RedSpecial

Why all the stick for Vekoma ? - I'd say you need to visit Flamingoland - North Yorkshire and ride Kumali - it's an excellent coaster and no way can be described as rough in any way and yes they have a bikes coaster from Vekoma as well and the only remaining Arrow Corkscrew in the UK. I'd agree that Corkscrew can be a little rough but I can't keep my youngest daughter off the thing every time we visit this park - so I'd say each to their own. If you have an under ten year old wanting to ride an Arrow multiple times never complaining of a rough ride I'm not sure what that says about other hardened riders here? Getting back to Kumali; it's a great Vekoma that has been running for more than a few years now and seems to be getting better with age - always impressed just how low this ride gets to the ground - Flamingoland is my local park and hoping they get another new addition to their coaster line up - I'd not say no if they went for yet another Vekoma at some point.

You can just see the discussions between potential riders - shall I go for a no.1 or should I have a no2. ?

Fastpass does not mean ride with no ques, just a shorter wait than the regular line. Still dumb though. I've personally never been a big fan of paying extra for a fastpass - OK at Disney they have fastpass tickets which are OK as they help you plan the day a little and I'd still expect to queue using these - but if you pay a much higher fee and still queue for a long time - I mean really what's the point? I've always found that if you do your homework and plan your day properly you can easily get round everything you want and still have time to spare. If you really really need to ride a particular ride - simply get in the park first and do a runner for that ride. Over the years I normally work on the plan of if a ride wait time is greater than 2 hours - come back later or on another day. Sometimes I can live with a long queue time if the queue is an interesting experience in it's own right - often I've found some of the queues an interesting fun experience getting to chat to other visitors. It also gives you the chance to have a relaxed view of the ride. Each to their own but as long as a queue time isn't too long and stressful I think it adds to the whole experience. What parks need to work on is providing better information and making the queue experience more part of the ride. Simply attempting to make more revenue from fastpass type opportunities isn't the answer. I always love it when you get someone going on that they spent X number of hours in a park but only rode two or three rides - I'd say that the park is either totally out of control or you failed to plan your day correctly. I know people say don't go on busy day's - our visit to Thorpe was on the last bank holiday weekend - I'd imagine one of their busier days and we still got to ride on every coaster and in some cases multiple times. I personally like parks on busy days; it just adds to the experience and doesn't have to be stressful if you know what you are doing.

Totally agree 110% - I rode the Florida version first and found this a fun and different ride experience. Had the chance to go on the Hollywood version with some friends and they were still well impressed but got sick of me going on about how much better the Florida version is. I realise that the Hollywood ride is in the same space as the old ET experience so they had a lot less room to play with so both are fine rides but if you get the chance I'd put money on that you'd prefer the Florida one as the better more all round ride experience. I always remember the finger print security cabinets for your bags in Hollywood that never seemed to work and delayed the ride times no end. We joked on that if you somehow managed to get your fingers damaged you'd not get your bags back at the end. Not sure if they still have these cabinets - nice idea if the technology only worked as intended.

Can't see any reason why/how this is going to benefit anyone other than generate a lot of frustration. I accept that on some rides and on some days you are going to have to wait but surely its in everyones interests to provide some honest and as accurate as possible info on queue times? If you try and make it sound better by introducing something like this you will simply raise everyone's stress levels and pee off both park staff and visitors. Personally I'd prefer any wait time to slightly over state the actual queue time - this way if I make it through the queue quicker my stress level drops and I feel that the queue wait wasn't that bad after all. Pleased I'm going to Alton Towers in October and not Thorpe. On a recent trip to Thorpe we waited over 2 hours for Saw after it gave a 1 hour 30 wait time but had two goes on Nemesis in under 15 minutes later in the day when it still had wait times set to 40 minutes. It's always difficult to realistically tell. What you really need is some type of count on the entry gates with a wait application that monitors the load / running times on the ride for the day. Wouldn't be that challenging to put together - when you consider how much rides cost to install; it would be a small percentage fee to put together a really useful ride wait time solution. We also noticed on our last visit to Thorpe that people who'd paid extra for a 'fastpass' or whatever they call it were still having to wait a considerable amount of time considering that they'd paid extra to ride without queuing. I'd have been well pee'd off if I'd paid a considerable extra fee to find I was still in a long queue. If everyone pays extra for shorter ride time and the park doesn't limit the number of passes then what's the point? To be honest we were well pleased that we didn't consider paying the extra fee and felt sorry for those that had. They should have been given a free t-shirt with 'mugged' written on the back. What we found interesting and I wish I'd taken a photo of this was after our visit to Thorpe we also had a visit to Legoland and mid afternoon we spotted the wait time for the Jungle Coaster said 25 HOURS on the main park information board. We presume that it should have read 25 minutes. but after encountering up to a 2 hour wait time for some of the kiddie rides at Legoland you never know. Just goes to show that this is a common issue with a lot of places not just Thorpe.

