JoshC.

In theory, I guess yeah. But it would either mean reusing the old site and killing off Platform 15 (a bit of track at the start of the maze is workable, track throughout the whole maze much harder), killing off Creek Freak Massacre or building the track over water (very expensive). So not impossible, but just very impractical / expensive however they did it. We're in Closed Season - of course it's time for pointless conversations!

The major issue (ignoring that the station is for FN mazes as they could work around that if they really wanted to) would be how they'd have the train return to Old Town. There's no space for a loop now so that a train could return to the station facing the direction it would need to leave. They could go for trains which run in both directions but would end up with a completely different feel/

Don't expect an instantaneous switch. The take over is hardly seeing new people come into the business, it's just that the layering of people is different. The park have always had a LTDP, the trouble is that it's been chopped and changed so many times that it just hasn't worked. There may be some changes we see, but they wouldn't be down to the takeover. Equally, at this stage, don't expect to see anything exciting from outside the park. No plans have been submitted, and there's not even a whisper of anything interesting happening yet.

The big giveaway in that photo is the curved window. From very early on, it was never planned to be viewed or accessible from beneath the ride. Whether that was just a "we don't want people entering from ground-level" idea or "we consulted the illusionist and they said entering from ground-level is impossible" I don't know. But having seen how the illusion was designed, and how it looks from ground level, I'd be very surprised if it could ever have been designed to be viewed from beneath the train carriage in any way.

The recycling tax is very common (maybe even law?) in a lot of western European countries. Not something that's really advertised as it's taken for granted.

The Farm is still owned by the park. The land area is now much smaller than before as it was 'permanently flooded' when the park infilled new islands. The area is now used by Landscaping (for cultivating plants) and by Waste Management (for managing waste).

Is it part of a S U P E R M E G A T R I P?? Sad you won't be there though 💔

I have never had a problem with the food at Plopsa parks (Pirate Grill was decent during my visits), but I agree it's very expensive. Especially given how bog-standard the options are, it's crazy how costly the food options are/ Heidi does have operating conditions which means it can't operate after 6pm anyways (noise and all that), so that'd be one reason. I guess the other reason being it makes sense to have the scare zones by the scariest rides. I'd say bad luck is definitely one thing; anyone would struggle to enjoy any park when their two major attractions are closed. With Plopsaland that issue is highlighted all the more for us as enthusiasts since they're really the only two decent thrill rides there. They do suffer with weather related downtime quite a bit too since they're so close to the ocean (less than 2 miles!). It's really crazy. This is the one thing which really sticks out to me though. I've visited Plopsaland 3 times, and never had any issues with the operations. Everything was simple, quick and efficient. One man ops is incredibly common on many (bigger) rides in Europe. A shame it wasn't great - I hope it was just an off day partially down to the weather and such rather than something that's becoming the norm.

Moved out of my mum's house, into a flat with a couple of old TPM members and got a side job to help get extra money whilst at uni this past week. Pretty decent week.

Assuming I'm not working I should be able to show my face at some point during the event.

I think one of the issues is that if they made full use of the range of motion, it would require much more maintenance. Equally, Thorpe would likely prefer to use it for a shock factor rather than immerse you into it and stuff. As for The Apprentice episode, it really shows how the GP thinks. One group just chucking the most inversions and fastest accelerating coaster and whatever else sticks at the wall. The other group going for a backwards gimmick (I guess the idea was a backwards dive machine but the video seemed completely different lol). Big fat USPs to draw people in. But also a focus on storytelling and theming. Obviously it's a very contrived environment, but it does give a rather sad look at what 'ordinary' people jump to when given a blank slate. However, I did like the fact that many felt a 15 inversion, 0-120mph in 1.5sec coaster was a bit sickly...

*sigh*

Just resurrecting this thread to wish y'all a happy Closed Season. How long till we succumb to the annual 'Thorpe Park Ride Game' this year? 😞

Pffft, I double post all the time. #BadMod This year did see them have the most sell out dates. And if Wastelands has improved capacity (which it should have really), then that's very impressive. On a Wastelands note, I believe it had a super high budget, something in the region of about 3.5x the budget of Creek Freak Massacre at Thorpe, which was one of the park's most expensive maze investments. Mental really!

To a lesser extent, it's what Thorpe have done with their past 4 major investments, but it happens the year after.. -Stealth was marketed as "upgraded" in 2007, saying its max speed was reached quicker (nothing had changed). -Saw had the introduction of Saw Alive as a spin off to further market it. -Swarm had brave it backwards -Derren had Rise of the Demon The idea has always been a double strike of sorts: you get people come in for for the big new thing, word of mouth spreads, people go the next year but do a better version, meaning the same people who went its first year want to return. You get a good 2-3 years of interest for one big investment and something tacked on. But yeah, it's a surprise more parks don't upgrade major investments. And in recent years where theming, story and special effects have been important and prevalent for coasters, you don't even need to do something as crazy as a retrack. Chuck some new effects and theming there (99% of rides can always do with more), make a big deal out of it, boom, renewed interest.

The above rumour of a Vekoma junior Boomerang and Vekoma STC turned out to be true, as confirmed by the park... https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2789030221130977&id=149268661773826

Legally, there's nothing the police can do. The guys in the video visited the park legitimately (they had valid tickets). At no point did they 'trespass' or 'intrude'. At no point did any member of staff ask the guys to leave. They didn't refuse to leave. They've bent the park's own rules, and that's all there is to it. The police cannot do anything, so all they can say is 'not our problem let them go'.

Tbf Taiga Vs Junker is already a coaster-war; just a slow moving one. Linnanmäki has always been number 1 in Finland so it's up to the other parks really to provide the competition. Powerpark has done that. Särkänniemi regularly invest, but none of it is particularly unique or interesting to a foreign audience. Could see them going for a Vekoma at some point though...

Not sure if this has been posted here before (I don't think I've seen it before), but a BTS video from Figment - the company who did the VR - of Ghost Train... At about 50 seconds there's a particularly insightful look at how the ride looks when running.

And some official communication from the park, which appeared in a Finnish paper today...

Time for potentially the craziest story / rumour of the year... Powerpark, Finland, are rumoured to be extending their Gerstlauer Infinity launch coaster, Junker. Junker opened in 2015 and was by far the best-looking coaster in Finland, as well as the highest, fastest and longest, until Taiga at Linnanmäki this year. So, to get the crown back, and to keep some of the spotlight on Powerpark (which is second to Linnanmäki in Finland), they are rumoured to be making changes to Junker to get those records back. Track and supports have been photographed at the park: And there are reports of groundwork taking place next to the coaster at the moment. So, despite not being confirmed, there's a lot to suggest this could be happening. Take this with a pinch of salt until we get something more concrete in terms of confirmation (after all, coaster extensions are rare). However, if this does happen, this is super exciting (and also hilariously petty from Powerpark, but I won't complain!),

The park are doing a special send off event for Annual Passholders, in the form of a 2 hour ERT session on Sunday: All 220 tickets they had available have gone in an hour.

So, a little while back, staff at the park went on a week-long strike, claiming that hadn't been paid in 4 months.. https://www.birgun.net/haber/ankapark-ta-oyuncaklari-korumalar-calistiriyor-273360 Some alarm bells from the article... Police were called during the strike to make sure nothing bad happened. It's not clear what's happened as a result, but the park appears to be back open now. But these claims won't do anything to silence rumours of this park effectively being a huge money laundering scheme...

Another minor update, courtesy of @RuudSchutten_ on Twitter... Mess of track Hotel aesthetic coming along

I'm a big fan of the concept - looks hilarious and has potential. It looks like an evolution of the the S&S Free Fly concept which never really took off (don't know if anyone on here has ridden it? @Benin or @BenC maybe?). I do hope it does take off and, importantly, is a reliable ride. S&S don't exactly have a great track record for reliable rides these days..