Benin

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...

Imagine if that and the B&M Invert had been built? Oh wells...

It's one of the best bits about Nemmie

What appeal will the likes of Thorpe and Towers have to the European audience? Just curious... As the Europeans are pretty much spoilt for choice in regards to the number of places available to them that already appeal...

Rival park/resort that is arguably better placed to attract the European market and near enough to two of Merlin's parks to deter guests away? Merlin should have alarm bells ringing in their ears if only to have preparations ready instead of being as reactive as always... See Disney suddenly getting Avatar Land to battle Universal & Potter... Reactive business decisions shouldn't really be the way to go...

Either that or they're waiting too announce it in an official capacity... They'd be foolish to reduce the number of mazes considering how popular the event is... Especially given the Lionsgate link a lack of potential ideas cannot be excused...

CBeebies Land has done a fine job in getting guests to visit... Indeed, Disney don't seem to have a problem getting the guests, and they don't have much in the way of big thrilling coasters/rides... With correct marketing and quality, you can get guests to come and ride anything you build... Hex and Duel never really have queues because of their throughputs (Duel) and people not knowing what's inside (Hex)... Hex is a weird one because it seems to rather confuse guests as to what it is, especially with the two pre-shows, which is a shame because it's the best dark ride we have in the country (apart from when the curtain fails to work)... Sub Terra I can't help but feel has no re-rideability either, which doesn't help it's cause, as well as being pushed towards the high thrill level of dark ride... A high quality dark ride could easily change perceptions of them... Indeed, an over-reliance on marketing surveys and the like is really what's making the Merlin parks rather dull and lifeless more so than anything... The parks need to be thinking ahead of themselves, and building something that guests didn't know they wanted until they had ridden it...

Dialogue heavy dark rides </3 I was expecting something along the lines of U-571 at Movieland Studios up by Lake Garda, that's probably why I'm so bemused by it...