JoshC.

A page for NeuroGen has gone live, and booking is available (if you're the super keen enthusiast who's already planned their visit and wants to guarantee entry now): https://www.walibi.nl/nl/rides/fun-cool/neurogen Translation of the page The attraction has a 16 age restriction, and warns that it'll contain bad language, sex and drug use. Time slots for online reservations are in 15 minute intervals, and Loopings is reporting that the expected throughput at the moment is about 60pph. They have also said that the VR film is roughly about 5 minutes. And for anyone interested, a photo from inside the attraction:

I've voted for Saturdays but I can't do Sundays. Do we know the exact date when Ninjago is planned to open yet? Last I heard it was opening "in May", but if it's opening after the 20th and before the 27th then I would much prefer the 27th for obvious reasons.

To be fair, Icon is a quick and snappy coaster name - Shambhalalalala is not Coaster has hit the nail on the head though - the name feels very forced. Blackpool do have iconic rides (not necessarily in the sense that they're good, but they are well known / have stood the test of time), so it feels like they're just trying to cash in on that with "we have loads of iconic rides, but this is the ICON"

Though they have since replaced that sign with a sign which simply says 'Coming Soon'.

Had to double check the date to make sure this wasn't an April Fool... Poor name and a weird logo.

This sort of thing is always difficult to deal with for the park. Obviously the point of the disabled queues is to ensure that those who can't queue are queueing for as little time as possible. But when 40 minutes worth of disabled people are waiting to go on it, there's not much the park can do to stop it. Even if Colossus was running 2 trains, that's still a 20 minute wait which is still too long. I'm certainly not excusing the situation, but just saying it leaves the park in a difficult situation really - if people decide to join a long queue of people for something, that's their choice. Personally, if I was using the disabled and saw that the Colossus disabled queue was from the station to the shop (as I saw it today!), I would go 'I'll try again later', rather than grin and bare it. As far as I'm aware, Samurai, Storm Surge and Rumba Rapids are the only rides that are scheduled to open late. All other rides are meant to open on time. However, if those rides are ready and the staff are in early, the park open them up early. Rush was only on one swing due to technical issues I believe and not due to the park deliberately reducing capacity. Unlike with the coasters, they cannot save staff costs by reducing the capacity, and the impact it makes to engineers for getting 1 or 2 swings ready is negligible. And as it stands, I believe the second train on Colossus still isn't ready due to problems with Intamin and not the park, and Stealth similar was due to timings caused by external groups.

Obviously the questions of why yesterday was so bad, how the park seemed so underprepared and the incredibly poor start to the day need to be asked. And there really is no excuse. However, I think it's worth highlighting that at least Thorpe acted appropriately. Not selling Fastrack for the coasters, giving anyone who wanted a refund a refund, handing out free return tickets, etc. Of course, this action should never need to be taken by a theme park, but it's at least good to see that when things do go bad, the park accept it and compensate as best as they can. Now let's hope nothing like today ever happens again...

Heide Park opened for the 2017 season yesterday, and Ghostbusters 5D was meant to open along with the park. On Thursday the park announced over Facebook it wasn't ready and would as soon as possible. So, Heide Park, who you gonna call?

To be fair, Stealth is the 3rd quickest accelerating coaster in the world (I think, haven't checked recently), so maybe not the best to do a base comparison of.

Upgrade me from maybe to yes for both please.

Intamin do make nice sounding launches. That is all.

Looopings are reporting that Rookburgh could be a...Vekoma flying coaster? http://www.looopings.nl/weblog/7351/Nieuwe-attractie-Phantasialand-wordt-spectaculaire-flying-coaster.html Would be a disappointing ride choice in my opinion, especially over a dark ride which would likely be epic. But given how tight-lipped and secure Phantasia are over their future, I'd be surprised if correct rumours leaked out this early on.. If it is true though, I expect we'll see Phantasialand management swing their full force of hatred towards fansites forever more.

Enthusiasts acting self-entitled and thinking they're better than other people 'because they're enthusiasts'.

