JoshC.

Have my Top 10 dark rides... 1. Maus au Chocolat, Phantasialand. I love the theme. Simple story. Ton of fun. 2. Popcorn Revenge, Walibi Belgium. Same as above. Had this been a little bit longer this probably would be my #1. 3. Bazyliszek, Legendia. Love the interplay between screens and real sets. Incredible ride especially considering the low budget. 4. Duel, Alton Towers. Okay, I know it's a watered-down, bastardised version of the original, but I love the fact it's basically a shooting ghost train...and in case you can't tell, I like shooters. 5. Area 51, Movie Park Germany. First non-interactive ride! Not technically a dark ride since it has an outdoor station and the end of the drop is outside, but it basically is. And it's pretty clever. 6. Challenge of Tutankhamon, Walibi Belgium. It's incredible Walibi has two amazing interactive dark rides really. This has aged really well. 7. Symbolica, Efteling. The grand-ness of this is what makes it really. Some incredible sets too. 8. Hex, Alton Towers. I enjoy madhouses, but honestly I think the ride type is a little over-egged. Hex is by far the best example of it though. 9. Kyöpelinvuoren hotelli, Linnanmäki. Brilliant ghost train with lots of great sets, great effects and a nice mix of jump moments. 10. Fata Morgana, Efteling. I remember the first time I rode this and not getting it. But after a second ride, I ended up really liking it and it became an instant favourite.

McKamey Manor's "success" is down to how well they've - for lack of a better word - marketed it. But it's not a scare attraction. If you look within scare communities and scare attractions, very few people have done and even less have taken inspiration from it. The types of people who do it are people who don't usually do scare attractions as much, and are more inclined to something to challenge their mental survival capabilities, or people who are 'into' that 'sort of thing'.

Corrr, someone's a keen bean.. Updated bracket, for sake of completeness: And so the semi-finals: 24. The Freezer vs 4. The Curse 31. Big Top (2016-2017) vs 19. The Asylum Votes will be open until Saturday 2nd May at 5pm! And my votes: The Freezer (choosing between two mediocre mazes in the semi-final is not what I expected from this...) The Big Top

We have a better testing video: Still not sure on that turnaround yknow..

And quarter-final winners... The Freezer The Curse Big Top (2016-2017) / Experiment 10 - TIE The Asylum THERE'S A TIE. The first person who didn't vote in the quarter-final to cast a vote between Big Top and Experiment 10 gets the deciding vote. If no one has voted by 6pm tonight, it opens up to people who already voted. Once that's cleared up the semi-finals will start...

The Taron clone at Chengdu Wanda is looking pretty damn good, if not a little empty at the back: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/xghl4-WpmioCuOEWWqybQg

All this love for Se7en, and yet people are voting for flashy chain-mesh walkthrough. Blasphemous in my opinion...

I don't think it's really sink or swim. Vekoma are doing really well for themselves and have a firm base. Their junior boomerang is a hit. Their newer models are booming in Asia. If the new gen flyer works out well that'll diversify them further. As will the new gen tilt coaster they have in the works. They've also still got a good relationship with Disney. The issue with them breaking into America is that they face stronger competition from Premier. They're not competing with Intamin, because many of their rides are different, and aside from the not-yet-fully released flyer, they're not competing with B&M. And no doubt American parks would prefer to go for the likes of Premier (or S&S), simply because the locality can help reduce costs. Mack have had similar issues, and I can barely think of a handful of big Mack rides that have been built in America over the past 5 years. And yet Mack are doing fine. It's a shame there's not more of these new Vekomas out in the world yet, but they're building up and doing well. It'll be fine.

I'm guessing it's more just perspective (and also the fact it's the first run), but the exit out of the turnaround looks a lot awkward to me. Be interested to see how that beds in, and how it looks from different angles. Also, the station for Volldampf looks fab. Vekoma's redemption has been been ongoing for the last 4 years. This is the point now where they should be hitting full speed with their new products. Between their STC, flying coaster and their variety of sit down models, along with their family ranges too, they've got enough that most parks should consider them in most cases now.

A clearer look of the façade for the attraction, which is renamed Domem Starchów (Starchów House):

Along with several other small rethemes and renovations of existing rides, Energylandia has done some work to their dark ride: (image from their Facebook) As a comparison, here's how the front of the ride looked before: The dark ride was called Monster Attack, and you went round in cars of 4 and shot at monsters, with clunky guns. Frankly, it was bad and very cheap (much like a lot of the park's early investments in fairness). For their Halloween event last year they transformed it to a more ghost train style ride inside, along with some actors, and it appears that this is what they've gone for for the retheme. It's not entirely clear how extensive a retheme it will be inside, or if the shooting element is returning, but it seems to be an improvement. It's worth pointing out again that the Dragon Zone was meant to have an interactive trackless dark ride (early announcements suggested something similar to Bazyliszek at Legendia, which is incredibly good), but that was postponed. So it's possible that this could be the first step into introducing this new dark ride, which is much needed for the park imo.

