Mark9

That's because they have to load it in a certain way. The ride is terribly designed.

I'm up for this =)

I must admit when reviewing Disneyland two years ago I was way to harsh. Part of the nature of theme parks is having high expectations and them not quite being fulfilled. Part of that is my fault, I'd built the place up to be the place that Walt built, when in reality the place has grown beyond recognition from when he was alive. The aspect I wasn't quite prepared for was just how small (in comparison to Disneyland Parc or Magic Kingdom) Disneyland is and how crowded it could become. Everytime I think of the place I think of the bottleneck entrances to Adventureland and Tomorrowland and that somewhat overshadowed the excellent stuff that is contained within. So the time, a little older, a little wiser, here is another full blown review of Disneyland. Woo. So to start of with. The New Decked out for the 60th anniversary, the castle has been decorated in diamonds on its spires. Special 60th anniversary merchandise adorns each shop. Special 60th cake pops, toffee apples, muffins, cupcakes tempt even the stingiest gate. I'm a sucker for this stuff frankly. We tried nearly everything and I have to give top ranking to the cupcake with bavarian buttercream. Three special shows were introduced for the anniversary, the first being Disneyland Forever which is the main firework show in Disneyland. It's very reminiscent of Dreams in Paris but there are a few differences. Disneyland Forever uses projection mapping all down main street so that it's not essential to see the castle, it uses physical effects, my particular favourite was the Finding Nemo where the Matterhorn was used during the ring of fire scene. The snow effect during the inevitable Frozen scene was awesome as well. If Disneyland Forever was a more atypical fireworks show, then World of Color - Celebrate was far more representative of the history of Walt Disney and the company. It's come in for a lot of stick from Disney fans. I personally really liked it even though the Frozen scene was completely unnecessary. WOC-Celebrate bought a tear to my eye and a collective aww during the scenes such as Dumbo being hugged by his mother or Beymax. I really enjoyed it. The final main addition was the Paint the Night parade. My highlight was the Cars lorry as it looks wonderful in its lights and on the whole, a very enjoyable parade. So what else is new (well, for us anyway) Alice in Wonderland (gulp) I really liked this. I normally have a problem with rides that try and tell a whole film story in less then three minutes (Peter Pan's Flight I'm looking at you). But because of the subject matter, Alice in Wonderland is a wonderful (pun intended) attraction that in my opinion, is worth the 40 minute queue we did on our final day. Finding Nemo Submarines I have to admit that this wasn't an attraction that I think is very noteworthy and I personally think I would have preferred the original version. Nemo to me, doesn't fit in that well here and it feels a little hokey. Like the omnimover at EPCOT, I feel the IP has been shoehorned in. I have a lot of respect for the ride itself and its size and scale but the subject matter isn't to impressive. Big props to Disney for keeping the thing going and even bigger props to the poor submarine operators, whose feet are exposed to guests at the bottom of the sub. Hyperspace Mountain I didn't like Space Mountain on my original trip, I'm happy to say that Hyperspace Mountain was a vast improvement. The use of projections through the ride of TIE fighters and X wings, as well as physical effects such as laser shots along with a ride that felt far zippier then before left for an impressive ride. Grizzly River Run This rapids ride, whilst pretty much themed quite sparingly, is an intense, violent and soaking water ride. I found both of the drops terrifying and seemed to spin the boat more then I would really like. Would re-ride on a warmer day (It wasn't very warm when we rode!) Luigis Rollicking Roadsters New for 2016 was this redesigned attraction. Previously was a set of tires which with your body leaning in certain directions, would move the tire. It was a hard attraction to crack and was replaced this year with a ride based on the same technology from Ratatouille and Mystic Manor. I liked this for what it was. The movements of the cars is potentially better to watch then it was tor rise as watching the cars do there thing was mesmerising. New Characters that we met Oswald, My personal hero! The old I felt this time, I was able to appreciate the rides far more and particularly the park structure. This was thanks to the previous trip, the app that displays live queue times and also lets you know what fast passes are available. We never queued more then ten minutes for Star Tours, Splash Mountain, Hyperspace Mountain, Indianna Jones, Radiator Springs Racers, all the busiest rides on park. We also learnt fairly early on that certain rides fastpass return times never get far enough ahead. Big Thunder Mountain and California Screamin' for example were always 40 minutes later. Even at night, we were able to get easy night rides on BTM and I have always been a big fan of these rides. We also used the parades to our advantage. Unlike Paris and Florida which have massive areas to avoid parade routes, Disneyland doesn't. When it's running, it effectively cuts the park in half. This means easy access and tactical positioning mean minimal queues at the best times. For instance, for the Soundsational parade, we positioned ourselves near it's a Small World so that when the parade ended, a quick run meant less then a five minute wait for the ride. Sure this all sounds rather strategic and boring and maybe it is. By having frequent fastpass available, we utilised our day better and I found I appreciated the park far more. Rides that before, I thought of very little such as Mr Toad's wild Ride and Rodger Rabbits Cartoon Spin were suddenly more enjoyable. I still prefer California Adventure on a park basis. I love the variety of rides and my appreciation of Screaming' rises after every ride. And just to mention... I think it would be a crime to change this to Guardians of the Galaxy. I'm a massive fan of that film but compared to the Tower which in my opinion is a timeless classic, no flash in the pan film series will ever compare to a ride which is so thoughtfully themed, imagined, designed and constructed. Whilst it wouldn't be so hard for say a Brit to take (what with Paris less then three hours away and being eight hours away from Florida), it seems absolutely ludicrous that we are even considering a world where the Tower of Terror is replaced. So, on that note, I had a much better time at Disneyland for my second trip to the Golden State. As a theme park, Disneyland is somewhat stretched to braking point. But there is no doubt for me now that with the addition of Star Wars Land, the park will go from strength to strength and I hope this solves some of the parks capacity issues. And of course Radiator Springs Racers is there, which is just one of the most beautifully scenic rides I've ever ridden. Mark9 out.