It's 2.1 billion - http://www.looopings.nl/weblog/7326/Nieuwe-attracties-in-Disneyland-Paris-investering-van-2-miljard-euro.html Which is still obscene really. Spending on average €210 million (approx £180m) a year for 10 years is mad. To put that into some form of perspective, Merlin have probably invested somewhere between the £200-£300m on attractions in ALL their theme parks and Legoland parks in the past decade (not including new park openings and hotels). And even if you did include hotels and new investments, it can't be anywhere near the £1.8 billion Disney are planning on investing in one park...

The train for the train crash is still there; if you stand in the right place at the right time, you can see the lights for it (unless they have recently turned them off / covered them).

No water effects today, but around the ride are barrels with pieces of tree pointing to them. Looks like it could have potential for water to trickle down from the top into those barrels (be that rain water of planned effects), but not sure really. Top half definitely won't move though. It looks and feels very Chessington, even if it is a bit out of place in location, and the announcements are bit bland. It had a 10-15 minute odd queue today as well, so it's a shame they didn't get a bigger carousel to help deal with the crowds that it will get in that area.

Feel like this photo needs sharing, to emphasis the lengths Phantasialand go to... Also, on top of the River Quest overhaul and new pieces of theming around Chiapas and the Mexico area, they've done some tarting up around Africa, given Black Mamba some new seats and made Chiapas' switches "more comfortable", by using hydraulic cylinders instead of pneumatic ones (see here all you budding engineers - https://phantasialandblog.de/mission-off-season-chiapas-die-drehweiche/). Sad times as those switches were incredibly ridiculous </3

Coming 2018 presumably Why are Phantasialand so good at making everything? More info over on loooooooopings http://www.looopings.nl/weblog/7334/Phantasialand-kondigt-nieuw-themagebied-Rookburgh-aan.html

Adam's review above really hits an important note - Ghost Train is still fundamentally the same. It's still a VR-heavy attraction with a story about fracking and bad things happening (I disagree that the new VR goes away from the story, it fits in more in my opinion). If it wasn't your cup of tea last year, it still won't be this year. In saying that, it is improved, and I do think that even those who don't like the attraction that much should at least be able to appreciate some parts of it in some way. Lots of thought and effort clearly went into rectifying last year's faults. Obviously there shouldn't be a need to rectify faults this badly, but we are where we are. For me personally, I enjoy it, moreso than I thought I would this year. And there's enough to keep me coming back to it for a while, so I'm happy.

The IMA Score disliker club seems to have a loud voice at the moment... It's fair to say that some of the audio they've produced is very similar. Galactica definitely seems inspired by Helix for example (though I don't see how people are saying Smiler and Helix are similar?). And even the short snippet that Thorpe released of the entrance / dome music sounds like Taron's theme out of the Klugheim soundtrack. But as a whole piece, the entrance music sounds very original - certainly different to most things IMA have done.

It's been revealed that because NeuroGen has such a low throughput, you can reserve a place online for a 5€. If there's spaces on-the-day, you can experience it for free. For some comparison, The Clinic cost 15€ outright. Bit of an odd system, and I assume it means it'll be a time-slotted attraction. But if this is as scary as they say it will be, I guess it's only going to appeal to a small market, so having the lower throughput and upcharge to reflect a higher quality experience makes sense.

https://www.thorpepark.com/blog/what-is-the-sound-of-the-island Thorpe have confirmed that IMA Score made the new entrance / dome soundtrack, and have hinted that there is more to come! Exciting times for our ears!

In my experience, Chessington has been awful to visit on busy days for the past 4-5 years. Even if operations go well, their attractions can't cope with the demand they receive. Though to be fair, given it was the opening weekend of their new ride (and a pretty big new ride all things considered), I guess I've should expect things to be busy and get a lower ride count than normal. Though 6 rides in a potential 7 hour day is a bit of a joke.

^Doesn't seem to be a bad shout... http://www.looopings.nl/weblog/7254/Walibi-Holland-geeft-kijkje-achter-de-schermen-bij-nieuwe-attractie.html A brief 'look at how we're shooting the VR' style video has been released. Shows a 360 degree camera strapped to a body on a gurney. Video also has scenes of partying and what could be a car crash scene. So like yeah, could be: put VR glasses on, go partying, get high, get involved in a car crash then you're awake during your life saving surgery. Or something.

Timber Tug Boat will be opening in Easter, as revealed by this sign that has a snazzy logo for the ride...