JoshC.

Short piece from BBC news featuring Paultons, The Mary Rose and Tulleys: Interesting highlight is how Paultons are saying they're spending £800k a month during Lockdown, and obviously making nothing in return.

Oooft, that's a hit. This article here states that the park made a loss of £820k in 2018/19, which is a big amount for a small park even during an okay time. They also say that almost half of their visitors don't generate any money for the park, due to the free access of the park. So even with a fundraiser launched, it's going to take a great deal for someone to invest in the place. I believe the water chute is Grade II listed, so that can't be touched whatever happens. Though we may well see it left to the wilderness... Can leave it for now, but Covid may have a great deal to say about how many small parks will be left in a year's time...

If you've been missing random coaster construction updates as of late, Walibi Belgium have you covered... Images from Themeparkmagic and ameworld It's also good to see that in a time where Phantasialand are no longer building walls, other parks round the world are picking up the slack..

Towers was on the One Show on Friday, where they show some of the things they;ve done during Lockdown to keep the park ticking over and ready for operation... https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000jz8p/the-one-show-12062020 (from around the 6 minute mark)

I mean, fair play to him for the amount of effort gone into it, but my face throughout the entire video was just:

I'm trying to avoid spoilers of the inside, but from photos I've seen the inside looks very well themed. Exterior leaves a bit to be desired (the thumbnail is Smiler-level of bad!), but on the whole pretty good. It'll be interesting to see whether an Intamin launch spinner kicks off, or indeed if they can actually make a good normal spinner..

Difficult one ordering this, but this feels right.. 5. Polle's Kitchen, Efteling - I remember my last visit there not being as good as my previous visits, but the food is still pretty great, reasonably priced, and the restaurant itself looks fantastic. 4. Food Court, Linnanmäki - I'm sure there's names for these collection of places, but I can't say for certain. Basically a collection of 3-4 food places in one mini complex, quite close to Taiga, people can choose where to eat and then eat together. Really nice food choices, really good seating choices (indoor and outdoor) and just all round a nice area. Price was reasonable for the park too. 3. Flaming Feather, Toverland - Mark hit the nail on the head about the relaxed feeling you get in here; it's just nice a cosy. Was sat by the fireplace which added to it. Little on the expensive side but you get what you pay for. 2. Oberża Lecha, Legendia - A classic European canteen-style restaurant, the restaurant by Lech is just stunning. Real nice hearty food options, along with what I'm sure was plenty of Polish classic dishes. Cheap because it's Poland, but even in context of the park, it wasn't expensive. Really spacious inside but also with lots of outdoor seating overlooking the lake too. 1. Rutmor's Taverne, Phantasialand - Absolutely brilliant, stunning. I queued 45 minutes to eat here on my last trip, and happily did so with the knowledge that: 1. waiting around in Klugheim is no hardship, 2. the food would be worth it. Again, really hearty food with lots of German classics. On the more expensive side, but again really really worth it. Would recommend. And best couples of places for sweet treats: -Las Rocas Eis-Shop, Phantasialand - Ice cream cookie sandwiches overlooking Chiapas. What more could you ask for? -Ice cream sundaes, Linnanmäki - They sell these at various places throughout the park. But basically, you pay a fixed price (like €3), get given a cup, and can go crazy. Different soft serve ice creams, lots of sauces and toppings. Wonderful; bliss!

From the Parc Asterix thread... In terms of major announced rides for 2021, there's Plopsaland's Mack Xtreme Spinner, Walibi Belgium's Intamin Mega and Grona Lund's B&M Invert, all of which are still going ahead (construction had started pre-Covid for all of them though). We also have Nigloland in France building a major new ride, which is rumoured to be a Mack water coaster. In terms of later push backs, Djurs Sommerland in Denmark have said their major 2021 attraction (which no one knew about anyways) is now happening in 2022: No clue on what it could be mind!

Aqualantis update, showing surprise Rockin Tug: Be interesting to see when this area does open up. The dark ride is also open after tis refurb; there's little changes inside apparently.

Bad news: Parc Asterix's new Intamin multi launch coaster has now been further delayed to 2023: https://www.lobservateurdebeauvais.fr/2020/06/10/oise-des-nouvelles-montagnes-russes-vertigineuses-au-parc-asterix-en-2023/ As previously mentioned, the ride was delayed from 2021 to 2022 due to issues with tree removals and permits and the like. This new delay is due to financial implications of coronavirus. The park is owned by Compagnie des Alpes, who also own the Walibi parks and Bellewaerde in Belgium. Bellewaerde are of course opening their new coaster this year, and Walibi Belgium are still getting their Intamin Mega coaster for 2021. Belgium certainly has a higher level of competition at the moment, so it makes sense to press on with investments there over Asterix. Nonetheless, still a massive shame.

