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It actually feels like there's more closures than there actually are. A lot of them are closed and relocated because their respective parks have closed for example. Desert Race - Operational no issues Formula Rossa - Remains closed, rumoured that its launch system is damaged. Has been down since February and the park have been very coy about what's actually going on Furius Baco - Operational, no issues (beyond being an atrocious rollercoaster) Kanonen - Relocated to the USA as Matugani Kingda Ka - Rust in Pieces Rita - Operational, no issues Senzafito - Closed down due to the park closing completely. Now in Canada and converted to LSM launch. Skycar - Operational no issues Speed Monster - Operational, no issues Stealth - Operational, no issues Storm Runner - Operational, no issues Superman The Escape - Operational, no issues Top Thrill Dragster - I mean.. I'm not delivering lectures on this. Xcelerator - It's currently operational. It spent over a year closed and under refurbishment and opened at the end of last year. Zaturn - Park it was located at in Japan closed down, and the ride now sits in pieces in Russia. I wouldn't worry about Stealth or Rita to be honest. As some of the later models, the technology is slightly perfected from the originals and I would say the reliability of both rides is far better than their American counterparts.

To put more in there they'd have needed to bin Depth Charge as well. Which isn't happening. The park needs more spaces to breathe and has done for years. Might even be something they can offer for evening entertainment in summer months for hotel guests. I've always felt that this was the best solution for the area. Better than a beach that is never used.

I've just come across this document which does confirm this area will be accessible before the park opens. 'The proposed new seating and gathering area will provide a location for visitors to dwell when they arrive in the morning prior to the rides opening, and after they have passed through the ticket kiosks and security/bag check. This will assist in reducing queues and improve guest experience.' It also states that the stage will host up to 18 shows/events over the season in addition to the entertainment already provided. So sounds like they're planning additional events over summer maybe? I know they used to hold some concert type events (back in 2015/16 maybe) unsure how successful they were? 'In addition, it is proposed that the stage will host up to 18 shows/events over the season for bands where the music will be louder and more like a concert format (capacity of 2,000 guests). These events will take place through the year. To protect residential amenity, noise levels will be reduced at 11pm to the pre-agreed park levels.' 'The only new activities will comprise up to a maximum of 18 days per annum where events can take place up to 95dBA within the audience area. These events will be carefully managed and will end at 11:00pm.'

I know its early but thought it would be good to keep conversation of 2025 separate. Opening hours for the 2025 have been released already. https://www.thorpepark.com/plan-your-visit/before-you-visit/opening-times/ - Season will start on Friday 28th March and end on Sunday 2nd November. - Continuation of 5pm closes for off peak weekdays, 6pm for holidays and every weekend. - Couple of closed Wednesdays during April and May but they were very quiet this year. - 7pm closes throughout the summer holidays and every Saturday from mid June. - September has a couple of closed Wednesdays. - Park will be closed in October except for Fright Night dates + Thurs 2nd which will likely be press night. Fright nights has the exact same amount of nights and structure to 2024. Overall, they're pretty good and very similar to this years apart from some extra closed days, which were all very quiet this year. Its good to see they haven't been cut with the uncertainty around merlin at the moment. Of course they are subject to change but I've never seen Thorpe reduce their opening hours once published. I would love to see the return of some 9pm closes in summer and 10pm for Fright Nights, or even trial a later opening and closing time for Fright Nights so we have more time in the dark.

If an Easter Egg is a put up in a forest and no one understands it correctly, is it still a Easter Egg?

I visited a few weeks ago on a Monday and Last Night (The 3rd) and here is my honest thoughts. No holding back here lol. Stitches: This is my favourite maze of the 4. I find Stitches very eerie to walk through and both run throughs I had were both very lively. I love some of the disgusting costumes like the oversized teddy bear, the puppet doll, and the gorilla. The actors also seemed more than happy to play off the already creepy vibe and give great startle scares. I found the scares varied and energetic on both runs, and the finale seemed a lot better than last year and managed to really work on both runs. Stitches is a long, well themed, and unique maze that should be kept for longer. Survival Games: I had one run with no separation and on my second I was alone for the first half. In the arena on both times I found myself in a conga line of people and no actors in sight. The conga lines slowly lingered towards the exit, the conga line on both runs meandered to the end casually strolling through the equally flat finale. P*ss poor. I hope it goes next year as this year it just felt dead. The arena on both times just felt stuffed full of people and no actors to cause chaos- the arena is bloody lifeless now and it completely makes this maze a disaster. Trailers: This maze has grown on me over the years. It is not the scariest maze but I feel it has a nice variety of scares, mostly good theming, and the casts do really shine in here. Even though we caught up with the group in front the actors still managed to power their way through our group. The acting quality was really high and I liked the new buckwheat scene. The new scenes are honestly a bit lacking in theming but the Platform and Creek actors both were totally great in their rooms which helped me forget. My conclusion is Trailers is a good maze that belongs in the line-up even if just for being a fun concept with some cool ideas. Deadbeat: Deadbeat is a frustrating mess of an attraction. I like the idea of the theme but I feel the design really is a let down with this one. The concept is cool but walking through it just doesn't make much sense? I find it is a little hard to follow and some rooms I wonder why they are there? It also is strange with the multiple slot machine rooms where not much happens, the room with a dancing girl? I think where DeadBeat feels weak for me is seemingly the design for actors. The actors we saw were brilliant but with the loud dance music it made their great scares fall flat. A noise for an actor really I think is an important tool for grabbing those scares but all the actors are fighting against an overly loud soundtrack. I think a more sinister lowkey soundtrack after the initial rooms would be so much better. The maze also seems to lack much in the way of hidey holes, actor runs, and honestly it seemed not very actor friendly. A lot of the actors still made it work but even with brilliant efforts we still walked out thinking it was terrible, and quite frankly I would say it just feels poorly designed. I hope they "Big Top" this as like Survival Games, it was pathetic. To think I paid £10 for either makes me feel sick. Lucifer's Lair/Creature Campus: Great talent here with the shows. Both bring a lot to the park and the atmosphere, and I hope both of these are here to stay. I like the variety that Lucifer brings, and I feel like it gives Fright Nights a real meaty catalogue of stuff to see. Bored? Head to Lucifer's Lair there probably is something going on now or soon. Crows: Though not too long and not many actors, The Crows were enjoyable. I do think a full scale maze would be really brilliant if it brought back. I do think it is worse than last year for sure in regards to amount of actors. Overall: Good event with honestly very mixed opinions on mazes. Stitches and Trailers I feel like gives me hope but if DeadBeat is the new style we are getting, I want to get off the train lol!

