AJMouse

wooooh not so fast! Actually it wasn't really fast, just normal speed posting right? For you guys maybe! But I haven't been sitting here behind my screen for a few days so I couldn't comment on everything. Reason? I just started my job at Cinevideogroup, a Dutch company that goes everywhere in Europe to cover sports, events, concerts and festivals. FUN! But long days and weird times. Alton Towers I really enjoyed Alton Towers, I thought it was the best park on the trip. We got in many rides on Nemesis at the end of the day which was cool.. and I experienced a true 'Running of the Bulls' (a first according to Scott) that morning after the awesome Singing Male Nun. The park is really spread out, and I would never expect it to be there after the long and terrifying drive to it. In the middle of nowhere in the UK there exist this big awesome laid out park with some of the greatest rides in the UK (if not the greatest rides). Divv wasn't to hyped about Hex (which is inside or like, half-inside the castle), but I quite enjoyed it. The ride itself isn't very special or anything, but I really liked the myth around it (with the chained tree and curse) and how the ride portrays it in a pre-movie, theming and special effects. Divv told me the tree from the story actually exists somewhere nearby. I love a good ghost-story (the UK is the place to be for that!). I thought Air was good. I didn't expect too much, but I love these flying coasters as we don't have them in Holland. We tried for a front seat ride (after quite a wait, what's ten more minutes..?) and it turned out to be a good choice. They're not allowed to build very high at Alton Towers, so the coaster was close to the ground, and it really felt like swooshing and zooming past everything. I quite enjoyed it. Nemesis was awesome. What can I say that no-one has said before about this ride? Probably nothing, so skip to the next paragraph if you like. The coaster is (again) close to the ground, which makes it pretty cool (going that fast close to the ground adds to the scary-ness of it all). Also it's very compact (including the theming) which makes for a lot of foot-choppers (I like!). We had a long wait (with Burger King food, good.) the first ride, but in the end we got in many more rides on it. I think it's a shame that there are so many rides that you actually don't really have time to check out the castle or castle grounds. Like Andrew mentioned, I would like to go back there and check all that out. I liked Oblivion, but I don't think it was worth the wait we had for it (maybe the 17-year-old-looking-but-actually-13-year-old-girl sticking her tongue trough the fence was worth the wait). If you go for this coaster, make sure you get front seat. Get to know the station when you get to it, cause it's set up a bit weird. The drop is cool when you're in front, that's it. Rita was fun. We made clever use of the single-riders line (well maybe not on (some of) our first go, but at least we had a front row seat). Good air in the back (in the front too I suppose), and a nice launch. I do think the launch of Stealth back at Thorpe was a bit faster (but I don't know the details!). Hated the corkscrew. 'Nuff said. The Dragonballs Spinning Coaster was alright, but like Divv I did enjoy the one at Chessington better. Still a good coaster! By the way, the girl I sat next to on Nemesis... Divv, give me your photos, NOW! Blackpool Night Out ehh.. No just kidding. Blackpool Pleasure Beach My 2nd favorite park on the trip. "Since we got into the park before the rides opened we gamble our lives away on the Kentucky Derby. This actually resulted in some very exciting races! Well not for AJ." Stupid AJ! Infusion was pretty good for me. A wake up call after a great night! The water effects were fun (didn't get my feet wet, but hey I'm short), and I really loved the half loop next to the station which has some sort of a waterfall in front of it. It feels like you're going twice as fast up a waterfall into an inversion. Good stuff. Didn't think it was too rough, but I have a lot of experience with El Condor down here at Walibi World (which by the way isn't as bad as it used to be "back in the day"). After that on to 'The Big One'. It has a nice 'whoooop*' to it somewhere in the first hill after the drop, but in all it's a shaky rattling machine. I really looked forward to it.. Oh my it looked sooo smooth from everywhere in the park.. but actually it was bad. I really did not enjoy that, and when it got back near the station I was annoyed that it had to go round the steeple-chase as well (the ride just kept going ). *thanks Scott On Avalanche Divv managed to get to know me a lot better than we both wanted to. Well, I say both, but I don't know about Divv.. We managed to get just about all dark rides and coasters in, and yes, also both kiddie credits I quite enjoyed 'Bling' that goes up, circles, goes round, and upside down (okay that could be any ride, hehe). We had a weird moment up there where we looked at the bench in front of us which was hanging upside down. Fun stuff. Did anyone record my awesome Monorail rap inspired by the whole Hooters Crew? No? Good. I almost agree with Andrew that Valhalla was the greatest ride there. Loved it! The fire, the ice, and mostly all the water. Make sure that if you're in the backseat, you keep your feet up! Going up isn't a lot of fun if you have your feet down! Hehe. The most fun ride was 'Derby Racers'! I had soo much fun with my horsie horsie! I wanted to go on it again, but the guys wanted Food. Which I thought in the end was cool too. I'm pulled a Robb on my Ribbs in that restaurant as you can see on the pics. Great, awesome day! "Holland a sore loser as always, he was nearly there, but he couldn't manage to get it in in the end" - Thank you BpPb!

