JoshC.

Couple more photos from PabloA on CF... Just to remind people as well - they haven't even started work on the lift hill yet. Everything you see here is for the rest of the track!

Frooom loopings. All aboard the twisty hype train

A theme park doing a vlog for construction of a new ride you say? Is this basically just European law now? Interested to see how dominant this is within the park. Bit worried it may look out of place (obvs same was said about Karnan, but that's easier to theme..)

One issue is the fact that area is used for access for vehicles and such. Using the area for Fright Nights is okay as it's only temporary (though not ideal). It would have had a big effect on back of house operations. It also would have made the construction of DBGT significantly more difficult for example. So in that sense, it wouldn't have been ideal. I also imagine that issue of having a ride right next to Monks Walk would cause extra issues when people try and enter the park from there (ride areas, etc). So more it's just less ideal from a back of house perspective. Also a tearing out OG meant there wouldn't be more rides to operate; I imagine OG and Storm Surge were equally labour and staff intensive, making that location more preferable.

This is one of those funny stories which has some truth, but was sensationalised by Thorpe to grab attention. There's a lot more detail in this post about the original plan, but this picture summarises it nicely: These are all of the considered locations. There is one location which is essentially next and parallel to Monks Walk (pretty much the back half of Dead Creek Woods and first half of Blair Witch from last year). Obviously not an ideal location. The one next to it would have involved the removal of the carousel and Mr Monkey, and again wouldn't have been great either. Eventually, the current location was decided upon, to obviously redevelop Octopus Garden (an area which was very much out of place at Thorpe). For some fun bonus info, the park did indeed have South West London Paranormal in (they've visited a few times in the past actually). Jim, who is quoted in the above article, was actually the examiner for my driving test and we spoke about it quite a bit (I also passed my test - woo!). Basically he said there was some stuff detected, some of the stuff he said was obviously used to play along with the story (since there was never any construction in that area, though they did explore the area next to Monks Walk). The group wanted to explore more on different dates, but the park refused, and I don't actually think they've been invited back the the park since.. Funnily enough, that was one of the best, far-reaching, pieces of marketing the park have ever done. It was picked up all over the world, with everyone wanting interviews with the park, wanting to know their next steps, etc. It just really captured the attention and imagination of everyone. And all of that for Storm Surge! It's why I always feel they should capitalise on the local history and mythology behind it more. The nearby Chertsey Abbey opened in 666AD. There's mythology of a headless monk haunting the town and Monks Walk. It practically writes itself for a dark ride or Fright Nights maze.

I imagine you can still buy tickets at the admissions area for less than £15 (looking at those prices, I'd expect £10). Clearly the idea is to discourage people from paying at the barrier (causes delays), and to use the website/app.

So I visited this place today, and had a pretty good time - For those who can't be bothered reading or want to avoid spoilers... It's fun, nicely themed (though could be better). There's a good variety and mix and things going on, and it's just a well presented, well staffed good day out. Hopefully it grows and develops and can iron out any early problems it has had!

