JoshC.
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Everything posted by JoshC.
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Interesting. When I first did my list, I literally just did the 10 rides I hated the most. Then looked back and saw 3 SLCs and 2 Boomerangs, and then I thought to myself is that *really* any surprise? It surely makes sense that if I hate one ride, I'm of course going to hate its clone. But in both cases, I've ridden another clone of each ride type and enjoyed it (Mayan at Energylandia for SLC, Speed of Sound at Walibi Holland for a Boomerang). And it's not just theme / style or whatever, it's that as a ride, they are simply more enjoyable, because they are nowhere near as uncomfortable or painful to ride. Mayan it's largely down to restraints I reckon, and likely age as well helps. And further, the difference between my ride on Vampire and Condor were completely different. In short, I get why you call them all the same thing. I get why plenty of people will. But out of the 4 cloned SLCs I've done, the difference in quality is actually huge, so there's no way I could group them together and say 'any SLC is this bad'. -
So the track was completed for this two days ago. Yesterday it took human riders:
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True, the station in it's worst state wasn't memorable. But just because it wasn't memorable, it doesn't mean it was bad. And in my opinion, it was never bad. It still looked pretty great, and I'd take it over a solid 80-90% of coaster stations I've experienced I'd say. Maybe that says more about the quality of coaster stations I've seen, but still.. There's a whole discussion about the price integrity of the two parks, with a vast majority of Chessington's visitors almost either effectively getting in for free thanks to Annual Passes, or only paying about 60% of the walk up price, compared to Phantasialand where the majority pay the full price. But that's a big sidetrack to your point.. And anyways, there isn't any reasonable way to pardon the dip in quality. But it still looked good in my opinion after the dip in quality. Wicker Man is a...strange comparison. I guess you've just chosen it because it's the most recent example of a Merlin coaster with theming in the station. But the station for Wicker Man is quite simple, no? The pre show is nice, but I think as a whole, the feeling of Vampire's station has always been better for a 'scary' family ride than Wicker Man. I don't know enough about design processes to know what difference in opportunities truly is. Obviously more technology is available, and there's likely more people who are able to make their way into the industry (meaning more ideas), but outside that I wouldn't be able to guess what the changes are like there. But in any case, yes, the fact that the original station experience isn't something that's been matched by the park shows just how good the original was, and how impressive it truly is.
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Haven't been through Vampire since the update, but just want to throw my two cents here for now.. Even when Vampire was in its worst state, the station was still great. I might be in the minority who think that, but oh well... Visually, it looked great - it still had a level of spookiness about it, the lighting was at worst okay and the music added something. Sure, it had been much better, but I still went through and thought 'hey, this is nice'. Obviously it's sad to have seen it in a weaker state, but in the there and now, I never exactly had a problem with it. From what I've seen of the changes, it's clearly an improvement. Up to the original's standard? No. But does it really matter that they haven't met that (arguably world class) standard? Again, no. I had family who visited on Sunday, they loved it. In particular, my brother (who's bang in the target market for Chessington and the ride itself) loved it, and it's definitely something which will last in terms of memories. In fairness, it didn't need to be any more and was actually a reasonably enjoyable scare attraction. Easy to knock it for being cheap and simple, especially retrospectively, but since it actually worked and fulfilled its purpose, I don't think anyone that went through really shed any tears about lack of quality.
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Some of the latest aerial shots of Aqualantis from FOMO Coaster suggest this could be clone of Saven, a Junior Boomerang opening at Farup Sommerland this year: (credit for the layout: https://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?p=167075520) The park already have a Junior Boomerang (it's a clone of the one at Paultons), so it does seem very unnecessary. But hey, whatever floats their boat. Presumably once finished, this will have a different look and feel to it (with the possibility of a splashdown). And interestingly, the park have added extra theming to their current Boomerang. What a place..
