JoshC.

I like it! Very classic 'destruction and devastation' vibe, which isn't something that Thorpe really has tried at Fright Nights. Be interesting to see where that leads... Also I spy Swarm backwards on the picture...is that the scary new thing for this year?

The original layout was the same up until just after the Immelmann turn. Instead of an airtime hill, turn, MCBR and dive loop, it was going to MCBR, dive loop, MCBR (under the first MCBR) and another dive loop. So the inversions were of similar tightness really, and the first one outside wasn't affected at all. Then again, they did change the drop from 97 to 100 degrees at some point after the layout had been designed, so that might have something to do with the jolt.

How is the hype building where there is literally no advertising and more information than we had at the start of season, bar a couple of extra dates? I'm sure a large majority of the forum are excited for Fright Nights - after all, it's only one of two special events the resort really offer, there's always big investment into it and it really does create a special atmosphere. However, there's only so much conversation we can drag out from baseless speculation!

A lighting and sound upgrade wouldn't be done by engineers though The upgrades they've done to the ride experience don't sound like they'd have taken a month, so part of me wouldn't be surprised if they were waiting on a replacement part / parts, and used the time to tart the ride up a bit rather than wait till this coming winter.

I've written a review of Symbolica here - https://forum.maniahub.com/blogs/entry/852-symbolica-review/ I can only agree with Earlyspencer and say it is a magnificent attraction! Though Symbolica has experienced some teething issues over the past week, with some significant (for Efteling) downtime, queue line evacs because the issues have been difficult to solve. And to add to that, some days the pre show hasn't been functional at all, meaning guests would miss out on the (albeit simple) backstory, and amazing animatronics and effects present there. A real big shame, but at the same time, sort of amusing that they've managed to pretty flawlessly open a trackless dark ride with tons of animatronics and special effects, yet can't get a pre show to work... That being said, I imagine there's some concern, given that currently the 2 newest (and still very popular) attractions at the park are also the most unreliable. Only Efteling could make a B&M unreliable...

To me, Symbolica was the biggest new European attraction for 2017 for theme parks. It's not exactly a difficult feat to achieve, with little of note actually happening this year. But I found the prospect of Efteling, a park known for creating highly detailed and love dark rides, investing their biggest sum in a ride ever, much more exciting than Port Aventura sticking Ferrari Land at the edge of their park and adding a taller and faster Stealth to their line up. It's difficult to review a dark ride without giving spoilers, but I'm going to try my best to not spoil anything. Knowing as little about Symbolica will, of course, be advantageous if you come to ride it - though if spoilers are really your thing, just check out Efteling's YouTube... For some context, the storyline of Symbolica is simple - you're have a feast with the King, but Pardoes, the King's jester, has other ideas and takes you on a behind the scenes tour of the 'Palace of Fantasy'. The pre show sets this story up brilliantly, is easily understood in any language, includes 2 incredible animatronics and a real piece of magic which bought a huge smile to my face. After the pre show, you make your way down the cellars of the palace towards the station. Symbolica has 3 slightly different routes you can take (themed as 'tours' - Music, Knights and Treasure), and you choose these after the pre show but before you board. After doing all 3, they're all of equal standard, and don't differ THAT much, but each one has its own special little feature. The ride itself is trackless, with 2 rows of 3. You go around the palace, exploring several different rooms, whilst Pardoes makes an appearance and does some magical stuff. Each scene is very Efteling, in that it's just whimsical, magical and doesn't quite make sense (in a good way!). Most importantly to me though, there are no dead spots and no wasted moments. Each transition between scenes is themed and makes sense. Each scene is themed 360 degrees. Everything flows in its own weird sort of way. This was a huge issue I had with all other Efteling dark rides (and indeed many dark rides in general) - they either have dead spots where nothing happens, other there's some part of the rooms which are unthemed and make no sense with what's going on. Symbolica, in that sense, is perfect to me. An interesting feature is that the front row has 2 touchscreens. These screens allow the front row to choose their language (it doesn't affect any audio, it's just a message at the start and end of ride), make some of the animatronics do 'things' during the ride, and make your vehicle 'dance' during the finale. It's an interesting idea, but doesn't quite work - I found it more of a distraction during the ride, and it never really added much. Also, it leaves the back row a bit left out - why they couldn't have one screen per row confuses me. So yeah, in short - Symbolica really is a fab attraction. It's clear to see where the 35 million euro budget went, it looks and feels great, it's interesting and immersive to be in and, most importantly, it is fun. Efteling are onto a winner of an attraction, and definitely worth a trip!