Woh I finally found the topic, hehe. Good stuff to read and see back. Stealth: Liked it. Took me back to Cedar Point, but I do remember that coaster being just a preteenyweeny bit higher. Colossus: Unlike Matteo I wasn't counting all the loops and barrelrolls, so the last one was a surprise to me. An unpleasant one I might add. I didn't really like it that much ^^. Nemesis Inferno: What can I say, it has a crocodile! X dot NO WAY OUT!!!: "random wind, lights, and “Access Denied, Moving on”" Exactly what I remembered. I do remember the very bright 'EXIT' sign on the way out though. Weird. That was it for Thorpe. Nice little park, too bad the lines for the big swing were so long and we couldn't do it. In Chessington we started the afternoon with standing in line to buy tickets. This I think turned out to be the longest wait of the day. Two registers were open but both were occupied with families having a hard time getting a season pass (I think anyway). After quite some time they left to the season pass register around the corner. Good idea. Steve made one of their children trip. Good stuff Steve! And it wouldn't be the last time haha. Inside (which turned out to be hard for me to get there with failing tickets and all), we grabbed some food and the first beer of the day (it was beer-o-clock after all). Fury was good to me, although I didn't get much spin on both my rides from what I remember. I do remember the bad on-ride-photo, which as always, was awful. I sat behind Andrew the second ride we got, and I saw his shoe nearly falling off above Burger King. Didn't realize it was him until after the ride hehe. It's not very high, but the ride is pretty fast and close to the ground or branches of trees. This makes it good! Oh and the station is nice as well. Hooters was A-w-e-s-o-m-e. The food was bad, the beer was disgusting, but there were some nice girls! I just don't ever want to go there anymore, you know you won't be able to get with a girl who works there that night. Unless.. hmm I could follow her home.. hmm.

Well! Last Sunday I got together with my rockchick Saskia and we decided to go to Drievliet! It's only like 10 minutes from her home, and we only decided to go when it was already 1PM. 'Not to worry' she told me, 'the park is real small and you'll be able to get in several rides on all coasters'. She couldn't have been more right We had about 5 (I don't even remember) rides on their new X-Coaster and man did we love that thing. It's so silent, so smooth, and we do like them lapbars (although I do like the ones on the S&S Swings better which feel pretty similar). It's indeed a very short coaster (47 seconds to be exact) but it's fun, and with a wait time of less than 5 minutes, no problem. It hangs you upside down a few times, and the heartline twist is really slow (if you're 'lucky') which makes you hang upside down for what seems to be forever. Nice airtime on the bunny hop, and the launch is cool too. Anyway back to the entrance. When we got in we got on the slide first which made me look like I wet my pants (always a good start of the day) and second up was the first coaster: Twistrix, a really weird machine that I've never seen before. It has a train of 8 cars which twist and turn around randomly (it seems) and ride over a squarish track. It does the track two times for maximum spin (and waiting in the station for the train is pretty scary, cause you nearly DIE when you lean over the gate). We got a pretty good spin our first go, and the second wasn't too bad either (the man behind us screamed his lungs out, haha). Did the powered minetrain, and after that the 'Kopermijn' which is basically a themed mouse with the sharp turns. It has a small indoor section which I thought was pretty neat, but I figured it was just for the photo-op. We got about 3/4 rides in on every coaster except for Twistrix (only one). We did more flats, regular ones like a Haunted House and what have you. The park is pretty cool and I was amazed by the X-Coaster (you don't expect that in a park like Drievliet). I didn't take many pictures AT all, but I thought I'd share 'em anyway (just to put of my Midwest updates which I'm not looking forward to too much, selecting all the pictures, haha). Hope you enjoy. MVI_2014.rar No POV, but just a video taken from the middle of the ride! Hangtime.. Into the heartline twist From the launch into the half loop thingy, then over the bunny hop.. It drops you around the corner, straight into the launch (no waiting or whatever which I actually always like, but this was a nice unexpected surprise!) And ready to go (yeah different group, wow, you noticed!). Loading up the train/car was fast, awesome job from the ride ops (or just easy to strap in 6 people in these lovely lapbars). Up next: Formule-X! (well actually we already had a ride on it ofcourse hehe) Saskia spotted a nice little detail in this familypark. The powered mineride, and the mouse-mine 'kopermijn'-ride in the back. This is the only picture I got from both rides, hehe. But you want to see the X-Coaster only anyway so yeah. With Sas driving the car we had no problem getting through this ride. The steering didn't work anyway bummer. It may not seem that way, but the track goes under the station, and the owls are actually pretty wide, spinning around when they race through. In the background a really weird powered car-ride (yes we got the credit) and the waterslides. My camera nearly died taking this picture as I was holding it over the que-line-waiting-gates and the train flew by, hehe. See? It's owls or something with random farm animals in the middle. Ah well... who cares, it was fun! This is Twistrix, and I've never seen such a coaster. I thought it was fun, but you have to choose your partner carefully (I had a good one, hehe). Got some nice twists on this. I just don't get the theming.

