JoshC.

As part of the 2021 Drop Tower ride investment that is replacing Rameses Revenge, the flying elephant ride is being relocated to behind the main shop (roughly where the old Carousel was) for 2020. The ride will be rethemed to the children's story Elmer the Patchwork Elephant... This seems to have more been leaked than officially confirmed, but expect news from the park soon...

Track is complete: As heavily thought, it is a clone of Baa Express at Europa Park

The bit where they mention about crane and containers near the site of the proper hotel is also used regularly for storing, well, 'stuff'. Could literally be anything at this stage, especially without seeing what it was. Over closed season, there's plenty of cranes and containers making the rounds at the park.

The seatbelts serve 2 main purposes: Purpose 1 - In case of an evacuation, it gives greater control to staff. 'Please don't undo your safety belt', etc. Purpose 2 - A visual check for guests to know they're secure. As time has gone on, Purpose 2 has become more redundant as guests generally know they're safe. But 20-odd years ago, seeing a seat belt was a big thing. Purpose 1 only truly matters when there's people sat in the seat. Plenty of parks around the world don't bother doing seat belts on empty seats. And within Merlin, it's a ride-by-ride thing. This is not an example of H&S standard slipping. The only thing that's extremely shocking here is the amount of time you must have dedicated to try and find another crazy thing at Thorpe to complain about.

It's that time of year again: what parks / attractions are you planning to visit this year? For me.. Definites -UK Merlin Quartet -Phantasialand -Europa Park (finally!) -Port Aventura (finally) -Gardaland (finally) -Movie Land Italy Probablies -Paultons -Blackpool (finally!) -Flamingo Land -Lightwater Valley Maybes -Heide Park -Hansa Park Longshots -Skyline Park -Legoland Deutschland -Energylandia

Attraction doesn't mean maze necessarily. I'd more expect a second sit down show over a new maze right now.

It's only the first post of the decade but I reckon it'll be one of the best

Found via CoasterForce... It looks more and more likely this will be a completely separate coaster now, with the current rumour being it'll be a non-inverting, airtime focused ride (something which hasn't really been done by Gerstlauer on a big scale before).

Most people don't travel from that far frankly; I reckon at least 90% of people visiting live under a 2hr drive from the park. Leaving at 8am is hardly an unreasonable hour. The trouble with closing later is a culture thing. British culture very much revolves around 'get in early, get out early' so people can do other things with their evenings. Convincing people to stay at a park later in the UK is difficult and, to date, the only thing that really works is Halloween / firework events. Outside of that, it's tricky to convince people to stay. Is there a difference between cleaning the park before it's open as opposed to after its closed? Either way you're having to pay for staff to be there for the same amount of time.

Looks like a great coaster for sure. 6-7 inversions (depending on if the Banana Roll counts as 1 or 2) is mental really. I stand by my earlier point from when the plans came out re the fact that this will completely change the feel of Plopsaland. This is a monster of a coaster going over a lake pretty much in the centre of the park. Plopsa is quite a quaint park as it is, so this could really ruin that, and I'm not sure I'm ready for this.

Annnnnnnd confirmed:

Some more artwork of Max & Moritz... And is it a Dutch theme park investment without a Youtube 'Making Of' series? This one talks a lot about the design process and some features that will be in the queue, including a whoopee cushion organ where you can sit on different cushions to make different fart noises...

At this point you're allowed to sponsor it I'm sure... (All for the low, low price of £49.99!!)

