rcjp

^That's right. As I've said, it'd be really cool to see a counterweight free pendulum ride go upside down but given that the normal ones which reach 120 degrees or so already produce some serious Gs it would probably be too much for a normal guest.

Finally getting a seriously tall coaster in Europe. Can't wait!

^Thanks. It really was great fun (the pacing is particularly good)

^It does look interesting and I wonder what all the benefits are (what it'll be able to do)

Tayto Park The coaster is right next t the parking lot so this is the view you get when you arrive from the queue as you can see there weren't a lot of people. in fact, even though later in the day waiting times "increased" to 15-20 minutes, it seemed to have the shortest wait in the park (maybe because of capacity despite the one train operation) looks brand new! the overbank. as I've said earlier there were some odd jolts but nothing too uncomfortable. still, it was one of my least favourite bits of the ride as it's one of the few times where you go slower as opposed to the great pacing of the rest you got pretty close to the track while in line transfer mechanism there they go the first drop has great air in the back and some floater in the front the length is pretty decent going sort of upside down but not really! it's fast! and also fairly loud from the queue which I always enjoy (and it intimidates most people a bit ) I didn't try this very funky side but I did try the zip line zip lines and the weird slide the view from this area. that's the rotator and we'll get to that soon it was fun but for some reason I ended up losing quite a bit of speed near the end and almost didn't reach the end. odd (since I have normal weight and size) you'd then walk back to the tower where you left while younger kids (from what I understood) would do the opposite kids area rope course another look at that funky slide Mr Tayto himself! Now the rotator: it's my first inverting flat ride and what can I say? It was a nice experience but nothing I'd ride more than once. Unlike normal non inverting pendulum rides (like frisbees) you have this counterweight to avoid excessive speeds near the bottom but, as a result, the swinging motion doesn't feel as "natural" as in a normal one. I don't know if you get what I'm saying but, for instance: on a giant frisbee, when the ride is speeding up and you're reaching 90 degrees you get weightlessness as you do so while here you felt yourself hanging from one side. You'd also get a fairly long upside down period while the ride didn't hit full speed and even though I love inversions on coasters I'm not a fan of extended hangtime moments. All in all, I did enjoy it but nowhere as much as "normal" pendulum rides. here they go don't know what to say here...... swinging ..... I guess the star of the park almost upside down yup, fully inverted It would be nice if this could be done without a counterweight but I guess that the Gs would be too high for both the ride and riders as they reached the bottom perhaps a slightly lighter weight? anyway, it was fun they also got an air race this year and it was also my first one like the rotator, I enjoyed it but don't feel like riding it more than once I'd like to try a gerstlauer sky fly, though, as you can control your spinning this has been said a lot but they really could have called it "rotaytor" storage building nice entrance Cú Chulainn! I didn't know but it was an Irish mythological hero brake run for the transfer nerds see? you do get close to the track. I love when parks let you do so. here you got a rather violent turn to the right which was unexpected (although you felt it a lot more in the back) airtime! I have no idea why there is a "no parking" sign here one ore ride you can't see it really well but that's the chain. by the way, does anyone happen to know why on some rides (like this) the chain stops completely when there's no train on the lift while one others (like B&Ms) the chain keeps moving very slowly? (I'm just curious) overbanking speeding next to the station and into the brakes another look at the second train station mechanical bits I spy hairtime sorry about the finger but that's the motor house airtime and laterals! this was later in the day as the queue increased to 15-20 minutes. thanks to shorter waiting times earlier I got a lot of rides oh, they also have these. it's always a good warning this was taken by my parents who were in the parking lot waiting while I was getting my last rides that's a lot of wood these wooden lifts always look great under the lift into the overbank that's me in the third to last row going down I managed to get in line just before it closed at 5.30 p.m one more train one last ride in the very back once again, airtime's great here enjoying the last ride but no! as we got back to the station the let us ride one more time making it 21 laps for me the now empty station and train. my first ride with timberliners and they were great! very comfy (nice restraints too) good bye had a great day oh, and they give you this as you leave one last look at the drop and the operators having some fun this was the bonus, I guess. My parents found it while taking pictures. I assume it wasn't used during construction and it just stayed there next to the ride (in the parking lot), judging by how dirty it was but I don't know, really Well, that was it. Hope you enjoyed

