JoshC.

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.

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.