Canobie Coaster

Projected high of 37. A bit warm for Nitro to be honest.

Movie Park Germany Most of the Parques Reunidos parks on this trip weren’t too bad. In fact, I probably wouldn’t have been able to tell had I not looked it up. But Movie Park Germany was textbook Parques Reunidos. Rides had both delayed openings and early closures. One train ops? You bet! The park was empty, but a Speedy Pass was 100% necessary under those conditions. Now that I have that off my chest, I want to talk about the good. And there was a lot of good. Movie Park Germany is a true theme park. Every area and most rides have some sort of theming accompanying them. Ride the movies! And the premier attraction is Star Trek: Operation Enterprise. As a Star Trek fan, I absolutely loved the attention to detail in the queue and pre-show. What I didn’t like was the capacity. Star Trek can run multiple trains thanks to a switch track, but it was down to one train. Even worse, the entire front car was blocked off. Even with Speedy Pass, it still took 20-30 minutes to board. Mack launchers are great rides. Just don’t expect a good launch. While the hangtime on the twisted reverse spike is fantastic, the force on the launches just isn’t there. It’s sort of ironic just how good Mack launchers are considering just how bad the launches themselves are. The top hat had some decent airtime, but the best part was the double barrel roll. The hangtime through that element was sublime. That’s followed by an aggressive turn, a double down with some weak air, a bunny hill with some strong air, and a wonderful zero-G roll. 8 out of 10 Red shirt. That guy is totally dead. Star Trek catches your eye when you enter, but the entrance is in a galaxy far, far away. Van Helsing’s Factory was a very neat indoor experience. I call it an experience because while it’s undoubtedly a coaster, the ride has some incredible theming. This ride could exist as a standalone dark ride and it would still be one of the park’s best attractions. I don’t think the coaster is more than 25-30 feet tall, but it’s deceptively wild. The drops are quite abrupt and there are a few turns you don’t see coming. 7.5 out of 10 If only that movie with Hugh Jackman was this good. I loved Acrophobia at SFOG back in 2016. The standing floorless position was bizarre, but it was downright terrifying being tilted towards the ground. Honestly, I found it far scarier than something like Falcon’s Fury. For that reason, I was bummed it was closed during my visit last year. Thankfully, Movie Park Germany had the same ride in High Fall…or so I thought. The gondola was the same, but when we reached the top something was off. We never tilted. Between this and Highlander, I guess I’m just not meant to experience a tilting drop tower in Germany. Even without the tilt feature, the drop was still incredible. I was floating the whole way down. Plus, I was caught off-guard since I kept expecting it to tilt before it dropped. 9 out of 10 High Fall is so tall that you can see the Santa Monica Pier (themed area). Maybe it's just me, but this riding position isn't nearly as painful as you'd expect. I then entered into Pain Central. I knew Movie Park Germany was home to two of the most painful coasters in the world in Bandit and MP-Xpress. What I didn’t know was that they’re literally right next to each other. Whoever designed that has to be a serial killer. Whose idea was it to place these two things next to each other? I started with Bandit. I braced for the worst, but something odd happened. I didn’t completely hate it. The ride was definitely bumpy, but I didn’t find it painful. And that included a ride in the very back. I think I may be the anomaly though since the dude next to me was angrily yelling in German. Honestly, my biggest issue with Bandit was its speed. The ride looks and sounds awful. It sounds like nails on a chalkboard as the coaster crawls through the course. That being said, the second half did still manage to provide a little airtime. 4 out of 10 I didn't hate Bandit. The guy next to me sure did though. I found it more slow than rough to be honest. MP-Xpress is every bit as bad as its reputation suggests. Like most SLCs, this one was filled with non-stop headbanging. However, this one took the pain to a whole new level by also kidney punching me at several points throughout the ride. 1 out of 10 That guy now realizes he made a mistake. The nearby disko seemed like a safe attraction to catch my breath, but there was something very wrong with this one. Diskos are usually one of the most visually appealing flats with their oversized vehicle and vibrant lighting package. Crazy Surfer looked rusted and weathered. The appearance would have been forgivable, but the sack whacks were not. The valleys on this one were quite jolty. In a normal riding position, this wouldn’t have been an issue. But it results in pain when the restraint has your crotch pressed against something. 