Everything posted by Benin
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2025 - A year in review
Movieland Italy is a fantastic park purely due to its bizarre Mafia led nature.
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2025 - A year in review
I went to Europa Park and Towers 3 times. Prime enthusiast. Voltron was at least worth the effort. As was getting a rollback on it.
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something major to come
Would also be worth noting that Megaphobia is designed to suit the terrain it sits upon. That in of itself would cause a headache and require a mass recalculation and redesign of the supporting structure to suit a new position. They'd be 100% better off building and designing something dedicated for the park. As long as they remember to build a complete layout this time.
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something major to come
Closed season has been what, a couple of days off of Towers and already we've seen the wildest suggestion that will not happen at all. Next year is gonna be a lot of expectation for what's next. But given Merlin's situation at the moment I'm not sure what can be expected.
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Park Operations
Towers is the same. The state of the entrance plaza at around 10am isn't the best first impression. Especially when most guests have either queued 30 mins for Monorail or walked.
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Thorpe Park's Old Days
Barely much left from those days. No chill ride on the waterboat from the farm. No CCR or Loggers Leap. Spent many a time on the crazy golf or in model world. Good old nostalgia eh?
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2025 Season
Hyperia opened 2 months after park opening. Then broke for what, another 2 months (certainly felt like that long) after a day? Plus cost of living crisis etc. And no doubt the changes to RAP made many not bother.
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Merlin Entertainments
Mean that's probably also tied into the weekends traditionally being busier. Do think its a combination of the wider increase of diagnosis, the "Free Fastrack" mentality it has about the scheme, and British people just being awful. Apart from Disney, I don't really know of any other parks that have that level of problem aside from their busiest days (Efteling at Christmas had a few RAP queues on the bigger rides).
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Puy du Fou , Bicester, a New Park?
You're forgetting that the main draw of the park are the shows. So it's not just a old-timey museum like Beamish. If the quality is like the French park (check out their latest walk through attraction) then it would be a very good option in our rather bleak industry. I think the company have done events up in Durham so they'll know the appetite is there. Shame they're a bit dodgy morals wise.
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Merlin Entertainments
It was very busy on Saturday. Though I'd spent the entire morning in CBeebies Land so avoided most of it. Not helped by Air and Oblivion being on one station ops. Wickerman batching was non-existent and exacerbated the poorly designed pre-show and station. There's not enough support rides to spread people out. Downtime didn't seem to be as bad for extended periods though but still. Genuinely feel that we only visit because we get RAP, little one loves CBeebies Land and aren't immensely bothered about going on stuff in Dark Forest and X-Sector.
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Merlin Entertainments
To translate, would appear Merlin are outsourcing some more parts of the park operations, such as cleaning. Given how crap Aramark are (Towers specific in my recent visits) this could be a concern of a continuing downward trend.
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Scarefest
Think longest I saw on the app for a maze was 15 minutes. The time slots aren't as strict this year (1-5 or 5-9 being the options), but I wonder if the cost is an issue. Especially when you only get 3 mazes for it. Park is still struggling on other fronts (lack of support rides, some diabolical food options and weird ops) looks like Scarefest could be a success.
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Scarefest
Nemesis at night is still the best reason to do Scarefest.
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European Halloween Events
Since I don’t do mazes I rely on the resident expert at home for those. Liseberg's was good. Walibi Holland mazes were a bit meh. Toverland was ok. Best part of Walibi Belgium was the Zombie Bar on the lake but no idea if they do that anymore. General atmospheres are good though. Probably would need a fastpass equivalent though if available since you know, QUEUES.
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Ghost Train - NEW for 2023
Just bin it already and put a proper dark ride in. The staff intensive ride phase of Merlin really scuppered them.
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Zodiac
Fairly certain it was brand new but it was 20 years ago.
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Merlin Entertainments
Doesn't help that majority of the guests are MAP holders. One bit of income for the entire season. And most of us are tight when we get to the park(s) or rarely go much because the experiences aren't great.
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What have you learned in your years as an enthusiast?
More than a week wasn't it? Less than 55 if you don't count Alpine coasters. And he didn't ride all of them either. Just feels like a very typical influencer "challenge" that they get some attention for and more importantly boost their own income. Expect Sanbrooke to better this within a year. Especially as he can drag his child into the Gullivers parks.
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Tomb Blaster
Could hit 1k pph if it had 5 trains on. Which I've no idea when last happened.
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2025 Season
Just replace Rumba with a water ride the little grots can be pinned down into so they can't get out. As always, the UK should get a Chiapas-esque ride.
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Stealth
Its just mediocre. Not helped by a number of areas of the park just sat there unused.
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Stealth
Not my fault that place is crap and Desert Race not much better.
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Stealth
Can only have one of Stealth or Rita running at any one time.
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Chessington General Discussion
I'm assuming that the 5pm closes in October will be changed. Otherwise that's a real cut down. Strange decisions from the higher ups.
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What are your thoughts on Alton Towers’ recent nostalgia push?
Its cool to have an Easter Egg or two within a new or reimagined attraction (say for example, Piraten in Batavia having a survivor boat from the fire and a Roland Mack animatronic), but when the majority of the attraction becomes "DO YOU GET IT?" it misses the point somewhat as you feel like they're trying too hard to bash you over the head with references. The other issue is that the park has been so run down that a number of rides have needed a full refurbishment. Sub Terra came back out of necessity more than anything, Duel was in a sorry state since it opened, Nemesis was also refurbished out of necessity or be closed. Don't really think it's anything to do with nostalgia. Just those are the rides they could either redo over a closed season or needed to be done for reasons.