JoshC.

I don't know what exactly is replacing Cliffhanger, but I am under the impression it will not be a roller coaster, and instead a small-ish flat ride. Basically none of those rides would be viable options. Enterprise is on its last legs, and takes a lot of effort to keep open (much more than a park of Blackgang's size could cope with) Spinball is too big a coaster for the park Rocky Express is being scrapped Apocalypse is way too big a ride for the park

With my year now over in terms of new rides (and probably parks in general), here's my Top 10% of coasters, with new-for-2022 ones in bold: 1 Taron Phantasialand 2 Taiga Linnanmäki 3 Untamed Walibi Holland 4 Skyrush Hersheypark 5 Helix Liseberg 6 Oz'Iris Parc Asterix 7 Balder Liseberg 8 Lost Gravity Walibi Holland 9 Der Schwur des Kärnan Hansa Park 10 Phoenix Knoebels 11 Jersey Devil Coaster Six Flags Great Adventure 12 Nemesis Alton Towers 13 Joris en de Draak Efteling 14 Colossos - Kampf der Giganten Heide Park 15 Goliath Walibi Holland 16 Kingda Ka Six Flags Great Adventure 17 Candymonium Hersheypark 18 El Toro (SFGAd) Six Flags Great Adventure 19 Troy Toverland 20 Black Mamba Phantasialand 21 Hyperion Energylandia 22 Lech Coaster Legendia 23 Lisebergbanan Liseberg 24 Van Helsing's Factory Movie Park Germany 25 Pulsar Walibi Belgium 26 Nitro (SFGAd) Six Flags Great Adventure 27 The Swarm Thorpe Park 28 Nemesis Inferno Thorpe Park 29 Colorado Adventure Phantasialand Notable new additions missing out here are Batman The Ride, SFGAd (#32), Ride to Happiness (#41) and FLY (#43). New rides for me which disappointed were Flucht von Novgorod, Storm Runner, Great Bear and Talon. New rides which surprised me, but aren't really in the upper echelons of the count, were Lightning Racer, Krake and Steel Force.

And here it is ladies and gentlemen, the post of the year.

If anything happens, don't expect changes to the ride system. The standard winter maintenance on the ride has already commenced, which means that the ride system will return. I am under the impression that the Derren IP was originally 6 years long, which would mean it would expire this year. There were some unknowns there, with the ride having opened late in 2016, and not opening at all in 2020. But I imagine its in both parties interests to just wrap things up with it and move on. The thing with Ghost Train is it would be very easy to remove Derren from it. Replace the pre show and edit his voice out of the start / end of the VR. Stick a different video in the finale, if they even keep that, and boom, done. Just drop the 'Derren Brown's' part of the name. Very easy, very cheap. Given the state of the VR headsets and the general mess they are though, it would make sense for them to attempt to do more. New VR. The long-suggested have screens in the windows instead. Have it as a completely actor led experience, turning it into a more Dungeons-esque experience. There's lots of more costly options there if they choose to do anything substantial to it.

Except people weren't saying that. With Fish, the ride went into storage, with an intention to possibly sell it. The plan then changed and the park reintroduced it, with a new train. Being in storage, the ride was protected from the elements and well looked after. This is very different to Rocky, which has been effectively abandoned for a year now. Rocky Express is not returning.

So track is now complete on this. Annnnnnnnd it has not one, but TWO inversions?! What is this thing.... It's very odd too, as it looks like those inversions will end up being taken at a slow pace. Meaning lots of hangtime. Not something I'd associate with a 'my first inversion' coaster, which is what I'd expect from a Legoland park adding a coaster going upside...

It still feels mental seeing this at Chessington. B&M track. At Chessington. Like wake me up I must be having a fever dream, right?

Water park is a good investment for the Chessington. I hope they look at how Towers operates their one and choose to not operate it like that (ie: actually have parts of it open outside of park opening hours lol) I'm not a water park person at all, so can't comment on its possible quality. But even an average water park is, as said, a good investment for the park

You joke, but the toilets by Slammer definitely need refurbishment! All other toilets on park have seen upgrades in the past few years (Swarm aside, but they're new and seemingly hardly ever used), so the Old Town ones could certainly do with a refresh. Especially since 2024 the area will be much busier. So certainly wouldn't mind seeing them upgraded next year.. Thorpe had posters on park stating their intention to have Mardi Gras, Carnival, Oktoberfest and Fright Nights as their core event line up. So it doesn't feel like there will be any new events. Given the park's continued focus, growth and success with events, it would be good to have a permanent stage area with seating set up. This allows the park's event line up to grow in quality too. The Wet Wet Wet / beach site is an obvious location. The Saw Alive pathway could work too, albeit with more work (and more expensive work at that). 2023 really could do with a new ride. The last time a 'new' ride was added to the park was 2017, and that was in the form of Timber Tug and Lumber Jump. The last time a new 'ride experience' was added was 2018, with Walking Dead The Ride. In the years since, we've had events and a maze. And yes, we've got Exodus coming in 2024 (or 2025...). But the park needs something new and fresh, and just generally extra support. I don't expect it to happen, but that's what I want to happen. 2023 also has a big question: What do you do with Derren Brown's Ghost Train? As I understand it, the IP contract is either up, or in its final year. In terms of upkeep and technology, it feels like it's falling apart...in the case of the headsets, completely so. They could easily keep the experience the same and drop Derren from it (effectively just record a new pre show with some crazy psychology professor, and call it Professor FakeName's Ghost Train). They could drop the VR and go for in-train screens possibly, but that would be expensive. They could rip it out and put something new in. But those options get exponentially more expensive. Whatever happens, one thing I know for certain: if Ghost Train continues to run and operate the way it did towards the latter half of this season, it would be shambolic in my opinion. In any case, here's what I think we might see happen: -Some progress towards a permanent, custom-made event space -Drawn out Exodus teasers -New Fright Nights maze to replace Creek Freak -Possible new toilets -Generic minor improvements across the park

As I understand it, a few pieces of track are being removed, with some being totally replaced, and some being refurbished. The refurbished track will be repainted too. This is not a full retrack. Given the location of the pieces removed, it makes sense too. There's long been talk of 'sinking' of Colossus, and the inlines are particularly prone to that given the location and the fact they had to fill in the land around that and the vertical loop. Would mean that the track is put under extra stress, strain and reaches the end of its usable life quicker. I believe that there is additional recognition that more pieces of track will need such work in the future too, so expect this to be a common occurrence for the next couple of closed seasons at least. Don't expect a full track repaint yet. Hopefully when the powers that be see how vibrant new track is and how bad the patchwork job will loo, they can green light that though. Good to see this is being done, and puts to bed any rumours of Colossus being removed any time soon. I haven't ridden Colossus in a long time, but the inlines were never a problem for me when I did ride them. In fact, they were the least rough parts of the ride. What's it like these days? Whilst this helps extend the lifespan of the ride, I wonder if this will make any actual improvements to the ride experience?

Rita is a decent coaster, fits in well at the park and has its place. Compared to modern launch coasters / coasters with launches, it hasn't stood the test of time, but it's still good in its own right. Despite needing some TLC, I really rated Duel in its current incarnation. Whilst I fully understand and get the hype surrounding Nemesis' send off, I was very non-plussed by the whole thing, and (despite it being my favourite UK coaster and my #1 for a long time) I have no strong emotions about its current closure.

Water ride and dark ride (and indoor attractions more generally) should be the park's next logical steps. They have enough coasters, and enough variety in coasters, to cope without adding a new one for a few years. In terms of next coaster, a woodie is a really obvious next step. Or even one of the family friendly RMCs the manufacturer has touted as possible could do the trick. An out and out thrill coaster would be an interesting and bold development for the park. But certainly can work - look at Plopsaland with their addition first of Anubis, then of Ride to Happiness. I could very much see Paultons becoming the Plopsaland of the UK, and that is no bad thing.

+Ride accessible to anyone aged 6+ +'Group' experience +Not too thrilling, meaning it's a much needed 'rest' ride in the park's line up +People are prepared to queue a long time for it Regardless of how bad it looks, how meh a ride it can, how deep the water in the boats is and it's low throughput, it's a ride which a large number of guests are willing to queue for and ride and diversifies the park's line up. There would be a major hole in the park's line up without it.

Loggers Leap closed because it required a lot of work, and the park didn't have the engineering budget at the time to carry out said work. The longer it was left, the more expensive it became to get it back up to standard (and, naturally, the more problems which arose). It is true that the water came from the lake, and this is fine and didn't break any H&S rules, and the ride still could have run today had the park wished for it to. The issue with sterilising / cleaning / treating water is that that water cannot go back into the lake. This would mean it would have to be a closed water system. That would be extremely difficult to do with Loggers given its location and the fact it went round the lake. As I say, Loggers could have still run today if the park put the money in, but it's not related to filtering the water.

Coming up with some cracking posts the last couple of weeks Benin, even by your high standards. Keep it up