KarlaKoaster

Europapark because of the quality of rides, theming, hotels, food, shows, the attention to detail, how the park caters so well for literally every age group, the fact they seem to care about the little touches that other parks wouldn't bother with, how neat and tidy everything is, how well run all the rides are etc etc. Honourable mention to Phantasialand which although small I think has even better theming than Europa Park and some incredible rides. PortAventura is good, but it's tatty around the edges and the operations are really poor. Efteling is a really nice park actually, I really enjoyed my last visit, but while Europapark is top tier, I think Efteling is the next level down. It's really beautiful though with some great rides. None of the British parks are exceptional in my opinion, although Blackpool is really clean and full of little gems. What I love about Europe is how many 'small' parks there are that are really starting to wow me, parks like Hansapark, Toverland etc. Also I love the city center parks like Liseberg, Tivoli Gardens etc. I'm not a fan of Merlin or Walibi parks though.

I assume the Facebook video was from a Facebook Live post? Facebook Live is super annoying as you can't do landscape videos, even if you turn the camera, so you're actually forced to do vertical videos These Gerstlauer family coasters look so much fun, though. From the video I assume the backwards section is hidden from the park? If so, that's a nice touch. It's a shame so much of the ride is next to the car park, and the train storage building is so visible, hopefully they'll be able to hide these a bit.

If they're in the same resort under the same tickets I don't really see why their attendance should be counted separately For the same reason the parks in Orlando are counted separately. Just because the parks are in the same resort doesn't mean they get the same number of visitors. Most people will visit the Magic Kingdom as a priority.

In several trip reports, I've read people have not even been able to ride some slides as they have run out of available slots for the day.

I'm really impressed how many little details there are considering how quickly this park was built. The slides all look great, and I think there seems to be a really good use of space meaning the park doesn't appear to be cramped. I'm also happy to see all the food and drink options; this definitely gives the park an edge over similar water parks. Regarding Tapu Tapu, hopefully a lot of the problems are teething problems (both with the system and also the park in that there are a lot of tech problems), but even if it functions as it should, I am not on board with the idea of having my day essentially planned for me. I like spontaneity and being able to adapt my day depending on my mood. I would want to do the wave pool when I'm in the mood for it, not just because I'm killing time waiting for a slide. Sometimes I'm in the mood for something thrilling, sometimes I just want something calmer. It just seems like such a buzz-kill to have to be a slave to a watch all day.

Love the idea of a triple-decker drop tower and I'm surprised it hasn't been done before - 96 people per cycle is very impressive. I guess there will be a retractable sliding floor for loading like there was on London's Trocadero Intamin freefall.

Yep, it always pays to read articles in the trashy tabloids like the Daily Mail not just the headline (or better still, just not read the Daily Mail at all); the headline is always clickbait and suggests something as fact, then you read the story and it's full of vagarities like 'could...', 'may...', 'a source said...', but of course people nowadays have such short attention spans they just share the story without reading it, get all morally outraged, then we end up with things like Brexit.

I enjoyed your trip report JordyC, even if Henry didn't appreciate it. Thanks for posting it

Yes, a tiny minority might ask for that, and the press will as usual report as if this is the view of everybody and guess what, there will be some other drama in the news and people will move on, just like people wanted Smiler removed and then it reopened.

This park was really disappointing when I used to visit. It had the potential to be amazing, but basically every ride was really average and visually everything was beige. Magnus Colosuss was always pretty terrible when I rode it despite it being a beautiful coaster and I'm someone quite tolerant to rough coasters (point of reference: I don't think Coaster Express at Parque Warner or Stampida are too bad)

I like how the ceiling/roof gives each area a different vibe - the blue sky over the main street area, the dark ceiling in the DC comic book area, the cartoon clouds in the Loony Toons area. It looks really nice

They haven't specifically said World First, but "groundbreaking" does suggest a first of some kind, and they do like their big new rides to have a unique selling point. The price of the ride is a lot more than a typical GCI woodie, especially for it's size, although I would think it will have extensive themeing which will be part of the budget. And placing a ride with a Wicker Man theme in a Pirate themed area may mean a full area re-theme which may also be part of the budget. Although maybe not given that the ride it is replacing was themed to baths and rubber ducks, which wasn't exactly Piratey. 'Groundbreaking' doesn't suggest it will be a first it is just a hollow marketing adjective, it really doesn't mean much so don't read too much into it I'm sorry if I sound like a Debbie Downer It will be interesting to see where the £15m goes; not sure if it's just the ride or whether it includes the deconstruction of the Log Flume, but please don't read too much into the marketing blurb as they always exaggerate.

Have Alton even said it will be a world's first? Regardless, I honestly I think it's a waste of bandwidth debating and over-analysing the world's first feature on any of Merlin's rides. At best it will be disappointing, at worst it will not even be a world's first.

Thanks for the pics. I am not a fan of the current VR trend at all, but I totally love the idea of using it to preview a new roller coaster. Glad you are OK after your accident

I don't like this idea at all, I like spontaneity and flexibility when I'm at a theme park, and to either have to plan the day out in advance or being told to come back at 9pm sounds to me like a huge buzzkill. I guess with Jimmy Fallon the interest will die off pretty fast, but it will surely become a larger problem if they introduce this system onto even more rides?

I think one day we will look back and rue the day Universal didn't just devote a whole new theme park to Harry Potter, particularly with the potential of the Lockheed Martin site. Universal have been spending and building like it's going out of fashion, yet with every announcement I feel more jaded. It's a strange feeling.

Yes they did. Your own trip report includes a photo of a seven car train. He went on Sunday... OK, my mistake, but they were definitely running seven on Friday.

Yes they did. Your own trip report includes a photo of a seven car train.

Coming out of retirement to clarify a couple of points, sorry if I've misunderstood anything. When you say 'their', do you mean Gerstlauer? Because Smiler uses an Alan Bradley ride control system which is the same as many coasters out there including B&M. Not sure about their Sky Rollers, but it's probably not a fair comparison. It's the same on Smiler.

It doesn't "float my boat" I just thought some people would find it useful. But whatever, moving on... I'm sure it'll be awesome like you say.

A bit rude... but OK... I just see a lot of people ask whether it's exactly the same or not, so I thought I'd compile the differences between the old and new version into one post. Will make a mental note not to do this again, just thought some people would find it interesting/useful. I will go back to observing boat jokes in the Cedar Point thread.

My face when I see a new post in this thread My face when I see it's another joke about the boat

I know what you mean, but it's always hard to tell in photos. I thought Shambahala was a bit too overwhelming before I went back to Port Aventura, but strangely when you're in the park it wasn't quite as imposing as I thought.

Here's an article on BBC Newsbeat about Smiler's reopening: http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/35852070/reaction-to-the-reopening-of-alton-towers-smiler-ride

Thanks for the pics. Both Taron and River Quest look so good! In the second picture they're testing the clearance envelope by the looks of it. Is it just the frame they're using or are they doing the pull through with the train?