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Not that I have ever noticed, however the experience in the front vs. the back of the train are completely different. If I'm only going for 1 ride, which seat should I pick then?

This is very interesting! Thanks a lot. I guess my girlfriend is going to be proud that she rode Stealth frontseat!

I was there today on the nicest day of the year so far, and had a blast. It was pretty crowded, but still Troy only had a 3/4 train wait during the day (15 rides on Troy). Toverland definitely is one of my favourite parks, because of the overall atmosphere, Troy and the little things. For example the prices of food (4,50 spaghetti, 1,60 water ice) are very reasonable, parking is cheap and really organized, everyone in the park is superfriendly, there's music all over the place and the operators actually try to give you an amazing experience. Seriously, I can't say anything bad about this park!

Even though I wanted a rollercoaster (duh!) the Mack Supersplash is going to be amazing in the Toverland setting. I hope they'll be able to keep it open/make it interesting all year round!

^Me too, but let's give the park the chance to prove us wrong. With such a small amount of leaked information, I think it wouldn't be fair to write off this ride already.

That's what it's all about! People from all over the world are discussing this ride miles and miles away from where they live, while a 'mediocre' ride in any other park would barely get any attention at all. They want people to try it out, and are probably convinced that their product is strong enough to convince people to go a second time as well. So I think they're doing it well. Personally I think it's starting to get a bit ridiculous too, but hell, I'd love to book a flight to Manchester and visit Alton, and I probably will do so.

Prices for The Flash Pass vary, depending on level of service and number of riders. Regular The Flash Passes are priced from $37.00 for the first person. Gold The Flash Passes are priced from $82.00 for the first person and new for 2010, Platinum The Flash Passes are priced from $102.00 for the first person. Up to 5 extra riders, can be added to your The Flash Pass for an additional charge. --> They actually got cheaper than initially announced. Pretty curious about how much an extra person on a gold will cost.

First coaster: Troy @ Toverland First park: Toverland First new park: Probably Walygator Parc in France First new coaster: Probably Monster @ Walygator First park in the USA this year: Six Flags New England

I'd ne-ver do that, just cause your day would be really stressy with all those 'deadlines'. And most trains ride on time (or kind of), but buses can be quite a hassle.

Well, most people have a 'longer' weekend from 23-25 May, because the Monday is an official holiday. So a lot of people will do a short trip to the sea, or to a themepark or anything like that. I was in Europa Park this year on this weekend (Saturday and Sunday) and especially the Sunday was REALLY crowded (40.000). The weather was amazing too, so that might have had something to do with it. All the waiting lines were full. However, if one park is able to manage huge crowds, it's Europa Park, but still we had quite a few 1 hour+ waiting times. IF you visit a themepark in that weekend, do NOT visit Phantasialand, cause they have some really slow lines.

If you're in Germany, I wouldn't go up to Belgium to visit Walibi/Bobbejaanland, cause you find better thrillrides in Germany than the once in Walibi and you will find the typical Bobbejaanland-atmosphere in the smaller German parks as well. I personally think Walibi World is quite a let-down besides Goliath (which is an amazing ride). I'd pick Toverland over Walibi World any time cause it's cheaper, the operations are better, the atmosphere is better, it has Troy, and it's just perfect to have an amazing afternoon. No need to spend the whole day in Toverland though. Try to spend 2 days in Europa park, and enjoy the rides as well as the overall atmosphere without having to hurry. Their campsite is rather cheap and they also have some bed & breakfast rooms. In the nearby city Rust you can also book a cheap B&B. The 23th and 24th of May are holidays and are some of the busiest days during the themeparkseason.

Some guy on a Belgian messageboard did the same (themeparkvision) and indeed, it's postponed. Probably a good decision cause they were a little late anyways.

I really hope the gold will be less than 150 USD for 2, cause for 1 it's 92 USD. That idea about using 2 FP's for 4 is a good idea, but we'll probably just take the 2-person gold for me and my girlfriend, and we'll leave our 2 friends in Philadelphia.

