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I did a Hyperia coaster climb this evening. There was some chatter when it was made live about the cost being expensive (£120). It is, no beating around the bush. But it is worth it. My experience was about 3hrs all in, and included lots of time spent scaling the ride, time spent in the console and time spent around the turnaround outside the station, with lots of opportunities for photos, fabulous hosts and a great vibe. Find attached a variety of photos (of me). I'll write a proper TPM article later.

Ding dong no The sky is dark, the coast is rocky, the island mountainous. Construction is far away. Wait bugger wrong account

we have all had enough of this thing. nothing cryptic about it anymore. it just doesn't work.

I'm really impressed by the ride teams at Thorpe. We really take for granted how hard they work to keep the rides moving so efficiently. It's really telling how good we have it, The Swarm probably had the worst ops but they were still only stacking trains for about 10 seconds per cycle (and that is an exaggeration). The Hyperia team must have been chosen by the goddess themselves, because they run that ride so well, never stacking, always dispatching as soon as they can. Also shout out to Inferno's team who were doing a great job. They need a batcher though as lots of trains going out with two empty seats next to each other. And finally, the older I get the more I see myself preferring Thorpe's coaster line up to Altons. As much as I like Nemesis Reborn, I think the rest of the line up is either gimmicky nonsense, run awfully or just dull. Whereas Inferno is running the best Ive seen it (honestly, it's so good right now), Stealth and the Swarm are just so much fun, Hyperia manages to be open ( ) and I still love hanging out around Colossus and hearing that music. In general Thorpe is just a better experience all round. Better hours, better rides, better food, better operations. I would have never said that 20 years ago, but now, to me, Thorpe is in a different league.

So thoughts and notes from yesterday, which was a "VIP preview" for the season, where the park was open 10-3. -We're light on changes. A couple of tweaks to F&B is really all that is "new" -Repaints for part of Colossus and Depth Charge look nice. The small side of the Beach looks nice, also repainted, but it highlights the grime of the large side. -Hyperia grass is nice. Could be extended more. They've added benches to the plaza which isn't a bad idea, but they're atop the wings on the ground, which irks me a bit. -Many new pieces of merchandise, which are the usual high quality we've come to expect -Hyperia had issues yesterday, in large part due to the cold. Hopefully better today. Stealth had an issue during testing and didn't open. -The park usually stumbles during first day or two of opening, and yesterday wasn't any different, with the cold affecting weather, and reliability being a bit on the weak side, but it did improve. I've been to significantly worse first days. -There's a few other bits and pieces around the park. Solar panels atop Ghost Train (but you only see them if you look for them on other rides). Walking Dead has had creative tweaks to the post-ride section. Some speakers seem to have been fixed. Tweak to end of day of audio. If 2024 was Thorpe's year of improvement, 2025 is their year of stability. That's not a bad thing. But after a couple of years of multiple changes, it will have a different 'new season' vibe to it. The kicker for the park this year will be the quality and reach of marketing. That will be what makes or breaks them this year, with little to shout about in the way of new things

I know lighting wasn’t really made a big deal of from the park during the sparkle project but now it’s fright nights it’s the first real chance to see all the lighting installed and it’s really pretty impressive. To start with it simply for the most part looks really good - most of the rides have color coordinated lights, what’s also nice is the new lighting seems to be able to do various effects such as around inferno the lights do some sort of flame effects shining onto the ride. On that point I believe this is one of the first times the parks actually lit up the rides too, of course Stealth and colossus have had lighting before but other than that most of the lighting was more there to light up just the paths, now themed lighting is directing up to the ride structures them selves which look great. Finally not only looks good but there’s been some decent thought into how they work too - Vortex for example the lights are all white to start when loading, then when the ride cycle starts the lights all change to their “themed” status, also noticed when leaving at around 10:30 all the lights around the park lighting up the paths had changed to a standard white light, small things but nice to see some real thought has gone into how it all works, it’s clearly been a big investment and does make a difference!

