JoshC.

I'm evidently being a bit dim here, but what Merlin attraction is getting a new show?

Not even appearing in signage any more (unless there's one I missed!); the You're Next character was cropped out of the main promo image and the logo no longer appears on posters either. Can only assume it was the plan for a long time that they wouldn't return this year!

Making the farm return is always a nice idea which I suspect most on here would love to see happen, but I just can't see it happening. The buildings themselves are now used by local schools/something I think, so it may prove difficult for the park to essentially kick them out. Another issue is the fact it *could* end up treading on the toes of Chessington, which I guess is something Merlin want to try and avoid. It's also worth remembering that Thorpe's target market, whilst being more family-friendly, is still focusing a lot on 16-34 year olds (thrill seekers). Whilst I'm not saying that a farm area could be enjoyed by all, it's not the most worthwhile solution for the continued cost of it. Worth remembering as well that there's a big empty island between Thorpe and the old farm area, meaning that the waterbuses can't make their way between the old farm area and the core of the park.

Ahh, it's been a while since there was a made up story about a new attraction at a Merlin theme park for publicity. Kinda missed them.

Just worth pointing out that Reserve and Ride is a system that is trying to solve the issue of long queues and (if successful in the long run) makes Fastrack a somewhat pointless system. So they are trying to improve guest experience in that respect. Personally, I don't think the Fastrack system is terrible, but Priority Passes and disabled guests add complications to the system, ruining numbers and such. That makes it more terrible. I'd feel confident in saying that if Priority Passes didn't exist, the Fastrack system would be rather trouble free. But that's the trouble, Thorpe's got the right idea (making sure that a bad thing doesn't ruin a guest's day), but doing it all wrong (by doing something that ultimately makes matters worse. In my opinion, if you compare the queueing and Fastrack system now to even 2-3 seasons ago, things have improved as well. They're making improvements, but unfortunately they're also shooting themselves in the foot at the same time.

I agree. I personally think it is a bit of a...barren name for a coaster...

I've bolded quite a few bits of your post here... -You wait a long time for a maze, much longer than expected. I know exactly how that feels; it's not nice. -You complain about this, and get given a free Fastrack ticket for the exact same maze, which doesn't get taken out of the Fastrack quota for the day, and use it that same day. Surely you can see the problem here? People are handed out free Fastrack like sweets, which doesn't come out of a Fastrack quota for the day, and can be used whenever. When people do use them, Thorpe need to fulfil the premium service they are giving to Fastrack guests (a reduced waiting time). Hence, it increases the queue times and mucks up the estimates they have. Then if more people complain, they get free Fastrack tickets, and low and behold the deadly cycle continues. By using those tickets, especially on the same night for a maze you've already done, you're making the problem worse. Not just the queue for MBV, but the free Fastrack culture that Merlin adopt. Just something to think about there... You say Thorpe only care about money, but I guess the one good thing about the handing out of Priority Passes is that it shows the park aren't afraid to compensate you if you've had a bad experience. I'm not a fan of the fact that 'free money' is going to Fastrack ticket (why not give guests money off food, drink, merch, or a free return ticket?), but it shows they're not all about money. They do care about customer experience.

Happy birthday to Mr Fish (even though he hasn't put his birthday on TPM)!

Blair Witch is no longer going to be RnR during this trial, instead just being the four mazes - https://www.thorpepark.com/tickets-passes/reserve-n-ride/overview/

From a few posts up... (Sourced from Towers Street). So we have no idea on the layout - exciting times!

I do agree with you there Benin, which is why I've been wanting the park to trial it with no standby queue for the post couple of months now. Perhaps they just want to introduce it very slowly to ensure the system itself works and get people to understand the system. No one can know the true popularity or use of the system until they try it with no standby queue in my opinion (as long as there's a non-smartphone option as well). I do hope Thorpe try it next year, just to see how well it works.

Admittedly I haven't been to Fright Nights this year so don't know first hand what the throughputs for mazes are like so far, but I'm pretty certain that the mazes have throughputs of more than 360pph, so I think you're exaggerating things just a bit there. Also, there shouldn't be a 50:50 split. RnR is the main way to queue for mazes during these trials, it should be prioritized over the standby queue.

12 RnR guests per 5 minutes? That equates to 144 people per hour, making the whole system literally pointless! The point of RnR is that once you arrive, you shouldn't need to queue - you've already done your queueing (virtually). I agree the ratios need to right and that the main queue times should be advertised including RnR, but since the point of the system is the majority of people use RnR and just a few use the standby queue, the ratios should largely favour RnR!

