Janster

I have a question about Maverick: How is the capacity of this ride? I mean, with such small trains. Can this coaster deal with massive crowd's that want to ride it, or is that going to be a problem for CP? I read somewhere on this forum that when they operate six trains, five of them ar eitheer in the station or on the brake run.

Ah man, that coaster looks so beautiful. Thank you Toverland for building such a ride over here! And great to hear that you had a fine experience with the GCI crew. I'll be there the 8 th of july. And Troy better be as good as Thunderbird in Power Park, the other GCI in Europe.

Stuntfall at Parque Warner Madrid Colorado Adventure at Phantasialand Big Thunder Mountain at DLR Paris Kwasten at Grona Lund Vogel Rok at Efteling Robin Hood at Walibi world Cobra at Power Park Temple of the Night Hawk at phantasialand Vekoma's e-motion coaster at Linanmaki Kwasten at Grona Lund All smooth, or at least they don't hurt. Vekoma does make brilliant rides. The bashing of Vekoma on this website for them being so rough is not entirely justified. It's just that their old loopers and SLC's ruin their reputation. It seems that they finally saw the light, because their newer rides really are very smooth. Kwasten at Grona Lund (Stockholm, Sweden), a suspended family coaster, is the smoothest ride I've been on. It's even smoother then B&M coasters.

Great to see this beauty testing. Last week I had my first GCI experience on Thunderbird at Power Park, Finland. That coaster was so well designed, so fast, it sounded wonderful and the pace in which the turns and hills followed each other up was magnificent. Can't wait to ride Troy on the 8th of july.

That sounds like a fun little coaster trip to two good themeparks with some real good coasters. I've just returned from a trip to Scandinavia. We did pretty much all descent parks in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark (+ Heide Park on our way back). You´re plan sounds perfectly doable. But have you considered hitting Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen as well? Day 1: fly to Goteborg + Liseber+ Hotel Day 2: drive to Copenhagen + Tivoli Gardens + return to Goteborg Day 3: Drive to Tusenfryd + Tusenfryd + Drive back + evening flight All parks can be visited in one day, easily (with multiple rides on Balder, Thunder Coasters, Kanonen, Speed Monster and Daemonen). When you hit Liseberg, be sure to go into the Mystery Ghost Hotel. That ride will cost you three coupons (45 crones, 3 pounds) extra, but it's worth it. Some good scares (from real actors!) on that walk-through ride. If you are an ECC member you can get a VIP wristband for free, and then the ride is for free.

Yesterday we went to Heide Park. This is a great ride. The launch is forceful, I just love those Intamin twisty bits and high speed turns and there is even some airtime. The restraints are a bit more comfortable then Rita's. They removed that sharp edge that bangs against your neck. DR also seems a bit smoother then Rita, but that's probably because it opened only a month ago. Too bad that the last turn, even though it is heavily banked, is at a very low speed. Hopefully they will remove some of the brakes on the last hill. The theming is nice. Ther is a good soundtrack, the color scheme is wonderful, the trains look good. That helicopter doesn´t look too bad. It isn´t supposed to be flying or hovering, it is just standing on a helicopter deck. On the last hill you race just over the helicopters´s rotor, which is a cool effect. The general public in the park was amazed by this ride. They were all clapping, cheering and full of adrenaline when they saw the launch. It´s a great choice of the park to build an Intamin Rocket without inversions. But why a clone of rita...? You could have build a mirror image or a slightly different track Heide Park. Perhaps I or Menghini will post some pictures someday soon.

Stunt Fall at Parque Warner Madrid. Vekoma (!) giant inverted boomerang is AWESOME. I wish they replaced all the standard Vekoma boomerangs by these machines. Those two huge vertical drops are fantastic and the ride is pretty smooth.

Thanks for the pics man. Tomorrow 'm leaving for Salou. I'm looking so forward to Stampida and Dragon Khan. It will be a bit frustrating to see gorgeous Baco still under construction though.

This news even reached the 9.00 a.m. radio news in the Netherlands.

^Ok, I did not know that. But the pulling through the water is at least a bit bumpy. The boats are not actually floating. But still, we do have a unique ride over here! This attraction is a fine addition to the park.

Last Wednesday I went to Efteling. I have some mixed feelings about “De Vliegende Hollander” (The Flying Dutchaman), Efteling’s – new foor 2007 – water coaster. The theming is wonderful. Excellent soundtrack, nice q-line, good atmosphere and a spectacular dark ride section. This part of the ride is just perfect. But the hardware part of the ride (the track design, the splash and the propulsion system in the water) is not a masterpiece of modern roller coaster engineering. Far from it. Check out the comments under the photo’s. At 8.15 pm. I got home. Tunafish Pizza! Jummie! Thanks for reading. I did some other rides today, but I don’t feel like making a complete TR of the day. At 3.15 pm. I left the park. The boats are resting on tires which propel them. 20 Million Euro’s for this ride, and they couldn’t come up with anything better then this obsolete tire propelled propulsion system. Shame on you Kumbak! The boats need to float and move to the waves! But you don’t get wet at all. It was 28 degrees Celcius today, and I didn’t get wet – too bad. I could have used a massive shower like in Thorpe Park’s Tidal wave. Splash. It looks spectacular from this angle. Just before this turn, the track is already heavily banked. Makes you lean to the left there. Not brilliant roller coaster engineering there. The midcourse brake section. The next boat should leave the lift hill now, in order to reach the 1900 riders per hour capacity they claim on their website. Instead, the next boat leave the lift hill way later – after the splash. Capacity Problem! The horseshoe. It’s a little too over banked imo. Your upper body really leans the left there. There is some floater airtime there. Not much though. Tunnel exit. Nice drop, diving into the tunnel. De Vliegende Hollander. Before this drop was a spectacular dark ride. It al started wiht this playing field back in the 50's. Will they ever stop feeling sentimental and put the first dutch B&M over here? Just wandering around. Did I mention it wasn’t busy? Efteling is a park that can’t be visited in one day. Not even without crowds. If you want to see everything, you should go here at least for two days. And you should take the time to wander around Fairytale Forest (I guess that’s rule #2). He’s the foot f@!c1n9 master! Rule #1: Never leave Efteling without having stood on the stone of the Troll King (trollenkoning)! This guy – the “Troll King” – gives you a foot massage. The award for best park entrance goes to Efteling. This bus took me from “’s Hertogenbosch’” train station to Efteling. Switching trains at “Amersfoort”. Nice connection! Luckily I managed to score a large cup of coffee just before boarding on the 6.02 am. Intercity train from “Groningen” to “Amersfoort”. Ah, still early man! My local bus stop. No one else had the same idea. Weird. The weather was going to be excellent. It was already 12 degrees Celsius. Had to get up at 5.00 a.m. in order to get there at park opening.

I thought only dutch took the bike for distances like that (an hour by bicycle). Foreign people ofter declare me nuts when I tell them I go by bike to my parents, which is 20 miles from where I live. I'd die for a park like SFMM, with so many coasters, so close to home! Walibi World is the closest to where i live, 80 miles. And yesterday I went to Efteling, which was a 4 1/2 hour journey by train and bus from my home.

What was the exact reason for this measure Robb? Did kids fall out and got injured or died? Cause then I'd understand it. If lapbars are down and seatbelts secured, you could probably put Kidtums in a coaster and she won't fall out.

Uhm... what are they planning? And how do you know? Or is this the "a 500 ft + coaster over the sea rumour"? Jan - who is certainly not going back to blackpool for Infusion - ster.

My goals for this season: - To get my 100 th coaster credit (kiddies and fair coasters not included). All trips have already been planned and I think I will get my 100 th credit in Liseberg. - To have done the most popular parks/coasters in Europe so I'm ready for a trip outside of Europe next year! Next week, minitrip Germany, 04/29 - 05/03, including: - Europapark's (new family coaster Pegasus, Front seat Silverstar, Euro Mir, ...) - Skyline Park (The world's first X-car "Skywheel", cool drop tower, ...) - Holiday Park (Front seat & back seat Expedition Geforce, 80 metres (260 ft) tall swining chairs carousel "Lighthouse Tower").

You left out Walibi World! It's located below sea level in a dutch "polder".

Yep, that's a good tip there. Goliath is located in a far corner of the park. Most people go straight to Xpress, the entrance of which is in the park entrance building. On the way to Goliath most people will fall for the temptation to go on other rides first (space shot, condor, robin hood, ...). If Walibi expects a busy day, they put two trains (32 passengers) on Goliath from park opening. No matter how busy it's going to be, if you are at the gates at 9.45 am, and you already bought your ticket in advance, you will get 4 rides in a row on Goliath!

Yep, "Halve Maan" (half moon) at Efteling is also a somewhat taller swinging ship then usual. This one at Drayton also looks quite impressive.

Hey, nice TR. I love that shot on Goliath's last high-G-force turn. The moment when you are on that last bunny-hop and you see that turn coming... "OMG WTF! Can this roller coaster train - still traveling at this amazing speed - make that turn?" Very intense and forceful!

Well, this happens to be my favourite park. I do like their selection of rides. An invert, a flyer, a rocket and a dive machine. A wooden coaster would really finish the park. I also like the way they constructed everything. They really made use of natural elevation in the landscape. The park is full of trees and the theming is good. Especially in the forbidden valley section of the park. Building more flat rides is not a good idea to make a park bigger. Flat rides belong on fairs, not in themeparks. I visit themeparks for Roller Coasters, dark rides, and large water rides; not for ordinary top spins or breakdances. Jan - who enjoyed his taco in the forbidden valley section of the park - ster.

Yep, the contraxt between Holiday Park's two roller coaster is astronomical. Superwirbel is also my roughest ride ever. I banged my knee against something and walked like a criple for a couple of hours. Terrible ride.

I remember a day at Walibi World where I did 5 cycles in a row on Goliath. I probably rode in about 10 times that day. At Holiday Park we rode Expedition Geforc 9 times. We planned on doing 10 rides, but the ride broke down at the end of the day and we wanted to get back to our camp site a bit early (it was a 120 mile drive and the next day we had to get up early to arrive at the gates of phantasialand (black mamba 6x) at 9.30 a.m.).

I went to this park in june 2006. The park was cramped with annoying kids. The park was full of q-jumpers, ugly steel q-line fences and the park wasn't very clean. I had a not so fine experience with this park. Shockwave and GeForce were fun, but no top 10 coasters for me. That drop tower "Apocalypse" and the frisbee "Maelstrom" were my favorite rides in the park. That new swinging ship looks quite big. How tall is it?

That's all bad news for me. I'm there from may 15 - 22, so most likely no Furius Baco for me this spring. And then the problems with Stampida's new trains. Hell of a time to fool around Port Aventura! But luckily for me, I can book cheap bus trips to all inclusive resorts in Salou in september/october. So whatever happens, I will ride this thing in the near future! It would be awesome to see this thing up and running before may 22 though.

26 My first coaster was probably "Avonturenslang" (Adventure Snake) at Avonturenpark Hellendoorn. http://www.rcdb.com/id903.htm Photo TR Hellendoorn