DandAyr
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Posts posted by DandAyr
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2 visits this year and one visit last year - and Wild Mouse not ridden. It was never open - and never a sign of anyone working on it, so for many of us it is just a pretty pile of wood with a fresh coat of white paint. Always enjoyed it - despite the queue time as each year seemed to be less cars on the track
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Abandoned theme parks are always interesting to see! Thanks for posting this. What does everyone else think?
was very hard to watch - seeing something just 20miles away that we enjoyed each summer with our kids and no longer can, yet two of the three rides that the kids would have said were their favourites still sit their wasting away.
The local schools used it for end of term outings, youth groups like Guides, Brownies and Scouts used it for outings. A big hole left in the entertainment options in the west of scotland when Loudoun closed its doors for the last time.
for a tourist county, Ayrshire had very little for those who were looking for more than scenery, Robert Burns and Golf. The loss of Loudoun Castle was a big blow. Our nearest park to visit is now over 200miles away (we don't count M+Ds).
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On last visits the hill did feel like items had gone and no investment, just assumed it was the economics of the moment - looking forward to seeing the first plans of how this will fit in. A description like that, must be going to be more on the skyline than Lisebergbanan with its hugging and low profile.
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After missing out 2010, made our annual visit to Sweden and Liseberg.
Other than the 60min q to ride (was never that when an observation tower ), enjoyed Atmosfear.
It was a sunny Saturday after a few poor days of weather and the Gothia cup was on making the City even busier, park was busy from 11am to 11pm (Blackpool please note!).
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was a couple of years since last there - but was early July.
start of day walk on and end of day had many rides to ourselves.
the middle it was packed - school outings.
the down side of Scottish Schools having holidays earlier than England are when we go to theme parks in the first couple of weeks of our school break, that tends to be when the schools in England have their outings to theme parks.
having said Drayton was packed - was still not to bad.
Busiest we have experienced was Light Water Valley - they did have signs outside in car park warning to expect thousands of school kids the day we chose to go there.
Maybe drop Drayton an email and see if they can advise if they have an average or above average number of party bookings the day you want to go.
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And the stats says it'll cross two other roller coasters so I would guess the location will be somewhere between Blue Fire and Atlantica.
Ah it's great to be able to follow another 2012 project!
Only problem is that is an old satellite picture - that gap you highlight is where the splash ride Whale adventures in Iceland zone got put. Would not think they would put a coaster on top of it and not sure if enough room left there you could get in a station and storage.
Maybe at back of Greece - then silverstar and another (posieden or pegasus) would be close enough to be the two it goes by ?
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as you are here for a year, you can break up to a couple of mini trips. However you do it, I would not miss:
Blackpool - so much history and uniqueness. You dont come off rides that are mirrors (or so similar) of many round the world.
Alton Towers - beautiful lanscape with some thrilling rides fitted in.
Drayton Manor - worth the visit for the stand up and the drop tower
Lightwater Valley - brace yourself for the Ultimate
Other than Legoland, I have not been to the parks surrounding London, and as my kids are now all over 8, I would not rush back to Legoland Windsor.
re Blackpool, someone said you need to pay per ride. Nope you can get an all day ticket. As to its appearance, it is packed together in a small space so will never have the asthetic appearance of a WDW, Alton Towers, Europa Parc, etc etc
but on a sunny day, with the crowds about it is a classic seaside amusement park atmosphere that no where else in the UK will match. Wild Mouse was mentioned - dont listen to the comparison made. Blackpools is a classic wooden wild mouse, not one of those steel things you see all round the world.
Best way to decide which of these parks are best for you, look at the TPR park list for photos and also the TPR trip reports. If I was hosting a visitor to the UK and they could only attend two places, Alton Towers and Blackpool to me are the cant miss places.
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nice to hear the Canon ride was smooth for you in Wisconsin.
Earlier in the summer rode its twin, the Rocket - declined a third ride due to sore head it left me with. Hopefully the Wisconsin experience means those days are gone now and its smooth as it should be.
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the Packers dont seem as popular as they used to be - looks like folk were walking straight through the outside q to get into Vince's house to see his tribute. Just seemed like a couple of seasons ago they were packing them in for hours to reach the door.
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I love your line "It really nice for a small place like Aberdeen"
That will be Aberdeen the 3rd largest city in Scotland
Good to see the place is still going though - looks likes the North East of Scotlands is smaller than the two 'amusement/theme parks' over here on the west, but at least unlike one of ours it is still a going concern.
Thanks for posting about rides in our country I had not seen before.
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8 simulators racing against each other - as long as enough to do in the Ferrari World, and it sounds like there is, dont see a huge lines issue.
Case in point - DisneyQuest.
