JoshC.

It just ain't going to happen The only good thing to happen so far is that Merlin can cite it as a way for investing in their parks, even if they don't think it will happen.

Lower Dome toilets have reopened and look very nice: Couple of highlight features: -Lights above cubicles indicating if someone is in there -3-in-1 sinks featuring soap, water and hand dryer in one location

Rocky Express is closed and will not be reopening. It will not be relocated either. At best, we will see part of the ride included somewhere around Project Exodus as a theming feature. If not, the ride will just be scrapped.

The most anticipated new investment for 2022 in the UK, High Striker!, opened yesterday! It has its own custom soundtrack which is pretty neat. Think cheesey classic board walk style test-your-strength game and you're most of the way there. Doesn't quite fit in with the Amity area, but let's face it, themed areas don't exist at Thorpe. The ride looks nice enough for what it is. Shame about the operator box being very bland, and the back of the ride (which of course faces the beach) being exposed and not looking pleasant.

This is such a difficult thing to answer, because it can entirely depend on crowd levels. Efteling for example is a park I would call relaxed, but I've had a particular day filled with school trips that was a nightmare and just stress. So I'll try and pick parks which I think would be relaxed/stressful regardless of visitor numbers... Relaxed Linnanmaki (Finland) - The park is well designed and has rides that are designed to cope with its crowds. Go variety of rides, good indoor and outdoor selections, good food. It's a nice city park on the outskirts of a city, creating a surprisingly relaxed and chilled out atmosphere. Hellendoorn (Netherlands) - A spacious park with a good variety sprinkled all across the park. Nice green spaces too. Stressful Fantasy Island - The worst parts of a theme park mixed with worst part of a seaside resort. The market and arcade is just noise and eurgh. Drievliet (Netherlands) - Awkwardly small space and just weird and annoying. Probably slightly basing this on the fact I visited when a million school kids were there which didn't help, but in general, I think this park would just be annoying and stress. Parc Saint Paul (France) - Visiting the park feels morally dodgy tbh

The two BigDippers currently open have height restrictions of either 1.3m or 1.4m. The 1.4m, Lost Gravity, is in a country where their B&Ms have a height restriction of 1.32m. The BigDippers don't need loading either side and only go up to cars of length 4. They're more akin to Gerstlauer Eurofighter and Infinity coasters than wing rider coasters. B&M Junior Invert designs have appeared in concept arts for the 3 Legolands set to open in China over the coming years, along with 2 of those parks getting wing rider coasters of a similar look. Legoland Deutschland is also getting one of these wing riders. Obviously until we get absolute confirmation, we can't say anything for definite. But it very much seems like Merlin and B&M have worked together to create a new, family friendly, style ride.

Some more plans for Exodus have been uploaded, showing the theming for the entrance and other areas. Looks like they're going for an abandoned forest plus mountain exploration theme. I guess the idea is that the forest hides the lake, and climbing the mountain allows you to find the tranquil lake? All of the new plans are over on TPM! EDIT: If you weren't fooled - and if the link didn't give it away! - this was an April Fool's. The images were hastily mocked up by yours truly using images from Ghost Train's and Swarm's planning applications, and are not real. Glad I caught a few people out though

It's a weird name change to happen, especially since the logo still features "Bomb", the black bird from Angry Birds. So it would suggest that it's still part of Angry Birds Land, and possibly part of any new contracts that Thorpe and Rovio have. Part of me wonders if the park made a late call to remove the 'Bombs Away' suffix as a result of the current situation in Ukraine. Probably reading into things too much tbh, but it's something which crossed my mind. Aside from that, I can't really think of a reason why they'd do it randomly now.

An unlikely thing to happen outside of closed season to be frank. As others have said, it seems like they haven't been actively used in a while. I must admit the difference in ride expedition isn't as much as I expected, but is noticeable enough. Very curious why it's happened...

It's likely referring to Rocky Express, which the park have said they have "retired". The Canadian retirement home will be because the area used to be called Canada Creek.

I would imagine some internal H&S measure says only so many boats can be on the lift, in case of a stoppage and need for an evacuation, for example. I also think they're very much against boats bumping on the drop; something which could happen if there's many boats on the lift and one comes to a stop on the slide.

Storm Surge requires a minimum number of boats on the circuit to operate (this goes even for testing purposes). Effectively, the boats need to be nudged onto the conveyor belt, which can only practically happen when there's a certain number of boats. This - I think - is the same for all of these boat rides made by WhiteWater West.

I'm under the impression that there's been changes as to which departments look after the audio within the park now. This may be causing transitional problems with getting them sorted. Not a good look for start of season. Hopefully this is just a teething problem and can be gotten on top of quickly.

Was operating yesterday, but shut down part way through the day. The draining of the water might not necessarily mean a length closure per se. But it's never normally a good sign, admittedly.

There's some pretty neat signs, clearly geared towards enthusiasts, that can be seen through the construction fences, as seen by Theme Park Guide: The plans should a standard 10 rows of 2 train, with no room for spinning. So I would think it's unlikely. Certainly not impossible, but very unlikely.

