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Last Cred Review

Matt N

CF Legend
Age clearly hasn’t been kind to it… I remember it not being too bad in April 2019 (perhaps a tad unrefined compared to something like a GCI, but certainly not deal breakingly rough, and I have a pretty low roughness tolerance), but people who rode it at a similar time to me who said it was fine back then are saying that it’s aged horrifically since then and is now horribly rough…

It makes me a bit nervous to reride it, to be honest…
 

Nicky Borrill

Strata Poster
Age clearly hasn’t been kind to it… I remember it not being too bad in April 2019 (perhaps a tad unrefined compared to something like a GCI, but certainly not deal breakingly rough, and I have a pretty low roughness tolerance), but people who rode it at a similar time to me who said it was fine back then are saying that it’s aged horrifically since then and is now horribly rough…

It makes me a bit nervous to reride it, to be honest…
I would steer clear if I was you, you clearly had a great ride on it, let that be your everlasting memory haha

I have a reasonable tolerance for roughness, or did, maybe I'm getting more picky now. But Mine Blower hurts in places no coaster should hurt. I shouldn't feel like my internal organs are being smashed against a concrete block on a rollercoaster.
 

FistedColossus

Hyper Poster
I rode Mine Blower a few months after it had opened and absolutely loved it. Think it may have sneaked into my top ten at the time.

Will be giving it a swerve next time.
 

Tonkso

Hyper Poster
It was fun, the first drop was awesome, the inversion was awesome and there were some great hills and steep turns. I just felt it was trying to reorganise my spine.

Edit: it might get blown over in the next couple of days, of not, I'm officially renaming it to 'Spine Blower'.
 
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Thekingin64

Strata Poster
Grand national (27/9/22)

Running the best it has for years. Much smoother than previous and fairly sure it's running faster than ever. Usually only give it one or 2 courtesy laps a day, but was happily re-riding it because of how well it was running. Really hope nothing happens to it, except for more retracking!

All coasters at pleasure beach were on fantastic form but National really stood out. (big one and big dipper closed all day so can't comment on them)

Also, Enso is great fun. Got an unbalanced car for it. Still didn't spin that much but was still the best fun I've had on a coaster for years. Launching sideways and inverting backwards... Need to get myself back to plopsa....
 

Mushroom

Goon of the Year
An simple SBF Visa Spinning coaster called Egypt Spinning Coaster at Park Minitaur in Poland. Excessive amount of laps. Rest of the park was nice, will do a proper trip report soon!
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Sent from my SM-S901B using Tapatalk
 

Indy

Hyper Poster
Capitol Bullet Train

I enjoyed it, but it was generally unremarkable. The switch track does not have any stators on it, so the train gets creeped forward by drive tires until the stators grab, which leads to an incredibly weak launch. The spike is good fun in the back seat, but nothing special in the front seat. The rest of the ride is quite short with the highlight being the twisted airtime hill that provides a pretty strong pop.

The queue theming was quite nice. I just wish they would have carried some of it over to the ride itself. It's not a bad coaster by any means, but is entirely too short.
 

Nicky Borrill

Strata Poster
Few opinions from Florida, not going to bore you with details, you all know the rides all too well, these are just my brief opinions.

Iron Gwazi - About as good as I expected, top 3 coaster for me. Even more out of control feeling than Zadra, but Zadra still has the edge with that stall, better pacing and a better first drop.

Velocicoaster - Brilliant, pure brilliant, and a beautifully themed queue line and launch. Has some fantastic elements. Closest comparison is obviously Taron. It's got better elements than Taron, but they don't quite flow as well as Taron does, if that makes any sense at all. Taron has the better on ride theming too. It's a close call, but for me it's not quite got the appeal of Taron. That being said, despite the obvious similarities, it doesn't feel like it's trying to be anything like Taron.

Hagrid's thingymabob - I can't say anything that hasn't already been said... It's just bloody magical!!! If you're a Harry Potter fan prepare to get emotional and embrace your inner child!

Mako - Brilliant, better than Silver Star, not as good as Shambhala. Good sustained floater at several points, turnaround is a bit dull, and the trim brake bites hard. Very reridable.

Guardians - Absolutely blew me away, I was expecting to like it, but not nearly as much as I did... However, spoiled a little by the theming, or lack of it, in the last quarter (of the main layout.) What the hell is with that random globe on the floor, seemed hilariously out of place, had me in stitches.