2 out of 10 I never would have thought this could be more painful than Bandit. Fearing the water rides may have early closures, I figured it’d be wise to start knocking those out. I made it onto Area 51 with just 5 minutes to spare. Maybe it was because the ride was being soft opened, but it closed 3 hours before the rest of the park at 5 pm. For the most part, the indoor sets are extremely well done. The sets are large and the park’s take on aliens is unique (picture a brain for the head instead of the stereotypical green body). The only part that didn’t fit in was this gratuitous backwards section where you pass through an ancient temple. The ride also included two drops. Neither drop was particularly steep, but the splashes were refreshing. I was also stunned the lap bars released during the final drop. I’m unsure if that was intentional or not. It’s a shame the ride closed early because I would have loved to go again. 9 out of 10 I lucked out with the timing for this ride's soft opening. The sets inside the mountain were exceptional. For some odd reason, the restraints unlock before you return to the station. Thankfully, the other water rides only closed a half hour before the park. Excalibur is technically a river rapids ride, but it’s best considered a dark ride. This ride has barely any rapids. In fact, it barely has any sprayers to boot. But what it does have is exceptional theming. The sets are grand and detailed. And it’s a long ride too. I know this ride was recently renovated, but I was blown away by the amount of detail on this ride. 9 out of 10 I thought I learned all the secrets of the Dark Forest on Verbolten. I thought the log flume would be the driest of the water rides, but I was wildly mistaken. Dora’s Big River Adventure will soak you. And the culprit is the first drop. Since the splashdown occurs in this narrow tunnel, the entirety of the splash is redirected back on the rider. If you don’t want to get drenched stay far away from Dora. While it looks like a highly themed flume, there isn’t any theming in the mountain. And beyond that, the drops are nothing special. 5 out of 10 That tunnel is pure evil. Or as Dora would say, "No bueno." I then picked off the three coaster clones in the Nickelodeon area. My first stop was Ghost Chasers. You’d think that were themed to Danny Phantom based on the name, but it’s actually themed to SpongeBob. Poor Danny Phantom never gets any love. As a ride, Ghost Chasers is your average mouse. This one had a brake towards the end of the top section that dialed back the laterals and airtime for the remainder of the ride. 5 out of 10 Is the Flying Dutchman shooting a laser booger at SpongeBob? WTF? Jimmy Neutron’s Atomic Flyer is a junior SLC. But unlike the ones at the Cedar Fair parks, this one has lap bar trains. It sucks getting a concussion on a SLC, but it especially sucks to get one on a coaster meant for kids. Jimmy Neutron was pretty slow and uneventful, but the ride was perfectly comfortable and I loved the amount of freedom granted by the restraints. The operator also gave two laps. 4 out of 10 Thank goodness this thing doesn't have OSTRs. My final coaster was Backyardigans: Mission to Mars. This was your typical roller skater. The only thing noteworthy was that the op had a devil of a time locking and unlocking restraints. These suckers wouldn’t lock and when they finally did, they wouldn’t unlock without a Herculean yank. 4 out of 10 I never realized Backyardigans were a Nickelodeon property. After some rerides on Star Trek, I had 20 minutes before closing. I still wanted to hit Time Riders, but on the way I figured I could squeeze in High Fall since it had no line. However, that assumed the op would actually load the dang thing. The op said he was only running it on the half hour if he didn't have a full load. Compare that to the ride op at Time Riders. He was a fellow coaster enthusiast (turns out he too wants RMC Bandit) and really got into the pre-show. After the first pre-show, there was a second pre-show with a giant and elaborate time machine. Then came the ride itself. I was hopeful it would be an immersive dark ride, but it was a simulator. This one was among the more jerky (think Wild Arctic), but the image quality was solid. I was a bit lost since I don’t speak German, but I still had fun. 6 out of 10 You enter here, but the show building is actually way behind that top spin in the distance. The operations at Movie Park Germany leave a lot to be desired. Between one train operations, inefficient dispatches, and staggered closing times, I could tell this place was owned by Parques Reunidos. However, I really liked everything else about the park. The staff was super friendly and the park had some great theming, particularly on their dark rides.