While just an arcade game , was alwasy a line, but nothing unacceptable on the indy raceing (12 cars is it?)
Same with the Pinball simulator, Jungle Cruise simulator and Flying Carpet simulator. In fact only bad line we experienced was the Buzz astroblaster thing - and that was caused by technical issues (broken down ride cars)
Suspect Ferrari World will have less crowds than Downtown Disney, so as long as enough attractions and you are just doing a couple of laps of the track, 8 simulators may not have as nig a line as you'd first think.
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I've seen transport links mentioned a couple of times
- private transport, its straight down the motorway from Glasgow then a 10minute drive from the dual carriadeway on good A roads - I can think of a couple of UK parks that would wish they were as handy to good road network.
- public transport, train to Kilmarnock from Galston then a bus out to Galston and a short walk or a taxi from Kilmarnock
I dont see transport as an issue - maybe just not caught the market right?
It is aimed at families and most rides are for the teenagers and younger.
For parents, and the twenty somethings (or older without kids) its not going to fill a whole day out. As a parent its a great day whole day out, seeing your kids enjoy it and taking part on some rides as well - maybe what was needed was a lower price model to reflect tha adults are not going for Alton Towers type day out?
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The layout for that coaster looks pretty good, what kind of carage is it and whats max speed, could be pretty nice for one not in a major park.
assume you mean the last pictures - Twist n Shout ?
rcdb quotes it as 41mph.
it is a nice layout, a very easy to do multiple rides on this coaster as not rough on you in any way
if you meant Goldrush - never got on it so cant describe how it rode (actually I will have rode it when it was the 4 man bob at Alton Towers, but that was a long time ago!)
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Loudoun Castle Theme Park removed one of their coasters and announced a 2010 replacement Goldrush to open in the summer. So we delayed our family visit till after the school holidays instead of before, so we could also ride the new coaster as well as Scotlands best coaster - Twist n Shout.
What was Goldrush like - read on and see it and other rides that gave us a great family day out.
Stroll through up the pretty lane - and this beautiful sight greets you
Time for the one hilll flume
this hill - ok splash, suits the scottish climate
Milk Churn - well it churned more than that for me.
the things you do to keep your kids happy - I hate this movement, I was dazed when it stopped
we are in a farming county
but this barn comes with a whoooooosh
make that two woooooshs
back to earth -barnstormer is a great shot tower
the plough can be seen on a clear day as well as night
so polite - but what can we do in the farm?
Milk the cows of course
ride the horses
give thanks
feed the pets
farm the land
I preferred horses to tractors (who says its a kiddie ride)
well i had to ride the horse while my kids went on Churn again
random farm yard theming
cant have a theme park without a swinging boat
some rodeo time before back to coasters
dont worry twist n shout were on our way
but first, new for 2010 GOLDRUSH
no queue - cause its broke
just need to imagine what it would ride like
in the carts for gold rush miners
as close as we were getting today
ride theming
a detour via the french taxis
then a spin about
Black Pearl - sounds like a 2nd boat swing
yep - we are swinging again
but this one goes all the way - even lets you rest at the top!!!!!
stormbreaker, they like spinning you at Loudoun
Wacky Worm is always happy as always busy
relax in a drunken barrel
a very green park
with lots of space
a vintage drive before finishing the day on .....
a smooth fun coaster - round the loop
then back through
after a great day out - nice scenic walk to car park
farewell and thanks for a great day
and now hear the farewell may be our last to the park if nothing can be sorted over the winter.
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Really sad news for the Ayrshire and the surrounding area. Took the family there the other week (photo TR to be posted) and had a great day out (despite Goldrush).
Reading one of the other newspaper articles sounds like owner is looking for excuses to justify closure. This is what he is quoted saying on this Daily Record link http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sunday-mail/2010/10/01/owner-blames-free-attractions-and-vat-rise-as-loudoun-castle-theme-park-closes-86908-22600646/
He said: "The combination of bad weather, increased VAT and the imminent opening of new publicly-funded visitor attractions, including the £21million Burns Centre and the £85million transport museum in Glasgow, which will be free of charge, has created a situation where Loudoun Castle Theme Park is no longer economically viable.I'm sorry Henk but the Burns Centre telling the story of the national Poet is not the same market as a theme park. The transport museum is a replacement building - the current museum is free and has been for all my long life time, so again a weak excuse blaming others. Sounds like just want rid of the rides to use the land for other purposes.
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went to both disney water parks this summer
thought theming of both was brilliant
family raft at BB so wipes the floor of TL
wave pool at TL - especially when the biggest wave is sent down - wipes out everything
lazy river at both we found equally log, lazy and relaxing - and most important enough shade and tranquility
BB - can see how some found it more confusing to get round - as long as you just kept going round in a natural circle and not cut about, we found it as easy to navigate as TL
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I ended up in our Austin office on the Friday - so SFFT was the decsion on sat 14th.
