10 of the best fun parks in todays Herald Sun

[Gazza]

In todays (29-2-04) Herald Sun in the travel section there was a feature on 10 of the best fun parks in the world (Just a note- It is Melbournes Herald Sun I am talking about, not Sydneys Sun Herald. It just had a brief description of each park. The parks were: 1- Mystery Park (Switzerland) 2-Moominworld (Finland) 3-Knotts Berry Farm (USA) 4-Park Asterix (France) 5-Movie World (Australia) 6-Alton Towers (UK) 7-Veega Land (India) 8-Port Aventura (Spain) 9-Bakken (Denmark) 10-Disney World (USA) The article also had some nice pics including ones of Trace Du Hourra, Pelirious Plunge and Lethal Weapon. Good to see Disney, Port Aventura, Movie World, Alton Towers and KBF made it in, But where is Islands of Adventure, Cedar Point and Busch gardens?

[Slick]

We are talking about Melbourne right? home to er....... three coasters??? Let's also take in the fact that the person that wrote the report actually went to every single park in the world or did he just decide to look some names up in RCDB?

[Richard]

I don't see anything missing from the list. It's an interesting blend. I don't think it is a comprehensive top ten so much, but rather a collection of the best all around the world. I'd perhaps reconsider Knott's on the list, as that place is absolutely nothing special, and put Tivoli Gardens in Denmark on the list. I've never been to the park, but it looks like an absolute gem, and it certainly has the history. Let's hope that their new B&M doesn't ruin the place. I don't see Islands of Adventure missing. That park has issues, and needs a lot of work done to it before it's worthy of significant mention. I'm not talking about specific rides (which are all pretty great), but the park as a whole. I don't know about Cedar Point, but it does appear to have everything (despite being located in the middle of Hicksville, USA ). I'll agree with you and put Busch Gardens (only been to Tampa, but it does look to be the better) in there - in place of Knott's. I see Movie World included just so that Australians don't feel too left out. To be fair, it's better than Knott's Berry Farm though. Slick, what does the number of coasters in Melbourne have to do with the opinions expressed in the article? I'd say he/she visited the parks - for starters most of those parks have qualities that can't be found on RCDB. I don't know what the article was like, but I suspect atmosphere, appearance, staff and other things played a big role in the choices. You're being awfully critical of it - I'd like to see your top 10. Even slip in parks you've never been to, and let's see how it goes.

[Gazza]

We are talking about Melbourne right? home to er....... three coasters???

Why should melbourne only having 3 coasters prevent the HS from writing an article about theme parks? Melbourne has no tropical resorts, alpine chalets, outback stations etc, but stories about these sort of destinations and many more have appeared in the travel section. I think the article was pretty much a random selection of parks because some of them probably just made it in on one or two interesting features, for example Veega Land got a mention because of a "5 headed serpent statue" and Parc Asterix got a metion because it is based on the Asterix comics. It only had a paragraph or so on each park and a fairly large portion of each description was taken up by park history or by an uninteresting feature of the park. the other half was a brief decription of the park along with a short list of some of the main rides' names. Your right Richard about Tivoli Gardens, That is supposed to be a great park and I think Daemon will enhace it even more.

[Richard]

Hmm, your mention of the five headed serpent got me thinking. I believe this same article ran in the Courier Mail up here some months ago, because now that I think of it, those exact same parks were in a top ten article up here. They're both News Limited papers, and article sharing, particularly in general yet costly topics such as travel is a somewhat common practice. So I guess Slick, chances are the guy isn't even from Melbourne.

[Gazza]

Did the Article have a title something along the lines of "The worlds a playground", If it did than it was probably the same article.