Movie Park Germany Area 51 is the renamed and updated version of Alien Encounter. Excalibur: Secrets of the Dark Forest is the renovated Mystery River. The new attraction reuses the same ride system and show building shown on Mystery River. Barnyard Bumpers is officially called Back at the Barnyard Bumpers. Below is a sign of the ride. Fairy World Spin and Looney Tunes 4D are two missing rides.

Fantastic to see that open!

All the near misses look incredible.

That's a fair point. I had a good burger the day before at Walibi Holland, so I was a little too optimistic. I forgot that thread existed.

The bun was dyed black and dry, but even the patty tasted off.

Thank you! I appreciate all the work on this poll.

And it looks like temperatures are above Dollywood's minimum operating limit, so you should be able to get plenty of Lightning Rod night rides.

Lightning Rod had zero downtime due to mechanical issues 2 weeks ago. The only time it went down in my 2 days was to clean puke. It seems to finally be running consistently this year.

I'm not sure if this is a bug, so I wanted to check. I'm running into an issue when my ballot contains 506 or more coasters. If I have 505 coasters in my ballot, my rankings are stable. I can rearrange the coasters already in my ballot and it saves. Once my ballot contains 506 or more coasters, I have a few different issues. I can add coasters to my ballot and the site says the rankings save. However, when I refresh the page, the newly added coasters are mixed among my pre-existing coasters. If I try to rearrange these new coasters, I get a Server Error. If I try to rearrange the older coasters that were already in the list, I get a Server Error. If I shrink my ballot back down to 505 coasters, I can edit my coasters without any errors. I've tried Chrome (desktop and mobile) and Edge. The issue didn't seem to be browser specific. Thanks again for all your work to set up this poll! I can cut back on the number of coasters in my ballot if need be, but I wanted to check. The important thing to me is that I can bury Coaster Express at the bottom of the list once I add it.

Slagharen Slagharen is a perfect example why I love Europe. It was cold; it was rainy. I'm pretty sure most US parks would have closed without any hesitation. But in Europe, there is nothing to fear. That is unless you hate water. Then you should be very afraid. Until 2 years ago, I had no clue Slagharen even existed. But a shiny triple launching Gerstlauer put it on my radar. I wasn't able to join TPR in 2017 for the post-trip, but I was able to squeeze this western themed park in on my most recent Europe trip. What a cute park. I had no clue this park was owned by Parques Reunidos going into my visit, but I wasn't the least bit surprised once I entered the park and found that almost everything had a delayed opening. One of the earliest rides to open was Gold Rush and even that didn't open for a half hour. I guess the moral of the story is to not rush to Slagharen for opening. I know that now, but there was nothing on the site mentioning they did this. On the bright side, the delayed openings let me fill in the Park Index. Here's the new-for-2019 Black Hill Ranger Path. The course does include a zipline coaster, but it was closed due to technical issues. But Gold Rush was worth the wait. Unlike the Mack triple launchers, Gold Rush's second and third launches actually have some kick to them. However, my favorite part may have been the hangtime on the reverse spike. It's strong and very sustained, particularly towards the back. The top hat surprisingly offered no air towards the front, but it instead offered some strong laterals. The back was the opposite, as the laterals were minimal but the drop had some great ejector air. That's followed by an overbank that had me seeing grey and a camelback with strong airtime throughout the train. Last but not least was Gold Rush's wild finale, the dive loop. I got the hangtime I expected, but I was not prepared for the wild laterals on my front row ride. This whip was much less pronounced towards the back. I think I preferred the front on Gold Rush because of the laterals, but the back was great too for the better airtime/hangtime. I know it's cliche, but both Slagharen and Gerstlauer struck gold with this ride. 8 out of 10 I also have to note the operations on Gold Rush. They were efficient. In fact, they may have been too efficient. There were several instances where guests were placing their belongings in loose article bins and the ops accidentally closed a restraint. But instead of unlocking them, they would open the airgates and make you wait for the next train. I've never seen this at any other park. Gerstlauer packed a lot of ride into a small space. I love the tramp stamp. After riding Gold Rush for a half hour, everything else opened. So I made the Wild West Adventure dark ride my next stop. This dark ride is a bit odd since it's housed in a giant tent rather than a traditional show building, but it was perfectly fine. Wild West Adventure basically uses a river rapids ride system minus the rapids. I was expecting a relatively cheap and basic dark ride, but this had a wonderful atmosphere, some solid Indian and cowboy animatronics, and a few bonus effects like geysers synchronized with gunshots. 8 out of 10 This was almost the most racist ride of the trip. But Bobbejaanland had this beat. I then backtracked to the front of the park where it was noticeably busier. And when I say busy, I'm referring to 5-10 minute waits. It was actually impressive things weren't walk-ons considering the weather. The roller skater was fittingly themed to a mine train. It was also unoriginally named Mine Train. This was one of the extended versions. I've said it before, but I find the smaller ones to be a bit smoother and punchier. 3 out of 10 I was already soaked, so I took a lap on Ripsaw Falls. There was no Dudley Do-Right or crazy drops on this flume, but you could get equally as drenched. You see, the second lift comes dangerously close to the splashdown. And when I saw a full boat coming, I knew I was screwed. But outside of that, it wasn't a particularly good or memorable flume. 4 out of 10 Where's Dudley Do Right? Slagharen is home to arguably the coolest looking swinger out there in Apollo. But does it ride as well as it looks? Not really. While most swing rides get their height from the base rising, Apollo gets all its height from centripetal force. This results in a meager max height and the lack of tilt made it duller than the other wave swingers or yo-yos I've ridden. 4 out of 10 Is this one of a kind? The hardest ride to check off was Free Fall. This was the only ride I saw close when the rain was at its worst. But when the rain reduced to a drizzle, I was finally able to ride this drop tower. I have no clue who the manufacturer is (Fabbri?), but the restraints were bulky. You had the normal OSTR plus this chest plate component. Because of this, I didn't feel any air on the drop. I did get a nice stomach drop sensation at the start of the drop though, probably because of how sudden it was. There was zero warning. As far as drop towers go, it was decent. 7 out of 10 I'm a sucker for a good drop tower. I also rode the Observation Tower at one point, but I have nothing to show for it. Picture a car windshield in a rainstorm without wipers. That was basically my ride in a nutshell. So many observation rides. Before leaving, I took a few more laps on Gold Rush. It had some technical difficulties in the middle of the day, but it was still able to run in a downpour. Gold Rush is such a nice fit for a park like Slagharen. I'll say it again, the park struck gold with Gold Rush. Slagharen isn't in the top tiers of European parks, but it's an enjoyable place for what it is. Gold Rush is a very good coaster and the park has a solid atmosphere. Just don't order a burger. I ordered a "plain burger" and got this vile thing. *Barf* I should've eaten at Big D...

