Henry M

I feel the tire, instead of making it roll back, it will be able to push a slow train over the top and continue the ride. This could be a hint the ride may not travel super fast round the loop, or maybe it is a precaution to make sure it makes it round more often.

Hi all, I have also made a 360 video from the drop tower, which I have now uploaded onto you tube. The 360 videos are best at 4K resolution. Check it out here:

So sad I missed out on this park. I passes it while travelling around Columbia. At least I rode some great zip lines.

Darie... Actually RCT3

Well. That looks interesting. I am not going to make any more of a comment than that. Interesting.

Here is the 360 degree on ride video of Sky Scream. I may have an expedition geforce one coming soon. This video was taken with the permission from the park.

Over the past few days, I made a trip to Germany for two nights to visit two parks I have always wanted to visit. The first part of the TR will be from the forest encompassed, fun Holiday Park, a mainly family themed theme park, yet it has some of the most intense rides I have been on, including the legend that is Expedition GeForce. The second part will be from two days at Phantasialand, a park worthy of the name THEME park. It is a different world to the industrial area that surrounds the park. So, Holiday Park. Possibly the worst name of a theme park ever, but I got over that pretty soon (Except I do have to tell people I went to Holiday park, then explain it is not a place with lodes of caravans). My journey to get there worked as planned, but I have learned lots. Firstly, getting up at 4:10 am sucks whatever the occasion. Secondly, German trains may be advertised at £44, but on the day of travel can go up to £122. Thirdly, Frankfurt airport is massive. It took an hour from security to reach the train, which I only just got on in time. Finally, ICE trains are awesome, but so comfortable it is too easy to fall asleep on! The most important thing I learned though was that fart means something completely different in German. I also learned that they do not appreciate you laughing at immature fart jokes. When a woman says to you you need to wait for the next fart, she means next ride/train, not the next fart. It gave a whole new meaning to the term "Intamin Fart" Eventually after a long journey, I arrived at the park at 12, meaning I had 6 hours to ride the hell out of Expedition GeForce. Perfect. First thing I have to say, is that the park is beautiful. It was the nicest park I had ever been to, and even beats Alton Towers these days (It is no longer the nicest park I have ever been to though). The atmosphere is really light and happy, and the park is big enough so you don't get bored, but not too big that it is hard to walk from one side to the other. Most of the rides had a good level of theming. Nothing high tech, but it all gave the rides a story or context. Now onto the rides. I will sum up every ride with one word, and a rating and go into more detail with the pictures. Expedition GeForce Ejector...9/10...8 rides in total, most of which were at at back. (So addictive) Sky Scream Fun...8/10...6 rides on this (again addictive) Wiki Splash WET...6/10 Anubis free fall Floating...5/10 Donnerfluss Rocks...5/10 Lighthouse Tower OH-MY-GOD-IT-IS-WINDY...6/10 Sky Fly Rewarding...6/10 Falkenstein Castle Disturbing...10/10 ... well realistically 4/10 Many of you know I am harsh with ratings, and just to put into context how high all these rides are up in my list, the Swarm gets 6/10, and Nemesis 8/10. I have only given out 9/10 to top rides, like Helix and Olympia Looping, but even they might need to be re evaluated. I was seriously impressed with all the rides, and this is a park that is a must visit if you have never been and you are close...or even far. On to the trip! The clock reads 4:23. After a long ride, I arrive, and wow. What A beautiful day, and what a beautiful park. I got fast track, but the queues were fairly light, but I mainly used it on Expedition GeForce, as dispatches are slow. Not due to staff, they are great, it is just the ride. A 5 train wait for the back could take 20-30 minutes. I see rides. Big rides. The entrance plaza is really pleasant. Nice classic German buildings containing merchandise chops and food. This park has some good merchandise, including a seat from Expedition GeForce. I would get it, but I could not transport it back home. A very good drop tower. I am a drop tower guy, and this one has a fairly forceful, floating 3 second drop on it. Only running two carriages, but it did not matter. it gave some very good views of Expedition GeForce as well. This ride is massive. It looks small on pictures, but it is when you see it in the flesh that you realize 57 m is high. Really high in fact, then you see the first air time hill, and it is enough to make people chicken out. If you don't like heights and steep drops, this is not for you! I walk down the path to a ride that has been on my bucket list for years. And see a train, filled with happy, and shocked people. I took my first ride, and I did not really appreciate it. It hurt a bit, and felt repetitive and the first drop was uncomfortable. Then I rode it again, and had a completely different experience. It was amazing. This is not a ride you should ride once, it takes a few goes to really appreciate it. It just gets better and better with every ride. The was it flows so perfectly, yet it still try to throw you out at every opportunity. The great views from the top. The insane first drop that in the back row you actually feel like you are going to die. It was only on the third ride I managed to let go of the bar for the whole drop. Then at the bottom of the drop is super intense forces, as the ride pulls up into a massive ejector airtime hill. A full three seconds of ejector airtime, all the way over the top. This ride is all about airtime. I hardly ever get airtime in the UK at Merlin parks, and if I do, it is weak. This is on a whole other level. There are different types of