Last Cred Review

[Nicky Borrill]

Hollywood Rip Ride Rocket.
Sh*te.
What on earth is this even doing at Universal Studios? It just doesn't belong at all. The restraints are awful, the layout is awful, it looks trash, it rides trash... it is trash.
Bin it.
Couple of marks for height, speed and some reasonable forces but, out of 10? Nah man, this is getting a 3 or a 4.
Sh*te.

Escape From Gringotts.
Now then, this is a difficult one. On paper, this should be an elite coaster/dark ride combo. All the ingredients are there - astounding presentation, technical wizardry, booming John Williams soundtrack etc - but, I dunno, it just didn't grab me, I just didn't engage with it somehow. I found it predictable, formulaic and far too similar in execution to a whole bunch of other Universal rides. There's nothing new here. There were no surprises.
It's kinda excellent, I guess, but just not for me.
I think one of the main reasons I didn't get on with Gringotts was because I'd already done the other Harry Potter dark ride, Forbidden Journey, and was quite literally blown away by it. Absolutely jaw dropping stuff, can't fault it. A masterpiece, no less. And it's not even a coaster!
I can't back this up with any data, but I get the impression that whether you prefer FJ or Gringotts may well depend on which one you ride first. Whichever way round you do it, the second one will always be a slightly different take on the first one, and therefore less likely to impress. That's my theory anyway, any thoughts on that?

While we're talking about Potter, can I take a moment to give a shout-out to the themed areas themselves, in particular Diagon Alley at the Studios park. Wow! Just wow! About a year ago I declared that Rookburgh at Phantasialand was the best and most immersive themed environment I'd ever laid eyes on. Yeah... not no more. Potterland beats it, hands down. I love the fact that Diagon Alley is hidden from view and not even signposted, that you literally have to go and find it. We'd been in the park several hours, mincing around on ET, Transformers, Minions, Simpsons, Men in Black etc etc... before we realised: "Hang on, isn't there supposed to be a Potter ride here? Where the f*** is it then?" we said.
That moment when we found it, and were greeted by the sight of that giant, fire-breathing dragon? Our jaws hit the floor, man. Proper goosebump moment right there.

View attachment 28251

And the train ride? I mean come on, you gotta admit having 2 separate Potterlands in neighbouring parks connected by the Hogwarts Express was a stroke of genius. Loved it all.
And I don't even like Harry Potter!

Imagine if there was a themed land of this quality based on a franchise that I do like?

<cough> Galaxy's Edge <cough>

May well be something in that. I enjoyed both, a lot, but I did Gringotts first, actually I did it before any other ride at any universal park, ever! (Can you believe we didn't head straight for Velocicoaster?) I was absolutely blown away!

Glad you had such a great time, been fun following you on here and Facebook, thanks for taking the time to share... You look genuinely emotional in that photo with Chewy, choked me a little when I saw it, took me back to a few moments we had last year.

 

[Howie]

You look genuinely emotional in that photo with Chewy, choked me a little when I saw it, took me back to a few moments we had last year

Can't lie, I did get a bout of the feels. 'Hug a Wookie' - childhood ambition realised!
But if you think that's bad, you should have seen me on Rise of the Resistance - I was actually crying at the end. Not even exaggerating - there were actual tears of pure joy.
I know, right? It's pathetic, 49 year old bloke crying like a baby on an amusement ride but holy crap, that thing, and Galaxy's Edge in general, is kinda overwhelming and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Amazing stuff.

