Mad Coaster Man

I should probably note here that the vast majority of Merlin employees know nothing about any future attractions, information is kept top secret. Loads of employees are just as excited as most of you about the new attraction, so we're all waiting together.

As far as I know, when Slammer breaks down/needs new parts, Thorpe Park has to have them custom made, as S&S no longer make parts for it, as the ride design has been discontinued.

I was working in the queueline shop for it at one stage last week, and after about 3 hours of the Mirror Maze music, it really did get stuck in my head! I do wish they could use a slightly longer looping piece of music for it, that said, it's a fun job.

Anyone else noticed that there is new merchandise for the 2016 ride/attraction in Sweets & Souvenirs and also in the Megastore? It doesn't give much away, but it's kinda interesting. I'll try to get photos next time I'm in the park.

Seems highly unlikely. Until it has been signed off by HSE, Alton Towers cannot open the ride to the public.

As much as I'd like to see it happen, a SIlent Hill theme seems unlikely at best. Not only is the IP nowhere near as well known as others, even when compared to similar series like Resident Evil, but Konami are currently going through a lot of internal conflict, which led to the cancelation of "Silent Hills" among other titles, and the resignation of Hideo Kojima, the longtime developer of the Silent Hill and Metal Gear Solid series. It would seem odd for such a brand to end up appearing at Thorpe Park, although not impossible. It also wouldn't be paticularly family friendly, which would conflict with the general direction that Thorpe Park is attempting to go in.

With the misleading and untruthful titles like "80 people stuck upside down", Alton Towers could and SHOULD start civil lawsuits for Libel (Deformation) against the media companies responsible. Facebook sharing of news articles purely based upon titles without reading the full article or looking for references/sources is very common, and is clearly pushing a further backlash against the park based upon misinformation. Any decent lawyer could absolutely argue that this is detrimental to the reputation of Alton Towers, and could win suits against these newspapers, and after a few wins, the newspapers would stop publishing such nonsense.

I think that following the recent Thomas Cook news stories, Merlin are ensuring that they don't do the same thing. By instantly apologising for the accident and owning up to full responsiblity, they are reducing the long term damage to their brand, by comparison, if they tried to deny responsiblity and pass it on to other parties, whilst they could potential pay out less in the injury cases that will stem from this tragic accident, the long term effect on their business will be devastating, gate figures would decrease exponentially, and overall brand trust would collapse. I do respect them for what they're doing, it looks a lot better on them, than the recent case at Thomas Cook looked to Thomas Cook.

As far as I know, for reasons unknown, it's been running 2 trains only all season, with the second not dispatching until the first has reached the exit station. Because of this, it hasn't been affected by the block break restrictions as far as I know.

There are a few major things that have annoyed me with the reporting of the accident involving The Smiler so far, so I thought I'd whine about them on here. Firstly are the constant attempts to form a link between the few minor incidents that have occured in the past, and the events that we witnessed on Tuesday. The attempts to form this connection only show how willing the media is to attempt to dig for evidence to build their sensationalist claims against Merlin, and generally annoy me as they completely disregard the technicalities of the ride and the lack of connections between a block system and guide wheels on a lift hill. The second point sort of follows on from the last sentence of the first point, and that is the lack of understanding or research into the engineering of the ride and therefore what could have gone wrong. I cannot recall a single news outlet discussing or even properly mentioning what a block system is or how it could have failed in this incident. Instead, this has been replaced with meaningless speculation by the media with no evidence to back up their theories or claims. Finally, the thing that perhaps annoys me the most with the reporting is the number of untrue, or evidenceless claims. It seems so far that there hasn't actually been a source that has confirmed the potential leg loss of a rider and lots of the media has absolutely focused on untrue claims or rumours spread by eyewitnesses or just general internet users (because we can ALWAYS trust the internet). On the other hand, I do respect The Guardian for their good reporting that hasn't focused on speculation, rumours and a lack of technical understanding or knowledge.

She also blatantly ignored everything that he said. I do applaud him for not losing it with her though. I doubt I could have made it that far through an interview without just telling her to shut up.

I've been on a good few Boomerang Coasters across the world (mainly Canada and America) over the past 10 or so years. As far as I'm concerned, none of them were overly impressive or even particularly enjoyable. Merlin seems to be fond of building a coaster every 3 or so years, but making it very large (in relative scale). Most of the American parks install a smaller coaster almost every year, but they are often rather lacking in comparison to larger coasters. I just can't see a Boomerang Coaster as the "Large Development", if one was proposed as the Medium or Small development, then I wouldn't be against the proposal but the coasters are frankly rather small and lacking compared to the likes of Colossus, The Smiler and (either) Nemesis.

Intimidator 305 style giga coaster would be amazing, but very unlikely...

Banned for having a problem with people who have a problem with people who have a problem with people who have a problem with people who have a problem with people who have a problem with people who have a problem with people who have a problem with people who have a problem with people who have a problem with people who have a problem with people who have a problem with people who have a problem with people who have a problem with people who have a problem with people who have a problem with people who have a problem with people who have a problem with people who have a problem with people who have a problem with people who have a problem with people who have a problem with people who have a problem with people who have a problem with people who have a problem with people who have a problem with people who have a problem with people that do this...

Banned for having more awards than me (I have none) Evil!