There are six sets of toilets: -One just before the turnstiles at the entrance (so technically outside the park) -One in the lower part of the Dome -One by Swarm -One opposite Tidal Wave's exit -One by Nemesis Inferno -One near Old Town, next to Slammer All toilets have disabled access too if that's appropriate to your needs. The park is quite small and the toilets are reasonably well spread out. Probably the worst place to be in desperate need of a toilet is half way along Colossus' pathway, and even then you could be at a toilet in a brisk 2-3 minute walk.

Yes, I see what you're saying. However, from some people I've spoken to, they've said that they either didn't join forums because they found the prospect intimidating, or didn't participate much after joining because they felt intimidated by the idea of a male-dominated forum. I don't want to make a generalization there, but it's definitely a trend I've noticed from people I've spoken to.

I've noticed that the coaster community is slightly more diverse on social media (in that there's more girls on there). It's probably not the most surprising thing though, as signing up to an online forum is intimidating. It can be even moreso for a teenage girl. Why there's few BAME people within the community is a mystery to me though.

Energylandia taking the opportunity for some light-hearted corona=updates:

I believe Blue Barnacle is new. I'm under the impression it's a Huss too, but I maybe be incorrect there... Everything else: it's hard to say, as it will all depend on how much work they've been able to do during Lockdown (including whether they've been able to get people in to install and 'function test' the ride). That may be further complicated by the fact their carpark has been used for coronavirus testing. We'll just have to wait and see.

So this is now testing, with many expecting it to open this month still (or early next month): It doesn't appear to have anything 'special' about it, like was rumoured at many times. This is a new coaster for the park which seems to focus more on speed and airtime. A good investment for the park, but perhaps a little underwhelming after what was rumoured. The ride has 3 cars, much like their Gerstlauer launched Junker. Junker usually only runs 1 car because it doesn't need any more, so that's an interesting set up. --- In other news, Legendia, Poland's second biggest park, also reopened this weekend along with Energylandia, and they opened their new rapids ride - Dolina Jagi (Jagi Valley), which they first started advertising 18 months ago. Here's a slightly old video: And then some photos from FOMO Coaster's Facebook: In recent Legendia fashion, it looks nicely themed and is, in general, pretty good looking. It also comes with a monster of a cattlepen queue: Edit: A video from the park showing off the ride, as well as their new mascots... The park's recent investments, especially Lech and Bazyliszek, have unnecessarily huge queue lines which are barely used. I'm sure they're planning long-term, but when these queues are likely capable of 3-4 hour wait times, it just feels...odd. Then again, Energylandia have crazy long queue lines too, so maybe it's just a Polish thing. It'll be interesting to see what's next for Legendia though. They aren't able to access the same EU grants as Energylandia due to their region being better developed, and the park being much older. The owners who took over the park a few years back clearly have a vision, but perhaps not the level of funds they'd like. They've invested in some great stuff slowly and steadily. But last year they also removed several flat rides for...reasons I do not know. The park has buckets of potential, and their next investment will be really telling for the park's trajectory for the next decade in my opinion.

With the recent Black Lives Matter protests, Efteling's somewhat questionable representations of race have come into question. Monsieur Cannibale is the park's teacups-like ride, and the centrepiece is of a black character, with the ride being that you're riding in various cooking pots whilst he cooks you. A look for those unacquainted: Looopings reported that a couple took signs and posted on social media that "Monsier Cannibale is Racism": The park's original response was that only when major maintenance is needed would a change to the ride's look be considered, with it being emphasised that the character is a caricature. However, the ride is now "closed for maintenance" until June 20th. This isn't the first time Efteling has come under fire for racist attractions in recent years. Carnival Festival, which takes you round the world with different figures in an omnimover system, came under fire for its depictions of Chinese and African characters. These have slowly been changed though. The Netherlands itself has quite a few issues with racism, such as a blackface sidekick to Santa Claus for many years (I don't know how prevalent that is in today's society, but I know it's still been a recent issue). It'll be interesting to see what the response is from Efteling now. Having these sorts of character and depictions be allowed is something that comes from a different time, and now more than ever is the time to move forward arguably. Other parks have slowly moved away from these 'possibly-racist' ideas too (for example, Phantasialand haven't exclusively had black workers in their Africa land since 2017). It's a sensitive issue that needs to be responded to correctly.

