JoshC.

Was Swarm badly marketed though? Personally, I think they did a solid job with it. Anyone who visited the park in 2011 heard about it as they had a good on-park marketing campaign. They played on the popular 'end of the world' gimmick for 2012. The online stuff was good. The last minute You Me at Six song drew a lot of attention to tbf. I think Swarm's major issues were that the brand was weak, and that the ride experience wasn't the intense thrill ride people expected. But they were both post-opening issues. Personally, I think whatever they did in 2012, it would have "failed" in Merlin's eyes. The park were coming off the back of their two best years ever attendance-wise, and 2012 was a year when a lot of other things captured people's attentions. People just didn't want to go to Thorpe, and indeed theme parks in general saw a dip. Swarm has stood the test of time though and is largely a popular and well-received ride. But obviously that means little for Merlin's short termism.

Hopefully Intamin sue Mack over them 'stealing' the Mega Lite layout then... (See this (also Piraten at Djurs) vs this) Whilst we're at it, I hope Vekoma sue B&M for copying the layout of the Junior Inverts which B&M built in China. I can't find a link, so feel free to not believe me or just take my word for it, but I've heard that RMC aren't planning on really doing launch coasters. They're happy with what they have, and the issues with Lightning Rod have kept them grounded. You say that Intamin have contracted RMC in the past, and mention rides which were built 10-15 years ago, in a market that Intamin don't deal with any more (wooden coasters). Things have changed a lot since then. RMC don't have much more experience with single rail track either, really. They only have built two (which have opened) - that's nothing. It's easy enough for Intamin to 'catch up' with having that experience if you will, and we don't know what's been going on behind the scenes (which could lead them to installing more confidence in buyers over RMC). Intamin's innovation has always been hit and miss though. For every success they've had, I'm sure we could name a failure too. Of course, that's not a reason to stop innovating, but there's a level of wearing rose-tinted specs there I think.. Intamin's more recent work has seemingly been perfecting what they already have too, along with the minor innovation of a swing launch in middle of a layout (see: Pantheon at Busch Gardens, the Velocicoaster at Universal, Parc Asterix's 2023 coaster) and the anticipation stall top hat (which I question, but that's another story). If we look at some of their rides since 2018, we have: Hyperion Hagrid's (a ride with 7 launch moments...) Dueling Dragons (the crazy launched invert / sit down duelling coasters in China which sync perfectly) Taiga Objetif Mars (a new take on their spinning coaster, with launches and other surprises) Along with the highly anticipated trio I mentioned early, plus others (Walibi Belgium's one for example). If they're churning out quality rides like that and choosing to diversify their catalogue, I don't really have a problem with that. As for the cost of their rides, Intamin are obviously a premium manufacturer. But I think smaller parks with smaller budgets do turn to them, as they know there's quality there too. Parks in Asia have turned to them for family coasters. Parks like Futuroscope and Vulcania in France have gone to them for family-thrill rides. Plenty of Chinese parks, from the ones with tons of money to the smaller ones with less money we rarely hear about, go to them for a variety of rides. Intamin have a reputation which they've built up (largely good!), which helps them a lot really.

