Benin

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...

What's with the focus on the cinema 'surroundings' in the PR? Do people not know what cinemas are anymore? It's a weird thing to really push imo... Thorpe actually having characters on park, it really IS full circle isn't it? Finally, leg ticklers <////3

If they can't get Angry Birds Land to open on time then they might as well just give up with life... Advert does state 24th May as the opening day though... So they're covered up until then...

Not really, as for the guests on the day it's a bit of a burden too them, considering how important guest satisfaction is to a park, one would assume that they should try and ensure that any media related events take part before or after the park is open... Any feedback that the park gets (be it on here where they read it or through social media or official channels) should be paid attention to, so it's not that trivial really... Even if they have it in the T&Cs, it can paint a poor image of the park to the average visitor...

Why does everyone forget about the park potentially getting an airtime machine? That would be my preference over anything else tbh, given how fantastic Shambhala is...

If the quality is good, we could easily see it give a kick up the arse of Merlin... Because that is what they need over anything else, since the smaller parks don't quite have the national power to make a dent in them... A huge top class themed park with fantastic theming and dark rides could easily change the UK theme park perception as much as Chessington and Towers did in the 90s...

This is what billion dollar investments give you... And it's glorious... Finding out info on the storyline of the ride also makes me curious as to how it'll all pan out for the riders... Plus it has Helena, which is enough to make it the best coaster in the world alone

But there are some wooden coasters that are glass smooth, Mammut at Tripsdrill for one, and Colossos at Heide (which is in my opinion, TOO smooth for a wooden coaster)... S'all about the manufacturing and construction techniques... But a smooth wooden coaster is a bit, well, dull and pointless really...

Implying that wooden coasters can't be smooth without a steel topper track?

There's a Noodle Bar at Chessie...

Amazing what a focused brand image can do in an advert... Even if it's falsely advertising that the food is a 'delicacy'...

*cough*http://www.legoland.dk/en/Explore/New-2014---Ghost/ *cough* Tbh, that attraction does look fab in Denmark, kinda glad we're getting one here as a result, must have been a big hit for it to be cloned... Shame though that the plans show that whilst half of it will be a nice looking house facade, the ride portion will just be a themed shed </3

I too feel that filming on rides should be done outside of the opening hours when possible... Especially when it's for crap like BGT... But the park is covered by the T&Cs, so not much can be done... Although sometimes the celeb treatment is completely stupid (see Jonathan Ross riding Thirteen before it opened on opening day)...

B&M Wingriders are slow and boring I'm surprised they don't stall when someone sneezes [/alvey]

See guys, this is what happens when we complain that Merlin only do dark themes, they bring out the primary colours in such a garish fashion (Cbeebies as well, even if that's because they need to attract the attention of the target market for that one)... Bring back Central Area!

Not really, when there are a fair few amusement parks around the world with giant screens on their entrances... I wouldn't call this exactly being creative, more going for the complete opposite view of the park in comparison to the chav filled dump it had become... It won't change overnight that is correct, but is sticking a giant TV in front of the entrance building answering any underlying issues with the park? Seems that the priorities of fixing the park up are rather askew...

I didn't notice that the opening times weren't on the front page... Why parks don't do that is beyond me, one of the most pieces of information and most of them hide it... Mergh...

'Story' of X? A light show and loud music does not a story make...

To be fair, the entrance plaza/buildings is easily one of Thorpe's worst attributes... A giant screen isnt really something that will help in particular... Especially as it's not built-in the building but plonked on top... It's all a bit meh... Decent idea (for queuetimes/park info), but once again it's poorly executed...

Merlin style ones are maze-like though, rather than the classic switchback getting closer and closer to the ride itself... It could even have a dreaded hidden one, like on Swarm