JoshC.

The park have released a small 'backstory' to Valkyria, as well as the area it forms with Balder and Loki: https://www.liseberg.se/valkyria/backstory/ Always nice seeing these little tidbits!

Some noticeable progress in Rookburgh..

That is without discount, but that is indeed available.

Tried Sombrero's Burrito Bar for the first time yesterday, and it's pretty decent. The burritos are big, completely filled and filling. It's a bit pricey (£5.95 for a burrito by itself, £8.50 for meal with nachos and a drink), but you do get a lot for your money. The biggest downside is that extras for the nachos (cheese, salsa, sour cream, guacamole) all cost an extra £1 per extra. Bit cheeky that.

It's interesting, because I saw a Blackpool TV ad a couple of weeks back (the first time I'd ever seen one actually..), but no mention of Icon. No mention of special offers. Literally just a bog standard 'Come visit Blackpool Pleasure Beach's advert. You'd think, even with no opening date set at the time, they'd be pushing a huge new coaster any way possible. But no.

She grows...

Off the top of my head, I don't think so, but I'm not certain. Usually with these sorts of things the parks set a date as to when they'll open them during the winter period, and then do work (repainting / deep cleaning) up until that opening date. Unfortunately that means when we get nicer weather earlier in the year, the parks can't open them.

The beach is not currently open, and probably won't be until sometime in May (likely May half term if previous years is anything to go by).

99% certain the grey is an undercoat.

I can promise you that it was just lights and sticks. There was no train front, no cut out or anything like that. It was lights and sticks and nothing more. I've tried looking at POVs to try and show it, but I can't find one that gives a decent view of it. It caused problems for a variety of reasons. It not triggering, for no reason, was a big one. It's like it had a mind of its own; throwing a hissy fit and not moving. Whether it was lights on a stick or a train front would make no difference, since the mechanism and arm that moved it would be significantly heavier and the reason for it not working. I really hate to bang on the same point, but it definitely was just lights on a stick. The fact you thought otherwise shows just how good that illusion was, so the ride must have been doing something right

I love that touch of interactivity - each tour has its own thing: Music tour has the instruments, Hero tour has fighting knight armour and Treasure tour has some magic diamond. Certainly not underrated by those who have ridden it, but I'd say it's being overlooked. I think it's a fantastic dark ride that really showcases modern technology and super well-themed. Yet it just seems to have slipped under the radar for so many across a large part of the enthusiast community, for...who knows why.. I agree that the touch screens are a bit pointless and confusing though. Story is fine though - you're going to meet the King, Pardoes comes along and takes you on a secret tour, things go a bit wrong, but it ends up okay and you meet the King (and he's probably too drunk to even notice if anything went wrong...)

Fenix is making real progress...

The park will extend closing time if they think the park is going to be significantly busier than expected, if ride reliability has been particularly poor or if there's been other issues. It's usually up to the duty manager of the park for the day to decide if closing is extended. Today the weather was very nice and the park started off very busy (apparently there were extremely long queues to buy tickets?). So they probably decided to err on the side of caution, stay open later (to a time which until this year was actually standard for them really), and deal with guest complaints before they even happened. Good move really.

What did you think of Symbolica? That ride is a genuine masterpiece in how it looks and flows, but feels criminally overlooked at the moment with so much other exciting stuff going on in the industry..

For those planning an opening visit, Icon opens on 25th May...

That looks pretty amazing to be honest. Video didn't show any airtime hills(?), so I'm hoping there's a couple about. Certainly looks like it'll be in the same league as Taron and Helix though.. #WillNotBeTriggered

It'll probably end up being colloquially referred to as Haunted House. Adding the 'Monster Party' thing shows it's not as threatening as a generic haunted house, whilst communicating the story of the attraction. Ghost is, of course, a completely different thing to this, so I don't see the need / point in calling it that.

TWD spoiler... The train in the tunnel that you see now on Derren Brown's Ghost Train: Rise of the Demon: Venture into the Tunnel is a new thing. The moving train was just lights on a stick, and had very mixed reliability for a variety of reasons.

Nemesis > Black Mamba and Chiapas is the best thing to ever grace this earth. But since you love Taron so much I'll overlook that

Posted by PabloA on Coasterforce... Gorgeous

The tunnel has now been fully dug: (From Liseberg's Valkyria group) Now the concrete for the tunnel can be poured and the rest of the ride can be completed. So with a bit of luck, this should be open for the summer.

I don't want to be that guy, but I also wonder if the weather is putting people off a bit? Wind and rain most of last week, meh weather this week. Word is getting out about how often rides close at Thorpe for weather too, which is less common at Towers. Might mean people are thinking "we'll leave it till later in the year"? Plus you've got Thorpe pushing all this 'unmissable events', of which there wasn't one for Easter, except TWDTR opening, which was hardly an event. One-off visitors might be holding out. But yeah, would agree anyways that that's what happens when you don't add a 'new' ride (which is fine if they back it up with improvements elsewhere).

I wonder what the general consensus of the ride is these days. Does your average Joe guest not really care about the bright lights, miscued effects and audio, etc, because they're enjoying playing the laser shooting game too much? No doubt people could enjoy it more, but it wouldn't surprise me if the park were happy letting things be 'just okay' if, for now, people just enjoy the ride since they get a gun to shoot things. Then when they get the money, do the total overhaul..

So there's rumours (from a reasonably reliable source) flying around that Hyperion might not start testing until August. Apparently Intamin want / need to test the ride in certain conditions - the plan had been to do this in March/April, but because of the delays, Intamin can't confidently sign off the ride until tests have been done in August. Failing that, they may just wait until next year.. Personally, I think it sounds a bit far-fetched, but take it for you will. And for any super-keen, long-term trip planners, the two next next big coasters (a huge mine train and a tilt coaster, naturally both from Vekoma) are due between 2022-2024 of all goes to plan. So hopefully by late 2025 they'll be open... But then they'll have said they're planning some super awesome multi launch Vekoma flyer and an insane Vekoma spinner for 2030, and the cycle will continue forevermore...

Raft Racers is a seasonal attraction (I don't know how long that's been the case), so it won't open until May-time I reckon. Skyridercan't open in any sort of rain, and it's been rainy all day.