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It's official - 2018 was the tightest year yet! Some spectacularly close fought contests were had, and there's even a TPM first. But more on that later... For now, the winners... PARK AWARDS Best UK Park 1) Alton Towers (13) 2) Blackpool Pleasure Beach (6) 3) Thorpe Park (3) Best UK Coaster 1) Nemesis (7) 2) Icon (4) 3) Stealth (3) Best UK Flat 1) Rush (8) 2) Detonator (5) 3) Samurai (4) Best UK Water Ride 1) Valhalla (12) 2) Tidal Wave (6) 3) Tiger Rock (3) Best UK Dark Ride 1) Hex (13) 2) Derren Brown's Ghost Train: Rise of the Demon (3) 3) Duel (2) Worst UK Ride 1) Derren Brown's Ghost Train: Rise of the Demon (13) 2) Hero (3) 3) Storm Surge (2) Best International Park 1) Europa Park (8) 2) Phantasialand (5) 3) Cedar Point (4) Best International Coaster 1) Steel Vengeance (5) =2) Taron, Helix & Shambhala (3) Best New-for-2018 Attraction 1) Wicker Man (9) 2) Icon (5) 3) Steel Vengeance (4) Most Disappointing Merlin Moment 2018 1) Fright Nights; specific mentions included Vulcan Peak (10) 2) 'Everything' or words to that effect (4) 3) Alton Towers' infamous "It's better than nothing" tweet (3) Best-Looking New-for-2019 Attraction 1) FLY/Rookburgh, Phantasialand (5) 2) Untamed, Walibi Holland (4) =3) Rulantica, Europa Park & Taiga, Linnanmäki (3) Best Manufacturer 1) Mack (8) 2) B&M (5) 3) RMC (4) MEMBER AWARDS Best Member 1) @JoshC. 2) @Mattgwise 3) @Cedar Creek Best Team Member 1) @Marc 2) @Mattgwise 3) @JoshC. Best Quality Posts 1) @Wumbamillio 2) @Coaster 3) 4 runners-up (see below) Most Knowledgeable =1) @Wumbamillio & @JoshC. 2) @Coaster 3) @Benin Most Dedicated 1) @Cedar Creek 2) @JoshC. 3) @Mattgwise Most Sarcastic 1) @Benin 2) @Cedar Creek 3) @Coaster Most Likely to be Banned in 2019 1) @MarkC 2) @Coaster 3) Thorpe Park's Twitter Page Funniest Member =1) @Martin Doyle & @MattyMoo 2) @Benin 3) @pluk Biggest Fanboy 1) @Cedar Creek 2) @Marhelorpe 3) @Marc Sexiest Male 1) @Cedar Creek 2) @Ryan 3) @Martin Doyle Sexiest Female 1) @terrortomb 2) @jessica2 3) @Cedar Creek Storm Surge Award 1) @Ivsetti 2) @Cedar Creek 3) @Coaster Member You'd Like to See More Of 1) @Coaster 2) @BenC 3) @pluk Congratulations winners! This year was one of the tightest yet, so wear your victories with pride! As for the six-way ties, these will be decided by a...*cue dramatic X Factor music*...public vote. Head over to this thread and cast your! The nominees are... Best Member @Cedar Creek, @Coaster, @JoshC., @Martin Doyle, @Mattgwise and @pluk Best Quality Posts @Cedar Creek, @Coaster, @JoshC., @Marhelorpe, @pluk and @Wumbamillio The votes will be open until Thursday, 23.59, when hopefully a winner will be decided! These votes are anonymous, but you can see how many people have voted for a particular person at any given time. In the nature of good sportsmanship, nominees - don't vote for yourself! Happy voting all!

Energylandia have confirmed via the latest edition of the German Kirmes and Parks Revue magazine that Zadra will open sometime in autumn 2019, with the rest of the Dragon's Castle area opening in 2020. On top of that, the park will also open their Vekoma multi-launch (which may or may not be over water, not quite clear) in 2020. Up until now, it hadn't been clear when that would open. The coaster will be an extended version of Vekoma's new off-the-shelf Shockwave model, the first of which is opening in Dragon Valley Theme Park, China. Below is the standard Shockwave model... The standard Shockwave's stats: Speed: 62.1mph (100kmph) Length: 1095m Height: 38.5m Inversions: 5 (loop, batwing, 2 corkscrews) Energylandia's version: Speed: 62.1mph Length: 1320m Height: 38.5m Inversions: 4 (loop, batwing, corkscrew) [Thank to CoasterForce member eKs_Prod for posting the info] So it seems the first half of Energylandia's is much the same as above, with changes presumably after the batwing to incorporate the second launch. The Shockwave model looks really good fun, and with new Vekoma being fab, I'm sure this will be too. Can't help but feel turning it into a multi-launch seems a bit forced and for the sake of it; should have gotten a custom multi-launch. But can't really complain too much. The only other point I have is that I wonder how similar it will feel to Formula, the park's current Vekoma launch, or if it will end up rendering it obsolete already...

Looking at my own schedule for next year, the only two trips on this that I can categorically say I WILL NOT be able to attend is the Blackpool meet and the fright night meet as I’m in Amsterdam for that weekend (again) The rest are quite up in the air aside from Phantasialand

Currently looking at dates I can do Blackpool, Alton Towers and Fright Nights - so pencilled into the diary

Merry Christmas to you too... I thought you wanted me to join Thorpe Park Central?

Oh shut up already ?

Come on now people, who misread hottest male for most likely to be banned?

