JoshC.

I very much doubt it. The current MTDP goes up to 2016, so anything after after that is probably very much up it in the air (even the hotel which they've had planned for god knows how long doesn't have a concrete date), so I doubt they have a date when they can build a coaster of certain height. I highly doubt it would be approved anyway. Stealth was granted special permission, and has a colour which isn't too intrusive to the surroundings and has minimal supports. The only way a 300ft coaster would be built, in my opinion, is if it was a coaster with a top hat and quite low after that, which is pretty pointless I think. Never say never, but do say probably not...

Because they can add backwards rows on a year or two later for an added gimmick!

This is a brilliant idea!

The site has been updated with a little bit more info about the £50 experiences:

I wouldn't use the concept art to judge the manufacturer by any means; we all now how little it can mean. However, best guess would either be a B&M or Gerstlauer Infinity. Will be interesting to see. Great to see a Hansa investing once again; hopefully it's as successful as Fluch, which from reviews I've read, sounds like a great coaster.

I'd definitely be interested in this! Quick question - is there a specific set of dates when we have to have the experience, or can we choose our own?

Yeah, pretty sure Speed and Rage are off the shelf, but Saw is custom, and hence wouldn't have a code. XD There are LSM Infinity Coaster available; with Karacho at Tripsdrill being the first - http://www.gerstlauer-rides.de/products/roller-coasters/infinity-coaster/. I'd be surprised if they tweaked a Smiler clone (if one were to ever happen) to have a LSM launch though!

In a brochure of the Infinity Coaster, Gerstlauer give technical data for Smiler and call it 'Infinity Coaster 1170' - http://www.gerstlauer-rides.de/assets/downloads/brochures/Infinity-Coaster.pdf I don't know much about it, but it seems strange for them to have a specific, one off coaster, with a standardised code like that (I don't think Saw, for example, is referred to as 'Eurofighter 300' or whatever). So I wouldn't be surprised if, theoretically, a park could order one, if you will, though it does heavily rely on a certain terrain and such. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if AT struck a deal of some sort with Gerstlauer to say they could make another one for a another park for x years as part of the deal. (Basically what EC said )

My point was how they haven't approached with any crazy ideas; an answer they gave in the video when they were asked if anyone had... I quite like the thought that B&M consider every idea that a park proposes to them isn't crazy, and that they'd presumably be willing to either give it a shot or happily say that whilst it's a good idea, they wouldn't be interested in pursuing it.

I noticed these had appeared towards the end of season (apart from the £50 ones). Yes, they're expensive, but I bet some people will do it; after all, not many people should be able to access a VIP experience. The £50 ones seem okay and will probably be quite popular considering, though! Nice to see the park doing more and more out of hours stuff.

Here's the video, for anyone interested... Skip to 16:25 for the part about the AT woodie. He seems to refer to the cross-valley woodie proposed a few years ago; saying it had good terrain and a couple of 'special features'. Also says he'd love to see one there. I also love how early on in the video, B&M say they've had no crazy ideas!

Thorpe Park Doge

The entrance was always planned to be behind Depth Charge, but the Swarm stuff was put by Stealth as more people went there, and you could see Swarm from there. Sunken Gardens was still accessible at the time; if you went through the Stealth tyre, there was a small pathway to the left of the main Stealth queue line made (which has now been filled with plants and stuff)

The path by Sunken Gardens would link onto the currently unused land next to Swarm; there's no other logical way it could work really! So I highly doubt that the second entrance to the Swarm island will open up until the other island opens up. From what I've been told, Swarm's island was considered to have the Sunken Garden link from the go, but it was scrapped very early on in the project so that the entrance to Swarm's island was much more grand and spectacular; also making you explore the entire island island before you get to the entrance.

A short article about a Hunger Games theme park and what potential attractions could possibly work... http://entertainment.time.com/2013/11/18/that-hunger-games-theme-park-here-are-5-attractions-we-want-to-see/ One thing which stands out massively to me is the large amount of space required to make even just one or two of those attractions successful. However, I think it's achievable and could suit itself to a family environment to some degree. Whilst I hate the possible deductions that could be made from this, but Thorpe Park's marketing director did tweet this link on his Twitter page, so who knows?

After a few lengthy discussions, I've sorted out my uni accommodation for the next academic year! I'll be staying in the same house I'm at this year; the 23 person house of amazing-ness. Surprisingly, pretty much everyone has got on with one another and there's been no real problems (apart from a couple of 'teething issues' when we first moved in). Unfortunately, out of the core group of 17 of us that moved in, 6-7 are deciding to try and look elsewhere to move into a smaller house for various reasons. It's a shame, as I do want to live with everyone, but after weighing up the pros and cons, staying in the same house with the 10 or so people from the main group I was with seems like the best option. Even then, the people looking may not decide to leave; they're just actively looking for somewhere else to go. So yeah, I haven't signed a contract or anything, but the group of us wanting to stay have emailed the landlords with out intent to stay, and it's part of our current contract that we're given priority to rooms over people if we decided to stay on. Took a few long talks with everyone, but things have worked out.

