Mark9

And nor should it! I won't be going back to Waly unless they make a considerable turn around or add something that is irresistible.

It's not a clone reasoning, I find La Fuga a bit 'safe' whilst riding (I.e., a bit boring) and I did the Batman at Magic Mountain during its backwards phase and the thrill of the ride is completely lost. The dragons aren't great either but I like the gimmick behind them even if I find the rides a tad mundane.

I went to Walygator Parc the other day. I've heard awful things about the place. Truly awful. Whether its the closed down rides, the chipped paint, the queues, the roughness of the rollercoasters, Walygator has it all. I thought it was okay. To get there, we stayed in Luxembourg city and travelled down by train which takes about 45 minutes. (OFF WE GO TO FRANCE'S PREMIER ALLIGATOR THEMED THEME PARK) Our first port of call was Monster, the B&M inverter that originated in Expoland, Japan in 1996 and moved to France in 2010 after Expoland closed down. Now, unlike every other B&M inverter in Europe, Monster has no theming whatsoever. It is a B&M in field, a solitary patch of grass leading to the ride. The ride retains its white and pink livery that it had in Japan except now the pink has faded considerably. There are plans afoot for Monster to receive a theme change in the future, the ride to be painted brown and themed around pirates. Whether this happens or not remains to be seen. (who needs themed environments anyway?) The station is bare minimum which I'm fine with and loading is okay for a park of this type. They wait for the train to stop and empty before loading into batching lanes. Not sure why. Also, I hate that there is no front row queue and that fastpass people can choose any row meaning we just missed out on a front row ride. Damn. So the ride.. well one thing I love about Monster is its length. Whilst Nemesis, Black Mamba and Nemesis Inferno are great rides, they are short and for the time you queue, it doesn't always feel worth it. Monster goes on forever. Starts off with a very traditional inverter layout, which is forceful in a way that new B&M's just aren't. The snappiness the train darts through the inline twist or the top of the cobra roll are very enjoyable. Reminds me of Dragon Khan. At this point the ride does a few tight turns into the mid course break run. Which has no breaks because Walygator never intends to run three trains (they only own two and that might seem a stretch here!) and so the trim breaks were never built when it moved. This allows the train to speed along through the rest of its layout in a way that Katun, Montu, even its clone equivalent Raptor at Cedar Point can only dream of. The intensity of the two left hander corkscrews is pretty high and the train at full speed rushes through the final helix that is probably my favourite element of the attraction. So when it comes to it, how would I rate Monster? Thats a difficult question as I'm a huge fan of themed attractions, they do far more for me because the imagination that goes into a ride like Oz'Iris or Nemesis is far more fulfilling then a ride shoved into a field on a perimeter of a theme park. I do like Monster though, its nice to ride an older ride that has a bit of punch to it and you get a lengthy ride out of it. Suffice to say, it's better then larger American B&M's like Montu and Silver Bullet but doesn't quite match up to what we already have over here. A solid B rating probably fits. What is the longest ride in Europe? Derren Brown features up there, as does Temple of the Knight Hawk or many omnimovers.. The winner though is the fantastically named Walyboats which lasts for a rather spectacular 25 minutes. Exploring some countries around the world, this slowly paced ride will take up a good chunk of your day. It's not worth it. Brilliant. Anaconda is the parks second in command rollercoaster, this woodie had an horrendous reputation for its roughness in the past. No longer the case as its pretty smooth now but my god its boring. The ride has no airtime, it has no speed, the train just goes through the motions creating much no sensations or feeling. We came off not really feeling anything or having much to say about it. The parks other big rollercoaster is Comet, a Vekoma sit down attraction which was perfectly acceptable. I'm sure it has a bad rep but we thought it did its job without much fuss. The parks final rollercoaster turned out to be 250th rollercoaster. It was the perfect choice. Introducing.. Family Coaster We loved it. Here's hoping my 300th is something a little bit more memorable. We didn't bother with the rapids and log flume as they seemed to be running two boats each and 45 minutes for each seemed a tad excessive. There was a few spinning rides such as an Air race which did bad things to my stomach or a random swinging carousel which I'd never seen before. That was okay. So Walygator is very much a red park. Its not a terrible place but it clearly is the weakest park in France. The place just needs some loving from its owners to bring it up to standard. Monster is a great ride but it somehow doesn't fit with the other rides in the place.

Top ten B&M Inverters. 1. Katun 2. Nemesis 3. Oz'Iris 4. Black Mamba 5. Monster 6. Nemesis Inferno 7. Montu 8. Silver Bullet 9. Hungarian Hungtail 10. Chinese Fireball The ones who didn't make it:- Batman: La Fuga and Batman the ride at Magic Mountain

Oh no, I completely understand why people do the 1/2 day at a park thing. It's just not for me.

This is kind of the reason I don't do the credit running thing to be honest, if I'm only going to treat a place like a tick box exercise, then I don't see the point in visiting.

Of course. However look at the list of parks that the OP has been on, Thorpe would be a 'credit' run at best for him with the limited time he had back in May. Nothing at Thorpe really stands out.

Oz'Iris seems to be the most marmite of B&M's out there and for every person that loves it, I can find another that despises it. Ive loved it ever since my first ride and my trip this year only cemented that love. I like its unconventional layout, its near perfect zero g, the way it dives off the lift hill through the first drop.

I believe there is a difference between park and funfair versions. Thats a horrific incident and by the sounds of it, this funfair has very strict health and safety as several rides weren't open due to not passing inspections. That footage of the gondola hitting what looks like the floor/barrier is haunting and gut wrenching.

(Still better then 90% of Intamins and Gerstlauers)

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.