| Day 7 - September 14th: Member Comments |
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Robert Harries and Lisa Rowland
Fantastic trip, not a moment wasted. Thanks to all those involved in the organisation, and especially to
Justin for all his work on the trip to ensure we were in the right places at the right times. Nice to
meet new people and make some new friends.
Even the smaller parks were worth the time, and a good haul of coaster credits. High light for me was
Stunt Fall, as it is so different from anything else ever ridden before. See you all in Germany 2004!
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Paul Orsmond
What a fantastic trip, I had an excellent time despite losing my wallet(DOH). All the parks were
excellent and the ERS's were a nice surprise too despite being told we would not be getting any. The
highlight for me has to be Dragon Khan. I had waited to ride this B&M for a good few years and it
certainly did not disappoint me. Lastly thanks to all involved in the trip and I hope to see everyone
again in Germany next year.
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Darren Smith
Absolutely great trip, I enjoyed all the rides especially Dragon Khan and Superman. Thanks to everyone
who organised the trip.
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Mary wilkinson
Fantastic trip, thanks to everyone for their good company, and to those who supported me to do so many
rides esp. Martin and Justin. Also thanks to all who were involved in organising the trip and well done
Justin you are a good tour manager.
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Geoff Smith
Movie World Stunt Fall VG, Batman loads of Gs. Great Parks Excellent Holiday, Cheers.
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Malcolm Marr
I shot some Spaniards today.........and felt no remorse. After enduring their queue jumping behaviour
they deserved it! (OK, so I've kept my reports to 2 words so far but I feel it necessary to expand for
the final report).
The trip itself has been great. Although the club has never been here before everything has gone
really well and to schedule. The Albacete fair was a bonus and which gave me the high point, the caged
pirate boat which was just insane.
A big thanks to all those involved in the organisation of the trip, it's just a shame that those who
did a lot of the work didn't make the trip.
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Chris "Tickle Me and I'll Punch Your Lights Out!"
A great trip with today's ERS on Superman ending it all off nicely. Ok, shooting Jesus with a water gun
on the rapids was also quite a highlight! Thanks as always to all involved for making this another
memorable trip and look forward to the next one!!
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Greg Pearn
Three great steel coasters going to waste in a very badly managed park!
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Andy Hygate
A triumph of corporate rules and regulations over enjoyment, however the coasters were of a very high
standard. My first Batman coaster! Stunt Fall delivered a clunky punch and Superman was just superb.
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Lewis Cox
It's not everyday that you find a dragon who breathes mist from it's nose but is able to fight a super
hero with fire when required. I didn't find one today either.
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Martin Valt
Wise-ass New York broads, haunted toilets and lots of water.
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Jeff Holmes
Heeeeeey!!!!!!!! (with a New York accent) That's sums it up really.
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Sue Barlow
Batman best inverter with hi speed g force. Superman fun front seat flying. Must wear super-bra next
time on wild wild west. Good trip overall.
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Saddam Hussein
They'll never find me here!
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John Musk
Madrid - what a beautiful city, and the parks are not bad either. Superman is just brilliant. You float
through the inversions. Great trip!!!
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Stuart 'Chilli' God
Many thanks to all concerned for a brilliant trip.
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Jan Stoehlmacher
One week could be so short. Great parks, great people, great weather, great rides - guess how I liked
the trip! ;-) Thanks go to the ones who did a really good job in organising this unique experience.
Can't wait for the next trip!
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Bus Driver
Great trip but I don't like gate posts or wing mirrors and prefer to drive my little mini-bus.
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Tony Pycroft
Another Great ECC trip. As usual! Thanks to all the team especially Kev!!
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Tom Marshall
What coasters! Two superb B&M's and the fantastic Stunt Fall (Vekoma Giant Boomerang). A park
with excellent theming and superb rides. I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone
who made these trip reports possible, including everyone on the trip who has made the comments, those
who lent us the laptops to carry round the bus, and of course to Bill Buckley for formatting these pages!
