JoshC.

In a nice, but admittedly very random, addition, Colossus now has a smoke effect! https://x.com/ThorpeParkMania/status/1936799436602065404?t=uY0MNotqAIdP5sGeIsb4tA&s=19

Rode it twice today. Dunno what all this discourse is about it being rough. It's fine. There are vibrations present, and you can notably see the train shift during the stall. But it doesn't negatively affect the ride experience for me. There are significantly worse rides out there, even in the park itself. I will say it is more vibratey than say this time last year though, and it does make me fear for how the ride will age. But yeah, for now, I'd love to ride it with someone who is calling this rough and see what on earth is going on. Because if that's rough, then....

The only thing worse than shops putting Christmas stuff in shops in August is the people who moan about Christmas stuff being in shops in August like it's something new though... 😉

Well it's time to start that thread... Jack has shown a couple of new posters that appeared in Trailers' queue: Now there's lots of room for speculation here. It could be for 2 new (rethemed) rooms. The left poster could certainly be a retheme of the first room (the dentist scene). The right poster is a bit more open to interpretation. I've seen some suggest this could be a hint to The Walking Dead The Ride leaving, given that X was its previous name, and the right poster looks a bit zombie-like. Given the nod to the date (the start of Fright Nights), I think that's unlikely. The right poster has the glazed-over eyes look, which is vaguely reminiscent of Dead Beat's advertising too. I expect that whatever these posters are, they are some sort of hint to what is to come, even if very tenuously linked. But for now, they've done the job of getting some people talking about Fright Nights. --- As for a more broad thing for Fright Nights, I've been told that this is the last year that Fright Nights will have an in-house Entertainments acting team. 2026 will see the park shift to having an external agency provide Ents, similar to how the other UK Merlin parks are operating this year. I do wonder if that will affect things. On a personal level, the one thing I really want Thorpe to do for Fright Nights is a proper alone experience. Yes, we have Survival Games where you can be split up, but it's not the same as a proper alone experience. I'm not sure if there's demand for an experience like this. A proper alone experience is usually more theatrical and story-led, with less re-visit potential, and less jump scares. But they can be significantly scarier and more impactful than the types of mazes Thorpe offer. They warrant an upcharge, and a more expensive one at that, so can still be wildly profitable. Even looking at those posters, you could fit in the story of an alone experience. Being alone in a medical ward where something bad happened. The "unearthing" poster could relate to being 'buried alive'. This is purely my imagination running wild here, but it's something which could really work.

Jack Silkstone has a slightly higher quality image, plus an update video... He says that the images aren't AI ("it has been designed"), but I remain unconvinced. Maybe it wasn't completely AI, but there is surely AI elements in it. He also says that the circular rockwork on the bottom, is "the O from the logo". Which is a ridiculous detail which doesn't make sense. The in the clouds, top-of-the-mountain motif only really vaguely fits with Hyperia too. Including a reference to The Inbetweeners (the car) is certainly a choice. Do many people under the age of 25 know or care about it? I do think there's a level of overthinking here. It's an image above the entrance with some rides from the park. That's enough really, and it does the job. It's also better than a blank screen. It's a shame that they couldn't maintain that; at its peak use, it was a really cool feature. The entrance area needs a bigger overhaul though. The security bit is cramped and unsightly. The exiting of the park feels a bit stilted at times. The ticket office being away from the security area (and before it) is a bit awkward too. So yeah, this sticks a plaster over an injury needing stitches. I'm sure the park are aware of that. But if and when they fix that is the big question now.

It has over the years taken longer and longer for those restraints to release (or maybe I'm becoming for impatient with old age?) I do wonder if some extra TLC - like it receives every 3 or so years - is the answer, or if it needs a more notable overhaul (ie completely new parts). It is 20 years old after all.

Yeah that'll be because of school trips. It's a silly rule but it makes things easier for the park Certainly less operational hours for it but I don't think that's too worth reading into just yet

It's strange because the rest of the park received new TVs which are basically always on and working. So is Swarm just cursed with other issues, or is there another reason why it doesn't work. The effects situation is a crying shame. It's easy to forget that when the train goes through the tower before the station fly over, it used to (/ is still meant to?) trigger the Swarm 'noise'. I can't remember when I last heard that. There's definitely a disparity between creative and operations. I find it hard to believe that Thorpe would actively have wanted the water effect on Hyperia given the way Swarm's has gone down, and how quickly it stopped working. Hopefully they can stabilise and streamline that process in the future.

