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OMG I hardly recognise it 😮

Proof Varney is actually Thanos. Merlin will never reopen it unless it’s themed to a Donaldson I.P.

Their shame

I'll just throw it out there that I genuinely think this will be fun. Who doesn't love a giant bouncy castle? But, this still shows the state of the park right now. They've chucked in an inflatable course that wouldn't look out of place at a summer fair as a quick fix. If this is all they can afford, what does that say for the future? I genuinely can't think of any other park in the world which is so desperate for new stuff on such a restricted budget that they have had to resort to adding a bloody inflatable.

Popped in for abit today - good to see the park continuing to run well - quiet day, rides running full capacity with minimal queues - Inferno team in particular were running it well with trains not staking.

I had low expectations, but **** me 😂

Flat rides probably don't draw in guests. For Merlin's rediculously high rate of return targets its pretty clear why very few flat rides are built. They cant sell them as a world's first so they stick a bunch of actors to them to make them an "experience" which in turn leads to negative feedback due to the low throughput and the attraction being inconsistent. So they now have an expensive to run actor led experience that will last 1-3 years. This phenomenon is bad for the park but is being made significantly worse by the fact that the old flat rides have come to the end of their life. They need replacing. Which means instead of just all new attractions being inadequate and short lived, replacement ones now suffer the same fate.

I'm sure it'll be making a splash back soon. For the next 3 years.

I guess so yeah. But in the same way there's a possibility I could go on to win an Olympic Gold medal in the 100m.

The park will then close it and display an un-clipped, cable-tied A4 laminated sign on the temporary fencing surrounding the area saying "BounceZilla will make a splashback soon!".

Having finally ridden Wildfire, I think there’s a few things that should be pointed out with it. It is a truely brilliant coaster and in my opinion the best coaster in Europe. HOWEVER, this ride does have two MAJOR flaws. 1, if you ride it early in the day it is very sluggish and slow compared to what it is in the afternoon once it “warms up”. This is quite a flaw given the other RMC I have done (Steel Vengeance) is consistent no matter what time of day you ride it. Flaw number 2 does not apply to me specifically but more to “larger riders” and that is the restraints. Wildfire’s (and Steel Vengeance) leg bracket may not affect me necessarily as I leave that much of a gap between my legs and the bracket BUT if you are somebody with larger legs, these restraints WILL cause you some major discomfort. This coupled with the lap bar itself crushing down on your lap will absolutely nullify most of if not all of the airtime that RMC coasters are famous for. Those flaws aside, Wildfire is a brilliant coaster with one of the greatest first drops in the business (I maintain it has a better drop than Steel Vengeance) and in general a good fun layout. May not be as airtime heavy as I expected but it still had enough decent pops of airtime in its layout and also features some good hangtime. It is simply a stunning coaster to look at with its layout interacting with the rock work and the views from the ride of the surrounding area with the lake and surrounding woodlands and because of the fact it NEVER has any sort of queue, marathoning it over and over is dead easy. Certainly worth a trip to Sweden to ride!!

Thing is The UK really doesn't make that much money for the company, in comparison to international parks. There's a market for them to tap into across the world, and it works (apparently), so I do get why their focus is on international. However, that said, I also agree that there needs to be a bigger budget for CwOA, even if it's a one off, it would allow the park to make the changes and improvements it so desperately needs

I've changed the topic title. Certainly a much more accurate name

I've edited your post for you.

BounceZilla be like. Nailed it!

Be interesting to see how popular this proves to be - I actually think it will do pretty well - can see why it’s not everyone’s cup of of tea but do think it will appeal to the GP.

Remember when Thorpe used to be like the second best theme park in the UK? Well, past tense is fun..

This is one of those things where just doing nothing would've been better. This is actually a joke. At least GameFX and Jungle Escape are defend-able to some degree.

If Vampire goes the whole park is basically dead. Its the one ride the park needs to ensure it can function with it’s current operation.

Kind of nice to read an RMC review that isn't completely positive so thanks for that. I had similar problems with the restraints on Goliath and Steel Vengeance and I'm not a big guy but I am relatively tall and found my legs hitting the leg bar constantly.

