JoshC.

I agree about the triple launch section potentially killing the momentum. However, with the airtime moments included in that as well, that should at least offer something more interesting to it.

For those unaware, Star Ball is an end of season staff party. Pretty poor of anyone to post anything on an official social media account whilst likely inebriated... Not sure if it's just a joke or if you're genuinely unaware, but Project Zero was totally unrelated to Thorpe - it was a pair of Escape Rooms which opened in Ashford..

Nice concept - not as 'brick'y as I was expecting, which is a good thing. Equally, I hope they have a balance to make it 'feel' like Legoland, else it may feel out of place.

^It's an extension of the park, behind their SLC. Construction photo from PabloA on Coasterforce...

Walibi Belgium took a trip to Switzerland and took some drugs with Intamin... Coming in 2021. Note that, sadly, the new Intamin at Asterix will be 51m tall, so this will only be the highest coaster in the Benelux. Burn. Again, another mental-looking coaster from Intamin; that final third looks insane. Anddddd, just as a reminder of what's coming up in Walibi Belgium over the next few years: 2019: Popcorn Revenge - 3D shooting erratic dark ride 2019: Junior coaster 2020: Splash battle and Gerstlauer sky fly / sky roller 2021: Intamin coaster and re-introduction of their kiddie cred, along with a retheme of the Vampire / Werewolf area Damn Walibi, damn.

What's better than a coaster with one launch? A coaster with two launches. And what's better than a coaster with two launches? A coaster with four launches. And what's worse than a coaster with four launches but still bloody good? A coaster with one proper launch and one of those weird triple semi-shuttle launch things (but it's fine because this thing looks bloody awesome)... Intamin bringing their A+ game with this. And with it being Parc Asterix, expect some tasty theming too. Only bad news is this is still 2 and a half years a way from opening...

As you say, it's a listed structure, so it will never happen. This was a hoax by someone on Twitter and hasn't even been thought of by the park, Lett alone any plans being dreamed up.

This is what happens when you stick a dark ride in the middle of the park and don't have a large enough budget for exterior theming. It's no surprise really, as it's exactly what they did with Ninjago.

Though it hasn't been officially confirmed anywhere, it is strongly rumoured that the Fly trains will have 10 rows, and there will be 4 trains. That would put it at a higher capacity than Taron. How that would translate to throughput is of course a different matter, but I don't think it will be as much as a worry as it first seems!

Go on then.

Genuinely thought we had a Vekoma thread somewhere, but clearly not.. But it's fine, we need one... During this week's IAAPA, Vekoma are revealing 4 new generations of some of their coasters. Flying coaster is one of them (see Phantasialand), another one is the upgraded version of their SLC... Called the Suspended Thrill Coaster (STC), the new off-the-shelf model features two inversions and a significantly different layout. The last "new" SLC is set to open in China sometime over the next year or so I believe. After that, the STC takes over as the only off-the-shelf suspended model Vekoma will sell. Given that Mayan (SLC at Energylandia built a couple of years back) is generally considered not-horrendous by most, and the good quality attractions Vekoma have been building lately, it's fair to assume this should provide a much smoother ride experience, as well as a fun, cheaper, option for many parks.

Not strictly Phantasialand-related, but it'll do... Vekoma have updated their website to show promotional art of their new-gen flyer. More details will follow during this week's IAAPA. Personally feel like those trains are a bit, well, ugly. Hope there's easy customisable theming options..

But what do number of interactions actually count for? Sure, it increases outreach, but that's pretty pointless when what they're posting is effectively gibberish. And it hardly increases outreach in the first place when it's probably the same people interacting. It's the sort of stuff that small-scale pages do, not pre-established large companies too. This doesn't even take into account that the type of people who enjoy this, like young teens, aren't exactly in their abundance on Twitter, preferring things like Snapchat (which, ironically, is severely under-utilised by Thorpe). It shows a complete lack of understanding of who they're trying to target, as well as how and why. It also doesn't help when they post things which could be interpreted as hints to investments which aren't going to happen (see today's tweet). No Thorpe, that's not interacting with fans and being funny and clever, it alienates a large majority of people who don't about pointless teases, and sets expectations too high for the minority. Very definition of shooting yourself in the foot.

Alternatively, go for an interview there, and they let you roam around the park unescorted for free afterwards. Didn't feel wholly comfortable with that proposition...

Anyone else feel like Thorpe's Twitter is the cringiest thing to happen in 2018, and just generally not how a theme park should do social media? Or am I just out of touch with what's "cool" these days...