air time on this ride as well, so it is not repetitive, like Balder is. The are long drawn out hills, there are small pops, and there are twisted classic Stengel airtime moments. It is addictive, and you want to ride again and again. Some riders going up, but they do not return the same people. As you pull into the station, you feel you have been on something truly remarkable. This ride is not the perfect ride though. Sorry. It is near perfect, but I critique things harshly, and feel this ride does not deserve the title "world best rollercoaster". It needs more theming, and a more comfortable harness that does not completely tear up your thighs. I had a harness shaped bruise the next day. Also the perfect coaster would have a tunnel to add another dimension to the ride. These are small things, but with new rides like Fury and Wildfire popping up, there is competition for that title. The spectacular twisted airtime hill. One thing I love about this ride is that it is not completely smooth. It is raw. Not rough, raw. While rough is bad, a raw coaster like this is more thrilling, it feels less safe and conventional. In a world of safe, smooth B&M coasters and rattly rough Vekomas and Intamins, the balance is lost. It is not meant to be like a moving sofa (Swarm) it is a rollercoaster, and Expedition GeForce has the balance between smooth and rough just right. Not sure if it will in 5 year time, but for now it rides really well. Hello big fella, time to move onto the log flume, Wiki splash. This is a really well themed log flume, but it is really wet. Luckily it was a hot day, but it is a drencher. It also features an inside section and a backwards drop. Sky Fly is a ride that is hard work, but when you get it right it is very rewarding. I understand why parks are getting these all over the world. They are fun and offer a unique ride style. On my first attempt, I managed 5 loops, but on my second I got 13. While waiting for Sky Fly you could listen to appropriately cheesy flying music like "I WANT TO GET AWAYYYY, I WANT TO FLYYYYYY AWAYYYY, YEAHH YEAHH YEHHHHAH!" Very nice. Sadly there is only a loop of about 6 songs, which could get annoying if you are in the queue on a busy day. The new beach areas was really nice. Real cannons for water canons. Why cant more parks have nice things like this? He laughs at your soaking wet clothes. A good double drop. Not as much air time as Loggers Leap, but substantial enough to calm the pain of that ride being SBNO. One last look. The theming fr Sky Scream looked cheap, but you know what, it totally worked. Sky scream is a great ride, and it is in my top 5 coasters, even after Phantasialand. It has three very good launches, and it is so twisty, you have no clue where you are. Being launched up that 180 degree spike, then being thrown out of your seat at the top is amazing. Even better with a lap bar only to keep you in. The non inverting loop is really fun both times you are on it. The first time it is a really good falling sensation, like on a eurofighter, but the second timewhen you go all the way around it it completely different. Really forceful and really fun. This roll was better than I thought. A very intense inversion, and being that high up with only a lap bar is scary. This ride is better in the front, but anywhere it is good. I used the age old art of pointing at empty seats before dispatch to get more rides in. This ride is all about being twisty. Twisted hills, twisted drops and twisted everything else! Really disorientating and a very intense ride. An impressive facade for an impressive ride. Completely changed my view that clones are bad. More of these please! It is a great mix of twisted hills, twisted drops and twisted anything! Nice they kept part of the old ride for theming. I also want to mention how good the staff were at dispatching each train. It was like being at a German fair. I got off, collected my bag and looked back at the train for an empty seat and already the gates had opened, the people were on, gates closed, and all harnesses down. Insanely fast operations. Although this only ran one train, the queue was kept down the whole day. Cheap but goof theming. 360 on ride video of this is coming soon. This is a scary ride. It does not look it, but it is scary. The star flyer rises you ubove the trees so you get great views of the park and surrounding forests and hills. You then go down to the ground, and the spinning gets faster, and you rise back up again, now it feels like a thrill ride, especially with only chair swing seats holding you in! You then go back to the ground and spin even faster, and rise back up. This is when the ride gets wild. The wind is immense, and the seats start to spin from side to side. No longer do you care about the view, but more about staying in. Now I know why these rides have such a reputation. On ride view from free fall tower, overlooking Expedition GeForce. This was a picture from inside the parks strange and disturbing dark ride. It is simply crazy. It is a simple people mover system, but with some of the strangest animatronics I have ever seen. It had be laughing the whole way through and I thought it was simply brilliant. From the out of time movement on the torture scene, to woman being dragged off, to the man about to shoot an arrow at you, to the BOOBS in the undressing scene, the whole ride is great. On my second ride, the ride broke down on us. We has just passes the boob section (Although some people were stuck looking at them) and were at the party scene. We were stuck for about 15 minutes, with some terrible Medieval music, but at least I could analyze the scene. We then got a ride evacuation, where we got out of the carriage and had a walk through of the final part of the attraction. The whole experience was completely bizarre, with or without the ride evacuation. I actually got a video of the ride stopping and the evacuation, in 360. I might post it on You tube. That is all from Holiday park. Part two from Phantasialand will be coming soon! I hope you enjoyed the TR.

