Watson

I know there has been a lot of talk on when TC will open and I know I will miss it during my May visit. But what about Scream? Will it reopen together with TC and the new area? If so I'm missing out on that one as well. Or will Scream be reopened before TC will?

As much as I do like Heide-Park, I simply don't get the complete and utterly blind adoration going on here for Colossos. When I see you all suffer in pain when riding Bandit, I just don't get it everyone smiling on Colossos. I rode it on many occasions by now and apart from when it just opened, I very much dislike the ride and during my last visit, I didn't even bother to queue. The ride simply has square wheels and in every dip it goes "kadong-kadong" with pain all the way through your spine to give you one hell of a headache throughout the ride and make you whish you didn't ride after you exited. The layout isn't very inspiring and the helix is booooring in such a way that I am happy the "kadong" when exiting it wakes me up. Germany has three wooden coasters in total and the fact that with the opening of Mammut at Tripsdrill, many people in Germany and Europe were hoping to finally get a great woodie in Germany, says it all. Heide-Park is a very nice park, but blind Colossos (and Intamin)-adoration is about as painful as riding it).

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Through a mailing for season pass holders, Heide Park annouced its long awaited new coaster for 2007 : Desert Race. It will be located alongside Colossos. It will feature a launch of 0-100 km/h in 2,4 seconds. That's all the info the park came up with so far.

I did (unfortunately)...

1) I never described Colossos as being rough. Only as having square wheels. Just feel the headache rising when you bounce through the dips. 2) I also didn't attribute this to the design. 3) RCCA isn't that great but just try Coaster Express in Madrid... Intamin-trains for wooden coasters just aren't that great; plus : they are plain ugly as well (Nor are they exceptionally good for steel ones but that's another discussion)

Just wait a year or two. Those Intamin-trains will by then have gotten square wheels which turn the ride in something very uncomfortable. Colossos at Heide Park is terrible, Balder at Liseberg already has quite some bumpy segments and Coaster Express at Parque Warner Madrid (which also uses Intamin-trains) is pure comfort nightmare. I don't get that idolisation for Intamin.

This is something extremely annoying in Spain which we encountered at terra Mítica and Parque Warner Madrid as well. They all feel they just HAVE to fill the trains and this in the most illogical way as possible. In Spain they more then often delay Q's just because the trains doesn't get filled properly. At PortAventura, we were the first in line for El Diablo. We had to go and sit in the middle. Can we go in the back please? No, you have to go in the middle...???!!!??? On the other hand, Spain is the worst country ever if it comes to line jumping. TERRIBLY annoying. And the worst thing is, the operators just endow it. That's the most frustrating part of all. Wait, there is something even more frustrating... non-Spanish people who clim under railings so they don't have to go along all the empty lines of the Q are fiercefully reprimanded while at the same time a group of at least 20 Spanish teenagers who jump the line big time are greeted with a smile. Dis-gus-ting! Spanish parks should learn to get rid of that illogical-train-filler-operator (and have people just fill the station and the train) and assign it to do something against line jumping. And indeed, they explain everything in Spanish. Knowledge of English or French in Spain is close to nil. Especially with the young people which is very weird. PortAventura receives almost as much foreign tourists as it does Spanish folk, though they speak little or no English and some are even proud of that. It certainly does. That's why we visited quite some McDonalds during our trip. Most hilaric part was us visiting a McDonalds in Madrid (which seems to be at least more than just a village) and asking for a "hamburger". The answer you get is "Qué"? There are big and shiny pictures of hamburgers everywhere and we didn't want some special sandwich, we just wanted a plain hamburger. "Qué?" Even pointing at the pictures seemed to be a Qué?-inducing action. Then finally, the guy seemed to have seen the light and said... AAAAh! Un Hamburgesa! Don't you sometimes just feel you HAVE to slap someone in the face? I had the feeling I had met Fawlty Towers' inspiration for Manuel. Qué? It is designed as a kiddie coaster and the trains are also desgined to be one-seaters.

31 with my first coaster being the now disappeared "Wervelwind" at Bobbejaanland (a Vekoma Whirlwind).

Like so many Zamperla rides, it "looks" cool. The ride experience is often the opposite. I myself still find it a Vekoma rip-off.

I rode the one at Skyline Park and it is simply boring. The only fun part is when you fall backwards. The rest is... dull.

That MacDonalds at The Village in Disney Paris is truely horrible! ALWAYS crowded. ALWAYS the wrong order. NEVER a place to sit. ALWAYS look where you step if you don't want to slip on fries, lettuce, burgers, or stick on cola

Too bad about your visits to Rhône-Alpes and Lorraine. I think Rhône-Alpes is in a better condition then you described it. We visited the park 3 weeks ago and yes, it has no decent entrance, and yes, there are not too many rides. But the park was "clean", and well taken care of. The malaria swamp is du to the very hot periode we experienced in western europe the last month. The rides they have aren't too wow but you have to put in perspective to the park's budget. The three French Walibis (originally bought by Meeus from Walibi in Belgium) were only bought 'to have a large group' but were never invested in. They just got their small budget and had to try to make the best of it. Walibi Belgium, Walibi World and MoviePark Germany always got the bigger share of the budget. This year, management wanted to make more of a family park out of Walibi World and wanted to get ride of some thrill rides. Their double invertor moved to Walibi Rhône-Alpes and their Chance Chaos to Walibi Aquitaine. You see, even IF these parks get something new, it is but second hand material from their sister parks. The people at the entrance even thought our Walibi Passes were cool since they "looked like a bank card" and their's don't. You see what I mean. And although the park isn't that great, they make an effort and I can only have but sympathy for them. By the way, since you were fascinated by the Boomerang, did you have a chance to have a look at their S&S-shot? When this one's ride programme is finished, it stops halfway the tower and starts descending reeeally slow. Descend for a few feet. Stop. Descend for a few feet. Stop. Walibi Lorraine has the same problem as Walibi Rhône-Alpes. No budget whatsoever. And with the disappearance of the smurfs not even a theme anymore. Unlike what you said, no rides have disappeared however. The mony ride that disappeared was some sort of bad earthquake-simulator. Sad thing about Lorraine is that they MASSIVE amounts of land. Without exagerration, they could nearly fit an entirely Disney-domain on it. And they are situated alongside one of the major Frecnh highways. This park could have so much potential if only they put the right money and vision into it. By the way, when Anaconda was built, it was the biggest wooden coaster in Europe. Space Mountain mission 2 has better new effects as you think. In the old version, you flew alongside static comets and through a comet/bar. This time, you still do that but the comets have moving projections adding to the illusion. Ok, the story is gone but there weren't that many people understanding it, honest. The soundtrack isn't reaaly techno. It is more in the "Incredibles"-trend. The music was composed by Incredibles-score-composer Ciacchino. Indiana Jones is worse forwards then it is backwards. It has one advantage tough. You can see the curves coming and brace yourself for them. And Parc Astérix is NEVER empty! It must be France's most popular parc. It is very popular with the French themselves. And this has something to do with the story behind it. Asterix was a Gaul (now French) hero who resisted against Roman occupation in the year 50 BC. The comic is VERY popular in France and is an icon of French chauvinism. Since the French don't like Anglo-American invasion of their culture, they see Asterix as the hero defending against the big US-giant Disney. And chauvinism is a French word in origin.

We had the same disappointing experience at Gardaland. It has some nice parts like the Rapids, the Fuga d'Atlantide and the Blue Tornado. Other parts of the park aren't that great especially the part with the topspin or the medieval part. And the kiddie section is way too much kitsch. :shock: Sequoia is something they wasted their money on and they have put it in a ridiculous place as well. We ended up liking the area around Atlantide and I Corsari was pretty good as well. Put those rides in Mirabilandia and you have a great park. About Mirabilandia, it is true it offers everything other parks have to offer and only have one or two "special rides". But don't all parks do this? And I think that Mirabilandia does a great job in just offering the "normal stuff". By the way, Sierra Tonante isn't that bad, is it? We ended up riding it quite some times. Wait until you ride Anaconda at Lorraine then (although I can appreciate that one...)

Tivoli Gardens is a park Walt Disney fell in love with and where he got most of his inspiration and ideas for Disneyland.

Heege Freizeittechnik. http://www.heege-freizeittechnik.de/

Perhaps a bit early for the itinerary but a few remarkable features you should take note of when in France. The braking of the Boomerang at Walibi Rhône-Alpes. No further comment; you'll see what I mean. If you have the time, do visit the Nigloshow at Nigloland. It is a show with animatronics in a theatre. The show is....quite hilarious. French language only. Beware of a brutal twist in the track of Spatiale Expérience at Nigloland in the first half of the ride. The ride is comparable to EuroSAT at EuropaPark but smaller and a bit more "intense". If you choose front seat, you can see a bit of the upcoming track, making it possible to aniticipate some rough twists. I hope you'll find the "Ronde des Rondins" at Astérix. It is a small Tivoli coaster which adults also may ride. It is tucked away pretty good in the park. Just look for "Fôret des druïdes". A credit is a credit, right?

Nautic Jets are popular attractions in Germany although you can also find them in France or the Netherlands. Try visiting Freizeit-Land Geiselwind in Germany. I believe they have 4 or even 6 of these alongside each other.

When Bandit (Wild Wild West) opened back in 1999 it had Intamin-trains. Very beautiful but VERY rough. Compared to those, the present Premier-trains are smooth. They changed the trains only because of the roughness.