Mark9

I'e noticed this in a lot of parks, the B&M inverter always seems to become the support coaster. Whilst the newer rollercoasters grab all the headlines and long queues, rides like Nemesis, Inferno, Montu, Mamba just do what do they do best.

Are people finally coming round to the fact that Inferno is by a country mile Thorpes best rollercoaster? Not only in reliability but in quality of ride too.

I don't think anyone is particularly surprised by this. I've never seen them higher then a 5 minute queue and without the duelling aspect, they really do have a lot of dead track where highlights used to be. It's a shame that a ride that must have taken so much planning and precision to get right is going to be replaced by yet another Harry Potter attraction but lets face it, any park who would want the hardware could probably get it cheap.

People who say how great opening hours are in America compared to Europe and how 10pm closes are the norm. Yes of course they are because the parks spend half the week fricking closed. Holiday World for example only opens for guests for 8 days in the whole of September. FRICKING JOKE!!! Makes planning a trip there impossible outside of August.

It wasn't exactly outstanding with the duelling as it was but at least it had a hook. Now it's just two very uninteresting B&M inverters that run next to each other. I never want to see quality ride systems like B&M's scrapped so hopefully somewhere else will take them although that does seem really unlikely.

I find Winjas very frustrating, its self defeating. I hate the trick tracks as they completely destroy the 'flow' of the ride. All momentum just dies. I don't like the claustrophobic queuing experience. I hate how I have to queue double the length for this over Taron and Mamba. I find them less interesting and fun then Fury, Tarantula or Spinball. Glad I have both credits as I never want to go near Force again, its so boring and meandering. Thank god the queues for Force are always longer then Fear. I'm not a fan of wooden racers to be honest, the only one that feels like any fun is Grand National IMO and thats more because the trains follow the same route. With others like Joris and Stampida I don't enjoy much.

I'm very excited about the change in direction, the series has been coming across a tad stale for a few years now.

Think of all those beautiful sheds and simulators. Just imagine.

That picture of Diavlo cracked me up. Thanks for the trip reports so far.

1. For the amount of money spent on Fright Nights and the hype it receives, I find it a complete waste of time. Dreary mazes and only the really low chance of actually being scared. Not even the rides in the dark is enough as queues are normally ridiculously long or rides are unreliable. 2. Disneyland, for all its heritage and significant importance is really not an enjoyable theme park, all its star rides have better iterations in other theme parks. California Adventure, across the plaza is a far better and fun theme park. 3. The Incredible Hulk and the Dueling Dragons are the most over-rated B&M's out there. Complete dross. 4. Car-park coasters don't deserve the hate they receive. Silver-Star, Scream, Medusa are great rides. Come to think of it, neither does Six Flags. The two parks I've done were great and whilst not representative of the entire chain, Discovery Kingdom was just like a better run Chessington. And better rides.

Lots of news from D23 last night, the best news being that Tower at Hollywood Studios seems to be safe from Guardians. Phew. Firstly, a Tron coaster is confirmed for Magic Kingdom, to open in 2021 for the 50th anniversary. https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2017/07/tron-attraction-coming-to-magic-kingdom-park-at-walt-disney-world-resort/ Secondly, Ellens energy Adventure will be closing in August for a Guardians of the Galaxy attraction and Epcot will also see Paris's Ratatouille dark ride in the French pavilion. https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2017/07/guardians-of-the-galaxy-ratatouille-attractions-coming-to-epcot/ Thirdly, the Great Movie ride at Hollywood Studios will be closing in August to make way for Micky and Minnies Runaway Railway. Not sure how I feel about this one. https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2017/07/first-mickey-themed-ride-through-attraction-mickey-and-minnies-runaway-railway-coming-to-disneys-hollywood-studios/ As well as all this approximate open dates were announced for the Toy Story land, Summer 2018 and a brand new Star Wars themed resort concept for Disney World was also unveiled. It seems that after years of Walt Disney World resting on their laurels, they seem to be firing on all cylinders. What do we think?

Haha indeed. Rotational operation is hell for any operator, I wish them the best of luck.

Big Bad Wolf and Eagles Fortress are the only rides that really spring to mind. Whilst I'd love to have ridden the original Space Mountain at DLP, I don't feel that really counts. Rides I wish would come back for nostalgic purposes only. 1. Professor Burps Bubbleworks 2. Rodeo 3. Corkscrew 4. Clown Coaster 5. Fifth Dimension

When did the weighing scales actually appear out of interest? Back when the three adult rule was introduced, it was to do with cars weighing over the maximum which was 195 kilograms. That was in 2006 and back then, there was nothing about cars slipping through block breaks. I'd be amazed with the ever more stricter rules imposed on the ride that it was that reason alone.

