KarlaKoaster

Storytime with Screamscape. Utterly exhausting reading all of that. No idea whether it's true. Could be, could not be. Who knows. I believe B&Ms service life is 20 years (trains 15 years), and it's obviously one of the older B&Ms and is at a year-round park so... maaaaaybe? But having said that the sequence of events is pretty weird. I can't understand why a rep would go and supervise track being dropped in, and then go 'oh, while I'm here I had the tools and expertise to do non-destructive testing on Kumba and you need a new one' I mean B&M seem to be going pretty heavy on the whole buy one coaster, get a replacement coaster free angle lately so who knows. I just think it's a bit weird that B&M on one hand are considered to sell a premium product, but on the other their coasters are also disposable. I wonder if we'll get more stories like this (whether it happens or not), and whether a lot of these problems shortening their coasters' lifespans have been engineered out of their latter rides (see Incepticoaster vs New Hulk vs Old Hulk) Urgh, there I am mocking Screamscape for talking too much and look at me.

Thanks for keeping us updated, looking forward to returning here soon. Do you know when the hotel is planned for? Can't believe they still don't have one, even a small motel-style one to try and encourage people to stay the night, especially as they have the water park now.

Also Tibidabo is a cute park in Barcelona worth going to (bus is probably the fastest way there) with incredible views of the city, particularly if you go up the church. There are a lot of historical rides and the Vekoma coaster is great fun with amazing views too.

No problem, let me know (message me) if you need any Barcelona recommendations as I have lived there for most of my life!

See if you can fly to Reus, Ryanair and a few European budget airlines go there, and it's literally a 10-15 minute taxi drive away from the park. If not, it's an easy train journey from Barcelona by train. I have stayed at the Gold River hotel and actually really liked it. Not sure about the PortAventura hotel. The theming was really nice and it has its own entrance into the park, but it wasn't really possible to go to other hotels in the evenings (like I normally do at Europa or Disney). I think if things go your way you can do the parks in two days, but the operations are very unreliable, so it depends when you are visiting and how much time you would normally spend eating, watching shows etc (some of the shows are good), so maybe 3 days if you aren't on a tight schedule and you're not likely to visit again for a while.

Don't worry I was joking, it goes like an absolute rocket through the death roll and the whole layout.

Maybe they were worried about it valleying, it seems to go pretty slowly through the death roll

I'm hoping to go soon too, so would love to hear how your trip goes as well! I was hoping to go for Expo but am not sure that's realistically going to happen now.

Planning permission has been granted for the new land, including the launched wing shuttle coaster, thought to be a Jumanji themed B&M: https://chessingtonbuzz.com/news/project-amazon-gets-the-go-ahead/

I feel like the presentation of Sea World's coasters lately has been pretty disappointing. I really used to like their minimalist but well thought out pseudo theming, but Pantheon, Ice Breaker and this make Cedar Fair and Six Flags look immersive by comparison. Ice Breaker seems to be a particular carbuncle.

Yes, I totally agree. I have never been particularly sentimental, I was just a bit surprised as I know it's such a historic attraction so I'm not surprised there's uproar. From my experience Efteling seem to be very precious about their history (replacing Python, expanding Fairytale Forest etc) so I'm sure this 25m euro attraction will be a lot better than the cute-but-boring Spookslot.

Nice write-up @Baffles. I wonder if a couple of bits of old track will be incorporated into the surrounding area as monoliths? I was thinking maybe the legs of the station might get upgraded to be actual real track but that would probably be a lot of work to replace the lightweight replica track with actual track. Maybe doing that would require planning permission, so maybe not.

Alpengeist is probably the first repaint I've seen this year I actually prefer to the original. I'm on the fence about Kraken and although I liked the idea of Xcelerator the grey bits sort of ruin the whole ombre aesthetic for me.

I'm really happy that despite everything that's happened in the last couple of years, we're still seeing parks invest. I'm really surprised about Spookslot, I thought that was sacred ground (along with Python) and honestly thought it was a better fit within the park than the Vekoma, but I'm excited to see what replaces it.

Exciting and scary sums up my thoughts too. Nemesis still runs great and is glass smooth, but Incredible Hulk 2.0 is running great too so that puts my mind at rest. I never even thought about access. I'm sure they would have had to talk about material changes to the landscaping, and the 'what won't change' section mentions no trees will be removed. It will be fascinating to see how they do it though.

Hopefully it will be open for at least the first part of the season. I agree that they're probably planning on completing for the anniversary. Another thing I thought, I wonder if the trains are going to be replaced too? Hopefully it will be a like-for-like track replacement, worried that they might smooth out the inline twist a bit which is probably my favourite part on the ride.

And filling the track with sand

I wasn't keen at first but really like it now. Not sure if I prefer it, but it seems quite Krakeny to me and not as unattractive/generic as some of the other repaints I've seen recently.

Really enjoyed this report. Had no idea Antartica was still closed and never to reopen? It wasn't great but I didn't think it was beyond help. I quite like Kraken on the Leash's new colourscheme.

Yes, I'm pretty sure I remember that the given lifespan of a B&M is 20 years (and the train 15), but obviously there are a lot of variables such as how much they cycle, how intense they are, whether they're at a seasonal park etc. I suppose also it depends on how much maintenance parks do in the off-season... maybe a lot of coasters have been almost retracked by stealth as higher-stress pieces get replaced bit-by-bit during the off season whereas others kick that can down the street until they need to make a decision. I guess there are some commercial reasons too; Merlin (like Universal) are big customers for B&M so keeping them happy helps (Merlin have bought a lot of B&Ms lately apparently with a few going to Legolands in China along with Chessington) I think you can also see how the newer B&Ms are engineered differently now to extend their lifespan. I think if you compare Hulk 1.0 to 2.0 you can see a lot of differences (different support types, thicker spines in high stress areas etc) and when you compare even Hulk 2.0 to Decepticoaster you see even more differences with how the layout has been smoothed out. But anyway I'm going on a bit now. I think you're right we'll see a few more examples of this, maybe some of the less popular B&Ms get removed and maybe some have had more track replaced already than we realise.

From Towers Times, Alton Towers have put an application for major work on Nemesis. This is likely to be the long rumoured retracking.

Not sure how the planning process works in America, but is there not a process of due diligence to find out the likelihood of approval before putting the application in? It seems quite a time consuming and expensive process to design an entire roller coaster that so many enthusiasts are sure will never happen because of the location? I get that the idea of a 300ft coaster on a city block is pretty bonkers though.

OK calm down!!!! I said a bit of a stain, I'm hardly tearing them a new one here. Just obviously from a guest perspective having their signature attraction running so unreliably even now is a negative point. The whys and wherefores don't really matter to guests, I'm just surprised we're still talking about this after five years. Sorry it's such a hot topic for you, I won't comment again.

How Dollywood and RMC cannot work this out amongst themselves is crazy to me. It's bit of a stain on both their reputations.

I think one has been rumoured to have been sold to a European park. I think it looks like a great concept and very versatile that I'm surprised they haven't sold more already. S&S seem to work a different way to many manufacturers with the way they show off prototypes and so I guess there are a few steps in between this proof of concept and the final, fully fleshed out product, plus like you say covid has maybe meant a few parks being more conservative in their decision making.