JoshC.

Plenty of parks across Europe have their advertised closed time as the time when rides will be stopped. Efteling do exactly what Phantasia do and close queue lines ridiculously early or, worse, apparently stop running rides with people in the queue. Movie Park Germany closed all their rides at random times to ensure everything was done by 6pm. Liseberg were very sharp with their closing times too (especially for their games and food places!). Maybe it's just the parks I've visited, but it's a common theme amongst many of the parks that they try to make sure most things are done by the close time. And no one really seems to mind; it's almost expected. It's a shame you've had bad experiences with Phantasia, and hopefully you'll get less awful experiences next time. I'm sure I'd be thinking the same in your shoes to be honest. But honestly, the park truly shone as something special when I've been there, and it just has this feel about it - it can't be properly described, and you don't really get 'it' until you visit. Maybe you're just an angry German magnet? That's one thing which sticks in my memory actually - there's lots of hills and steps in main pathways around the park. I guess part of it is a necessary evil, what with the park being so compact and having so much on top of each other, but that doesn't help ease the pain. It must be a killer for anyone with mobility issues or anyone pushing wheelchairs!

I've done it as a one day park (granted, usually with extended opening hours), and, like Benin, never had any issues with feeling rushed. There's a couple of people who have had bad experiences there, sure, but there's also plenty of people who have had good experiences; in this thread alone it's an equal split. I'd be willing to bet the number of people here having good experiences far outweighs the number have bad. Phantasialand is a park which really shines once you're actually there (and not being screamed at by staff in a toilet for 15 minutes...which seems excessively long might I add ). If you're put off by the sound of some parts on paper, just give it a chance and you'll be surprised.

This was a genuinely terrifying-sounding incident since it was an alone attraction as well. The section had no actors in, so the person in question went into a restricted area unknowingly, going to dangerous areas all thinking it was part of the experience. It's hard to imagine how the build up to that must feel. --- In other news, Bobbejaanland (again!) - A man was seriously injured after falling between cars on the park's waltzer-like ride: https://nos.nl/artikel/2200183-man-zwaargewond-door-val-uit-attractie-bobbejaanland.html

Just to say, during my visits to Phantasialand, I've never had any issues with customer service. It's not perfect, but never negatively affected my day. Smoking in queue lines is a huge issue though. The park operates so that the advertised closing time is when everything is finished. Queue lines are cleared, rides closed, shops shut, etc. That's why ride queues shut early. Visitors seem fine with that (it's largely a European thing it seems); it's eerie just how quiet the park was at 6:05pm on a 6pm close day that was fairly lively. So yeah, something to keep in mind for any Phantasialand goers..

Go to Phantasialand. Go to Phantasialand. Go to Phantasialand. You won't regret it. Spring time isn't too bad apparently (especially if you back during off peak time, it'll be dead). You'll miss out on their new coaster (if it even ends up opening next year at all), but that's no big issue as there's still bucket loads of quality there. If you've got the extra cash available for a longer trip / more parks, and a hire car is also an option, Movie Park Germany, Toverland and Efteling are all reasonable driving distances, so consider one of them. For a non-flight option, and if you're close enough to Dover, you could always get on a ferry to Calais or Dunkirk, and then you've got Plopsaland 30-40 minutes away. Very accessible and good fun, though more a family park / one you do as part of a bigger trip. And if driving is your thing, you could combine it with another park or two nearby (Walibi Belgium for example) and get a nice mix of creds, culture and travel all in one trip. And then Phantasialand is only a 2 hour drive away... But if that's not an option for now, just go to Phantasialand.

