Jump to content
  TPR Home | Parks | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Instagram 

Shockwave

Members
  • Posts

    3,158
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Shockwave

  1. Pretty excited to finally get to visit next month after putting it off for year after year. There's obviously a load of +1s which bump up the cred count if nothing more, but Zadra & Hyperion look like top tier coasters, and the most recent themed areas look decent as well.
  2. If anyone's vaguely interested, the planning application has been withdrawn, and will apparently be resubmitted later in 2022. Links: Attraction Source Twitter Timeout London article
  3. Along with Psyclone at Magic Mountain getting demolished, I have never been happier to see a ride meet a wrecking ball. No flowers.
  4. 82 worldwide. Hopefully will have a couple more by the end of this year.
  5. I've seen it on a few individual rides in a few parks, but nothing park wide like DIsney. Alton Towers used to get guests to raise their own lap bars on the Runaway Mine Train up until about 7 years ago. Now they perform hands on checks and given the unfortunate recent history I can't see that policy changing. It's a shame because it worked just fine, and it cut half a minute off the dispatch time which really adds up on busy days. The ride op didn't check my restraint on the Gerstlauer bobsled at Klotten, but this happened for every train as they trust people enough not to be stupid.
  6. I've yet to go to Discovery Kingdom or Great Escape, but here's my view on the rest of them. I've marked the one that I used a flash pass at. 1) Six Flags Great America - Wasn't bowled over on my first visit, but my day there last year was really good. Surprisingly good operations, great ride selection and one the best coasters on the planet (Goliath). Even Raging Bull was running well! Slight let down was that Viper was broken, but it didn't make a huge different when there's so much other stuff to do. (No FP - quiet/medium day) 2) Six Flags Fiesta Texas - Very pretty setting, some great coasters and a nice atmosphere on my last visit. Iron Rattler, Superman and Batman were all well run and really good rides. Only let down was the obscene operations on the rapids. (No FP - quiet day) 3) Six Flags New England - Good operations all day, decent coaster selection, Wicked Cyclone & Bizzaro (as at was) were both excellent. But Goliath has been ruined byt the new trains which beat the crap out of you. (No FP - quiet/medium day) 4) Six Flags Over Georgia - Last visit wasn't as good as my first (a Sunday evening drop-in on the stupid bring a friend promotion needs putting to sleep), but we went back the next day and things were much quieter and better. Good ride variety, very pretty and Goliath is a great hyper. (No FP - pointless on the first night, very quiet on the second day) 5) Six Flags Great Adventure - Some incredible rides let down by some average operations. The park doesn't have the charm of the top 4, but at least you shuoldn't get bored there. Unless you're waiting in line for a million hours. (No FP - quiet day) 6) Six Flags St. Louis - Not that special, but we got everything done in a few hours on a quiet Sunday. Mr. Freeze was a real surprise, and the Boss wasn't as bad as people say it is. And would be even better with the RMC treatment. (No FP - quiet day) 7) Six Flags Over Texas - Can't really give this place a fair review because we were washed out by a tropical storm first visit and then only had a few hours the second visit on the awful bring a friend weekend. Flash passes were very necessary as I have no desire to queue 1 hour for an average Gerstlauer spinner. NTG was pretty good, and the other Mr. Freeze was also great fun. Will give it another chance. 8) Six Flags Magic Mountain - Full day with a flash pass meant I got everything done that wasn't broken (i'm looking at X and Riddler's Revenge), but the operations were abysmal. Because of how much they've added in the last 10 years, I'd defo try it again. Probably with a flash pass to be on the safe side. 9) Six Flags America - I feel bad for this place, because they had some fantastic staff members working at a raelly badly run park. Sort the management out, clean it up and bit, and it woldn't be half as bad as it is now. But at least it wasn't too busy. (No FP - quiet day) 10) La Ronde - Oh dear. This place can sink in to the St Lawrence Seaway for all I care. Some of the worst operations I've ever seen, awful looking park, average rides (save Goliath which at least made the trip slightly worth it). Acutally turned down creds here because I didn't want to be in there longer than I had to. Very flash passed. Very glad to never have to go back there again.
  7. Seems like good progress so far. I might be able to get back to Kentucky Kingdom next year if I can get myself to the Indy 500 again, and if so, fingers crossed it'll be opened in good time. There isn't a bad RMC out there, so I can't wait to try this one out.
  8. Got my 1000th on Monday at Silver Dollar City on Outlaw Run! Also turned out to be my 100th wooden coaster! I never make signs to mark milestones, but I couldn't not do it for this one!
  9. I'm gonna be there this weekend, and even though I'm not expecting miracles I will be genuinely gutted if I miss out on it. It looks amazing!
