JoshC.

Testing, 1, 2, testing...

The Storm Surge rule was being enforced by a staff member at the front of the entrance. Didn't seem to cause many issues, but did overhear one conversation from a group of 3 who just didn't get it. It's a weird one as I don't think similar rides have the rule, nor did it have the rule in Cypress Gardens. Reason it exists is to prevent it from 'stalling' whilst going down the slide I've heard, but just seems weird.

I hated the batching system on Hyperion, so sad to learn it's been adopted on Zadra too. Just confusion and faff for no real reason in my opinion. A shame you don't particularly rate Energylandia as a park. Whilst it's true parts of it have a fun fair feel to it, I think a good chunk of it is a decent park with enough fun rides and okay levels of theming to be considered on par with plenty of other parks out there. And they're forever improving too, which is great to see.

Visited Towers yesterday. Overall, was pretty impressed. The park have adapted themselves well to Covid measures, and having all the park's pathways open from 9am is great. And getting rides open before 10am when possible is nice to see to. Operationally, Wicker Man seemed to have some issues and didn't open till mid-afternoon I believe. Hex was rather painful to go through; not sure if it was having technical issues / shutdowns whilst I was waiting, but batching was very erratic, and it there were long waits after each preshow had finished too. Because of social distancing, the physical queues are very long too: Nemesis' queue was outside Sub Terra. Th13teen was looping round the Dark Forest. But generally, operations seemed quick, and the length of queues are deceiving at the moment. Out of the 4 UK Merlin parks, Towers is probably dealing with Covid the best now. This was the park where social distancing was followed the most too...hard to say whether that's because the people who visit at the most sensible, or because of how they've explained and handled it. But yeah, it was nice to see.

And a little more about the event: https://www.thorpepark.com/explore/theme-park/events/oktoberfest/ The event sounds promising, and it's good to see they're actually planning on having an actual Oktoberfest drink there. Hopefully they can do it some justice. --- On a different note, I visited on Monday. Something which was very striking was that, during a thunderstorm, every ride was closed (completely understandable and obvious). The only open attraction was Angry Birds 4D. I know there's a slight element of this being out of their control (Derren and Walking Dead being closed due to Covid, though I'm sure the latter could have reopened by now, which makes me wonder if there's a different problem...), but it really highlighted the park's need for more indoor rides frankly. They'd also have two indoor walkthroughs if it wasn't for Covid, but yeah, that's not what I'm talking about. Yes, it's always been a problem for the park, and they face challenges with the amount of indoor space they can have. But it's something that really needs addressing, and something which I was just starkly reminded of during my visit.

I've heard the Mine Train is planned to be an extension to the Dragon Zone, but honestly no idea. Given their recent investments though I think it's likely it'll be reasonably well styled at the very least.

Flamingoland have updated their park map confirming that the new ride won't open until 2021. The ride is coloured grey on the map, and shows two trains with Union Jacks on the front. I'm sure at least one aspect of that drawing will be wrong, and it's not the colour of the track... Still no word on a name, but if they don't call it Invers10n I'm not bothering with this.

Stuart Beare, the owner, confirmed on a Facebook Live that they'll make an announcement regarding Shocktoberfest by next Friday. It sounded rather 50/50 as to whether it'll happen in my opinion, but just a wait and see for now...

An update on Aqualantis; particularly a look at the theming: The first photo, which shows a large blank space, is the rumoured location for the Mine Train, which is expected to open in 2021.

Construction continues:

They've been a mixed bag really. It does seem to differ day-to-day frankly. However, I think on the whole, operations are better than they were 2-3 years ago. The cleaning procedures may close a ride down for 5-10 minutes once an hour or so, but you can be lucky and have it not affect your day at all (equally, you can be unlucky and notice it on every ride). Queues look longer because of social distancing, so generally they may look bad but they're a bit more manageable. If you're going on a school day, the park will be more than manageable tbh, with likelihood of re-rides quite easily. If you're going on a weekend, just being sensible enough should mean you'd get most things done. Equally though, there's the Oktoberfest event starting from 7th September - if it's similar to the Towers one, the weekends will have later closer times, which would help further (and potentially see the park quieten down). tl;dr - operations will probably be okay compared to your last visit.

