Benin

Ben 10 is the best coaster at Drayton... In overall terms though, that's not a good thing...

It would be pretty impossible for a small child to access the track on T'Ultimate, given that it's nowhere near the pathways for 99% of the actual ride... A higher perimeter fence won't make a difference either, not like the deer jumped over the thing...

Drayton, then they can have an actually good coaster that isn't aimed at kids? Mingoland don't deserve one, Lightwater can't afford one, Blackpool lack the space... Very limited in terms of what parks should have one, of course the real dream is that Towers remove Rita and put a Mack Mega in place that ventures down the valley...

He did compile a list of failings, however Merlin state that they fixed this issues (though it would seem that this was via totally removing rockwork for the majority)... HOWEVER, the key issue is that Merlin's fixes were not checked by an independent body to ensure that they were safe for public to use the park... That's where the issue lies, a lack of standards and independent audits taking place...

It's even more beautiful in person

Oblivion can easily run 6 shuttles... 2 in station, 2 on brake run and 2 in the circuit (1 going around and the other being held at the bottom of lift hill)... Does involve a lot of stacking mind, but that's life sometimes...

Can't wait to see how Studio 13 looks when it gets that sexy cattlepen queueline <3

Will it? Don't think Thorpe's attendances dropped when Stealth ran over a pigeon (or to be more accurate, ONE of the times it ran over a pigeon), nor did it affect Apollo's Chariot, and that incident happened on their press day... Lightwater's attendance will be affected by their lack of money to build anything new or interesting to get people to visit, not because of the circle of life...

You think a Merlin park fixes broken effects? DON'T YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THAT COSTS?!

Nope, since Vampire on three trains was stopped in either 2009 or 2010 (I forget which one)... Think you'll also find surveyors will assess the risks of the park (what he was asked to do), but also will look to get the problems rectified... Once the problems are solved they SHOULD be assessed independently, rather than internally, as bias (or Merlin's pursestrings) can be an issue... As said, Merlin wanted to cover up the problems found by the surveyor, which kinda goes against the whole idea of getting the guy in the first place...

Why? Considering his job was to survey the park for issues, he found lots, but the park's solutions weren't checked independently whilst Merlin wanted to keep things quiet... Doing his job really...

Depends what you mean by quiet, I've visited a Disney park with walk-ons for pretty much everything... Then again, at those parks there's actually a lot more other options for guests to do, be they watch shows, meet characters or do things other than queue... Since a quiet day for Thorpe these days tends to result in 45 minute queues because of one train op though, there's very little excuse... Indeed, 5-10 minutes is probably the limit, like when I visited Parque Warner and it had one train op on Superman and Batman, but the park was so dead it made no difference... Empty seats because they've gotten rid of the queue is better than a long, slow moving queue of people who aren't spending money/getting frustrated with crappy operations...

I loved the 2021 prediction tbh... Interestingly, Thor's Hammer at Tusenfryd cost a massive €8.5million... The way Merlin seem to budget their parks, that would never be seen as a filler season addition... Which is naturally disappointing, as that could be very affordable, as I'd assume that a LOT of that budget went towards creating the massive caverns in the rock that the ride lives in... A slightly more realistic addition, especially if it was like Huntik <3

DAMN YOU ALPENEXPRESS!

In other news, seems that Chessie were really in the deep end in 2013... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-29366602

Oh yeah, the thing that Efteling have been trying to build for about a decade now... Defo won't happen then...

Cannot remember where those plans are from originally... But if you think Thorpe/Merlin would build that, abject disappointment is around the corner...

Honestly, it looked better with the plain frame-work going on...

A permanent double Flow-Rider? Was the temp one really that popular? Will there be a point to add an attraction which will presumably be shut for most of the season? Wish they'd just get rid of Neptunes Beach and use that space to make the park look a lot more welcoming...

Maybe the energy efficiency thing is that Thorpe actually runs from people's anger? Hence the overselling of Fastrack, poor operations and the like?

So we're not going to see Rumba Rapids turned into the "Search for the Isle of Fernando" attraction? #disappoint

DLP for Halloween is next, but that's it for the year... 2015 is already in full planning mode mind, MOAR CREDS!

They've posted a survey... https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/V83M26Q Nothing exciting, just lists some IPs and asks about a festival... Just honestly, the fact that they're asking people if they'd like to see "Take Me Out" come to life at the park is probably the most hilarious thing I've seen all year...

After doing a German fair, where there's no stupid token scheme, just pay at the ride, I can't see myself dragging myself back to this thing... It's way too expensive and busy... They'd need a new interesting coaster to get me back in...