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Obviously a giga RMC T-Rex is coming, like this is undeniable proof. Dom from doughnut stall 1 told me himself.

Europa was still a great park and much better (in terms of value for money) even before Blue Fire opened, and Merlin have made many more mistakes on big projects than taking a risk on just one coaster, so I dont really buy that. All successes come with taking risk anyway, and Europa have an excellent track record of taking those risks and making successes. But I totally agree Europa has built their success over a long period of time. I think theyre a real beacon of the value in developing your park long term and making a success of it at every step. While Merlin are a clear example of how parks can be squandered by constant short term time and cost decisions. I'm really pleased with the news although it certainly doesnt automatically mean any big change or improvement.

Dom is wise ?

I believe that is right Josh, for Mack the success of Blue Fire propelled them back into the industry eye, where the up and coming Gerstlauer and Maurer were sneaking into their turf... Think about the Mack installations prior and post Blue Fire... It's an amazing difference, and something we're now seeing Vekoma catch into... Regarding Merlin, no point breaking out the bunting until things REALLY start changing... Investment needs to be intelligent, and not wasting money on crap that ends up mothballed or shut in 2/3 years... Hopefully the change to private company will be a major factor in this...

Hopefully Merlin ditch the short term profit making for long term prosperity. Surely after seeing what Europa Park are building, big new attractions when done right bring in the visitors. They can charge a premium, because the quality matches the price and the demand is there.

Maybe now Project 2020 will go ahead?!?!?!?1111!!!

I think taking it at face value - 'offer accepted for Merlin to be bought' or similar - is perhaps misleading. As others have said, it is a case of existing shareholders buying more shares so they have the majority stake. Arguably the biggest and most important outcome of this is that Merlin are going back to being a private company rather than a public company. Of course the biggest problem with being a public company is that you have to answer to people who simply want profit: in their eyes, if something won't make profit, why should money be spent on it? A private company will have a more sensible outlook. Kirkby have said they've no plans to sell anything within Merlin and that there won't be substantial changes. It'll likely just be a different decision making process towards how to spend money. It'll be interesting to see if there's any changes to the hierarchy, be that by adding an extra layer (hopefully not..), a reshuffle/change of the top layer, or what. Not that this should need saying, but this obviously doesn't mean a switch is going to flicked and we're going to see huge investments every year at every park. However, I'd expect that if there's a different outlook and different decision making process, there might be more opportunities for money to be invested..

For the time being very little. Blackstone are already heavily involved with Merlin Entertainments as well as other parks (Port Aventura and Busch Gardens/Sea World). The Lego family are also already involved with Merlin. It should make the parks less accountable to shareholders but it would mean more accountablity to Blackstone. With any luck if the buyout goes ahead they will replace the board and get a team that actually knows what they are doing. Someone who is willing to use the overall Merlin brand to entice people as well as the sub-brands. As well as someone who is willing to invest in higher risk projects to increase growth and profit while ensuring existing assets remain functional in the long term.

Lego family's Kirkbi and Blackstone to buy Madame Tussauds owner Merlin: FT (Reuters) - Britain’s Merlin Entertainments Plc (MERL.L) is to be acquired for 6 billion pounds ($7.6 billion), including debt, by a group made up of Kirkbi, the investment vehicle of Lego’s founding family, private equity firm Blackstone Group LP (BX.N) and Canadian pension fund CPPIB, the Financial Times reported on Friday. The deal to buy Merlin, which owns and operates Madame Tussauds waxworks exhibits around the world, is expected to be announced as soon as Friday morning, but no deal was guaranteed until the announcement, the FT said on.ft.com/2X9zLxD, citing multiple people it said were close to the matter. The deal is likely to value Merlin’s shares at around 460 pence, one of the people told the FT, giving it an equity value of more than 4.73 billion pounds. https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-merlin-ent-m-a-consortium/lego-familys-kirkbi-and-blackstone-to-buy-merlin-entertainments-ft-idUKKCN1TS3EI

So @terrortomband I recently visited Flamingo Land. Park is okay for what it is, not the best park but definitely not the worst. Staff seemed friendly enough and presentation was adequate with some room for improvement. Operations were mixed, with Kumali being the worst operated ride. Kumali is surprisingly good and better than Infusion (except operations) Mumbo Jumbo was quite bizarre but fun Hero wasn’t as bad as I expected but still not the best. I think Tomb had a secret liking for this ride. Velocity was closed for almost all the day, so was almost spited the Cred. Got two rounds at the end of the day and was worth it. This ride has some unique forces which makes it unique. Probably my favourite ride there. Rest of the park is pretty much kids attractions, a couple of water and transport rides and a few flats. The sky flier was horrible and gave me motion sickness for an hour. They also had a charming dark ride which was designed by Rex Studios which was great. They also had a zoo as well. Its not somewhere I will rush back to, but worth visiting if your in the area and want to push up your Cred count. The new ride will probably make this a higher priority soon. speaking of, Here is where the new coaster is going. Think they had a Corkscrew Coaster there years ago.