JoshC.

The hyper coaster has started to be marketed, and the park revealed the name to be Hyperion, and released some concept art, which appear to show it'll have standard 4-seater rows, as opposed to semi-winged seating like Skyrush and Flying Aces... The space theme is very nice, I hope the park can pull it off! One thing to note, however, is that - when asked - the park refused to deny that VR could in some way be apart of the ride. Potentially an interesting way to distract guests from the fact they can see Auschwitz, which is only 10 miles away... Ground for Hyperion has only recently just been broken, but it's being advertised for 2018. Part of the agreement between the park and ERDF and local government is that these new investments which they are partially helping to fund is completed by a certain point - and Hyperion needs to open in 2018 as part of that. The park's water coaster, which was meant to open in 2017 but didn't, has put the park under a bit of pressure to keep to their opening deadlines. Still, exciting times for the park and Poland in general!

Only taken me 3 and a half months to finish this TR... We spent 2 and a half days at Efteling this year, and there was bucketloads of stuff going on during that time. We stayed at the newly opened Loonsche Land Hotel, experienced Symbolica on it's opening day (along with all the pomp and faff to accompany it), and had a 14 hour day on park thanks to their summer festival event starting. So I could probably pad this part of the trip into 2 or 3 blogs itself (and I kind of have already with my Symbolica review, but heyho...), but I'll just do photos and quick explanations so I can get it done... Symbolica's opening day (which was also the park's first Summer Festival day of the year) wasn't as busy as we expected. The park opened at 9am, Symbolica opened at 10am. During that time void, the park's mascot Pardoes was out and about, press were interviewing staff and guests - one Dutch news company tried to interview us, but funnily enough they wanted Dutch speakers. There was a fun countdown when the ride opened, and we a mad rush occurred, put fortunately we were in first group of the day in. Good thing too as I wouldn't have wanted to queue this... The park's summer festival they ran was incredible. For no extra cost, the park opened till late (11pm), and held tonnes of extra side-shows, events, extra food stalls, and general fun stuff. This was all from 6pm, which started off with a parade of all the acts: OJ Punctuel from Symbolica A living statue from Flying Dutchman In the 5 hours from when the parade started, we did a few rides (I can't remember what exactly off the top of my head, but fairly certain we did Joris a couple of times, Baron, Bob and maybe Flying Dutchman?), we saw a ton of the acts, including... Random singers Raveijlin fayre - the whole area was transformed into a mini Warwick Castle. They had sword fights, random actors spinning yarn and goodness knows what else to create an atmosphere. Random singers / marching band. They were a massive laugh - a lot of their sets can be found here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDSnv09tVMQ South American dancers Comedians 1001 Nights area, include magic performances, 'snake charmers', sword swallowers, a guy giving away free ice cream if you can get it from him, and someone trying to sell rugs... 3 different versions of Aquanura And much much more, including live music performances from plenty of other acts, randoms pianists, some kids radio station, loads more dancers and plenty of other things I've probably forgotten now and didn't get a chance to take a photo of it. It was truly a fantastic atmosphere, and it was a wonderful day. 14 hours on park flew by, and though it felt long enough, a couple more hours would no doubt have helped us see even more the acts, and sneak in a couple more night rides. Speaking of which, some Efteling at night photos... Dragon wasn't blowing fire during our trip unfortunately I got a photo with the wonderful OJ Punctuel. I think I insulted him with my commonness and unshaven face. Though serious note - I love how copious the costume characters are in numbers and appearances - always created such a good, fun atmosphere. In terms of rides... Baron 1898 left me disappointed this visit. After riding it 2015, I truly adored it - it was fun, floaty and just really enjoyable from start to finish. Unfortunately, it has aged liked B&Ms seem to do, becoming slightly more forceful and punchy. This is normally a good thing, but in Baron's case, it means it loses the floatiness which made me love it so much, making it less enjoyable. It really slid down my Top 10 as a result - if it wasn't for the amazing theme and surrounding, it certainly would have fallen out. Joris en de Draak stood the test of time however, and I still really love it. I still prefer Fire slightly over Water, but it definitely cemented itself as my favourite Efteling coaster. Flying Dutchman remained fantastic, Python remained slightly painful and generally disappointing, whilst I enjoyed Bob significantly more this time! My opinions on many of the park's other rides remained the same - I still don't quite get Dreamflight, I enjoy the park's other dark rides and their filler selection is nice. I also got the chance to try the park's 3D cinema, Pandadroom, after it was down for technical difficulties in 2015. I actually quite enjoyed the premise and the real effects it has, but the 3D itself was terrible, and the awkward wait before the show needs some serious attention. I also enjoyed my time in the Fairytale Forest, with this new addition since my last visit being the highlight... All in all, I enjoyed Efteling again this year, for what was my second visit to the park. After my original visit, I did class it as my favourite park. However, since then, Phantasialand has grown on me all the more, and Efteling just misses the mark for me a bit now. It's still a fantastic park and I really enjoyed my time there (even though 2 and a half days is a bit too much for the park), but it's not really a park for me I guess.. And so that concluded FreBelGerAnd. We left the park slightly earlier than planned so we could get allow plenty of time to drive back to Dunkirk for our evening ferry, and as per, travelling home posed no issues at all... Next up - my Liseberg review; it's only 2 months late fortunately!