Escape From Gringotts - This was probably the biggest surprise of the trip, I'd heard very little about it, and it's absolutely brilliant... Whole family came out of that ride absolutely buzzing, laughing and smiling... That's what it's all about.

Finally, it's not a coaster, but I don't care, Rise of the Resistance is worth the trip to Florida on it's own!!! I've never cried like a baby on a dark ride in my life, but this had me so emotional!!! We did a few rides on it during our trip, and got to experience different modes. All of them were great. I was a little worried that if we got the Kylo 'b' mode it would be a bit 'meh.' But it really isn't. We got that B mode on our 3rd ride, and it changes the whole dynamic, watching him on the window screen escape in his ship seemed so natural, and it took me a minute to realise this was a whole different mode. I honestly don't know how any dark ride is ever going to come close to this. Trully the most incredible dark ride, and a stand out, even in Orlando, the city of incredible dark rides!!!
 

Peter Immelmann

Mega Poster
Yesterday, I visited Kings Dominion for the first time. The weather forecast predicted some rain. Nevertheless, I went there hoping for low crowd levels. And, wow, the park was absolutely deserted! I honestly think there might have been more people belong to the staff than guests. Every attraction was a complete walk on. Coaster paradise... 🤩 However, the park closed very early due to an anticipated worsening of the weather conditions. Still, we had a good 2.5 hours with just a light drizzle and to my surprise all coasters including i305 were operating.

So, I was able to ride i305, the last US-giga that remained on my bucket list. I must say, I've always been a bit scared of this coaster, due to its reputation of being even too intense for some enthusiasts and the reports of people blacking or even passing out. So I was not so sure whether I'd actually enjoy the ride or if it would be over-the-top. Actually, my expectations leant more towards the latter.

But I was pleasantly surprised. This is a very good ride! I still think that the initial 270-degree curve is a bit too much (meaning: just too long). But other than that ...and, ok, maybe the trim is another issue... but other than that, this coaster is great! It's surprisingly smooth considering its blistering speed and intense maneuvers. The low-to-the ground sections are actually not that low to the ground as it looks from further away. These sections undergo quite some height differences providing a good variety of airtime pops between the s-curves. I really think these sections of track are one of Intamin's finest works at least from that era. In particular, I like the fact that this coaster is very consistent from start to finish, in a sense that it commits to a certain style of ride and does not aim at being the jack-of-all-trades. In that sense, it's very well composed. 👍

Now, is it my favorite coaster in the park? Yes, easily. Twisted timbers is a cool ride. The three consecutive airtime hills are fantastic and the barrel-drop is much better than I thought, but over-all I'm just not such a big fan of the smaller RMCs, their endings often seem to fizzle out a bit - not in the sense that they are forceless but they just feel somewhat random and uninspired. So, yeah, i305 is king at Kings Dominion IMO. :)

Is it my favorite giga? Well, I think it could easily be, if that initial 270-degree turn would be shorter, say, a 180-degree one or so ...and if you'd leave out the trim. That would be a perfect layout IMO. But as it stands, the relatively strong gray-out experience in the last third of the turn is not perfect for me. I think it overshadows a bit the otherwise amazing first airtime hill. I'm pretty sure that it would feel freakingly awesome without graying out that much before. Yeah, and of course the trim... (I was actually surprise how hard it hit given that the coaster most probably did not run anywhere near its peak performance on that rather cool day. 😳) So, all in all, I'd probably give the edge to Fury which does not really have any design flaws I could think of. But it's much closer than I originally would have thought and I really like i305. And I like the park it's in.🙂

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James F

Hyper Poster
Some quick thoughts on Walibi Holland's coasters before I do a trip report.

176 - Untamed - This is the kind of airtime filled crazy ride I expect whenever I hear the word RMC. There isn't a dull moment to be found here. While I don't believe it's as intense as Zadra, it certainly delivers in the airtime department.

177 - Lost Gravity- slightly disappointing for me. It was better once it warmed up, but I am just not a big fan of the layout.

178 - Speed of Sound - Bopping soundtrack and new vekoma trains which elevates it from your standard Boomarang, although it is still significantly rattley.

