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I went for a quick coasterrun 2 days ago and had mixed feelings about the park. I liked how the park looked and most of the buildings looked nice and colorful. Even though the attitude of some operators wasn't that professional, I still think they did a good job. What made me really mad is the fact that their 2 signature rides, Batwing and Superman both had a 1-train operation which made the waiting after 8 pm about 45-60 minutes. All other rides had a 10-minute wait. I was very impressed by Batwing! Smooth, intense and a real flying feeling. Maybe even better than the B & M's. Too bad we never got our flying dutchman in Walibi Belgium.

I went to SFGrAdv yesterday for the first time and had a great day. Kingda Ka was down till 2 or 3 PM and broke down several times during the afternoon and evening. A frontseat ride took us 90 minutes with a gold flash pass cause it broke down 3 times while in line. The frontseat ride was worth it though. We rode in the back later on and that ride was rrather disappointing. The Flash Pass did its job perfectly and we managed to get all the credits even though Bizarro was down till like 8 PM. big ups to SF for getting it to work before the end of the day. We decided upfront to stay as late as possible and really enjoyed Nitro, Ka, El Toro, Bizarro and Superman during the day. For our night rides we got a special treat from the weather gods and SF. Around 9 PM there was a heavy thunderstorm that lasted till like 9.30. Everybody got home and we were in the El Toro station. When the ride opened again there were just enough people to fill the 2 trains and we scored 5 or 6 in-sane rides in the backrow on a soaked El Toro. This was literally the best coaster-experience we ever had! Simply amazing! Big shoutout to employee Dan who commented me on my X2 shirt and was supernice every time we saw him! More crewmembers should have this kind of passion for parks and rides!

Thanks everyone. Apart from some minor downtime, everything should be fine then.

My girlfriend and I are supposed to be visiting SFNE this Wednesday and SFGrAdv this Friday. It's supposed to rain though and there might be thunderstorms as well. For SFNE we have no other options but we do can postpone SFGrAdv to Sat or Sund because we'll be buying a Flash Pass anyways. What can I expect from both parks when there's rain and wind like they predict? Should we bother going if it rains in the morning? Which rides will be closed first and do they close for the slightest gust of wind and drops of rain? Thanks in advance, because I'm actually pretty worried right now.

What's with shutting down coasters in the middle of the season? Major bummer because I wanted to ride i for the first time mid July.

I updated the list of drives with our hotels. Thanks already!

In the past, this board has always helped me out when I was planning a trip in the USA. Here's another question that I hope someone can answer for me. I need some driving time estimates for some drives on the east coast in July. I know I can find indications on Google maps, but I'm not too sure if the traffic will be bad or not. All our hotels are outside of the city center, so you shouldn't calculate 'city traffic' 1) New York City - Boston: Monday, departure around 5PM. Leaving from Newark airport to our hotel Red Roof Inn Woburn, Boston 2) Boston - Six Flags New England: Wednesday, departure around 7/8 AM. 3) Six Flags New England - Philadelphia: Wednesday, departure around 4 PM. Hotel Philadelphia Days Inn Horsham 4) Philadelphia - Six Flags Great Adventure: Thursday, departure around 10 AM. 5) Philadelphia - Washington DC: Saturday, departure around 6 PM. Hotel Best Western Springfield 6) Washington DC - Newark Airport: Thursday, we have to arrive at Newark Airport at 4.30 PM. Thanks in advance!

That onride video looks a lot more promising than those first test-rides. Thanks!

I'm really not impressed by this ride. All the gerstlauers I've ridden, even the newer ones (Plopsa, Thorpe, Bobbejaanland), weren't smooth at all and this one seems to go really slow through all the elements. I also think there's too much elements on such a short ride, but that's usually my complaint with these Gerstlauers. The only thing I actually like, is the paintjob of the coaster. But if it's actually in a jungle-area, than I suppose this will change next season as well.

I watched the 3 seasons and specifically love how the show evolved during every season. Season 1 was funny occasionally, season 2 became a lot funnier and season 3 was hilarious. I was litterally crying during the episode where Sheldon became Raj's boss. I love the focus on Sheldon in the last 2 seasons and how Raj became a lot funnier. Did I mention I have a soft (hard?) spot for Penny?

Thanks! I appreciate it!

I hope this is not considered to be spam, cause there's no advertising involved and you don't have to subscribe to a commercial service either. I got nominated in a Facebook-contest to win a new digital camera (200 USD). All I have to do is get people to vote for my picture. If I win the camera, I promise to use it to post some tripreports of smaller European parks! I actually think my picture that got nominated is at least a bit funny (Grand Canyon and boobs involved ) so you might want to have a look at it. All you have to do to vote is this: 1) Become a fan of the following page: http://www.facebook.com/connections.be 2) Click 'I like' under the following picture: http://www.facebook.com/connections.be#!/photo.php?pid=4013891&id=219114225749 Thanks so much in advance. If I can return the favour with helping you out with anything. Just let me know!

No one mentioned Stealth yet? Stealth frontseat is one of the best coaster-experiences I ever had! 0 - 80 mph in 1.9 seconds.