Thanks! By the way apologies if my language seemed 'personally' attacking, I dont care about what these people are like in person, only their professional involvement with the park and 'enthusiast' influence. I hope the post makes clear the reasons why, Thorpe needs something to save it from the way it's going and the current direction just isnt it.

I'm not trying to sugarcoat things really. It's easy (and true) to look at Thorpe and go 'so many rides are closed, this isn't good enough, what on earth is going on??'. But there is a more balanced viewpoint to things rather than just going 'Thorpe have got loads of closed rides, they're doing everything wrong, everything will be terrible'. But in fairness, Loggers is now all but a memory and Slammer is an ornament. It doesn't look good on the park - especially when so many ask about Loggers and many will question Slammer when Fright Nights comes - but there's only so many times their closures can be bought up at every point before you tire of it a bit. They're gone, and it's time to accept that and move on. I'm a Celeb is something that will never open at Fright Nights. Staffing the Fright Nights mazes is tricky, adding in a non-scare attraction to the mix makes things harder. There's also been a large worry that people will expect it to be 'Fright Night-afied' and be scary. And no matter how hard you try to tell the masses 'We have loads of scary mazes around, but this isn't a scary maze, it's a family fun maze', the masses will not listen. Which then leads to disappoint, etc. There is the question about whether it closes too early, but all the actors / staff associated with it pretty much straight away focus on Fright Nights (set up, rehearsals, etc), so the manpower is put to use. So effectively we have lost 2 rides for this Fright Nights (okay, you can argue 3 compared to last FN, but 2 rides compared to standard operating this season). It simply isn't good enough. But Rush is clearly down for essential maintenance and something outside of Thorpe's control (something which doesn't make a blind bit of difference to the average guest, granted, but something that enthusiasts should at least be understanding of), and Rumba is a mystery (the official word they're saying on their Twitter at the mo is that it's a "seasonal attraction this year", but if we're being realistic it's likely down to budget...but more on that later). I understand where you're coming from at the moment as it can seem that way, but it really isn't. I think maybe you're over-stating Rumba's place in the line up, as despite the general consensus here, Rumba is completely overshadowed by Storm Surge. Not saying it doesn't have a place, but I think over the coming months, it won't be as missed by the public as you think. That's not to say that that makes it a good decision or anything; simply saying it's not AS bad as you think it'll be. Whilst true it did stay open until 10pm in the past, that did change to 'close at dusk', and in a time where Merlin are so over-zealous on H&S, it's not something I could have seen changing back. But with Platform existing, it basically makes the argument null and void since Loggers would have closed when Platform opened. My point was more that the attraction line up hasn't reduced in number. Loggers left, DBGT came. So the line up hasn't been reduced. And during Fright Nights, people are going to be more interested by Ghost Train than Loggers. I haven't forgotten that at all - but you were the one who mentioned that FN days were going to be hell, so that's why the conversation is geared to FN. Honestly, I think it's ludicrous that there hasn't been even a couple of quid knocked off ticket prices given that there's 2 rides which are closed which shouldn't be (3 if you include I'm a Celeb, but I won't since they've been upfront from the get-go this year it wouldn't be open in September). They can dress it up all they like with 'closed for planned maintenance', 'this is a seasonal attraction', 'rides are subject to availability', but it's not good enough, and a small gesture like that would probably go a longer way than they think. Certainly was only recently that they said they would close it early and actually did (I think it was only last season?), but they have said since about 2012 they'd close it early (just rarely followed through with it). But in all honesty, following the Drayton incident and once again Merlin's current over-zealous H&S approach, I couldn't see them wanting to keep it open in the dark now. Again though, I think you're making a bigger deal out of a rapids ride not being open. During Fright Nights in particular, there will be very few people who go saying "The rapids ride is one I must do". And there won't be a large number of people who stick it on their list to do anyway. It will be a 'we'll do it if we get time' or a 'we'll do it after lunch' ride. With it closed, the majority of people will just move on with their day (and probably gravitate towards Storm Surge). Again, I'm not saying it isn't an issue - if a park has a ride to offer, they should offer it! If they don't, it will cause disappointment, even if it's slight, to some guests, which is something they shouldn't do. But I don't think it's as big an issue as people on here think. One thing to note is that the "lifeguards" on Rumba aren't lifeguards; they are just normal rides hosts in certain positions. Their job is to tell people to remain seat, sit back down if they do stand back up, and act as another set of eyes to keep track of guests in case of an incident (so that the ride can be e-stopped as quickly as possible). They won't do 'lifeguard duties' of jumping in the water to save people if someone falls in; something which loads of people actually think they will do! However, it is true that the staffing costs have risen considerably. Following the Drayton incident, extra staff were dotted around the course and a second operator was introduced. Storm Surge and Tidal Wave also received extra staff to watch guests in case they tried to jump out of the boats (something which was very common on Storm Surge in particular). Slowly the staff numbers were reduced, by Rumba in particular still has many more staff than it was budgeted for at the start of season. From what I've been made aware, because Thorpe were overspending so much on these extra staff for H&S, they did try to get the extra budget to fund it, but ultimately it was rejected. Thus leaving Thorpe with the conundrum of whether to cut back to the original staffing levels (which staff and management didn't feel comfortable with), or continue overspending until money dried up. Given the number of extra staff required over the season, it'd make sense that it's around now that they simply don't have the money. So that would at least explain the situation Rumba is currently in. Of course not excusable to your average guest who will be disappointed to see rumba closed, but at least in some way understandable that Thorpe tried and were doing things for the right reason.