JoshC.

With BounceZilla now done, Do or Die construction has begun... As @MattyMoo would say, it looks, ahem, sick bruv.

Is this not the issue of the park's identity though? They're predominantly a park with a thrill focus, and by retheming X to Walking Dead, they've made their position clear that they favour thrillseekers and scary stuff over family attractions. In that case, why are they faffing about with the rides aimed at the youngest of visitors during their event which is targeted solely at thrillseekers. Makes no sense.

"We're not getting enough people through the gates to make money. What should we do?" "Use the park as an advertising space, make extra money that way. Doesn't matter what we advertise tbh" "BRILLIANT!"

It bamboozles me that Thorpe insist on keeping the likes of Lumber Jump, Timber Tug and even Rocky Express open (for a whole 4 hours) during Fright Nights. And then Banana is open till 6. It feels like more hassle then it's worth, and sends out mixed signals..if Fright Nights is a scary teen/adult event, why bother opening the rides for the youngest of visitors? Don't bother with the Old Town rides, close a couple more small rides early and even just putting the money into be able to run their current line up effectively would be great. Give it a couple of years and let it grow and the focus would be back on the mazes.

New Top 10 now that I've done Taiga, and have no major new coasters on the way... 1. Taron, Phantasialand 2. Taiga, Linnanmäki 3. Untamed, Walibi Holland 4. Helix, Liseberg 5. Balder, Liseberg 6. Nemesis, Alton Towers 7. Lost Gravity, Walibi Holland 8. Joris en de Draak, Efteling 9. Troy, Toverland 10. Goliath, Walibi Holland I, for one, welcome my Intamin overlords. It's also pretty damn close between Untamed and Helix, but I think Untamed just pips it..

The new coaster will be called the Duplo Dream Coaster https://www.legoland.co.uk/duplo2020/

Rode Taiga this weekend. I'll do a trip report soon, but I want to share thoughts on Taiga now.. It is brilliant. Truly brilliant. POVs don't do the ride justice. The ride has some truly amazing moments: great airtime, fun inversions, decent launches and is in itself a long ride. The bit between first and second launch is a bit random. One inversion and loads of corners which keep the speed. Warms up nicely during the day, but aside from the weird out-banked dive loop type thing, nothing special. The second launch gives you a nice woosh feeling as you speed up, followed by a fun top hat. From there, the ride becomes insane: relentless, crazy ejector airtime, fast (and doesn't lose speed!), flings you out of your seat. It's all incredibly smooth and the flow and pacing is amazing. It is just brilliant. Ride operations are a bit weird and slow - staff ask every person if their pockets are empty as checking restraints (and if your pockets aren't empty, you're made to empty them). The ride has a nice style to it with the theming too. Audio is a bit quiet though. Managed the ride 9 times, sitting in a variety of locations and during night time too, and it's wonderful wherever. Can't decide if I prefer front or back tbh.. There's natural comparisons and question to be asked about how this compares to the likes of Taron and Helix. Taron and Helix focus on very different things: Taron on speed and intense whips and turns, Helix on grace and inversions. Taiga is a best-of-both worlds type of ride I'd say: you get the fast elegance of the ride, along with intense whips and some quirky inversions. And it does this phenomenally well. What is 'better' depends on your taste; blending the best of both might not be everyone's cup of tea for example. But all 3 coasters do what they set out to do perfectly. So yeah, tl;dr - Taiga is brilliant. Worth the trip to Finland, easily.

I'll be there!

1) There are other top spins in the UK (just not Huss ones) 2) No.

One of the beauties of Big Top was the fact it changed in each of its three years. Of course, 2015 to 2016 was the biggest change, but 2016 to 2017 saw quite a few changes too. And I'm sure they could have kept chop and changing if they wanted. And even if they had a completely different design team, they could still reinvent it (the quality is a different matter, mind), and it would still be Big Top. If you have a good core idea, you can keep it fresh and keep it for a long period of time. Some of the best received events in Europe have staple mazes that have been their for years. They still receive new experiences and the staples get tweaked too. And it's that long lasting consistency which makes it good. There's always a time and a place for the big attractions to go and for something new to come along. Big Top really hadn't reached that time yet.

In fairness, Buccaneer was clearly a last minute thing - the ride was advertised and expected to be open this year, but didn't. The Rameses closure is probably something that's been in the mid-term plan for a while, given the ride is on its last legs. It's not necessarily feasible to amend those plans to replace something that wasn't meant to need replacing. Hopefully we'll get something in for Buccaneer soon; it's in too prominent a position to just be left empty for too long.

That particular Sunday is usually the first or second Sunday of Fright Nights. Traditionally it always was the first, but they seemed to have strayed from that a bit recently and sometimes do it as the second.

Chessington have submitted plans to replace Rameses Revenge with a drop tower. Key facts: -25m tall -12m tall crocodile feature with water effects that the gondola will 'splash' into -16 riders -Rotating gondola with one free fall drop -Flying Jumbos to be relocated to the old Carousel site to make sufficient room. Link to all documents/images: https://publicaccess.kingston.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=PWLD59NHILJ00 Key proposal: https://publicaccess.kingston.gov.uk/online-applications/files/82F01D47B4A400B27B50B0793ACD4906/pdf/19_02079_FUL-DESIGN_AND_ACCESS_STATEMENT-4214704.pdf Key images: There's no indication as to when this is for. It certainly could be 2020, but I've heard murmurs of other things planned for 2020, so this could end up being later. Equally, this could require a fair amount of groundwork, so 2021 isn't unreasonable to assume either.

And, technically speaking, Red Force isn't even an accelerator

Oh WWTPRadio. I miss you. And the Figaro Bros. No chance of a return to Thorpe?

So not a new fear then. Lol I believe the park had different (and significantly more exciting!) plans a scare zone/show, but have had to cut back. Let's hope they can staff it this time instead of having to rely on actors from agency! Has it not always been this way for the Bring a Friend? At the very least, I'm sure they restricted some dates. If not, it certainly makes it clear that the offer is only for standard entry (ie - not special events). And I'm certainly behind that; I'm all for them having special offers and such, but given the huge number of passholders and the significant saving it gives, I'm glad they're not usable during Fright Nights.

That Feared Five challenge is stupid. I guess that's their attempt at moving people away from the mazes to spread the queues. But on a lively day, people will struggle to do all mazes and all coasters imo. Seems like they're shooting themselves in the foot.

Must resist the urge..must resist the urge..must resist the urge... Nope, can't. Asylum remains the most overrated mazes in the history of Thorpe Park and it wasn't that intense.

Creek Freak Massacre - Thorpe's take on Chop Shop? I do like the take of the Thorpe soundtrack at the end.

Bob closed yesterday, with much fanfare and had definitely seen a spike in popularity over summer (was usually one of the busiest rides on park!). It never had a great throughput so usually had a queue anyways, but at least it managed to remain reliable during its final months. Some stuff from the park... A tribute on Efteling's blog A song dedicated to Bob: And a look at what's to come: A clear jovial style for the new Mack duelling powered coasters Demolition is already underway. Clearing around the site had started a couple of months ago and trees within the ride area had already been felled before the closure. A bit of a shame, since trees in the ride area added to the experience of Bob, but I guess schedules and all that.. Still not a fan of Max and Moritz. Certainly fills a gap - coasters for the very young - but it feels like they could have done something better. Maybe not being Dutch and knowing the story is something to do with it. I think it's worth saying again how much of a family treasure Efteling is in the Netherlands. Like, pretty much every Dutch person will have visited the park. It's like with Python when that was being refurbished - most Dutch people praised the park for keeping it and their childhood memories, rather than replacing it. With Bob, I think there's acceptance that the park will have tried everything, but it's still a sad time.

Hansa Park are replacing their bell-themed pendulum ride with a family drop tower and kids log flume next year: https://m.facebook.com/hapaforum/posts/3014862091889408 Hansa Park concept art is usually pretty damn close to the real thing, so looks like a cute little area.

Announcement tomorrow!

The 9th "attraction" is listed as a challenge, so I expect it'll either be the return of the rib cage challenge or similar, or something equivalent to Towers' Big Six challenge ("can you tackle our terrifying mazes to get a kids pop badge??"). Last year they didn't even include the Fanta thing as an attraction! They may have something return though; wouldn't surprise me.

Given that it's adding extra staff, midway through the season when budgets are already set and such, I'd assume (and hope) that there's a reason behind this other than 'trying to improve the experience'. If the park wanted to improve guest experience, there's plenty of other ways to do it and plenty of other parts of the park. Given the experience was designed 20 years ago, it's possible that by-and-large, audience reactions have changed. Maybe the park feel there's a need to guide people through the experience more explicitly. Maybe there's been a reasonable number pieces of feedback suggesting that. Saying "it's been fine in the past" is a narrow way of looking at things. Of course, if that is the case, it could be Merlin's own doing that people have responded in such a way. Many of their recent experiences have been actor-led and spoon feed people throughout the experience. So maybe that's what people expect now. Nonetheless, the changes don't sound great, so hopefully they are reversed.

The benefits for the Shark Hotel have been put online, and include actors in hotel rooms for the first time. Sadly, they're not at great times, but still nice to see something different being tried..