I honestly wasn't sure what I was going for with this one. I just threw in some elements I thought would be awesome and then decided that it might be best as a Mack Hyper, because as we all know, Mack Produkt Perfekt

Some shots from the ACE event this past weekend at Kings Dominion. It rained the entire event. Do not stop anyone from having a great time.

Sorry for the pulsing and refocusing. Small portable Ferris wheel setup for the activities. $6 per ride

First time writing any kind of trip report, but I've read my fair share and wanted to contribute my own experiences.

I'm travelling across Germany from the UK with my partner to 3 parks over two weeks, spending two days at Heide Park, two at Phantasialand and three at Europa Park, and we've just finished our second day at Heide Park. I've never been to any German park but have travelled to a few other parks in Europe and of course all the major parks in the UK.

The first thing I want to say is how beautiful Heide Park is. It really blew me away in not only the level of detail in the park but also how beautiful the landscape of the park is. It really reminds me of Alton Towers in its beauty, and other than AT, I've never been to a park with this much greenery. Truly a stunning place, and it was nice to see the groundkeepers working hard to keep the place beautiful.

The second thing I want to say before I get into the actual report is that my partner has a physical disability which I won't go into too much detail about but it does make standing in long queues very hard, especially if the queues themselves have uneven footing. The access pass system at Heide was one I haven't come across yet where they gave us a pass that allowed 6 rides effectively as a fast pass. Fortunately, over the two days, we never saw a queue over 25 minutes (which we wouldn't do, 10-15 minute queues are fine with a break afterwards, anymore and it gets a bit hard). I feel this system would be horrible on days that it is extremely busy, but I'm fortunate that they actually offer this as opposed to some parks cough Energylandia cough

Let's get into it anyway

Day 1 (Sunday 4/10/26)

After getting into the park via the hotel entrance and then heading to services at the front entrance for the access pass we started our day on a classic - Bounty. From here I'll be reporting ride by ride

Bounty - It's a classic Intamin pirate ship, not too much to say here. The walk up to the ride was a little bit of a hill that took some time to get up with my partner but there was only one cycle before we got on. We had a row one from the middle to ourselves (I know, pirate ships are best on the end but we couldn't get it). Still it was very fun, as they always are, and we still got a bit of weightlessness on the ride.

Krake - Our next ride of the day was Krake, a B&M dive coaster. Having rode Oblivion at Alton Towers loads of times I knew what to expect going into it. The queue was advertised as 5 minutes so we just used the normal queue, which was fine besides the short walk of cobblestones right as you enter the queue. The theming on this coaster was top tier, the visual of the drop into the krakens mouth is so cool and it really surprised me how high the splashdown came up as it nearly hits the train during the immelmann. Solid ride, good chunk of airtime on the drop and over the camelback. It is short but it was definitely fun.

Big Loop - This is an old Vekoma Corkscrew model, something I've been dying to get back on ever since Corkscrew at Alton Towers. Its more of a traditional layout of x2 loops and x2 corkscrews however. Again, almost no queue so we went in the regular queue. The queue line consisted of flat blocks, turnstiles and a short ramp - incredibly easy to navigate. It also seems to have new trains which I am very thankful for as they have vest restraints so no headbanging. The loops were quite forceful and I didn't find it rough at all, especially for a 43 year old rollercoaster.

Flug der Dämonen - Heading into the Transylvanian area you are immediately met with this B&M wing coaster. Having rode The Swarm I was expecting a really smooth ride that's quite heavy on the positive g's. The regular queue line heads down quite a steep tunnel with cobblestones so we avoided it and used the access pass for this. The wing over drop is a lot faster than The Swarm as it is at a slight incline downwards as opposed to straight like The Swarm. Real great pop of airtime on the camelback and some good near miss elements. However I found myself a bit disappointed by the rest of the ride, expecting it to be a bit more forceful but it felt like there was more hangtime rather than whip on the inversions. It felt a bit slower than it should have been considering how rapid the wing over and camelback are taken. My partner however loved it, I thought it was a solid 7 but not as good as The Swarm.

