JoshC.

Indeed, that's why Thorpe stopped selling balloons - all the helium budget went to Colossus. (It's a little early for April Fools; think you've been had)

Bit weird to now have two Rocking Tug attractions in one park, but heyho. Investment in that area is good, and some small new rides won't do any harm. I worry about the queues for the Watermania thing, especially as Chessington are pretty thin on the ground with water rides. With a new Pirate Ship and a drop tower last year, investment is going in the right direction. But if we're being truly honest, these investments follow from years of neglect and years of rethemes which had been aimed at fixing that neglect. So there's an air of 'It's about time!' that these things have happened, and I hope that this investment can continue, and the quality is of a good standard. It was weird, I visited the park yesterday and walked right through the area these rides are going. Little did I know it would be the last time I'd walk through it, and probably the last time I'd walk through Pirates Cove. The planning application says construction would start in March and the rides would open by June.

So I'll be doing the UK Merlin quartet and Paultons Park again this year. I'd like to do a bit more UK stuff too (Pleasurewood Hill maybe), but we'll see. As for international stuff, after a break of not going abroad (due to Covid rules and finishing a PhD), this is what I have planned concretely: April Heide Park and Hansa Park June Six Flags Great Adventure Hersheypark Kings Dominion Busch Gardens Williamsburg +a selection (or all) of Six Flags America, Knoebels and Dorney Also planning to return to Phantasialand and finally ride Fly, as well as go back to Plopsaland and Walibi Belgium for their new rides. I'd also like to do the Gardaland/Movieland Italy duo and a couple of parks in Denmark, butttttt those plans are a bit more up in the air at the moment.

As has been said, we won't know until the park officially confirm. However, I highly believe that Rocky Express will just stay where it is until it needs to be ripped out, Timber Tug Boat will go to a different park and Lumber Jump will be relocated within the park.

The park have announced 2 new events: Mardi Gras and Carnival. Mardi Gras takes places in May/June, and Carnival in July/August. These accompany Oktoberfest (September) and Fright Nights (October): The descriptions for the new events do sound reasonably similar. And with Oktoberfest too, it is 3 events which sound incredibly similar at heart, just dressed with different colours. It's good to see the park diversify and include more events. But hopefully they are sufficiently different and worthwhile in their own right.

ding ding ding, we have a winner It is from the 'Load Room', the room after the pre-show and before the hanging carriage scene. It's also facing backwards, in a way one would not normally look. So yeah, a tricky one

Maybe I made this a bit too hard, so let's zoom out just a little...

Mr Rabbit is still on his travels and this is not right. --- BOO! Probably time for a clue... he he he

Good guess but unfortunately not. We hope your guess makes a splashback soon! 😉

A splashing guess, but like it's fire effect, not quite right!

Winner winner chicken dinner. Let's see:

I would imagine then it's Hudson River Rafts?

Angry Birds 4D Experience (5) Black Mirror Labyrinth (5) Colossus (5) Depth Charge (5) Derren Brown’s Ghost Train (1) Detonator: Bomb's Away (5) Flying Fish (5) King Pig's Wild Hog Dodgems (5) Lumber Jump (5) Mr. Monkey's Banana Ride (5) Nemesis Inferno (7) Quantum (5) Rocky Express (5) Rumba Rapids (5) Rush (6) Samurai (6) Saw - The Ride (5) Stealth (6) Storm in a Teacup (5) Storm Surge (5) The Swarm (6) Tidal Wave (5) Timber Tug Boat (3) Vortex (5) Zodiac (5) Timber Tug G.O.A.T. + @MattyMoo's Spooky Prediction Carriage -

Rocky Express is currently still at Thorpe Park, untouched. It is highly unlikely that it will be moved elsewhere.

