downunder

Scandi Trip Part 1 Australia is a great country to live. Though unfortunately when you want to go any other country worth going to. You are forced to suck moistureless air for dozens of hours in an aluminium tube doing 1000 km/h at 38,000 feet. So after 9 hrs 20 min to Bangkok, 13 hours to London and 2 hours to Copenhagen it was time to start the Randi for Scandi tour with TPR. The locals were rather exciteable on arrival day which I later found out had something to do with soccer. A game which the barabarian hordes of Europe and Britian took up attending matches, after it became illegal to act barabarically just for the hell of it. Copenhagen we found was a place that was pretty hard to feel homesick in. The city is owned and operated 7Eleven (open 24 hours), Burger King and McDonald's. Bon-Bon Land was the first park on the trip, and to say it was unique would be an understatement. The park is basically dedicated to bodily emissions. All the 100's of characters in the park either looked stoned, or looked like they were having sex or looked like they were getting a prostate examination from Adre the Giant. The place is charming and unique, and the park was wonderful to us and made it a great day. ERT for over an hour on 3 coasters was a great way to start. To be continued.... Next up for ERT it was a coaster called Wild Boar. This was the first Eurofighter and it was definitely more wild than bore. Next up it was coaster simply translated to English as Man Cat. Danish scientists have been tinkering with the genetic code, soon the Carolina Panthers will actually be the Carolina Manthers. The responses to seeing a giant dog's anus were varied, some looked surprised, others looked excited. Though the theming seemed incongruous, it looked more like the Dog S*** coaster. Maybe the dog was scared of the scary looking rat over on the dome. First coaster of the day - Dog Fart coaster, they seriously call that. The next morning started out well, beer on tap in the tour bus. This place has more twilight than the collective bookshelves of 15 year old girls. There is no Saturday night in Copenhagen - 10.06pm. I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy! The Danish all look alike. A Danish Portaloo urinal, they are a happy go lucky country. Though I did notice they aren't shy about public urination. City Ordinance states that no two buildings are allowed to be the same colour. Can you imagine if you had to do that in America. We left Jorcks Passage unexplored, though I'm not sure about other members of the TPR tour. There was 7Eleven on every corner. If the city blocks were octagonal there would have been 8 7Elevens per block. I love historical European towns untainted by commercialism. This appeared to be the town square, which was later invaded by thousnads of Danish soccer supporters. There was no need to ask how Denmark were going, you would just hear a roar, followed by a wave of launched projectiles whenever anything positive happened for the local team. Hot fuzz high tails it to Cowboy land. Too much Bon Jovi I think - "I'm a cowboy, on a steel horse I ride". The ride of racial stereotyping, basically all the races presented on this ride all look like rats including Australians. I have videod this ride and I will be making a complaint to the UN. This ride managed to make every country of the world look like it was a part of Bon-bon land. If I was a Danish kid on a school excursion, I'd be very confused. They were too lazy to fill the water dummies so TPR tourists had to suffice.

Bolliger & Mabillard call them hypers in their product catalogue: http://www.bolliger-mabillard.com/products/hyper_en.aspx Intamin have Giga, Mega & Mega Lite (less calories for all you ACErs) in their product catalogue: http://www.intaminworldwide.com/iag/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=22&Itemid=32 I think it's a conspiracy to create confusion and debate amongst coaster enthusiasts.

I agree that hyper is just a label, who cares as long as it is a good coaster. I've clocked 300 credits, and my top 5 coasters are all under 200 foot, and 4 of them barely over 100 feet. I'm looking forward to see Carowinds gets, it's a shame I'll be there a year early but I'll be pleasantly surprised if it's anything too far out of the ordinary.

You do have to realize that Cincinnati, where KI is, is roughly the same size as Charlotte and the surrounding areas. The only real difference between the two is that Charlotte is growing, one of the few growth markets currently. Also, were growing fast enough that road systems cant keep up, there is always construction going on. But do you realise that it isn't just the city that a park is in that defines it's market but also the size of nearby markets. Carowinds get just over a million visitors whereas KI has been getting almost for 3.5 million visitors for quite a while which speaks volumes about it's proximity to other large markets. Anyway we can speculate all we want, I'm sure they'll announce it in time.

