JoshC.

What was the reduced line up last year? I didn't go to the AP Day, though do remember a few rides weren't open / opened later in the day. But for the main season, am I right in thinking only Slammer opened late (and IAC opened a bit later as planned)? As I say, I can't remember exactly, but I'm pretty certain that the main season opened rather trouble-free?

I'll be there. Lucky everyone. Not spooning though.

My point is more the minimum number of actors *is* enough, surely? Otherwise it wouldn't be the minimum. I of course want to see as many as possible, and preferably more than needed, but as long as it's the minimum amount, I'm...happy(?) with that. I see the concern, and think it's perfectly justified, but I don't think they'd outright cut actors altogether so quickly, if they are indeed part of the experience.

Re Saw's queue line actors. It was originally said when the ride opened that they'd be around during peak times (Easter, Summer, FN, like Ryan said). They lasted a couple of weeks at the beginning of the season, and then came back at FN09 for 'Saw The Ride Comes Alive'. They occasionally were there over the next 2 years (I think they appeared in Summer 2011 briefly) before disappearing in 2012. They were never intended to be a permanent thing, just something to help entertain people during the busiest times. If Ghost Train has actors, I'd fully expect them to be a necessary part of the experience. So the idea of cutting them would surely be out of the question. Then again, I'm still not sure now that there will be actors, since live action does not necessarily mean live actors. I'd more expect themed ride hosts in a similar fashion in Sub Terra, and maybe them encouraging you to make an active choice (something we know there will be in the attraction). That's live action. Interesting view. Surely a minimal amount of actors is acceptable though, since that's the minimum number they'd need to make the attraction to standard? Not saying they should only ever have the minimum number, but it feels like an odd complaint to me. Mazes are difficult environments to control, so it must be difficult to ensure there's always a suitable number of actors about. Especially in something like Asylum where actors surely needed regular breaks because of the strobes, the odd occasion where there were less actors - whilst not good - seems excusable to me.

The (majority of the) cars you see on the road are deemed safe to use. Doesn't mean they won't crash.

When stretchy mentioned about the lack of American parks, I instantly thought it sounded like such a Six Flags thing. Will be interesting to see how long these things last, that's for sure.

Nothing exciting, but this is from Derren's Facebook:

Thorpe have posted a video on Facebook showing Swarm testing; all rows seem to be facing forward!

Considering Towers do it with Smiler I don't think it's completely out the question.

Flying Aces is now open: https://www.facebook.com/CoasterForce/videos/10153350100928639/ Looks pretty darn fun! Lift hill is a bit slow though...

As Benin says, rehearsal will more just mean 'preview, but with the possibility that there could be some teething troubles'. They've used that phrasing in the past on Friend and Family days for staff too, for example. Also, as a general comment, I don't think actors have actually been confirmed for this, have they? There's live action involved, but does that necessarily mean actors? Could just be themed ride hosts, or refer to how people actively participate during the attraction? --- As for the AP Rehearsal, Thorpe have said it will be during the day. The park will be open as normal, but Ghost Train is open to any AP holders who book a ticket in advance, with the booking system being available closer to the time.

Anyone have any idea how expensive / difficult this would be to do? Given the effort they've put into Nemesis this year, I don't think it can be totally ruled out if it doesn't cost an arm and a leg..

I find it funny how the train carriage was technically in the plans all along, and no one really focused on questioning what the crossed rectangular box could be. I've been doing a lot of thinking about it, and I wonder if the train carriage is just a shell to hide the ride system to some degree. Obviously the whole attraction isn't taking place in the suspending carriage, so you have to be moved away from it somehow. Could lead to some sort of illusion where it seems like the suspended carriage has 'disappeared', which would be quite awesome. Again, been doing some thinking about the 10 minutes of goggle time. Given that the HTC Vive has the front facing cameras, could it be possible that there are sections that show a 'real life' view whilst you wear the goggles? It would stop the experience feeling disjointed, with having to take headsets off, and help with the idea of not being able to distinguish between what's real and what's not. I think some people's worries are, regardless of the quality, theme parks should stick to 'real' theming as much as possible. VR moves away from what (people tend to think) theme parks should be about. And I can see the concern there. I'm open to the idea of VR at theme parks, and I certainly think it has potential to be one of the next big things in the industry. But I hope it's not rolled out here, there and everywhere to be honest. I'd completely forgotten about that! I'd never tried it of course, but had read about ages ago: http://www.memoriesofthorpepark.co.uk/vrc.html

