JoshC.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this is the first time anywhere on social media that they've said it will be opening in 2017? All other replies have said 'Loggers Leap is closed for maintenance in 2016', but never explicitly mentioned a reopening in 2017. Possibly just a mistake, but something to keep in mind in my opinion...

Yes. Yes they are. Though it wasn't all that popular, unfortunately.

So an Angry Birds pop badge is currently for sale on eBay: http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/THORPE-PARK-merlin-official-pop-badge-2015-ANGRY-BIRDS-/272114504968?nav=SEARCH At time of writing, it is at £16 with 11 bids.

And everyone's favourite German enthuasiast, Tobi from PhantaFriends.de, has made a No Limits recreation of the ride... If this doesn't spin, then we've got a fun-looking ride. If this does spin, then we've got a potentially insane ride.

I get the core of what you're saying, and I do agree with you to a degree. But if a park wants to offer attractions which either require more time, are more personal or go above and beyond what you expect at a park (for example, bungee-jump style attractions, the Wave Ride from a couple of years back, etc.), then I don't have a problem with that. So I guess what I'm trying to say is upcharge attractions are fine if they have their place, and are justified in charging. You see, if they have spare budget for actors (or spare budget or whatever), I'd much rather they put that towards I'm a Celeb, or just park-wide actors just giving more a feel to the place. Would no doubt be just as well received - perhaps even more - than introducing Containment. If it's there as a direct link to Ghost Train, then it's more understandable. But then it still circles round to the original point I made that scare attractions just aren't popular outside of Halloween. Yes. 2002 - Colossus and a retheme of Thunder River to Rumba Rapids (plus a new show I think?) 2003 - Inferno and Quantum and Eclipse.

By applying for planning permission, it means they want to keep the containers there all year round. If the containers were only to be there for a couple of months of the year, they wouldn't need permission. So it will presumably open for parts of the year outside Halloween, otherwise they would just move the containers. But how often, if there's a charge, etc is completely unknown. I agree with one price for all attractions idea. However, in certain situations, where you get an exclusive, personal or very long, high quality, experience, I have no problem in there being upcharge attractions at any park.

There's also generic scare mazes all year round across the country that work fine. But that's never meant they've worked in a theme park setting. Admittedly escape rooms are more popular since they're less scary, but I fear the same thing will happen here. The good feedback is surely to be expected though? And even if they asked guests "Would you go on this all year round, not just in Halloween?" and the main response is "Yes", there's still a huge difference between someone saying that and someone doing that. I'm not against them bringing an attraction to the park, especially when if it's a well-themed attraction which I enjoy. But I feel like the money invested in actors for this could be much better invested in other attractions / general entertainment across the park. It's also an attraction which will have little return appeal, unless they are able to make it easy for the codes and clues to be changed. Which is a problem when there's a big push on Annual Passes and return visits.

TPM's article - http://www.thorpeparkmania.co.uk/news/25-01-2016/Containment-to-be-Made-Permanent ---- I'm going to be perfectly honest here. I really don't get the point of this. It strikes me as a pointless thing. Why? BECAUSE SCARE ATTRACTIONS DO NOT WORK OUTSIDE OF HALLOWEEN AT UK THEME PARKS. Look at every scare maze that Merlin have had outside of Halloween... -Freakshow 3D; Summer 2005. Dead, despite the park being busy. -Saw Alive; 2010-2012. Only lasted two full seasons, and the main reason it was popular was because it was Saw. -The Twilight Zone; Vampire XXI event at Chessington. Dead, despite the park being busy and pushing all things Vampire. -Sanctuary; early 2013 at Alton Towers. Dead, despite being free and a popular maze the previous Scarefest. -Krake Lebt; 2012-2014(?) at Heide Park. Okay, not a UK park, but still a good example. Lasted just as long as Saw Alive before being turned into a kid-friendly version. Then axed. If people want their scare attraction fix outside of Halloween in the UK, there's plenty of places to go. Theme parks is not one of them. Scary attractions are good at theme parks. Great. But scare mazes and the like just don't have the popularity that they do during Halloween events. People go to theme parks all season round for the rides and attractions; not to walk around a maze and be scared by people. They go to theme parks at Halloween for that. At least with I'm a Celeb, you've got an attraction where you can have fun and laugh, so it at least has potential to work. I'm not jumping on the wagon of saying 'Actor led experiences don't work', or 'It will be expensive to run'. Whilst they're very valid points, these things won't matter if it's a popular / worthwhile addition to the line up. But this is the thing, this won't be a popular addition to the season-round line up. This won't be a worthwhile addition either. It just makes no sense?! And if I've interpreted the plans correctly, Thorpe have said they used Fright Nights to gauge whether Containment would be popular. And since it was popular, at a scar, Halloween themed event, they think it will be all season long. Where is the logic here? Personally I don't think this will have an upcharge (see, for example, Sanctuary's situation in 2013). If they keep it the same, you're looking of groups of up to 10 people. Is there really going to be 10 people every 10 minutes wanting to pay to go through it? No. In all likelihood, they will change it so that it's designed for smaller groups, but I still don't think it will have an upcharge in that case either. The small queue they've got shows that in my opinion. I wonder if this will be an attraction which only opens at certain times through the day (say 12-4 or something, for example), or only on peak days? Another thing which I really question is the budgeting. When I went in Containment, there were 4 actors through the experience. They could probably get away with 3 if they keep it relatively similar. But you still have to consider letting actors take breaks and whatnot, so you'd need a couple more presumably? So say this attraction is using 5-6 actors. Wouldn't those actors be better placed in I'm a Celeb, making a more memorable experience for all the family? Or roaming round the park, entertaining all the guests and helping create a fun atmosphere on park? Or a small show somewhere? It just seems weird to throw money at this when it could be better spent in so many other places across Entertainments. As many people here will know, I don't like being negative about theme parks without good reason. And even then, I don't like heavily criticising decisions which will have had lots of thought and time put into them. But I just can't see this being anything other than an unpopular attraction outside of Fright Nights, before gaining lots of attention for 3 weeks of the year. And in a couple of years time, we're just going to be left with it sitting idly by. Of course, there are still plenty of details we don't know about (the exit has also moved, which might indicate a reasonable re-design inside?), and there could be enough changes there to make it suitable enough to open year round. We don't know yet. But I just don't see that happening. I'll still experience the attraction the first time I go when it's open, but whether I'll make regular visits to it is a completely different matter...

Something must be wrong, Benin is usually the first to bring up an Aquatrax...

Few more details about Symbolica: http://www.looopings.nl/weblog/4904/Meer-details-over-nieuwe-attractie-Symbolica-in-de-Efteling.html Interesting points of note are that it won't be a shooter and you won't wear 3D glasses; so it is very much a 'real' dark ride. How exactly the interactivity will occur in the ride is, however, still unknown. For anyone curious, this appears to be the ride system: http://www.etf.nl/ride-systems/products/xperience-mover

I believe there was a pathway from the farm area down to a bridge which went over Monks Walk, that would lead you to be able to access those attractions. Once the two areas became separated, I think the bridge was just blocked off so no one cross over it. It probably still exists.

TPM recently had a Q&A with Thorpe, which answers / re-confirms a couple of questions about Ghost Train - http://www.thorpeparkmania.co.uk/news/24-01-2016/Derren-Browns-Ghost-Train-Q-and-A

Of all the things that needed sorted, a repaint of Buddha was actually relatively low on my list. It just seemed alright as it was, and the ageing it had worked well. Did I just miss its desperate need for paint, or? Hopefully if they're sorting out the looks of stuff which I thought was a low priority, then they'll also be sorting out the looks of stuff which I thought were in actual need of it too...

In fairness, Zufari's plans weren't submitted until February 2012, and Swarm's were in February 2011. So there's still plenty of time for planning to be submitted for something noteworthy. That, and any new ride at Chessington would be something of note.

It's mostly sight; the noise impact of the coasters and rides (and associated screaming) is pretty minimal in the development zone. Hence why Stealth is white for the majority of the top hat (since that's the best colour to blend in with the skyline), and Swarm's high points were carefully chosen to minimize 'sight pollution' outside the park. The majority of the noise concerns the park have heard have been about MoS nights (which have actually been largely unfounded) and the volume of the speakers (which has caused a few issues). The rides themselves don't cause much problem amongst locals.

I've seen many people suggest using that pathway along the back of Inferno, Rapids and up to Loggers many times for a coaster, but I just don't think it would work. The pathway is used for access by staff (maintenance, engineering, landscaping, etc), so removing that means they would all have to enter the park from by Depth Charge. That could be particularly troublesome if they need to get to the back of the park whilst the park is open. Also, it's very close to Monks Walk, which, as has been said, is a public walkway. What would happen if a guest had a loose belonging that flew off the ride and unfortunately hit someone who was walking down that way? It could get very messy. Likewise, what would happen if someone tried to sneak into the park from Monks Walk (it does happen!), and walked into the ride area? And don't forget, that area is actually quite narrow. There's no reason why they couldn't put a coaster in there, but I just don't quite see the point, when they've got plenty of other spaces where it could go? So yeah, it's a nice idea and could possibly work, but I just can't see a coaster ever going there.

This is the trouble though; they're quite limited in what they can practically do. They've started with a completely blank piece of land, and haven't need to to change that. They can't let you weave in and out the ride (like with, say, Colossus) for obvious reasons, which already rules out a great queueing method. So with limited space, and likely wanting to avoid a multi level queue, there isn't really much else to do other than a cattle pen. Hopefully they'll add some bits in to make it interesting. If the queue stays true to the plans, they'll be some spaces for some theming features (not too dissimilar to Saw's queue), and possibly some queue line TVs which will help. I'd love it if there were some subliminal messages or something hidden throughout the queue; that would really help create the "experience starts when you enter the queue" vibe which theme parks should go for.

Oooh, I hadn't thought about this either! I guess with the large amount of track squished into one space, self-duelling moments at some points are practically an inevitability. If they have planned it so that they can work in some awesome self-duelling moments, then that would be pretty spectacular!

Except Hartenhof essentially has happened.

Not even a peep of a rumour for what this major investment could be since October? Even before Zufari's plans were submitted, the idea of it had been strongly rumoured for a while. Just seems strange, is all...

As in the whole queueing system for the attraction is RnR style with no 'real queue'? Would seem to be a huge waste of the extremely long queue they're going to build, no? And would go against Thorpe's decision to pull RnR usage from FN?

I guess it depends on how good the throughput is. Look at Swarm; that has a good capacity and did from day 1, so Fastrack was on sale from the get go. But the likes of Saw and IAC only had Fastrack introduced later when the throughput had improved / became consistent. I would expect it to be avaliable during summer unless there are major problems; too good of a profit avaliable not to really!

Zero-g roll! Source: http://www.looopings.nl/weblog/4897/Twee-keer-over-de-kop-in-nieuwe-achtbaan-Walibi-Holland.html

Realistically, I could only do August-time, but even then, I'm not sure I'd be able to make it due to the cost of it and other plans. So a wait and see.

I might go.