A.J.

Here is the official video of the Axis ride that S&S posted on their social media channels: [fbvideonew] [/fbvideonew]

Not really a nightmare, but it can get insanely frustrating. For what it's worth, everyone kind of keeps to themselves so there's never any screaming or shoving, and once you get to the air gate of the row you want, boarding is pretty much business as usual unless, as I said before, a rogue single rider seat-hops into your row.

The free-for-all death match doesn't even have anything to do with the single rider line - once everyone in groups 2 and 3 go through their turnstiles, there are no longer sanctioned lines and people gaggle up in front of the automatically opening door. Once the door opens, it's wide enough that people can go around each other and literally run to their desired row (though I recall the front is still blocked off) if they really want to.

I'm not sure I understand... What do you mean? Robb explained this pretty well a few pages ago. At the end of Hyperion's queue before you board, the queue splits into four groups. You have front row in #1, single riders in #2, and the rest of the train in #3, split into two groups themselves. When Hyperion is cycled, the turnstiles will open and let 4 people through #1, 4 single riders through #2, and 10 people through each gate of #3 for a total of 28 passengers. There are so many problems with this. Splitting the rest of the train 10 / 10 means that each train is guaranteed to leave with empty seats, as no one is willing to communicate with each other for fill-in groups to step forward, nor do they understand what's going on in the first place. And what's worse is that once the doors open and you go to the boarding platform it's pretty much "anything goes death match" anyway. There were several instances where I saw single rider teenagers running around trying to hop from seat to seat, and even if you stick together a rogue single rider might split your group because they aren't told where to sit like they're supposed to be.

I sure did!

Accept that you'll be putting some money down for an all-day roving locker rental. At least back in July when we visited, they had station bins but you weren't allowed to use them. For most of the rides you'll drop your stuff off in the locker before the stair steps up to the platform, and then you''ll pick your stuff up by opening the door on the other side when you exit. The park layout is atrocious so be prepared for that - for example, Formula's lockers are nowhere near the exit, you have to walk a ways and then turn around and go down a different path to retrieve your stuff. Also, be wary of posted wait times - they're probably wrong. Also be wary of Hyperion's guest pulsing system at the end of the queue.

I know people are gushing about Steel Vengeance and Zadra and will probably gush over Iron Gwazi, but there's something amazing about a "mid-sized" coaster like Untamed pulling way above its weight. 90-150 feet max height is like the sweet spot for coaster sizes for me. The Wilderness area has an advantage because natural architecture doesn't really go out of style, but I wonder how long it will be before the "style" and "attitude" of the other areas of the park become dated. You can see a little bit of this dated-ness already in the area around the Business Center ("Bizniz Center") and Speed of Sound.

It's okay, I've taken their names down for future reference.

Personally, I think that it's a bit out of character for Busch Gardens Williamsburg of all places to have a 300+ foot tall coaster tower sticking up over the trees. I've still thought that even the heights of Alpengeist and Griffon are cutting it close.

