mba2012

So I was just hoping to get some advice from all you guys here. I'll be spending six months in Europe on an exchange next year (over the northern spring and summer) and was hoping to visit as many parks as I reasonably can. I'll probably only be limited to a few by cost, but I'm happy to travel pretty much anywhere in Europe. I've done Disneyland Paris and Alton Towers before so I'm looking for others, unless there's anything that's a must ride added since 2014. Europa park and Portaventura are both on the top of my list, but I'm not sure where else I should look. Places that are either in a really interesting location, or will make a good full day visit (especially with roller coasters) are where I'd prefer to go. If anyone has any recommendations I'd love to hear them.

^ @TomiJ We may both have misinterpreted that; it says Q1 FY20 which assuming Ardent sticks to normal convention, would be sometime before the end of September.

I'm pretty sure they said somewhere that construction would begin Q1 next year.

I'm not sure if the article has been updated with the pictures, but the thumbnails are showing some renders that I assume are the official ones. It looks like a pretty exciting development.

I think a wing coaster could be better than a flying coaster because it makes more of an immediate visual impression, whereas a flying coaster looks mostly like a suspended coaster. Probably too expensive as well, but something cool.

The biggest issue right now is that the land isn't zoned for anything but farming and it's likely going to be a number of years before that's changed. And on public transport you'd be look at a >90 minutes journey from Broadbeach. the G:Link takes about 50 minutes to do the full run, then it's another 15 minutes to Ormeau, plus whatever else to the location. With that said, there is still a huge catchment area (3.5 million within two hours drive) around already (who can access by public transport or car) and there will easily be in excess of a million people move into the area over the next few decades once it is opened up for development. It probably is a prime area for theme park development, but I don't see it happening for a while (probably not within 10 years).

Is that tower they're building going to be for some kind of slide, or just for maintaining water pressure?

^ Given that my previous ride in row 10 was much smoother than my most recent, I'd believe that it is present on only one train.

Riding yesterday morning I also found the airtime at the front to be better than at the back, which for the same reasons as you, I don't quite understand. I also found row 10 to be more rough yesterday than it was when I rode it (same row) the first sunday. I'm not sure if that was just since I had ridden front row immediately before, but it did seem rough. Still one of the smoothest coasters I've ridden.

I managed to get 12 rides in this morning. Very few people came for the early access; they eventually ran one train empty and only loaded the other one.

Just got to ride for the first time in row 10. Absolutely incredible, and those last hills have to be some of the best parts. The single rider queue is definitely the way to it, and obviously Slick and a few others feel the same

Are people finding the single rider queue to be significantly shorter than the main one? How long would it have to be to exceed the wait time for general entry?

The trims will always slow the train unless it is not moving, in which case magnetic braking could not hold it still. Like Richard said in the article, the braking force will change in relation to the speed that the train is going. So a train going faster past the trims will experience a larger braking force, purely due to the physics behind magnetic braking.

It looks to be on the joins between the tracks. The best I can think of is possibly grinding down the track so that there's a smooth transition between pieces.

Don't worry, maybe they'll make it up by loading them separately.

The piece at the end here looks to have a connection for the larger spine. I'd guess that's for a loop, otherwise it's for something pretty cool.

To me this looks pretty much like the supports for the track coming out of the loop on flash. The footings in the foreground look pretty big, they could possibly be for the large supports for the loop.

Is it likely that they'll be trucking them down overnight, or is it just something they can do anytime?

I've seen a link here to the scooby doo track on soundcloud a number of years ago. A search for similar threads to this might uncover it.

^ I believe it's usually just closed for winter.

^ Tours like that are alright. I've done a few overseas and when there's at least something that was in the background that you can recognise, it's pretty cool. If the tour guide can get hold of some good stories, or is at least highly knowledgable about the specific locations, then that should make up for a lack of visible sets. Plus it's good promotion for the film industry here. As an aside, someone needs to sort out the captions on those photos. They've pulled them straight out of articles written months ago without changing anything.

^ I'm pretty sure you've historically been able to start buying (or at least renewing) passes a bit earlier than that.

I rode it last just before christmas, and whilst it was in a pretty decent state, there were a few things not working. Nothing must have stood out too much though as I can't remember any specifics now.

I don't think Sea World has operated Jet Rescue with two trains for a few months now for whatever reason. I was there on boxing day and the second night of Carnivale, and it was only operating with one train both times.

^ I'm guilty of calling it profit. Not paying enough attention :/