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Movie Park continues to see strange (for a Parque Reunidos park at least) amounts of investment... During this season, the park will see the following: -A retheme of their SLC, to Lucky Luke, making it fit in with its western surroundings -An extension to their Paw Patrol area, which opened last year -The removal of their Walking Dead maze, which will be replaced by an upcharge laser gun walkthrough attraction -A Dunkin Donuts outlet introduced And for 2021, the park will be opening something new in the former Ice Age ride building. The ride was closed a few years ago, and for the past couple of years was home to their biggest Halloween attraction, Wrong Turn. They've started social meida teasers too: The building itself is huge (almost 4000sqm), which is the second largest building on park (just behind the building the holds Van Helsing). For some comparison, that's about 1.5x the size of the likes of Duel, and about twice the size as the likes of Derren Brown and Tomb Blaster. For some context for those who have been to Phantasialand, it's similar in size to the floor space of Wuze Town (including back of house and queue areas). In other words, the space is HUGE! There's no indication what could go in there. The Ice Age ride was an indoor boat ride, hence why it took up such a huge space. Current rumours suggest that the through is being removed; whether that's for a replacement or not in unclear. MPG have a few indoor rides, but the main one they lack of a shooter of some sorts. That would be top of my list for the park as well to be honest, even over a new coaster. So fingers crossed...
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The above two posts have made my bones ache, joints creak and hair turn grey. How dare I age.
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Weird one that, given that the Fins name and style fit in with the Shark Hotel and area as a whole. The Infinity brand feels like it could dull that down, which would be a shame. Shows the ever-seesawing direction really. Other food changes: -The Donut Compound has been renamed to its original name, Amity Donut Bites -A new food stall, The Cantina, will open, where The Crust has been housed. I believe it'll be in house, as opposed to externally run like Crust. Be interesting to see what food it offers -There are slight name changes to some other restaurants: 'Calamity Kebabs' and 'Sombrero's Street Food' With some mentions of limited edition foods in the event schedule, it'll be interesting to see what the standard quality of food is like. --- I do like the new map; nice mixture of looking nice, whilst also being reasonably accurate as a directional map.
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MASSIVE plot twist: The hinted-at next coaster is NOT the mine train, but some unknown new coaster, that appears to be going in the Aqualantis area as well (concept art and the announcement didn't suggest another coaster). It appears to be some form of family / junior ride, but what exactly is unknown (even the Polish theme park community with links to Energylandia are surprised). The Mine Train is still planned to be opening this year, but that'll be the next next coaster to open. Possibly. When Abyssus, this unknown Vekoma and the Mine Train opens, that'll bring the park's coaster tally up to 18
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Also the map suggests no Fastrack will be available for Black Mirror
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Walibi Holland has given us Lost Gravity, Speed of Sound and Xpress songs, and would all have to be up there. Psyke Underground at Walibi Belgium too... I'm sure the K3 has a song which relates to the roller coaster at Plopsa as well. Ride songs are easy.
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Some pictures of Abyssus from Vekoma, showing it is almost complete still: The post also confirms that the Vekoma Mine Train is due to start construction in a few weeks. And no doubt the next Vekoma will start in a few months. And the next Vekoma in a few more. And the next next year. And the next....
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A Stealth stall is incredibly rare - only happened the once before I believe. And I can't recall many other instances of Intamin Accelerators stalling at the top (Top Thrill Dragster did it once with guests on I think? Aside from, probably only happened a couple of times across them all). And it's not something you can 'make happen'; it just happens! Indeed. I believe the train is still up there now as the weather means it's not ideal conditions to send a person up there and give it a nudge! And since it's only pre-season, there's major rush to get it down. It's easy enough to reset once it goes down. Now this is an interesting one. We've obviously already seen Merlin's stance for now (adding extra hand sanitiser points, etc), and I think that's sensible enough. If the government do follow through with a full-on Delay stage, then that would inevitably mean the closure of theme parks (and likely things like London Eye, Dungeons, etc), which would be a major blow to the company of course. Obviously it's entirely out of Merlin's hands though if they close; I don't imagine they'll close unless they're told to. However, the more interesting thing to me is what Thorpe (and other parks) will decide to do with some of their attractions that involve glasses. Many more people are going to be much more concerned with putting on 3D glasses / VR goggles, and the possible cleanliness. Whilst in pretty much all cases, parks do clean them, these cleaning processes are far from thorough. I don't know what to expect parks to do, but I wouldn't be surprised if parks do choose to not open 3D / VR attractions (or run them without those features) until the fear subsides. Even if it's not totally necessary, it certain avoids difficult questions..
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Construction is going very well, with the roll over the station looking mighty fine:
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No idea. Assuming it's something that is coming back this year, it'll probably appear at some point shortly around the start of season. Your best bet is to email the park though and find out. Given its premium nature it's possible they may not be considering bringing it back, so an email might encourage them to bring it back!
