gets finished.

I'm assuming Anderson are throwing enough money at Merlin to make this worthwhile. The ride is moving anyway, may as well make a bit of money out of it.

He does now. I also appreciate the last post before Josh C was 10 and a half years ago.

I remember a time when they didn't do the seat belts up on empty seats. I don't remember them doing seat belts up on empty seats on Inferno back in October or come to think of it, Nemesis or Oblivion when I last went to Towers..

I adore the 2010's. The theme park industry went away from the horrible height/speed records and started focusing on experiences. From Taron to Helix, Alpina Blitz to Wodan, Pandora & Galaxy's Edge, Untamed and Steel Vengeance. I love them all. Yeah the UK kind of crashed hard but even then we got The Smiler, Icon, Wicker Man, Thirteen and The Swarm. I like these rides.

Joint first in the Quality Posts award, That actually means a lot. 😀