Thanks everyone! I'm taking my girl, who loves themeparks as well, and 2 friends, who are not into themeparks and don't want to pay extra for the flash pass (which I understand), so I guess it's better to let them stay in Philadelphia, cause from what I read here, visiting SFGrAdv on a crowded day isn't really a good themepark-experience.

Slowly but surely, I'm finishing the schedule of my trip to the east coast next summer. I know no one can predict the future, but because it's off-season, I thought I'd ask anyways. We scheduled a full day at Six Flags Great Adventure on Thursday 15 July. We'll be there at park opening, and will leave when the park closes, to optimally use our time. We want to get all the credits, and maybe do a reride or 2 on the best rides, but we don't really care about other rides . Will we need a flash pass? And will we need the regular one, or the gold one? The regular one is like 48 USD and the gold 95 USD, which is a lot of money, and I don't just want to waste it, if it's not necessary. I'm not asking about specific ride times, just some general advice.

Thanks! You convinced to visit this park before Christmas. Riding coasters in the dark is a rarity in Europe, so I'm really looking forward to defeat the Mamba by night!

I have a question regarding buying the season passes. We plan on buying ours online mid-January with Six Flags New England as a home park. Right now they're at 55 USD, but apparantly it's 75 USD normally. Is this one of those so-called limited time offers that last for months, or will this expire in a couple of weeks (for example by the end of 2009)? Of course no one knows for sure, but I believe they were like 55 USD last year all year round?

Not so extensive as your list, but well: - Citytrip Manchester including Alton Towers & Blackpool Pleasure Beach - USA-trip east-coast + Vegas including: BGW, Kings Dominion, Six Flags Great Adventure (with the superexpensive flashpass :s), Six Flags New England and possibly Lake Compounce.

Having so much fun reading this! Good job! Can't wait to do something like this too!

If you do make it to Bruges, definitely try to stay in the B&B we stayed in: http://www.b-bverhulst.com/ It's not the cheapest place, but it's really good. The owners are dedicated to making sure you have a good time in their city. I still need to check out Antwerp. It seems to be more popular among Dutch tourists than international ones. That B&B looks great, although a lil bit expensive. I'm definitely going to tell my parents about that. One shop I always love when I'm in Bruges is the candystore with all the pink lights and mirrors. It's on your right when you walk from the station to the center. Guess I'm still a 8-year old every now and then

It's like only tourists from other countries visit Brussels! The few times I've been there, I hated it actually. Bruges is and will always be one of the most beautiful places in Belgium, so I'm happy the OP didn't skip on that one!

I'm seriously considering making a professional fake one, cause these things are SO easy to duplicate if you spend a little bit of money on them. A one day metropass in London is of higher quality than these things!

Thanks I plan on doing a backpacking/couchsurfing trip in East-Europe next year, to keep the cost as low as possible. I really think that Eurail pass is such a scam cause it's heavily overpriced. Although it's very useful. Too bad that's the only option to actually travel between countries (maybe Ryanair as well, but that you're losing a lot of time for short distances). How often on the whole trip did the train inspectors actually match your Eurail pass with your ID card? And in which countries? Cause my friend used one as well and none of the inspectors actually cared about the pass. EDIT: if you ever do something like this again, also check out www.booking.com and www.hostelsclub.com . Very useful sites!

Always love these kinds of TRs. Can you tell us a bit more about how you arranged the trip? Did you have everything planned out, or was it more like a backpacking experience? Did some couchsurfing maybe? How much did you spend during the whole trip (cause I can imagine it being A LOT of money if you always sleep in a lowbudget hotel AND bought a railpass)? Definitely looking forward to the other parts of your TR (and of course the Belgian part )

Strangely enough, I noticed the same thing about American being friendly against Europeans, when I was in the USA. Guess we can still have faith in humanity !