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Wow fantastic! How odd to see it so quiet though? I suppose the weather could play a big part there

The first section of this one is honestly such a vibe. Love it. It’s shame this style isn’t played more prominently at the park, because it really does suit it. The music could do with being louder at the entrance and across the bridge / in to the dome. It’s interesting that the previous “jingle” still plays in some places around the park. The Swarm station soundtrack for example still features the IMAscore “sound of the island” tune.

I agree that would be a real shame. Hopefully they can keep it that way. I’ve been having a think about all this…. It’s weird that so many of us seem to share the same “meh” feeling towards Thorpe & Merlin at the moment, especially with Thorpe, because actually when you break it down they’re really doing very well. As has been mentioned, there are no SBNO rides, which is unheard of in recent years. They have a fantastic line up, including a brand new massive coaster. There are no silly cheaply-made mazes anymore, and they’re even continuing to run their notoriously expensive and less popular rides, like ghost train and Rapids. In fact, the park is in very good shape: the decor looks better than ever, reliability isn’t too bad, the food is quite good considering how it is elsewhere, the new brand is working nicely, and the park feels fresh, modern and clean for the most part, especially when you consider how poor the rest of the Merlin parks are. Thorpe seems to be very well run to be fair. It’s also not like there has been new ride after new ride over the last decade, and now that’s stopped. There hasn’t! Arguably, when it comes to new stuff, now is an excellent time in that regard, right off the back of Hyperia opening. An odd one for sure. Perhaps it’s more a general ill feeling everyone has towards Merlin? Or a side effect of the Universal news overshadowing the “business as usual” at Thorpe? Or maybe it’s an extension of the general doom and gloom shrouding seemingly everything in the country at the moment. Perhaps if we are honest with ourselves, we all take the likes of Thorpe for granted these days? I think I do to be fair, because it be beyond devastated if it suddenly had to close for some reason. I even think of Stealth for instance. If that reached a point this summer where they were forced to make a decision to close it at the end of the season, I know for a fact I’d be up there riding it, and thinking to myself “you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone” 😂

Currently Thorpe has no SBNO attractions and they did well to make it that way over the past couple of years. Hopefully sbno attractions don’t happen again!

Agreed with Fright Nights. Although quality has improved the last couple years, I do the mazes once on a quiet night and that’s it really. I’m not paying to stand in a queue for a chance of a good run through when there’s rides with no queues. Mainly just go for the extended opening hours but even that’s been cut back, loosing the 9-10pm is a shame. Ghost train is interesting. Sooner they close and stop pumping money into that the better but closing it also means spending money for something else. Doubt they’ll want to keep that SBNO being in the centre of the park.

Noted about the fences covered with plastic sheeting?! Yikes. Think it would have been better left as normal ride fencing...

Definitely - I wonder if Project Pivot will go ahead for 2026 - and if it does, that's not a draw to get people through the gate. Is there any point to it if there's only going to be one event a year? (this year at least). If it does go ahead... Slammer site flat ride for 2027? If it doesn't go ahead... new flat ride next year? I feel like we're at a bit of crossroads now for the next development - one would assume TWD IP is nearly expired (and it's not relevant anymore anyway)... questions over Ghost Train what with the disappearing shop and merch - then if you get rid of Ghost Train AND TWD you have a massive space - but would they really want to remove a building that'll only be 10 years old next year? Questions over Rumba Rapids, as we all know it costs a lot to run in terms of power and staff... Interesting times. What would be disastrous is attractions are removed/SBNO without anything replacing them, but to be honest - that's the way I think it will head.

I think that’s a good point about fright nights in particular. It used to be something I’d very much look forward to all year, but in recent years it has become, as you say, a rip off, and nothing more. Without that around the corner, for me at least, it does feel odd that the Merlin parks are sort of not really on my mind anywhere like they used to be. Merlin do seem to very much be in a rut don’t they… it’s all very worrying to be honest, especially given that Paultons and others are accelerating while Merlin continue to decline. It will be interesting to see what they manage at scare season in the short term at least, and looking longer term, what they will announce over the next 12-24 months…

Agree with the above comments (I've never had an annual pass of any type mind you), but I had my visit in April, just about got my ride on Hyperia by heading for it at 10am (as it was the day it valleyed), and managed to go on Stealth front row a number of times (before it died later that week) so I suppose that's a "win" in Merlin terms? I work Monday-Friday and live in Southsea so don't have the luxury of being able to go to Thorpe on a whim and lap Hyperia like some seem to. I guess I won't visit now until September for a quiet day, perhaps - last year I did a 2 day trip (1 night at the Shark) which to be fair was superb value. Other than that, Fright Nights is a rip off so I might finally get myself to SLKSTN UNLOCKED and be able to experience the mazes like the influencers do instead of spending £10 a pop to be batched with 20 people and see 3 actors.

[/benderlaughingharder.gif] The quiet years were always the years that visits were made because of the groups. The rides were always second. Plus the stagnation of the UK in comparison to mainland Europe on top of often cheap access to those parks makes them far more exciting than heading to a Merlin park with a hope of a good visit rather than an expectation.