"Day 3? What happened to Day 2 though Josh? Have I missed a magnificent report of a wonderfully obscure French park that most people don't care about?" I hear no one ask. Well, it's been edited into my previous blog entry, to save me hogging all the blog entry space When this trip was planned, it was prior to the Formule incident at Parc Saint Paul. For those who don't know: a woman fell out of one of their roller coasters (Formule1), dying. The ride has a poor history, also being the reason another person died at the park in 2009. It was later found out the ride should have had a seatbelt restraint as well as a lapbar, but the seatbelt had been removed by the park, by decision of the director. They have said the ride will be removed once all investigations are complete. I didn't know much about the park beyond their reasonably new woodie, but after the accident I'd read more on it. Needless to say the accident was shocking in itself, and the reaction from the park's director was even moreso. There was a point where loads of rides were closed, and even rumours the park may be closed as a result of the incident, so we had looked at alternatives to the day if that was the case. This turned out attention to Jardin d'Acclimatation - a small garden-theme park type area on the outskirts of Paris, somewhere which I had completely discounted / forgotten about.Ultimately, Parc Saint Paul had all rides bar Formule running, but we realised we wouldn't need a full day, so decided to do both parks. More creds! And "Jar-da" (which was much easier to say) also had 2 Soquets - even better! Parc Saint PaulCovid measuresLike other parks, they had signs saying where masks were obligatory. From memory, I think basically all the rides we did you had to wear one. There were a few hand sanitising points about, and social distancing seemed minimal. It seemed that some rides were having seats sanitised after every 2-3 cycles too. We pretty much arrived as the park opened at 10am, but most rides weren't meant to open till half 10. After some milling around, and a go on their slide, first ride of the day was the log flume. Credit to the staff member here who was brilliant too. Set an expectation that the park would be one of those ones where staff were the right level of friendly, whilst also being efficient. Turned out she was the exception - most staff were more focused on talking among themselves.Log flume was exceptionally wet though; took a solid couple of hours to get dry. We moved onto Wood Express, which I later realised was my first Gravity Group woodie. I was both surprised and disappointed by the ride - there's a good few moments of airtime throughout. Nothing major or really powerful, but a few moments which were nice. But the ride was incredibly rattly. For a ride that's barely 2 years old, it was really bad. Vibrating all over the place and really just not that enjoyable to ride. The restraints aren't the greatest either which doesn't help. So yeah, despite some nice moments, it's just not that good. A quick go on the spinning wild mouse (where we sat sensibly this time and had minimal spinning!) and drop tower (which takes WAY too long to reach the top), we moved onto their open Pax - Wild Train. It had the classic Pax uncomfortable-ness from going side-to-side, but the first drop was pretty damn fun at the back. We moved on quickly and collected the final 3 open creds (Wacky Worm - which actually had a queue, disgraceful! - the custom Vekoma Rollerskater which was meh and the Zamperla Mini Mouse). All creds done by 11am! Temperatures were soaring so we cooled down on their dingy slide, which has an impressive entrance feature, before heading to the infamous Telepherique. For those unacquainted, this thing...I'd heard about this a few times before visiting, and had forgotten on the day it was actually here until I saw it. For those who don't know - you stand on a little podium suspending under the track. You run off the platform and gravity goes the rest; with your platform swinging and spinning frantically throughout. I'm sure there's videos on Youtube showing it off better. Frankly, it's a bloody terrifying experience. I was hanging on for dear life throughout, and I spun an obscene amount through the second half, to the point I had no clue how to stop myself near the end. Took me a few minutes to recover too; bloody spinning rides making me feel old...To more or less round the day off, we did their indoor walkthroughs. In particular, Le Château Hanté was fantastic! A really well done, scary walkthrough in my eyes - some solid jump scares, really dark and good triggered effects. It does feel like it would be a bit better as a Ghost Train rather than a walkthrough, but I guess that any walkthrough done this well would be the same.We wandered round the park a bit more, opted to do a second ride on Wood Express, which was a little more uncomfortable at the back, which rounded off our time at the park, a little before midday. Entrance to the dingy slide was cool - love me a good waterfall! I rarely do Disk'os, and this was no exception - but it looks really cool!Honestly, I wasn't a big fan of Parc Saint Paul. Rides themselves weren't great anyway, despite some pockets of good theming, but the park just didn't sit right with me. From things like the seemingly circus-like lion show, which feels like an outdated principle, to them parading the fact they have extremely tall and extremely short staff members like they're an attraction in themselves, it just felt off with me. Along of course with the recent incident. With most (perhaps even all?) parks I've visited, I could at least envision myself revisiting them in some circumstances - but Parc Saint Paul, I really don't