JoshC.

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

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