JoshC.

I'm more getting at the "You would think that after all these years, Thorpe would learn to focus more on throughputs! Absolutely hopeless." I enjoy the maze, but I'm not going to queue 2 hours for it either!

What's the fourth ride closed at the moment? According to their Twitter, Slammer, Vortex and Detonator are closed.

Not trying to be rude here, but what point are you trying to make here? It's the Easter holidays and it's their new attraction; it going to be busy. Are you suggesting they should focus on the the throughputs over the maze's experience? Or that they should have designed it so that the throughput of the maze was higher? Or something else? I genuinely can't understand the point you're trying to make here - all I can see it 'THORPE PARK ARE HOPELESS, BUT I'M VISITING THEM ANYWAY'...

Okay, this is weird. The tank is already there; it was on the plans showing how the area looked last year: Given it's proximity to the BBQ, and the fact there seems to be a pipe leading from it to the BBQ, would suggest it's for that. The tank is then included in the first set of plans released back in October: (This is just another view of Angelo's picture). Very close to the queue line! But in the latest set of plans which went online today, the propane tank has disappeared... The 'pipe' can still be seen, but the propane tank is definitely gone (indeed, there's a queue there instead!). Very odd; not sure what can be taken from it!

Bit of a construction update: Progress is progress, though it doesn't look the prettiest of rides to say the least. Looking more forward to the theming for this next year than the ride itself to be honest!

This would be a great idea given how well received the characters are. It would also give quite a bit of freedom for the story since they're not main characters. It also solves the obvious problem about a Doctor Who themed attraction: what happens when the actor playing the Doctor changes? Focusing on a spin off means the actual Doctor character can have a very limited part in the story (say, in the pre show or something), making it easy to change as the character changes. As for cattlepens, it's not wholly surprising that they've had to resort to one again given their options. They're working from a blank landscape and don't have any natural interaction with the ride to consider, so a cattlepen queue with TVs and theming features (there looks to be space for at least 4 in this queue line), seems to be the case once again. A cattlepen doesn't necessarily spell a terrible queue line, it just makes it a lot harder for it to be any fun.

More plans on the council's website have gone up today. Don't get too excited though, it's just about how they've changed the size of the building ever so slightly and need to show how the new building will look in the park compared to the old one (spoilers: it looks basically the same). Only thing of any real note is this plan, which shows roughly how the queue line will look (click to enlarge)...

Worth throwing it out there that Warwick Castle have had a few family-aimed Horrible Histories events the past couple of years, and they've been quite successful from what I've gathered!

Got to be 3).

I doubt we'll get a reveal for a long time yet. Thorpe will want to try and keep as much mystery as possible, and keep the reveal as late as possible. I reckon the earliest we'd see a reveal about name/possible IP would be Fright Nights, but wouldn't be surprised if it's later than that. Thorpe's marketing department must be loving life right now though. The only things they've done are stick two different worded signs around the site and posted a picture of a perfume bottle on Twitter, and yet there's pages and pages of speculation, discussion and excitement across all the forums. They certainly know how to push geeks buttons...

Tweeted by Thorpe Park as a response to someone else: *Awaits 'Illuminanti confirmed' image*

I think you should go to Great Yarmouth instead of DLP Matt.

I think the £3million also includes things like levelling, and then resurfacing, the current ground, and possibly the deep hole that needs to be dug. It's odd that they've given a figure for it mind. I hope this gif is saved in your favourites, as I feel like it's going to be needed many more times in this thread

However small it seems on the plans, it's worth remembering that this building is bigger than the likes of Duel and Tomb Blaster, which (I think) are the two biggest dark rides in the UK at the moment (ignoring water-based indoor rides and indoor coasters). And some of the plans indicate that at least part of the building is two floors, so there is a LOT of space in this building. For a more obvious comparison, the building almost covers the same floor space as X - and remember that building includes Cabin in the Woods too! The plans reveal very little about the ride/project itself: -The ride has a 'station', which would suggest it's some form of tracked ride, as opposed to a drop tower, for example. That could still be anything from an SFX coaster, to an ordinary coaster, to a traditional ghost train to a laser shooter ride. -The project name is WC16 / Whitechapel. Seems to suggest something to do with Victorian London possibly, but that still leaves open many possible ride themes / IPs. -£3million is being invested in the plaza for the ride. That's more than the investment for Angry Birds Land. This is a project that's going to have a LOT of money put into it. There's obviously been a lot of care put into the plans - they give the council everything they need to know, but little else. In the past, a set of plans would make it very easy for enthusiasts to go through, and figure out the ride's manufacturer, theme, budget and much more - you could tell what the experience was going to be like before it was even built. This is the complete opposite, and they're clearly keeping this tight lipped about as much as possible. This all makes speculation about the project difficult, but it does at least leave a very exciting prospect for the next 12 months, with subtle marketing and build up, as well as the attraction itself!

