JoshC.

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.

But anyone can visit any park in the world and only come away by going on a handful of rides. Remember last year when Legoland quoted their official park data as showing that guests, on average, go on 5 - FIVE - rides in a day (and that people are content with that number). If you want to maximize the number of (different) rides you get on one day, you have to do a bit of forward planning. And, by and large for basically any park, there's usually one certain way (or two, depending on size of park) that you can do that. I tend to find the ones who get in two rides in a standard day are the ones who faff about for 30 minutes deciding where to have lunch after deciding 'we're having lunch', spend an hour eating lunch, walk all the way round the park looking for one ride when it was right next to them, etc. No wonder you only got two rides when you spend half the time treating the park like a shopping centre.

Sorry for not splitting the post up into sections, but just a couple of things.. -Inferno's dispatching has been terrible this year I agree. The operator talking on the phone could have been for any reason though (speaking the management, engineering, H&S, etc), and they can't dispatch the train until they say that silly safety announcement, so can't send a train till they've finished on the phone. It's stupid though, I agree. -Long wait between Ghost Train disptaches could have been down to a short delay (which wasn't announced to the queue), overbatching in the building (see below) or reduced capacity (which it can, but I'd be surprised if it did yesterday). -Quantum has been closed basically all the season. It's about time they mentioned it online / on advance. I miss their daily 'resort information' tweet which they did last season, telling you opening hours, known closures, weather and hints/tips for the day. -I'm glad that others see it as a 'free event' too. This is a rearranged day for the preview event that Thorpe weren't really under obligation to do. Far too many passholders see these things as a right of passage where everything must be perfect. Obviously it's not good that things didn't go to plan for the event, and reliability was poor, but yeah, it's an added bonus where people at least got the chance to do some night rides a few months early. That sounds like an issue of too many people being batched into the building in the first place. It will be down to broken headsets, but staff who batch you in will be told how many to batch in based on the number of working headsets. If too many are batched in, or another headset breaks during a cycle, you'll have an overbatch so will naturally leave people waiting. If this is done a couple of times it really causes a nightmare. In other words, the fact you waited so long inside the building is more likely down to poor staff than headsets breaking.

Fire effects have worked on some days this season. The explosion noise has always been there, and would normally go off the same time as the fire (not really sure why to be honest!). Water effects haven't been on all season; I've heard they received / are receiving extra work and haven't been signed off yet.

Yes, both talks were fantastic and really insightful. It's fantastic to see the park trying these sorts of things, and I really hope they do something similar in the future. The fact it was a lot busier than they ever anticipated (and there was a long queue all the way round the marquee to get in!) clearly shows there's demand for this.

Interesting that you didn't like the corridors between pre show and the station. I felt that it built things up quite well (especially with the triggered audio effects). It is simple, but it works in my opinion. Wonder how much the open fire door made a difference for you? The post-ride thing needs more clarity and work. I don't think it needs an actor, and I think it's totally fine to have just a themed area with effects that finish off the story. I guess the main trouble for me is the story disappears at the ride end - you make it out alive, but you're still in danger, then what?

Mystery River retheme is still a work in progress. The park originally had an end-of-April opening date target, but they're pushing that back due to the weather. Here's a fun little before and after visual of a major theming element: Before: After:

Double post, because who cares about 2018 investments when 2020 is on the horizon... https://m.facebook.com/testingattractions/posts/1686960904725676 First visuals of the RMC and multi-launch, water-based coaster, which will, unsurprisingly, be from Vekoma (putting to bed any chance of Aquatrax 2.0 or Mack). Highlights: This park