Top Thrill Dragster was introduced to Cedar Point in 2003. It was made by Intamin and has a height of 420ft, at one point it was the highest coaster in the world, only to be overtaken in 2005 by Kingda Ka at Six flags great adventure, New Jersey at 456ft.

The ride has a top speed of 120mph which is reached in a breathtaking 4 seconds.

For those that requested here’s some of my pictures taken during this trip. I hope you like them.

A couple of the ride entrance.

The Queue line, really feeling the heat about a 1 hour wait.

finally inside the entrance.

The Trains.

Waiting to Launch.

Seconds later.

End of the launch for the hydraulic geeks.

Some general shots of the ride.

Ride Structure.

Ride Exit.

And finally one of my favourite shots took about 8:30pm as the sun was going down.

If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch paul@ridemad.com im quite happy to share and have high resolution copies of everything used.

Thanks for Reading.

The ride was redesigned during this time and following a soft opening in September 1993 it offically reopened in 1994. The ride was opened by two of the films stars Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) and Brody’s wife (Lorraine Gray)

Out of all the rides and attraction at Universal Studios Jaws is one of those rides I had most looked forward to visiting. Im a huge fan of the Jaws films especially the first one and can still recall with anorak accuracy some of the most famous lines from the film. 

As you have probably guessed Jaws is a boat ride around the make believe Island called Amity, home to Chief Brody.

The theming as you would expect from Universal is fantastic. I’ll start this look at the attraction from the outside, queue line and then a trip on one of the Amity Boats.

One of the most popular images from the film, the bill board advertising the 4th July annual regatta.

The Queueline.

Lots of props.

The island and theming.

One of the many tour boats.

The ride itself goes completely around the Island and back into the loading bay. Along the route you come across various fishy/sharky scares along the way and its almost a guarantee that you will get splashed if you sit on either side of the boat. Although for me the left side was the worst.

I must say the boat drivers/guide on this ride are absolute nuts and no matter how many times they have done this attraction and the script they dont fail to get a feeling of suspence over the visitors, if someone tongue in cheek.  

Previous tour boat or shark attack.

Our first encounter with Jaws.

Were gonna need a bigger boat.

To avoid further attacks we take shelter in a salvage shed.

Flames/gas and electrical cables, never a good combination.

  

Here’s Jaws for a bit more action and the final attack on the boat.

Poor Jaws. but he doesn’t give in.

The trip back into the station.

My opinion on this.

Well for what its worth it is showing it’s age but I still feel its a great attraction that the whole family can enjoy. Initially my children were a bit bothered in case it came near the boat.. but if you have kids and they are slightly nervous just sit them in the middle of the boat.

I sat on the left hand side facing the driver and you seem to get more visibility of Jaws and more action on this side.

I purposely missed out some bits of the ride and the running commentary by the guides, I dont want to spoil this for anyone who hasn’t had a chance to ride this.

If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch paul@ridemad.com im quite happy to share and have high resolution copies of everything used, to see the complete gallery visit the Ridemad Gallery

If there’s one thing that annoys enthusiasts more than wasps at theme parks it’s queue jumpers, the people that can’t read the huge “NO QUEUE JUMPING” signs and the ones at the back of the queue when god handed out brains. These people young and old seem to have no morals or respect for other people.

Even worse are the parks that plainly refuse to do anything about this annoying, rude and disrespectful practice that happens so commonly, even though its spelt out on the signage queue jumping will not be tolerated.

I have experienced this all over the world and heard numerous excuses for this behavior.

I needed to go to the toilet.

Well why didn’t you think of that before entering the queue, allot of parks display queue times and the ones that don’t; well you can get an idea of how long a queue is just by taking a couple of minutes to study a queue line, its no excuse.

I saved a space for someone.

Why didn’t you just wait for them to do what they were doing and then join the queue line, as a group 99% of normal people would do this?

One of my local parks Camelot, UK has a no queue jumping policy, which the staff either don’t know about or have very little respect for there employer’s that it’s not enforced. I joined the line for Camelot’s latest coaster Knightmare today (which incidentally was running one train, on its busiest day of the season for far) a short queue line today took 57 minutes from start to finish, which would have been allot more if I and a number of other visitors hadn’t challenged some queue jumpers intent on pushing to the front of the queue to join friends.

I’d seen a queue jumper challenged by a member of RCCGB a young lad who was intent on climbing over a fence to be with friends until he was challenged then he tried to sneak past me instead. The response ‘do you have a problem’ Well actually no I don’t as you aren’t going to get your weedy 7 stone ass past my 15 stone of ‘paid for’ blubber, there isn’t a problem.

The same queue line moments later I witnessed a dad in front of me trying to get his 3 daughters past me in the queue, what was even more surprising was the huge 3ft x 2ft Sign behind him saying ‘no queue Jumpers’ he either couldn’t read or had very little respect for fellow visitors.

I’m going to write to Camelot about this, as it shouldn’t be tolerated why should the paying public have to put up with this as IT is clearly tolerated by the park or they don’t have enough staff to do anything about it. If the later is the case then just drop the signs and lets have a free for all.

I’d love to hear from anyone who has experienced problems like this at parks, not just Camelot I know they are all the same, do you have an opinion on this if so please get in touch and ill publish your comments. The easiest way to get in touch is via the contact page above or drop me an email paul@ridemad.com.