On the contrary, on a three train operation it was running perfectly when I visited last month. No stacking and a flawless operation. Galactia throughput is awful on two trains but its sublime on three. (although this is based on what I saw and not what the actual facts compared to Air may be)

Agree completely. I've stayed on the resort grounds six times in the last ten years and I wouldn't have it any other way. They are wonderful hotels, the staff are so friendly and the food is just amazing.

Any trip to Blackpool with Coaster Jamie is a good trip.

Ah man, all those facts and figures and all you can take from that is a Thorpe put down.

Chessington has always had the higher annual pass sales out of the Merlin three and the local community are pretty loyal to the park which may explain why it continues to rise. The fact that it now has a higher attendance then Heide Park is shocking. Disney's dominance is terrifying, it's almost shameful that in a year of 9% growth at Disneyland for example, that because of Shanghai and the tumbling numbers at Hong Kong that the American parks are having to cut staff, operating hours and capacity on attractions. Several parks such as Europa Park, the Universal parks, Efteling and places like PortAventura, Tivoli and Liseberg are doing a wonderful job too.

The problem isn't fastrack itself, it's more the numbers that are sold. In a ride breakdown, I think a fastrack for other rides is appropriate. I got evacuated from Indianna Jones at Disneyland last week and an open fastpass for up to 6 people is fine. What isn't fine is say going to guest services to complain about something like graffiti in a queue line and then being compensated with fastrack. How does that solve any problem. The main issue then becomes people knowing how liberal Thorpe (for example) are with their exit passes and its very hard to reverse that trend. When I talk about selling, I mean there is no distinction from the parks about the amount sold. Stealth could open two hours late in the morning or Colossus could be one train or Dragons Fury on five cars and the same amount of fastrack would be sold because we have it from Merlin that the busier the rides, the more they as a company are allowed to sell. It only forces the vicious circle to get worse.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that what they have now done. They've missed an initial deadline, they've now said they will miss a vague end of May opening and are now saying they will give a date when they think its appropriate. Have you ever stopped to think that maybe the reason you're getting the responses is because you're the first in line to give criticism or negative feedback. Think about it, this ride opening late has very little impact on you (unless you are somehow personally involved in the running of this ride). I don't care about this delay for example, the ride will open eventually and thats the important thing. It seems so unnecessary to be this incensed by something.

If it helps, I'm still waiting for my night tube. It's been a whole year damn it!

We're going to have to go through decades of awful train related puns on this ride aren't we.

It's not that our parks are left to rot its that the bottom line is more important then the parks visual appearance. I don't want to overlook some of the good the our parks do, take Thorpe which paints the Tidal pool every couple of seasons or that Oblivion and Nemesis have been redone in the past few years. In truth, what our parks need more then anything is a fresh perspective. The people in charge have got so used to mediocrity that painting a few shop shutters in a single colour is a job well done. I'm really hoping for a shake up otherwise it's not going to get that much better.

Is a thing of beauty.

I agree but then no one on here in any case has said that Cameron's claims of world war 3 were near the truth. For instance, in my very own post, derided what Cameron said about all out war if the uk left the EU. It's interesting that in any case, you and LC jumped at me on the Boris Johnson/Hitler thing, and not Cameron's ridiculous comments. Besides,It's more the idea that using Hitler in what is suppose to be a grown up informed decision, is somehow validated by using the rise of the nazis.

The Hitler thing is just pandering to people's irrational fears. And it's pathetic. Nothing to do with it being true or factual.

I give it two days.

Tell me why banning high powered inefficient electrical equipment is a bad thing. Whilst EU go on about banalities like kettles and fishing, our own government have decided it's either World War 3 or the eve of a Hitler superstate. It's all rather desperate and pathetic frankly. If it really was that risky leaving the EU, it wouldn't be proposed at all or put to a public vote. And then on the other side of the coin, companies, universities, businesses, security forces, countries across the globe are saying that leaving the EU will completely handicap this country. All this while Boris Johnson visits Cornwall, a county heavily helped by the EU, telling them its better to leave whilst holding a pasty, a food product protected under EU law and states that to be a Cornish pasty, it must be made in Cornwall. It's all so ridiculous and petty.

Oooooh now you're talking if true. It's going to run circles around the rest of the rollercoasters in the park though, Mack launches are sublime

It's right there on the BBC website. The picture of her up a ladder isn't very helpful though, Smiler has vertical ladders, not ones that are sloped. Also, Facebook posts as stories.

How often do you think that works LC?

You've never been to PortAventura then.

It's been a few years since I've ridden this and through the comments of how rough it had become or how the perception of the ride has changed since the incident, I must admit my appreciation for the Smiler had gone down of late. So I'm happy to report (on a personal level) that I love this ride. I think once the shadow of reliability and the incident starts to disappear, it will be regarded as a brave and daring ride for the Towers. I was particularly impressed by the pacing of the attraction, it really doesn't let up and I particularly like the speed towards the corkscrew and the finale in which the train just seems to go up a coupe of notches and flings you through the final inversions. Didn't feel the reported roughness at all, this in spite of one ride in a rain shower. After Nemesis, this is my number 2 coaster at Towers.

To tell you the truth..... as a rollercoaster aside from the launch it's as generic B&M as they come. That being said the new ride may be a lot better but that would be pure conjecture on my part.