MrSum1_55

Update: More Berlin photos! Checkpoint Charlie Checkpoint Charlie Museum. The gas tank area of this car was used to sneak a person over. Museum Island. While these museums are famous, I did not want to wait two hours to enter. Reichtag Back of Brandenburg Gate Tiergarten The Soviet Memorial. The Soviets built it themselves, but Germany has continued to maintain it. Part of the Tiergarten. Pictures cannot do justice to how massive this thing is. Part of the wall, with the Gestapo headquarters in the background. Memorial to the Murdered Jews Views from the dome on top of the Reichtag

^It is a statue of Martin Luther. (However, to me it kind of looks like Jack Black). More Berlin photos coming next. Then Hansa Park!

Hallo! I was lucky enough to spend three weeks in Germany last summer! There was culture stuff, and obviously roller coasters too! I began days 1-5 in Berlin. I am only uploading a fraction of the photos because there are no major parks near Berlin, and this is a coaster website. I imagine people will want to get to the coasters soon enough. (I swear, Hansa Park is coming soon!) In Berlin. My first currywurst! (For those of you unfamiliar with this, a currywurst is a sausage with curry ketchup. It was actually pretty good! Potsdamer Platz. That line was where the wall used to be. (More coming soon, when I'm less lazy!) That Gate Thingee Synagogue A Döner Kepab. This was bought at Mustafa's in Kreuzberg. It was amazing.

That's what I would say about Taron. The coaster basically does everything right. The area is great, and the coaster does a fantastic job interacting with it. The ride is very long and twisted, to the point that I still cannot remember the entire layout by heart even after 10+ rides. However, the track layout is definitely not up to quality of some of the other coasters it gets compared to. Taron is certainly no Piraten, Expedition GeForce, or Maverick. I was a little disappointed by the layout, BUT I was still very satisfied by the experience as a whole. Flying through rapid turns, around fake rocks, and around pathways is surprisingly fun, which is what makes Taron a top ten in my opinion, even if the layout is not top ten material by itself.

Trip reports like these do make me nervous. I am going to Beijing/Shanghai next may. Aside from obviously going to Disneyland, I do want to check out some of the Happy Valley parks in each metro area. I have heard mixed reviews about these parks, so should I worry about any differences I may not think about? (Other than general bad operations and weird ride opening times).

The answer is no. Next question?

^How is that company worse? My only experience with them is Kennywood. While Kennywood's operations leave a lot to be desired, the park seemed pretty well maintained when I was there. Plus, I have never heard of any park owned by them shutting down a beloved coaster. (Though there was that recent incident where the kid fell off the wood coaster at Idlewild).

^I was not trying to downplay your point. I was actually trying to strengthen it. I know you have been there, but I distinctly remember being told to completely empty my pockets on Karnan. I guess maybe they are inconsistent with their policy? Maybe this is a newer policy? I was talking about how Universal's policy is especially stupid because they go about it in the worst possible way. Yes, having to take your phone out of your pocket is bad enough, but they also managed to find a terrible way to implement it. I know many GP who are angered by this as well. I am not personally against Universal making their rides idiot proof, but they also managed to find an idiotic solution. People should not have to go through two modes of metal detecting and give up all electronics for an hour for a ride that they already paid for.

^Even more infuriatingly, Universal is not the only park with a no phone in pocket policy, but they are somewhat unique with their policy in which you have to get rid of everything BEFORE you get in the line. For example, on Karnan people are told (or at least strongly recommended) to empty their pockets. However, this is not done until the front of the line is reached. Everything can be placed in the bag dumbwaiter. And I feel safe keeping everything in there, as no one can access your stuff except the people in your train. This is an amazing idea. I would not mind Universal's system if there was a way to get rid of your stuff at the front of the line, not before you get in it. Hansa Park is a small park in the north of Germany. Some of the locals I met were even downright shocked to see a foreigner there. But they managed to come up with a better loose article system than one of the most visited theme park resorts in the world. I wish the managers of Hansa Park, Phantasialand, and Europa Park could come to the US to teach managers here how to properly run a park.

GP: "So where did you decide to go last summer?" Me: "Germany." GP: "Germany? I thought you'd want to do a roller coaster trip." Me; "Well it kind of was. I went to four amusement parks there." GP: "What? They have roller coasters in Germany!?" This was not an isolated incident either. I heard variations of this conversation from at least ten different people. There are so many Americans who think that the United States is the only country in the world that has amusement parks (or that the international Disney parks are the only non US parks in the world). I never knew how prevalent this belief was until recently.

If true that JK Rowling was responsible for this, then I'm incredibly disappointed with her at best. I come from a family that really likes Harry Potter. But it is maddening to see someone ruin something other people love just because she doesn't like the way it looks. If I ever actually wrote a series of books (which I am trying to do right now, funnily enough) I would not care what people did with it in most cases. Then again, I feel like having something of yours remain popular for so long can cause someone to develop a sense of entitlement.

^Make that 100% of all parks. This WAS one of the premier attractions at USO. Every B&M invert in existence is more or less one of the top attractions at its respective park. For example, Raptor is still one of the more iconic attractions at Cedar Point. And overall Raptor is not as famous with the GP as Dragons ever was. The only invert more iconic than Dragons is possibly Nemesis, and even that is comparing apples to oranges, as the two coasters are on different continents. The only silver lining to this is that it makes me want to spend less time at Universal. This is good because the park experience did seem to be on the decline anyway. (I hate those ride metal detectors with a burning passion). Now this resort might be best as a one-day visit, while spending the rest of my time in Orlando/Tampa at a better park.

