Marc

I take it your thinking Saw the ride here - one of Merlins most successful investments?

We've been asking for a dark ride for years - theres no reason Merlin cant pull this off and am really excited to see how this turns out - even more so after the announcements today.

It would be quite crazy to put a date on it this early. Best to ensure they know 100% before committing to a date.

Whilst it may have got out a little earlier than expected - the full press release is now up: http://www.thorpeparkmania.co.uk/news/18-01-2016/Derren-Browns-Ghost-Train-Revealed

Going off topic here - can you tell me how they have ruined a coaster by adding an optional VR headset? Also what kind of market research have you performed to back up your claims that this will not be well received?

And slammer, rush, Stealth, depth charge, spinball, vortex but we will ignore that to make Merlin out as terrible!

I hope you never have aspirations to work in Marketing. What do you expect them to say? Come visit Alton Towers and ride Air, its not very different but you have VR googles now... They are making a multi million pound investment, with the goggles on it will be a totally different experience and they are right to sell it as a new attraction.

Station amendments / Building work , Content for VR, Theming, Marketing - it all adds up!

Pretty sure the top comes off every other year! I think one year the tops of the supporting arms were taken off too.

I think it's probably wrong to assume loggers is closed due to how it's been treated, if there was any issues with the ride it's self it would of closed last year and not ran till the end of the season.

Now all we need is a yellow pipe and I guess we can call it themed? Seriously though we are still atleast 3 months from it being open I think nows a bit early to judge the exterior.

It makes sense now! And all this time I thought you just liked Storm Surge!

Firstly it was U.S strikes which killed the civilians so Europe have "murdered" no one, secondly Isis murder 100's of innocent Syrian people every day, us not doing anything would be pretty much saying we are just fine with that.

Strange rows to pick almost seem at random, I can only assume it's got worse in the last year, it was never comfortable but never to the degree they've closed seats, you would think they will surely have to do something about it in the near future, I just hope they can keep the winged trains - I feel it gives it a massive advantage over other launches

I'm not any more worried about an attack then before, if we are attacked it will not be because we are bombing Syria and it would of happened anyway, despite what the media may tell you. I agree with this - the point I was trying to make is we are not going to go and bomb killing 100's of innocent people, as you say the real problem is the civil war and IS gaining more and more power, thats why they must be stopped. Air strikes alone wont stop this, but theres no negotiating with these people, they are monsters and must be stopped.

I'm pretty surprised at the reaction to this, everyone seems to be upset we have started bombing IS in Syria ignoring the fact weve been bombing IS in Iraq now for a number of months, all thats happened is we are now attacking them in their main base. Also saw the following quote re operations in Iraq against IS: So I'm not sure why people think suddenly there will be a load of innocent people affected.

To be fair - as guests we have very limited knowledge of what happens on these rides and the possible reasons for Merlin choosing to close mack log flumes if indeed that is what they are presently doing.

I do agree with you, I just can't see them spending all that money to remove it without real reason but I guess we will see in a few months time

I doubt it's down to budget - I'm sure Legos flume isn't affected and probably has similar costs.Just can't see them closing all of one ride type at every park to save money - if parks need to save money they will do do individually id imagine.

As much as I'm sure some people would get pleasure from that being the case I'd find it very unlikely that suddenly every Merlin flume is unable to open due to poor maintenance the same year. There's obviously something much deeper here behind their decision to close them

The flume site has been ear marked for development for a long time, the fact the ride is being removed (likely to cost significantly more than keeping it open) maybe they have plans for this area?!

I think there's obviously a reason for the closures rather than trying to annoy its customers..

I'm pretty shocked my self about the amount of closures but minus hex none of them really surprise me. Most of them can also be pretty easily hidden away. By this I guess we can assume alton are not expecting anything to get any better next season and have adjusted the ride line up for the amount of guests they are expecting.

The trough is dirty from the lake water it has going through it. Tunnel I agree with hardly looks great. Changing loggers to a clean water system would be a hell of a job and probably easier to rip it down and start again.

I don't see why people think loggers isn't looked after properly? Most of its issues come from the water it uses rather than the ride it's self.