Episode 5 - "Walibi Holland Went A Little Heavy On The Grafitti", or, "The Wilderness Apparently Loves Instagram Influencers" Our next park in the Netherlands was Walibi Holland! For those of you that don't know, Walibi Holland has been through a lot in the past twenty years. They've been bought, sold, invested in... Today, they're owned by the same people that run Parc Asterix in France, but at one time they were a Six Flags park! So, from now on, I like to consider Walibi Holland to be what a Six Flags park would be if it were actually good. We again met up with some tag-alongs and made our way to the entrance. M for mini, or W for wumbo? Walibi Holland's main street isn't like your typical theme park main street. It's a mish-mash of old-style city buildings plastered with bright colors, graffiti, and other stuff that would normally be found in a city but from completely different time periods. Breathe less? Breathless? What are they getting at here? Our first ride session of the morning was Goliath. I've always thought that early-2000s Intamin is the best Intamin, so I was really excited for Goliath, and it certainly didn't disappoint. This photo was actually from later in the day, but it's one of the only photos I have from this side, so, enjoy Goldberg and Ryan's facial expressions. The first big hill and the Stengel dive are awesome. The spirals are intense without inducing greyouts. The return run of bunny hills is absolutely incredible. The trains are open and airy, kind of like you're flying. It's not my number one steel coaster (hint hint), but I really can't find anything bad to say about it after more than five rides. It's so consistent and should not be overshadowed by its new hotness cousin on the other side of the park. Speaking of the new hotness cousin... How about a jolt of Rocky Mountain to start your day? Side effects include increased adrenaline and an urge to book a flight to Idaho. Ask your doctor if RMC is right for you. We also had a morning ride session on Untamed! But since we were scheduled for an evening ride session as well, it's not worth talking about right this second. Let's move onto our third ride of the morning, Lost Gravity! It's okay, I don't know how to land a helicopter sideways either. Lost Gravity is probably the wackiest roller coaster I've ever ridden. The theming is completely absurd. The layout is so haphazard, with a yank-you-over twisting drop and a whole bunch of elements that look like they're in the wrong order but in reality flow so well together. The airtime is particularly aggressive and kind of suddenly yanks you out of your seat each time. It was very good. Awesome twisted multi-color mess of track! And two-train-on-the-circuit operation! Most excellent! I generally stuck to the front row, but on my last ride I decided to get over my fears and try the back winged seat. Having no floor to rest my feet on and getting yanked over that drop was probably one of the most surreal experiences I've had on a roller coaster. It's so sudden, and so scary, and I loved it, and I'm never doing it again except I probably will because it's that incredible. Contradictions, how do they work?!? Coaster, kebab, shipping containers, radio antennae, plastic yard furniture, waffles, pofferjes, and trees. Trust me, it all works well together! After our Lost Gravity session we made our way back to the front of the park to receive our Fast Lane passes. We split off into groups of six-ish. I went off with a group with a few too many Andrews. The first stop of the Andrews group was close by - Xpress! Xpress is, for those that don't know, a clone of Rock n' Roller Coaster. It has the same sea serpent roll, the same boring sweeping turns, and the same "almost airtime" at the end. However, it's also outdoors, so you can see everything! What makes Xpress interesting, though, is its queue. Xpress is themed to a haunted subway / metro train and platform, and with a haunted theme comes an actual haunt maze. Xpress' queue features a foreboding atmosphere, dark corridors, creepy props and triggered jumpscares. It's a really cool experience and you wouldn't know it based on the fact that Xpress' entrance totally fits in with the garish aesthetic of the city-like main street area. Unfortunately, however, that immersion is broken as soon as the doors open for you to board, as you're faced with a bubbly, shiny mid-2000s Vekoma train. Still, the ride is fun and worth a spin for that queue haunt alone. The Andrews group continued onward, stopping at pretty much every thrilling flat ride along the way, which this particular Andrew would then skip. One of these was Spinning Vibe, a rare park-built example of a Huss Magic, normally found on the European fair circuit. Well, yeah, Chris, if I would have known I'd be on camera I would have made that facial expression too. Over here, we also took a spin on Speed of Sound, the park's themed, EDM-pumping Vekoma Boomerang. It was fine. We then made our way over to Drako, the park's kids' coaster, taking a spin on Crazy River, the park's forward-backward double-dip log flume along the way. We also caught a glimpse of Larry going into some sort of virtual reality experience called NeuroGen. Remember that, it will be important later. The Andrews group also ran into some of the other groups and they all also took a spin on Tomahawk, the park's Frisbee. Looks like a frisbee, sounds like a frisbee, smells like a frisbee, but it isn't one. But unlike the Tomahawk that U.S. Six Flags fans would know about, this Tomahawk is actually a fake! It's not a Huss Frisbee, but actually one made by SBF. It didn't get anywhere near as high as the real Frisbee we'd see the next day on the trip, nor did it spin as much. I skipped it thinking it was a Huss initially but it looked so tame that I might have actually enjoyed it. In the early afternoon, we all headed back toward the front together for lunch. I had a sandwich that I thought was fish, but it really ended up being breaded cheese. I was confused for the rest of the day. More importantly though - after lunch we were given one of the coolest opportunities on the trip - a backstage tour. However, it wasn't just a backstage tour of one attraction - they took us behind the scenes of three. We got to see and take photos of Xpress, Goliath, and Untamed, in areas that are not normally accessible to the public. WARNING to casual readers! Do not take any photos during behind the scenes tours without prior permission and / or an escort! Not only is it against Theme Park Review forum rules, it's also dangerous and illegal! Whoa, check out Steven Tyler's hat! Comin' at yah! Going down! Awesome twisted airtime hill! Still the world's only Stengel dive, according to the RCDB. The master at work. Master of what, well, we're still not sure. Coming out of probably the wackiest inversion you'll ever experience. No one expects the Spanish Inq... I mean this heartline roll at the end. Do not try this it home. Seriously. Get permission first. After our behind-the-scenes tour, the Andrews group wanted to do some more rides. Unfortunately, "more rides" also included this monstrosity. It's Condor, the genesis of the Suspended Looping Coaster. Well, I supposed if T3 is allowed to continue to exist, Condor gets the "historical" label... I skipped Condor. In the years that I've been involved in the theme park scene my attitude has shifted. I no longer care about getting every coaster credit in a park, and I have no desire to gain any "street cred" for having ridden one of the worst-ranked roller coasters in the world and survived. Good? Good. Apparently it will finally be getting those nicer Vekoma vest harnesses. Maybe I'll not ride it the next time I go. Yeah, not riding it still sounds like a good idea. As the park got closer to closing I found the Alveys in the Wilderness area and we kind of waited around for everyone to show up. Eventually Larry and his group found us, and Larry proceeded to recount his experience in the NeuroGen virtual reality attraction in a way that left everyone confused, amused, and dumbfounded all at the same time. It was probably the most entertaining story I've ever been told in my life, so good on you there, Larry! So - finally - let's talk about Untamed. Another spectacular first drop. For years and years I was a skeptic of Rocky Mountain's coasters. They looked really weird, I wasn't a fan of rolls and loops on a wooden coaster, I wasn't a fan of the "RMC fanboys" singing their praises... I much preferred Intamin's approach to the wooden coaster, and to be honest, I still do. But last year I went to Six Flags Over Georgia for some spins on Twisted Cyclone, and after that, I got it. I understood why people love Rocky Mountain coasters. They're really that good. Twisted Cyclone ended up very high on my list. This is seriously one of the best turnarounds I've ever experienced on a coaster, and you don't even realize it. Untamed, though, was on another level. If there's any steel coaster that reminds of Phoenix, my number one roller coaster, Untamed is it. Hill after hill of glorious airtime, a height and length that's significant but not scary or imposing, a wonderful double-up double-down... Untamed is absolutely my kind of coaster. The airtime is relentless, and the inversions are smoothly integrated into the ride's layout. Add in theming (minus the crappy Instagram stuff), station architecture, and a color scheme that I enjoy... ...and Untamed is now my number one steel coaster. I think that it's literally impossible for any person to come off Untamed without a smile on their face, unless the ride made them physically sick. It is just so, so, SO much fun. It doesn't have to impress anyone with a record-braking height, or a crazy brand-new acrobatic maneuver (though it does have one). There is nothing in particular that stands out about Untamed's ride experience because it ALL stands out. It was the first roller coaster of the trip that I was truly disappointed that I couldn't ride anymore because we were leaving. I'm certainly looking forward to Iron Gwazi next year, but it's going to take a lot to topple Untamed from the top of my steel coasters list. Steel Vengeance is probably objectively better. In fact, a lot of coasters are probably better. But all the stuff that I like about it, plus just how much stupid fun it is, seals it for me. And the queue is even lovely, too! There's only one thing that I don't like about Untamed, and it has more do do with me than the ride itself. During our evening ride time and filming session, I got to ride nine times in a row, and that was amazing. But what wasn't amazing is that my small, skinny figure meant that the seat belt buckle rested on my right thigh. I left the park and a few days later I had a huge bruise on my thigh from the buckle being forced into it during every ride. I guess that's just a testament to how much airtime Untamed really has! Why, yes, I do LOVE this coaster. Do I really have to post to Instagram about it? That's a minor nitpick though. I would ride Untamed over and over again despite that flaw. It's really that good. If you're looking to ride your first Rocky Mountain coaster in Europe or in even in general, look no further. You can keep your Steel Vengeance, Zadra, and the like. I will gladly ride this instead. And...that was it from Walibi Holland! Random thoughts and musings: Like I said before, this was probably the nicest "corporate amusement park" I've ever been to. Sure, stuff looks cheap, and some of the operators are younger people on part-time jobs, but nothing made me go, "ugh" like I did the last time I visited Six Flags Over Georgia. It was all, at the very least, decent. The park's management gave each of us little care packages with Untamed swag and sunglasses. More importantly though, they wrote out individual greetings for every single person. It was nice to see that they cared so much about giving us a good time. I caught a glimpse of the Condor charity guy while I was waiting for the others to take their ride. What an endurance match. The one constant throughout the park's mish-mash of theming was graffiti. It was everywhere, even on scenic elements that would have otherwise seemed normal (like the Merlin's Magic Castle ride). Some people didn't like it. I thought it was fine, but maybe a little overdone. The park had an interesting selection of flat rides. In addition to the others mentioned, they had a particularly wet Top Spin, a madhouse, and a unique type of Skycoaster, to name a few. Goliath is blue and black now, but there are plenty of reminders of its former life as being bright green. All of the lap bars are the same purple they used to be. You can also tell that they don't replace all of the lap bar foam pieces at once, as a lot of the lap bar pads are still their original bright green. This trivia is useless and shouldn't affect your enjoyment of Goliath at all, but I have a tendency to notice the stupid stuff like that. The Untamed station platform might be one of my favorite pieces of architecture in an amusement park, and yet, I didn't even get any photos of the inside! What was I thinking?!? Next time: Well, this is a nice construction site... Oh wait, it's Drievliet!