There had been a fair amount of discourse about the "Final Beach Party" poster that appeared by DeadBeat... With the date being today, last day for season, and time being advertised as "8.25pm". There were some people expecting something to happen on the Beach at that time. There was a small gathering of people by the Beach at this time, but actors from the Creature Campus dance show told people the party had relocated to Stealth. At 8.30pm, the final Creature Campus show of the season played out as normal, no additions. Now, with work currently happening to dig up the Beach, it seems like something is happening there. And the aim of the poster is to tell us the Beach is going, with the time of "8.25pm" being a nod to "20.25", ie it being replaced for the 2025 season. Seems like it didn't gather enough steam to become an issue. But this is perhaps a cautionary tale for Thorpe to try to not be too clever with their Easter eggs... Also, does again seem to suggest we're seeing a Beach replacement in 2025. Again, with no indication of plans submitted, no tease beyond what we've got, and the location we have, I expect we're not in for a new ride. Flattening out the area and turning into a space for the stage, with permanent seating, would be a good option in my books.

This is a very interesting topic, which has many layers and many moving parts. In short though, I don't think Merlin is a company in trouble. I do think it's a company which is going through many changes, though. Merlin Magic Making There's been a lot of misunderstanding going on about the MMM redundancies going around. What is happening is that Merlin Magic Making Studio North is closing down. Studios North is a studio which produces / builds things for Merlin, located by Alton Towers. It was effectively Merlin's own theming production company. But...Merlin don't use them much. For whatever reasons, it would regularly be cheaper to hire and work with external companies for those things. I don't really understand why. But it's been that way for years. But from small scale things (Alton Towers using Leek Signs to print larger signs) to medium things (Thorpe work with UVE to build Fright Nights mazes) to larger things (the Wicker Man statue for example), Merlin were using their own design studio less and less. There had to come a point where it became questionable for it to exist. It's of course incredibly sad for the staff involved. However, it should be stressed that Merlin Magic Making continues to exist, being the team that is involved in designing new rides for the parks, new experiences for the smaller attractions, etc. Those redundancies aren't making "creatives" (people who design rides) redundant. Another thing: very few theme parks have large dedicated teams to producing theming internally. It's almost always done externally for larger things, or done only for smaller things. Merlin was pretty unique in that. So it's not like they are falling behind or becoming worse compared to other parks / companies. Bear Grylls Adventure Bear Grylls Adventure is an interesting one. It had a good hook and idea, and when I went shortly after it opened, I was impressed with the experience. I do think it struggled to be marketed correctly though. Another thing, which most are likely unaware: Bear Grylls is incredibly popular in China. His 'brand', for lack of a better word, is huge. And, as we know, 10 years ago, Merlin was significantly interested in the Chinese market. In short, Bear Grylls Adventure opened in Birmingham as a tester attraction, so Merlin could learn how to operate it and maximise money in the Chinese market. The UK is a safer bet for the company to test things out, and easy for them to get people through the door (thanks to the Merlin Annual Pass). They did similar with Shrek's Adventure in London, and the Peter Rabbit Play experience in Blackpool. That does mean, however, the Merlin experiments with their "Gateway" (new name for "Midway") Attractions are clear to see for the UK market, including the associated failures. Gateway Closures In terms of closures of other Gateway Attractions, I'm aware of the following: -Little Big City Berlin and SeaLife Berlin -Madame Tussauds San Francisco I can offer a little bit of insight here. Little Big City is in a prime real estate position, located at the Berlin TV Tower. The rent is astronomical. It has done well for a number of years. However, it will struggle in Berlin in the current economic climate (where people are spending less). Berlin has lots of free sight-seeing things you can do, and many people will visit for the historical value of the city, or for the nightlife. With people spending less, LBC is a lot lower down on people's lists. Sea Life is located just round the corner, so again, hugely expensive, and again, will suffer the same issues as Little Big City. Berlin Dungeons will be attractive to people who visit Berlin, though, so that should be safe. San Francisco is a difficult market, and was interested at a time when Merlin were really pushing their expansion plans. It was seen as a risk, in the sense of "let's try, and if we fail, oh well, at least we've tried". That's the level of power and money Merlin have to play with. It should be said as well that there have been new Gateway Attractions that have opened in recent years too. Peppa Pig Theme Parks (which are more like big theme park areas) are doing well. Legoland Discovery Centre Brussels opened in 2022 and has been one of the most successful LDCs to date (possibly the most successful, I'm a little out of the loop there). Of course, the closures of attractions are awful for the staff that work there, but on the topic of Merlin as a company, I don't think it's as bad as it sounds when you just list out all the closures. Sea Lifes There are rumours - and I stress, just rumours - that the new CEO of Merlin is not a fan of zoos and aquaria. Those rumours don't make it clear whether that's from a business standpoint or a personal/moral standpoint. Regardless of the reason why, if that rumour is true, we could well see more Sea Life Centres close / be sold out of the Merlin estate. Two Big Issues This ramble about closing attractions has highlighted two major points which are very relevant to why Merlin are in the position they are currently in: 1. The economic landscape / the cost of living crisis, giving people much less disposable income 2. Merlin's shift in strategy and having to make large changes To address the second point first: as said, Merlin wanted to become the most visited theme park company in the world. To do that, they were expanding and expanding, and trying new markets, seeing what was happening and what would work. Inevitably, some would work, some wouldn't. And the ones that wouldn't, would have to close. San Francisco is a key example. Some of their Chinese ventures is another. But of course, dealing with those closures has financial implications which will be felt. On top of that, Merlin spent a long time looking into expanding in China. The Covid pandemic put a huge dent into those plans actually. On top of that, some of their early ventures out there stumbled through, meaning they had to spend longer sorting that out. However, they still have Legoland parks opening out there, with Legoland Shanghai opening next year Legolands The Legolands around the world have had mixed success. -Legoland Malaysia (opened in 2012) has done pretty well -Legoland Dubai (2016) does well in context of the UAE (and is technically owned by another company) -Legoland Japan (2017) opened in a poor location and has struggled. -Legoland New York (2021) was another poor location, and opening post-Covid and in a cost of living crisis has meant it's done poorly. -Legoland South Korea (2022) I know the least about, but again I imagine struggles right now because of the worldwide landscape. The Chinese Legolands (Shanghai and Sichuan) have been under development for a long time, and are in good locations. There's been a thirst and demand for Legolands in the country for a long time, and I believe Merlin learnt many lessons from Japan and New York, along with their previous ventures in China. From my understanding of those projects, I genuinely believe they have a huge chance of being very successful. But, there is a chance that the theme park boat has sailed in China now...certainly the expansion of parks, and attractions within parks, has slowed post-Covid. We will see. Cost of Living This is the big kicker. The entertainment and visitor attraction industry is being hit hard right now. Some parks are doing better than others, of course. But everywhere is feeling the squeeze. That should be acknowledged. Aramark I obviously can't provide any evidence, but I am under the impression that despite Aramark being a thing, Merlin are still very happy with the amount of money they get via Aramark. And it comes at the added convenience of not having to deal with that industry directly, so I think it is a win-win in their eyes. I completely agree that the price of food has spiralled and is too much in many - but not all - instances. At the same time, many theme parks have very expensive food options (Plopsaland and the Plopsa parks have more expensive and worse quality food than anything I've had at Merlin parks, for example). Compaigne des Alpes parks (Walibi and Parc Asterix) are quite expensive too, but broadly has the quality to much. The quality is a mixed bag. Thorpe's food offering is, in my opinion, better and more diverse now than it was in the years preceding Aramark coming in. Towers has gotten noticeably worse. Chessington and Legoland roughly the same. I'd say they're mostly all worse than, say, 15 years, but I wonder if that's a general industry trend. I do hope that Merlin/Aramark can address the cost of food. I appreciate it is hard to do so when prices are going up everywhere, but it is too much now, and I know plenty of people who bring their own food to parks these days. Universal I think I'm in a minority with this opinion, but I think that Universal coming to the UK will do nothing but good things for Merlin. I think that Legoland Windsor and Thorpe in particular will reap the most benefits. Universal, in all of its locations, is a premium product. As such, it comes at a premium price. Day tickets in the triple digits. I wouldn't be surprised if Universal GB has an Annual Pass costing £700. Compare that to Merlin's Annual Pass costing £200ish for multiple parks and loads of other attractions, and people will go "well, that's not bad". People will still visit Universal, of course, but they will see the value in Merlin when they can get an Annual Pass for the same price as a 2-3 day ticket. Yes, Universal's premium product will outshine Merlin's products. But people maybe won't mind that if the price is noticeably cheaper? And, plenty of people will come from abroad for Universal. Europeans will rather go to the UK than Orlando I'm sure. Plenty will fly into Heathrow and travel from there. I can certainly see people be happy to "add on" a day or two into London/Windsor, and potentially Legoland as a result. Those interested in theme parks more particularly will see Thorpe and consider that too. Obviously, that depends on how Thorpe play their cards with marketing, but they can definitely try and capitalise. I think the biggest issue will be in the short term when Universal look to hire staff. Not necessarily Creatives / Directors, as they'll come from people within the company already, but your Upper Managers, Engineers, Department Managers Team Leaders, etc. Heck, even your hosts. I'm sure there's plenty of staff within Merlin who are looking at Universal and going "I'd be happy to move towards Bedford and work for Universal. Even if I get paid the same, I'll get free tickets to Universal". And Universal will be happy to have people from within the UK with that experience come work for them. It will balance out, but could hit hard as it opens up. I'm making an assumption here that Universal will be a premium park with a premium price tag. Maybe they'll change for the UK market and offer something more in line with Merlin parks in terms of price. But when they've got a huge name to uphold, maybe not. But yeah, I genuinely think that Universal opening in the UK will offer nothing but good things for the UK theme park industry and for Merlin. Are Merlin in trouble? I think Merlin are going through many changes and have issues. That comes from the economic climate, the recent changes at the top and more. And there are a lot of changes behind the scenes (I'm aware of some redundancies that happened at a corporate level over the summer). I don't think it spells bad news for the wider company right now though.

