JoshC.

Angry Birds is a universally appealing brand. Angry Birds Land is a family area. Good family areas have a mixture rides and attractions which appeal to everyone in the family. So, we'll have Angry Birds 4D which will no doubt appeal more to the younger market, the dodgems which appeal to all (though will likely be a bit of the tame side for 'hardcore thrill seekers') and Detonator for 'hardcore thrill seekers'. Perfect family land surely? Detonator could now actually fit in with a full area, rather than be out of place with Pirates 4D, or out of place by itself. Granted, it will be shoe-horned a little, but at least effort is there.

Interesting link about this all: http://www.4-traders.com/MERLIN-ENTERTAINMENTS-PLC-14851590/news/Merlin-Entertainments-PLC--MERLIN-ENTERTAINMENTS-AND-ROVIO-ANNOUNCE-WORLD-PREMIERE-OF-ANGRY-BIRDS-4-17764454/ (This was retweeted by Jason Wills). So, Merlin Magic Making will be strongly involved with the project, which should be good news for all - all projects they've been involved with have had good to high quality theming. Also, an Angry Birds film is coming in 2016. Maybe at the moment we're in a quiet period for the Angry Birds franchise, so perhaps we'll see it become a big surge in popularity again sometime soon? The thing is, this is the perfect theme for the park. The park has been crying out to have a fun area for ages, and now it's finally getting one. Hopefully this will see the slow reintroduction of themed areas again too. As for Detonator, I expect a very small retheme, perhaps with a slight change in audio. It could easily be that there's a bunch of pigs at the top of the ride, and an angry bird crashes into it, causing a similar 'bang' / 'explosion' noise to cue the drop. Simples. One bug bear of mine though - who cares if it's the WORLD'S FIRST 4D ANGRY BIRDS EXPERIENCE? I don't think people will care if it's a world's first film, surely?

Angry Birds is a good theme. I was wondering why there wasn't a family friendly area at a theme park yet (as any Angry Birds IPs have been very child-orientated). I'm a bit unsure on the longevity of it all (which pluk literally just said) as I fear it has peaked already, but other than that, I have no concerns. I would say a concern is that Amity Cove has now been cut up into two, but hopefully that can be rectified soon. Looks like it will almost definitely go where the Games Zone lies currently (which was marked as a spot for a flat ride in the MTDP I believe?). Should be a nice little area, and at least Detonator will finally have a chance to fit in a bit more. I wonder if once the Tetley sponsorship goes if the Teacups will get an Angry Bird styling too? Really and truly, this isn't anything ground breaking, but it should be a good investment for the park, and one I look forward to see the final result.

Let's face it, half of the adults are going to be scared witless by In The Night Garden due to Iggle Piggle's (the blue guy) eyes... Terrible choice for a ride... But meh, not knowing anyone who's of CBeebies target audience, I have no idea about any of these IPs thus far, bar INTG. Shame like pluk says that the IPs seem to mostly have human characters at the moment, as there's less potential for interaction with live actors 'from the show'.

To be honest, my post was made in jest. It is a bit silly that a ride which was closed for 2/3 of the season is the best ride of the season though imo. Not as silly as Saw coming 23rd or whatever in the 2012 game though... But it's a silly game, so that's that.

Congratulations trolls, a ride which was closed 2/3 of the season was the best ride of the season... Maybe Thorpe should just build rubbish rides with rubbish reliabilities and keep all the rides closed and the park would be perfect...

Shh, I'm hoping no one else will notice...

Detonator (5) Nemesis Inferno (4) Rush (3) Slammer (6) Stealth (6) Swarm Backwards (6) X (5) Swarm Backwards + Slammer -

Full on maintenance is pretty substantial though, wouldn't you say? Sure, most rides will have, but it doesn't happen every single year for every single ride.

From what I could tell when I've passed the park recently, Vortex has been fully dismantled. I don't recall any other closed season where it's been fully dismantled (though someone feel free to correct me there if I'm wrong ), so it could mean there's some substantial work going on off-site on it.

Slammer doesn't have a particularly high throughput remember. Sure, it can take 48 people per ride, but it's theoretical throughput is 500pph. Essentially, that means the ride goes from being loaded to being unloaded just under every 6 minutes. I'd bet it usually takes longer than that, and probably that the ride barely musters 400pph. Yet, a ride with such a low throughput has so little queue when it's open (I've never seen the queue above an hour, even on ridiculously busy days). I just don't see why the park should keep a ride which has terrible reliability, poor throughput and seems to not even be popular with guests...

The better question is 'How on earth did Swarm get eliminated when there are still other rides left?'

I think my one was better: Just sayin'

If you requite on ride videos for a specific reason (eg, some sorta school project or something), if you contact the PR department, they might be able to give you stock footage. If it's just for personal use, I doubt they'd allow you to film regardless of who you asked.

£50 is a ridiculous amount to pay, if we're all being honest. But, that's pretty much the point. Give guests what they think is 'better value', even though the park probably expects people to pay the online rates. It then helps the park with expected park numbers, so it makes sense for them to encourage people to book online.

But Dean didn't win!? What's all this 'controversy' about when Dean didn't even win?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6902797.stm Found an article about

Thought this was an interesting topic last year, so may as well do another one this year! So, what are your theme-park related plans for 2014? For me, there's chances of hitting up a couple of new UK parks. After not managing to fit a trip to Drayton Manor last year due to breaking my ankle, I'm very hopeful of getting my first trip in this year around summer-time. I'm hoping to make it to TPM's Oakwood trip this year as well, depending on dates and what exactly I'm up to during summer work-wise. There's also a slight possibility that I'll be making it to Adventure Island as well, though no idea with that one. Then, of course, a fair few visits to Thorpe, a couple to Alton, once or twice to Chessie and maybe once to Legoland. 2015 or 2016 is the aim for me to hit up a few of the big-name European parks. Realistically, I'll probably visit Germany and one other country, but those decisions will come nearer the time...

Moral of this thread: Awards on theme park forums are meant to be fun.

I think pluk means Nick Leslau, some millionaire who actually owns the land and leases it to Merlin. From what I remember, after the takeover in 2007ish, there was a 30 year lease to Merlin for Thorpe, Alton and Legoland (but not Chessington!) Not entirely sure on that though mind...

Am I right in thinking that TPM is 10 this year (or was 10 sometime late last month)? If so, will we be seeing anything special to mark that landmark?

The rabbit could be a hint to Peter Rabbit I guess? Other than that, nothing that screams out any sorta hints after looking at a list of some CBeebies shows... TowersStreet posted on their FB that the "characters" will be revealed by Alton this weekend, so not long to wait I guess. (Link to TS FB: https://www.facebook.com/TowersStreet?fref=ts)

I'm interested in seeing how the restraints will be received for Banshee, as they're going for the restraints only seen on wingriders to date. B&M don't normally tweak things a lot; they seem to get most things right first time. Whilst I doubt it will cause any major differences to the ride experience, it will be interesting to see if it actually does...

Stay in. Far too many people to be dealing with going out. DVD or Blu-Ray?

Birthday. Sun or snow?