envision me wanting to return, without some larger changes.For those wondering what the state of Formule is... Some fences with fake grass draped over them. The cars are covered in tarp. No signage accompanying it.Taking to the road, an hour and a bit later we were at the outskirts of Paris, in 30C+ temperatures getting ready to enter Jardin d'Acclimatation...Entering was a bit of a faff. There was a small queue to buy entry/tickets, and since we were paying by card, we were directed to the automatic machine for buying entry. However, it wasn't till after we got there that we realised we couldn't buy the wristband (which gives entry and unlimited ride access) there, and instead had to queue to get to a booth, which took a long time.We were eventually in, and food was the first sensible stop. The first food place we went to was out of all lunch options, except for a few kids sandwiches. We eventually found somewhere that was open, albeit with a long queue and food options weren't the greatest. It was just after 2pm by the time we ate - meaning it took about 50 minutes to enter and find found. Not the greatest start, but given this was a Sunday on the outskirts of Paris with temperatures now peaking at 33C, perhaps not overly surprising.Covid measuresJust another little word about that pesky virus. Masks seemed to be obligatory on all rides. Interestingly, they have also set up 'zones' whilst walking around where masks are obligatory, with the rest of the pathways only being recommended. Hand sanitising points were all around, and particularly just before you got on a ride, and social distancing was recommended to be 1.5m (though, as was rather common in France seemingly, not really adhered to much!). After eating, the first stop was Dragon Chinois, one of the park's two Soquets. It has a weird layout, with three "lift hills", if you can even call them that, and honestly not much else. Wasn't the most exciting thing in the world. I didn't even get a photo of it...though that was in part down to me eating my lunch, and having my ice cold drink, a bit too quickly I think..!We would have done Machine à Vapeur, their powered Soquet, next. But alas, it was closed, and has been for a while it seems. The first spite of the trip! Fortunately, having got the alpine cred the day before, I was still on track for hitting 200 creds, but I would need no more spites... Spite 💔Instead, we moved over to Speed Rockets, their Gerstlauer bobsled. The ride had a long, almost full queue, and a little bit of downtime, but we were on quick enough. Given the park can't go above tree height, the ride does a good enough job with it's restrictions. But it's still probably the weakest one of these I've done - it just doesn't have much to offer. But the weird double down drop element is fun - would love to experience more of these! Weird-but-fun mini double down!Carrying on with the cred-theme, Souris Mécaniques, their junior Reverchon spinner, packs a little punch. Due to the park's '2 adult per car' rule, I was in a car by myself. For such a short and weird layout, I got a surprising amount of spin in my car. Not something I particularly enjoyed, but if spinning is your thing, I'd guess that would be..None of the creds were worth a re-ride, and all had very long queues, so we took the opportunity to just wander round the place and do a few of their smaller rides, including their cute little boat ride. A stand out in terms of rides was Kinetorium, their shooter. Another 'sit on a saddle in front of a screen with 20 other people' experience, this had a pretty cool pre show (with not-perfect English subtitles) explaining the story: some biology thing gone wrong basically. The system was much better than Bocasse's one (it actually worked with a room full of people!), and the story and video were much better. A fun little experience; so much so that we did re-ride it. Originally, Jardin was meant to close at 7pm, with rides shutting at half 6, but clearly due to the weather and how busy it was, they extended both closures by an hour! However, by 5pm we were pretty much done - with nothing worth doing again and having explored around the non-ride side of things, along with the beating heat and little shade, it was time. Despite some areas only being 'masks recommended', I wore my face covering everywhere on site too, so this was my first time wearing one in hot temperatures - I was fine with it, but certainly appreciated taking it off after a few hours!Overall thoughts: whilst a nice-looking place, Jar-da didn't do much for me. They've done great to integrate a park into the surroundings, but yeah, it doesn't do it for me. The really hot weather probably didn't help either tbh. Glad to have gone and experienced it though. I was also surprised at how few English signs were about, and how little English staff seemed to speak. Given the location, I expected some more multi-lingual-ness. I guess it's not big with tourists given the location and what it is, but still, surprised me a little. Didn't affect my day as I was able to get by with my limited French, but yeah, surprising.Another Premiere Class Hotel awaited us, and this one was ever so slightly better than our previous one! Still not good enough to warrant spending an evening in it, so after another Buffalo Grill meal, we headed to a nearby bowling centre which was open. One of the group is a big bowling fan, but since he hadn't had the chance to bowl for a few months, I thought this might be the perfect opportunity to come close to his score... ...seemingly not!And with that disappointment, Day 3 drew to a close. Day 4 brings more disappointment, as there's no Soquets, but I'm sure being at Parc Asterix will compensate for that, right..?

