JoshC.

Really? Maybe it's just me, but I always have my phone with me (unless I'm going to uni for an official exam). It's a common thing, since a phone can be used to contact people, check travel information, etc etc. Going for a day out means those things are essential to me just in case something happens.

In fairness, Legoland were meant to be getting a pretty decent-looking dark ride ride this year. Of course, due to the council / locals, plans never got approved so Legoland are really have to improvise and think outside the box.

Am I the only one who thinks the closeness of these things is a nice little idea? Yeah, okay, so you're a bit cramped into one another. But when I first heard the name 'Enchanted Village', I wasn't expecting anything particularly spaced out. I was expecting something a cosy little area that feels secluded and in it's own enchanted, magical world. I think that, once finished, it could well have that feel. For me personally, if I was going to go to one of these things, I wouldn't care that there's another cabin a metre away from me to be honest.

Nope. If Swarm had been 100m longer, they'd have gone over the pre-agreed maximum coaster length set out in the MTDP (why they set it to a maximum of 850m, who knows?). I'm sure Thorpe will want as high throughput additions as they want, but under the constraints, I doubt Swarm could really achieve any more than it already does.

I don't see why Thorpe would advertise Reserve n Ride as heavily as people are suggesting. I expect there will be more trials and they'll be more ambitious with the idea, but I don't think the park are going to start saying 'Come to THORPE PARK and try Reserve n Ride - tomorrow's queueless theme park...today', or something like that. And yeah, Disney aren't going to care about Thorpe. It's one park owned by Merlin with a much more targeted audience than Disney. They're not going to push one of their ideas more because another, much smaller, park is doing a similar system.

Also, that logo is pretty darn awesome!

How are they cheapskates if a new ride name would cost the same as an old one? In fairness, that name is pretty decent for a dive machine and I doubt many people in Gardaland's target market will be aware of the X-Sector similarities. Still a shame something a bit more original couldn't have come from it!

How about we forget about DLP and all go to Europa Park instead?

Ben 10 at Drayton is such a neat little ride and a ride like that seems to be a ride that would suit Paultons perfectly. Hope to make it to the park this year, and no doubt a Junior Boomerang would pull me back for 2016.

I don't think anything can be ruled out. Just because other parks have a laser shooting ride, doesn't mean Thorpe can't have one! There's nothing necessarily bad about them either, but normally they are lazily done and detract from the experience as a whole. I would agree that if Thorpe were to invest a ton of money into this that a laser ride would be low down by choices though!

I wouldn't read too much into the Feb half term thing yet. The full line up hasn't been announced yet (at least, I don't think so?). Last time I checked, it was just Stealth (their big thing), Swarm (their latest big new thing) and ABL (their new thing) on the list. The full line up is probably going to come in the next couple of weeks. If Flying Fish were to move, they'd require planning permission and nothing has been submitted. If the park wanted it to happen, then it would be easiest for it to happen for start of season, so I'd doubt that we'd see planning permission soon for it to happen mid-season. So I doubt that will happen. I think the main reason for Fish's early closure was due to maintenance / engineering being understaffed. Like PLC, I'm expecting the Fungle spot to primarily be used as an access point for works for the 2016 site, and maybe to give a slight extension to the path. I doubt we'll see anything new this season. The best I'm hoping for it a retheme of Rumba Rapids or Canada Creek; both are of dire need of TLC and a retheme would be a reasonably cheap and easy way to get a 'new' thing for this season. Even if we don't get anything new, I'm sure Thorpe will have their ways of pulling in the masses.

Having a quick skim read of TTF and the guy who said about the 18m seems to be mistaken. The maximum building height is around 10m. A relatively large pit is being made too, but that only goes 3m deep. So the absolute largest total height is 13m. Even then, it will be less, because of course you can't go right to the very top. Even then, the plans seem to suggest to me that the pit is more likely to be used for mechanisms and such, as opposed to the actual ride itself. Who knows though! I don't think the height necessarily suggests anything about the ride experience either. It's quite easy to make a laser ride / slow guided tracked vehicle ride go two floors, for example! As for the 2018, I think that bit of the conversation related to the opening of the main hotel.

I believe I have an exam on the 27th, so it's a no go for me. Have funs.

Think of it like this - opening in February Half Term gives the rides an extra 45ish hours of operational time to the public. In the main season, they'll be operating for around 1600 hours. If you think of it like that, you realise it should make little difference to the long term running of the rides!

Watching that video really makes you realise just how many missed opportunities there were for this ride's overall experience. Those clips really epitomise what The Smiler is all about - it's creepy, intriguing, but also a little bit funny. Yet, you really don't get the same vibe from the queue line and such. It's a real shame that the best video and storytelling of the ride comes in the ride's shop which most people won't pay enough attention to to absorb it.

Is the cinema room the start of the dark ride though? Or is it just a clever way to make you not feel like you're queueing, whilst you are in fact queueing for the dark ride? I guess you could argue it's the start of the "dark ride experience", but then, you could equally argue the experience starts as soon as you step foot inside the building. I personally much prefer Hex's preshow experiences to that of The Haunting at Drayton (using that as a comparison since it's the only other Madhouse I've done). They both use a similar idea I guess, but Hex's is so much more dramatic, as well as much simpler and effective.

Storm Surge logo reminds me of Storm Surge. Ewww. However, there's humour there. Woo. 5/10

I didn't experience the original NST, but from what I've heard of it, it was awful and just didn't make sense. It's almost worrying to think that those who worked on it would have thought that how it opened would have worked. The current way it works though is great in my opinion; I really really enjoy it. With this ride, as others have said, I expect they'll want to get it right first time. There's no room for mistakes. Of course, there'll be slight tweaks within the first couple of months (after all, most dark rides / mazes see such tweaks; sometimes you don't know what's best until guests try it after all!), but they can't afford for it to open and just not 'work' like NST. However, given that this is a major project for not just Thorpe, but Merlin too (and, if an IP is involved, that company too), there'll be plenty of people working on this to ensure it opens with the highest quality possible.

I think it's worth remembering that rcdb is not necessarily an accurate source of information - they simply gather details from other sources and collate it into one place. Whilst I've very rarely seen a mistake on rcdb, I'd be very surprised if we see a 4000ft, 60ft-odd tall coaster on the old Beastie site, as rumoured...

I think the most surprising thing in that photo is that is shows Chessington actually do try and maintain their rides. Who knew?

In recent years, I don't think there's ever really been complaints from locals about the traffic spilling into rush hour for 5pm closes. The only real concerns locals had was about MoS and people leaving then late at night, but I think the immediate locals (ie - those who live in Penton Park just opposite) have not been bothered by that. It would be interesting to see what the council would ask Thorpe to do if it were a real problem though.

You have not been to Disneyland. Alright. We get it. 0/10

Also, Storm Surge is a pretty unique experience, but I wouldn't call that a positive.

You say in reality that people don't experience all five scare attractions. I went on a busy day last season and Hot all five of them done, plus Swarm in that time too. So it is possible, and I expect quite a lot of people do experience them all in one event if they really want to.

Double post oopsies: Plans have been approved!