As a project, this must be costing MILLIONS - this won't be cheap. Crazy really that they're considering this, just to potentially help ease of traffic congestion. I question how much it'll improve people's travel to the park, and how much of Europa's thinking is just 'this draws even more attention to us and creates something unique'. But it's still a quirky thing to see, and I'm sure people will love it, so I've got nothing against it.

Dia de Muertos is the, predominantly Mexican, celebration for 'Day of the Dead'. It's a 3 day festival taking place 31st October to 2nd November for people to celebrate life and death, and reflect back on loved ones who have passed away. It's slowly creeping its way into western culture, mostly because people think it's Halloween related and an excuse to dress up vibrantly with skulls. But it's not, and if anything, shows how people don't understand the point of it. Why on earth Thorpe it would be a good idea to make reference to it, I have no idea. Most people don't know of it, don't care for it, and it has no relation to anything at Thorpe. And given how few interactions it got, it shows. Fun fact - the backwards cave section in Chiapas at Phantasialand is based off of Dia de Muertos. Hence the disco ball, flashing lights and singing skulls.

Ermmmm... Thorpe x10(ish) Phantasialand x6 Alton Towers x5 Chessington x4 Legoland x2 Energylandia x1 Legendia x1 Flamingo Land x1 Adventure Island x1 Efteling x1 Toverland x1 Bellewaerde x1 So 4 new parks this year (Flamingo Land, Adventure Island and Polish parks). A quieter year for me though. But hey, at least Phantasialand was my second-most visited park - happy with that ?

Couple of renderings of the RMC, who's name isn't necessarily Zadra, but that is just the project name: (Pictures from looopings)

Trying my best not to be triggered... Though I agree Taiga will be a beast of a ride, and I really can't wait to ride it. Good Intamins

Genuinely do not care! I'm always of the mind set that original layouts are better than cloned layouts, but this does nothing to hurt my love for Taron

Sadly not Thorpe, but I'm sure you'll be pleased to hear Wanda Chengdu are building a Taron clone...

I visited Tulleys for the first time last night. I was perhaps a little disappointed by it if I'm honest.. Mazes reviewed in order: Creepy Cottage Nice little attraction. Very dark and nicely themed. The sponge floor was nice. VIXI Not awful. The changes in height in the floor are good, the rope changes are good, the temperature changes are good. The post-hood section is fun. The major issue is the actors making too much noise - making one loud noise to scare one person stops the actor from being able to scare anyone else. Circus of Horrors Good 20 minute show. Like the intimate setting which works very well for CoH. Coven of 13 Loved the swamp at the start; very different and fun. Trouble is Coven goes on too long with not a lot happening. I'm all for lulls and breaks to build tension, but these go on too long with not enough to keep interest levels up. I was ready for it to end at least twice before realising it was carrying on. Haunted Hayride Loved this. Good humour, good interaction, couple of clever scares (putting chainsaws in the benches to make them vibrate - very clever). Twisted Clowns 3D By far my favourite maze of the night. Doesn't take itself too seriously, creating lots of funny moments. And that leaves you more open to being scared. It's so different in tone to every other attraction which makes it feel like a breath of fresh air. Chop Shop Meh. When chainsaws do nothing for you, this maze was always going to be meh. It starts off well, but with the second half of the maze literally being 'strobes, blank walls and chainsaws', it's just very bland. Cellar Cellar was alright. In terms of style, it felt very similar to a lot of other mazes, and there were a couple too many lull moments for my liking. I'd say the last minute of the maze we walked through with no actors. Colony Another extremely long maze, again with not a lot happening at a lot of points. The lulls were almost getting boring at this point. Again, the style of the maze felt very samey to a few others which meant it all felt a bit of a blur. The white room with all the smoke was very good though. One thing which really stood out to me is how Tulleys clearly have their own groove for mazes. "A creepy / distopian storyline and actors speaking non-sensical words" pretty much describes 5 of their mazes, which all feel very blended into one. On top of that, multiple mazes have chainsaws, which just makes the whole technique feel bland. The crowning jewel of Tulleys, however, is their street performers. They are brilliant. I had multiple interactions through the night. The clowns harassed me whilst I was eating (and hurled a couple of phrases I won't repeat on here ?). A guy with a bird-thing interacted with me a few times, always with lots of humour. The live entertainers were brilliant, with street staff encouraging/forcing us to dance along. And the nurses gave us a very rousing personal performance whilst we were at a table.. So yeah, all in all, I found the best bits of Tulleys to be the less serious attractions. Maybe it's just me and what I want from scare attractions, but their 'this is a super dark scary thing' mazes did little for me, with Twisted and the street team, the ones who were more playful and not trying so hard with the scares, being the real highlights of the event.