This year I decided to track all of my rides on Hyperia, over the course of the season, I managed to experience 92 rides. It is interesting to note that it took me my 33rd ride to get the front row (and 34th to get my other missing row which was Row 4), and then by the end of the season the front was my second most ridden row behind the back row.

Just returned from my first Efteling/Phantasialand trip. Will write a full report at some point once I've recovered, however Danse Macabre is incredible!

I think I'm done for the year to be honest. First off the new rides of 2024 list. This won't include Nemesis Reborn cos.. well it isn't all new. Coaster enthusiasm is complicated. 1. Voltron. An incredible ride, fully kicks your arse, full of ejector time and a sheer masterclass of ride design. 2. Taiga. A true bucket list ride and it delivered on every level. By far my favourite Intamin, this is just absolute excellence. 3. Fury 325. I really enjoyed Fury 325. I see why people call it their favourite B&M because it is an excellent ride. So so fast. 4. Afterburn. A very under-rated inverter. It's a very European style B&M with no MCBR and very intense. 5. Thunderhead. I loved this ride so much. It was honestly such a surprise to me because it's full of air-time, long and twisty and so re-ridable. I could have ridden all day 6. Hyperia. This probably wouldn't be so high if it wasn't for it being in the UK to be honest. It really lacks that final something that the very best rollercoasters have. I find it more and more frustrating the more I ride. 7. Copperhead Strike. I was a little surprised at how much I enjoyed Copperhead to be honest. It has some bizarre pacing but it is a lot of fun. 8. Aerieforce One. The joy of this ride is that it's very easy to ride. Literally no one visits this park so you can get a quick ten rides in an hour and then be on your way. It's a great RMC and surprisingly high on my list. 9. Goliath (Six Flags over Georgia). Fantasic B&M. Has a lot of ejector air time and a really vicious ending that I LOVED. Its worth a visit to over Georgia for this ride alone. 10. La Fianna Force. I'd heard how great this ride was and.. it is. It's so well paced and jam packed with intensity. The restraints are so freeing and un-restricting. You'll love it like I did. And finally.. the top ten of 2024. 1. Steel Vengeance (first ridden 2018). Yes.. the top ride for 2023 remains my favourite. We had several rides back in July and it more then lived up to my memory. We had some incredible rides with people we met in the queue for this during our night rides. They were so much fun. American theme parks just sort of.. encourage talking. This happened a lot. 2. Nemesis Reborn. (first ridden in 2024 or 2004 depending on your point of view). Nemesis has slipped to number two for the simple reason that Vengeance is just better. Nemesis Reborn still lives up to the original. I think it's astounding that it's just picked up where the original left off. I don't feel the roughness, I just sit there and enjoy a masterpiece of rollercoaster design. No other Inverter is so loved and respected. I saw this described as a legacy coaster. And it really is. 3. Ride to Happiness. (first ridden in 2022). This felt like Mack really giving it their all. Well it did at the time. This is a spectacular ride which rides differently every single time. I'm looking forward to going back and riding again. 4. Voltron (first ridden in 2024). I think Voltron is outstanding. It's already my top ride from the new for 2024. But it really is incredible and confirms to me that Mack are at the forefront of rollercoaster design. Any park that buys a Mack deserves to be noticed and rides like Voltron are why. 5. Taiga. (first ridden in 2024). Following up from before, I love Taiga. it's my favourite Intamin because it has an outstanding layout that constantly surprises. I love diving up and down the hillside, the ejector air time, the beautiful blue track winding around itself. Linnamaki is so easy to get to so I shall be back.. 6. Toutatis (first ridden in 2023). Another excellent Intamin slipping only slightly. I find Toutatis so unbelievably rerideable and so much fun. Pack Asterix run it superbly which really helps. A must do. 7. Fury 325. (First ridden in 2024). What I really appreciated about Fury was the operations. Cedar Fair can be a hit and miss with their operations. Fury was the ride that did operations right with an engaged and efficient ride crew that went out of their way to fill every seat and keep the queue moving. 8. Baron 1898. (First ridden in 2017). This of course isn't the best B&M dive machine ever with its chill heights and short layout. but the theme just sells to me every single time. Their dedication to still doing the train ticket loading is amazing because other parks would have ditched that years ago. It always delivers as well, with the ride being slightlier punchier every time I go. 9. Wildcats Revenge (First ridden in 2023). A fantastic RMC that went surprisingly under the radar when it was being constructed but has sometime how opened to be a full on favourite. 10. Blue Fire (First ridden in 2010). This ride somehow still stands up. Its still smooth, its still run more efficiently then any other rollercoaster I've ever ridden. It's not as impressive to me as it once was but that's purely because Mack are at a whole different level. But without Blue Fire, we wouldn't have Voltron, Copperhead or Ride to Happiness. See ya in 2025

