JoshC.

I see what you're saying now, though I still disagree slightly. The UK parks can do some great theming - Swarm being the best example in a major project in my opinion. But then the likes of Smiler, Saw and Th13teen even have their good bits, and some smaller attractions like I'm a Celeb and even Scorpion Express have some good bits. But they do fail with the finer details and general effects, I agree. Can certainly see why this would give cause for concern with a dark ride! (No worries about inciting a debate though - that's what a forum is all about after all ) The plans for Swarm never showed the station to have a roof, which I think was down to making it easier to get planning approval, since Thorpe are restricted on the amount of indoor space they can have (for flood risks, etc.). So I don't think that was ever down to budget cuts.

Hope everyone has fun; disappointed I couldn't do this one!

Potential problems arise here though. If people do get discomforted from the ride, they could complain and blow things way out of proportion. Remember that things like common sense can go out the window when people visit theme parks. Also, for today in particular, there was some heavy rain with thunderstorms predicted, so there's also the precaution of closing rides so they're not operating during a thunderstorm. That's quite common practice across many theme parks. I don't check the queue times thing, but presumably in the afternoon when the weather improved, many of the closed rides reopened (bar a couple of water rides which were to remain closed due to the weather I think)? That would indicate it was something purely down to the weather and just a simple precaution.

I swear I read 2016 in the article on first reading. In that case, I'm impressed by how it looks - I thought that photo was a concept drawing! It also appears I need more caffeine...

^They blatantly just put that roof on to protect them from the rain... They've made one dark ride in the UK. It seems unfair for us to judge them on one ride. Okay, you can flip the coin and say it's hard to judge either way, but the point still stands - we can't generalise how Merlin dark rides actually ride on one ride!

Looks like they're getting a Mega Disk'o next year - http://www.themeparks-uk.com/other-parks/news/kong-ride-at-west-midland-safari-park Always nice to see these pop about!

Merlin have built a grand total of 2 dark rides in their 8 or so years of being in charge - Sub Terra and Ghost at Legoland Billund. Whilst Sub Terra isn't exactly popular any more, it's still a nice little dark ride. I've heard some positive things about Ghost too. So where on earth you've got the idea that they "suck balls" from is a mystery to me.

I don't think dead is necessarily the right word, but I totally agree with pluk. Angry Birds is a more current, and currently more popular and talked-about, IP than Avatar. Which of the two IPs has a new game at the top of Google Play store, has dominated downloads for their specific industry for the past few years, and has a film coming out next year? Certainly not Avatar.

Storm Surge had some sensor troubles during its first season when it rained heavily; not sure if that issue was able to be resolved though.

I'm not offended, but I just tire of people's constant go-to reaction being to slate Thorpe whenever and however.

Predicted thunder storms over Chertsey in the next hour. Currently very heavy rain. Ride closures is no surprise. People really will take the chance to slate Thorpe at any opportunity, won't they?

I'm not sure if it's the case that I didn't get my point across very well or if you've misunderstood me (though reading my post back, likely the former), but what you've said is essentially what I was (trying) to say!

Focus groups are used to help determine themes, general ride ideas and the like. They're not used to tell people everything about the ride and see what people think (are they?). I'd be very surprised if this ride could be seen as offensive. With Thorpe focusing on the older family market, there's no way they'd risk offended people for the sake of a ride. Bull.

From what I've heard, there was some damage to the finale. Not of the park's fault and I'm sure they're just as worried and annoyed about it as guests. The alternative is to just close the attraction until everything is ready, but that's even worse surely?

The trouble with Saw in particular is the engineers are pressed for time to get the ride ready on time. If they notice an effect isn't working, they'll of course do their best to fix it, but it isn't always possible. Saw has the trouble that engineers can't see all the effects either, so it's not until someone is on the ride that they'll necessarily know if an effect isn't working. Some can be sorted whilst the ride is running (mostly things like the TVs and timers), but the bigger pieces are more difficult to do, and they won't close the ride to sort out a couple of effects. tl;dr - It comes down to the seemingly usual problem at Thorpe of not enough engineers and not enough time. I had heard the rumour since the signs went up, so it's been around for quite a while. I just think it's people trying to make something out of nothing though!

I've personally never got where the Underground rumour came from? The only thing I've seen people use to back that up is the signs around the construction site are a circle with some writing through the centre, which looks like the Underground logo. But that's a very common style and feels like clutching at straws, at best.

Ignoring Chessington, I do feel like Merlin have done a pretty alright job at upkeeping dark / indoors rides to be fair. Hex and Duel are both fine, CATCF is still okay, NST is fine effect-wise (bar the actors, which were a last minute addition in fairness). X's effects are pretty consistent, as are Saw's indoors ones. I guess it's difficult to comment either way since there aren't many dark rides to judge on, and the ones they have should be pretty basic to keep up with. I do agree that their trouble, and in particular, Thorpe's trouble, is more ride effects though.

I seem to be lucky with my visits, as I haven't had any bad experiences at the park recently? There's the things like one train operation at opening which are still happening, but (unfortunately) that's no worse than any other time of season at Thorpe I guess. People are saying says like this are the norm at the moment, yet I've been having pretty decent days on park. Just seems odd..

The jetty was cut before the ride was approved, so I think it was due to the council's consultation. The only bit of theming that didn't come to fruition was a crashed car on top of the church.

It's a nice looking layout and will probably offer a fun enough ride experience. But these big, little-themed (which I assume this will be?) dive coasters just don't interest me like the much more themed ones. I guess my opinion might change if I was to ride one, but that coaster just doesn't look as appealing to me as the likes of Baron, Oblivion: TBH, and Krake. :/

Slammer usually closes at around 3pm for checks I believe. I hope they had closed the queue at a set time, cleared the queue line, then did the checks, rather than chucking people out of the queue?!

Face it Alone is extremely different to the mazes during the day, even if you're in them alone. Whilst I would encourage anyone who enjoys scare attractions to try it, just remember it IS an extreme experience.

When I mentioned about Lorikeet Lagoon being closed in April, they didn't say anything and said they'd look into it being stated on the website. Still nothing on there though. During my visit, the enclosure was empty, bar a few rats.

IPs still require a lot of work to do right. Arguably it takes more work as you've got an external company with their own standards to meet. If they don't like what is being done, they won't want their name affiliated to it! IPs are good because they're easier to market. When done well, they attract a lot of attention and can do wonders for parks (Saw is a good example Merlin-wise, but also Peppa Pig at Paultons and Thomas at Drayton). The £3m number was in the plans, but referred to things like the groundwork and the building itself. From what I understood, it did not include things like the ride hardware, theming and effects, landscaping, and potential IP, etc.