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Nice TR! Apparantly, Michael Jackson visited the park once and chose the mine train as his favourite ride.

1. Do you think it even needs updating at all? --> Yes I do. As said before, there's too much scrolling necessary and because of that, it seems like everything is a bit crammed, while you lose a lot of space on the sides 2. What elements of the front page do you really LIKE, and would hate to see go away and/or change. I think random is pretty cool, but I'd love to see more news features on the front page. Although that'd mean a different focus for TPR, which might not be necessary 3. What elements do you feel are MISSING from the front page? None 4. What other changes would you suggest? I'd just change the structure. Below I added something in Paint to give a better impression of how I would change it.

Last part. If you need any specific pictures, feel free to ask. I have some more on my harddisk. I've been dreaming about riding an ugly blue-ish dragon since I was a kid! Surprising camelback right when the train left the station. Bumper duckies View from the lifthill Yay for lifthill nerds! Someone's afraid of the... Casa del terrorrrrr Not theme park-related at all, but finding this somewhere in Mutriku definitely surprised us!

2nd part You can still see the border of the log flume here. Only use the first lane if you want to be pooped on by Coke-guy! This is where all the kiddie rides and snackbars are. Paying to catch a few balls... And then drop them again. Reminds me of baseball! Major bummer for the horsies, standing there with no shade or water... Super crowded and nicely themed bumper cars. Yay!

As always, whenever I book a citytrip or holiday, I look for rollercoasters in the area. This time, my destination was Bilbao and a little town in the Basque Country: Mutriku, where my friend is living for a year. I knew about a scenic railway coaster in San Sebastian, but didn’t think we would do the 80 minute train ride to get the credit. However, my friend told me it was a beautiful city, so we took the trip, and checked out the park, called Monte Igueldo. As expected, it didn’t really turn out to be a theme park, but more a collection of a few rides and some shops. However, I was VERY impressed by this little park! The view was breathtaking, the rollercoaster was pretty cool and it had probably the most scary log flume ever. Besides that, there were some kiddie rides and a few places to grab a snack or win some toys. Prices were very reasonable. I paid 2 euro for the rollercoaster, and I don’t think any rides were more than 3 euro. Seriously, if you’re in the area, this park is a must-do. It’ll only take you a few hours or less, but it’s a pretty cool experience. The view alone is worth the price for the cable ride up there. San Sebastian Bay. Who finds the 'ride' on the beach? Hint: Europe! The park is all the way up that left hill. Excited?! Now we're talking! Your hosts + the view from the mountain where the theme park is. Absolutely amazing! Crazy Log flume! No protection at all! Whoops, empty now!

It says 11AM when you buy a flash pass online. We didn't risk it not being open 2 years ago, so we just went to X2 and got our flash pass after our ride. I don't think it doesn't open with the park. However, by indicating 11AM, they might be able to spread the crowds a bit.

Just a quickie: We're planning on going to SFMM on Saturday 24 September (closed on weekdays). We'll only be able to stay till like 5 or 6 PM. It's going to be our second time at the park, so we'd rather not buy a flash pass. What can we expect of the crowds? We could be at the gates 30 minutes before opening. And what about the water park? We liked the park, last time, but it was just wayyy too busy. A day off in the waterpark could be nice as well, if we wouldn't be able to score a lot of rides on the coasters anyways.

Because of the awful British dental hygiene, all words sound the same anyways. How the hell can someone categorise the Excalibur Round Table buffet in Las Vegas as 'delicious'?

I've been on this board for quite some time now, so the only right thing to do is to introduce myself. I'm Maarten and I live in the northeast of Belgium, pretty close to Walibi Belgium, Bobbejaanland and Toverland (Nl).I used to consider Walibi my homepark, but I spend a lot more time in Toverland on the amazing GCI woodie Troy and in Europa Park or Phantasialand. I'm 22 years old and I'm graduating as a master in business communications hopefully in June or September. I already have a bachelors degree in journalism and throughout my studies, even now in my masters year, I taught my teachers and classmates a lot about theme parks and rollercoasters. Besides playing and teaching tennis, my main hobby is travelling and exploring the world (including theme parks). I've already visited quite a lot of Europe and this September I'm making my third trip to the USA. Together with my girlfriend, I'll be exploring the natural wonders in the Midwest (returnflight Las Vegas). Last year we did a roadtrip on the East Coast and in 2009 we went to Chicago and the big cities on the West Coast. I guess I'm in love with the USA, although this is going to be our last trip to the USA for the next few years.

*edited

^Thanks! Will have to reschedule then

Just a quick (stupid) question. I've always thought SFMM was open all year round, but now I see that it's closed on weekdays in September 2011. Is this likely to change, or is this the way it has been the past few years?

Thanks everyone for the advice! So, all in all, I should make the trip down to L.A. and visit Knott's for at least 6 hours or something, and if CGA is open at all, and I have a few spare hours, I could make a quick coasterrun there, but it's not a priority. Thanks again! This board always is a very good help when I'm planning a trip!

You are right about the first part. I was also thinking that a trip to Knott's SFMM would take a lot of time for the relatively short distance it is in reality.