Day 2 - Parc Asterix Next up was Parc Asterix. A big bucket list park for me, and it didn’t disappoint. It was quite pricey at €62 for entry and €20 for parking. The park had their halloween event on which I didn’t look into at all before visiting, as I was mainly going for the coasters. Park hours were open 9 - 6 and then re-open 7-1am on selected nights. On nights they don’t open late its 10 - 7. I opted to just go during the day as I was making this trip as cost effective as possible, and staying till 1am would’ve meant buying another entry ticket and another night in a hotel. I was really unsure how busy it was going to be as it was the French holidays, and all their halloween nights were sold out. Thursday was also incredibly busy. The park offers filotomatix which is their fastrack service which uses the same system seen at Chessie and Legoland. Different tiers are available, but I decided to buy the bronze option which was only €20, which allowed me to virtually queue for 9 attractions. Turns out I didn’t really need this as it was one of the quietest days during the halloween period so far! I arrived at the park just before opening. And was greeted with this huge crowd being held. Bang on 9am, the crowd started to disperse and there was lots of running. So I joined in. I had no clue where anything was as I had done no prep but I followed the majority of people assuming they were running to Toutatis, overtaking a lot of Frenchies on the way. Sure enough, I could see Toutatis’ top hat in the distance and an empty train going round. Got straight in the front row queue and only had 6 people in front of me. The station building is awesome. One of my favorite stations ever. Great atmosphere in there too, with the dispatch sequence, and with the train going straight into a drop and a launch you get a lot of screams too. Noticed it was just running 2 trains, but ops were good and soon enough I had my first ride. Similar to RTH the day before, I came off my first ride feeling very ‘meh’. It was good, but I wasn’t blown away like I was expecting to be. I was going to go straight back on via the SRQ but noticed this was closed, so instead I went to the back of the park to Oziris, another bucket list coaster for me. Advertised at 5 mins, I also went straight into the front row queue and was on in about 10 mins. Absolutely loved this. The theme, the plaza and the area is all great too, and thats the first time I've come off an invert questioning if that was better than Nemesis. Throughout the day I came to the conclusion I still prefer Nemesis overall, but its close. Next, I did Tour de Numérobis, which was new for 2024, a starflyer. I noticed this tends to get high queues and it wasn’t included on the filotomatix so I could get it done early with no queue. I did this to try get an idea of the rest of the park, but the park has lots of trees and with this located in the corner I didn’t really see a lot. Was a good ride though, same as Flamingo lands the whole tower spins, this one had more seats though and airgates around the ride too. I jumped back in the queue for Oziris and waited around 10 minutes, and requested the back row which was honored. Again, brilliant ride. Noticed the SRQ was closed on this too for some reason. This one turned out to be closed all day. I wandered round the rest of the park and then could see Goudurix and Tonnerre 2 Zeus in the distance. I had a virtual queue to use for these but my thinking was if I could get these done now with little queues, I could use the virtual queue for a 2nd ride later on once it's busier. First up was Goudurix. Was quite interested in this, never got to do corkscrew at Towers and it has a reputation of being very rough. But I enjoyed it to be honest, nothing special. I loved the plaza for this. Very open area and partly over a lake. A lot of space for a new coaster once that time comes. Looking very spooky with a smoke machine infront. Operations were amazing on this. Smashing the trains out. Next up was Tonnerre 2 Zeus, which also has a reputation of being quite rough. This was advertised at 25 mins, but ended up taking 45 with a bit of downtime. My longest queue of the day by far. Worth noting, this was the only bit of downtime I saw at the 2 parks over the 2 days. No messing around either, no empty trains needed once back in operation. Had a mid train ride and quite enjoyed it. It was a little rattly but didn’t find it particularly rough, and had decent airtime. I would’ve loved to have tried the backwards seat but that was removed for this year unfortunately. Would’ve loved to have tried it with its previous trains too. Also in the area is another amazingly themed Zamperla Disk'o, this one has a fire effect too. I didn't bother with this due to a large queue and wasn't included with the fasttrack I had. I was itching to get back on Toutatis to give it another go, and this time the SRQ was open too. Was so interesting just watching the station, organized chaos, but it works. Having staff walking up and down the airgates with trolleys for bags (while people are trying to get to their allocated rows) is hilarious, but it works and means they can seriously speed up ops. Within 15 mins I was at the airgate, row 6 this time. They then sent a couple of empty trains, and engineers were present so I thought they may be adding the 3rd train. Turns out they were just swapping one. Not sure how often it runs 3? Maybe due to the extended opening hours they just switch between them so they have 2 available at all times? Anyway. Soon enough normal service resumed and I had my ride. And WOW. What a difference from earlier. Had a huge smile the whole way round. That swing launch is absolutely incredible. I’m not the biggest fan of the first section before the swing launch, and I don’t particularly like the top hat either, the trims really kill it. But the rest of the layout is amazing and has some of the best ejector I've ever experienced. On that swing launch, its hilarious just watching other peoples heads move back and forward. Its so aggressive. Some of the most aggressive airtime I've experienced. I had a little wonder round the rest of the area and had a look at the Nebula, which is raised up in its own little area. It had no queue and I’d never done one before so gave it a go. Better than I thought it was going to be, but nothing amazing. It fits in with the area really well though, and you get good views of Toutatis. It has airgates too for speedy ops. I then did the Rapids and grabbed a bite to eat. The rapids were alright, short layout but had a few water effects and splashes. Before having my lunch I got in the virtual queue for Pégase Express, the parks Gerstlauer family coaster which was 30 mins. A good little family coaster but nothing amazing. The backwards section was my favorite bit, pretty forceful. I loved the Greek area though and the interaction with the rapids. Great ops too, running 4 trains they were smashing them out. I then got in the virtual queue for Trace du Hourra (the parks Mack Bobsleigh) and had a little wander around. Once I got there I noticed it dropped to 10 mins, so I got in the main queue and then used to the virtual queue after so had 2 quick rides, a backrow and front row. Decent ride but I prefer Avalanche at Blackpool, much more intense. Crazy good operations though, running 5 trains and commonly had 2 trains going up the lift hill at the same time. The airgates and restraints fling open before the train even parks in the station which is hilarious, and bags on the ride means no messing around with that either. I joined the virtual queue for Oziris which was 30 mins and I was obviously back in the Toutatis area so it would be rude to not have a ride. Went for the SRQ again and was on in less than 10 minutes. At this point I was addicted, so I canceled my Oziris virtual queue and was lapping the SRQ. I thought I was in for a busy day so couldn't quite believe I was lapping it getting on within 10 mins. Ended up having another 5 rides on it on multiple different rows, including the back. Was really really enjoying it. I was thinking about where I rank it, its in my top 3 but its not a Kondaa beater for me purely because of the top hat and the weak start. But the swing launch and aggressive airtime is phenomenal, and watching others reactions was hilarious. Great ride. Eventually, I pulled myself away from it and used my virtual queue for Oziris and got straight on the front row. I loved the drop into this pit. You get a little splash of water too. I had a look at the SRQ which was still closed, and as I was walking round I noticed a scare maze in the corner which had no queue. As I previously said, I hadn’t looked into the halloween stuff at all, I didn’t know if the mazes were a night only thing or additional cost. But had a chat with the staff at the entrance who told me it was free, and got straight in the next group, there was only about 5 of us. It was called ‘Le tombeau des Dieux’ which means ‘The Tomb of the Gods’ in French, and it was 1 of 2 new scare attractions for this year. Now this was brilliant. Hands down the best scare attraction I've done in a long long time. It was a similar format to what we have here, the normal spiel from staff outside then inside the first room the actor had a mic where he set the scene of the maze. It was quite amusing doing a maze not understanding a single word anyone was saying. But I didn’t need to understand. The pre show ended with the lights going out and a jump scare effect, then I was in the maze. It was pretty dark, had lots of jumps and lots of actors. I then came across an area with what I thought was just a water fountain, and the floor was really wet. Then, an actor came out of the water! AN ACTOR WAS LAYING DOWN HIDING IN THE WATER. The most bizarre thing I've ever seen in a maze and really caught me off guard. It had a strong ending with actors coming from all angles, sides and from above. The whole thing was well themed and was most probably the best scare attraction I've ever experienced. Actors were fairly touchy. I then did Storm surges sister L’Oxygenarium. Great ops as it benefits from a larger station, 2 in offload and 2 load. It was pretty dull though, no music and theming was all looking quite old and tacky. I then came across 2 other mazes which both were displaying 5 minute queues. First up was Mission perdue which required 3d glasses. It was decent but nothing amazing. The 3d glasses made it quite trippy and it featured lots of clowns, moving walls, air cushions and the ending scene was a load of dolls similar to the ending on stitches. Great use of the 3d glasses though with lots popping out at you and fake steps. Catacombs was up next. Waited about 10 minutes for this one, but had an actor walking up and down the queue which was entertaining. This one was great. It looked like it was in a temporary building but once again the theming was excellent. Lots of tunnels and crawl spaces and very dark. One of the tunnels had water dripping on you from above. Actors all over the place and grabbing you from holes in walls. Was a strong maze! I continued walking round the park and walked into a castle which is part of the footpath, and there was a load of roaming actors too. My favorite was a guy with a chainsaw who was drawing a big crowd, and 2 people dressed up as spiders hiding in darkness in a castle. 1 of them was hanging off a web, and there was another on the floor, and as people walk near they move and make people jump. Was hilarious, and creates a great atmosphere walking round the park. Next I did Zeus again on the backrow, I used my virtual queue for this and was straight on. Again, really enjoyed this. I noticed they have a spare queue into the station which I assume used to be the queue for the backwards seat, would be cool if they turned that into a SRQ. I then came across another maze, this was the 2nd new one for this year and it was €5, the only upcharge maze which was intriguing. Got straight in, and was in a group of 3 for this one. There was an actor in the queue who jumped out as I went round the corner with a mic. Had to just awkwardly smile at him as no idea what he was saying. There seemed to be more actors in here, who were very touchy and grabby and constantly blocked me in my path, splitting us up, and followed throughout the maze. Once again amazing theming and sets throughout, came across another actor who was in water who was pulling me in, and eventually splashed and soaked me. It wasn’t till I came out I realized how soaked I was, more than what I got from the water rides. Was a great maze but didn’t top that first one I did. Next I did the log flume, was straight on this with my virtual queue although did take me a while to find the entrance! Was a good flume, and had good views of construction of the new coaster construction. I also noticed the tea cups next door seemed to have a halloween makeover so went and checked that out after. They had put walls up to make it dark and added a smoke machine and lights! Simple things like this go a long way, no reason why Thorpe or Towers couldn’t do something similar with theirs. It was coming towards the end of the day so I went towards Toutatis but unfortunately the SRQ had been closed and the main queue was overflowing out the entrance. I had a ferry to catch and didn’t want to risk it so I gave it a miss. I finished my day doing the final cred, Vol D'Icare which had no queue which was a kids Zierer Hornet coaster, then did a re-ride on Pégase Express as it had no queue. I didn’t realize the first time but you get wet from the show scene on this. I then grabbed some food, and set off to get the ferry back home. I had a great day, got on 23 rides including 7 on Toutatis and 4 mazes throughout the day. I had no intention of doing any mazes to be honest but I got more done than I thought, and after how good that first one was I thought it would be rude not to try some of the others. Parc Asterix is one of my favorite parks. It has a great selection of rides, great ops and overall is just a very pleasant place to be. Their halloween event is strong, I’m surprised I hadn’t really seen much about it before. The 4 mazes I did were all strong, and there was lots going on around the park too. I didn’t watch any of the shows, but the park was decorated really well and there was lots of roamers and cool sets. Great day, one of my favorite days at a theme park this year and I will 100% be back!

