andybarnes84

I've got to say Space Mountain at WDW, my first dark coaster and is still my favourite Disney attraction alongside TOT, highly underrated and for me, still has the element of surprise.

Another vote for phantom at Kennywood, amazing coaster but strange pacing and a little too short for my liking.

Another vote for the 'timid' Silver Star, couldn't believe how good it was the other week during my first visit. Easily as good as my summer rides on Apollo and Nitro

Having just ridden Blue Fire for the first time last week, and Maverick back in June, I would compare them in the same way I would a B&M hyper and Skyrush/Intimidator 305 i.e. Blue Fire is more comfortable and smooth with a less than spectacular launch, Maverick is all go and just nuts! Depends what you prefer I suppose but Blue Fire didn't impress me as much as I was hoping it would.

Thanks for posting all these fantastic pics and descriptions of the park, having just returned from a trip there I'm instantly having withdrawal symptoms and regret not doing more I personally found Silver Star to far exceed expectations which were set very low, maybe the rain and sitting in the back row helped but I was really impressed by the airtime, and this is from someone who recently rode Apollos Chariot and Nitro (which are always inevitably rated much higher in the various polls). The park is very impressive and I still felt surprised by it despite watching so many videos and looking at countless trip reports over the years, a truly magical park without the commercialism or squeaky clean/fake appearance of Disney properties.

So SW7 is going to be themed to some sort of asylum then? Which explains #getcorrected

I'll just reiterate what everyone is saying and suggest a TPR tour but if timing really is an issue I'd recommend just visiting California and Florida, they are both quite doable without a hire car, although in L.A. you'll have to make use of organised tours to get to some parks.

Six Flags Magic Mountain Disneyland Disney California Adventure Knotts Berry Farm Santa Monica Pier Coney Island Dorney Park Hershey Park Knoebels Waldameer Cedar Point Kennywood Kings Dominion Busch Gardens Williamsburg Six Flags America Six Flags Great Adventure Alton Towers Fantasy Island Thorpe Park Adventure Island Blackpool Pleasure Beach And my first ever visit to Europa Park in a couple of weeks

For a moment there I thought they had a knock-off B&M Hyper only to realize it's "Extreme Rusher" by S&S, how was it? Looks fantastic but maybe not the most refined coaster on the planet.

Agree with you all here that if you can go on a TPR organized tour then you'll have a much better experience, we enjoyed our self planned trip but it was tiring and took a lot of effort in the booking stages. Unfortunately I get "told" when I'm to take vacation time in my profession but hoping to get on my first TPR tour next year.

A dive machine, mini or not, would work really well. I just wish they could squeeze in a Skyrush clone or something close to it.

I remember being highly sceptical of Skyrush and it became my number 1 after the first ride. This looks to be a great addition, colors could have been more interesting but otherwise an exciting looking ride, can't say the same about Gold Striker.

That's a good measure of how excited we all are about this "redesign". If only they changed the cars to "experimental light cycles" I'd be getting very excited but as it stands, after seeing all the artwork, I think I'm actually going to prefer the old Test Track. This seems like a more in-your-face advert for GM/Chevy and I wouldn't be surprised if that fancy Aveo you get to design in the line is available for order once you disembark with an affordable finance plan

Sounds like they got their inspiration from SFA! I noticed how motivated these guys were back in June too, would be interesting to hear from someone who has visited recently if this is still the case, seems like the long hours with the summer crowds and heat often leave the staff knackered at this point in the season as everything is winding down.

I would strongly recommend doing the trip next year, we went in early June and it was the perfect time, not busy because school is still on, great weather and parks open every day!

^ and I thought our itinerary was ambitious! Did our own north east tour in June which went great, the original schedule was as follows: Day 1 NYC and Coney island Day 2 Dorney Day 3 Hershey Day 4 Knoebels Day 5 Martin's fantasy island Day 6 Waldameer Day 7 Cedar Point Day 8 Kennywood Day 9 Kings Dominion Day 10 Busch Gardens Williamsburg Day 11 Six Flags America Day 12 Six Flags Great Adventure Our actual plan ended up being a little different due to various reasons but generally I was really satisfied with what we took in given the time.

I'm guessing you're thinking of driving over here and not Japan, now that would be scary. For me, driving on the wrong side of the road doesn't take long to get used to in the States because the roads are so logically laid out. Here in the U.K. things can be tighter and more tricky to navigate, you are often giving way to traffic at crossroads instead of having your own signal so you have to think more about that. If you can practise going round a roundabout in your head too that'll help a lot as you'll encounter many of them here, I thought they didn't exist in your fine nation until I drove through Clearwater! An auto is a no brainer unless you've driven manual/stick shift all your life. I've yet to take my car across to mainland Europe, for some reason I think it would be the most difficult as you're driving on the wrong side of the road (or the correct side for most of you) yet the steering wheel is kerbside, that could fool me if tired. Generally I'd say don't worry about driving here but try to stick out of the big cities during the week, unlike the states we built our cities with only horse and cart in mind and now we are paying the price, this country couldn't make it harder to own a car and just drive normally through major cities like you can over there. All the best with your future wrong side driving!

Kumba, needless to say that I've been a devout coaster addict since!

Great coverage of ECB Chuck, really have to make the effort to get over there to join in one of these events or trips, maybe next year! Ironically the town of Elgin is actually really close to the real Loch Ness, how (un)interesting is that!

I wouldn't mind a perfect clone of Phoenix at Knoebels, a feel good 'BBQ and beers in the backyard' kinda ride.

If you avoid the weekend then a day would be fine, it's still a little busy but very manageable, just make sure you get on Baco first as that thing always breaks down and gets a huge line.

I've ridden Nemesis more times than I care to count but would still rate Raptor ahead of it for intensity with Batman (SFMM) and Dragon Khan about level. Riding Raptor in the morning I just couldn't believe how heavy that second half was, didn't get the chance to ride it later in the day but I think I would have collapsed. Credit goes to the pretzel loops on the flyers (particularly Tatsu) which are by far the most intense inversion out there and a bit of a surprise in a ride which otherwise is quite serene.

Great TR thanks for posting, Helsinki & Linnanmäki have a soft spot in my heart as I lived there for 6 months (my g/f is from Lappeenranta) and I've been back and forth many times. I really have to make it to Sweden next as both parks look fantastic, I just hope Balder can almost live up to El Toro!

That's reassuring as I thought I was starting to imagine things, for some reason because of this I really didn't get anything from the ride, I think it could have been end of trip exhaustion too, our conversation as we were waiting to be launched for our first ride went something like this "What's for lunch?", "Well I've heard that Nathan's is pretty good even here in the park, but that other sandwich place on the boardwalk seems OK WWEEEEEEEEEE OW OW OW *rattle rattle rattle* OW OH NO WE'RE GOING TO ROLL BACK OWEEE UGHHHH". "Nathan's it is then". Thanks for all the comments guys and gals very much appreciated and I just wanted to thank you once again for assisting me with my trip planning all those months ago, your advice made this trip much more of a success that I could have previously imagined.

Well it sounds like we caught kingda on a really bad day then, seriously we were shocked at how much the train shook side to side and I was convinced we were going to experience a roll back as it crawled over the top. Yet another reason to visit this park again in the near future so that I can give it a second chance and also fit in some night rides on the bull.