Benin

The concept art would've resulted in another dull destroyed dystopian ride theme from a Merlin attraction... Whilst Smiler's existing theme is flawed in many ways, I prefer the originality...

I think some people should look towards the Spainish Paramount Park that's also in plans (and stalling fast)... If they did that in the UK version, it would certainly fulfil the traditional theme park stereotype people have...

They do have a base of operations just down the road from Chessie though... Dunno what though, since never go down that way...

I've never seen staff be horrible to kids about being too short, indeed it is arguably one of the worst aspects of being a ride staff member, as you can regularly see the change in excitement to disappointment to utter devestation, especially worse on the close calls... Perhaps a staff member would be horrible to the adults if they've acted in a stupid manner to the idea that their child cannot ride (hell, I've seen one parent physically hit their child after being denied by myself, which shocked me immensely)... Now of course, I've looked onto the forum and noted that seemingly they DID do the right thing and go to GS and get the wristband measurement, but where then denied even with that... That is perhaps the aspect that he should have focused on, rather than the whole "she's done these rides already", which is the most classic ruse played by parents in the whole thing to a staff member when attempting to convince them that the child can clearly go on when they cannot... The way Alvey is known to deal with park issues though is too well-known however, and the way he has presented his arguement is slightly ridiculous... How is height-checking a child a route cause of a "money-grabbing" park? What level of physicality were the park staff using in the whole "pushing her head down" situation? Perhaps that was due to ensuring that the child wasn't on tiptoes or whatever, I don't think a person pushing you down on top of your head can actually make you shorter... He's gone about this complaint completely the wrong way... But as according to someone on TPR, "Well, Robb isn't one to stir up drama when it isn't needed"...

Don't think we're laughing at the child, moreso at Alvey and the inevitable tirade of abuse he will send the park's way as a result of it... Though, as Goliath and Viper have the same height restriction, it's a peculiar situation... Perhaps it was an enthusiast who had been banned from TPR for disagreeing with Robb once? Surely he should know full well that the best course of action would be to go to GS, complain there and get the kid height checked officially? Moaning on the internet and (assuming here) getting your forumites to send abuse to the park isn't particularly constructive and is pretty childish... I can't imagine people would boo a child not tall enough for a ride though... That element seems far-fetched to me, having had to reject many children off rides, I've never seen it happen... Unless they were booing Robb for kicking up an enormous fuss over the situation...

Just did Trananananananananan at Skara Sommarland this weekend... It's secretly fab and more parks should build them, but bigger and better!

Helix is utterly fantastic, they took the greatness of Blue Fire and multiplied it by 10... At night as well <3 Straight into the top 10 when I rode it first thing, cemented itself into the top 2 after night happened...

An 'extravagant ride' could be a dark ride, which of course on concept art of the park would just be a giant shed... Coasters were on the concepts as well...

Nice to see B&M expanding their own horizons...

I wouldn't say a staff magazine is the same as the public domain though...

A step back in terms of the number of rides available, but a step forward in having those with the highest levels of popularity open...

OMG SOMETHING IS HAPPENING AT CHESSINGTON! Just updates on the hotel extension restaurant though... Can't tell if the wall is actual stone or one of those awful new vinyl things...

The park will be just off the M25 (South side of Dartford Tunnel), it's not exactly in the wilds of it, and is right next to Ebbsfleet International (I would assume they'd run buses to the complex if built from there)... A long way away it is not... Merlin invest more than any other UK park because they're backed by Blackstone... The rest are mostly independents, or in the case of Oakwood, just not invested in for some reason... Who's to say Paramount wouldn't undermine Merlin's pricing? They could easily say "Oh, these guys charge £X, well you can come in for less than that"... Then they have a marketable "quality product for cheap price" thing going on for them... Paramount Park will be equi-distance for me driving there in comparison to Thorpe and Legoland... Just because you won't visit often, doesn't mean everyone else has the same options available as yourself... Given that the Merlin parks aren't particularly high up the positive review ends after the recent TripAdvisor stuff, maybe they do need to change their approaches to running the parks (on a park-style basis, I.e. improving the overall day for guests)... They've really not done much to fix a lot of what was broken by DIC either, with some poor operations on rides, over-selling on Fastracks and rather over-the-top upselling... Plus the constant rising prices of everything... The other major companies not investing are different to Paramount here, because they ARE taking the risk to build a new park (as all new parks do carry)... Disney and Universal are essentially irrelevant to the new development... The point is that Merlin should be sufficiently prepared should their arrogance be somewhat misplaced and the Paramount development both occurs and is a great success for them... Indeed, I think the hope is from many that it will give the UK industry the kick-start it needs again, as it has truly lulled behind investments everywhere else in the world over the past several years...

Ahhh, lovely arrogance there from them... That sort of response it what annoys me with Merlin really, because it sets them up for a gigantic fall should their prediction be completely wrong, and then they'll be in full on panic mode... It's a very poor mentality... Especially given the assumption that if it doesn't fail, people will return to Merlin parks anyway because of... Reasons I'm guessing (Nemesis mainly for me, though I'm not in any rush to do anything Merlin related atm)... They should be preparing plans to put into place should Paramount be allowed to build their park that lets them get up to the potential new standard that will be brought along into the UK market... Not flapping their hand away and assuming it will either fail or not affect Merlin numbers if it is a big success...

Depends if I'm in a Spanish park or not tbh...

TowersStreet Facebook #smug

A ride shouldn't just be good if you ride it in a certain way though... Always ruins any enjoyment for me if I have to deliberately braced myself...

11am if I recall, but as per the norm it would probably work out quicker to walk over to the Valley as the queue will be horrid...

I think, when used well and reasonably disguised, screens are a good subsitute for animatronics... Especially from a cost/maintenance perspective, plus the ability to do a whole lot more with little space in comparison... Wish there was like a troll animatronic though in there to make the most of that sequence mind... It's up to the park really to use the screens to their best possible advantage and ensure it doesn't look cheap and a poor substitute for effort and ability...

It looks so DULL... I don't like the new fad of sticking some screens around and you then have a dark ride... It just looks so damn cheap... Don't mind it if the screens are hidden/themed/etc, like on Huntik, Thor's Hammer and the like, but that ride does not interest me at all...

It depends on whether or not you get stapled by it I find... It's ok, other variants are better though...

Inferno says hi...

What a strange concept... In Spain I encountered a general frozen vending machine, is this random piece of new tech fixing a problem we don't have? Frozen coke is a bit blergh...

It would appear that ZacSpins are starting to reopen, SFMM and Grona Lund's for certain, with Kirnu in Finland following soon... Most media reports are pointing towards Terra Mitica having made some modifications to the restraint systems on Inferno... Whether or not these were approved by Intamin or not remains to be 100% confirmed from what I can see/tell (it's all media conjecture atm), but it does look like we can blame the Spaniards for this incident...

I'd probably wager that even Heave Ho's throughputs exceed a fair few of Chessie's rides... Considering things like Jumbos, Griffins, Peeking and Berries don't even hit 200pph...