Last week I decided to do a couple of European parks for the first time, Plopsaland and Parc Asterix. Ride To Happiness has been high on my bucket list for a long time and I've always wanted to do Asterix, especially since Toutatis opened. I looked at a few different options, originally I was going to do Walibi Holland and Efteling too but doing this solo meant it would’ve been quite expensive, and I didn’t know how comfortable I was going to be driving in Europe on my own. Another option I looked at was Liseberg but flights from Gatwick were about £200 for a return, so I could do Plopsa and Parc Asterix for the same price as 1 day/night at Liseberg. I knew it was the holidays but looking at the queues in previous years, that week didn’t seem particularly busy. Day 1 - Plopsaland I set off around 5am for the 8:15am ferry over to Calais, which arrived in Calais for 11am, aiming to get to Plopsa for 12ish. I could’ve got an earlier one to get there for opening, but it was open till 7pm and I've heard you didn’t really need a full day there anyway, and I didn’t want to knacker myself out too much. I’d heard that food and drinks were very expensive at Plopsa so I went to the supermarket a couple of mins away to grab myself some lunch before I went in. I drove past Plopsa to get to the supermarket and realized how close it was, so I decided to leave my car parked at the supermarket and walk to the park (took about 5 mins) which saved me 15 euros on parking. I got to the park at about 12:15, and there was obviously 1 ride I was going to go for first, Ride to Happiness. First impressions of the park were nice, the entrance plaza was cool. On my way over, I noticed there was some work taking place on Heidi on the turnaround section so it was looking unlikely that it was going to open. Turns out it had actually been closed all month, but reopened the day after I went, on the Friday. I wasn’t too fussed about not getting on it, the main reason for visiting was Ride to Happiness and with the park being very easy to get to I’ll most probably be back there at some point anyway. I love the plaza and the area music, very calming. The food unit did have pop music playing though which was a shame though. Brilliant theming in the queue, it was running 1 train but only queued around 10 minutes, I went straight for the backrow which is normally my favorite seat on most coasters. The trains are comfy, and it was interesting to see the bars come down automatically so there was no need for the staff to check restraints. The trains also have an onboard sound track and lighting. I came off my first ride feeling very meh. It was good, and different to any coaster I've done before, and absolutely loved the on-board soundtrack, that really added to it. But was I blown away? Absolutely not. Didn’t live up to the hype for me at all. After that I decided to have a wander around the rest of the park, did the log flume and Drakk the parks mack powered coaster which were good. Dinosplash the log flume was cool, although the water was an interesting color… Next I did Nachtwacht Flyer which is the parks Starflyer, as I thought it would be a good way to see the rest of the park, and then went onto do Anubis, a Gerstlauer launch coaster. I did go past a couple of other little coasters but these had large queues so decided to go back to them later. Anubis has a brilliant station building and indoor queue line, running 2 trains with no queue. This was a good little coaster, the launch is very snappy and the top hat is great, however the ending is a little dull. It was very smooth for a Gerstlauer. I did the Superspash as I noticed people didn’t look particularly wet, which just consisted of a lift, drop and then a slow return to the station. The lift is quite cool though. I also did the Big Wave which was the parks Disk’O coaster. This was the best themed one I've ever seen, even had a little water feature on it and had great interaction with the nearby Splash battle. At this point I had pretty much done the rest of the park so I went back to the Ride To Happiness, this time I went for the front row. Now, this absolutely blew me away, completely different to my ride earlier. I was laughing and smiling to myself the whole way round, and the hangtime you get on that first inversion on the front car is great. It's rare I prefer a ride on the front row but getting pushed into the airtime moments and other elements on this was better in my opinion. The rest of the day just consisted of lapping this, with the occasion ride on Anubis. It didn’t really build up much of a queue all day and in total managed to get on it over 20 times. Operations were okay, but with no batcher and no effort from the staff to fill up seats there were a lot going round empty. I even had a car of 4 to myself at one point even though there was a queue. The queue was around 10 minutes most of the day and peaked about 30 minutes at one point. At first I wasn’t really taking empty seats due to the language barrier but as the day went on, I got more confident getting on earlier trains taking empty seats which saved a lot of time with it being on 1 train. Each ride I was laughing the whole way round, and left me smiling on the brake run. Every single ride is different no matter where you sit, and experiencing all the different elements facing a different way each time is so fun. Its so re-rideable, the front car was definitely my favorite. The airtime at the end of the ride is brilliant. Everyone is so happy on the break run and the on board soundtrack fits it perfectly. It is a little inconsistent though, and some rides on it are better than others. The queue closed at 7pm, and the staff kindly let me stay in the station for a few rides taking empty seats. Sunset rides on this were brilliant, it didn’t quite get a dark ride but the area looks brilliant in the dark. Lots of great lighting, including lighting on the train too. I exited the park, grabbed some dinner and had a 2.5 hour drive to my hotel for the night near Parc Asterix ready for the following morning. Overall, I had a good day. Shame about not getting on Heidi but I'll be back. Plopsaland is a charming little park, and although I was originally a little disappointed with Ride to Happiness I finished the day absolutely loving it. Plopsaland is obviously more aimed for kids so without Ride To Happiness I probably wouldn't return, but with how easy it is to get there, I'll definitely be back.

