shangalaing

Kumba, heard it was one of the best looping coasters in the world and ended up much prefferring kraken. The Big One at Blackpool. My first hypercoaster, I just thought it was a badly designed ride. Flug der Daemonen at Heide park. I love the Swarm at Thorpe park, with great set pieces, and a super smooth ride, I found Flug der Deamonen to slow down and speed up too much, the wings shook a lot more than the swarm and the layout wasn't nearly as interesting.

I love going to Parks in the UK alone. I did however do Disneyland Paris alone and that was just weird.... never again

Also don't know how relevant this is, but I did the WDW train tour. It was great, we were the first people into the park, we got to be part of the park opening celebrations and then got to see backstage at the engine shed. Would recommend it to anyone, even if they aren't fans of trains.

Manta at Sea world Orlando. It just didn't have the hugeness of Kraken or the flying feeling of Air, skimming close to the ground and bunny hopping over rocks. Plus I got stuck laying down for 20mins...

Its not going to be a rollercoaster, its going to be Pirates of the Carribbean: Puritan style.

I don't think it's all about how much you enjoy the coaster, my favourites are kraken and nemesis and they didn't make me laugh, but there are some rides that just force me to giggle, whether its because the ride is mad or any ride where there is someone next to me who screams all the way round. I was on the smiler and the girl next to me screamed all the way through the first half, we hit the mcbr and she turned and said is it over? I'm not going on this again. I pointed to the vertical lift and said we're halfway there. Was laughing the rest of the way round

I heard that the helix on nemesis had to be replaced a few times because the track was stretching out from the force. Also that the reason Griffon at bgw has floorless trains was because that was the only way they could traverse the tighter second inversion. How about that the test dummies losing their heads and legs on the swarm wasn't a press stunt

I was thinking about some of the great coasters I have been on. Many are thrilling, made to make you scream or put your hands in the air or just give you a feeling of conquering the machine at the end. But what coasters make you laugh, incontrollably, for whatever reason? My couple of examples are: Sequoia adventure at Gardaland. The completly different feeling of just tumbling over the edge combined with 2 girls behind me screaming the whole ride left mein hysterics. The wooden wild mouse at Blackpool pleasure beach. This ride is so out of controll and all over the place, all you can do is give up and laugh. I would love to hear anyone elses experiences.

What I got from that is, it's running but only three trains and one being bedded in, this correct ? Three trains running with guests, one train (brand new) running with dummies.

Hey everyone, just got back from AT and the smiler still has issues. It was down whilst they put a new train on full of water filled dummies, which were testing whilst the other trains were carrying people all day. I guess ride ops are to blame, surely a new train (it was new, still had cellophane covering) should have been bedded in out of hours? The new train also at one point didn't clear the block on the final brake run, that caused a train to be stuck at the top of the vertical lift hill, which was then retrieved via their new anti/pro rollback device to the horizontal. My experience of the ride is that the first half leaves you pretty messed up, the break at the vertical lift is welcome (if not the break at the first). The 'non standard' inversions are great, especially seeing the other train flying round at the same time. The airtime hills are great too, an element sadly lacking in many rides in the UK. The sad point is that the train I was on was developing a shuffle and a rattle, especially in the faster second half. However the new train and one other had no visible/audible signs of this problem. I'm guessing this is an ongoing development of this 'prototype'. P.S. Robb. Duelling möbius loop inverted dragon challenge! Why isn't this happening and what can we do to make it happen?!?

Wooden wild mouse at Blackpool Pleasure beach. Nothing that I have been on slams you into the sides of the car as hard, pushes you as far out of the seat or hurts your backside at the bottom of drops than this ride. I love it.

Don`t forget about all the germans (like me) who wated it to fail from the beginning, too Talking about failure : I hope you noticed how many times robb repeated that smiler would probably be a lot of fun and that it`s like putting two GREAT coasters together ??? Nail on the head! Robb is correct, it is two great coasters back to back, with the added bonus that they intertwine and interlock and duel. Maybe its the fact that it appears to be two multi loopers joined together that it doesnt seem like its trying for the inversion record. it doesn't just add two barrel rolls to the back end of a standard layout. Even without a launch or special elements, this is a damn unique coaster, one that I don't think we will see replicated or even one similar. (edited: sMelling Pistake)

Asides from the in house groups (imagineering, John Wardley etc) and the actual rollercoaster companies. Are there any other consultant businsses such as Werner Stengel that the parks/manufacturers take advice from? Thanks, Matt

Im heading back over tomorrow, heard they have still had issues with new trains stalling on the batwing, when I was there they did seem to be going precariously slow when empty, I guess this is just a new ride bedding in. On the plus side and besides the debate about the actual ride, there are no queues in the UK that are better to walk through and the ride is themed better than Altons recent additions. This and Swarm are setting a new Merlin precedent?

If there is one thing I have learned over the years is that any park really does have the ability to set out to build whatever type of ride they want to, regardless of what their restrictions are, if they really want a certain type of ride, thrill, etc, they will work around those restrictions. Nemesis is a perfect example of this. There is absolutely no reason, with Nemesis sitting right there being one of the best roller coasters in the world, that Air couldn't have been more intense, that Oblivion couldn't have had a longer track with more elements, and The Smiler couldn't have had a launch instead of a second lift. These were all "choices" that the park made. The height limit and restrictions are just an excuse, and a bad one at that, for when Alton makes a ride that, on paper and in concept, appears to be amazing, but in practice is just "ok." --Robb Robb, from your experience is the real limiting factor budget or management? As far as I have read, the reasons for Oblivions limited layout is due to the cost of digging the tunnel out combined with the cost of a prototype design. I daresay LSM's cost a lot more than Gerstlauers tried and tested vertical lift (even if they do have a new style anti rollback)