gax

I get what you're saying, I always thought that the juxtaposition of rides in Potterland at USO was slightly off, with Gringotts and FJ, you have rides themed to every tiny detail, with every aspect, ride cars etc. included, becoming a part of the story, then next to that you have two giant B&M's, where the theming ends as you leave the station, and just becomes a standard inverted coaster. For an area with so much focus on total immersion, it seems odd to have rides which are just 'rides' as opposed to 'experiences' (obviously the fact DD was there already is a major factor here..) Disney parks with occasional exceptions create these total 'experiences', never wanting anything to seem like a ride or a coaster but rather an immersive 'adventure'. Coaster track is generally themed to minetrains and the like and things like ride cars and 3D glasses are usually included in the story. So yeah I get what you're saying, and it does kinda seem odd to have a load of Coaster track when you are supposed to be inside Jurassic Park or whatever, but I guess if its a good coaster then does it really matter? I suppose it just comes down to levels of theming and immersiveness which as US parks seems to be sometimes quite inconsistent compared to Disney. It also comes down to personal preference, I am massively into themeing and 'experiences' whereas I know a lot of people dont really care and would rather ride a great coaster.

Would you guys ever consider doing a 'vlog' style video from any of your trips on youtube? I love the coaster videos and the photo TRs, and I know there is some short, vlog style videos from time to time, but a full length video of what you guys get up to on the trips is something I would love to watch!

Question on Kong (apologies if this has already been covered), but does anyone know what they are going to do about the Jurassic Park/Kong transition? Will they keep the Jurassic Park entrance where it is and have Kong as a part of JP, or will they make Kong into its own separate area with JP shifted further on? As good as I think Kong looks I really like the 'distinct' islands of original IOA, and now with Kong coming and the Lost Continent being shrunk massively with Harry Potter, I feel like its becoming more of a Universal Studios style random attractions dotted around individually rather than total themed areas?

Bad news for all Flamingoland Fans! The Rock Slide is no more! Always a Flamingoland favourite Now lies in tatters! However it has made way for a really nice new themed area behind Cliffhanger. All pictures from TPR park index or Flamingopics.co.uk

All I can say is... wow This looks like one of the most immersive and well-executed theme park areas of all time! Unbelievable! Is the entrance to the Hogwarts Express themed to 'running through the wall' like in the books?

Few more photos that I didn't add before if anybody's interested! They had to construct these temporary queue lines outside of Cbeebies land because of its popularity. Another look around the new area.. The famous Alton Towers frogs! Smiler's mess of track The station You get really close to the ride in the queue More photos from the top of the Towers It was pretty creepy inside! The Gardens Pirate show in Mutiny Bay More of Nemesis' awesome themeing! Sonic Spinball coaster Sonic is now one of a number of brands Alton has attractions themed around One last look at the Towers The mark of quality!

I agree about Ripsaw, when I went the program was so dull! And even though it was a hot day the water didn't get anybody!