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Linz and Darren
Fantastic day. Had great fun teaching the Superman Ride ops how to do a "proper" ERS!!! Park is very,
very well themed, which is not hard when you have a host of films spanning so many eras to "theme" from!
Dodgems takeover was good fun, if not a little violent, and even more amazing that we were allowed 3,
yes 3 repeat rides! Very sad now, as on the way to airport to go home. :(
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Phil Ariss
Wow! By far the best park of the trip, and the perfect way to end a wonderful week. The coasters were
all stunning (excluding Wild Wild West) in particular Superman which is practically perfect (kill the
trims!!). Batman was very intense and never let up, and Stunt Fall was extremely surprising and the
vertical spikes make the ride what it is. My only criticism of the park is the lack of ride staff and
the abundance of queue jumping. Now we are at the end of the trip, I’d like to thank all those who made
it possible and for everyone on the trip who made it a lot of fun.
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Rich Holmes
Superb! The perfect ending to a fantastic trip. The 2 B&M's were very good rides, and with Superman
being my first floorless I was very impressed (despite the trim brakes!). Batman was an intense inverter,
and a very good one in my opinion. Stunt Fall impressed me, despite it being a Vekoma! Both front and
back seats gave good rides. The theming of the overall park and queue lines were of a very high standard,
and added to the whole experience. one bad point about the park is the amount of flies that are around,
which got kind of annoying after a while! Also, queue jumping in Spain as a whole is very bad, and that
needs sorting. Finally, thanks to everyone who organised this trip and made it possible, and also to all
the other members who made the trip really good fun!!
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Chris and Claire
A good end to the trip, a very nice park although a shame that it is in the Six Flags family. As you
would expect some silly rules about standing well behind gates and yellow lines and loads of
announcements with the Wild Wild West operators being the worst.
On the Batman Simulator we arrived in the queue just to find that some people had entered the first
pre-show before they should have done, the staff made all of the people get out walk around some of the
queue, wait 10 seconds before allowing them back into the first pre-show. A bit of common sense from the
staff would be nice.
Two good B & M coasters with pops of airtimes on Superman. Stunt Fall was another good ride and a
surprise element on the flume style ride. Sadly only one dark ride in the park, which was a haunted
swing, it would have been nice for a Looney Tunes studio like in the German sister park. Overall a nice
park that could do to look at the queue jumping problem and tackle it.
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Richard Bannister
Some fun Six Flags Moments during our Superman ERS this morning but I still managed five rides in total,
one of which was in the front. Took five rides on Riddler's Revenge before I got assigned to the best
of the three towers, but it was worth it! Thanks to Justin, Mark, and everyone else involved for
organizing a superb trip. Looking forward to Japan next year!
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Stuart Milton
Sadly it is the end of the trip, I am typing this on the coach to the airport. It has been a fantastic
trip, all the parks have been good. Movie world was a great park, a fitting end to a great trip. Roll
on the next one!
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Dan Spooner
Brilliant trip. One I would love to do again.
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Helen Young
I had a great trip. Red hot weather. Shame it's all over.
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Martha and Albert Amborn
Great trip. Thanks to Justin for his smooth coordination of the itinerary. Had fun making new friends
and riding new coasters. Adios muchachos.
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Lorna Cromarty
Excellent trip. Brilliant coasters (some!). Well organised as always.
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Andrew Masterton
A short but enjoyable second day at Warner Bros. Rounded off a very enjoyable Spanish trip.
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Gary McMillan
A brilliant trip. Thanks to all involved for the organisation. And thanks to Justin for making sure
we were all in the right place at the right time. Roll on Germany 2004!
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Richard Branson
Letting the Concorde go is a national disgrace!
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Stephen Knight
Another exhilarating day at Warner Bros. Thanks to all those involved in organising another superb
trip. I might dry out from the rapids in the coming year.
