simon8899

^ You've the huge themeparks - we've the best carnivals... At full speed everything you'll see is in a wild blur. I normally never get affected by fast spinning but on this Take Off the high Gs combined with the spinning blur makes me wonderfully tupsy-turvy exiting the ride - like having drunk quite some beers. On this Take Off I nearly always see people turning the content of their stomachs outside...

I think most of us could handle lapbars on a ride like this but sadly many riders can't. Riding the Schwarzkopf Double-Loop recently I've seen riders badly banging their hands on the loops while the train goes between them. I remember this got very bad at times on the Dreier Looping with poeple hurting themselves on the supports. So later on most Schwarzkopf trains were equipped with the shoulder-clamps. Of course most of us would knew to only raise the arms for the loops but most other poeple don't. As I like inversion coasters I'm full in for 14 inversions. And in the first years this will defenitly be good.

And now finally some photos from Wednesday! 55 meter ferris wheel greets you at the St. Pauli entrance The 1950s Siemens Rotor is still big fun Huss Frisbee by showmen Robrahn is mostly a favorite with girls Portable 50 meter Star Flyer halfway up Mondial Shaker this time on another spot on the fairgrounds Even at only 7 degrees C some people ride the rafts Finally arrived at Teststrecke Which family ride has such a nice backwall painting? A Zierer Hexentanz - Witch's Dance - quite harmless but giving some small pops of airtime A slightly taller Zierer ride is next up Star Shape No.1 looming high over the midway On for some classic EDIT Cosmont Musikexpress fun No carnival is complete without bumper cars. And as they should be: Without seatbelts or lapbars like in some other countries... XXL Afterburner soarin high! DOM Dancer got it's first LEDs this year Seems to be fun... On my ride the operator did a great manual program synched to "Scream & Shout" Look what's coming up next... And another family-friendly painting Wilde Maus XXL the second coaster this spring Anyone has the Huss serial numbers memorized??? It belongs to best-run Take Off I know! The operator mostly spins the compartments clockwise at full speed. Hint: The Take Off at Särkeniemmi never runs at full speed... With the also clockwise spinning mainplate the G-forces are freaking intense - at full speed IMO even higher than Mission Space: Orange at Epcot! All Schwarzkopf fanboys go OOOMMMMMMMM Big Monster always a fun ride Final pic for now. More DOM and Osterwiese pics in the upcoming days and weeks!

Hamburg.de has put up a nice gallery with historic DOM pictures like wooden rollercoasters that were only built for the few weeks of the carnival. DOM History on hamburg.de

^ That would then be the B**b arm of the Marmaliser....

Olympia Looping: High-speed banked turn between 1st and 2nd loop Goliath/SFMM: Greyout in the 720 helix Expedition GeForce: First drop ejector air at first drop Nessie: Loud Schwarzkopf breaks inside a pitch black tunnel with strobelights Blue Fire: Ejector air in the last rollover

As the day temperatures slowly go above freezing and it will be sunny for the week I'll finally visit the two big carnivals going on right now. First will be the Frühlingsdom in my hometown Hamburg - this time with the Schwarzkopf Double-Loop Teststrecke. Other highlights are a Zierer Star Shape and Witchdance (Hexentanz), a Schwarzkopf Monster and of course by Huss a Dancer and a Take Off. Finally a KMG XXL Afterburner is also here. On the weekend I'll hop over to Bremen to visit the Osterwiese - the smaller brother/sister to the Freimarkt each fall. Here you'll find a Mack Seesturmbahn, a SBF Super Jumper as well as two Dancer - a standard and a bigger No.2 - and a Schwarzkopf Monster with the nice name Octopussy. Hamburg Frühlingsdom layout Bremen Osterwiese layout

Flat: This will most likely be a Schwarzkopf Monster III or a Huss Break Dancer Coaster: Nessie, the Schwarzkopf Loopingracer at Hansa-Park

It's always kinda funny to me to see Japan Disney parks. Disney started with animated movies, an art which is now done perfectly in Japan - while Disney sadly nearly completly abandoned this art to computer animation... How did you come along with english in Japan?

I thought Revolution would be one of the highlights of my 2010 California trip and turned out to be one of the worst coasters due to the hurting OTSRs. Maybe it's better to keep Thriller in mind the way it was on carnivals here...

If you'll ever do a trip were one can ride Dreier Looping AND Thriller I'd put on debt to come along!

Dreier-Looping looks like being in good condition - the color of the loops is a little faded, but no problem with me. The first drop looks as cool as I remember it from years back - and the second lift, like on Olympia, doesn't feel much like a lift. I hate those when I re-build the Schwarzkopf coasters on my PC that the lifts have a fixed speed and are always so damn slow... Thanks for the great footage - I need to speed up my Mexico-City travel plans somehow...

Damn - I so hoped for Maurer-like lapbar restraints....

Would anyone notice if everyone takes a piece of the Schwarzkopf in their handluggage and then assemble it in Robb's garden???

^ Best of course is a manual controlled ride that is in tune with the music. Best example here are Break Dancer here - they've one operator and one DJ doing the music, the operator gets the music program from the DJ on his screen and can sync ride and lights to the music. Another are Top Spins - an operator with lots of experience can roll you over for more than 100 times in a row if he wants to...