On a different note, not a good day at Towers... The park currently has no water supply, meaning the only toilets available are actually back at the hotel (though they did add some port-a-loos to the front lawn a short while ago). There's been some mixed messaging going round whether the park is 'closed' or just advising people to not turn up, but the park recently sent a message out to people on park via the app saying they are closing the park in phases. Strange that the park didn't know about the water supply issue before opening.

8pm?! Originally it was set to 8.30pm!! I demand a refund... (But yeah, it's great to see extended opening hours)

A small quote about what to expect during the Oktoberfest event: (From European Coaster Club's Facebook)

So the line up has been revealed by some fansites (presumably the park will make an official announcement at some point today..). And I have to say, I'm surprised at the line up. New for 2020 Freak Show: Toxic Junkyard. An outdoor scare maze taking place where the containers are currently, based on the old scare zone. Garden Lights Walk: Whispering Souls. Free family-orientated attraction using the Gardens. Also returning, somehow, are three mazes from last year... Darkest Depths, The Attic and Skin Snatchers. I've only done Skin Snatchers from that trio, but I remember it being a very tight maze, and I'm genuinely surprised that's going ahead. This means that Sub Species and Project 42 have left the line up.

Following my French trip and hitting 200 coasters, here's my Top 10%... 1. Taron, Phantasialand. Practically perfect in every way. 2. Taiga, Linnanmäki. Also practically perfect in every way. A touch more theming around the ride and this may have been #1. 3. Untamed, Walibi Holland. So much airtime ❤️ 4. Helix, Liseberg. Little bit of everything, and done oh so well. 5. Oz'Iris, Parc Astérix. New entry, and really has everything you want in an invert. Plus the theming is incredible. 6. Balder, Liseberg. Lots of airtime, and the first drop is bliss. 7. Lost Gravity, Walibi Holland. I have a serious bit of love for this ride, and the random theme and theming is the icing on the cake. 8. Nemesis, Alton Towers. Whether it's because it's ageing or I'm ageing, the relentless intensity and forces of this is becoming less my cup of tea. 9. Joris en de Draak, Efteling. I'm a sucker for duelling / racing rides, and individually the coasters are great fun. 10. Troy, Toverland. Ton of fun woodie. 11. Goliath, Walibi Holland. 'Old school' type Intamin, with a good first drop and lovely airtime at the end. Riding it at night is fab too. 12. Black Mamba, Phantasialand. Similar to Nemesis, but not as good as the original masterpiece. 13. Hyperion, Energylandia. Big, fast, airtime. Easy. 14. Lech Coaster, Legendia. If the first drop was a bit less intense and didn't make me grey out and leave me feeling wiped out, I genuinely think this would be a Top 5 ride for me.. 15. Lisbergbanan, Liseberg. Just something about I really enjoyed; great length and interaction with surroundings. 16. Van Helsing's Factory, Movie Park Germany. I've got a soft spot for Gerstlauer bobsleds, and this is a decent one entirely indoors with solid theming. 17. Pulsar, Walibi Belgium. Quirky coaster which is a joy to ride. 18. The Swarm, Thorpe Park. It's still here, but honestly I feel like I enjoy it less with every ride, and the outside seats are sometimes really vibratey.. 19. Nemesis Inferno, Thorpe Park. Solid ride all round. Testament to the quality of B&M inverts. 20. Colorado Adventure, Phantasialand. With coasters doing crazier inversions and weirder elements, this is an example of how a fun, simple mine train with a decent layout can actually be just a solid coaster. So that's 5 Intamins, 5 B&Ms, 3 Macks, 2 Vekomas, 2 GCIs, 1 RMC, 1 Gerstlauer and 1 Schwarzkopf. Nice mix.

