JoshC.

I totally agree. Which is why I'd be very surprised if the park ever did do something like that to the masses (I'm surprised they even showed the inside of the building in any way when they did their winter update thing). Equally though, it would still be something really awesome to do and see, moreso after the ride is no longer a thing. People love a behind the scenes perspective of a dark ride, and seeing initial concepts are thoughts behind the design, would really demonstrate what they were trying to do at the very least!

Isn't the point of what an illusion is though? When a magician makes your card disappear then reappear, you know it's not 'gone into thin air'. You know you've been tricked. What you don't know if where your card went, and how it got there and back. That makes you think 'maybe it did go into thin air'. It questions your rational judgement. It should be the same principle with Ghost Train. You know you've moved, that's why you're in a different place (and later return to the same place). But you don't know how you've moved, given you're in a train suspended in mid air. So it makes you think you did stay in the same place the whole time, again questioning your rational judgement. The trouble is, as you say, that whole point is completely lost. You don't have enough time to appreciate that you're boarding a train that's suspended in midair. And when you leave, you leave too quickly. There's no reveal about it. You can't question your judgement if you don't have enough time to make a judgement.

It would be awesome to get a good behind the scenes look at the ride. Despite all its flaws, there is a lot that goes on, and a lot they could go into. Even stuff like the illusion of the floating carriage (which is taken for granted by those of us who have done it multiple times, and now sadly a rushed reveal). And a large proportion of the public don't even realise the ride actually moves - I had someone speak to me who genuinely believed the room around the train spun and changed for exampled! I'd be very surprised if the park ever did something like that. And if they did, I'd be surprised if they did it whilst the ride was still a thing. But it would be a nice thing for them to do in the future!

Yeah, I'm perhaps being a bit tedious with my cynicism and critique on the whole 'why aren't Thorpe marketing themselves' issue at the moment. That's particularly true when comparing them to other parks; every park is different, has their different situations, strategies and so forth. But time and time again, Thorpe have screwed it up. Since about 2014, they've kept changing their target market. It's never been coherent. It's a stupid way to market a big theme park. But if they're going to do it like that, at least set it up so that at the start of the year, everyone knows what you're doing. You've got 2 theme parks advertising, one shouting about how they've got a new family attraction, and one building on the success of a thrill attraction. Leave it too late, and regardless of what Thorpe do, they'll have missed the boat because people will already have in their minds their plans. By now, they should know what they're doing this year (and ideally have it set so it's coherent with any future plans), and how they are going to brand themselves. Push that - the opportunity is there, so just bloody do it. Also, I'm normally not that cynical about Thorpe. Even if I don't like everything they do, I can usually see why they've done it. But we're at a point where Thorpe has little identity and other big UK parks in and out of Merlin are improving, and Thorpe are literally sitting there putting memes on social media. It boggles the mind.

Is that not even more of a reason to sort the brand out before the park opens? Clear up the confusion, get people who they're targeting to actually think about visiting before they get tempted by Chessington / Towers? By just delaying that, it only harms them even more. State of the park and all that doesn't help either of course, but a strong brand campaign early on can at least mask that to encourage people to come. And if they actually start sorting the park out, that would be a bonus too... Of course part of that is wishful thinking, but surely them doing absolutely nothing on a marketing front is worse than them doing something, anything?

You don't need new things to advertise a theme park. A solid brand and a mention of the park's 40th birthday would work.

Carnival Festival is becoming less controversial! Looopings have reported that between March and May, the ride will go through a 3 million euro refurb, which will include new lighting, improved cars and changes to the Japan, China and Africa scenes. For those unacquainted, Carnival Festival is an omnimover where you 'tour' round the world. Each scene gives a stereotypical / comical view of the countries / regions portrayed - England is posh people in top hats drinking tea, Germany is large beer drinkers, etc etc. The Japan, China and Africa scenes cause controversy in this day due to their depictions, with claims of racism from the park. The park have denied these claims, but do seemingly agree now that it's time for an update to give a better reflection for how the regions are today.

Opening hours for 2019 have been revealed. Overall, more open days compared to 2018, but still a lot of 10-4 days...

That is how it has been from the very start too for the record, not something which they changed. There had been discussions about how best to do it, and that's clearly what was agreed on. Not all public / entertainment VR headsets are cleaned after every use, so it's not actually as uncommon as you'd think. I imagine that, on the whole, anytime you put a headset on in DBGT, it's (hygienically speaking) cleaner than, say, a roller coaster backrest. But of course, the obvious concern is that you're putting this next to your eyes, where problems can rise significantly easier. I don't think any problems have arose aside from the odd bit of makeup being leftover on headsets. Whether that's because Thorpe have got the cleaning thing right or if they're playing with fire, though, is unclear...