All I was saying with that comparison is that if there MIGHT be something unsafe about a certain situation, I understand that the park doesn't want to take any risks. It's not other park's problem what Europa Park does. They're the ones to blame in case something goes wrong and they don't want to take any risks, which is understandable (I'm not saying I'd do the same!). Just look at it from the park's point of view and not from the customer. Is it really that strange that the park would rather avoid awful lawsuits and a bad reputation than make a very small % of their customers happy? In your initial post you said that the reason was that in a certain situation, the riders would have to evacuate themselves, so it's not an inconvenience for the rescue team, but for the other riders and they might be in danger because of this. Menghini makes a good point though, stating that handicapped people also use public transportation and enter skyscrapers etc. And I wouldn't really know how to react on it. But as long as we haven't seen their insurance policy, we can't know for the reasons behind this policy for sure, but I do think that Europa Park deserves the benefit of the doubt here.

Why is this a 'shame on you Europa Park'? I can perfectly understand their motivation for not allowing people on the ride that cannot embark on the trains on their own! It's all about safety. I think everyone agrees that we shouldn't let a 53" tall kid on a ride with a minimum length of 54" because parks shouldn't take any risks. So I think it's normal that a park doesn't want to take any risks in case of an emergency with a handicapped person on the ride. I'm not saying they HAVE to be this strict, but I'll definitely not judge them for not taking the risk. There's one thing I don't understand: On the German (and English) part of the website they say that blind people and people in a wheelchair do not have to pay an entrance fee. Handicapped people that need an accompanying person have to pay 31 euro (instead of 35). But if someone's not in a wheelchair, I don't see any problem entering or leaving a train, except for a few exceptions, so they should be able to ride? I think Janster's case is one of those exceptions, but personally, I'd rather not like to be involved in an emergency evacuation, where we have to evacuate ourselves, with a person that is almost blind, or someone who can't climb the staircase. Maybe Europa Park should imply a 3rd rate for those people, but their current policy is not that unreasonable either I think.

I bought some SFMM coupons (for like 2 USD) on Ebay last year and it worked like a charm, but I don't see any KD (or BGW) coupons online right now, so I'm not too sure if they exist or not. If someone could link me up with something, that'd be appreciated as well.

For my trip to the USA this summer, I was about to buy 2 tickets for Kings Dominion. However, apparantly I cannot order them with a creditcard that's registered on a Belgian address. I contacted KD Guest Services and they confirmed this problem. They also suggested to ask someone in the USA to help me out. So, right now I'm asking if someone would be willing to order those tickets for me. I can Paypal you the money (+ some extra) in advance. The total would be 70 USD, and Paypalcosts would be about 3 USD according to my calculations. I'd really appreciate it if someone would be willing to help me out. However, if this topic is not allowed, I'd understand it, because technically I'm asking someone to do a payment for me and there are options to scam each other. If you'd like to help me out, please post here, or PM and then we'll work things out. Thanks in advance

I'm wondering about this as well. If it's just from being connected to the rest of the train, I think it's more a matter of luck that those cars didn't "crash". If not, then I guess this actually proves that the safety systems are doing their job.

Copy paste the url. That worked for me. And that picture is pretty crazy :S. Now I'm really curious about what caused this!

Bobbejaanland is pretty oldschool as well . And the former owner (Bobbejaan Schoepen) made country music and quite a lot of the theming is/used to be cowboy/far west/horses-related.

Apparantly this happened on the camelback after the overbanked turn (translated from onride.de, I never rode this coaster). Short video in German van be found here: http://www.swr.de/swr1/rp/nachrichten/rheinland-pfalz/-/id=1533608/nid=1533608/nid=1533608/did=6314120/pv=video/ci7sla/index.html

First of all, I'd appreciate it if one of the mods could update the thread-title, because I couldn't find the right words. According to several press articles, Expedition GeForce in the German Holiday Park stalled today at a height of 20 meters. The train got evacuated and apparantly several people got slightly injured, although I doubt that. What's remarkable is that it seems that the 4th car of the train got off the track. I know accidents happen all the time, but I definitely think this is quite a remarkable accident, so i thought I'd share it. Some articles (in Dutch): http://www.gva.be/nieuws/buitenland/guid/1be0b266-e386-4797-a9c9-a18171a739d3.aspx http://www.destentor.nl/algemeen/buitenland/6614598/Mensen-bevrijd-uit-Duitse-achtbaan.ece The before mentioned Bild-Zeitung has posted a new report with two pictures on its webpage. http://www.bild.de/BILD/news/leserreporter/aktuell/nachrichten/2010/04/29/achterbahn-entgleist/in-holiday-park-hassloch.html The interessting part (roughly translated): There is another newspaper article: Rhein-Zeitung (German local paper) It´s been told, that it seems to be a technical issue on the axle of the car. It seems to be proved, that the axle derailed, while the coaster was on the ride, so it caused the accident. The TÜV (Association for Technical Inspection) keeps going on the tests at the coaster and the ride stays closed, until the analysis completely finished. Here are pictures:

I'd definitely go for the GCI as a stand-alone coaster, cause it will probably look a lot more impressive with no coasters around it and it aims at families as well as thrill-seekers and enthusiasts. Apparantly it's cheaper, so that's quite an advantage as well!

^I know it's possible in Germany, but if you're coming from Brussels, you'd first have to take a train to Koln, then to Bruhl and then take a bus to Phantasialand. And you have to get back as well. So you will need 3 days for a 1 day park-visit I guess.

Keep in mind that you WILL need a car, cause it'd be really hard to visit them by public transport. Phantasialand is the best option, cause it's rather close, and an amazing park!