Engineers at Thorpe at split across 2 shifts: morning to afternoon (start at around 6am) and afternoon to evening (finish at around 10pm). Those patterns change slightly when the park is open later. Rarely - if ever! - will an engineer go from a late shift one day to an early shift the next. I'm not sure what the time the power cut was, but it wouldn't necessarily have affected their checks. But if during those checks they noticed something that needed repairing, the repair time could have been delayed due to the cut.

I mean, yes, it shouldn't happen. But it can happen, and it's not something that can be in the park's control. If a part on a train is showing signs of wear and tear, they're going to replace said part, and it can take time to do that. Number of trains doesn't really make a difference there. It's frustrating for you, yes, but when the park have been pretty good at running their rides on full capacity, it's feels a bit harsh to take such a firm stand of 'there's no excuse', for what is almost definitely a mechanical issue which probably wasn't avoidable.

As a question: how do you think the park could / should have communicated it? I've both been a visitor and a staff member at a theme park during a power cut, and it is frustrating and can be chaotic. If you don't have PA systems working properly (which can happen during a power cut), it takes out a key method for communicating to a mass number of people quickly. You can have staff telling people, but this rarely captures a large proportion of people. I'm sure that whilst the park's handling of it was adequate enough, they could have done it better, but it's not a straightforward thing to deal with. In this sort of situation, if the ride didn't open with 2 trains, it'll be a case that the second train wasn't ready / signed off by engineering. From an operational perspective, there is no reason to run one train at the start of day: they know the park is busy, it doesn't require any more staff, etc. So the decision will be 'Open Swarm on 1 train and add the second when it's ready' or 'Don't open Swarm until both trains are ready'. Generally speaking, the former is the better option in my opinion, but there's no denying it's frustrating for anyone in the queue. The reason as to why the second train wasn't ready is anyone's guess. Could be a minor problem that engineers picked up on during their daily checks and is just unavoidable. In fairness to the park, they seem to have run full capacity of trains all season (and, from what I remember, most of last season too?). Obviously they should be doing that, especially in a pandemic, but what you've experienced isn't the norm right now.

Some shipping containers have been set up near the Goal Striker tent: And another photo from the comments: As noted, these containers have been used for Sub Species and Darkest Depths in the past. At the very least, that suggests neither of those mazes are returning for this year. The area has been used for Scarefest stuff in the past, in particular the final year of Carnival of Screams and also for Scary Tales. So it could well be used for a scare zone, or even an outdoor scare maze. Whether the containers will actually be used is unclear, but I'd be surprised. Obviously it's still unclear what will happen at Scarefest this year. The Attic appears to have remained largely untouched from what people can see too.

Not much of a construction update (though some supports and track are in place), but the new B&M Invert opening next year will be called...Monster https://www.iaapa.org/grona-lunds-monster-sized-challenge The park are also opening a New York themed area to go with the ride. For the time being, they also hid the main construction ares with temporary retro stalls:

It's largely been forgotten that Plopsaland are finally set to open their hotel this year. Here's how it looks at the moment:

Thorpe have put a job advert up for performers for Fright Nights this year: Unsurprisingly hints towards a return of the Amity High show from last year. Whilst the advert does mention scare actors, there is not mention of 'mazes', or indeed any type of possible attraction we could see.

Mine are largely very boring... -Got stuck on Thunder River at Thorpe in the late 90s / early 00s after the power went off. They turned the ride back on and I completed my ride as normal. -Got stuck on Slammer after a cycle for about 10 minutes because restraints wouldn't release. -Got Stuck on Chiapas just before going onto the mini lift that takes you to the first turntable. Staff member came along and shoved our boat onto the conveyor. No compensation for any of these incidents. My one slightly interesting one is being stuck on X's lift hill and subsequently evacuated. But it was all part of a training drill during my days of working at Thorpe; was completely aware it was going to happen. However, no one else on the train was aware, which made it a bit more enjoyable.

Who wants a WORLDWIDE EXCLUSIVE?! Construction went vertical today. Super excitement.