I have some throughput timings from my trip to Thorpe Park yesterday that I’d like to report! I managed to grab the following timings in the park yesterday: Colossus (Theoretical: 1,300pph on 2 trains): 717pph (unknown number of trains, average of 3, 20th September 2025) Hyperia (Theoretical: 1,050pph on 2 trains): 833pph (2 trains, average of 10, 20th September 2025) Nemesis Inferno (Theoretical: 1,150pph on 2 trains): 977pph (2 trains, average of 5, 20th September 2025), 1,024pph (2 trains, average of 4, 20th September 2025) Saw: The Ride (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 8 cars/2 stations): 742pph (unknown number of trains/2 stations, average of 10 singular cars, 20th September 2025), 788pph (unknown number of trains/2 stations, average of 4 dual dispatches, 20th September 2025) Stealth (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 2 trains): 975pph (2 trains, average of 10, 20th September 2025) The Swarm (Theoretical: 1,100pph on 2 trains): 1,046pph (2 trains, average of 9, 20th September 2025) In terms of some specific insights: Stealth had possibly the best operations I’ve ever seen on there; these operations were phenomenal! The staff were sprinting down the platform, and they were very frequently outpacing the 40s dispatch timer on the platform, something which I’d largely thought redundant in previous years! 70-75 second dispatch intervals were being hit very consistently, and the slowest I saw was about 80s, which is incredible! The Swarm was also operated very well given that it seems to have been a tad inconsistent as of late. When I was in the area, the ride was consistently achieving minimal to no stacking, the staff were efficient, and I saw some dispatch intervals as quick as 90s or below. Great job! Hyperia was operating well, and seems to have improved compared to its opening year, with 80-90 second dispatch intervals being attained pretty consistently where closer to 100-120 seconds seemed par for the course in 2024. From what I could see, the ride was consistently not stacking and was very often dispatching before the train in front hit the brake run; at its quickest, I saw them dispatch when the train in front was negotiating the final outerbank after the splashdown. I do think the slow brake run on here makes throughputs slower than they could be when the ride isn’t stacking; if the brake run was faster, I think it would shave at least 10 seconds off the dispatch interval! Nemesis Inferno seemed to be operating well, with minimal to no stacking being quite frequent. I noticed the staff were trying to hurry people along on here. Overall, then, I thought operations were broadly very good at Thorpe yesterday! Stealth was phenomenally operated, I also thought The Swarm was particularly well operated, and overall, most things seemed to be doing well! I’ve given up hope of Colossus ever attaining a particularly decent throughput at this point, but even that didn’t appear too slow by Colossus standards.

I visited this park three weeks ago and I had some thoughts. You can tell this was a Disney park on a budget and was obviously planned in the days where Disneyland Paris was seen as a failure and budgets were tight. When it opened, its major rides were Space Mountain, Jungle Cruise and at a push, The many adventure of Winnie the Pooh. Investment has come with an outer ring basically built on the left side of the park with it starting at Grizzly Bear Mountain Railroad, into Mystic Point, Toy Story Land and finally Frozen Land. The right side of the park hasn't been left behind though with the removal of Autopia in favour of the Ironman Experience, Buzz lightyear re-themed to Ant-man and a rumoured Tower of Terror ride themed to Spiderman. I will say this, it is most definitely a one day park, maybe even a half day. The queues here are minimal (which is refreshing for a Disney park) and a lot of the rides are basically filler (again, quite refreshing). The longest waits are for the Duffy and Friends characters near the park entrances. If you aren't interested in queuing an hour to meet Lina-Bell, you have a problem. Grizzly Bear Mountain is the parks Big Thunder Mountain equivalent and It's a really good family coaster, it lacks the jank of thunder Mountain and its backwards section is pretty weak but the rest of the ride is great. The bears are used for comedy, one rubbing its bum on a points changer, another two setting of the dynamite in the mountains. The launch is pretty powerful and there's great forces on the turns through the valleys of the mountain. Mystic Manor was closed. This absolutely sucked. Toy Story land is exactly the same as Paris's, just slightly bigger. Jungle Cruise is excellent. When we went you could wait for either mandarin or english skippers. Because the English was done in slightly broken English, it made it an absolutely hilarious time. The skippers were so fun and over the top. The finale is sublime and puts this as the best Jungle Cruise in the Disney parks. Frozen Land was fine. It still pains me that this Frozen Ever After is the big new hope for Disneyland Paris when at its heart, it's a very mid fantasyland reject and isn't really good enough. The Disney Sea equivalent is far superior. Onkens sleds is fine if a bit basic. Its best bit is the lift hilll animatronic. The rest of it is junior rollercoaster fluff. Small World is the best of the five and was in good condition. All figures and effects are working. Hyperspace Mountain is the same as the Disneyland version and is pretty fun if unremarkable. Its permanently hyperspace mountain so does need a proper refurbishment. Antman and the Wasp is dull. All the sets are just grey and brown as you are shrunk down to destroy micro-chips. This leaves you with a very bland experience. Iron Man experience is pretty good, a more modern version of Star Tours. I personally.. prefer star Tours as it feels more mechanical and less fluid. However there's no denying it is a fun and unique experience. When we went there was no parades or special entertainment as the trip was during the parks off-season. The only offering was the fireworks display at the end of the night, called Momentous which was fantastic and a beautiful display. I was pretty emotional towards the end.