Alright, I have also now ridden Wildfire, to which I have finally lost my RMC virginity and to be brutally honest and truthful here, I was underwhelmed with it. I realise I am going to be the only person on the planet who didn't think too much of this, so are expecting shots to be fired left, right and centre, especially given how much hype is surrounding RMC's at the moment everywhere you look online. But I was expecting to be monumentally blown away by this thing after so many fanatics and 'enthusiasts' claim this is one of the best coasters in the world and best models of coaster on the market; and I was desperately seeking and secretly hoping it was going to top Helix finally as my number 1 coaster. Sadly, it is far from that spot after over 15 rides on the thing and heck, it's not even a top 5 coaster to me. Why you might ask? The answer is simple - poor design. The first design flaw is Wildfire through POVs online might show the thing being relentless from beginning to end and only slowing down a little bit when going through the 2nd inversion and towards the end of the layout, but my goodness, this proves looks can be really deceptive. There are two points on this coaster where it barely trawls through it's circuit to the point I thought it was going to stall at one point. These two moments are pace-killers on this coaster and that's a major fault with the design of it's layout through my eyes. It's Icon's first inversion kind of slow we are talking about here and to me, any coaster which has weak spots like this is a massive turn-off. Most coasters suffer moments like this whether it's Taron's trim brakes, Icon's weak 1st half, Nemesis' stall turn or Helix's launches for example, but the idea of going from 74mph to less than 10mph in the space of less than 10 seconds is quite extraordinary for a coaster model many claim to be amazingly quick and zippy, so it hinders the ride hugely in my view. So that's the first fault. The second fault is you may also hear some reviews say Wildfire is a ride which as it 'warms up' gets faster during the day and therefore becomes more intense, and by golly, they were not wrong here. It is so inconsistent with speed. The difference between riding this thing in the morning as opposed to the late afternoon is like night and day. It's not a little difference, it's a huge difference. As mentioned above, the coaster barely makes it through the circuit if you ride this in the morning and it feels close to stalling, but give it a few more hours and the ride is much faster through every element and made it far more enjoyable. This is also noticeable with a full train with higher potential energy compared to an empty one. I understand almost every coaster in existence suffers this same fault of 'warming up' to some degree, but my word, I wasn't expecting a difference as large as this on Wildfire. And lastly, the biggest fault I had with this coaster also falls under all other RMC's out there to be fair, and that's the restraint design. Whilst the seats are comfy enough to sit in, there are these horrible leg 'brackets' I like to call them which clamp down on your shins giving you almost no room at all to move or adjust your legs. This posed a major problem for me and caused a lot of discomfort when being flung everywhere, because I could feel these digging into my shins really badly through some elements. Plus, when I look at them on the trains, they look and feel like a needless thing to add, especially if you are in the back two seats of each of the six 4-seater carriages. The seats are deep enough to prevent this and the two directly in front are enough to stop you sticking your legs out, so to me, these are not necessary. As a workaround, something similar to the GCI wooden coasters with a small walled shield by your feet would work far better in my eyes, similar to what you see on Wicker Man, Balder and Wodan for example. Now I understand not everyone will have this problem and it only really poses a problem for the more... 'bulky' guests to put it in PC terms, but I didn't enjoy having my shins pinned down by a force of over 4G and 12 airtime moments on this coaster one bit. It caused some major discomfort which reminded me of levels similar to Colossus' restraints in all honesty, and if every other RMC has this, including Steel Vengeance, then I frankly have very little interest in being clamped down like this again. Partly what makes Helix, Taron, Shambhala, Icon and Wodan my top coasters is these all offer some very comfortable seating which accommodates people of all shapes and sizes, but Wildfire felt very restrictive and is a massive thumbs down from me in this area. But all this aside, there's no denying there are some fantastic elements to this coaster and I am very pleased to have finally ridden it! The interaction between the coaster and the natural hillside terrain of the zoo is unparalleled to anything else I have seen before and the setting of this ride is brilliant. The views alone from the top at the crow's nest turnaround alone are worth just getting on this ride in my view. The 81 degree drop is phenomenal, especially if you are on the back row with airtime on the same levels as Shambhala I'd say (though not as extreme as Helix), and the transition into the stalled zero-g roll was quite something. It was a very strange sensation, but a wicked one! The 3rd inversion is great also and flies through it very fast, and the titled airtime hill before plunging through a shed filled with smoke was very intense, especially as it 'warmed-up' later in the day. So by no means am I saying this is an awful coaster in anyway, it's just hindered by a few crucial design faults in my view. After haven now ridden an RMC, I can see the appeal they have behind them as they do things no other coaster from B&M, Mack or Intamin can ever achieve, but they just aren't my cup of tea unfortunately. Wildfire was great fun no doubt and I can happily say I have finally ridden one of these coasters, but honestly, it is my opinion and belief to think that the obsession at the minute with RMC is down to pure hype; hype which reminds me of the days of Derren Brown's Ghost Train frankly - they are a bold idea with some excellent visions, but the execution is questionable in a few areas. In a nutshell, to everyone out there who is pleading Thorpe Park to build one of these over the site of Loggers Leap, whilst you could be in for a great ride no doubt, just be careful what you wish for and try one for yourself outside of Steel Vengeance before making that judgement. I myself whilst I really enjoyed Wildfire believe RMC's as a whole are at the 'hype-bubble' stage currently and remain reserved about riding another one unless some fundamental design changes are made to their trains. But again, I still enjoyed it and give it 7/10!

