KarlaKoaster

Dragon's removal definitely seems premature compared to the Great Movie Ride and Ellen's Energy Adventure. Considering it's survived by Simbad and Poseidon, even if the new coaster is incredible, losing two excellent coasters is a high price to pay. Potter's expansion will come at any cost it seems. I don't mind Harry Potter, but I do think they are throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Wowie this looks... quite something ...sort of a wonder wheel with water. I can't work out whether it will be brilliant or terrible, but it's a great idea and I quite like the fact that inside the tube you'll not really have any point of reference so you won't really know when you'll stop, when you'll start going backwards and when you'll start going forwards again.

Just looking at Technical Park's website as I didn't know what an Apollo Swing was, and some of the examples they have on there are absolutely beautiful! The theming looks just about the best I've ever seen on a family spin ride. Perfect fit for Hansa

Not normally a fan of theme park shows, but the ones that stand out to me are: Illuminations at Epcot Wishes at Disneyland Paris Raveleijn at Efteling I also seem to remember Waterworld at Universal Studios Hollywood was pretty good, although it was a long time since I've seen it

Forgive my naivety, but I thought the idea of Intamin plug-and-play coasters was that track replacement was easy as they're just prefabricated pieces of track, hence 'plug and play'. Has winter maintenance and trackwork been neglected to the point it's beyond economical repair? As far as I'm concerned 'difficult' is just corporate BS for 'expensive' as I have seen plenty of coasters retracked in my lifetime.

"The Boarding Pass queue will replace the normal queue" Like Universal's system, I'm not a fan of this. I like flexibility and spontaneity when I visit a theme park, rather than spending the day clockwatching, having to make sure to schedule shows around slots, ensuring that we're in the general vicinity when it's getting close to the return time etc.

For me I think they're the worst at teasing because their coasters rarely live up to the hype.

I've seen two, maybe three rafts at a time on the slide portion of these rides before, but obviously someone screwed up here and didn't stop the lift and just kept sending more rafts!!! I always figured the blocking system on this kind of ride was pretty rudimentary to the point the conveyor belt on the lift is simply on a timer because in theory (cannot emphasise that enough) as the rafts are just inflatables there's not toooooo much that can go wrong as they would just bump into each other, but you would think they would have CCTV or something to at least have a cursory look now and again to make sure that basically every single raft on the entire ride hasn't crashed into each other because the chute has broken

There's been an accident at Parc Asterix involving Oxygénarium, their tube-style flume ride and five people have received minor injuries. From the pictures and (vertical) video it looks like the fibreglass chute has split meaning a boat got stuck at the bottom and following boats piled into it which, like quite a few accidents recently, is something that shouldn't really happen at a first-world theme park. Photo and video here: http://wonderworldweb.over-blog.com/2017/08/cinq-blesses-legers-dans-l-oxygenarium-du-parc-asterix-ce-lundi-aux-alentours-de-14-heures-dans-l-attraction-aquatique-oxygenarium-u Photo: Wonderworldweb

The first half of this coaster looks really good. Then the second half was like "hold my beer".

Definitely has a Port of Entry vibe to it which is fine by me.

This terrible accident appears to be a human failure as much as a structural failure. Whether this was a failure in design, a maintenance shortcoming, an inspection not being done properly, or inadequate regulation, one thing should stop another and it simply shouldn't be possible for a ride to break into two pieces like this. Independent inspections should give people the confidence that if a ride isn't maintained properly, it shouldn't be able to operate. Every time we see some POS rip-off ride fall apart in China we've always been able to confidently say "that's China, that can't happen here", yet thanks to this accident that has just become a lot harder to say. Here in the UK we've recently had a tower block fire in which 80 people died, which is another third-world-style disaster that simply shouldn't happen in the civilised world. A simple fridge fire has highlighted a culture of self-regulation of safety rules that are open to interpretation and therefore not fit for purpose. I wonder if the Ohio State Fair accident will expose a similar problem where fundamental things simply are not checked. When people's motivation is to make money (be it ride manufacturer or canie), it's really important to have a firebreak in between those who build and operate the ride and members of the public, otherwise it's very difficult to have complete confidence in the safety of a ride. It's impossible to make a judgement before you get on a ride as to how safe it is, and that's why you have people doing it for you.

This is a shame, 28 items is a lot to remove (basically half?), and the four new items seem pretty boring. Maybe there just wasn't the appetite (excuse the pun) for this food in a water park? I was hoping this would be a turning point where Universal start to put more value on in-park food.

It feels like they're throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I don't mind Harry Potter, but I am getting a bit fatigued with Harry Potter this, Harry Potter that. I wish they had just built a third park* that Rowling could have used for her sandbox instead of slowly eating away at what used to be my favourite theme park. (* I realise this wouldn't make as much commercial sense as building it across two existing parks, it's just a personal wish)

It's in the Netherlands at Most Amusement Rides and is getting refurbished

What a time to be alive.

Oh I see! Yes, you're correct then, I misunderstood where the lift started from. Plus your pink line is better than mine, how can I disagree with that

My pink line says otherwise but it's not a great quality image so it's hard to tell. The yellow line shows the top of the vertical wooden supports that I can see, the pink line shows the track level.

It is straight, it's just an optical illusion because the top bits of wood are just temporary bracing until they put the track in. I've illustrated this below with a pink line showing where the track will be.

Seems like an overreaction. I assume the waterguns and waterfalls are still turned off? And I also assume there are no longer extra people supervising the ride (that's the kind of thing I can't imagine Alton Towers sticking with)?

This looks great, it's so good to see how Vekoma have matured. I think the layout looks good by any standards, but by Vekoma standards it's exceptional.

I personally love it and has greatly enhanced World Showcase since they started bringing the Disney feel into that section of the park. I mean, it's a Disney park. Why shouldn't it have Disney characters? Yep, can't disagree with that. Like I say, if they do it well and the IPs suit the areas they're putting them into (which has been the case with Frozen and looks to be the case with Ratatouille/Beauty and the Beast) then I have no problem with it.

I think Ratatouille is a fun but not spectacular dark ride and should be a nice fit into the World Showcase. I'm a bit on the fence about IPs going into World Showcase as there is a risk it could become a bit generic and like any other park, but if they choose appropriate IPs and do it well then I guess I have no problem with it.

I believe it's a Czech manufacturer, Funlight, which are one of several companies being sued by KMG.

I think people would be more forgiving if they weren't charging full admission. The park is basically in technical rehearsal and not offering a full experience, yet they are expecting people to pay full price.