JoshC.

Premium Annual Passholders have two choices: 1) Turn up on the day. If the park is at capacity from prebooked tickets and people on park already, they will be turned away. 2) Prebook online. The ticket itself is free, but there is a £1 booking fee applicable. This guarantees entry. The booking fee was introduced because some Premium passholders were bulk booking all Fright Nights dates but only turning up to a couple.

I can guarantee you that if Thorpe hadn't set an opening date there would be much more complaints on this forum than what we currently have. Thorpe 'enthusiasts' like to complain too much.

^Is it really a major refurb though? I feel as though the whole thing has been completely blown out of proportion by those who reported it (it was originally Chessington Buzz actually I think?). Of course, things shouldn't be as bad as they are, regardless of the scale of any refurb. Or that bad at all, but I guess that's just Chessington.

Since I don't know what my situation will be come October, I'm not voting for any dates - but assuming I'm in the nearby area I don't see why I wouldn't be able to attend.

Add Children (Robert Miles) and Booyah (Showtek) to that list too!

A truly terrifying incident; I can't think of any incident where a coaster train has literally derailed off the tracks RCT style? Thoughts go out to all victims and their families; let's hope that the injuries aren't life changing (it's a miracle we haven't heard of any fatalities!).

I believe it is just Samurai and Vortex at the moment.

On the other side of the coin, do we need any sort of proof? We know that members of public have been riding it (after signing NDAs) recently, and that these are quite low-key. This thread has become tedious enough without having to see pictures of people standing in a queue line every few days...

Britain leaves the EU. My reaction:

I agree about Se7en; it was quite an understated attraction at the time, but was a fab maze which was a true assault on the senses. It's last season was brilliant as well! I wouldn't want it to return as nothing is ever quite as good when it returns, but a maze of that format would be a welcome addition to the line up in my opinion!

Swear word ahead...

Chill out mate.

To be fair, it should be mentioned that there are staff in UK parks - albeit not many - who do care and do the small things that help general appearances of their rides. Though of course, a dedicated clean up team / more time being dedicated to cleaning up would be best, it's not a blanket thing for all rides staff I reckon. Cleaning of a queue line isn't even the bare minimum a rides team should be doing to keep up appearances of their ride in my opinion. To be praising them for doing that is silly.

Buffalo coaster at Drayton says hi. Like yeah, it's a junior coaster, but that doesn't mean it's allowed to be terrible. For rides which are less junior-related, Dizz at Bobbejaanland deserves a shout - making a spinning coaster where the layout means there's little chance for it to spin is a bad idea.

The concept art immediately made me think it would be more than one floor for this. And it's still a reasonably large space anyways, so plenty of opportunities for stuff. As for screens Matt, pretty certain it's been confirmed there's no 3D glasses and no guns (possibly suggesting hand moving technology due to the interactivity). Screens still possible.

I'd be surprised if the maze is in the storage shed for the CCR trains, since the trains are still in there and still has the track in (I believe?). But who knows. Platform 15 sounds like a nice concept, and it's nice to see them chugging along with a train theme to help bounce the marketing between that and Ghost Train. The bringing back of past characters sounds cool, but I'm not sure how many are very recognisable? Of the past mazes, there aren't many characters from within the mazes... -Chainsaw patient from Asylum. But do they reallllllllly want to go there? -Goodwill family from Studio 13. -Hazmat suit guys from Experiment 10. -Harry Warden? Feels a bit...odd I guess. Could work great, but could be a bit weird at the same time. Should just keep to generic creepy / dark humoured characters in my opinion.

Experiment 10 - 10th FN Studio 13: The Motel - 13th FN Platform 15 - 15th FN

It's not so much that Gerstlauer coasters are bad, more that Saw and Smiler aren't the best examples of what they can do. Then again, I don't have a problem with Saw (though understand why some do).

Those who rode it were told it was a technical rehersal* and there was a chance things may go wrong. Presumably they were asked for in depth feedback after riding. As such, the ride is still not being operated in the way it will when it is open to all guests. So this is essentially a soft opening, for selected guests and maybe some VIPs. Parks all across the world do this, and people don't complain, so there should be no reason to here? *source: Saw a photo of a ticket issued to a guest on Twitter which has since been deleted.

In Phantasia's defence, the park is still wonderful to visit as a guest, and I'm sure 95% of the park's visitors don't really care about how strict they are when it comes to what online communities are posting. And when there are enthusiasts going to the park with screwdrivers to unlock the peepholes into Klugheim (which I believe were shut off at the beginning of the year?), you can see why they are sometimes not fond of the enthusiasts. But at the same time, I can't think of any park which is so obtuse when it comes to enthusiasts - people who love the parks the most. The lengths at which they go to to stop / discourage them doing something they don't like is mind boggling in some ways. Of course, in the grand scheme of things, this doesn't really matter. People will still visit the park and love it, and enthusiasts will still go, lap up Klugheim and the rest of the park and all will be well. But it's just one of those weird, and sad, things I guess.

This isn't strictly about the park, but might be an interesting talking point. http://www.looopings.nl/weblog/5558/Looopings-niet-welkom-bij-opening-nieuwe-achtbanen-Phantasialand.html Phantasialand have banned Loopings.nl from attending the preview event of Klugheim, because of two 'negative' articles they've posted and not taken down. Phantasialand have been known in the past to be very strict when it comes to enthusiast communities, and one does have to wonder why at times.

People might think Merlin over-react, but it's nothing compared to some other parks (glares at Phantasialand and their forcible removable of photos online...). You can't blame them for not wanting to have people record on rides. Nor for wanting to keep a big secret new ride secret.

Yeah, but when it first started it was only going off once every 7-10 circuits. It was only from 2013 they made it once every 3(?) circuits, and even more often than that on quiet days / Summer Nights. I'm not sure how often it's been going off this season though; I think it's more like once every 5?

Certainly looks impressive, and given the quality of the park overall, I'd be confident of the concept art being a fair reflection of the final result. Opening in 18 months seems a little ambitious though? After all, that's pretty much the same time it'll have taken them to build and theme Heidiland.