JoshC.

It's come to that time of year again - it's the Thorpe Park Mania Awards! Once again, we are using SurveyMonkey to collect the results. If you've never used it before, don't worry - it's dead easy! By popular demand, we've kept the same awards as last year, which are... PARK AWARDS: -Best UK Park -Best UK Coaster -Best UK Flat Ride -Best UK Water Ride -Best UK Dark Ride -Best UK Themed Experience -Worst UK Ride -Best International Park -Best International Coaster -Best New-for-2016 Attraction (can be in the UK) -Best International Themed Experience -Most Uncomfortable Ride -Most Disappointing Merlin Moment 2016 -Best Looking Attraction for 2017 -Best Manufacturer FORUM AWARDS: -Best Member -Best Team Member -Best New Member -Best Quality Posts -Best Official TPM Meet -Most Knowledgeable Member -Most Dedicated Member -Most Sarcastic Member -Most Likely to be Banned in 2017 -Funniest Member -Biggest Fanboy/girl -Sexiest Male -Sexiest Female -Storm Surge Award -Cutest Couple -Member you'd like to see more of And here's some clarifications in case any of the above are confusing... You don't have to vote for all the categories if you don't want! Please you forum usernames rather than real names - makes things easier For the park awards, feel free to vote for parks / rides you like the look of the best (especially the case of International Awards, where members might not have been on many / any foreign rides). Team Members are any member with an orange box underneath their username. We're working on a way of finding a list of new members for 2016 as we speak. Member's join dates can be found on their profiles if you have someone in mind! Storm Surge Award: Vote for the member who you think reminds you of Storm Surge or should be awarded a Storm Surge for their efforts in TPM. Member you'd like to see more of Award: Vote for the member who you'd like to see post on the forums more often / see at meets / generally get to know a bit better! These are of course meant to be a bit of fun, so just enjoy the ride! CAST YOUR VOTES HERE! Voting will close at 8pm on Friday 16th December. Please do not vote after this time as your votes will not count but you may be charged... If there's any questions, problems or whatever, please PM me and I'll get back to you. Happy voting!

This chap wants the full experience though: I can see The Mirror headlines now... 'Backwards Facing Alton Towers! Theme park fails to provide suitable experiences for extremely flexible people; discrimination!!!'