Looks like the park have decided to open Ghost train at 12 instead of 3 on these busy days too which is good, and very much needed.

Happy to say that operations were absolutely night and day to this on Inferno today. All the hosts running to check restraints and the operator was doing the "this train will be leaving in 30 seconds with or without you" constantly. Didn't see a single train stack, and the posted 120 minute queue took just over an hour!

Was at Towers yesterday. It was also the day where a large number of the traveller community visit. All in, it wasn't a bad visit. Certainly better than my summer visit. But between Rita being closed (apparently waiting on a part) and Nemesis being on one train (apparently engineers need to do some addition work to it), Th13teen being temperamental, staggered openings, no Skyride, etc, it wasn't exactly a good visit either. Hex has certainly seen interesting changes. Broadly speaking, it's all a bit too light, and lacking in subtlety. The branch in the main show sequence is lit in what is best described as green Christmas lights for the whole ride, which I found distracting, and the ending has loads of little white lights across the whole room, which is a bit...eh. The park are really limping through to the end of season. I didn't visit until May, so I can't comment on what it was like at the start of the season, but I do wonder if Nemesis' opening disguised some of shortcomings Towers had anyway this season, and the season has really just taken its toll.

Considering I haven’t really gone out of my way to research it, I’ve read & watched a few things this week that has made me realise how much trouble Merlin seem to actually be in. With a large restructure going on across the business in the coming months, redundancies in Merlin Magic Making which is confirmed to be shutting down soon, the closure of Bear Grills, new projects shelved, 2 brand new Legoland parks having devastating low attendances, the operational cuts we have seen in the UK this season, and multiple midway attractions closing their doors around the world, Merlin seems to have found itself in some trouble. Clearly I am absolutely not a business expert of any sort - but honestly I have to say I am not surprised in the slightest that it’s come to this. Many years of short term decisions, lack of sensible large scale preventative maintenance, and mad decisions to benefit the figures in the immediate short term seem to have left the company in quite a mess. For me one of the biggest and most obvious cock ups has been outsourcing the food to Aramark. Merlin themselves, for years, have boasted that their profit doesn’t come from admission, but instead comes from additional customer spend - things like fastrack, merch and food… But it seems they have made a bit of a mess of the food part. It’s just become far too expensive, and frankly far too disgusting, to buy food from Merlin parks. It’s at the point where it’s actually cheaper to buy food at Disney in many cases than it is to buy it at a local Merlin park. I think one of the other big problems really was that it was on the stock market, meaning everything they did for years had to be done purely to make money for the share holder, no matter what. This (in my humble and inexperienced opinion at least) has really set the company up poorly for the future, as the money that needed to be invested on the future of the company was instead funnelled off, and decisions were made to improve results in the immediate short term - for example, Aramark 🙄 The other thing for me is the bizarre decisions to build Legoland parks around the world in places that there is no audience for them…. I just can’t, and never have been able to, see the sense behind that at all. This is such a shame. I feel terrible for the staff who have been or will be affected by the poor decisions of the execs who have brought the company to this state - many of whom have since retired of course.. I do hope that there aren’t too many redundancies, and that anyone who is going to be out of work will be snapped up very quickly by another large operator who will hopefully be needing experienced and talented people in the UK very soon. Speaking of which - Universal are very much a company on the climb, while Merlin appear to be in a well established decline… these are interesting times for the industry, especially in the UK. I’d be interested to hear everyone’s thoughts on what you think went wrong, and what you think the future might hold for Merlin?

Firstly you make some really good points, and a well thought out discussion starter. I was surprised to find out quite how many operations Merlin had. As Josh has said there are so many layers and moving parts to an organisation the scale of Merlin, that we must be very careful to understand that at times decisions can be made to move in another direction which can be seen as negative, when in reality it’s simply a reaction to the market or an adjustment. I will try to summarise all my thoughts in a more detailed response but for now I broadly agree with what Josh has said. Aramark joint venture will have been set up with Merlin taking a percentage and an annual fee, and the arrangement is probably very risk free from Merlin’s perspective, although I agree the standard of service is poor and should be carefully monitored by Merlin. MMM is an interesting one. As Josh points out it is studios north that is closing. Now my suspicions are that Merlin are starting to show their hand on the moves they will make to react to Universal. And for me that is a focus shifting to the south parks that stand to benefit from universal. What does that mean? Time will of course tell, but the recent applications for Chessington suggest a shift towards harnessing the family market that Universal will pull to the UK shores, and the hints of the Thorpe hotel and project pivot suggests the park moving to start harnessing the enthusiasts and teen market that universal will create. All of that coupled with project horizon seemingly slipping further to the right suggests a smaller budget being spent in the north, and when you think of universal as a threat or opportunity, geographically it’s probably more of a threat to towers than it is an opportunity. As I’ve said, probably more to add to this tomorrow, but that’s what’s top of my head RN

Out of nowhere (unless you follow the various American vloggers), Kingda Ka and Green Lantern closed permanently on the 11th and have both been retired. To be honest with you I'm really unhappy about the lack of send off, particularly for Ka. This wasn't just another ride, it was the worlds tallest rollercoaster for 20 years and for many, was the last coaster of the 'coaster wars'. There are many, many reasons as to why Kingda Ka's life seemed limited after looking at what happened to Top Thrill Dragster, but nonetheless, it seems incredibly short sighted to me, to not give the ride the goodbye it deserved.

When everyone has RAP, nobody has RAP.

If Thorpe get a Top Spin I will scream and cry and hate life.

That's mad. I don't even recall RAP being a thing on the Blue Light day I went to.

Hoping that this stage and the planning application with 18 late nights means late weekend opening hours for the park in the summer and more night rides!!

Agreed, this looks like a great use of the space! The Beach has always been a very odd area, and only used for part of the year anyway - this new area will be used every day and solve the event space problem.

I personally don’t mind its design and feel. Reminds me a lot of the Barbican and those are some sought after houses. The thing is with Thorpe having a hotel is tricky especially in the off season, with Heathrow so nearby and lots of places avalible for conferences etc it was always seen as a major risk to build a permanent hotel structure. If this does go ahead I wonder if a midway attraction will be built in one of the car park areas or the old farm to make it feel more resorty.

@Cal that's an incredible bargain, however I'm a fake fan and am MAP-less!

One of the over-riding conditions related to the Thorpe Hotel proposal - which has been in place since the park first looked into it almost 20 years ago(!!) - was that they wouldn't have more than 250 hotel rooms on site. I wonder if them looking into a smaller hotel means they're looking at keeping the Shark Cabins (which currently has 90 rooms, but permission for up to 184)? So that way they can have a budget option and a more expensive option. Also, having looked into the planning application a bit more - the current main hotel application is still valid and can be used for development.

Have you got a merlin pass/thorpe pass? If you book a date either side of a closed date in September for 2 people its currently £65 and include unlimited all day fasttrack including on Hyperia. Crazy value seeing as Hyperia 1 shots are currently £20. https://www.thorpepark.com/short-breaks/offers-packages/merlin-holiday-club/

Interesting. The website suggests that the design was to continue in 2023, with construction starting in 2024. It says its subject to planning approval, but no new application related to the hotel has gone in in recent years. They do have permission granted for a hotel on that site, from almost 10 years ago, but I don't know the rules around all that as to whether that'd still be valid. A "proper" hotel should still be on the cards for the park, but it doesn't seem like it will be happening just yet.. Would be nice to be proved wrong. However, what I will say...I don't like the look of those images.

attraction source have reported that a new hotel is in development

Okay honest Tulleys Review from my visit a few weeks back. I visited early on in the season and I found my visit to be really good. I did about 20 maze throughs with two fastracks (just for Purgatory). I think if you are going next year do an early day in the season and you will be shocked at the light crowds. Hayride, Wastelands, Coven, all walk on. Queued 15 minutes for DoomTown and that besides Purgatory, was the only wait. Purgatory: Very Very different maze from Tulleys here. Purgatory uses the haunted lantern technology and uses it pretty well in my opinion. The Nuns in an abandoned manor I thought was a good idea, though theming is a little light compared to stuff like DoomTown. I feel it is a little more psychological compared to the rest of the lineup with a lot of The Nuns stalking you and trailing you, this makes it feel quite distinct. I feel it has some issues like a lack of a finale and some light bleed. These though I think are stuff that can be worked on and the concept itself is good. The VERY small groups that are batched are great, but equally makes the queue very hard. DoomTown: Theming is still just stupidly detailed and it feels very full of actors. 3 years in and I am still wondering how a farm can build a literal 80s town. The theme is just beyond cool and the maze has a lively cast to back it up. Wastelands: Brilliant sets, loads of actors, and generally just a really consistent attraction for me. The outside show is a really fun riot like usual too. Carving: Probably the best use of this space? Adding talking I think helps differentiate this from the other mazes. I love the saw mill at the back, that is a great new set piece. The mazes re-uses some sections but does try to overhaul them. Still a little long for my liking but better than Island. Cellar: Wasn't a fan last year but this year it felt like they gave the actors steriods. It shows what a brilliant cast can do with a space, every little small crack in the wall had an actor popping out on my run throughs. Coven: Some really good scares in here with good pacing, with a kind of slow build up to the fire finale. I do feel some moments in between the main sections could do with some darkening/more theming but it had good actors and a lot of them! Cottage: Not my favourite this year to be honest. I feel like this maze felt a bit empty on my run through, but I guess it is the smallest maze here. Eletrick Circus: A bit hit and miss with the run throughs, but I think it is good fun. Could do with more going on in the middle, but I really like things like the animatronics, the actor staring at you while you hear the announcement, and the lively scares. Haunted Hayride: Went in a half full trailer and it was a total laugh. I love the GhostBusters ending, just silly and fun. Chop Shop: Probably done this too many years now- actors really going for it but I think I am little unfazed by chainsaws now. I did not do Hellements as I kind of know what to expect and Tulleys has so many mazes at this point. Overall a great night and I would say my £45 was well spent with 20 maze run throughs. I paid £16 for Fastrack (£8 each), so I think that's about £3 a maze? I think the value is better than Thorpe. Particularly with actor crammed longer mazes like Wastelands or Doom. Purgatory X2 Carving X3 DoomTownX3 WastelandsX3 EletrickX3 Coven X1 Cellar X2 Chop X1 Cottage X1 Hayride X1

Lucifer's Lair has been an absolute crown jewel of Fright Nights this year. The atmosphere in the area resembles that of a scream park rather than a Halloween event at a theme park. The variety of shows makes it easy to re-visit on the same night, or just pass through. The amount of fire is wonderful. The actors and theme give the opportunity for a more dark humour and adult tone (whilst still keeping it PG given its an event anyone can visit), which isn't something that any other attraction on park achieves. It's been my favourite FN attraction both this year and last. But tonight, when the park was heaving, just to be able to spend time there, watch a couple of the shows and see the electric atmosphere that there was, really does show that this is a superb zone, and I really hope the park continues to run it in future Fright Nights.

