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Last Cred Review

213 - Balder
My October got kind of decimated when the tour I was meant to follow got moved last minute, so I decided to pop out and see my best friend in Sweden and alongside that, pop back to Liseberg. Thankfully out of nowhere, Balder was announced as reopening just before I went! I'd heard such good things and my god were people right. I am not sure how it was riding before the maintenance, but it was butter smooth with extended floater airtime on all the hills, especially at the back of the train. Not a super fast coaster, but really well paced throughout. Really fantastic ride, not as forceful as Colossus, my only other Intamin prefab experience so far, but it's infinitely rerideable! A lot of fun.

Bonus - Reconsidered thoughts on Helix
My thoughts on Helix were a little mixed last time, I liked it, but didn't quite get the hype. I think I was too harsh, we had some excellent rides on it on Sunday and although it isn't going to be jumping into my top 10, it's hard to fault it as a coaster. Impeccably well paced, really fun forces on it and some powerful ejector on a few elements (especially at the back of the train). Just a great ride and definitely the best Mack (non-spinning) launched coaster that I've ridden.
 
Sigh, so after an epic year with new parks, a Belgium trip and an Orlando 3 weeker, I can officially say my last credit is...

...Octonauts, Alton Towers.

Do... do I really have to review it?
 
321 - Toboggan 🥲

IMG20221029142731.jpg

A friend was driving by by a fair and told me he saw what looked like a tree rollercoaster.

After finding the fair it turned out the strange Chance Toboggan was there, i allways wanted to ride one of these and it was only an hour away so today i dragged the GF with me (also promised i would take her to Ikea, keep her happy) to ride this thing.

First rider of the day, GF passed as she said it looked horrible being in one of the little car capsules. Now im not tall but once the roof of the car came down i had to tilt my head at 45° to squeeze in.

The ride started and i like the vertical lift in a tunnel with the clatter of the chain, you come out of the top and have a nice view through the dirty visor. You then twirl down the tower, starting fine but as the go further down the car starts to bounce and rattle side to side, then it stops. At this point you have picked up some speed and the track levels out, then you drop, mabey only a meter but with the force, uncomfortable position and little padding it feels like you jumped of a small wall and landed on your butt.

You are then smacked to the side as you turn and are then dropped again, turn and hit the breaks. Painful....yes my back ached after but it was fun in a OMG *bang* WTF *bang smack* sort of way. So would i recommend it eghhhhh if you like pain and a unique cred sure 😅

The ride is at the Spooky Festive Fair in Bursledon near Southamton and costs 4£, only there one more day! There is also a second small cred but i have got it so no need to shame myself again.

IMG20221029142622.jpg

BTW had the meatballs at ikea, pretty good ☺️
 
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Niles said:
321 - Toboggan 🥲

View attachment 21345

A friend was driving by by a fair and told me he saw what looked like a tree rollercoaster.

After finding the fair it turned out the strange Chance Toboggan was there, i allways wanted to ride one of these and it was only an hour away so today i dragged the GF with me (also promised i would take her to Ikea, keep her happy) to ride this thing.

First rider of the day, GF passed as she said it looked horrible being in one of the little car capsules. Now im not tall but once the roof of the car came down i had to tilt my head at 45° to squeeze in.

The ride started and i like the vertical lift in a tunnel with the clatter of the chain, you come out of the top and have a nice view through the dirty visor. You then twirl down the tower, starting fine but as the go further down the car starts to bounce and rattle side to side, then it stops. At this point you have picked up some speed and the track levels out, then you drop, mabey only a meter but with the force, uncomfortable position and little padding it feels like you jumped of a small wall and landed on your butt.

You are then smacked to the side as you turn and are then dropped again, turn and hit the breaks. Painful....yes my back ached after but it was fun in a OMG *bang* WTF *bang smack* sort of way. So would i recommend it eghhhhh if you like pain and a unique cred sure 😅

The ride is at the Spooky Festive Fair in Bursledon near Southamton and costs 4£, only there one more day! There is also a second small cred but i have got it so no need to shame myself again.

View attachment 21346

BTW had the meatballs at ikea, pretty good ☺️
Click to expand...
I had no idea there was any of these in the UK. I always wanted to ride one too, but after your experience, at 6'3" I think I'll have to pass... 🙈
 
Niles said:
321 - Toboggan 🥲

View attachment 21345

A friend was driving by by a fair and told me he saw what looked like a tree rollercoaster.

After finding the fair it turned out the strange Chance Toboggan was there, i allways wanted to ride one of these and it was only an hour away so today i dragged the GF with me (also promised i would take her to Ikea, keep her happy) to ride this thing.

First rider of the day, GF passed as she said it looked horrible being in one of the little car capsules. Now im not tall but once the roof of the car came down i had to tilt my head at 45° to squeeze in.

The ride started and i like the vertical lift in a tunnel with the clatter of the chain, you come out of the top and have a nice view through the dirty visor. You then twirl down the tower, starting fine but as the go further down the car starts to bounce and rattle side to side, then it stops. At this point you have picked up some speed and the track levels out, then you drop, mabey only a meter but with the force, uncomfortable position and little padding it feels like you jumped of a small wall and landed on your butt.

You are then smacked to the side as you turn and are then dropped again, turn and hit the breaks. Painful....yes my back ached after but it was fun in a OMG *bang* WTF *bang smack* sort of way. So would i recommend it eghhhhh if you like pain and a unique cred sure 😅

The ride is at the Spooky Festive Fair in Bursledon near Southamton and costs 4£, only there one more day! There is also a second small cred but i have got it so no need to shame myself again.

View attachment 21346

BTW had the meatballs at ikea, pretty good ☺️
Click to expand...
I have a massive desire to ride one of these just for the uniqueness, it looks like this fair ended on Sunday, does anyone have any tips for finding out when and where this one is likely to pop up again?
 
Peet said:
I have a massive desire to ride one of these just for the uniqueness, it looks like this fair ended on Sunday, does anyone have any tips for finding out when and where this one is likely to pop up again?
Click to expand...
The owner is called John Wesseldine and as far as i can see he shows up most regularly at the Dorset Steam Fair.

Other than that he just pops up with it randomly around the UK, this time with Coles family fun fair so he may join them again. I cannot find a social account or tel number for him anywhere.


On Coastercount if you have an account and i think if pay for the total version you can see where showman are if someone on the site records them at a location, when i went i logged it and added the location. You can find him on there under his name.

coaster-count.com

Roller coasters in Wesseldine, John, Uk

Find any theme park, showman, fun fair or roller coaster in our catalogue.
coaster-count.com coaster-count.com

I was lucky my friend went passed otherwise i would have been none the wiser.

Orrrrrr you can take a trip to Mexico 😅 https://rcdb.com/20169.htm

Hope you can get the Cred, its a fun odd experience 😂

Also @Nicky Borrill im 5,11 so you might be ok, but definitely brace yourself hahahaha
 
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I've been to a lot of parks since I last posted anything here

My last cred has to be
Thunderhawk at Dorney Park #287
This thing is pretty bland. Probably tied with Wildcat for lowest ranked wooden coaster in PA. It's my least favorite coaster at the park, but it's not terrible. It just doesn't do anything.

A couple highlights since I last posted here. My cred count went up about 17 coasters across two continents and three different countries.

Some highlights include
Jersey Devil - I was spited out of this coaster last year, but this year I managed about 5 rides on it. All amazing. Not as intense as the prototypes, but this ride really delivers. It's fast, has some great air and it's smooth as glass. Loved it!

Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind - my second favorite coaster at Disney behind Everest. Maybe if the reservation system wasn't terrible, I'd rank it a lot higher. It's super fun and has some pretty intense moments.

Thundercoaster at Tusenfryd - I was expecting Speed Monster to be my favorite coaster here but Thundercoaster, in spite of its roughness and terrible operations is the best coaster in the whole park. Pacing is great and the airtime is phenomenal. I'm shocked Vekoma hasn't build more of these bad boys.

Behemoth at Canada's Wonderland is really fun, but those long trains develop a rattle way faster than the traditional trains do.

I'm considering at least one more park trip before the end of the year for my birthday. Who knows where I'm planning to go?
 
Cosmic Rewind is an interesting one, the reservation system definitely let's it down. I don't see why I shouldn't have the choice to join a standby lane if I wish to ride it again. Luckily we had two days at Epcot.

Well done on the Jersey Devil though, there's something awfully satisfying about riding a previous spite.
 
Runaway train, st. Nicholas park, Warwick

Happened to be in Warwick anyway so stopped by, more surprised it was open in November than anything.

Town park itself is nice enough, amusements area less so. Coaster is very much a +1, 2 jerky drive tire lifts made for a much rougher ride than expected.
 
Rode pantheon at Busch Gardens Williamsburg yesterday. The ride is awesome! The park only opened at 5pm, so I mostly got night rides. I must say, I didn't have too high expectations hearing that some people were a bit disappointed outside the backwards airtime and the spike. So I was pleasantly surprised to experience what I'd think is a very well-rounded layout.

Going in, I was curious to see if the swing launch section would feel well integrate into the whole ride experience or if it would break up the flow of the ride . I think it works surprisingly good. Also I was wondering if it would feel short. In fact, the track length seems somewhat short. But it feels decently long.

My favorite moment is probably the spike. Second favorite probably the zero-g stall. I like the amount of hangtime and the snappy transitions in and out of that element (especially the latter). The following curves and the wave-turn make it end with a bang in particular when warmed up.

The beginning of the layout is very reminiscent of the beginning of Taiga. In the case of Pantheon, the first inversion is taken a tiny bit faster. This results in a pinch less hangtime, but I actually like it like this, it doesn't break up the pacing that much as it does for Taiga. The large outer-banked airtime hill reminds me of Kondaa and, again, I found this element to be better executed on Pantheon plus Busch Gardens provides the much better views... So, yeah, I can only say good things about it and I would rank it above both of these (I'm not a big fan of Kondaa as I didn't think it is that well composed, so that might not say too much but I really like Taiga).

pantheon.png
 
The Ride to Happiness

I did a day trip to Plopsa yesterday (taking full advantage of their winter Wednesday opening...the park was dead). Which meant I finally got to ride Happiness. And my god, this is a frustrating ride.

First ride was back row, about 11.30am shortly after it opened. Fantastic. Chaotic, in the best possible way. Needed to warm up a bit more I thought, but this was something which could easily be in the Top 10 I thought.

It shut down temporarily due to high wind speeds, so I returned later. Front row. Fantastic again. But a problem was already noticeable. There was a slight vibration after the vertical loop. Nothing crazy, but it was there.

Two rides in the back car followed, and the ride was not just having a noticeable vibration, it has a rattle. And not just in one location, throughout a lot of the layout. Definitely affected my enjoyment.

I did another ride later, front row. And this was by far the worst ride. Rattling all over the place. Still the fun, chaotic ride experience, but hard to fully enjoy. Didn't risk riding it again.

The thing with Happiness is it is an UTTER JOY of a coaster. The spinning and generally weird elements mean you get some amazing sensations which no other coaster can offer. The element after the second launch is a real highlight, as is the airtime that follows.
As I say, based on my first ride, this is something I'd be putting in my Top 10. And if the ride warmed up and kept that up, maybe even Top 5. It was that good. But the later rides, absolutely not. Re-rideability is a big thing for me, and with it getting worse with every ride, I didn't want to reride it. Right now, I'm not sure I can put it in my Top 10%.

I haven't seen many complaints about it being rattly. I wonder if this is a winter thing? The fact that as the temperature on the day got warmer, and as the ride warmed up, it got noticeably worse, makes me wonder if it has 'winter wheels' which just didn't agree with the temperature? Or maybe this is just an 'early morning' ride? Who knows. I'm very much in a curious state of mind to try it again during summer and see if that makes a difference.

On a different note, I wonder if these Mack Xtreme Spinners are going to lexically challenge the term "spinning coaster". Just like how I think there's a difference between "launch coasters" and "coasters with a launch" these days, I wonder if now this creates a divide between "spinning coasters" and "coasters which spin"? Just a random musing thought.

Tl;Dr - Ride to Happiness is a beast of a ride experience with some utterly bonkers and unique moments, but was let down majorly by how it developed a bad rattle throughout the course of the day. Wildly inconsistent.
 
Aw that's a real shame, dude, actually quite gutted to read that, especially as me and some other goons are planning to go back in January to get another Happy fix. If your 'winter wheel' theory is true, that doesn't bode too well for the first week in Jan. 😕
It ran sooo well back in the summer, like glass for the most part.

But anyway, it's all about sexy, clockwork robot lady for me and the warm, fuzzy feelings brought about by the station soundtrack and her silky, honeyed words.
She'll always be super-smooth! 🥰
 
JoshC. said:
The Ride to Happiness

I did a day trip to Plopsa yesterday (taking full advantage of their winter Wednesday opening...the park was dead). Which meant I finally got to ride Happiness. And my god, this is a frustrating ride.

First ride was back row, about 11.30am shortly after it opened. Fantastic. Chaotic, in the best possible way. Needed to warm up a bit more I thought, but this was something which could easily be in the Top 10 I thought.

It shut down temporarily due to high wind speeds, so I returned later. Front row. Fantastic again. But a problem was already noticeable. There was a slight vibration after the vertical loop. Nothing crazy, but it was there.

