JoshC.

In fairness, power faults are usually external problems and when they happen it's difficult for parks to do much.

If you're with @J.S217, ask him what his Top 10 favourite coasters are every 10 minutes. By the end of the queue, you can guarantee it'll be a completely different list to what it was at the start. If not, just find all the 4.5s in the queue.

An indoor flume ride isn't a dark ride in my books. If it is, then that would mean an indoor coaster is one too, which I think is absurd.

Early rumours suggested SW8 would open in 2017, and this did fit in with the original 4 year investment cycle Merlin seem to like. However, it seems that plans have changed, for a variety of reasons.

This past week, I hit up a few European parks in search of some new creds, and to go back to some places I enjoyed last year. Just thought I'd throw in a few thoughts from my visits... Plopsaland de Panne Went here last year, and had a lot of fun. With Heidi originally planned to open July 1st, we decided to return for some wooden coaster goodness. Alas, it wasn't meant to be as Heidi Spiti is too loud at the moment, and sound barriers are still being constructed. Looks like a fab little coaster, and I'm sure when it opens - and is fully themed - it will be a great addition to the park! Also new since my last visit was the gigantic castle housing a restaurant a teacups: For what it houses, it's pretty insane. The level of detail and the sheer scale of this is completely unnecessary for a restaurant and teacups. Hopefully this is a good sign of things to come in the future from the park, but one can't help but wonder if the investment would have been better placed elsewhere in the park. I had hoped to try out a few more attractions we missed out on last due to closures (namely their starflyer, Disko and The Bat; their random suspended coasters). Unfortunately, both the starflyer and Bat were closed, despite being listed as open on the park's website. A bit disappointing, but nothing major. Their disko was open though and has a nice, lengthy cycle, and is nicely themed. The true highlight of Plopsaland though is Anubis: This Gerstlauer rolling launch had a lot to live up to after I ranked it so well last time. Fortunately it still delivered. The exit from the launch is a bit rougher than I remember, but otherwise this is a solid coaster, with a very punchy launch, pops of airtime and a nice bit of intensity blended it a brilliant 'older family' coaster. Actually, I don't have much else to add (for longer review, see my trip last year: http://forum.maniahub.com/blogs/entry/693-belgerand-day-1-plopsaland-de-panne/ Walibi Belgium Walibi Belgium was a weird one last year. We visited on a very busy day (thanks school trips!) and arrived over an hour late to the park (thanks Brussels traffic!). We managed to get most things done, but it was all a bit of a rush. It wasn't a park I was dying to go back to, but it fit in nicely in the trip as a last day, was a chance to get the Boomerang cred I missed out, and also do their weird-looking new coaster, Pulsar. Speaking of Pulsar, that's where I'll start. For those who don't know, it's a shuttle coaster featuring 3 launches (2 backwards, 1 forwards) gradually increasing to 62mph and a small airtime hill. On, and one Tidal Wave sized splash. It's one of those coasters where all sensible thought said it'd be naff, but I just felt like it could be great fun. And you know what? It's fun. The launches are both fun and a little bit punchy (and great with lap bars), the airtime is alright, and the splash gets you wet. How wet does depend on where you sit - the back leaves you rather soaked, the sides wet and the inside sprayed. Front row was blocked off due to loads of water spilling into those seats during the ride - hopefully that's an issue Mack can correct soon! Geeky techy specs were about too The turntable system for loading (meaning the coaster has 2 cars) is really clever, and it means that one car is ready to go before the other has even finished. No doubt this is thanks to Mack's brilliant engineering and clever way of locking and checking restraints. This meant the queue was really quick moving and it must get a really good throughput (I believe they're aiming for 800ish and I can see them reaching that easily!). The turntable was the cause of a couple of breakdowns during the day, but I imagine these issues will be ironed out with time. The combination of the ride experience, theming, slight story and music means that Walibi are onto a real winner with this attraction. It feels different enough to their other shuttle coasters, and is a great family attraction. Hopefully we see more of these pop up across the world! Another cred for the list was Cobra, a Vekoma boomerang: It was rough, awkwardly intense and just not a fun ride. So glad I didn't waste 20 minutes of my life queueing for it last year. I won't really bore you with the rest of my trip. The park was very quiet (longest we queued for anything was about 10 minutes for Psyke Underground), so we managed to get everything done, and some rerides of some stuff. My opinions haven't changed much from last year (see here - http://forum.maniahub.com/blogs/entry/699-belgerand-day-3-walibi-beglium/ ). Would like to add that I still enjoyed Werewolf, despite now having done other woodies, though naturally not as much as my first ride. Something I'd just like to throw out there was the atmosphere of the park. With generic chart music everywhere (except Pulsar pretty much), a few rowdy guests who seemingly would never follow instructions (people standing up on their extremely rapid rapids rather dangerously) and the like, the atmosphere felt a bit dull and meh. A bit of a shame, especially since last year's visit was overall much nicer despite the large crowds. I feel as though I've properly 'done' Walibi Belgium now. With Pulsar, Psyke and Werewolf, they've got 3 coasters I enjoy, and the likes of drop tower Dalton Terror and madhouse La Palais du Genie are fun rides, but there's just not enough to entice me back any time soon. Not a bad thing of course, it's a nice enough park, just nothing all that special. Next time, a new-for-me park: Walibi Holland, featuring Lost Gravity and Goliath...

