JoshC.

Getting back to this year, and it seems like the Cartoon Network contract is up, so Ben 10 has been rethemed and renamed as 'Accelerator'. (photos by Adam on TTSP) It's a shame as the queue line for Ben 10 was awesome all things considered, so it'll be interesting to see if they can replicate that quality. There were also rumours of Hot Wheels being bought in to act as a sponsor which could have worked well, but alas it seems to have no happened.

Efteling have revealed what the ride cars will look like..

Noticed signs around the park saying Gruffalo was opening at 12pm on the 18th, if anyone is keen enough to be considering going on opening day...

The Adventure Tree does look very nice, but something about it felt a little...off when I saw it in person. It was like the tree was a little too short and stubby, and needed to be taller. I thought it might look better when you see the bottom half, but looking at photos, it seems the 'tree stump' on the carousel half is a lot thicker. so it just feels a little bit weird and unnatural. It still looks decent and I'm sure when it's operating it will be fine, and I don't like to complain about something that does look good. But it just looks a bit awkward.

If it's a cred, then I'm buying a VR headset and a desk fan - I'll overtake Benin in no time...

From Alton TLC.

We've recently had to remove some posts on this thread. As I'm sure many of you understand, during the closed season a lot of work is done across the park, and those who have access to the park during this time aren't allowed to share photos of this work online. Due to TPM's close relationship with Thorpe, we don't want to encourage the sharing of these posts and pictures. We hope you all understand. If anyone has anyone has any questions, please feel free to PM myself or any team member.

Whilst Dodonpa is out of action, the park have decided to offer a VR experience recreating the coaster to compensate... And, because Japan, desk fans are provided to help simulate the launch. Just wow.

I've made my views on TLC clear in the past, but on a positive note, it is really good to see that Towers have spent the money to get scenic artists in for the likes of Hex and Nemesis. It's easy to forget that that costs a lot of money and isn't really something we've seen in a very long for general upkeep of rides at Merlin parks.

The park have announced that the name of the coaster will be Red Force. Leaks a few months back suggested the name was originally going to be Red Giant, but I guess they decided to go for 'force because Ferrari' idea.

I don't think we'll ever see a buzz like the one Ex10 created again. Ex10 did something completely different and out there, offering something that never really had been offered in the UK scare market so easily. It received such a buzz from those within the industry, abs genuinely shocked and scared the general public because it was so unexpected. These days, the sort of style and experience Ex10 offered is much more normal, and offered by many more places. Look at Sub Species at Towers, that's arguably more intense and more groundbreaking than Ex10, and whilst it received awesome reviews, it never really created the same buzz as Ex10 did in 2011, all because it was more of norm. Of course, this doesn't mean we won't ever see something great or as well received as it ever again. But to create a buzz anywhere near that level, they've got to do something extremely original, out-there and truly special, which is easier said than done. IPs are always doubled-edged swords. They bring with them a huge appeal (if the right one is chosen), and create an instant buzz and level of expectation around them. But they can also be quite restrictive, especially if the people behind the IP have a certain way they want things done, which is particularly noticeable in a maze environment. One would hope that given Thorpe have had experience with IP mazes now, they've learnt what works and what doesn't, and how it is best to proceed. In particular, the lifespan of mazes needs to be taken into account - Cabin worked brilliantly in its first two season but failed to reach similar heights thereafter. MBV struggled through its 3 years. Blair sort of worked, and it did grow (quite literally!), but it was very actor dependent on the quality of the maze. Saw has stood the test of time quite well, even if people find it a bit stale now. From this experience, and lessons they've learnt from their own in house mazes, I'm confident they know how to make things work.

Update! Images from Parc Asterix and PA Fans respectively. I really like the colour; quite refreshing in some ways!

Nice article. First time we've ever really had an article closely linked to Thorpe saying how they can make tweaks and introduce new journeys over time, which has some promise. The paragraph about shooting on the ride itself is interesting. If they're able to use footage of the train itself in the VR world (rather than a similar-looking CGI train), it might be able to add to the aimed 'blurring the lines between what's real and what's not' motive, which is only a plus in my books. Find it interesting that the park are trying to drop in 'we've got a new IP for Fright Nights' at every possible moment too. Though that's for another thread I s'pose...

Here's the thread for reference:

The park have announced that this new thing will be called 'NeuroGen'. They've released a couple of videos, and it seems to be a bit Ministry of Joy / Sanctuary inspired, in that NeuroGen gives treatment that makes you better at life... There's still no word on what this actually is, aside from the use of VR. Construction updates on the park's Snapchat show a reasonably tall, circular-ish room having work done to it to make it look quite clinical. My guess is that it'll just be some sort of 4D theatre variant (ie moving seats, special effects, etc), just with VR, which makes sense given the attraction is taking place in a small part of the old 4D theatre. The park are still pushing this to be super horrifying though. They've said that "The Clinic explores the boundaries of your emotions...The new attraction goes one step further." Given how The Clinic was quite psychological, it'll be interesting to see if they can actually pull it off...