As I said earlier, I'm not sure there's many types of attractions which could work for it. Even a scare attraction would require a lot of space to be executed well (I think in some ways turning the park into a 'battle arena' and have roaming actors fighting, and picking on random people, in a similar fashion to the You're Next characters would probably be the best way for Thorpe to go about it if they wanted to explore that route). Some form of dark ride where you're in the training zone and trying to get your 'score' from the judge could be one way of going about it. You could even be in a battle arena, and just being attacked from all edges leading to loads of special effects and such, and you're just trying to defend yourself. Then you'd incorporate the feel of the film and not have a need to actually see the deaths (or just minimise it as much as possible at the very least). It definitely could work, and it could indeed be tailored to a family market with older children, but I do agree it is difficult to do. Difficult, but not impossible.

Well, Thorpe are aiming for an audience which attracts families with older children, so Hunger Games is indeed a perfect fit the park in my eyes. The books have a broad audience, but I'd assume were written with a teen / mature pre-teen audience, and they're a lot more detailed with the deaths. Absolutely nothing wrong with the idea working in a theme park environment the way I see it. They wouldn't even need to focus that much on the deaths for it really to make it successful. The Harry Potter world has a fair few deaths in it (granted, no where near as many as Hunger Games and the entire series doesn't revolve around it), but all HP attractions seem to be able to avoid the deaths from what I'm aware? So yeah, just because it involves deaths, doesn't mean it's incompatible with a family theme park.

The basic idea of Hunger Games is that in a dystopian future, there's a country with a very rich capital, and 12 poor 'districts'. Each year, the government (in the capital) forces each district to offer up 2 children to compete in a 24 person fight-to-death battle (the 'Hunger Games'), which is televised across the entire country. There is training and other things which happen as well. A Spiderman-style ride is definitely something which could work given enough space and budget!

Even as someone who has watched the film and read the books, I can't really think of what attractions would utilise the theme well. In some ways, a wingrider would suit well, as you could 'fly' through one of the battle arenas or something. Of course, that sort of attraction is probably not on Thorpe's cards due to Swarm. An interactive dark ride which is 'training' you for battle is another option which could come about. Something similar to Battle Galleons could work as well actually. Everything I can think of would require some form of interactivity, be that through many near misses on a roller coaster, or where you actually have to do something whilst on the ride. A scare zone would be a brilliant idea as well, but would require a lot of space to be executed well in my mind. Certainly something which could fit into Thorpe perfectly considering their current direction, but I personally can't think of many attractions which the theme could work well with. Would love to be shown wrong though!

The trouble I had with BWP is because our group split up into two quite early on (due to the speed at which people walked, so quite natural really), it was so easy to see where actors were and what they did, and so any interaction they had to offer to us was already expected. There also felt like a lack of anticipation due to the fact it was 'too quiet' - a couple of speakers with the sounds of rustling leaves, gusts of winds, sticks breaking, etc. would have done wonders to the feel of the area. Considering it was only a 2* rated attraction, it's alright, but it's hard to get a good location on park which would've suited this type of attraction I guess

I don't think this has been posted yet... A full walkthrough of the Blair Witch Project in night vision. One thing which has dawned on me is how the park seem to be trying to 'do an Asylum' with how some of their attractions end, and try and create this one huge scare that will get people running out. The trouble is, it doesn't work with the likes of Experiment 10 / MBV or BWP because of their free-flow style. It only works for Asylum because you're in a conga line, so it happens to everyone at once (and the fact that the finale involves being attacked by a guy revving up a chainsaw by your face...). Relying on people staying together so they can all experience the finale, or by forcing a free flow maze to group together for the end, doesn't work well, and I hope the park take that into consideration next year!

It's opened with the park for the past couple of seasons, so I think it could be a safe assumption to say that it'll be open. They'll probably want it to be working for AP Day as well (if it happens), which would be the Sunday before then probably. It's been down since July, so if it takes them more than 8 months to have decided to keep it, get the relevant parts, and then actually fix and test it, you do have to question if it really is worth the effort.

I keep meaning to give an official word, but am a maybe at the moment due to other things cropping up and having to save money for things I've got planned for next year. If I do go, I won't do Winter Wonderland due to the cost that it would inevitably entail, but would be up for the rest of it.

They haven't confirmed anything really, but said in planning applications it's "unlikely" that it will be built in 2015.