Mark9

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.

The First amendment defence act for a start. Or the fact his supreme court candidates are all anti LGBT. Who knows what will happen to equal marriage laws.

He won't go for womens rights. He'll go for easier targets like the LGBT rights or maybe insult a few ethnic minorities, maybe even the disabled because they're softer targets. As long as the Ku Klux Klan are happy though.

My first throught really is what better way to show solidarity then millions of people the world over, protesting with the same message. I'm assuming that 80,000 shop windows weren't broken in London yesterday so presumably they were all peaceful protests; and the odd troublemaker in there for good measure. I'm a good fan of a peaceful protest, Pride may have become a bit of a party but it's background is what keeps me visiting. People fought hard and died for the very rights I enjoy today. Final bit, an assumption. I've seen the statistics, 53% of white women who voted, voted for Trump for example. That leaves 47% of white women in America that didn't. That's a lot of people left to take part in this protest.

I always think of these protests as way of showing solidarity. If societies just sat down and did nothing, peoples rights would be trampled over. Who cares if it's not our country that this is effecting, it could so easily be a far right prime minister denying climate change or rights to LGBT's.

I used to have hope shock horror.

We're doomed.

So glad that you've finished this trip report Pluk. I don't know anyone that goes to Europa Park and doesn't fall in love with the place. My partner and I visit every two years and never fail to have a great time. I'm not sure if you mentioned if you stayed in any of the hotels, if not I'd recommend staying at any of them. Bell Rock is probably the least interesting to me, but even that is of supreme quality for a theme park hotel. SO looking forward to my visit in May

I'm in.

I think Ratatouille: L'Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy is.

You lot, seriously. Perfectly logical for those rides to open for half term. They've rarely gone beyond that area.

Just shows that Merlin are all about the initial short term burst and seem to care very little for longevity. Their rollercoasters seem to be the only things truly built to stand the test of time.

I didn't find that ending scene that emotional. I've seen it hundreds of times in other drama for example. I think my main issue is its being sold as a musical but those elements don't go beyond a great opening number for me. It may be sacrilege to say, I found Moana far more engaging as a story, as a musical and an emotional piece of film.

Soon GP's will be able to do your teeth for you. They won't ever stop working. They'll do it for you.

Yay, welcome back Hex. Sorely missed.

It's okay.. it's nothing special though. It's more a rom-com in Musical clothing. The moment he returned with a special meal being cooked, I knew the big argument scene was coming.

Chiapas I'm such a sucker for Polynesian/Aztec/Hawaiian sounds though.