One more major cred to review while I'm here:
TRON Lightcycle Run.
Man, this thing is a ball ache to even get on. For a while there I was beginning to think we wouldn't even get to ride it. See, you can't just stand in line and wait for it, you can't use Genie+ for it and you can't buy an individual Lightning Lane for it, you have to use the virtual queue system which means going on to the Disney app at 7am and reserving a timeslot.
It was like that scene in The Big Bang Theory where they're all trying to get tickets for Comic Con - both me and Julie would be on the app at 6.59am - refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh and then boom, at 1 second past 7.00am they're all gone! WTF??
Seriously, we did this every day for the first week and every time they'd be sold out for the day almost instantaneously, it was super infuriating.
However, halfway through the second week there was a minor miracle and we did manage to get a timeslot.
So, after all that effort, was it worth it?
Well, yeah I think it kinda was. It's a short ride and it's not particularly intense but what it is is very, very cool. Probably the coolest looking coaster I've ever seen. All that neon blue lighting, the snazzy looking ride vehicles, the futuristic soundtrack, all that glass and the mirrored loading station - it truly is a visual feast. To be honest the physical ride experience is not drastically different from Velocity at 'Mingo or Booster Bike at Toverland, but it is of course enhanced significantly by the theming, the audio, the SFX and the interaction with the screens inside. We enjoyed it lots.
Reservation faff notwithstanding, this is a fab attraction.
8/10.

 

[Nicky Borrill]

Can't lie, I did get a bout of the feels. 'Hug a Wookie' - childhood ambition realised!
But if you think that's bad, you should have seen me on Rise of the Resistance - I was actually crying at the end. Not even exaggerating - there were actual tears of pure joy.
I know, right? It's pathetic, 49 year old bloke crying like a baby on an amusement ride but holy crap, that thing, and Galaxy's Edge in general, is kinda overwhelming and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Amazing stuff.

One more major cred to review while I'm here:
TRON Lightcycle Run.
Man, this thing is a ball ache to even get on. For a while there I was beginning to think we wouldn't even get to ride it. See, you can't just stand in line and wait for it, you can't use Genie+ for it and you can't buy an individual Lightning Lane for it, you have to use the virtual queue system which means going on to the Disney app at 7am and reserving a timeslot.
It was like that scene in The Big Bang Theory where they're all trying to get tickets for Comic Con - both me and Julie would be on the app at 6.59am - refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh and then boom, at 1 second past 7.00am they're all gone! WTF??
Seriously, we did this every day for the first week and every time they'd be sold out for the day almost instantaneously, it was super infuriating.
However, halfway through the second week there was a minor miracle and we did manage to get a timeslot.
So, after all that effort, was it worth it?
Well, yeah I think it kinda was. It's a short ride and it's not particularly intense but what it is is very, very cool. Probably the coolest looking coaster I've ever seen. All that neon blue lighting, the snazzy looking ride vehicles, the futuristic soundtrack, all that glass and the mirrored loading station - it truly is a visual feast. To be honest the physical ride experience is not drastically different from Velocity at 'Mingo or Booster Bike at Toverland, but it is of course enhanced significantly by the theming, the audio, the SFX and the interaction with the screens inside. We enjoyed it lots.
Reservation faff notwithstanding, this is a fab attraction.
8/10.

Funny you should say that, it was Galaxy’s Edge and RotR that got me, I got a bit emotional entering the area, even more emotional in the Bar (we’d had to book that early / first thing to get a slot) and by the time I came off RotR I was genuinely in tears.

Diagon Alley got me too, and Hagrid’s got me bad!!!

The surprising one for me was heading over on the boat to Magic Kingdom on our very first day. For years I’d convinced myself, no tricked myself into believing, that ‘I didn’t care about Disney.’ But the second that boat started moving across the lake I turned into a big kid and got all emotional.

Needless to say I’m now a full on Disney convert, there’s magic there that just can’t be described, it fills the air, and takes over you completely, and I’m all for it!

 

[Howie]

even more emotional in the Bar (we’d had to book that early / first thing to get a slot)

OMG, the Cantina, yesssss! I thought I'd died and gone to heaven, didn't want to leave. That robot dj tho!!



They've even themed the f***ing Coke bottles!



Like you, I don't 'do' Disney, I try to kid myself that the House of Mouse is evil and we should all reject it and everything it stands for ($$$$$), but despite the astronomical cost of the tickets, if we'd done nothing else Disney all holiday and only done Galaxy's Edge, we'd still have gotten our money's worth.