Yay Mark. I have to admit that Baron 1898 disappointed me on my most recent visit. 2 years back it was really floaty, you got airtime on the airtime hill, and it just flowed very well. Now it's aged like B&Ms do and become a bit more 'forceful', which has turned the floaty moments into quite bland moments. It's a real shame. Hopefully it'll continue to age well and might become properly forceful which will improve the ride. I really love Joris though (especially the Fire side), speedy, relentless and just full out fun. I haven't done Wodan, but I do think it is probably my favourite woodie, and the back row is <3

Rocky gets a steady ridership. Sure it never has a queue, but rides like Rocky rarely do at theme parks. It's the same for Rockin' Tugs and Frog Hoppers; you will see them at plenty of theme parks all across the world, but they'll rarely have a queue even in dedicated kid areas at family parks. These sorts of attractions have a large appeal but their 'popularity' (ie ridership and queue length) will never reflect that, because they're never high up on anyone's list. They're just rides people will ride occasionally, and the young families will ride in their dribs and drabs. It might not look like they are pulling in the numbers, but they just there to give younger guests a bit more choice.

I mean of course I'd like to see it upgraded, etc. But given the track record Merlin have of getting rid of log flumes at the moment, and the fact I'm not wholly convinced we'd see them create a brand new one which would be to my liking, I'm just selfishly glad to see that, for now, we still get a half-decent log flume in the UK!

Part of me thinks that whatever kids / low-key family ride they added, it would get moaned at for not being something you expect at Thorpe. A Rockin' Tug is a ride which you'd find at a lot of parks, but because Thorpe have added one that isn't themed to the surrounding area, it gets mocked. Frog Hoppers are pretty common too and work as a 'little extra', but again, Thorpe are getting mocked for it. And the mis-match of theme as a moan-point feels pointless, when basically all of Thorpe's investment since at least 2012 (arguably earlier) hasn't 'fit in' with its surrounding, bar I'm a Celeb. Just feels like a case of damned if you do, damned if you don't. And in fairness, the total investment cost of the two new rides is going to be in the thousands. The investment needed for any closed-off area of the park will be in the millions. So it's not really a case of investing in one over the other.

My point was more they're at least doing something to the log flume, in the sense that they're adding things to fit around it, paying attention it, etc. It's not being left whilst development happens around it, it's being included in it. Makes me feel a bit more confident that it might be around for a bit longer than, say, 1 or 2 more seasons.

I still don't get the hate. >People say Thorpe should include more kid/family rides. >Thorpe introduce such rides (admittedly on the cheap). >People complain that Thorpe introduce kid rides. Yeah alright, they look a bit naff and out of place. It's clear they've been added in very cheaply and as a side project to help keep the family side of things happy in the short term. But Thorpe have introduced 2 0.9m attractions which are attractive to the younger market, and will help boost the 'things to do' quota for those people. It hasn't happened instead of anything else, hasn't got in the way of future development, and causes no real harm to anyone. I just don't understand the hate outside of 'they don't fit in with the brown-coloured area'?

I have.

Looks nice to be honest, let's just hope they can pull it off with the final product. More importantly, it's great to see a Merlin park investing in a log flume rather than ripping them down. Log flumes are fab rides and it's good to see we still have one not-awful one in the UK.

Probably not, but that's because the gravel part of the car park can't be fully tarmaced as it's used a flood relief zone (I think). Probably similar rules for the grass part too. The money could be reinvested into staffing the car park, better signage, etc. There has been money pumped into moving the pedestrian entrance to make that safer too, for example. The change in locker price is largely down to the new £1 coin being introduced. The lockers cannot take the new £1 coin and I believe there is currently no way to retrospectively allow them to. So it was easier to make it accept only £2 coins rather than have many people waste new coins in there and subsequently complain.

Nice music, looking forwardto hearing it in person!

There's also a difference between several people asking about it once, and some people asking about it several times in successive days / weeks / months expecting a different response. Let's face it, they'd no use in digging into these replies to look for a hidden meaning. The only thing we can conclude is that there's no universal single response, which there should be. But not enough people will pick up on that I guess.

The LC in LC12 stood for 'Long Count', which related to the Mayan Calendar and 2012 end of the world vibe.

Who remembers when they did the 'anyone over the age of 12 must be accompanying someone under the age of 12' rule a few years back?

What have Walibi been smoking and can I have some of it please?

X had quite a few issues before its closure - lots of lengthy shutdowns! And don't forget it ran 2 trains pretty much all the time too. Not saying X couldn't be related, but it was far from 'running fine'!

In other shocking news, it's been hot today and the sky is blue.

I find it interesting that Towers are doing these videos going into a bit more depth about shutdowns, etc. after they're bought up in the media. Yet Merlin parks will only ever give the 'This ride has currently ceased operation due to an unexpected delay' line to guests when it is happening. Makes you wonder if they gave a bit more information about shutdowns, would the public feel more at ease knowing the situation is under control? Seeing a coaster stuck half way up a lift hill and hearing it's an 'unexpected delay' sounds more concerning than being told, say, 'The computer system that runs the ride noticed something odd, so it's just doing checks again' or something.

I'd be very surprised if it was weather based given that it's been fine in all other years, and Ghost Train probably has more troubles with indoor temperatures and that hasn't closed. As ever with lengthy closures, they're almost always related to waiting for a new part or (as seen in recent years) to allow for modifications related to new procedures under the H&S mask. I doubt anyone knows the exact reason though.