JoshC.

@Mark9 will be pleased.

Track is going along nicely: (Both images from the park) Officially speaking, the park aren't saying anything regarding the Mine Train, but it's still expected to happen (although possibly 2021). The Tilt Coaster has seen delays but is still thought to be a thing; the delay could be a Vekoma-thing rather than a park thing though..

Bellewaerde's family Gerstlauer launch thing has started construction, and also has a name: Wakala Cool name, ugly track colour

I believe that during winter maintenance a major fault was found with the ride which couldn't be repaired. The park wanted to keep the ride but a replacement ship couldn't be gotten in so quickly, especially as the budget had already been spent elsewhere. So a quiet removal followed by a quiet reintroduction was decided upon. Presumably it'll be of a similar size and scale to Black Buccaneer.

You could have a 3-way race with Mission Ferrari in Abu Dhabi tbf Not that it matters, because Energylandia will have built 5 coasters, 2 cheap flats and a dozen kids rides by the time any of them open

The name of the company is Aroma Prime though

Apparently there's been issues with groundworks and the placement of footers, specifically around the cobra roll, which is causing a sizeable delay to construction. What this means in terms of opening remains to be seen...

I know you're joking, but I've seen some escape rooms / self-driven story experiences have this exact concept! And it doesn't work, because people respond to and identify different smells in different ways. And a strong concentration of an artificial smell doesn't always smell how it should, especially if it's designed to be filling a room. Aroma's announcement is clearly just them saying they're working with Thorpe on whatever is happening this year. It'd be no different to a vague announcement from IMASCORE or Scruffy Dog. My guess is that, once again, it's a small experience which probably only has a short life span, so Thorpe aren't planning on marketing it majorly. But getting companies they're working with to mention it lets those who would dig around online know something is happening. Arguably it's a lazy tactic. But not as lazy as their current social media competition of 'get enthusiasts to submit their videos to go on the park's website'.

Correct. So too has Ocean Park, and presumably any other Hong Kong parks / major tourist spots.

Aroma Prime, I'm fairly sure, are just a rebrand of Dale Air. Thorpe have used their scents before, particularly for horror mazes (Saw Alive and Cabin in the Woods spring to mind, no doubt others too..although I think a different company was used for Big Top? Anyway I digress...) and maybe for some rides as well (I'd hazard a guess at Ghost Train off the top of my head, but who knows) The rebrand to Aroma Prime saw them go down a similar route to IMAScore in some ways, in that they're really trying to connect with fans and make themselves seem desirable in their own right. It's not different to what they offered years ago as Dale Air really, but they've just improved their marketing ten-fold and been more forward with parks. What this is for is anyone's guess. If the park do something new for 2020, maybe they'll be involved. I wouldn't get hopes up for 'area smells' though. The trouble is that every ride within an area has it's own distinction - there'd be no 'one smell fits all' idea. And artificial smells are such a subtle thing that you can't really give every ride in an area a smell which is similar as it'd all just blend into one. And having smells outside in pathways is much more costly than one might initially think. Doing that for every area (something which the park did consider a few years ago) is just too impractical.

Wasn't sure where to mention this but here seems good enough... Due to the Coronavirus outbreak which is majorly affecting China, a large proportion of Chinese theme parks have closed completely. These include: -Disney Shanghai -All OCT parks (which includes the Happy Valley chain; a total of 15 parks) -All Fantawild parks (17 total) -All Chimelong parks (3 total) -Most of the Sunac parks (14 parks owned) -and many more. This is of course all happening during the Lunar New Year, which is a Top 3 holiday in China. Most parks in China on in the eastern area of the country, which is also where the greatest spread of the virus is (and, unsurprisingly, the densest part of the country). It's unsurprising that this precaution has happened, but it's good to see it's happened quickly and efficiently all the same.

Rumours are circulating around that FLY has made it's first test run this week. Still no word on an opening date of course. But I'd reckon either start of season (April) or June are the most likely times right now.

Close. You "win" a day if you receive more positive reacts over any other single person. Positive reacts are the 'Like' (heart), 'Thanks' (trophy) and 'Haha' (laughing face) symbols. The other two possible reacts, Confused (confused face) and Sad (crying face), are neutral reactions and do not increase your Reputation Score. This is because these reactions are usually only used when someone makes a confusing post (ie - one which shouldn't positively contribute to a member's reputation) or breaks sad news (say about a ride closing, or Thorpe's continuing painful existence with little signs of improvement...), and again isn't something which needs to positively contribute to a member's reputation. In other words, it's a silly system, and as such is one that should definitely be in the header of your LinkedIn profile, CV and any other formal thing where you just chuck is loads of superlatives to make yourself sound amazing and #sick

Thorpe are still plodding on with their Closed Season updates.. Nothing particularly exciting this this update, but I know people enjoy these things. This year's set of updates doesn't seem to have the same level of charm about it as last closed season for me personally.

tbf if you wait that extra year I'm sure you'll get another half a dozen creds from Energylandia...

