JoshC.

I must be missing something here... Why is the idea of me seeing Shrek lol-worthy?

That image will have nothing to do with WC16. Plans for the 'watchtower' piece of theming were submitted and it looks something like this: (Thanks to TTP) The doors are also not in the right place compared to the plans, as seen in the top right image below. Scruffy Dog also work on a variety of non-theme park projects; they are quite a small and varied company still! However, any picture they post will always get a lot of theme park hype, even if it's not for any park. The giant ducks they posted a couple of months back weren't for theme parks, they were for product advertising outside train stations! However, whilst we're on the subject of Scruffy's social media posts, there's one which I think might be related to this... Posted back in June, it conveniently shows a character who's face is covered by an unnecessary drop down menu, and cuts off what he's holding (but could well be a pocket watch). Shameless speculation on my part of course, and the style of the background doesn't seem to fit with what we currently know, but it could have some relation?

Beginning of a new year, which means a whole new season of theme parks is just round the corner! So, what theme parks are you thinking of visiting in 2016? What trips have you got planned, are in the middle of planning or still umming and ahhing over? Discuss away (and prepared to feel envious over whatever Benin has got planned for the next 12 months...)

I believe that this is nothing more than a long-standing myth creating by enthusiasts many years ago! --- Looking at some previous Merlin renames (Rita, Sonic Spinball, X, Detonator: Bombs Away, etc.), they've stuck with the key name of the ride's old name. And given the Galactica trademark, I think 'Air Galactica' is very much a possible name. If not, then I expect it to just be Galactica.

Ah fair enough. In my experiences, Nemesis and Air have been the two favourites outside the enthusiast world. I was more thinking of it from the brand as a whole, which has always seemed to have been pushed more than Air's, but I guess that's only natural from the huge enthusiast following it has.

^Curious to know why you say Air is more successful than Nemesis? I agree with you in that it's successful and even iconic (much more than enthusiasts give it credit for sure). But however I look at it, Nemesis is just more successful in every way?

I haven't done the attraction yet, but surely if it's called 'Shrek's Adventure', all you're going to expect is Shrek? I haven't seen it marketed anywhere about it including other Dreamworks pictures, so have I missed something or were you more expecting a 'Shrek and Friends' idea?

Got to be a Smiler retheme. All signs point to it.

Re-rideability is my biggest concern, especially since it's something Derren has not really had to think about when designing his shows. If the 'not being able to tell what is real and what is not' line holds true, then that will help in my opinion; even if it's not the main focus. But no doubt re-riding has something that's been considered a lot so hopefully it's not a problem. (Also, Hex - and all madhouses in general really - is a fab little attraction).

So the Merlin AP Sale has started today. For new passes, the sale price is £119 for Standard and £149 for Premium; savings of £50 and £60 respectively. For renewals, the sale price is £109 for Standard and £139 for Premium; savings of £20 on each. Okay, so it's not as good as the half price sale from a couple of years back, but whatever way you look at it, these still represent excellent value for money in my opinion.

I think Marc's point is more that if there was a problem with the ride, it would have closed indefinitely before the end of season. They're not going to wait until the end of season to close down a ride which can't properly / safely run for the sake of it.

If he thinks it'll be disappointing, then I hope this means that there'll be one less person in the queue in front of me? I'm always surprised how people have never heard of Derren. Sure, he was probably at the peak of his popularity a few years ago now, but he's still pretty much selling out stage shows on a daily basis and gets good views whenever he's on TV. The coaster thing is always a weird one. In all fairness, theme parks and coasters are associated with one another, so when there's a massive investment, people will want it to be a coaster. That's what people expect. But if Thorpe create a good, solid and - most importantly - enjoyable attraction, the public probably won't mind. However, I must admit I'm worried about the marketing strategy. Sure, it's great and even novel for us enthusiasts to have absolutely no clue what is going on, but how do you sell it to the public? Will Derren be enough? I remember being asked what it was going to be by a non-enthusiast (before the Derren announcement), and I had no clue how to answer it. I eventually came out with "Well, it's going to be a ride...I think". Personally, I'm beginning to think that the sooner Thorpe announce what the attraction actually is, the better. Let the masses know roughly what to expect, so that they don't expect some super awesome coaster or something, to make sure expectations are met. This is also something that has made me think a lot. I'm guessing Derren is pretty much just a big name in the UK and has never really (tried to?) hit the international stage. I'm always curious of how the parks have never even really tried to bring in more guests from further afield. It would surely be a great way to earn more for little more effort. I did think it might be something they would want to try for in the long-term, but it just seems like they're content with playing the UK-game with investments like this.

Because maybe it simply couldn't be done throughout the closed season? We simply don't know enough (in fact, we know nothing) about the situation to say that whatever 'maintenance' they're doing to the ride could be done during closed season.

This post just screams of "I haven't had a chance to have a pop at Thorpe in a while". The ride isn't opening in 2016; why would they spend the 2015/16 closed season working on it when there are other rides to work on, which are opening in 2016?

RCDB is still listing 15, but then again, that's still saying the 10-looper is opening August next year... Haven't heard anything to suggest they're not going ahead with building an obscene amount of junk coasters, with the odd good coaster sprinkled in though. The Intamin family launch coaster is rumoured to have the same layout as Jet Rescue at Sea World Australia.

Hope you've been pluky enough to have a day off work to celebrate!

If anyone is curious, it appears that some of this park has opened up now (including the 10-inversion coaster):

I don't disagree with anything that you're saying, far from it. But sometimes it feels like people jump the gun a bit too much, a draw conclusions too quickly. For me, I'm not judging it yet when it's not necessarily finished, out of context with the attraction, etc. Of course, I'd love it to already be great without the context or being finished, but there we go.

At a quick glance, I thought the bricks were real (even despite knowing it wouldn't be, since that's what is mentioned in the plans). Given it's not finished yet, it's hard to judge straight away. The plans seemed to make out that the exterior would be a bit of a darker shade than what's there so far. So who knows?

More strain? Did Nemesis and Air have any strain on them in the first place? Nemesis is a throughput monster and Air never exactly got outrageous queues. And it's not exactly like Ripsaw had much of a queue anyway. So it hardly helped in the grand scheme of things. Of course, the loss of a flat ride is bad. But let's face it - the removal of this in of itself isn't exactly a great loss.

A link to the above interview, which was also with Merlin's Creative Director: http://www.t3.com/features/derren-brown-wants-to-take-your-mind-on-a-rollercoaster-ride

The next clue is now due early in the new year. They changed the order slightly again, so that Clue 6 is in early January and Clue 7 in late January.

Forbidden Caves is fab though (well, the pre shows at least) </3 Suprised you didn't just give the WTF Award to Bobbejaanland in general; such an odd place... Nice to be able to relate to some of your awards this year. I think Toverland is a bit overlooked by many, but with rides like Troy and Whirlwind, it's a great little place.

There is one already in operation: 'Veil of Dark' in Toyko Joypolis in Japan. It's a laser shooting, launched, spinning coaster with one inversion, built by Gerstlauer. RCDB link: http://rcdb.com/6453.htm However, there's also a Mack spinning coaster in China under construction (well, the coaster is seemingly complete, but the park is still being built). It's not as crazy-looking as this, but has a similar type of track: Source: http://www.vhcoasters.com/?p=4476

Double post but meh. Source: http://wonderworldweb.over-blog.com/2015/09/walibi-holland-pays-bas1.html A clearer look at the above inversion, as well as a second one that appeared. Quite a large part of me is really wanting this to be a spinner to be honest.