That's an idea I've always liked for solving the problem of getting high enough for a large drop without all the problems of a launch or a really long lift hill - build at the top of a hill.

It would be great if the B & M does something that really pushes the boundaries but I'm not holding my breath. I would be surpised if Carowinds gets a $26 million + coaster, if they do, great. But the parks in the cedar Fair chain that have been attracting that level of investment generally have been the 3 million plus attendance parks like CW, CP, and KI. Carowinds isn't anywhere near that, and is unlikely to have the demographics to come close to that level of attendance but I guess we'll find out in time. As far as B & M Junior hyper go, Hollywood Dream at Universal Japan is what has been referred to as a B & M Junior hyper.

^I checked, Wry Gunplayland was on Day 3 on the way back down from SFNE to SFGADv.

I hope Carowinds get something ordinary in 2010 bacuse I'm going there this year! If I was a betting man I would say KD and Carowinds will get junior B & M hypers, I don't think either park is in a big enough market to financially justify a Behemoth or a Diamondback.

500 foot dive machine with aquatrax?

From what I gather B & M are not interested in building 300 foot plus coasters, I reckon if someone asked they would say no. They're not the only company that sets parameters around their product offerings. At the TPR tour Q & A at the GCI factory I asked them if someone enquired about building a 200 foot woodie would they do it, and they said they wouldn't, they don't think wood coasters work well at that size. I think every company has a philosophy about what they think works and what kind of projects they are prepared to take on. I like Intamin because they are prepared to experiment, even if the coasters are riskier in terms of reliability sometimes.

Awesome, I'll see you at Dollywood. They probably don't have a cocktail called the Kitchen Sink at Dollywood but maybe they have one called Twin Peaks. Imagine if Dolly is there when we are, that would be mammaryable, er I mean memorable, though unlikely.

Eric - Dylan looks so peaceful in that photo, he must be the only baby ever conceived on any coaster tour in the history of the world. Did you name him after Bob Dylan or Dylan Thomas or perhaps even Dylan Moran or just decided it was a cool name? Great trip report BTW, makes up for my one. I really wanted to do a full POV of Flying Turns where I ran the entire length of the course but I kept running into people. At least Knoebels are working on getting it going. We have a coaster up in the mountains in Sydney that has been complete for at least 20 years and still hasn't opened (Orphan Rocker). Oh yeah for the record, my besties were: Parks: 1. Knoebels 2. Compounce 3. Busch Steel: 1. SROS 2. daylight 3. more daylight Wood: 1. Phoenix 2. Dash 3. Toro ERT: 1. Dash 2. Phoenix 3. Lightning Racers 3 days from departing for the next TPR tour...

Nice report Erik, that place certainly looks colourful, and thanks for giving us a look at a park just about no one here would get to.

More Awards, Videos, and a Sad Story About Spiderman: Linda Blair Memorial Award: (note: the former Exorcist scary girl isn't dead but her career flatlined some time ago) This award serves as a cautionary tale about the demon Red Bull and it's psychotropic effects, and it goes to the evil twin Alabama Tyler. Living On The Edge Award: I would have been less scared if my roommate was Hannibal Lecter and I was a bodybuilder - he shared a room with Tony the entire tour, Phil come on down. Dances With Penguins Award: a man who knows how to pack light (just wear the same clothes everyday), light up the night with glow sticks, and has a passion for penguins that has no boundaries, Max, the statuette is yours. Best Sport Award: trip particpants were basically given an incentive to annoy her with a bingo competition, stupid questions and general fanboy scariness. Takes it all with a smile, Elissa I don't know how you do it. The Biggest Easy Award: the number one party boy, he could find an alcoholic beverage in the middle of the Sahara. New Orleans Jason, dude you've won. I could hand out many other awards but I'll leave it at that. Here is my attempt at a Flying Turns POV: [coastertube]http://www.themeparkreview.com/coastertube/play.php?vid=FT_POV_kzs5[/coastertube] Listen to the sound of my spine being pummeled on Toboggan ride of paralysis: [coastertube]http://www.themeparkreview.com/coastertube/play.php?vid=4_Toboggan_p4et[/coastertube] Let's go to the baseball with Skyliner: [coastertube]http://www.themeparkreview.com/coastertube/play.php?vid=7_Skyliner_9cpq[/coastertube] And finally a sad tale of corruption and isolation, when Spiderman joined the Midwest Tour in 2007: Sadly Spidey was alone again waiting for a Greyhound bus to oblivion, or perhaps salvation if Sam Raimi wants another billion in his bank account. The moral of the story is don't let yourself get punched in the nuts, it can turn a superhero into a superzero. Coming soon: the Randi for Scandi tour. But soon Spidey's low self esteem from the neutering, led him to sleep around with all sorts. But spdiey was a still a troubled superhero, and his dreams were full of darkness. Someone to comfort him and share a bus seat. And he found a friend, someone he could hang out with and share life's journey. The testicular trauma left Spidey colourless, sad and alone. He needed a friend. After the Fantastic Five was downsized to the Fantastic Four, a sad and retrenched Chris (aka ballsmasher) took out his frustration on Spiderman's major weakness.

I was curious, what makes this park the most profitable in the chain given they don't have the highest attendance of the chain. Are they getting higher margins on per capita spending items? Is the park structured in a way that it has lower operating costs?

Nice work Eric, that slide was so old school and so much fun. Knoebels is just so awesome, I reckon it would be fun to camp there (which I believe you can do), though they probably would frown on me putting up my tent in the Phoenix loading bay. That reminds me I should do one more east coast report, I even have a POV of Flying Turns.

I'll take a high thrill ride in a parking lot over a highly themed moderately thrilling ride any day. But its great when a park can combine a high thrill ride with great theming like Duelling Dragons or Superman Escape (Movie World). I really like the theming on Top Thrill Dragster. While it's hardly immersive or extensive - the Christmas lights, the announcements, the revving engine / screeching tire sounds are a really great build up to the actual ride and make every launch feel like an event. The sign with speed coming up and the spectator bleachers are also nice touches.

Drink Til I Die - Bad News, the lyrics are genius: "I want to drink as much as I can / That's why I'm a member of a heavy metal band" "Lager makes me happy, Vodka makes me mean / I'm drinking, driving, heavy metal alcohol machine"

Looks like a fun little park with a surprisingly large coaster collection. It's a shame this one is a little off the beaten track for the Deep South tour, there's some serious credit whoring in Valdosta.

What about a Togo around the world trip, people would experience brain injuries just trying to imagine a trip like that. With the Germany/Italy add on, would we have to organise our own transport to Germany (and then Italy during the add-on) after the UK trip, or would we do some kind of group transport thing (at least for Italy)?

Thanks for that, I wasn't clear about what the point of the rolls was. I thought it was more like - oh no we're going to go upside down, no we're not sort of thing, which might amuse younger riders.

I think this is what you are talking about, it's an Intamin standup (yes, Intamin) that has been stored there for a while: http://www.rcdb.com/id3472.htm

How about the film "mo' money" they could certainly use more of the cash. While we are on the Damon Wayans canon, how about about a Blankman coaster, I mean that would be less obscure than Bizarro. I'd like to see all Six Flags rides themed from the films of Ingmar Bergman, what could be more exciting than playing the grim reaper in chess?

Screeching like an eagle, maybe it's deliberate - I doubt it. All I can say is this coaster looks unusual and I will ride it if we get the chance on the Scandi tour. It still seems rather pointless to have track that inverts but the riders don't go upside down. Oh well, I'll reserve judgement until I ride it.

Me neither, they are fun rides but I prefer Intamin ejector air. Everytime they announce another B & M hyper I'm a little sad because I'm wishing they spent all that money on an Intamin hyper.