KarlaKoaster

Wow, much taller than I expected! Surprised some of the workers aren't wearing hard hats by the way (sorry to sound all 'health and safety', just surprised!)

The animated GIF is a great idea! Thank you!

I'm cautiously optimistic about this as a one-off ride experience, but I'm not sure I'll be doing the VR every time I ride. One of the things I'm a bit disappointed about is the fact that there will be shoulder straps to restrict the movement of your head to either side so that there is less movement for the headset to track. I know you can still look up and down, but for me the fact you could look all around you was a big selling point. It will also be interesting how broken headsets will be dealt with. I guess they can detach them and replace them fairly easily?

This looks like it will be perfect for the park. Their dark rides are just beautiful and I am sure this one will be the same.

I don't want to get ahead of myself as I know VR hasn't been confirmed yet, but I thought this quote was interesting in an interview with Michael Mack (from Mack Rides) on Blooloop was interesting: It goes to show how much is involved in the technology and that it's more than just the headset. I still don't really know what to make of the tech yet. I think it's a good idea but it's hard to know whether it will just be a short term novelty or not. Full article here: www.blooloop.com/features/europa-park-mack-rides-alpenexpress-vr-ride/38210

I say 'yes' because people posting pictures is useful in the context of this thread because it keeps the pictures of the various stages of construction and people discussing what's happening on site together, whereas the webcam only shows the current state of construction, so if someone says 'oh look the last bit of the drop is going in', by the time you visit the webcam it's already happened. Plus it's a good conversation starter

I know a lot of you guys were a bit disappointed with the lack of tunnel, but for me being perched 223ft above the ground will be far more spectacular rather than having the tunnel shorten the visual effect of the drop. It looks outrageously tall!

I was just thinking that Hollywood Dream has both a dual loading station and a MCBR to increase capacity as well as being faster to load than a flyer and that still had long lines. It'll be interesting to see how this does on opening for lines. I've heard of 6 hours for backdrop when it opened and HP still has 3-4 hours. Has there ever been a world record for longest line recorded? Wow, blimey, such a busy park! I've never been, and didn't realise Hollywood Dream had a dual loading station. It will still have a high capacity, I think the difference will hopefully be marginal but it will be hard to tell because obviously as the new ride (and such a well-known theme too) it is bound to be really busy! What is the hourly capacity of the Harry Potter rides do you know?

Sea World's Manta has a mid-course set of brakes. Although they're slow to load, don't forget they also normally have dual station loading so get through a queue faster than a lot of coasters. Manta's theoretical capacity for example is about 1,500 which is very good.

Thank you for explaining I've not been to CWOA for years, but it looks like they've done some nice things with the park, particularly on the animal side of things. I'll be interested to see Dragon Falls and Scorpion Express since the theming has been removed/changed since I last visited.

Ah, that's bit of a shame as I did always go on it, but I completely understand the decision. Are they adding anything in particular this year? Merlin do have a habit of removing things and not replacing them, so I guess this is the case here too?

Wild Maus XXL at London's Winter Wonderland. They took a normal Mack Wild Mouse and added a taller lift, and two bonus drops. It's absolutely amazing and basically runs without brakes meaning it feels like it will fly off the corners. It's such a great ride

What a great idea to do the Instagram tiles. Apparently there were only 9 posts/tiles, but I guess they could be throwing a red herring (sorrynotsorry for the accidental fish reference)

So it's more of a G roll than a zero G roll, right?

It's great to see the administrators are doing such a great job looking after the park and doing their best to make it attractive for any prospective buyers. Fingers crossed the park can be sold and everyone's jobs are safe! Thanks for all the pics

My least favourite would probably either be Air or Superman: Ultimate Flight. I love the idea of flying coasters, but my boobs disagree, and also these are both fairly boring examples with not much to look at.

I think the one you've circled on the diagram is the support on the drop from the mid-course brakes (6) and not on the first drop. I might be wrong though

I think it could be a cross between a Gerstlauer Infinity coaster but with (short) Skyrush style trains which would also explain the catwalks on the lift. Just a guess based on what we've seen so far though.

It does! If they don't put a Kodak 'suggested photo spot' sign there I will be very surprised

Considering this forum is 'Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!', there has been a distinct lack of donkey, so thank you for redressing the balance

The recent BBC documentary piece on Mack said that 'everything from our rides' comes from their Black Forest factory in Germany.

Yes, absolutely agree! It would give the ride a lot of reride value and also be a big talking point once you come off the coaster too

I think VR is a pretty interesting concept, and I wouldn't be against it on Air because it's not like the view is that amazing with it being mainly gravel, sky and the corrugated roof on the train storage building. I think long term VR will be bit of a fad, but it's certainly something I'm looking forward to trying, whether on Air or elsewhere

I went there a year ago and I actually thought the intamin was down until I entered the station and asked what was going on to which they said: We're just waiting for enough riders to fill a train" They didn't seem very "professional" overall, at least when compared to bigger parks. But I sill had fun, nonetheless. Oh wow, they still do this then? I went probably 4 years ago and hoped someone would say 'oh no, they don't do that any more!' It was a strange park, and definitely agree they seemed pretty laid back and like they didn't care. For me no other park I've visited has come close in terms of poor operation so I guess I have been very lucky.

For me it's Parc de Attractions in Madrid. They will not dispatch trains until they are full, even when the park is deserted. I had to wait an hour to ride their Intamin inverter because of this, and I had to go around the park rounding people up to ride with us! What was worse was that the station was full of water dummies, so why they couldn't have filled up most of the middle seats on the train I do not know.