JoshC.

I haven't done it myself, but it's a couple of trains to Harderwijk, and then there's a special bus from that station direct to Walibi. Simple journey, but would take just under 2 hours. Driving from Amsterdam takes about an hour I think.

The Daily Mail producing excellent quality news articles as ever I see...

Two new mazes (Colony retheme and a brand new one) plus a new show for this year.

I was pleasantly surprised by Untamed's restraints. The shin guards didn't affect anything for me, and the lap bar wasn't an issue. Sure, during the aggressive airtime you push right up against it, but that's the same for any ride that has aggressive airtime (even Goliath - Walibi Holland one that is - is like that during the finale). I can see why people dislike them, but I have no issue with them.

I imagine Creek Woods Sawmill isn't the name and instead part of the story (like Platform 15's Creek Tours). Feels almost tiring the amount of times they're beating on that dead horse for names. Those posters hint at least to some sort of massacre-style story is say: people who want to kill you in an abandoned sawmill. Fairly standard theme, but can work oh so well. On a slightly different note, we're seeing another maze in Old Town. If Platform and whatever-silly-name-was-given-to-the-other-outdoor-maze return, that's three mazes congested into a tight area. Feels frustrating given that one of the few good things last year (and the past couple of years) was a focus on spreading the scary stuff around the park.

Another article, with a closer look at the seats: http://www.attractionsmanagement.com/index.cfm?pagetype=news&codeID=342466 Certainly appears to be from a non-major manufacturer.

Wow, you posted that a vitelotte, must be a good idea.. (this joke would work a lot better if Old Town was a French area I know. sad times </3)

That picture is this year's "key visual" for FN I believe. Note the different 'characters', including: -Zombies -Monster -Ghosts -Chainsaw man Maybe they've learnt after last year that having 100* mazes with the same scary thing (zombies) is a bad idea? *possible understatement

Those Walibi queue times made me wince. I find Walibi a lot like what Thorpe could have been like if things had turned out slightly differently. And I don't mean that in a bad way either. But I get the 'amusement park' vibe you mention. I've never quite liked Dwervelwind as much as most; had a couple of uncomfortable rides on it, and never really got amazing spinning on it. But it's really cute and still a decent ride; excited we're getting a Mack spinner in the UK with Paultons now.. It still amazes how small Toverland is in terms of visitor numbers (they're still like 4th/5th most visited in Netherlands) and age, yet it's still got this massive B&M and stunning huge new area. They're really a park that has a hugely bright future, and yeah, can only echo your view of just go!

Pendulum rides not having much luck: Warning: Bloody scary

Stealth will be closed part of tomorrow and Monday: This time of year is usually when Stealth requires a cable change, so likely because of that. Given in the past this used to take a week, it's good that they're still able to do it in a day now.

My point is when the state of rides which are open is poor, we can't expect them to be taking care of rides which aren't opening. Given the state of things, I'd rather them focus on things which are open. Ideally everything would look lovely, and SBNO would be removed. But realistically that's not happening at the moment, so it seems fruitless to worry about full repaints of a boat which won't be used.

Acronyms! Capital letters! Scary? (The logo is nice tho)

I'm with Marc here. It's a sense of being realistic. They didn't repaint the whole of Inferno's exit fence for whatever reason. And it looks terrible. And is in an area which several thousand people will notice. Let's assume it's because of cost. How on earth are they going to get the money to repaint a whole boat, which isn't being used for guests, for a location which significantly less people notice? Keep in mind that, despite it's location, a lot less people pay attention to the boat, and even less use that walkway. And during Fright Nights they can (and, if they're sensible, should) block that pathway off entirely. This isn't to excuse it. But when we're in a time where the park isn't fully repainting exit pathways, removing bridges because it's cheaper than repairing them, etc, etc, is them not repainting an SBNO attraction really something we should expect, or be worrying about?

I visited Walibi Belgium last week, and honestly, this park is turning into a right little gem.. New Stuff -Popcorn Revenge is absolutely brilliant; up there as one of my favourite dark rides. A ton of fun, great theming and really re-rideable. A bit hidden away and was very quiet despite the park being busy, which is a shame. -The recent rethemes of areas as part of their 100m Euro overhaul are great. Karma World (which has Popcorn Revenge) is great. Fun World is a nice kids area. Exotic World is beautifully themed and really added a different dimension to the park. -The Gerst bobsled in Exotic World, Tiki Waka, is really nice. Not the greatest bobsled in the world, but nicely themed and a perfect fun-for-all ride. Existing stuff -Pulsar, the Mack Supersplash that opened in 2016 (see start of thread), is brilliant. Arguably should be their icon ride right now. Sure, you get soaked at the back, but it's a REALLY fun ride, and I'd love to see more of these. -Challenge of Tutankhamun, their other shooter, is still great and doesn't feel like it's 16 years old.. -The park has a solid rapids and log flume -They have an Vekoma mine train, SLC and a Boomerang, none of which are great. I imagine they're staying for the foreseeable as they're in the park's long-term plans (and the Boomerang has been repainted), but they're okay fillers I guess. Hopefully we can see the back end of them soon-ish though. -Their Vekoma woodie, Weerwolf, is still decent. Much better than Robin Hood at Walibi Holland ever was. I've heard the park aren't considering RMCing it, but after seeing Untamed, who knows what they'll do... So yeah, Walibi Belgium have really gotten their act together. It's great to see them adding new stuff within their constraints and working on the existing park at the same time. Really would recommend people put this on their radars! As for next year, the park will continue with their refurb of the park, redoing the entrance (which isn't awful tbf, but could be better), and the currently not-really-an-area area of Pulsar, their log flume and their Schwarzkopf shuttle launch, Psyké Underground.

Thorpe require a letter from a GP. But most GPs will do it with no questions asked (even though technically you should be charged). I'm sure you can easily forge them as well. Having an on site doctor is not feasible in any way though. Nor should it in any way be considered. The big issue is that Thorpe and Merlin have tried to be as accomodating as possible to disabled guests, and in doing so, have been too accommodating. If you reverse the decision and make it stricter, it'll be a PR disaster. Can see the tabloids now: "Thorpe Park said my son wasn't disabled enough! Discrimination!!". Merlin won't want to risk that backlash now. They've dug themselves into a hole and I don't see how they'd get out of it. I know that Phantasialand do offer a version. A very strict version mind, and if you qualify for it, you can't do most of the rides because as you say there a view you wouldn't be safe to do so. They got into some heat a while back for refusing to let a blind guest on coasters - but most of the media sided with the park..

A nice graphic of the new coaster: However, there's some reports the ride will now open in 2022 rather than 2021, due to some issues with some trees that have to be removed for the ride. Be a shame to have to wait another year for this awesome looking ride..

Group sizes are about 20. 20 groups in a day. =£1000 a day Say actors get paid £9ph. Probably 8 actors a day for Dungeons working 7 hours a day, £504 a day. Plus ride staff to operate the boat ride (they won't be actors, just ride staff in a character), engineers/technicians getting the ride ready, plus the actual running of the attraction probably adds another £100-150 in simple terms. So yeah, it'd make a couple of hundred quid if it ran at full capacity.

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.