Thanks for Reading.

This article isnt going to be a ride spoiler as such, more an in depth looking behind the scenes of one of the parks most spectacular dark rides.

Hex is a Vekoma Haunted Swing ride, it has operated at the park since 2000. Its located in the towers and well you cant really miss a big great tower.

The control room for Hex is around the back of the towers. Here’s a couple of shots of the main ride operators console.

In the shot below you can see a screen just where the operators elbow is. This controls the full attraction from start to finish the music/effects everything. Its all perfectly timed for the audience. Just behind the green wall is the final queue line to get into the ride chamber itself.

And a close up of the panel (for the guy in Canada who said it wasnt made by Vekoma.!

The rotating room.

*SPOILER*

As you have probably guessed the attraction sits inside a huge drum similar to a washing machine with a center pivot for the seats. the room rotates in huge pit and its quite difficult to get a decent picture, but heres my effort anyway.

This is a picture taken from the side of the attraction looking up, the big white steel bar is the pivot point for the seats.

This is taken from the first operators console looking back at the queue line.

A couple of similar views at different angles.

Turning around now looking at the operators console.

Ever wondered what those numbers are whilst your queuing for Hex. Basically it tells the operator how many people have passed through the entry turnstile. Hex has a capacity of 78 people every few minutes, once they hit 78 the pre show starts.

Once through the turn style this is where you wait for the rest of the customers.

Once enough people are in the queue the doors in front are open and you enter the video room.

Inside the video room.

Im not going to spoil this for anyone, if you want to see the show theres a copy on youtube.

After the show which lasts a few minutes the doors open and your led into the next room.

Again I wont spoil this for anyone who hasn’t been through Hex, so heres a few photographs.

The lighting rig in the center of the room, this is dropped to the floor during winter for maintenance.

The theming in Hex is fantastic.

After a short time you are lead through to the ride.

Seats.

And finally the fallen branch. – Don’t know what this means then take a trip through Hex next time your at Alton Towers.

Thats the end of the tour, thanks to Alton towers and Club pleasure beach for arranging this tour, we also viewed a few more attractions at Alton towers this day, to see a complete list of behind the scenes tours on ridemad click Behind the scenes

If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch paul@ridemad.com im quite happy to share and have high resolution copies of everything used, to see the complete gallery visit the Ridemad Gallery

Thanks for Reading.

After years of speculation it looks like the fun fair at Rhyl known as Ocean beach has closed its gates for the final time. I visited Rhyl twice in 2006 once at the start of the season and then towards the end of September when most rides had packed up, apart from the obivous 2 steel coasters the water chute was also standing.

A lapse in security allowed me to take a look around the Water chute for what may be the final time.

The water chute was originally brought to Rhyl from Kursaal Amusment park in southend in 1972.

I’ll take a look at the station building and queue lines first.

A view looking into the queue line at the rear of the car.

Looking out to where the cars come into the station.

A couple of shots of the cars.

A close up showing the lap bars.

From just before the cars enter the lift hill.

Parked and ready to go.

The control hut, as a child I often wondered what they did in this box. I always remember someone pulling a giant lever. This picture is taken from the side of the track as the trains come back into the station.

A look into the mysterious box. I like the addition of the electric heater. Apologies for the picture quality (dirty perspex theres nothing worse)

The bar that operates the ride brakes. This is connected to the lever in the control box.

A pump thing. I dont know what it is, looks like it controls water though.

A bit of a closer look at the track coming into the station.

Heres a couple of lift hill shots.

A view from near the control box, looking at the ride.

The splash pool

A bit of theming.

Will the last one out switch off the lights.

And finally to prove I dont break into farigrounds to take pictures.

I took about 300 images over my last two trips to Rhyl once sorted out ill be sure to post them on here.

All images are copyright ridemad.com, if you want to use any please get in touch paul@ridemad.com, where ill be more than happy to share, i have higher resolution copies of all images, to see all the images from this visit, go to the Album

http://www.ridemad.com is an independant website not affiliated to any theme parks or fairgrounds, the views expressed are my opinions.

Thanks for Reading.

After months of thinking about this wheel and never doing anything about it, I thought it was finally time to get my act together and make the trip up to York and try it for myself.

We couldnt have asked for better weather although cold the skies were blue and there was no sign of any rain. Admission costs are £6 per adult, £4 for children with under 4′s free, you can also hire a pirvate “VIP” pod with tinted windows and a DVD sound system (some people have more money than sense), they say on busy days you could be sat in a pod with strangers but today it was busy (for a Saturday in Jan) and we sat on our own with most pods containing 2 or 3 people. Queue time approx 20 minutes. Im sure it gets mad in the summer

The Queue area, they load a few at a time.

A nice view of the Minster from this height.

Closer up view of the Pods, theres 54 in total.

Looking up before entering the queue line, its impressive.

Some general going round views. it lasts for about 13 minutes.

The wheel is 54 metres high and has a impressive diameter of 50 metres. it weighs 365 tonnes.

Anyone interested in going i would recomend this trip, its on the site of the national railway museum so combine the 2 for a great day out.

any comments please email paul@ridemad.com, Please dont steal the pictures, if you want any just ask

Thanks for reading.