In other news, Bayern Park in Germany have announced they're getting a new dark ride, which is similar to Popcorn Revenge, the new-for-2019 dark ride at Walibi Belgium... http://wonderworldweb.over-blog.com/2017/11/une-premiere-mondiale-interactive-pour-le-parc-d-attractions-allemand-bayern-park-le-parc-d-attractions-et-animalier-allemand-bayern The ride, called Farm Fair, is a 4D interactive shooter from Dutch company Lagotronics Projects, and forms part of the park's new farm-area. The ride rotates through certain scenes, whereas Popcorn Revenge has the possibility for non-linear routes and such. Nonetheless, it's an interesting project, and certainly a good way for small parks to introduce shooting rides like this (which are always popular) on a budget and in a small footprint!

The Loggers rumour is the best one. So the rumour goes that if Thorpe didn't get a contract with a company for a couple of Fright Nights mazes (and potentially a short term, year-round maze), they were going to instead spend the money on sorting out Loggers Leap? Even though they will be completely separate budgets and departments, and Loggers would require significantly more money than a contract with AMC... lol Slammer removal will happen sooner or later. If it doesn't happen this winter, I'm sure there will be a rumour amongst staff next year it's being removed next winter. X closure / retheme is something which has been doing the rounds very recently. Though it seems to crop up most seasons, so who knows.. A permanent Walking Dead maze makes sense in many ways. It is a huge brand, and other parks that have had the IP have always had a permanent attraction shortly after signing the contract, so it could even be something that AMC require to get on board. Yeah, there's questions of whether scare attractions work in theme parks outside of Halloween (ultimately, Saw Alive was declining in popularity, even though the decision to close it was based on costs), but it'd likely be popular in the short term. A coaster getting the VR treatment will probably be thrown around for a couple more years. It's an easy way to get a new attraction, which is obviously something Merlin love. I reckon it's something which has been thought about, but hopefully it's a dead idea now. So yeah, always take rumours from staff with a HUGE pinch of salt of course. The Loggers rumour is hilariously off the mark that it makes me take any of the above with a bucket load though, sorry.

Remember that Europa is a near 4 hour drive from Phantasialand. Not saying it's impossible, but combining Phantasia and Europa in one trip would make it a lot more expensive. Keeping it to parks more local, or just multiple days at one park, would keep costs lower and make things more practical.

I guess calling it a shame isn't the right phrase. What I more mean is, if parks did a variation of Blue Fire rather, something that was clearly inspired by it, as opposed to a like-for-like clone, we'd be seeing more and more great, different rides. There's the park in Australia, for example, which has a Eurofighter with a layout extremely inspired by Saw's layout (the indoor section is a clone actually). It doesn't detract from Saw in any way, but the new layout looks to be just as good, if not better. And the cost and development is probably no different than sticking in a clone really. Of course not everyone will get to ride all these different things. And it doesn't bother me if clones pop up elsewhere as it usually means quality rides are coming to small parks. But it'd be nice if they had the chance / ability / bravery / whatever to deviate from the clones to potentially create an even better experience.