Thats exactly the problem, it actually gives off the impression that they are scared of their rides. I think its worse that they leave riders stranded in cars on break runs either in the boiling heat or the pouring rain. They seem to have forgotten they can do both. Rides constantly stuck in break runs or closing consistently does not give the impression of safety that they seem to think.

I believe a platformer broke them, the park removed them to keep Bucaneer open, the metal gates that are now on there were added and that was that.

I used to operate Black Bucaneer so I get the poor operations thing. I think they now have at least tried to address some issues even if its still a far cry from the days of air-gates.

I visited again after three years away from the park and had a few observations. Throughput/Capacity - I've heard a lot about how dire it has become, nothing can prepare you for just how awful everything seems to be now. Having operated Dragons Fury for three years for example, I know what the ride is capable off, 500/600 people per hour with good platformers. I was completely taken aback at how the throughput seems to have dropped to at best, 100 people an hour. It was running six cars but sending cars about every two minutes. The way they insist on running it, they only need two cars because its not like they dispatch with any immediacy. Rattlesnake, exactly the same. It's painful. What have they also done to Tomb Blaster in this regard, can someone informed on Tomb indicate why the stops were taken out. I liked this change but it did surprise me. Vampire was embarrassing too, waiting for train two to return before even beginning to check restraints. No need for that level of slowness. Merlin would probably say safety is more important then throughput but the thing with these constant stops on Fury/Vampire/Rattlesnake is that people immediately presume the ride has broken down. Ride changes - This was something I was far more impressed with. The first immediate thing is Gruffalo. What a great ride and was really pleasantly surprised. I've heard people criticise it for being a bit dark but I was okay with this and most kids around us seemed fine. I'm so glad Bubbleworks V2 was ditched, that thing was terrible and now has a vast improvement. Other changes included new metal bars attached to Bucaneer. I'm glad of this change as that ride had become a bit of a rule ridden nightmare and now that you enter/exit the boat on the same side, there seems to be better control of batching or exit riders getting on. Vampire had new(ish) queue line announcements which were delightfully amateur, the new theming in the queue was a step up from the run down Abdab animatronics. I liked the addition of a single rider to Dragons Fury and the change to that rides queue line. Scorpion Express, I still think is a decent attempt at doing something with Runaway Train, the best we will get out of Merlin in any case. Rattlesnake desperately needs a refurbishment. The climbing animatronic for example is just metal arms with completely degraded clothing. I miss Skyway and the older Carousel. Zoo changes - The jewel in Chessingtons crown in my opinion, it was by far the most enjoyable part of the day. All animals were out and roaming on a beautifully hot day and we got up and close with the giraffes. I like the continued investment in this area which most of the time seems completely uncommented on. The news of a potential move for the tigers gives me confidence as integration between the zoo and the rides is a good step and is Chessingtons biggest asset. On the whole I had a good day out the park although it has to be said the place was incredibly quiet so therefore we didn't need to rush the place. With the way the rides are now run, I think I'd lose my mind on anything higher then a ten minute Fury queue.

God, that takes me back. Loved that music back in whenever it last appeared.

It is probably felt that someone over 18 is considered a responsible adult whereas someone under isn't. It doesn't matter that a 30 year old man could just as easily see the same fate as a 14 year old girl because someone older is seen as more mature and sensible then someone under 18. It is generalising but the parks must remove as much risk as possible in light of what happened at Drayton.

I like this idea, the blending of the zoo with the theme park does sit well with me although I'm not sure about the idea of renaming it Tiger Falls. Will that mean the dragon head at the bottom of drop one will be leaving or will the ride be a blending of the two Chinese themes.

