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Gazza

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Posts posted by Gazza

  1. 7 hours ago, New display name said:

    The light rail on the GC doesn't work well for events compared to buses because they don't have extra trains to add to the line.  If you have ever been to the GC500 by light rail, you will know what I'm talking about.  You have no problems getting there because people arrive at different times but when the event finishes, you will wait hours to get home.  This didn’t happen before light rail, with buses because Translink would put extra buses on.  One would think, Translink would add buses to support the light rail during events, but I have never seen this happen. 

    If the light rail ever ends up at any theme parks, one thing you can be sure of, Translink will cut most bus services to the parks.  The service will even get worse.  Before light rail came to Helensvale there was a direct bus from Helensvale train station to SW.   Now you have two choices and both choices take longer than before.  Light rail and bus transfer or catch the bus that tours the backstreets of the GC.

    You say that, but when the Helensvale extension opened, total system usage went up by a long way, from memory the Helensvale tram leg gets double the passenger numbers as the bus routes it replaced, so clearly people are voting with their feet, even if it involves having to change.

    If the service was objectively worse, you would see Patronage going downwards

    In terms of the tram extension to Oxenford, I think you would want more of a entertainment, precinct and longer trading hours at the parks, or else the extension would be dead after 6pm.

    Either that or do some rezoning around the eastern bits of Studio Village and entertainment road to get more housing in the catchment.

  2. And heres the balance.

    Jardin D'Acclimation

    https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/jardin-dacclimatation

    Right in the middle of Paris, it's part of a large public park, part of which historically has been used for amusement rides.

    A very attractive park, and reminded me in spirit of Tivoli Gardens, just a lot more spread out and less emphasis on concerts and restaurants. Lots of nice old buildings, lakes and manicured gardens.

    Loved speed rockets, one of the best family coasters out there, with a fun zippy layout.

    Their family spinner is good too.

     

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    Nigloland 

    https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/nigloland

    I've heard this described as a mini Europa Park and its true, not just because most of the rides are Mack, but just because of how nice the park looks, how spotless it is and how good operations are.

    Their mega lite type coaster Alpina Blitz is the sort of thing you can ride all arvo, and their water coaster actually gets the coaster part right with a decent level of force.

    The African boat ride with the "spraying' hippo was a laugh.

    Their indoor rides are good...Spatiale experience has quite a long track, and their ghost train has none of that small park tackiness. Must do park imo.

    By the way, a few behind the scenes pics of Alpina Blitz in the gallery too.

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    Walygator Parc 

    https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/walygator-parc

    The city of Metz is gorgeous, but the park was meh and a mixed bag. Their 2nd hand B&M invert is good, and a couple of bits of the park have been recently rethemed, but large bits of it are run down.

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    OK Corral

    https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/ok-corral

    A cheesy wild west park near Marseille, with a couple of interesting coasters.

    Pioneer has half the train straddling horses and the back half riding in normal seats in a chuck wagon. Their family shuttle coaster is not a dead end shuttle but a full loop.

    So instead of going backwards forward backwards, you actually go backwards forwards forwards backwards.

    Huge range of flats, some look tacky, others like the bear themed Disko thing look 10/10.

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    Parc Saint Paul

    https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/parc-saint-paul

    Actually a pleasant surprise. An amusement park with a couple of parts with good theming. Like OK corral a few of the flats look tacky, but on the whole the park is nice.

    Their compact Timber Express coaster is great fun and worth many rides. Also got to ride the Russian built Wild Train coaster, which is pretty wild for a family coaster and looks like it was designed by a NoLimits rookie.

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    Le Pal

    https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/le-pal

    Superb. The rides area in itself would be a solid park in its own right, with good themed zones, but the zoo is really high quality, up there with Dubbo western plains zoo imo.

    Has a Mack spinner, a very intense family launch coaster named Yukon quad. They actually had to reduce the launch speed after it first opened but it's still more full on than Jet rescue, and 1km long!

    Finally got to ride a huss king kong, it was about as intense as a lift in an office building.

    The mushroom themed shooting dark ride was bizzare.

    Check the pics if you want to see behind the scenes of Yukon Quad 

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    Naturlandia 

    https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/naturlandia

    Adventure park in the mountains of the principality of Andorra.

    Has ziplines and ropes courses but the draw is Tobotronc, the worlds longest alpine coaster 5400m long, 400m elevation change, 15 mins to the top via 4 lift hills, 5 mins to the bottom. And those 5 mins are a workout, simultaneously hunkering down pushing on the levers and leaning into the turns. Once was enough!

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    • Like 1
  3. Here are a few more galleries from my visit to France earlier in the year.

    I’m heading away again on Friday so I’ll have a bit of time in transit to write some trip reports to go with all these.

     

    Walibi Belgium

    https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/walibi-belgium

    Went here last minute  towards the end of my trip as a day trip via high speed train from Paris to Brussels. Actually a good park. Konda is 10/10 and feels like a spiritual successor to DC rivals. The Mack powersplash Pulsar is legitimately good. And their bobsled Tiki Waka had great theming that reminded me of crash bandicoots style.

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    Walibi Rhone Alpes

    https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/walibi-rhone-alpes

    Biggest little park in the world, and a really attractive place. Has a good variety of attractions, the difference is everything is scaled down a bit, but still a lot of fun, particularly Mystic and Timber.

    Remains to be seen if their new Intamin hot racer is smoother than Big Dipper

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    Parc Spirou

    https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/parc-spirou-provence

    Not a big park, and lacking in shade. Main thing I wanted to ride is their rollerball coaster, which is like a non flipping version of a zac spin. It broke down after I rode it, so the visit wasn’t wasted.

    Also had a few simulators, which did have quite funny films. The level of finish didn’t quite match other parks, it felt like a lot of it was slapped together from bunnings (or whatever the French equivalent is)

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    Vulcania

    https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/vulcania

    Science museum with a roller coaster really. The quad bike coaster Namazu is quite good, maybe slightly less intense than Jet Rescue, and nicely integrated into the hilly landscape, plus a well themed drop track. Got to go behind the scenes 

    The rest of the park has doco films on big screens, simulators of varying quality, plus a decent trackless dark ride about cultures that worship volcanoes.

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    Wave Island

    https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/wave-island

    A quick hit here since it was across the road from Parc Spirou. Has a lot of stuff from Polin. Enormous freefall slides, an 8 lane racer, and a few raft slides (3 of which used master blaster sections)

    The feel was kind of this beach shack feel, and in this case the ‘slapped together’ style kinda worked and made it feel really laid back.

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    Futuroscope

    https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/futuroscope

    Frances answer to Epcot, but the pavilions look cooler from the outside. The park opened with a number of screen based attractions in a quantity that would make Universal blush. Many of these have been switched out over the years, so many buildings are empty.

    The Intamin spinner Objectif mars looked visually sharp, but the ride experience was middle of the road and the dark ride section didn’t gel for me.

    On the other hand, Chasseurs du Tornades is the best simulator ive done, with a huge rotating platform in the eye of the storm, with heaps of wind and fog.

    The rabbids dark ride was LOL worthy, other things like the Robocoaster and flying theatre were solid too.

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    More to come…..

    • Like 1
  4. With Sliding Sleighs is that yeah its a kiddy coaster, but because the theming is better and it's part enclosed that naturally will draw interest from older visitors who perhaps wouldn't have considered it.

    I totally skipped Barnstormer at MK because you can see the whole thing and it's just a regular kiddy coaster, but certainly adult visitors could be fooled into thinking Sliding Sleighs is another Grizzy Mountain type ride and might perceive it to be a D ticket or better.

    I think in the long term it may end up being oversubscribed.

    And yeah it's a bit short, it's like 25 seconds from top of lift to brakes, versus almost a minute and a half on Slinky Dog Dash.

    I feel they could have done a 2nd lift, same intensity level but padded the ride out a bit.

     

     

  5. Parc Asterix Featuring Toutatis - 2/6/23

    https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/parc-asterix

    Aside from Disney, if you’re a theme park fan in France you’ll probably want to visit Parc Asterix, about 60km north of Paris.

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    This year seemed like a good time to visit with the debut of Toutatis, which was being massively promoted on billboards throughout the Metro system in Paris.

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    It’s a great, but very busy part, that does a fine job of combining impressive rides (and there are heaps) with good theming.

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    If you only have a day you can use their Filotomatix express pass option, and they also sell 1 shot passes too. The website suggests you need to download an app to use Filotomatix, which becomes an embuggerance because the app isnt available to non French Google/Apple accounts, however in the end you dont need to worry because you can use the system through a browser.

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    The throughput on rides is good, but because the park is so popular it can get long lines. I did get a fair bit done from 10am till 7pm.

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    Onto the rides.

    Tonnere 2 Zeus
    This ride feels like a distant relative to Ghostrider, fast paced and wild, though this one was revamped by Gravity Group rather than GCI. It also has a backwards row like on Leviathan, no charge and no real extra wait but I skipped over since they can be a bit much on a bumpy ride.
    The layout is good, first drop into a tunnel, a few hills and a double down with plenty of air. Highlights included a 90 degree banked hill (essentially half of a high 5 element) and a helix towards the end of the ride.

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    OzIris
    Really good, with a layout that is more interesting than your average invert. Seemed to climb and dive much more steeply, so good variation between near misses at ground level/sense of speed, and flying high.

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    Starts with a steep first drop that nests into the terrain a little, before whipping  up into a dive loop, then an overbanked turn and a loop. After the loop it did something unusual where the track kept going downhill (imagine the first inversion on Viper SFMM in reverse), picking up speed through a tunnel, before an immelmann.

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    Then comes another overbank turn and steep drop into a tunnel that goes ‘underwater’. The ride finishes in double, with a zero g roll, and an elevated helix, then a drop, another zero g roll behind the station (with a cool near miss with the edge of the building), and finally a forceful ground hugging helix.

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    Overall, a dynamic ride!

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    Goudurix
    Gout du Risque, the ‘taste of danger’. A bit of worry going into this one, since it's often regarded as one of the worlds worst coasters, but I found it on par with other Vekoma loopers (Like Blue Hawk at SFOG) and SLCs of the same age. Does have some real bumps at the bottoms of loops however.

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    Features an interesting Butterfly element which is like a really disorientating pair of inverted top hats, a butterfly loop, and a classic double corkscrew  (RIP Sea Viper)

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    Menhir Express
    Mack log flume with a cool coaster style drop partway through. The station and splashdown area is really well themed, but most of the course is industrial style troughs and a couple of ‘sheds’ , so a mixed bag.

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    Trace du Hourra
    Awesome fun. I love bobsleds, and this one is enormous, with quite long drops, and helices, including a few that get tighter as you go downhill, increasing the force. Bobsleds are thrilling in their own way because they do feel pretty out of control, so when you pick up speed you get this sense of nervousness…Is it going too fast for this turn coming up?
    Capacity is great too, they had multiple trains running and could get them loaded in under 30 seconds.

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    Romus Et Rapidus
    Ok rapids ride. The station is well themed, but it mostly seems quite open and surrounded by grass and the huge holding pond, so felt a bit underwhelming thematically compared to the rest of the park.
    Managed to stay dry until a damn rouge wave came in through the side and got me right at the end.

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    Pegase Express
    Cool concept. Mixed execution.

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    The ride is a lot like Firechaser Express at Dollywood, with forwards and backwards portions.
    The ride is themed like an ancient greek rail network, where you ride through the sky on a pegasus. The station has hilarious station theming, with a departure board showing some strange destinations for trains.

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    Starts with a gentle launch out of the elevated station, helix, drop, and finally the main lift hill. The main coaster has a series of rolling hills and turns, over the top of the rapids, its like a family version of ‘hyper coaster’ in terms of style. Its a bit plain and open like the rapids ride, especially since you are running along the edge of the car park.

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    There’s a good diving drop through a billboard, and you come around into an enclosed dead end show building themed like a temple. Good idea for a theme, but it looks weird sitting up on unthemed stilts. 
    The door closes behind you, and a projection mapped head of medusa comes to life and in a fit of rage, blows you out the temple backwards. From there, more hill and turns back to the station (quite a long backward section) till you reach the track switch at the end and return to the station.

    Oxygenarium
    This is a family raft slide, but with a fully sealed boat so you can ride it fully clothed. You wont get wet at all.
    The theming is fun, with huge oversized air pipes coiling around, and the sound of droning air blowers in the station. The lift conveyor has plenty of theming, with whirling gizmos, and enclosed tunnels with electrical arc effects and giant cables.

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    The slide down is fairly short, felt shorter than mammoth falls, but foam pads on the slide cause the bottom of the raft to grip on one side, causing a bit of spinning. It all concludes with a helix, which you get a nice view of in the queue.

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    The final splashdown leads to a slow, gentle drift back to the station.

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    SOS Numerobis
    Run of the mill Zierer kiddy coaster.

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    Le Carousel du Cesar
    Went on here intending to get in the giant Obelix, other passengers beat me to it, so I had to settle for a horse.

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    Epidemaïs Croisière

    Quite a long tow boat ride through various static scenes from Asterix. I think this would have been one of the earlier rides at the park, and I guess you'd have to have a real appreciation for the comics to 'get' it.

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    Vol D’Icare
    This is good. Design wise, it reminded me of a cross between a standard family coaster, and one of those Gerstlauer bobsled coasters, so lots of quick turns, sharp drops and so on. The vehicles are nicely themed as winged baskets, truly representing the flight of Icarus, and the ride itself is well themed too, surrounded by Greek ruins.

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    Discobelix
    I was told this had a good effect of a flaming cauldron at one end, but sadly this was switched off first thing the morning.

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    The station looks good, with the disko seemingly ripping through and knocking out columns.

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    Le Defi De Cesar

    Oh boy, a madhouse, I love these. I think operations were pared back 'due to covid' and never fully reinstated, since it had several preshows, but on my ride they just took us in through the exit, did the ride, and out the same way. Either that or they plan to close it in the near future. Was a walk on compared to many other busier attractions. 

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    The story is that you have been recruited to Cesar's army, and are being sent out on a warship. The ride chamber is elaborately themed to represent this, with windows containing screens so you can see whats going on outside. You set off from the port, encouter Asterix and Obelix, and your ship is sunk, and this is where  the ride starts tumbling around.

    I liked it, it was a creative way of doing a madhouse beyond the usual "the room is magic and turning upside down" type storyline.


    La Rivière d'Elis
    Pleasant little onion boat ride through some gardens, with quite an elaborate stone mountain as the centerpiece. Always amazes me to see minor rides like this in Europe with theming budgets bigger than some of our local major rides.

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    Main basse sur la Joconde (Hands off the Mona Lisa)
    TIL That the Mona Lisa is called Joconde.

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    An awesome, big stunt show. Some villains steal the mona lisa whilst it is being shipped in a high security van at a port. Four bumbling policeman fail to stop the theft, and spend the show chasing the villains. A witness to it all, a tradie painter tries to help out too.

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    So the whole show is about the painting changing hands between the three, with cartoon style fighting and action, for example one of the villains escapes down a sewer, a giant round style cartoon bomb is tossed down a manhole behind them, boom, and then the painting pops with a "whooop" sound effect, up out of the hole and is caught by one of the good guys. Well choreographed, and some good practical effects like entire buildings being blown apart too.

    L'Aérolaf
    It’s best described as a floorless observation tower, inside a fancy looking steel frame. It's technically not an upcharge, but before you board you buy a drink/snack to take on the ride, and these are priced much higher than the rest of the park. I did it anyway since you get good views of the coasters at this end of the park, and quite a generous amount of time at the top, a good 5-10 mins.

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    Attention Menhir !
    I dont speak French but this was a good show. The preshow is at a campsite where Romans are plotting an assault on the Gauls village, you can see the shadows of the characters in the tents plotting.
    You then move into the main 4d show, which is a hilarious cartoony battle between the Romans and the Gauls, with plenty of giant rocks and arrows flying about in 3D. The show used a technique i have never seen before where actual lasers are projected onto the screen, so they could do stuff like stars flying when characters fight, or hypnotic rings around eyes when they were angry / ‘powering up’.

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    L'Aventure Astérix
    Short walkthrough with some sculpts of the Asterix characters and some history about the creators. A highlight was a model of the park, with pointer showing which comics each attraction was based upon.

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    Toutatis

    Top 10 ride here!

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    The well themed station building sits under an earthy mound, decorated with carved standing stones.
    Inside the building, things look even cooler, with load area sitting in a dome shaped chamber, with light pulsating between the gaps between stones. At the front is a carved face of Toutatis, with eyes that glow with energy each time a train dispatches.

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    The trains are very open and comfortable, with elevated seating and an overhead lap bar offering a great feeling of freedom.

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    A short drop leads out of the station into the first launch in a well themed trench evoking memories of Taron , which offers a good kick of speed. Numerous overhead walkways provide great views for bystanders, as well as a few head choppers. All those coasters that have below ground sections in concrete trenches that resemble a dirty motorway underpass, take note!

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    A turn to the right out of the launch leads into a unique take on a Zero G Stall. This one is more like a barrel roll that switches directions halfway through, providing a bit of hangtime. A wide turn and a dip down leads into a bunny hop that has been tilted to the left, a miniature version of the outward banked turn. It’s all very unique and sets the tone for the ride ahead.

    The train effortlessly turns onto the launch track, and it is here where things become wild.

     

    Normally multi pass swing launch coasters cop a bit of flak. After all, you are taking what was a 2-3 second period of extreme acceleration and dragging it out over a longer period and distance. Not necessarily that satisfying for those who want to be pinned against the backrest.

    Toutatis changes all this, with 2 short banks of LSMs in valleys, with an extended speed hill in between. Quick punches of acceleration and positive g’s alternate with negative g’s on the hill.
    It transforms the launch into something else akin to a bucking bronco, becoming wilder on each pass.
    This launch is also well themed, with giant logs forming head choppers

    The high speed track switch means there is no pause in the pacing, so on the backwards trip you are sent up a straight reverse spike, offering great views of the layout ahead and floating airtime.

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    With the 3rd launch you are sent up over a top hat, cruise over the apex, before descending into a beyond vertical drop. Again, more airtime.

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    A high speed turn leads into my personal favourite element, a Zero g stall. The sensation of travelling upside down, floating in your seat for close to 3 seconds will never get old.

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    A long ground hugging u-turn has a “speed hump” halfway through the turn lifting you out of your seat.

    From here there is a bit of classic Intamin, with an ejector airtime hill, and a snappy S curve.

    Next comes a wave turn, with floating ‘sideways’ airtime combined with the sense of being pushed outwards off the track.

     

    Diving down of the wave turn is another low to the ground high speed turn that passes around the queue area, transitioning directly into a barrel roll that tries to dunk you out of the train with a statue underneath as a near miss, immediately leading into an overbanked turn. The ride finishes off with a double up. That last sequence is pretty rapid fire, so its quite an unhinged feeling finale.

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    Operations on the ride are solid. A countdown screen in the station helps operators keep an eye on the time, and it was not uncommon to see trains loaded and checked in 30 seconds flat.

    Overall, it’s an incredible package of the ride. It offers all the sensations a coaster fan would love, it’s full of variety with not a single repeated element, it’s got the theming, it’s got the comfort and it’s got the operational efficiency. 
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    Closing thoughts, it's worth a whole day, and maybe even half more if you want to take in more of the park and do re-rides. Would highly recommend doing it with an express pass. The French really do have a great sense of humour, and it shows through here.

    And some of the in between themed areas are incredible actually. Would have liked more time to explore them, and perhaps eat at the giant fruit restaurant, or the circus restaurant...

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    And a lot of the smaller attractions I'd totally come back and do since they seemed to have a bit of love in the theming department too, rather than merely being filler.

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    More pics here

    https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/parc-asterix

     

    • Like 4
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  6. The wave swinger at Phantasialand had stainless steel mesh floor underneath it to accommodate the fountain system FWIW. If that is what we are getting, yeehaw because the fountains are actually perfectly synced to the rotation of the ride and the tilt, so you constantly have fountains almost touching your feet.

     

     

    • Like 2
  7. I went in December, it’ll be like Hobart/Melbourne in winter, crowds aren’t too bad.

     

    For Fuji Q, you can get a bus from Shinjuku up to the park. The bus is faster than train because it’s more or less motorway the whole way versus a train that winds through the mountains.

    I got a Q pack ticket from here. At Fuji Q. I didn’t mind the place, and you can purchase fast track tickets from vending machines in front of each ride.

    https://highway-buses.jp/ticket/q-pack.php

     

    As for rides in Tokyo…Thunder Dolphin / Panic Coaster at Tokyo Dome are both very centralised and easy to access. When I was in Tokyo I spotted them for the first time by chance on my way to something else.

     

    You can make the trek out to Yokohama for Diving Coaster: Vanish but the coaster sucks and doesn’t run in rain. Good for pics and that’s about it.

     

    I quite liked Yomiuriland, has a couple of indoor Gerstlauer coasters, and Bandit, the Togo Hypercoaster, plus a rapids ride themed to instant noodles, and a thing at the exit where could make and seal your own custom flavour of cup noodles.

     

    Tobu Zoo has an Intamin Mega Lite (Kawasemi) and a decent GCI (Regina)

     

    Joypolis is great if you want a bit of that Japanese youth/electronic culture, and its launched spinning coaster is pretty fun too. Head here on an evening ticket.

    In terms of other activities, Skytree or the old Tokyo Tower would be on my list too.

    • Like 1
  8. Disneyland Paris

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    https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/disneyland-paris

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    So, the other half to my trip report for Walt Disney Studios

    Both days I visited I went into the park in the afternoon. This probably makes sense because there’s not really anything you want to ‘rope drop’ in Disneyland, it’s all quite high capacity attractions (aside from Peter Pan, which I ended up skipping both days, just couldn’t be arsed waiting 90 mins for it.

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    Most rides seemed to be around 30-40 min waits, so no problem visiting a wide variety of attractions.

    Overall impressions is that it is very nice, you can really see how they went above and beyond with the theming here in order to impress the well cultured European market. The castle is ornate. They have nice arcades behind main street. More details in general. I also felt that Paris has the “better” version of many of the classics. Their big thunder mountain is better, Pirates of the Carribean has a better themed queue and facade, Phantom Manor looks a lot cooler than the haunted mansions, and of course who can forget their more thrilling Space Mountain. 

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    Only downside is I don’t think the park has enough ‘unique’ rides (Aside from Space Mountain being very different). It’s like how Tokyo has Monsters Inc or Beauty and the Beast, or HK has Mystic Manor, or MK has Seven Dwarfs mine train. The main unique thing Paris has is some additional themed walk throughs.

     

    So Paris is good if you are a fan of the classic E-ticket rides, but you’ll have to go next door to the studios for something more unique.

    On to the rides!

    Indiana Jones - Et Le Temple du Peril
    Ugh got this one out the way early. It’s like a bigger version of Nitro Coaster type layout, a glorified galaxi with a loop, but built by Intamin. Rough as guts, and the theming is decent (But not a touch on Raging Spirits)
    The queue line is down under a canvas tent and you go up a grand stone staircase to the ride, which is built around a temple. It does get points for how well they position a stone arch that hides the structure of the loop, so if you are not paying attention you might not be aware it goes upside down.

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    Star Tours 
    Yeah, this one is always nice for its well themed queue. The storyline we got was a bit older, it was the pod racing sequence and then ending up on Naboo, which I think debuted when the new 3D version of star tours was launched. The last time I did star tours in Tokyo in 2019, it was a brand new film based on the last Jedi

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    Space Mountain

    This was perhaps the one I was most hyped for. When they would show Disneyland Paris on shows like Getaway as a kid, Space Mountain would alway feature prominently.

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    The outside looks gorgeous, particularly the enormous cannon pointing up the side of the mountain. It’s a shame they deactivated the whole mechanism where it woul roll close and recoil when fired. It was such an iconic thing. Maybe one day they will bring it back, and delete the star wars overlay in the meantime.

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    The first bit of the queue is outdoors, before going through some plain corrugated metal corridors inside.

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    Eventually you reach the well themed open air station.

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    It has the new Vekoma trains with onboard audio, so comfort wise it was fine. Out of the station is an enclosed turn, drop and then incline which gets you onto the catapult launch. Despite not being the fastest launch, the fact you are pushed back in your seat going uphill gives it a bit of force. 

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    Inside, its like a more drawn out version of RNRC / Avengers Flight Force. Starts with a big drawn out turn that does a lap around the ride building, eventually leading into a sidewinder and a couple of tighter turns, mcbr, then a drop into a corkscrew. From that point the layout peters out a bit, with a regular lift hill towards the end, some more turns and helixes, and vekomas early attempt at an overbanked turn.

    All the while the audio is playing chaotic star wars music and there are projections on the wall of tie fighters etc being blown up.