  10. Wow, that is shockingly efficient! At Six Flags of all places!
  11. Thanks Larry. And yeah, in all seriousness I'm giving up on that idea given the timing and the long day afterwards. If I fly through Little Amerricka and Santa's Village (which looks extremely likely given what I want to go on at each) I'll be able to dedicate time to Indiana Beach on the Saturday. I could give it a miss, but I have a soft spot for El Locos and I like the park enough to spend a bit of time there.
  12. Little Amerricka won't be taking up much of my time. It's a 12 noon opening and I can't see myself being there longer than an hour. I missed it on my last trip because of a scheduling conflict with Indiana Beach where I ended up spending most of my day, so this is to go and tick that box. Absolutely. A huge pack of water bottles and a cool bag is always a good idea, especially considering where I'll be driving. That would be good! I'll PM you soon with my details. I'm also going to be at Great Adventure the day before to process my season pass.
  13. Thanks Robb. Larry - after doing all my research including on this site, I'm allocating an ample amount of time for each park, depending on what rides they have, which ones are/will be worth re-riding, etc etc. A few of the parks on this trip will be revisits, and from previous experience I can say that some of them simply won't need my full attention even with new additions. I've also edited the first part of the topic as the first list I posted was a very early draft, from which I've since removed a couple of things which simply aren't feasible such as the Castles 'n' Coasters leg. Those who don't know me will be unaware that I've been an enthusiast for nearly 20 years, I've been to nearly 300 parks, and been on over 900 rollercoasters around the world, so I know my way around and what it takes to get there. I've done several long road trips before through Europe and the US, including a 2,000+ mile round trip through France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany a fortnight ago. So when it comes to planning, I'm confident enough to know what can be done and what cannot, hence the changes from draft to final form in this, and in all the trips I plan. Whilst the concern over the length of the drives is nice to hear, I've actually over-estimated driving times which is essential for any trip to account for any forseeable delays, stops and the like. There's also room to manoeuvre some of the parks if required. The hotels I've booked, combined with the right amount time spent in the parks, and having learned through experience how to stay healthy and comfortable on a long trip such as this make it entirely feasible. I'm acutely aware that some of the schedule looks a bit heavy for those who haven't done long trips before, or baulk at the idea of long drives. They simply don't faze me because I've done them before and I know how to look after myself on them. FYI Energy drinks are an absolute last resort. A lot of these parks on the first part of the trip I will have no intention of going back to any time soon, so in some respect there is an aspect of box-ticking (the ridiculous jaunt to Joyland is a case in point, and yes even I admit that it's a bit daft going in completely the wrong direction for that amount of time). If I were to ditch any part of the trip completely now, that would be it - I can take it or leave it, From speaking to many people and reading a lot of reviews including from this site, Worlds of Fun will not take a long time. The coasters don't look outstanding (sorry Prowler fanboys, I know you think it's like that rebirth therapy from the 70's, but whatever!) and even by some awful divine intervention it is a busy day, I can just fastpass the main stuff there. I also can't envisage myself being at Schlitterbahn for more than a few hours given what they have and the day I'm visiting.
  14. I thought I'd put this post out as this year I'm doing something a bit brave/stupid/borderline insane. I'm quitting my job next month and gonna be visiting the USA/Canada for 2 months, and have saved a load of money up to hit a lot of theme parks. I'll be in the States driving around, visiting some old and some new amusement parks. Hopefully I'll be able to meet up with some of you that I've met before from TPR trips in the past, and as long as you're not an axe-murderer, some of you that I haven't met. The trip is gonna be broken up into 3 main parts which I'll go in to in more detail. Part 1 will be based around the Plains and the Rockies and a few parks in the sticks like Cliff's and Wonderland Amarillo. I'm a bit tied by park hours and timescales, and there's some criss-crossing/backtracking, but I'll take what I can get. Part 2 will be with a few friends I'm meeting at Newark, going from New York , on to Toronto/Niagara Falls, then through Ohio across to Missouri, Texas and New Orleans, across to Georgia and back up the East Coast to NY. This is the one that we've got nailed down in terms of route and parks, hotels etc. Part 3 is still in the planning stage depending on where I spend 4th July, but will probably be centered around the North East/Pennsylvania. I'm very aware it will involve long drives (some of which through absolutely nothing - sorry Nebraska!), laundry days and a few cans of Monster. I've done road trips across the US before but nothing as large as this, so any tips on where to stay, good laundromats and good places to eat, etc etc. would be fab. The first part is very restricted by opening hours, hence some of the long drives/backtracking. I'll post the rst up a bit later. If it looks like I'm missing some big parks out, I'm probably doing them later in the trip so don't worry if the first part looks a bit weird. Fri May 22: Arrive Chicago ORD in the morning, Six Flags Great America. Sat May 23: Little Amerricka, Santa's Village. Drive to Indianapolis, possibly stop by Indiana Beach depending on time. Sun May 24: Watch the Indy 500,. Drive to Des Moines. Mon May 25: Adventureland, Arnolds Park, Drive to Kansas. Tue May 26: Worlds of Fun, Schlitterbahn. Wed May 27: Drive to Denver. Thu May 28: Elitch Gardens. Fri May 29: Drive to Salt Lake City, possibly via Glenwood Caverns Sat May 30: Lagoon. Sun May 31: Drive back to Denver, Lakeside Park. Mon Jun 1: Drive to Albuquerque. Tue Jun 2: Cliff's, Drive to Amarillo, Wonderland Amarillo, Drive to Oklahoma City. Wed Jun 3: Frontier City, Drive to Joyland if Frontier City takes no time at all. Thu Jun 4: Drive back to Chicago Fri Jun 5: Fly back to Newark. Find somewhere to do my dirty laundry. Parts 2 & 3 to come. Wish me luck, this is a big one!
  15. It's real shame when a park with some great looking attractions doesn't do itself justice with poor operations. And the whole point of a racing/duelling rollercoaster is for the trains to DUEL/RACE! It's like buying a pair of shoes and only wearing one shoe when you don't have far to walk. It just looks daft.
  16. This has been one of the new rides I've most been looing forward to riding, and the testing video is certainly incresing the anticipation for when I hit up Lagoon at the end of May.
  17. When the old Professor Burp's Bubbleworks became the new Bubbleworks at Chessington. Used to be a really funny, quirky and laugh-out-loud ride themed to a fizzy drink factory, now replaced with a not-so-funny, not as quirky and minimal laughter sort of ride themed to having a bath.
  18. Formula Rossa had every single train cheering when they got back to the station when I rode it the other week.
  19. Great photos! I'm gonna be there in a week's time and I'm looking forward to seeing how well they do Halloween. Looks good from this!
  20. It's not making them any money. That's why it's an eyesore. It's a shame that this coaster is probably going to get demolished, because it was one the best coasters in Florida and a really underrated ride that hovers around my Top 10 woodie list. But shopping malls are a safer bet for investors, and the city will gladly take anything that's going to have a better chance of a return on employments, business rates, taxes, etc etc. Especially given the state of it when I went 8 years ago. Sounds like not much has changed. I can only take a punt and say that no-one has bothered buying this ride because it's not worth doing. But it another park does miraculously put in an offer and save it at the 11th hour, I'll be very happy so that more people can ride it and see what a great coaster it is.
  21. I'm in Spain now and I'm due to visit the park on Wednesday. Was a real shock when I landed and found this out. As Elissa said, I'll be interested to see what the investigation says, I can't imagine how a restraint could just fail, especially how it is being implied by the press. It's far too early to say at the moment, but it's always very sad to hear when a fatality happens.
  22. The only other triple corkscrew in South Korea was a suprisingly good ride all around. The triple corkscrew section was really smooth and great fun, and the rest of the ride wasn't too shabby either! I fear, however, that because this is a Chinese built-ride it won't be quite as smooth as the Arrow creation (can't believe I'm saying that!).
