rctneil

And a few more: Duffy the Disney Bear, I couldn't go to Tokyo Disney with buying something Duffy related so it turned out to be this: Only keychain I could find that actually said Valleyfair! on it: Air on ride photo keychain from Alton Towers:

Nice Blackpool report Chuck. Blackpool is definitely home to the British classic rides. Steeplechase is excellent as you said, and the Revolution is really really good now they sandblasted and repainted it the other year. Yep, The Gold Mine really needed a makeover and Wallace and Gromit is a much better ride. I heard that the ride was overhauled over two years. First year they ripped the ride system out, cleaned it up did maintenance and re fitted and the next year they gave all the themeing a revamp so Blackpool did really well there. River Caves is one of my favourite attractions at Blackpool, it's sooo tacky and funny. I really miss Noah's Ark, was great to wander around it but at least it's still sitting there above the park entrance. Beaver Creek turning into Nick Land has now totally refreshed the area and it's a much more pleasant and up to date area to be in. It's basically an outdoors Nick Universe! I only got to ride Magic Mountain once and from that ride i'm glad it went! Might try to get to Blackpool again but later in the year. Can't wait to see what's up next?

The park actually looks really nice. The flume ride with the two Walrus' looks really nice. I also love how the Wing Coaster dips and dives through the terrain a lot near the end. The hotel is very impressive too, especially that lobby with the dolphins! Thanks for posting the report!

I think it was from a main shop near the entry of one of the parks. And yes the popcorn does have hidden mickeys!

My 3 for today: A Lego dragon from Legoland Windsor: A character from Chimelong Paradise: And a miniature version of the Donald Duck popcorn buckets I saw so many people carrying around at TDR. It also comes with a small chain of fake popcorn!

And three more from me: Pearl Tower in Shanghai has the Vekoma Junior Coaster, Space Switchback inside. Blaster from Buzz Lightyear at Hong Kong Disneyland. And a mini Rubiks Cube from Alton Towers in 2013.

For me the most intense moments on coasters have to be:- Dodonpa, the acceleration is incredible and the way to get pulled over the top hat is mental. It feels like it's trying to catapult you as close to Mt Fuji as it can make you go! Intimidator 305's first turn made me grey out a few times out of the 7 or so times I rode it. B&M Flyer pretzel loops to me feel like a lot of elephants have just been plonked on your chest. Very intense.

Hope you don't mind me posting some of mine in this topic? A nice selection I bought from Tokyo Disney Resort: And one from Wallace and Gromits Thrill o Matic at Blackpool Pleasure Beach: By the way, I love this keychain:

The first backwards B&M I rode was The Swarm and it was much better backwards than forwards. Forwards the ride is good but not great. but the addition of not quite knowing where you are going next is really enjoyable. Hollywood Dream backwards has to be one of the most bizarre experiences I have ever had on a coaster. Going backwards was much better than going forwards and the ride itself is great but my experience was this: going backwards on a roller coaster, in japan, listening to One Direction. Very odd. One Direction was only chosen as they were the only British band on there unfortunately! I really should have chosen the Japanese song. Anyway, I would love to try a B&M invert backwards. Maybe Alton could make Nemesis backwards but only for a limited time.

I too have collected keychains for many years and now have a collection of around 2000+. I don't have as many amusement park related ones as you do. My collection are keychains from anywhere at anytime so a really varied set. I might post some of them in this topic. Thanks for sharing!

Those two 360 degree photos really add the scale to all the previous photos. This thing is HUGE! Really really looking forward to taking my first ride on it in June!

I just went back and read the report about Alton. It's amazing to see how much has changed even since 2006! Spinball looks very strange in it's old support colour. I actually prefer the Sonic blue supports much better than that horrid teal colour. I agree that Chessington got the better half of the deal on those Spinners. Dragons Fury is a much much better ride than Spinball. But still, it soaks up tons of people in it's queue. Nemesis, even then looked rather new and bold and bright. I really hope they give the station theming some maintenance and tart it up a bit sometime as some parts are now looking rather dull and tatty. I know it's meant to have that style, but it's not meant to fall to pieces. There is a difference and some people I have heard talking about this can't seem to understand that. Zombies in the UK definitely know how to use guns....so watch out! Porr Corkscrew... I have to honestly say, it ran superbly well on it's final day and I was quite sad when I saw it being taken to pieces the following day. oh well, change happens. We have Thirteen, YAY. I'm glad you rode Hex. So many people miss it and it's actually very well themed and designed. I have ridden it pretty much once a visit, mainly to people watch those who have never ridden a mad house/hex before. Air is most definitely like a starter Flying coaster. Nothing major and is very tame but of all the flyers out there it seems it's the one to most accurately provide the feeling of flight. Thanks for the photos.

The Wild West shooting ride was actually working perfect on my last visit but it took at least 3 visits originally to actually find it open. Toad in the Hole is amazing but I agree theme park version might not be as great The Drunken Barrels I stay away from as I hate spinny flat rides

Nice overview of Drayton there Chuck! Drayton is a nice little park and the coasters are ok but nothing standout. I hate G Force as it's just one of the most pointless rides ever created and it mostly now only runs one train so waits can take awhile. (If anyone goes now, wait until around 3pm to ride G Force as it will be practically walk on). I enjoy Shockwave, it's not long but is unique to the UK and the ride was rather smooth on my last visit. Your report totally jolted my memory of Fruit Shoot Land, I do remember that and Thomas Town which has replaced it is much much much nicer. Drayton really have done a great job of Thomas Land and the little Troublesome Trucks coaster is very good for a kiddie ride. I do however they added a copy of Fuji-Q's Thomas dark ride in as it would fit in perfectly and was a really nice, very well done ride. It is also one of the only Thomas Land's where you can ride Thomas and actually go to another place! It takes you to the zoo which you can walk back through to arrive back at the park a bit further in. At that other train station, Drayton is also home to the original Thomas sets which have been laid out and still have all the trains whizzing around. There is also a nice retro arcade around there too. Just infront of the parks Ferris Wheel, Drayton added Ben 10's Ultimate Mission which was the first Vekoma Junior Boomerang. The queue is very well themed and leads you to the totally generic platform. The ride is actually rather good and enjoyable. I don't think Xcaliber has operated for quite a while and looks to be ready for total renovation or change. Pirates Adventure, like you said, is a try copy of Disney's Pirates ride. I like it, it's not bad for Drayton but does take an age to go around. It also has the cleanest water I have ever seen for the water ride! I hope this years Air Race will also bring some life back to the area around the final turn of Shockwave as that has been very quiet now for a while and lacks any atmosphere. Anyway, great report so far Chuck!

I got to ride my first Volare at Flamingo Land last year. The trains are strange and they do have a unique style to loading. The lift is strange but it works well and takes up very little space. The ride experience wasn't terrible but I wasn't overly fond of it. I'm not sure whether other Volares do this but as the train makes it's way around the sharp hairpins at one end of the ride by the lift, the whole structure wobbles (I know wobbling is normal in coasters) but this was quite a lot and the trains squeaked a lot around those turns. I won't be rushing back to Flamingo Land to ride Hero again but I wouldn't say no to ever riding it again like some other coasters out there!

The log flume at window of the World near Happy Valley Shenzhen. It wasn't the ride that soaked me, it was more the very large group of TPR members stood in waiting at the fire hose area after the final drop which I failed to notice and the fire hoses on Chinese water rides are not to be taken lightly!

Wow, Fantastic update! Top hat looks excellent and the station is massive! Really excited to see the pretzel go in followed by the first test runs!

I hate it when people smoke outside of the designated areas. I put up with it if it's in a currently low trafficked area and not many children around and if I can move away but in a queue line where you cannot move away, it's not on and not thoughtful towards others. I have heard Merlin's take on the E-cigs last year and they understand it's only water vapor given off but they are giving them the same rules as normal cigs due to the fact that if an e-cig was being used in an area of a park and a normal smoking guest sees from a distance and doesn't realise it's an e cig then he/she may take that as a sign that they too can smoke wherever they like. I think this take on it by Merlin makes 100% sense.

The B&M Wing Coasters I don't love them and don't hate them. I have only ridden The Swarm and it is a good ride. Not overly forceful, not speedy but it is very smooth, loads of hangtime and is very reliable. So for those, if one is around to ride, then I will. Nothing more and nothing less really. The S&S 4D's I enjoy but can be quite rough or jolty. I can express more of an opinion on these as I have ridden all three of them (YAY!) and they were quite similar. I do like the unique experience of flipping around whilst on the ride but the rotations do need damping down to soften the jolts. They do look very impressive though!

When I popped into Gulliver's Milton Keynes a few years back I totally expected Python to be rough and horrible from first looks but it turned out relatively nicely for what it was. I was also expecting 10 Inversion Coaster at Chimelong to be as bad as it's cousin at Thorpe but it wasn't. It actually ran quite well. (even though the seats are uncomfortable) On the uncomfortable end of the spectrum, I expected Timber Wolf at WoF to be ok but it threw me about like anything. I had to literally be forced on it the second day I was there.

It's looking more impressive every day. It's going to be great seeing the first test run!

The new park seems to be coming along really nicely. It's great following a project from concept through to completion. Ashamedly, I too have never tried Dole Whip. *hangs head in shame*

Monsters Inc was definitely better than DCA's version but the two things I didn't like were the fact the cars went in three's. By the time the 3rd car was in sight of the targets, they had already been activated by the people in the first and second cars. It wouldn't be so bad if the animatronics reset in time but they would have to be super fast for that to happen. and I felt the aiming torches at stuff seemed a bit tacked on and took peoples attention away from all the characters and sets held within. Just my two cents.

I've never been a huge fan of the Shrek films (apart from the first one which was amazing) but I guess this should do well. I really need to get to these attractions as it's been a long time since I last visited them.

It's Windows only for now. They did have a stretch goal for a Mac version but it wasn't reached. I'm a Mac user too so I am still holding out for a version for us but I pledged anyway as I can play it via bootcamp I guess. Neil (+ one more vote for a mac version) Tonge