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    It’s a Small World
    What can you say about this ride? Does anyone other than kids enjoy it? Do people just ride it for tradition? For its infamy? Because it has a shortish queue and it gets you out of the sun for 15 mins.
    Possibly all of the above. I think all the kooky imagineers get put on the design team for this, with all the stylised design sets depicting various countries.

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    Molly Brown Riverboat

    A moment to relax. I rode this in the afternoon which allowed for some awesome shots of Big Thunder.

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    Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast
    A ride I secretly enjoy and will always ride at Disney.
    There was a 30 min wait for this one, so I actually googled how do get a high score. A couple of the secret targets are very hard to to hit, but i was able to spam some of the difficult triangular targets and at least get a score in the hundreds of thousands rather than the tens of thousands.

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    Pirates of the Caribbean
    This is proper POTC. Other versions have you going straight out from a New Orleans area into this pirate boat ride. Meanwhile this one has you going into the actual corridors of a pirate fortress, so big points for having an actual themed queue.
    All the scenes were the same, including the pirate battle and the burning town. What made this version better was how the layout was on a few levels and had a few crossovers, so youd get views through to other scenes from a higher level before actually arriving in it a few mins later.

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    Phantom Manor
    Another Disney classic, and well executed. It looks a lot more spooky having the house sitting up on a hill by itself, surrounded by overgrown gardens. There were a couple of scenes unique to this version. In the load area there is a lonesome bridge, staring out a huge glass window with a thunderstorm raging outside. At the end of the ride you go through a haunted mining town (to tie in with its location in Frontierland), and that part was reminiscent of Fire in the Hole.
    Still, my favourite part will always be the floating head in the glass ball.

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    Blanche-Neige et les Sept Nains
    Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs. These  fantasyland dark rides are a bit ‘blink and you’ll miss it’. You speed through a quick retelling of the story in what feels like a couple of minutes, so only have a brief moment of time to appreciate the scenes before crashing through the doors to the next one. Nice enough, but I struggle to think of a single moment in the ride that really sticks with you or where I was like ‘woah how did they do that’.
    Ok there was one memorable thing. The ride control panel is themed like an old open book, and the buttons are on the pages.

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    Les Voyages Des Pinnochio
    Similar Comments to the above. Mostly UV black light painted sets.

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    Autopia
    Big Ole car ride through some pleasant pine trees, and a handful of billboards with advertisements for space destinations, and themed bridges to give it that Discoveryland feel. If you are short on time you could probably skip this, but again, not much of a queue so I gave it a go.

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    Big Thunder Mountain
    Ended up saving one of the best for last.

    There was an intial false start. The ride needed an evac so they emptied the queue and i came back an hour later.

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    The paris one is different because the coaster is on an island in the middle of the river, with the station on the mainland. This means you have a pitch black tunnel at both the start and end of the ride to get over to the island and back, which bookends the experience nicely with thrilling moments. So from the station you drop down into a mine, and it feels like you go really quite deep underground. I’d just about say its a better tunnel than Oblivion. From there it’s classic Big Thunder, with themed lift hills (including one with projection mapping involving fuses burning towards a stack of TNT) and helixes, but also a lot more random drops, and it seems to maintain speed better than the others, rather than hitting a lift the moment you build up a bit of speed. The end of the ride has you go into a themed tunnel, but then the track starts diving deeply and getting darker, and then you just keep diving and diving and go around a huge underground banked turn, and head back up a lift hill. The train practically makes it to the top before the chain finally catches and you rise out into the daylight and coast into the station.

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    So one thing you must know about Paris is that it has a handful of well themed walkthroughs. This seems to be a European ‘thing’ since you see similar attractions at Efteling and Europa Park. 

    Adventure Isle
    A series of bridges, caves and passageways and great themed sections, like a grotto full of pirates treasure, and a skull shaped rock you could look out through. Needs more slides :P
    La Cabane Des Robinson
    Not Far from Adventure Isle, and another Disney Staple.
    What I find notable is the way it uses a lot of visual distraction to still maintain the reveal of different parts.
    From a distance, all you see is this giant tree and a couple of platforms sticking out.
    When you get there, you basically just see a staircase disappearing up into the tree and the famous water wheel. Quite unassuming considering all that is going on above.
    When you are up there in the tree canopy, you can see walkways going everywhere, above and below you, and the bits of the treehouse perched in different parts of the tree, so all you can really do is follow the walkway along and be guided through the labyrinth.  Thematically its one of my favourites.

