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Marc

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Everything posted by Marc

  1. I expect it to be a very lose theme like Colossus / Stealth - as long as it looks nice I don’t mind too much hopefully the coaster can make up for that!
  2. There’s a clear shift in how Merlin spend money the last couple of years tbf, I would guess the combo of a new CEO / going back to private have made this more possible. Agree all this stuff should be standard but I guess it isn’t in recent times here so it is nice to see. Hopefully once it is done they can keep it up - even just smaller touches up around the park each year can keep it up to a decent standard whilst not costing multi millions which I can only assume all this is costing to bring it up from where it currently is / was.
  3. They also confirmed it’s getting a major PLC upgrade so that fits in with the rumours about being able to unlock individual restraints. I’d be surprised if it’s able to unlock one bar at a time without also major works on the train but maybe one “car” at a time? That said they can already unlock 2 rows at a time on Inferno but they still recheck all bars after unlocking 2 rows - but that’s more a recent policy thing than anything.
  4. They are also producing a new entrance and dome theme to be fair! Event was posted on the Thorpe annual pass Facebook group
  5. I wonder if they just broke and there was no budget to replace - maybe with the new way where Merlin seem happier to spend it’s possible.. I hope!
  6. I think the issue with this is people don’t want to go on some random days at the end of October - It’s always the same weeks / days packed every year simply because that’s when demand is. The park do limit the capacity, I’m pretty sure the numbers they let in are no where near what used to be seen back in 2008/9 etc. It is a tricky one to balance - it’s easy to say they should sell less tickets / fastracks etc but from a business sense that only makes sense if they also up the price - which will equally annoy some people. I do wonder if enthusiasts maybe overstate it and maybe people visiting once a year on fright nights just expect it to be packed and are pretty happy getting on a handful of rides and having a day out - hard to tell!
  7. Stealths fading changed mid construction - can see its original look here but it never opened like that, not sure why they would really bother once it’s up unless they had to.
  8. Yeah I agree with this - I would hate to see things like metal detectors at ride entrances and I don’t think you can really expect people to be without phones etc in queues. That said Thorpe have confirmed Hyperia will have the Mack rotating baggage stores which hopefully people will trust to leave phones etc in if they don’t have zip pockets to put them in.
  9. They were leg ticklers - they would randomly go off at the end of the ride when the train I assume reset, they were removed not long after though.
  10. Interesting.. I think I’ll go with Colossus is a good roller coaster
  11. They had the masks in the first and last rooms on Saturday evening and they all seemed to have some sort of mega phone so was much clearer than on press night too which was nice!
  12. I think I remember hearing the licensing for imascore stuff is a lot simpler in the way that they pay for it and that’s that (but I could be wrong) I’m sure they do still have the rights to the imascore stuff seeing as they still seem to have a continued relationship with them
  13. I don’t really see how screens would work on Ghost train - on Hogwarts it works well with the movement of the train, but with Ghost train most of the time the trains physically sat still and really only moves a very short distance - they maybe able to come up with something but really not sure how it would work
  14. I don’t imagine Thorpe having much issues with the CAA in regards to height - planes going over are already several thousand feet so I imagine it would be more the locals which would cause issues.
  15. I agree with lots of the little points, better park lighting, fright nights audio for every ride more smoke machines would be good to see, they are quite cheap and easy things to do too in the grand scheme of things. Creek Freak maybe I’ve been lucky but my run throughs have been actor heavy (not just press night) but obviously this does seem to vary a lot. Id bring in a new maze to replace platform, use the lost city space again and make it a original theme / indoor maze. I do think they lack a maze they can just throw people though, they are all very story based now and when you throw through huge groups you lose abit of the experience, mazes like the Asylum were effective even when they were throwing in huge groups quickly when queues got large. I don’t think lowering the price of mazes is really realistic at this point, they are clearly selling too many as it is and with fastrack it’s all about supply and demand, we saw fastrack start off cheaper than it is now with far too much of it, over the years they have tweaked pricing to the point where generally it’s less of an issue (not all the time granted) but will still make a tidy profit for the park. I suspect we will see them playing with maze prices too till they get the balance right (I hope so anyway!)
  16. I’m sure will be fine, I doubt things will be walk on with fastrack but will still be significantly quicker than main queues!
  17. They tweaked it throughout the evening it seems - I like it I think the ending is weak, people don’t seem to realise it’s finished, think the ending needs more umph to finish it off.
  18. Hmm I’m not sure they would Re-theme X again. I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea but walking dead is probably the most complete experience of the coaster there has been i can’t see them changing it again before the coaster is at the end of its life. I would guess they would just renew with AMC now till the time comes they want to remove it. Could be wrong though stranger things have happened !
  19. Hmm I’m not sure they would Re-theme X again. I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea but walking dead is probably the most complete experience of the coaster there has been i can’t see them changing it again before the coaster is at the end of its life. Could be wrong though stranger things have happened !
  20. The boards outside mazes do state there will be waits for mazes and it’s not instant access, queues will i suspect remain shorter than they would if they were still free mind. Have had similar issues at towers where the queues are so long it makes making the others a real rush, not ideal but hopefully they will adjust accordingly when they better learn the throughputs especially trailers.
  21. Marc

    2021 Season

    Don’t the VIP host offer “front of line access” so I assume straight on skipping even the fastrack queue? But realistically ultimate fastrack would be fine for most.
  22. Looking forward to hearing the changes - I always thought swarms soundtrack was quite dull - I remember thinking last fright nights that it’s fright nights track would suit it permanently so look forward to seeing how it sounds. I do hope they’ve managed to fix the speakers in the ambulance/ under the plane and the bell tower - the tower effect in particular was always very impressive both in the queue and even for riders when it was timed right.
  23. They are literally a business - any business in a similar situation would do the same. Universal objected a new attraction on international drive and they are certainly not the pits of the industry..
  24. Marc

    2021 Season

    To be fair they are literally all the same company - I wouldn’t say it’s unusual parks do similar / same events
  25. The thing is I think there is potential with ghost train - on paper it’s really a very good idea in my opinion, the illusion is great and the movement of the train is really good and surprises plenty of people. I don’t even have a problem with VR, it’s the only way this attraction could work but long term for it to work it really needs a better story and more reliable VR headsets. I also think the middle section is such a letdown now, the original was the best despite the effect rarely working!
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