This has been going up quickly... From Theme Park Magic, Facebook The first drop is going to be magnificent imo

I get what you're saying, and do agree. However, I simply don't envision Fright Nights being anything like previous years. If we get scare mazes, they'll be different, and I can only imagine there will be fewer of them. Obviously an extra hour never goes amiss, but I just don't think it'll have that much of an adverse affect if there's fewer Halloween experiences. If it does end up being busier and necessary, the park do have form in extending close to be fair (when they went to 9pm closes for 2012 Fright Nights, most nights they kept mazes open till 10pm anyways).

Unless the cup design has changed since last season, the refillable cups have a chip at the bottom which registers whether the cup is active or not. If it's active, you can proceed as normal. If not, you can only get water out of it. No real need to monitor them (though arguably there should be regularly cleaning of them due to them being a high touch point).

The IP contracts the park have had for Saw have always been between 3 and 5 years long to my knowledge. It's always been renewed (obviously), with terms negotiated at each renewal. I believe it was recently renewed with no problems and the park / Merlin and Lionsgate are more than happy to just keep renewing as appropriate for now. After all, the name is still a big draw for many, it's still highly rated by the GP, and Lionsgate still make money from it whilst doing nothing.

The loss of the hour isn't that big a deal in my opinion. If Fright Nights still happens (regardless of the park's intentions, it could ultimately be out of their hands whether it happens or not), it will be a wildly different event. They should still have a lower park capacity too in my opinion. Put those two things together and I don't think the event being an hour shorter makes too much of a difference. Agree that it's odd that the parks don't consider later openings for Halloween events. Even though the UK has a mindset of 'arrive early, leave early', it is slightly twisted during Halloween events. No doubt they have some sort of market research they've spun to show people aren't interested in a later opening, but I do think sooner or later it's something they should try. Also, with a park the size of Thorpe's, and a park which has been so heavily reliant on scare mazes entirely, it'll be interesting to see what they actually do.

What do you mean we don't have an Intamin thread?! Oh well, here goes... Intamin last year announced several new ride types to their offering. They've now uploaded some videos... Ultra Splash: A take on Mack's PowerSplash (aka Pulsar) model Giga Splash A take on Mack's SuperSplash model (see SuperSplash at Plopsaland) Vertical LSM coaster: A take on Premier's Sky Rocket II model Hot Racer: A take on RMC's single rail (Raptor) concept. Unlike RMC Raptors, a specific focus on launches (something RMC have said they wish to avoid with the Raptors altogether) and duelling. Nothing particularly new or groundbreaking, but some interesting ideas. The Ultra Splash model seems weird since it lacks the capability of a turntable like the Mack equivalent, meaning throughput could suffer, despite their claims. I'm particularly fond of the Giga Splash though. Looks lush

