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I used to love Chessie around 2011, but sadly it was indeed dreadful last year. Going to Legoland, which can sometimes feel like a mistake for geeks our age, improved the day. There lay the issue with South as the Merlin park only meet it was; one park was always rubbish, and you either needed...

There won't be many of us by the seem of it, but yes, expect park clothing and practical trousers. Surely there must be more people that have started attending meets since the last trip in 2013 and haven't gone hammering through the woods on The Ultimate yet?

You could argue that there wasn't a good quality food offering to be found in Forbidden Valley back in 2010 either. Burger King, Refresh or Merlin's special soggy fish and chips was hardly an appealing range of offerings, and when Burger King became a third Burger Kitchen it felt like a kick in...

There eventually comes a time when the average small but expanding family park requires a thrill coaster on a limited budget. From the early 2000s the Eurofighter has absolutely made that market its own. There will still be lots of parks out there though that were maybe planning on phoning...

Vekoma's Battlestar Galactica duelling coasters at Universal Singapore are like this, with the inversionless 'Human' sit-down coaster and inverted 'Cylon' coaster beginning with side by side launched lift hills.

Not as far as I'm aware. Even when booking directly through Phantasialand's website you have to add them on or upgrade to a package that includes them.

I'm interested in Lightwater and would be happy to stay at The Unicorn. Not fussed about Flamingoland though.

Yep, tomorrow should be velour-tracksuit free.

One of these parks is already a firm favourite of mine, and I've been interested in two of the others for ages. Stick me on the list too please.

It would take more than what would generally be termed maintenance to get that heap to an acceptable standard for operating. With the state it was in last time I rode I'd honestly rather have it closed. What's most disappointing about it, and I say this as someone who isn't much of a fan of...

Meh. Newspapers of the Daily Express' calibre make me queasy. Given the way the park's purse strings are being controlled and the resulting cuts to ride availability, how on earth was the idea of adding VR to Air, then enormously increasing its staffing to make the throughput just really...

Same. I was looking forward to that after seeing POVs.

Withnail, that version of the story (which I think is from Towersnerd?) seems to be based on the version of the story narrated by Tom Baker for the ride theme recordings that were available as merchandise, but from the outset the backstory explained the track as being bony tentacles. Have a...

Stick me down as a maybe too.

7 tonnes by railway coach standards is not much. Real examples of the style shown in the concept art weigh in at 20-30 tonnes. From that time they're also usually shorter than the length stated in information about the ride, so I'm really looking forward to seeing whether it looks convincing...

It's not the same as Air Meeting or Skyforce, so I'll give it a try, but this doesn't look like it will compare favourably to the park's great existing flats like Jukebox, Mechanica, Uppswinget and Spinrock.

Family parks need to appeal to everybody in a family. That includes guests that want, expect and enjoy thrill coasters. You don't need many; a lot of European parks of a similar size to Drayton only have one or two (Towers and Thorpe's lineups have spoilt UK guests rotten). The key is that they...

Absolutely. It'll be ironic if this model goes on to take a big chunk out of Gerstlauer's hold on the small park thrill coaster market, as I'm pretty sure the Eurofighter is why Vekoma probably haven't built a thrill coaster for Europe in at least a decade! I'm slightly relieved that this isn't...

No offence Benzin, but I always feel like you've left me hanging with your end-of-post ellipsis. :) In all seriousness I'd be interested to hear why you prefer Atmosfear's ride experience to the aspects of High Fall that don't involve decelerative force applied to your groin! Standup towers...

Atmosfear is not as terrifying as you might imagine. Not by a long way. It's often said of drop towers that once you pass a certain height the distance to the ground feels irrelevant; you're just a long way up. That definitely applies to Atmosfear. Add to that the fact that the gondola is...