Benin

Towers don't charge for MAP holders... At least, not yet... But still, kinda inexcusable given that this event probably won't require the same level of crowd control as Fright Nights... Merlin's execution methods are once again slightly baffling, especially towards the loyal customers...

Speculation that every news outlet in the UK seems to be reporting it, and the park owners have their own press release stating the deal has happened? "Speculation"...

Looks unlikely that the Beeb will be letting Merlin have their paws on anymore IPs... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/11284388/BBC-to-open-theme-park-to-exploit-Doctor-Who-and-Top-Gear-brands.html In actual terms (rather than the Telegraph's incorrect assumption of the park being BBC in its entirity), Paramount Park have got BBC on board to use some of their IPs... So we might just see a Dr Who themed ride in the end... Press Release from Paramount as below:

Website got a refresh: https://www.altontowers.com/ It's a bit awful...

I assume that'll be a room feature, since it's very bland...

One would assume that if they're not running every ride the park will have a reduced capacity, sure many of us here know how Thorpe can be when rides are closed and the park has the usual amount of people in there...

There won't be any space left because the dark ride (and associated backstage rooms) will be taking up the entirity of the building... It's not even that big a building, especially in comparison to X's...

Source: https://www.facebook.com/hapaforum

Wow, much pedant... The term "Dark Ride" in itself is a "Ride Type", in the same way that we have "Roller-Coaster", "Flat Ride" and "Water Ride"... Of course there are sub-types of each, but we are trying to talk basic terminology here because someone thought X was a dark ride...

Probably more to do with the water level maximum than any taste really, though I can't remember the original's track colour scheme to be able to tell if that's the case or not...

No... It's an indoor roller-coaster, let's not put X in the same ride type as the likes of Tower of Terror and Spiderman...

Modified Truckers? Where's that come from? The whole park needs a refurb, unfortunately it doesn't get the budget it requires to get the stuff done... The 'addition' for this year does sum Merlin up quite nicely, minimal investment with an IP attached to draw in the crowds, whilst things that need to get fixed up, don't...

To be fair, Winter Wonderland has only gotten to its size and popularity over several years, I remember when it was in the Dome and the first year or so at Hyde when there was a few rides and nothing else... Winterville could easily sneak in as a cheaper and quieter alternative to WW if it garners some success...

That's only cos of Fury's second lift... When it was broke/stopped operation the silence was such a difference...

Film of the Year Tricky one, on one end of the spectrum there's Guardians of the Galaxy, and at the other The Imitation Game for the more serious film side of things... This has been a stand-out year for films overall... Sporting Moment of the Year Ruining Liverpool's title chances in 10 minutes... That's all I'm doing for this

The building continues!

Disney forums had over a 100 pages of 'discussion' about the addition of a Starbucks on Main Street... I'm sure I've seen multiple pages over a carpet corner being out of position too... Now THAT'S complaining...

Let's not forget Ramses Pretty much most European parks have a Vekoma Looper and/or SLC in their lineup, it's strange but understandable given Vekoma's popularity when most of the parks were about... Even Efteling has it's own crap Vekoma (but with new trains) that looks out of place compared to everything else around... The problem is more that Gardaland and Heide are seemingly getting the same stuff as well as the usual Merlin problems... It's worrying enough in a country where they have a monopoly, and given especially in Germany where the competition is truly above what Merlin are seemingly capable of, it's a really poor showing... Whilst Italy is a lot more open, the quality in Gardaland is variable... Beyond the two dark rides (Il Corsari/Ramses) and Raptor, there was nothing of a truly amazing quality at the park...

We on about Toadies or Truckers?

Or we could just admit that any storyline attached to the ride was an afterthought, much like the ride coming to Thorpe was... Not to say that a ride needs a storyline to be good, but let's not attach really crappy ones to rides to give it any semblence of it's location to make actual logical sense to the park's themes... Especially given that this was added when the park itself decided that theme areas were not applicable...

Saw would probably stall in cold weather... Jamie thinking the park would do this event with no major rides open makes me laugh... Thorpe wouldn't be that stupid...

Both Truckers and Toadies should go, both as bad as each other for throughputs... Truckers made worse by having Fastrack...

2 weeks earlier than this year's Easter though, so that date difference will be taken into account (park this year opened on the weekend of 22nd March when Easter was on the 18th, so the gap is only a week longer)...

Easter is really early next year, so everything will open early as a result...

No creds, would not visit...