So Grona Land have submitted plans to build a B&M invert, at 115ft high and 700m long, along with what looks like 4 inversions. Christ knows how they've squeezed that in, but it looks really solid. Should open by 2020 apparently...

Doesn't matter - Loggers closes when it's dark, so the queue can still be used for a Fright Nights attraction. As for a queue for Blair Witch with a ride around that location, I don't see why they can't just close the Tug ride early in the day and use the queue for the maze - they did it with Fungle Safari and Asylum.

I don't understand your logic? This discussion is all about Blackpool. You're the one who mentioned Merlin parks. How has the state of the Merlin parks got anything to do with Blackpool's operations? Yes, credit where it is due, it's great Blackpool had got essentially the whole park open in February. But if they're not ready to cope with the crowds they will receive, should they open so early?

Using 'well they're actually open' seems a bit of a non-point. Regardless of when a park is open, if the operations are poor, they're poor. People weren't sympathetic to Thorpe, for example, during their half term event when things didn't go to plan, despite all the good things. Just a case of a bit more perspective really. Wasn't expecting to hear that practically everything is open though - that's a good thing!

1) Chessington is open 2) No one said anything about Merlin parks. But oh well. 3) At no point during any of the Merlin parks' February events have they ever experienced long queues. The line up they provided suited the crowds that came. 4) Marc's point was a tad tongue-in-cheek. Seems to be a case that the masses descended to Big One at a certain time. What other rides are actually open at Blackpool atm? Might be a case that the place needs to try and be better prepared for the crowds in future, by adding more rides or more capacity to what they've got open. But then that'd require more money for more engineers and whatnot, so seems doubtful.

River Quest is receiving more theming this season, because Phantasialand are awesome like that... The park are also doing a closed season blog - https://phantasialandblog.de/mission-off-season-river-quest-wasserstrudel/

The making of series is now to episode 3, which focuses on the attraction's music and a sneak peek of the ride vehicles towards the end... Efteling have also revealed that a majority of the ride's roof will be a garden: Should make the view from the Pagoda slightly more pleasing!

Going back to free flow vs conga line discussion... I don't think there is necessarily a 'better' one, and different mazes will suit different styles. Being in a conga line means that guests will have their hands on the shoulders of the person in front, which straight away creates an open torso, which can make people feel more vulnerable. People don't want to get lost from the group, so will keep a firm group on the person in front, rather than cover their eyes with their hands, which makes it perfect for jump scares that appear out of nowhere. So labyrinth style mazes (ie mazes with one obvious, few large spaces for guests to go in, etc.) usually work better with hands-on-shoulders, since those mazes usually utilise jump scares the most. Free flow allows for people to explore more. Be that through multiple choices, larger scenes or other forms of interactivity. Jump scares are usually less effective in this sort of environment, and scares come out of tension-building, mis-direction or from the natural interactivity. But you need to ensure that there is enough for people to do, and that the scares happen frequently enough, otherwise people can relax - put their hands in their pockets and treat it as a stroll through a building - or they'll huddle together and make any scares coming their way less effective. This is why I think MBV was so poor for me. The layout was very labyrinth-style, and the interactive elements (tunnel and air bag thing) do very little by themselves and didn't have actors to go with them. Sure, the maze was claustrophobic and noisy, but it was easy to distance yourself from the maze because of the free flow nature. Had it been hands-on-shoulder (say the tunnel didn't exist), it might have worked much better for me. I guess one thing with Platform 15 we have to consider is that space for attractions is at a premium. After 2015, where the Beach and Big Top flooded a lot, it's understandable they don't want to use that area. And I can't think of any other places on park which aren't being used that could be used for a scare attraction (only place that springs to mind is the marquee but I think there's quite a lot of logistical issues with that making it highly unlikely). And given they probably had to spend a fair bit making that walkway safe to use, they will want to use it as much as possible. And let's not forget that Big Top, Blair Witch, Curse all received poor reviews in their first year, but all came back and were improved upon.

So Phase 2 is happening with the shuttle coaster: It's now called 'Turbo Track' and is meant to simulate what it's like to be a Ferrari test driver. The track has a max height of 210ft (64m), which is apparently the tallest point on Yas Island, and a max speed of 63mph. It also has forward and backward facing seats, What is impressive is how this has had the hole in the building custom made for this, which I imagine is something easier said than done. Here's a couple of nice pictures too...

There's some on ride footage released by the park here: