Benin

Yeah that's utterly, utterly wrong... If the E-Stop had been pushed, then the system would not by itself restart the ride, it would need a manual reset...

Instead of hearsay, let's see some ACTUAL sources... Remember that jeep that was apparently advertising the next big ride? And it turned out it was a tyre cover?

I think the park have confirmed that the wall is temporary... Only to block off the construction, so I assume when they're finished they'll do something with it...

I get the feeling that someone at Thorpe enjoyed last season's American Horror Story...

Best New for 2016 ride is pretty much safely in Phantasialand's pocket atm... That dive into the mountain (or out of the mountain) looks obscene!

I have such distinct memories of the TV ads for Samurai when it first opened, hell even Submission had a fantastic advert back then... Then there's Oblivion's which is probably one of the single best UK ride based adverts ever... True advertising machines in the 90s... Full of magic and relative whimsy in very quick snippets which caught the attention a lot more than today's adverts... Though that's possibly because a lot of the newer adverts seem to have to portray every single aspect of it (see also, modern film trailers)...

Towers really got me into the deeper world of rides, I visited the southern trio (and Disney Paris) a fair few times when younger, but it was a trip to Towers in 2001 where it all just clicked together... Also aided was that the RCCGB were also there on that visit, which took me further down the rabbit hole...

Truckers has had 45 minute long queues for YEARS... Let's not pretend that Chessie having long queues is a brand new situation guys, it's what happens when most of your rides only hit about 200pph...

F&F at USH was just one of their random additions to the Tram Tour (in the same way as Kong was added in recently), and I think it's just a screen based immersive tunnel-esque thing... Full of THINGS and EXPLOSIONS and EXCITEMENT! Will probably be something similar at Florida... So nothing tooooooo exciting, but we have been spoilt recently...

Mr Bloom's 'queue' is always at minimum 10 minutes though don't forget, due to the length of the show... Peeking and Bucanneer both slip in heavy rain, assuming it's as bad as centre of London today... Capers and Amazu will be due to slippery conditions and not wanting children to fall over... Slightly more valid reasonings than say for water rides...

#ruinthemagic Be interesting to see how good a quality the theming is when finished, it could always end up looking crap after a few weeks or months... It could look fresh in 5 years... We don't know (though I've more faith in the upkeep at Paultons)...

After doing two of their attractions in Denmark, I would have no feelings either way on this matter... Like, there is some reasonable quality to it, but it depends on what the park does with surrounding theming, since the Ghost Train at Tivoli Friheden was hilariously awful as a result...

Hehe, I like how Thorpe's new FN Cover Photo on FB has the selected dates small print covered by a few buttons...

That's a lot closer to the Fog Lume than I thought it would be... The best thing to know is that Plopsa's concept art tends to be realised it full, looking rather forward to this, though surprised it's completely taking out the Batflyers if the station is located as per the art... EDIT - If there's a reason to follow Plopsa on FB, it's because they post stuff like this: That train concept is rather adorable

There is literally no space for Thorpe to do a parade... And I doubt many would actually go out of their way to watch it, this isn't Disney where it's a massive part of the day as an example, even Europa's is only really noticed if it passes people by... Odds on the Carnival theming being from Towers?

Scarezone and Studio 13 Carnival overlay it is then...

Herein lies the crux of the matter... Look at other parks who focused solely on the thrill market for many years (Six Flags Magic Mountain is my fave example), and what happened to them is what was happening to Thorpe, poor attendances, atmosphere and lots of other factors were resulting in some very low income years... I think the park actually realised that whilst they were getting loads of people in, these people weren't spending the money per head that was being expected... When you look at the attendance report, which parks come out on top? If we ignore Disney due to the brand name and the Orlando parks then the top ones have rides for everyone... Cedar Point has about 2/3 kids areas and numerous kids rides intermingled with the likes of Dragster, Maverick and the like... In Europe, it's even clearer that the parks with the highest figures are those who are all encompassing with their attractions... Europa combines the thrill market and family market, Efteling, Port Aventura, Liseberg, even Garda all combine the two sides of the coin because you need both to be a successful park... Thorpe have realised this recently, hence the flurry of family based additions (even if the quality is arguable)... It's not necessarily going to completely stop them with the thrill market, but the issue is more towards that for years they told families to essentially sod off to Chessie and now they're desperate for them to come back to the park... And still Thorpe have seen more investment that pretty much all the parks I've listed... Although that probably comes under quantity over quality and an apparent NEED to build something new every single year, even though most parks don't always do this and labelling it as a world's first whatever... I think for a lot of enthusiasts, as you get older, you realise that out and out thrills are nothing compared to parks that get atmosphere and theming right... Hence why most American parks are actually quite dull, because (especially Cedar Fair or Six Flags) they are very, very samey...

Apart from those who like Baco...

People who disregard dark rides are fools... A great dark ride never leaves people bored, irrespective of the 'interactivity' we see on Duel or Tomb or speed it flies through... Why do people still think it's going to be a cred? The noise report on the planning application would've pointed to that, since even in a shed you can still hear a cred going around...

They're actually amazing live, I could also get behind this...

I think over-riding the systems should be possible, since you will obviously need to do it in situations (even in this one, how will you move the train from the lift hill after an evacuation?)... Vampire is a good example when it is sometimes picky about the restraints not being down, even though the entire train is buckled up correctly (I doubt ops are allowed to over-ride it anymore though) There needs to be a sense of manual over-ride on anything because computers can and do get it wrong from time to time (especially when most rides still use XP )... That the paper are claiming this to be a REVELATION of how dangerous life is amuses me greatly... Unfortunately, human error can never be accounted for... The question really is what happened to make the ride move forward, and did the people in the op box notice the stalled train? The latter question has to be yes, especially with staff on the entrance and surrounding guests presumably raising attention to this...

Hmmmmm, back in the mid 90s there were definitely plans afoot for Chessie to get a B&M Invert where Rattlesnack currently stands... Some plans were around on the internet some time ago regarding it I'm sure (and that was probably the precursor to Chessie's limitations on what they could build)... Saw being the most successful in the world is a very long stretch to claim... It also depends what we are defining 'success' as... Certainly it's opening day cannot be claimed as a success, and historically there are bound to be attractions and rides across the entire world that would have provided a much higher percentage bump in attendance (I'm thinking things like Corkscrew at Towers, more classic than modern day, since most parks have a rather tame attendance boost these days)... As for WC16, there'll be multiple companies working on it... Sure Thorpe will be using Scruffy Dog again because they're cheaper than Merlin Studios...

Ghost is bloody dreadful... Rammstein k pls thnks

MERLIN CONSTRUCTION BINGO! (comparisons to sheds being visible on bigger budget rides) Let's be honest, no amount of shubbery or tree will make the final pic pluk posted look any better... It's this level of mediocrity which is bringing the UK industry down...