Worth noting that along with Rocky Express and Timber Tug Boat leaving the Rides Listing page, so too has Wet Wet Wet: https://www.thorpepark.com/explore/theme-park/rides/ Though it did not open at all last year, it was still listed on the website: https://web.archive.org/web/20210918113557/https://www.thorpepark.com/explore/theme-park/rides/ Interesting if Timber leaves and Lumber stays. I would have thought that ripping out Wet Wet Wet and replacing it with Timber and Lumber would have created a nice little family friendly area, with those two, Flying Fish, Depth Charge and the Beach.

Thinking about this made me realise that most (possibly all) of the screen-heavy dark rides I've done have been interactive (ie shooters). And as I enjoy shooters, I've got positive experiences with dark rides with screens. But at the same time, the ones which are better are the ones where the use of screens is justified and is blended in with real world environments. I certainly think that more traditional dark rides can benefit from screens if done correctly. I would be more cautious to experience a dark ride which is screen, blank, screen, blank.

Angry Birds 4D Experience (5) Black Mirror Labyrinth (5) Colossus (5) Depth Charge (5) Derren Brown’s Ghost Train (2) Detonator: Bomb's Away (5) Flying Fish (5) King Pig's Wild Hog Dodgems (5) Lumber Jump (5) Mr. Monkey's Banana Ride (5) Nemesis Inferno (7) Quantum (5) Rocky Express (5) Rumba Rapids (5) Rush (5) Samurai (5) Saw - The Ride (5) Stealth (5) Storm in a Teacup (5) Storm Surge (5) The Swarm (6) Tidal Wave (5) Timber Tug Boat (5) Vortex (5) Zodiac (5) Winferno + Derren Brown's Spooky Choo Choo Ride -

At first I didn't think this was the case. But, yeah it's in TPG's article which copies from the Merlin announcement, and staff will be moving over to be employed by Aramark: I think that's a huge deal, and will be interesting to see the effect that has. To use HB Leisure as the example, the parks do not hire those staff. It's all through HBL. They have minimal involvement with the park's onboarding / training processes too - again, all through HBL. It was the same with Picsolve too (I don't know if that's changed with the move to Pomvom). Will that mean, in the mid-to-long term, the same thing happens for Food and Beverage? If so, that creates some big changes: -A workforce within one place with more diverse training, which may not be standardised. -Different benefits (Merlin staff get free tickets to Merlin attractions, HBL and Picsolve staff do not) and rates of pay Those are things which can have a big knock on effect to the type of people who want to work there / who is hired, and the quality of the staff. And an interesting potential knock on effect would be Annual Pass discount. You don't get it on HBL games, and Annual Passes and Picsolve have been a weird mix since forever. Could the same happen with F&B? At the very least, discounts are still advertised now for F&B with current passes, so it won't happen immediately. But what about in 2-3 years time? As a passholder, I do hope that that's something that has been agreed to stick around with this change. It's interesting to note that especially over the last couple of years, the park have been getting in external F&B companies for their special events. Thorpe and Chessington have used a company called Pineapple in particular. All of the stuff on the lawns at Towers has been external too. I wonder what affect this will have there. I do also wonder if this will actually change the number of restaurants and food places at the parks. I imagine the agreement is more along the lines of "We have this many units, you staff them and get x amount of profit". So it will be hard to imagine a change there. I think in the short term, we won't see much of a change. Especially for this season, most things will already be pretty set and it will be a case of dealing with the transition. It probably will be a good couple of years before we have any real change, but even then, if any changes are slow and gradual, we may not fully notice them (for better or worse). KFC and Burger King at Thorpe are run by KFC and Burger King. Like with HBL and Picsolve as above, the park are not involved in the hiring process. Similarly, Alton Towers have a few outlets run by Eastern Express, and that's an external operation. Like with the event food stalls, it will be interesting what happens there. Presumably the agreement is "Here's these units, run them to get this profit". But if Aramark feel that these other companies are taking away their custom, maybe they could kick up enough of a fuss... I've seen a fair few bad reviews / unhappy responses to the news. Without experiencing their offerings/service directly, I won't make full judgement yet, but there's definitely some worrying red flags present as it stands.