It is basically a requirement from high up, yeah, but it doesn't necessarily have to be world firsts. The idea is that new additions need to have a killer image and memorable slogan / catchphrase. You see it with practically all new rides (check any reasonably sized investment from the past 8 years across Merlin theme parks and you'll see), with the only exception that springs to mind being Tiger Rock; it has the killer image but there's no memorable slogan...yet, at least. Of course, it doesn't HAVE to be a world first - see DBGT and 'A ghost train reinvented for the 21st century', Scorpion Express and 'A mine train with a sting in its tail', Smiler's original 'world beating' message. It just so happens that world first's are the easiest to twist, and still do grab people's attention, though people's minds do sort of trail away after seeing 'WORLD FIRST'. It's very much the easiest way of doing things. As can be seen by plenty of rides all across the world, you don't need that style to create a successful marketing campaign, create hype, etc., and even Smiler's original marketing worked really well in that case; the 14 inversion was only officially announced in May 2013 and it wasn't a focus. But it's just easy, largely effective and avoids taking risks. Not a bad shout in fairness. Every other Walking Dead maze that's operated across the world started off as a seasonal attraction in one form or another, before eventually becoming a permanent offering. Makes you wonder if it's something AMC request or if the cost of the licence means that the parks have felt it necessary to milk the brand for everything they can. I don't think Thorpe really want to go down that road though. They've got I'm a Celeb and Ghost Train actors to pay (and with IAC opening days reduced, you do wonder if they've got the budget), and it's been proven time and time again that scare attractions don't perform well in the UK outside of the Halloween period. But I guess stranger things have happened before. You're trying my patience here. You really are.......

I agree with Creek that a Chessington meet would be nice. Certainly would be a shame for a predominantly Merlin-orientated forum to not go to a park when they're adding a medium-sized investment. International meet has plenty of potential - Phantasialand would be great (especially if Rookburgh opens next year), Parc Asterix, Liseberg and dare I say Poland (Energylandia and Legendia) are all reasonable options, but happy to go with the flow. Looking forward to what 201 throws up!

The queue board for IAC did say 'Returns 2018' when it.it closed (same as Rush and Rumba), so I could see that returning next year. Not to say it couldn't receive work or something, but I think that'd have a low chance of being replaced for now.

Yeah sure I'll be there.

Walibi Belgium held it's annual fan day a few days back, and released a POV on their new coaster for next year... blob:http://www.dailymotion.com/0787a929-cf88-43f9-8183-837b84ec4271 (The video is a recording of a screen, so quality isn't great) And here's some more stuff related to their 100 million euros general expansion which deserves some light here... # An outline of the all the park's areas (called a "World of Walibi") that will be created, and when they'll receive treatment. As can be seen, EVERYWHERE is getting work done to it over the next 5 years, and apparently by 2023, about 75% of the park from today will be completely different in one way or another. Proposed new entrance: 77 Some more concept art related to Popcorn's Revenge... The film genres that are featured are Fantasy, Superhero, Sci-Fi, Horror and Pirates. Since these are all taking inspiration from actual films, there is possibility for it to be pretty humour-filled I think. The mascots alone are pretty funny I think... Some concept art for the New Orleans inspired retheme of the Werewolf / Vampire (and relocated Ladybug)... All pictures from here - http://wonderworldweb.over-blog.com/ A lot of the theming work will be done by Joravision, who are pretty big in mainland Europe. There is also a video (in English!) of the Marketing Manager from the park presenting all this at the Fan Day. Haven't watched it yet, but it does cover everything in some detail...

Figured we may as well have a new topic for Tiger Rock, the retheme of Dragon Falls that will also bring an end to the Mystic East area, which will now be renamed 'Land of the Tiger'... https://www.chessington.com/2018/ On park advertising is also about... Images from 'UK Theme Parks' Facebook

It does depend on what the weather conditions were like all day, and how many people were there. If it's been raining all day, there's been strong winds all day, and the number of people who actually turned up in the first place is probably less than normal. I expect that come 5:30ish (say), most will have done everything they wanted to do and it was more a case of re-rides, but being out in the conditions all day, some will want to retreat home / inside to warm up / dry off / whatever. Which would leave numbers dwindling further. If that was the case, then I'm sure the people who did remain would be understanding of the hour loss at the end of the day. It's all about that context. It's easy to say that a park shouldn't close early, etc, but these things aren't black and white. When a large storm has battered the park and visitors for the majority of the day, few people are really going to want to stay in the early evening when things are getting colder, darker and gloomier. Sure, maybe there were loads of people still willing and wanting to stay, maybe Blackpool made the wrong call. But without any first-hand accounts, I guess we don't really know.. Thorpe and Towers rarely close early due to weather (though I'm sure it has happened in the past, with Thorpe at least). But remember that neither of those parks are right by the coast, and are comparatively much further away from the location of a large storm...

