Benin

Judging by the pictures on the Chessie Burger Kitchen that Aramark are charging what they charge for what looks to be god-awful food is fairly fine to criticise. Especially looking at the reduced menus and lower quality in foodstuffs whilst the prices increase. To say they're a scapegoat because of also having a prison contract is naive at best. Most of the American park food is tonnes better than the UK equivalent in my experiences. Even with the basic options or chains involved. Not everyone can be Dollywood but there's plenty of examples out there that show that theme park food can be good quality. But captive audiences mean less effort I suppose is the current viewpoint. Sadly it falls in line with current food issues in the wider world. Because these companies only care about the bottom line and shareholders.

That their April Fools joke didn't have the shop called "Lost Soles" REALLY bugs me.

Sub-Terra fans UNITE! Was a fun for what it was. And most of my rides it seemed that the guests were having fun, which is the important thing. But, like with similar attractions, the budget got slashed and was too staff intensive.

https://www.unitetheunion.org/news-events/news/2023/march/chessington-world-of-adventure-facing-strike-threat-in-pay-dispute/ Awkward start to the season then. Never knew the engineers were in an union though. Guess any union talk is often in public sector roles.

Our (new) Lord and Saviour John Burton telling us... what we already know.

It looks more like a fake spa than a "quiet place" though to me. Good idea badly executed maybe?

Gotta get those New for 2023 points after all. Maybe should limit it to those who medically need it, but when they've advertised as a spa rather than a specialised room (I forget the official term, maybe sensory room?) then they're not really putting it in with the right reasonings. Sounds like got a random sponsorship and had to do some nonsense.

Factor in the issues in supply chain at the moment though. But Thorpe would've agreed to a date with Taziker and presumably unlike other park owners would've kept up to date with any going ons with it. Any delays they would be compensated for but it depends how on it the park were to this as a project.

Van Helsing's Factory did it first.

Either Easter holidays (bit soon maybe) or May onwards. Depends how the eggs are feeling.

Blame the park for the decision, not the company who have taken the job. We know Blackpool are cheap but they're kinda screwed with a retrack given Arrow's lack of real existence these days and that track being made in a time before full on CAD. Therefore a harder project. Intamin from sounds of things were open but wanted to do all in one go (they're a busy manufacturer after all, and easier to put a full project through the workshop in one hit then annually in bits), but Thorpe have elected for the cheaper avenue. As always, you pay what you get for. And the cheaper option doesn't always get you the product you were after.

That's gone well then.

I'm not even sure what they mean by continues operating. Colossus has opened as much as Nemesis has this year.

Classic Thorpe day.

2023's Platty Jubz.

My niece-in-law is 10 and I can tell you she would love how dark and creepy Alty Mans is. Her younger sibling wouldn't. Some kids will love it, others won't. Much like many theme park attractions. It's clearly not a ride designed with a lot of humour in mind. Don't think that's necessarily a problem these days (massive difference in terms of expectations in theme parks these days after all compared to 30 years ago) as a lot of the humour in HH (lol what humour in Duel), seems to be overplayed as to how much there actually was. Nostalgia and the way it got spoken about in awed reverence often skews perception, especially to those who never rode it (see also original Bubbleworks). Sure for every parent moaning that it's "too scary" there'll be plenty of kids who love it. And if parents are that concerned there's plenty of evidence available for them to be VERY aware it's a darker themed ride.

Why market it when opening isn't confirmed? Towers didn't push their marketing for ages for Alty Mans considering when Duel closed. Patience is a virtue. And setting expectations highly for this is probably not the way to go about it considering the ride in question.

Europa have released a computer POV of VOLTRON COASTER. https://www.veejoy.de/de/filme/pov-onride-coaster-2024

My my.

Yes. It's probably also helped that he's also a goon (he's come a long way from his heady days in the RCT3 community). But as the new face of Merlin's attraction team he will get the main flood of praise (much like Wardley did). Also seems fairly active online and knows how to get the interest of goons. Always weird when people revere those in any industry mind. Can always backfire and lead to issues as we've seen before. But that's some weird trait of the modern world where because we can interact (directly and indirectly) with people many develop relationships that are completely non-existent. Hence how influencers and social media stars get an array of fans ready to throw hands if anything negative happens. I'm sure JohnB is lovely, though I feel he and others on the team went overboard with Easter eggs on Alty Mans. Which is a definite goon thing to do.

Single riders should be batched at loading area. Especially if going in before the bays as it fulfils the point of the queue in the first place. Method like Smiler could work as long as they had actually stopped people from just sneaking up the normal queue after bag drop.

Single rider usually is for single spaces. You might get lucky with 2s but not too often. It's very dependent on the implementation and location of the batching point though.

I dunno, Blackpool do sell old ride parts.

Throughput means it doesn't need one. Even on opening day the queue had gone to standard levels.

Same every year for all the parks to be fair. Never seem completely ready. And always hope its different but never seems to be.