General Discussion

In colaboration with Blackpool council merlin will takeover running Blackpool Tower, The louis tussauds wax works which will become the UK's second Maddam tussauds, An anouncement has been made that a dungeons attraction will be built in the Blackpool Tower building. Merlin will referbish most of the attractions including a 3/4d theatre preview at the tower before they relaunch. The tower is likely going to be branded under the 'eye brand'.link link

Hi guys. Some on here have been theme park enthusiasts for a very long time, and over a period of multiple years, you’re bound to learn a thing or two. Whether you’ve learned what you most enjoy or whether you’ve learned how to get the best out of a park or ride, years of visiting parks is bound to have taught you things and shaped your perspectives in some way. I know it certainly has for me! With this in mind, I’d be interested to know; what have you learned in your years as a theme park enthusiast? What have your years of park visiting experience taught you, and what new perspectives have you gained from years of coaster riding and park visiting? I’ll get t…

Hi guys. Here in the UK, we have four Merlin parks: Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, Chessington and Legoland Windsor. Operations are a contentious topic surrounding the Merlin parks, particularly as of late; people talk a lot about throughputs, ride availability and the like with regard to these properties. However, there’s arguably some variation between the four properties in terms of many of these metrics, so with this in mind, I’d be keen to know; which Merlin park is best operated, in your view? Which one performs best in terms of metrics like throughputs? Personally, I would put Alton Towers at the top of the pile. But if I were to rank them, I would say the …

Hi guys. I don’t know about any of you, but one thing I personally like doing at theme parks is timing ride throughputs and observing the operations on rides. With this in mind, I decided to make a thread for like-minded people who are interested in throughputs and operations to share their throughput timings and operational insights from parks around the world. Whether your timings and operational insights are from Chessington, Europa Park, Six Flags, Cedar Fair, Oakwood or anywhere else in the world, I’d love to hear about them and I’m sure many others would too! My reason for deciding to create this thread is because I have some throughput timings and opera…

Hi guys. Of all the things that can happen at a park, a spite is probably the most gutting. I'm sure we've all had an occasion where a ride has been closed for the day, or it's broken down, that means we haven't been able to ride it. But sometimes, some might voluntarily choose not to ride something for whatever reason. Whether it's through fear or just plainly forgetting it exists, we might sometimes choose not to go on a coaster. With this in mind, I'd be interested to know: have you ever self-spited yourself out of a major roller coaster? Have you ever voluntarily not ridden something for whatever reason? For purposes of limitation, I'm going to keep this t…

Ok there are plenty of jokes to be had with this one, but I’ve got a few observations of things that have quietly disappeared from theme parks over the last decade or so. Park branded Ponchos This is a weird one for me. Seemingly overnight about 10 years ago these all just vanished out of thin air. These used to be everywhere. On all the water rides there would always be people wearing them, and when it rained there were ponchos galore! Although I know it was a waste of plastic, I almost miss seeing these. I remember being in Florida years ago and spotting countless UK park ponchos around. The iconic “don’t wet yourself” Thorpe ones were ev…

Hi guys. On paper, everyone’s dream theme park visit is one with no queues. Queues are the bane of everyone’s existence when it comes to theme parks, so to not have them sounds like a dream… right? After a recent visit to Paultons Park on 5th June that was particularly deserted, as well as some ensuing discussion with people off the back of that, I’ve been pondering this notion. With this in mind, I’d be interested to know; in your view, can a theme park ever be too quiet? Is the theoretical ideal of a park with no queues and no crowds really such an ideal in reality? Personally, I’m actually somewhat undecided on this. From my own perspective, a l…

Yeah this exists on TowersTimes but also I don't care. Not sure if this goes here or nonsense, but stuff you overhear at parks. On Monorail: *Points at Galactica* "That's Air!" *Points at Nemesis* "Oh wait no, that's Air." I wonder if this guy had any trouble finding the entrance for Air. Worst thing is he was at least 18 and was taking some people there for the first time. He also claimed a boy fell out of Nemesis. Later that day on death tra- skyride: (Let's call him Bob) "Oh that's the log flume! Is it open, I couldn't find it on the map..." (Someone else in his group) "Does it f... look like it's open" About one of …