I guess it's all about context. If there's next to nothing open and next to no one there, I don't think many, if any, people will complain if the park closes early.

I assume the Swarm VR rumour has come about because the merch was reduced during the summer? I noticed that come September, the merch was back up to normal price, which would just indicate that it was a just a summer special offer or similar. So it would be weird to see Swarm get VR and not retheme / rename it, as you lose out on a big marketing opportunity. One would hope that after the trouble they've encountered with all their VR stuff (Ghost Train, Galactica and Shaman at Gardaland all suffered major delays and technical difficulties at one point), Merlin would want to steer clear of integrating VR into rides. If they really wanted to go down that route, a VR 4D cinema, or even AR show, would be something different enough to be...interesting I guess, whist more manageable from a technology viewpoint. Merlin's use of world firsts is so vague and downright silly at points it's hard to know what this could to be honest. And to highlight this point... After The Walking Dead announcement, Living Nightmare was being called "the world's first Walking Dead maze to feature scenes from Season 7 of the show". As Thorpe's Facebook post said they were "dropping a world first in the summer", I guess the idea might have been they were going to announce Living Nightmare as a world first during the summer and hype up from there, but things changed and they announced it a bit later / decided not to focus on the silly world first..

Something new is coming to Thorpe Park in 2018. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10159652058415624&id=283706330623 Some form of 'world first' (of course, it's Merlin ), though no other indication as to what or where though. No idea what this could be, but suggestions welcome (anyone who suggests a top spin in any way will be banned forever though )

There is a possibility this could be pushed back to 2020. I imagine they're keeping one eye on Efteling as they're getting a huge in 2019 or 2020 too, so they might not want to compete (or they might do, who knows with Walibi...) Don't get me wrong, I've nothing against these things, they look fun and I do want to try one and it'd be nice to see one closer to home. But another bog standard off-the-shelf model is not what the park should be getting, nor what they're capable of doing now...

Rumour has it now this could be an S&S free spin coaster, following an S&S spokesperson confirming to Looopings that they've been in talks with Walibi Holland. It'd be the first in Europe. Not going to lie, would be a bit of a shame if this is what they got. There's potential for much more at the park in my opinion, and given the amount they're pumping into Belgium, this is a bit of downer.

The 4pm ride close is probably something that wasn't updated from yesterday. Bit of a whoops moment but will probably be fixed now.

Personally, I think that we'll see little to no investments in smaller years now. Major investments do pull people (even if the likes of Swarm and Ghost Train haven't done so to the level they expected). So I'd be surprised if they do go ahead and stall on major rides, even at Thorpe. I expect we'll see less I'm a Celebritys, Galacticas and Pandamoniums now though...

May as well start a thread for this. For Merlin's sake, hopefully it ends up being a bit more popular than the Shrek's Adventure thread ey.. Opening in 2018 in Birmingham, The Bear Grylls Adventure is a mixture of an indoor and outdoor adventure course. It'll be a family attraction, and I think it'll have different levels of adventurous things to do for all the family. It's actually representing a significant investment (around £20 million), which I think is much more than any of Merlin's other midways? As with Shrek's Adventure in its first year, it is expected that you don't get free access to this with a Merlin Annual Pass, though some form of discount / preference is likely to happen. There's going to be very limited numbers allowed per day though, so expect it to be a premium-priced product.. Below is some concept art (again sourced lovingly from Merlin's recent presentation)..

Since we don't have a general Legoland thread, I'll stick this here... Merlin revealed today that they've signed a deal for the Lego parks to each get a 'LEGO Movie Land', starting from 2019, which coincides with the release of the new film. With Windsor meant to be getting something big in 2019, I guess it's possible that whatever the new thing for 2019 is, it could help form the first Movie Land for a Lego park...

