Benin

That before/after pic of Laser Raiders really does sum up Merlin right now...

That thing is the right side of ridiculous.

Japan for my 30th seems to be looking more likely with that video...

Won't happen, it's not in the remit of the park (or Merlin apparently)...

It's a Dungeons though, we know how 3 scenes will go (Judge, Torture and Plague); and I'm sure another one had a highwayman scene and a few have had various witch scenes... Herein lies the issue of copy and pasting all your attractions (something Disney are guilty of, but on an international scale the differences aren't as big a deal for majority of visitors)...

Are we not allowed to critique now? Merlin use claims such as "Second to Disney", rightly or wrongly is used as a measurement as to the quality of the parks... If they didn't use such hyperbole, perhaps we'd limit our expectations somewhat... But when they claim that they lead themed accommodation, well there should be questions asked...

Seeing people moaning about lots of closed rides at Chessie due to high winds when Blackpool only had 3 rides down all day (Big One, Flying Machines & Ice Blast) is fairly amusing... Icon in the hail is not fun though...

Japan do. And technically you can sit on the floor in any queue sooooooooo...

DLP is not without it's problems, but at least we know in the future the Studios park is getting a MASSIVE investment (and rumours about the main park as well) over the next decade or so (Disney do like to take FOREVER to build things)... Problem is when removing rides there's usually some notice of a replacement coming, it's what most parks do after all (unless rides are removed suddenly and without warning)...

You won't have to pay for park entry though? Would assume it would be in the Village (Conference Centre maybe), and I think a dedicated game event (rather than a hodge-podge of... things?) will likely attract more interest... It's not that it IS a gaming event, it's HOW the event is run... I doubt you'll only be limited to 45 minutes of DotA action at DLP...

Exactly like DBGT then, only, well good?

Because people are thick. Next question? It probably is part of that slightly more visually prominent position (in comparison to Rapids), and is nowhere near as wet as Tidal Wave (in theory)... From a guest perspective, there's more to appeal to, especially when you factor in the central location where pretty much everyone walks past at some point... Why do people with kids join an hour long queue for Truckers? Because it's there...

Or is it the Spinball/Truckers effect? People walking past it, and just join the queue because everything else is closed? Plus the turd throughput doesn't help...

We can't AFFORD new rides though anymore

And that's as someone who thinks RMCs are ugly; they are at least improving to keep more in line with the village's rustic aesthetic...

Wouldn't thought there'd have been some workarounds there, but it would certainly frustrate me less if it was on the edge of park rather than slap-bang you know? Making DBGT harder to build would've been a benefit too

The new GIANT drop tower for this year (with rethemed area to Scotland for the Nessie and Roland creds) is starting to hit the skies: The ride itself will be located within one of Nessie's helixes, with the coaster itself getting a brand new station (does mean the removal of the monster head on the brake run tunnel though 😞 Finally, there's now a vlog from the park:

Some progress on the Splash Canyon death, no corporate manslaughter or gross negligence charges to be brought to the park: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-47443195 Good news really, as if that had been the case we'd have seen another swathe of H&S implementations at the death of throughput... Especially on rides without restraints built in...

Why would a location on the park's border be worse than Octopus Garden? It's been said it would've been a bad choice to put it there but no reasons as to why (unless I'm missing them somewhere)... Surely it would've been a better option than the middle of the park plopped downness it currently is...

Well SOMEONE'S not getting an invite to the 'press' events...

Baby Mark

*blows dust off* So Tigris (Premier Sky Rocket) opens this year, and the park took the opportunity when promoting it last night to announce the official death of Gwazi and become the biggest RMC ever... Just bumping this topic in preparation for the construction...

Wouldn't be surprised if the two houses on that road are a block to this as well (presumably Efteling are trying to buy them out or already own them, not 100% sure really), but I'd say making that entire thing a tunnel would just not be feasible at all... Especially as it would have to factor in delivery vehicles for Bosrijk et al round that way...

In fairness, there was pretty much no way that the level of expansion they were asking for WOULDN'T cause problems in some way, shape or form for the locals... Particularly with the need for re-routing the road (moving it closer to the highway) to make room for it... Sure the park will have a good look at what they can do to sweeten the deal for the locals...

Thing is as well, these are things that are pretty plentiful in loads of places now... Can't fall over without finding an Escape Room company (there's about 5/6 in city centre alone up in Leeds), there's numerous trampoline/activity places opening, and gaming stuff is starting to come in due to esports... But if you're interested in these things would you do them at a theme park? It's a similar question to having a Dungeons attraction at Towers (though at least at Thorpe the hours are slightly better), why would you take 45 minutes out of your day to partake in something like this after paying whatever the entry fee is? Would people rather this, or the park replacing Slammer with, well anything? These additions scream of a park under the thumb of a company giving them little money to spend, and the worrying thing is it's only going to get worse apparently since the focus is on building Legolands everywhere in the world... Towers has an attraction foisted upon them, Thorpe have no money to spend on anything worthwhile and Chessie are getting another retheme of an attraction which was mothballed... Here's the thing, these events would be fine IF (and I cannot stress the IF enough here) the rest of the park wasn't in dire straits and in desperate need of picking up, getting a dusting down (or a repaint) and generally sorting out... But the parks aren't given enough money to do this because of KPIs or ROIs are directly noticeable from such things, even though having a park that looks the part is one of the most important factors in terms of guest satisfaction... If it looks like a cheap death-trap, then likelihood is guests will come away with that viewpoint...