oriolat

Not even the bobsled or the powered coaster? Some weeks ago I was at Europa Park and it was freezing cold (to the point it was snowing) yet everything, except Wodan, Bluefire and Silver Star were running... Did you manage to ride most of the flat rides there? They have a ton of them and the park seemed quite dead...

Excellet TR from both parks Divv! I am sure you found that Tibidabo has changed quite a lot since your last visit. Most notably, no ferris wheel, no PNDOL (the infamous Fabbri Air Diver) and no ghetto-Galaxy credit! Anyway, it's nice to see that you enjoyed yourselves as much with the new Vekoma ride. While not a super intense ride, I think it provides a really smooth ride with some forces to it!

Blackpool's Wild Mouse is really wild and the airtime on every drop is just insane. Being held by just a loose seatbelt makes it even better!

Didn't Alton suggest that they would have some way to guarantee that the coaster always held the inversion record? I would not rule the washing machine element out just yet...

Really? You're complaining about the colour of a seatbelt on a kiddie ride? Please stop talking. Thanks. Actually, I am truly shocked to find seatbelts on a kiddie ride. Seriously, no park in Europe would do that... I guess that the next thing Cedar Fair will put seatbelts on will be their park benches...

^It has been a long time since I last went to Caribe Aquatic Park. It used to be not that crowded but that could change next season when CAP opens their 102 feet new body slide (European height record), along with a mat-racer. I would say the waterpark is worth no more than 4-5 hours.

Kids start holidays around the 20th of June. However, from the end of May until mid-June school groups really flood the park. Expect long lines (until 4-5pm, when schools go home) on everything, along with obnoxious kids, graffiti, chewing-gum, smoking and line-jumping. I know this sounds awful, but it really is a bad time to visit PA. If you are going to the park for just one day, I'd strongly recommend grabbing their PA Express wristband. Otherwise, you might not be able to enjoy everything. Hope that helps!

This is the end of the world the Mayan were talking about.

^^Thanks for the info, Loefet! Do you know how many trains is Projekt Helix going to run? I hope it can run at least four, because with such a long layout, capacity could be an issue... I hope everything goes as planned because the construction of this coaster seems especially difficult having to deal with terrain and nearby rides. Are the flume or Lisebergbanan going to be affected mid-season by the construction of Projekt Helix? Anyway, this coaster is the reason why I am going to visit Sweden in 2014!

It was Tibidabo Express at Tibidabo. If you don't want to count this because it's a powered coaster, then Muntanya Russa (Vekoma terrain coaster) at Tibidabo as well.

The double helix (called Ampersand turn) on Shambhala: The banking and the couple hand-chopper are what make this element. It doesn't have many forces but it's certainly disorienting...

I've seen the ride ops on Colossus at Heide Park do this. If it was that unsafe I doubt a corporate (Merlin) German park like Heide would let their employees do this. As long as the signals are clear and everyone plays by the same rules, everything should be ok. Then again, there are stupid people everywhere, so it also comes down to the operator's common sense (or lack of).

I won't judge efficiency until we have figures that back any conclusions up, so I am just going to ask: is this a permanent thing or are they just trying it out? I guess the only thing that helps is people having this feeling of urgency and, thus, boarding the train faster.

How dare a RaptorBoy say that?

Wow Trevor, some of these pics are very good. I really like the last one; the money shot! I also like how in one of the pictures Hurakan Condor looks tilted (I know it's the actual themed ceiling the one in a quirky angle) and is about to fall over. Now that PA have an amazing B&M, let's see if nice operations come along, because I have hardly ever seen Shambhala run 3 trains this season. And when they did, they double-stacked them all the time!

I guess those turns will be responsible for the 4 Gs, which seem quite a lot for a family ride.

Well, Phantasialand is small in terms of size but it operates and has rides like a big park, so I wouldn't class it as "small park". For me, it would be Parque de Atracciones de Madrid (very complete but terrible operations) or Toverland (great rides, great staff but lacks atmosphere).

I got the opportunity to check out Le Twist last year (when it opened) and was surprised by how GREAT it was. Seriously, better than some of the less intense Maurer Söhne spinners (Salama, Tarántula). Not only it is smooth but also has some good spinning during the horseshoe element and some of the S-turns. Besides, capacity on this was also very good. With both trains it could reach more than 1,000 pph (and Le Pal staff was very efficient at dispatches).

Sure they can put a net on the cliff side to prevent this from happening... Either way, these pictures make iRattle look very interesting. BTW, does anybody know what comes after the cliff tunnel? Will there be a helix or will it just go straight into the brakes?

^Quite creepy, to be honest, but I really like it! About time Alton pulled something decent. Since Nemesis and Hex they haven't really made up a good story that backs up a ride experience. Hopefully, the queue will somehow introduce this story to the riders through videos or props. Not sure how it fits the X-Sector theme although I am sure they'll figure it out...

^I hope it's not a motocoaster. The one at Dreamworld looked really boring and slow. I hope it's an LSM with a couple of launches, like a mini-Cheeta Hunt. It would be Europe's first double-launch coaster!

Mack - Can we expect taller coasters from Mack with your new track system (blueFire, The Storm, Projekt Helix)?

Gravity Group - Would you do a complete renovation (a bit like what Rocky Mountain did with Texas Giant) of a former CCI to make it more Gravity Group-like (as in, awesome and intense!)?

Gravity Group - I while ago, when the Timberliners were presented, we saw some renders implying that these trains would allow wooden launched coasters or even wooden shuttle coasters to be built. Can you give a little more insight about this?

To Intamin: Can we expect new generation prefab wooden coasters to handle inversions or feature launch sections?