Don't the English try to do this with Gullivers anyways? It's better than being escorted round the park by a member of staff like a criminal anyways...

There's really nowhere else to place this, so let's pop it here: British Theme Park Archive are reporting that a dark ride had been planned for many years at Thorpe (stretching back as far as 2008), with a ride similar to Spiderman at IOA being something considered. John Wardley, amongst others, was part of the team designing it too apparently. Many ideas were considered, and apparently Derren was bought on board in 2010. After many more ideas and iterations, eventually DBGT was decided upon and VR was one of the last elements to be added. In the comments its confirmed this info comes from someone they interviewed, who said it was close but "didn't quite happen". How close in unknown. I've heard a very different story behind the saga of how Thorpe eventually ended up with a dark ride (something that many had craved for years): -The park had considered the idea of a dark ride / indoor experience many times (the acknowledgement of the need for this was one reason for Saw's indoor section) -A decision was made for the park to focus on coasters and thrill support rides up until then (plus maybe a 4D show or Vengeance from the old London Dungeons coming over), but they got cold feet after Swarm's failures -Derren was bought on board sometime in 2013 / early 2014, with the plan for a dark ride being decided upon in early 2014 -With the VR trend becoming a thing by the end of 2014, it was decided to incorporate VR then, again quite late in the process Obviously there's no way to know for certain what version of events is correct, if either are. Maybe at one point or another someone somewhere within the Thorpe/Merlin hierarchy decided to look into a Spiderman style. Maybe it was just an idea that never got far beyond the drawing board.

The video in question... tl;dr - Jack makes a claim that the license for The Walking Dead mazes may be up soon, leaving the Living Nightmare space empty, and it could be used for a new year-round attraction. When it comes to smaller IPs, the standard contract length that Thorpe (and Merlin) tend to opt for is 3 years, with an option to extend to a fourth under the same conditions, before they have to renegotiate (for bigger IPs, they tend to go for longer contracts, usually at least 5 years). This is certainly clear to see with many of Thorpe's smaller IPs: Lionsgate: My Bloody Valentine 2013-2015 (not extended), Cabin in the Woods 2013-2016 (extended), Blair Witch 2013-2016 I'm a Celebrity: 2015-2018 (extended) So the mazes for The Walking Dead could definitely be up now (assuming that they're separate to the ride, which I believe they are). To anyone who follows Jack, it's clear he has good connections with Thorpe, and there's been more than one occasion in the past where his "but idk, I'm just speculating" comments are pretty bang on. So it's by no means out of the question that the park feed him intel, he can then throw it out there, and then the park can create a buzz for small things that will keep interested people, well...interested, for small investments and do zero work in the process. So in other words, yeah, it's possible the Living Nightmare space may see changes this year. Question is though: if they decide to remove Living Nightmare for a year-round attraction, how on earth are the park going to cope at Fright Nights with losing another permanent indoor space?

The, reasonably reliable, rumour floating around is that the ride hardware was originally bought for a midway attraction somewhere in Europe, but for some reason, didn't happen. Walliams World was always planned to have a brand new indoor attraction as far as I'm aware, but the plan of what is was exactly changed a few times.

Indeed, going back to Thunder River would mean very little, since the likelihood of them doing anything else other than a name change and a paint job would be slim. It arguably wouldn't make sense either, given the 'Rumba Rapids' name is a better fit to the Jungle area than 'Thunder River'.

This is probably a post for the Walliams thread, but... I've seen / heard people moan about this elsewhere, and it's something I don't get. Sure, the ride system may not necessarily have been planned for Towers, but clearly the ride experience itself will have been. Sure, it's a bit forced and maybe not what was originally planned, but I don't think that reallllllly makes a difference to anyone when it comes down to it, because it's highly unlikely that it will feel like 'this ride wasn't planned for this park' when you're on the ride...hopefully. Not a rant or trigger or anything, just something I don't think is a problem.

It was in the BBQ place (Dirty Hot Dogs under a tent or whatever it's called), at the other end closest to Old Town. It's literally just the bar, which only opens when busy and only serves alcohol.

@Hethetheth makes a fantastic point about why Phantasialand are able to invest in greater depths compared to Merlin parks. But even then, it's not just Phantasialand that are able to do this: look at the likes of Liseberg, Hansa Park, etc - independent parks that are able to invest in large amounts on a regular basis. (I'm ignoring Europa and Efteling because of their other means of incoming). A better question to specifically ask is simply how are Phantasialand able to invest ridiculous amounts of money? Klugheim was said to cost something in the region of €60-70m. Rookburgh is rumoured to be a larger investment. Maus au Chocolat (2011) and Chiapas (2014 but should've been 2013) cost another €60m between them. The Deep in Africa land (2006) was another €30-40m. That's insane, and beyond anything that most companies could invest in several parks, let alone one company in one park. How they manage it is still mysterious. The park is owned by the Löffelhardt family, who co-started the park originally. Clever entrepreneurship meant they were able to continue to invest. They also bought Mirabilandia in Italy (they were in charge at the time the park added key rides like Katun), before selling it in 2006 (which no doubt was a big helping hand) in the future. From there, it's simply a case of having ownership that knows how to do business and how to cleverly invest in the park. There's a lot of passion within too which is great. In some ways, I guess their situation could be likened to what we're seeing at Energylandia. They're owned by someone who is wealthy and already has a great deal of experience in running a business, but also someone who is deeply passionate and wants something they can be proud of. The difference there is they very openly receive EU grants and the like to help accelerate their development, and are going for size and quantity over details and quality (of theming). The amount the park have invested on new rides between 2018-2020 probably could have seen them invest in something of similar depth and quality to any of Phantasialand's investments if they wanted to. Let's not pretend that the UK are the only place that is thrifty. Everywhere in the world is. The trouble is, Merlin have dug themselves into a hole. They set high prices and then give out a ton of promos. So of course people in the UK are then going to dig for the best deal. They'll naturally end up complaining that something doesn't represent a good enough value because, simply put, they've be trained to think they can always get something for next-to nothing. Merlin give tickets away because they chose to. Now they do it because they have to. This is a very common tactic. Have a low entrance cost and hit visitors with high secondary spends. Look at Vue cinemas - many of them have decreased their standard price significantly (my local one is £5 for any film). But then they can hit you with upgraded seats, high costs of drinks and snacks, etc. And people are more willing to do that because they feel they've 'saved' money for their ticket to watch the film, even if they haven't. Heck, even Phantasialand do this over their winter event. They usually have strong price integrity, so their pre-book online price is only a couple of euros cheaper than buying on the gate, and have very few promotions (and their entrance price is high, around €50). But over Winteraum, especially later in the event, they sell tickets online for €24. Why? Because during the event, they have lots of pop up stalls serving various food and drink (almost like a mini Christmas market), which are extremely popular. People spend a lot of money there and the park recoup any losses they may make from reducing the entrance price. I'd hardly call any of those parks competition. Drayton is dying. Blackpool ticks along, but when they invest in a brand new coaster, don't market it and then don't see suitable increases, you have to wonder how big a threat they are. And the Yorkshire parks are hardly competition when they barely invest (bar this year). Towers sees the most investment because Merlin know it's their crowning jewel. It's the UK's biggest park. It's the park that can easily get the highest attendance. It's well known abroad. It has hugely popular and well-known rides like Nemesis and Smiler. Plenty of legitimate world records / firsts that people are actually intrigued by. Towers receives the most investment because it's the safest bet to get a return. I don't get how you can laugh at Paulton's as being a competitor? They have made very wise investments and continue to do so. They're improving and growing constantly. They're a very legitimate threat to Chessington, whether Merlin admit that or not. Thorpe is different because of its target market. But it's clear to see that its numbers have been falling and popularity has decreased. It and Chessington benefit from location of being so close to London. But Thorpe needs to really push the boat to remain in a profitable state, because they're really sliding. It's a similar situation to where Chessington were 5-6 years, except Chessington were at least slowly retheming rides to bring them to standard.

Sadly not; I don't think any Loggers Leap merch was released over the past 10-15 years!

TusenFryd, in Oslo, are investing in a new coaster for 2021, which they've said will be their biggest single investment yet. The planning application gives an idea of the layout: It looks like it could be similar to Gold Rush at Slagharen, with a stationary swing launch to start. The train appears to have 8 rows so it's unlikely to be Gerstlauer, so it could be Intamin or Mack. Apparently this may not necessarily be the final layout, as their planning applications are more to show scale and location.