My recent trip to Liseberg certainly said a lot about my photography... Even this one was incredibly lucky! A typical shot of Valkyria with Helix perfectly timed in the background. 😮

Oooft, yes please.

That doesn’t sound very Merlin-ish at all!

Spoilers: guest figures aren't up.

Oh, how I love when people write articles and slap in a graph of data with no sources...

- Replace Angry Birds Land with Goat Simulator Land. - End every marketing phrase with "Like no other." - Half paint another rollercoaster. - Save money and make no investments in new attractions for 2020. Whatever you do, don't build a Mack Mega launch coaster to rival the likes of Icon or a Mack Xtreme Spinning coaster like Time Traveller but the first in the UK. 😉😉😉 Also, close another attraction permanently but don't replace it.

I guess if it’s beyond repair we could see a new one? Unlike the loggers situation it would be relatively inexpensive to replace... hopefully !

Going on quite a few madhouses recently and then back on Hex yesterday reminded me how amazing this ride is. It's the best of its type by a country mile; the atmosphere, story and soundtrack really make it. They seem to have solved the audio issues in the vault, it sounded amazing and at the perfect volume. All other effects seemed to be working minus the mist. People's reactions on the ride yesterday was a magical moment, everyone seemed so amazed; it really is themed entertainment at its best. It's perfect in that it has such a broad appeal and proves that fantastic and unique ideas are what lasts. Absolutely the best dark ride in the UK currently and the last remaining part of "the magic" at Alton. Incredible.

It seems even Merlin are confused about the Nemesis's:

My bi-annual report on the worlds best theme park:- Can-Can coaster is a good ride. For those that liked the original which was far more violent, this might disappoint initially. It's definitely now firmly in the family thrill category. It's also a lot busier due it being newer and the trains being one row shorter. VR on this is 'ok', the best part of wearing the headset is getting into the train in a VR world. Thats impressive technology. Once you're in the train though, there's a of waiting around and the VR experience somehow makes the ride seem very short. Madame Frekenreichs curiosity is excellent. A somewhat depressing experience has been turned into sheer joy. The birthday scene at the end is a pure delight. Jom Knopff isn't as good as Circus 99. Whilst the older version was tacky and a bit 80's it at least was visually interesting. Job Knopff, whilst looks better, is actually pretty boring. Most of the ride is just empty tunnels and caves. One scene has a story but thats it. Luckily all the theming for this has been moved onto Gay boat ride and the Vintage cars making them 100% better. Volatarium is excellent, even if completely rips off Soarin'. Amuses me how European audiences barely react to rides whilst Americans woop and cheer. Euro-mir wasn't spinning in the lift hill section. Really odd as it was spinning in all the other areas just not the four minute lift hill. Love, Love, LOVE how they've added steam affects to Alpine Express. Finally saw Blue Fire on a four train operation and they are the slickest, most fantastic operations of any theme park ever. Without fail, a train dispatching every 25 seconds. Silver Star was on three trains, near perfect operations too. Wodan was clearly in a mood as it was stacking a lot and would get stuck in the break run or wouldn't park properly in the station. I have no idea how Scandinavia can open in 3 weeks. It's still very much a building site. It will open on time though because this is Europa Park. Only managed about 30 rides a day though but the park was busier then my previous visits.

Ingenius. Why didn't they think to hire you to make the ride?

I like the 40th merch. I'd rather have that than junk *ahem "genuine ride parts". If you don't like it, you don't have to buy it. All other merch is still available. In fact I'd rather see them update merch periodically so you see new stuff you might like throughout the year and the smaller batches make items more unique / collectable.

He did indeed visit the park last week, for all of one hour. Somehow I don't think he likes the place, the funding the park gets from Merlin sure shows it!

