rctneil

Nemesis at Alton for me!

As the crow flies my closest coaster is the Wild Mine Ride at Gulliver's Warrington. It's 8.9 miles as the crow flies but seems much further than that driving!

I didn't see the Psycho Valley photo earlier. haha. I entirely forgot about that one being taken! Thanks for posting it.

Excellent report of Ocean Park, Chuck! It's a really amazing looking park and was a great day apart from the million percent humidity! By the way, you may want to tweak the caption on the photo of the seal giving directions. I would say it is Larry in the photo! Mainly because I too have that photo from a slightly different angle.

That's excellent news! I wouldn't mind trying out the original version of it as well as the backwards one when we visit.

How about a backwards dive machine. Sitting facing backwards at the top of Oblivion would be pretty nervewracking!

The name is actually quite likeable. You can;t argue they haven't got imagination! They have really created a quite creepy atmosphere with all the marketing so far. The Sanctuary last year was quite disturbing at parts. Really can;t wait to be there for it's opening day in May

Hmmm, interesting. Should be yet another things to try out on the Japan trip!

Pretty likely to be Nemesis on 16th February like it has been the last few years. That is unless I visit Blackpool the week prior where it would be Wild Mouse (Love that ride) or the Big One.

It all looks pretty intriguing. I am liking all the viral marketing going on in regards to the ride. I really hope it turns out well. The Sanctuary during Scarefest was really well done and had that creepy atmosphere surrounding it so maybe the ride will too. Anyway, I'll be there on opening day ready for my *appointment* and i'll be taking a ton of photos too!

Very much looking forward to getting to Chessington near the end of the upcoming season to give this a try!

Can't, Wait, To, Visit!! Great photo as always Hanno.

Will look forward to visiting sometime in the next few months to try the Air Race out and to finally try out a Volare! Maybe not too looking forward to that but there we go, we'll see. I'm surprised I haven't ridden one yet to be honest.

Surely if it is going to have an element like that they cannot claim it to have that many inversions. Surely just being rotated upside down inside that is not classed as an inversion. I realise it would fully go upsidedown but I do think it's a bit on the edge of the claim. I really hope it doesn't end up being something like that. You'll start by hurtling around the main track doing inversions and then flung into that contraption to be rotated around a few times just to up the upside down count. Anyway, Don't want to knock it before i've seen it and ridden it so we'll see what comes of this as I know Alton can pull a great ride out of the bag from time to time!

Misters seemed to be everywhere in that park. You couldn't stand anywhere without being sprayed with water!

That part is just plain odd. It's a standard heart-line roll but then you twist over half as much again. It disorientates you quite a bit to be honest.

I really enjoyed Hair Raiser, it's a bit short but for Ocean Park it really fits in well! The airtime hill is amazing as are the brief glimpses of the view you egt as you go round.

TPR had their last tour here in the UK the year Th13teen opened.

OMG, The Ghost Ship was very freaky. None of us had any idea what we were letting ourselves in for. At most it was just going to be another mediocre Chinese haunted walkthrough but blimey, that one was odd. It was just the reactions and expressions everyone had when they came off and telling everyone to go and try it! Still wish we could have all persuaded Steve to take a trip through!

A good coaster it not necessarily anything with inversions or ejector air or whatever other elements. It's one that makes good use of it. A good coaster also shouldn;t cram too many types of element into a ride. Some of the better coasters I have ridden just keep things simple. Take for example, Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars (Phew!), that ride is not tall, fast, has no inversions, etc, but delivers and amazing family ride experience. Intamin Mega-Lites are aimed at the thrill market but don't have inversions and those are amazing rides to. I think some peoples thoughts that coasters with inversions are for the thrill people and ones without are not, are plain wrong.

Happy New Year to all! Here's to another year filled with more theme park adventures and mayhem!

That half-pipe was sooo much rougher than the only other I have ridden (Avatar at MoA). Wasn't at all keen on it. The MoA one was much nicer but to be honest they both spin so they both get a point knocked off in my book!

Was pleasantly surprised with Chimelong. Really nice little park. Was a very hot day though. Nice selection of coasters too, loved the manufacturer stock names on them! The onion rings were excellent. Their version of Fire Rescue seemed a little dilapidated but Divv and I managed to win for the UK! I also think this was the second time on the trip we subjected ourselves to watch Yogi Bear in Chinese, mainly for the extended (but not long enough) air conditioning time. Overall a nice park and wouldn't mind visiting again. Edit: Sorry, it was Ice Age in the 4D cinema here! Language was Chinese but at least this version had moving seats unlike Alton's!

Drayton's Pirate Adventure must have the cleanest water in it's ride trough of any ride I have ever ridden! It's absolutely crystal clear. (Sorry very odd to notice this). It's not a bad ride at all and quite well done apart from the last few scenes and how slow the whole ride is. The lift to the station at the end is very anti climatic too.

Drayton is actually a really nice park! G-Force is in my opinion my least favourite coaster of the pack. Normally it gets a long line as soon as it opens but normally it is pretty much walk on past 3pm. I have seen it have an hour + queue when it opens and later in the day I ended up sitting on a half empty train waiting for other riders! Ben 10 is a really really nice addition to Drayton. It gives younger kids a sort of step up style coaster from Troublesome Trucks (which is awesome by the way) before they pluck up the courage to ride G-Force or Shockwave. It's not super fast but for the UK it is actually pretty unique and seems to have been executed perfectly. Apocalypse is a nice drop tower. I would say this is the most adrenaline fuelled attraction the park has to offer and it still has that foreboding atmosphere as you enter the station and walk around the raised up walkways! I do wonder what we will see next at Drayton as overall it has a very nice balanced set of rides for everyone.