JoshC.

By this logic, you would also have to rule out GCI, because Mack are their European sellers in effect, much like Vekoma's relationship with RMC. I see no reason why Vekoma couldn't be used. They're the company with the most coasters built (granted, that's largely down to clones, but still), so they've got the resources to deal with many many projects. Similarly with Mack too. Rita and Stealth happened in the space of 2 years, and Tussauds made sure speed was the big marketing push (Stealth has the height factor too, but speed was the main push). So never count it out! If Thorpe were to go for a much bigger GCI coaster (say market it as that "pushes the boundaries of what wood can do" or whatever). And that's true for any woodie tbf. I can never remember where I heard it, but one rumour that sticks in my mind is that Merlin aren't keen on RMC due to the accident that happened on New Texas Giant a few years back (though technically that was more a Gerstlauer fault, but I imagine Merlin aren't keen on them at the mo either..). It may sound silly, but if they've got any doubt that the company might not see safety in the same way they do, it might rule them out from the word go. At the moment, I don't see anything that B&M offer that would really fit for Thorpe. I mean, sure, they could get a 'mini-hyper' and chuck in lots of airtime, but there's plenty of other manufacturers which can produce similar rides (and arguably have a wider portfolio of existing rides which suit the size Thorpe are going for). I'm not saying there's nothing B&M can offer, or that B&M won't happen, but I just don't see why Thorpe would opt for them. I'd love to see a Mack or Vekoma personally. Their latest stuff is always looking fantastic and is always received well. Mack might be pricey, but they'll be worth it. Vekoma might be a bit of a risk, but they'll be worth it. Failing that, Intamin can produce some blinders of a ride every now and then - if we got a good one, would anyone really complain? I'm also not ruling out a launch coaster yet. I'm sure Merlin have taken note of the successes of rides like Taron and Helix, but also the popularity of semi-shuttle launches which Mack in particular are churning out. I'm sure they could create a launch coaster which isn't so fast that it negates Stealth, but is interesting enough in its own right. And I'm sure they could play on 'the fastest/tallest/longest triple launch coaster in Europe' or whatever if necessary.

It lives!

That first picture

So Efteling reportedly received 5.2m visitors in 2017, a near-10% increase compared to 2016. The park aimed to reach 5 million visitors by 2020. So clearly Symbolica and the new accommodation where a massive hit with guests, as well as their continually expanding marketing approach. The next milestone target is to safely be between 6-7m visitors by 2030, which is when they'll have fully finished the park expansion, along with plenty of other resort expansions too. If the park continues to invest as it's done over the past few years, I wouldn't be surprised if they edge towards the 6m mark by 2025...

Resurrecting this thread (and renaming it), cos we don't reallllllllly need a thread for each Six Flags park. Surprised this hasn't cropped up on here before now though... Six Flags Fiesta Texas are getting an RMC Raptor (single rail) coaster. It's started to do test runs: It looks bloody quick and intense. Ugly too. But quick, intense, snappy, and perhaps a tiny bit terrifying.

The Single Rider Queue on Smiler (and pretty much every other ride at Towers except Spinball..) is gone. One clear reason for this is to reduce staff numbers, as now the bag room and batch host are no longer there, with these lovely boxes on the station instead: Image from TowersStreet Facebook

Nice video from Energylandia, show current state of construction site: And a couple of photos posted by PabloA on CoasterForce... It's getting there. Slowly. But it's getting there.

I like how Icon and BPB are on the front row. But I've seen bin juice that looks more attractive than the colour scheme.

From Towers Times' Facebook... On that note, this Meet the Makers event did give the opportunity for those who went to ride. As such, there will be photos of the pre show, ride station and other indoor areas which people may wish to not see until they ride. If you do decide to post pictures of the inside of the experience, or explain in-depth what happens, please use spoiler tags to do this. If there is enough demand (which I doubt because interest in this hasn't exactly been sky high on here), we can temporarily create a spoiler thread for the attraction until it's been open for a couple of weeks, after which spoilers are normally fair game. *Removes mod hat* Thanks!

Oh look, the finished entrance, featuring no plain beams or scaffolding. Image from Towers Street, who are at a pre-opening event.

^And the entrance to Blue Fire is just divine too...

Good front-facing picture of the entrance feature. Image from Merlin Magic Marking's Instagram:

Must admit that my visit over Winteraum was awful. Literally couldn't load anything on my phone. And that was the same for the surrounding area too. My previous visits had been better, it was rather slow, but I could at least load stuff. So I don't know if over the past few months they've removed old stuff to make way for this, or if it just came down to luck..