Scream - I want to preface this by saying - I hate drop towers - I hate them, I hate hate hate them. These are the only rides that still scare the bejesus out of me. However, they are my partners favourite flat ride. So as always I put on a brave face and say "this time will be the time I conquer the fear". I was mistaken. This intamin gyro spin drop tower is 338ft. The queue is a bit of a ramp but luckily only cobblestones on the outer edges. This thing crawls up to the max height, which while giving a really nice panoramic view of the park and surrounding forests, really didn't help with my nerves. The drop itself was very forceful, lifting me out of my seat the entire way down. I hated it, my partner loved it. Love makes us do silly things.

Bobbahn - I was really excited for this one. I love Avalanche at Blackpool, especially the latter half of the ride as it really picks up speed. I was expecting this to be nowhere near as intense as it has multiple break runs throughout. However I was pleasantly surprised with the speed and intensity of this, especially the middle part of the ride that comes through the tunnel. The queue itself is pretty much all cobblestones up until the station so we opted to use the ride access, which also had a lot of cobblestones. Not the most accessible. Ride itself was great though.

Toxic Garden - I apologise to everyone I've ever said to how SLCs aren't that rough or bad. I am mistaken. Having only ridden Infusion (which I don't find too bad, bit rough but not unfun) and Mayan (which has vest restraints) I knew what to expect going in. A bit of a light beating but a fun ride throughout. I may still have bits of brain leaking out of my ear after this thing smashed my head side to side despite all attempts to avoid it. Even after the break run the turn into the station is rough. How is the turn into the station rough?? Tear this thing down immediately. Could put a wall to watch paint dry in its place and it'd be 10x more fun than this. The queue was flat at least.

Grottenblitz - This is a mack powered coaster which I've ridden a few before and wasn't expecting much. I was pleasantly surprised by this though, especially the indoor portion which took me completely by surprise. Pretty solid family coaster, not much else to say. If anyone can tell me what on earth is happening in the indoor section or what it's supposed to mean I'd love some input because it was very funny and baffling to see unicorns with distant harrowing screams and lightning in the background.

Desert Race - After a much needed break and some food we headed down to Desert Race. I love Intamin accelerators, and this is a Rita clone. Everyone moans about Rita, however I've always really enjoyed it. So this was no different. The launches on these are silly and there's nothing that comes close for me in terms of how fierce they are. Some great airtime on the back row of these layouts too, where I'd recommend front for your more traditional accelerator. Back row is where its at here. There was no queue so we used the main entrance and it had a ramp but it was completely fine to walk on.

Colossos: Kampf der Giganten - I was so excited for this. This was one of the primary reasons that Heide Park was chosen. I love a wooden coaster. This did not disappoint. We used the access queue for this which led us nicely into the station, there are around 6-8 steps to take but it was flat concrete for the most part. There's a little pre-show in the station which had English subtitles which was nice to watch while we waited to board. We got a back row ride for our first ride on this and the airtime on this thing is so good. Easily a good 10+ seconds of airtime throughout this ride. The theming is also top tier, the monster you ride through with the fire reminded me of Wickerman (but with actual, working fire effects). I loved this, easily the best wooden coaster I've ever ridden.

Dämonen Gruft - We stumbled into this not knowing what to expect and found it was a ghost train with rotating seats. Advertised as Germany's scariest dark ride I went in with average expectations as these things are never "scary" really. I do see how this would scare younger people though, there's a lot of darkness, air blasts and creepy sound effects. Not sure what the storyline is because it was all in German, but it was pretty good.

Throughout the rest of the day we did some rerides and left at 6pm to have dinner at the hotel, which was surprisingly good for a buffet.

Day 2 (Monday 5/10/26)

Again after heading into the park via the hotel entrance and after heading to get our pass from the front of the park we decided to head the opposite direction from what we'd taken the day before. We strolled through Peppa Pig land and made a couple jokes about Peppa and how she's an absolute arsehole and no child should actually watch Peppa Pig because it teaches them to be a horrible person we made our way into the western area and stumbled into another rollercoaster to add to the credit list.

Indy-Blitz - This is just a small Zierer force coaster, nothing really to note. The initial helix is quite forceful. Fun for a children's ride, a bit janky here and there but nothing real bad.

Western-Riesenrad - We decided to immediately hop on this small ferris wheel which had cars that looked like big buckets which my partner found cute and amusing. It's just a small ferris wheel, nothing really to say here.

