Bag_O_Laughs

You might be a coaster nerd if... every vacation you've self funded has involved at least one theme park

This was a horrible accident.

Agreed, if we compare another coaster from Gerstlauer, in the same country, owned by the same company... Saw the Ride in Thorpe. As far as I know it's been pretty problem free and hopefully it will stay that way. I think also The Big One in Blackpool has had two station break failures in the past causing serious injury but it's still running. Being an engineer myself (although not of coasters) I've seen that some times designs just don't work and are plagued with issues. Take cars for example, the same manufacturer can be know for making super reliable cars yet now and again may sell a car which has got awful reliability. The same also goes for maintenance, you can have the parts for the most reliable car in the world but if you don't put it together property or maintain it well then it still will have issues. However I'm not making any assumptions, what caused this could have been a variety of reasons. Poor design, human error, poor maintenance, poor assembly... who knows until the investigation is complete.

The BBC are saying this morning that at least 2 riders have got "life changing injuries" My thoughts are with them.

I was standing next to the smiler when the bolt fell off. It wasn't a nut, trust me. It was a long bolt that came loose. I couldn't believe it myself, by I swear on my life, I watched a big old bolt fall to the ground. I was annoyed at the time bacause I had a fast pass to go on smiler and it was closed the rest of the day.

I'm so upset that this has happened. I really feel for those guys who have been stuck on that train for 4 hours! I cannot believe the coaster Plc has glitched so badly to let another train off the lift hill while one had stalled. This is my local park. Hopefully merlin can handle the financial fallout of this as I'd hate to see Alton towers close down.

hawaii

Finally this series got interesting! I mean OMG what an episode! That final scene beyond the wall was epic, I really thought one character was going to get it at one point! Here's hoping the last two episodes can carry on this momentum.

I tame the dragons

Gonna cheat a bit with this one "Disney's" Hollywood Studios

Drayton Manor - UK

Fantastic thanks very much

Pleasant surprise: Samurai at Thorpe park. I remember when this ride was based in Chessington and all the hype which had built up over it. I was about 10 at the time. My friends mum apparently had felt so sick after riding it and other people said it was so intense people where throwing up all the time. I was petrified! When I did eventually ride it, after it had moved to Thorpe (and apparently the program tamed a bit), I loved it! I laughed the whole way round it was fantastic! Space mountain Magic Kingdom - Now I had always looked down on Magic Kingdom's space mountain because it wasn't inverted like the DLP Space Mountain, but actually its a really really fun ride! When we visited in 2013 I rode it about 5 times in a row because I just thought it was so much fun. unpleasant surprise: Space Mountain Disneyland Paris - a bit of background. I visited DLP 4 times before I rode space mountain, 1st time - it was being build, 2nd time it was built but i was too little to ride (my mum did I remember her saying it was amazing), 3rd time it was broken down all weekend, 4th time - finally I was tall enough to ride but... the ride was being converted to mission 2. So finally on my 5th visit to DLP (15 years after my 1st chance to ride) I got to go on it and it hurt! Oh that ride is so painful and a bit of a let down.

RCT3! Epcot or Magic Kingdom?

Screen shots please