With the recent announcement of the Universal theme park for the UK, I’ve been wondering about the prospect of other similar mega-parks opening up in this country. There was of course the proposal for the Swanscombe Peninsula theme park, but this has been kicked into the long grass. Then I had an idea. Many British theme parks aren’t really themed around British culture, and with the rise in popularity of immersive experiences and living museums, I think this would be a good opportunity to trial a combined theme park and living museum attraction, that educates the British public on their country’s history through rides and experiences. I’m not expecting this to b…

Found an interesting YouTube channel by Disney Imagineering. Latest video here: We Call It Imagineering | Let's Ride

For some of us the year is over, for others there may be more. Irregardless, what have you been up to in the year 2023? I'll kick things off Park Count Chessington X3 Thorpe Park X1 Drayton Manor X1 Parc Asterix X2 Disneyland Park X6 Studio Park X3 Parque Warner X1 Parque de Acconnes X1 Energylandia X2 Kings Dominion X1 Busch Williamsburg X2 Six Flags America X1 Hershey Park X2 Dorney Park X1 Six Flags Great Adventure X2 Nickelodeon @ Mall of America X1 Magic Kingdom X2 Animal Kingdom X4 Epcot X1 Hollywood Studios X1 Seaworld Orlando X1 Busch Tam…

Not 100% sure if this is the right place to ask for advice on this so feel free to move if needed. Hi everyone, I'm currently in the stages of planning a theme park trip round Europe for the summer next year to celebrate finishing my A-levels with some of my friends. This is the first big theme park trip that I've planned so I'm not fully sure on how to do things and was thinking that people on here might have some advice for me! Currently we're thinking that the trip will be 3 weeks long, beginning after the last contingency day in the last week of June, and are planning to visit 9 parks (10 if you count Portaventura and Ferrari Land as seperate)…

I was thinking of all the rides I've been on in the last year... and thought I'd put them in an easy to read list... you can do the same if you wish. 1.Nemesis (1994)- Probably the biggest and most successful rollercoaster we will ever see in this country. It defies description and following the B&M rule its the fastest its ever been, cutting through its pit in less then 60 seconds. If you think Inferno is a decent ride, I hope you go to Alton to be blown away. A true raw adrenaline experience. 2.Dragons Fury (2004) Ten years later Tussauds struck gold with this Maurer Sohne spinning coaster. Despite troubles with reliability this is a proper family coaster prov…

Hi guys. With all of us being into theme parks, I’m sure most of us know where our nearest theme park is, or our “local park” so to speak. Whether you visit it often or it’s somewhere you don’t really pay much attention to, we all have one. With this in mind, I’d be really interested to know; where is your local park and how often do you visit? Do you pay a lot of attention to your home park, or is it somewhere that you largely ignore? Personally, I live in Gloucestershire, so I’m in the no man’s land of major theme parks better known as the South West of England. As such, my answer might be a tad more complicated than for those of you who are lucky enough to …

A bit of a weird question… but one I’ve thought of a few times over the years. When a ride unexpectedly goes down for a few weeks, for example Wicker Man at the moment due to the fire, that suddenly leaves a team of staff stranded. I assume it must take a team of around 15ish people to staff a ride like Wicker Man permanently, considering shifts, days off, etc. that’s quite a few people knocking about all of a sudden with no ride to operate! For those who have worked at the parks, what happens to these staff during the time their ride is closed? I assume they are seconded to other rides, although surely they are then over-staffed on tho…

These don't seem to live anywhere specific, a place for ride accident reports.So here's a report of a ride accident.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-14702497Got to presume it's a belt snap roll back or one boat going into the back of a somehow stalled boat on a drop.

