JoshC.

They should have kept the price high.

It's weird Towers is charging £20 for one of their coasters, yet Thorpe have reduced the cost of a one shot of their newest coaster foe their newest coaster.

I'd hope that yesterday's long Fastrack queues is a one off due to the mixture of the taste unlimited Fastrack, first day having extra Premium Passholders, etc

The Premium Passholder perk of one free Fastrack per visit is a real wildcard and I expect we'll see lots of quirks over the coming weeks.

I agree most people will end up wanting to use their's on Hyperia at Thorpe.

Haven't updated my top 10 in a while and have a few changes from 2025. New for 2025 in bold.

1) Toutatis
2) Untamed
3) Kondaa
4) Shambala
5) Hyperia
6) Ride to Happiness
7) Taron
8) Balder
9) Helix
10) Nemesis

Kondaa used to be my number one, with Toutatis in second place. After riding both again in October I decided I prefer Toutatis overall. From the moment I got on it in 24 I was addicted to it, I’ll never get bored of that swing launch. I also love its more aggressive airtime.

I might be misremembering this but think the initials related to one of the contractors that worked on the ride. I know the initials on the shop (PGB/PBG) relate to the architect involved with the project.

For a non-AI answer, there's no explicit reference.

When the ride opened, it did have the "JBS.wrks" sign painted on the building. It was purposefully made to look faded, fitting in with the abandoned warehouse motif of the station and the general Saw storyline.


Image from 2009.

Back then, there was much less emphasis on Easter Eggs, hidden meanings, etc. It was likely thrown on there just to add an extra layer of 'this is an abandoned warehouse' and 'JBS.wrks' sounds like a plausible thing for a warehouse.

The addition of the new signage is a bit unnecessary and doesn't add anything meaningful or worthwhile in my opinion. But equally, for some signs that were probably a couple of hundred quid, it adds another layer for repeat visitors to make things feel fresh.

You could even argue that the "JBS.wrks Est 2009" signage goes against the original planned story, as the whole point is that the warehouse was abandoned and taken over by Jigsaw in 2009. But it's not that deep and doesn't matter.

So yeah, no real relevance. Almost certainly doesn't actually mean anything. And very much done for the sake of it.

Very late to this but...

Park count:
Thorpe x10-20?
Paultons x1 (first time in over 10 years)
Liseberg x2 (first time)
Grona Lund x1 (first time)
Portaventura x2 (first time)
Ferrari land x1 (first time)
Parc Asterix x1
Walibi Belgium x1
Walibi Holland x2 (first time)

Pretty successful year for me. 5 new parks, returning visits to some of my favourites and 3 European Halloween events. I got 29 new creds (4 of them being in my top 10) bringing me to a total of 205.

Highlights
Getting back to Paultons and seeing how much that place has changed. Haven't been since I was a kid.
Portaventura was much better than expected.
Walibi Holland was the best Halloween event I've ever been to. The Clinic and Slaughterhouse were the craziest Halloween attractions I've done, and Us vs You was a fantastic maze.
I got on all 5 of my top 5 coasters last year.

Disappointments
Red Force wasn't as good as expected.
I expected bad from Furious Baco. But that is by far the most uncomfortable and painful coaster I've ever experienced.
Insane being closed at Grona Lund. Never done a Zac spin so was keen to get on it.

2026

I still don't really have much plans this year so will probably be a quieter year for me.
I have a Merlin pass so have been to Thorpe and Towers already. I'll get lots of Thorpe trips in for sure.
Paultons for the opening of their new coaster.
Have a holiday in Turkey booked so will go to Land of legends and get on another Mack Hyper 😍
I was planning on Falcons Flight but thats looking unlikely now. Potentially a US trip instead. Was having a look at Florida but might be a bit silly to not wait for the new 2027 coaster at Universal.
Looking at doing a couple days in Madrid but nothing booked yet.

About time to move this to The Past now...

Who loves blue boards?


Interestingly there is a gate amongst those boards. A big gate; the type that would traditionally exist for vehicular access.

Whilst I don't think there's immediate plans for work to happen, it at least seems like they're planning for that to happen

Really nice to see. Likely pre-planned and then announced today to make people feel like they got bonus time.

After having visited for a couple of preview days, it does feel like Thorpe is still on form operationally. It's a shame that Tidal and Zodiac aren't ready for the start of season. Depth Charge is also currently closed, which might be because of work on The Launchpad. It's equally a shame Launchpad isn't ready, but I imagine that's because of planning delays.

There's been a few bits of work here and there across the park. New paving to replace tired paving. It's basic but does the job. New signs and paintwork in Saw's plaza. New effects in Walking Dead. Detonator repainted.

But equally, the park feels effectively the same as when Hyperia opened (minus, of course, Rumba now). Last year, there was only one new food outlet (the Dessert place between Tidal and Ghost Train, replacing the Apple Fries unit). This year, no new food units, and only a couple of menu changes (though the Boulevard Bites menu is good and reasonably priced).

Now when Hyperia first opened, and in general all the TLC that happened for 2024 with Project Sparkle, Thorpe felt fresh and alive again. And they could afford to ride that wave for a bit and milk it. But I think that that wave is petering out and they do need some bigger refreshes or something new of note now to sustain visitation.

So yeah, much the same as before, but should be a good season ahead. Hopefully things like weather and such play ball for the park.

Hours extended today for passholders day from 11-5 to 10:30-6 which was a nice surprise, even with the park really quiet.

Woo.

Everyone's talking about it. Brand new theme park focused on Minecraft.

Theres no way that intamin is going to have a high enough capacity for the crowds this area will attract.

Fantastic news about Zodiac seemingly making a comeback soon.

It seems Thorpe are a lot more prepared for the season ahead than Alton Towers, which has several rides closed for the foreseeable future, and is continuing to struggle to open rides at opening time every day.

Hopefully Thorpe will be able to continue with their good operations and availability that they’ve had for several years now. It’s encouraging to see only 2 rides listed to be closed, for just 2 days at that.

Can I throw Second Detonator Tower in the ring? Would make the repaint make sense, as the second one will be brand new.

Top Spin: The Musical?

Boarding is going up:



It was a rehearsal day today. I fully expect the whole ride to be covered, the sign to be removed and the boarding to have something on by opening.

Another square for Thorpe Bingo everyone!

Looks like the fire effect might not be dead in the water (pun intended) quite yet...


Here's what it looked like before:

No sign of that I'm afraid!

We will never hear those beautiful words again....

RED BOAT SIT DOWN PLEASE.

I know its not exactly a big priority for the Merlin parks but I will never understand how even Six Flags in its bankruptcy era was able to repaint their coasters and yet inferno still looks god awful and they can't even finish a Colossus repaint. Baron 1898 just got a massive refurbishment and repaint and that's half the age of Inferno.

I find it incredibly frustrating that they don't mind if their parks look like a dump.

A recent Passholder behind the scenes event confirmed that a new coaster will replace Viking River Splash, which has been closed since 2023(!), and a recent application was put in for its removal.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid02vYtw4A5HP6n5Bi5wNPT2776TsJx5SDUVr4kPWk2dmVT54ZXu46EjNwitqToXZdWWl&id=61567089908870

It's also said this will extend a nearby land, of which Ninjago would probably make the most sense (and it is a popular Lego IP).

Legoland Japan are getting a Ninjago-themed Mack Spinner next year, so don't discount that as an option.
Legolands California and Florida recent got indoor coasters from ART Engineering, space-themed, and I think the idea would be great for Windsor.
The Chinese Legolands have been getting B&M Junior Inverts too, so a farfetched possibility.
Could also be something completely different, especially given the challenging landscape of that area.

Also worth noting that all areas will be refurbed in the next 5 years.

3 years later....

Resort area planned for 2027. Will go on some older car park area and where the high ropes course stood.

Looopings
Toverland wil vakantiepark Ithaka Resort openen in juni 2...
Toverland zet vol in op een viersterrenresort met internationale allure. Achter de schermen worden de laatste voorbereidingen getroffen voor de bouw...
But that's not all.

Blitz Bahn is getting spited at some point for something potentially later this year.

Looopings
Details over vervanger van Maximus' Blitz Bahn in Toverla...
We zijn weer iets wijzer geworden over de attractie die Maximus' Blitz Bahn in Toverland gaat vervangen. Het Limburgse themapark neemt binnenkort...
And thennnnnnnn the park want to expand the Port Laguna entrance area with a big dark ride and other things.

Looopings
Nieuwe tekeningen tonen uitbreiding Port Laguna in Toverl...
Er zijn nieuwe ontwerpen opgedoken van de uitbreiding van Port Laguna in Toverland. In een openbaar document van de provincie Limburg, over een...
Exciting future for the park really.

I wish there was news,


something big this way comes,


the best is a show, unless budgets do come


don't stop, flute, flute, flute flute flute

Lol.

Towers has had 60+ min queues on stuff in CBeebies Land. Even bloody Sea-Life and Teacups have had queues.

Don't think Lego has been much better. And that has the added plus point of RAP using the Fastrack queueline for 90% of stuff.

Mixture of the Beach not being used that much and there being a more recent need for a permanent stage / event space. Realistically The Beach was the best place to put such a thing.

As I said before, remove the Annual Passes. There will be backlash but not along the lines of being accused of discrimination.

They seem to be doubling down on AP's now though, offering free AP's for staying on property. That's a bad move.

This is a very tricky subject and it's purely because of the idea of putting any restriction on Rap users is discrimination. I remember when Chessington attempted to restrict the amount of use on their rides (you got one go on the major stuff for example) and there was complaints that autistic children only liked riding Vampire so stoping them from riding that all day was against the law. And it isn't, it just isn't.

I think what's been frustrating with me this for a long time is that whenever something is suggested, its immediately shut down as being anti disabled, so that change doesn't take place and the problem of long RAP queues just continues. I've also seen a few videos suggesting that it's Merlins fault for limiting ride line ups and taking away entertainment. Which would be fine if the park that seems to be most affected by RAP is Thorpe which has lost very little over the last ten years and had very little entertainment to begin with.

As for the European/other UK park thing. Well we've seen across the industry, big changes to Annual Pass systems. The Merlin pass remains incredibly affordable and cheap and is a great deal. And I personally think it drives the RAP use. A lot of coaster enthusiasts are on the spectrum or have a physical disability. Why wouldn't they have an AP to get in all the time and a RAP to bypass long waits. You have a Rap system that is always full on popular rides (Wicker Man, Hyperia for example) and you add in a fastrack system that will always be a priority....

If I were Merlin I would make the Annual Pass much more expensive or remove it entirely. We've seen several parks do this like Phantasialand and Tokyo Disneyland and it has proved to be a good move for them. I know there's the argument that the pass pushes for repeat visits. But these repeat visitors are driving up queue times whilst spending very little on food and merchandise. It has a detrimental effect on the average day guest who just sees people going past them in every direction all day long. And that isn't discriminatory language, that's just the reality of three different queues diverging at one point and everyone moving just that little bit slower.

I do think Merlin are their own worst enemy on this whole situation as well. For years they don't implement their policies properly or have tried around the edges to make changes but they backtrack or ignore things so often that ititss led to this.