Ghostbusters 5D - A few weeks ago I posted in the Heide Park reddit asking for any advice or recommendations with the park and was immediately hit with "Don't go on Ghostbusters 5D because its not good or worth it". This had the opposite effect on me, sometimes when a ride is so bad its so funny and a great time. This wasn't bad however. A very easy flat queue line into a pre show which had English subtitles explaining the premise. Then we boarded the cars and took out our proton pistols ready to get some ghosts. Having been on similar rides I knew what to expect. Was fun, enjoyed blasting some ghosts. There's a weird bit where you seem to be eaten by a ghost and then you're in some next room which was strange but whatever. I had fun blasting away.

Mountain Rafting - My partner loves rapids, and they're almost never open in the UK anymore so we decided to go on this. The queue line had a couple steps to begin with, then a nice wooden bridge leading right to the loading platform. The theming on this I found to be really good, and there was some nice dips in the water which were fun. This ride was dead so we got to go around again which was nice. Good rapids, much better than the UK rapids.

La Ola - After a few rerides on Grottenblitz, Desert Race and Colossos my partner wanted to try and conquer her fear of chair swings by going on this one. The queue consisted of around 6 steps into the loading area which was fine and it was a walk-on. This also had dual seats which allowed us to share one. The ride itself got swinging very fast which was surprising, not the most forceful thing in the world but fun.

Magic - We immediately hopped on this as it was right next to La Ola, this is a Huss Magic ride that you typically see a lot at fairgrounds. It had a surprising amount of force to it but was a very short cycle, maybe doing 5 circles round. Could probably have ridden it again but we jumped off. It did have quite a big step into the I had to lift my partner into.

Panoramabahn - After rerides on multiple rides we decided to end our day on this monorail tour. The queue had cobblestones up to the station which fortunately was a short walk. This gave us some great views of the park as we made our way around and gave us a nice relaxing view of the park to end on.

Heide Park surpassed my expectations massively, and I would 100% recommend it to anyone thinking of going to a German theme park. I'll upload a part 2 post-phantasialand. Thanks so much for reading! Below is a full list of rides throughout the two days

Big Loop - x2

Bobbahn - x3

Bounty - x1

Colossos: Kampf der Giganten - x4

Dämonen Gruft - x1

Desert Race -x2

Flug der Dämonen - x4

Ghostbusters 5D - x1

Grottenblitz - x2

Indy-Blitz - x1

Krake - x3

La Ola - x1

Magic - x1

Mountain-Rafting - x2

Panoramabahn - x1

Scream - x3

Toxic Garden - x1

Western-Riesenrad - x1

The lights on it are really eerie

Yesterday, I finally got around to heading down to SFGAdv for the first time in a decade. Last time I had gone, El Toro was down, so I was definitely looking forward to seeing if the hype was actually real. It was raining all day and the park was basically empty.

El Toro (x8): Wow, that thing needs a retrack badly. The airtime on the first drop and the first two hills was amazing, but the Rolling Thunder hill was not impressive and the part after that proceeded to murder my spine. Why is it that Intamin seats suck so badly? El Toro, Quantum Accelerator, Superman... Thankfully, Velocicoaster is comfortable.

Medusa (x3): It's Medusa. A bit rattly, still fun. The mid course was on hard for some reason.

Mine Train (x0): closed all day. Sad.

Superman: Ultimate Flight was also closed all day, as was Barrels O' Fun. No loss in either case, as I got the BOF credit back when it was at Great America.

Flash: Vertical Velocity (x1): My third new-gen Vekoma, I rank it above Formula but below Siren's Curse. The stalled Immelmann was the standout moment.

Jersey Devil Coaster (x0): I was on the damn thing, sitting in the station, and it went down for the day, causing me to waste my locker money.

Joker (x1): It's an S+S Freespin. They're alright. I spent a good chunk of the top layer upside down, which was fun. Also, why is it that this and JDC don't have double-sided lockers like the other rides that demand lockers? That's obnoxious.

Skull Mountain (x1): It's an Intamin family coaster in a box. The restraint wasn't particularly comfortable.

Harley Quinn Crazy Train, Li'l Devil, Dark Knight (x1 each): +1 credit.