Saw it testing a few times today

Just got back from first trip to Europa. Wow. Where to start. Stayed in hotel Colleseio which was impressive, and to be honest a strange experience in itself that such a lavish hotel was linked to a theme park. 3 days on park and 1 day Rulantica. &nbsp The aesthetics of the park are incredible, it’s impossible not to feel the passion and pride that the Mack family have for their park. Everywhere you look it’s packed with hidden gems and is fresh, vibrant and visually stunning. More so, even after 3 days I know there’s so much more to discover, and the rich theming throughout really does elevate this park. The ride selection is second to none. I went for the coasters, but fell in love with the dark rides! Pirates detail was impressive, but live all the little hidden gems throughout the park. In terms of the biggies. Voltron was my no1 followed by Wodan and Silver Star, but also really enjoyed blue fire, the last inversion really something. Heard people talking up the ops for years, and was always questioning why people went on about them so much. Well not any more! Absolute perfection and efficiency. So obvious that the park is all about guest experience, the no nonsense approach in the stations is so refreshing to see, and keeps the queues down to sub 20 even on popular rides on a fairly busy day! Overall can’t wait to get back, going to be hard to find a park to top the all round package that Europa provides, yes there’s parks with better coasters etc, but it’s the combo of the selection of rides, theming, cleanliness, food and beverage offerings and most of all OPERATIONS! If you havent been. Get out there!!

I was lucky to experience a valley on Mandrill on Sunday, we just came to a stop at the boost launch area before the helix. I found it quite exciting as we would have to experience the rides swing launch to get it going again. I really enjoyed it as well. Mandrills launches are quite punchy as it is so going back and forth through the section was pretty satisfying. I am actually quite a big fan of Mandrill tbh, I've heard all the arguments about it being the wrong fit and whatever, however every time I go on it, it gives me a lot of joy and the queues for it never seem crazily unreasonable.The team always seem really on it when it comes to batching, loading and dispatching. It also has the B&M quirk of being incredibly reliable, 3.8% downtime for the last 7 days, and beaten only by Nemesis Reborn.

Just a post about some Thorpe Park history some people may not know. In the early 2000's, the park installed its first fast track system, which was very similar to the ones used at Disney. You would put your park ticket in the machine and receive a printed fast track ticket. The system was free to use, and ran for about 1-2 seasons until they decided to follow Universal and charge for the service The machines were ripped out but you can still see remnants of the system today. Tidal Wave: The steel structure with the red roof covering the F&B kiosk was the original covering for the fast track machines Nemesis Inferno had an actual area for the machines included as part of the design. You can see this to the right of the queue line entrance, where the retail kiosk is now located. The ones for Colossus was located where the F&B unit at the bottom of the hill (near Samurai) is now located. Loggers Leap also had machines installed, and these were located next to the entrance to the queue line. Hope this was some fun bits of information from the parks history!

