Benin

Angry Birds was done in about 5 minutes, so you never know...

Simply put, a giant B&M Dive Machine is a massive stand-out thing to the rest of the park... It's a typical quaint European park, with a massive Forest in one corner, and every other coaster bar Python fitting in because they're either indoors or made of wood... It had the potential to be like Spinball, out of place and completely wrong for the park... Especially as the location for the ride is more central than say Python, which is pretty much hidden at the back of the park... Fortunately they've made the correct design choices it would seem to ensure that the only impact this ride will have is visual interest, especially if the Dutch love it as much as the Germans love Krake...

What's amazing from those behind the scenes videos is the amount of thought and effort that has been put into the design and ideas of not just the ride, but the surrounding area and buildings... Considering this is a ride that really never made sense for Efteling to build in the first place, it's great to see it being taken incredibly seriously...

I think it comes with the previous Merlin additions that the optimism for this, something that should be completely kick-starting the UK industry, is sorely lacking...

Let's remember, the ride experience starts in the queueline... Let's take Ratatouille and Maus au Chocolat as examples now... Ratatouille's queue starts with a long covered cattlepen outside the main building, it has some posters to look at but on the whole is quite dull, saved by the relative pace of the queue's movement... Inside it's amazing, but is only about 10 minutes worth of actual queue... Tis a weird balance really, and is probably what we'll get here, since Merlin love a large cattlepen of death... Now Maus, it's very akin to classic Tussauds, the entire queue takes place within the bakery, going through many different rooms with tonnes of theming, images of cakes and actual recipes on the walls... Also a video appears about half way through as the ride story and safety info... Here the queue suffers from the slow movement, so the multiple rooms help this slightly, but also the added smell of chocolate makes this the only queue in the world to physically affect me and make me hungry... Indeed, all of Phantasialand's queues (bar Winjas) have a real adventurous feel to them... Merlin's queues lack any form of imagination, even abroad... Whilst some still carry the sense of interacting with the ride, there's nothing in comparison to the likes of Nemesis or even Colossus... It's a shame that queues are seen as something to be ignored in the design process, when they are one of the most important aspects in the ride experience... Things like Fury or Saw are prime examples of awful queuelines... At least Smiler is interactive with the ride, even if it is a dull concrete labyrinth...

Dark rides with laser guns don't automatically become disappointing...

Are Rapids and Log Flumes really classed under 'relaxing' rides? I doubt that this dark ride will be along the same lines as Duel/Tomb where progress is slow and arguably dull (especially on Tomb), one would hope it's a very dynamic motion dark ride, even if it's a cheap one...

If a multi-million pound dark ride doesn't provide a more interesting experience than a Carousel then Merlin might as well give up running parks... It's a shame it's not being relocated, as Carousels can provide that much needed "fun for all" quota quite simply for little space usage, something Thorpe needs to do a lot of intelligently in the future... But guess the conflicting we want families (or DO we?) phases are forever going mental... Wouldn't be surprised if they now decided that the Banana Boat should go and get a bigger Pirate Ship in place of it...

There's just something about every single Moffat episode recently that just makes me cringe... The final moments of the finale are a perfect example of it all... Power of love (see also the god-awful Moon episode) and all that, indeed, there didn't seem to be much of a presence from the big bad in comparison to say the last few times they were involved during the T Davies series... As bad as some of his stuff was, at least he could provide a decent over-arching storyline intertwined in, rather than the odd random scene at the end to go "LOOK THIS CHARACTER EXISTS" before the wild Moffat twist... Best episode was Flatline this series...

They are advertising for at least one mechanical engineer...

Juvelen is FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAB... No one is allowed to be negative about it...

Tbh, if it was in the digger area, that'd be good as it'd be out the way... HOWEVER, I think it's being put in where they're doing some digging opposite where the old Explorers Institute used to be...

6 coasters and 6 dark rides? Could have duelling coasters which count as 2 major rides... The dark rides could range from stuff like Mystic Manor to Twister/Earthquake... The possibilities are quite high really...

Big old update... http://www.londonparamount.info/media/1022/paramount_full-set.pdf Turns out the "Leisure Core" will consist of the park (presumably 6 themed areas) and a Citywalk style thing with a 2000 seat theatre, cinema, displays, shops and food... Will take up 45 hectares (111 acres) in total... Also an indoor waterpark will also be built... Another important factor is that they've set aside land for future expansion... Could be an interesting development, though I have a feeling they might also be going for some form of queueless system as a quote of "State of the art technology maximising visitor experience: shortening queues and increasing per hour activity", which could be ANYTHING... Hopefully that just means that they've visited Europa Park and decided that it's what they should follow...

Given my recent visit to Skegness, this sort of incident would not surprise me...

They are planning to have Wodan open this year if I recall (weather permitting)... So the only coaster you'd be missing that's a problem if you do miss it is Silver Star...

It's not like the people who go through this are: Applying to be put through the stuff Sign a waiver that presumably grants the owner rights to do whatever he likes Are still under the watchful eye of the owner, who adapts the haunt to the person The owner deliberately picks and chooses those who apply and only picks people who can actually do it So it's not like he's just letting anyone do this... Daft to have a petition imo...

It truly is pointless, I don't mind the shorts they're doing, but the trilogy ended so perfectly... Silly Disney...

It's not just the wooden coaster the council are seemingly worried about... Besides, it's likely this won't open till 2016 now...

Similar situations could be said for other fansites (such as DLP Magic, TPM and the like)... Whatever floats peoples boats really... I can't think of anything more boring than visiting the same park over and over again these days...

To be fair, the Glass Elevator portion of Charlie is the best part... #damningwithfaintpraise

Horror is too generic a term sometimes... Technically Vampire and Tomb Blaster can come under a horror term... Duel (especially under Haunted House) comes under 'Hammer Horror', and these days is just spooky and very cheesey... Hex is creepy, though I've always felt that's more about the setting rather than the ride/theme... However, both are still relatively family friendly to a degree... Having another Saw like IP would not be family friendly (indeed, was always the weirdest choice for the rather family friendly Eurofighter concept)...

Well of course they are a success, simply because they've opened up 20 million Midway attractions in 5 years (might be slightly over-exaggerating)... Thing is, being 'efficient' in a Merlin way results in the state of the current parks... Operationally, they are an absolute mess and mostly need the 'extravagance' that Disney have... Indeed, their 'efficient' spending in a prime reason behind their own growth and success, because of the minimal expediture for maximum income and short-term success... Between having £30m or £200m on a dark ride, you can probably guess which is the most likely to ooze complete quality... Hell if a ride like Tower of Terror is an extravagance then it's one I could do with a lot more regularly...