But credit where credit is due, when the Universal boffins are on form they can bring their own level of magic to the party too:

Diagon Alley got me too,

Yep, and us. For almost the entire morning, we'd kinda forgotten that Diagon Alley was even a thing, it wasn't until we casually walked past those inconspicuous gaps in the wall that we found it. A genuine "Hey, what's in here?" moment. Oh that's right, a giant fire breathing dragon, that's all. Plus all the other little details everywhere you look, big and small - we especially loved the Platform 9 ¾ effect in the train station. Brilliant!

 

[James F]

Just on the way back from Winter Wonderland Hyde Park. Seen as I was only there for a very short time it feels more appropriate to post on here then do a full trip report.

Like many I have always wanted to ride Olympia Looping at some point. I remember getting a 'Guinness Book of World Records' one Christmas which featured it as the world's largest travelling coaster. Of course being my luck the year after I visit winter wonderland they introduce it. While It's never been high on my bucket list it's something I knew I had to experience at some point.

So with the desperation to ride new coasters, but having no holidays left it was decided I would try and go from Wigan to London and back again in a single day. Not to hard right? Let look up train tickets ... oh. £90 one way?! Nah not happening. So I turned to even more desperate measure a 5 hour and 30 minute coach EACH WAY. This really is a stupid hobby. £25 Return though

It actually took 6 hours and 30 minutes due to central London traffic caused by marches. The moral on the coach was low indeed, but soon picked up when at last the coach pulled into the station. A roar of applause could be heard when we parked, the way the applause abruptly faded did almost make it sound sarcastic, but I am sure this wasn't the intention.



Because of the delay it meant I only had 30 minutes in the event before I had to turn back and leave. Yeah I was beginning to regret my decision.



#224 Olympia/Munich Looping

So was it it worth spending 6 hours and 30 minutes with a square arse? Not really. But I can tick it off now and that's all that matters to me now.

The crew operating were doing a fantastic job at dispatching the trains. 3 trains without any stacking. Following Rob Coasters advice I made sure to avoid a wheel seat and sat in the front of the back car.

I'll start off with the pros, it a smooth ride, a lot smoother than I was expecting, while I haven't ridden a rough Schwarzkopf yet, some of them can be rattley, but sitting in a non wheel seat made the ride feel as smooth as butter. The loops seemed to get increasingly more intense and while I wouldn't say it's the most intense coaster I have been on you can feel the 5gs in all their glory at the base of those loops. It's got great pacing and remains exciting even though the helixs and turnarounds.

I was expecting the drops to be whippier, but still it was pleasurable experience up until the brakes, but sadly the brakes go on for a while and at that point the OTSR began to push down really hard, to the point of sheer pain. I would say I have a tolerance for discomfort on coasters, but this was just that bad. So what could've been an 8/10 came down to a 7.



Here's the Wild Maus, didn't have enough time to ride it despite having a pre paid ticket, moving on ...



#225 Time Machine

A Reverchon spinning mouse with a twist! The twist not being a twist but a shallow half pipe/banked turn. It was more intense than I was expecting to be honest and lot more comfortable than your average mouse. I would stretch to a 6/10 for this.

So that's it. £60 up the wall for two new creds, some of money was spent on a ticket for Wild Maus and Euro coaster which I didn't even ride due to being so short on time, so not the best coaster trip I have had, but hey at least I did something this weekend.

 

[Niles]

349: Time Machine

Got back to Winter Wonderland this year and got a +1.


With this being the new version with the turn i like it, It was smooth and had a better flow than the standard ones.

Me and my sis sat on one side and we got a good spin but we liked these little "boost" wheels before some of the drops. There not fast but give u a little extra pop as u drop, all in all a nice coaster.

I could have got my 350 on the Mack wild mouse nextdoor but i have a different Mack in mind for that milestone .