Early this month I went with my parents on a trip to Ireland and, naturally, I felt quite happy when I remembered they were getting their first big coaster this summer. The place is Tayto Park. It opened in 2010 and is still pretty small so this gravity group woody was quite an addition. My parents dropped me at around 11 a.m and I stayed until it closed (6 p.m). I had a great time, naturally there isn't that much to do when compared to the bigger parks I was used to going to but it's very fun nonetheless. The place has a nice atmosphere, is very clean and, given the amount of rides it has, they're not bad (although it's clear they're still growing). If there is anything not so positive I have to say is the price: you pay 14 euros to get in (which is okay) but then you either pay for each ride (excluding a few smaller attractions included in the tickets) or you buy a wristband (15 euros) allowing you to get on any ride as many times as you want. Given that the coaster costs 5 and the two bigger flats 4 each you'll definitely buy the wristband and that means you'll end up paying 29 euros which, while not a massive amount, puts it close to parks like warner madrid (as there's always plenty of discounts you can get) and even though this place is very nice, it's still not quite on the same league as those parks. But it's no huge deal, anyway. Now to the ride, Cú Chulainn: I had relatively high hopes for this coaster as I hadn't quite had the chance to ride a quality wooden before (or at least not may) and it didn't disappoint! The first drop is awesome in the back (the best car, in my opinion), the pacing is great as it maintains its speed very well all the way until the brakes, the airtime (although not too strong) is everywhere (I think it has 18 or 19 moments of air, if I'm not mistaken), the twists, turns and hills come very quickly and it's pretty smooth. Now, I have to say that in terms of smoothness I don't quite know what this means as I'd never been on a brand new woody and, therefore, I don't know how smooth these rides usually are when they open. It's perfectly fine now (although you get some weird jolts on the overbank) but I get the feeling that it could easily lose this level of smoothness due to the "intensity" of the ride and way it moves around the track but let's hope they take care of it nicely. Right now it's definitely my favorite wooden coaster. Before this, though, we also went to Northern Ireland where I was able to find a credit in a small park. So that's where the first few pictures (I really don't have many) were taken. It's in a park called Barry's Amusements in Portrush located on the north shore of the country. Hope you enjoy. Sorry I begin straight away with the coaster but we had quite an odd experience. We arrived in Portrush and didn't quite know where to go so we asked a local where the park was and this lady didn't seem to have an idea the place existed so we started wondering if we were on the right place. Luckily, however, we drove a few extra yards and saw some rides which showed no signs of life at all. We got in this building where some of the attractions were and walked through it, towards the coaster. There was nobody there (no riders and no workers). In fact, there were like 3 guests on that entire area. Apparently it really was open, I said I wanted to ride and this guy basically came out of nowhere to operate the coaster, a bit odd. The only time we saw it running was when me or my dad were riding so every picture you see with a train was taken by my mom. Now to the ride: Barry's Big Dipper: it's a Pinfari Zyklon ZL42. It was the first time I rode suck interesting contraption and it was pretty much what I expected: fun, with some nice forces on the loop and fairly poor neck chopping transitions (especially the one right after the loop) There I go first drop. I wanted to check if there was air in the back but, for some reason, they didn't let me ride there. the loop had soem nice forces three train operation! not that it was needed, though a look at the layout from the beach there it is this was taken outside the park for the lift nerds and the chain lift/motor nerds loop-de-loop ! the mortal enemy of every enthusiast: a trim !! (I'm quite glad this ride had them in certain places, though) * (next pics coming shortly)

^But those wheels are very small and on the tip of each car. I don't think they need that space.

This is basically how I feel about the whole "VR Coasters" topic. As long as it is not mandatory then I don't really care either way. If it is something you can just pay an extra fee for and get the VR experience, then I'm all for it. But when/if they start making coasters that are solely VR Coasters, that's when I will start getting annoyed. Yes! Part of the experience of riding a roller coaster is the visual aspect of riding a coaster. When that get's taken away, then to me it's nothing more than just a motion simulator on steroids. Pretty much what I think.

^Oh, yeah. I hadn't noticed that. I wonder if they'll actually build it that way.

Those renderings do look really nice. So is it sort of going to have a goliath like drop (with some steel supports)? Anyway, it's looking great and I can't wait to see it go up.

American Pie - Don McLean

Nice report! Have to visit this place, Kärnan looks like a great addition and it's definitely not the only interesting ride in the park.

^Yeah, naturally, the return trip will always be slower. What I think is that the forward bit can/could be a bit faster so that the second part is still reasonably quick. We'll see.

That's why I didn't say anything about how slowly it returned to the brake run. I'm hoping that that as testing continues the ride breaks in and starts to run faster!! Me too. I'll wait for opening to comment on that. Looks nice, and the fact that it can run more than one train is a plus.

Looking forward to seeing what vekoma can do with this one. It looks like the park is gaining quite a few nice rides.

Nice to hear. These parks really are popping everywhere in China!

Nice! Wasn't the top speed already known? (180)

Wow if they're really adding a second coaster then I'm seriously impressed. This ride already looks like it'll be awesome and the attention to detail is just stunning so 2nd one would be really nice (especially with the interaction).

A friend of mine once asked a park worker if a log flume went upside down.

^I also went there last weekend (on Sunday). I'll do a complete report with pictures soon. As to the coaster aging well or not I can't say much as I'd never ridden such a recently built woodie. I really enjoyed it and while it wasn't silky smooth I didn't find it rough. You got some weird jolts on the overbank but that was it. Rode it 21 times.

^Haha true

The last coaster I rode, Cú Chulainn at Tayto Park

While I don't seem to dislike them as much as you do I agree with the reasons you mentioned. I don't like how they get tighter during the higher G moments (although that's a problem with many other hydraulic restraints) and I'm definitely not a fan of reclined seats. If the choice is between OTSR with normal seats vs lap bars with reclined ones (which used to be the case with B&M's looping rides vs hypers) I'll naturally accept the latter with a small sacrifice of having reclined seats but I don't see why these new OTSR need to have them. But I'd say the worst for me is the fact that they don't let you float around as much as the old ones. Given that B&M is not known for extreme ejector air but rather for moments of weightlessness or floater air it's crucial that the restrains allow some freedom otherwise you don't feel air at all. I never felt I was lifting out of my seat on gatekeeper's airtime hill or floating on the zero G not because there isn't any air (as you can see people's hair floating around) but because you're glued to your seat. And it's not like B&M make rough rides which require headbanging-free restraints. This isn't a huge deal for me and I'll never stop riding a coaster because of it but I'm not sure if, all in all, it might not affect my opinion on the ride as every moment and every aspect counts even if you don't really realize it. Oh, I've never been on a diving machine but I suspect the drop really relies on floater air and weightlessness all the way down so I hope these restraints don't harm that.

Cú Chulainn at Tayto Park