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Mick Fryer-Kelsey (for Yesterday and today)
Hi to all Club members. An end to a fantastic trip, and thanks to everyone who organised it. The park
was very good for a Six Flags - well themed. Staff either idiots or too officious. The Spanish need
to learn how to queue - pushing in seems to be the norm.
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Keith and Judy Turnbull
What, over all ready? Special thanks to Mark and Kev for the organisation. Gentleman, it's been
emotional.
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John Fidyk and Brad Haller
Superman had nice surprise airtime. Stunt Fall ran surprisingly consistently, but sadly ran as
efficiently as the US versions.
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Arnold Schwarzenegger
I'll be back!
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Tim Herre
Goodbye sunny Spain - and good job John, Justin, Mark and Kevin. Now it's finally back to the lovely
SonjaLand. Woohoo.
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Ralf Lindhorst
This goes out to the organisers of the trip. We had an excellent time - thank you guys for the trip,
and everything that came along. Too bad that Mark couldn't join us (Ed: Tim does not agree with this
bit - he says the best bit of the trip was that Mark wasn't here!). I can't wait for the next trip to
come, and hope I can make it to Japan.
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Justin Garvanovic
A final note on the trip. I was a little worried about this trip. I had not really known much about
the planning, so was sort of "dumped in the deep end" with regards how the trips was to go. I knew as
much about the itinerary as everyone else going into it. This shouldn't have been a problem though, as
the driver would know what was happening, and I'd have the detailed itinerary, so we (the driver and I)
could work out any needed changes... As those on the trip will know though, this proved to be near
impossible, as the driver spoke no English - we did ask for an English speaking driver!!!
This leads me to my first "BIG THANKS", which has to go to Majkel. Without his ability to speak some
Spanish, there would have been so many problems it's scary. We all owe Majkel a huge pat on the back, and a drink in the bar the next time we see him.
The trip, from my point of view looked like this:
- Tibidabo
An amazing park. A location not bettered by any I can think of. Someone here mentioned its lack
of "different rides" I believe... Well this park has more unique rides than any I can think of.
The Airplane ride, the spinning arm ride, the suspended monorail are the obvious three, but there’s
also the weird electric buggy thing to get you back up the hill. Unfortunately the food was just
awful, and some staff had maybe studied under the Six Flags at some point... This park is so close
to being something extraordinary its untrue. If they could sort the food out, and get one killer
ride, a nice coaster using that terrain should do it, and they’d have a world class park that people
would flock to.
- Port Aventura
After the pre-trip hotel worry, it was great that everything with the hotel was fine. Our hotel
keys also got us into the park, water park, and after 9pm, up the exits on the coasters. Personally
I used this on Stampida pretty much exclusively – including a 2 hour plus session on the last night.
I had ridden DK before, so Stampede was my main draw, and it lived up to expectations, especially at
night. OK, it has that first drop trim brake, but I had never ridden it before, so had no point of
reference. Even with the brake, it just flew, and some of the best times of the trip for me where
had on that coaster. The water park was a good distraction, although is does need at least 4 more
outdoor slides, and those killer indoor ones need removing!!! Someone is going to come a cropper on
those pretty soon. I’ve done a lot of water slides in my time, but those are just too much. I sill
have bruises. All in the entire park was great, but it needs a new thrill ride (read coaster)
pretty soon. Polynesia is looking pretty empty right now...
- Terra Mitica
The way the Spanish parks reacted to a "coaster club" has already been discussed here, but a
"BIG THANKS" needs to go to Daniel at Terra Mitica. It was the only park where we were treated
pretty much as we are in other parks. On top of that, the park is just stunning. It features some
of the best theming I have ever encountered, with maybe DisneySea just ahead of it, but not by much.