We also did Dr Archibald and its tacky/odd still not sure how i feel about it, sister stepped in water in the walkthrough bit so that was funny.


Finally we did the Starflyer and i love this, great height and speed, those thin chains did make me a bit nervous but great fun.


Go early and its free to get in (Edit: free was off peak, now seems its 5£ minimum to get in soz). Ride prices are a bit much but if you have some time its got some good rides, six creds is a decent amount but i think i saw a seventh by the kiddy "racing coaster", its a tiny oval coaster and not on the map but if you are cred hunting have a walk past.

Did skip Olympia this time but it allways looks great.

 

[Slamming Coastercore]

Uncharted: El Enigma de Penitence
Interesting ride. Theming in the queue line and station is fantastic, then as soon as you go into the ride it kind of... ends. There are a couple of screens and the odd physical bit of theming, but there is no illusion whatsoever that you're not in a massive warehouse, especially with how quiet the audio is on ride. You can see all the track and other ride vehicles, which just ruins all the immersion. Traversing from screen to screen is quite fun, though. There are loads of secret nippy launches, and I was quite pleasantly surprised with the ride itself. Intamin and Sally Dark Rides have done a fantastic job with the funding they were provided; a couple extra million and it could easily be the best indoor coaster in Europe. Lots of potential, let down by the theming inside. 6.5/10

 

[Eyebrows]

After one previous visit with it closed all day and 2 other cancelled visits due to extended downtime, I've finally gotten on #313 Wildcat's Revenge! It gave me so much trouble but after 7 rides on it I've found it was worth the wait. This thing's pacing falls right in line with the likes of Iron Gwazi and ArieForce One with it seeming to never slow down after the first element. I love the use of laterals on some of the elements, namely the turning double down and the third inversion. The first big airtime hill is incredibly sustained, and some of the smaller pops towards the end are very strong. The layout surprised me with its length, and I appreciate the terrain usage it has going on. Now, I did have some gripes with the ride, not least among them the repetitive layout. I could have done without the last roll, and it felt like it had one too many wave turns. The first wave turn would have worked much better as a Gwazi style twist-and-shout as well. Beyond that, though, it's a great ride. The ops are fast even on only 2 trains, and it tracks perfectly. The lighting package is genius and makes for an enhanced experience both on- and off-ride. Wildcat's Revenge slots in very nicely at #2 in the park, and finally puts Hersheypark in the conversation of best coaster lineup in the world. 9/10, #14.

 

[oriolat2]

Uncharted (#484)

I went to PA to ride Uncharted especifically and I had low expectations. It didn't disappoint delivering a poor experience. I would sum up the experience using this meme:



Uncharted is essentially a poorly executed yet perfectly good family coaster.

When riding Hurakan Condor (the park’s drop tower) I realised how massive the show building for Uncharted actually is, yet upon entering the far west area from the Mexico area it blends quite nicely with the existing structures. The rockwork on the facade is impressive, and makes for a good first impression.

As I visited with pass holders, they knew when to hit the coaster to avoid excessive lines. Although the park was not busy (the park’s B&Ms peaked at 30 minutes) Uncharted still managed to pull 90 minutes, with an average of 45-50 minutes. We entered the line, which seemed to move at a good pace, according to my friends, as we went through half of the indoor portion of the queue in about 30 minutes. The queue theming declines in quality, to be honest: the first rooms feature some objects and a pair of basic animatronics. The first issue is that the cattlepen packs so many people in a confined space that it makes it hard to understand the dialogue and get a grip on the coaster’s backstory. After a couple of rooms, we move into what I understood to be the caverns under the town of Penitence where the lost Mayan treasure is buried. Here the quality of the theming starts to dwindle, with fake ceilings and power points in plain sight, and some cheap-looking theming props which are not properly integrated with their surroundings. To be honest, it looked like Sally was given a budget, lots of ideas and they didn’t spread the money evenly, as even the materials at the end of the queue line and station look substantially worse than the first couple of rooms and corridor leading to the cavern.

