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  1. BenC

    Asian Adventure Part 2: Siam Park City & Dream World

    Hey Nurain! Both are good parks, especially vs. the general standard in Asia. Dream World is definitely more of a "theme" park (closer to a Disney) whereas Siam Park City is more of a "thrill" park (closer to a Six Flags). I'd go for both if you can; if only one, I'd pick Dream World for the...
  2. BenC

    Canadian Caper: Marineland, Martin's Fantasy Island & Darien Lake

    Thanks @Rob, glad you enjoyed! Darien Lake is in a strange location; it's "New York's largest water & theme park", but yet is nearly 6 hours drive from New York City and is far closer to Toronto...
  3. BenC

    Canadian Caper: Marineland, Martin's Fantasy Island & Darien Lake

    Thanks @AstroDan! They weren't on mine either, actually - the reason for the visit was to explore Toronto (really cool city; highly recommended). I was surprised how easy it was to pick up 4 decent Parks in the area whilst I was there though!
  4. BenC

    Canadian Caper: Marineland, Martin's Fantasy Island & Darien Lake

    Yet another long queue greeted me at the Park's newest coaster, Moto Coaster, although at this stage I was very nearly grateful that it would give my head a bit of a rest. Thanks to the fairly appalling throughput on the 12-person trains, I had ample time to grab a drink and catch my breath -...
  5. BenC

    Canadian Caper: Marineland, Martin's Fantasy Island & Darien Lake

    Darien Lake 40 miles away from Martin's Fantasy Island is Darien Lake, arguably the premier Park in the state of New York, and a former Six Flags property (1999 - 2006). The place certainly makes an immediate impression on you with the towering 208ft Ride of Steel lining the entrance to the...
  6. BenC

    Canadian Caper: Marineland, Martin's Fantasy Island & Darien Lake

    Martin's Fantasy Island It was now nearly 1pm, and I'd taken longer at Marineland than originally planned (the 12pm opening of Sky Screamer being much to blame). Part of me considered skipping Martin's Fantasy Island, given that I'd heard of its reputation as just a glorified fairground, and...
  7. BenC

    Canadian Caper: Marineland, Martin's Fantasy Island & Darien Lake

    Canadian Caper - Day 2 As you'll have read in Part 1, my Canadian Caper involved a fairly crazy 2 days visiting 4 Theme Parks across the Canadian-US border in September, thanks to some ludicrously cheap flights from British Airways. And as Day 1 was fully taken up by the huge Canada's...
  8. BenC

    Canadian Caper: Canada's Wonderland

    Back to the coasters. Dragon Fire is one of the four original coasters at Canada's Wonderland, having opened in 1981 along with the Park. Geek fact: since the removal of Drachen Fire from Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Dragon Fire is also the only Arrow coaster in existence to have...
  9. BenC

    Canadian Caper: Canada's Wonderland

    Time for a quick look at the Park's flat rides - starting with Shockwave, a Mondial Top Scan. Top Scans are amongst my favourite flat ride types, but despite sporting a supremely colourful paint job, this one was about a thrilling as a limp handshake. It lifted us up, lethargically windmilled a...
  10. BenC

    Canadian Caper: Canada's Wonderland

    3 down, many more to go, but it's from here that you start to realise that although on the coaster front Wonderland has a lot of quantity, it doesn't fare so well on quality. For starters, there's the ubiquitous Vekoma Boomerang, The Bat, which rode much the same as any other (although it's...
  11. BenC

    Canadian Caper: Canada's Wonderland

    Canada's Wonderland Canada's Wonderland, located 25 miles north of Downtown Toronto, is by any standards a serious player in the Theme Park industry, being ranked 3rd in the world by number of roller coasters (16), after Six Flags Magic Mountain (19) and Cedar Point (17), and being the 2nd...
  12. BenC

    Canadian Caper: Canada's Wonderland

    Canadian Caper - Day 1 Sometimes in life, an opportunity presents itself that you just can't pass up, despite the fact it might be a bit mad... and in my case, this year it was an email from British Airways offering me a return flight to Toronto, Friday - Wednesday in September, for just £356...
  13. BenC

    Winter Wonderland 2016

    Was fortunate enough to be at the Preview Night tonight, namely to get as many rides in on Olympia München Looping as possible. Having not been able to get to Austria to ride it at Wiener Prater, it's more than pleasing to see it making its UK debut in Winter Wonderland's 10th year! Taken at...
  14. BenC

    Arabian Adventure: Ferarri World & more

    <Shameless plug> Having enjoyed my trip to the UAE so much in 2014 (see above!), I'm organising a much larger group trip to return in March 2017, with the European Coaster Club. If you have ever wanted to do the parks of the Middle East, but not had the chance, please join us! There are well...
  15. BenC

    Thorpe Park 2017: DBGT: Rise of The Demon

    I was lucky enough to get on the first ride on Saturday - the one where following a few false starts, the ride was totally switched off whilst a bunch of mechanics came in to fix a faulty door switch in the train carriage. Fair play to Thorpe for not knee-jerking and getting us off the ride as...
  16. BenC

    Stuttgart Sojourn: Tripsdrill & Holiday Park

    Maybe... I think The Smiler with lap bars could be pretty hairy (especially given its tracking) - although I've not seen anything that suggests Gerstlauer wouldn't sell another Smiler model with lap bars rather than OTSRs! Junker at PowerPark is around 20% faster than Karacho, with a similar...
  17. BenC

    Stuttgart Sojourn: Tripsdrill & Holiday Park

    Thanks AstroDan! A shame you found Karacho uninspiring; admittedly, it's not a force machine and certainly won't trouble anyone's top 10 - but I was really pleasantly surprised by the lapbars, and how rideable they made it! It was simply good fun; I came away being unable to identify a...
  18. BenC

    Stuttgart Sojourn: Tripsdrill & Holiday Park

    Yeah I really enjoyed Tripsdrill, probably more than Holiday Park in all. Very different, but very cool. And I'm not all that surprised to hear your behind the scenes tour could have resulted in a messy accident...! :flushed: What did you think of Karacho? One of Gerst's best?
  19. BenC

    Roman Roaming: Highlights from Italy

    Thanks Rob, glad you enjoyed reading it! Mirabilandia is a stand-out park for Italy, alongside Gardaland. Katun is superlative, and iSpeed, DiVertical and the Stunt Show are all really great fun :blush:.
  20. BenC

    Stuttgart Sojourn: Tripsdrill & Holiday Park

    Onto the Park's supporting attractions, and first up was Sky Fly, a new-for-2015 Gerstlauer, um, Sky Fly. Whilst not winning any awards for naming innovation, the Park have presented the ride well in a colourful new area surrounded by stalls, cafes and a toilet block. I am a huge fan of this...
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