179 - Xpress: Platform 13 - The queue line theming is great and really builds up the anticipation. The ride itself has a fairly punchy launch and some good forces during the first half. While I would definitely take WDW's Rock N Roller Coaster over it, I thought that it was better than the Paris version due to the queue line theming.

180 - Golaith - This rode exactly how I expected it to. Fun mini hyper or 'megacoaster' with good moments of airtime and a real sense of speed, although the middle section was lacking.

181: Condor - Despite the new trains, this is the worst SLC I have done and that's most likely due to the less than stellar track work on this prototype.

182: Drako - not much to say about it other than they don't bother closing the restraints.
 
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Furiustobaco

Mega Poster
my last credit was energus at energylandia and honestly it was a ride that i had to look up its name on bloody rcdb because it was that forgettable
sometimes i wonder if energylandia just scroll through the vekoma catalogue sometimes and forget what they already bought a few years ago way to go

The cred before was Freida and honestly it was basically like the same thing? It is hilarious how Energylandia are going for the most amount of redundant coasters in one park..
 

SeanC

Mega Poster
#236: T Express (Everland Resort)

I felt very lucky I got to ride this. I'd be curious to hear from other fellow enthusiasts what they think. My opinion...

Pros: Stellar first drop... Best layout for a traditional wooden coaster (next to The Voyage) in my opinion... Excellent airtime: some ejector, some flo-jector... smooth ride... excellent setting surrounded by trees and the hillside... most photogenic coaster I've ever seen.

Cons: My caveat -- a big one -- is that I rode this in temperatures that averaged 10 degrees Celsius/50 degrees Fahrenheit. That said, some of the turns and transitions felt slow, and this led to the overall ride feeling not quite as punchy as it could have been. Whereas Steel Vengeance felt to me likes it kicks at every moment, this felt like it had a few dead spots. Even though the ride is ~15 years old, it feels a bit dated compared to how wood coasters are playing out these days with certain maneuvers (I'm thinking of the original Lightning Rod or Mystic Timbers or even Mine Blower). I'm not big on laterals, but the many turns on T Express could have used some: they really did nothing for me.

I rode this three times: once in the first row of the back car, once in the very last row, and once in the front row. Another con is that the airtime isn't felt equally in each seat. The front row is the best row for airtime in the first half of the ride (except for the first drop), while the last car is the best for airtime in the second half of the ride. I think I liked the front slightly better but it's close.

The last thing I'll mention is that unless you line up for this ride when it opens, be prepared to wait 2 hours. This was on a Monday in October.

Overall, this ride is still top 20-worthy, and I can definitely see it being top 10 or even top 5 for people who rode this on a hot day and the train was moving fast. Some might compare this to El Toro because they're both Intamin (I prefer T Express as I'm one of the few who didn't get great airtime on El Toro and thought the ride was just good). But I think T Express feels like the other side of the coin from GhostRider at Knott's. That ride has a lot of punch but no airtime where it should exist whereas T Express has great airtime but no punch where it should exist. For me, the airtime and atmosphere make it a great ride; just not in the class of newer marvels that make the most of their layouts (Vengeance, Lightning Rod, Velocicoaster, I305, etc.).

9/10
 

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EmmaUK

Mega Poster
What do you call a coaster when it’s totally overshadowed by both the view and a wooden box nearby, why it must be Defiance @ Glenwood Sorings of course.

The views up there are just incredible.

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It turns out that those views don’t actually enhance a fairly average Gerst.

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It goes straight up. It comes down. It bashes your head against the restraint. It’s over in about 30 seconds. It’s really rather poor to be honest.

The box nearby? It’s a speleobox and it’s great.

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The giant swing in there is great. The mountain coaster fun. The zip line a laugh. This is totally outshined by nearly everything up there! Quite poor I’m afraid.
 

Bpolson75

Roller Poster
Dr Diabolical‘s Cliffhangar- SFFT 10-07-22
it was my first dive coaster which was fun, but overall I felt it was underwhelming. I had a back row seat, so I think up Front would have been a different experience. And it was over so quickly. My 10 year old son loved it though.
 

Howie

Donkey in a hat
What do you call a coaster when it’s totally overshadowed by both the view and a wooden box nearby, why it must be Defiance @ Glenwood Sorings of course.

The views up there are just incredible.

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It turns out that those views don’t actually enhance a fairly average Gerst.

