JoshC.

Can't remember if it's been mentioned in the thread before, but Taron will have 4 trains - 2 running, 1 in onload and 1 in offload. It has also been testing on 4 trains of late. There's also going to be a restaurant in Klugheim. Yay!

Interesting that they've said "Coming soon" and not May 6th. Although it's nice to see some marketing for this. How this demon fits in with the rest of what we've seen is anybody's guess though.

Nice to see! Aside from Tidal's fireball, if we're still even counting that, does that now mean all of the previous operational effects on Thorpe rides are currently working?

Why does everyone want to get rid of the beach? :'( At best, the area needs a bit of a change, and turned into a small fountain show or something. But it needs to be a nice-to-look-at, non-ride area. No rides there please. If Thorpe were to ever invest in a non-major coaster as a medium-sized investment, I'd much rather see them go for a Vekoma junior boomerang, or even a racing pair. Reasonably small footprint (it could probably replace Samurai, for example, if they used the space correctly), fun for everyone, a bit of variation to the line up, etc.

A ride with no name. "The WORLD'S FIRST ride with no name!"

What makes you think that?

Saw this on TST, originally from TPR... Why Chessington, why?

Interesting hearing others' views about school favouring the best performing students, as that was far from the case at my school. At the time I was there, the main target was getting everybody to get at least 5 A*-C grades. If you were on track for that, you'd be left to your own devices. If not, you'd be getting all the support thrown at you left, right and centre. There were many times my whole year group were given workshops from external companies, whose aim was to ensure "you would reach that C grade". In turn, this made the workshops pointless for those of us aiming for A/A* grades, for obvious reasons. There were some teachers who were great at supporting everyone reaching their personal goal, but they were few amd far between until I got to college... I ended up being quite disappointed by my GCSE results. Of course, the blame for that has to fall down to me for at least some of that, but part of me still feels that if there had been more appropriate support avaliable to me, I'd have done better, or have had more realistic predictions. I do wonder whether this discussion is a classic 'the grass is always greener' conversation, whether the education system was/is failing the large majority of students, or if it's because my school was just awful. Probably a combination of all three mind...

Nice report Ben! Nice to hear that Karacho is as fab as it looks. However... This image has put me off their log flume for certain!

Thorpe's replies regarding the matter have been confusing. They've said there's no "preview day", but they have also said there will be some form of Annual Pass event (which they originally called a rehearsal day). So who knows?

I'm pretty sure that train isn't theming. It's very out of the way so wouldn't be seen by many people. Also, it's currently by a huge, open, access door, which it will surely be going into?

Splashhhhhh

Not to mention he's wrong; Wild Asia is miles better than Beanoland ever was...

Testing video... Looks fun, with some potential for a bit of airtime!

Nice dramatic advert there! Hopefully this is nothing but a glowing success for the park!

Can you please restrain yourself from backseat modding?

I believe that the posters are made out of wood, so no ripping should happen! Doesn't mean that vandalism won't happen though of course... The posters are quite cool; wonder just how relevant they are to the overall experience?

But does it matter how much of the site is green belt? If a park want to invest, they'll find a way. Simple as that really.

These images were accidentally posted by Merlin (on their website) and were not meant to be seen by the public. They are still about online and so can be found, but should not be posted on here.

I guess there could be some timey wimey stuff involved taking to you modern day London?

I bet MattyMoo is feeling rather smug right now... But is he feeling as smug as Jart?

Part of me always wonders if Thorpe will ever retrack Stealth to change the top hat to an inverting top hat. World's tallest inversion right there. I know it'll never happen, but it fells like such a Merlin thing to at least consider...

I thought that Thorpe Snapchatted when they filmed the advert back in February time? So unless they had to reshoot some scenes I'd be surprised if it was that. It seems like that Ashley Meneely filmed some of the VR stuff too; on his Twitter he talked about filming a "top secret" VR installation in December, and he has Figment Productions listed on his website. Nice pictures! Is the thing on the left something just showcasing the merch that is inside the building, or is it something else? Also, I get what you mean about the blue board; it was very cool when it was see through! But I guess in certain weather conditions it would become impossible to read? Wonder if they're planning to add more to it though!

I'm sure this is a question that's been asked before, but does anyone know roughly how long the WWTP radio loop (Tidal side) is? Just out of sheer curiosity!

If you're interested in reading some rambling thoughts about when I visited last year (no photos though), you can take a look here: http://forum.maniahub.com/blog/10/entry-699-belgerand-day-3-walibi-beglium/ [/shamelessPlug] It's a nice enough park in fairness, but nothing that special. Haven't visited Walibi Holland, so can't really compare the two (though with Goliath and now Lost Gravity, WH does look like the more favourable park coaster-wise!).