downunder

Wow, what a trip, I've been to all those parks except the Kiwi and SF ones. Glad you discovered some of the hidden gems, Vortex at CW was absolutely insane at night when we did an ERT session on it - the cars were swinging madly from side to side after we hit the brake run. I agree with you on Blue Streak, it's a good one, I ride it multiple times when I visit. No surprise to see the Voyage is painful as usual, it was brutal when I rode it in 2007. Magnum used to have much better airtime, but since they changed the brakes at the turnaround, much less so - in the early to mid noughties it was an airtime monster and 1.3 was truly the ejector eat. Wasn't fussed on Gatekeeper, but I love Maverick - or Mavershark, as the ride ops dubbed it during our ERT during Discovery Channel shark week. I haven't been to DCA since 2001, even though I'm in the area every year, rather sleep in after Knott's Scary Farm - shame on me.

^Only a couple, Thorpe Park and Alton Towers, I'm usually distracted by other things when I'm in London so it's difficult to visit any parks. I'd love to go to Blackpool, but I just haven't had time.

^Agreed, the coasters are terrible, but the SCAD tower, absolutely terrifying. RCDB still has the hansa hyper for 2015, but it wouldn't surprise if it was delays. I was practically drooling over the survey markings last year, looks like a good one.

^And I totally agree. Bandit was horrible, you'll be lucky if you're not finding parts of your spine in the toilet bowl when you take a dump after riding that. I just went on Coaster Counter to check out if there's any parks I've been to that I forgot that are worth mentioning (wow, I've been to 130 parks that have coasters). A few other notables: Efteling - quite a pretty park with OK coasters. Hansa Park - quite a good park, also getting a monster Gerstlauer hyper this year. Farup Sommarland - very nice park, some good coasters, and free shootin range where you shoot air rifles. Tivoli Frihden - average park, but it has a SCAD tower, which is absolutely terrifying. Legoland Billund - very good Lego Park and Polar X-plorer is a very surprising coaster. Fun haunted house too. Phntasialand - can't remember if this was mentioned, amazing theming.

^^I was referring to the MoviePark in Italy, but I've also been to the Movei Park in Germany. I would say the German one is better, but I wouldn't go out of my for either, Van Helsing at MoviePark Germany was well done.

^Movie Park is just ok, no coasters of any significance, just some really bizarre and quirky attractions. Plus they have a water park that looks like it has some fairly lethal slides.

^Yeah, the guys who own Gronalund also own Kolmarden. I congratulated Mattias the owner personally when I was at Gronlaund (they were lovely to us) on purchasing the best coaster in the world, really loves the amusement park business. ^^LOL, I'll copy and paste that to my mates in England who were planning on going - they were thinking of hring a car.

^I went to Bob Bon Land in June last year, just ok for coasters, but big marks for quirkiness. Only a half day park at best when there's no crowds. Went there 5 years previous, and some parts of th park had been removed since then. I was on at our so I didn't have to worry about how to get there, but it really seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. Kolmarden in Sweden wouldn't rate a mention normally, but now they are getting an insane RMC it becomes something worth visiting, it looks like driving is the only option to get there.

^Good point, I totally forgot about that. I think single rider had a better merge point than fast track, although you had to wait or a seat to come up. If I recall correctly, fast track went in the exit early before the there was a staff member at the fast track entrance and the exit was where the single rider entry was. Other cool European parks not quite in the must visit category that I've been to: Mirabilandia, Italy - cool park and iSpeed and Katun are world class. Gardaland, Italy - nothing special coaster-wise, but very cheesy like an Egyptian themed shooter with terminators, beautiful landscaping. Heide Park, Germany - nice park, pretty good coasters. Walibi Holland: Goliath is an intamin masterpiece. Tusenfryd: some cool coasters, though avoid on weekends. Bakken: oldest park in the world I believe, small wit some ok coasters and quirkiness.

Gronalund and Liseberg are excellent, and the best part is they are right in the middle of the city so they are easily accessible. The area around Gronalund is also spectacular with the harbour and cool museums. Alton Towers is good, I used a fast pass for Air, Oblivion and Nemesis - and gotthere early and did all the one and done stuff before thelines built up. Sonic's Spinball is also cool, went here before the Smiler so I can't cmment on that. Thorpe is a solid park with some fairly good coasters - easily to get to in London. Parc Asterix is an OK park, but the lines get horrible quick, I'm talking 3 hours in high temps for Goudurix, which has been frequently voted the worst coaster on earth. Maybe going during the week in shoulder season would be better. Denmark's parks are nice and quirky with some great rides, some of them like Tivoli are in the centre of town ad others are quite out of the way.

