Benin

Because people want later openings to be the norm, not the exception... Even then, the majority of major parks in Europe close at 7-8 in summer, so is there a real demand for it? State side and Spain are different kettles of fish in this regard though... Hence their constant 10-12-1 closing times...

There isn't a Coastersaurus at the German Legoland, it's castle themed...

Lesson 1 - Don't let your children climb on fences... Lesson 2 - Don't let your park fall into a state of disrepair and have this happen on a regular basis with theming falling apart and injuring people... Both parties at fault, but it is Chessie's property and responsibility... Indeed, it might mean Merlin actually invest in looking after things post opening rather than leaving things alone...

Wallace and Gromit to me represents the wrong side of what should be aimed for... A mish mash of IP scenes from multiple sources that dont actually link up together... Very old school, very Blackpool, but not what should be the target...

Rotterdam is also a valid option, just need to get a bus from the airport to the train station, then off to Tilburg, get off and get another bus or taxi (depending on preference)... Dunno the Amsterdam route, but I believe it's pretty much the same, only with S'Hertonbosch (or whatever it's called) instead of Tilburg...

Aside from that it has unique light/sound setups for each train that actually work in sync rather than constantly... And it's more inspired than Primeval Whirl...

You can take your bag on Tower of Terror and it has an ORP, and it's regarded as one of the best attractions in the world... Indeed, can't you take your bags on Spiderman/Transformers/DarKastle/etc?

A temporary show and potentially no Fastrack make it an event? Lol, ok then...

But can I get my free one visit to Parc Asterix or Port Aventura? For every thing added, stuff has been taken off over the years...

That discounts BPB then... EDIT - DAMMIT MARK!

At least everyone has an extra year to save, since it's only gonna worth doing in 2016 when it's fully finished... Also means going to Hamburg <3

It's almost as if they're advertising the new accommodation solely because they want people to know it's new... Towers over more recent years (post Morwenna) have tended to go for multiple adverts based upon the new additions, look at when they opened Sub Terra and Ice Age, two completely different ads for two completely different products... Tis a good avenue to go for... Towers also actually has a resort side to advertise... Thorpe releasing a dedicated advert for their hotel would be pointless, as there's very little to advertise... Or we could go back to having adverts like Rita's if you'd prefer?

Europa doesn't have any 'night-time' incentive for summer days and they open till 9 (depending on how busy the park actually is, it's very flexible but they rarely close at the advertised time)... In order to keep people in the park for longer periods of time, there needs to be more varied things to do... I'm sure people get bored of doing ride after ride at Thorpe with very little variation of other things to do in their day... A good comparison is Walt Disney Studios, which tends to be dead in the last hour or two of it's day... Why? Disney Dreams mainly... I've always thought Towers would greatly benefit from a night-time show, I don't think Thorpe has the space to pull one off with a suitable viewing area (especially since Saw Alive exists, get rid of that, and it could be a possibility)... Concerts could be the way to go, but again it's a location thing, though of course redeveloping Neptune's Beach into a massive plaza which could hold mini-concerts would be an excellent idea, plus give the park a much nicer looking opening... Comparing it to the likes of AI and Blackpool isn't ideal though, as they as supported by their inner city locations... Oakwood can be looked at, but that suffers from having bugger all to do during the day so you have to turn up late... There's also the point that the park would have to look at employing more people to work the later hours if they did it on a regular basis with the entire park open (which is already done for FN), which is a much higher cost to invest in... If people don't stay, it's not worth it, it's the British culture though that needs to be addressed first and foremost, something that the parks can't necessarily do...

As most of the queue will take place outside, I doubt much build-up will take place unfortunately...

Getting the ECC in was the worst thing in the entire segment...

Not bothering with anything Merlin in the UK, no point visiting... Elsewhere, will do a few UK parks far and wide, see how many I can get really on that front... Europe should have Italy, Leipzig, Denmark, Finland, Holland and Belgium... Plus a trip or two to DLP (including this weekend), and maybe Europa somewhere...

Six Flags' pass gets you into every one of their parks for less than a Premium MAP... Gets you some discount booklet, friend tickets for free on selected days, entry to the waterparks and the events at some of the parks if not all... They also have a gold pass, which is for free parking and a few bonus things (VIP entry is billed as one of the perks, but standard still get ert)... So how much are these? I assume they vary depending on the park but Magic Mountain currently has the basic one at $75 and you can in their sale get a free upgrade to the Gold level... So yeah, Six Flags slightly better than Merlin in that regard...

Here's the issue, I and presumably many others got an email recently about renewals, being told prices from Premium will start from £93 odd... This comes in and adds £50 to the price... The customer service on this? Absolutely terrible... That is where Merlin's problems come from, the treatment of their guests... I won't be renewing, £150 can be spent on a holiday, train tickets or rent... More important than the odd visit to a Merlin park...

A picture would be nice...

I think my definition of fun differs greatly to Merlin's...

Just a bit of perspective on the tower...

There's just something about Heide I don't like... Colossos is over-rated immensely which doesn't help, Scream (which IS fab) was closed for my visit this year, and the park just seems to lack that certain something for me... I cannot actually tell WHAT that thing is, but it's just there, nagging away, telling me that the park is just not that good... It's probably the lack of atmosphere coupled with some awful attempts at theming with some pretty average/crap rides outweighing the good ones... Flug is a perfect example of why I dislike Heide actually... And in hindsight that would've won a "Most Disappointing New Ride" Award...

Teasing their new 4D Cinema show for next year, considering the quality of the Schloss von Balthazar one, I'm quite interested in this...

It was home to their permanent horror maze back in 2011, dunno if that was still the case prior to this construction or not...