  23. Part 4 - Slag whoring and cred whoring. And getting soaking wet. Today was the last day of the trip before flying home. And it was wet. Really wet. So a lot of the photos are rubbish because I took them from under cover spots so as not to ruin my phone. Slagharen is a big resort with a theme park and holiday homes. It reminds me a bit of Flamingoland, except with less rollercoasters, much nicer to look at, and completely themed to the Wild West. I booked and printed my tickets online before I went, to save a few Euros, which as it turned out was well worth doing given how bad the weather was. The park was very quiet, not nearly as many school groups as yesterday. First ride was the Vekoma Rollerskater. There's a drop tower, but no way was I doing this in sideways rain. SPITED. Stupid rain meant it wasn't open. But the ride team soon started doing their inspections as the rain eased off a bit, so I lived in hope. Whilst that was happening, I took this uninteresting picture of some parasols. After getting a bit bored with parasols, I took a wander and found a few rides from the 80's. There's a Huss Condor. A Huss Pirate Ship. And a Huss Troika, I think. (I'm rubbish with flat rides). Or course, the piece de resistance of 80's nostalgia corner was the Schwarzkopf Looping Star. And then it stopped being spiteful and opened! It's not my favourite Schwarz ever, but it's still a piece of coaster history, so it was nice to be able to ride it. After the nostalgia cred, I went for a walk down the main street. It has an arcade where you can win things. But I didn't wake up in a new Bugatti. A shave is 50 cents. Men or women, Some 90's nostalgia. Not only is the park themed to many years in the past, the merchandise is also dutifully retro. Party waffels in the house tonight. Oh I wish I was... But it was shut. So I found something almost as wet as I was by this point. Another classic flat ride. I think it's a Schwarz but correct me if I'm wrong. There's a log flume that I didn't ride, as I was wet enough already. You can just about make out it's called Ripsaw Falls. And with this being a nostalgia park, there's a big Schwarzkopf chairswing behind it. After not riding the log flume, I went on the big wheel ride. Which is actually the observation tower. Not the big wheel. Go figure that one out. And here's some awful photos just to demostrate that it was really wet by now. There's a Schwarzkopf Looping Star out there somewhere. Lots of wet chalets. The other (wet) side of the park. I don't normally take selfies, but when I do, I'm soaked. As this point I decided I was wet enough. So I left to turn the heat on in my car to full blast and go whore some more creds elsewhere. I think this bus was lost. Slagharen pretty much ticks the boxes for RCT ride types if you were to put one of each in a park. But there's nothing that really stands out there. It felt very dated, really lacked a couple of flagship rollercoasters which would make a lot of difference to the experience. 25 years ago, this would be a great theme park to come visit. But as times have moved on, this place hasn't. And after 2 and a bit hours of very wet nostalgia, it was time to go. Next stop was Speelstad Oranje. A big kids play centre next to a canal in a field in Northern Holland. That really is the best way to describe it. At the pay desk, I asked if the cred was open in my broken Dutch and with an RCDB picture of it on my iPhone. After they realised I was just there to ride the coaster and leave, they kindly said I could come in for free! it was very refreshing to see such a sensible attitude, especially in today's climate. I should point out that I was more than prepared to pay, because I know that it's a business not a charity. But if you get offered a free lunch, take it! And with the hospitality already impressing, I swiftly made my way to the coaster. This must be about my millionth Wacky Worm / Big Apple ride. The rest of the park is really cool if you're about 9 years old (mental and physical age applies). They have bumper boats. Electric kiddy car things. A mini rockin' tug pirate ship thing. And a suspended monorail! A suspended monorail in a kids play centre! Overall, a really nice place for kids (it's got a suspended monorail for Pete's sake!) and some very understanding staff if you're a bit of a loser like I am. Next stop was Duinen Zathe, a small park about 20 minutes away from the play centre in a field next to a canal. By now it was throwing it down, so that's why I'm standing in a shelter taking a terrible photo of the park sign as you get to the door. And the for the second time in the space of an hour, the nice people who work there said I could come in, ride the roller coaster and leave! The people of Holland definitely understand the plight of the rollercoaster nerd. It's quite a nice place, there's a massive Pirate Ship out the back through the main building. And my millionth +1 Pinfari Big Apple! Which I got 5 laps on because the brakes wouldn't work as it was raining so hard! The rest of the outdoor area of the park has some flat rides. Like this possibly Mondial Supernova thing, mabye? ...your help here is appreciated. And this. I really should know this ride's name, I see them everywhere. And a subliminal IKEA sponsored playground section. The main building has some chandeliers, food court and a stage with a Magic show happening. Another flying visit due to the rain, but Duinen Zathe is another cheap way of having fun with your family. Unless it's raining. Then you just get wet. And with rain getting even worse, I headed on to my last park of the day. By now, the wipers on the car were on the 100mph setting, and despite getting lost in a forest on the way to my last park, Drouwenerzand, I was expecting almost nothing to be open. And I was right. Luckily, the staff told me at the gate when I asked, and said I was OK to look around and get over the disappointment. There are some other rides, but thanks to the rain I had pretty much become amphibious. And I needed to change clothes. So it was back to the car and full blast heating once again, and on to Amsterdam Airport for my flight home. Because the traffic was so bad, I stopped off at a nice restaurant near Naarden and had some Satay and fries for dinner. I'd love to tell you what it's called but I was more interested in eating than almost anything else. And after filling up the car, dropping it off with the lovely rental firm, it was time to head home. I managed to have a really good time, even though the weather got really awful on the last day. It was really nice to be able to take a short break from the boring office job and visit some quirky parks. The next installment of my cheap trips to Europe will commence in a few weeks with a little trip to Belgium and France for some more quirky parks. Until then, thanks for reading.
  24. ^Hellendoorn was really lovely, would recommend checking it out! Thanks! I'm still knocking about, got a few little trips to Europe planned so I'll have a few more PTRs coming soon!
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use https://themeparkreview.com/forum/topic/116-terms-of-service-please-read/