JoshC.

The 'First Plaice Queue' sign was introduced a few seasons back, but I don't think I've ever actually seen it used. It replaced the SRQ sign / queue, which was rarely used anyway.

The question of if this'll even have an IP is more on my mind. You only have to look at how strong a brand Smiler is to see that Merlin (or, Towers at least) can create a good in house IP. However, given how reliant Merlin have been on IPs lately, and that they've only made two non-external IP attractions in the UK since Smiler opened (Galactica and Pandamonium), it's hard to say they won't be tempted to go for one...

I can only do Saturdays really, but if it is a Sunday I'll see what I can do.

Interested!

"But if I wanted to look at grass, I'd go to a garden centre, not a theme park" Alton Towers - the park where you can do both!

I think once this eventually opens, word of mouth will play a massive part in getting people in. Once a date is set, the social media push will come again and that will hype up enough people to get the initial jump in gate figure for the first few days/weeks. Word of mouth will then spread and - assuming it is well received - people will hear "You've got to go there and do it", which will just continue and improve numbers all the more.

"BACK TO BASICS Theme Park set to go back to old fashioned roller coasters after losing trust in modern steel ones. Alton Towers Resort have submitted plans for a roller coaster to made entirely from WOOD, going back 100 years to old fashioned, basic roller coasters. This follows the tragic accident last year on steel roller coaster The Smiler, where 5 people were seriously injured after 2 trains collided together, including two girls having to have a leg amputated. Many have questioned the decision, saying that going back to lo-tech, rickety rides from the past is more dangerous. "They should be putting in more technology, making these rides safer" said a random Twitter user, who also added "Wooden roller coasters are not safe, you feel like you'll die on them!" A Facebook user said "To go back to such old technology shows they've lost faith in themselves - Alton Towers and Merlin should close down!!!' "

https://towersstreet.com/news/2016/breaking-news-sw8-plans-published/ GCI woodie to be exact, with a possible launch. Couple of nice, large, themed structures too - seemingly taller than the ride itself? The question now is - what will this ride's tagline be? Are we going to see 'Europe's first launched wooden roller coaster', or some obscure, currently hidden, world first element?

Sad news indeed. Hopefully they can bounce back, and that their Screamland event pulls in the numbers this year - assuming that it actually can operate.

I had a problem with mine (base was scratched); just take it back to Ghost Train shop and they can replace it.

It's interesting to note that there are gates in line with all the doors, as well as for the designated main entrance and exit as marked on the plans. I wonder if this is just for fire escape purposes or if they're making significant changes to it (fail a room, get kicked out)? Also interesting that they haven't put in the third container for staff despite there being fences.

Personally, I'd say head to Stealth first (if you're planning on doing that), then Inferno. Check out IAC, but be wary that at the beginning of the day the wait time can be quiet a while because they have to wait for a group of size 10 to go through. Afterwards, do X and Storm Surge before the queues get too large. From there, anything else of interest to you should have reasonably short queues. Wait till mid-to-late afternoon for Swarm and Depth Charge. If you're planning on ride Ghost Train (assuming it is open), just wait till near the end of the day; you'll have done everything else and you're going to have to wait a whlie for it either way.

^It's interesting you mention about dispersing crowds throughout the year. In the last MTDP, Thorpe did explicitly mention that they were expecting to have an growth in the number of visitors each year, and that this growth would come from more visitors on off peak / quieter days. Whether they had some sort of plan to do this (as opposed to just wishful thinking), I don't know, but it is something the park were at least aware of. In theory, this sounds great, but then you run risk of creating a situation where theme parks become too expensive for people to bother with. Fastrack has its positives too, especially for guests who rarely visit / can only visit once. If such guests could only visit on very busy days, and see the option of Fastrack avaliable, they might see it as one way to be able to maximise their enjoyment for the day. Make it too expensive, on top of the ticket price, and people might just not bother. Of course, I agree that Fastrack is a premium product and should be expensive, but there still has to be a balance. To make an unlimited Fastrack ticket cost £160 would be pretty outrageous in anyone's books.

