simon8899

Thanks for this great PhotoTR. Love to see TRs from the Japanese and China parks as due to the long flying times I will likely never go there. With my 1,95 meters I will not cramp myself into an Economy seat for 15+ hours. And while Business is within my budget to the US the prices called for Asian flights are slightly beyond my capacity.

Blue Fire is great but mostly family friendly. Only the last inversion totally rocks as it feels like the coaster wants to eject you from the seat with its negative Gs. If they have some of those and the pretzel loop will be intense due to its design. So if they not totally sink it - yes, it will likely be better.

Any local breweries to recommend?

While it is still one and a half months the ride line-up for my first carnival this year has been revealed. While having a good flat collection it lacks a Schwarzkopf coaster. The Cobra Coaster by Munich showmen Agtsch will be a new credit for me it IS an Interpark/Pinfari compact looper - will see how this will turn out... Wilde Maus XXL – Eberhard - Mack Wild Mouse Cobra Coaster – Agtsch - Interpark/Pinfari Compact Looper - NEW credit Kuddel der Hai – Belli Gbr - SBF Visa kiddie coaster Atlantis Rafting – J.Vorlop - Fabbri Rafting Riesenrad – 60m/Steiger - Kocks ferris wheel City Sky Liner – Bruch-Schneider - 70m Mondial Gyro Observation Tower Sky Dance – Nülken - HighFlyer Flasher – Ahrend - Mondial Turbine Airwolf – Eberhard - Mondial Inferno Frisbee – Robrahn - HUSS Frisbee Shaker – C.Wilhelm - Mondial Shaker Dom Dancer – Rüth - HUSS Break Dancer Parkour – Aigner - Schwarzkopf/Gerstlauer Absoluter Big Monster – Krameyer - Schwarzkopf Monster Hexentanz – Markmann - Zierer Witchdance Wellenflug – Blume - Zierer Waveswinger Viva Mexico – Nülken - Mack Tilt-A-Whirl/Waltzdance Love Dream – J.Rasch - Mack Music Express Action – Ohlrogge - Cosmont Music Express Drive In – Dieckmann - Reverchon Bumper Cars Super Skooter – Rene Rasch - Reverchon Bumper Cars Bumper 1 – Harder & Mantau - Bertazzon Bumper Cars Sources: jahrmarkt-nord.de / ride-index.de The new for me Cobra coaster...

Visiting Knott's some time ago now I saw both sides of the coin. While operations at Montezooma and Xcelerator were swift - the later running with two trains on a non-holiday weekday - the ops at Silver Bullet were the opposite: one train, slow staff and a 60 minute line, which was overlooked by an armed guard which I found rather weird. Only rode it once to get the credit - which was a shame as it is a great ride - and went to do several re-rides on the well operated coasters. I also have to agree that ops at SFMM were I was a day later were way better than those at Knotts. They even had two trains on Scream with barely enough guests to fill them - did 20+ rides in one hour. Same was true for Goliath. Best in LA - but also Orlando - of course were Disney ops. With Fast Pass and swift single rider procedures - were available - it was a day with lots of rides having friendly and efficient staff. The only parks so far coming close to Disney in ops are Europa-Park and Liseberg. Sometimes I think that some parks deliberatly have slow ops with one train so they do not have that much wear and tear on a ride - saving maintenence costs. ^You are quite unique in asking strangers if they would ride with your kid. I and my friends have often - on both sides of the pond - seen that parents would not let their kids ride with a stranger and openly forbid us to take an empty seat next to their kid. I respect that - but it reduces capacity even more.

^According to the copyright mark the WDW maps were even printed in 1988. The aterisks for MGM Studios, Pleasure Island and Typhoon Lagoon were makred out as well as the description "Future Attraction". The Magic Mountain Map also lists a "MGM Studios Preview" attraction. Could it be that these attractions were about to open and the maps might already been modified? On EPCOT: The feel was quite different back then in Future World which had a for more scientific approach - and honestly quite dry at times. But even then WDW already started to slowly make this part of the park more accesible to the crowds - like Wonders Of Life was already closed when we were there. A good portion of the crowds back then did Spaceship Earth and then headed directly to World Showcase - while we saw quite some school classes in the rest of Future World. One might also remember that old Simpsons episode were Epcot is showed as being the boring part of WDW. Last year many of the old pavillions were transformed to / or upped by popular attractions like TestTrack, Soarin, Mission To Mars or Captain EO.

I remember doing a boat trip around the netherlands on the famous canals. We stopped over one night on a rather seedy stretch of harbour - a ferris wheel would not have helped much. Next I guess most tourists head for Amsterdam, Delft and Gouda. And for theme parks to Efteling...

BAG OF CRAP HAS FINALLY ARRIVED! Lots of cool stuff - thanks a big lot!!! Getting the maps for Hong-Kong and Paris Disney gets me in the mood of visiting them soon. Plus great DVD to get me in tune for my north-eastern US tour 2015. Lots and lots of crap!!!

While clearing out the attic my parents found the following maps of WDW - Epcot and Magic Kingdom - and SeaWorld from when we visited in 1990. Interesting to see that before the time of laser printers how they mad hond-written adjustments to the map at the time. Sadly most material and photos from that trip were lost when the fresh water line burst at my parents house in the mid-90s. These maps survivied - as my parents told me - as I used them to make up fantasy trips years after at least once a month... Maybe these maps are even suitable to be added to the parks entry in the Park Index. Epcot before the times of Soarin', TestTrack and International Gateway Remember loving The Living Seas most - my father enjoyed the Biergarten to get away from "the crappy american beer" Disney World was quite smaller back then Liked the old map format - fitted far better into a rear jeans pocket Note the Skyway - great views - and Mickey's Birthdayland My parents took turns riding with me while trying not to get too much motion sickness And they still had Disney Dollars Took me 23 years to return... SeaWorld changed even more drastically Only thinks I recognized after 23 years were the Shark Encounter and the Shamu Stadium Thats the last one folks. Please comment!

The next challange: Get Helix, Lisebergbanen and Upsvinget into one picutre...

^From my experience the Zoll is the bottleneck here. An amazon package from the US once stuck 2 weeks with them before getting procesed.

^^I personally prefer Colossos (Heide-Park) over Balder. Likely because I generally prefer steel coasters and Colossos just feels much like an Intamin steel airtime machine running quite smooth only that it was this time made of wood. Honestly I even placed Twister (Gröna-Lund) over Balder as I liked the layout more as it is a wild and quirky ride - and the location is tops. I will up my experience in US woodies hopefully next year with some north-east parks coming up for me...

Well they replaced an old inverting coaster with a new inverting coaster - and a make you seldom find in Europe. Next to that they also have a great non-inverting coaster. And seeing what little kids climb into GeForce I think kids today than when I was a kid...

The photos looking great. If operations will be good again looks like one could have a blast there. For me a major bummer would have been that Shockwave was down. Hope to someday do SFOT and SFOG in one trip to catch both classy Schwarzkopf coasters. Hopefully Six Flags will add some new trains to preserve this coasters for another 20 years.

Some new contract data from the Kärnan website - mostly not news but now official: Ride layout calculated by: Werner Stengel GmbH, Munich Ride produced and built by: Gerstlauer Amusement Rides, Munsterhausen Security systems and consulting: TÜV South, Munich

Yesterday had a note from DHL Express in my mailbox - could be one of two things, one could be a parcel from TPR.... Sadly will only be able to collect it Monday.

For most whacky TV-shows this would be a dare for a candidate - we just do it without major second thoughts. Wonder what Freud would say about it...

The comapny were I work also had problems finding employees going there. As we are in the media/news business we have some bi/gay guys/gals who politely refused to go there. Aside from that it looks like the park will only be ready for summer...

Gröna Lund offers a great variety of rides at one of the best locations. Nearly every ride has a great view over the city. Funily the lines for flats were far longer than for the coasters - so I skipped them as I will not wait 30+ minutes for a Break Dancer or (then) TopScan which I can ride without lines at a carnival. The coaster highlights for me were of course Jetline and in my opinion best Scandinavian woodie Twister - for me Balder at Liseberg is overrated compared to for example Colossos at Heide-Park. What I found unnerving were a good amounts of kids making a sport of skipping lines and the staff was doing nothing about it. Some line skipping you see more or less at most parks - but Gröna Lund is the worst experience for me in this respect. Overall while still a great place I would prefer going first to Liseberg and secondly to Tivoli Gardens if visiting Scandinavia.

I loked Tornado at Sarkeniemmi very much - lets see how this one will compare...

Cannot wait to stock my personal park with Schwarzkopf rides only... Okay maybe one of those crazy Moser contraptions here and there...

Great Report! I will do the same trip coming May. How were the crowds during the weekend and would you recommend to get one of the Fastpass-Options? Any other tips like which rides to hit first or last? Any recommendations are welcome...

Did anyone has crowd estimates for weekend days in may? Both parks offer fastpasses - Parque Warner "Correcaminos" / Parque de Atraciones "Speedy Pass" - and would like to now if it is prudent to get those. I do not mind lines up 30 minutes for coasters and up to 15 minutes for flats - anything longer than that and I would prefer a fastpass.

^Interesting to see that Teststrecke is on sale. But sadly even on good weather days the coaster never ran more than one train and mostly with only half the seats filled. Some of my colleagues and friends calls it "boring".

^not 100% sure I will do "north of NYC" on this trip, maybe doing a seperate trip sometime in the future. Will decide after it is known what coaster the NJ coastline parks will add after Sandy until the 2015 season. But after seeing that one adds a Pinfari Zyklon makes me tend more toward SFNE...