JoshC.

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.

Chessington was reasonably well run today in honesty. -Getting into the park is smooth. -They've added some high barriers in some of their queue lines (though not others, like Dragon's Fury). -One way systems around the zoo areas weren't followed; hard to say if they are just leftover from zoo days or should still be followed as no one was enforcing them -Rainforest area looks okay for what it is. My biggest bug bear with the park is how much they're overestimating their queue times. My 75 minute queue for Tomb Blaster was 25 minutes. My 45 minute Gruffalo queue was 15 minutes with a cleaning break. 80 minutes for Vampire was closer to 40, again with a cleaning break. I could go on. I get these things are hard to judge under the best of circumstance, and social distancing measures make it even harder, and they want to account for cleaning time too. But when queue times are 2-3 times over their advertised estimates, I think they need to look at themselves a bit. Also wasn't a fan of the operator of Adventure Tree refusing to dispatch the ride until everyone was stood on a social distancing marker (which are twice the distance they should be because they accounted for the middle row of the cattlepen, but don't use the middle row), but not caring about there being a crowd of people outside the queue not distancing. Could have been handled better. In my opinion, parks should have these social distancing markers and recommend people use them, but enforce masks in queue lines. It's harder to do, but if they commit to it, it's achievable.

Jesus Christ this updated version of Tomb Blaster is terrible. Where to start... 1. Shoehorning in a story by having a weird voice say things in scenes adds nothing. I didn't get what the story was as half the time I was focusing on shooting. 2. Turning targets off and not removing them is poor. Having a shooting / interactive dark ride have scenes take place in darkness with a voiceover is even poorer. 3. Where's the audio?! Portions of the ride are in silence or literally just have the voice over. Dark rides should have some sort of background audio at the very least imo 4. The lighting is...okay? Quite a few scenes are lit up too brightly I'd say. 5. The "ending" is bloody dreadful, and again just shoehorned in. 6. Still don't like the new guns (I'm not a fan of those types of guns in general though). The only positive I can say about Tomb Blaster is the fact that you are batched into the building now, which adds a sense of wonder and excitement to entering it (as opposed to just queueing normally through it). But I fully expect that that's just a Covid measure. When the best thing about an updated ride is it's Covid measures, you know you've done something wrong.

Got to see the updated station today, and I was pretty impressed. Organ man (does he actually have a name?) looks great. I had no problem with what they've done with the music and lighting. In general big thumbs up from me.

And Day 5 brings an end to the trip, where we spend a few hours at Dennlys Parc, which is about an hour from Calais... Covid MeasuresFace coverings on rides if you're over the age of 11. Some queues had social distancing markers I think, and people kept at a sensible enough distance. The visit was the day after face coverings has become compulsory in shops again across the whole of France, so I expect that the idea of social distancing might have been on people's minds a bit if it was pushed a lot by the media. A long meandering drive meant we arrived to the park about quarter past 10, and their first (smaller) car park was approaching full-ness, and a couple of coaches of young school kids were entering the park. A little bit of a worrying start, but it turned out not to matter as the park was pretty quiet all day, with basically no queues.First stop of the day was Nitro, a Mobius loop coaster where you do both sides in one ride. It's an okay ride, the concept of course being quite novel, especially with a hint of duelling (though I wish it was timed so that cars went over the air time hill at the same time). However, there's a really nasty turn half way through the 'left side' of circuit, which gave a really uncomfortable lateral jerk. Was not a fan. Plus there was little leg room in the front row of the car, making it a bit uncomfortable.We rode it later in the day too, so it's not horrendous, but that was more out of 'needing to drag a bit more out of the park' than really wanting to reride. We did some of their family rides, including their new-for-2020 ride which was a pedal sky car ride called Xotic. It wasn't a very exotic experience tbh. Next stop was a ride on their figure 8 spinner for the +1 (made by a company called Gesotto, who I'd never heard of before - another one for the manufacturer count I guess!). All that led upto a ride on Furio, their Soquet coaster which was by 200th cred. Boom, achievement unlocked right - I'm slightly less basic now...I remember being a younger, very basic goon sitting on 20 creds thinking how cool it would be one day to have 200 creds; a 'bucket list' sort of thing. So it was nice to hit it, feels a bit more substantial than any other milestone I'll probably hit (unless I magic myself to 1000 one day).. I even made a terrible sign and felt like a pillock getting my photo taken. Never again.Furio itself was a bit meh. Not the good level of wacky that some Soquets are. Looks nice though with the treesWith creds done, it was just a case of ticking off rides. One intriguing ride was Squadron 33, which is a mix of an Enterprise and Gerstlauer Sky Fly..As I've said, I hate spinning rides, but I'm also a sucker for doing something a little different and unique (most of the time), and I don't usually mind Sky Flys (though I hate Enterprises..), so I gave it a go. But damn did I regret it. I was able to rotate myself at points - I think! - but the double spinning motion really hit me. It was much more difficult to judge when you'd be upside down. However, you can get some really cool 'drops' if you time your rotations right.Definitely not my cup of tea, but a really solid and different ride in fairness! After recovering and doing gentler rides, we'd managed to squeeze to just past midday, so had lunch at the restaurant near the front of the park. They had "tacos" on the menu, with a variety of fillings (Mexican, doner, vegetarian, etc). I ordered a Mexican taco, and was somewhat disappointed to find that their version of a 'taco' is in fact a panini... Still, was alright for price.It turns out that after lunch I didn't bother taking any more photos, which probably says something about my feelings about the place. The afternoon was spent doing some of their other family rides on the side of the park that doesn't have creds and a couple of rerides. A particular highlight was their water boat ride, where you drive your own dingy around what's effectively a pool, which also has a water gun attached. You get a solid 3 minute cycle to just squirt people, including helpless people in the queue, and bump around. Pure, simple fun - but also very wet! And, in fact their rapids ride was decent as well - also very well, and actually built by, you guessed it, Soquet.. Oh that random French company, you're full of surprises. I lied, I took one photo after lunch...of this pistachio ice cream I had. It was tasty. So enjoy this final photo...The park also had a 'sitting on a rocking chair with a gun in front of a screen and shoot things' attraction, behind their spinner, but it was closed all day. No sign explaining why and nothing on the website, so not sure if because of Covid or if it's just buggered.We managed to drag the day out till just after 2pm, before ultimately deciding to move on. With no creds or nothing of particular fun en route between the park and Calais, where out half 7 ferry would eventually await us, we decided to divert to Cité Europe, the large shopping centre by the channel tunnel terminal, to kill a couple of hours before a stress-free journey home.Final Dennlys thoughts: My trips have a habit of sticking on a smaller park after visiting great parks to end it (my first major European trip saw me end with a visit Bobbejaanland after multiple days after Efteling and Phantasialand, for example). Unsurprisingly, Dennlys felt rather flat after an incredible day at Asterix. The park is nice and has a few cool rides for a family group, but felt a little weak compared to some of the other smaller parks from the trip.And so that's that - thanks for reading!

Even if they make this their flagship park (a claim I'm wary of at this stage because that can very easily just be PR drivel), that doesn't mean much. Bung in a second hand Vekoma Boomerang, put a new dark ride in the place of Pirates and put a kids ride in place of G Force and that sees them invest more than they've invested in any other of their parks. So it doesn't take much. It's great the park isn't closing, but I don't expect this to change Drayton in any way.