JoshC.

School kids get £2.50 entry to the Dungeons at the moment. Equally I believe that there is (or at least, was) an offer through the app which meant AP holders could get a Dungeons ticket for £2.50. The sign of a popular attraction no doubt...

https://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?s=d0cc464ea23d9140ebe26edfb100da95&p=160510030#post160510030 The lift hill / stall combo looks stunning.

After visiting Walibi Holland last week, I got to do an attraction that I've been keen to try for quite a while now...NeuroGen. For those unaware, Walibi Holland is quite an..in your face park. They quite clearly are targeting the young adult market, and are unashamedly brash. Think of what Thorpe was doing in the early 2010s with the 'fatheads', except not quite as awful, and with the balls to follow through and stick with it. Their current slogan of #HardGaan (Go Fast) keeps in line with that, and you regularly see 'F#CK FEAR, HARD GAAN' plastered around the park. They're not a park to shy away from doing something extreme, as seen from the likes of Untamed. In 2016, they introduced a new, critically acclaimed, alone-experience to their Halloween line up: The Clinic. The Clinic sees guests visit a hospital, before quickly being strapped to a gurney, and having the rest of the experience take place strapped to said gurney. In 2017, the park introduced a year-round spin-off of the attraction: NeuroGen. Here's how the website describes the 16+ experience: So far, all pretty standard wording and hype for any scary attraction. But equally, this is a good (albeit roundabout) way of describing the experience: it's like a 4D cinema, except with VR headsets (which is actually filmed and not CGI) instead of 3D glasses. Oh, and you do it alone. You wait outside the building and are taken in one-by-one. You're guided into a hospital waiting room, told to walk through a door and someone is waiting for you round the corner. A walk through a corridor with some special effects (loud noises, bright lights, mist) eventually leads you to a very bright, very clinical circular room, with a doctor to greet you. You're asked to select a treatment ('beach' or 'waterfall'), and then one of 12 doors around the room opens, which you're told leads to your treatment room. Spoilers here just in case: For the tl;dr version: basically the VR film shows you taking drugs, tripping out, being in a car crash and drowning. And, what's remarkable is how realistic it felt. I haven't experienced any of those phenomena, but it certainly felt like this was as close as I could get to it without experiencing it. And that made it pretty hard-hitting. It's a very different type of scare experience, and one which I imagine could really affect some people. It's pretty dark, and pretty bleak, which I guess makes it all the more appealing for me. The fact this is a solo experience really adds to it as well. So yeah, easily the best executed VR experience I've done, and something really rather out there too. It's brilliant to see these sorts of experiences offered in a more mainstream setting, despite being for a very niche market.

A wild Fright Nights social media post appeared: It wasn't very effective.

An interesting sticker has appeared over by House of Monsters: From Towers Street FB The sign previously said 'this' instead of 'next'. If there's a plan for a maze to return in 2020 but not in 2019, there's some (fair) speculation that it could be because the building / surrounding area could be receiving some work. Given it's in Cloud Cuckoo Land, could we maybe finally be seeing the illusive, long-rumoured CCL retheme?

Car park has seen some continuing improvements this season: The car park has never been good, and I don't think they can ever make it perfect due to being green belt land(?), but it's great to see them making the best out of a bad situation.

Following from the successes of Legoland Water Parks at Legoland Resorts in America, Merlin are expanding the idea and incorporating the idea of a Legoland Water Park into Gardaland's resort offering: https://www.traveldailynews.com/post/gardaland-resort-announces-the-opening-in-2020-of-the-first-legoland-water-park-in-europe I know some people will immediately jump to the conclusion of 'this is happening because of the recent takeover'. But just to be clear: this is in no way related to the recent takeover. This has been planned for significantly longer and is purely coincidence that it's been announced now. It's perhaps unsurprising that Merlin have decided to go down this route. -They love IPs -They love the ideas of resorts -Gardaland as a resort has over 3 million visitors a year and was always 'more than a theme park' for Italians Using Lego means they avoid using an outside IP (saves money) and introduces the Lego visitor brand to Italy (since there's no Legoland theme park or Legoland Discovery Centre). And it expands the resort offering further and differentiates them from other theme parks more.

