Mark9

I do feel like Slinky is going to be a surprisingly good ride, I was't initially that interested but looking at the layout, it looks pretty Juvelen-esque which can only be a good thing.

Utter brill to operate though.

It spins out of control if you load more then 6 pods at a time.

Katun, back row on this is sublime, little pop of air time too. Wodan for some reason feels amazing and in the rain it feels absolutely out of control. Nemesis, I just love how unassuming it is. Sure it hasn't got height or particularly intense speed, but I love how the momentum builds and builds.

This was approved by the way. Good to hear..

I'm reading too many movie Park Germany trip reports this year. I call for this parks closure as a consequence.

Now that it's out there, I can finally say how frustrating it is that Merlin, yet again have gone down the IP route but this time to a film that either was a financial bomb on its remake or a film that most guests that visit the park will have never seen. It's like they decided on a wooden coaster and it was either the Wicker Man or the film Noah because they both feature wood at some point. Thats if it even relates to the film, but then why theme it on the Wicker Man if you don't plan to relate it to the feature in some way. Argh.

I said so little about Movie Park when I wrote about it last month, I thought I'd said more. I think it's an average theme park but its not awful. I think it just has a bit of an identity crisis; the part near Bandit with the drop tower and the SLC are pretty shoddy compared to the entrance area which is where a lot of the problem lies. Van Helsing is an excellent little coaster though and definitely a highlight.

I love watching people running to catch the Jubilee line at Stratford. I especially love it when they miss the train. I'm a horrible person.

Rant: Airplane edition. The fact that you have to get to the airport really early just to make sure that you clear security without problems. After that, the plane is always delayed anyway so you just end up in the airport for four hours wasting your life. You arrive at your gate, they announce boarding. Everyone stands up and waits in a line even though everyone has an assigned seat No matter how organised you are, everyone around you faffs around when getting on the plane. They block the entire aisle trying to work out where their seats are or where to put their luggage. You find your seat, get down. Staff announce boarding complete. You sit around for another half an hour waiting for the plane to do something. Plane was supposed to leave at 14:20 but its now 16:50 and you're wondering if you are ever going to leave Gatwick. The baby/young child behind you (there's always a young child behind you) decides to either cry or kick your seat. This will go on for the entire flight. Plane leaves but now you are in an enormous queue to get to the runway because this country takes decades to make a decision on where a new runway is going to be. It's now 17:45. Plane finally takes off. Some idiot decides now is the time he wants to get up and go to the toilet. Staff bombard him saying how unsafe it is to get up during take off, but he doesn't care for he is English and he is made off stronger stuff. Plane lands, everything is fine. The other country is fantastic with little queue for passport checks and you're swiftly on your way. A few days later Naturally its home time and on this occasion the plane back home is now four hours delayed so now you're stuck at Gothenburg airport, all the shops and food places are closed so now there's nothing. Just empty time. You finally get on the plane just that little bit irritable. Pilot announces due to bad weather conditions at Gatwick, air traffic controller is advising another hour delay whilst they find a landing slot. You now want to kill everyone. Thank god you are on your way, but this time you have to face the dreaded passport checks at Gatwick. Plane lands. The seatbelt sign is turned off. Everyone decides to get up to get their luggage and just stand there waiting for the door to open to disembark. This takes ten minutes. You try to get through passport control quickly but unfortunately the plane is taxied as far away from the terminal as possible so after fifteen minutes of walking you finally make it. Due to Tory cuts only one border enforcer is working. You get through, now ready for suicide but unfortunately the door to the luggage compartment on the plane has frozen shut or your luggage has ended up in Lisbon. If you have managed to get through all that, the real nightmare begins as you either have to get a Southern service from Gatwick or the Piccadilly line from Heathrow.

They deliberately stack them now. Its ludicrous but they have little to no faith in their ride systems actually working.

The rumour mill never lies.

Both of your opinions on Swarm are probably in sync with guests in general and why it's rumoured to get some kind of gimmick to try and bolster its ratings. It makes sense that out of all the coasters at Thorpe, its one of the B&M"s that get it and I've noticed a slight resurgence of love for Inferno of late. It will just annoy all of us who waited for Swarm to quieten down to have a ride because that queue will never ever come down now. Operationally, VR destroys any throughput. I've heard that 10 minute dispatches on Kraken are not uncommon, that ride must be at least double the ride time of Swarm. It really highlights how desperate Merlin are to try and make everything they do a 'success'. Ironically, Swarm which is a ride that whilst never really hitting the mark with the general public, is the more valiant attempt to make a ride with a story and cohesive theming. Even if it fails on this, its definitely a better step then things like Storm Surge.

Best get our last rides on Swarm then.

I bloody love Mack. They take worthwhile risks with their rides. It's nice to see the Blue Fire spinning cars experiment has paid off. Just hope it rides well.

I'm a big fan of the Ratatouille place, you need to book a few days in advance I find as they increasingly close the place early at Studios. It's relatively affordable for a sit down meal and the steaks are good. I would say the chances of burn out aren't too high for the time of year you're going as Disneyland Park closes at 20:30, Studios 18:00. My only advice would be to take your time. DLP isn't like Florida where you have to rush through the park to get on everything. You can take things at a leisurely place and make sure you do things like the submarine in DIscoveryland, the dungeon under Sleeping Beauty's castle or exploring Pirates Cove in Adventureland. Also, with Illuminations the firework show, I've always turned up about 5 minutes before and got a good viewing spot. Unlike Dreams, you don't really need to see the projections because things like Star Wars and Pirates are just blurs on the castle.

I agree. This time around, I think this looks good. Obviously its had to use Mean Streak slightly but its the first RMC where I thought it has a good length to it and doesn't run out of steam after 20 seconds.

They're really struggling to get any interest on this. Merlin really are dragging their heels on everything their parks have to give these days. A new woodie at Alton, in the UK should be a massive thing.

Literal nazis marching in the US which Trumps fails to condemn. Trump bans Transexuals from serving in the army. China urges restraint over North Korea. Worrying times in the US.

Yay, more theme parks for Merlin to completely trash. The lack of vision or any exciting future for Thorpe, Chessington and Alton really don't inspire confidence that they could run the Busch parks well, aside from bleeding it dry from profits and budget cutting.

Surprise, surprise. You pay more, you get more perks. Thats the end of it.

Top twenty (I'm for the overkill here) 1. Katun 2. Nemesis 3. Superman de Acero 4. Blue Fire 5. Tatsu 6. Alpina Blitz 7. Oz'Iris 8. Manta 9. Taron 10. Helix 11. Shambhala 12. Kumba 13. Black Mamba 14. Dragon Khan 15. Juvelen 16. Wodan 17. Monster 18. Expedition Everest 19. Piraten 20. Euro-Mir

Pyrenees maybe. Can't imagine the likes of Talon or Patriot riding high to be honest...