Benin

Official Facebook has a generated pic of the layout... Cheeky trip to Dublin is on the cards then...

They're getting something new! Ian from Coasterforce If it's anything like Lost Temple then it's gonna be fabbbb <3

Of course there will be demand for it, we have people who will buy the Ultimate Fastrack packages even though the queues are 20 minutes long max... The scheme prints money... But, will it leave a bad taste in the mouth of other guests? More than likely... If Thorpe also sell the Fastrack then I'd expect a wave of negativity to wash over them, what with their history of over-selling... The fact that Seastorm has a Fastrack queue sickens me anyway, similarly for Truckers and Jumbos...

That's 200ft of Gerstlauer magic right there...

The new negative Ricky worries me...

There a link to this? Horrid idea if this comes to pass...

They built a fence to cover the construction site, that's an improvement...

Six Flags were a shambles a few years back, hence selling half their portfolio off... They have improved apparently since then though, but their parks vary wildly based on location and employment range...

OR WILL IT? PR from the park that was posted on Coasterforce:

It's a strange obsession that a park desperately needs something, ANYTHING new year upon year in order to get guests to visit... Plenty of parks across the world don't add something every year and are able to survive... Presumably because they have a returning market of people often larger than a market of new visitors...

It's a kids ride, aimed at the lowest side of that demographic as well... It describes the ride to parents perfectly, so they know what to expect, cannot blame them for that at all really...

Coaster not covered in snow, 5/10 would not view again...

It certainly wasn't busy last year on the 16th (the Sunday)...

This makes me want to go to Winter Efteling more than on the cred...

Didn't Thorpe have a weekend last year? Or did I imagine this?

Europa Park do some serious work every year on 'non-essential' stuff (the Rapids getting an enclosed lift hill comes to mind)... Sure most of the other German parks are similar (though probably not to the same degree of Europa's work)... It's also something not exclusive to rides, as seen by Towers Street looking very much left behind in the 90s... Should there be an incentive for the parks to make sure presentation to top notch though? It sounds like a poor excuse to put it towards fans not gushing at the bit because Forbidden Kingdom has received new tarps...

Refurbs are few and far between though... Should we be complimenting parks for doing something they should already be doing? If Fury gets repainted, then it's good, but I'm not going to congratulate the park on something that they should be looking to do anyway, and only doing it because there's another reason behind it (a la Oblivion)...

Good riddance...

I think the problem is down to that repainting is something that should be done anyway, rather than ignored/left until the thing is completely unsafe... Oblivion is still the only example of a Merlin ride being fully repainted, and that was purely down to Smiler being built across the way... Presentation is everything, something Merlin don't seemingly realise a lot...

I would say though that Christmas events (especially at Legoland) are more focused upon things other than creds being open... Though of course, back in the day they did have the rides open during their Christmas events, but that was over a decade ago, so it's a moot point...

Do they? Very rarely do I go along the Chessie grapevine these days, but even back in the day, Toadies was never often mentioned as part of the "getting removed" lines... It's part of my wishlist of rides Chessie should remove, but it's never been high on the list... Usually it was more a case of "Chessie can't afford to remove rides because of the low capacity already"... Ok then... Chessie needs a massive overhaul really... The years of neglect suffered under DIC are certainly part and parcel of the issues it has today... It's pretty much certain that the park needs pretty much everything from new rides to refurbed areas, yet Merlin don't appear to want to push the budgets for the park high enough to produce the results required... A Gerstlauer launched coaster would be perfect for the park, as it would produce that sort of stepping stone for the kids as they grow up over the visits... What annoys me the most about the park, is that 2010 was not capitalised on... It felt like the park had new life that year, but fast forward a few years, and it's continued a stagnation with only Zufari as an actual addition and not a lot else for the park to shout about... This might be as a result of the way Merlin are currently running things of course, with the excessively tight budgets (and indeed, sudden loss of budget if other 'more important' projects require them) making the management of the park feel rather limited to what they can do... Of course, I'll still champion the removal of most of the crap in the park to be replaced with actually good rides... As it does need a coaster, water ride(s) and flats of high capacity... Even if these attractions do not fulfil the daft USP aspects of Merlin's management, they only need to look towards parks of similar statures to see what a few simple investments can provide (*cough*Plopsaland*cough*)...

Hansa love their twisty vertical drops... 2016 is so far away

Another test, with the holding brake included (not that anyone cares)...

That Rush would be at the end of it's 'lifespan' after 10 years is also a strange claim to make... Zodiac is about the same age now (since it's the one from Drayton) as well... As Dan says, an extra week (bearing in mind there'll be some time for maintenance AFTER half term as well) is not going to make all 4 Lost City flats suddenly die and need replacing... Of course though, if the parks hadn't been so badly treated during the DIC years, then maybe the rides being knackered wouldn't be an issue...