Hello again, long time no see. It's been a quick six month break since I've been on here, since my 'emotional' breakdown a few months back. In that time, my love for rollercoasters has been reinvigorated without the related cynicism that forums can sometimes create. I thought I'd do a blog of somewhat of what I've been up to. April 2017 - France/Germany road trip Three months ago, (where has the time gone), myself along with Peaj, Dan and Fred went on a six park trip across Western Europe parks. The aim was for everyone to grab the odd new B&M, Intamin and new parks galore. For all of us, the only new park was Movie Park Germany. I have to admit our trip was oddly planned, we somehow missed all the new rides that were due to open in May, however I think in spite of this, we had a wonderful time. So to start off we went to Parc Asterix. I think of this is a very under-rated place. The rides are fun, enjoyable, interestingly themed and very re-rideable. The obvious highlight is Oz'Iris which, five years after my first ride is still an incredible ride. We managed a back row and front row ride and each was enjoyable. It managed to toe the line between modern and old school B&M and the custom layout works really well with the nearby theming. Tonnerre de Zeus has had some queue line work too but seemed rougher then I remember, presumably its starting to age and might need a little bit of work done. I was impressed with the parks newer additions such as the disk which features fire effects and the way the ride is designed into the lake. I love Goudurix. This may be controversial but it's an intense, raw experience which many newer rides could learn lessons from. Sure its still rated one of the worst rollercoasters in the world but I don't think it deserves the hatred it received. Park 2 was Nigloland, a park celebrating its 30th anniversary. This park has a lot of Mack rides, in fact it almost comes across as a mini Europa Park. This was my biggest surprise of the trip frankly, it's a fantastic park that retains its family history and the obvious pride in the place is something you just don't get with company parks. The obvious star of Nigloland is Alpina-Blitz, an absolutely sublime rollercoaster and by a country mile my favourite ride of the trip. One of my favourite aspects of it is the little Mack touches, the way the ride has such forceful air time in the Blue Fire type trains, the little walkway that extends over the track in the station to allow disabled access, the way it borrows the best bits from Piraten (Djurs Sommerland) and improving on them massively. As I've got older, I don't re-ride rides more then 2/3 times but Alpina Blitz, we got ten rides out of. It is worth the trip to here alone. Other rides in Nigloland aren't 'quite' up the standard of Blitz, but they don't need to be. Euro-Sat has a little brother here for example and whilst not quite as good or as long, is a nice surprise. The log flume, I found very strange. It runs about nine boats in total and contains only one drop in a very short layout. Strange. I loved the powered coaster, I forced the others to ride a further two times. A few rides there were a bit dodgy such as the Jungle Cruise rip off or the Jurassic Park walkthrough which were a waste of time really, but in the context of the park are good fillers. The new drop tower which sticks out like a saw thumb was pretty terrifying if only for the sheer size of the tower. The drop had nothing on our Detonator, however its height was intimidating. Park 3 - Holiday Park The original intention was to visit Walygator for Monster and Anaconda. However when that decided to open three weeks later, we quickly diverted to Holiday Park in Germany. It's been eleven years since I last visited and I originally didn't really like Expedition Ge Force finding it over-rated and disappointing. My opinion on this has morphed slightly, however I think EGF is now severely outclassed by Shambhala, Alpina Blitz and Piraten. The ride was running one train and because of intamin related problems, it took ages to load. The restraints bite hard into taller people meaning the air time hills become more and more painful as it goes on. I'm 6 foot and was on the edge of pain. It was more enjoyable then I remembered but there's just no way that the ride is number one. The new star of Holiday Park is Sky Scream. I liked it a lot. I'd been on Superman at Discovery Kingdom and it is pretty much exactly the same albeit, the theme is very different. Horror theme just doesn't work on this kind of rollercoaster, especially in glorious sunshine. Holiday Park suffers from a lack of family rollercoasters. It has two thrill machines and then everything else is slightly below par. An average omni-mover, a pretty good rapids and a stupidly wet log flume don't really make up for the lack of family support rides. The drop tower being themed to a teenager tv show was odd. Phantasialand Everyone knows this park is awesome, that goes without saying. I love the Baron hour extra ride time for guests at the end of the day, I love the hotel, I adore how cheap the ride photos and food are at at the park. I hate Winjas. The news of a launched flyer is welcome news. Kind of glad it isn't B&M as well. Fantastic views of Mamba from the hotel room Movie Park This place is weird. You can tell that it's had a change in direction with one half of the park being movie themed and the rest rides just chucked at pathways. The highlight by far was Van Helsing which isn't just a good ride, is a stand out Gerstlauer wild mouse. Some really forceful hair pins and great dips in a ride that really showcases the best of the company. It's theme was pretty decent too, although admittedly the head peeking out of the ceiling on the exit platform was more comedic then scary. The rest of the park is pretty poor though. Star Trek was desperately needed but not ready to open on our visit. The Vekoma SLC was Dan's first of this type, well