Benin

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...

If it was a coaster there would likely have been a noise report in there based off another ride (like Smiler had Saw as a basis for noise issues)... Even though it's indoors, the noise could travel to the outside if there's loud music or effects... So a coaster would need to pretty much be implicated directly in the plans...

Lol this thread made me laugh, great entertainment for a Friday night... I have this image of LC stood outside Pizza Pasta next year with a placard stating "Bring back Pizza Hut, Merlin suck" whilst having paid for his MAP and entered a place he seemingly hates... There are plenty of rides better than what you get at Thorpe over in Europe, in parks that provide a better overall experience... Save your money, don't buy a MAP, go to these other parks and then everyone's happier...

As predicted, new show (maybe it'll have more than a singular pyrotechnic?) and a revamped Penguin Cove... Such an exciting season to look forward to eh?

So it would appear that the UK had now embraced all the traditions of Black Friday, including the whole people looking like complete and utter idiots in order to buy some randomly branded TV for £100 less... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30241459 This is why I shop online...

McDonalds was at Towers and Chessie LONG before DIC ever got involved in Tussauds...

Given that at Thorpe you could eat at Bar 360 or Ranger BBQ for a lot cheaper than Pizza Hut (which was always packed solid in the first place) isn't stupidity, but sensible... And 30p saving from 20% discount? Dunno what maths you're using there, but if we say that it costs £10 for the buffet, then with the MAP discount of 20% that's £2 off... So you're basing it off the separate pricing structures (Pizza Hut was £11 last year right? And the others of a similar pricing?) which will be made redundant once the change comes into place... Is it a bad move to change to all in house brand? Doesn't do many other parks that use all internal food much harm... And clearly people don't have too much issue with what's being made available at the parks, otherwise we'd see tonnes of people with picnics and brought in food instead (like people used to for Drayton Manor)... Also, the amount of spelling mistakes makes me want TPM to do a Secret Santa just so someone can give you a dictionary or spell-checker...

There are very few parks with the same level of quality and level of offerings that the Merlin parks do provide... I'd rather have a Merlin quick service restaurant than a Disney one... But whilst the full service restaurants at Disney are amazing, they are also stupidly expensive... It's that tricky balance that very few parks actually can get right... Had a Burger from Legoland on Fireworks night and I was actually surprised by it being edible... I hated Burger Kitchen on my first visit, but I never tended to visit BK or Pizza Hut cos lack of discounts...

It is pretty much generic though, styled with some gladitorial-esque look... Kinda the level expected from a Six Flags park... Style over substance...

Hence why my entry says "Benin" for everything...

MIB's vehicle is also a lot more open than Spidey's which is probably the reasoning, maybe once you were able to, been a long long time since I've been... Lockers are a better option than bag drops though certainly, if used in the same fashion of being free and of benefit to the guest's day, rather than 90% of the parks in the world where the Six Flags and Cedar Fair parks tend to force you to pay for lockers on a constant basis (literally every major coaster allows no bag in the queue at all, and you have to pay for the locker every time, not great)... Although bag drops allow you to have items in the queue, so that's one major benefit, especially if the queue is long...