Hope you all grabbed some popcorn or something during this brief intermission. Anyways, here's the second half... #7 - Cabin in the Woods (2013-2016) Years experienced: 2013-2016 To be honest, Cabin has gotten progressively worse each season for me. I'm sure that's partly down to getting used to it all, as newbies in the maze really are blown away by the idea. However, the original version in 2013 was by far the best. The idea of the maze was that you would enter a room, close the door, and something would happen. Every room had an actor and seemed to have a special effect to go with it. Maybe I just got a good run, but it felt a lot more interactive and the aim was actually achieved. It wasn't scary, but it was certainly a lot of fun! #6 - Saw Alive (2010-2016) Years experienced: 2010-2016 I'm including this as a Fright Nights attraction, even if it didn't start off as one. I've experienced Saw loads of times, due to it being open all season in 2010 and 2011, so I guess it show how much I like it given how high up it is. It's got a good use of effects, which is something a fair few of the other mazes lack. And it later years, it's become a bit more theatrical, which gives it a different feel to the others. I've definitely got a soft spot for Saw Alive, and I might be over-rating it a tad, but I really have enjoyed it the past couple of years, which I guess helps! (Concept art from Thorpe Park) #5 - Containment (2015-2016) Years experienced: 2015, 2016 2015 Containment was average at best to be honest. But Containment for 2016 was fabulous; from the nice pre-show, to the fun tasks to the fantastic actors. Everything just worked, and left me with a huge smile on my face. The fears included were of a nice range, from the common to the not-so-common: numerophobia (numbers), chronophobia (time), trypanophobia (needles) and haemophobia (blood). It might be because this is the only escape room that I've done that I enjoy it so much, but it's at least set the bar high, and got me itching to try and another horror escape room! Image from Scruffy Dog #4 - Experiment 10 (2011-2012) Years experienced: 2011, 2012 Experiment 10 was one of the most difficult ones to place on the list. The beginning was pure genius, and the first time I experienced it, it did shock and surprise me. But from there, it went downhill, with little to write home about. And let's not talk about the 2012 version and ending shall we. Nevertheless, the reception scene, decontamination sequence and isolation rooms were absolutely fantastic, and a brilliant way to start off a scare attraction. If the same atmosphere and intensity from actors could have been matched during the rest of the maze, it certainly would have been higher up! Image from scare-zone.com #3 - The Big Top (2015-2016) Years experienced: 2015, 2016 Obviously for this, I'm referring to the 2016 version. Don't get me wrong, 2015 Big Top had a lot of potential and was fun on some runs, but it just wasn't up to scratch when all was said and done. 2016 Big Top had a nice mix of everything though. The Madame Mephisto scene was nice, the playground area was fantastic, and showed me how a mesh-strobe-scene can work. Then the rest of the maze had plenty of theming and nice, open, sets which all worked really well - especially the clown wash room! Yeah, chainsaw ending doesn't quite fit in with the rest of the maze, and it's a bti cliché, but it still works at least! It is just so much fun and is designed so that it's really easy to scare people. #2 - Se7en (2006-2011) Years experienced: 2009-2011 I honestly think that Se7en was quite under-rated during it's time at Fright Nights. It got a lot of hate for being in a white tent, and I think its first couple of years weren't that well received generally, but the times I experienced it, it was a solid, dependable maze, featuring fab theming, great smells and effects and a variety of different scare tactics. 2011 was a stand-out season for Se7en though - actors seemed to have been given more leverage on what they could do, and were very full on throughout. Sure, some of the rooms had lost their appeal after going through it multiple times (in particular the Envy room), but things like the Gluttony room remain in my mind - and nostrils! - to this very day. I know tents aren't the ideal situation for a horror maze, but based on how this and Big Top have gone down, I'd be happy to see more of them back in the future for greater in-maze experiences. Image from Theme Park Tourist #1 - Studio 13 (2014) Years experienced: 2014 I adored this maze. It's the only scare attraction where I've truly felt part of the story. The beginning felt like a backstage tour of a film studio where something wasn't quite right. The middle felt like being part of a horror film. The end was executed brilliantly, with the horror film spilling out into real life, and definitely gave me a shock (moreso because of my expectations than anything else, but still...) The theming was largely very good as well, and the actors all seemed to work well with the maze in my runs. It all just gelled really well to create quite possibly my favourite scare maze to date! Image from lukedysonphotography.org And that's a wrap! Here's to more gorious years of Fright Nights...I look forward to what next season brings...

When I visited Walibi Belgium Pulsar did seem to have a few issues with the turntable not working. Not too unexpected I guess given it's new technology and all that. There was no obvious clunk or roughness over the turntable section either, but how it will stand the test of time is a concern. But since its Mack, I'm sure it's been thought through.

Isn't 5D basically just 4D but with a physically moving transit system? So still meaningless marketing dribble in one sense, but I guess you could argue 5D is a legitimate thing...

Figured we may as well have a Mack thread since they're awesome. At this year's IAAPA, Mack revealed their "Xtreme Spinning Coaster" concept... (Image from CF Twitter) In short: -3 launches -Spinning cars train -4 track inversions The interesting parts come with the ability to add a turntable in the station (like Pulsar at Walibi Belgium), so there can be 2 trains, with one in load and one on the circuit - see 1:18 in the video. However, more interesting is the ability to have two separate stations and a traverser between the circuit; allowing for 2 different types of trains, with the video showing spinning car trains and BigDipper trains (like Lost Gravity at Walibi Holland) - see 1:41 in the video. It has been said that a park has bought one; though not sure if that's for the 2in1 or the turntable station. Looks like an interesting concept, and we now see what that test spinning car on Blue Fire was for.,..