Is that not more akin to, say, a 4D cinema though? A very different scenario if so, and yes, one that has been around since the late 80s! I agree that cleanliness and practicality is a huge problem, and perhaps will always be one. I guess that's something which, in time, AR could be a solution to - just having googles that can overlay graphics onto the real world seems like a significantly smoother approach. Europa have probably consisting got VR right (or, at least, as right as you can get for now!) all the time through their implementation. The idea of putting VR goggles on before riding and integrating the boarding experience in the VR world is amazing, and again something which I think would be a part of the future successes of VR.

I didn't try Dr Archibald, because screw paying £9 for a ride. I felt very aggrieved doing it for Olympia, so it's going to take something special for me to part with that sort of money for one attraction again. Regarding VR though, it's still very much in its infancy as a piece of technology, and even moreso in a theme park setting. Just think, how long was 3D around before it was used in a ride (not a cinema)? How long was interactive shooting technology around before it was used in a ride? These are questions I don't know the answer to, but I've no doubt they were around a lot longer than VR was before theme parks implemented them. That obviously makes a huge difference to the quality, reliability and overall success of that technology. I truly believe VR (and by extension, the lesser known AR) has a place in theme parks, and in maybe 10-15 years times they'll be a part of some of the most well known, well loved attractions in the industry. But right now, it's just too soon.

RMC hype continues thanks to PabloA on CF... Some context where this is going. The SLC (red cred) is basically the back of the park at the moment - you can even see the quite distinctive cut off line! The front of the park is just next to Hyperion; you can see the castle entrance just to the right of it. This shows just how much this new area is expanding the park in terms of size, and it's only going to get bigger! Footers for the ride going in - this is going to be one dense coaster!

Galactica track is being jetwashed.

Find it interesting that Chessington and Towers have got TV adverts playing for their 2019 season (advertising Room on the Broom and Stargazing Pods respectively along with the parks), yet Thorpe has nothing yet. Of course, those parks have the headstart of having the 2019 offerings announced and Thorpe do not, but given the focus of the adverts is staying on site, it already feels like Thorpe could be at risk of being left behind. Especially at a time when the parks are in a precarious position, having one not being advertising seems, well, odd. And it seems all but certain that Thorpe will have nothing of note this year, it feels a bit...worrying.

Interesting of you to bring up safety actually... Wanda City have sent back a total of 124 pieces of track back to Mack for the Blue Fire clone, due to it failing an inspection they performed to satisfy their own safety checks.. https://news.sina.com.cn/o/2019-01-18/doc-ihqfskcn8346004.shtml A reasonably good translation, provided by roomraider on CF: Obviously a very unusual story, and something which I don't think should be taken at face value. There are of course plenty of incidents of Chinese built rides failing inspections or worse. And it's not the first time that non-Chinese manufacturers have had issues, though admittedly nothing to this scale. Maybe it's a case of China becoming stricter with coasters and rides as a result of the recent boom, and number of accidents, and perhaps going a bit over the top. To go onto Golden Horse in particular though, they actually have a good safety record, especially in recent years. Golden Horse have built coasters outside of China too and are becoming like an early Vekoma with their rides. I guess with western manufacturers becoming more accessible to Chinese parks, Golden Horse have to up their game to remain competitive, and safe!

The first half of MP Express is copeable though. Condor is terrible from the second you leave the lift hill until about 2 hours later when the headache begins to go away. You're definitely suffering from PTSD - post traumatic SLC disorder...

My point more was that Paulton's actually pay attention to Trip Advisor, have a strong presence on there and get people posting good comments on there. That's something Merlin struggle with miserably at the moment. People trust Trip Advisor a lot, so Paulton's using it to their advantage is an understated reason for their success of late. Of course their offering is a huge part of that, but without the proper usage of the likes of Trip Advisor, they wouldn't be doing as well in my opinion. In fairness, I stand by the sentiment that DBGT could have been something truly extraordinary. The transportation from one scene (hanging warehouse) to another (train station) is quite remarkable, and gets a lot of people. To use of VR had potential - if they managed to actually have 12 different scenarios running all at the same time, that would have been brilliant. The issues with it are plentiful, and many of them I don't think could have been predicted from the initial announcement. Stuff like the ride transit not working, the building being too hot, etc. Though there were many people who made very good points about it being a potential flop.

Just for that comment alone you should be submitted to a day's worth of riding hell Condor, the worst coaster known to man. That ought to set you straight...or rather, not, since you'll probably end up with a broken spine

Two things to take into consideration when looking at attendance data... 1) The data published online is not always accurate. Many parks will announce numbers which look good for them, and avoid the truth. Some parks get around this by not publicly announcing bad years. Big parks, like the Merlin parks, just tweak the numbers because they like the shout about how they're second biggest to Disney in terms of attendance. Equally, some companies which own multiple parks sometimes understate a park's attendance number. Imagine investing in a big new ride at one park, and nothing in the second park, and the second park gets a dramatic increase, whilst the first gets nothing. Companies are afraid that it reflects badly on their investment choice, and aren't in a position to publicly defend the reasons why. 2) Constant growth is not sustainable. Of all the parks in Europe, I think only two (Europa and Efteling) have successfully increased or stabilised attendance year on year over the past 10 years. And if you look at any five year period, most parks will suffer a dip or a period of stagnation. Some Merlin parks have their own individual issues which can explain some of their attendance issues over the past 5 years.. Alton Towers - Smiler crash. It's been a slow recovery, on top of the park already making cutbacks prior to the incident. Just by visiting in 2018, though, you can tell that's done the trick. Thorpe Park - Failed major investment in Ghost Train. Lack of direction and additions to get people coming back. Heide Park - Colossos closure hit the park majorly, along with increased thrill competition from Hansa Park. That's not to say what you've said is wrong. Merlin are struggling to get the basics right in many cases, and there's some strange investment choices. And Merlin in general still haven't learnt how to utilise things such as Trip Advisor to their advantage (this is a big reason why Paulton's has been so successful of late in my opinion). But, at the same time, this is arguably a natural dip / stagnation period for many Merlin parks, which is being made worse by the issues you say. If you were to look at the Merlin parks and compare them to other parks between 2008-2013, say, you'd see Merlin attendance truly booming, whilst other parks struggled. The true test is how the parks perform in the next 2-3 years. That'll indicate whether the parks are simply in a dip or if they've regressed for the long term.

And it's now confirmed... Let's not forget that Untamed was also said to have a 'never before seen' element before. So in all likelihood, this will be a new type an inversion.

I'll just take a second to jump off the Merlin bashing bandwagon and note that Towers' tweet about MAP holders says "at present, MAP holders do not get free entry". I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it will either be free at some point this year or, failing that, free next year in some respect. There are a lot of annual passholders out there, and the Dungeons experience will have a limited availability. If it's free to passholders, they'll then hog out far too many spaces, causing disappointment for non-passholders wanting to visit it, and the attraction will make limited return in its first year. I agree it's ridiculous to offer a lite version of something that passholders get for free elsewhere and charge for it. I feel like they should have followed suit with the premium season pass and offered one free entry per pass, but I guess that has added complications. It's fairly common for parks to restrict access or charge for new attractions to passholders, and not just within Merlin. This isn't a good thing, but I don't think that this scenario is as big a slap in the face as many of their other decisions to be honest. Within the UK, yes. The Dungeons brand is oversaturated and too much carbon copy and paste. I don't mind that it's easy to replicate, as it makes sense to have it multiple countries, where people are unlikely to visit more than one Dunegons. But even then, Merlin have shown they can create unique and tailor-made Dungeons experiences with the recently open Shanghai one, which is by far the most unique out of them all. It's a shame we can't get that in the UK any more.

Chengdu Wanda City, in Sichuan (central-ish China) are opening a Taron clone, and here's a rendering...

In terms of time and distance, this will be our most accessible. But Energylandia is also very easy to get to as well, and I imagine if you hunt around, the cost of flights isn't that different. So we're spoilt for choice! Just need one in the UK now please..

Screenshot for people who haven't found the original source.. It's...interesting. The biggest issue is they don't have a natural place for a meet and greet to take place (aside from outside Angry Birds 4D, and even then that's a bit forced), which makes things difficult. And I don't think a character for younger guests roaming around the park past the likes of Swarm, Saw and Ghost Train really fits.. I really hope it isn't the Rangers though. Aside from Mr Monkey's Banana Ride, they have no relevance to the park any more. It would be a lazy way of having characters, and almost definitely a way for Thorpe to say "hey look, we bought something old back, that means everything's okay right??". I wouldn't mind them appearing as a once off for a 40th birthday event, as that actually makes sense, but bringing them back would be a bad move. Wonder if they'll just resurrect Max Thrill, the short-lived character they had in 2008?

First Drop (the ECC's magazine) are reporting that Untamed will have 5 inversions, 2 more than any other RMC.