JoshC.

Following the reveal that House of Monsters would not return for this year's Scarefest, speculation increased about the long-rumoured Cloud Cuckoo Land retheme. This seems more and more likely now: https://www.altontowers.com/2020/

The first couple of weeks of summer holidays is always quiet. It's the time when most people go on their main summer holiday (ie - a UK theme park trip, even with an overnight stay, wouldn't be classed as most family's main trip), and people still automatically think "summer holidays=busy". Things will pick up from next week I'd say. Though it is fair to say it could well be quieter than normal.

"Pretty much"? Between the plans and that advertising, I'd love to know how much more confirmation you'd need for it to be 100% confirmed

The arena? 🤔

Confirmation formally from the park that Spyders is new for this year, and it certainly seems to imply that Curse of the Lost Tomb has gone, given there's no reference to it. The vague description of Spyders certainly makes it sound like a like-for-like replacement for Tomb as well.

Lego Movie World will be coming to Legoland in 2021: https://www.southparks.co.uk/2019/07/27/the-lego-movie-world-coming-to-legoland-windsor-resort/ The area will be located near Squid Surfer and the reasonably dead area with some HB Leisure games. The new area will include a dark ride (likely a Flying Theatre like the other Movie World areas), a couple of drop towers and some play equipment:

Merlin have only singled out bad weather for poor performance in the American Legoland parks, as opposed to a global thing. In fact, they've said that the weather actually was a contributing factor for good performance at the theme parks. Hoping that the second Lego movie would see a significant boost in Legoland performances was optimistic in my opinion. Lightning rarely strikes twice for these things. In terms of films, I do think the Lego brand is becoming a bit tired and saturated. Steering away from film and keeping key focus on the product itself might be beneficial.

These days, probably 400-500 an hour. I don't recall them ever saying that? Certainly, the absolute maximum throughput it could get (quoted from the manufacturer) was 925, and in practice, that was impossible (yet another problem with the whole process of this thing). Ideally, Ghost Train should operate like a Dungeons attraction in terms of its flow. You have different staff at each different section, and they all need to be following the same rhythm. They need to sticking to quite strict time schedules and get guests to follow them as well. The trouble is, whereas a Dungeons will have a dedicated (usually permanent) team, Ghost Train only has seasonal staff who also work on other rides, and aren't around for very long. This is a major issue as it means those staff can't ever share the good rhythm needed for the ride to flow well and get a good throughput. Coupled of course with reliability issues, and it's just terrible. In early 2017, the ride could get 750-800pph, which is reasonable for a ride like that at Thorpe I reckon (despite the money and advertising that went into it, Ghost Train isn't a major draw / headline attraction). Over time, that has just dropped down and down and down. This is a mix of poor design, poor planning, and overly optimistic guarantees from the manufacturer.

It's easy to look across the pond and think the grass is greener on the other side. And in fairness, in many cases, it is. But let's not go saying that the UK parks are doing worse than the likes of Bobbejaanland, who have only just added a new coaster after 8 years, and is generally an abysmal place to be in. Merlin were ahead of the curve though. Thorpe were on the IP train in 2009 with Saw and it was hugely successful. HUGELY. Comparatively, you could argue it was more successful than Thomas Land was for Drayton in 2008. That's one of the reason why, in the UK industry in particular, people thought IPs could work. And that's why Paultons followed suit and went with Peppa; a hugely popular, new IP. After that, it's just business. You see it everywhere: a small company has a great idea, the huge companies copy/steal it. It's how it works. I'm sure Paultons have put a plan in place for when the license runs out. And if they've done things well, the loss of Peppa Pig won't affect them that much. And if it seriously affects them (which I really hope it doesn't, and personally don't expect it to), then that just shows how poor Paultons are.

I'll chuck an updated one into the mix (new entries in Top 10 bold)... 1. Taron, Phantasialand 2. Helix, Liseberg 3. Untamed, Walibi Holland 4. Balder, Liseberg 5. Nemesis, Alton Towers 6. Lost Gravity, Walibi Holland 7. Joris en de Draak. Efteling 8. Troy, Toverland 9. Goliath, Walibi Holland 10. Black Mamba, Phantasialand Just missing out are Polish duo Hyperion and Lech. 1 English, 2 German, 2 Swedish and 5 Dutch coasters, with 1 RMC, 2 GCI, 2 B&M, 2 Mack and 3 Intamins making up the top 10 though. Nice.

I mean, I get why people want it dismantled (I'm in the exact same boat). But when the park is in a situation where they're not paying for new rides and their headline thing for 2019 is a bouncy castle, we can only assume money is restricted. I'd rather them put that restricted budget to use on rides that are actually meant to be open than a dead one.. Ideally there'd be money for both, but being realistic, nah.

Campaign for this to be the new marketing hook for said merch...

Prison theme has potential for a good maze. Very different from the rest of their line up, and not as common as many other typical maze themes either which is nice. I was also a huge fan of when Thorpe did the park-wide prison theme in 2012, so here's hoping.

