Recent content by Gavin

There's nothing "historical" in keeping the name of a coaster that's only 3 years old. It might be well-known to enthusiasts, but outside that, very few people will have any idea, so there's nothing in terms of branding either. The narcissist ex-owner has clearly made it part of the deal.

I can only apologise for the three and a half months of disappointment as you’ve been checking daily for updates on this report. I had half days at work (not doing these reports on my own time at home thank you very much) followed by the summer holiday (epic summer trip report to come), and I’m...

As much as I'm sure it'll likely go to one of the ex Six Flags parks, I would love for this to end up with one of the Asian chains (Sun World - Vietnam, Wonderla - India, Trans Studio - Indonesia) who have some form in this area though admittedly with older and much cheaper coasters. The...

I saw Disclosure Day yesterday and was really disappointed. I was waiting for some kind of surprise or twist to make it interesting, but nothing ever came. Crap. Masters of the Universe, however, I really enjoyed, but having been a kid in the '80s, I was obviously the perfect target audience...

It'll be even easier to build houses on now.

18 nugs, 4 sauces, fries and drink for less than a fiver.

Onto Wuhan then. As with Changsha and Nanchang, I’d been here before, but, unlike those cities, had seen nothing of it outside a couple of parks thanks to timing and crap weather, so I gave myself a bit more time here than on my last visit. There were two coasters I needed at Happy Valley – the...

Yeah, I rode another one a few days later which was the same as the one in Changsha, I took a (crappy) video of that one, so I'll get that up when I get to that part of the report. Any park with such a huge coaster is definitely worth a visit, and the park is very close to the high-speed rail...

In avoidance of marking student essays, I’ll continue with this report. The more time between the trip and the writing, the hazier it’s becoming. F**k, there’s still a lot of it to go. Oriental Heritage Yingtan The next morning in Nanchang was gloomy with rain clearly on the way. Trains and...

May 1st was a public holiday, continuing up to the 5th, so perhaps they're just opening for that.

The weather was s**t again the next morning, just grey, drizzly and generally miserable. In terms of major parks in Changsha itself, I’d decided against a revisit to Colourful World (still known as Window of the World when I was there last). Technically, there were two new coasters, but one of...

In my recent UAE report – if you haven’t read it, we have beef – I mentioned that I moved my entire Qatar and Saudi trip over to the Easter holidays. Obviously, that never happened, but I waited until Qatar Airways officially cancelled the flight about a week or two before it was scheduled...

Dubai then. Without really thinking things through properly, I stayed at a hotel near the Dubai Mall / Burj Khalifa since I’d stayed at my friend’s place in that area before and it was all quite familiar, but it ended up just adding faff this time. The bus from Abu Dhabi drops off at Ibn...

These days, I only bother with drop towers and the occasional giant frisbee / gyroswing. I guess my favourites are old-school gyro drops. No need for faffy stand up/tilting/whatever gimmicks.

^ I'm sure loads of people will disagree with me as to it being the best, but I thought Manta was the most well-rounded coaster and the more satisfying ride. I've got the same Doha/Riyadh plan on the backburner, hopefully ready to go for Chinese New Year next year. I know everyone must’ve been...