nynehalem

I think possibly it was Big Thunder Mountain RR which opened in '79 at DL. Hard to imagine a park needing the added capacity allowances of a dual station Before DL did

Wow. Both of these rides are adorably wacky. Must get to JAPAN asap. for this and a million other reasons (TDL, TDS, USJ, Food, Culture...)

The main reason I didn't go crazy for the german market is because I'm going to Germany next weekend and am going to a few proper German Christmas fairs (and Europa Park!)

To answer a few questions: The fair is on until January 4th so if your daughter is coming right after Christmas she should be able to go, there's no admission fee I should mention- But she might want to know that this year they are charging for the fireworks at the London Eye on NYE so if she's planning on going to that she needs to buy tickets asap. I did manage to ride all of the coasters (except for the wacky worm)- The wild Maus xxl was really very good, smooth, intense laterals, very long. The hanging coaster was as weird as it looked, probably sort of like the family version of the Volare. I couldn't tell if the cars swung at all but I suspect they had a mild swing. The pinfari was awful- halfway down the first drop I thought "Oh this isn't so bad" and then bam! non-existent heart lining and the OTSR's combined to make a very rough ride.

the only thing I actually ate was a pretzel, which was above average- it's here for a few weeks so i might go back and do some more eating

I noticed the jenga block footers but chose to pretend like they didn't exist for my own self preservation. I wonder if its designed to normally rest closer to the ground but they chose to elevate it to make it look more intimidating?

Hello all! I moved to London about three months ago from Boston to go to grad school. It's been a bit of a whirlwind but I'm off for Christmas so had some time to check out Winter Wonderland in London's Hyde Park today. If you don't know Hyde Park is right in central London and its pretty cool seeing all these giant rides plunked down in the middle of the city. Winter wonderland is meant to be a German style Christmas fair, and as such featured a large market with all manner of sausages, sweets, pretzels, beer, mulled wine etc. The rides generally had a winter theme and many of the larger ones appear to have been imported from Germany for the fair. There were six coasters in all including the Wild Maus XXL which is a terrifyingly large version of the standard mouse. I'm going to let the pictures do the talking other than to mention that if you wanted to get all 6 credits it would have set you back 31 GBP, as most of the larger coasters were 6 credits a ride (1 pound per credit). There was also a giant wheel, a starflyer, a drop tower and a Mondial Turbine. You can even go curling here no English fair is complete without a helter skelter Because Jager is requisite at any German Christmas market (Or is it?) Here's a map of the fair The entrance to the Christmas market yes, nothing says "French fries" like Germany Chocolate fountains my spirit animal in front of the christmas tree For some reason it features carvings of hideous looking angles Market midway This is Wild Maus xxl As you can see its a much larger version of your typical mouse It has a lot of track and is quite long with a few huge drops It was pretty awesome actually, almost no braking on the corners, which is damn frightening on a portable coaster at these heights The entrance features these animatronics The station The queue line was set up like a funhouse with moving walkways and obstacles Next coaster, this funky suspended coaster You can see the corners have some very wacky looking banking These are the single car trains side view Third coaster is this spinning mouse in a box, with a winter theme (plastic tarps and icey lights with some random polar bears and snowflakes) It was actually pretty long, but this is the only section that traveled outside so it wasn't possible to get many photographs The station- I realized after I got home that this was actually my 100th coaster. Somewhere along the way I got off in my counting and didn't even realize I had hit this milestone. Snow themed flat rides This one themed to a ski jump The Two giant swing rides (KMG xxl and Mondial turbine) I didn't ride either sadly The turbine had a roman theme that was awkwardly overlaid with the name "Blizzard" The star flyer Which I also didn't ride, as It was a bit too cold to be blowing around 60M above london nice overview of one of the kids areas and the giant wheel- I don't know why the giant wheel appeals to people when the worlds most famous wheel is only a few miles away in a better location, but here it is. The fourth coaster, yet another spinning mouse Fifth coaster was this Pinfari masterpeice Basically a bunch of helixes and rough as you'd expect and of course unnecessary OTSR's to amplify the suck and most terrifying of all, a cable lift hill Confusingly the ride seemed to have a Himalayan theme overlaid with an alpine theme and featuring a giant talking troll (Norway??) Finally this wacky worm themed to Santa's Sleigh- kind of adorable actually I didn't ride it because I'm not that big of a credit whore (which is why I just hit 100 and i'm 30) Finally- the view walking out towards Oxford Street- lovely day all in all

Shane; you're pretty much my hero (I'm getting an MBA with the goal of going into park management). This is looking fantastic, and I especially like that you'l be serving Dole Whips

Oaks park was always my home park growing up and I've always been frustrated by their lack of ambition given the great location. It helps to realize the park has been run as a non=profit since 1985. They're primary interest seems to be in having a picnic grove and wedding venue (and skating rink) at the neglect of the rides area which has potential. I can't help but imagine a Grona Lund style compact city park

I'm sorry for having to ask, but can someone please explain the purpose of the lock-out system to me?

I personally feel Chang is a better fit at SFGADV, As for GASM, it will be sad to see the old lady go. she may be rough, but that ridiculously slow hangtime in the boomerang element is something you just don't get anymore on many coasters

Wow. I haven't seen that new all silver color scheme on Oblivion. Sure is SEXY

^ haha, I'm flattered if you really meant it

^ I think the park could use the lake better to this effect. I think a boat ride around the lake would be a great, rather inexpensive way to add something slower paced to the park. Even a pathway along the lake would be a nice improvement, some way to enjoy the scenery in that area of the park, which really is quite nice.

Well, I finally had enough beer to get around to posting this Trip Report Incidentally the last time I was at a Six flags park was almost three years ago for Gay Day at Six Flags New England, and on that rather crisp autumnal New England day the park had decided that appropriate course of action was to run every single coaster with only one train. The predictable result of this was that every ride, even arthritic ole' Thunderbolt had an hour plus wait. This trip however was quite different. Even on a slow day, every single coaster (with the exception of blackbeard's treasure train) was running with multiple trains, including rolling thunder, skull mountain and runaway mine train. Nitro was even running all three trains and they were barely even stacking trains. Near the end of the day they were allowing re-rides provided no-one else was waiting. With the exception of Kingda Ka (still only a 15 minute wait) all the coasters were a near walk-on. The longest we waited all day was about twenty minutes for the log flume (and only because it was nearly 90 degrees and it was the only water ride open). By 1:30pm we had gotten all 12 credits (I didn't even bother with the kiddy coaster). I also found that the staff was much friendlier then in the past but maybe it was just early in the season. Overall, I want to really like SFGADV and yet something is off about the place. Part of the problem is the awkward T shaped layout of the park. Instead of the normal circle patern, which is the ideal of a modern theme park, you're sort of forced to walk into dead ends. This problem is even worse now that they blocked off the path that used to lead from the entrance plaza into movie town. Indeed now that chiller has been scrapped that whole nook of the park seams like a completely dead area. In my opinion they should re-open that loop and introduce a new ride in that area to bring life back to movie town. i think the perfect ride is a new chute-the-chutes ride from Intamin in the vein of the new water ride at Cedar Point. They really need another water ride now that they've removed the Movietown Water Effect. I also feel that the park suffers from a lack of slower, more leisurely rides, like a train or a boat ride, something relaxing to enjoy as a break from high g forces and sunny ride queues. I wont talk too much about the rides themselves. El toro was amazing, of course, they almost too intense for me that day. Nothing prepared me for the VIOLENT ejector airtime, especially on that wicked hill that crosses over Rolling Thunder. I understand why the park is so concerned with making sure you're restrained tightly as this is the first coaster I've really felt like you could get easily thrown from. Nitro is still one of my favorites, and I don't think any ride seating has ever come remotely close to matching the divinity of the B&M Speed Coaster trains. So much joy can be derived from extending your legs and arms and just letting go while the ride takes you where it wants. Overall the combination of Nitro and El Toro is probably the best of any Six Flags park. I didn't really start taking pictures until later in the day so I'm giving you a lot of sunset pictures: this is me, trying to look butch in a New Zealand rugby shirt and these are my cohorts Amadou and Kaitlin and this is the view from your car driving in I could only be bothered to take one picture of Nitro same for batman It was like 90 degrees and with no foliage on the trees yet, we we're baking. Here i am in the throws of heat exhaustion why are there no leaves on these damn trees to block the sun? why Herro tiger, I'm glad they've added you to the park. never before seen image of the worlds tallest coaster facing the wrong direction waiting to launch We discovered this marvelous bead shaped desert. they call is dippin' dots and I truly believe it to be the ice cream of the future. The future is full of frozen sugar beads. I'm bracing just looking at it I do really love how these old school arrows have only one size loop, just very elevated. I think the reason B&M is my favorite coaster designer is the very sculptural appearance of their rides. They're just beautiful to look at We only went on superman once, becuase frankly we didn't want to be left hanging for 3 minutes as the load crew slowly dispatched the second train in front of us. I think this store sold tanning beds? Then we discovered the Beer stand, just in time as I was getting the shakes. Making due with Miller Genuine Draft (The theme park i've been designing since age 10 in my head sells craft beer) Amadou trying to be a fierce bitch I was trying to take a group photo with the auto-timer. The result was, well, STUPID I'm single btw, because I know you were wondering Now onto the Intamin porn I've always had a strong attraction to European Wood these pictures are kind of redundant- but hey, the light was beautiful so glad i got this credit this time, it was closed last time don't let this very tall looking mine train deceive you, its not terribly thrilling The senseless Bizzaro makeover was new for me as well, though the flame throwers were awesome. The soundtrack is just a 3 minute movie quote non-sequitor This whole area is very nicely themed as we leave we fantasize of Percocet induced sleep Good bye Great Adventure. I'll see you in another 5 years!

Hey- This is my favorite no Limits track I've created. Old School Harry Traver style wood coaster with an intense layout, yet all forces in the green. I had to add some funky steel supports for the station fly-over. My only issue is that the tunnel in the beginning is not darker. In my head it's pitch black like the tunnel at the beginning of the SCBB Giant Dipper. the oaks park zip.nltrack

on second thought, perhaps you're going to Tahiti Air France flies there directly from LAX

tempo is air france's economy section are you going to france?

among the coasters I've been on I'm definitely going to have to say SFNE's Superman. . . It's going to be interesting to see what the changes this year mean for the ride. But less rediculous lap bars would be a plus. for the coaster I've never been on and probably wont anytime soon. I'm going with T-Express at Everland. That thing looks insane.

Does anyone have a pov of SFoT's Titan? I have yet to see one, and want to see how it compares to Goliath.

whats really interesting to me is that there are some supports that are almost fully made out of concrete, not steel. check a few posts up for photographic proof^

according the sanrio webiste there's actually a family of hamsters http://www.sanrio.com/main/gallery/characters/cr.html kuririn and sakura are the parents and they have 7 little kid hampsters

I'm headed off to barcelona next week and will definatly be stopping by Port Avenuta. Has anyone here been? what do I need to know?