Took my little brother (4 years old) through Broom today. And he didn't really like it. He wasn't a fan of the forced interaction: a stranger trying to encourage him to go forward and interact with stuff just didn't work. He's not shy or anything either; just being a small dark space made him not want to interact. The effects were decent and got a good reaction, but it makes it a passive experience. So yeah, someone who's bang in the target market for this didn't like it. My personal opinion means little in that sense, but I was even less keen: it's an experience which is too focused on young children, the scenes are very cramped and awkwardly paced and it just doesn't seem like something which the whole family can enjoy. Particularly a shame given the theming and effects are good.

This is actually being constructed by the same company as who did the Crystal maze experience if anyone here has done that!

A bruise like no other™.

Here's a few thoughts from my first visit to Pleasure Beach in 2019, this is based on visits over a few days. The new pre-opening show is a good idea to keep people entertained whilst waiting for the gates to open. Areas of the park look and feel dismal at the moment. The entire FY4 from the back of Alice in Wonderland’s warehouse, empty Mouse site and the monstrosity that is the newly reopened arcade feels like you’re walking through an abandoned theme park that closed 20 years ago. It’s very sad considering the area looked mostly fine up until 2018 and with Icon tidying up south park considerably, they’ve now let north park get worse than south park ever was. It leaves a horrendous first impression on guests entering the park that way, too. The place was fairly busy over Easter, with moderate crowds (and then very busy on the Saturday). Ride availability seemed pretty good (aside from Sunday morning) with Icon and Valhalla being the only rides having significant downtime, even then it wasn't too bad. Extension to 6pm on Monday was nice. Sunday morning was poor with The Big One, Big Dipper and Revolution on (very) late opening whilst Infusion also broke down. Icon also took 25 minutes to transfer a third train on? We managed a ride-count of 17 on Saturday with the park open 10am - 10pm, however this was with us making sure to do the low capacity rides first. For first-time visitors trying to get on Nickelodeon Streak or Avalanche in the middle of the day it would have been miserable. The fireworks were great but I wasn’t keen on the music choices… they’re missing a trick by not using Icon’s score for at least part of the display. The new location was much better from a viewpoint perspective as they weren’t blocked by Icon’s station, but I still disagree with closing rides over an hour early on a “late night riding” event to put on some fireworks. Operations were very mixed. Big Dipper and Grand National were running very well, or in the case of Nash, as well as the system will allow it to. On Saturday we queued 20 minutes for Dipper from outside the queue entrance, and 25 for National from well past the entrance to the steps. Very impressed! Valhalla’s queue shifted very fast on Saturday, but was extremely slow every other day despite having the same number of boats on… weird. Continuing from the end of last year, The Big One’s operations remain dreadful. Dispatch times were very slow, largely caused by Speedy Pass but also the lack of management watching the operations. There were instances when they took 10 minutes to load a full Speedy Pass train, and out of every 10 trains I’d say that 7/8 of them stacked for a considerable amount of time. For a ride that lasts over 2 minutes, that’s just not acceptable. The staff were holding the queue outside the station which I assume was to prevent it from getting too hot, which I thought was a good idea. On Monday however, a quieter day, they were running one of the trains with only two carriages open until late afternoon. With the queue being held outside the station in the morning (meaning it’s more visible on the ramp) and then not in the afternoon, it definitely felt as if this was being done to increase Speedy Pass sales. With crowds on this level it would have previously taken 10 minutes to wait, as by lunch time it’d have shifted the queue to the final two switchbacks. It took us 40 minutes purely down to slow operations, it’s just a complete and utter mess. Pleasure Beach have really taken their eye off the rest of the park since Icon opened and The Big One has suffered hugely, operations have got to rock bottom and Speedy Pass continues to make queueing in the main queue a misery. It isn’t the ride staff’s fault; they try their best. It’s poor management and upselling of a fast pass system which the park knows will have an adverse effect on the operations of their signature ride. On a positive note, PMBO was absolutely flying on Friday and Saturday, reaffirming why I love it so much and still regard it as my absolute favourite coaster by quite some distance. Amazing. Valhalla continues to be an absolute mess. Here’s a brief status report of effects from 3 rides over Easter. - Water curtain over skull entrance worked for 1/3 rides - Trommels not working - Projection audio (Odin voice) on lift 1 slightly louder but still not audible - Projection looks like it needs a new filter/replacing (wire hanging down, picture not clear) - Green popup face not working - Waterfall corridor not working - Blackout doors after backwards drop not closing meaning light leaks in and exposes the workings - Lots of torn and/or missing blackout curtains throughout entire ride exposing maintenance areas - Ice room half-frozen, no ceiling misters - Water vortex soaking the boat - Light on waterfall following vortex switching off too early so effect is missed - Water geysers on either side of the track after water vortex not working - Light leaking into this area as fire exit left open - Maintenance lights left on - Chandelier not swinging - Crow animatronics not fully functioning - No ring of fire - Fireballs in first room following final drop not working (room in pitch darkness) - Only one small explosion in final room - Ride soundtrack loop cutting out and jumping River Caves has also had CCTV put in thoughtlessly over elements of theming as well as awfully implemented emergency lighting. Dark rides are supposed to provide seamless experiences with the back-end hardware hidden away, so it’s a disgrace that Pleasure Beach are so careless and clumsy with implementing these things. They did the same with new CCTV cameras in Valhalla last year. Lots of effects broken in Ghost Train. Alice and W&G were in decent condition overall. Overall, I had an enjoyable time at Pleasure Beach. Some areas had a nice atmosphere on Saturday, with the live music and busy crowds. With that said, the park has lost its buzz for me and the overall impression I got was that it feels like it’s missing something. The vibrance, the classic PB feel, it’s all gone. The park still houses some of my favourite coasters, but on reflection I don’t rate Icon very highly at all. The ride has lost its “new factor” and I’m already growing tired of it. It just feels too sluggish and there are so many places where you *nearly* get force or airtime, but it doesn’t quite have the speed to deliver. A shame. Two of the best assets at the park are still missing for me… Wild Mouse, and Valhalla. I include the latter because with the ride experience offered at the moment, it may as well just be a log flume in the dark. Steeplechase was very good as always. It was nice to be back on some of my favourite rides and seeing people, but I’m not in any rush to return to the park. My enthusiasm for the place is gone.

