JoshC.

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

Maybe they realised it was perhaps a bit too much? That or they just hadn't updated since Fright Nights properly. I guess the thing to always keep in mind is that it is now technically £7 to park. Any higher prices are there to deter people from taking more time from staff, who could be doing other things, or taking more time at the barrier, which makes it longer for everyone to get out. £7 is still a lot to pay, given the quality of the car park. And I don't believe Thorpe can really change the gravel car park - it has to remain gravel due to the location near the lake and act as flood relief effectively (or something like that I think?). So they need to strike a balance of charging the right amount for the quality of it.

I'm personally getting some Droomvulcht vibes from that video. Not my sort of thing personally, but it's perfect for the park right now.

This is the thing though, even when other rides are open, it still attracts a long queue. It's one of the few rides which constantly has a queue. Turd throughput explains why it has a long queue time. It doesn't explain why people see the long queue time and go 'yes, let's join that queue'..

On a serious note, I believe only 4 of the 12 scenarios for Ghost Train ever made it to public viewing (there may be more that I can't remember, see spoilers below...) I'd be surprised if we see any changes to DBGT. 2017 changes were made to improve the ride. 2018 changes were made to change scene 2, which was regularly broken and caused several issues / shutdowns. Ghost Train is no longer a focus, so they won't be making changes to improve the ride. And I don't think there's any obvious changes they can make to the experience to try and improve reliability. The only thing I feel that could happen is cuts made to scene 4, though hopefully they realised last year how it receives a negative reaction when it's not there.

How else do you explain why people actively look at an hour long queue and go 'Yes, this seems like a good way to spend my time'? Doesn't matter what the actual reaction to it is. If people are willing to spend an hour queueing for it, it IS capturing their attention and imagination.

Don't like the idea. New rides over a 30+ year old ride that's been SBNO for over 5 years please.

I do think that Storm Surge captures the imagination of many people. In theory, it has everything - a shared experience suitable for most, height, speed, spinning, a light splash of water. Given the selection of water rides at Thorpe, I can see why Storm Surge appeals to many, and why people are always prepared to queue a long time for it compared to many other rides.