With the 'new normal' in full swing and parks open again, I'd been itching for a European trip again. With my Heide/Hansa trip back in April cancelled, and my June Europa trip delayed before I booked, the Covid situation had dented some big plans for new parks for me.However, wanting to remain cautious, I didn't want to swing into big parks, and risk not visiting them in case something happened (having to self-isolate, a park randomly closing, etc). So something I bit smaller was needed. Back in 2017, I visited Bagatelle, and really enjoyed their two Soquet creds - Gaz Express (as I mentioned about here)and Spirale des Dunes, and had joked with my housemates in the past of doing a trip to hunt out more of their creds. And lo and behold, this trip was born!A few smaller French parks could be ticked off, boosting my cred count, and also a first visit to Parc Asterix, just to add some real quality to the trip too. And, if all worked out perfectly, I would end the trip on exactly 200 creds, becoming slightly less basic in the process.Keeping the costs down meant we stayed at Premier Class hotels whilst in France, and anyone who's visited one will know they're certainly not premiere in class (we fortunately knew that in advance)..More on that later though!Day 0We travelled over to Calais Thursday afternoon by ferry with P&O, which was sadly delayed by a couple of hours. As for their Covid measures, it was pretty simple: wear a mask on the ferry at all times (except if eating/drinking), and keep 2m distance from everyone. Keeping the distance was easy as the ferry was quiet, and I wore a mask all the time - little warm, but no issue. Lots of people did end up taking their masks off, but given how quiet it was, I wasn't surprised. To encourage social distancing, each table in the main seating area only had 1 seat, which made no sense when a group wanted to sit together...We arrived at our first Premiere Class, where we had upgraded to a room which gave us breakfast and a sea view for only a couple of Euros extra. We were intrigued, but the sea view was, well... A little lacking to say the least!Coincidentally, each Premiere Class we stayed at had a Buffalo Grill restaurant very nearby. An American-esque BBQ style place, we decided that Day 0 would be the perfect time to try it out, and it was pretty good! On the pricier side for a budget trip, but decent food, including amazing Mozzarella sticks with BBQ sauce!Day 1 - Parc du BocasseUnsure of how Covid measures would affect park capacities and throughputs, we decided to give each park a day, and then do other stuff in the afternoon/evening if time allowed (spoilers: we regularly left parks early!). Parc du Bocasse was park number 1, we arrived a little before 10, with rides opening at half 10.Covid MeasuresThe park had a variety of signs which said whether a ride/queue/building required masks or simply recommended them. The queues had social distancing markers, and there were hand sanitising points before going on a ride, and sometimes afterwards. There was no social distancing on rides. Masks weren't required in the park's walkways. Their 4D cinema was closed, but everything else remained open.Social distancing was largely respected in queue lines which was nice. I wore my mask everywhere except on water rides (where we always were in our own group anyway). A quick bag check and we were in, and wandered to the back of the park towards their pirate area.We ticked off the kiddie cred and some of the flats, along with their shooting ride - Pirate's Plunder. It's the first time I've done one of these types: where you are on a seat which tilts and moves and fire at a stationary screen. I quite enjoyed it, and liked the competitive nature it had throughout. We did it later in the day, and sadly it didn't cope when the room was almost full, with none of our guns registering properly.We worked through the park, ticking off their other family cred, and came up to arguably their major cred - Fort d'Odin, their Soquet. The ride looked fun from its rcdb entry, and it had been rethemed last year. However, I wasn't prepared for how extensive the retheme was: My photos don't do it enough justice - but it feels completely different compared to the rcdb photos!It was a fun ride. Whilst nothing special of course, it at least gave us some reassurance we hadn't planned a trip based entirely around a manufacturer which makes terrible rides, bar two at some random small park!We continued, doing their dark ride Apiland, which has a ton of animatronics, but goes on way too long, before arriving back to the front of the park, which is a Dinosaur / Jurassic themed land. I think a few years ago this was pretty unthemed and had a 'plonked in a car park' feel, but looks a lot better now. We did their Spinning Wild Mouse, which was vile due to us distributing the weight badly (I'm really not a fan of spinning). We then moved to their log flume, which is also a Soquet, Splash-o-Saure. It features a backwards section and a vertical lift, and some nice theming. It was the right level of wet too. Little on the short side, but really enjoyed it to be honest. This took us up the lunch time, and aside from the park's fountain show, which first showed at 2pm, we had done the park. After a spot of food and some rerides, we milled around and eventually queued up for Symphonie Aquatique, which was surprisingly hosted indoors. The show was about 10-15mins long, and featured a stage with some fountains which were just going off pretty consistently, whilst some lasers and music played. The concept is cool, but it misses the mark with the fountains being boring, and all the seats being on the same level, so being at the back meant we saw little.After milling around a bit more and a couple more re-rides, we called it a day just after 3pm. Parc du Bocasse was a surprisingly nice park, with some decent theming and a nice little selection of rides. It always seems like they're preparing to expand, with work going on next to their log flume. It'll be interesting to see what they do next!One annoying thing though - bugs! There were a ton around the park. I don't know what they were; tiny little fly-like things? I guess it's because of the park's location, but it was a little bit annoying after a while, especially since the colour of my shorts seemed to really attract them!We then headed into Rouen, which was en route to our next hotel. We popped into a Laser Quest, and the three of us played a game - just us three! Their Covid measures meant we still had to wear masks inside. And let's just say, if I can wear a mask for 20 minutes whilst running around indoors playing Laser Quest, I don't see why any normal person can't wear one!Our next Premiere Class would be our base for two nights, and didn't promise a sea view, being far away from the sea and all that, so we weren't disappointed. Fortunately there were lots of restaurants and shops nearby which meant we had plenty of options to keep ourselves entertained for the evening, before turning in for the night.Coming to a blog post near you: Day 2 - Festyland, and a surprise cred... --- Which, in fact, is right here!! Day 2 - Festyland...A quick mention of their Covid measures. There were social distancing markers in queue lines and a few signs about wearing masks.There didn't seem to be as many people wearing masks and social distancing in queue lines wasn't the best, but equally not the worst. Many of the operators at rides had unlabelled bottles of liquid, which they would spray onto your hands before going on rides. I can only hope it was hand sanitiser! Though I'm sure I could start a conspiracy theory somewhere on the internet saying it's some mind control liquid to stop us thinking about 5G or something....Anyways, onto the park. We arrived shortly after opening and headed straight to the back of the park, where the first of two Soquets awaited, 1066... The building looks cool, but the signage leaves a little to be desired!Unlike other Soquets, this ran two short trains, which was a little bit of a surprise. It's also nicely situated on the edge of the park towards a field, meaning it could make use of the terrain a bit more. The ride was a walk on so I went straight to the back for my first ride. And damn, this little cred packed a bit of a punch. Coming off the drop gave some solid ejector. The ride then turns around a bit before going into a helix which gave some really nice laterals. An airtime hill with a kicker wheel followed, which sadly meant not much airtime. Another helix and a jump up into the station followed, which again gave some nice laterals. So all in all, a really neat cred. It was the right level and mix of weird and fun that I had expected. The area still had no one else around, which meant another lap followed, with me heading to the front. The drop wasn't as good, but the laterals and side to side movement were still solid.Sticking to the back of the park, the next port of call was Kaskade, the park's rapids. It very much has a budget River Quest feel, with an elevator lift and intimidating (in context of the park) look. The drop lead to some of the craziest spinning I've ever had on a water ride, and the final splash gets you a good level of wet too. A solid ride, and a nice little gem in the park. We moved over to the park's other cred, Drakkar Express. This is nothing more than a +1, but features a drop halfway through the layout where you somehow manage to slow down rather than speed up I swear. Oh Soquet... The park have a really neat, large and well themed Viking land, which features a few rides, including an Air Race-like ride, Rocking Tug and more. We ticked off these rides, as well as their standard dingy slide and drop tower rides, before a re-ride on 1066. Fun fact: I did get the standard photo of me holding this, etc. BUT this was shortly after Kaskade, and so I had a huge wet patch down half my body, which looked like a massive sweat mark, and so will never see the light of day...It was now midday and the park was filling up a fair bit (Kaskade had a full queue, which probably would have taken a good 30+minutes given the lack of boats). We did a ride on their bumper boats, which we didn't think adults would be allowed on, but they didn't seem to mind. One of our group fell into the water whilst getting out, much to the enjoyment of everyone in the queue!So after barely two hours, we called it a day at Festyland. It's a cute little park with some surprisingly well themed parts, and 1066 is a solid ride. But ultimately, it isn't much more than a stop on a cred run for us.Anticipating that this could well happen, we had made contingency plans the night prior, and thanks to leaflets at our hotel and coast2coaster, we found a couple of Alpine coasters near-ish to the park. Both were about a 40 minutes drive away, and 40 minutes away from each other. We ultimately opted to do just one, and so of we headed to the...Normandie-LugeLocated in the valley of an old Viaduct designed in 1887 by Gustave Eiffel, this was a complex of activities. The Viaduc de la Souleuvre is the name of the wider, free-to-enter, complex, and has activities such as bungee jumping, giant swings and zip lining from the top of the viaduct, as well as the cred, a high ropes course and other things. Unsurprisingly the likes of bungee jumping were very expensive (149€!!), but the cred was just 4€..much more reasonable. After eating at the onsite restaurant, which was fantastic and well priced, we hit up the Luge, as they like to call the cred specifically. No need to wear masks, but you have to clean your hands before, as well as the 'car' being cleaned as well. The layout makes excellent use of the terrain, and features some decent sweeping turns and banked moments, as well as some pops of airtime. Fortunately was able to go full speed all the way down, and the ending was a particular highlight! The ending You can also buy a photo for 2€. Since it captured the exact moment a fly decided to try and get in my mouth, I couldn't refuse...After a little bit of milling around and watching people bungee jump, we moved on. Not a place I'd ever return to (as awesome as it would be to jump from a viaduct, I can't justify paying seven times what I paid for my bungee jump a few years back...even if it was off a crane in a pub car park). But I certainly would recommend heading down there for the alpine cred if you're nearby! We left and headed to the commune of Deauville by the sea, which was only 15 or so minutes away from our hotel. It's a seaside place, but our only reason for going there was to play some mini golf, which seemed to be the only one anywhere vaguely nearby. It was a very open circuit, but had some decent courses. And that concludes Day 2. We eventually got back to our hotel at about 7 (how we dragged out an entire from Festyland, an alpine cred and mini golf I'm still not quiet sure..), before food and sleep.Day 3 to come in a new blog entry very soon, featuring the somewhat controversial Parc Saint Paul, and an unplanned park (or rather, an unplanned garden)...

