Menghini
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Posts posted by Menghini
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Blue Fire, of course!
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I was scrolling through the park index and there's a picture not in the right place: the second picture of 'D'Oude Tuffer' by Mystery is actually an overview of the 'Kinderspoor'.
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Hey Larry,
Recently I visited Parque de Atracciones Madrid and I have a few photo's which are on the wanted list:
Tifon
Starflyer
Vertigo
Starflyer seen from the main entrance plaza
Tifon from the queing area
Main entrance to the Vertigo area
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I like roller coasters to be smooth/fluent. A trim brake is really a brake during the track. If it's a block section I can accept it: more trains are possible on the track which increases the capacity and above that: the track before and after the block section are well designed (the part after the block section is also possible to ride when the train comes to a complete stop). Trims are somewhere in between, don't have any function except slowing down the train on a piece of track where the train should be fluently passing.
I still think it's a bad design. Of course: you can't anticipate on everything. You (as a designer) wanted a certain effect on that hill or that piece of track, but it didn't came out that way (= design flaw), so let's put the trim brakes there to get the right speed. I think that Expedition GeForce and Silverstar for example could be much better if they didn't have trim brakes. It really takes the speed out of the train. Just like someone uses the emergency brakes during the ride and then comes to his senses and immediately cancels the emergency brakes.
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Efteling really needs such a dark ride again. I hope it will be as good as Fata Morgana/Droomvlucht! It looks great on the picture.
"Pandora's box" as a transport system from Vekoma maybe?
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^That's a terrible accident.
Hmm, it's not only Europa Park. I was scrolling some german theme park sites and they all have the same rules for blind/heavily disabled people. At Phantasialand it's free entry for those people, at Heidepark for a large discount. The regulation comes from TüV, the company that provides and checks the safety regulations for the rides.
I'd say that Europa Park should let those people in for a larger discount or for free... I now understand that the regulation isn't going to change. It would probably be a rule for every park in Germany.
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If you want to do buzz's shooting dark ride in the main park (discovery land), go for a fastpass or be there first thing in the morning. It's next to the Big Thunder Mountain the most popular ride in the main park.
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This is not entirely accurate, its over by Space Mountain in Tomorrowland.
Yes you are absolutely right. I meant that Big Thunder Mountain as well as Buzz's shooting dark ride are the most popular rides at the main park. Of course: the shooting ride is at Discoveryland/Tomorrowland for the US (as I also wrote). Apologies for the wrong structure of the sentence/using the wrong words.
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Also look at the opening hours: the studio's park is mostly closing earlier. If you'll do the studio's as your first day, then you can still visit the main park around evening and do a lot of things. The crowds will be lighter in the last hours the park is open.
I hope crush's coaster will never get a fastpass: the queue will be enormous if that happens! But at the studio's I would first go to crush's coaster and then get fastpasses and do the other rides.
If you want to do buzz's shooting dark ride in the main park (discovery land), go for a fastpass or be there first thing in the morning. It's next to the Big Thunder Mountain the most popular ride in the main park.
Last time I went to DLP with some friends we first did the studio's, got every ride in at around 5 or 6 PM, then going to the Silver Spur in Frontier Land in the main park (near phantom manor), a really nice restaurant for dinner (maybe you'll need reservations in July, we didn't and had to wait only 10 minutes) and then doing most of the rides in the main park until 10 PM. I think if we were there on time in the morning (a lot of traffic problems and a very busy weekend due to the new character introductions), we could have done whole DLP in just one day.
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I have 2 hobbies. The first is theme parks and everything that has to do with it. The second is whisk(e)y. I was always playing with the idea of doing a combined theme park/whisky trip... One day I'll make such a trip. But what if a whisky distillery makes its own "rollercoaster"? It happened a while ago!
Warning: only ride this roller coaster if you are 18 or 21 years and older (depending in what country you live)!
Look what arrived yesterday! A new credit!
Close up: doesn't it look beautiful?
Only 40.1 rides in the UK, in the Netherlands it's a little bit less... Party time!
The right evening, the right mood to launch the first ride... The amusement park is operating at full capacity, it's cosy, it's nice, people are eating...