I object to this qote: As a local to Newcastle I accept that Geordies do like a drink or two but we do not litter the streets of Newcastle - if you don't believe me I'll take you down the quayside on a Friday night to demonstrate. "Not Sydney"

If I'd paid for an onride DVD and they presented me with this I'd want my money back - it should be an onride video not some long animation routine - most of which we could have acquired probably before the ride was even built. Thanks for posting will definitely want to ride on my next visit to Universal but I'll be giving the ride DVD a big miss.

We did Thorpe Park on the last bank holiday weekend and boy was it busy. Also added to the vibe of the place but would have been happy with shorter queue times. Haven't done Chessington yet - always looked on it as a kids park - but shouldn't judge until I've been. Noted the recent pictures of the rapids ride at Alton Towers - had a go on the vikings ride at Legoland and a little disappointed - Alton Tower's ride is still n0. 1

Concerning the second question, yeah I did have a good look in the construction area while queuing for Rita. Not a whole lot too look at if I'm honest, but I did notice a circle ditch with steel netting for support foundations which I suspect is for the turnaround after the drop (EDIT: I'll correct myself, its seems to be for a turn before the lift) and a deep ditch. Also, I saw some work happening in the forest but I couldn't get a good look at that. I was planning on taking some pictures but as you know, I couldn't. As for the first question, I can't really answer that. Never been to Thorpe Park in my life. lol Thanks for all the comments people. Thanks for the update; planning on a two day Scarefest trip in October so hoping to see some progress on SW6 by then. When you get the opportunity you should really visit Thorpe Park - SAW was a really good ride and Stealth is a one trick 20 second fun experience. Out of all of the UK parks I think that Alton Towers is still no. 1; don't think anyone can better their halloween experience.

Regarding the G factor rcdb must have a typo them : http://www.rcdb.com/776.htm

Interesting - agree that the theming at Alton is much better. Comparing the stats on the two Inferno is 2460' 8" in length compared to Nemesis at Alton: 2349' which makes Inferno a longer ride. Nemesis at Alton pulls 3g where Inferno pulls 4.5g which should make Inferno the better ride. I honestly can't decide. You are correct about the speed Nemesis goes 50mph where Inferno does 47.8pmh. Wonder why Inferno only has 28 riders per train compared to Alton's 32? One thing we did spot at Thorpe is that Inferno became stuck on the main lift hill and everyone had to be walked back off the ride - would have made for an interesting experience. Must admit never have I seen anything like this happen at Alton Towers in regards to Nemesis. Looking forward to scarefest at Alton - would make the trip just to ride Nemesis in the dark - great fun. Nemesis Inferno Stuck

Thanks for two very interesting reports - question - I love Nemisis at Alton Towers - love riding this in the dark; however after a recent trip to Thorpe Park and after multiple rides on Nemisis Inferno I'm really struggling to work out which one I prefer. Don't get me wrong I love both rides but if you had to compare the two which one would you rate top and why? Not sure but Nemisis Inferno feels faster and a bit more intense but I really like the theming at Alton Towers. Two great rides but would be interested in hearing others comments on this. Thanks again for the pics - did you check out the SW6 area on your visit?

As Flamingoland is also my 'local' park I'd simply add that a formal record is a formal record irrespective of the debate and as the Guinness book of records site clearly records this as an official record then that's what it is: http://community.guinnessworldrecords.com/_The-Steepest-Roller-Coaster-Made-From-Steel/blog/420792/7691.html It's also a fun and exciting ride. I must admit to enjoying the drop on Oblivion at Alton Towers more mainly due to the slight delay before the drop. Mumbo Jumbo does represent a unique ride for coaster fans in the UK and Flamingoland should be congratulated for introducing a great ride that complements it's other coasters.

Excellent trip report and you managed to find the Guinness as well - and what must be the only inversion in Ireland. Brilliant stuff.

After visiting Belfast a few times I must admit to wondering what Ireland has to offer in regards to theme parks and rides. Very interesting report - must admit I'm not sure I'd make the trip for the various credits on offer - but still, thanks for such an interesting insight in to this lesser documented location.