As far as the station goes, it has a couple of prebatching areas, but only one was in use (and I fear it will never be used again). The station is somewhat themed as well but the rockwork on the walls and control booth are more akin to a paper mache pinata than a premier park project. The space itself is a bit cramped but, as trains are small, it doesn't really matter. You get batched in one of 3 rows: we got lucky and got first row.

The trains themselves look great, and although boxy, that is to be expected from a 3x4 car, like those cars from Premier on the Mummy iterations. However the external details and decal make it look like a real mining car. I was glad to see PortAventura running all 3 available trains and dispatching them at a good clip. Except for a 30-minute breakdown when we were queuing, the coaster ran without issues and restraints seemed pretty straight-forward to check.

The coaster portion left me a bit cold in terms of story-telling and theming, as most of the effects I had been told were either not functioning or not synched with the train. To be honest, I was not really impressed at this attempt from PA to build what could have been a world-class indoor coaster: it simply doesn’t cut it. You could see most of the track, the screens (the worst offender was the big screen facing the turntable) were not hidden or integrated in the silghtest, and it looked like they were either in a rush to finish the project or that they simply gave up/ran out of money.

As for the coaster itself, I liked it. It is a cute and pretty thrilling piece of coaster hardware. A friend that rode with us compared its intensity to Hagrid’s. It is short and sweet and its launches have enough kick to them to make them relevant and exciting. My favourite bit is when the train is rotated and synched with the turntable then to be launched sideways. That sideways launch into the spike flowed really well, and the main coaster portion was fast-paced and a bit more forceful than I was expecting. The last backwards drop into the brakes was a nice finale and was a neat combination of both the train rotation and media effects: this level of immersion should have been carried out throughout the experience. I have the feeling that this model has a lot more potential to be unfolded with the proper budget and creative minds. Hopefully, we will see it further developed in Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift.

 

[j-cat5]

Kondaa-really really happy to finally get this credit. I was really somewhat looking forward to this one as a big Intamin fan, and it didn't disappoint. Great theming, great pacing and airtime galore. I was fortunate enough to score a front row ride once too which was absolutely magnificent.

The one thing that I did notice was there was a real dead spot somewhere in the first half of the ride. I watched Coaster studios review of this ride and he mentioned this too (possibly a 'non-inverting cobra roll'?). Really really noticeable bad part of an otherwise outstanding ride. Well that and the fact that the single rider queue moves at an absolute snails pace on a busy day. Get rid of that slow element, stick a launch on it and you've got a contender for my #1 I reckon. I think as it at it's stands as my #4...the Intamin bias in me would love to stick it even higher but I can't hand on heart say this is quite as good as Zadra, so here it is. Yet another utterly magnificent ride my gosh I love Intamin so so much!!

If I can make it, there's a fairly obvious choice just down the road for my next cred....

 

[TPoseOnTantrum]

In the dying days of 2023 I went sightseeing in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Did some harmless credit hunting and given that I’ve ridden the known travelling coaster and Punta Cana Death Train is never opening, I may have just landed country credit completion.

The culprits are Gold Mine Coaster (#108) at ScreamLand and two different Gusanito’s (#109 & #110) at separate Olimpyc Park/Terra Mágica luna parks. Actually got stuck twice on the last one today, ride op had to push my train with a stick.

 

[Niles]

Ridgerider



I feel bad to have ridden this, it's on costercount but it's not a cred, however i honestly would have loved this in my local play area as a kid, fun little thing.

Thankfully there was no one around to watch us, especially as my poor friend fell off into the mud honestly it gives decent laterals with no restraints, so unless your prepared beware the mud.

If you want to embarrass yourself here are the coordinates.

51.4986054, -0.7614456

 

[Rob Coasters]

Not my last credit, but wanted to get it out of the way.

#249 Taron, at night, during Wintertraum, in rain.

Holy, and I cannot stress this enough, f**king hell.