I lost all respect for these awards when Mean Streak ranked above T Express. I can't remember what year that was-or if it happened more than one year. I'm liking the love of the Lion King show. I rarely ever see shows at parks, and that show is one of the only ones that I will actually go out of my way to see. Europa Park being the best park might be the one big thing they got right. You know a park is awesome when they can build a parking lot coaster and actually make the theming work with that.

I personally dislike riding coasters in freezing weather. Many coasters run noticeably slower in the cold. I hate anything that slows down my coaster experience. Oh, I don't actually care too much about the temperature. As long as there are rides open, I'm on them! (I have experienced SFMM with temperatures in the low forties. I would take low thirties as long as I had a good quality jacket).

So the silver lining to Merlin's bad management might be that their management is so bad it will force them to sell their parks?

I like Halloween events...because they make parks money. If this has incentivized more parks to open, them I'm all for it. Having said that, I'm not a huge fan of actually going to them. I like how the parks stay open very late. (2am coaster rides are always a lot of fun). But lines can also be crazy long. The main Halloween event I enjoy is USO, but more because I like seeing what they do with the effects. I am also a fan of parks that split their night/day tickets like Cedar Fair parks. October days are great, as these days usually have some of the shortest lines of any time during the year. (I am talking empty rows on Flight Deck at CGA).

^I am pretty sure the last time a coaster this highly ranked was removed was Eagle's Fortress. But that coaster was understandably difficult to maintain, and Everland somewhat made up for that by building one of the best (if not the best) wood coaster in the world. As for Universal, I do wonder what the budget was to keep this coaster running. While it probably endured much wear and tear over the years, I guarantee there are other attractions at the resort that cost more to run and are far less iconic than this. Fire Dragon was my favorite coaster at the resort, and my second favorite in Florida after Kumba. With these ride removals and insane loose article policies, the Universal Parks would probably rank in my bottom quarter of parks if I were asked to rank all of them. And as late as 2013, USO was my favorite park resort. Comcast is running these parks like they do their cable network.

To think of it, it does seem dumb to close this ride. Especially since there are plenty of parks in the world that operate on far smaller budgets that are able to maintain decades old rides that probably bring in far fewer people now than Dragons ever did. For instance, Magic Mountain restored Revolution. Not many people were coming to ride that, but they still gave it some love.Also, CGA is doing some updates to Demon. It is sad when Six Flags and Cedar Fair can operate coasters that are decades old and draw fewer crowds, but Universal supposedly cannot keep open an iconic B&M invert. I seriously wonder how this will pan out financially.

My top 10: 1. Phantasialand 2. Europa Park 3. Dollywood 4. Knoebels 5. Hersheypark 6. Disneyland 7. Busch Gardens Williamsburg 8. Busch Gardens Tampa 9. Carowinds 10. Six Flags Over Texas Honorable mentions go to Cedar Point, Epcot, and KIngs Island. I judge my parks mostly based on how well they balance park experience with thrill rides.

So SFDK will have not one, but TWO rides mismarketed as coasters. Is that a record? In spite of all the misleading marketing, I do like this addition. While it is not nearly as exciting as CGA's, this still looks like a very fun ride nonetheless. It has also been great for a park on the smaller side to see so many fun new rides in a fairly short amount of time. I love what both NorCal parks are doing.

I also strongly recommend riding Phoenix in different seats. My favorite seats are row 3, and the back row. Whether you ride near the front or the back will provide a different experience, and you will experience airtime on different points of the ride. My credit count is close to 250 now, and Phoenix is still my #1 wood and #3 overall. (Best only by Skyrush and Expedition GeForce). You will have an great time.

If they remove the coaster, a large part of me hopes that this kicks them financially. I hope that at least Merlin learns their lesson from this. If not, then will they just keep removing iconic coasters? Are Colossus (Thorpe) or even Nemesis next?

^I agree with everything. This park blew me away, and it is my new #1 theme park. I am glad someone agrees with me on Black Mamba. I had heard many people call it forceless. I have ridden most of the inverts in the US, and I like Black Mamba better than almost all of them. I found it to be very intense, and the combined theming makes it my #2 invert behind Afterburn.

This may not have been a rhetorical question, but I think I can answer this. At least Dragons has some logic to it from a financial standpoint. Harry Potter is Universal's main cash cow, so wanting to put a dark ride there makes some sense. However, Heide Park is trying to be a thrill park. It makes no sense for a thrill park to literally let their most iconic roller coaster rot. Say what you will about Six Flags, but at least they know what they are. Six Flags seems to understand that they do need to maintain their best coasters (if minimally). Heck, even Six Flags America, the butt of every Six Flags joke, still keeps their wood coasters in descent shape. Remember a few years ago when there was a scare that Six Flags would buy Busch Parks? Given Merlin's reputation, I am not sure which chain would be worse to end up in. For the record, when I was in Germany, I spent two days in Phantasialand, two days in Europa Park, one day at Holiday Park, and one day in Hansa Park. I skipped Heide Park altogether. I could have easily gone too, but I had little interest in going to a park that would feel like another corporate park in America. (At least with its best coaster closed). Luckily for people in the area, Hansa Park still has plenty of charm, and it seems to be showing a promising future. (As long as Merlin does not touch that park).

If anything, I would guess it is going to be a launch up a half loop. I know there has been much speculation that riders will start on their backs and use a half loop to get into flying position, so a launched half loop would fit that narrative perfectly. Regardless, the fact that Phantasialand is behind it almost guarantees it will be awesome. I went there for the first time last month, and this park may or may not be tempting me to study abroad in Germany.