Two rides in the back car followed, and the ride was not just having a noticeable vibration, it has a rattle. And not just in one location, throughout a lot of the layout. Definitely affected my enjoyment.

I did another ride later, front row. And this was by far the worst ride. Rattling all over the place. Still the fun, chaotic ride experience, but hard to fully enjoy. Didn't risk riding it again.

The thing with Happiness is it is an UTTER JOY of a coaster. The spinning and generally weird elements mean you get some amazing sensations which no other coaster can offer. The element after the second launch is a real highlight, as is the airtime that follows.
As I say, based on my first ride, this is something I'd be putting in my Top 10. And if the ride warmed up and kept that up, maybe even Top 5. It was that good. But the later rides, absolutely not. Re-rideability is a big thing for me, and with it getting worse with every ride, I didn't want to reride it. Right now, I'm not sure I can put it in my Top 10%.

I haven't seen many complaints about it being rattly. I wonder if this is a winter thing? The fact that as the temperature on the day got warmer, and as the ride warmed up, it got noticeably worse, makes me wonder if it has 'winter wheels' which just didn't agree with the temperature? Or maybe this is just an 'early morning' ride? Who knows. I'm very much in a curious state of mind to try it again during summer and see if that makes a difference.

On a different note, I wonder if these Mack Xtreme Spinners are going to lexically challenge the term "spinning coaster". Just like how I think there's a difference between "launch coasters" and "coasters with a launch" these days, I wonder if now this creates a divide between "spinning coasters" and "coasters which spin"? Just a random musing thought.

Tl;Dr - Ride to Happiness is a beast of a ride experience with some utterly bonkers and unique moments, but was let down majorly by how it developed a bad rattle throughout the course of the day. Wildly inconsistent.
Click to expand...
I rode it back in November last year and I recall that it did have a noticeable vibration in some passages. But it was nothing remotely as strong as to ruin the experience. It was relatively warm though for November.
 
JoshC. said:
The Ride to Happiness

I did a day trip to Plopsa yesterday (taking full advantage of their winter Wednesday opening...the park was dead). Which meant I finally got to ride Happiness. And my god, this is a frustrating ride.

First ride was back row, about 11.30am shortly after it opened. Fantastic. Chaotic, in the best possible way. Needed to warm up a bit more I thought, but this was something which could easily be in the Top 10 I thought.

It shut down temporarily due to high wind speeds, so I returned later. Front row. Fantastic again. But a problem was already noticeable. There was a slight vibration after the vertical loop. Nothing crazy, but it was there.

Two rides in the back car followed, and the ride was not just having a noticeable vibration, it has a rattle. And not just in one location, throughout a lot of the layout. Definitely affected my enjoyment.

I did another ride later, front row. And this was by far the worst ride. Rattling all over the place. Still the fun, chaotic ride experience, but hard to fully enjoy. Didn't risk riding it again.

The thing with Happiness is it is an UTTER JOY of a coaster. The spinning and generally weird elements mean you get some amazing sensations which no other coaster can offer. The element after the second launch is a real highlight, as is the airtime that follows.
As I say, based on my first ride, this is something I'd be putting in my Top 10. And if the ride warmed up and kept that up, maybe even Top 5. It was that good. But the later rides, absolutely not. Re-rideability is a big thing for me, and with it getting worse with every ride, I didn't want to reride it. Right now, I'm not sure I can put it in my Top 10%.

I haven't seen many complaints about it being rattly. I wonder if this is a winter thing? The fact that as the temperature on the day got warmer, and as the ride warmed up, it got noticeably worse, makes me wonder if it has 'winter wheels' which just didn't agree with the temperature? Or maybe this is just an 'early morning' ride? Who knows. I'm very much in a curious state of mind to try it again during summer and see if that makes a difference.

On a different note, I wonder if these Mack Xtreme Spinners are going to lexically challenge the term "spinning coaster". Just like how I think there's a difference between "launch coasters" and "coasters with a launch" these days, I wonder if now this creates a divide between "spinning coasters" and "coasters which spin"? Just a random musing thought.

Tl;Dr - Ride to Happiness is a beast of a ride experience with some utterly bonkers and unique moments, but was let down majorly by how it developed a bad rattle throughout the course of the day. Wildly inconsistent.
Click to expand...
That's a shame to hear. This is one of my most hyped up rides that I'd love to try out but I have this fear that'll it'll gain that rattle that some of the other Macks have developed. If that is the case, I'm hoping the sheer ridiculousness will distract me from the rattle anyway.
 
It's not my last cred anymore, but I'm going to write a review of a recent cred that I have a lot to say about - Nighthawk at Carowinds - which I rode last month.

When I booked the trip back in the spring, I found myself strangley more excited about this ride than the likes of Fury 325, Iron Gwazi and Velocicoaster. It was the World's first large scale flying coaster, weird and wonderful in so many ways, and unlikely to be around for a great many more years.

It was then that I found out that it was having long-term downtime, potentially closed all season. That began a long period of obsessively checking for updates on all possible websites and social media communities. With a few weeks to go before the trip a photo emerged of a train being lifted back onto the track, testing started soon after, and finally it reopened the week before my visit. There was hope!

On arrival at Carowinds I'd seen every ride testing except one. Nighthawk remained resolutely silent so we headed over to Fury first and racked up a healthy 6 rides by midday (Fury x3, Hurler, Carolina Cyclone, Vortex). Then at last we noticed a couple of test runs on Nighthawk so marched straight over.

There was no advertised queue time but a sign near the entrance said the queue time was "120 mins from this point" and the queue was much shorter that this so we thought it shouldn't be too bad. Thus began *the* most painful queueing experience I have ever suffered. Progress was incredibly slow - dispatches were every 5 minutes at the best of times, very high priority was given to the fast track queue, and it broke down twice. The silver lining was that there were good photo opportunities, and the ride looked great after being repainted during the long downtime.

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*Two Hours* went by, and we were nearly at the front there was a shout for "any groups of three?". We were a two so I said "sure, we'll take up two of those spaces". Nope, they insisted on a group of three, and so we had to stand aside and wave 3 people past us. Kudos to them for filling every seat I suppose, but after 2 hours of queueing I felt like this was one of the greatest injustices in World history. After another train of almost all Fast track riders, we at long, long, long last were invited to board.

The loading system is delightfully weird. Riders board and sit in normal looking rows of seats, and then before dispatch everyone gets rotated onto their backs as if a huge gust of wind had blown through the station and knocked us all over in unison. You then head up the very slow lift hill while staring at the sky before flipping into the flying position during the first turn.


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The ride is pretty much everything I expected it to be – rough, disorientating, completely mad – and I absolutely loved it! The flying bits were lots of fun, similar to other flying coasters, but the bits on your back were ridiculous. The loop is kind of similarly confusing as a B&M pretzel loop, but while I have got used to pretzel loops now, this was an entirely new sort of madness. And what can I say about the corkscrews – the only double corkscrew that ever has or ever will (surely?) be built on a flying coaster. It was one of the most extreme, disorientating, uncomfortable and memorable elements I have ever ridden. Without doubt it was a mistake to ever build it like this, but I'm glad I got the chance to experience it!

After the obligatory 3-4 minute wait while staring at the sky on the brake run while they faffed at loading the other train, we were off. I would have loved another go, but I don't think I can ever face that queue again.

1669654237382.png

It's much too uncomfortable to be a "good" ride, and the throughput is soo low that they should probably get rid of it (maybe it would be better suited to a quieter park like SFA where they have the other one of these) but I enjoyed every second and it's an experience I'll never forget.

TLDR: I loved it but they should probably tear it down ASAP.
 
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Not a new cred, but I thought as I was travelling through London this week with a few hours spare I'd run over to Winter Wonderland and cram in a few rides on Olympia Looping. First two rides as forceful and beautifully disorientating as ever. As the place was still dead I thought I'd do my last ride in the front row - something I've never bothered with before. That was disappointing. Didn't feel half as forceful, and my face was bright red for two days after due to the freezing air blasting right in my face the whole way around. Never again! Definitely sticking to the arse end of the train in the future.
 
Before i do my year review i got one last coaster, E.R.S. at Babylon park.
IMG20221215124140.jpg

I went with my sister and neither of us had been to Camden, the shops, food and area are nice and now they have a coaster we had to go.

Honestly for a SBF its a nice ride, smooth, mild force, mild pop of air and a cool location underground sourounded by rides make it fun. We got four laps and were the only people on it, its not a high bar but this is the best SBF i have done, i hope more of these indoor FEC pop up in other UK cities.

While the park is free to enter you have to get a card £1 and pay a minimum on the machines for £15 worth of tokens, as the coaster is £5 each i asked the lady in the gift shop if i could just pay for the coaster. She said yes handing me a free card and then i payed £10 for both of us, unless you want more tokens it saves you a bit.

Apologies for the commentary but i did a POV ☺️ Nothing special but i was happy to get a vid.
 
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