Yeah pretty much. These are the years where you work out if you actually like the parks or if you just got into them because of a particular ride that hooked you in. Merlin are in a bit of a rut at the moment to be honest, the UK theme park market hasn't recovered like Europe has and I think they are vary cautious on any investment, only Chessington has anything in the pipeline and they are investing in the safest things possible. We do have Blackpool and Paultons but yeah.. troubling times.

Certainly interesting seeing the amount of people saying its rough/rattly now. I do wonder if the wheel changes are a permanent solution to the valleying or if its just a temporary fix whilst a long term solution is figured out?

I do agree, does seem very stale this year across the board. Last year was high investment though with Lego, Towers and Thorpe all receiving major new coasters though so its to be expected I guess. Do wonder if there were any cuts though, was Thorpe meant to receive a flat on the Slammer site? I only bothered with a Thorpe pass rather than a Merlin pass this year. Chessingtons a dump and I have no interest in traveling 4 hours to get to Towers when they only bother to open 10-4 during the week. Toxicator will still be there next year. In regards to adverts, I certainly get a lot of them on my phone across all social media platforms. Maybe theres been a shift towards that instead? Would certainly be a lot cheaper and I imagine they'll be able to get across to their target market. Thorpe passholder group closure was a real shame. It was great to have inside insight into what they're working on, being able to ask questions and them actively ask and act on feedback. Although there isn't anything new this year at Thorpe I've still really enjoyed all my visits this season. Its still got its issues but I still believe its by far the best run merlin park and has the best opening hours. I personally haven't noticed any changes operationally apart from the reduced events? I've never specifically gone to Thorpe for their events except Fright Nights so the reduction in ents hasn't made any difference to me. This has definitely hit the other parks more though. For Towers Oktoberfest is a big loss. Always enjoyed the atmosphere on the lawns and extended opening hours in September. The Legoland stunt show has got to be the biggest loss out of them all. Stupid decision.

This is really weird that you should mention that. I know exactly what you mean, and I’ve felt the same, even after a very good visit to Thorpe a few weeks ago. I thought it was just me getting older and having other priorities going on in my time of life, but I do feel the same way. The Merlin parks just sort of… “opened” again… and that was it. I’m not sure what exactly they were supposed to do, in my head, but yeah. I don’t know. I don’t think it’s necessary to have something new every year, but there does seem to be a lack of big stuff happening across Merlin in the UK, apart from the various bits for younger audiences. There isn’t even anything up and coming that we can look forward to at the moment either. Actually saying that - we had Toxicator didn’t we. Which is fab. I still have that feeling though and I can’t explain it! Advertising has definitely been toned down. In years gone by, you couldn’t move for Merlin ads. Supermarkets for example had Merlin imagery and offers in every aisle, and there were ads on TV, the tube and billboards. It does feel like there’s been a change. Merlin have always been good at keeping at least some sort of interest going year on year across their various parks, even if just through events etc in the short term. I wonder if part of it is that we’ve become a bit accustomed to big things happening? Hyperia and Universal for example eclipse basically everything don’t they. Although saying that, I still find myself very excited for the things happening at DLP, and they’re not that epic…

Just a general observation/thought. I find my enthusiasm & excitement for Thorpe Park/ Merlin parks muted this year. It’s just simply “open”, no new things to do, no events to change things up every few months, no dramas or issues. No 2025 TV advert, no real advertisement. No communication from parks e.g passholder page. Simply there’s nothing going on and nothing going to happen in the near future (excluding fright nights). There’s no evolving, it’s a difficult one as we had a period of investment and events. To simply going back to basics and providing what they have already. This is my first season since becoming a passholder which there has been no events or new attraction to keep it entertaining. I suppose what I’m asking, is this normal? Down periods in years gone by, with not much happening.

Road it monday just gone myself for the first time, had two rides, both of which I assume was on the same train as it was rattly as hell. Also came off with a banging headache, I thought to myself how is this ride only a year old. Don't give me wrong, still a great ride, just not re-rideable in its current state for me at least on one of the trains.

Well, we won kind of....

One thing I would say about Legoland is that the hill the park is set on can make it quite a trek to negotiate at times if you’re not the most able walker. I’m a relatively adept walker (if I do say so myself!), so I didn’t struggle with it too much on my most recent visit, but I have been in the past with a member of our party being in a wheelchair and it was quite hard work! With a small child, I can imagine that their littler legs might potentially struggle. So I’d recommend making use of the Hill Train, if it’s open. I’d concur with @JoshC. on the note of queues. I found many queues to be pretty overstated on my last visit, and like Josh, I also found Minifigure Speedway’s queue to move quite quickly compared to that of other rides. On the subject of Minifigure Speedway, I should also warn you that they do not let you pick your side as they do on many other duelling coasters. I struck lucky and managed to get on both sides without needing to ask, but if you are keen to try both, you may have to ask. I haven’t visited with a young child (other than when me and my older sister were young children ourselves on our initial visit in 2009, which is now some years ago!), so I apologise if I’m not too useful to advise you on visiting with a child, but I hope you have a nice time regardless!