The votes have been counted and verified. Thanks to everyone who voted. Now time for the results... PARK AWARDS Best UK Park 1. Alton Towers (9) 2. Paultons Park (4) 3. Blackpool Pleasure Beach (3) Best UK Coaster 1. Nemesis (6) 2. Wicker Man (4) 3. Nemesis Inferno (3) Best UK Flat 1. Rush (5) 2. Detonator (4) 3. Rameses Revenge (3) Best Water Ride 1. Valhalla (7) No other rides received more than 1 vote Best Dark Ride 1. Hex (6) 2. Haunted House Monster Party (2) 3. Duel (2) Worst UK Ride 1. Derren Brown's Ghost Train: Rise of the Demon (9) 2. Infusion (3) 3. Hero (2) Best International Park 1. Europa Park (5) 2. Cedar Point (4) 3. Phantasialand (3) Best International Coaster 1. Steel Vengeance (5) 2. Taron (3) 3. Helix (2) Best New-for-2019 Attraction =1. Zadra (3) =1. Bouncezilla (3) =1. Creek Freak Massacre (3) Most Disappointed Merlin Moment 2019 1. Thorpe Park (in general) (6) 2. Existing (4) 3. Loggers Leap announcement (3) Best-Looking New Attraction for 2020 1. Rookburgh / FLY (4) 2. Iron Gwazi (3) 3. Pantheon (2) Best Manufacturer 1. RMC (5) =2. Intamin (4) =2. B&M (4) MEMBER AWARDS Best Member 1. @JoshC. 2. @Benin 3. @Mattgwise Best Team Member 1. @Mattgwise 2. @Marc 3. @JoshC. Best Quality Posts =1. @SteveJ =1. @Mark9 =1. @JoshC. Most Knowledgable Member =1. @SteveJ =1. @JoshC. 3. @Benin Most Dedicated Member 1. @Marc 2. @JoshC. 3. @Mattgwise Most Sarcastic Member 1. @Benin 2. @MattyMoo 3. @Mark9 Most Likely to be Banned in 2020 1. @MarkC 2. @Marhelorpe 3. @Martin Doyle Funniest Member 1. @MattyMoo 2. @Martin Doyle 3. @Kerfuffle Biggest Fan =1. @Wicker Matt =1. @Glitch 3. @JoshC. Sexiest Male 1. @Wicker Matt 2. @Mr. Fish 3. @Mark9 Sexiest Female 1. @jessica2 2. @Wicker Matt 3. @Mer Storm Surge Award 1. @Glitch 2. @08newmanb 3. @Wicker Matt Member You’d like to see More of! 1. @SteveJ 2. @Coaster 3. @P J A close year of results all round (Benin almost had to share his sarcasm award...)! But congratulations to all the winners! It won't surprise people that Thorpe didn't receive a single vote for Best UK Park - good going Thorpe Park Mania! And yet people think that, across the world, Bouncezilla was the best new attraction this year? The shame. I wonder what on earth will happen to Best UK Water Ride if Valhalla closes for refurbishment next year?

But what's the point when most people won't plan trips this early? How many people do we expect have planned their trip to Thorpe Park now? Especially at a point when their 2020 offering hasn't been announced. I bet I can count the number on one hand. Thorpe simply isn't big enough to attract enough attention for people to book their trips now. And still, why advertise provisional hours? Why not just 'Open' or 'Closed'? The park is doing five 10-8pm days for Fright Nights. Even taking into account the extra budget required to run Fright Nights, that can't equate to more than 2 extra open days. And if that's what they have done, there's also the added benefit of the fact that the park simply isn't busy enough to warrant being open for 12 hours on those days. And it still doesn't answer why they choose to close earlier rather than open later. Based on the past 2-3 seasons, this is something they have consistently gotten wrong. The park have chosen days to open for longer on days where they couldn't justify it. They've not advertised their longer opening properly, nor have they given people a proper reason to stay. My favourite example comes from 2018, where the park decided to open 10-10 instead of 10-6 on a Saturday in May 4 days in advance. This is despite the weather forecasting heavy rain all day AND there being a low pre-book. And low and behold, the day was a disaster. I get there's no exact science to this, but Thorpe consistently get this wrong lately, when 95% of parks get this right. That's a big problem.

I mean, this raises questions: 1. Why bother putting in placeholder hours? 2. Why is the budget for the season only finalised in February/March? Of course, these opening hours were released like a month ago and I'm sure have been discussed on here before. The Fright Nights 10-8 hours makes sense given how dead the park has been previously (though I do wonder if 12-10 would be more sensible / at least worth exploring?). There seems to be less closed days for 2020 which is good, as is the lack of 4pm closes.

Thorpe certainly don't claim to be on the international stage, and certainly they don't market themselves like that (hence why we've had 'nation's thrill capital' and similar). But I don't doubt that Thorpe / Merlin in some capacity like to think internally that they have world class experiences which can compete internationally. Go high enough up, and I'm sure there's people who think 'Thorpe has world class rides'.

A timelapse of Cyclonator being built, with testing expected before Christmas:

VOTES CLOSE TOMORROW (click the above to vote. or click me)

The mystery grows... (From Huvipuistofoorumi) And also: One of the tags in the Instagram post says Summer 2020. It's kind of impossible to tell what this could be now. Junker extension seems much more of a long shot now, but who knows?

The music in the end sounds like an Amity twist of the Thorpe sound; don't recall hearing it before? Is it new or just some variation I've forgotten about?

You're telling someone to grow up on here when all you do is come on here and whine about what people post? The words 'pot', 'kettle' and 'black' come to mind...

I don't know what you're talking about... (this is what I get for posting on TPM when I should be working)

It's election day, but that's not the biggest vote happening this month 6 days left to get your votes in!

In fairness, repeat visitors do spend money - the trouble is that their spending on any given day is minimal since they spread out over several visits. Ultimately means that they drag down the spend per customer (which of course any business will use as an indicator) and that causes this outlook that they don't spend money.