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Actually a pretty cool idea tbf. Something that requires work from the NHS / government to implement properly of course, but it would certainly minimise people fraudulently taking advantage of schemes designed to help disabled people (in all walks of life). Would work well with a tiered system too imo. I don't envision a card system like that being implemented officially any time soon, which is a shame as it'd be decent.
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I'm fairly certain at one point Thorpe trialled the idea of only 1 carer, with 2 in special circumstances (might have been around 2010/11?). Wasn't successful, as I think in the end most people made cases to have more than 1 carer that the park couldn't reasonably refute. A tiered system would be interesting. Certainly could solve some of the issues that the system has these days. Obviously there'd be other issues which arise and I could see a PR backlash, but it could still work..
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Having a medically trained person checking the documentation is all well and good in theory, but any half-decent GP in the country will write a strong enough letter to convince someone else that they're in need of a Ride Access Pass. There's obviously the other issue of having enough medically trained staff to check the documentation at a busier park, whilst also being available to tend to any medical emergencies. Presumably at Paultons it is just a member of the First Aid team who only needs a basic First Aid course to work there (though likely has an interest in First Aid and is studying other medical courses), rather than a qualified 'nurse'? Nurses don't get paid enough as it is, I can't imagine how little a theme park nurse would be paid!
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Coaster Count ran a poll to find out users' favourite rides: https://coaster-count.com/page/poll Steel Top 10: 1. Steel Vengeance (Cedar Point) 2. Fury 325 (Carowinds) 3. Taron (Phantasialand) 4. Taiga (Linnanmaki) 5. Zadra (Energylandia) 6. Hakugei (Nagashima Spa Land) 7. Helix (Liseberg) 8. Shambhala (Port Aventura) 9. Maverick (Cedar Point) 10. Untamed (Walibi Holland) Wood Top 10: 1. Wildfire (Kolmarden) 2. El Toro (Six Flags Great Adventure) 3. Lightning Rod (Dollywood) 4. Voyage (Holiday World) 5. Wood Coaster (Knight Valley) 6. Troy (Toverland) 7. Boulder Dash (Lake Compounce) 8. T Express (Everland) 9. Phoenix (Knoebels) 10. Wodan (Europa Park) Pretty fair and reasonable results in my opinion. Some nice stats breakdowns available on the site too, being able to break it down by country and so forth!
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I know some people like to act like the people who run the park are idiots, but I'm sure you know that no one thinks this...right? I'm not for one second suggesting that you should have an answer, but I want to bring up a fair point: what can they do to fix it? People on forums and within the community are quick to pipe up when they have an idea which they think works for pretty much anything theme park related, but I don't think I've ever seen a half-reasonable / implementable solution on how to improve the system for RAP users, and ensure that only people who truly need it use it. Getting staff to understand, explain, run the system properly is a start. But that's truly only the beginning.
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I know that at one point over the past couple of years, Thorpe considered linking the scanners they use for Fastrack in with the RAP system. The idea being that you would have a card, staff would scan it, and it would let them know when the card could next be used. The system itself couldn't be linked together properly, so didn't work out. Another major issue is that the park's queue times are rarely accurate. So even if they had that system correct, the incorrect queue times would mess with the system. AND even then, most staff checking RAP won't have access to the displayed queue time, which is why they don't bother signing it / give wildly incorrect estimates. Better training needs to be given to the staff there really. As well as greater accountability for making it work.
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That image was used to signify 'the road to 2020', since 2020 was meant to be the next big investment. The picture is of the Meydan Bridge in Dubai, and was just generic 'futuristic' because it was looking at the future. It had no significance for the rides they were considering, or the themes they were considering. I agree that the Galactica retheme did well for Towers and it might have convinced Merlin to keep that sort of style in mind. With Black Mirror, they've got a solid idea with that tbf
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This new system doesn't sound particularly different to the old one. As I've said before, Merlin have backed themselves into a corner. If they tighten up their policy of who qualifies for a RAP, they'll have hundreds of angry guests complaining they no long qualify, with many no doubt going to the press with stories of 'Theme park says I'm no longer disabled enough to get access to rides' or something. Keep it as it is and the system doesn't get any better, but they'll be less escalated complaints. In other words, until Merlin are ready to soak up a massively negative, delicate PR storm, they won't change the system.