The park though is screaming out for some investment. It needs some rides removing, and revamping –
the odd pyramid ride is a good example. It has a fantastic transit system, but the ride itself
leaves a lot to be desired. Oh, and can we have scores on the shooting game please. Colossus was
a lot better than I had been led to believe, it got a little rough as the day went on, but there are
plenty more rougher coasters out there. I do feel that a new train would help the ride – it
certainly did at WBMW Germany when they removed those trains on their coaster. The SLC was an
obvious addition. Paramount has come in, seen that a new ride was needed, and got the biggest bang
for their buck, in the smallest time possible. This is why the SLC is so popular, it’s cheap, looks
great, and takes little ground space. Now though, some thought needs to be given to the next major
attraction. Personally, I’d call Intamin and Werner Stengel, and say, “here’s a huge mountain, use
it”. You could run a 450ft coaster up the side of it, save a huge amount of money on a lift
structure, and then send the coaster all over the park. Keeping it low and fast (and hence cheaper),
you could encircle the entire park, with the train making a spectacular showing over the front gate.
Anyone going to Benidorm would see it, and be drawn, as would those from further afield. Come on
Paramount, it’ll cost, but not as much as you’d think, and it would turn all eyes towards Terra
Mitica.
- Fair at Albacete
I would love to be able to claim that we knew of the fair before, but we didn’t. It was fortunate
that we found out – and got the word out. I never went as I was just too tired – I am still
am in fact! I do of course now regret not going – the standup pirate ship sounded
"interesting"!!!
- Parque de Atracciones
I like this park, as it appears, did a lot of others. City parks are something that few places can
boast – Tivoli being one of the most famous, in fact Scandinavia is packed with them. GronaLund and
Liseberg are also city parks. It’s a shame that London doesn’t have one, although it came close
with Battersea Park 30 or so years ago. The park is full of charm, and great rides, hidden away in
the trees. Tornado, the Intamin inverter is just fine, but I much preferred the Schwarzkopf Wildcat
– one of the very first I believe. It was in great condition, and ran beautifully. I hope it
stays there forever.
- Warner Bros. MovieWorld
This park so wants to be Port Aventura, but falls flat in several areas. OK, so it has the entry
fountain, and it has some great rides, but it’s there that the comparisons stop. The staff at the
park, especially in operations, are few and far between. This is a typical Six Flags thing really –
they seem to run their rides with the minimum of staff, and hence the rides operate well below their
best. Stunt Fall is the obvious example here. It is a complex ride that needs a lot of staff to
get the most out of it, but they use just 2. Waiting for everyone to get clear of the ride before
letting others on is just plain annoying. The ride is being run well below its capacity, which is
a real shame. As before, Wild Wild West was a very disappointing wooden coaster, which the Spanish
seem to absolutely love. I have no idea why. It is a pretty dull ride, with no airtime, and no
moments of particular interest. If my life depended on it, I could still not describe the layout.
A shame really. On the plus side though, the tracking is superb, and it still runs very smoothly.
For me, Superman is the best ride at the park, and was pleased we had an ERS on it, even though the
staff tried to ruin it by making everyone go around the queue line for another ride!!! With some
operational changes this park could really be something special, but before they do that they have
to stop the queue jumping. In every queue you find someone pushing forward to meet up with their
"friends" – unless the meet an non-Spanish elbow it must be said. As more and more non-Spanish
tourists visit the park, this problem will grow as it will lead to fighting. They need to stamp it
out now, and for this, they need more staff...
Well, there you go. Some interesting parks, some annoying parks, some fantastic parks, but I think
most of all, some parks with plenty of potential that just needs to be realised. I am home now, and
after sleeping and resting yesterday, I am still absolutely exhausted. I need more sleep!!!
Some final thanks:
- Majkel – obviously! :>
- Martin – for helping with the park payments. :>
- Val Cromarty – for flying for the first time for this trip, and enjoying it. :>
- Keith Johnson – for always being cheery. :>
- Mary Wilkinson – for going on more coasters in one trip, than on all those before.
- Tom Marshall – for coordinating all the day by day reports.
- Bill Buckley – for posting all the day by day reports to the website.
- Kevin O’Donovan – for the flights and coach.
- Mark Riley – for the hotels.
- To all the computer people, who helped collect the reports. It’s become quite an operation,
and maybe next time we’ll have that wireless server!!!
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