JoshC.

Great that people can fill up their quenchers there; I wasn't expecting something like that from Merlin! Presumably you can buy just the one cup too, but I'd expected a premium price in all honesty given it's a dedicated shop just for it!

Fixed that for you. Thorpe do plenty of new things to be fair It's a very interesting line up. The Haunting of Molly Crowe reminds me of the Black Trilogy that has run at Warwick Castle the past 3 years (with last year's attraction, Blackout, being nominated for Best Halloween Attraction at ScareCON this year...). Great to see them being a bit more daring and straying away from the classic conga line maze as well seemingly, what with the blindfolding. It would also suggest that actors may be allowed to touch you some sense, a first for Towers? The scare zones sound a lot more like traditional 'zones' in that it looks like they'll take up areas rather than be a set pathway (which all of Merlin's previous zones have been). Hope it works out for them, as it would be a great thing to see happen in the UK! I'm disappointed that in all this, TotT is returning. I get it's a staple, but I think it's just time to move and try something completely different. Maybe a new storyline would help I guess, but it's understandable that major changes aren't happening to it given everything else that is going on. Will be interesting to see where the two new mazes go. Molly Crowe sounds like a good fit for the Sanctuary spot in my opinion, but SUB-Species is a weird one. Certainly sounds like it should be an indoor maze as opposed to an outdoor one, but where else it could go is a different question. It sounds like it should go near Sub Terra though, for obvious reasons. Intrigued and excited by the line up. Certainly enough to want to make me go to Scarefest this season. Hope they work with the pricing strategy of one free maze and two paid for mazes again, as that's seemed to work for them in the past. From what I've gathered, Scary Tales was a very last minute investment to Scarefest. Indeed, I've heard that a major overhaul to Scarefest like this had been planned for a while now, but budgets and such stopped it happening. Scary Tales seemed to get mixed-to-positive reviews, but I just don't think it was a long-term thing for them,

Don't get carried away. A 40 minute queue for Slammer is about 200-250 people. That's like a 15-20 minute queue for the likes of Rush. Also, next time you go to Thorpe, listen out for people talking about Storm Surge. You'll probably here equally many positive words for that as Slammer. If you listen for it, you'll hear it!

This image was also tweeted by Chessington's Twitter, which heavily suggests that we're seeing either some sort of special version of Tomb Blaster (Tomb Live maybe?) or an attraction themed around Tomb Blaster... Said it before, and I'll say it again. For them to be advertising a Halloween attraction now, it better be special to be worth the attention.

Eurgh, what is it with Merlin and glamping? It'll probably work out well for them, since all things like this do for them. I wonder if, given the temporary application, this is to test the water for a long term plan they've got (maybe like 'camping in a zoo' or something)? Worth also noting that the tents will only be available between May and October.

Personally I think top spins don't offer good ride experiences and are all show with no delivery. They're okay filler rides, but Thorpe have enough okay filler rides already. If they were to add any more flat rides in particular, it would have to be pretty special.

I am currently looking for a place to study for a Masters, with the long term goal of getting a PhD, yes. Nothing confirmed yet though.

I agree that value for money and enjoying your day are two different things, but isn't it up to guests to decide what is good value for money, and not attractions? Personally I think £30 a ride is ridiculous as well, but then again, I visit parks and have a different perspective than the average guest. If guests find that good value, are happy to pay that sort of price and can enjoy their day, then there's nothing you can do really. I just hope people don't see this as a way to criticise Merlin's prices, which is what I feel people are sort of doing.

It's so catchy. Noticed a lot of people whistling along to it when in the queue line after a while.

Given the fact that they queued 90 minutes for Vampire twice, you could quite easily argue it's their own fault that they only got 3 rides done. If someone enjoys themselves and thinks it's good value for money, then that's that. Value for money is in the eye of the spender I guess.

So I spent thousands of hours of work to have the privilege spend £50 on a set of robes that I wore for 3 hours so that I could shake a guy's hand and get a paper. But hey, at least the 3 years leading up to it were fruitful... Yep, I've graduated! (and you can also see my baby brother in the picture! )

I agree that they should be doing more promotion other than on social media, but I think it's fair for the park to use social media as their main source. At the end of the day, Island Beats will be targeting a younger audience, and a very large majority of them will be using social media in some way. Music acts in general seem to more advertise through social media / word of mouth. Very few will be tempted to go because of seeing an article in the paper or by seeing a TV advert. It does seem that the events aren't selling as well as they'd hope, but hopefully that's just because it's early days. Schools still haven't broken up yet, word is probably still get out there, etc. - let's hope that everything does grow for them!

As long as they had a good day, does it matter? Does it really matter if they rode 3 rides or 100 rides? As long as they had a good day and enjoyed themselves, that is all that should count. Doing the zoo is also a very big thing really (though I'm not saying £45pp for a zoo is good value!) What should matter is that Chessington don't sink to the level of assuming that everyone will be like your friends and have a good day with so little done. They should of course strive to be as good as possible and make sure everyone can enjoy themselves, regardless of how they spend their day.

Genuine question - what other explanation would there be that is less odd? Parks do checks and train staff / test out safety procedures during the season whilst the park is closed. This may also be in light of recent events, but it shouldn't be anything to worry about!

Possibly testing evacuation procedures?

So, as some on here might be aware, myself, scarycoasterboy (Adam), J.S217 (Jack) and Peaj did a bit of a European road trip at the end of last month / beginning of this month. 8 days, 7 parks, 3 countries - it was a big'un. Parks we visited were... Plopsaland de Panne (27th June) Bellewaerde (28th) Walibi Belgium (29th) Phantasialand (30th) Toverland (1st July) Efteling (1st-3rd) Bobbejaanland (4th) As we were visiting Belgium, Germany and Holland, we squished the three countries together to get the working title of 'BelGerAnd' for the name of the trip. Unfortunately, that terrible attempt just sort of stuck (much like Stealth's project name ey?). So that explains that. (PS: Any feedback on the style of this would be great. I do plan on writing up reports from all the parks, so would be nice to do it in a way that people would want to read it!) Anyway, enough set up, let's get down to TR-ing... An early start beckoned us - leaving to get the 5:15 ferry from Dover. Naturally, this meant we arrived at Plopsaland - a realtively short drive from Calais - ridiculously before the 10am opening... The entrance area looks very nice. We wandered around the local area to pass the time, and about a 5 minute walk away, we found a Belgian War Memorial. It was somewhat surprising to realise that a theme park was so close to a place like. We had a wander around and it really hits home... With our respects paid, we ventured off to the world of Plopsa. First up was the coaster I was most looking forward to off the day, Anubis. It's the first launched Gerstlauer I've done, and indeed the first rolling launch I've done. I was looking forward to it, after hearing many good reviews. After a near walk-on through the nicely themed queue, we were on. Simply put, the ride is fab - the launch is great fun, and then the ride that follows mixes pops of airtime, inversions and bits of force nicely together. I found going up the initial hill quite intense too. The ride flows really well and it's very smooth too. It's a little on the short side and lacks any substantial outdoor theming, but at the same time, it doesn't leave you feeling short changed. All in all, a great ride that is really enjoyable. A somewhat understated entrance. Couple of ride shots. We then moved over to Rollerskater, one of the park's family coasters. This immediately caught my eye for one reason - the random theming. From a giant washing machine, bird in a cage to a turtle on a plate, the ride seemed a bit wacky. The coaster itself is fun, but the random bits of theming just make it a right laugh. Lift hill The infamous washing machine Station building We then ticked off another cred, by doing their powered coaster, De Draak. It's got an extravagantly themed queue line, but it also has a long layout that interacts nicely with the surroundings. Picks up some decent speed and it's nice that it goes round twice too. De Station. With temperatures soaring, we decided to cool down on De Boomstammetjes, the park's log flume. It was okay, had a nice double drop finale, but didn't get you wet enough really. By now we had realised something a bit odd - the park itself felt very very busy, but the queues themselves didn't really reflect that. Not sure if that's the norm for Plopsaland given their target market or not, but we weren't really going to complain, as it gave a nice atmosphere to the park, but meant we could try out all that the park had to offer. With this in mind, we did a few of the filler rides, including Waterfietsen; some pedal swan boats. Was a very nice tour round the lake, though have to admit my legs were aching after a while! Two filler rides that we didn't get done during this little period, however, were their Teacups, which is still being given its awesome-looking retheme, and Rox-Flyer, their Star Flyer. Ah well. Two rides of spite. With some flat rides done and lunch out of the way, we moved over to Supersplash, the 'water coaster' which anyone would have a hard time calling a 'coaster'. It was probably our longest queue for the day, at about 20-25 minutes - quite nice that it was indoors too! Following an interesting lift sequence, the ride does a drop underneath a bridge, before coming back up and then giving a nice-looking splash and then meandering back to the station. The lift sequence is nice, but lacking anything substantial really. The drop I found a bit rough in all honesty, but the splash was nice - not wet of course, but was refreshing. I'm a bit unsure on it as an attraction - it takes ideas from a couple of different rides, but doesn't really do anything with them. A bit of a shame. A shame I didn't get a shot with a boat in really. We then planned to tick off the two remaining creds on park - Vleermius, the random suspended coaster, and Viktor's Race, the park's kiddie coaster. Unfortunately, it became apparent that Vleermius would spite us - it was closed with no obvious work being done to it. Shame, as it's something I did want to try out, but I'm sure I'll get to try something like it in the future. Viktor's Race, however, was open. Nothing really to say about it, merely one done for the coaster count. Neither ride was very photo-worthy for me, it would seem. More wondering round the park was done afterwards, and getting in some rerides along the way. We were planning on heading over the to Wickieland to try out the Disk-o and splash battle over their, but noticed the Disk-o was closed due to it stalling, so we decided to leave that area till later. Instead, we worked our way over to the indoor area Maya Land, near the front of the park. It's a great area for kids with some fabulous looking rides. The one that caught my attention the most though was De Waterlelies, a Zamperla Demolition Derby. After not getting on the one at Drayton for the past two years, this simply had to be done. Certainly a fun little ride, though it does sort of feel like it drags on a bit towards the end. We also did the slide in Maya Land before leaving to explore the rest of the park once again. Spinning waterlilies <3 After a couple more rides on Anubis, we then headed over to Het Bos van Plop, an indoor boat ride. I really enjoyed it to be honest, the theming was lovely, the music was catchy and it was just a nice way to relax. Such a simple ride executed so well. We then did the train ride around the park before heading over to Wickieland again... The Disk-o was still closed, but the car had been bought back to the station-area at least. Instead, we decided to the splash battle - Wickie The Battle. It was very nicely themed, a good length and got you to a good level of wet. Great water ride all in all! With park close nearing, we dashed over to Supersplash for one more ride (majority vote over-ruled me unfortunately!). We then stayed in the park for a bit longer, looking around the entrance and such, before hitting the road. An hour-or-so drive later, we arrived at our French hotel, and after realising the hotel owners were out for the night and eventually being given our keys by other guests, we were finally in. A quick McDonald's and some French TV bought an end to our first - and fortunately longest - day! Final Thoughts: I really enjoyed Plopsaland. It's a fab little park, with some nice little gems and great theming. The addition of a woodie next year is definitely music to my ears - one more family thrill coaster would complete the park's line up I think. It's certainly a park I want to go back to soon, and the proximity to me is a bonus!

That layout is interesting - the turn out of the station looks like it could give a nice bit of force for a junior coaster! Be interesting to compare it to the Ben 10 layout. I'm really excited for the park - this investment is an obvious statement of intent for where they want to take the place. Paultons had always been a park on my 'to do' list, but more a 'I'll get it done when I get it done' type of park. This investment has shot it up there to a park already in my 2016 plans - and I hope that it gives the general public a similar feeling when the area opens up.

Does anyone know why it even exists? My first thought would of course be to use it when the park is heaving to try and increase throughput. But when we went, the park was really quiet and queues never went above 30 minutes (and even then, Mystery didn't even go above 15 from what I remember...), which would sort of throw that theory out the window.

I've got the following Thorpe Park ones... Amity Beach My First Coaster It's My Birthday Angry Birds The Swarm I'm a Celeb Stealth and a Vampire one from Chessington. Planning on completing the Thorpe collection, but not really fussed by any others..

In a weird way, I'm glad you had a bad experience on Mystery Castle...it's kind of nice to know that I just experienced the ride on an off day, rather than just not 'getting' the ride. Sorry for taking pleasure in your sadness! I do hope whenever I next go I can catch it on a good day.

Going up the lift hill slowly is literally nothing to worry about during testing. The motors which power the lift hill take a while to warm up essentially, so the first tests of the day are always quite slow. The lift hill will speed up after each test - after many many tests, it is fine.

I'm all for aesthetically pleasing things at parks. It's what separates something good from something great. But the fence wasn't exactly anything special beforehand. It was just a fence. Now it's just a fence stacked on top of another fence. It doesn't look great, but it doesn't exactly make it look worse. If anything, the silliness of it might make people laugh - more than what the old fence was doing. If you *really* care about it being aesthetically pleasing, then you should moan about the old fence as much as the the fence in its current state. Otherwise, to me, it feels just like moaning for the sake of moaning.

The way I see it is that something like that won't detract from my day. Yes, it's silly and isn't the nicest thing in the world, but it isn't going to ruin my day. It's easily ignored, and if seen, just makes you chuckle and you move on from it. I'd be a bit more annoyed if this was a themed or styled fence we were talking about, but given it's a bog standard fence, I just find it very difficult to get worked up by something like this.

By having something that is perfectly fine and make it unnecessarily over-the-top? Not sure many would summarise Merlin in that way... The whole low thing about fences being too low is silly. It's a shame UK parks can't expect people to not use a bit of common sense really. At least these things are very minor and can be easily ignored.

Few of mine... Shame about the terrible quality, but one of Inferno where Row 6 is hiding One of Saw's Immelmann turn. Again, terrible quality, but I like the picture. Various reactions of people coming off Saw's MCBR (shame about the tree): Alternative Swarm view; makes the inclined loop and corkscrew combo look so nice: And a nice one of Baron; I like how it shows the ride isn't too large, but keeps the imposing-ness of it: