• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

  • ⚠️ Online Safety Act Changes

    We've made some changes to the forum as a result of the Online Safety Act. Please check the post in guest services for further information.

Unpopular Opinions: Theme Park Edition

Shockwave is great, not a world beating coaster by any means and it is quite short, but it’s unique and fun in my experience. I like how it looks like a B&M but isn’t. It’ll be a sad day if/when Drayton ever get rid of it.

Wish they still let people ride backwards on it, obviously I understand why they don’t. But I’d love to have experienced that.
 
Last edited:
You know what; all this discussion about Shockwave has made me ponder an upgrade within my rankings for it! I’ve now bumped it to my #33 (out of an overall 91) and a 7/10 rating!
 
Last edited:
Phantasialand is a better theme park than Europa Park and has a better line up.
 
Galactica is more enjoyable than F.L.Y.

Just to quantify, the themeing of Rookburgh and FLY is excellent (far superior to Galactica) and technologically it's very impressive too... but I didn't really rate the experience. I found the forces not that pleasant*.

Perhaps flying coaters just aren't my thing.

* I have been told that if I didn't like FLY then I'd absolutely hate some of the other flyers, those with pretzel loops in particular.
 
Back rows on the US B&M flyers are about the only seating I avoid from an intensity perspective. I don't care if it makes me a wuss, but the pretzel loop on Tatsu is just too much in the rear rows of the train.

Vekoma nailed various aspects of the original Flying Dutchman trilogy better than B&M did on Air & the Supermans.
 
John said:
wow, I'm not even convinced it's better than Icon.
Click to expand...

Back row when warmed up, just spent the entire ride out of the seat. Meanwhile Blue Fire I don't fully "get" I mean it's pretty decent just..lacks something

Both significantly better than Icon.
 
Poisson said:
Meanwhile Blue Fire I don't fully "get" I mean it's pretty decent just..lacks something
Click to expand...
I must admit I agree with this comment from @Poisson.

Based on comments on here, I was expecting Blue Fire to blow me away, and while undeniably a really good, solid ride (an excellent ride, in fact), I did think it lacked something to make it truly special for me, and I was a touch underwhelmed by it. Don’t get me wrong, I thought it was a really brilliant coaster, I’d give it a solid 9/10, and it does just about make my top 10 (although given my coaster count is 91, a top 10 placement is less of an achievement within my count than it would be for most)… but it wasn’t quite as mesmerising as I was hoping for based on reviews, and I felt that it was a distant third within Europa’s big 3 (although that speaks more to how much I loved Wodan and Silver Star than Blue Fire being a vaguely poor or even average ride; BF is still an excellent, excellent coaster). And to be honest, I am slightly doubting Blue Fire’s top 10 placement… a really good ride on one of the rides below it could well turf it from the top 10.

However, I’m going to rock the controversy boat even more and say that I like Icon a fair amount more than I like Blue Fire. Granted, I have not ridden Icon in 3 years, and all of my rides I’ve had on it have been fairly late in the day, when it’s “warmed up”, but I remember that ride blowing me away every time. Yes, it’s not the most intense coaster by any stretch of the imagination, but I just find it great fun; the transitions are really nice, there’s loads of great pops of airtime, the twists and turns are fun, I don’t find it to be as sluggish as many make out, with excitement through the whole layout, and on the whole, I always come off Icon buzzing and with a huge grin on my face! It’s my #4, a definite 10/10 ride, and still my favourite UK coaster!

While I’m in this thread, I should also mention my somewhat abnormal opinion on Europa’s big 3; Silver Star is my favourite roller coaster at Europa Park, and top of the big 3 for me. Many don’t seem to rate Silver Star that much, and even those who are fans don’t seem to rate it overly highly, but I absolutely loved it on my recent visit, and it’s my definite favourite at Europa! I loved the airtime, I loved the smooth ride experience and comfortable trains, I loved the brilliant sense of speed (particularly up front), and I just generally found it such a fun ride, and gorgeously rerideable; I had 10 rides on Silver Star, and the 10th ride still gave me the exact same feeling of euphoria that the first did! I won’t deny that it’s not especially intense per se (I don’t think any of Europa’s coasters are), but I certainly think Silver Star is more than thrilling enough to get a great kick out of riding it, and as someone who seeks fun and rerideability in a coaster, it more than delivered for me!

It must be said that Wodan, which seems to be most people’s favourite at Europa, was a pretty close second, though; that thing is demented, and has both exceptionally fast pacing and many amazing pops of ejector airtime! Silver Star & Wodan make up what is easily my favourite one-two punch of any park I’ve ever visited; both rides are in my top 3 (SS is #2, while Wodan is #3), which is certainly no mean feat!
 
Last edited:
Matt N said:
I must admit I agree with this comment from @Poisson.

However, I’m going to rock the controversy boat even more and say that I like Icon a fair amount more than I like Blue Fire. Granted, I have not ridden Icon in 3 years, and all of my rides I’ve had on it have been fairly late in the day, when it’s “warmed up”, but I remember that ride blowing me away every time. Yes, it’s not the most intense coaster by any stretch of the imagination, but I just find it great fun; the transitions are really nice, there’s loads of great pops of airtime, the twists and turns are fun, I don’t find it to be as sluggish as many make out, with excitement through the whole layout, and on the whole, I always come off Icon buzzing and with a huge grin on my face! It’s my #4, a definite 10/10 ride, and still my favourite UK coaster!
Click to expand...

I rank Star Trek at 28, with Blue Fire at 29 and Icon at 85 out of 224. Other launches include Rita at 39, Taron at 9 and F.L.Y. at 3
 
NuttySquirrel said:
Ghost trains have no future in the 21st Century and Duel should be completely rethemed.

<Awaits backlash>
Click to expand...
Do you mean only ghost trains (jumpscare-laden rides with no real story), or spooky-themed dark rides in general (so encompassing things like Haunted Mansion too)?

If the former, then I do kind of get where you’re coming from. I wouldn’t personally go as far as to say that ghost trains “have no place in the 21st century”, as a lot of people still like them, and they can be good fun, in my opinion, but I’ll admit that to me at least, there is something about that style of dark ride that feels inherently old-fashioned in this day and age, rightly or wrongly. That’s not a bad thing per se (not everything needs to be new and cutting edge all the time), but that is why I’m personally not too keen on the idea of the Haunted House being “revived” back to its 1992 form. I’m not personally sure it would resonate with modern audiences in the same way that it resonated with 1992 audiences; dark rides are a very different beast nowadays, and I think something with a more clear-cut narrative and grander- more clear-cut scenes would resonate more effectively with the guests of today.

It would resonate more with me, anyway; as an example, I personally much prefer the ambient, story-led style of spooky dark ride employed by the Haunted Mansion to the more random, jumpscare-led style employed by the Haunted House/Duel, and also something like Geisterschloss at Europa Park. That’s not to say those rides aren’t fun by any means, but I personally prefer the more story-led style.
 
Matt N said:
Do you mean only ghost trains (jumpscare-laden rides with no real story), or spooky-themed dark rides in general (so encompassing things like Haunted Mansion too)?

If the former, then I do kind of get where you’re coming from. I wouldn’t personally go as far as to say that ghost trains “have no place in the 21st century”, as a lot of people still like them, and they can be good fun, in my opinion, but I’ll admit that to me at least, there is something about that style of dark ride that feels inherently old-fashioned in this day and age, rightly or wrongly. That’s not a bad thing per se (not everything needs to be new and cutting edge all the time), but that is why I’m personally not too keen on the idea of the Haunted House being “revived” back to its 1992 form. I’m not personally sure it would resonate with modern audiences in the same way that it resonated with 1992 audiences; dark rides are a very different beast nowadays, and I think something with a more clear-cut narrative and grander- more clear-cut scenes would resonate more effectively with the guests of today.

It would resonate more with me, anyway; as an example, I personally much prefer the ambient, story-led style of spooky dark ride employed by the Haunted Mansion to the more random, jumpscare-led style employed by the Haunted House/Duel, and also something like Geisterschloss at Europa Park. That’s not to say those rides aren’t fun by any means, but I personally prefer the more story-led style.
Click to expand...
Mainly yes, the jumpscare style ghost trains with no particular story. I think the problem is that in this day and age that sort of stuff just isn't scary any more. It's all just a bit silly. I don't think I've ever enjoyed a ghost train non-ironically, usually I just find it funny how bad they are!

A properly spooky horror-themed dark ride is another matter, and the reason why Hex is so much better than Duel.
 
NuttySquirrel said:
Mainly yes, the jumpscare style ghost trains with no particular story. I think the problem is that in this day and age that sort of stuff just isn't scary any more. It's all just a bit silly. I don't think I've ever enjoyed a ghost train non-ironically, usually I just find it funny how bad they are!

A properly spooky horror-themed dark ride is another matter, and the reason why Hex is so much better than Duel.
Click to expand...
Yeah I don't tend to ride travelling fairground ghost trains much anymore as they are just rubbish.
Hex is another level entirely, hence why it's my favorite non-coaster attraction at Towers.
 
On a broadly related note, I’ll admit that ghost trains are one of the few types of attraction that still scare me slightly. So in that regard, they’re clearly still effective at providing scares for someone like me, as much as they might not be my favourite style of dark ride!

I’m not talking an “absolutely petrified” level of fear, but that style of attraction never fails to unnerve me; even the pretty low-budget ones make me feel somewhat on edge.

A well-timed jumpscare on a ghost train can really get me going. It’s bizarre; very little scares me nowadays in terms of physical thrill ride hardware, but put me in the dark and have the odd jumpscare in there and it does make me somewhat scared.

Things like that are part of what suggests to me that I wouldn’t like scare attractions at all. If an obviously fake skeleton merely being lit up with a small sound effect a good few feet away from me is enough to get me into fight or flight mode, god only knows how I’d react to an actual human being getting much closer to me and potentially even touching me…
 
NuttySquirrel said:
Mainly yes, the jumpscare style ghost trains with no particular story. I think the problem is that in this day and age that sort of stuff just isn't scary any more. It's all just a bit silly. I don't think I've ever enjoyed a ghost train non-ironically, usually I just find it funny how bad they are!

A properly spooky horror-themed dark ride is another matter, and the reason why Hex is so much better than Duel.
Click to expand...
I think that about scare mazes though.
Once you have done half a dozen, you have pretty much seen them all.
Can't see the point of doubling the cost of your trip at scarefest.
Riding the coasters in the dark is another matter!
 
Mixtape was dull and very overrated. I never understood it's popularity. Flavios, a simple Sizzler in a family "area" (if you can call it an area) was the strongest of last year's 4 temp flats.
 
Sizzlers are awful devices and I'd like to see them all scrapped.

One that somehow seems unpopular: Mystery Castle is a dark ride (and also the best dark ride I've done)
 
Grand National re-track was a waste of time, I felt like it was running better October 21.

I honestly feel like I've been on the outside of some in joke everyone was having when it re-opened. Sanbrooke even said it was superior to Wickerman if I recall, you've got to be dreaming!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top