Benin

Rumours are for an internal elevator lift (which knowing Hansa, would involve show scenes)... It will be epic if this happens... Because Hansa and on-ride pre-shows are just

If only we had Ms Thompson in charge of Chessie, she'd sort it right out...

Hansa did it with Fluch, although that was primarily down to the harsh winter they had that season (and this also affected their last coaster), so perhaps they're seeing it as an attempt to minimalise the effect a potentially bad winter can bring to the project... But then Plopsa did this sort of thing with Wickieland, so it's all completely random it seems...

Yet another European attraction being built in stages... Least dont have to return next year then...

Thing is with the likes of Blackpool and Southend they are city parks, and benefit from extended times a lot more as people are more likely to visit for an hour or so during the day... With the 'proper' parks, it's a full day jobbie to most guests, so 8 hours is generally enough time for the most part... Not to say of course the parks would easily benefit from extended times in true peak season, but 12 hour days (say 9-9) for them isn't as attractive to guests really... It's long and tiring, whereas locals in Blackpool can pop in late for an hour or two, it's just no doable at the likes of Thorpe and Towers...

Only if you jump/climb the fence leading to Zufari... Of course, this could have been avoided with a decent full 3d building over the cheaply done final result...

If it's chucking it down as bad as it is at home, then more than likely... Fury disagrees with rain immensely...

Second best company in the world everyone... Originality truly is dead... It'll end up being a Krake clone or something...

Source for that? A weird decision, given that the Mack restraints aren't that restrictive...

Problem is with Chessie especially in recent years we've heard all the "things will improve" stuff time and time again from those working there... But since Wild Asia opening, we haven't seen any real improvement to the overall quality of the park after a decade of pure neglect... Yeah they hope to get something big in the future, but doesn't every park? And since Chessie has had a history of projects being cancelled or designed by idiots, it's literally at times a "we will believe it when there's an actual new ride opening"... As for Bubbleworks, I just wish the fire had burnt down a lot more of it... Would have made it easier for the park to put some effort into it... The idea as well that Merlin seem to believe that theming and escapism is not the way the UK industry should go is so opposite to the European ideals... Amazing how they can so badly run these parks, and we should really hope that Paramount park opens and shows the UK what a real theme park is like again... Not full of half arsed ideas with awful execution...

Which is really the point... Smaller parks with less budget to buy a 10 pack of Freddos can produce some fantastic theming (though Raptor Attack is the best example available at LVW, the Pirate area is tacky and cheap), and yet for one of the top parks in the country we should be happy with bland additions with a real lack for detail... Recent example, Nigloland completely hid their hydraulic system for their Chairswings in a chalet building and scenic train tracks... Why? Because it adds to the feel of the park's themed areas... We do not see this level of detail and ideas from Merlin as any enthusiasm gets knocked out by marketing heads who panic against any lack of instant return... It's not just the commercial and thematically uninspiring IP choices Merlin as a whole make, it's what they do with them... And even then, the likes of Swarm and Smiler cannot be considered world class because they lack the little details that takes a ride from great to fantastic... The 'details' so far in this area retheme constitute as 2d things stuck to walls at random... Subtlety is certainly not Merlin's strong element...

Swarm's station is a mess anyday of the week on two trains... Such an awful design...

Thing is, what's been done so far, you'd expect from a park like LWV, Paultons, etc... Not the biggest UK company who can afford higher quality products... I mean, 2d things stuck onto buildings? Not breaking down the walls of immersiveness are we? Fibreglass models to be dotted around at probably random locations inside the area? They look nice but it's so simplistic and basic... The entrances are entrances so provide very little to the overall area itself, but will probably follow the simplistic style/look of the games... Of course, there is no point comparing it to DIC, because they invested the absolute bare minimum, but of course the Merlin additions are better because they couldn't really get any worse could they? And Scorpion Express looks rubbish, very bare, bland and boring with the 2d facades and stuff... The usual Merlin addition really, a 3d element followed up by blandly designed buildings and parts that make no sense to the uninitiated... Once again I find myself wondering how parks who cannot afford such additions get by, probably because they think long-term and know that people won't come if their park is awful... What's the budget for this btw? Including the cost of the IP...

Does it work though? Because on a busy day you might just be queueing to get into the car park, THEN queue to get into the park... And that leaves a bad first impression, which is arguably the most important thing a park needs to get right... Damned if you do, damned if you don't really if you're gonna have a parking charge...

Thorpe, just get rid of it, it really cannot be worth the money you are constantly ploughing in to try and get it working for it to not be open... Cut you losses, and get something that is more reliable... It makes sense...

Sigh, 2D stickers, everything about this addition is so cheap and awful, and this fulfils that aspect... Low UK expectations are exceptionally low... You can create fantastic experiences on low budgets, but Merlin don't know how to do so, and that's clearly evidenced by more than this...

It's a dark ride with scare actors and effects and what-not...

Better than Intamin ones that's for certain... And a fantastic park it lives in too...

Well summed up, plus with other Merlin park additions recently being of a rather 'meh' standard, the expectation levels for this aren't ever going to be high... Short-term reactive business at its best/worst really, but not surprising from a park that would blame a poor yearly performance on a ride rather than external matters...

This will be the best coaster in Europe... Airtime, inversions, rolling launches, keeps the speed, Mack trains... It will be perfect...

I don't see anyone reacting like that... I predicted that the theming would amount to plastic figures though, unsurprised to be proven right...

Is the attraction really 'ruined' because of a line in the mirror maze portion of it? I wouldn't be surprised if it was also there to help guide people to the exit for throughput reasons as well, but then again the whole attraction is poorly designed considering it has a fair amount of interactive stuff (well, kind of but not really), yet you have no time at all to really appreciate the stuff or be interactive with it... Shows how unimportant Chessie were to Tussauds really back then...

Nah, tis Merlin's philosophy... The tunnel was warm enough when I went on opening weekend, I wouldn't be surprised if this was the overall issue, and would just go to show that whoever designs the queuelines for Merlin has absolutely no clue of how to do them correctly...

From what I've heard, the queue over the past couple of days didn't even go through the tunnel, and essentially boarded onto the exit with disabled guests... One can assume that the ineptitude of the staff at the current time is so bad that batchers just batch the entire load, forgetting the designated disabled guest seats and so faff and clusterbuggery commences... As a result, we see them stop using the majority of the queue and just create stupid procedures that make little to no sense... Image shamelessly stolen from a friend As you can see, the tunnel and bridge parts of the queue aren't being used, and guests board via the Fastrack queue and onto the exit platform... The sheer "WHY?!" that comes from this shows how far Chessie have fallen in recent years... No other words describe this ride as pure and simply, awful... And they've made it worse...

The maze is blatently going to return, it is after all their most popular one regardless of the so-called connotations surrounding it... It'll just get tied into a crappy IP this year... Panic ye not...