Depends how little your little one and what rides you're looking at doing, but some general thoughts... -Flight of the Sky Lion has a horrible queue (especially if it's warm), and it does move quite slow -Ninjago and Dragon queue times often are inflated / over stated -Log flume gets you wetter than you'd expect -There's lots of play areas about; most of them are pretty decent! -Food is expensive (even by Merlin standards) -The duelling coasters have a quick moving queue, even when the queue is full

I’m off to Legoland very soon with my little one, mid week thankfully. First time I’ve been since I was a kid - back before we had phones etc! So it’ll be interesting to see it all! Any advice and tips at all?

I'd imagine it's something that could happen, but given that at the moment they've made no big deal about the new audio, and no one is really commenting on it, it's a low priority. The new stuff is fine. I can't lie, I barely hear it because it's pretty quiet. I went to the park today and heard no music outside the entrance, a little on the bridge and nothing on the Dome or balcony. The more parks I've gone to, the more I realised plenty of parks don't have a signature piece of music at the entrance or their main plaza area. So I guess I've placed less care or notice on it. But it's one of those things that if the park had one, and if it was really good, it would elevate things so much. And they haven't had that really since the track used in the 00s.

Hopefully it's released soon. I recorded the full Dome soundtrack they currently use a couple months ago so I'm glad that's online now.

I agree, I think I prefer the previous ones as well. It felt like they were only there for a short time, and even then some of them didn’t last long before being replaced with the stuff from before that in places. However I saw some social media replies a while ago from the park hinting that they could release them soon. I expect the people dealing with that have probably since been made redundant though.

No idea, but TBH I'm not a fan of any of it anyway. Nowhere near as good or memorable as the previous stuff!

As some may be aware, I visited Paultons and rode Ghostly Manor for the first time yesterday. Overall, I have to say that I think it’s a really cool addition! To start things off, first impressions are very good! The facade is lovely, as is the outdoor queue line; every time I walked through it, I was noticing new details, and there are some cool pieces of theming! I particularly liked the swing that moved on its own and the painting; I thought these were cool items! The indoor queue line is also really nice! There are some nice smell pods (I think they emit a lavender-type smell?), and there are lots more nice thematic details! I thought the tubes with ghosts captured and moving around in them were a nice touch in particular! In terms of the ride itself, I’ll keep it spoiler-free and say that I think it’s overall really good fun. I had 5 rides in total, and in terms of a few good points, I’d say the following: For the Paultons Park audience, I think it strikes the perfect balance between cartoony fun and scares. There are some moments of what I would call mild scariness that might scare a young child, but it’s not an all-out horror fest and the cartoony visual style keeps things fun and jovial! Some of the scenes are really nicely executed, with a good blend of screens and physical set pieces. There are a couple of nice animatronics in the ride, and things like projection mapping are also used effectively. While the ride is more shooting gallery-like in style, I think it works here, and the scenes aren’t long enough for it to feel monotonous. Each mini game isn’t particularly long (maybe 30 seconds at most?), so you do quickly get moving rather than feeling like you’re shooting at the same scene for ages on end. I found the gun system relatively comfortable to hold and easy to use. It did take a bit of getting used to and learning, but I think that is more down to my dreadfulness at interactive dark rides rather than any issue with the software! The Gameplay Theatre ride system is very clever, and it gets a lot of ride duration out of very little space. When you consider that Ghostly Manor replaced a 4D cinema, I think Paultons have done tremendously well! I do have a couple of small critiques and points for improvement, however. These are: I think some of the screen-based scenes (namely the ones facing outwards) lack physical scenery or any kind of bounding to try and hide the screen edges. I know that they are constrained with what they can do to some extent in these scenes, and you aren’t going to see physical scenery as elaborate as that in the inner scenes, but I think something to try and keep the immersion going would be nice, even if it was just some themed bounding for the screen edges. As it stands, these scenes basically just consist of a screen and some black floors and black walls; there’s no physical theming there at all. For the ride to flow seamlessly, it is very reliant on there being no hold-ups at the boarding and exiting stages. The mini games in each scene run for a predetermined duration, so if the boarding or exiting process is held up in any way, the mini game just ends and the ride sits still in a scene for a while with “the ride has stopped and will resume shortly” projected on the scene or onto the screen. To make the ride more flexible against disruptions in boarding and exiting flow, I think it would be nice if they were able to make the mini games continue running for the entire length of time the ride was stopped in a scene for, regardless of how long it is, for so that people’s attention isn’t drawn to the delay. If I’m being really picky, I think it would be nice if they were able to make the transition between scenes a bit more dramatic in some way and distract from visibility of some of the other scenes while you transition. Maybe a blast of smoke or something would work? But overall, I think Ghostly Manor is great fun and a brilliant addition to Paultons Park! It’s not the world’s most elaborate dark ride, but given that it replaced a 4D cinema, I think they’ve done very well with the space, and as a first dark ride for the park, I think it works excellently. They’re onto a winner with it, in my view, and it plugs a gap in their lineup! If you’re interested, here are a few photos I took: In terms of the rest of the park, I had an excellent, and very quiet, day! If you’d like to read more about it, my trip report is here: