JoshC.

Towers clearly having a bad day: high winds have caused lots of shutdowns, to the point where they've offered free return tickets.

Okay, so it has little impact on anyone's day. But it's a theme park for goodness sake. This looks like something you see whilst walking down a back alley in Staines. No level of enjoyment whatsoever. And this is off a main walkway in the park. I think there's a wider issue though. This is opposite Ghost Train, which will inevitably be closed all year. You've also got Walking Dead just a bit further down, a ride which will likely be closed for a while. And the other end of the pathway, you've got Jungle Escape, another experience that will be closed for a good while. In the centre of the park, you have a complete dead zone. Of course, it's not Thorpe's fault everything round there is closed, but this doesn't help. It might be part of a redevelopment, but it begs the question why do that now? I honestly can't think of any other theme park I've been to that would leave a guest-facing wall looking that glaring bland.

The arcade itself is still open; the entrance here is blocked off to allow for people control. What has happened is the removal of the canopy like stuff, along with some games machines.

https://kanaalz.knack.be/nieuws/walibi-heropent-op-een-kwart-van-z-n-capaciteit/video-normal-1616365.html Some details about Walibi Belgium is the above article: The park lost approx €15m during Belgium's lockdown. Like some parks here, they hadn't yet opened before the Lockdowns started, and only opened on Wednesday The new Intamin Mega is a €25m investment in total, and the ride is on track to open in April next year That is of course part of a €100m investment plan of the park. This plan was to take place between 2018-2023, but the park have confirmed this will now be finished by 2025. I don't think that's totally down to Covid either, as plans for last year and this year had been delayed Compaigne des Alpes, the parent company who own all Walibi parks as well as Parc Asterix, took out a €200m loan during Lockdown

Who loves before and afters? Here's one of the back of the arcade, opposite Ghost Train.. Second image from: https://live.themeparkguide.biz/ One would like to hope this is part of some long term project. Hope. I don't expect it though. I don't know what's worse. The removal itself, the cheap paving working or the ugly look.

TPM are, of course, on park for opening today. Follow thoughts and updates on our Facebook page... In a hilarious level of irony, they're handing out leaflets saying they're not doing paper maps to reduce contact...

Swarm's rows are far apart (I believe something in the region of 1.5m), so effectively you're already socially distanced. Closing off rows does nothing in that case. Other rides need rows closed off to maintain that distance. Obviously whether one is socially distanced or not, it likely makes little difference as to whether you'd catch Covid is likely small

Another Jack Silkstone video detailing what's happening in the park: All the highlights... Admissions Cars will be parked as every other car Self service ticket machines have been introduced The temperature check will be after bag search You can only use every other turnstile As we knew, ANPR car park barriers are in place, which has also meant there's another lane No paper maps at all this year (not sure if that was the plan pre-Covid, but it is said to be to reduce contact) Lots more new signage which looks pretty nice Hotel Improved system for checking in and out Social Distancing Majority of outdoor places have yellow painted dots for social distancing. I wonder how long they'll last before fading.. 'No dwelling' signs at key areas where people usually wait around (The Bridge, outside Dome) The waterski company have agreed to not pass the bridge at peak times to stop people watching The park are encouraging 'walk on the left' in most places, with 'walk on the right' in some places where operationally necessary Rides Face coverings to be worn on 14 rides which will open tomorrow (side note not in video: 15 rides are due to open tomorrow; the exception to the face covering rule is Tidal Wave) Social distancing in place on rides; each ride has own rules There are 3 hand sanitising points available for all rides: at queue entrance, just before boarding, and after the ride No Fastrack at open. Implied that it won't be in operation for the whole season. With reduced capacity, it's hoped there won't be a need for Fastrack anyway Ride Access Pass is still a thing Stealth, Swarm and Saw will still have photos Food and Shops All food places will be operating as 'grab n go', with the exception of Infinity and KFC, which will have limited seating The self serve Coke Freestyle machines will still be in use, though maybe not from start of season. They won't have ice though, for hygiene reasons.. 'Most' places will be cashless. The park obviously have tried this for a couple of years now, with limited success. But Covid has made many places cashless now of course Shops to have one way systems The refurbished Megastore will force everyone to have a basket whilst they look around. The baskets act as counters for the maximum number of people allowed in the shop The Colossus shop, which is the only shop open where guests are forced through the shop after the ride, has been changed so that people walk through. The shop remains open though, and people can ask the staff member for whatever they want to buy, with all stuff on display behind a barrier Events The park are still planning to hold some form of Fright Nights, though do accept it will be very different Oktoberfest will be a day and evening event Nothing particular striking or surprising really. I'm surprised the Merlin parks are mostly going for painted distancing markers - they either fade reasonably quickly or are rather permanent (and I expect they'll have gone for the fading paint). Means they'll regularly have to repaint them. Hopefully the walking / one way rules are all very clear. Operating food places entirely as grab n go is odd. Indoor restaurants are allowed to open tomorrow too, so why not at least have that option there, with reduced table numbers. Will be very interesting to see how it all works out tomorrow. I've decided to wait a little while before going back, to at least judge what I think of the rules and whether I think it's worth it...

Ravensburger Spieleland, a theme park in Southern Germany with big focus on play areas and stuff too, are getting their first roller coaster next year. What is it, you ask? It's an SBF Hamster Wheel (also known as a Big Air Coaster)... The Hamster Wheel model debuted at IAAPA last year, and looks sickening, yet intriguing, to say the least: This is the second one to open; the first is in fact the one from IAAPA, which was bought by a small Family Entertainment Centre place in America . In lighter news, Pitts Special at Powerpark did a Gerts Special the other day and valleyed... lol

Some shots, with all footers complete: Source: https://www.facebook.com/pg/themeparkmagic1/photos/?tab=album&album_id=746845186144740 Vertical construction is due to start in September. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I hate the location of this.

It hasn't been explicitly said either way whether the ride is actually going to reopen on Saturday or not. From the details here, we have: As I understand it, the list of rides which require you to wear a face mask is more or less the whole list of rides reopening from Saturday: Samurai is listed twice, presumably a typo. The water rides are not listed as the park have said they don't recommend wearing them on rides where you get wet, but I believe Depth Charge and Tidal Wave at the very least are planned to open. No indoor attraction is listed, so presumably they will be closed at first. Rush is also missing from the list, and as I understand it, will be closed for a while due to non-coronavirus reasons. I believe they're hoping to reopen more rides in a phased basis, depending on how the restrictions go and how the park feel. Walking Dead is a difficult one. Being indoors is one challenge. The long dark corridors don't lend themselves to social distancing. The 'there must be 2 people per row' alienates odd numbered groups completely now. So it'll be interesting to see their decision.

Thorpe are following Towers' lead and also hosting some form of Oktoberfest event this year: https://www.thorpepark.com/explore/theme-park/events/oktoberfest/ It'll be interesting to see what exactly it involves, especially with social distancing measures.

All Belgian theme parks are reopening today. I'm rather confused how Bellewaerde managed to open Wakala for some sort of previews yesterday given the rule was that theme parks couldn't open before today. I guess they found some sort of loophole given they have a zoo, but I was under the impression that they weren't opening the zoo only at any point prior. Not the end of the world either way though..

More Gerstlauer news, with Wakala at Bellewaerde taking riders today for some form of preview event, ahead of the park and ride opening tomorrow: (Front and back row POVs) Dispatch audio sounds really fun!

But don't companies go to B&M for Hypers and Gigas because they have the most experience making them, and arguably make the best ones? Eyebrows would equally be raised if a park went to Gerstlauer for a traditional, 7-8 row long train Giga, no? All very true, and if B&M were ever going to design a new generation launch coaster, Busch/Sea World would be the most obvious choice for the first one, given their relationship.

It's a really curious model. I'd personally be very surprised if it is the equivalent of a multi-launch: with Intamin, Mack, Vekoma and Premier all offering multi launch rides, along with Gerstlauer and S&S offering swing launch models, it's already a saturated market. It feels unnecessary, and potentially risky, for a park to approach B&M to do one when they have so little experience with launches, and would be an odd, out-there choice for B&M to start developing. But then, what else could be they developing? The 'surf' naming feels more like something akin to a swing launch, but then the same reasoning as before: why would B&M get in that game now? Obviously I could be way off base, but I feel like this is could be more than just a launch coaster.

Very crude numbers, but does put it into perspective - thanks. I'm sure capacity will increase and things will change, but I do think Thorpe would do very well to get 500k visitors this year. And regardless of what they actually have been getting in the past, that's a massive step down. It'll be interesting to see what Merlin, and parks generally, do to react to this. There's so many variables, but it could mean we see a boom in staycations, which will only benefit the UK parks (as seen in the late 00s and early 10s). Or it could lead to more people holidaying abroad - taking the opportunity because they can, which could really hit their resort/hotel strategy. In either case though, I think that gives Merlin grounds to invest. A boom in visitors is great, and gives them confidence to keep money going in, and a big new investment helps retain those people (hopefully they learnt from past mistakes). A continued decrease in visitors is a kick up the backside to making them invest in something big and new to get people's attentions back. Obviously that's a very simplistic look at it. But I wouldn't discount a major investment coming sooner rather than later.

These recently opened up! Hals-über-Kopf (Suspended Thrill Coaster) POV: Volldampf (Vekoma Boomerang) POV: And a lovely promo video from the park: The noticeable thing is that the HuK station is yet to be themed, and is just a set of concrete slabs. That theming is coming in 2021: The theming for the Volldampf station is complete though. I haven't found a good photo of it, but if you look at the videos, you'll see how it looks pretty damn good. It's a shame they couldn't do all the theming at once, and I make it no secret I hate it when parks do that. But at the same time, I get why it's done. A necessary evil I guess. Personally as well, I'm not sold on the rides: Volldampf looks to be the weakest Boomerang out there, and I'm just not sure on the STC yet (and reviews I've read have been mixed). In saying that though, the total investment is an absolute winner for the park, and once the theming is finished, will be a fantastic extension for the place.

Remember this is a thing? Photo from a couple of weeks ago: Source Still a lot of painting to do (you can make out the silver-grey between the two corkscrews, and that still appears to be all that's done). It's a real shame as looking at it from this angle, the red/yellow scheme works really well in the location. Some rumours suggest an August opening, but whether that was pre-Covid is anyone's guess. So yeah, this will open at some point.

Well it looks like a lot of Dutch / Efteling fansites would fit in here, because they were very critical of M+M... So there we go guys - Max and Moritz would be great at the likes of Phantasialand, Toyko DisneySea and anywhere else in the world. But not Efteling. Another hated point of the ride is the fact that you can see the shed that houses the park's 4D film: Source: Looopings Trees have been planted and will of course end up hiding them. Bob of course had quite a lot of dense trees and shrubbery hiding it, but they had to be removed for construction. And funnily enough, you can't just plant a huge set of fully grown trees... Enthusiasts - can't please them... In other news, it's also believed that Efteling are temporarily not using the scent cannons, which are featured in the likes of Droomvulcht and Fata Morgana, to help cut back on costs following their closure. Personally I've never really strongly noticed the smells, but I do wonder if it's because they're subtle, and it's more a thing that's noticeable when they're not there..

IMAScore and Alton Towers are releasing a CD! No hard date for release yet, but it will start as an exclusive within Alton Towers, before also being available on IMAScore's website (slightly different to the Thorpe CD, which is just available through IMAScore).

After much back and forth, the park have finally got permission to build the two new rides. The issue? They won't open till 2023... https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=4188849437822675&id=184031211637871

Certainly a lot of challenges. I honestly can't envision any sort of normal Fright Nights happening. Even if they create attractions where it's possible for social distancing to be observed, those sorts of attractions would be very different. I still expect *something* to happen, because Fright Nights is always the most popular time of year for the park by far, and they'll want to cash in on it however they can. But what exactly depends on how creative the park choose to be.

I don't get their decision to keep Ultimate closed frankly, unless there's a further reason behind it. I had been considering a visit later in the year as a result of Covid, but it's difficult to justify with those closed rides. Lightwater certainly feels like one of those 'damned either way' parks. Stay closed much longer and the lack of income quite easily could have meant they'd be calling in the administrators. Open up and they're still going to struggle anyways. Opening up as they are and it makes you wonder if there is actually much point in opening at all...

The Thorpe Breaks website is updated separately usually- and in the past has usually updated some details before the main website. Presumably the main site will update over the coming days with some form of contact done shortly after. I'd guess it's treated as a lower priority for them to sort out at this point though.