Efteling released some concept art of the preshow room for Symbolica a while back. Spoilering because Efteling concept art is so realistic... Also, Python is set to be closed for pretty much the whole of April, May and June for its refurb, with rumours of a whole track replacement rife..

http://www.looopings.nl/weblog/6461/Acht-buren-klagen-over-Plopsaland-vanwege-ontbreken-vergunning.html?coockie=accepted Plopsaland have revealed that during this saga, there's been 8 formal complaints about the lack of environmental permit, as well as general noise and traffic issues. They have, however, also received formal letters of support. So in other words, nothing to worry about, they'll get a new permit and all will be fine. Bring on Heidi!

I'll give a +1 to whoever can put this list in alphabetical order. It's annoying me way more than it should.

Please no.

It does - you just have to ask them to change the setting!

We're in a country where thousands of people voted to leave the EU without knowing what the EU is. We're in a country where millions of people read the likes of The Sun, Mirror and Daily Mirror, all of whom have been thrashing 'Alton Towers is unsafe' headlines down people's throats for the past 18 months. We're in an age where everyone has an opinion and overlooks facts, thanks to the rise of social media and ridiculous 'news websites' which are just full of click bait. Don't overestimate the general public's ability to see the obvious. Despite what we as enthusiasts see and think, the public can be very very stupid and gullible.

This is precisely an example of social media being evasive. "Loggers Leap is under redevelopment for 2017" - this can have two meanings. One meaning is that it's being developed to open in the 2017 season. The other is that it's being developed during the 2017. It's ambiguous. "We hope for it to make a splashback soon" - this is related to the ride opening; "hope" and "soon" being key words. Hoping means nothing really - you can hope for anything to happen, but it doesn't mean that it will or that it won't. Saying soon gives an endless timescale, since there's no real way to measure 'soon-ness'. Put all that together and what they're saying is "Loggers Leap is closed for 2017, and it may or may not reopen in the future". But they're giving people an evasive response to try and stop people questioning about it all the time. And people will buy it.

I've moved this topic to 'The Future', for two reasons... 1) It's funny seeing people get over-worked up over where a topic on a forum is being placed, and this place seems rather inappropriate. 2) If Loggers Leap does return, and that's a pretty big if, I reckon we would see some changes. Related to the second point, if anyone genuinely believes that Loggers Leap is reopening in 2017, they are surely kidding themselves. No work has been done to it. Social media is very evasive over the subject. There's been no firm rumours about its return. And Merlin wouldn't miss the opportunity for a minor spruce up to go down as a major refurb which should be heavily marketed. It all points to it not reopening in 2017. If anyone does feel particularly strongly about the location of this topic and can put forth a genuinely compelling argument as to why a SBNO ride should remain in a subforum about present day things, then please contact a team member...

Maybe the idea is to make it more Christmas, and Christmas Grotto, focused leading up to Christmas? So the whole idea of people going is for the Christmas stuff and all that, as opposed to going on a zoo day where there just happens to be a couple of Christmas bits? If done right, then I don't have an issue with there being a slight upcharge for Annual Passholders. Then again, £16pp is still too much for Passholders in my opinion...