I visited Tulleys for the first time last night. I was perhaps a little disappointed by it if I'm honest.. Mazes reviewed in order: Creepy Cottage Nice little attraction. Very dark and nicely themed. The sponge floor was nice. VIXI Not awful. The changes in height in the floor are good, the rope changes are good, the temperature changes are good. The post-hood section is fun. The major issue is the actors making too much noise - making one loud noise to scare one person stops the actor from being able to scare anyone else. Circus of Horrors Good 20 minute show. Like the intimate setting which works very well for CoH. Coven of 13 Loved the swamp at the start; very different and fun. Trouble is Coven goes on too long with not a lot happening. I'm all for lulls and breaks to build tension, but these go on too long with not enough to keep interest levels up. I was ready for it to end at least twice before realising it was carrying on. Haunted Hayride Loved this. Good humour, good interaction, couple of clever scares (putting chainsaws in the benches to make them vibrate - very clever). Twisted Clowns 3D By far my favourite maze of the night. Doesn't take itself too seriously, creating lots of funny moments. And that leaves you more open to being scared. It's so different in tone to every other attraction which makes it feel like a breath of fresh air. Chop Shop Meh. When chainsaws do nothing for you, this maze was always going to be meh. It starts off well, but with the second half of the maze literally being 'strobes, blank walls and chainsaws', it's just very bland. Cellar Cellar was alright. In terms of style, it felt very similar to a lot of other mazes, and there were a couple too many lull moments for my liking. I'd say the last minute of the maze we walked through with no actors. Colony Another extremely long maze, again with not a lot happening at a lot of points. The lulls were almost getting boring at this point. Again, the style of the maze felt very samey to a few others which meant it all felt a bit of a blur. The white room with all the smoke was very good though. One thing which really stood out to me is how Tulleys clearly have their own groove for mazes. "A creepy / distopian storyline and actors speaking non-sensical words" pretty much describes 5 of their mazes, which all feel very blended into one. On top of that, multiple mazes have chainsaws, which just makes the whole technique feel bland. The crowning jewel of Tulleys, however, is their street performers. They are brilliant. I had multiple interactions through the night. The clowns harassed me whilst I was eating (and hurled a couple of phrases I won't repeat on here ?). A guy with a bird-thing interacted with me a few times, always with lots of humour. The live entertainers were brilliant, with street staff encouraging/forcing us to dance along. And the nurses gave us a very rousing personal performance whilst we were at a table.. So yeah, all in all, I found the best bits of Tulleys to be the less serious attractions. Maybe it's just me and what I want from scare attractions, but their 'this is a super dark scary thing' mazes did little for me, with Twisted and the street team, the ones who were more playful and not trying so hard with the scares, being the real highlights of the event.

Let me get serious for a minute.. Returning mazes: -Saw Alive. During Fright Nights, the Saw brand works. It's as simple as that. If you've got the ride, you may as well keep the maze because it's a sure fire success. -Living Nightmare. I'm not keen on this maze, but again the public enjoy it, so why not. Get a decent ending in it though. -Platform 15. It's a solid maze which I think can grow and evolve fairly easily. I love the idea mentioned above about it having it's route reversed - starting off in the tunnel like a blindfolded section or something. I'm guessing logistically it would be extremely difficult, plus it require a lot of changes (and money) to the maze, which I doubt we'd see. I can still dream I guess. -Containment. Change it up a bit so it's fresh, but keep it. New attractions: -Indoor maze next to Crust. Buy more shipping containers. Get a cheap tent. Get an expensive themed tent. I don't care. Just do something. Big Top proved that you can turn that space into a fantastic experience, you just need to be clever. Ideally I'd love to see Big Top return, but I don't know how likely that it is. -Something in the IAC space. Ideally we've seen the end of IAC, so they can rip it out and start afresh. But if not, transform it into a maze. If they insist on Vulcan, actually spend money on it to turn it into a multi sensory experience. -Scare zone. Stealth plaza is ideal for a scare zone, so build off of Amity High from this year (and yknow, add some theming). Look at turning Swarm Island into a scare zone too. -Extreme experiences. If you want to market Fright Nights as extreme, super duper scary or whatever, you need to put your money where your mouth is. Have an upcharge experience like Face it Alone after hours (or heck, even just during the day). Have an extreme maze which isn't just you walking in a group and people jumping out. Just anything. Something different needs to happen. I've heard some people saying Fright Nights needs to go back to basics. But the truth is, Fright Nights was the most basic event this year. Every maze followed the same repetitive formula of 'perhaps too long pre show which does little', 'maze where people jump out at you for a quick impact scare', 'awkward ending which leaves you more confused than scared'. Do something different. Big Top's maze at the start / choice of doors. Cabin's true free flow. Experiment 10's splitting up. Do this and you'll be onto a winner Thorpe.