Benin

There must be early rider, otherwise how is there an hour long queue on Vampire just before 10?

Looks like a Conference Centre... Shame they didn't theme the inside...

Possibly the ugliest coaster in the world this is... Jesus...

So it's not opening with the new area then? #genius

The speed will be variable, or it should be at any rate...

Leviathan didn't make sense though, since they already had a B&M Hyper, why build a bigger version of something you already have?

Or maybe the plans have fallen through, who knows really... The park probably has more important things to sort out than give baying enthusiasts information on whatever they're planning...

Not even gonna have vinyls on the cars? I mean, really?

Same stuff it was doing at MAP weekend... Can't predict if it will open again...

I love the boat to the park, just because it's so utterly pointless because the hotel is only 5 minute walk from the main entrance anyway... Assuming it docks at like, Saw Alive or sommat daft like that, it would probably take just as long to walk it as it would to boat it there... And for most of the day would remain unused by the majority of guests... Not exactly cost considerate is it? The hotel itself once again looks nice though, hopefully they actually build it this time around...

Did anyone like Captain EO? It was really, REALLY awful I thought... The only positive thing about it was that involved being inside and not being snowed on...

Why is it that themed area entrances can't continue the font usage? It looks as silly as having all capitals for two words and then correctly doing the third... Also, 2D signage </3

Whilst I'm not to sure on Lightning Run (bit of a weird layout really), Morgan DID make (or, rebuild) Phantom's Revenge at Kennywood, and it's an absolute blast of a ride with a whole lot of airtime to boot... Can't see one coming over to Europe though, but not a company to directly write off...

Goes well with the new queue time boards they're getting in... CBeebies Land is also opening for ERT over half term week, which will probably be the only time in the season where it's not completely and utterly HELLISH...

Regular Ordinary Swedish Mealtime returned recently, and this week's episode is an absolute classic... HACKA LOKEN!

COLOSSUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!

You could say that about any ride to be fair... Wild Eagle has a vertical loop... But without knowing what forces the ride would endure in say, a Batwing element or a Pretzel loop (both of which are quite high g inversions) it's difficult to say if a Wingrider would benefit from such elements... It's actually a good thing if the ride is limited, as it should (theoretically) make parks have a good think about a layout to ensure that it flows well without any dead spots and use the system as well as they possibly can... Hence why I prefer Raptor over Swarm...

The latter, hence why closed season in some countries never exists...

Wonder on that front how much is being paid towards BBC and the various rights and stuff for those characters (considering they're all separate entities rather than one big one)... Shame financial breakdowns of park investments are available to the wider public tbh...

Thing is, improving the overall investment quality won't improve, because this addition will get people flocking to the park... Whether or not they leave with a positive view of the actual place, remains to be seen, but does Thorpe have the actual infratructure to deal with families whilst also trying to shake off the teen market image? Arguable... The issue is probably a mixture of both, Merlin not providing enough cash to make a good attempt at a fully developed class area, and the parks themselves not using the budgets in the best manner... (I can't remember how much CBeebies Land is costing Towers though atm, I don't think it's much more than £3 million though) Paramount Park will probably be the best thing to happen to the UK if it can produce a completely developed top-class park... Then perhaps we won't see concrete bland shed stations and shipping container shops that apparently in the eyes of Merlin constitute as theming...

So just because it's a small budget means that we can't expect a lot better than this? I mean come on, this is the same park that spent £12 million on Swarm 2 years back, are we really saying that the budget is so low for this (probably cos they've spent 70% of it on the IP rights, AGAIN), that this is an acceptable level of development for one of the biggest parks in the country? Perhaps it's the amount of budget that's apparently an issue, or perhaps it's that the parks don't know how to use a budget to the best of their abilities? I mean, you see smaller parks with fewer visitors and lower budgets than Thorpe spend their money in ways the Merlin parks don't seem to understand, so there's clearly something amiss when we play "wait and see how it turns out" when the majority of the theming for this area is in simple terms, stickers stuck up on walls... I mean, couldn't the budget stretch enough for that extra can of paint remover to remove the blast marks off the nearby walls BEFORE painting Balamory? Scorpion Express is the epitome of Merlin investment though... Half baked ideas, poor design (be it queueline, facade, take your pick really) and a cheap finish to it all... Look at every single Merlin investment, and there is always some hint of lazyness about it... Be it Smiler's station building or (lack of) drainage, Zufari's pre-show and queue that doesn't actually let you SEE anything, or even Swarm's dead end finale and rather iffy area theming (or indeed, Saw's shed, or Polar X-Plorer's shed to give a slightly international feel to Merlin's inability)... When you use the term "budget constraints", I think of parks like Lightwater, who couldn't afford to build a Tractor ride the other year... Is this meant to be that park's that can afford £10 million plus rides cannot find it in themselves to get together a fair amount of money to continue investing into the parks to (quite frankly) a better standard than we have at the current time? Let's be honest, if smaller family run parks can build interesting rides and areas that are well themed and designed, then why can't the "2nd biggest park operator in the worldtm"? Perhaps it's a lack of care for the parks in the same way that a family run park would do so? Either way, when you look at Merlin additions beyond the ride systems themselves, there are a lot of issue with the finalised product across all the parks, full of half baked ideas with a strange scattergun approach to the overall investment, be it Thorpe and the tales of Storm Surge, Towers and Shed-Terra, or Chessie... All Thorpe had to do is visit Peppa Pig World to see how an IP area SHOULD be done up... But instead, well so far we're seemingly on the road to be as good as Lightwater's Activity Park...

I would say that painting directly over the old buildings but not covering any of the older theming details (the blast markings) would be lazy... I would say that what essentially mount to stickers would be lazy... I would say that fibreglass models dotted around the area would be lazy... Etc... The tropical 'theme' was more of a tie-into having pirates, a volcano and Rumba Rapids all in a similar area... Thorpe cannot get away with detailed themed areas because it's so small, hence why Angry Birds is splitting Amity in half (which is in itself, pretty daft, when an alternative could have been to have Amity themed Dodgems and a dark ride of some variety in the cinema... Whilst Det wasn't ever truly themed highly, it was at least styled to fit into a tropical themed area, which is more than can be said for Rush and Slammer and their respective themed areas they're sat in...

Their taste in good rides can be sometimes (read 'often') argued as completely wrong though...

I'm sure Cedar Point fans thought similarly when Magnum XL was built... And Millenium Force... TTD/KK is probably the highest limit any park can go with height though...

They are, this plan seems to have stalled, but I remember they did a big sound and dance about it not too long ago and it looked FAB... Patience is the definite virtue, and it's not worth getting hyped up until it actually opens...