And an unsurprising set of winners: Big Top (2016-2017) Experiment 10 The Asylum Se7en And here's how the bracket looks... So onto the quarter finals we go, which will hopefully be a bit more interesting: 16. Studio 13 vs 24. The Freezer 4. The Curse vs 5. Cabin in the Woods 31. Big Top (2016-2017) vs 10. Experiment 10 19. The Asylum vs 6. Se7en Voting is open until Wednesday 29th April, 8pm (Wednesday Evening)! As for my votes: Studio 13 Cabin in the Woods Big Top (2016-2017) Se7en

And that Set is finished. Winners and advancing to the Quarter Finals: Studio 13 Blair Witch (2018-present) / The Freezer - TIE The Curse Cabin in the Woods THERE'S A TIE. Silly me didn't think of what on earth to do if there's a tie. So making this up on the fly: the first person who didn't vote in that set to cast a vote between Blair Witch and The Freezer gets the deciding vote. If no one has voted by Sunday at 8am, it opens up to people who already voted in the last set. --- Next set of 4 in Round 2 is: 31. Big Top (2016-2017) vs 18. The Walking Dead: Living Nightmare 26. Freakshow 3D vs 10. Experiment 10 3. Creek Freak Massacre vs 19. The Asylum 6. Se7en vs 22. Saw Alive And I'll cast my votes now: Big Top Experiment 10 Creek Freak Massacre Se7en Voting will finish Monday 27th April at 8am (Monday morning)

Trains are onsite at Bellewaerde for Wakala: They look great! Shame the ride is still odd.

Just gonna quote this so that we can look back in 2 year's time and see. (NB: I'm not saying it will be SBNO, but given the situation, there's a solid chance it will be...or even removed..)

Can't help the randomness! (Don't forget to vote )

I've seen a few people mention it, but my comment specifically came because you said: And I put 2 and 2 together and thought you were saying because it hasn't had a themed area introduced since 2000, it's an amusement park. Got 5 instead though! True - and exactly my point! Efteling is themed extraordinarily, but (outside of the Fairytale Forest) there's no cohesively themed areas. And that circles back to the point I thought you were making that theme park = themed areas, and Efteling is the perfect counterexample to that idea.

Frankly it's impossible to see it - or any VR attraction - operating for the foreseeable future, so yes, it will be SBNO. After the Derren contract is up, who knows, but there's no such thing as being to young/new to be SBNO.

I don't buy the whole 'a park has to have themed areas to be a theme park'. If you work with that logic, then you have to call Efteling an "amusement park" instead of a "theme park", which does a great disservice to Efteling. These two terms aren't enough to encapsulate all types of parks in the world. More importantly though, does it matter? Whether it's a theme park or an amusement park, their core purpose is to have rides which people will enjoy. Both of those types of parks will know that some rides need to have theming to enhance their enjoyment, whilst some rides don't need theming to enhance their enjoyment. So in my opinion, it doesn't matter whether a park is one or the other, they'll do what's right. The likes of Swarm and Walking Dead are improved because of their theming. Stealth and Colossus probably wouldn't benefit much more if they had higher levels of theming. Sure, if Thorpe wanted to fully focus on being Disney/Phantasialand level of immersion they'd focus on rides which are improved when themed, but for a park like Thorpe, I really don't think it matters what they call themselves.

I think the investment needs to be taken with a bit of context. Thorpe do have a decent range of coasters for a park of their size. Not perfect, and in this day, not as varied as others, but still decent. Around 2014 (when planning for Ghost Train was in full swing), plenty of people were crying out for something different. And Thorpe needed a dark ride. It was still a huge risk to opt for a dark ride over a coaster, and one that in hindsight really hasn't paid off. But at the same time, when this was announced and being constructed, the overwhelming majority thought it was a good idea. The issue isn't that Thorpe didn't build a coaster, the issue is that they built the wrong dark ride.

Fantawild parks in China are reopening, with social distancing guidelines in place. As seen here, one person per row in alternating seats for 2 per row trains: Shanghai Disneyland is preparing to fully reopen too, again with social distancing. Here we can see some of their - frankly confusing - measures:

The layout is done and theming is continuing. In this photo you can also see the completed Disko: (photo by Mirek Stecyk)

And with that, Round 1 is complete. Winners are: Big Top (2016-2017) The Walking Dead: Living Nightmare Freakshow 3D Experiment 10 Creek Freak Massacre The Asylum Se7en Saw Alive So an updated bracket: Round 2 has some interesting line ups! Next will be be the first 4 matches of Round 2 (again, to pad this slow moving game out a bit during Lockdown...): 1. Terror at Amity High vs 16. Studio 13 8. Blair Witch (2018-present) vs 24. The Freezer 4. The Curse vs 20. 10th anniversary roaming actors 5. Cabin in the Woods vs 12. Big Top (2015) Voting will finish at 8am on Saturday 25th April (Saturday morning) And without further ado, my votes: Studio 13 Blair Witch (2018-present) 10th anniversary roaming actors Cabin in the Woods

Yeah, I get what you're saying. My point with Chessington and money is that if Merlin choose to do so, they can splash out on marketing more. At this point it's impossible to say of course, but Chessington could benefit from a wider Merlin marketing push when parks reopen compared to Paultons, who have less chance to access that. I can't really think of a good word to describe my thoughts on the situation. I'm not 'concerned' because I don't think Paultons will suffer. But assuming Chessington do open their drop tower on time next year, it feels like there's potential for that to have an impact on Paultons' development.