Benin

What about Winjas though? Or River Quest?

No...

By social media, do we mean all the stuff Thorpe is retweeting or the actual entirety of it all?

That sucks.... Start at Silver Star then and work your way across the park/creds (France-Swiss-Greece-Russia-Iceland-Portugal-Austria-Arthur would be my route)... Longest queues will be Blue Fire and Wodan, which both have single rider queues (as does Arthur), so there's some solace in that you don't have to directly worry about hitting them first thing... Ensure you also see the new 4D Show, Abenteur Atlantis, Fluch der Kassandra, Columbus Dinghy and the Diamond Mine walkthrough... Any of the tacky dark rides are also highly recommended...

Really only there for a day? Bear in mind that the park will extend it's hours if it's busy, useful should it be busy... Probably best if you're a normal guest to start from Silver Star and work your way through the park... Depends if you want to ride all the coasters... A single day is not enough to take in Europa...

I dont think the manufacturer of the dark ride do coasters (or at least the dark ride isn't being made by a manufacturer who does both ride types)...

Maybe not 'never', it's probably more just dropped down the list of 'important things that need doing because otherwise things might get a lot worse'... Obviously disappointing though...

Gotta bear in mind that these modern trains are ridiculously complicated (not like say, Big Dipper's, which are buzz bars), the more complex a device, the more that can go wrong with it... Either simple or complicated fixes... Thorpe's issues go back longer than this year alone mind, but it's been widely publicised about their maintanance budget issues this year, I would assume it's either sheer dumb unlucky times, or just that lack of budget and engineers is causing all the issues...

Highlights how badly treated it was when DIC when running the show really... That decade did a lot of pretty irrepairable damage to the park, and when you then have a company who only seem to spend money on things if it brings in guests (which isn't the main problem with Chessie at all, nostalgia factor brings in people irrespective of the state of the place), then you get all the issues we've seen... If money was actually spent seriously repairing stuff, maybe that child wouldn't have fallen off the queue... Nor would we have Tomb's building practically being condemned...

In fairness, there isn't much that can be done if a train is broken and cannot be used... Big difference between being lazy and being unable to actually use...

Bla Taget

The state of the building has also probably made any work on Tomb important, otherwise they probably wouldn't be allowed to even open it...

Clever investments (and getting the Peppa Pig IP in) has taken them to this step... This should be their next step into the relative big-time, especially if the theming is great quality...

I'd say that 90% of the time inflated queue times are not for the profit side, it also depends at what time of day these times are, because I certainly remember a few times that I didn't update my queue board (for various reasons)... That was of course a while ago now, and the company has changed more than likely... For operators, changing the queue time is the least of their worries and responsibilities...

Here in lies the crux of the matter... The "in-your-face" selling aspect seen at all the Merlin attractions is the biggest issue (let alone the over-selling of Fastrack and 1 train operations on a regular basis coupled with the excuses coming from Thorpe)... It makes guests feel like the place only cares about taking the money from your wallet, rather than providing that good day out... Plenty of theme parks succeed without reducing themselves to sending Fastrack people to the entrance of each ride... Hundreds in fact don't run a Fastrack scheme at all, how do they survive?

Tomb Live would be interesting... Although Duel Live was scrapped because people complained about the lack of lasers...

Spinball shouldn't go near Thorpe, lack of capacity and the fact that a superior version is already with 30 minutes away would make it a daft decision... JOYvelen please if they go down the family route...

Wouldn't be surprised if the Smiler incident has caused all the school trips to lower dramatically compared to the normal levels of hell...

To be fair, whenever there's somewhere with a captive audience anywhere in the world the prices suddenly shoot up... Be it a theme park, or museum, or football stadium...

#lackofdemand

External company so cant see a MAP discount coming in... Why use this when the superior Ben & Jerry's is on discount?

Tbh, this is probably a candidate for story of year: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/alton-towers-victim-leah-washington-6010014

The Germans and Dutch just have a better taste in rides

Given Efteling's history as a family based park, it was never going to be an absolute thrill ride, anyone with the expectation of that would be bitterly disappointed by a ride like Baron... For Holland (and Efteling itself) though, Baron is perhaps a new benchmark and turning point in their side of the industry, since the biggest ride really prior to it is Goliath, and that was when Six Flags owned Walibi! I certainly know that when it was announced I thought it was a joke, "How could Efteling fit a B&M into their park?" I said, with people concuring with me about that question... By the looks of things, they've managed to do what many thought was less likely than Hartenhof being built this century... I often think as enthusiasts that our well-travelled side of life often does get the better of our opinions... There might be bigger or more intense variants on Baron (certainly none look as well themed as it mind), the layout might be 'dull' comparatively to other parks who have the space or don't particularly care about the overall aesthical effect a towering ride might have on the nearby area... But do the locals care about a bigger Dive Machine ride hundreds of miles and £3'000 worth of holiday away? Krake is probably my favourite example of this issue, and perhaps is why I like the ride so much... It's because of the atmosphere it created with the guests, something I didn't experience with Sheikra or Griffon, there was a tangible excitement about Krake, lots of spectators getting excited over the prospect of riding it, and many enthusiasts would probably go "why get excited over a tiny Dive Machine?"... If other rumours are to be believed though, Efteling were very impressed with B&M over the construction of Baron (when originally rumours were said that the higher management weren't particularly impressed with the idea, what with the whole massive clash of ideals), so impressed they might consider them again... If Baron means more B&Ms in Holland, then it is perhaps the best addition that country will ever see...

Imagine if it was like this a couple of years ago and they reported every single breakdown at Thorpe? They would fill the entire paper with it...