JoshC.

Officially announced... But really, using the "UK's first...at Thorpe Park"?! So bloody stupid. Space Station Zero was therefore the UK's first roller coaster at Thorpe Park. Colossus was the world's first roller coaster to have inversions...at Thorpe Park. *sigh*

But surely 'to save money' makes little sense? The park have a vested interest in having two previews rather than one. Friends and Family day is basically a pass if anything goes wrong, and AP day puts things into perspective more. If they want to save money, just shut on another weekday in May or September. I'm not saying it's not the reason, but if it is the reason, it makes very little sense.

Hakugei at Nagashima is testing... And some fun overview pics...

BGW Fans the real MVPs here. Absolutely mental - 4 launches, 300ft odd drop, airtime. Packs so much into what is a reasonably short layout in fairness. For those who can't be bothered to go through the whole thing... (launch 1 in section 3, then the remaining 3 are semi shuttle in style in section 9, and also has an airtime hill in it) This is very much like Parc Asterix's Intamin coming in 2021, but more about size than inversions and airtime I think. Still, MENTAL

The duelling Intamin coasters at Guangzhou Sunac (Wanda) are slowing beginning to test, with the sit down now in full swing (inverted yet to)... That hang time is crazy right now...

I would assume this is what the Stealth tweet was referencing... https://thelunacinema.com/thorpe-park Outdoor cinema screening of Back to the Future and Bohemian Rhapsody during the May Bank Holiday. Tickets start from £27.50, including 2 hours of ride time on Stealth, Dodgems, Detonator and Teacups, with the film's starting at 9pm, and the screen being set up by Stealth. Interesting idea I guess, but no appeal to me personally

Friends and Family day in the past has basically just been a preview / test day. Some Merlin staff are given tickets which they can either use themselves (if they're not working of course) or give to their friends and family. The idea is that it gives staff a reasonably pressure-free day to get used to their roles, since everyone is there for a free day. It also helps iron out any small issues. It's normally extremely limited capacity too. Why they've decided to mix that day with AP day is anyone's guess. I imagine it just hasn't been updated yet. Eventbrite can sometimes be trickier to update than their own websites. I think they usually send a notification before the event too, which gives a final update of unavailable rides? So I'd say as long as it's updated by then, it's not that bad. Just unfortunate that the ride that is unavailable is one their headliners.

It is listed here: https://www.merlinannualpass.co.uk/passholder-hub/events/march-2019/thorpe-park-resort-passholder-day-23rd-march In fairness, there's usually multiple closed rides on the Annual Pass Preview Day. In saying that, the park have had a longer closed season this year, so swings and roundabouts really. I am also under the impression that this year, the Annual Pass Preview Day is also the same as the Friends and Family day for staff. In the past, the Friends and Family day was on a Saturday, with the AP day on the Sunday.

After retheming their rapids last year, and announcing a Paw Patrol area for this Spring, Movie Park have also announced they're updating their boat dark ride Bermuda Triangle for the summer! https://www.movieparkgermany.de/presse/freut-euch-in-der-kommenden-saison-auf-noch-mehr-action-und-entertainment?fbclid=IwAR3WMh1Lf3vmhTuxGoxz3NjwZJ0cB8ahtJ39ywvCFIVMrJ7zrOiUY_q1UIs Bermuda Triangle is a really weird / WTF ride, but really damn fun. It is showing it's age and there were some rumours they were considering removing it. Instead, it will be rethemed to a 1950s style Area 51 story, called Area 51 - Top Secret. Pretty great to see the park continually invest!

Towers invited lots of fansites to 'Meet the Makers' of the Dungeons, and also view the Stargazing Pods. Here's TowersStreet's one: https://towersstreet.com/news/2019/2019-new-additions/ (warning - SPOILERS) They experienced two scenes, and saw most of the others. Effectively, it's pretty much all cookie-cutter scenes from other Dungeons, but there are local twists on it. The rest of the CATCF facade will be covered by wood in a similar fashion to that which surrounds the entrance. Some maybe-of-interest facts (not really spoilers): -This Dungeons has been created in about a third of the time that other Dungeons normally are made, although we can expect the same high quality props. -Like some other Dungeons, they use the 'three wall set' model, basically meaning the wall that guest's will have their backs' to is unthemed and black, though if done right, this normally doesn't affect the experience -The music has been made in-house, but does have a twist on ITHOTMK

Q-Jump are a special sort of Fastrack effectively. When companies have private / corporate events, each attendee gets a ticket (like a Priority Pass) with a list of rides they can go through the Fastrack queues for. These rides are marked off individually when people go through the Fastrack queue. What rides are included on the Q-Jump depends on how much the company pay and what they request. The numbers are taken out of the Fastrack allocations for the day, so there's no more than usual that would be sold.

Like Ringo says, 10s are reasonably nice anniversaries to celebrate. They don't have to do anything, but it's always nice. This is particularly highlighted with them mentioning it in adverts for the Thorpe Annual Pass. Furthermore, with other parks celebrating anniversaries as a common thing (Efteling, Disney push their 5 year anniversaries, Towers have done stuff for Nemesis and Oblivion), it can lead to public demand for anniversary celebrations. I mean, we know they've mentioned VR will be there, and there'll be some upcharge features. VR gaming isn't that common, and the upcharge stuff almost definitely won't be stuff available to play at home. And retro games (probably stuff like Pacman arcade machines from the 80s) aren't common in homes. So I wouldn't read too much into it. I think some of the questions being raised are fair. This is being pushed as a big thing, when at best, it should be a side addition to expand the line up. And the worth of that sort of event when the park needs to improve its offering and get more people in in the first place is questionable. Then also why people would go to Thorpe for this when there's hundreds of locations they can do this. Oh, and that the first comment from Thorpe shows how childish their social media feels. 'We're saying it will be great so shut up'

Legal to drive, but nothing else. Fairly meaningless anniversary

In case you've missed it, Thorpe Park have released a string of high quality "memes" over this past winter. But can you tell the difference between a Thorpe Park meme and an ironically created mock meme? Let's find out... 1) 2) 3) 4) So which ones are genuine, Thorpe Park memes, and which ones aren't?

A quick look above answers the solution of the missing chat room... I don't know if things have changed Invision's side, but we could potentially look into recreating a Discord or Slack group at some point down the line if appropriate...

Few more details about the events... Jungle Escape - Confirmed escape room experience with a £10 upcharge (though tickets aren't yet available). Only open from end of May to 25th August BounceZilla - Included in ticket price. Runs from July 21st to 3rd September (though days will change, as that sounds exactly like the Zombie Hunt dates and it seems like it hasn't been fully updated)

Thorpe have put Fastrack on sale for this season: https://www.thorpepark.com/tickets-passes/fastrack They have continued with the same format and prices as last year, with a couple of minor changes: -Walking Dead has been added as an option to the Adrenaline package -It feels like there's less options on Exhilarate now? -You can now get unlimited number of goes on DBGT with Unlimited, but still no Walking Dead (or maybe just a one shot for Walking Dead)

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.