Re-Riding the good old "Dreier Looping" is one of the main reasons why I have Maxico-City on my travel map. It looks a little aged from the German carnival times but still rides great I persume... That they in addition have a Shuttle-Loop and a Weber Traumboot only makes it better... Edit: Good Cascabel footage - hope you also have some stuff from Dreier-Looping, I only found some SD footage from a German comedy movie...

Final Part: Busch Gardens Tampa Really enjoyed my day at Busch Gardens. The park offered some great coasters - with Sheikra being in maintenance. I like Cheetah Hunt and Scorpion most but the two B&Ms were also good. The wooden coaster was horribly bouncy. Next to that I really enjoyed the Phoenix. Cheetah Hunt greets one first Great multi-launch coaster, liked the low S-curves part most Montu is a very good inverted, scoring 2nd inverted for me behind Intamin's Tornado Montu was a walk-on all day Busch Gardens also animals big... ...and small Cheetah Hunt's only inversion Airtime hills less forceful then on other Intamin's Reaching Timbuktu... omg, omg, omg... At least some riders ignore the sign: "Don't raise your arms!". I always ignored it... Another well-maintained classic ride at this park The ultra-slow inversions a big fun! Kumba running fine but starting to rattle in the Cobra-Roll and Corkscrews Also a walk-on - immediate re-rides were possible Beautiful white tiger By far the driest waterride I had in Florida Skipped the wild mouse due to my back at the time Rhinos! Cheetah Hunt waits topped at 5 minutes, back rows were mostly a walk-on The actual Cheetah taking things far more relaxed compared to the ride... These guys look relaxed, but... Last ride of the day - of course - the Schwarzkopf Silverarrow

German documentary about the Soest carnival - inside a narrow historic city-center. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJOoKLvBb9k

Totally crazy - too fast even for my taste.... Whats the huge dark thing revolving behind the couple???

Some points come up for German carnivals: The flats often run - nearly - empty to drag more people to ride. So they're running for advertising. People pay up to $10 per ride and therefor expect a long cycle for their money. In a park you pay a flat fee and you can do the short cycle as often as you like. Showmen at carnivals get the quite cheap industrial energy. Rules and regulations specially when it comes to compensation for "costumer stupidity" are way less strict here. If someone makes something stupid in or around an operating ride this person will so get no money in court. Maybe a point that most flats here are made in Germany or Italy and as distances are shorter maintenance is easier and faster to come by.

The station looks like a Tron maze...

Gerstlauer has at least two amazing projects to finish this spring...

Part 10: IOA smartphone pics Some more pics from IOA... This is the longest line for Forbidden Journey I had in two days The queue is amazing with the moving paintings If you reach the speaking hat you're nearly there Always enough time to ride a dragon... One of the few flats offered Empty Hulk train on the fun 5th inversion Launch right into the inversion is really great Well, what is "work" for... Well done darkride/waterride in the Jurassic Park section 3D projection at Olivanders Universal version of a parade No Orlando park without an explosive show

Would be very sad. Looks like I was lucky to ride it a few times about a month ago. I really love Inverter, Looping Starships, Ranger and Traumboote. But sadly these inverting thrill rides die out one by one. One should ride every one of it still operating while they last. Next to that I'm not a frined of drop towers - with maybe the exception of Disney's HTHs. You wait nearly forever and get a ride that is not very thrilling and lasts only a few seconds... Can hopefuly console myself riding the Flying Shark - a Huss Ranger - at Hansa-Park soon...

Part 9: Universal Islands of Adventure Another day - another great Orlando park. But this is the one that at least in parts lives up to Disney theming. Coasterwise this one features 3 B&Ms with Hulk being a little rough but still quite fun and Dragon Challenge being two typically mostly harmless B&M inverts. I skipped the Vekoma Rollerskater as it had by far the longest line - mostly even longer than Forbidden Journey. The major coasters were walk-ons nearly all times with Hulk waittimes topping at about 5 minutes. Forbidden Journey hat max waits of 15-20 minutes - so I did this great ride quite some times. Next to that Universal has the wettest logflume I ever did. But restraints on a logflume??? This was new - at first I didn't realized what the ride-op was gesturing at, he had to stop the conveyor and tell what I had missed. Here in Europe logflumes and rafting rides never have restraints... Here I am! Warm sunny day and trees with flowers while in Germany snow is mounting First ride of the day - liked the launch, 1st and 5th inversion most Dragon Challenge running fine as I was coming up Harry Potter World was the most packed part of the park both days Today still a mock-up construction was going on behind this wall to add the "real" trainstation Doctor Who snowman with Hogwarts looming behind This was in the middle of the day and Dragon Challenge was a walk-on... The whole Harry Potter area brims with detail Make sure to check all shop windows for small gimmicks View over the lake Colorful Seuss Landing Aside from some of the superheroes the only cartoon figure I could identify: Hägar, der Schreckliche! Even with a light rainjacket one gets very wet here Soaked!!! Is the Seuss trolley a credit? I uses the Mack powered coaster system but it does not coast... Honestly I don't know a thing about Seuss, largely unknown here... More IOA pics from my smartphone coming soon...