deserving of a front row seat. Wasn't that bad but after Oz'Iris and Black Mamba, it doesn't come across well. The only photo I have of the day is Oswald at Disneyland Paris so that will have to do. And finally Efteling When I was younger and in my theme park teenage years, there were three parks that I always wanted to visit because they sounded more magical then theme parky. They were Liseberg, Tivoli Gardens and Efteling. And I was finally ticking this off my list. The park was busy and queues for the big rides topped an hour. My obvious interest was Baron 1898 which I'll talk about later. Firstly, Flying Dutchman. What a great concept let down solely by the middling rollercoaster bit. The theming of Efteling is second to none and the atmosphere of the indoor bit is fantastic. I was slightly thrown off by the lift hill where I thought an obvious backwards bit was going to happen but didn't. Next, Volga Rock a rather extravagant Vekoma rollercoaster which I really enjoyed. My memory is hazy because of the sheer oddness of the trip. The fairy dark ride is fabulous. I was taken back by the sheer scale of the ride, the attention to detail of the sets is incredible. The Venom Madhouse requires you to know Dutch and well, we don't. Music was great though. Joris en de Draak, the parks racing woodies were both running one trains and to be honest, I didn't think it had anything on Wodan. I don't get the appeal of racing coasters to be honest, the rides motions get completely ignored by wanting to see where the other train has gone. And I hate losing. And finally, Baron. I thought this was a wonderful take on the dive machine concept. I like my rides to involve the people passing by so the little bell emanating from the lift hill when a train is about to descend is the kind of detail I love to see. The show rooms on this don't rely on a knowledge on the Dutch language enabling anyone to understand the story. The drop is rather nifty and whilst shorter then Oblivion has a similar impact. The zero g is good.The air time hill is terrible. There isn't a single bit of sensation as the train rises and falls over the track and fills like its there to increase ride length only. The ride also has a problem with capacity. It only has three trains and even with that there is massive stacking. Oblivion with its seven trains (in its heyday anyway) runs rings around Baron. In spite of this, 1898 is thematically far more interesting and engaging then Oblivion. The power of dive machines to grab attention is second to none. And with that the trip was over. Some of the top parks in Europe are only a couple of hours away from the UK so there really is no excuse not to go. Next up was Thorpe Park which was absolutely dead. Where was everyone? This was my first time on Derren Brown and I have to say it was relatively enjoyable. It suffers from the Merlin problem that acting = shouting at guests and ordering them around. I loved the train concept and even fell for the bit where a tube train is thundering down the tunnel. We were lucky that there was no queue and we got batched in straight away. It's not worth a long queue but it is interesting that the ride length of Derren Brown is probably longer then every other ride at Thorpe put together. This is Samurai which I haven't ridden for about three years. Next up was Disneyland Paris where we were by chance around for the reopening of Space Mountain as the shameless cash in, Hyperspace Mountain. I didn't like this one bit and the main problem is the clashing of themes. Star Wars on the Californian version is fine, that has a rather charmless theme as it is. The Jules Verne mixed with X-Wings and Death Stars doesn't work at all. Sadly this ride will be a lot more popular with visitors, equalling longer queues, meaning the original version from 1995, may now never return. On the plus side, the new trains are excellent albeit, slightly more restrictive then the old ones. Other new features for the 25th include a new parade (which was a massive upgrade from the old one), a new firework show (which is a massive downgrade from Dreams) and new day time shows celebrating the magic of DLP. I forgot to mention Europa Park, but lets face it that place is just insanely incredible. It was the quietest I've ever seen it with being able to stay on Blue Fire three times in a row or walk on front row Wodan. New area Ireland is fine, the rather odd choice of theming a rockin' tug around a Titanic life boat is an interesting choice for a ride.. Blue Fire remains as incredible as always, surely one of the best rides ever built. It's on its 9th season but you couldn't tell it as it has not aged one iota. The drops with that level of smoothness make it one of the most consistent rides out there. I apologise for this blogs length and well done if you even got half way. It's been a breezy six months and I'm so glad that my passion for theme parks have been reinvigorated. Nothing is like our hobby, the sheer escapism and joy from theme parks is unrivalled. And to end this length trip report, here's Scenic Railway at Margate which gave me chills.

I don't watch sky news, I don't read his newspapers and I don't listen or pay attention to any of the Murdoch rhetoric. Why is that important Ian?

I neither said he'd remove the amendment or that he'd go for only LGBT rights. The assumption that I watch Sky News as well, wow. We'd know if straight white men were refused service or discriminated against I guess.

Point 1) The protest isn't about over turning the result and from what I can see, the protestors aren't even going for that angle. Numo 2) Gay couples should be able to have the choice between civil partnership and marriage in the same way that straight couples should be able to. Some gay couples want to be seen as equal as straight marriage. Some want to go against the conventional heterosexual 'rules' of this world. Numo 3) The first amendment won't affect the straight white male.