Oh wow, nice to see what is in the shed. Were Holovis involved with the ride? They do some really good stuff, and I visited their base in England to try out some of their kit and VR things. I guess they made the projections for mystic timbers.

Your not alone. If it feels real, does it count as a cred? No I am not being serious

You cannot help yourself. I am not going to defend what I said anymore, however, something can be the bestyou have experienced, yet still be overrated, like Iphones.

Gotta love the theming and forceful drop on Chiapas. A stunning ride and my favourite log flume by a mile. An honourable mention to Wiki Splash, which surprised me with theming and nice drops.

Longest, Rita, with 120 minutes because it kept breaking down. Slowest, Galactica on the same day. Half the train was fastrack people, and one dispatch every 5 minutes meant it was averaging no more than 70 people an hour.

^ nah, that is not what I meant by that post. It is an incredibly good ride, and so near perfect, but anything with the tag line 'worlds best rollercoaster' can almost always be overrated. It is overrated, but only slightly. I was shocked by how much it did live up to the hype. I spoke to some other enthusiasts the next day at another park, and one said they hated it, and it is up there with their top worst coasters. It depends on what you like, and I really like the ride. However, I did not come off and feel there was nothing better the world of coasters had to offer. Really glad I rode it, and did not go on wanting it to be overrated, but it just is kind of overrated. Sky scream on the other hand! That needs to go in the other forum! So underrated.

Oh! I thought it was pretty long! I rode it at around 1ish and other times during the day. Nice that I got 4 long cycles! Scared the poo out of me the way it just goes straight up after the harnesses are checked!

Ummm. Shed? If you are not going to tell us what is inside, is what is inside any good?

I have a question regarding Mystery Castle (nice ride). What happens during a long cycle. I think I only got the short one, and I tried 4 times. Every time, the same sequence happened: Small launch Back to ground Big launch Held at top Freefall Bounce Back to ground Is that the long or short cycle, and what happens in the other cycle? Also, Talocan is not looking good. It was broken yesterday, and has scaffolding erected around the right arm.

I have some of the new entrance to River Quest and Chiapas. Not sure how to change the size of iOS files.

Yep, Expedition GeForce is overrated, but not that much. It is still an insane ride and the best and most intense ride I have ever done. I rode it 8 times, mostly in the back. It may be overrated, but the first drop was not, it was spectacular and everything I thought I was going to die! More themeing and a tunnel would make this ride better. Back row. I guess it is not possible for any ride to live up the the hype this ride got.

Wiki Splash!! That ride was great. Like a well themed and better reincarnation of Loggers Leap.

^ Agreed that a little padding would not go unnoticed, however I have ridden rides with fiberglass seats, and harnesses, and were quite comfortable and ergonomic. An improvement of any sort is good.

^ Thanks, I would give name credit, but I don't think your username is you r real name.

^ Look, while I agree the current seats used on Thunderbolt are terrible, there is no actual evidence that the new trains suck. One of the main complaints I have heard is how the straps are really uncomfortable, and by adding these plastic ones, which are more curved, it may have solved one of the issues. Also, those metal bars, to me at least, look wide enough to fit an adults arms through. The large n bar is large enough to accommodate a large range of sizes, which is good. I feel this ride would be a different riding position, but more of a racing one, which would be pretty cool. They obviously know they first design is terrible, so they are adapting and developing their ideas. The issue with Thunderbolt is not its layout, which actually is pretty neat AND compact, so it must be with the track (which could also be in development) and trains, which are also being developed. I think it is good how a relatively small company is pushing the boundaries and yes, it is not as refined as when Intamin has a first go at things, and yes, Thunderbolt is awful (stress on the AW) but I would not put hate on a ride that has not opened yet. I totally understand why people would cringe at the new design, as it is different, and I would love to hear feedback to someone who has been on the new train and knows how it feels. If they say it is still terrible, and there is no were for your arms to go, I will say fair enough, and completely withdraw this statement. I am not saying the developed design is good, but I am defending it that we don't know it will be bad.

Wow, great photos! Thanks for sharing them. Do you mind if I put them on my Facebook page and shard it with others? (UKoasters)

^ Well, I know know something new about red force, it is 40 feet tall! Online news is sooo accurate.

Agreed. This has to be one of the best sounds on a ride. It just seems to tear through the air.