Looks good. I'd assume it isn't just a copy and paste job as there would have been some thought about publishing it. I don't think these tend to get finalised until later in the year / early 2025, so we could see some tweaks yet, as well as additions / later closing times like we did this year. But yeah, stable opening times is a win at the moment. Hopefully they can experiment with some later closings over summer, but even if they stay as is, I'm happy with what we've got.

Suppose I should update some of my top 10 stuff, following that Cali trip. Coasters: 1/ Steel Vengeance 2/ Veloci-coaster 3/ Zadra 4/ Toutatis 5/ Mako 6/ X2 7/ Hyperion 8/ Voltron 9/ Hyperia 10/ Nemesis Reborn Dark rides: 1/ Tower of Terror WDW 2/ Rise Of The Resistance 3/ Indiana Jones- Disneyland 4/ Guardians Mission Breakout 5/ Pirates In Batavia 6/ Pirates Of The Caribbean Disney Cali 7/ Forbidden Journey 8/ Phantom Manor 9/ Runaway Railway 10/ Symbolica Theme parks 1/ Europa Park 2/ Universal Orlando 3/ Cedar Point 4/ Disneyland Resort 5/ Phantasialand 6/ Disney World 7/ Energylandia 8/ Six Flags Magic Mountain 9/ Parc Asterix 10/ Disneyland Paris TLDR, Wonder Woman was my 300th coaster.

Hotels for Europa are great but expensive. Depends on budget but Rust is full of B&Bs that are walkable distance to the park. Phantasialand is same situation really.

Looks like a great place! I was a little sad driving past this on the way to Disneyland, should have done a day here on that trip! Maybe next time. Glad you had a good time!

This is true. Then you factor in that out of those rides only Blade and Curse of Alton Manor are open all day as Hex, Granny, Sub terra open at 11 and Battle Galleons closes at Dusk. It really stuck me on Monday how one decision can literally make your entire day. We headed to the Smiler (due to open at 10:30) and at 10:45 it was clear that it wasn't going to open. I've been stung by the Smiler before and we decided to bail. Good move too as it broke down around 1pm and we wouldn't have got our ride, we would have wasted the first three hours completely. We actually headed to Hex, as we got up there, Thirteen went down. Nothing open at all at the back of the park. It was absurd to be honest.

Love this. So glad ride to happiness redeemed itself in the end, as it would have been a long trip for it if it hadn’t!

Plopsa is a lovely little park and RtH has obviously been such a wise move for them. I've been to the park 3 times since its opened and never seen it on 2 trains (which included a trip in the middle of summer and it on a 1hr+ queue...), so hopefully they can operate and maintain it appropriately. Anubis is slept on a bit these days. Good ride. I'm intrigued to see what they do next. Their indoor Bumba World has no doubt filled a gap / extending the offering for younger audiences, but I thought it was a bit rubbish in comparison to the Maya Land, with the dark ride being quite weak. The park could probably benefit from a new, more modern, high throughput 1m restriction coaster. Vekoma/Gerstlauer have good offerings on that front. Big issue I have with Plopsa - as you noted - is the cost. Food is expensive and not good quality. Park tickets are reasonable enough, but then with parking, etc, it's not cheap. I've noticed that they've been doing more UK-focused marketing lately, so they do seem to be capitalising on their location more, so it'll be interesting to see what they do next. Looking forward to your thoughts on Asterix!!

I was there Monday and to be honest had a good day but the problem is, I went in fully knowing it was going to be a disaster. For thousands of others it's incredibly disappointing. I went three weeks ago and everything ran smoothly with no issues at all. The moment a bit of pressure takes place, that's it, the park struggles. With all the ride removals over the last decade, there is no buffer for when things go wrong and the whole of CBeebies land closing at 5 and no Congo River Rapids, it just compounds the issues. Something not really ever mentioned at the time but, at 10am opening day, Nemesis Reborn was really the only rollercoaster open on time. Everything else aside from Wicker Man was delayed opening. And there's no easy fix. I think all of the things Benin mentioned plus extra procedures introduced after the Smiler crash just leads to Towers unable to prevent shutdowns and a quick recovery from them.

Possible regionalised power cut perhaps? Plus Galaticair being it's usual self. Unfortunately until Merlin remove the short-termism mindset things will continue as is. Also shows the issue with a lack of supporting attractions in two of the major areas of the park. Not replacing the Retrosquad attractions was foolish. Especially with the over engineered nonsense they're currently building. Also think that people are pinning too many hopes on Universal shaking things up competitively. It doesn't do much for the regional type parks in the US.

There's plenty of things to say about how the park operates when it's that busy, but from a purely numerical business perspective, it is so good to see the park hitting capacity numbers.

Sold out day today!

I went to Chessington the other day and it was pretty good. I'm just saying this because I had heard the park has been pretty atrocious this year, but actually they were running things well and aside from Fury, everything was open at 10am. There's clearly staffing issues with platform staff having to shout at guests from afar to batch rows on Vampire and Tomb Blaster.. which for me just comes across as unprofessional. But they were making the best of a bad situation which I can't really blame them for.

It’s looking to me like whatever is happening with the Beach might potentially be 2025’s draw instead. I wouldn’t be wholly surprised if they built some sort of ride there. Where did the park get with that proposal to not need planning applications for structures below 25m? If that got passed by the council, then they could theoretically be doing anything below 25m without us needing to know about it.

Just to add to this, back in the early to mid 2000's we were reaching numbers between 18000-20000. However this did cause issues. I particularly remember some of the days the queue to get into the car park went back towards the Sainsburys by Staines bridge. For comparison, EPCOT at Disneyworld gets around 80000-90000 for their New Years eve celebrations

Queue closed at 9.05 last night. Seems the information about early queue closure has now been removed from the app now too, so think its safe to say it'll close at 9 every night for Fright Nights. Hopefully that'll be the end of it and we won't see the return of the early queue closures next season

Appreciate it thankyou for the insight.

For anyone interested in Vampire and Bubble Works in their old days, I'm currently attempting to recreate the interiors in 3D for a book on Sparks, the studio that created them. Also the Alton Towers Haunted House (see the Duel topic). This after sadly most the photo archives on the two classic rides (when they were first built) were destroyed by a fire some years ago. To raise funds to recreate the missing scenes to a photo-realistic standard, from all the original production records and plans, I'm doing a Kickstarter campaign this month. It would be brilliant if anybody wanted to contribute, if we beat the target the recreation will be able to go ahead. For more information on the book see the Kickstarter video on the link!

I think it will be really good if it has something special about it like a water park.I hope it goes well for thorpe as waking up to seeing stealth as the sun comes up would be an amazing sight to see