StevenVig being unnecessarily sarcastic about a justified comment? Shock horror

Coming in to this thread to see what it looks like

It might be to do with how jarring it looks. If this attraction was more subtle with it's colours and fitted in with Thorpe's sky blue colour and the rest of Lost City, then maaaaaaaaaybe this would have been alright. But with colours as bright as this and looking so blatantly out-of-place next to the lake and Colossus/Rush/Zodiac, it looks visually revolting. This is just humiliating for the park, similarly to Love Island Lates last year and this will only be 'popular' because it's free. I guarantee if this was an upcharge attraction, the majority of guests would tell Thorpe to shove BounceZilla up where the sun don't shine.

I would suggest drinking plenty of water because I know from my own experience that dehydration can lead to migraine. I always without fail take headache pills to parks because I usually get one. Could it be motion sickness related? If so I can’t recommend Cinnarazine highly enough (you can get it over the counter called Stugeron 15). If none of the above are sounding any good then I’d avoid Zodiac, Saw and Colossus, - the latter 2 have crazy head banging moments which I’m sure have killed off some of my brain cells in the past

2016 was a year of far too many lies going on. The sad factor is the park could’ve saved the ride from closure if they had been willing to spend proper maintenance and safety upgrades, the ride could still be running today. It was still remarkably popular and one of the best family attractions in Thorpe and maybe the U.K., amongst still being iconic to the park in many ways. Unfortunately it is likely to take just as long (if not longer) for a replacement attraction to open than the time it has been rotting away. Not only in the hindsight of lack of planning, but the fact the park might not receive a major investment for at least three years due Merlin cutting the park’s budget capex.

Most parks don't just let rides fall into disrepair though... But Merlin don't care unless they can market it... I mean they nearly killed Colossos (not that I rate it)...

At least it isn't as bad as tearing a coaster down and then selling it piece by piece for hundreds of pounds in the shop. It's a similar situation though, PB aren't interested in the history or old logos apart from where it makes them money, hence the greyscale bland park of today yet the merchandise shop is full of colourful old ride logos etc. This seems very much the same situation with Thorpe using the old logos and branding to make easy money, but in terms of actually being proud of or celebrating their history on the park they aren't interested.

Who are people...

Also, I swear at closure now this season around 6:30pm the park play briefly that cursed siren noise from years ago which was the most detestable thing to hear imaginable..... What. Was. Wrong. With. Last. Year's. End. Of. Day. Track. Thorpe?

Lets get the facts right before we go running to report the park and looking silly... The capsules are not sold out (if they were to sell out the machines would remain open) - the mixing syrup is what’s sold out which is why machines are closed - if you are to buy a cup today you can refill them at f&b units (although the park are recommending not buy a cup today due to the lack of freestyle offering!)