 

[Benenen]

Rob I am so excited to read this trip report, what a year you’ve had hitting the foreign trips hard.

 

[uwurawrus]

Yesterday I rode my 400th roller coaster, Nefeskesen, the Intamin LSM coaster at Vialand in Türkiye! I'm planning to write a full trip report on my trip, but for now just Nefeskesen.

It's awesome. The elevation it's on really makes it, the strength of the wind at the height you're on really enhances the feeling of that incredible launch and tearing off into the wind is truly an incredible sensation.
The top hat is one of the better intamin ones, untrimmed and snappy, solid air throughout. You get absolutely blasted with positive force in the subsequent valley and what follows is an incredibly sustained hill providing flojector airtime for a good few seconds. Every valley absolutely slams you with positives which is great because the immelmann is unfortunately rather naff; though there is a weird lateral kink on exit which I really enjoyed. The following Stengel Dive is really cool especially on the left side of the train and snaps you pretty hard before ending with a very neat hangtime filled roll.

It's not my favourite Intamin by a mile but what it does is awesome and it's a very hidden gem in what I thought would be more of an enthusiast destination; a major city with two red Intamin LSM coasters sounds pretty appealing to me!

 

[ValravnIsElite]

Is Fire In The Hole a credit? I know it's more dark ride than roller coaster but does it count?

 

[LightningColossus46]

yes

 

[Dan Nguyen]

So the last two newest parks I've visited are Great America parks. I went to CGA in September for the first time since its closing forever soon. I missed a flight home in August and rebooked the flight for the end of October to do SFGAm. I wanted to compare the two parks

My last new cred was 328 - X Flight. The layout is fun, but I'm really not a fan of the vest restraints. The keyhole element at the end of the ride and the inverted drop at the beginning were my favorite parts of the ride. I was only able to manage one ride because of the crowds, but it was still a good time.

 

[Ollie]

Minifigure Speedway - Legoland Windsor:

Got on this on opening day towards the end of the day once the queue had died down. Great coaster for the park and a low height restriction meaning younger riders can enjoy it. It's positioned well on the hill so it appears much higher than it is, giving great views over the rest of the park. The ride itself is glass smooth and going backwards is more intense than it looks. The racing element is done well and rather than just having the two sides racing they have a small preshow before going into the station where each team is assigned a mascot which appears on the screens in the station. After the ride has finished it actually flashes up which team won and adapts the end announcement based on the winner. Helps make the ride feel a lot more interactive.
Overall an easy +2. Go on knowing it's aimed towards families and you'll have a great time.

 

[Changa]

I already rambled in a trip report about it. But I found Nemesis Reborn to be quite disappointing. The theming that has been done varies from quite good to excellent, with the general re-styling of the other buildings in the area creating a nice cohesion around the ride. However, the mud-pits, gravel-pits, and tree-clearing around the area was (imo) to the detriment of the park atmosphere. The new queue layout is great, though I found the fences very uncomfortable to lean on (though they fit the theme nicely).



My main gripe about the ride, which is strong enough to counter all of the good work that has been done to the ride, is the removal of the front-row queue in favour of organised batching. I find B&M inverts to hugely favour front row rides in general, as the close-stacking rows and train structures block almost all of your vision of what you are going through, and any feeling of air-speed. Nemesis is a particularly strong example of this as the trenches and new scenery pieces add so many near-miss elements. Yet our 3rd row ride meant we couldn't see much, or really feel like we were going anywhere. The smoother tracking (with the exception of the rattley final turn) further worked against the ride's intensity. I've had an exceptional back-row ride in the past (during scarefest, so visibility wasn't much of an issue anyway) but always found the front row to be an incomparable experience that is always worth the extra wait. However now, so that they can add some more station theming without having to alter the station, there's now a 7-in-8 chance of getting a neutered experience regardless of how long you wait (without trying to re-batch yourself within the next 28-32 guests to come by). Personally, those odds just aren't good enough for me to see this as a worthwhile revision.