More corona-updates. Energylandia Energylandia opened on Saturday, which was the earliest date Polish parks could open. They are running the park at a reduced capacity (allowing 1 guest 30 square meters of space in terms of pathways) and doing temperature checks on arrival to everyone. Unlike most places, they're not putting social distancing measures on rides, but are strictly enforcing that you wear masks on rides. They also have a cleaning brigade out, some of who look like they're actually cosplaying Ghostbusters... The park were originally making people book online, but they have now dropped this: This is because at this time of year, about 20% of visitors are foreign tourists and 60% are school groups, all of which currently aren't visiting. As such, the park aren't too worried about hitting their new temporary capacity, so don't see a need to enforce that. This post also explains their strategy for increasing the park capacity too. Belgium Belgian parks have reluctantly accepted the government's decision to allow parks to reopen from July 1st and are pushing that date. Borders are still set to reopen on the 15th and Dutch parks like Efteling are pushing for Belgian visitors. Efteling Speaking of Efteling, they have made the decision to not run of the three "tours" on Symbolica. For those who don't know, there's three different routes in Symbolica - you choose which one to go on by going in a different part of the station before bordering. During the ride, the ride cars get very close to each other. As such, they have stopped running the 'Knights Tour' to ensure social distancing between groups remains. Source - https://www.looopings.nl/weblog/14583/Coronacrisis-Efteling-kan-een-van-de-drie-Symbolica-tours-niet-aanbieden.html Efteling have also had to revoke some people's Annual Passes after they forged online reserved tickets to get into the park. Two people were also fined by the police for this, due to it being classed as entering private property illegally. Blackpool Blackpool have stated their intention to reopen on July 4th:

I don't think Thorpe have ever released a Teacups pin (at least, not yet!), so that might be why you're having trouble finding it!

Toverland have invested in a second train for Booster Bike: (Images from Looopings) The ride is only capable of running one train, but obviously having a second means if there's an issue with one, they don't have the shut the ride down. For now, the original train will receive some work, and then they'll have both available. Coaster trains aren't cheap, so this is a solid investment from the park.

Sexy update: And aerial shots from this account: Looks great already ❤️

Sorry to divert from the media rant, but... I confess when I saw this, I was a little confused. I think anyone who had big plans this year is frustrated/annoyed/upset. And I don't think it's unreasonable for people to have a moan online about it to vent those feelings. But then I've seen a ton of drama on social media within the 'enthusiast community' crop up this week. Claims, with evidence, of people being homophobic, racist, bigoted and who knows what else. Digging deeper, I saw many self-entitled people going on and on about how unfair things are, I've seen people making statements like "parks abroad are open, so why aren't our's". Some absolutely crazy things, coming from adults who are all just within their own crazy bubble. It's mental, and a bit disheartening. It made me happy though that at least forums like this aren't like that. Sure, TPM has never been perfect, and sadly it's quieter than ever on here, but for the most part these days, it's drama-free and pretty civil. Lords knows I'd prefer that over whatever happens on Twitter and other social media pages. I stopped following a few people involved in the crazy drama, so hopefully I won't see any more of it and continue to live in blissful ignorance about the situation forevermore...

Whilst Energylandia does benefit hugely from EU funds, they would not necessarily struggle if it was lost. The original grant was only for investments up to this year (including the Vekoma Mine Train, which is on site but hasn't started construction yet, and I personally doubt would open this year, especially with Covid). However, they did successfully apply for more funds, which is helping them "accelerate" plans they had for the next few years, which has included the building more accommodation, and further expansions. Should those EU funds no longer be made available, their investment would likely still be large, but just more spread out. If the country's homophobia increases further, it would be interesting to see how badly tourism is hit, and how it would affect the park. I don't know how many of their visitors are international, but they certainly have got the attention of the enthusiast community, which no doubt helps in drawing more people in. This is particularly prevalent with Zator being just inside a region that's declared itself LGBT-free. A drop in visitors could hit the park harder than them not having access to EU funds. Obviously what happens to Energylandia pales in comparison to LGBT rights in Poland.

It was confirmed a few days ago that Pirates in Batavia will reopen at the end of July. Here's a look at a boat:

In that case, it's time to move this thread