As said above, car parking charges aren't uncommon across many theme parks all over the world. I think the trouble is that parking between two bits of logs on some gravel really doesn't feel like it's worth £6 (even with understanding the reasoning behind it). Likewise for the grass car park. It's a bit of a shame, but it's one of those situations where Thorpe are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Interesting find! I'm pretty certain there's more than one train, as during the Periscope Q&A on reveal day, it was mentioned that there'd be "over 200 people in the building at any one time". Assuming they meant over 200 on the ride, then that would me 4 groups on the go, bringing the throughput closer to 1100pph, in theory. But who knows! The VR thing worries me a bit. It was stressed that VR was only a small part of the experience in the press release, but 10 minutes is not a small part. Hopefully it was more meant you put the VR goggles on after you board the carriage, and take them off at some point during the next, crazy, 10 minutes. But then it risks creating a disjointed experience..

Though there's nothing new here, there's a little round up of everything announced last month on the main TPM site, for anyone keeping track... http://www.thorpeparkmania.co.uk/news/29-02-2016/February+News+Round+Up

The first drop looks fab, and I imagine the airtime on the first hills will be too! The weird, ever so slight, outward banking on that turn before the MCBR is just plain odd though.

^It'll more than likely be an evening event, since the park is open during the day on the 5th to all guests. I'd guess it'd work similar to I'm a Celeb's AP preview, with a selected ride line up and you being given a time slot to join the DBGT queue.

Since I essentially haven't listened to any music the past month or so, I don't really feel I can take control of the discs this week. If anyone who missed their week or didn't sign up wants to take over on my behalf, the stage is your's...

It's a good thing to get it out of the way at start of Season. Get any negative press out the way then try and move on from it with Galactica and Roller coaster Restaurant afterwards. Of course, it'll still hasn't around the park for a long time, but the sooner it opens the better.

In that case, I await some self-entitled AP holders demanding they see Derren Brown because they're AP holders.

It's almost like the Merlin rotates the amount of money invested into each park on different years...I'm not Chessington's biggest fan, but when they're investing in Tomb Blaster, a new show, Trail of the Kings, a re-do of Vampire's old entrance and more, it does sort of make your joke fail. Edit: Benin ninjaed me but yeah

Good to see a date set. I wonder how bad the first few weeks of the season will be attendance wise though. Interesting to note there will be an AP preview event for it too. I wonder if they'll do any sort of soft opening beforehand though?

Thread resurrection! So, with 2016 seemingly being the year of VR, thought it might be interesting to keep more of a track on what's going on around the world virtually. At the very least, it could be an interesting thing to look back on in a few years time, and see either the development of the future of theme parks, or yet another passing fad in the industry. Anyways, a list of coasters that have VR... -Galactica, Alton Towers. Samsung The world's first fully dedicated virtual reality roller coaster. Free to use, but not compulsory. Opening 2016. -Alpenexpress, Europa Park Samsung, VR Coaster Buy a ticket to use VR headset at a cost of 2 euros. Opened 2015. -Pegasus, Europa Park Samsung, VR Coaster Buy a ticket to use VR headset at a cost of 2 euros. Opening 2016. -Kyary Pamyu Pamyu XR Ride, Universal Studios Japan VR Coaster Opening 2016. -Dinolino’s VR-Ride, Erlebnispark Schloss Thurn, Germany VR Coaster Free to use. Opening 2016. -Revolution, Bobbejaanland Samsung Planned to operate so that it's only VR for part of the day, and no VR for the other part of the day, since the VR stuff will be quite scary apparently. Free to use. Opening 2016. And of course, there's non-coasters using VR too, namely... -Derren Brown's Ghost Train, Thorpe Park HTC Vive. Free to use. Presumably compulsory. Opening 2016. And, for all you trivia geeks out there, there has already been a full dedicated, compulsory VR coaster in the world before. Unfortunately it closed about 12 years ago and was apparently a bit naff... http://rcdb.com/1901.htm So (as far as I know), whilst VR has popped up in a few places, only one place seems to have bitten the bullet and gone for a ride where it's compulsory for you to wear VR goggles, and indeed where it's seemingly been designed with VR in mind to some degree. So it's still a slow roll out at the moment. But it will be interesting to see whether this does pick up more within the industry, and indeed how the masses respond to it.

An image posted on Coaster Park Klub: Obvious camera angle, heat, compression and more can have an affect on the picture, but even taking that into account, I really do think the actual track itself is a bit wonky.