Yes it was hot ! 104 was only 36 higher than back home.
Someone said SFFT while got the chance to do Rattler - well only just had the chance. Got beaten up by it in the morning and later whle on the Road Runner Express noticed a train stationary on the lift hill. When I left the park at 6pm it was still a dead coaster.
Will do a posting on the main forum - a wee photo trip report.
Thanks again to thise who shared their thoughts on which to go to.
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Summit Plummet - Blizzard Beach is insane!!
was on it for first time last month - good, but would not say insane.
Sitting at top ready to go, only reason for delay was waiting for attendant to give the ok.
Insane drop was at Skara Sommarland - the delay there was building up the courage to go over the edge. Been on the platform and taken folk ages to go over, and seen many climb out and walk back down.
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^They're both real nice parks, you won't be disappointed with whichever one you choose.
If you want any better suggestions perhaps let us know some of the rides you like.
I am easy pleased - I like variety.
Wood tends to be in my favourite coasters: Blackpool collection, Balder, Troy, GA Scream Machine (1974- got me hooked on thrills!), Robin Hood, Tonnerre de Zeus
but steel is also in there: Goliath (Walibi World), RocknRoller (FL +Paris), SM Paris, all at Europa Park, BTM Paris, Lisebergbanen
Parks wise: Disney, Europa, Liseberg, Pleasure Beech I preferred BGE to IOA
I enjoy flats that swing, that spin, that shoot, but avoid those that twist and rotate and flip all in the one ride.
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Due to flight availability, I find myself with a spare Saturday at the end of a business trip to Houston.
I have been to Kemah (though it was before the Bullet) and thought there must be another theme park to visit on this day.
If I follow right, there is a choice of two Six Flags parks - San Antonio or near Dallas.
Which one would people recommend and why that one. I assume that is my only choice within 3hrs of Houston?
Thanks in advance for advise on this.
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we are 2 days back in Scotland after a 2week holiday in Orlando - so been fascinating to read this thread.
Deals for the UK meant we had hoppers for both Disney and Universal - 14 days in each case! (Disney 14 for price of a 7 and the Universal was about the price of 2 days entry I think).
The original poster and friends thinks IOA best park in world - I think you have some more parks to visit
My opinion it is a nice park, but best in world - too many failings to get close to that. Disney park on Sunday - ride operators doing a brilliant job. IOA the next day - you realise what a great job the ride ops were doing the day before. IOA felt cramped and less relaxing. We thought the number of rides and attractions was more like a good regional park than a destination park. Harry Potter was great.
Now USF, it felt nicer to walk round, more relaxed. We actually wanted to do more repeat rides in there than in IOA.
We had 3 days in the plan left blank - to choose the parks to visit based on where we wanted to go back to. All ended up in Disney again!
One thing I have not seen mentioned - Express v Fastpass. At Disney all are equal - Universal it is a burden cost. 2 adults, 3 kids, it adds up quick!
Smart use of Fastpass meant 4th July at Magic Kingdom we got in more attractions that we did in same time at IOA midweek.
While I have been to a number of parks now in UK, mainland Europe and USA - prob not enough to declare what is best in the world, but IOA would not be in our top.
Outside Disney, Europa Parc (visited 2009) is the top on our family list of places and all would prefer a return there before IOA.
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High fives for rat credit! Why didn't they just keep it up and put in the new ride in between the looper and the mouse, though? That was stupid. There's a whole field there...
first time we went after the mouse was put up, it was a decent ride with good thruput (not tht quing has been an issue on our trips to Loudon - 5minutes is a long Q).
couple of seasons later, slower load times, fewer mice on track, and a health and safety investigation following a tragic incident.
I think for those who work in and run the park, it may be a nice sight to see a replacement ride going in.
Though do agree the field between the two coaster sites screems out for a third coaster to be installed.
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The latest rumors were about launch coasters.
A couple of years ago it was about an Intamin launch coaster with a tophat on a pier out in the sea. But the latest rumors are about a Mack launched coaster with a location next to Steeplechase en Rollercoaster.
having been on Blue Fire this summer - a rumour like that coming true would give Pleasure Beach a ride to draw the enthusiasts and the general public
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I did notice the pineapple, but somehow, that wasn't quite as surprising as the waffle!
the waffle wont be the one you are used to putting syrup and the like on - this will be a fried potatoe waffle, makes much more sense than the pinapple
Liseberg Discussion Thread
in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Posted
Given the original dive machine - Oblivion - stopped at the edge while you heard the message 'don't look down' which these days is a painted message you read as you stare at the drop below you, I always took it the stop was the norm and any that don't pause are the ones that are different.