Wooo, more Maths people on the forum! I'm completely biased of course, but it's great to study it at uni. If it's your thing (which it sounds like it is), it can be really fun, and there's loads of different things to explore. (If you ever need any help, just give me a shout!) I started my PhD in maths in January, and I'm spending this week at a German uni studying some really fun maths too. Now if Brexit were to happen this week, would I be able to make a claim about being a UK student studying abroad and cling onto EU citizenship somehow..? 🤔

Oh WWTPRadio

Can we just be clear about Big Top:

I bet the second clue is a hint to the TV advert for Fright Nights - it features the baby goat (kid) wearing devil horns, and Thorpe will think it's funny.

A brief Rookburgh update. Construction of the hotel is very much underway and it's now clearer how this will be integrated into the area. It will be formed of 3 (or potentially 4 / 3 with a 4th to come in later years) 'towers', formed of multiple floors. It's expected that there will be 5-6 floors in each tower, with 5 rooms per floor. These towers will be woven into the top end of the Rookburgh site, near the end of the launch tracks. See below for a rough plan: (image from cslkenny) Though it was previously speculated the hotel may be Shark Hotel-esque and formed from themed containers, they are being made 'properly'. See a construction update here: Work is continuing onsite with some theming going on around the outskirts and more buildings being built on the made site. Views onto the site are extremely limited so hard to tell exactly how much progress has been made. It'll be interesting to see how the hotel is priced. The rooms are quite small, certainly not much bigger than the Shark Hotel ones. But they do offer a really unique experience in literally being surrounded by a coaster, and will likely be highly themed. One would hope they're soundproofed though; wouldn't be a fan of be woken up by a coaster being tested at 6am..

There's no question about it: the ride's that the park have refurbished needed it, and it's a good way of keeping the park fresh without adding 'new' stuff. But they're now at a point / very near a point where they can't really do that any more - they need to add proper new stuff (and, really, they should have already added new stuff). I'm just a bit concerned that in a time when investments have been limited within theme parks in Merlin, whether we'll see the stuff that they really need. 2010 was a great year tbh. Dragon Falls was fine. Bubbleworks wasn't in an awful state (sure, it had the sponsorship, but it all worked). Runaway Mine Train, though ageing, wasn't in a state. Tomb Blaster's effects were all fine. And they had the success of Wild Asia and Wanyama Village. Even 2011 and 2012 were good, with signs of promise and the Madagascar IP doing the trick for them. It's arguably from 2013 when the lukewarm Zufari came about that their problems truly surfaced and came to light, and it's only recently they've picked themselves back up imo.

Hersheypark are getting a new area next year, Chocolatetown, and the headline ride will be the awfully-named Candymonium, a 210ft tall B&M coaster, which will be the park's highest, fastest and longest coaster:

Not strictly a Merlin thing, but I have a point. With the extreme heat all around Europe, parks have added extra effects to some of their water rides to make them extra wet. Examples: Constant water jets on Hellendoorn's (Netherlands) rapids Constant hose pipe pointed at the course on Walibi Holland's splash battle Waterfall effect which normally turns off remains on on Toverland's rapids. And plenty of parks are happily allow staff to spray staff with water guns / pipes on water rides. And of course, plenty of modern water rides have been built so that their splashes can be adjusted according to the weather, meaning that parks can have them on maximum wetness. It's a shame that Merlin parks / the wider UK industry don't do these things. Yes, there's the safety fears and such, but it feels stifling. And, more generally, UK parks are way behind on the water ride front. When was the last time a UK park added a new water ride? Aside from a couple of very small travelling log flumes at small parks, it's probably Storm Surge in 2011? It's crazy. Sure, the hot weather is not the norm, but the parks aren't in a position to cope when it does arrive. And modern water rides can be modified for all weather conditions. It's a shame.

Odd. When Wild Asia was announced, the park felt like it was heading in a positive direction and going places, and then 2010 ended up being arguably one of the best seasons for the park (not necessarily in terms of numbers, but in terms of how the place felt). To me, Chessington feels a bit stuck going forward: no 'new' rides since 2013 (only rethemes or like-for-like replacements). Moving forward, they can retheme Tomb Blaster and Land of the Dragons, but after that, they pretty much exhaust all worthwhile retheming projects. So they need to do new stuff. How likely that is remains to be seen.. LTDPs are vague and plans change. All that suggests is that they've considered installing a coaster. There's nothing concrete to suggest a new coaster is coming soon. The most important question though - did you do the bouncy castle? Are you in a position where you can't wait to revisit to have another go??

I think the most shocking thing about that article is that Towers was open past 5pm.

I'd be surprised if it is. The challenge doesn't claim to be a live action experience, which suggests no actors. I'm more expecting something low-key, like the eating challenge they used to do in the BBQ, or a silly Big 6 style challenge like Towers do over summer. I hope that Screamplexx is less embarrassing this year (and at least they've stopped advertising it as 4D when it was 2D). Another show is intriguing and could have potential. Also, lol at the website still bragging that Living Nightmare is the world's first maze to have scenes from season 7, with the show getting ready to start it's 10th season...

The website has been updated, and suggest 3 new things: https://www.thorpepark.com/fright-nights Mazes not coming back are Vulcan Peak, Dead Creek Woods and of course Saw Alive. Neither of last year's scare zones are advertised either, whilst everything else from last year is returning. The new fears each have a description: So 1 new maze, 1 new show and a 'challenge' (which very much sounds like it could be a new eating challenge to be frank..).