Mark's post has hit the nail on the head really. There's also a similar discussion here where there's loads of great points raised about Thorpe's current position (ironically with the same name, but I'll keep them separate for now): I think one thing which should be stressed too is Thorpe's ever-changing branding. Even when they've stuck to a specific target market, their branding has been a flip-flop mess for about 10 years now. It started with the 'fat heads' and the brash, in your face marketing. Something like that can work for a theme park (Walibi Holland have made something similar work imo), but it needs to be done slowly. Thorpe rushed into it. They then dropped it and went back to a family target market with the 'Island like no other' branding. But they then shifted target market to thrills with DBGT, but kept the 'Like no other' brand. They then see-sawed flipped away from this whimsical but thrilling 'like no other' brand to the dark 'Year of the Walking Dead' and horror brand, which disappeared again for the family-friendly but still thrill focused 40th anniversary thing last year. The 'Island like no other' branding has drifted away and we've got a slightly blander, but coherent, style. But how long will that last? And will they once again dip their toes into the family market?

I think some people have hit the nail on the head in the past few comments: if someone wants to take a weapon, such as a knife, into a theme park, they'll find a way. Short of doing a full on airport security style search where you walk through a metal detector, have your bags x-rayed and are patted down, people will always find a way in my personal opinion. Not to be facetious, but haven't you visited Thorpe much more than any other park (aside from possibly Blackpool)? In which case, the chances are you would have seen more antisocial behaviour.. I've witnessed antisocial behaviour at loads of parks personally - Thorpe, Towers, Chessington, Walibi, Phantasialand. I've heard about it at many more - Universal parks, Six Flags parks, Parc Asterix, Port Aventura... It does happen. Not that that takes away from your point per se, but it happens in more places. And I'm sure it happens more often that people see. Not to try and create a 'race to the bottom', but loads of other parks have DIY security setups which have queues. It isn't a Thorpe exclusive problem.

Edited for (sad) accuracy.

I was under the impression the VAT cut was more for the benefit of businesses than customers - in that they get more profit to help compensate for money lost. Obviously some of it could be passed to the consumer, but I honestly didn't expect many places to pass that saving on.

I could be wrong, but I thought Th13teen's trims (at least the one on the first drop) aren't retractable or controllable, and is always on and the same regardless of train weight, etc. Certainly looking at them that's how I imagine they'd work.

I do wonder if the parks have shot themselves in the foot a bit, with them saying "we're limiting capacity so queues will be shorter" (Towers have been particularly bad at this). When you load rides under usual circumstances, to get them to run well is a well-oiled machine. You plan to have all seats filled. You open the gates and unlock restraints more or less at the same time, creating an almost conveyer belt system for unloading/loading (when done right). Staff then quickly check restraints and boom. It's difficult to consistently do it perfectly, but that's how it works. Under Covid rules that goes out the window: -Some rides you can't fill every seat. -You have to wait for a train to be clear of people before the next people can realistically join. -You have cleaning which disrupts flow. So throughputs are going to be lower. It all adds up. Across the whole park, and with some rides closed, that basically counteracts the reduced capacity. I think one thing to keep in mind: it's the middle of July. At this time of year, queues are always horrendously long: 2hr+ for major rides horrendous. From what I've heard, coaster queues have only peaked at 90mins or so.. Under normal conditions, the queues would again be bad, but standard July bad of 2hr+.. Obviously there's two issues there. Issue 1 is the park are not doing a good job at advertising queue times correctly. It's definitely harder for them to estimate them with social distancing measures, but from what I've seen and heard, they can just be way off base. Issue 2 is the fact that a 90 minute queue is still a 90 minute queue. And it feels even worse when it's going slowly and you see empty seats on trains. Regardless of the situation, it just makes those 90 minutes drag. And it's difficult to improve upon that. Honest question here: what can the park do in response to this? -What else can they do to implement social distancing? Where in the country is social distancing implemented perfectly? It's as much as the guests' responsibility as it is the park's, and if all guests don't do their part, you're screwed. -Security search is going to be hampered by social distancing. They can fit less people in the bag check areas so it'll slow down. -Other guests swearing. Again, what can be done? A lot of bad reviews I've seen are basically along the lines of 'Don't visit during Covid restrictions'. And you know, I get that. Theme parks are very different at this time, and less enjoyable. They have a very different feel. Thorpe in particular doesn't have the theme park 'escapism' feel. And these measures certain have highlighted many of the other problems the park have. That's another issue. But honestly? It feels like a lot of complaints have an overarching theme of 'I didn't like my day because of Covid restrictions and other people's take of them'. And the park can't do a lot about that, as the only other option really is to not open.

Updating, featuring top hat...

Bellewaerde have a new roaming character, Jona Corona: (From TPWW...only photo I could find) Apparently Jona goes around telling people of all the safety rules relating to coronavirus...of which he doesn't appear to mind breaking the rules about social distancing...

Though the park haven't confirmed it directly, Theme Park Freaks have said that Aqualantis will now not open until 2021: https://themeparkfreaks.eu/2020/07/energylandia-stelt-opening-nieuw-themagebied-aqualantis-uit-naar-2021/ This would make 2020 the first year the park has not opened a new roller coaster since opening.

Depth Charge also opened up today. In terms of water rides, I believe Tidal Wave will be a little bit longer. As for closed attractions, the list is now: Derren Brown Walking Dead The Ride Rush Tidal Wave Angry Birds 4D Jungle Escape Beach / Wet Wet Wet

We have some lovely dark green track onsite: The animation released at IAAPA in 2018 showed red track, but I believe that was just for ease of show. I'm under the impression the layout is unchanged.

They'll get Croc Drop (dreadful name) and seemingly Blue Barnacle (I can't see that opening this year like planned now). Doubt we'll see a retheme or rename of Forbidden Kingdom as the drop tower seems designed to fit in with that area. Might get a little spruce up around the tower but that's about it there. You'll get your standard little bits and pieces of new stuff here and there probably, but the investment of two family thrill rides is a pretty huge deal for Chessington to be honest.

It's not as big an issue as it looks - it can happen on these top scans. As with many rides, it probably doesn't help that it hasn't seen continuous operation for several months, especially since it would have been ready to go too. I believe it was only stuck like that for a couple of minutes before it was able to be manually lowered down. Obviously wouldn't be pleasant to be stuck on the 'top' or 'bottom' arm though.

Some updates from today: -You no longer need to queue in the main cattlepen for Nemesis Inferno. They have removed the fence so you bypass it, and the first extension is now going to remain open. (This does open up the problem where people will end up queueing in the cattlepen in the first extension, but you know, baby steps) -Inferno is no longer loading every other row. When I was there, Row 4 was left empty for some reason. Also saw Row 3 left empty too. Not sure why. -Colossus is now loading a group, then leaving a row, then loading another group, rather than every other car (as is Stealth). -Since Saw is basically running as normal (both rows loaded, since I believe it requires a minimum of 4 people to ride), it makes you wonder what the point of social distancing on rides even is. Does coronavirus not exist at Saw? -Most people were obeying social distancing in fairness. I never saw a person not wearing a mask. -The park was very quiet. And it felt very lifeless too. I've been on quiet days in the past. I've been on days where things go terribly wrong and loads of rides are closed. But this felt different. It still very much felt like you were living in a world where a pandemic was going on. There was no escapism. (Be interesting to see if I think that about other parks or if this is Thorpe-specifc). This further isn't helped when areas like Derren, the walkway by Fish, etc feel so dead, with no music or...anything really. -All water rides were testing today. I believe some of them are hoped to be opening within the next few days if all goes the park's way. -Timber Tug Boat opened today. I believe Lumber Jump is due to open tomorrow now too. In terms of face covering. I was wearing a reusable one I bought from Lidl (2 for £2.99, 2 layers with space for a filter). It stayed on all rides fine, except for my back row ride on Stealth, where it came off my nose (front row was fine though!). As for non-Covid stuff... -I had my worst ever ride on Saw today. Was very painful. -Swarm felt very vibrate-y. -The vegetarian place by Ghost Train is alright for what it is. Does diversify food choices a lot. -There's some new music in Old Town. Well, kind of new - it's the Old Town-soundy excerpt from the bridge loop. But it fits. All in all, an okay visit. The park are doing well enough with the Covid-restrictions. They're still learning and getting stuff wrong, but it seems they're ready to fix it. Hopefully as time goes on things will be better. The park itself is the same old same old really. Some of the branding refreshes are nice, others aren't. It's hard to judge the park under such weird circumstance, but it does just feel a bit...meh.

Totally agree. Thorpe have made a lot of positive changes. Whilst there's stuff I'm not keen on (Infinity for example), there's no denying there's plenty of steps in the righr direction for people/ I guess one of the major problems is that for the past few years, Thorpe in particular have been keen to push the "look at what we've done over closed season" type content before the park opens. Be that through their own channels or through fans (here at TPM, Jack Silkstone, etc). So when the park opens, everyone knows about the positive changes. We've seen them and, to a degree, no longer care, because they don't seem like new changes - they've been known about already. So when there's not-good stuff - such as the arcade wall, Stealth's forever-broken green light, etc - people zone in on that more, because that's what the new stuff is. In a few days/weeks, people won't be as up in arms about the bad stuff, because it'll be the new normal. Just like how they're not as hyped by the new stuff. In any case, all of these changes are pretty superficial - none of them are big changes, making sweeping changes to the park. Ultimately, the park is still the same. And in Thorpe's case, that's a park that hasn't had a 'proper' new ride in 4 years, once again going through a rebrand which U-turns what the park have done 2 years prior, is suffering from an ageing thrill ride selection and is in dire need of a new major attraction to modernise the park. Obviously something like that doesn't happen overnight. But does it feel like it's starting to happen? Arguably not.. So yeah, whilst there's lots of positives, it's no surprise there's still a wave of negativity.