So I had a day off today and thought I'd head over to Alton Towers as I probably won't have another chance to visit until after the summer. I really love this park! I've been coming since I was a kid, and even though its quality has dropped slightly in the last 10 years, it is still, for me, the number 1 park in the UK. With the introduction of the Smiler last year, the park now has 6 great coasters to boast, and even after nearly 20 years of visiting, I still have not got bored of the place! New for this year is 'CBeebies Land', a retheme of the old Storybook Land and Old MacDonald's Farm areas, designed for young children. I think it's great that the park have looked to add something more for this age group, and the area has been done really nicely. The only thing I would say is that it is a shame that there is no real 'new' ride hardware, everything is a rethemed version of something which was already in existence. I think it would have been great if they had brought in a few new rides, in a similar way to nearby Drayton Manor with Thomas Land, which CBeebies Land doesn't really match up to. Anyway, I'll get onto the photos: Definitely the best use of a Vekoma Corkscrew I can think of! A look down towards the towers themselves. CBeebies Land, based on a popular kid's TV channel here in the UK, is new for 2014. It is a very colourful area, aimed at young children. Most of the attractions are rethemed from their Storybookland / Old MacDonalds Farm days. The 'Get Set Go Treetop Adventure' is a rethemed Squirrel Nutty Ride. CBeebies 'bugs' push you around the track above the land's other attractions. The most popular attraction in the area is 'Postman Pat Parcel Post', a slow moving 'car ride' taking you in Postman Pat's van delivering mail around his village. The ride is very popular, with the queue standing at over an hour for most of the day. You enter through the post office. And are taken through scenes from the Postman Pat world. Kids seem to love getting to drive Pat's van. And eventually seeing the man himself! The area is full of brightly coloured kid's rides. Justin's Pie-O-Matic is a giant indoor play area where children can shoot foam balls at each other! The 'In the Night Garden' boat ride, along with Postman Pat, attracts most of the crowds. Kids can take a boat around the Night Garden world. There is lots of live entertainment and shows in the area, with the Big Fun Showtime arena being the main draw. There is regular shows put on throughout the day in here. Tree Fu Tom Training Camp is a large play area. Looks really fun! Children can visit Mr. Bloom in his allotment.. Or take part in experiments with Nina in the science lab! The sensory garden has tests of all the senses for kids to learn from. There is also loads of characters roaming the area. Overall, I think the new land really works well. It seems to be a huge hit with kids and families, drawing huge crowds all day. The themeing is great and there is a good balance between rides and 'learning' experiences for kids. The only thing I would complain about is that the park hasn't really added any 'new' rides. All of the rides in the area are just rethemed versions of rides from Storybook Land or Old MacDonalds Farm. There is apparently continuned expansion planned for the area, so hopefully we might see some new kids rides in the coming years. Overall though, I think the area is a great success, and has given Alton a much needed top quality children's area. Anyway, onto bigger and better things! The Smiler... Photos cannot do justice to how huge this thing really is... It has such a presence in the area, and is one of the most 'watchable' coasters I have ever seen. Everywhere you look there seems to be another inversion. Like most of the big coasters at Alton Towers, The Smiler is built into its own huge 'pit'. It is themed as a mind altering device built by the 'Ministry of Joy', with the intention of 'correcting' all of its riders. The huge structure in the middle with the screens is the 'Marmaliser', and is the center-point of the ride's theme. It has really taken over X-Sector. I really like this coaster. I wouldn't say it matches upto Nemesis, but it is definitely a solid number 2 coaster at Alton. I totally understand the criticism of it being 'two 7 loopers stuck together', but doing 14 inversions on one ride is still an immense experience. It does kind feel like 2 similar coasters one after another, but that is sort of a good thing. Its like you get to ride a great coaster, and just as you're annoyed its over, you get to do it again without even getting off! Ideally the park would have made the second lift into a launch or something, to make it seem more of a 'single experience', but, in my opinion, Smiler is still a must-ride! It is a shame that Oblivion has lost a bit of the limelight with Smiler being stuck next door! Even though there is much bigger and more interesting dive machines around now, Oblivion still packs a punch! The feeling of flying into this tunnel is still immense. It's just a shame it doesn't go on longer! Nerd fact alert! The reason 'SW4' is written on the side of Oblivion's queue is because of its construction code name; 'Secret Weapon 4'. Alton uses the Secret Weapon code name for all its big coasters. SW1 & SW2 weren't built, but were planned arrow pipeline coasters. The first one to actually to be built was SW3: Nemesis, and then Oblivion (SW4), Air (SW5), Thirteen (SW6) and Smiler (SW7). Oblivion got a repaint when Smiler opened and now looks fantastic! Alton have removed the 'Submission' flat ride this season and replaced it with this grass.. As painful as the ride was, there is definitely a distinct lack of flat rides at the park now. Enterprise is the only flat on this side of the park now! So here is the 'Towers' of Alton Towers. I thought I'd take a look around as they are now fully open to the public. Even though the park was busy, I was the only person walking around the castle! You can get some great views of the park! It was cool to see things from angles you wouldn't normally get. The green building in the middle of this picture houses the Vekoma Madhouse part of the Hex ride. A view of the castle ruins.. The Smiler from the towers! From the very top you can get a great view of Oblivion and X Sector. Gorgeous! More impressive than that though is the insanely huge pile of bird crap! Hex is a walkthrough attraction which ends with a cool Vekoma Madhouse, telling the legend of a curse put upon the Earl who used to live in the castle. The story goes that an old beggar woman said that for every branch of the old oak tree that fell, a member of the earls family would die. When this came true, the Earl chained up the oak, and put the fallen branch in a vault hidden in the Towers... The Dark Forest was the new area in 2010, but has aged quite rapidly since then. Now that Thirteen has somewhat shed the stupid 'Ultimate Roller Coaster' marketing hype it was given when it opened, it has established itself as a really fun and unique family coaster. The themeing is really nice looking, even if the story is kind of confusing.. This is pretty much all of the ride you can see from the park! Rita has become pretty poor nowadays. The ride has become quite rough and rattly, and the themeing is confusing and falling apart. Considering the fact that Alton are not allowed to build rides above the tree line, I think its a real shame they played their 'launch coaster' card with something as mediocre as Rita. It would be amazing to have a Cheetah Hunt style coaster flying through the trees! Charlie and the Chocolate factory still pulls the crowds and is still a fun ride. Ice Age 4D however, is quite possibly the most boring and poorly executed '4D' style ride I have ever been on! The '4D' element consists of some foam falling from the roof to represent snow and some wind blowing in your face. Alton really need to improve or replace this soon. I had a walk through the gardens to chill out after lunch. Alton Towers really is a beautiful park. There is so many places to explore. Battle Galleons is the park's really well themed splash battle ride. The whole 'Mutiny Bay' pirate area looks really nice. Sharkbait Reef is a huge aquarium with tonnes of different sea creatures. I wasn't expecting much, but was actually really impressed! I didn't ride the flume, but did make use of the new water cannons they have added.. ha! Katanga Canyon is my favourite area of the park theme wise. It looks really nice. One of the few parts of the park left from the 1990's when Alton Towers was at its prime. The rapids are fun and not too wet. And the Mine Train is a cool powered coaster. The first coaster I ever rode! (Yeah I know it doesn't count..!) Whilst Duel is fun, I miss the days of the old Haunted House. They do seem to have fixed a lot of the broken effects this season however. Any Alton Towers nerds know what is wrong with this sign? Nemesis Sub-Terra gets a bad wrap, but I honestly really enjoyed it! It is a kind of 'Alien Encounter' ride but with a small drop tower section and loads of live actors. It is a lot of fun and utilizes the nemesis story well. Air was the first B&M flying coaster to be built. Alton seem to like their 'prototype' rides, and sometimes this means the layout can suffer when compared to newer models.. Air is still a great coaster though. Other the Smiler Air seems to attract the biggest lines in the park. While it may be no Tatsu or Manta, is is a solid, smooth, fun ride. Ripsaw always attracts an audience! So this is what you have been waiting for right? Nemesis - the best coaster I have personally ever ridden! This ride just never gets old.. It is so well themed and gets so close to the scenery. I was lucky enough to get two front seat rides using the single rider line. Man this thing is intense at the front! So many near misses! Themeing themeing themeing! Taking the loop behind the monster! Just a brilliant ride! I ended my day with 4 back to back nemesis rides, what better end to a great day could there be!? After I left the park I went down to the nearby woods to look for the 'Chained Oak' from the Hex legend. Somebody told the the (kind of ) secret directions to the tree and it only took me around 10 minutes to find. So this is the tree that the Earl supposedly chained up to try and break the curse put on his family. Recently some branches have fallen off in storms. Apparently it has been confirmed that all of the Earl's ancestors are still living! So thats it! I hope you enjoyed my trip report!

