simon8899

So....which Merlin park will get a Smiler clone next?

Cool pic - thanks for sharing!

Might revisit Holiday Park this September - but not totally fixed right now...

This might be true but I am not a big B&M person - they are fun to do but nothing special IMO. For 2010s so far its Karacho (Gerstlauer Infinity) for me - but will decide after riding Smiler (Gerstlauer Infinity) and Helix (MACK Accelerator). This said I am also not a big wooden coaster person...

Kanonen is something is a coaster layout I would love to see portable on the German carnival circuit...

1910s - Rutschebanen - Tivoli Gardens 1950s - Matterhorn Bobselds - Disneyland 1960s - Schwarzkopf Wildcat - German carnival 1970s - Montezooma's Revenge - Knotts Berry Farm 1980s - Schwarzkopf Thriller - German carnival 1990s - sadly cannot decide on this one 2000s - Expedition GeForce - Holiday Park 2010s - will decide this after my summer visit to Liseberg...

Note the two guys in the back of the line of the opening picture - so the "no shirt, no shoes" rule was not in effect at that time..

^^A nice high thrill addition for this cool Finnish park! ^Somehow a letdown replacing a log flume with a carny ride even smaler carnivals get here...

I second that. As I plan my 2015 trip I looked into this years opening calendars of the parks - and as I wanted to start mid-May I moved the start of my trip to the last week of May. And even there many smaller parks are still closed during the week - at least amjor parks are open then. Somehow weird considering major Euro parks are open all week April-Oktober...

So I guess we might see a Dive-Coaster in the size of Krake at Heide-Park which has a total height of 41 meters and cost €12 million in 2010/2011 - sadly not seeing an installation like the Busch Gardens divers at 61 meters. But quite sure Efteling will add some great theming to this coaster...

The same train like on the Vienna Prater Boomerang and on the Schwarzkopf Double-Loop Teststrecke - former Laser. IMO an improvement in replacing the older Vekoma OTSR trains but still prefer the new Vekoma trains with vest-style OTSRs as they comfortable and give the upper body support inside the Cobra Roll - specially on the return trip were the Cobra Roll is taken quite slow you have to keep yourself upright inside the seat of the SAT trains. I cannot compare between the SAT trains and Gerstlauer train for Schwarzkopf loopers - but will do next year...

Interesting Fav Vekoma Boomerang still scores so low - but many have not yet ridden one with Vekoma's new trains featuring the vest-style OTSR which are a BIG improvement. Looking forward to riding many of the top coasters next year vacationing the US!

Wilde Maus XXL at Hamburg Frühlingsdom carnival - last day for me as I have call-out duty this easter weekend.

And another nice touch in contrast to many US chain parks...

^^I guess not everyone doing Lisebergbanen - who has five trains - will ride Helix. And Liseberg used all five on Lisebergbanen when I was there last time with waits around 10-20 mins. So one can assume that will also use all Helix trains - this is not Six Flags who keeps running one train with horrendous waits...

Thanks for the TR. Looks like a fun midsize park with a mostly German coaster selection... Well one can raise the hands in a Double-Loop but one should have them down again inside the helices, have seen some riders banging their hands badly on them here. Thats why later Schwarzkopf coasters got those shoulder clamps.

Great TR! After visiting last year already thinking about a New Hotness Week in Orlando and surrounding parks soon...

Even if it "feels" a little unsafe I love the older rides were there are some reasonable space between the lapbar and the rider - like Schwarzkopf loopers and Monster or old HUSS Pirates were you can really slip up in the rear rows. Also love our 65 meter ferris wheel at carnivals here - while people enter below you hang 65 meters up, peferably after dark and unlike most American wheels ours are open meaning there is no mesh and no windows - just open air above the waistline if you stand up, and if you are taller like me the doors end someway on your lower thigh. Or you can lean over the bench, stick your head out and look straight down... And I hate the year our TÜV made it mandatory that HUSS Break Dancers need slip-under protection on their seats... And while our carnivals are as safe as parks I guess it was often enough noted that our flats are not fenced in - kids eat their ice cones only 20 centimeters away from for example a Mondial Shake at full swing... And of course: Love out log-flumes and rafting rides - all of course without any restraint system.

Fluch Von Novgorod at Hansa-Park has a single rider line but splits rather late from the main queue. Flug Der Dämonen has a single rider line but remains to be seen if it will be used in day to day operations - was closed during the pre-Opening when I was there.

Will be interesting how the new Goliath train will compare to the new Vekoma trains with vest-style OTSR.

Lets see how good the single ride line will be managed. So far I can say only EP and Disney does it perfectly - at other parks I sometimes even had to point the attendant to a single free seat or I would have never gotten a place. If attendants are not trained for them they have no or little value... Secondly many manufacturers add a single ride line but leave it to the park to actually use it...

Bakken is a great place with some unique rides and coasters. Nice to see the Schwarzkopf Monster is starting to get a LED light package - so hope it will stay a while... Sadly this summer I will have only one night in Copenhagen so will not make it out to Bakken, hopefully another time.

Former Goetzke Funtime Rocket not going to South Carolina???

According to ride-index.de Goetzke sold his Funtime Rocket to the USA, specifically South Carolina. Some forums speculate that it might go to Mytle Beach. Does anyone know details or can confirm this rumor?