Getting a Taron clone at Thorpe would be a completely different ball game though surely? With Takabisha, we're talking about a coaster being cloned at a park almost 7000 miles away. They're in different continents, different cultures, different everything pretty much. A Taron clone at Thorpe would mean the same coaster a mere 325 miles away, in parks which are arguably more similar than different if you look at it simply. And there's a bigger likelihood that more people (ie ones outside the enthusiast community) will actually visit both parks in this case. I'm not saying that the right-ness or wrong-ness of whether a coaster should be cloned comes down to the locations of the parks or how similar a park is. But you're throwing up a example which is pretty incompatible to be honest. A fairer example would be, say, a situation in which we see Smiler cloned in China - how would people feel then? How would you feel? From what you're saying, it seems like you'd be less bothered since you've got the original an hour or two up the road rather than having to trek half way across the world for it? In fairness, I agree with what you're saying in principle - it's a shame to see some of the mammoth coasters cloned and reproduced, especially ones that are 'special' in whatever way. But I only see it as a shame because it means there's less new coasters out there, meaning there's less chance of more 'special' ones. Imagine if all the parks that have Blue Fire clones each did something slightly different - sooner or later, there'd have been one which would have been 'special'...even if it's in the depths of Russia or wherever. But it doesn't bother or trigger me as it does you, because it still means that some parks are getting quality additions at least... Oh, and if Thorpe DID get a Taron clone, I'd be over the moon. I'd agree that it takes away from the mystique of Taron itself, and I doubt it'd be as good because Thorpe wouldn't be able to create an atmosphere like Klugheim, but I'd still love it. Thorpe, make it happen please.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love Efteling. Even though in many ways it's not a park for me (I'm not a big fan of the fairytale vibe), I still get absorbed into the magic. And I get why they're keeping it - Python is a flagship coaster not only for the park, but for the Netherlands as a whole. They could easily ride on the nostalgia value of it for another 30 years quite easily. But that's where my conflict comes. At some point, you need to let go of nostalgia and say it's time to move forward. It's not like we're talking about a certain feature, pathway, garden or something a bit more 'just there', we're talking about a coaster that is taking up space and resources, and could make way for something better and more Efteling. I'm all for conserving history and remembering a park's roots, especially at Efteling where something like that is so important. But I think there's better ways to do than keep shaking the tree from a ride which shouldn't have a place any more. They could do what Towers did Corkscrew, and turn part of the track into a monument of some sorts. Build a new coaster that incorporates the double loop in its layout. Add a section into Fairytale Forest with a story around Python. It can be done, and Efteling would do it well. A more pressing matter though - if the track is being totally rebuilt and it isn't coming from Vekoma, does it count as a new cred?

The park are probably off put by the fact they once advertised a certain famous log flume to open in 2013, but because Intamin, it didn't actually open until 2014. Caused a fair bit of backlash, so they now go to the other extreme of not announcing anything until like 3 weeks before it opens...

A new theme park / mall thing in New Jersey is getting a Takabisha (y'know, world's steepest coaster) clone, intertwined with a Gerstlauer spinner coaster. And it's Nickelodeon themed. Oh, and it's all indoors.. After several delays to this project, it's due in 2019...

Python has long been rumoured to get a full track replacement, and now it's finally happening... https://www.looopings.nl/weblog/8922/Fotos-dit-is-de-nieuwe-baan-van-de-Python-in-de-Efteling.html And a Dutch video - https://www.tvl.be/nieuws/achels-bedrijf-mag-legendarische-eftelingattractie-renoveren-51458?utm_content=buffer8bbf4&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer Interestingly, the track isn't being manufactured at/by Vekoma, but instead by a metal manufacturing company closer to Efteling. It's not really clear if that company has been sub-contracted by Vekoma, or if Efteling have gone to this company with plans for them to follow... As far as I can tell, deconstruction is planned to start in early January and new Python is hoped to be ready by March, and that's the only time the ride will be closed. Rather ambitious time scale really! It's a shame that Efteling have decided to keep Python. It's caused countless problems over the years and doesn't really fit with the park these days. It's arguably the least popular coaster too - during all my visits, it's always had the shortest queue and lowest throughput. Efteling argue it's historic and has sentimental value, hence why they want to keep it. I can see the point and all, but I just don't think 'a lot of people have fond memories of it' is a good enough reason to keep a ride. And surely they could incorporate it in some other way, similar to how Towers reused Corkscrew..

Edit - it's fake anyway. I've been played Rumour has it some enthusiasts have already begun already, in their bid to be first.

