JoshC.

Their target market nowadays is families with older children / up-for-it families. Press releases make it seem like it's children of age 8+, which seems to fit. Island Beats seems more aimed at a slightly older audience than that to be fair, but it would be nice to see even more variety in the acts.

Nothing exciting in particularly, but in case you didn't pick up on any hints, next year's woodie is confirmed to be GCI: http://plopsafansite.be/Nieuws/2015-07-20/werken-houten-achtbaan-plopsaland-starten-na-zomer/ Still not much known, but I'm feeling a trip pack here next year when it opens up.

1) Baron was getting very big queues at the start of the day whilst we were day (peaked at 150 minutes). Could be down to the fact it opened that week, but I reckon most people will still end up going there straight away in November. I'd personally recommend going at around 2-3ish to Baron. 5) It took us about an hour to travel from Toverland to Efteling by car, and there were very few obvious public transport systems near either park. Google maps is suggesting it's about 3 hours by public transport to get there from your hotel. If you were prepared to go through the hassle of travelling, you could do it, since you wouldn't need 8 hours on park to get everything done in my opinion. To be honest though, the effort and cost of that travel probably wouldn't be worth it!

True; which is why I said official opening time. They weren't under any obligation to open at 9:30 until now to be fair to them. As bad as it sounds, I do hope this is more just Merlin cost-cutting to help get the money back lost from Towers' closure, as opposed to the parks struggling.

https://www.thorpepark.com/resort-information/getting-here/ Changes to opening hours for August - park now officially opens at 9:30, but chooses at 6 (an hour earlier than previously advertised). Only half an hour lost, and technically makes Summer Nights better. A shame about earlier standard close mind! :/

Does this mean we'll get months of hype from enthusiasts about the Air tunnel being sorted out, only for them to leave it blank due to budget cuts?

It's been back for quite a while now; was only removed for a week or two I think.

I'm banning the shovel you use to dig out all these dead topics.

Despite his username's suggestion, the above member is, in fact, not a toothpick. I was personally distraught when I found out about such deceit.

Thanks for a fun day folks. I applaud your efforts.

Not exactly. Personally, I'd suggest not looking at the POV again to try and figure it out, otherwise you're just going to spoil the it when you experience the attraction as a whole. I never heard the White Women on ride. However, when you're near the drop, you can hear them singing from the hole.

It wasn't a maze section really - it was just a longer queue line very similar to the current queue line. I walked through it once or twice but it wasn't anything special; it had a spinning tunnel but that was about it. However, back when Fright Nights first started, the queue line extensions was turned into a maze (Freakshow 3D), and since then that space has been used for other mazes too (Hellgate, Passing, Cabin in the Woods). On a different note, X's music was very quiet today. Hope it gets sorted soon!

No fire effect that I saw, though not everything was working, as SCB mentioned. However, I don't think a fire effect would really work; it doesn't seem like to would fit in with what happens in that area to be honest!

I think Towers' rule has always been "The actors will not touch you" (was definitely like that on my visit in 2012), but I guess they'll sometimes touch older guests who look like they won't kick up a fuss about it? I certainly had actors come into contact with me in the past, but nowhere near Thorpe's touching level for example. I know that my views on TotT won't be shared by many. I really hope that I just had a bad runthrough, but I found the maze to be lacking in actors, having a fair few dead spots, dragging on and not really having a consistent theme. I guess it coming back gives me a chance to see if I did just have a bit of bad luck! I can see what you're saying about the sweeping changes, but I think that once in a while, they can be good. I think it worked well for Thorpe with Lionsgate for example. Towers seem to have drawn inspiration from a few different attractions and put their own twist on it, and have completely new attractions is probably the best way to rejuvenate the event a bit more. Hopefully it works out for them and they can then build upon these attractions year-on-year from now on.

You mean this 26million - http://www.26million.co.uk/ ? Thorpe do have some outside clothing brands in their stores; not entirely sure why, but it's been the case for a long time now. Can't see it changing any time soon either!

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.