Opening autumn last year, The Bear Grylls Adventure already feels like a forgotten Merlin attraction in some sense. No real fanfare when the attraction opened, and still no advertising, it's a weird scenario. Apparently a big advertising push is coming this spring though, so maybe that will help get the word out there a bit more. What is it? This is one of the hardest questions to answer, but I'll try. BGA is split into several different activities, and you can pay to do basically any combination of these: -Basecamp. 4 activities in one: Survival maze, Escape room, Archery and Assault course -High Ropes Course. Outdoor free roam high ropes course -Climbing. Indoor rock climbing on several different types of wall -iFly. Indoor skydiving experience -Snorkelling. Self explanatory -Diving. Dive in a cage surrounding by animals, including sharks Basecamp is very much the standard go to option, with maybe one or two extra activities added on. To do all activities is an 8-9 hour day. I ended up doing this today, opting for Basecamp, the High Ropes Course and Climbing. You choose timeslots for the activities, and we went for Basecamp - 11am, High Ropes - 1pm, Climbing - 3pm. Bear Tags Bear Tags are the big piece of tech for BGA. It tells you where you need to be at what time, vibrates when it's nearly time, acts as a check in for each activity, your key to a locker (lockers are free, as you're not allowed anything with you on any activity), etc. It also acts as a ticket for scanning photos to you too. You can put your card details on there and use it to pay for stuff too. Ours proved to be temperamental during the day, with one dying half way through, sometimes not vibrating at the right time, not scanning, etc. The idea behind them is nice, so hopefully the technology can work out too. Basecamp Basecamp is the hardest thing to describe, as it's a very mish-mashed experience. You share this experience in groups of 16-20, and is advertised to take 90 minutes, as well as a Bear 'ranger' who guides you round the activities. You start off with a Survival Maze: This is basically like what I'm a Celebrity should have been. It's hard to describe it without giving spoilers, but in short it's a 20 minute guided tour through various challenges and activities, based on certain fears and survival elements. As I say, imagine Thorpe's IAC maze, but amped up a level to actually try and test people. I'm not quite sure how I felt about it in the end. It's hard to tell whether it's "so bad it's good" or "bad". Our guide was very over-the-top cheesey at times, and again, hard to tell if it made it worse or better. So I finished the first element unconvinced. Escape Room After leaving the maze and having a photo opportunity (not forced, and you get digital copies included with the Basecamp ticket!), we were then guided around the building towards the escape room. The escape room is a 7 minute timed challenge, up to 10 people per team (there's two rooms so no waiting around), which simply requires finding one 4 digit code. The ranger guide gives you a clue at the start, and you have to decode messages, radio clues and writing on the wall to crack the code. Neither team in our group managed it, and it's one of the weirdest escape rooms I've done. I don't like the way it presents clues. Rather awkwardly, the escape room leads you to an unthemed, essentially staff area, to get back out. Archery Archery is archery - it's what you'd expect! You're given a very thorough briefing and demonstration, and then get to shoot 10 arrows. It's good fun, well presented and though it's always nice to have more arrows, this felt like a good fair number. Assault Course Up until now, the Basecamp experience had been linear and we were guided in a group. After Archery, we were told we were free to do the assault course at 'any time', and you get two goes for it. Basecamp is advertised as a 90 minute experience, we were an hour in and the assault course is 25 minutes, most of which is spent warming up and safety talks. With High Ropes booked for 1pm, we decided to have a lunch break, and then do the assault course later. We did it at about half 2, and honestly, this is full on! Said to be based off a Royal Marine's assault course, you spend a lot of time before stretching, running on the spot, etc (which in itself was pretty tiring). You're part of a large group, but sent round in groups of 2-4. The assault course is fairly standard fodder - balancing, high/low beams, crawling under nets, climbing up nets, and included a jump over a 6ft wall and ascending/descending monkey bars. You can skip any element you can't do (I tried the monkey bars and failed miserably). Rather nicely, you're given an anklet which acts as a timer, so you can see your time. I managed it in about 2m40s, which was in the top third of everyone in the group. Fairly happy with that, but it left me proper exhausted! High Ropes Course The High Ropes Course takes place outside, in a stand alone structure which - at its highest - is about 60ft tall. To leave the building, you zipline from above the entrance (themed to a helicopter) towards the course - normally the finale of a high ropes course, but still fun nonetheless! The course has over 30 different features, spread over 4 levels (and the higher you go, the more challenging the features supposedly get). Despite the odd look, the course was very good fun, and extra challenges were had due to the rain and sometimes quite fast wind! Out of curiosity, I asked if they shut it down in windy conditions, and they said they have a limit, but haven't reached it yet. I managed all but one feature, a particularly tricky spinning log which I didn't fancy due to the weather conditions (and my shaky legs at 60ft!). You can either get down by walking back down, or doing a death drop - essentially just being harnessed up and jumping from the third level in a very mini bungee jump like situation. Again, that proved very fun. A nice feature of the high ropes course is you can effectively take as long as you want. 90 minutes is the recommended time (including zipline and safety briefings), but there's no one checking the clock on you. I imagine within reason, you can stay up there as long as you like. Climbing Climbing came directly after our go in the assault course. Already with achey arms, and me not having good upper body strength, I knew this wouldn't be great for me. The session starts off with 20 minutes of bouldering (low level rock climbing), then 40 minutes of climbing up 8m high walls, of varying difficulties and surfaces. You can pick and choose what you attempt. Despite all my best efforts, and help from the instructors, I simply never got the hang of it. Wasn't totally unexpected, but a shame nonetheless. Maybe it's just me, but I feel like maybe there could have been a couple more very basic / entry level walls? Couple of others in our group struggled too, but ah well. Food, Retail and Theming There's an onsite restaurant which serves hot and cold food, such as pizzas, nachos, sandwiches, etc. Standard Merlin fodder really, but at a reasonable price, with good value meal deals and AP discount still applicable to them! There's also a shop with BGA and standard Bear Grylls merch. Unlike other midway attractions, like Shrek, the prices are very much in line with theme park prices, and you can get AP discount on it all. The theming is a weird one. All of the activities are well presented, and within the area there's some very nice themed features and elements. There's good ambient music (the iFly area actually plays the old Air theme!!), and thematic lighting, though perhaps a bit too dim. However, the ceiling is not themed at all, and makes it clear you're in a warehouse. Given you look up quite a bit, it is a bit of an illusion breaker, but something that could be easily - and cheaply - remedied by just some cheap cargo netting! Also, as mentioned, the walkway after the escape room is terrible. Other Thoughts The Basecamp idea is weird. It is advertised very linearly on the website, but the activities are spread out through the attraction, making it feel a bit clunky. Given the space has been built from the ground up, I'd have thought they could have designed it so one activity leads directly to one another. It seemed fairly lively in there, and according to a member of staff we spoke to, about 200-300 people do the high ropes course over a weekend, and 150-200 do the climbing experience. Those numbers seem quite low, so it'll be interesting to see how it develops, especially once advertising kicks in. Cost Given all the different options available, the cost very much varies. The basecamp experience is £20, which isn't terrible, and add-ons vary and start from £15 (you have to Basecamp I believe). But there's bound to be offers floating around, and they're experimenting with different offers for Annual Passholders (at the moment, Basecamp by itself is £1 for example). So it can be quite an expensive day (all activities together cost £160), but it's not exactly bad for the variety you get. Even better if you get a special offer! Overall Overall, Bear Grylls Adventure is something complete different, and offers something for everyone. If you're a well-trodden high ropes goer / climber / whatever, those specific probably won't offer much for you, but if not, it's a really fun experience to be able to do a variety of different things. Definitely something worth trying out if it does sound up your street! (NB: As phones aren't allowed in the activities and the lighting was low-level, I've just stolen photos off the official website)

Much excite. One thing which interests me is that this is said to be North America's tallest hybrid (so taller than Steel Vengeance at 205ft), but not the world. Presently, the tallest non-American hybrid is Wildfire (180ft) though Zadra will overtake that (200ft). So presumably Zadra's current slated height is wrong, but I guess there could be a surprise RMC popping up in the world next year still?

To be fair, they did add the Air Race in 2014(?), and around that time they did seem to have their heads screwed on. Thomas Land was doing well for the park, they were hitting the first expansion of that, and still had a good balance. Then things went downhill. Pirates died / they gave up with it. I imagine they were hit by people losing faith in theme parks after Smiler. Stormforce required lengthy work. The rapids incident happened. It's not gone very well for the park. They clearly know Thomas works for them, so that's what they're focusing on as their USP. They won't die away, but they are on a downward spiral and not investing in non-Thomas attractions won't help them get out of it.

It'd be interesting to see how possible it would be to effectively turn that road into a tunnel, and just have the park / expansion go over the road, as opposed to re-routing it. Given the size, I imagine it's not very practical, as well as expensive and logistically very awkward, but it could be a potential way round it I guess.

The towers are from Sea Life Oberhausen, in a similar way that Thorpe got Timber Tug and Lumber Jump from Sea Life Weymouth.

Major disappointing news - https://www.efteling.com/nl/blog/nieuws/20190301-update-uitbreiding-efteling?fbclid=IwAR2cWRKpnA_fLhBwTixsb_3Mu7zOvzhz-i_wmH7QlKM08RW90FJ0s4em8vc Efteling have NOT been granted permission for their expansion. Efteling were hoping to expand the park massively. The original plan was for this to start in 2020, with a new circus-themed coaster and others, and the expansion continuing with more new attractions until 2030. See my crude drawing from when it was announced over a year ago for where this was to take place... The park had to delay these plans due to issues with the local authority not being convinced by the plans. This meant the 2020 project was tentatively pushed back to 2021, and ultimately Efteling decided to replace Bob with the Mack powered coasters for 2020. The local authority have now made a decision, and feel that - despite Efteling's claims it will not - the expansion will cause extra traffic and noise pollution, so ultimately they are against the decision. The Council of State will make a further decision about whether the plans can be implemented in some revised fashion. A real true shame, and majorly frustrating, as the park itself cannot really develop much more within its current area. Hopefully things work out, because their 2021 coaster - rumoured to be a family launch with special track features - sounded really fun...

BounceZilla isn't listed as an upcharge event. Gaming events/expos are common all around the country. The sort of stuff you'll find there is what Thorpe will have. And that's the thing with these new events - they're all stuff that you'll find elsewhere. Not a bad thing by any means, but it just seems like the wrong time to introduce them..

What clues does one decode in IAC? ? At the bottom it says additional costs apply, so it seems more like a different, upcharge experience (like an escape room) than just IAC rebranded...

A set of events for 2019. Along with GameFX is... -Jungle Escape. An upcharge escape room, presumably taking place in I'm a Celebrity. From May. -BounceZilla. An inflatable, potential fun Total Wipeout-esque, course. Over summer. -Fright Nights. Jungle Escape and Bouncezilla sound like they have potential. Why Thorpe didn't just announce all this in one go boggles the mind (I guess they planned to drag it out, but the bad response made them change their mind..) However, let's note that this is the first year since 1997 where no new (free) attraction has been introduced at the resort.

https://www.altontowers.com/cbeebies-land/2019/ Good IP choice. More importantly imo, from April there will also be a Teletubbies show in CBeebies Land. Arguably an IP they should have gotten from the start, but honestly it's great to see them get that.

Bouncy castle? Arguably would be their best investment since 2012...

Based on James' update above, there's been no work to Rumba aside from the boats being taken away to presumably have the gates installed. It would be highly unlikely that they're retheming Rumba to any sort of quality if no theming work has begun a month before the park opens.

Clearly GameFX isn't the only thing happening throughout the year. Given the jungle motif and the fact I'm a Celebrity is gone, I'd placed bets on something almost definitely taking place in that space. What though? Same thing with no IAC tie-in? Something different like an escape room? Or an adventure course style thing? Or could it be something more akin to Zombie Hunt?

Merlin had their Preliminary 2018 Result presentation to investors today. Keep in mind, of course, that they'll always try and put a positive spin on things, but they do also provide raw numbers. Some interesting highlights: -Visitor numbers, revenue, spend per capita, etc all have improved compared to 2017 -Merlin see it as more or less the end of the 'recovery period' following Smiler incident, terror attacks in big locations, etc, so they can now look at starting to 'grow again' -Merlin are keeping a close eye on 'pop up' style attractions, such as escape rooms, weird museums, esport events*, etc. They're looking at putting these types of things within their attractions, but feel that as a stand alone activity, they are ultimately not profitable enough Some more attraction-specific stuff: -Lego Movie World is spreading across several Legoland parks over the next couple of years, with it coming to Windsor in 2021 -New Legoland parks coming to New York (late spring 2020), South Korea (finally confirmed for opening 2022) and discussions about opening one in China are still ongoing -The Peppa Pig World of Play play centre attraction that opened in Shanghai is being cloned across 10 new locations this year (largely China and America) -Merlin acquired an oceanrium in China in 2012 (Changheng Ocean World, now sometimes known as Sea Life Shanghai), which had a huge show centred on two beluga whales. Merlin are moving these whales to a sanctuary in Iceland this year, after many years of planning -IPs are a continued focused -The Bear Grylls attraction which opened in September in Birmingham, they have done very little advertising whilst they 'get things right'. A big push is coming this spring. -When speaking of the refurbishment of Colossos at Heide, Nick Varney noted it was very similar to Wicker Man and said "we never pass on an opportunity to copy a great idea unless we have to" *interesting, when speaking about epsorts, Varney mentioned the event at Thorpe Park. He said he very much didn't 'get it' (and in my personal opinion whilst listening, he sounded less-than-convinced by it all), and said it was something noted by younger people within the industry as a thing to explore. So yes, very much by the numbers they're getting, and the front they're putting on, all is very positive and good for Merlin. Then again, you would hope they would since it's just a recovery after a very bad period. Obviously, the situations more locally aren't quite so good, so it'd be very curious to know what they thoughts are behind the scenes.

Walibi churning out all the good stuff at the moment. It's like entering a different dimension.. In other news, Legendia are getting rapids ride from Hafema in 2020. They've been involved in some good rapids; see River Quest at Phantasialand, Jurassic Park Rapids at Universal Singapore, El Rio at Bobbejaanland, and more.. The space it's taking is quite large, but one that I wouldn't feel like is a natural fit for a rapids. So wouldn't be surprised if we see a few fun elements thrown on to help give it that rapid edge..

So G Force is no longer listed on the park's ride page, nor does it appear on the new map. The ride is currently still standing. Interestingly, the rapids are still listed as an attraction in the rides page (though not the map), with no sign of reopening.

One potential thing is that Thorpe might be getting a lot of amount of this through the advertising. Taking up the marquee for the best part of two months means it's unlikely they'll be able to use that space for private events (unless it's super easy to dismantle the 'exhibits'). The marquee is a good way for the park to make a lot of extra revenue - it makes more than most would expect. If they're losing that, they're definitely going to be making the money up in other ways, and it won't be from the VR upcharge things they have. They're probably making money from using the space for gaming tournaments, some companies are likely paying Thorpe to have their products on show in prime locations. I'd imagine it would be a good pitch - Thorpe approaches these companies and says "we're having a gaming event at the park, we're having x,y,z there, would you be interested? For this amount of money, we can make you the headliner of the event..." I'm not saying that is what happening, but I imagine that's a likely outcome. This isn't going to push anyone away. No one is going "I WAS going to go to Thorpe Park this year, but they've got a gaming event in one small section of the park, so nah, screw that". It might mean people choose not to visit "Oh, I went to Thorpe a while back, should I go this year? Oh, they've got a gaming event on, that doesn't interest me, I'll hold off and visit somewhere else for now." On the flipside, it's possible this might attract people - but based on social media reaction, that number is minimal at best.

https://www.thorpepark.com/events/gamefx Basically, some gaming 'event' in the marquee, where you can book a slot and play some video games. There'll be some professional gamers there too on some days, playing assorted games. Meh, don't get it personally. Yeah sure, there's stuff like arcades and VR is becoming more popular at theme parks, but these are sideshow elements for people to enjoy to kill a bit of time. Turning that into a full on event and focus doesn't really make sense? Very much stinks of 'we can't put in new rides for whatever reason, so let's just buy a few video games'.