Slagharen Looping Star has closed. Calypso, Ocean of Darkness, Super Glijbaan, Traumboot, and Zwunka have also closed. There are two entries for the carousel- Draaimolen and Paardencaroussel. The website currently calls it Gallopers, so I have no clue which name is the most recent. I think Zweefapollo just goes by Apollo now. I think El Torito is a re-skin of the old Octopus ride. El Torito El Torito sign Below are some missing rides. Black Hill Ranger Path (has a zipline coaster) Chuck Wagon Teatro

I think the hamster wheel is the Big Air Coaster. I think the Micro Coaster just looks like an oval with your standard kiddie coaster cars.

Pandemonium seemed close to running last year since they had the heaters installed. That ride is perfect considering HITP's audience is more family oriented and the South End/Gotham City is all thrill coasters.

Slime Streak did reopen according to the website and at least one trip report I saw from yesterday.

Great report! Maybe I should've given Spin Runway a second chance when I was there since I got a ride with hardly any spinning even in a super unbalanced car. But then again I was too busy riding Bandit and Splash UFO.

The Bell rides look cool, but their capacity is terrible and they already have Extreme Supernova which is a frisbee ride of similar height.

I'm guessing it would be less obvious with trees in bloom, but it would be allowed per the agreement.

Great Escape flew a height balloon and the ride would be very visible from Glen Lake. Six Flags was arguing that the 2001 height limit in Ghost Town was outdated since the trees had grown in the past 18 years. I'll be interested to see if Six Flags tries to move the ride's location, change the ride size, or continue to fight it. Photo from Post Star (article below) For comparison, you can't see any of the park's other rides including the Sky Coaster or Sasquatch since they sit in the lower areas of the park. Link to Post Star

It's definitely nice this ride got a unique name as opposed to Mako. But the important thing is that this will probably be a hit with the public like every other dive machine.

Great report! I really wish Magic Kingdom's it's a small world had the characters integrated into the ride. It'd make me ride it more.

^ I saw the POV of that ride and it looked comparable to how hard it was raining at Walibi. It definitely makes for a memorable ride!

I can imagine acupuncture in the eyeballs hurting. It's times like this that I'm thankful my vision is poor. Maybe if the NeuroGen clinic gave me some stronger meds, I would have rated it more highly.