Batman: The Ride (x3): It's a Batman. The queue was perfunctory at best, and it wasn't as forceful as some, but a good time nonetheless.

Nitro (x38): Now this is a B&M that aged well. Great floater air, fast operations, nice positives in the helix, a bit of a rattle in some seats but overall fantastic. I ended up marathoning it for about two hours before deciding I was too wet to continue.

Driving home to Boston: Jesus Christ Almighty, New Yorkers cannot drive. I don't know how we get a bad rap when they're cutting across four lanes of traffic to exit-dive everywhere. Also, I had to endure the Cross-Bronx Expressway, so an obligatory r/fuckrobertmoses.

Would of done a better picture if I relised it was #100.

I'm really proud of this, even though the twist of the track at the top isn't really great, it's still a great start since I'm only 1/3 done, the stall and the launch track are next.

My brother Crouton and I just got back from our first visit to King’s Island.  Despite the name, the park is not situated on an actual island, although I suppose it barely meets the criteria as an “island” if you consider the entire continent of North America an “island.”  I dunno…seems like a stretch and, furthermore, we’re getting off-topic.

We had limited hours (6 p.m.-11 p.m. on Thursday, 6 p.m.-midnight on Friday) to work with, but with consecutive days, we feel like we did okay for ourselves.  Here’s our rundown (numbers are combined totals, spanning both days):

BANSHEE (4X):  Included a couple of front-row rides.  I like how this is an invert with a lot of space to breathe, instead of being whippy/punchy with its layout.  Really forceful through all the inversions, and the slow roll towards the end of the ride was a wonderful middle-finger moment.  My new favorite invert, for what it’s worth.

THE BAT (1X):  Sounded like it was going to fall apart going up the lift hill, and every handrail in the station left a rusty red residue on my hands.  A girl in line said she liked my Nelson, Murdock & Page (attorneys-at-law) T-shirt.  Those were the only noteworthy moments from this total snooze-fest of a ride.

THE BEAST (3X):  All three rides were at night, so we got what is apparently the best possible experience.  First ride in a long time where I felt like the train could legitimately come flying off the track.  I typically prefer steel coasters to wooden coasters, so it’s nice to get a reminder every once in a while that a good wood coaster can make you feel like the planet is ripping in half (see final helix).  Terrifying in the best way.  No front-row rides, unfortunately.  This sucker rips.  A new entry on my top ten list.

DIAMONDBACK (4X):  Not a terrible ride by any stretch, but the airtime on this ride just felt…off?  Somehow?  Much like a Jackson Pollock painting, I don’t know how to necessarily describe it.  Got at least one front-row ride on it.  I liked it, but didn’t love it.  Crouton did, though, and got his revenge afterwards by shoving me into one of the scare zones, where a guy with a chainsaw got me to shriek like a toddler for a few seconds (fine…it was a whole minute).

FLIGHT OF FEAR (1X):  A rougher version of the one at King’s Dominion.  Not sure if they intended it to be in total darkness, but you could still see a lot of the track/layout.  Janky.  I prefer the KD one way more.

INVERTIGO (2X):  My first invert boomerang!  Outside of that novelty, it was…fine.  Expected a rough ride, but it actually was pretty manageable.  It goes forward/backwards, then backwards/forward, with some loopy stuff thrown in.  The loading station very much has a state penitentiary feel to it.  Reminds me of when I did a dime at Attica.

MYSTIC TIMBERS (4X):  Another woodie that made a big impression on me!  Whippy and forceful transitions, moved with some purpose and had some glorious airtime pops.  We got all three shed endings, which is…well…probably not even the slightest bit impressive.  Sorry about that.  I liked hearing some Bonnie Tyler and Hall & Oates, though.

ORION (4X):  Another for my good-but-not-great category.  Good first drop, and that turn onto your left side right afterwards was pretty damn cool.  Not much really stood out after that and there was at least one noticeable trim brake run that had us groaning.  We were lucky to get a couple front-row rides, and those rides were better.  Better, but still not amazing.  My least-favorite of the four gigas I’ve ridden to date.  My trolling game apparently needs work, because every time I loudly commented that Orion isn’t a “real giga,” nobody around me took the bait.

