JoshC.

I don't know what to do with this game now Slammer doesn't exist... Angry Birds 4D Experience (5) Colossus (4) DBGTROTD (5) Depth Charge (5) Detonator: Bombs Away (5) Flying Fish (5) I'm A Celebrity (5) King Pig's Wild Hog Dodgems (5) Lumber Jump (5) Mr. Monkey's Banana Ride (5) Nemesis Inferno (6) Quantum (5) Rocky Express (5) Rumba Rapids (5) Rush (5) Samurai (5) SAW - The Ride (5) Stealth (5) Storm In A Teacup (5) Storm Surge (5) The Swarm (5) Tidal Wave (5) Timber Tug Boat (5) Vortex (5) X (5) Zodiac (5) Lumber Jump + Colossus -

Even though I'm not doing WW, I'm happy to have one of the Merlin things spited. Personally would prefer Tussauds to be spited because I somehow still haven't done Shrek and was hoping to do it this meet, but will follow the majority.

For those who love a fun random fact, you might enjoy this from the TPM Facebook advent calendar... Astrolabe doesn't quite roll off the tongue as nicely as Zodiac..

The Thorpe Breaks calendar is essentially a provisional one, set there to give those planning trips for next year ideas and the opportunity to book. It usually means that this the 'worst' calendar - so we could potentially see longer opening hours, more open days, more FN dates, but not anything reduced / removed. It's an interesting calendar. A lot of closed days (the most out of all the Merlin parks I believe). The 10-10 days in summer are very risky. If the demand is there, all good. But if not, they're running the whole park for not a lot of people, and with lots more closed days, it'll mean less people on the whole going. Especially since standard MAP passholders cannot go Friday/Saturday next year...

The project name on the plans is X:\NWO WD, which would certainly suggest The Walking Dead...along with the Safe Zone marketing.. But yeah, there is now a 'pre show' of some variety at the entrance to the building and also the bag drop returns to the front of the building. There's nothing to suggest that the pyramid isn't being repainted, though I do admit it is very unlikely. So assuming this is going to be some Walking Dead retheme, it just makes no sense. This year saw the introduction of 2 kids rides. Regardless of people's opinions of these rides and their quality, it filled and obvious - and noted - gap in the market - more rides were needed for the younger market. X was a part of the line up for the younger market. It maybe needed to be made clearer what it was, but it was a part of it. I guess this is part of the logic behind the retheme though. Thorpe have struggled to properly advertise what X is, who it's suitable for and why you should ride it. With indoor rides, most either have a clear fun tone or a mysterious dark, creepy tone. X didn't have the fun tone, so they've had to revert back to the dark tone to get people wanting to go in. Just a shame that it likely means families will suffer as a result. On a more upbeat note, I'd be interested to see what Thorpe come up with. AMC have very high standards, so I'd feel confident that a Walking Dead ride would look and feel good. And there's some possibilities for some interesting theming opportunities with the X set up. Also be interesting to see if the exterior theming is a set up to the more well known prison storyline from Seasons 3 and 4, or the more recent Alexandria Safe Zone from Season 6 to present (both have watchtowers of some sort, and barbed wire fencing fits with both). I'd be willing to bet the former, but who knows. So yeah, from the self-centred point of view, this could end up a nice, though totally unnecessary, addition which I'll enjoy. Just a shame that that's not enough to outweigh the negatives I can see... One thing that does concern me regardless of theme is the new outdoor queue line seems to block the pathway off to the right of the building (opposite the toilets)? Might just be the way the plans are showing it and there's still a pathway there, but if not and the only way to access the building is under Storm Surge, that would be silly..

Went today for what I s'pose was my first proper visit to WW (last year I literally walked to Olympia, rode it and left). Was fun enough, managed a couple of creds and did Wilde Maus in the snow which was good. I went with my little brother, and found the price of the children attractions a lot higher than I expected. 3 tokens per person for some of the smallest junk around and the need for an adult to accompany children makes it very expensive. Would have been tempted by more if things were a bit more reasonable.

Theoretical throughput of Red Force: 1200pph Theoretical throughput of Duelling Spike Coasters: 800pph (Also: Capacity of Red Force: 12 Capacity of Duelling Spike Coasters: 4 )

The park is owned by Parques Reunidos. They seem to at least be pumping money into their parks at the mo (and Slagharen and Movie Park Germany have seen good investments this year imo). But this makes no sense. I'm also dumbfounded where €25m is going for this; I imagine the Ducati brand isn't THAT expensive...

How did you miss out on TWO creds in one park is the most important question... I dunno, their indoor log flume and rapids are fairly decent. And I was fond of their immersive tunnel. But on the whole the park is pretty awful...

Promo art for the €25m(!) area... The area will also feature simulators and VR attractions...

I'm not wholly sold on the colour at the moment; it just looks a bit...dirty? Hopefully I'll warm to it when more track is up / I see it in person.. Still doesn't seem real we're getting a Mack double launch coaster in the UK...

What's better than one VR coaster in a park? That's right, TWO VR coasters... https://www.looopings.nl/weblog/9061/Bobbejaanland-krijgt-tweede-virtual-reality-achtbaan-in-2018.html Belgian park Bobbejaanland are giving the VR treatment to their suspended Vekoma coaster Dream Catcher. The park's indoor coaster got the VR treatment back in 2016, and has set times during the day when the VR option is available (the goggles aren't attached to the cars like on Galactica). Dream Catcher is the park's oldest coaster, 30 years old this year, and will have the station tarted up for next year. Coaster itself is rather rubbish, and had a terrible throughput, and I doubt VR will improve it. The park didn't have the greatest of year's this year, with a couple of incidents (see the Park Accidents thread) and a lot of complaining customers... They have been doing questionnaires to see what sort of attraction people would like to see next, with a launch coaster, a non-looping coaster and a drop tower being options. The park have only added 2 'new' things this decade, a poor spinning coaster in 2011 (which was rethemed this year) and an alright Holovis Immersive Tunnel in 2015. So probably not really one to watch...

Anyone interested in this coaster, make sure you like the park's Facebook page. They're doing vlogs and general construction updates. Here's an image from a couple of days ago, showing the tunnel which will be after the first drop...

I was going to post about this in the Small Parks Thread but it turns out we do have a thread for this park... http://www.ilrestodelcarlino.it/ravenna/cosa fare/mirabilandia-ducati-1.3564935 The park are opening a Ducati themed land in 2019. I'd never heard of Ducati, but apparently they're a motorcycle thing... Centrepiece of the land is a coaster, which is naturally expected to a motorbike coaster of some variety. Some early rumours are suggesting that it won't be one of the more well known Vekoma or Intamin varieties, but instead a Maurer Spike Coaster... https://rcdb.com/13786.htm http://www.spike.de/ Looks like a fun enough ride, but not something I really would have seen Mirabilandia going for...

Hey guess what, Phantasialand are awesome and spent probably a large amount of money and tarted up a part of the park that didn't necessarily need it... Before: After: (Images posted on CF by CSLKennyNI) Looks nice, though I kind of preferred the brown colour. I'm sure it still looks great in real life though. Nonetheless, it's still impressive that they managed to do this in the space of about 5 weeks... This was naturally done by everyone's favourite rock work company, Universal Rocks, who are now reportedly working on the Rookburgh site...

Little construction update on Fenix's and Merlin Quest's station areas / building, as well as the restaurant for the Avalon area - http://tvlfansite.nl/2017/11/28/bouwupdate-avalon-28-november-2017/ Also, theming is arriving on site... Source is obvious. Things are coming along nicely.. I imagine we'll start to see support and track sooner rather than later now...

We recently had a Q&A with Jordan, Thorpe's social media manager. Check out what she said about what it's like running the park's social media, the tone of voice of the Twitter page and the mysterious Safe Zone... https://www.thorpeparkmania.co.uk/articles/27-11-2017/Jordan+Middleton+Q+and+A

I would find it awfully suspicious if you voted for Jart on every category and Jart voted for you in every category. But there's nothing in the rules against it, so looks like you've found a loophole...

'Only' €13m is going to be spent on the coaster. Majority of the investment is going into infrastructure and theming. And I believe that DBGT's cost has been overestimated online (closer to £20m than £30m), so Symbolica cost rather a lot more...

It's been revealed that Avalon and the new entrance is now going to require an extra €5m investment to get everything to standard. That means this is now a total investment of €35m (approx. £31m), the same as Symbolica at Efteling. Mental really. Source - https://www.looopings.nl/weblog/9042/Uitbreiding-Toverland-kost-5-miljoen-euro-meer-dan-verwacht.html

Keep 'em coming guys... In serious news - a reminder that if you wish to change your votes in any way, please contact me and do not submit in a new poll. Anyone doing so in the future will have their votes not counted and an extra vote for the not-so-prestigious Storm Surge award added to their name...

That sounds like something someone who knows that X will become TWD themed would say...

A new page has appeared on the minisite, with a new video... https://www.thewelcoming.co.uk/the-beornen The ruins translate to 'Pay homage and unite' This teaser feels a lot less horror / scare in feel to me. Feels more mysterious and tribal; more akin to Hex in style. If they can translate that into the ride (pun intended), then I'd be happy and it'd work for a family-oriented attraction in my eyes.. And as you can see, this page is called 'The Beornen' - presumably the name of the tribe / people involved, and not anything to do with the Hobbit character... Though Beorn comes from an Old English term meaning warrior, so the Berornen could be some form of warriors against technology, blah blah blah, I'm reading too much into this...

It does look like a ton of fun. But that one backwards rows is incredibly frustrating to me for no real reason...

Gothenburg is a nice city too. We spent a day going round it and doing general touristy things. If I'm honest, I'm not that into the whole sightseeing / aimlessly wandering round a city thing, but for those who are into it, Gothenburg is no doubt a good place. And as has been mentioned plenty of times on here, easy to get to too...