This was rumoured to be the case a few weeks ago - it wasn't just a case of dodgy translation I believe. But like pluk says, they have simply split into a rides division and a non-rides divisions. They have cited that they've had poorer sales than predicted in China recently, hence why the rumour they would stop dealing with rides was somewhat believable.

Inversions were considered on suspended coasters, prior to the opening of the first one (The Bat at Kings Island in 1981): For the reasons stated above, the idea never took off and inversions on suspended coasters were never really considered.

Looks like a solid 4.5/10

Isn't that the same video they posted on their Facebook in late April / early May? Why have they uploaded it to their YouTube now?

I don't think anyone's getting stroppy about it? It's more just that this is a thing where keeping the secret is part of the fun and, dare I say, the overall experience. By laying out every minute detail online, regardless of the location, spoils that fun for no real reason in my eyes. Before anyone else goes with the 'it helps for people who are unsure on riding' thing, I don't see the point in that. If you're of that nervous a disposition you shouldn't be riding it. And if the vague description has got you scared - then good, that's the point!

I believe that the actual ride section of Hex is in a custom made building separate to the Towers themselves? But the transition is done so well and the building is hidden enough that you don't actually notice it. In any case, I can't see this being a demolition and replacement of Hex. When the time comes to completely get rid of Hex, I'd be surprised if they replaced it with anything to be honest.

The trouble with soundtracks for Merlin rides is that each ride seems to just have one or two pieces of audio in them (queue line / ride area and station). That in itself is not enough to warrant a CD in my opinion. So if they were to sell any soundtrack, they'd have to do a whole park (or area, at a push) CD. But given the various different people / companies behind all the different pieces of audio, I imagine that'd be difficult to sort out. It wouldn't go a miss having any Merlin park sell some of their ride music, but I can't see it happening any time soon, more for logistical reasons.

The 5 things were grand illusion, 4D special effects, next generation tech (VR), live action and physical transit.

Ghost Train is an attraction in a similar vain to Derren's shows - spoilers are explicitly asked not to be shared. And when you see any review of Derren's shows, there's never any major spoilers, aside from the odd mention of the odd set piece. It was always going to be a big ask for people to not go into insane amounts of detail about the attraction online, since that's what happens with every major ride around the world these days. And I doubt people truly expected it to stay a secret for so long. However, I do agree it would have been nice for full out spoilers to stay out of the public domain until the ride officially opened.

You just have to look at how little Marcus Willis' incredible Wimbledon run was covered to realise that people only focus on football in this country. It's a true shame that one of the sports we're worst at gets so much attention and money.

Klugheim is brilliant; by far the best themed area I've ever been in. Raik is alright, but Ben 10's layout is better in honesty. Overall experience is great, and the station has a lovely dial that follows the ride. Taron is truly brilliant. Speed, ejector airtime, intensity, near misses and some curvy moments. I disagree with Mark and Benin about the lack of definedness and 'break' moments; there's a couple of times which let you regain composure throughout. So no complaints from me there. Stand out moments are the first air time hill, second launch and follow up, and a few real ejector turns. Couple of 'negatives': station is not very atmospheric, it can be a bit samey at times and an inversion or two wouldn't have gone a miss. The trains are super comfortable, back is better than the front, throughput is fab and it does warm up as the day goes on. Unsurprisingly, Phantasialand are onto a winner with this area. Everyone was loving it and I genuinely would encourage everyone to do everything in their power to get over as soon as possible.

Visited the park today; Heidi still isn't open. Fences are being put around the ride to dull the noise, as it's currently too loud for the neighbours liking. Temporary queue line and everything else is ready to go though. The Princessa castle looks phenomenal in person, but it's completely ridiculous for a set of teacups and a restaurant (no walk through in sight). Hopefully some other places around the park receive attention soon.

I've actually not had a problem with chart music taking over the park after park close, but do think it is a bit sudden it happening dead on park close. 30-45 mins after park close would work a lot better in my opinion.

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.