The 4-10pm ticket is fantastic, exactly what they should be doing. And so cheap too! I believe Summer Nights tickets for non-AP holders were £15, that was only 3 hours worth of riding and towards the end, the event was reasonably busy. So that should be a hit once they start advertising that. Fastrack system is interesting. I know some other parks do these styles of package, where you buy X amount of tickets which could be use on a variety of different rides, the same ride multiple times or get one group onto one ride, and it seems to work well. But admittedly that's at European parks where these systems are less popular. Will be interesting to see how it operates; like will you have to choose the rides when you buy, will Fastrack tickets be scanned at the rides somehow, will allocations be less? Off peak and peak pricing is a good idea though. Regardless of how busy it is, people will buy Fastrack, yet will complain that it's not value for money if they buy on a quiet day. Reducing the cost may get a couple more people buying them, but drastically increase satisfaction of those buying them. And if the park can run properly with rides, it'll work out well..

More details on the Duel TLC, which does sound very extensive and serious: https://www.facebook.com/AltonTLC/posts/422001424893212

So Phantasialand used to have the worst phone signal in existence (and their free-to-use WiFi was poorly advertised and unreliable). But now, they've added in new transmission towers to help improve phone signals for everyone. And, to make sure it doesn't spoil the theming, they've all been disguised so no one can see them. https://phantasialandblog.de/fuer-vollen-empfang-der-unsichtbare-sendemast/ Now Mega-Lite can give us live updates of how much he loves the park during his next visit...joyous...

Intamin launch has every chance to be fantastic given the latest incarnations of Intamin launches. I'm not expecting a Taron-style coaster, in terms of speed or intensity. And with rumours of it featuring trick track in an indoor section too, I don't see it being like Juvelen either.. So I guess a standard sit down coaster, with one fun launch, airtime, interaction, etc. Probably non-inverting to give a bit of variety. I can see them wanting to introduce something which will thrill the older audience (especially after Baron's success), but being more open for everyone.

No. The track mostly doesn't exist any more. The route doesn't exist (because of Platform 15). It is too expensive to run for not enough return. I hate to be the one to break it to you, but it's time to let go.

It is a very nice piece of concept art in the fact that it looks hyperrealistic. On quick glance you would think it's a photo. And I expect that will be representative of the final result too. I think it's simply a case of they couldn't repaint X, rather than not wanting to. Plus I'm not sure what colour they could really paint the pyramid anyways (and any ideas people may have would probably be too dark and dreary). That and, if they could repaint X, it would mean repainting Ghost Train's shed too so it didn't stick out.

Little birdies have been eaten by Walkers and are therefore not trustworthy. Only trust rumours you hear on the grapevine.

For the money VIP passholders pay, I'd fully expect them to get Fastrack for Wicker Man. Not exactly like there's lots of them either... Introducing it for hotel guests presumably shows they're confident with what throughput they can achieve, and so they know what numbers to allocate. A bit of a risk, but I'm sure they know what they're doing with that.

To be fair, that comes down to the external contractors that have been hired to construct the ride. It'll affect the park, especially as the person in question had Energylandia branded clothing, but it's not as bad as people might think. The park and company will come down heavily on the person, and the company might not be allowed to work with the park again. But the bad press will die away quick enough.

All that's been said is opening 2018. It's weird because the park have done work in extremely cold temperatures (-5 degrees) and at unfavourable times (Christmas Eve / Christmas Day seemingly). So if they're working actively at times like that, you'd expect things to progress quickly, yet things are going slowly. God knows why frankly. I still expect it to open this year, probably around July and August so they can capitalise on summer. More importantly, if they don't open it this year, they'll lose funding or backing or something, as well as some support / trust from the government, which the park really don't want.

That's not their 'map' (as in the one that's printed off and there for guests to collect). It's their digital version, which is a lot more accurate and is there to help you get your bearings. Slammer being there reflects that there is still a thing there, but it's not something that's open as there's no locator sticker by it. It might be a bit confusing, and they probably could have included the fences to highlight it's non-accessibility, but they're not exactly advertising it as an open thing. They've done the exact same thing with Saw Alive in previous years.

A (reliable) member of Coasterforce has said that Amanda has confirmed that Icon will open for the May day bank holiday. (I can't find any link direct from Amanda, but I see no reason to distrust the source).