Looks like we may be losing two Schwarzkopf legends in one go... This time it's Tsunami. Apparently the park's operators, the state government, did not take good enough care of the ride for it to be operated well, and they couldn't find a buyer willing to invest in it. So the ride in its entirety will be scrapped. This is quoted from a new post on the above Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/TsunamiCoaster This was also apparently confirmed on page 4 or 5 of the following official document: http://eservicios2.aguascalientes.gob.mx/periodicooficial/web/viewer.html?file=..%2FArchivos%2F3740.pdf&fbclid=IwAR1KMG3Avp4V5STZwuWLVSpyycgI8ZdSjgHC297rTDVksIUZwuv4-LOt5BY#page=1 I've become a Schwarzkopf coaster fan after riding Jetline and Lisebergbanan, so this one hurts. I'm now considering doing a "quick" international trip to London or one of Olympia Looping's other stops soon.

You'd think that it's the end of the world based on the reactions from some "fan" sites (ESPECIALLY people in the comments).

Absolutely not, not even close. I'm very curious about the condition of Bullet and Cascabel now. Here's hoping that a pattern hasn't formed...

Oof, that means that Bullet may have been neglected as well. Just sell Quimera to Knoebels already!

Are you sure you didn't go into the Neurogen attraction at Walibi Holland?

I haven't followed this anywhere near as much as others, but has the prevailing rumor always been that Six Flags was buying Cedar Fair? Has there been any scuttlebutt about the merger possibly being the other way around? Cedar Fair buying Six Flags?

I'm not sure you're giving maintenance teams in the U.S. enough credit. These are people who are trained to work at parks with ten or more roller coasters and even more flat rides and other attractions. Obviously they can't have every detail of every bolt of every attraction memorized in their head, so they do what you're supposed to do - read the freaking manual. If the manual says, "hey, do a complete teardown of the train after X amount of operating hours", that's what you do, because the last thing you want is to be even partially responsible for an incident at your park.

Mega-corporations keep getting bigger.

Pretty much every large Schwarzkopf coaster since 1976, and all the way up to as new as 1989, has some iteration of that train design. The exceptions are the West Edmonton Mindbender for obvious reasons, the traveling coaster Teststrecke which received new trains from Zierer, and Tsunami which received new (but similar) Wieland Schwarzkopf trains when it was Zonga at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. Also, Sooperdooperlooper and Psyke Underground received new trains from Gerstlauer. Schwarzkopf coasters technically aren't sold anymore and the company technically doesn't exist anymore, so it's not like they can perform recalls or issue notices to stop operation (unlike KMG after the Fireball / Afterburner incident). Now, if, say, Gerstlauer had provided a new set of trains for Quimera like they did for Sooperdooperlooper, THEN they would likely be facing at least a little bit of scrutiny.

Not particularly. I believe that when Flamingo Land in the U.K. picked it up they attached backpack straps to the seats, but the trains have been the same otherwise. That being said, the trains were completely torn down to their chassis(es?) when it was moved to La Feria. See here: https://rcdb.com/3605.htm#p=16503

The land is based on the sequel trilogy, but the ride itself is based around Hondo Ohnaka, a character from the cartoon series Clone Wars (between eps. 2 and 3) and Rebels (between eps. 3 and 4). Apparently the Hondo character is alive during the sequel trilogy, and the events that lead up to the ride's story are portrayed in a companion comic. It's the first time the character has been portrayed in a live-action setting. Not a "fan" myself either, but I do keep up with various sci-fi series because I enjoy piecing the stories together.