You're waiting for Nadia again? good update, what a horrible story, I couldn't tell you were up for so long that first night at the Pegasus room. Ah well. Thanks for letting us stay in your room, which I guess technically was the first Pegasus room. Yay for Hooters Crew!! |-|(.)(.) erm, yeah whatever.

Cool updates divv, already a month ago? Jeez time flies. Looking forward to more updates! Thanks

Hehe, Freds Fun Facts, thanks for that This is the only picture I have of Fred I think.. and it's not even of the man himself. Just about his superior travel style

Hey Matt, thanks for those updates, it's good to see all the pictures that I'm actually on (you don't get as many pictures of yourself as your friends and family may like). Keep 'em coming! I just had a great day here in LA in Universal Studios Hollywood (VIP Experience was AWESOME) together with Thomas. We'll fly back in about 6 hours so I should go and get some sleep, but not before mailing the girlfriend ofcourse. Love you mr. Damon aj

Holiday World was great! There weren't many people, and getting in early was good too. We got to do Voyage many many times. And the drinks.. I can't believe it. I tried all of them But in the end I started taking water (your body doesn't agree with 15 kinds of different sodas). I just wanna shout out 'Hooters!!' to the Hooters crew, and erm. Go to bed or something, heheh. Free Fred Fun Fact! Did you know the Ohio River never actually goes through the state of Ohio..? mhaahahaha we love fred. Especially on frisky friday.

I'm not sure on our trip we have enough time, but if time is short, it sounds like it's not worth it. Or maybe like it's not worth it at all

The ride where you said it needed refurbishment that one, what is that exactly? Thanks for the update (and great preview for the TPR Midwest trip:D)

thanks for the update. I loved it. Again

Sure. Don't make too many late nights, we need you fit for the Midwest trip . Thanks for the updates so far, I'm enjoying them very much and they kindof make me extra excited for the Midwest trip

Just to help everyone out: More of Big Mike please! hehe. Theme Park Review Forum Index -> Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Bouncy Bouncy! << mhahaha Bouncy Bouncy! Am I a "Full Fledged Bouncy Bouncy Enthusiast!" now?

Thanks for the update That green water, you also have that in my kiddie-homepark: Sprookjeswonderland Enkhuizen! mhaha. Why does the bus have cushions everywhere, because of the bumpy ride? EDIT: oh wait, they just look like cushions, hehe never mind.

All deadlines have been passed now right? Are all the trips full now?

That's bad. I can't believe the park doesn't do anything about even the 'seconds' poweroutages. Dude! Another pic (from telegraaf.nl)

The open boat has brown 4 people ponchos attached to it, you can slide them over your head, and then only your head gets wet. In summertime, people leave the 'multi'poncho hanging in the boat, so they can get totally wet.. and they are 100 percent soaked, the ride is designed to not splash away the water, but to get it in or on the boat! Yeah, they are, the food is still bad though I don't know if there are many more, this is the only one I know of.. On another Europe trip with the Efteling in it, we could put this park in, only the bad thing is that the costs are way to high to get 2 rides from this park in And yeah that's a bird, the park was flooded with crows, creepy.