So I visited Efteling for the first time recently. This park exceeded my expectations, and I was going to say its a Disney quality park. However, considering Efteling is older than Disneyland, should I be saying "are the Disney parks Efteling quality?" We spent 2 days at the park arriving around midday on the first. We didn't realise there was a national holiday, so the park was quite busy, however queue times averaged around the 30min mark, with Danse Macabre having a 60min queue pretty much all day for both days. Symbolica - Loved this ride, the level of theming was very high, and refreshing to see they didn't resort to using screens inside the attraction. There is a bit where all 3 cars face a balcony, which would have been an ideal place to put some screens, however there was a lovely diorama with butterflies so props to Efteling. Also great to see the park celebrating their mascot Pardoes by giving them their own attraction. I also loved the fact that you can choose between 3 different alternate endings, however we only got to experience the one. When we returned to do a re-ride at the end of the 2nd day the ride had closed for technical issues and didn't reopen. Vogel Rok - Awesome indoor coaster, decent amount of theming in the queue. Quiet forceful in some places. Joris en de Draak - loved these dual coasters, probably one of my favourites of the whole trip. Loads of fun pops of airtime. Loved the little details, such as the flag spinning at the end to signify the winner and the flags dropping in the station on the winning side. Droomvlucht - loved this ride, the sets were impressively large. Also was not expecting the spiral ending. Pagode - I've never been on this type of ride before, and we rode it as the sun was setting. Beautiful views across the park. Python - I was surprised at how well this rode and was quite forceful. I think its great that Efteling decided to completely re-track and keep its first major thrill ride, where other parks would have removed it. De Vliegende Hollander - this ride was amazing, the level of theming in the queue and the station blew me away. Reminded me of PoTC. The bit of the ride that goes into complete darkness with the fog actually made me a bit claustrophobic, and the ships "jumping" out of the dark were a nice touch. The coaster portion was decent, and we got lightly splashed at the end. The area theming was amazing as well. Baron 1898 - decent ride, amazing theming. Probably the only "let down" ride of the trip (and I use that term loosely as it is a world class ride) as the only other dive coaster I have been to compare it to is Oblivion. Carnaval Festival - loved this, reminded me of Small World (although the tune is not as offensive as Small World haha) and Toyland Tours. Love to see these old school attractions still running. Fairytale Forest - we spent around 2 hours in this, and we missed a lot. We underestimated how big this area is! My standout for this first visit was the Indian Waterlillies. Danse Macabre - this attraction was the standout attraction for me of the whole trip. I don't think there's much more I can say about it other than its incredible. We waited both days until it got dark to ride this as the darkness really added to the atmosphere. I would say Efteling have knocked it out of the park with this ride, its so well done. Probably the best POV I have seen online is the DLP Welcome one (link here: NEW RIDE Danse Macabre FULL ON RIDE - Efteling - World Premiere Dynamic Motion Stage). Park Ops - this is an extremely well run park, each of the F&B units had at least 3 staff in them, and the park and toilets were spotless. All of the attractions were running multiple trains/cars and the queues moved quickly. On our 2nd day we guesstimated they had a gate figure of around 10-12,000 and the park just swallowed it up. Each attraction appears to have been built with throughputs in mind, and considering the park doesn't run a fast track system they appear to do well with this. I got asked by a member of staff on a coffee unit what I thought of the park, and when I gave my feedback (which was positive) they said "thank you". I got the impression the staff were really proud to work there, and took ownership of it. We ate at the pancake restaurant Polles Keuken (amazing pancakes, although I would recommend pre-booking as the walk up queue can get quite long). The thematic elements in the restaurant added to the whole experience. We had lunch/early dinner at the Het Witte Paard restaurant. This was was around 15 EURO for a decent hot meal and drink which is amazing VFM in my opinion. In fact, the whole experience I felt was really good VFM, with park tickets costing 38 EURO and parking 12 EURO. My only gripe is that the hot drinks were all one size (small) and were 5 EURO, but this wasn't a big deal. We also ate at the Fabula Restaurant which was very good. The indoor play structures looked a lot of fun for the kids. We visited the Winter area that they had just finished setting up which was very well done. Park merchandise was very good, and I spent a small fortune on gifts, something I rarely do at a theme park. They also sell the various scents from the attractions which was a very unique thing to see. Parkwide and attraction sound/music were on point and very memorable. Entry to the park was quick and efficient, and the park entrance building is amazing! Construction on the new hotel looks like its progressing well, and I'm sure will be an awesome addition once it opens. Attractions we missed: Fata Morgana - closed for maintenance Villa Volta - didn't get time to get round to it Pirana - didn't get time to get round to it Raveleijn - they were running one show a day and we set an alarm to ensure we would be there on time. However we forgot we set the alarm and the alarm went off when we were in the middle of the queue for Baron. Stoomtrein - didn't get time to get round to it Max & Moritz - didn't get time to get round to it I'm sure we missed a whole lot more as the park is massive, but gives me a reason for a return trip! All in all, an amazing park. This park and Phantasialand are filled with magic, wonder and whimsy which I think is missing from a lot of theme parks now. We stayed at the Center Parcs De Vossemeren onsite hotel which is around a 1 hour drive from the park. We payed 40 EURO (each) a night for 3 nights which included access to the waterpark and breakfast! We took a day out of our trip to chill at the Center Parcs which was awesome! Can't wait to see what Efteling do next!

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.

I'm not really feeling it for FN this year, normally by now there is a bit of excitement, and although I think that trailer isn't bad I can't put my finger on it as to why i'm not feeling it. We shall see!

Stealth is back open today 😃

Colossus being closed would improve my visit 😉

There was a post on LinkedIn from an BALPA event hosted at Thorpe Park. This graph shows the direction they want Thorpe Park to take. It’s quite simple and fairly obvious but also I’m glad they are taking that direction in becoming the thrill park, nothing else. The graph also shows the way they want to improve revenue and the way they’ve done it. A few things: 2021-2023 it says “event led strategy” and in 2025+ it says “event development” to me it suggest Thorpe management want to and the plan is to bring back events. It was never the plan to drop them from Thorpe’s side. Also they state multiple times how they are keen to remove IP. I hope the management outlasts the cuts as when funding does come back, we need them to push forward with these goals as ultimately this is the correct way forward.

Just a general observation/thought. I find my enthusiasm & excitement for Thorpe Park/ Merlin parks muted this year. It’s just simply “open”, no new things to do, no events to change things up every few months, no dramas or issues. No 2025 TV advert, no real advertisement. No communication from parks e.g passholder page. Simply there’s nothing going on and nothing going to happen in the near future (excluding fright nights). There’s no evolving, it’s a difficult one as we had a period of investment and events. To simply going back to basics and providing what they have already. This is my first season since becoming a passholder which there has been no events or new attraction to keep it entertaining. I suppose what I’m asking, is this normal? Down periods in years gone by, with not much happening.

Well having it closed will do no 'arm to the line up.

So to bring some additional clarity to the situation... -The park are awaiting a part. This is evident by the fact staff aren't working on it actively. This means it'll be closed a while. Even when the part arrives, they will require time to test it. -It is likely a bigger / more expensive / specialist part, hence why the park didn't have one already. This takes time to acquire; it's not like they ring up Intamin and say "Can we have 1 [thing from catalogue] please?" and Intamin ship it out the next day from their warehouse either. -Time frame is unclear at the moment. How long is a piece of string. -Thorpe have no intention of getting rid of Stealth.

I've had my suspicions all but confirmed in that Stealth's and Rita's are indeed unrelated. Thorpe will do their utmost to keep Stealth going, and I don't think we're anywhere near the point where they're considering getting rid of it. For those old enough to remember, Thorpe literally clung onto dear life with Slammer. It was closed more than it was open for a couple of years. S&S stopped manufacturing parts, so Thorpe sourced things elsewhere. They dedicated a lot of money and man hours into getting the thing running. Only once it had absolutely gone past the financial point of no return did they give up the ghost. And Stealth is obviously different; it is still such an iconic ride for the park, is a genuine reason that people visit, and generates money from merch sales. I'm not saying to take Stealth for granted, but at this point, there is no reason to think Stealth is facing an imminent closure in the next couple of years.