Only just caught up on this & skimmed the topic. Really upset about this news, RCT1 & 2 were huge parts of my childhood! I think despite what Atari said on facebook there's no way we're going to see any significant positive change when it comes to the full PC game. Yeah it might be a more 'complete' game, and have better gameplay and more extensive features than the mobile version, but I think it's safe to assume from looking at those screenshots that we will be disappointed. Why would Atari spend time creating a look and feel in terms of graphics and animation for the mobile version and then create an entirely different one for the PC. Yeah it may have been simplified for mobile but once you have a 'look and feel' set that surely isn't gonna change too much. And the issue is here the look and feel is the major problem, not the features and gameplay! The only hope we have is that they see the negative reaction and realise they need to go back to the drawing board, push back the release date and come up with something great for the PC release.

Because this is a Roller Coaster enthusiast forum.. Really annoys me when people try to put others down on here for discussing things like this! This is a coaster forum, its the whole point!, if people can't discuss silly details like this here then where the hell can they!? Ps. wood or steel this looks insane!

I'd love to see some of these built, never gotten to ride a 4d coaster but the 'jerkyness' would put me off I think. This looks like a great solution to the problem! I've always liked how 'enthusiastic' S&S seem as a company, the prototype looks awesome! One question though... credit?

Flamingoland 45 mins Lightwater Valley 1 hour Alton Towers 2 hours

Cheers Robb, I look forward to it!

Now don't get me wrong, this isn't in any way a criticism or a demand, I know you guys work your ass off filling this site with content! just a genuine curious question.. I was just wondering if recent trips (such as the 2012 China trip) will be 'written up' as photo TRs on the site? I love reading through the reports of your trips and I'd be really interested to see the reports things like Ocean Park and HK Disney. (If these already exist and Im just being a moron please tell me, I did have a look first but maybe I missed something!)

That is one of a few images which were reportedly some of the original concepts for Oblivion at Alton Towers. They have been floating around on the internet since at least 2006. Couple more here from the same set of pictures: Hopefully Gardaland will get something a bit more inventive!

Oh man, these photos are already making me miss Orlando so much! Feel you on the thing with the medals, that is kinda annoying.. One question, how did you manage to get the photos of the runners with their medals, considering the captions? Did you have to be all like 'wow, you look amazing in that medal, let me take your picture!'. Edit! Talking of international snack exchanges, I am just about to eat one of these bad boys...

I saw the show and wasn't offended in the slightest. I didn't think the show was great, but that's simply because it isn't my kind of thing, nothing to do with anything that certain people consider to be 'offensive' about it. The way I see it, I think nowadays people are generally offended when they think they should be, as opposed to when they actually are. For example, when reading through that Vice article, I can imagine many members of an over-sensitive, overly 'pc' general public, thinking 'oh wow that's offensive', not because they have actually been personally offended by it, but because they think that they have seen something which 'should' offend them. That is the problem here I think, if people just stopped for a second to think about weather or not something has actually offended them personally, rather than just thinking that they should be offended by it to fit in with the common 'correct' perception, then less stupidity like this would happen.

slight update on above..

Thought I'd have a stab at this.. All images taken from the park directory.

I just got back from a 5 month trip around the world which took me through Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and California. It was a blast, kind of a 'coming of age' thing! Anyway, whilst it wasn't a 'theme park trip' as such, I did persuade my friends to visit Ocean Park and HK Disneyland whilst we were in Hong Kong. First off, let me say how amazing Hong Kong is. It quickly became one of my favorite cities in the world. Everythings just so busy but efficient at the same time. If you have yet to visit Hong Kong, I can't reccomend it enough! So, Ocean Park. This is where we headed first. A lot of the locals said that it was better than Disneyland, and although I may not 100% agree with that, I can definitely see where they're coming from. It's a beautiful, unique park with a good selection of rides and shows. For anybody who doesn't know, the park is set of two sides of a huge mountain in the middle of Hong Kong, the only way you can get from one side of the park to the other is via a massive cable car system which takes you right over the top of the mountain. One side of the park has a small childrens area, some animal exhibits and an acrobat show. the other side is the 'rides' portion of the park, with two coasters, a log flume, drop tower and more. There are many areas in the park where the views are simply breathtaking, and the minetrain delivers the best view I have ever seen from any roller coaster. The park is currently going through a huge expansion project which will include, amongst other things, a tunnel going right through the mountain from one side of the park to the other, and a Mack powered coaster. The project is anticipated to be fully complete by 2011/12. Anyway, on with the photos... Disneyland photos coming soon. Thanks for a great day Ocean Park!! They've now replaced the giant balloon ride near the entrance with this kind of lame acrobat show.. This is going to be that entrance to the giant tunnel they've built from one side of the park to the other, so you don't have to use the cable cars. Amazing and petrifying. Just because I know youre all dying to see, this is what the inside of the cable cars looks like. NOTED! Just taking a nap. Here's some of the building work going on on top of the mountain. It's around this area where they're building the Mack Minetrain coaster. Apparently the park is going to almost double in size. See, told you so. Huss Enterprise. TAKE THE TUNNEL!! "Take raging river might get yourself wet" WTF!? They actually squeegee the seats after every ride. Only in Asia! sklooooooshhhh ...here it comes... Here it comes... They really got the authentic canadian feel right. I can't remember much about this ride to be honest. Just your average log flume I think. Its a river. And its raging. The Raging River. What!? I'm not good at captions... More chinese new year shizzle. This is the best photo I have of inside.. Atoll Reef is a multi-storey aquarium attraction, with fish and stuff... Rare inside-station shot. Only 3 photos of this exist in the world. GRRRRR!! I WILL DESTROY YOUR BRAIN!! Don't get me wrong it's not all bad. The first drop's pretty fun and there a little bit of airtime in some places. But it's mainly pain. 'ow ow ow ow' 'The Dragon' is an arrow multi looper built into the side of the mountain, it hurts. After lunch we worked up the courage to have our heads brutally battered. Ahh, the reason we came halfway round the world! We see you painful Arrow coaster. Wooooahh! Offical onride shot of the condor!!!!!!!!! Next to the abyss is the condor ride which feels like it will fall apart any second. "Ride it feel the depth!!" The chinese for entrance looks a lot like the word No. That caused a lot of confusion. Number one safety rule: 'Please queue up for the ride' In true theme park style they were only running one side. The Abyss is a big double drop tower that you can see from miles around in Hong Kong. Ferris wheels seem to be a staple part of a lot of Asian parks. It was a nice show, dispite being incredibly cheesy. They had a big backstory about a girl and here grandpa and something about magic coming to life in the form of dolphins.. Aaaah! Ooooh! The stadium's built right on the side of the mountain overlooking the park. We went to see the Seaworld rip off dolphin show. It's the sky tower. Erm.. yeah. Heres an idea of what the top of the park has to offer. Don't worry world! 'No straw day' is here to save you! Pretty pretty pretty "I'd rather ride this all day than go back in the madagascar attraction" The ride was down for most of the morning but we got on later in the day. Coaster + Mountains = awesome! There's the minetrain, average coaster, amazing view! This side of the park is built on top of a mountain, so it is all connected together by a series of escalators. It really is a beautiful park! So we headed over to the other side of the park, currently known as 'the headland' but being remaned as the summit. "Don't visit my lame attraction!" Here's the pointless monkey jeep room. Apparently this attraction was originally planned to have a seperate fee but nobody sane would have ever paid. Heres the spinning tunnel, just the same as pretty much every other spinning tunnel ever. There was three rooms. A 'green screen' room where it kind of made you look as if you were a character in the film. A spinning tunnel and a room with some monkey and a jeep which I didn't really get the point of. It turned out to be one of those attractions where you think its about to start.. then it ends. Our hopes were high! There was a new Madagascar attraction the park was making a big deal about.. Everyone always rushes straight to the cable cars so we decided to hang out on this side of the park for a while longer then head over to the other side later on. Here's the epic cable cars the park has, delivering some of the best views you can get of Hong Kong and the ocean. This is one of the new flower displays they introduced for Chinese new year. Those little orange trees were all over Hong Kong. Eat..poop..sleep, repeat. I love how chilled out they look. Time to go and watch some endangered giant pandas poo and eat. The park are very big on Pandas. When we visited back in January, it was chinese new year, so the park had all sorts of different displays representing the 'year of the ox'. The giant green wall to the right is part of the big construction project that they have going on. They're in the process of transforming the area at the bottom of the mountain from 'The Lowland' to 'The Waterfront'. ATTACCKKK!!! "Give me your money and I wont set the bird on you" Soo here I am at the entrance of Ocean Park, spot the tourist! So I know you all just want the coasters so I'll finish this with a picture of central Hong Kong taken from 'victoria peak' mountain. Awesome. This is a 'stilt town' built on one of the Islands out of Hong Kong, you have to take a ferry and two buses to get here but it's well worth it. It's apparently where all the fatties come to shop. This is a small market town called Stanley about a 30 minute bus ride out of the city. ...it's that giant phallic tower there on the right. Speaking of IFC... This is the 'new' highest building in Hong Kong. When it's finished it will be higher than the IFC, or 'batman building' So first up some Hong Kong photos. Such an amazing place, you can spend hours just exploring the streets and markets.