Fright Nights might be over, and it might be closed season, but I'm doing a belated 15 Years of Fear Celebration! I've been fortunate enough to visit every Fright Nights, and do all but one Fright Nights maze-style attraction, so I'm going to do a quick worst-to-best ranking (16 to 1) of all those mazes. Naturally, mazes change year-on-year, and even one run through can be dramatically different to another on the same night, so I'm being nice and judging these off my best runthroughs. And, of course, I was quite a bit younger 15 years ago, and scared very easily, so there might be some rose-tinted spectacles of some sort for the older mazes. But oh well. Also, there may be some spoilers of current attractions (and retired ones). Enjoy... Freakshow 3D (2002-2004) Alas, I never got a chance to experience the Freakshow in all it's bizarre glory. Biggest Thorpe regret right there. Image from Coaster Kingdom #16 - Dead End (2010) Years experienced: 2010 I won't lie, I liked Dead End. I had good runthroughs with actors interacting with me personally, which makes a change. And I liked the idea of reusing loads of Thorpe stuff to create a graveyard idea. But it should never really have been marketed as a "terror zone", or ran like an attraction. Dead End would have made a fun 'scare zone' in the literal sense, but in the sense Thorpe tried, it just didn't work. Image from TTP #15 - Asylum (2005-2013) Years experienced: 2009-2011, 2013 Probably the most controversial one here, but as a few no doubt know, I really disliked Asylum. The constant strobes for such a long period of time just made me feel headachey, which meant I was more focused on that rather than the maze itself. And it could feel really repetitive if you didn't have a good run / the actors weren't on form. The chainsaw ending wasn't as good as all the other mazes I've done with that sort of ending either. So yeah, I never really rated Asylum. I think part of it is down to the fact I like a bit of a story with scare attractions, and Asylum was only ever 'There's scary people in there that will scare you!' to me. I might be under-rating it a bit, but I honestly think that I enjoyed / was scared by all the other attractions more. #14 - My Bloody Valentine (2013-2015) Years experienced: 2013-2015 MBV was a weird one. The maze was very in-your-face, in terms of actors and the fact most of it involved very tight spaces. But this does very little for me, and so I never got anything out of it. It also meant there was little scope for the actors, resulting in jump scares from loud noises, or just generally trying to invade your personal space. But it just never did it for me. At least the theming was very good throughout, which is something. #13 - The Curse (2008-2012) Years experienced: 2009-2011 I hear that 2012 was The Curse's best season, so it's a shame I never did it then. However, in all the times I did do it, it never really got me. It had nice theming and a nice atmosphere I suppose, but it wasn't scary really. Maybe it's because it was the first scare attraction I tried in 4 years and I was expecting so much worse, but I just never got 'it'. Image from TTP #12 - Platform 15 (2016) Years experienced: 2016 I'm really disappointed that this is so low down. It has so much potential, with the theme, location and story all being spot on for a really good scare attraction. But ultimately, it falls short in a major way: it's trying to be something it's not. Platform 15 would make an excellent, creepy attraction, that utilises atmosphere and tension more than impact scares. Instead, it just goes for impact and jump scares continuously, which doesn't work when there's too much space for not enough actors. If you're going to have a large open space, make sure there's actors to fill it! In its current direction, Platform would need at least double the number of actors to have the payoff it promises. The promising thing is that we have seen Thorpe learn their lessons in the past; notably with Big Top and Blair Witch. Hopefully history repeats itself and we see big improvements to this next year, assuming it does return! #11 - Hellgate (2005-2010) Years experienced: 2005, 2010 Looking back, Hellgate really shines through as a trial scare attraction for the park. I know they had experience with Freezer and Freakshow 3D, and they did Asylum at the same time and many felt they got that right. But Hellgate felt like it was a paint-by-numbers attractions - an easy to make, creepy-ish theme, vague story, couple of little effects, creepy audio with very standard, easily repeatable, scares. Like someone Googled "What makes a good scare attraction?" and went from there. All of these boxes were ticked, but none of them were brilliant. It was a reliable, yet unremarkable, maze. Image from TTP #10 - The Passing (2012) Years experienced: 2012 Going against a majority I think, but I enjoyed The Passing. It was clearly a cheap attraction to make, and had a lot of ideas floating around it, but none of them really made the final cut. I really enjoyed the tunnel section of the maze (certainly one of the few genuinely terrifying moments I've had in a scare attraction was when I bashed head-first into a wall, thinking I was at a dead end). But the rest of it was very meh, and the false ending didn't really work; I was more confused than scared. #9 - Blair Witch Project (2013-2016) Years experienced: 2013-2016 I'll freely admit that in 2013 this was poor. And 2016 hasn't been the best. However, it improved a lot in 2014, and 2015 was a brilliant season for it! 2015 worked so well thanks to a narrow path that got tighter and tighter, whilst starting off with few actors before loads appearing from nowhere! Loud noises, a subtle soundtrack and audio effects and a general, hard-to-describe, atmosphere made it a fun attraction, and exactly what it was marketing itself as! Image from Thorpe Park #8 - The Freezer (2002-2004) Years experienced: 2003 This has been a difficult one to place, since I remember very little about it...mostly due to having my head buried in the back of the person in front of me. With this being my first scare attraction, and with me only being 9, that reaction is perhaps understandable, and hence makes it unfair for me to judge too much on my experience. However, the things I do remember are a really good atmosphere surrounding the maze, and entering it after the Freezer door opening and smoke flowing out from it. It was probably the most 'theatrical' maze Thorpe have done. Like I say, a difficult one for me to judge. In some ways, it's probably not fair for me to judge it. And the 2002 version was a lot better as well from what I gather. But I think sitting in the middle of the rankings is probably fair! The Freezer cannot be talked about without mentioning this video, which still leaves me lost for words... The rest of the top half is coming soon...