I went to Star Wars Galaxy's Edge yesterday afternoon. Some thoughts: The land is immersive to its detriment. Pretty much every retail / dining location is difficult to find because nothing is labeled / signed properly. Places like the Droid Depot for example - I could make out the fact that there were two words with five letters each in Aurebesh, so that made me think "droid depot". But they apparently went through such a huge effort to make a new Aurebesh-lookalike traditional font, and it's frustrating that they really don't use it much anywhere on the exteriors of buildings, with a few exceptions of course. That being said it IS probably the most immersive theme park land I've ever set foot in and that's an incredible achievement. I know a lot of folks who worked creatively on the project and they deserve all the praise that the land is getting. The land wasn't shoulder-to-shoulder crowded but it certainly wasn't anywhere near empty either. I don't understand how Hollywood Studios' land could ever be considered a "failure" in that regard. It's getting a "typical" but consistent number of people. Millennium Falcon Smugglers' Run had a posted wait of 70-80 minutes for the entire day but, wonderfully, it has a single rider line. I got on in less than fifteen minutes and was given the left-right steering pilot position. That being said - Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run is possibly the worst video game I've ever played. The controls are insanely sloppy, the screen is hard to see, and everything happens so fast you are never able to process what your objective is and how you achieve it. We had just had a quick break and immediately after I was called to power the ship back up we were chasing another transport ship but not anywhere near the correct position to do so. It took me at least ten seconds to process that and by the time I steered it back behind the ship the Falcon was already taking heavy damage from being smacked around. (I may be slightly biased because less than six hours before, I was on my PC playing Celeste, a pixel-perfect platformer with the most precise controls in any game I've played.) We got two of the power cells or whatever they were called in the end, and in terms of the ride's story, Hondo congratulated us, and even though we caused heavy damage to the ship we made a sizable profit. So from the ride's perspective, we got a "good" ending. But as soon as the cast members opened the door we were immediately ridiculed by them for causing heavy damage to the ship, and were given a "bad" ending, even though we scored enough points to make up for the damage. That's a really bad story inconsistency and they should really have more responses to different levels of success. The ride system is pretty cool in that you can never really tell when the turntable is moving apart from the beginning and end, when you also see the same happening visually. Plus, it's an insane people eater and an engineering achievement. However, the need for a constant, clockwork loading / unloading sequence means that there is no time for you to be reminded of how the controls work and what you need to do, unlike in, say, Mission Space, because you basically start right away as soon as the door is closed behind you. TLDR re: Smugglers Run - fun and interesting ride, engineering marvel, terrible video game, inconsistent storytelling. TLDR re: Galaxy's Edge - incredible immersion to a fault, would gladly drop in again. Also, I feel sorry for anyone who was paying over $40 for a white Kyber crystal on eBay, they had plenty of the whites and yellows on the shelf.

According to Michael Pantenburg at Schwarzkopf Coaster Net, Mindbender's problems were twofold. First, it was apparently manufactured with substandard materials by "Schwarzkopf GmbH", which was a company founded after Anton Schwarzkopf's own company went bankrupt the first time. Schwarzkopf himself was apparently only a consultant and therefore not involved in manufacturing decisions. Second, the mall only did visual inspections on the cars as opposed to taking them out for "true" maintenance service or having them looked over by TUV (renowned German safety inspectors for rides). Plus, the maintenance manuals were apparently never translated either. Apparently Mindbender's incident was due to loose bolts, so the wheel assembly fell off of the train. The most recent posted image of Quimera looks like something may have completely sheared off. Quimera also opened in 1984, a year before Mindbender, which was technically during Schwarzkopf's bankruptcy and the existence of that spin-off company, so perhaps it fell victim to the manufacturing corner-cutting, and who knows if its own maintenance manuals were ever translated into Spanish. Personally, with what little concrete information we have, I wouldn't put the blame on Schwarzkopf the man himself, but on either the park, or whomever was involved in that post-bankruptcy company that tried to save a few bucks at the factory. Schwarzkopf's bankruptcies are the reason why all of Schwarzkopf's coasters after WEM's Mindbender were built by BHS (now Maurer Rides) and / or Zierer, with Schwarzkopf still designing them.

Lech Coaster was absolutely my favorite coaster on the Poland leg. It's a travesty that the majority of Vekoma's new big coaster installations are going to China and (sic) Energylandia. Perhaps when Tripsdrill opens theirs in two years I'll tack it on to my next Europe trip somehow.

I'll take "generic" over "frustrating" and "cheap-looking" any day of the week. I'm not sure I will ever be willing to make a trip all the way to Poland just for Energylandia after our visit, it would have to be a part of a larger trip. Based on the park's apparent local reception, my opinion is an unpopular one, and if I WERE to go there I'd give it another chance for sure. However, there are at least thirty other parks in Europe that I would rather experience for the first time than experience Energylandia again.