JoshC.

The airtime hill looks like it's been designed to fling you out of the train and onto Big One. Nice! Really looking forward to this!

The park are selling a limited edition photo box thing: https://shop.altontowers.com/collections/souvenirs/products/wicker-man-premium-photography-box It includes some special photo, photo frame, USB, general Merlin merch, a SW8 block of wood and some numbered certification of how exclusive it is (250 being made). Neat idea, and between this, the engraved bricks and the overly expensive wood, there's clearly a market for premium merch at Towers and they're fully capitalising on it. Pretty certain that all the stuff in the box can't be worth more than £50/£55, so they're effectively making up to £30 a box to sell a bit paper with a number of it, and making extra money as passholders won't save money like they would if they bought the pin, magnet, etc seperately. I've said it before and I'll say it again - Merlin know their merch.

So the Adventure Island meet was my first visit to the park, so just thought I'd chuck in a couple of random thoughts: -Rage is okay. I found it a bit uncomfortable after the first inversion. -Adventureville is hilarious. -Spooksville is, erm, meh? -Mighty Mini Mega is probably the best coaster there. Never thought I'd say that about a Pinfari. -The Whip is fab. -The 'feelsgood' restaurant is nice. -Their bowling game breaks too easily... Very meh park. The weather didn't help no doubt, but I like how creative they've been with their space available. Looks like their kiddie coaster is also going to be built on top of a new building now too.

I'm looking forward to seeing Duel get some work. I know quite a few people aren't fond of it following the years of cheap fixes and such (and some still hate the fact it's a shooter), but I do think it's a fun ride which is a bit understated in the line up these days. If they can give it a decent tart up, and give it some more suitable (but equally fab) music, I'd be very happy! I hope they do keep the same guns though - I generally find the new ones on Tomb Blaster are horrendous on any shooter.

Some quotes from the park: The ride will close in September, and open July 1st next year. There'll be a new name and theme. https://www.looopings.nl/weblog/9499/Walibi-Holland-vervangt-Robin-Hood-door-hypermoderne-houten-achtbaan.html Fantastic to see more serious investment in the park, and more stuff in The Netherlands

And in a twist, it looks like the park have decided to do their big new thing for 2019, and it'll seemingly be an RMC of their Vekoma woodie, Robin Hood: https://www.facebook.com/walibiholland/posts/1857198800988568

Colour me... intrigued. I have said time and time again that scare attractions don't work in theme parks outside of Halloween. And for now, I stand by that. Yes, demand is growing, but there's so many independent events all around the country all year round that the parks can't really outperform them consistently enough. However, this seems to be giving a good mix of scare stuff. An 'extreme' maze (whether that's marketing speil or they're actually doing a Face it Alone style thing I remain sceptical over, but we'll see) for a week, the scary weekends and Saw Alive in summer. Also, the Zombie Hunt sounds awesome might I add - imagine a proper scare zone survival type game on the island behind Swarm or Treasure Island. If that's what we're getting, I'm down for that! That's a good mix of stuff, and with their limited availability, it can definitely draw on that appeal and be kept fresh. So there's definitely a huge amount of potential there. And frankly, it's good to see more events at the park again. On the other hand, my biggest concern is the fact that for the third year in a row, we've got yet another super scary thing as headline marketing draw. Have they decided that the family marketing route isn't going to give them enough of a draw? So are they just targeting the adult market again whilst knowing that families will still come regardless? Who knows. But it's definitely a weird direction they're going in at the mo.

The track replacement is going along quickly: https://twitter.com/Jaysen_Leslie/status/960466186894041090/photo/1

I go down the local papershop and nick a pack of fruit bastilles...

From the park's Facebook It's coming along nicely!

A neat little rendering of how this will look: Saucey: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?p=144980915

They don't normally release them till later in February if memory serves me correctly. I'm sure that when they do release them they'll give a warning a couple of days before. Are Towers doing a preview day this year? They don't normally do Annual Pass previews, only staff and John Lewis usually.

Pretty pictures

Yeah I'll be there too!

More from Blackpool's almighty leader... https://twitter.com/MandsThompson/status/959376905316298752 That last photo

This has made a lot of progress... https://twitter.com/veilstrup/status/958986143818833921

Hex is sad - all that TLC for nothing...

Sounds like rubbish to me imo - as a manufacturer, Mack wouldn't care for what Merlin do. All they'd really care about is if they'd give them the money to build whatever. And aren't Mack the European representatives for GCI (one way or another)? Would be hard to see Wickerman getting the go ahead if there was a very reluctant and awkward middle man involved!

Nemesis TLC is complete!

Construction of their new coaster is going vertical... (From the park's Facebook) That is a lovely colour!

If you need a bit of a lift this Tuesday, say thanks to Liseberg's Facebook...

Video has seemingly been taken down. I watched it, and it looks as I've always expected it to look. A simple, fun, low key family experience.

Oh no, not you too Benin.

I guess it depends on how you stretch the definition of 'fused'. Is having a flamethrower / explosion effect / whatever by the track a fusion of wood and fire? Towers could say no, especially if Wickerman has effects where it makes it look like the wood is on fire or whatever. It's a very twisted, wishy-washy, silly and specific claim to make (even worse than Galactica's 'fully dedicated' because we're forcing people to wear VR glasses for a week before making them optional claim), but you could say it's there.

Legoland are getting a new 4D film this year, themed around Ninjago, along with some Ninjago themed rooms. There's also going to be some American themed Miniland stuff. All in all, a decent quiet year for the park in my books.