Hi guys. I was curious to know; have any of you ever had any theme park related dreams? I only ask because I had a very weird theme park dream last night that I couldn’t not share… Basically, it revolved around my first day at Europa Park, which is coming up in real life in 6 days’ time. And it was one of those dreams where every little thing was stopping me from getting into the park and riding any rides… but far from a regular one. Buckle up, because this dream is weird… Things got off to a good start after a wonderful sleep in Hotel Castillo Alcazar (actually, I’m not sure what hotel it even was… it certainly didn’t look like Castillo Al…

Hi guys. With Thorpe Park Mania being a Thorpe Park fansite, many of the site's discussions centre heavily around attractions operated by Merlin Entertainments. One of Merlin's key products designed to appeal to people who visit Merlin attractions more frequently is the Merlin Annual Pass, which gains you entry to all of Merlin's UK attractions for a whole year, amongst other privileges. I'd wager that some on here visit Merlin attractions pretty often, but at the same time, some hold great disdain towards Merlin and want to give the company as little of their money as possible. With this in mind, I'd be interested to know; do you currently have a Merlin Annual Pass, and …

Hi guys. 2024 is set to be a pretty big year for UK roller coasters, with four different roller coaster-related projects happening for next year. These are: Hyperia at Thorpe Park, a Mack HyperCoaster that will be the UK’s tallest and fastest roller coaster. Nemesis 2.0 at Alton Towers, the rebirth of the much-loved B&M Inverted Coaster that is widely accepted to be the most revered UK coaster. Drayton Manor’s new coaster, an Intamin lift and launch coaster with spinning trains. Legoland Windsor’s new coaster, a duo of Zierer family shuttle coasters. It’s certainly a big year for UK roller coasters when you look at this motley crew of u…

Hi guys. Over the years, I’m sure that most of us have visited quite a few different theme parks; each year, I personally visit a mixture of old favourites alongside trying to mix the odd new park or two in there as well to enhance my repertoire and increase my coaster and park counts. Trying to visit new parks can sometimes mean that there isn’t enough time to revisit some previously visited parks, however, and as the years rattle on, a park can sometimes get pushed down and down the list until you realise that you haven’t visited in a number of years. With this in mind, my question for you today is; which major theme park have you gone the longest without visiting? Whic…

Trailer for Behind the Attraction Season 2 on Disney Plus. Looks like attractions covered are: Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Indiana Jones Adventure Also firework shows and food Behind the Attraction Season 2

Hi guys. We all have our favourite coasters, those rides that we rank really highly; for me, rides that come to mind in this category include phenomenal coasters like Mako, VelociCoaster, Silver Star, Hagrid's and Iron Gwazi, amongst others! Often, there will be a common thread running through our favourite coasters in terms of certain attributes they share to some degree. With this in mind, I'd be interested to know; what do you generally favour in a coaster? What makes a coaster good for you? What kind of coaster elements and attributes really tick your boxes? Personally, I'm going to answer this through both an analytical and instinctive lens. L…

Twenty-five years ago, Thorpe Park was a completely different place to today. It was a much more family-oriented park with no inverting rides, only two roller coasters and more in the way of gentle rides and educational experiences. Chessington on the other hand had more in the way of intense rides at the time with Vampire, Rameses Revenge, Rodeo and the newly opened Rattlesnake. The latter was definitely considered to be the most thrilling of the Surrey theme parks throughout the ‘90s. 1998 was the year Tussauds Group purchased Thorpe, although I have been wondering whether they always had vision to swap the target audiences of Chessington with Thorpe, and wh…

Hi guys. In the UK theme park industry, Merlin theme parks are a very dominant force, and this is arguably most apparent in the arena of roller coaster hardware. If you were to ask an average enthusiast what their favourite UK coaster is, there’s a good chance that it would be at a Merlin theme park, and I dare say that most people’s UK top 10s would be relatively saturated with Merlin-operated coasters, with parks like Alton Towers and Thorpe Park in particular arguably having two of the UK’s most revered thrill coaster selections. With this in mind, I’d be intrigued to know; what is your favourite UK coaster not located at a theme park operated by Merlin Entertainments?…

Hi guys. Over the years, I’m sure that most of us have done a number of coasters and a number of parks quite a few times. With this in mind, I’d be interested to know; what are your most ridden coasters and your most visited parks? For me, my answer to these questions would not have been exhaustive and exact until a couple of days ago. I always started my coaster and park counts and visit log from an arbitrary “enthusiasm start date” of 28th September 2013, the day I rode Alton Towers’ big coasters for the first time, as my recollections of exact orders and dates before that was spotty. However, my dad recently found an old hard drive with all of my parents’ p…