You see, I wouldn't call Tidal Wave a 'depressing' / dark themed ride. Yes, it's themed around destruction, but it comes across as a very light hearted theme; comical almost. Together with the audio, whilst on the surface it seems like a 'depressing' theme, it is far from it. And it doesn't feel particularly 'derelict' either. Storm Surge has no theme really, so it seems like a bit of a non-point to argue that here in my eyes! Swarm is slightly similar to Tidal Wave in some ways as well. It's themed around destruction that is 'happening now', but has a strong sense of irony about it - a flaming fire truck, emergency services destroyed, a church (a safe place) taken over, a plane taken out of the sky now ruled by The Swarm. Yes, it's not a particularly happy / comical theme, but I don't think it's really all that comparable to this project. Only Saw has a similar look to it in my opinion, with the abandoned warehouse, which is becoming derelict and run down. It's the only one which feels "dull" (which is arguably the point, though I agree not the best thing for a theme park environment!). The thing is, I do want to see a major ride at Thorpe which is a lot more light hearted in nature, that is more upbeat and a bit more of a laugh. But, other than Saw's exterior, I don't think the park has any 'dull' or 'depressing' ride themes which fail to help you escape from reality! --- Also, on a different note, the ride's building has been reduced in size a little (by just over 100sqm). Essentially it seems like the building has been squashed back a bit. I don't think it's anything to worry about (possibly just making the shop a bit smaller, or that they've put some out of bounds areas onto two floors), but why they've done isn't mentioned.

Inferno is similar though - during its first few years, it wasn't as forceful as it is now. I expect Swarm will be the same; the beauty of B&Ms! Personally I find the helicopter turnaround (when you're on the right hand side) more forceful than any part of Inferno!

The ride type hasn't been confirmed, but it's definitely not a maze!

Seen a couple of comments like this after the mentioning of WC16. The 'LC' in LC12 stood of 'Long Count' / 'Long Count calendar', as can be seen here: (Credit Total Thorpe Park)

Does that mean I have to change my member title to 'I am Wez Cougan' now? --- As for the whole Whitechapel thing - the plans give two 'codenames'. The plans showing the site plans have 'Project Whitechapel' written on them (and one of them has it written in a very Whitechapel-esque font). The construction method statement refers to the project as 'WC16'. If you put all that together, it does suggest Whitechapel as the IP. But I'm not taking it as confirmation by any means. The park have been so careful with keeping this as much a secret as possible. Rumours of a dark ride didn't seriously come about till July last year at the earliest. The location wasn't really known till plans were released. The main wave of plans gave away very little about the attraction. The park wouldn't be so careless to let it slip in my opinion. Also, Whitechapel (as has been mentioned) isn't a particular well known IP, or particularly family friendly (I watched a trailer for it on Youtube earlier; sounded very graphic and gory!). It doesn't add up. Could it be a hint as to what's to come (Jack the Ripper-esque maybe)? Could it be a massive curveball secretly aimed at throwing us off the scent? Who knows. But I don't think we'll be seeing 'Whitechapel - The Ride' opening in 2016.

That's the world first - the seats for the ride are actually fully functional toilets!!

More plans have come to light today, and it seems the codename for the project is WC16... http://www.thorpeparkmania.co.uk/news/07-04-2015/Further-Plans-for-2016-Attraction-Released

It appears Annual Pass holders no longer get discount on alcohol at Alton Towers (and this is / will become the case across all Merlin parks) - http://www.towersstreet.com/news/2015/annual-pass-alcohol-discount-removal/ I don't drink, so this doesn't affect me at all. Given that there are some exceptions to the rule, such as with cigarettes, I'm surprised that you could get discount on alcohol anyway. Is it really that big a deal though?

Photo update from just over a week ago: Sauce, with plenty more photos: http://www.themeparks.ie/europe/tayto/201503-2-construction-06.htm Still no sight of an inversion yet, but progress is being made!

Another UK-based one is happening in Birmingham, being done by Twisted Attractions - http://www.twistedattractions.co.uk/?p=attractions I'm not sure how I feel about these things; they seem interesting, but it sounds so hard to predict how people will react in these situations, making you wonder if 1 hour will be too long / not enough to get a proper feel of the attraction. Either way, nice to see different types of scare attractions coming up the UK - hopefully they are successful!

At this rate we'll have to change the name of the thread to the 3 or more word story...