JoshC.

It has also been announced that Vampire, the SLC, will close at the end of next year. No replacement has been confirmed, but the park have said they wouldn't close it with nothing in works to replace it.

Ultimately, Thorpe will drag Stealth out until its last dying breath. Just like they did with Slammer. I don't see them TT2-ing it (ie converting to a LSM swing launch). Largely because there's not enough space for that. They possibly could convert it to a powerful enough LSM launch, but that'd be expensive. When the time comes, I do expect they'll just tear it down.

I've heard pretty much nothing. One of the big issues the park will face is if staff haven't worked on it in a certain time frame, they will 'lose' the ability to work on it and need complete re-training. This might be why there was a lot of testing earlier this year, to stop that from happening. It's weird though. It's on the map / app / queue boards. It's got the new RAP signage. It's clearly meant to be a part of the 2026 line up. So why is it just sat there.

Walibi Belgium has come on leaps and bounds over the last decade. I remember my first visit (coincidentally, just over a decade ago). I actually didn't mind it as a park, but it was clearly missing a lot and needed some love. There was big restrictions on the park, and lots of jokes about them only being able to build Boomerang-style coasters. The near-total transformation is incredible to witness, and every part of the park oozes with quality. Kondaa is a fabulous headline attraction. They've got a solid support line up of coasters, and an RMC will add to the top-tier headliner, and great dark and water rides. I'm a bit disappointed they chose to RMC Loup-Garou, since I really like it and think it would have just benefitted from a retrack. But at the same time, the quality of an RMC is largely undeniable. Now if only they can rip out Vampire and put something good in its place...

I think my biggest issue with it is the fact they've marketed it...like at all. In its current guise, it's an area with some seats and more space to spread out at start of day / evening. That doesn't need any marketing, videos, etc. The fact they spoke about it being a place to watch Football World Cup games when the majority of games take place outside of opening hours (and even overnight) shows it's a desperate ploy to just get people talking. Its potential is great, with space for a stage, etc. The idea of using it to show big TV events is good too. But right now, the potential isn't bring realised. That's not necessarily a bad thing, just a thing...so long as they do eventually realise said potential. So yeah, in its current guise, it won't be used much. That's fine. It's a space to open up that part of the park and be a bit quieter. And that didn't need as much pushing as it got. Let's just hope they can utilise it in the future.

I was at Thorpe on Monday for one of the 9pm closes too. Ride availability was pretty poor. One of 'those' Thorpe days - though they are fewer and further between now. I don't think the heat can take the full blame for availability (beyond Stealth, as hydraulic launches do typically struggle in heat), but certainly can't have been a good factor. In saying that, I had a good time, and there were a good number of people there until close. Was it rammed? No. Was it lively enough though? Yes. Obviously the extreme heat won't have helped, and the May half term is usually the quietest one of the school holidays (I think, in part, due to it being around exam season, so a chunk of your core demographic are actually less likely to do bigger days out). So I don't think the 9pm closes being quiet are a 'bad' thing in any way. I find it funny seeing the discourse around that if the parks are quiet on late closes, then they won't do them again. Isn't part of the reason to spread crowds out more throughout the day, improving rides per guest and overall giving guests better experiences. I think, on the whole, the late closes achieved that.

We have the first piece of marketing, earlier than usual...

Parm Pap's weather reports are more insightful than an endoscopy.

It's a cable replacement and nothing crazy. The previous prolonged closure is not ideal, but if history is anything to go by, it should be okay now.

Though a different situation to last year (where Stealth effectively opened weeks into the season), it must be a concern for the park that for the second year running they've had early-season issues with Stealth. The issues with hydraulic launches are well documented now. And one as powerful as Stealth will add to that complexity. At the same time, Thorpe are well-versed in dealing with complex, unique and temperamental rides (for better or worse). So hopefully they're not thinking of giving it up yet. But equally, from a purely business perspective, if this keeps happening, one has to expect they'll at least consider changes to it.

Never seen that before, and it hasn't been like that all of this year. Could just be because the weather was nice and staff wanted to more be outside. Could be they're trying it there to advise people of potentially long waits for front row (it holds a lot of people). Could be a security thing. Will be interesting to see if they carry on doing that; it's certainly a bit further away from the rows so harder to see

Shuffles around at that level aren't all that uncommon. I believe the previous VP of Legoland Windsor has moved to a broader role within Merlin. Obviously we don't know the exact day-to-day responsibilities of the VP / Divisional Director roles of the parks, but as has been mentioned, the past few years with Neil in charge have seen lots of positives with operations and general improvements. Thorpe has, for the last couple of years as a minimum, been generally considered the best operated Merlin UK park, with the best reliability, best food, best Halloween event and just in general doing well given the relative tight purse strings from Merlin above. That certainly won't be down to one person, but things like that happen when you've got good leadership in place.

A joy to see and I hope it works out well for them. Already seems better advertised than the last set of 9pm closes. It's not out the realm of possibility that they'd make a big deal of the space if it's open, putting extra things on there, etc. And that feels roughly when it might be ready.

I think that (quite unusually) Hyperia was only on one train, which may explain the abnormally long queue.

And what does Parm Pap like, beyond long-winded ways of saying (I presume) "the water effect won't make a splash back soon"?