Doe eens een duinrell een duinrell een duinrell dag daar kikker je van op! free translation: Do a duinrell a duinrell a duinrell day, it'll frog you up! That's their commercial, mhehe. About 11 or so years ago (maybe longer) we went to Duinrell in Wassenaar, Netherlands every year. Together with friends from my parents and their two children (Yvette, one year younger than me and Vincent, 3 years younger than my sister, Jocelin) we visited this park (which is about 1.5 hour drive from my hometown, which in the Netherlands is quite far away). We loved this! But after 4 years of fun, we didn't go anymore. We even stopped seeing our friends. This year, only 3 weeks ago, Yvette contacted me as she found my mail address on a contactsite. We decided to meet up and talk (I'm 22 now). We had dinner the next weekend with her parents and mine. And that's when it happened: we decided to go to Duinrell. Yvette and I both have our drivers license now so our parents didn't have to come (they didn't want to). The park was going to open at 10 a.m. so we tried to get away from home 8:30 a.m. (which became 9 a.m.). 10:30 we arrived at the park, and the ticketbooths were packed with people.. omg. We should've bought our tickets online. When we were at the front of the line, a teacher from Jocelin showed up and gave us 40% discount coupons on the ticketprice. So I was happy we didn't buy online. I think the tickets set us back about 10 euros (which included 2 hours in their 'Tikibad' which is their indoor waterpark/swimmingpool/slidebuilding). After we got in, I started remembering things from ten years ago (so did Yvette). This park is really weird, it's like a bungalowpark//campsite and all the guests are paying guests or they walk around like campingguests. We skipped the kiddie-park (which according to my parents we liked the most.. hehe) and went straight to the back of the park to the Toboggan (Rodelbaan). 10 years ago I was to small to ride this (Yvette wasn't and I used to cry about that, hehehe). But now, woohoo, I got to ride! It was quite funny how a small kid stood before me in line, and when he didn't get to ride, he started crying.. I told him, don't be afraid, you'll get your revenge.. I'm taking mine now! *which wasn't very nice I guess. The set up is very basic, and no safety stuff at all. The sign basically says, get in, watch out, and you're responsible, goodbye. On the 2nd ride we got Vincent's coat got stuck between the cart and the toboggan in a corner so he fell half out. Pretty scary, but he thought it was 'exciting', lol. Oh I got a picture of me owning the height-limit-pole, right back at ya stupid Duinrell. Next up was the kiddie-coaster (and the only coaster in the park). No need to bring a kid on this one! I found the track to be unique to other kiddie-coasters, and scary too: Vincent (yes again) nearly bumped his head to the track above! I'm sure something like this wouldn't be allowed in America, or anywhere else for that matter. Also, the points where the G's were pretty high, they enforced the track with stone plates - weird. After that we went to the 'Splash' which is a boat ride (open or closed) that goes up, takes a corner and goes down again, creating a big... splash. It's an okay ride. A spectacular splash, and when you go in the closed boat I think you get wetter than you get in the open boat (it leaks EVERYWHERE). I'm going to leave you with the photos now. This is a park we won't be coming back to. It basically has no rides.. for small children it's fun (except when theyre not allowed on the Toboggan). We (Jocelin, Yvette, Vincent and I) decided to go to MoviePark Germany next time. Or a park with some 'adult' rides. This chapter is closed. Oh we went to the Tikibad as well: way to busy, way to long waiting for the slides, way to dirty, way to old. Bah! I did get to splash down my first Cyclone ride though. I've included just about every ride, so you don't have to visit this park yourself. That's also why there are so many pictures I want to make sure you don't go! Better go to the Efteling or Walibi World! Thanks for reading! The pictures: Our last stop of the day: The Tikipool (Tikibad). Bad! Random ride 3 (are you noticing how many rides don't have ride ops and are self powered? Random ride 2 Random ride 1 Vincent almost threw up from the food. Well at least it was a very green park (soon to turn a little bit orange with brown bits). If they only knew.. Oh god... the food.. it was Aweful, Cold, and there was birdpoop on our table. Except me and my sis fell out Last ride of the day. I enjoyed it, they did 2 runs for us Hence the name of the ride. In the openboat, you get a big poncho so only your head gets wet. In the closed boat, everything gets wet (and it smells real bad too..) is really a huge... well, see for yourself: Which is what they think and then what seems like a small fall, Up some more (by this time you're really wet from the leaks in the boat...) It goes up... So this is the closed boat... Closed And you don't need a kid to ride it! Credit! With random cartoon animals or people riding it!! I don't understand this! W00t!! Frog Kiddiecoaster!!!! The imprissonned.... It's .... This is a fun ride, you go very fast, and the fact that you CAN fly out the corner makes it even better, hehe. They won't come and help you though, cause by riding it you agreed to their policy. So I had time enough to get my camera from my bag, which I was allowed to bring on the ride and shoot this interesting picture. Right? I was allowed to bring it on, don't ban me! Riding up took like 5 minutes! Check out those instructions. This IS a scary ride. If you go full speed, you will sling out. Yes, we did our part. The greatest docking station in the world (of Duinrell). Me owning the height limit pole for the Toboggan. Me too! Vincent seemed to enjoy himself as well.. hehe. Next up. As you can see, everything has moved. Picture was taken from the same spot. Two meters from the Troll Train there was a Western train. Weird thing, the train is riding on a twisted track, while the whole track and mountain is also turning around! I've never seen such a ride before. or is it.. :s it's named the troll hole train ride :S Western themed kiddie train ride This came right out of the Efteling, Kaatsheuvel. Looks very safe like this, heh. Bumperboats are very boring with electrical motors. Bumperboats. It seemed like people weren't enjoying themselves. As if they were punished or something. Our second 'ride'.. Jocelin got sent away because she was to old I do love how they theme the Cash machines in parks nowadays. Smallest que area ever? This small ferriswheel had a lookout over the campsite. I bet the people there loved how they were being watched. I wasn't sure about the theme (the whole time). They had a nice play-park for the children. Big covered slide (but the kids grabbed trays from the restaurant and slided with 60mph down, a lot of fun to watch them fly out into the sand, hehe). I've never seen a phonebooth in a park. But maybe that's just me. There's that scary frog again. So here you have the toilets, where people leave Fun Gifts for you to buy in the next store. You think that's a fake turd? 2 seconds later I failed. But not for the Great AJ. I'm going to do it! They put a 50 euro bill on top of the ladder, and you need to go up without touching the ground. It's really hard. This is where you can practice before you try it out for money at your local carnival (not sure if you have those, but we have em). Pure magic! Well, that's what I used to think all those years ago.. heh. We recieved a voucher for cheap food. Good! (will come back to this later) 'Welcome to the Themepark' (themepark in Dutch is: Rides-Park, they just forget to mention they only have 4 (and running 3)). Only a few more untill we can get in this boring park! Aaah! Warning: Waiting in line to buy your ticket will make you go crazy, Yvette. Warning: Waiting in line to buy your ticket will make you go crazy, Jocelin. Best combo ever! Clowns and frogs. Isn't that cute? No. More and more people joined the que to buy a ticket. After one day I ask you: Why? 2 ticketbooths. Soo many people.

