Photo TR: M&D's Scotland 04/04/2015

Phadd-F · September 20, 2016

The easter holiday is for, the most of, Europe the start of the theme park season. Finally after a few months without coasters we can practice our hobby again! Instead of a usual suspect, let's try an unusual opener of the season. And for that, no better destination than the country of William Wallace, Nessie, Haggis, bagpipes,... Scotland! Not the first country on the mind for planning a themepark trip, but honestly, this trip was more about visiting the city of Edinburgh and the Highlands. Visiting one of the small parks of Scotland was just a surplus.

M&D's is the name of Scotland's biggest theme park. With 5 coasters, it has more the double amount of coasters than any other Scottish theme park. But don't imagine it too big, because well... M&D's is not big. At all. I'd compare it with Plopsa Coo or for the American readers: Timber Falls x2 or something like that. But that's just comparison in size, not in rides or atmosphere. I didn't know anything about the park so I really had no expectations. I did know that 4 from the 5 coasters were built by Pinfari... Oh boy... Not the constructor the fans are wishing for, or one that has great coasters on his resume.

The first coaster we came across, was the only non-Pinfari coaster from the park. This one was made by Barbisan. Who?! Yeah I never heard of them before either. This coaster is also the only coaster from Barbisan which is still operational this day. But we had to move on because it wasn't opened yet. Mechanics had still work to do on it, we saw them welding. Honestly, we concluded this one would remain closed for the day.

So now we started our tour of Pinfaris. First coaster of the day: Space coaster. Not high or long, a plain family coaster. A bit weird it has shoulder restraints, and the seats were placed kinda low, which made it not very comfortable. But shaking? No sir, no shaking detected! For a Pinfari that's a win, right?! Overall not very special coaster, most special thing about this was that the ride OPs had to push the train out of the station. On to the next Pinfari, Tsunami. A suspended coaster. From Pinfari. That does not sound good... Why on earth would someone want Pinfari to build a suspended coaster? This will hurt... Wrong again, ride experience was not shaky or painful at all. I do have my thoughts about the maintenance on this rice, one piece of track hanged lose in the station... (note: this is the coaster that derailed this year, a thing you never expect to happen but the maintenance in this park already seemed very poor to me visiting a year earlier on).

Because we had to wait until the whole group did Tsunami, we decided to fill our time on flying elephants. We're not crazy, they do exist! Unfortunately not painted in pink.

Two Pinfaris to go and the following one was Wacky Worm named Big Apple. A classic. For us adult coaster fanatics, not more than a +1 on the counter though I have to admit this one was pretty fun, but maybe that's because of the rides M&D's has to offer. Tip: when going for a second round, watch out while flying out of the station the little dip there could break your teeth. Someone from our group almost experienced that which of course, we all found hilarious. Ride OPs had to push the train out of the station here as well.

Save the worst for last?! Because now we had the biggest coaster of the park, and of Scotland, waiting for us. I have to admit, until now the coasters weren't shaky or painful. The things you expect from Pinfari coasters. So maybe I exaggerated a bit. Tornado. The same uncomfortable trains as Space coaster has. Already on the lift, you get the feeling the round of not painful Pinfari coasters at M&Ds could end here, but the first drop does not confirm that. It's everything else what follows after the first drop what confirms that! Shaking like a polaroid picture, something you won't like if you are the polaroid picture. I've ridden some nasty coasters, think of Goudurix or Bandit, but this one is absolutely the worst! And then you have to think it originally had a corkscrew but they had to get it out because it was too rough?! Wow... Tornado gave me a fine dose of neck pain. Torture is the only way to describe it, never again!

Remember that one non-Pinfari coaster which was closed because mechanics were welding on it? Oh yeah, they opened it later on. Runaway mine train seemed Beemer smooth after riding Tornado, but was just boring. It opened as a spinning coaster but they converted it to a sit down. What a shame. But at least we got our coaster bingo. Time for lunch, which wasn't very good (or maybe I expect too much, being a Bourgoundic Belgian).

It was only 1PM and we had planned to stay at M&Ds until 5PM... We had the coaster bingo but none of the coasters really was so much fun we wanted multiple rides. So we decided to leave earlier at 3PM. We filled the rest of our time in the park doing the log flume, mini free fall tower and the mini-golf. The mini-golf gave us without doubt the most fun of the day at M&Ds.

Conclusion: M&Ds... not worth it to go to Scotland. But Scotland is worth a trip, beautiful country with a rich history. The Highlands are phenomenal. So yeah, do plan a trip to Scotland. But not for M&Ds, plan it for an hour or 2,3 and then move on to enjoy Scotland.