Also, I want to put this in a separate post because I see what feels like everyone drawing the wrong conclusion... This isn't saying that £100 million is being taken away from the money currently being spent. This is saying that £100 million that was going to spent across Merlin is now going to be spent on new accommodation, as well as new Legoland parks (focus on Legoland New York in particular) and more midways. This doesn't mean there are more budget cuts imminent (there could be, but not because of this news). What this does mean is that we will likely see less new attractions (so maybe an end to the 'every park must have something new every year' idea), less rethemes, less new restaurants / shops, etc. The £100 million is across 4 years, and across the whole of Merlin (though mainly theme parks and midways). It's a lot, and certainly will have a negative impact on guest experience in the theme parks (spent wisely, even small new investments will improve guest experience massively - take the Island Shop for example). I'm not defending Merlin here, but I'm just trying to clear up a misconception that many people have (especially since that misconception make it seem arguably worse than what it is).

Having spent a bit more time looking into Merlin's report and presentation (which anyone can see here - https://merlinentertainments.biz/results-and-presentations ), some things make sense, and others don't. It's quite clear that, for whatever reason, the theme parks simply don't make as much money as any other offerings Merlin have. They do make a profit on them, but the profit margin is nowhere near as good as Legoland parks and midway attractions. I guess it makes sense in some ways; theme parks require more money invested them, meaning they have to make significantly more, usually in much less time. You can say 'if they spent more money, they'd earn more', and though that might be true, it might simply be a case that the extra investment doesn't justify the extra money they get in. Accommodation works amazingly well for Merlin, despite what we may think. Across Merlin as a whole, their accommodation outperforms the parks themselves both in terms of profitability and satisfaction. The one exception to all this is Splash Landings, which is hardly surprising given it's Towers. Though maybe they're burying their heads in the sand a bit and saying 'it'll recover, it's just aftermath of Smiler...' Legoland parks seem to do wonders and the pre-school market many of them appeal to just suits Merlin perfectly (which is why they've gone for Peppa Pig as well, plus seeing how well Paulton's have done). New one opening in New York in 2020, plus Korea and China ones on the way... The terror attacks this year did noticeably affect attendance at Merlin places in London (look at the graph in the presentation, and you do see a massive spike after they had been improving), and I think it's fair to say it is having a long term affect. Merlin's offerings in major European cities are also being affected, but even then, are still performing better since they're much newer. The big issue right now for Merlin is their resort theme parks. Simply put, how you best run a theme park doesn't fit with Merlin's current philosophy. The way they've seen it is they're continually pumping money into these things, and not getting as much as they'd like out. To top it off, they're going through a rough patch at the moment, so it's better to play it safe than to take big risks. A fantastic quote from Nick Varney highlighting this says "When you are experiencing storms, the sensible thing is to navigate around them” So I don't think that, in the short term, things are going to get much better for the theme parks. I don't think they'll get any worse and we'll still see good investments everywhere, but I don't think we'll see enough of what they need. Maybe in a couple of years they'll change their mind and philosophy and getting the parks on a more upward turn (after all, I think it's fair to say they did do good when they first took over). With the lack of confidence in the air that surrounds this update, and Merlin's unusual blaming of certain factors ('poor weather' - yeah no), it's not hard to see why share prices fell pretty dramatically. And for us as a theme park enthusiasts, it's not a pretty picture they've painted. Things aren't much worse than they are now in my opinion, but they ain't getting better any time soon...

I don't know how popular it necessarily is elsewhere, but it is broadcast in well over 100 different countries and is a well known brand. Fairly certain that in America and Australia it is quite big.

The adventure course thing in Birmingham which was announced a year or so ago (under the name Project Thor) has been revealed to be in partnership with Bear Grylls, and it'll be styled to a survival course. Sounds like something which could have widespread appeal in fairness. Merlin also announced today that they've attained the rights to Peppa Pig everywhere in the world (except the UK, because Paulton's). Clever move monopolising the IP from a business perspective, especially if they use it effectively, given how huge and important it was to Paulton's. Source - https://www.insidermedia.com/insider/southwest/merlin-plans-bear-grylls-and-peppa-pig-attractions