Benin

It's a shame, because it is at heart, quite a good experience... There are very few rides in the UK that put the ride portion as part of an overall larger experience, and whilst my riding of it has lowered since the addition of the scare corridor of pointlessness, I have always liked the ride, even in it's original first weekend format... Unfortunately, we seem to be suffering more and more with minimal budgets or Merlin squeezing every possible ounce out of people, which does ruin the day out for people... DLP's lack of budgets in certain areas is a similar situation, as some parts of the park do not conform at all to the Disney standard... Towers SHOULD be the gem in the UK crown... It should look clean, tidy, presentable... We shouldn't have rides opening late (perhaps Flume and Rapids are an exception to this, would be interesting to note down ridership if they did open with the park), nor should we have operating budgets cut completely to shreds... The way Merlin operate is not healthy to the actual theme park side of life... But it's "Good Business"... I'm very glad I've dropped out of the MAP life this year...

Thing is, a few years ago, these Passholder days had 100% ride availability... Then again, what with all the various limitations placed upon passholders, it's no surprise Merlin continually treating their loyal customers with a little bit less disdain...

Mohawk Bear > New Steath bear

Krake Lebt has closed this year... I think it was even less popular than Saw Alive was at the height of it's popularity, wouldnt be surprised if most people queuing for it thought they were waiting for the coaster...

To the normal, average, everyday guest who knows zero about engineering, or rides, etc though, all they see is a ride closed for some vague reasoning (which of course, is because the real reasoning is never actually divulged to the normal guest)... When the list starts adding up, it starts to become unacceptable... Even if it is sheer luck, with the Merlin parks, there's always a question of whether or not the reasoning some rides end up requiring a lot of work in one go is because they give so little budget that the parks cannot constantly fix the issues when it initially goes wrong... Instead, things are left until the literal moment when the ride/theming is utterly borked that it needs a huge overhaul... It's an underlying issue throughout all the parks...

Whilst this is probably the case, that shows how awful this year is being for the UK park industry when this is the best thing the top park owners can come up with...

They said that last year if I recall... It's a ridiculous decision, probably centred behind operational cost cutting from the higher ups...

Isn't that the old graveyard entrance into the station building? More fencing </3

Josh, there is zero excuse for this... Same thing with Thorpe... Hiding behind it as a 'preview' weekend shouldn't be the case, especially as who are those visiting? MAP holders... Shocking display from both parks this year...

Meanwhile, this year's additions are moving forward:

That's gotta be fanmade, as it looks like it was done on Paint...

Been open two days and already giving out free return tickets? Gotta be a new record right?

It offers a view of Blackpool... Automatically makes that view worse than any other ride's lift hill in the UK...

Samurai is buggered, because Chessie ran it into the ground (or at least, ran it at what were decent settings, but as Top Scans were designed for temporary fair environments, the constant high use was not agreeable in the end)... Everything else has question marks...

Inferno's exit is dire anyway, what with the whole backside of a volcano illusion being as such since it opened... Is the only addition by it a sign? I'm not sure what it adds or subtracts to anything really...

Of course there are valid excuses, but like Mark said, to have 5 rides closed? Quite simply not good enough... Samurai was closed prior to Fright Nights to get it ready, Slammer is Slammer, the water rides seem to be closed because of poor organisational structure in the maintenance... No-one seems to know what's wrong with Saw... Though, there shouldn't be excuses, valid reasoning instead is a lot better... But given that the park has several months shut over Christmas, there's clearly something wrong internally with the maintenance, as there has been for many, many years now...

I remember when current Zodiac was at Drayton, and did about 6 full inversions before coming back down... And of course back then, Thorpe had a themed Enterprise... Better days...

All rides should be available at the start of a park's operating season... If this is not possible, then perhaps they should open later in the year... That is, quite frankly, a pitiful excuse, given that every park in the world is able to do this... There is a minimum expectation parks should reach, and once agian Thorpe are unable to reach that goal... Just because a park isn't busy should also not be an excuse, it's probably just as important, as people will visit when it's quieter in order to get on all the rides in a minimal amount of time...

I prefer Krake (and Oblivion, obvs) to the bigger brothers of Griffon and Shakira... At least the smaller ones have some actual force to the drops...

*cough*2017coasterconstruction*cough*

You would, IF you could actually SEE out of the Monorail clearly...

MAP holders being obnoxious is no surprise, when enthusiasts tend to be the most obnoxious of all...

Spooky pic:

Cedar Fair parks do that already... I went on one many years ago (because my visit to Kings Island was the 5th July, it was busy), which was $300 a head for 8 hours of guided person, instant ride access (including the burdenous row choice, though we only cared about that on Beast and Diamondback) and priority show seating, food, vouchers and a backstage tour of Beast... Certainly got the value for money out of that one... And it was STILL cheaper than anything Merlin offer, though after a quick search it looks like it no longer exists... But that is how to do a VIP ticket thing...

Baden-Baden if you're ok with Ryanair... Basel-Freiburg-Mulhouse if you actually want to enjoy your flight... It's about an hour from Basel to Europa, there are many routes to take to get there, be it via public transport, which involves trains, or booking a taxi in advance (€100 each way ish) if you're lazy... You could even hire a car, but I don't see the point unless you're going to head off to other nearby parks, but Holiday Park and Tripsdrill aren't great, and you won't get bored of Europa...