How would one breath in such a ball?

I didn't feel the need to open a new topic, but I have another question. I'm buying the VIP tickets soon, but when I entered the site of universal today this message came up: Now I'm not from the states, and thus my English isn't the best. I'm having trouble with what they mean by 'booking' - sure I know about booking a holiday and stuff like that, but maybe it can mean something different too. It says: "$149 price only valid for bookings through 4/30/07" - does this mean: A. order your tickets before this date and the price is 149, after that you can choose what date you want to go (August 14 is what we want) or B. Order your tickets, but you have to attend the VIP tour before or on April 30. I've sent them a mail asking about this, but I thought it would be quicker to ask here URL to their ticketsite: http://secure.universalstudios.com/webstore/shop/ticket-selection.aspx?Merchant=USHMainStore&SalesCategoryGroup=USHMain&SalesCategory=SDT update: I managed to get tickets for the date I wanted. Woohoo!

I got injured just 2 days ago. Slipped and fell down the stairs. I can't even remember the last time I had that happen to me! I bumped my right big toe 4 times and managed to grab hold of the stair 3/4 way down. Scary. Anyway I think I bruised my foot badly and I can't walk very well right now. And even worse it's the foot I will be getting an operation on next week. I don't think it was my worst though, need to think about that.

^ welll that was too late for me hehe, but I didn't really have any questions. Hope a log will be posted here soon tho for any questions I may not have thought of!

I've emailed that I'm interested in the Korea trip, few days ago I think. I'm still waiting for a reply (I know it's easter, you should be doing other things too hehe). But I hope I can still secure my spot (seeing as I mailed straight after reading the mail which was about 6 hours after I recieved it). - just checking if you guys recieved it as e-mails do get lost sometimes.

There are more fx? wow

Yeah I noticed the same thing with the wheelchair people. Next time I will bring a wheelchair, at least you get to ride first and 2 times (my friend actually needs one when visiting a park cause he can't walk or stand that long, so I'm not taking advantage or anything, ahem ). Anyway, it really didnt seem like 1900 peoples per hour heh. Sometimes the boats went faster after eachother than other times, but mostly they waited quite long. The ride broke down 3 times in the 1.5 hours we waited (attention: please allow a minute for the ride to operate again, thank you) . Nothing major, but they stopped putting people in boats each time. We had to wait 3 minutes in the boat in the dockingstation. At least we could sit, hehe.