To be serious for a moment I think you have to be careful about saying she needs treatment. The situation does appear distressing - I'd say she needs support, assistance and understanding. Saying she needs treatment sounds like anyone from the 'norm' needs treatment - it's the kind of thing you hear people say about homosexuals - they need TREATMENT. I remember seeing a documentary about two guys who had a very serious relationship with their cars and I do mean extremely serious in a sexual context - however they weren't hurting or impacting their life styles on others so although you wouldn't describe it as 'normal' behaviour if we were all 'normal' life would be a very linear and sad place. What concerns me most about the documentary is the potential media exploitation of such an individual which could become very damaging. All of us here really love coasters and theme park rides just not to this extent.

Would definitely agree with this one - I've been on both the Hollywood and Florida versions - wanted to compare them and was equally disappointed by both. Neither would get in my top ten - that's the problem when they hype a ride up too much before it opens. Even if it is good it only comes across as average.

I missed X out as the queue said 2 hours plus - I'm not going to queue that long. Managed to fit in Tatsu front row which I was really pleased with. Would be happy to ride it all day long if I could - managed to catch most of the other main rides at SFMM but unfortunately missed my X credit. Should I be disappointed for not picking up the credit? Would you recommend giving Tatsu the miss for X2? Not sure when or if I'll get the chance to find out.

Heres a situation that I've had to deal with - being from the UK getting the chance to go to SFMM on a business trip I only had a certain amount of time I could commit to coaster riding. As I was a little pushed for time I had to pick either Tatsu or X or X2 as it is now. I went for Tatsu and must admit very pleased with myself. Now the big question - did I make the right call on picking Tatsu?

I'm sorry you had a bad day, but I don't really understand some of your concerns. -if your son wasn't paying attention to the gates, that's his problem. The staff always announces that the gates are closing; besides, the gates are not like they're lightning fast. Your son has plenty of time to avoid his hand getting chopped off, which I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have. There's always a leeway of a few inches between the gates and the bars. -Flash Pass costs extra, deal with it. It costs extra at pretty much anywhere BUT Disney. -Yes, you have to pay extra for some rides...even before the 'money issues'. They're called 'upcharge' attractions. Nearly every park has them. -Food items are, indeed, overpriced at the parks. However, again, I don't see why this ruined your day for you. If you go to a theme park, you should expect higher-than-normal prices. I think some of your comments are a little harsh. I personally don't see why theme park guests should put up with higher than normal food prices - good service shouldn't cost extra and most theme park food isn't often what I'd describe as good service. As for saying that nearly every park has upcharge attractions I find hard to accept - not the one's I clearly go to. I think this kind of practice should be clearly discouraged. We already pay high prices for park entries so why should you have to pay yet again unless it's well publicized? As for gates closing - surely the staff have a health and safety responsibility to maintain ALL guests are safely looked after. Bottom line is that a theme park visit should be a fun and safe day out. Sounds like a very unhappy customer. I'd have wanted my money back as well; all it takes is one or two negative things to start off - poor staff support and queue jumping going unchallenged to make a whole day a disaster - after that no ones having any fun and all you start concentrating on is the negatives. Better park staff and customer care sounds like most of these issues could have been averted.

Good luck just added one more vote. All the best.

I can recall doing a vertical drop ride at a waterpark in Devon a few years back. The drop was so intense I had a noise bleed, cracked my elbow on the way down - we had a river of blood all over the place. You should have seen how quick the queue for the drop ride suddenly went from loads to nothing. Haven't felt too compelled to repeat the process - can't recall having a coaster ride having the same effect even after riding for far too many years.

Thanks for the update - hope they get it fixed soon. Some additional River Splash pics would be great.

Question: was the Jungle Coaster running on your visit? On the Legoland website they say its closed and a further update will be posted. Any idea what the problem is? I'm planning on visiting Legoland over the next few weeks so any heads up would be appreciated. What's the best new attraction from your recent trip? Did you have a go on the Viking River Splash and if so what's your opinion of this attraction? Great photos - thanks for posting.

Wow sounds like you had an eventful trip on the 3rd. Now Flamingoland have Mumbo Jumbo I'm starting to wonder what their next big ride will be? I know a lot of people dislike the old Corkscrew but some TLC and a new paint job could keep the ride going for a few more years. What would you recommend or suggest Flamingoland should consider for their next big ride addition? Not sure how much room they have for future expansion - personally I'd replace the Sky Flyer but with what I'm not sure.