I don't think so. This seems to be one of, if not, the, first day this season the fire effect has been operational this season, and I'm pretty confident that the park have had more than 8k visitors previously this season. So if that is the case, then it must be a very recent decision. I think a possibility of why we haven't seen it much this season is because they had to get the effect signed off from an independent inspector again and it just took a bit of time to happen.

Please be open by July 2nd...Please be open by July 2nd...Please be open by July 2nd...

I love a good bit of humour, but any joke gets tiring if you see again and again and again in fairness. Originality would loosen my knickers

I'm beginning to think the next person who makes the 'Derren Brown's Bus Replacement Service' joke should get a one way ticket to Bansville...

And many people are one day closer to lying on their deathbed realising they wasted too much time and energy on worrying and moaning about what week a theme park attraction opens. Yay.

And then purposefully build a bad woodie for the extra spite.

The small text at the bottom of the Ghost Train advert had now been edited to say '...opens soon', for those keeping track.

To be fair, the Chessington mystery has been around for years. They've grown year on year for the past few years now, regardless of what they've added, or external factors that caused other parks problems. Maybe it's the Zoo which drags people in? Or word of mouth which originates from people wearing rose-tinted glasses from their visits years back? Or just the clear, safe target market that they don't stray from is (too?) loyal to them? It's a bit of a mystery how they seem to always gain numbers, but there are still plenty of logical explanations behind it.

I feel as though this thread should more be named 'Why don't Merlin regularly paint / deep clean their attractions?', as to say UK parks are left to rot is completely wrong in my opinion. I think Mark is 100% right - a fresh perspective is what is needed. It's not necessarily the lack of competition, though I agree that it doesn't help. What it more is is that there's an attitude of 'It'll do', because as long as it works and is safe, then the aesthetics can be overlooked. And I think even if there was competition, that same thought process would be there, because the Merlin parks can keep drawing in the guests with their tried and tested 'World's First _____', as that's seemingly what the UK market laps up. So a fresh perspective somewhere reasonably high up along the line could do a world of good. In saying that, we shouldn't overlook some of the good things the Merlin parks have done, such as Oblivion repaint, Nemesis repaint (eventually), Amity repaints / repairs and so forth. And it's not like there isn't the desire to do at a local scale (I believe a Colossus repaint has been discussed on more than one occasion); it's the higher up powers and the purse strings which are likely stopping these things happening. And it doesn't help that during the Tussauds era, things like ride effects and general upkeep of appearance were pretty much overlooked, with a 'If it's broke, don't fix it' attitude almost. Just wanted to bring up regarding that photo of the beach. The TPM photo was taken the day after a day of long rain showers and wind; this naturally causes the water to get some dirt and leaves in it unfortunately, and does happen every so often with the beach. However, as Marc says, it was being cleaned and dealt with appropriately once the weather had been sorted out.

Just wanted to make it clear that I've nothing against people expressing disappointment or being annoyed - it is more I don't see how Thorpe can ever win with what feels like, at times, a larger amount of the enthusiast community. But other than that, I do wholeheartedly agree with you post! I wasn't really clear with the Dollywood point. I meant that if you look at enthusiast forums in general, everyone seems understanding of the delays to Lightning Rod. Of course, I have not trawled through every single forum, but it's just something I've noticed from what I've been reading. Yet the complete rage for Ghost Train (in general) is in a whole different league, and I just can't see why. It baffles the mind. The only logical reason I can think of is it's just yet another chance for people to have a pop at Thorpe / Merlin. Again, I get the frustration. But there's a line between frustration and point blank rage which seems to have been crossed by many in my opinion.

There's a difference between an argument and a discussion. For the record, my post is not a stop moaning one, nor wpuld any reply be like that. However, simply put, it is tiring seeing the same old moaning replies which seem.to have no thought put into them other than 'Thorpe have mucked up again, time to moan!' Personally, I would appreciate a well thought out, proper, reponse if you had the time, rather than a 'I can't be bothered to reply', and would actually read it and reply appropriately. But hey, each to their own. --- @Archive - There are a couple of things I want to respond to your post about, but will respond later when I'm at my laptop.

Not trying to start an argument, but if you're afraid of causing a stir by replying to my post, then surely that means you accept any response disagreeing with it is, at best, clutching at straws? I'm all ears for a discussion and any fair reply to my post, but I don't think anything I've said is far from the truth at the moment.