View attachment 20886
It goes straight up. It comes down. It bashes your head against the restraint. It’s over in about 30 seconds. It’s really rather poor to be honest.

The box nearby? It’s a speleobox and it’s great.

View attachment 20887

The giant swing in there is great. The mountain coaster fun. The zip line a laugh. This is totally outshined by nearly everything up there! Quite poor I’m afraid.

That Speleobox looks horrific. Not gonna lie, I had to look it up to see what it was, but OMG, I almost had an anxiety attack just watching a YouTube vid that came up. Gross!
Shame about Defiance, but otherwise I absolutely adore that park.
I'm guessing the Haunted Mine Drop is still closed though? 😪
 

SeanC

Mega Poster
Few new ones from the Korea trip

At Lotte World Adventure Busan....

Giant Digger (#238)
This was my first Mack Blue Fire clone. It's a really tight layout with good airtime and hangtime. I really enjoyed it but would have enjoyed it much more if it didn't have such a significant rattle. 7/10.

Giant Splash (#239)
My first Mack Power Splash. They had a vending machine selling rain panchos, which you need if you don't want to get soaked. This is a super fun ride with airtime similar to what you'd get on Superman at Magic Mountain or a swinging pirate ship on each of the spikes. The airtime hill also gives you very mild ejector. The park wasn't too busy but the only potentially problematic thing about this kind of ride will be the ops, given that only one car can run at a time. But the ride itself, while not top tier-worthy, is a blast for what it is. 8/10.

The park itself is small and well-themed. The Lotte World parks have their own mascot and story. This one is all outdoors (Seoul's is indoors and outdoors). The Busan location just opened this year, and it has a cute charm geared toward younger kids and families but with rides for everyone. Busan itself is a beautiful city, so it might be worth a trip for a couple days if you're already going to Seoul. I wouldn't go to Busan just to go to this park, however. Also worth noting that the staff was incredibly helpful to someone like me and my wife who don't speak Korean.

At Lotte World Adventure Seoul...

Atlantis Adventure (#240)
Hard to explain this ride. I know it's an Intamin with one car that goes through some Atlantis theming. Some surprising positive Gs and airtime moments. Sort of a slightly more intense version of Sea World Orlando's Journey to Atlantis with worse theming and no water ride component... although there is a splash down. Definitely an original-feeling ride and not something I've seen elsewhere. 7/10.

Comet Express (#241)
I love indoor coasters in the dark (both Space Mountains in the U.S. are in my top 20). While this one didn't do it as much for me, it's still a super fun, original-feeling ride. Picture Space Mountain but with spinning two-seater cars going through 3 show buildings with space-themed set-pieces. The spinning gets a bit intense toward the end, but not to the extent that I got nauseous (I can't stomach spinning flat rides). I would have preferred if the ride's show buildings were darker inside, as I'm not sure the theming was effective. This is a fun one though and it was probably my favorite coaster on the trip behind T Express. 8/10.

The park is incredibly impressive. Both Lotte Worlds have a weird thing where younger guests dress up in prep school uniforms (a tour guide told me it's a nostalgia-related tradition). Aside from that, the theming is impressive and consistent throughout the park. I didn't get to ride the Vekoma looper French Revolution because all the coasters had 2-hour waits. Instead, I rode two incredibly impressive dark rides: Pharaoh's Fury, a poor man's version of Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland (which is my favorite dark ride), and The Adventures of Sinbad, a Pirates of the Caribbean-like ride that might even be better than Pirates (I couldn't tell for sure, since the ride was in Korean). Jungle Adventure is also an immersive rapids/dark ride hybrid that's worth checking out.

My only complaint about Korean theme parks are the frequent long lines and one-train ops. But a trip to Seoul is worth it. Not necessarily for just the theme parks and roller coasters but because it's an amazing city: clean, fun, safe, great food, lots of things to do, and fascinating culture.
 

EmmaUK

Mega Poster
That Speleobox looks horrific. Not gonna lie, I had to look it up to see what it was, but OMG, I almost had an anxiety attack just watching a YouTube vid that came up. Gross!
Shame about Defiance, but otherwise I absolutely adore that park.
I'm guessing the Haunted Mine Drop is still closed though? 😪
Yeah the mine drop was closed and the building had no markings on it to suggest what it was. Sadly I don’t see it reopening
 
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