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Sheepie

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Everything posted by Sheepie

  1. My opinion on the reuse of the fountains: if there is reason from a story based perspective to have them, great! However, I agree with the train of thought that a fresh start with the attraction would be wise. I would hate for them to try and shoe-horn in a finale that is not story driven. I welcome creativity with something new. Whilst the IP may not be appealing to us personally, I hope that it provides enough material to be an awesome attraction for the next generation of park guests.
  2. Cheers for posting the live stream! I missed it earlier. I'm not ashamed to admit I bought the early bird.
  3. At a risk of going off topic- one of the main problems in the UK theme park industry is that there is no department or team responsible for the upkeep of effects or maintaining any form of show quality. It gets handed over from the creative and project teams to the operations team and on the whole is kind of left afterwards. When things start to go downhill, management look to their engineering teams, however, they have so much pressure to get rides running running to a functional level that there is so little time to concentrate on any of the effects. When they do attempt to fix things, it's never to the standard that it should be (and I say this with the utmost respect for what they do as their specialism will most definitely not be creative and have little knowledge of theatricality or showmanship). I have to say, Chessington have a couple of individuals who specialise only in scenic effects (painting, props ects) and they do an absolutely fantastic job! So to bring this back to topic; I'm sure DBGT will open with the best of intentions and I sincerely hope it'll be an attraction for the UK to be proud of. However, I remain sceptical as to the future upkeep of the attraction.
  4. I hate my job but pretend to everyone there that I love it.
  5. Now that this has been revealed, I just need say, I love Derren Brown but this sounds so underwhelming. I hope I'm wrong.
  6. They started including fastrack with early rider late last year. This is just the first time they've promoted it in this way. There were no complaints then, sometimes I feel as though people have some form of weird vendetta against the park when they try new things to improve the experience for their guests. They do not start selling fastrack until 11am so having hotel guests use that entrance until 10:30 should be fine. I do understand why allowing annual pass holders access to fastrack can have an adverse effect. Chessington have the highest amount of annual pass holders.
  7. You will also be entitled to early rider if you're an annual pass holder. That will help you get ahead for sure.
  8. Like I said- it was very late that they decided they wanted to add it which is why you've seen it open fully in the first place. I'm not justifying anything, I'm just explaining why parts of it aren't open fully at the moment. This count was made after Easter. That whole last week of the holidays they were completely smashing all of their gate figures and even started to advertise on the website and park entrance that they were shutting at 7pm for those last few days. I just thought people would find this info interesting anyway.
  9. They wanted to incorporate a new technology which was a very late decision in the construction process an I suppose they wanted to at least open it as they had already advertised it as open. On another note- I hear that the park has had more guests visit the park than Alton towers so far this season!
  10. Amazu is currently having extra bits added to it which may explain why parts of it are closed at the moment.
  11. So so looking forward to this. Will be my first full meet since Guildford in February!
  12. What, we have to spend money on each other?
  13. I'm a yes providing I can get the time off work.
  14. Sheepie

    Scarefest

    Awesome update Stretchy! Who from here is taking a visit to Scarefest this year?
  15. The comments regarding the actors not being scary.... Horror Nights is about immersing you in an environment and the actors over there are very limited. One of the weaker aspects that the actors are only allowed to have impact scares and have very little interaction or room to "play" a character. Also sometimes the feeling of being isolated in their attractions is lost due to the constant parades of guests walking through. The UK attractions have always excelled with actors, we're lucky that we have a lot more freedom over here. Plus the relatively small groups that we experience the attractions helps make it feel as though we are going on an adventure.
  16. You raise good points. Truth is I have no idea. I'm just grateful it's being rethemed at all! Yes I truly believe the Merlin hotels are well themed. We aren't all lucky enough to take a trip over to Europa Park or Orlando every couple of years to experience their hotels. Legoland, ATH and Splash are some of my fave hotels. Chessington holiday inn has great potential under Merlin.
  17. I assume they would need to use the access road in their daily operation which would be difficult with construction work happening around it. Like I said. Merlin hotels. Holiday inn was not a Merlin hotel when it was built. Legoland hotel and towers' refurb are both awesome. I assume we can expect similar.
  18. Unfortuately runaway is taking longer because access to the site is limited and would affect the daily operations too much to be able to complete in the open season. As for the hotel extension. Merlin hotels are awesome and some of the best themed accommodation I've seen. Just from looking at past projects, it's going to be amazing. Bottom line- people want the resort to improve and to e able to do that they need to expect construction work and ad-hoc closures. Keep ya faith.
  19. I'm still certain that they are going about the runaway train refurb in te right way. They could have opened the ride in its current state with no theming and just a concrete base (basically flying fish) and people would kick off and moan that the park have no standards or care about the experience aspects to their rides. This season and the next couple will see Merlin investing a lot in the attraction. Things that won't necessarily bring direct revenue to the park and unfortunately they are playing catch up from a period of neglect. To the above- a section of the zoo is closed off for hotel extension work.
  20. Zufari's waterfall will be fixed. It's not a cost cutting measure.
  21. I really love this concept. We have some really creative people on this site. Sids, you've clearly spent a lot of time and put a lot of effort into your ideas. I'd love to see Thorpe use the Railway space at Halloween- that area of the park has a real sense of isolation to it which is just screaming out to be used. If they could find a way to please Health and Safety (low lighting and uneven pathways) and still retain the darkness needed for this kind of attraction it would be fantastic and certainly unique.
  22. The giraffe feed is open to anyone who wants to book, not just hotel guests. I don't really see how it was a sting in the tail as it was never something that was once free.
  23. May I just say about the giraffes: £10 per person may seem like a lot of money but the experience you get is absolutely fantastic. It's limited in numbers to 10-15 and you get to spend 45 minutes with them providing a true up close and personal experience. Not only that but the hosts are extremely knowledgable about the animals so you get to ask as many questions as you like. I'd definitely do it again.
  24. Will request the day off tomorrow!
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