Benin

Gaston has been in my family for a year now:

I agree with Jamie... Though I'm not sure if Thorpe and the others invite returnees back these days, professionalism at all times should be the preferred thing, irrespective of their last day or not...

Remember, it's just a job for these guys, often one that doesn't exactly require historical or factual knowledge to be efficient at... Basic knowledge sure, but I wouldn't expect all staff to know who manufactured Rattlesnake...

Everybody? Most enthusiasts (not on TPM mind) DESPISE the place...

Merlin's obsession with USPs is a big problem... Everything HAS to be easy (read, simple) to market to the masses, presumably because it's easier to get things out there, Derren Brown being involved is a good case in point, as he has a lot of branding in the UK already so it's less work to get the idea across... You know it's going to feature some random psychological aspect (and Merlin aren't letting you forget it either), purely because his name is attached to it... Of course, Merlin aren't the only ones obsessed with it all, plenty of parks go for world's tallest/fastest/boring coaster, but I guess it's mostly due to some of the strangest claims Merlin have pushed forward (IAC/Saw/Thirteen) that we all feel rather skeptical about this... Perhaps if the focus shifted towards getting in confirmed quality over quick gimmicks, things might be a little bit different...

It's a powder and should come under foodstuffs, but we're not the best people to ask on that matter... One thing that makes Efteling tonnes better than any Disney park is the complete lack of screaming children, it's so blissful <3 That's always the problem in parks like these though and doing the whole "ride all the big rides in a day" thing, it does make things extremely difficult to have an enjoyable day... You don't get a chance to really get into the park properly, especially if it's busy (DLP in a day is something I would never suggest, even if the only major ride I missed was BTM, Efteling in a day is just as bad, especially for a newbie)... [/basic] Probably not, but until people start going to places like Efteling/Phannyland/etc then it'll remain highly rated... That said, it's still better than anything the UK parks have to offer in terms of theming quality and general atmosphere... The only REAL bad thing about DLP is the people within... But that could also be said of WDW and DL...

Pancake mix is available to buy in the restaurant and the main shop at the entrance... Efteling isn't about the rides, though the lack of comments over Dreamflight is concerning, or the Fairytale Forest of Forever... Or Flying Dutchman... I still need to do my Baron review...

> Build enthusiast expectations to ridiculously high levels > Fail to exceed these expectations > ??? > Profit!!!

Gotta save that money somehow... That said, it's common as hell abroad that most parks don't open midweek, though usually cos these places have no budget more than anything...

Read what I said again: Back in 2010 this was, if you look through Screamscape (lol, I know, but back in the day it was pretty much the go to place) they mention exactly them rumours... It probably changed to the massive box on wheels at some point, dunno when though... Probably once they realised the Box system was a bit useless looking...

Imagine if you'd actually ridden the original version... To think some people know nothing of how good it once was...

Back when Hartenhof was first announced, the rumours were strongly pointing towards the PD system... Of course since it kept getting delayed it's all changed since... Old promo video here:

I believe even Efteling have given up on that concept (Hartenhof/Symbolica), and they throw money at things like it's going out of fashion... No chance of it, especially cos it's not even referenced on Vekoma's website anymore...

I'd say Merlin spending £18m on rides like Smiler (and whatever Swarm was) shows that they DO have the money... It's just a case of how they spend it...

I think we're never going to get investments to the £100s of millions a la Disney and Universal, instead, we should be looking at parks at a similar size to the likes of Thorpe/Towers/Chessie and doing comparisons there... Would the UK ever get anything like Baron 1898 (€18m) or Taron? If not, why not? More curious as to where the imagination ruled 90s vanished to really...

Parrot Attraction > Simworx

You're still going to visit Jamie, so what's the point in even making such comments in the first place? Worse things happen at sea than Stealth being closed... Imagine a park announcing it'll be closing a ride for good a week before you're due to visit (Son of Beast for me)! That was distressing, a missed cred for crying out loud! I couldn't even enjoy that trip because it affected me so much, and then Alpengeist was closed as well to make things worse!

Think Pirates Adventure being closed finally has been going around since Thomas Land was first built... Have to wait and see...

You mean like assuming that Thorpe have closed Stealth to annoy you?

It's almost as if the massive piece of machinery might have actually broken and isn't actually fixable prior to the end of the season... But who lets logic get in the way of some moaning?

IMAScore have announced they're involved... At least the music will be good...

Some dusktime photos: I'm led to believe that this has actually opened now... Or at least the Teacups have, no idea on the restaurant or show set walkthrough...

I've been more surprised that some people here don't know who he is? Like, he's a reasonably big enough name to essentially host a ride... Especially when his show is on NBC... And that's a cheaper way to get the rights... When you own them yourself...