JoshC.

Lots of improvements and subtle changes made to the ride lately: -New siren in the pre show area. -Walkway from pre show to station is darker and more intense. -New dispatch sequence (lights dim to near pitch darkness, plus either new audio or louder audio) -New speakers on the lift hill -Lots of special effects at the end of the ride (generator), with flashing lights, loud audio and air blasts. -Even LOUDER fog horn in post show -Changes to the exit corridor, with more stuff throughout It's great to see lots of tweaks being made to get this right. For me, the corridor between the pre show and station is a real highlight - genuinely unnerving walking through near darkness, hearing that each area you walk through had been compromised, and all lights going out behind you.

I believe that's already been closed. And I'm sure they've said in the past they planned to convert that space into a modern dark ride at some point, so we will see. (Anyone visiting this year for the first time - don't worry. Their dark ride was the biggest pile of turd at the park so you haven't missed out on anything!)

Maybe this is Project Zer0???

7H0R93 P4RK 15 2 6R8!

I believe they're planning to open it in July-time. It's just the drop that needs doing, so it's nothing major really. The commissioning process won't take too long to complete, so it's just a case of finishing off the station building and surrounding area.

Figaro Bros, the company, was formed in February 2018. The Figaro Brothers, the characters of The Big Top, were introduced in the 2015 incarnation, which was also notoriously well known for including many Derren Brown Easter Eggs. The brothers were the Ringleader, Kenny the Clown and Big Baby. The Ringleader and Big Baby were characters within the maze. Kenny the Clown was a nod to Paul McKenna, a hypnotist who Derren once was friends with, but had a falling out with. The name Figaro came from the name of one of Derren's pet parrots, as did the name for Madame Mephisto. I believe the Ringleader, who had a bit of an Eastern European accent in adverts and announcements, was to be called Rasputin, after Derren's third parrots, but that was never formally announced... Anyway, I digress... What it likely is is that this newly formed company is made up of a former employee(s) of Thorpe who has decided to work on their own projects now. They're probably using their work at Thorpe as an example to help get their exposure up. It happens regularly enough - people get experience at a large company, then use that experience and the contacts they make to start up their own company, or join a startup company, with a greater say in things.

Regardless of what they've said, as a coaster, it is a family ride focused on entertaining the younger market. From my rides, I can't say that the coaster does anything to particularly entertain me; an older member of the family. The coaster will entertain the younger-side of the market, and the older-side will simply go along with it and have a fun, low-key enjoyable ride. And that's fine. But then, you've got the theme, pre-show and overall presentation of the ride which makes it largely incompatible to those who would enjoy the ride most! As you say, it's not kid-friendly. The height restriction is neither here nor there to me. From my experience, the ride will be a MASSIVE hit with 6-8 year olds (which, nicely, is when kids start to hit 1.2m), but the presentation shuns that group away. It's a similar issue to what Th13teen had - that's a coaster which was always designed to be a big hit with the slightly older kids, 8-11 years I'd say, but was marketed way too intense and extreme. Fortunately, as time has passed, that issue has died away. Can that happen with Wicker Man though, given the scary stuff is part of the ride's experience, and not just some adverts which will disappear after a year? Of course, I'd like to say again that others who I rode it with (who had been on it before) said it was running slowly, and that did impact their experience too. Maybe I've done it on a bad day, especially given all the other reviews are largely positive! But of course, I can only go off what I've experienced, and I've experienced a family coaster designed for kids given a theme too scary for kids.

It's good that everyone who would potentially find it too scary is able to avoid it then. But equally, why design an experience which can welcome kids, and then make part of that experience too scary for them?

I liked the improvements done to Duel. It is clearly a 'we need to get the basics sorted out' sort of TLC, but it's good to see nonetheless. The new music on the ride is okay, classic 'ghost train' music, but it's not a patch on the random, super catchy old soundtrack.