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    La Cabane Des Robinson
    Not Far from Adventure Isle, and another Disney Staple.
    What I find notable is the way it uses a lot of visual distraction to still maintain the reveal of different parts.
    From a distance, all you see is this giant tree and a couple of platforms sticking out.
    When you get there, you basically just see a staircase disappearing up into the tree and the famous water wheel. Quite unassuming considering all that is going on above.
    When you are up there in the tree canopy, you can see walkways going everywhere, above and below you, and the bits of the treehouse perched in different parts of the tree, so all you can really do is follow the walkway along and be guided through the labyrinth.  Thematically its one of my favourites.

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    Le Passage Enchante d’Alladin
    This has a few dioramas behind glass telling the story of Alladin. Havent seen this film since about age 5 when we watched it on the last day of term before school holidays, brought back memories, ended up watching it again on the plane home!

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    Les Mystères du Nautilus
    Probably my favourite of the walkthroughs, and I almost missed the best part!
    From a small building next to lake in Discoveryland you go down a spiral staircase and through an underground passageway into the interior of the Nautilus submarine (You see the top of the Submarine poking up through the water next to the entrance. All the rooms are ornately themed, with a cool engine room full of moving equipment. The main room I strolled straight through, but when I looked back i noticed a crowd of people gathered around a small circular window. Went back to have a look, and all of a sudden the window expands like an iris / camera shutter, revealing a much bigger circular window looking out of the submarine. The iris opens and closes every few mins, revealing something new each time, eg a pod of whales swimming by. Amazing bit of imagineering to build that mechanism.

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    La Belle Au bois Dormant
    I found out about this one via the Imagineering Story. They did some really ornate stained glass windows in an area in the ‘foyer’ of the castle, so definitely take the time to check this out.

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    La Tanière du Dragon
    Under the castle, there is a damp cave with a dragon that occasionally wakes up and roars. Easy to miss if you dont know about it.

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    Alice’s Curious Labyrinth
    A large hedge maze with statues from Alice in Wonderland. You eventually reach a small castle, but its bloody narrow and crowded up there, though its a great vantage point for photos over the park.

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    Disneyland Paris Railroad
    I thought this was going to be closed for my visit but it ended up re-opening late afternoon day 2.
    They've designed the carriages to only load from one side, so most of the views are designed to face into the park…If you are riding, sit on the side closest to the platform. 

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    For those of you not familiar with the Disneyland Railroads, you dont just do a lap around the park, a couple of times you pass through other ride buildings, and through a  couple of indoor sections with actual built sets (The latter too hard to get photos of in the darkness.

    The other “train” Casey Jr Circus Train was closed on my visit, so no powered coaster for me.

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    So final thoughts. Nice park, superb theming, but perhaps it just feels middle of the range compared to the other Disneylands since it’s all ‘classics’ and the last new ride they got was Buzz Lightyear. 

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    More photos here:

    https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/disneyland-paris

    • Like 3
    • Love it! 2
  9. 1 hour ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

    Without doxxing anyone, no - Wonderbuzz is not Wonderbus.

    Bussy made it clear he was a former ride operator \ supervisor. Buzz.... wasn't.

    He goes on longer trips. He still drops by every now and then.

    The bus has now left for Long Weeny Creek, NSW

    https://www.google.com/maps/@-33.0233386,150.6690412,3a,20.8y,354.71h,89.46t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sg_vE5Yrd1kEbG79-5Gavpg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu

    • Like 1
  10. On 26/08/2023 at 1:00 PM, Spotty said:

    I think another wild mouse style coaster would be pretty pointless... given you have Scooby Doo. I'd rather see something different. After Flash and WOO I'd like to see Movie World stay away from coasters for a bit and get some filler rides in like some flat rides to round out the park. Something reliable at least, cause the park only has 1 flat ride (Batwing). And I'm not counting doomsday, because that requires it to actually be operational.

    Other than the footprint, what makes it a mouse though?

    I'm a purist I guess, and a mouse for me is something with 2 or 4 person cars, and has a zigzag section followed by a few drops.

    Meanwhile the RMC thing has an actual train and a twister layout.

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