JoshC.

The issue is, especially online, is people focus too much on the negatives. This can give a perception that people are just too negative, and it turns places like this into a negativity pit. It can be very frustrating when you see a disconnect - people constantly moaning, yet also constantly visiting and effectively handing over money to the parks. It's all about striking a balance - of course, people shouldn't just throw in meaningless positives ("Thorpe opened all their rides today - yay"). But equally, it's always keeping in mind how you can come across if you're constantly negative...especially without reason.

That Swarm image has been used since 2013. It's pretty much the best photo they have of Swarm doing it's drop. People tried drawing the same conclusion about mrawS returning for Fright Nights 2017 when they used it for that artwork. They probably should consider updated their image library.

It's not a defence of the phrase. You can slam any marketing drivel if you want to. When there's much better to critique Merlin, why is it people always fall back to the same slogan taken out of context? It just feels like a way to cheapen someone's point, rather than reinforce it. The mod team will intervene if we believe a discussion needs steering back on topic. I reckon we all would rather have reasonable and intelligent discussion that's come from the thread rather than just halt it just because it's not directly related to the title.

Before and after from Reddit...

The storm that's made it's way through Europe clearly doesn't like Energylandia / RMC...

I think this discussion has started to spiral away from my point somewhat (and that's partially my fault; I can see where you're coming from) I hate the 'second to Disney' argument because enthusiasts take it out of context and use it for arguments Merlin don't. Marhelorpe mentioned about how they should be held accountable to those standards because customers don't care about the fine print of the second to Disney claim. My point is that Merlin don't say that to customers - it's pretty much all internal or to investors (of course, a lot of what is said to investors can be found out by the public, but the majority of people will not dig that stuff out). The phrases they do use on their website are what I'd expect any large company to say about itself. And those sorts of phrases should just be ignored, as it's meaningless market spiel in my books. And, more importantly, that's a completely different phrase to the second to Disney line. Whenever I see people throw the 'second to Disney' line, it annoys me (irrationally, I guess) because it's like people can't understand the difference between truth and marketing drivel. They are the second largest in the world, and they'll use size as a way of measuring quality. We'll never truly know what the internal standpoint truly is, as of course they're never going to come out and say 'yeah, we're a bit poo' (though in my experience, plenty of senior people within the company truthfully know where they stand in terms of quality within the industry). So why focus on a throwaway phrase when there's actual, more constructive, points to raise? My case in point is this... Merlin do not look at the quality of Universal and think they produce better quality than that. But as a visitor attraction company in terms of attendance, Merlin are above Universal. This is the best point. The majority of people within Merlin who do end up thinking they're second only to Disney are the low-level, seasonal staff. They'll be made aware of how large Merlin are, and most will be unaware of many parks outside of Merlin and Disney. They'll just go in, take the comment at face value, and move on. So at the low level, it does create this delusion. At the higher level (where arguably it matters, as it's the people who are actually making the decisions, etc), people don't buy into this in my experience, except when they have to smile and nod politely when it's mentioned to investors..

My point is more it isn't exclusive to Merlin - any big company will make some noise saying it's great. Especially internally and to investors. And if they've got a fact they can spin to "prove" their point, they'll use that to their advantage. That's why I accept it...and ignore it. It's meaningless words that just comes from one fact, and people over-empathize how much those words are used by Merlin in the public domain. I get it's an easy way to sum up some of Merlin's problems, but it's completely taken out of proportion and, to me, just cheapens any point anyone is making.

Yes, that's too staff. Not to the public. Guests / the public are largely unaware, and don't really care, about the size of Merlin. I just don't get it. Merlin are the second largest visitor attraction company, and that's a fact. Of course they're going to spin that to say they're their second best. And all companies positively advertise themselves. A company as large as Merlin will of course put claims out there they're the greatest. It's what any company in their right mind would do if they've got an opportunity to do it. It's not about me being a sympathetic towards Merlin. They're making plenty of questionable decisions I hate. But the complaints against them saying they're second to Disney just always leave me dumbfounded.

That's different though - they're not directly comparing themselves to Disney. At best, that statement is hyperbole, and plenty of other companies across the world in a variety of sectors will use similar statements. Any company will try and make themselves sound like they're the best. I know I'm probably sounding pig-headed and stubborn here, but surely anyone with common sense will take statements like that with a pinch of salt? Or do we have to nit pick on every claim everyone makes? It is true that, internally, they can use interchangeably. And in some ways, that's fair - their ultimate goal is to become the biggest visitor attraction company. So biggest does mean best and vice versa in that sense. And internally that makes sense - you want staff to believe in the company, to share the same vision, to have some confidence in what they're effectively selling. For the sensible person, they'll understand the difference between biggest and best. I'm sure there's plenty of people who do mindlessly believe biggest=best, and I'm sure there's plenty higher ups who have tunnel vision and believe that too. But I'm equally sure that, regardless of what Merlin say in their updates to investors, that there's plenty of people who understand the difference. But it's just lazy. Yeah sure, Merlin are being lazy sometimes and unifying 'biggest' and 'best'. But it's not like they're shoving it down the throats of the public all the time. There's a clear supporting fact for their claim, they just spin it in a clever way to make themselves sound better. It's just so nitpicky and lazy to complain about a hyperbolic statements that are taken out of context.