Went to the park last Thursday after grabbing an overnight stay deal on Black Friday for Wednesday (when the park was originally meant to be closed), breakfast included, plus unlimited FastTrack all day (including Hyperia) for just £72 total (£36 per person). I never usually stay over, but that price for unlimited FastTrack made it an absolute no-brainer. I was pretty much on Hyperia for most of the day, and managed over 30 rides on it, as well as a couple of other rides too. Saw it testing before 9am and it was open for 10. Should be standard but nice to see they’re making the effort to get it running on time this season - it’s a big improvement over last year’s late starts. As the day went on and the ride warmed up, I did notice it started to get a little jolty/rattly from around row 4/5. Might be down to the different wheel compounds they’re using, but honestly it wasn’t anything major and didn’t really take away from the ride experience. Operations were absolutely flawless all day, the team were smashing the trains out and I didn't see it stack once, trains were even dispatched before the other hit the break run which I hadn't seen before. There was a lot of people who had the same deal also lapping Hyperia, and with RAP usage on top, the main queue for Hyperia definitely took a hit. Bit of a problem when RAP and FastTrack is allocated for the whole park but people are just using it on Hyperia. Since I was staying over, I was actually there for park opening for once (normally I don’t bother till the afternoon. I hate how they keep all the gates closed until 10am. Other parks like Chessington and Towers let you in the park earlier, not sure why this one can’t do the same. Back in the day, they used to open the gates earlier (around half 9) and if rides were ready, you’d open them before opening. Much better procedure than having a bottleneck and lots of people running in my opinion. This was on a quiet day too, can’t imagine what this is like on peak days. Shame not to get on Stealth again, still not been on it this season yet. Didn't see any visible work going on last week but hopefully the issues will get sorted soon. Rumba Rapids was testing and there seemed to be a lot of staff over there training, the ride availability page shows this will be open on late May now. Vortex is running really well, and has done for the last few seasons. It still has its smoke machine from Fright Nights too, doesn’t have much effect without it being dark and the lighting etc but still nice to see.

Try not to laugh in first 15 seconds challenge: https://youtu.be/0RyqNJamtpE?si=zCpnRAN5XGgW7ZUh

You know things are bad when the joke account is being serious.

Apologies for double post but by all accounts, Hyperia has operated successfully since opening. Hopefully the issue is now sorted...

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.

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.

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.'

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.

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

Whilst I don't anticipate there to be significant discourse on here this evening, the Fright Nights Launch Event is this evening, so I'd expect there to be spoilers floating about ahead of the official opening tomorrow. Please share anything that could be considered a Spoiler here. If you want to follow along and get some updates of the event, and insights into what might have changed and the quality this year, follow along with your favourite fansite (that's Thorpe Park Mania, in case it wasn't obvious) on all good (and bad) social media!

So let's dissect this a bit more / share some of my thoughts... I really like that they're making Lucifer a central figure this year. I've said repeatedly that this is something that park should look to do - have a headline character who is prominent in both marketing and on park. When the park introduced the Director character in 2013 and 14 (and even the Governor character in 2012), it was a nice touch. It didn't necessarily fully hit the mark as there was a lack of consistency due the character (naturally) having to be played by different actors. And the on-park character didn't quite marry up with the marketing character. But the park have had form there, and it worked. One criticism that occurred in 2015 was that the Figaro Bros were featured so heavily in marketing, but had no on-park presence (even in the original Big Top), which is why the park veered away from central characters. They've slowly reintroduced the concept of headline characters with "Fear" in 2021, the Locksmith in 2022 and the Toymaker in 2023. Again, they featured heavily in marketing. But aside from the Toymaker (who was only used for a special BTS tour of Stitches), had no physical on-park presence. Lucifer's Lair - in my opinion - has been the highlight of the past two Fright Nights. And given the plan to have the stage on the Beach this year, it wouldn't be surprising if they were hoping to turn that zone into a bigger thing this year. Having Lucifer has that central figure just works for the current Fright Nights set up. As a slight critique (possibly even a long-term suggestion), I'd rather the park have an 'original' character, as opposed to 'just' the devil, but they can make it work. I've banged on about this enough times on here, but if you look to Walibi Holland, their Eddie the Clown character has been a headline character for much of the park's Halloween event's history. Eddie the Clown and Walibi are synonymous now. And it leads to great marketing (and more recently, merchandise) opportunity. Thorpe can recreate that, in their own way. Now, the actual event. Upfront, I'm not enthused by Purgatory Town. It's being marketing as an 'interactive' scare zone, or a speak-to-characters zone. I'm getting a bit of a Swarm Invasion vibe, in that I expect there will be minimal theming and minimal actors, and guests will 'get out what they put in'. That is, you can walk through the zone and have basically no interaction with the actors, or you can spend time chatting with them and find out their story and lore and build up from there. The key difference is Swarm Invasion had an actual coaster with a backstory to help it, whereas Purgatory Town has...well, no pre-existing lore. Another issue is that Fright Nights has become quite...passive. A common discussion point on here, at the very least, is that the mazes are like walkthroughs of very well-themed sets, with less actual engagement. I'd argue Stitches and Trailers highlight that extremely well, but even DeadBeat has its moments. Now whether that's a good thing, a bad thing or just a thing is almost a mute point. If the reason the park are creating these passive experiences is because that's what guests enjoy and respond best to, then creating a scare zone which is the opposite to that is a hard sell to guests. Again looking to Swarm Invasion, that didn't exactly light the world on fire, and that could be because of the high engagement level required. The fact we're less than two weeks from the event starting and we have no theming or build is also telling of what to expect on that front (ie: not a lot). I'm certainly not writing it off, as we don't really know a lot about it still. But all signs point to this being little more than a nice experiment for the park to try. However, it is great to see Fright Nights further spread out across the park. Next thing to note is Survival Games changes. Hard to know what expectations should be, but the video and promo image make it look like the characters in the maze will be different at the very least: There's mentions of a "toxic twist", and any part of the marketing related to Survival Games does feature a strong electricity motif too. Trailers getting two new scenes is perhaps not unexpected given the new posters that appeared. A little excerpt from the park's press release gives us a bit more on what to expect... Evil experiments could be Experiment 10 (which could be the X poster seen) Forbidden Forests could be a Blair Witch throwback I hope that - unlike last year - the new scenes are more than just a redress of existing scenes. I know it's a less-common opinion, but I'm fine with a quieter year with no major new attractions as a one off. I'd argue that Purgatory Town isn't even necessary this year. But we'll see what happens!

Its cool to have an Easter Egg or two within a new or reimagined attraction (say for example, Piraten in Batavia having a survivor boat from the fire and a Roland Mack animatronic), but when the majority of the attraction becomes "DO YOU GET IT?" it misses the point somewhat as you feel like they're trying too hard to bash you over the head with references. The other issue is that the park has been so run down that a number of rides have needed a full refurbishment. Sub Terra came back out of necessity more than anything, Duel was in a sorry state since it opened, Nemesis was also refurbished out of necessity or be closed. Don't really think it's anything to do with nostalgia. Just those are the rides they could either redo over a closed season or needed to be done for reasons.

The push for digital only ORPs. That said they're still about and have 2 physical ones that I've purchased since 2023. Can I change it to things you now see all the time? Because vloggers. And (especially at Towers) cosplayers are just everywhere. Saw someone last weekend in full Phalanx get up complete with name badge and box with fake egg of Nemesis creature in it. It’s weird to me.

It’s been 10 years today since the horrific Smiler collision. BBC News are running coverage about the accident, but for some reason are glossing over the fact that the 2 injured riders raising this are doing so to raise money for the air ambulance charity who helped save many lives that day. I still can’t get over that it actually happened to be honest. I remember seeing the footage on the news and feeling devastated that it happened at Alton Towers of all places - somewhere many people cherish as somewhere filled with joy and happy childhood memories. I also remember visiting in the week after the park re-opened, and how empty and weird it felt being there after what happened. A very sad time for everyone involved, and for all the staff. I can’t help but wonder what Alton Towers would be like today if this incident hadn’t happened. To this day, their reputation is damaged, and they certainly took a huge hit in the months and even years after the incident. Perhaps the park would have been prosperous if this hadn’t happened, or perhaps an incident was waiting to happen anyway given the shortcuts that were being taken.

This weekend I went to Paulton’s fan day, the park certainly put on a lovely event. Several tours/BTS were carried out throughout the day, from seeing Cobra’s ride workshop, Storm Chaser’s OP cabin/train workshop process, the new construction area and much more. We had over an hour of ERS in Tornado Springs and Ghostly Manor (more on that soon) as well as a lovely buffet in Mel’s Diner and a Reveal/Q&A with park management. The biggest news/reveal of course was the new Vikings area (Valgard), which will include a new coaster, flat ride, restaurant and also re-themed Cobra (soon to be Raven). Surprisingly, the new coaster will be a Gerstlauer eurofighter, but hopefully the park will carry it off well, I find the smaller ones the better rides usually. Vague hints of a new water ride the following year were revealed, but not much else. Very exciting still. Magma will be a goner later this year. At least for Paultons. The lodges are several years away still. They also did a Q&A and showed how they build Ghostly Manor, which given the areas footprint/show building is impressive they got that all in. They also did a silent disco, but I left at that point. So, Ghostly Manor? My thoughts? It’s a lovely compact dark ride mixing screens and scenes nicely (they have 10 of them), plus the queue line is nicely done too. Whilst it doesn’t hit the same way as Alty Mans or Danse Macabre (which I did days earlier), it’s a decent addition to the park and great to see them finally obtaining a dark ride. Should suit the park nicely. Interesting times ahead perhaps.

NEW "World Premiere" - FULL TOUR Disneyland Paris 2025 New entrance to Studios opened today. Looks pretty decent!

Yeah, track replacing seems to have been pushed aside for now. Whether it was the issues with the previous new piece of track, a shift in strategy or something else that is the reason for that, we'll never know. I'm not a fan of Colossus - I can tolerate it on the front row (which is the only place I've ridden it in the last 8 or 9 years, and even then, I can count the number of rides I've had on it on one hand). But it does still seem to attract a reasonable crowd and runs reliably enough for now. But yes, it doesn't quite have the draw of a Nemesis or a Vampire. On the other hand, the park still have plenty of other development spots before they'd have to consider ripping rides out, so Colossus may hang on for a good while yet. My biggest concern with losing Colossus would be that we would no doubt lose the fun pathway that goes through the ride. Merlin just don't build rides which interact with walkways these days, and I'd be surprised if a potential Colossus replacement has anything beyond a straight pathway running alongside the ride, as opposed to a nice hill or similar.

What @Inferno said is spot on - Hyperia rapidly becomes known to the public as "the ride that's never open" - and then attendance falls and doesn't hit the expected returns Vs the investment, and then you end up waiting for another 12 years for the next big coaster again. Ok maybe that's an exaggeration, I think Dezza Brown the original white elephant didn't help there, but you get my point. As I said before, it really shouldn't be this much hassle getting on a sodding rollercoaster. First world problems and all that I know -June 11th and 12th 2024 is still a fresh wound 😛

It’s an odd and unfortunate situation at towers, because they’re pouring a lot of money in to things, but to “the GP” really they’re treading water and there’s nothing truly new happening… Realistically, despite the bits of investment over the last 5 years, you’d struggle to argue with these statements: - Ripsaw has re-opened - The same Nemesis is still there but is now black and red - The same Skyride is still sat there but is broken - Same old Hex has been sat there for years but is broken - The haunted house ride is still there, but has had a refurb. Don’t get me wrong, this is all money well spent in my opinion and was badly needed and overdue, but really I think AT needs something truly new. There is little that they’ve done since Wicker Man that truly offers something new. As much as I think Toxicator is a fantastic addition, it’s arguably yet another “re-opening of something that closed” if you know what I mean.

About as excited as ordering a burger kitchen meal.

Danse Macabre is so good. Faffy as all hell even with LEGIONS of staff and possibly could do with an indicator of the internal wait beyond the batching point. However, the ride system is wonderful. And the experience incredibly theatrical, which shows a lot of reverence to the original Spookslot whilst making something that is generally a better attraction (if going against the everyone can ride it thing that Efteling tends to have within reason). If it wasn't for the fact it has the longest queue on park (consistent 45 mins yesterday, and our added parent swap faffage as a result) I'd be riding it a lot more. Park looking gorgeous as ever for Christmas. And it's hilarious to me that my now 2 year old can pretty much do every ride there apart from creds and Macabre. Probably won't try the Rapids though since raining all day yesterday.

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!

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

Appreciate it thankyou for the insight.