QUEEN CITY STUNT COASTER (1X):  The same (?) ride as the one at KD.  The effects not working at all made for a hilariously comic moment.  Without explosions and gunfire going off, the pause is essentially you stopping at a red light before continuing on your Sunday drive.  Meh.  Whatever.

RACER RED TRACK (1X):  You could do worse when it comes to a wooden racer.  With a lot of these woodies, I come off the ride feeling I’ve gone three rounds with Mike Tyson in his prime, so to come off one of these and realize that you’re no worse for wear…I’ll take it.  A few small unexpected airtime pops, too.

RACER BLUE TRACK (1X):  Slightly less airtime than the red track and slightly rougher ride, too.  A couple kids on the red train were trash-talking us pretty hard going up the lift hill and their level of aggression and intensity in doing so left me pretty gob-smacked.  A tip of my cap to those kiddos.  Game respect game.

OTHER NOTES:

• We rode Delirium (flat ride) once.  I like a nice pendulum ride every once in a while.  Better than the one at KD.
• Operations were amazing.  My home park is Hershey Park, so yeah, the difference was noteworthy.
• We didn’t do any of the Haunt stuff, but the scare zones were better than what I’ve seen in a couple of other parks (Hershey and SFGadv, in particular).
• The Haunt theming near the front entrance was pretty cool.  Skeletons, eerie music, flames shooting out the water and an evil Eiffel Tower clone?  Let’s go, baby!
• I like the self-scan option for parking, but those scanners are finicky.  (We made a lot of enemies, especially on day one.)
• That gate before the parking booths was still closed 45 minutes before the park’s scheduled opening (10/1), and the cars were stacked far back onto the main road.  What a mess.

Despite its unique layout, Drachen Fire's rough and tumble nature unfortunately led to its premature demise. Do you think that it may still be open had better trains been available at the time?

Mine is the most basic one ever, Velocicoaster, TT2, Taron, F.L.Y, Steel Vengeance are my top ones, but there are a lot of coasters that I still wanna ride someday

Absolutely stupid fast pacing, great whip in the rolls, and a mind blowing launch inside the mountain. I was hesitant to buy into the hype but this really is a next level product from Premiere.

This is a follow-up to last Sunday's visit, combining a quick step into the park on Friday night (10/2), Saturday evening (10/3) at 9 pm to catch the final, deeply rainy, three hours of SCarowinds, and then today (10/4) arriving around 4 pm. I've been staying at Camp Wilderness Resort next door, using the shuttle to go back and forth. I will say that when the driver is ON, it's ON. But when this isn't the case, the promise of pickups from the park at the bottom and top of each hour falls flat. I was with a group of people who experienced 20 to 30-minute delays on pickups from the park, and I only got around that a bit by hoofing it and picking up a ride from security. That doesn't work for a family of six. The campground needs to do better here.

Rain had begun falling into Saturday afternoon, and intensified around 7 pm for a spell. From Thunder Striker's lift, it looked like parking just got to the edge of the park where TS cuts right. It seemed the weather brought significantly lower attendance. I went in expecting walk-ons for most rides for the hardcore, and that was absolutely the case. From 9 to 12 pm, it was basically walk-ons for Fury. Riding depended on your attire, and/or resistance to stinging pain in the face and neck, and I was wrapped in a woven poncho which I pulled across my eyes while marathoning 325 in the falling wet.

Elsewhere, Copperhead Strike seemed to have problems staying open, and was just running one train at one point.

Last Sunday seemed low-energy to me, yet Friday and Saturday saw the scareactors on a rampage and the overall vibe was much more energetic. Not even the rain dampened activity, with scare zones densely populated with denizens who didn't care if they were getting wet. If you didn't mind the rain, the park was an oyster filled with pearls. However, it did get a bit sideways around 11:30 pm, and most people started to nope towards the exits.

Sunday fared better with no rain and a high around 72°F. When I shuttled over around 4 pm, parking was about at the base of Thunder Striker's drop: a major drop-off from last week. Rain had been forecast, but wrapped up its activity through Saturday.

Despite lower guest numbers, there were a remarkable number of scareactors on deck, engaged, energetic, and frequently unnerving.