^Yep, different parts are run by different companies. I saw the video yesterday and it...yeah. Wish I hadn't seen it. Regardless of what caused the incident, I don't even want to imagine what anyone involved is going through. From those who know the person, to those watching, to those on the ride. Whatever they're feeling, it won't be pleasant.

Some final new things, from Jack Silkstone's video: A mini stage has been set up in Amity This will apparently be used by the roaming actors Some posters have appeared around Swarm island: They're plastered on the station building too. Not a fan of these. Way too many, and they lean very heavily on a theme away from the original Swarm story. Things change I guess, but it feels like adding something for the sake of it. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Finally, a new graphic on the service road gates by Old Town Burger King (which originally had the Old Town logo on): This seems to be a big nod towards Exodus, somewhat mimicking the lift/drop

I've heard every rumour under the sun about Colossus lately, from "the park are happy with it as is and won't do anything", to "the park are planning to give it some attention soon, including a possible retrack" to "the park are going to scrap it in the next 10 years". At the moment, I don't think there's a lot to go on with any of it! I believe the park had to switch to the new seatbelts as Intamin don't make the previous ones any more. Haven't had any experience with them, so hopefully the fiddly-ness is just because they're new!

Colossus opened 20 years ago today! To celebrate its successful opening on what was a moderate Thursday in March, where the ride welcomed 7000 guests, we have taken a quick look back at the ride that put Thorpe Park on the map! https://thorpeparkmania.co.uk/articles/09-03-2022/20+Years+of+Colossus (This was heavily inspired by @Mark9's original 10 year article, which currently isn't on the main TPM site, but can still be viewed here!)

The development stalled because of Covid, is the short answer. It's why things stopped almost as quickly as rumours surfaced, and why the park haven't spoken of it. In terms of fan sites, here's a recent article from one which discusses recent patent files: https://behindthethrills.com/2022/01/new-patent-seaworld-surf-coaster-train-layout-restraint/ The key features are over the top lap bars (a la Mack and Intamin), and seats with vertical movement. And a totally comprehensive, reasonably recent (Dec21) look at the specific project: https://bgwfans.com/2021/bgwfans-leaks-seaworld-orlandos-project-penguin/

I think it's worth remembering that every year, everything is always last minute. Whether that's the park making the most of every second of closed season, or just poor planning, is debatable. But that's always how it is. Storm Eunice has probably thrown in extra challenges, delayed some things and thrown schedules off. We've seen that with Chessington and Towers already. But even then, it does feel a bit shoddy. Watching through Jack's video and the park's other official videos, it seems as if: -High Striker! is "coming soon" -The Playground is "coming in the Spring" -We need to "watch this space" for the toilet refurb in the Lower Dome PLUS -Damage to Dodgems taking longer to repair (not the park's fault, I hasten to add, but another thing) -We *might* have plain white boards around Old Town still -An unknown surrounding any work in Vibes That's a lot of things being done still when the park is opening for passholders, as well as a buyout day. I'm sympathetic and understanding surrounding the issues that will have come up from Storm Eunice. But at the same time, it's a poor introductory look for the park from a brutally honest view.

An article update from Merlin about the new ride at Gardaland, and the Jumanji partnership in general: https://www.merlinentertainments.biz/newsroom/news-releases/2022/sony-pictures-entertainment-and-merlin-entertainments-join-forces-to-bring-jumanji-brand-to-life/ Specific highlights: -Merlin are working with Oceaneering on the ride -Framework are creating the VFX -Another Jumanji "activation" at a different theme park for 2023 (I wonder where.....) -Possibly more Jumanji attractions at other Merlin locations -Jumanji themed rooms at the hotel

A recent article was posted: https://www.augsburger-allgemeine.de/guenzburg/guenzburg-das-legoland-baut-in-guenzburg-eine-neue-achterbahn-id61789116.html It suggests that the new coaster will "briefly go upside down" and that riders will sit either side of the tracks. That would certainly suggest a B&M wingrider, and it adds more fuel to the fire that they have developed a 'junior' version in some way, suitable for a lower height restriction. It would likely be the same set up as Chessington's one too. Also, an inverting roller coaster at a Legoland park. I never thought I'd see the day.

Current update about Walibi Belgium: Last month, following complaints and disputes from locals, the park had their most recent noise permit document revoked. This was issued in 2018, and meant that the ambient noise level that the park was allowed to have was increased. This allowed the park to make some of their more recent installations, like Tiki Waka (Gerstlauer Bobsled) and of course Kondaa. This this document revoked, they have to go back to their most recent one, which was issued in 2015. Whilst it's not clear what this means exactly and what the park are able to do, it is expected that when the park opens for their season next month, they won't be able to run some of their newer rides, specifically Tiki Waka and Kondaa. Obviously a major blow for the park; all the more considering they had to shut for a couple of months last year because of flooding. Something to keep in mind for anyone planning a Belgian trip sometime soon.

Corrr, it's been a while... Asterix isn't open for the season yet, but they have been cracking on with construction of Toutatis. Here's some images from a recent (but now deleted) video: As a reminder, this is a multi launch Intamin coaster which will have a swing launch mid way through the ride. The park hope to get track work finished by the summer I believe, so they can start landscaping and theming.