With the pre show being skippable, I think the thing which concerns me is that people may not realise it's skippable, or realise how scary it is until it's too late. There's only so much staff can do. There's also my stubborn attitude of if you're designing a family ride, it should be inclusive to everyone in the family at all points - having a skippable bit just seems like an oversight. I'll have to disagree with you with. 6-8 year olds are the kids who will be hitting 1.2m tall, and the coaster is the perfect thrill level for them! They're the ones who Towers should be making want to ride it the most!

Bellewaerde in Belgium has had to stop selling it's Season Pass because they were "too popular" - https://www.looopings.nl/weblog/9979/Belgisch-pretpark-stopt-met-verkoop-abonnementen.html Costing €47 (~£41), it gave access to the park for all of the 2018 season except bank holidays. People with an Annual Walibi Parks Pass could also upgrade for access to Bellewaerde for an extra €20, but that offer has also been discontinued. The park's logic is that if too many are sold, they can't guarantee that the park won't be too busy. For a park that attracts around 900k people a year, it clearly must have done very well if they're that concerned about the number sold after a few weeks...

Pluk is right in that travel will always be your biggest expense, so it depends on your options that way. As something a bit more out there, the two major parks in Poland (Energylandia and Legendia) are booming at the moment. Flights are pretty cheap, they're both within an hour or so of each other, and entry to the parks is like £15 each. Bit different, and a bit more unknown since less people have done it, but maybe worth considering. There's the lovely cluster pluk mentioned too, with Phantasialand, Movie Park Germany, Toverland and Efteling all within a couple of hours of each other. Whenever I've done that parks, I've driven that way, which is a longer, but cheaper and less faff. If you can get cheap flights, you could do that pretty well. Don't forget Liseberg either. Again, if you can find a cheap flight to Gothenburg, it's a ridiculously easy park to travel to and would be inexpensive in that sense.

I got my rides on Wicker Man yesterday (3 to be precise), and, well, it's good, but I have one major problem with it. Let's go back to what I was expecting from Wicker Man: As a coaster, this is what Wicker Man is. It's a fun family coaster; it's got its moments of fun and 'woah' bits, but it's quiet low-key: there's nothing during the course which made me, as someone who would be an older member of the family, think 'Wow, that was fun'. It was all very bog standard. And that's fine, as that gives a coaster for the younger age of the ride's market (6-8 years old) a perfect coaster to ride. But then that's where's the problem lies, as they've done sort of done a Th13teen again. The pre-show (which might I add, I thought was brilliant) is, in my opinion, too scary and over the top for that age range. 6-8 year old me would have HATED it, to the point I'd have been afraid to go on the ride. The pitch black brakes at the end of the ride are equally going to be unnerving and too creepy there too (and would have benefitted from something actually happening in there anyways aside from a blast of smoke). I don't know how well I've explained this, but I remain really unconvinced by this for now. We've got a coaster, which I enjoy, and fills in a gap in the market. We've got a theme and pre-show which I enjoy. But the two don't work together, creating a weird identity crisis of a proper family ride once again trying too hard to be scary. And unlike Th13teen, this isn't something which will die away in time, since the scary stuff is present in the attraction. Maybe I'm making something out of nothing. Maybe 6 year olds are braver these days, I was a wimp back then, I'm over-exaggerating, or whatever. But to me, there is a clear divide in the ride experience which is given and the ride experience it is styled towards. HOWEVER. I did ride with some people who have ridden it before, and they did say it was running noticeably slower today; both from an off and on ride perspective. That was regardless of time of riding (about 12pm, 2pm, 4pm) or where I was riding (near the front, back, middle respectively). So maybe I've caught Wicker Man on a bad day, in which case, I look forward to being able to catch it on a good day. For more positive stuff: -I love the queue -I love the audio -I love the statue -I like the trains -The random effect on the brakes at the end did catch me off guard on my first time. So yeah, to round off. I got the coaster I was expecting. And it's a good representation of what a 'low-thrill' family coaster can do. But with the presentation of the theme and story, they've got a mismatch on their hands. Hopefully I've caught it on a bad day. But if I have, one has to wonder if that was bad luck, or how many more bad days there are to come...