Where do they say this to customers? Genuine question. The only place I've seen them use that phrase is in investor presentations. And it's usually only associated with them in articles by the people writing the articles, not Merlin themselves. Agree that Varney is effectively wrong in saying this. But this is a different statement and different circumstances - their second largest claim is factual. That's more opinion. No? I don't get how you're arriving at that either... Regardless of what Merlin are, to keep saying the "second to Disney" claim is ludicrous. They're not saying their quality is only rivalled by Disney - all they have said, to investors only, is that as visitor attraction companies, Disney are the only ones that have more people.

I am seriously tiring of this argument. Yes, Merlin claim they are second to Disney in terms of attendance figures. And as a company they are. They never claim to be second to Disney in terms of quality. People who try and use this argument just come across as ill-informed and ignorant to be honest, and it cheapens your point significantly.

Wicker Guy cost €2m to build, which was included in the refurbishment cost (I believe ~€10m). Source - https://www.heide-park-world.de/de/...-colossos-2-0-baustellenupdate-special-teil-3

This is the second teaser they've shown with an arrow pointing to part of the park. The first pointed to IAC, which we can assume is for Jungle Escape. Could this arrow be a location for BounceZilla? The area next to Crust can fit a lot in, and probably the most suitable place on park for it.. If that is the case, I hope those arrows are there just for the teasers and not on the final map. The idea of having the events effectively labelled as attractions all year round on the map doesn't sound appealing to me...

I don't believe Thorpe can do any major works to the car park (especially that corner area). Under that assumption, they'd be lucky to get three barriers there.. During the peak time for arrival, 9-10.30am, it'll still be busy and creating major backlog. How will that make any difference? Instead of queueing to leave the barrier, you'll queue to leave the park at the roundabout. And instead of having 4 lanes to choose from to leave, you'll have 2. It'll be just as bad, and cause more issues on the roads outside the park.

I'd love to be optimistic and say that, unlike any other actor led attraction within Merlin parks, since this is an upcharge attraction, it may last longer. And in some ways, I am. And I've heard rumours suggesting that this version may more be a test of the waters for a bigger-scale version in a different location in the resort. So again, I want to be optimistic and say it won't be forgotten about. But in its current guise, it's effectively set up to fail. They're not going to make cuts to it, forget about it, etc, but they may as well because it's ultimately not going to work.

A first decent-ish look at Monster Party. Looks like the front will be nicely done. Shame about the rest / location of the ride meaning we get the ugly rear end.

From my eyes, it would be difficult to change though? Where would they put the pay point? I guess you could put it at the corner of the gravel car park, but then whenever it's slightly busy, the queue will be going out of the park and onto the main roads (something which happens now, so that would be amplified significantly). It would be chaotic most of the time. I'm also not sure how people would react to the whole idea of paying straight away. Many complaints about Thorpe/Merlin are about value for money and how people feel like they're being bled dry. Whilst not having to pay as you leave takes the sting out at the end of the day, it can set people up for feeling like they're shelling out from the moment they arrive. Dangerous game for Thorpe to play. In my experience from parks abroad getting you to pay on arrival, they have plenty of space in their car park for cars to queue, enough leeway outside the park in case of super busy periods and, most importantly, people are less faffy and just generally more efficient. I just don't see how Thorpe can modify the car park (whilst not significantly reducing the amount of gravel or grass) to make a pay on entry system work.

But then surely you just get the one hour gridlock at the start of the day? Plus Thorpe's car park isn't really designed to cope with that sort of system.

Just take a step back and think about what you've said here. It's November 2019, an article appears in the Daily Mirror: "I had a bad day at Thorpe Park over a year, I went back and had another bad day!" Who will actually care? No one OR it'll read "I had a bad day at Thorpe Park over a year ago, I went back as a a VIP and had a good!" Again, who will care? No one Stories like that will be published in the heat of the moment, else they lose all interest and credibility.

Oh don't be so melodramatic. Plenty of the rides will be missed at the very least. And there are plenty of staff there who care. 1) X:\No Way Out to X retheme 2) Big Top (2016/17 versions) 3) Ghost Train at it's prime was genuinely hailed as a fantastic experience 4) The uniqueness of Swarm backwards (and the sensibility to reverse that decision when the fad died away) 5) IMA Score Again, don't be so melodramatic. That post was made in October. If it was real and was going to happen, it would have happened by now.

It isn't finished yet - confirmed via TowerStreet's Facebook page. I imagine they won't be able to do much in two weeks, but you never know I guess. Ultimately my problem with it is it doesn't feel very dungeony at the moment. It's a cut out castle and, crucially, doesn't look anything like the Towers. I get why they can't put it in the Towers, but they had a massive opportunity to make it feel like a distant part / ruins of the Towers and it seemingly looks like they haven't taken it. That's my biggest problem right now, and I don't think they can turn that around it two weeks.

Mystic at Walibi RA now has a (pretty weird) looking first drop and lift hill...

From Heide Park World: It's soon time for the Wicker Boy to rise.

I think the core logo is perfectly fine. It's recognisable, simple yet effective, and easily modifiable (see Stealth, Saw, Swarm, DBGT variations, and now the focus on the infinity-style part of it). Very much a case of 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' in my mind.

Presumably new key promo artwork for this year: Pretty damn cool tbf