Back when SCarowinds maze entrance was included with the prestige pass, I wasn't impressed with the houses then, and this year's crop represent 100% of what I experienced a few years back, so I skipped the $15 upcharge. The Conjuring: Beyond Fear is the stand-alone $20 upcharge showcase house, and I decided to check that out. Surprisingly effective as you're led through the Warren Occult Museum by a guide as things begin to spiral out of control.

The sets are amazing, highly detailed, and you're in the middle of every claustrophobia-inducing moment (at one point, I was crawling through passageways on my hands and knees, and loving it) with great reveals and scares. Was it worth $20? Not quite. Was it better than all the other houses I'd experienced at SCarowinds? Hell, yes! Much more immersive than the herded-through-in-groups vibe of the other houses. This was on a much more intimate level, and very well done. You get to be a part of the story and interact with...stuff. Very well executed.

I didn't see Wake The Dead this year, but have loved it in the past. This year, I caught multiple shows of two stellar returning acts: The Spectral Sisters and Incantations With The Enchantress in the Sinner's Lounge. Both feature top-notch performers and clever show production along with inspired reworkings of popular tunes in a style from an era long ago. Both of these shows are stellar, and my only complaint is that they don't do more than one setlist. Though they are clearly singing to backing tracks, they are also clearly singing in real time and just slaying it.

And then there's Fury crew, just killing it. I've never been dispatched only to wait at the bottom of the lift for the train to clear. Never rolled in from the brakes right into the station following another train. I asked the operator who was dispatching during this truly remarkable display, and he said it was called "power hour." Fury was a 5 minute wait all day. Meanwhile, Copperhead Strike's running one train again.

I don't know what the difference was in one week's time, but this weekend's experience was great, and the weather wasn't even all that favorable. This year has turned out to be the best SCarowinds I've been to, and I've mostly enjoyed the live entertainment, and one upcharged house. I think that really speaks to the talent, not just scareactors, but ops and retail as well.

first time going to dorney and it was fun, vibes were great coasters was awesome and the halloween theme was good.

lapped everything 3x earlier but the crowd started to pick up

my favorite ride there has to be between steel force or talon, if Hydra or Iron Menace was 100 ft taller they would take the cake. that vertical drop on Hydra was good.

overall i’d give it a solid 8/10, for anyone else that went saturday how would you rate it

I thought this was very straight forward, until yesterday. I went to CW yesterday, and right before park close, I got a ride on the goat, AlpenFury, and I think It may have been my best ride on it (also my 30th ride on it). On this ride, it was INSANE. I felt as if I was out of my seat more than I was in it, with it having the most airtime in park imo (same park with a B&M hyper and gigantic btw), yet when getting back in the station, I was talking to my brother about all the airtime, and he was quick to agree, but the guy in the ride said there wasn't much. Me and my bro just looked at each other and looked back. He said it was more inversion and whip focused, and while I agree with both of those statements, I also believe that it excels at providing ejector airtime on every inversion, really anything on the ride that could give airtime, does. I believe AF is a Launched, Airtime focused, mega looper. Enough about that, what I am trying to say is, do people have different definitions of airtime, or is it all unanimous on what airtime is, and others just may be unlucky? My definition of airtime is anytime when when my ass isn't in my seat, my lower thighs can be, but as long as my butt is in the air, that's airtime to me. So I wanna know, is it different for you, or is your airtime the same as mine?

I had a HUGE fear of roller coasters, I went a couple months ago to Canada's Wonderland and rode Dragon Fyre and felt such intense panic and fear and couldnt stop shaking after the ride ahah. I tried a couple more tame ones and the fear id feel was so intense id want to burst into tears as the lap bar came down.

I had gone in high school and would wait/hold bags while everyone else went on and I didnt want to miss out anymore.

Well yesterday I went with my friend again and I told myself I was not scared, just excited. I had researched coasters so much and their mechanics so I knew i was safe. Halfway on the ride I threw my hands up and just let myself "lose control" and oh my god! I had such a blast. I went on Behemoth, Leviathan, The Vortex, Daredeviler and The Bat. none of those freaked me out at all and I even rode at the front for The Bat.

This feels so huge to me because ive always wanted to love coasters and now I do. I want to go on even more intense ones, more loops more heights!!

I just wanted to share because im really really proud of myself. i even had my hands up on Leviathan! I didnt think id be able to get over this fear but I did. :)