I only caught the glimpse of a sign there in the background of an Instagram story in saw, so must be a reasonable new thing they've decided to develop. No clue whether it'll end up being in house or an external brand, but yeah, hopefully it pays off. Legoland do (or at least did) something which they called Churros in the snack place my Dragon. However, they were frozen 'churros' sparingly filled with chocolate sauce and heated up - calling them churros was a stretch, and they didn't taste great! I just hope that Thorpe are getting proper churros and not that rubbish.

I agree with your point. I just don't think it's that much of a mystery that there's a few parks which are at the forefront of people's attention when they're the ones which are arguably the best. Other parks get their moments in fairness, though yes it's a shame they don't get more.

You'll also have had Amity Kebabs and Colossus Hot Dogs open, as well as Coffee Shack in the Dome, which is run by the F&B department. The place outside the BBQ which serves Proper Cornish might also have opened for a couple of hours too. All other places do open on busier days. Still, your point stands that the choice isn't the greatest, and certainly a lot more limited compared to previous seasons. Hopefully with Sticky Sisters and The Grill (replacing the Hot Dog place in Old Town) coming soon, that'll add to the choice, and hopefully quality. Don't think it's been mentioned in the forums yet, but the Coffee place by Tidal Wave is being turned into a place that serves churros!!

The packages for the rides let you 'mix and match' what rides you go on, and have no time restriction on. For example, their roller coaster package gives you 5 Fastrack rides, and you can choose to do 1 ride on each coaster, have 1 person do 5 rides on 1 coaster, have 5 people do 1 ride on 1 coaster, etc. Must admit I was dubious about it at first, but they seem to have got the numbers right. And if it works like many other European parks who offer similar Fastpass style packages, where they've taken inspiration from, that's only going to be a good thing.

Not that I disagree, but I do think that having multiple queuing options can work provided those lines are designed and managed properly. This is where Merlin parks falter in particular - they've either retrofitted Fastrack and Disabled access queue lines into their attractions (major rides pre-2004 for Fastrack, and arguably all rides pre-2013 for Disabled access) or they're managed poorly, with staff doing terrible ratios. I must confess that Thorpe's new Fastrack system has worked well so far this year. Admittedly the system hasn't been put under the pressure of a hugely busy day yet, so it'll be interesting to see how it goes then. A good system is a good start to ironing out the flaws with it all.

In fairness, Europa, Phantasialand and Efteling are three of the biggest-investing parks in Europe. They're all super easily accessible and are almost always guaranteed to deliver great rides and great days out (unless you're @Mega-Lite and you're trying to use the toilet at Phantasialand apparently ). I agree there's plenty of quality parks often overlooked - Parc Asterix was ridiculously overlooked last year with Pegasus Express, even if reviews of it ended up being lukewarm. Hansa Park is probably another park you throw into the almost completely overlooked category. But I guess that's the beauty of Europe. We've got plenty of big name parks that deliver, but then we've got lots more smaller scale parks which are equally capable of doing something fantastic.

Thing is, Walking Dead was never meant to be available for the Annual Pass Preview Day before season started. It was just an extra bonus, since there was never a plan for there to be an AP Preview event for the ride (which in itself isn't great, but neither here nor there). It's good to see them continually try and push the value of an Annual Pass with this exclusive perks, especially when it's so dirt cheap, but I do agree it seems silly having a big push on The Year of TWD and then cut it off for non-AP holders at special events. Cutting off the nose to spite the face springs to mind.

During my visit last year, staff were very happy to staple you in on Helix and Balder (though didn't bother to check bars on Lisebergbanan lol). Never recall hearing that in reviews before, so I wonder if it's just something people overlooked / didn't affect them, or if that was a new thing last year ish? Could be an overarching explanation for the seatbelts though. Internal reviews showed that guests wanted / needed to be felt more secure on those rides, so they've made car checking more obvious, and now added a tertiary restraint to Helix to drive it home?

It's not exactly a flattering angle, is it - especially up close. No GCI, but an RMC..

The drop is finished! Posted by Testing Attractions on Facebook.

Just another reason why Taron is better than Helix now But yeah, that sucks. Goodness knows why they'd do that to be honest...

The conversation with myself continues... Posted on SSC That drop is BEAUTIFUL