Benin

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...

The plans didn't show a facade around it, so it's not getting one, so give up dreaming now... Of course, this is what separates ok from good, but I have no idea why Lego Billund were able to theme all sides of Ghost... Yet, we get this...

http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/news/near-miss-as-metal-bolt-falls-from-big-one-at-blackpool-pleasure-beach-1-7421782 Bugger...

Ask, and ye shall receiveth: Vekoma Facebook

Whilst a fairly OUT-THERE AND NEVER GONNA HAPPEN idea, I was looking at Fuji-Q's website the other day and saw that they had an escape room in their park... Saw themed escape room I'm sure would get a lot of people on here ridiculously excited, even if in a theme park setting it would be ridiculous to implement... Doing something similar to Towers' idea (pay extra outside of park hours thing) would be an interesting step...

35 minutes for Griffins Galleon?!! Every single Merlin park seems to be having massive issues with reliability this year, what gives guys? Usually it's just one or two parks that are awful, but Thorpe, Towers AND Chessie (No-one cares enough about Lego to notice) are having dreadful years... Unfortunately, unless people use the feedback screens whilst on park, I doubt anything will change...

I vaguely remember Ghostrider being pretty awful many years ago, doubt it's gotten any better since then...

The Express Pass issue is not because they are being oversold, it's because they decided to bring in an Annual Pass deal for unlimited Express Pass for the ENTIRE YEAR for the pricely sum of €80 odd... Obviously, it's an idea that (in typical Merlin terms) craps over the guest experience completely... I fear that they might see it as a success and bring it over to the UK in the future...

I think a lot of Phantasialand's 'issues' are with the older generation of rides and attractions that are crying out for updates... HOPEFULLY we'll see things like TotNH and Hollywood Tour scrapped and turned into things on the same level as Chiapas and generally the rest of the park... Fortunately, even these lower quality filler rides are better than many others you see across the world... I cannot honestly think of an attraction to a similar scale and look as Hotel Tartuff at any park...

Sounds like YourDay a bit... Never really was a success that unfortunately... Plus with the amount of technology available to people now, do parks need to provide it for them in such a way? I don't think the answer is yes...

Swarm - Alien Attack/End of World theme Smiler - Being Corrected (altering body and mind) These advertising campaigns aren't exactly too far off the finished products...

Probably adds a bit of spark to it...

There was a recent trademark application from Merlin for 'automatons'... Food for thought...

I don't really get Towers Street Bar, since it's the closest BIG restaurant to CBeebies Land... Some strange decisions around the parks these days...

Same story as Pocahontas tbh... I'd probably rather watch Suckerpunch again than Avatar... At least Suckerpunch tried to do something (even if it was dreadful, and I don't actually know what it was)...

I wasn't saying that the lack of roof was cut, I just think it's a daft idea, given the design reasons behind it (a roofless building wouldn't require a fire exit, to which Ms Holland wasn't a fan of for some reason, imagine how atmospheric Swarm's station could've been if it had been enclosed)... It's that balance of design ideas and eventual cutting up of budgets which is always the worry...