I did this last week. And yeah, it's meh. There are two rooms you tackle, and they contain 2-3 puzzles. From what I can gather, the puzzles are simple or require silly logic to solve; no in-between. Almost half the experience time is faff with actors / pre show which doesn't really fit given its an escape room. I'm normally pretty positive to seeing actors in the attractions and think that, despite the obvious costs involved and the criticism Merlin come under for actor-led experiences, they normally do a decent job. This is not one of those experiences sadly. The idea of pitting two teams against each other is good, but falls flat given how unpopular that attraction is at the mo. So yeah, a shame this. It had potential, it still has potential, but there's not enough puzzles or escaping for it to feel like a good escape room experience.

Cohesion isn't necessary imo. I'd rather have a nicely themed ride than a half-arsed themed area. Admittedly, it's odd of the park to do this after focusing on areas a bit more (Maya the Bee land, Heidi area and K3 land in particular), but I don't have a problem with it. I'm still a bit confused why they haven't gone for an IP for the retheme, though not complaining!

Loggers building receiving some work. Imagine the meltdown if Thorpe hadn't announced it is dead...

Dino Splash is open. Keep in mind the theming still isn't finished: I'm not quite sure what's left (I believe more dinosaurs and more animatronics), but damn, yeah, this is impressive. And all for €5m. Source: https://www.looopings.nl/weblog/12514/Rokende-vulkanen-en-brullende-dinos-Plopsaland-opent-Dino-Splash.html

Seems to be you who's been smoking the funny stuff.. Saw has always been mixed, but it's been pretty damn consistent the past couple of years. Was my favourite of the bunch last year too. It's not gotten particularly better or worse imo, but it's just a well designed maze, with good sets and it's easy to get scares out of it. Means that regardless of quality of actors, you could get a solid experience. A shame to see it go. Wonder if the boat requires (more) money to fix up and the park aren't prepared to stump up the cost?

That potentially might be it in fairness. I've always been unsure on RMCs and whether I'd actually enjoy them. Some of their unique elements look simply unenjoyable to me. I've warmed to the idea more recently and it's hard to go 'I don't think I'd enjoy this manufacturer's rides when they're so universally praised'. So it's been a weird one in that context I guess. The thing is for the past 2-3 years in particular, I've seen RMC praised as this company that have revolutionised the coaster industry by creating world class rides and creating experiences that no other manufacturer could dream of delivering. That wasn't to do with their ability to convert rides or anything, I had seen time and time again that if you just go up to an RMC and ride it without knowing it's history (if it's a conversion), you will be blown away and get a ride which is completely out of this world. I didn't get that with Untamed. I got a very good ride, but it's nothing that changes the industry to me. It sounds crazy saying Untamed is 'just very good', but when I had seen for years that RMC creates rides that go beyond 'just very good', it's left me questioning where the hype is? Based off my experience, RMC just create good rides: that's great, but nowhere near the level of hype I've heard about it. Of course, one ride isn't enough to build a full opinion. And maybe Untamed isn't the best example of what RMC do when people say they've revolutionised the industry. But equally, I can only go on what I've done. Very good point, and something which is easy to lose sight of when these have become much more common. And yes, from this point of view, they have really revolutionised the industry, they've created something special, and they're just damn good at making good rides. But from the context of those rides themselves being industry-changers in their own right, I'm less convinced.

Let's talk Untamed then. It's really bloody good fun. It's glass smooth, has loads of really good airtime, some quite floaty, some really aggressive, and the inversions are great. The second half in particular is full on and relentless. It's truly fantastic and I reckon anyone who goes on it will enjoy it, even if that type of ride isn't your thing. What it did leave me wondering though, is: what is all the fuss about RMC? Yes, Untamed is fantastic, but this didn't feel like anything particularly groundbreaking? If you'd commissioned, say, Mack or Intamin to do this exactly same layout on a steel coaster, it'd feel exactly the same. There's nothing I saw our felt that made me think "wow, RMC are special" like half the enthusiast community seems to think. Obviously it's great they convert rubbish woodies to amazing rides, but that's it. So yeah, Untamed is fab. I love it. And I'm looking forward to trying similar rides. But it hasn't made me think 'RMC are gods' or anything crazy.

Fantastic looking addition to the park. And the park did a great job of realising the Lost Kingdom artwork, so I am confident this could be the same. Really looking forward to this developing further!

Annnnd it's open. Media event was this morning, and it opened at approx 3pm Netherlands time to the public.. I'll let you know how it rides Thursday (assuming it does RMC itself and die before then...)

Wicker Dude reopened today.

I can't seem to find where I saw this (I may have simply been told it verbally by someone who I found trustworthy so I always believed it), so take with a pinch of salt: despite Europa's and Mack's success, the company saw the development of a launch coaster as a huge make or break moment. They needed something new, fearing that as a manufacturer they would be left behind in the industry. And if this something new different work at Europa, it could hamper the development of the park in the long term, as well as damage the reputation. It was perhaps too fearful from them, but they certainly felt that if Blue Fire didn't work, it would have lead to a slump for them. As I say, feel free to take it with a pinch of salt. I get one guy saying one thing on the internet has little value, but I've never had any reason to doubt the story.

Tbf Merlin will have always been aware of what Europa Park are doing and their insane levels of quality. It's not something they've done overnight, it's been something which has happened over the past 20-25 years, at great levels of risk. If Blue Fire hadn't been as well-received as it was in industry, things may have taken a turn for the worse from what I've heard. Merlin will never be able to match Europa in any way, shape or form. Very few parks can or will. And that's fine. Just as long as no one is thinking that Merlin parks can magically fight the quality of Europa after one visit.

I think taking it at face value - 'offer accepted for Merlin to be bought' or similar - is perhaps misleading. As others have said, it is a case of existing shareholders buying more shares so they have the majority stake. Arguably the biggest and most important outcome of this is that Merlin are going back to being a private company rather than a public company. Of course the biggest problem with being a public company is that you have to answer to people who simply want profit: in their eyes, if something won't make profit, why should money be spent on it? A private company will have a more sensible outlook. Kirkby have said they've no plans to sell anything within Merlin and that there won't be substantial changes. It'll likely just be a different decision making process towards how to spend money. It'll be interesting to see if there's any changes to the hierarchy, be that by adding an extra layer (hopefully not..), a reshuffle/change of the top layer, or what. Not that this should need saying, but this obviously doesn't mean a switch is going to flicked and we're going to see huge investments every year at every park. However, I'd expect that if there's a different outlook and different decision making process, there might be more opportunities for money to be invested..

It is getting closer to opening; engineers have been working on it and it has been moving. Early next month shouldn't be too out of the question I guess.

From what I've heard, 2020 is the last year they benefit from the funding from the EU (ie - any rides which are getting funding from the EU money have to open by 2020). I believe the EU money has only amounted to about £40m since the park opened (including next year's investment). Given the size of the park and number of investments, I expect the amount they've invested is substantial. The owners of the park have a background in nightclubs, drinks and footwear, and are pretty stable financially. They know what they're doing, and whilst I expect the level of investment to slow down soon, they have a long term plan. They've talked about a Vekoma mine train similar to Colorado Adventure, a new-gen Vekoma tilt train, water park expansions, a hotel, replacing the tacky parts of the park and much more. They know where they are at the moment and know how to improve. And for some context, the park claimed to have 1.4m visitors last year. In early development they said they wanted to have 4m visitors by 2024, which I think is too ambitious. BUT I don't see why they couldn't be pushing for 3m by then; they have the size, they have the quality headliners and they're in a good location.

Annnnd the drop is complete:

Looks like we can expect an announcement of some sorts next Thursday!

Few more details about Crazy Bats from an interview with the park's project manager.. tl;dr - the park decided 2 years ago that they wanted to offer a VR experience, and a Temple upgrade had been considered for a while. However, due to the low quality of VR, they ultimately decided against. At the start of the year they were in a position to put together a good-enough quality VR experience, so jumped on it (hence the out-of-the-blue announcement). Early reviews are, perhaps unsurprisingly, mixed. The VR is very 'busy', in that a lot happens throughout the video. A first viewing would feel like a generic ride through lots of VR scenery and stuff, but multiple viewings can lead to you seeing a story with the Crazy Bats develop. There's been early issues with headsets not being in focus, etc, though whether that'll be a long-term problem remains to be seen. If you choose to ride without VR, the ride is in total darkness and no longer has audio. So yeah, it's a thing, it's not awful. Woo. What this means for the lifespan of Crazy Bats and Hollywood Tours is anyone's guess at this stage though...