Benin

Mostly blackout dates... And increases in discounts on food/merch... Dream pass gives you a free mocktail at some restaurants...

That's put me off renewing mine then... Have they changed the entry prices on the gate? That's the best comparison...

You're not a proper IMAScore fan unless you buy one of their shirts...

Be interesting to compare the ride itself with Krake... There's a few details in this that have come out of nowhere... The 'decontamination' spray on the brake run is a good example of this...

You must adore certain branches of McDonalds

At least use the right castle...

Can you take me on your trip Mark?

Opens on 19th June now, tickets are available for booking at about £15 a person...

It's that time of year where Europa toot their own horn and have a video showing off ALL the new additions for the season! 'Small' investment year... Also, here's the new look Seastorm: A true thing of beauty...

What's with the hate for Doctor Who? Also, screen based rides can work amazingly, as Mark has already pointed out, Ratatouille is a fantastic example of this, purely because of the quality put into said screen work... Of course, we could end up with Wonder Mountain Guardian, which is the opposite end of that spectrum in general screen based dark ride quality...

Not sure if better than Octonauts' queue...

Merlin have built one dark ride in their history in Sub Terra at the big parks (Ghost at Legolands can be considered if you're desperate to boost numbers)... And it's an IP (using the original Nemesis backstory, so follows the definition, even if it's an internal one)... Dr Who would be better than Hunger Games...

Next to the toilet block at the main entrance, dunno about the second entrance... As for Towers' opening times, I've always wondered how much of that is down to the locals not particularly being enthralled with the idea of thousands of cars trudging through Alton village at dinner time...

In possibly some of the strangest news so far this year, it would appear that Chessie will now be closing at 7pm during the Summer Holidays...

Layout alert! Pretty much takes up the entire side of the park, past the Crazy Mine and Schlange von Midgard creds...

This is the new queue for their Seastorm ride (Colombus Dinghy)... Ridiculous and unrequired... But it's fantastic...

But Merlin didn't start the car parking payment trend, DIC Tussauds did... Merlin just made the situation increase drastically by adding it to all the other parks (and this has had a knock-on effect to get Drayton in on the action)... Unfortunately, whilst the Merlin blame game is a fun one to play, we can't blame them for EVERYTHING...

No-one is disagreeing that the cuts are down to Merlin's greed... But stop blaming Towers for it (or at least, certain things)... I'd reckon the majority of staff are just as unhappy about it as the guests (apart from maybe losing Nemmie single rider, since it was never the easiest for them to operate)... That the loss of a single rider queue is lamented more than staggered openings and loss of off-peak hours (with no drop in price, at least Thorpe have an off-peak price) shows how skewed enthusiasts can be with the big picture...

Yet History dictates that once the thing is broken, or runs out, it won't be sorted until the closed season... Because it's effort to fix things under Merlin...

Reading various sources suggesting the operating budget for Towers was cut from 15-20% from last year... After their most successful season in years? Good job lads...

There seems to be some confusion as to why Single Rider has been spited (amongst other cuts)... Towers (and Thorpe, and Chessie, and Lego), all get given a set operational budget by Merlin, what they do with said budget is up to the individual parks, but of course, sometimes what is required budget wise, isn't given to the parks... And the park has to take it on the chin... Hence why this (and Rita's, but no-one seemingly cares enough) has happened... And the other issues such as the staggered openings and the like... Therefore not everything Towers' fault in this regard, but Merlin trying to run their parks at the bare minimum outgoing costs... Towers have had their hands forced a lot more than the other parks presumably because they have the highest requirements of operating budget... What can we do to combat this? Seemingly the only avenue is to tell Merlin to stuff it and not visit or buy MAPs... They're currently in that phase last seen in the days of DIC, where there were numerous cuts, crap low expense additions and a general malaise amongst the parks... The similarities to the current 'standards' are scary to say... I highly doubt THOUSANDS of people rely on a single rider queue though... Indeed, most guests don't tend to actually understand the true concept of one, and see it more as a shorter queue (I wonder how regular it is for staff to have to deal with guests who lack the common understanding of it)... No-one's crying over Sub Terra losing IT'S single rider queue... Double standards </3

Helix at night: Shambhala at night: Joris en de Draak: Top Thrill Dragster: And my favourite of my faves, Oblivion:

I wouldn't be surprised if it would take 5 minutes to unload/load, between the new staff on it AND the randomness that young children bring to a ride (parents taking photos of child on ride, child refusing to leave ride, etc)... Hopefully over the year they'll find a way of telling parents to bugger off and buy the ORP if they desperately want a pic of little Timmy on the ride...

Awkward... https://www.facebook.com/thorpeparkmania/posts/10155444462305624

I would say that single rider on Nemmie was always a bit of a logistical nightmare for the staff to contend with... SRQs always seem to work better when they're properly integrated into a queue...