Benin

Isn't Toy Story Land expansion going in there?

I like how the budget for Thorpe has suddenly raised £10m all of a sudden... £30m for ages, then suddenly £40m... It's interesting on a comparison that we know all the important stats for a ride opening a year later... Including ride type... Shows how dull secrecy can be...

I highly doubt Efteling have to worry about giving Mr Brown money and spend half of it on marketing costs though... Project total cost is what Merlin give us, NOT the cost of the ride equipment...

Question, why would an adult want to ride a kids coaster more than once for the cred? Just curious...

I don't think that this alone will get Towers back to what it was prior to Smiler's crash, especially given the ride closures and what not... They need a whole lot more than goggles to get the public back on their side...

To be fair, the media usually take the information given out by the park's press release on the matter... Though saying because they use the wrong track as part of trying to pass it off as new is funny, given that they're CONSTANTLY getting it wrong...

As someone not really into all this VR stuff I'm not excited by this, especially when Air doesn't really need a popularity boost... It's perfect for the public though, if they think it's safe...

Going in the ridiculous massive plaza by the Pancake House... It's meant to be Pardoes' realm...

Never thought I'd see the day!

I find it hard to get excited over a seaside park who have a constant stream of people coming in over the course of the day and also get a big slice of evening action having long opening hours... Especially given the cost of running the place will be pretty much half of what any major park does... Seaside parks are a completely different market to a regular park, given that most people probably spend two hours max, rather than an entire day...

Wonder if this will feature an alternate reality...

Shame, but it was outgrown by the park's development, the tour of the Sea-Life tent said it all really... We can hope that they're going to replace it like for like with a new layout and stuff, but that's optimism I feel misplaced...

That webpage is absolute Merlin gold... Quite simple here, to be posting something like that is nothing short of embarrassing...

Looking at that station, it HAS to be a spinner now... Which is a shame whilst equally a good thing, as it could produce a nice renaissance of them... Also doing the Smiler look better than Merlin...

Doubtful, usually its one or the other (which is fair)...

I'm sure you'll just find them before release anyway Ryan...

Merlin run by left wing BBC confirmed...

Thought the baseless speculation was pretty lacking for a while in here...

Least somewhere else for hotel guests to eat at night, since closing at 10pm... 13 tables seat around 10/12 each, still will end up packed if Europa's is anything to go by... Menu looks better than there mind, though no doubt the quality won't be...

I'm not beating last year, that's for sure... I'd LIKE to get the UK completed this year, with the odd trip abroad (Phannyland, Plopsa, Finland) and a few other odd runs... But atm it's all really up in the air should personal circumstances continue...

It saddens me that people think Valhalla is a good ride... Hex has fantastic atmosphere, to a level that no other dark rides have, since none are set within some real ancient gothic ruins... That's where half your experience comes from, the immersion... Not even Disney or Universal can create the same as Hex's atmosphere... Besides, this is meant to be some psychological experience style ride, re-rideability is pretty unlikely... Once you know the trick, it never has the same effect...

Might as well have kept the "Food Loop" name if that's what we're getting... I find it weird, does generic branding of food outlets improve guest satisfaction? Or is it cheaper/easier to call things "XX Burger Kitchen" etc?

Generally, people want roller-coasters from theme parks because that is the expectation... Fun fairs have the flat rides, so theme parks have the roller-coasters... It's a bit patronising to say that people who only want coasters have never been on a good dark ride, it's just an opinion at the end of the day, especially say for example that someone could HATE drop towers, hence hate one of the best dark rides in the world... Dark Rides are hard to market, hence why we've got an IP attached because there's zero confidence in not being able to market without one...