With the IP references, I don't think that's a long-term strategy, but just a reference to what they did in 2023-24. -2023: Retheme of Derren Brown's Ghost Train to just Ghost Train -2024: Removal of Black Mirror, plus retheme of Angry Birds Land to Big Easy Boulevard IPs can work in certain circumstances; Saw is the best Merlin example. But obviously they have overly relied on them in the past, which has caused issues. As I say, I don't envision Thorpe removing IPs entirely. I mean, they introduced IT 4D at Fright Nights last year, so they're still actively doing these things. But they've cut away what wasn't working and hopefully are being more sensible. That BALPA slide is interesting, as it certainly feels like a few of the "maintain momentum" points this year haven't happened. -There's been no capitalising on Hyperia Year 2...I haven't seen any ads for it? -Events have regressed, not developed -The KPI focus seems to tie in with 2024's KPI focus which was related to Project Sparkle, which barely happened in 24/25 winter. The impact of the Merlin restructure, plus the delay in the Beach Stage, plus perhaps some lack of confidence in Hyperia with the early issues this season, all likely haven't helped. And that's a shame. And going onto the other conversation, I think that is felt this year. Last year, the park felt really revitalised and fresh. Hyperia opening really helped, but even prior to opening, the park felt in a good place. That feeling that hasn't been captured this year. There's next to nothing new (just a new dessert place). There was no tarting up. There's no events throughout the year to keep things interesting. It's just a bit...same old same old. And there's nothing wrong with that per se. Parks can't introduce something new every year. But the issue with Thorpe is that that is exactly what they have done for decades (even if it is just a new event, or a bouncy castle, or a maze..). And that stuff papers over the cracks. Other parks get away with not adding new stuff because they fix those proverbial cracks, or don't have them in the first place. Hopefully this year is just a lull, and things pick up for Fright Nights in particular. But sadly, it doesn't feel like the park is maintaining momentum this year.

Depends how little your little one and what rides you're looking at doing, but some general thoughts... -Flight of the Sky Lion has a horrible queue (especially if it's warm), and it does move quite slow -Ninjago and Dragon queue times often are inflated / over stated -Log flume gets you wetter than you'd expect -There's lots of play areas about; most of them are pretty decent! -Food is expensive (even by Merlin standards) -The duelling coasters have a quick moving queue, even when the queue is full

I'd imagine it's something that could happen, but given that at the moment they've made no big deal about the new audio, and no one is really commenting on it, it's a low priority. The new stuff is fine. I can't lie, I barely hear it because it's pretty quiet. I went to the park today and heard no music outside the entrance, a little on the bridge and nothing on the Dome or balcony. The more parks I've gone to, the more I realised plenty of parks don't have a signature piece of music at the entrance or their main plaza area. So I guess I've placed less care or notice on it. But it's one of those things that if the park had one, and if it was really good, it would elevate things so much. And they haven't had that really since the track used in the 00s.

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

It is one of those "you remember where you were when you heard about it" moments. 10 years ago is crazy though. I only ever worked for Merlin post the incident, but I've seen and heard of many of consequences, aftermath, etc that it resulted in. Some ideas have been frankly ridiculous and damaging to the parks further. Equally, some have led to Merlin being significantly safer and if an incident like that was to ever happen again at a major park, the probability of it happening at a Merlin park is surely the lowest. One does wonder though, what shape would Merlin (and Towers in particular) be in if it never happened.

Needed new part, took a while to arrive. Just the way these things go sometimes.

I must confess myself surprised that the park didn't really do anything to acknowledge a year since Hyperia opened beyond a social media post (and ride staff wearing gold party hats, which they likely bought themselves). I'm not saying that the park had to do anything, or that they should have done anything. But last year, the park did a few things differently, such as the opening ceremony and handing out certificates to people who rode it opening day. They then did the "Hyperia day" celebration on 23rd June (23/6). It seemed like they were going in a direction of celebrating things, or pushing Hyperia in a different way. Now whether it's the Merlin restructure has meant that there's not the capacity to do that, they've lost a bit of confidence in Hyperia with its reliability issues, or they just never planned to do anything, we'll never know. But regardless of the why behind it, there's a part of me that is surprised they didn't really do anything. --- In other (vaguely related) news, Jack Silkstone / Thorpe are releasing a Hyperia documentary. I think the original plan was to release this yesterday (I'm certain Jack even said that at one point), but obviously that didn't happen...