It's the off-season, so I'd rather ask this now, than in the busy months. I'm currently planning my 2011 holiday and I'm looking for some advice. We'll be in UT, AZ, NV and CA, mainly checking out nature-related things (cause we already did the cities in 2009) and we're still looking for a park to add to the schedule. We'll be around both parks the last few days of September 2011, but we're not really sure wether they are actually worth visiting at all, and which one is best. Some things to keep in mind: 1) CGA will only be a 30 minute detour for us, so we'll be pretty much passing by. We do not plan to actually enter L.A. because we're planning to take the 126 in Ventura towards SFMM. (We're coming from the coastal drive) 2) We're mainly interested in rollercoasters and thrill rides 3) We probably won't be able to spend the whole day in the park, but don't want to miss any credits if we actually visit a park 4) We already visited SFMM 2 years ago, and will do it again. We're just looking for another! park to add to the schedule. 5) If Knott's would be the better choice, would CGA be good for a 3-hour coasterrun or something like that? 6) I'd love to go to Disneyland, but I'm pretty sure our schedule is way too tight and we probably won't be able to enjoy the experience. Any advice would be appreciated.

Some more pictures about the Grand Canyon park:

Season passes with lots of benefits!

Here's the information given by the Dutch and Belgian press: - First park will be open by 2014 (to be completed around 2017). - First park will cost about 800 million euro and will have a resort. - First park will be Grand Canyon-themed and will be more a theme park than an attraction park. - Owner & inventor of the parks is Jean Gelissen from TOVERLAND - The goal is to create 7 parks about the 7 wonders of the world (Great Barrier, Mount Everest, Grand Canyon, Paricutinvolcano, Rio De Janeiro Bay, Victoria Waterfalls, Northern Lights) - The parks will be located in Brunssum, The Netherlands. 2 local press articles (in Dutch): http://www.hbvl.be/limburg/xl/grand-canyon-pretpark-ter-grootte-van-disneyland-in-brunssum.aspx http://www.limburger.nl/article/20101125/REGIONIEUWS05/101129790/1006#Mega-attractiepark_in_Brunssum_gepland A video (in Dutch): http://www.zie.nl/video/algemeen/Plan-voor-spectaculair-themapark-in-Brunssum/m1fzs2fft658 Concept-art:

From reading reviews on a Belgian theme park board, Stuntfall in Madrid seems to be down quite a lot as well, and certain rows were/are closed for riders.

Thanks for the clarification. I thought you were in a midsize band maybe with just a few crewmembers and more unorganised free time. If you're in Paris, make sure to check Jardin D'Acclimatation. It's an amazing kiddiepark easy reachable with the Paris subway. You pay per ride and a small fee to enter the park. I believe TPR also visited this park so you can find it in the park index. Here's the parkwebsite: http://www.jardindacclimatation.fr/ And it's open in October. This is not really a tourist location so you'll find a lot of locals there, when the weather is nice. Trust me, you really want to visit this cute park .

Just curious, what kind of tour are you doing? Which band/style? I think you have 2 options: 1) Spend the 3 days in Paris 2) Visit Belgium by train for 3 days. Some more info about the 2nd option. The Belgian train-system is really good and relatively cheap if you buy a Railpass. That's a pass for 10 rides that you can sell afterwards and the price is 7.40. So a return ride would be 14.8 euro. If your band wants to explore Belgium as well, you can also buy grouptickets for a reduced fare. If you'll be doing this, just let me know by email (I'll be in Budapest the next 2 days) and I will help you out by everything. maarten_swijsen at hotmail dot com The things I would do in Belgium - Bruges: You could easily spend a day there walking around and enjoying the city. It's an awesome city, perfect for a day trip and easy to reach with the train. - Brussels: Not my favourite but it's definitely an important city for Belgium/Europe. Most tourists I know like the city so I guess it's a must-do as well. - For the 3rd day you could choose between Antwerp/Gent/Leuven. Leuven is good for a few hours, Antwerp and Gent might be cool for a day. The only themepark I'd bother visiting would be Phantasialand. You could easily do it in 1 day on a weekday when there's no holiday (in fact, we were there yesterday). You'd have to take the Thalys to Koln/Cologne and then a train and a bus or something like that. It's do-able, but not superconvenient in my opinion. But since it's off-season, it's not really a problem if you have to leave early cause you will get all your desired rides. Yesterday Black Mamba and the Winja's were a 10-minute wait max. If you visit Phantasialand, you can also spend 2 hours in Koln and check the Dom. It's an awesome and very cheap city, so combined with Phantasialand, it's a nice daytrip. There has been a topic about visiting Phantasialand with public transport on here. You might want to search for it. If it's your only option and it's the off-season, then I'd say go for it. If you have any specific questions, feel free to hit me up.

I was hoping for pics of Katy Perry on rollercoasters

^Makes me want to drive to Europa Park and catch some EGF-rides as well!

Awesome report, thanks! Where did you book the Chernobyl tour and how much did it cost?

I used a FP in SFMM and SFGrAdv and never really got any stares. The fact that my girlfriend and I clearly speak another language might have something to do with that. I do think however that the platinum flashpass is stretching it a little bit too much. In my experience, when FP-users enter the train it's either from the exit (and usually there are reserved seats then) or they just enter the station from a different entrance. By this, the disadvantages to the regular visitors aren't that explicit. When they re-ride, the person waiting in line actually gets explicitly affected by it, and I can totally see people getting frustrated over something like that. While using a gold FP on Kingda Ka, frontseat, I also thought it was super annoying when platinum riders did a re-ride.