Tiger Rick

Let's kill off something to try and bring some progress back to this... Amity Beach (0) Angry Birds 4D Experience (5) Black Mirror Labyrinth (5) Colossus (4) Depth Charge (5) Derren Brown’s Ghost Train (5) Detonator: Bomb's Away (5) Flying Fish (5) King Pig's Wild Hog Dodgems (5) Lumber Jump (5) Mr. Monkey's Banana Ride (5) Nemesis Inferno (7) Quantum (6) Rocky Express (6) Rumba Rapids (5) Rush (5) Samurai (6) Saw - The Ride (5) Stealth (7) Storm in a Teacup (5) Storm Surge (5) The Swarm (5) Tidal Wave (5) Timber Tug Boat (5) Vortex (5) Zodiac (5) Stealth + Amity beach - And restarting: Angry Birds 4D Experience (5) Black Mirror Labyrinth (5) Colossus (5) Depth Charge (5) Derren Brown’s Ghost Train (5) Detonator: Bomb's Away (5) Flying Fish (5) King Pig's Wild Hog Dodgems (5) Lumber Jump (5) Mr. Monkey's Banana Ride (5) Nemesis Inferno (5) Quantum (5) Rocky Express (5) Rumba Rapids (5) Rush (5) Samurai (5) Saw - The Ride (5) Stealth (5) Storm in a Teacup (5) Storm Surge (5) The Swarm (5) Tidal Wave (5) Timber Tug Boat (5) Vortex (5) Zodiac (5)

Track has also appeared for Honey Harbour, a new Vekoma Junior coaster also opening in Sweet Valley: https://www.facebook.com/254765528749165/posts/956465801912464/

A behind the scenes look at how this is progressing (so mild potential spoilers): https://www.instagram.com/p/CZOzA5vNQkG/?utm_medium=copy_link

They even did a preview for Saw, albeit in the afternoon. Passholders only, £20 a ticket. Was a Friday afternoon, like 2-5pm, so was naturally quiet. Depends the route Chessington go down. They could go down the Thorpe route of having the 'Press Night', filled with vloggers and the like. Or go for just a passholder preview day where the new area happens to be open (which would be a nightmarish day indeed). I don't think at this stage there's been absolute confirmation of it being a 1.4m height restriction. I believe it was said to Chessington Buzz during the in person consultation, but that was subject to change? The fact that: 1. It's referred to as a family roller coaster in all plans 2. Merlin are looking at opening several B&Ms across their 3 planned Legoland China parks makes me think that there must be some plan in the works for this to have a lower height restriction. I could be wildly off the mark, but it's the thing which makes the least sense to me for now. B&Ms are expensive, yes. But Merlin can afford it, so I don't see it as a potential issue, especially since this is a whole area. I'm certainly not seeing it as a "They're spending money on a B&M when they could get something cheaper and spend the money better elsewhere", in the sense that they're still investing a heck of a lot else in this investment. Yes, it would be nice to see some more money re-invested in other parts of the park too, but equally, they're not doing a bad job there imo. I also don't think that a B&M is that much more expensive thana Vekoma these days, for example. If (and obviously this is a big if) this is a wing rider with a lower height restriction, then it's probably a good ride choice for Chessington, in that it's not that intense and is something suitable for the whole family. Obviously there's questions about the layout, throughput, etc, but I don't think a wing rider is inheritely bad. I wouldn't call Jumanji extremely outdated. I wouldn't even call it outdated. In the current phase of the franchise, the last film was released in 2019, there's active plans and pitches for another sequel. It is a franchise with one of the biggest stars in the world (The Rock) involved.

Even without Merlin's lobbying, this will open way after Merlin's 2024 investments. There is no realistic way that anyone can build a resort that is comparable to Disney Paris (a benchmark those behind the London Resort regularly make reference to) in 2 years.

The thing is, they can't just scrap the repaint because repainting it was one of the things mentioned in the planning application. For whatever reason, it was included to help get approval, so they can't just not do it.