Luna Park Melbourne is okay, never been there before. It's fairly easy to get to from the city on the tram. Light on for rides- Scenic Railway, kiddie coaster, Ghost Train, dodgems, and about 6-8 flats. The area is worth visiting overall. I recommend getting there early, the lines can build up quite quickly for the scenic railway and Ghost train as they are both very low capacity. Also the line for tickets was out of the park by the time I left. Though it seemed to be a large group of Africans having some sort of a day there. The all day wrist band is $48.95 which isn't worth it, I'd look for discounts and night deals on the web. The Scenic Ralway is ok, a bit bouncy and jolty on the drops, the brakeman almost stopped the train before it hit the drops. It's a unique ride and worth doing. I'm 6'2" with long legs and I didn't have a problem with comfort or fitting in, I rode the front row and the second row on my two rides - so I don't know if other cars have problems. The Ghost train is fun, but nothing special. The rest of the rides are fairly standard flats: pirate ship, spinny rides. Metropolis has closed, unfortunately I passed on the opportunity to ride that a couple of years ago just before it closed. The place is so small, I'm amazed they fit another full sized woodie in the place.

Thanks for the report, I went to Luna Park Sydney twice last year, though to entertain visiting fiends. They could sure use a few more permanent attractions. I have to admit I think it's awesome they preserved Coney Island, it's a hame a few cool things aren't working. Love the slides. Hair Raiser has got a kick to it. And I thought Luna Park Sydney was small until I went to Luna Park Melbourne on the weekend.

Nice work, they could put the ride in a sound proof dome and th Nimby's would still complain. Ah I remember the glory days of Luna Park when I was a little one, burned down when I was there for my birthday. It was like a mini Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

I was sceptical about wood over steel until I actually rode some of the really good wood coasters. A crazy airtime RMC at Dreamworld would be nice, and probably realistic budget wise - something like Outlaw Run.

Expedition GeForce at Holiday Park, got stuck at the top of the lift hill. Ride op came up and I have no idea what they were saying in German. Eventually they got the train over and we were stuck in the brake run because they couldldn't get the catch car back down to take the other train over. Got evac'd by ladder at the brake run.

I agree that it would be a better fit for Sea World. And credit whores won't have to visit an extra park to get everything. Nice to see Noxegon on the site, that dude is hardcore.

The pompous rich twats are at it again. NIMBY's limit so many amusement parks. The hoony ride reference is unintentional comedy gold. I want to buy a season pass and marathon hair raiser on the facing the cliff side and scream my lungs out. And then get drunk and fight on the streets.

^Ditto, I was so impressed on Saturday night. The cast on the 7.30pm special tour were hilarious and you've gotta love that special experience on the tour (no spoilers).

I went on Saturday night (18/10) on the Ultimate Tour, this is my first time at Fright Nights though I've been going to US events like Halloween Horror Nights and Knott's Scary Farm for years as a comparison point. I liked the mazes, Evil Within and Wolf Creek 2 were definitely comparable to Knott's and moving towards Universal territory. Ripper had great sets, but lacked scare actors, especially towards the end. Clowns was passable, some good scare actors. Scare Zones lacked a scare actors especially the alley to the soundstages. Main street was better though, especially when they had the rush of characters go through. The event really needs more attractions though to break up the crowds, even if what is there is good quality. It would be interesting to know how much of the crowd are people getting a free ticket from an Annual Pass (or do they have a cap on AP tickets). Overall, the event was tons of fun. The Ultimate Tour was excellent, the Lounge, special tour, bag of goodies, meet and greet with event cast at their briefing and Front of Line privileges were outstanding. They could make it clearer though that there are no backstage tours included in the Ultimate Tour. Luckily a friend knew the backstage tour wasn't included so I signed up for that while I was there during the day - the lights-on maze tour was excellent. One major turn-off is the dire public transport situation getting back from the event, I was lucky I got a lift with a friend or I might have been walking back to Surfer's.

Did anyone have any experience with the public transport bus after the event which I believe goes to Helensvale and then Surfer's? I'm coming up from Surfer's so I have nightmares of being stranded there.

^Ha, I might give it a miss unless I wind up having other people with me.

^The mazes are looking good at Hollywood Universal this year - that place gets seriously chockers, you could watch a good chunk of a whole series of walking dead on an iPad waiting in line for the maze. I'll there a less than a week after Movie World, should be fun. Is 4 mazes the most Move World has ever had at the event?

I asked someone reasonably who was reasonably high up in Universal the same question about Uni Studios in Hollywood and the answer I got was: "Do you know how much those soundstages make?" So it might be a similiar equation for Movie World, and of course MW has a number of other factors influencing theme park expansion like the neighbours. LOL, otherwise, start buiding that indoor megalite.

So can a solo adult male (albeit normal looking) ride this without everyone looking at them like they're Uncle Fester? It looks like fun, though the looney tunes ride was an outstanding attraction, but who knows what MW has in store?

^^Thanks for that, it seemed ridiculous to have to pay park entry. Going to be a busy day, I might see if I can squeeze in the Sea World shark feeding thing at midday before heading up. ^I have limited time, so I want to squeeze as much in one night as possible. For me, the Ultimate Tour was the tipping point in deciding whether to go or not.