JoshC.

The first inversion was designed between Thorpe and B&M. Merlin and B&M still have a good working relationship even now thanks to the work they did together at Towers with Secret Weapons. The reason the wing over drop has been mimicked on most wing coasters is because it looks iconic and makes the best use of the seating arrangement. Personally I think enthusiasts sometimes overstate the importance of a ride's story. You use Swarm as an example, but the exact same could be said of Nemesis at Towers. And if we look further afield, Taron at Phantasialand for example. These rides have stories attached to them, but no one will really know what they are unless you look online. And arguably Swarm does it's storytelling best since it spells the story out in the queue... These sorts of hyoerbole (along with your Swarm one) means nothing. I'm guessing you haven't ridden every wing, invert, Eurofighter, etc. for starters. And even if they are the worst examples of their respective types, does it matter that much if they're good rides in their own right? Haha, not going to lie, but it still makes me laugh when people think this will happen. It's experienced so many delays, the cost of it keeps rising, and management has changed hands so many times. It's not going to happen. Can I have Saturday's lottery numbers please, since you seem to own a crystal ball? John Wardley is retired. Wickerman is a different ball game because Wardley had fought for so long to get a wooden coaster at Towers for so long, and still has contact with many people who work for Merlin. It would have perhaps been more a gesture of courtesy to, in the early planning phase, contact him to say "we're planning a wooden coaster, and we'd love your input". He was contacted too late for him to do anything of note. He wouldn't be involved in any future projects for Thorpe. He's retired. He didn't have as much involvement with Thorpe as he did with Towers. There's no reason for him to be involved. Thorpe don't plan on being an international park though. None of Merlin's parks do. I don't agree with that - Merlin should absolutely try to make Thorpe more of an international destination given its location. But for whatever reason, they don't want to. So why you'd consider that thought I don't know. Doesn't mean they can't still add high quality additions. Don't see why it needs to be "world-class" though. As long as it's good quality and good fun, does it matter if it's a Top 10 ride or whatever? Not really. Sounds like you're just setting yourself up to be disappointed to be honest.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2021082041313559&id=358205034267943 Wood is on site. I hope the construction crew don't get any Zadras...

It's the most wonderful time of the year - it's the Thorpe Park Mania Awards! Once again, we are using SurveyMonkey to collect the results. If you've never used it before, don't worry - it's dead easy! We've condensed things down a bit this year, to spice up the competition... PARK AWARDS: -Best UK Park -Best UK Coaster -Best UK Flat Ride -Best UK Water Ride -Best UK Dark Ride -Worst UK Ride -Best International Park -Best International Coaster -Best New-for-2018 Attraction (can be in the UK) -Most Disappointing Merlin Moment 2018 -Best Looking Attraction for 2019 -Best Manufacturer FORUM AWARDS: -Best Member -Best Team Member -Best Quality Posts -Most Knowledgeable Member -Most Dedicated Member -Most Sarcastic Member -Most Likely to be Banned in 2018 -Funniest Member -Biggest Fanboy/girl -Sexiest Male -Sexiest Female -Storm Surge Award -Member you'd like to see more of  And here's some clarifications in case any of the above are confusing... You don't have to vote for all the categories if you don't want! Please you forum usernames rather than real names - makes things easier For the park awards, feel free to vote for parks / rides you like the look of the best (especially the case of International Awards, where members might not have been on many / any foreign rides). Storm Surge Award: Vote for the member who you think reminds you of Storm Surge or should be awarded a Storm Surge for their efforts in TPM. Member you'd like to see more of Award: Vote for the member who you'd like to see post on the forums more often / see at meets / generally get to know a bit better! These are of course meant to be a bit of fun, so just enjoy the ride! Link is HERE and an alternative can be found here Voting will close Sunday 23rd December, 8pm, with winners announced at a point after. Get those votes coming in!

Chocolonely isn't a terrible chocolate brand either tbf, which makes it even more of a plus. They have a good business relationship with Efteling at the mo, so will be interesting to see if that changes over the next couple of years.

Still showing 2 likes for me, so must be having some trouble viewing things my end. As for cleaning, to clear things up... The park will jetwash all pathways on park during the entire closed season They do this during the season too (before the park opens for the day usually), but only in areas which are majorly dirty. This is done by the park's usual on site cleaning team. They don't clean buildings, rides, etc. The main reason for this is because it requires different equipment, different training, etc. Ultimately this boils down to not enough money being available to be invested in cleaning these parts of the park.

It's a good video and I'm looking forward to there being more. But the social media accounts are very dodgy still. Like yesterday, posting a video on Instagram of a water-skier, which only served a purpose of "look at us, we're on a boat". And at time of writing, it's got a measly two likes. With their social media, it certainly seems like they take the approach of 'if we throw enough darts, we'll eventually hit the bullseye".

Bringing it back to 2019, courtesy of Fan Club Walibi... More details of the new land for next year, which is being called 'Karma World'. The plan is for all areas to be rethemed by 2022 and will follow the '_____ world' naming. Not a fan of that idea as it can sound tiresome, but heyho. They seem to have strayed away from the original Bollywood theme a bit, which makes sense given Popcorn Revenge, so it'll be interesting to see how the whole area feels. Construction update from this week... On top of this, there is another rethemed area coming - Fun World, which I believe will be the kids area near Psyke Underground. This will also get a brand new kiddie coaster for 2019. This is all part of the park's €100m 5 year investment strategy, which started this year. It originally stated that the park's entrance would be revamped for 2019 too but I haven't heard anything on that yet. But watch this space...

Very interested to see what they end up getting. So much possibility, and with Tayto, so much potential... 2021 is shaping up to be a very tasty year for Europe...

Couple more details... https://www.looopings.nl/weblog/11199/Dit-wordt-de-nieuwe-achtbaan-van-de-Efteling.html Basically, "duelling" Mack powered coasters that run in opposite directions. Still think these coasters are bit lackluster and won't reach the same high standards Efteling attractions usually have. But for a quick fix attraction targeted towards the younger side of the market, it's not awful I guess

Another photo, from the park's Instagram... Looking fine.

Tbf their relationship with goons is significantly better now. Just look at Coaster's TR from PBE's trip there and all the perks they got.. Plus they gave Tobi (the guy who did the Klugheim CGI models) front row on the first ride of Taron on preview night. Admittedly they've effectively bought him off to not publish his Rookburgh one but oh well. But yeah, the relationship between Phantasialand and their locals makes Towers and Ropers look like a newly wed couple on their honeymoon...

What a wonderful mess of track. Also from Dex.. Wuze Wall looking mighty fine, bar the weird brown segments at the top. Believed to be there as part of the sounds barrier. Hopefully they're to be better incorporated, though admittedly it's a minor detail for now..

#BetterThanHelix #IntaminBetterThanMack

This thread is fast becoming the Linnanmaki thread... But with damn good reason.

Genuinely think this has the potential to be in the same league as Taron and/or Helix (delete as appropriate depending on your views on both rides). The launches won't be much faster than Helix, but I see them being much more intense. And the layout just looks like a ton of fun. So it's a bloody solid winner of a ride. It's a shame this ride isn't attracting the same hype as Helix, Taron, Icon and even Asterix21 is. I guess that's down to location, but still...

Nemesis is the best invert I've done. Although I've only done 3. Black Mamba is great but the second half is noticeably weaker than the first. Inferno is good but not as good as Nemesis. Simple.

An interesting note from John Wardley about his involvement in Wicker Man... http://www.john-wardley.co.uk/wickerman.html Nothing that hasn't really been reported before, but his tone of voice is certainly interesting..

It's less about planning permission and more that it would take longer than 4 months to bring it back to anywhere near an operational standard. Thorpe were drunk, and posted a stupid tweet. Nothing else behind it.

I agree about the triple launch section potentially killing the momentum. However, with the airtime moments included in that as well, that should at least offer something more interesting to it.

For those unaware, Star Ball is an end of season staff party. Pretty poor of anyone to post anything on an official social media account whilst likely inebriated... Not sure if it's just a joke or if you're genuinely unaware, but Project Zero was totally unrelated to Thorpe - it was a pair of Escape Rooms which opened in Ashford..

Nice concept - not as 'brick'y as I was expecting, which is a good thing. Equally, I hope they have a balance to make it 'feel' like Legoland, else it may feel out of place.

^It's an extension of the park, behind their SLC. Construction photo from PabloA on Coasterforce...

Walibi Belgium took a trip to Switzerland and took some drugs with Intamin... Coming in 2021. Note that, sadly, the new Intamin at Asterix will be 51m tall, so this will only be the highest coaster in the Benelux. Burn. Again, another mental-looking coaster from Intamin; that final third looks insane. Anddddd, just as a reminder of what's coming up in Walibi Belgium over the next few years: 2019: Popcorn Revenge - 3D shooting erratic dark ride 2019: Junior coaster 2020: Splash battle and Gerstlauer sky fly / sky roller 2021: Intamin coaster and re-introduction of their kiddie cred, along with a retheme of the Vampire / Werewolf area Damn Walibi, damn.

What's better than a coaster with one launch? A coaster with two launches. And what's better than a coaster with two launches? A coaster with four launches. And what's worse than a coaster with four launches but still bloody good? A coaster with one proper launch and one of those weird triple semi-shuttle launch things (but it's fine because this thing looks bloody awesome)... Intamin bringing their A+ game with this. And with it being Parc Asterix, expect some tasty theming too. Only bad news is this is still 2 and a half years a way from opening...

As you say, it's a listed structure, so it will never happen. This was a hoax by someone on Twitter and hasn't even been thought of by the park, Lett alone any plans being dreamed up.