I think one of their coffee places serves Starbucks coffee, but isn't actually a Starbucks? It's the same at one of the places at Legoland too.

Thorpe x15-ish Legoland x3 Chessington x2 Phantasialand Plopsaland Walibi Holland Walibi Belgium Quiet season, less variety and less new parks than last season, and no Towers for the first time since 2010. Next season will be better I'm sure...

Plans stated that work was due to start on the site in September, and the coaster track was due to be completed by late 2017. It's more than possible that they decided to change the start date a bit, maybe due to logistics, maybe due to a problem with a contractor, maybe a change of plan to the time scale. There's so many potential reasons, many of which would be no cause for concern!

I must be in the minority who likes Hollywood Tours. I know it's dated and sticks out like a sore thumb compared to their recent dark rides, and I won't be sad when it bites the dust, but it's at least easy to enjoy. The China dark rides and Nighthawk are poor all round though. Phantasialand have invested brilliantly though in the past few years. Chuck out the deadwood, and improve operations a bit, and it'll unquestionably be up there as one of the best places to blend quality rides for everyone and quality theming into one.

Assuming I'm not working I'll go. I'll only go to WW for Olympia Looping and then leave. May have to sell an organ to afford it though.

Much like Costa's drinks, the above post needs more sauce... Presumably this is more about promotional offers and stuff, as opposed to Merlin bringing Costa places into their parks.

The FAQ page of Thorpe's website has been updated: "Opened in 1989, Loggers Leap has been a firm favourite amongst families and young adults. As a result of many years of operation, Loggers Leap is out of action for 2016 while it’s being renovated. This was a difficult decision to make, however we hope for it to make a splash-back in the future." https://www.thorpepark.com/faqs/ It is worth remembering at no point did the website, park map or signs on park suggest it would definitely open in 2017.

I always find these sorts of points very interesting. 3 hour long queues sound ridiculous, yes. But what I think people sometimes forget is that people are prepared and willing to wait that period of time. I witnessed staff at Platform 15 say to guests how it was expected to be up to a 3 hour long queue, and that the queue would be shorter later on, yet people just shrugged at the idea and joined the queue. It's hard to blame Thorpe if there simply are hundreds / thousands of people who will see a 2+ hour long queue and just accept it. I'm not saying that the length of the queues shouldn't be addressed of course, but one of the reasons why queues are so long are because people are willing to wait, since they believe they'd get a quality product at the end of it.

At the same time, they should replace Rattlesnake with a wild mouse.