Image from Phantafriends.de showing Rookburgh / FLY on their queue boards. Not sure whether it's worth reading into the fact that there's no other attractions listed in the area at this stage yet... As for the coaster, station track was installed a week or two back (no photos though), but no other notable work has happened yet...

11 game weeks in and I've been top every week. Imagine what would happen if I actually bother to change my team...

The (sad) thing is, people don't lose interest. The general public lap up the world's first stuff - they see it and something twigs in their brain that if it's the first, it's the best. And since it's the best, they have to do it. It works particular well with the family market and young adults, which of course is what Merlin pretty much solely caters for. Yeah, some of the world first claims are complete rubbish or long winded nonsense to the point that they could come up with another tagline which would be equally as appealing, but it's easy and it works. As for the hotel discussion - literally every Merlin hotel / lodge / resort 'thing' is massively profitable. Splash Landings is/was the only exception, and Merlin currently blame that on the fact Towers is still in a recovery phase after Smiler's crash. 4 hotels there is probably one too many in my opinion, but I reckon that, had the Smiler incident not happened, Splash probably would have been open all year round this year, and if the park does recover well enough like Merlin think it will, it'll be open all year round sooner or later. It makes it more an inevitability that Thorpe will get a proper hotel. They did have plans for one to open in 2018 but it got pushed back (yet again), and I think that was again down to the profit issues post-Smiler. But a hotel at Thorpe has been in the plans since like 2004/5, it is going to happen one day...

Though not to excuse Thorpe / Merlin, plenty of theme parks across the world that offer Annual Passes have exclusion dates / charge extra for special events, and have a tiered system. It's fast becoming common in the industry. These things are more noticeable within Merlin though, because: 1) There's a lot AP holders out there, creating a need for upcharging in some cases. 2) They have more explicit special events days (firework shows are a big deal for example, whereas other parks have fireworks more as standard). 3) The low cost of a Standard MAP. They ARE cheap, when you take into the fact you can access 30 something attractions for free, you get excellent value for money if you use it correctly. The upcharges help make the money to keep the price low.

Thorpe Park x15-20 Legoland x10 Chessington x8 Efteling x3 Alton Towers x2 Liseberg x2 Phantasialand x1 Movie Park Germany x1 Plopsaland x1 Plopsa Coo x1 Bagatelle x1 Not a terrible year. Could have been better (missed out on some things up north this year unfortunately), but I'm not complaining. Winter Wonderland aside, a lack of winter things sadly - wanted to do Winter Phantasia this year but will wait to next now most likely.

It does leave Thorpe Park Annual Passholders stuck though - there is no Standard / Premium option (anymore? There might have been a couple of years back, but definitely isn't now). The TPAP has the same exclusions as a Standard Merlin AP. It's a bit poor really.

I believe there was issues with the supplier which meant the Head in Jar photos weren't going to be available until September, and then that date was pushed back further. If they were ready in time, it probably was so late in the season they just didn't bother. I do wonder if Thorpe will want to bother with it at all though. The other photo point isn't exactly hugely successful, and they do create hold ups in the queue. With it being so close to the batch point, they might not want to deal with the hassle it'll create.

Anyone who doesn't say Taron's second launch either hasn't been on it or is wrong. Anubis at Plopsaland would probably rank second for me at the moment. It's really punchy and just takes you aback a little. Just really fun to be honest!

Let's see... -Merlin representative not calling it a ride. -Reference to Smiler incident (though fairly done). -Francis Jackson interview. -Shipping container in-joke. -MYSTERIOUS THING. That covers a good majority of the Merlinisms for my bingo. Just need a 'during routine excavations...' backstory and I'm done.

I'm always interested as to what flat rides people think Thorpe should get. They have a vast selection of thrilling flats which covers most bases of what flat rides can do, so most rides which Thorpe could invest will have the issue that they're either too similar to what they've already got, or wouldn't be suited in terms of throughput, etc. So yeah, I'd be interested to see what you think the park could add that would be worthwhile and suitable.

Safe Zone would imply The Walking Dead (being a big theme of the show and also mentioned in park wide theming...), and likely Living Nightmare becoming permanent... Following the X rumours, that would at the very least suggest X isn't being demolished if they're still using the building for a maze, but who knows.

Genuinely curious what locations you think are feasible, as aside from behind Swarm and next to I'm a Celeb, I honestly can't think of any other places?