1aflack

I think it says it all that I last visited in 2002 and the only new attraction in the main park has been Buzz Lightyears Astro Blasters. It is a beautiful park but I have simply been on all the rides too many times at other parks. I can't quite believe they got away with it for as long as they did. If you don't build any new attractions when parks like Europa, Efteling, Phantasialand are all investing a lot it's eventually going to come back to bite you. Personally I think this is excellent news, if attendance wasn't dropping they wouldn't do anything. As for the Studios park, the less said the better. I had high hopes for Ratatouille given the incredible price tag and whilst it does look good it doesn't look worth splashing out on a visit for. I've got a 2 year old child who loves all the Disney stuff and I have deceided to spend my money elsewhere this year visiting Europa Park. Would love to come back to the park but I'm not going to blow the £1000 it would cost to visit properly until they build some new stuff and at the minute that doesn't look like it's happening till at least 2017-2020.

Scooby's Doo's Spooky coaster is a great coaster/dark ride mix, very re-ridable. Giant drop at Dreamworld is another great ride but really both of them aren't a patch on climbing the Sydney Harbour bridge at night, climbing Ayres Rock or White Water rafting down the Tulley River but I'm not sure these three count. In New Zealand, Luging is incredible because it's so much more extreme (you can't sue if you get injured), the extreme Luge course in Rotorua was crazy and resulted in a loss of skin. The Canyon swing in Queenstown (http://www.canyonswing.co.nz/) is the scariest thing I have ever done, think you have something similar but a bit less extreme opened near the Grand Canyon. There are other things we did like Black Water tubing in the Waitomo Caves on the South Island and White Water Sledging, although when I did that there wasn't a sled it was just a float. But again I'm not sure these count because they aren't rides as such. Hope that helps.

Here are some other articles regarding running costs for coasters. The first is an interview from 2008 where the CIO from Six flags talks about various bits and bobs but at the end he mentions that the electricity cost in the US of a large coaster can be up to $600,000 a year. This is in 2008 so I can't even imagine what this would be now... http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/315850/Michael_Israel?taxonomyId=83&pageNumber=3 Found this on-line regarding running costs for SFMM superman.... And people wonder why Magic Mountain does not race Superman The Escape. I read somewhere somebody that was able to speak to a technician during a private event at the park a few years back mentioned depending on the rates at the time set by Southern California Edison, every cycle Superman runs consumes enough electricity to set back the park approximately $200 - $500 due to its substantial usage of electricity thanks in part to the hundreds of sets of heavyset electromagnetic staters. Taking those numbers into account, imagine how many cycles Superman has in a single operating day. Add those up over a week, then a month, then a year. Operating costs for Superman carries over into the multi-millions each season for Magic Mountain. And that also doesn't factor in the power consumed by the ride's overly complicated central operating system, then individual control and power feed units that line down the track (the little square office-like buildings that line down the 900-foot launch track).

I just thought it was common knowledge about electricity costs in the UK compared to Europe and the US. They talk about it in the papers pretty much every day, the US now has Shale gas which has massively reduced energy costs, Europe has a lot more green and nuclear power. I think I read that the 3 LIm coasters at Kings Dominion have to sit on a different grid because of the amount of power needed. Take a look at the link below... In a section talking about Vekoma's new Hydraulic launch system on Toverlands Booster Bike and why they developed it, they talk about the difference in costs between running the two different launches. Two megawatts of electricity, we are talking hundreds of thousands of pounds a year in the UK. "After the magnetic LIM and LSM launches the future will definately belong to the hydraulic power units: "There are no costly power supply lines or transverters needed for this system, and the handling is quite easy", Nijsen points out. "While our LSM coaster at Six Flags Holland reaches a peak demand of more than two megawatts, the pump system of the Booster Bike only needs 140KW, which is less than a tenth." http://www.coastersandmore.de/rides/boosterbike/boosterbike_e.shtml

There is a bit of a difference in running 5/6 large TV screens which I guess might cost a couple of pounds an hour to launching a heavy rollercoaster train maybe to 40mph every 30 seconds using magnets Why are there no LSM coasters in the UK when they are a stable of many smaller/mid size parks in Europe. You saw the reason SFMM and Dreamworld in Oz didn't run there Intamin reverse freefall coasters to the top of the tower, simply to save money as the electricty costs were so high and this was in the US and Oz so can you imagine the electricity costs in the UK.

Of course the other maufacturers make LSM and LIM launches but that doesn't mean that Alton Towers could afford the money to run one. Hydraulic launches use a lot less electricity than LSM launches. I think you are from the US so electricity is much cheaper out there than over in the UK. To give you some idea, fuel poverty is quite common over here, people have to make do without heating and turn off as many lights and electrical appliances as possible in the winter. I live in a 20 year old 4 bedroom house fully insulated (wall and roof) and my gas and electric bill is £1800 or $2775 a year, so if I can switch off a few lights and set my heating to come on an hour later to save some money I will. Because of the cost it has become ingrained in people to save gas and electricity over here. This is the reason there are no LSM launches over here, electricity is cheaper all over the US and Europe that why you see a lot of little LSM launchers everywhere else.

Electricity is incredibly expensive in the UK compared to most other countries so LSM launches just aren't financially possible. Gerstlauer only seems to do this type of launch so building Smiler with a launch would never really have been on the cards.

I think you summed it up pretty well when you said Benidorm is a massive English holiday resort. When you go to Port Aventura it's full of Spanish people, Terra Mitica was built for the tourists visiting so no Spanish really visit. As a brit personally I can say if its the middle of August and it's 95 degrees with high humidity the last place I would want to be would be a theme park, I would want to be on the beach or in a waterpark. I would chose to visit the park at the night but thats when the hoards of drunken brits go to the pubs and clubs. I can't see how the park will survive personally especially watching the news the other night and seeing how the British are turning away from places like Benidorm now and the resort as a whole is really struggling.

You're welcome, and thanks for the cookie! You want me to break down anymore rides, just ask.

I've never seen a Potter film, read a Potter book or been that intestered but I can't really understand how it's difficult to understand the story. You are visiting some sort of Wizard castle, it gets attacked by black floating things, these wizards give you a broomstick to jump on, you journey through some stuff, a bridge, a forest, over the castle and through some flying football game all the time avoiding these black floaty things. In the end a wizard casts a spell and scares them offl, then you fly back to the castle where everyone is clapping you! Really for the layperson there isn't much more to it than that.

If you had ridden Blue Fire you would hope it's a Mack.