Big news about this, with some beautiful concept art released via the park's Twitter: Translation of the accompanying tweet: "The name of the new attraction is known: Baron 1898! The dive coaster gets a mining theme. # Baron1898 #divecoaster" So the ride is to be themed around a (gold) mine! A really nice theme idea I think. Also, here's a Dutch article about this all - http://www.looopings.nl/weblog/2953/Efteling-onthult-eerste-tekening-nieuwe-achtbaan-attractie-krijgt-duister-achtergrondverhaal.html One interesting thing from it: Ignoring the slightly odd Google translate, it seems to set up a really nice story. Looking forward to seeing this!

1) There is a 'standby queue' for the mazes, which is just normal queueing. They'll let a small number of people from the normal queue through, but priority is given more to those who have virtually waited with RnR. 2) If the park is busy enough, a straight reride is unlikely (ie, getting off and going straight back on), but there's nothing stopping you virtually queueing for the same maze twice in one night. 3) Yes and no. You may have to wait longer virtually in some cases, but that will also depend on when you do what. However, whilst you're waiting virtually with RnR, you can still do other rides. Once it's your time to ride, you can join the queue and it shouldn't take long before you're in the maze. 4) Not too sure when RnR stops allowing people to make bookings. However, there's nothing stopping you joining the standby queue just before the park closes.

I can do any date other than the 6th. Whilst I voted for all the other dates, would of choose prefer a Saturday because of travel reasons!

You won't be able to book a place in the virtual queue until the mazes open. You'll be easily and to get ask the mazes done. With the standby queues operating, you could quite possibly queue up for a maze before hand normally, at 3pm choose your first virtual slot and get 2 mazes done within 20-30mins I bet. If you're lucky, I reckon you could do the four mazes by 5-6pm, depending on how busy it is of course.

Looks like someone needs to chill out and fix their sarcasm detector!

I'm pretty sure the designers knew about the weather conditions... I dunno what the weather conditions have been like around the park recently, but I guess if there's been a fair amount of rain, it's always possible to end up with a leak / flooding. Given how many shipping containers Merlin have and how long they've been using them, it would suggest that this is just an unfortunate accident that's occurred, as opposed to a design flaw. If they can only use one side of MBV, that will reduce throughput a bit, and staff will still be new to the mazes. I'm not saying Thorpe should be wholly excused for the overly long queue, but cut them some slack. Seemingly they had one problem after another with MBV in particular...

Yeah, pretty sure Loggers simply closes early because of lighting issues. Last year, it was closing at around 5pm I think, especially when the clocks went forward.

Given that the name sounds like 'Misery' being said by a French person, I doubt one will be made any time soon...

X isn't really a 'dark ride' in the sense of it being an attraction that it has to be indoors to serve its purpose. X is just a roller coaster indoors with lights chucked on. If you were to take X outdoors, you've still got a (albeit tame) coaster. If you were to take Hex outdoors, you've got a spinning drum in the middle of a pathway. If you were to take Tomb Blaster outdoors, you've a boring car journey with guns. X may be an indoor ride, but it's certainly shouldn't be Thorpe's dark ride.

Coasters built by Merlin: -Saw -Th13teen -Raptor -Krake -Swarm -Polar X-plorer -Smiler -Flug der Daemon -Gardaland 2015 coaster Dark rides built by Merlin: -Nemesis: Sub Terra -Ghost - The Haunted House (at Legoland Billund) -Saw Alive and Krake Lebt (if you want to be pedantic) So, "knowing Merlin", the easiest thing that they'll do is build another coaster with an easy gimmick chucked onto it! It's been half-known that there was nothing big coming to Thorpe for 2015 for a couple of years now. And if there was, we would have seen planning permission a long time ago now, so it's no surprise nothing big is coming next year really. There's basically no indication at all what we're gonna see next year, but if it's anything of a medium size, I don't expect it will open for start of season now anyway!

You very much can. It depends on the Priority Pass, since there are different 'levels' of Priority Pass. Even seems like you can get away with using the 'wrong' one, like Ryan says.

First off, I don't think Fastrack is necessarily the main problem - Priority Passes are a bit contributor to it all. They can be used as Fastracks whenever guests want, and it doesn't come out of Fastrack allocation for the day, automatically making it a lot more difficult. Since the Fastrack queue is meant to be 1/3 of the normal waiting time, putting more people in then there should be pressurises the system. To say Thorpe oversell Fastrack however is, in my opinion, silly.. Fastrack also has the issue that if a ride is not running at its best (say, the staff are a bit slow, there were troubles getting guests on, a slight delay, whatever), the Fastrack system doesn't take that into account, causing a backlog (and that's something that can affect many Fastrack systems, not just Thorpe's). With RnR, they can adjust the through allocation depending on how well the mazes are doing, I believe. So if people are being a bit slow, there's a closure or whatever, then the RnR allocation can hopefully adjust. Thorpe aren't going to purposefully allocate more people than a maze can cope with, as it literally does no one any favours..