The gate is being opened...
Entering the ride... and already there is a whiff of creamy fudge in the nose.
The train is going up the lift hill, the wind is favorable and coming from the sea and the beach. You can smell the buttery, creamy foods around the ride, even a bit chocolate and there's the smell of the sea and a little bit of the smoke from something of a barbecue?
First drop! It's amazing! Smooth and you're totally sucked in the experience. There's the sea again, the barbecue, a little bit fudge, liquorice and dark chocolate: you experience the whole amusement park in this one ride! Then a surprise: you see the barbecue! You know that after the ride you'll be enjoying the peaty taste of barbecue food.
What a ride: I'm completely at ease and feeling comfortable. The ride lingers on for a long time... Cheers to you all!
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(watch out: spoiler!)
Nice photo-TR: never knew there could be so much snow that time of the year!
About the "running-attractions with the special devices": there is actually a second level. I've been there with a friend in the mount-Fuji clone. The second level was impossible: the time you spend in the main hall is deducted from the total time. With your collected armies you can enter a door which leads to the second level. There you have to dodge laser beams, etc. in the remaining time (which was about 13 seconds in our case). Probably after that you'll save the princess...?
Kind of cool to be the only ones to make the first level that time I was there, instead of the Japanese who probably play it a lot more (and better).
We couldn't beat the Gundam-ride though: we were learning the system to play these attractions at that time.
I would love to see one of these in Europe! Although with all the vandalism I think it's not possible here.
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It's just one case: almost no scientific proof.
Some thoughts: when you are riding with your head in the right position there is another mechanism. It's an "airbrush mechanism": if you blow very hard over a small opening/bottle, you'll draw a kind of vacuum inside, so everything will come out. Of course there's a shell around the ear, but still if you're travelling very fast it will not be significant anymore: the eardrum will go the other way and there's probably the same effect medically speaking.
There are also "alien bodies" (other than your own human tissue) which can invade the ear and cause an inflammation, especially when there's hardly any protection from a smear-layer on the eardrum which could disappear by way of the "airbrush mechanism".
I'm very curious about the real/complete article and especially about their discussion.
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I'd also like to hear the EP side on this. I can understand a bit why you wouldn't allow those people on rides (like iplf says), but as far as I know there's only one park that doesn't have wheelchair entrances to its rides (whether it is a dark ride or a roller coaster) and that would be Europa Park.
Why is it possible in many other parks and not in Europa Park? I mean: handicapped people also use public transport (like flying) or live in flats/skyscrapers, so why not riding a coaster?
I think you can't compare this with length/width: the trains are designed for a mean height en width of people, so if you fall below the standard deviation it's always a risk to ride whether the coaster makes the whole track or not.
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Although it's one of my favorite parks, recently I didn´t have a really pleasant experience at Europa Park. They don´t allow handicapped (physically and/or mentally) people on most (if not all) of their rides. I think that might be something they could work on... Or at least give those people a bigger discount (more than 8 euro) since they can do almost nothing in the park.
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^
Well, they have a strange entrance-system, I think. When I paid the entrance ticket the cashier told me that all the rides were "free", so I suppose that there's also a period when you pay the entrance as well as some rides (all the rides had a gate-system with coins).
The park is also opened until midnight: maybe then you pay per ride instead of paying the total entrance-fee.
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Thanks for the nice replies everyone!
^^
I always like to visit these kind of parks, but I'm not travelling especially for them. So I don't think I'll be visiting the lesser known parks on the short term, unless there's another congress with such a park in the neighborhood!
And about the potential: Greece isn't doing very good economically. I don't know if it influences the amusement industry there. At least I did my part in spending a bit tourist money there.
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What would you do when...
You are in Thessaloniki, Greece. It's 28 degrees Celsius...
And you're there because of a dental congress (I'm doing research on the field of Gerodontology, oral health care for the elderly) and I'm a memeber of the ECG...
And on the tourist map, they write the above!
Where would I be in between presentations? (After trying to get a cab and the Greek not understanding a lot of English) Yes!
Magic Park! I love the entrance of this really small park.
This is where you wait for a cashier to come...
Magic Park is a fair with potential, they really try to do something with themeing. This is their flying-elephant ride.
The main attraction: a flume. With a (small) double drop. I did this many times: it was just too hot for a Dutchman like me this time of the year.
Magic Park also has hidden Mickeys...
A simulator and a rocking ship
Dodgems
Some Themeing. Do you notice a lot of green? This park was very well kept as for grass, flowers and trees (in the limited space they had).
Ahh, finally: a credit! A Zyklon/Galaxi: they call it Montagna (according to RCDB), but I didn't see many names on rides...
A ride for a fair, with a name!
in the same alley...
The swining chairs
Break dance
A fun house with glass maze
This is a really nice ghost house: especially the second part where you go down: you know at the bend (during the ramp down) there is a prop: you are really close and it goes off! Not too long, not too short. It is very well done.
A whacky worm: Kamnia (again according to RCDB)
Is it going up or falling down? I don't know: it wasn't open unfortunately.
An overview of the park from the ferris wheel
The beautiful entrance and exit again
The outskirts of Thessaloniki from the ferris wheel
The Spin Doctor and it did a really crazy program. It's name was 4G and it lives up to its name!
Some more green and themeing
Shooting alley
I ate this, but what was it? Some things are easy to identify..
And some are not! Of course they speak the dutch language of beer! Luckily I could read the Greek letters and could make something of it.
More themeing in the only restaurant in the park: a pirate themeing, mixed with the entrance/exit, flume and ship
The souvenir shop. It really was a souvenir shop you could find anywhere in Thessaloniki. So no T-shirt of the Montagna.
And to close this trip report: again a photo of the beautiful themed exit in this case. I hope they will go on with the themeing: it looks like they have a lot of potential and ideas. Maybe it'll become the Toverland of Greece: Magic Park, Magic Land ('Tover'='Magic') the name is very close!
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Here are some photo's I found and also recently shot.
Entrance of "D'Oude Tuffer" (antique cars, or as the sign says "De Oude Tufferbaan", "The Old Tuffertrack") in the Efteling, The Netherlands
Octopus, Slagharen, The Netherlands
Piraat, Slagharen, The Netherlands
Dodgems, Fantasy Island, UK (accidently on photo)
Amazing Confusion, Fantasy Island, UK
Amazing Confusion, Fantasy Island, UK
Wave Swinger, Flamingoland, UK (accidently on photo)
Gallopers, Flamingoland, UK (accidently on photo)
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It looks great. On the other hand: I'm a bit worried. Why is Disney building low capacity rides... again! Lines are already long in the WDS (for example Crush's Coaster)...
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^If the video is squashed to the top of the screen: next to refreshing it's also possible to use the "full screen" button (and back to normal screen if you want to).
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This game is my favorite on the NES 8-bit! Does it have the same levels as the original game?
Looks great, Robb!
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The funny thing is that in my opinion "adequate" safety restraints don't prevent a heart from stopping or a brain from hemorrhaging...
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No problem with both video's and both video's looked the same in quality.
Speed results:
- download: 5101 kbps
- upload: 842 kbps
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As an architect you could also go for the amusement park business, but then as a designer of the park, designer of amusment park buildings, etc. Or am I wrong?
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I´ve ridden both: Half Pipe at Sarkanniemi, Finland and Sky Loop X-Car at Skyline Park, Germany.
Just like the smartestcoasterkidever! stated above: the Intamin Half Pipe is plain fun!
The X-Car Sky Loop is not too bad either, but when I rode it, they didn´t put it on the normal breaks and it had to swing to a stop: that was the nauseating part. But it´s OK.
Both rides are a bit short. If you can ride the Wicked Twister, you can ride the Half Pipe as well as the Sky Loop.
Have fun with both next year!
Ever Been The Only One On A Ride?
in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Posted
I haven't ridden a coaster alone: I'm almost never alone when I visit an amusement park (luckily). But I did "Spookslot" alone. It was incredible (spooky) for I could walk everywhere during the show and finally I discovered the tombstone of Kate Bush in the show...!