I heard that Disneyland tickets are more expensive when you buy them on the day, at the park than when you buy them online. I'm just wondering how much a one day hopper would be if I was to buy it at the park tomorrow morning? I know its 94 dollars online just figuring out weather its worth finding an internet cafe with a printer in LA at this time..

Another great point... If you really want to maximize the availability of this project having the word "coaster" in the title will greatly help people find the site surfing the web for coasters videos. Seriously if I were a person completely oblivious to the fact TPR even exist, I would click "CoasterTube" rather than "TRP TV" for roller coaster videos. The title is very obvious to what the website is referring to. If I would see "TRP TV" I would honestly think its one of those cheap and useless programs for $39.99 that try to sell you "cable" channels to watch over the internet. That's why am sticking to "CoasterTube" Exactly, and if I was looking for a good Coaster video site on google, the name CoasterTube would stand out to me straight away, whereas TPR TV doesn't really give any clues to what it's all about.

TPR TV will appeal to people who already visit the site and know what you are about. Coastertube will appeal to a much wider audience and will catch people's attention from just looking at the name, coastertube has the potential to become a new site in its own right for people who would never have previously considered visiting TPR to discover, and bring in more traffic to TPR itself through that.

That was one page of a huge online survey Alton Towers did earlier on this year about the 2010 ride. It had a few different themes mentioned such as Dark Forest, Machines, Racers etc. and spoke quite a lot about Expedition Everest style coasters as well as robo arms. It was really interesting but doesn't really narrow much down! It's really hard to find the original survey now because Alton Towers requested all the fan sites removed it.

Brand New. Or maybe Weezer.