Benin

1st April is Efteling's 'new' season day (what with being open all year)... News is that Pirana (the Rapids) reopened and looks nice, and Aquanura has been re-done to include new music (though without Villa Volta and Ravelijn, so it's not as good anymore)... http://www.vijfzintuigen.nl/forum/8/23450.57

Dat view

IMAScore did the music for Chiapas, and the soundtrack is purchasable at the park... Will go nicely with my Winja's CD... Can't tell on the restraint front, might be like Dudley Do-Right is now perhaps?

Lots of new attractions instead of rides on this development, it's a lot more focused on interactivity and learning with kids (hence the likes of Nina and Something Special)... I think someone somewhere mentioned Postman Pat has had a complete new ride system in place of the Tractors, but I don't really have too much of an issue with the area if it's mostly retheming the existing hardware, since the area was pretty solid anyway...

Wouldn't be too surprising if a Brer Rabbit replacement opened next year instead... Gives them time to sort it all out...

I suggest those who wish to refer to the pricing scheme this year go look at Phantasialand's prices, where there are no such discounts via Online/BOGOF... Of course that said, it is very expensive, hence the huge push of BOGOFs by Merlin for that good old fashioned "Value For Money" look... You need to stop channeling Varney...

List of attractions/IPs in CBeebies Land are as follows: Postman Pat Charlie and Lola The Numtums Mike the Knight/Zingzillas (Stage Shows) Tree Fu Tom Something Special Mr Bloom (Popular with Mums) Nina's Science Lab (Popular with Dads) In the Night Garden Justin's House Get Set Go There's about 3 of those which I know instantly there... Plus Justin/Mr Tumble is quite well known... As for Postman Pat, it's been one of THOSE timeless shows re-booted for a modern audience, more comparable with Thomas the Tank Engine really... Even a film is coming out this year (which looks like it's swiftly kicking my childhood in the head numerous times)... I don't recall Beaver Creek having a multitude of buildings, aside from the Magic Mountain Facade (Space Invader is an arguable one, since it stood in the area though was stand-alone), so Blackpool had a fair amount of things to play around with on that regard... I can understand why park's would want to use existing infrastructure if it exists though, easily a better option that could save some money to be put elsewhere (be it the project or the pockets of higher-ups)... I wouldn't say it's an example of a park being excessively cheap with a retheme of an area...

I have seen the Saw films after experiencing the ride, so I don't need any 'educating'... Still, I looked at the ride from my first ride on it as someone who had never seen the films, and as such there really is very little in there that would directly scream to anyone not familiar with the films aside from the puppet and phrases that are prevalent throughout... Even after seeing the films, I don't think "Oh look, it's the swinging pendulum trap as used in Saw 4 against Kevin*", I think "Oh look, the swinging pendulum trap is actually working" (also alternatively "Oh look, swinging pendulums")... Clearly I've enraged the Saw fans by calling it rather generic in the world of horror films with it's props... And stating that the ride in itself isn't filled with props that to an outsider to the franchise would be able to understand such little nuances that the fans seem to adore immensely... Shotguns, Racks, TVs, Timers, Spikes, Crossbows are all pretty common in the world, and to me, an outsider (or perhaps, heathen is better considering your viewpoint?), the only direct correlations to the film lie in a puppet, phrases and a bathroom scene... *May not be factually accurate

What's so confusing about trying to beat Disney via building world class attractions? I'd like to know how that doesn't make sense... Also, as the second word in my post stated, it was my 'thought' that Merlin's end goal was to be better than Disney by providing high-quality products that would directly compete with them... If their aim is to saturate the market with bland carbon copy Midway attractions, dead IPs and Legolands, in correlation with poorly run parks, then I'm clearly not cut out to be a sensible businessman...

TowersStreet Facebook Did they steal the Daisies from Cloud Cuckoo Land?

The props/traps used aren't exactly what one would call original... The storyline (in perhaps, the earlier films more than the later ones) is what slightly took it apart from the rest of the other cliched ridden horror films of the time, and the context for the trappings, but I'm sure some of the traps appeared in Home Alone in some variation...

Talking of the park making space... Silver Mine is dead...

I thought Merlin's end goal WAS to have world class theme parks/midways in it's portfolio? What with them constantly harping on about being number 2 and aiming for the Mouse since they took over in the first place... Six Flags is a great comparison to Thorpe, especially the sudden realisation that the teen market isn't lucrative or good for business...

Blood writing on the wall counts as theming? Must be the same for Thirteen then... Think that list just shows how generic Saw actually is... Swinging pendulum blades? Well they're also used on a Scooby Doo themed ride in Australia, so it's very easy for those with zero interest in the film to not notice the relevance of such a thing (and TVs, and a computer, indeed, lots of generic stuff around)... Of course Billy and the phrases are known enough outside of the films, but I was more focusing on the queue element in my 3 sets point (the chair equalling the rack, but it's a chair first and foremost) that are clearly directly related to Saw... The ride portion itself only really has the bathroom (which you can barely see because they didn't think to continue the building to the base of the lift for some reason) as a really big relevant link... The crossbows on the MCBR are another rather tenous link to the films because they were used once or sommat... Eh...

On quiet days its lucky to get 10 people riding it all day... Always been one of the first rides to be dropped, many years ago it was on dual operator with Sea Dragons...

I prefer the Dark Forest to be rethemed to Plants Vs Zombies tbh...

Saw's building from the outside just looks like a warehouse though, I thought the point of that was that it was more of a stand-alone thing (hence the numerous pieces of traps junk in the queueline that don't link to the films)... Even on the inside there's what, 3 thematic 'sets'? The guns, chair and barbed wire man... And some TVs, which I guess are as much part of the theming as the CCTV cameras on the outside are... I remember seeing the concept art for some indoor queue bit and it was tonnes better than the stairwell of why... I dunno, it's links to Saw itself are pretty limited in number, since the only direct links are the TVs and puppet for those who haven't seen the films... The theming is almost extremely generic... Then again, I don't think much of the films anyway, even after watching them...

There was one summer where there was park wide stuff going on I seem to recall... Then one day I got to ride it at the end of the day after being nominated as the best platformer... But then the focus was all customer interaction at the expense of throughputs... Even extending to Fury where the batcher was so engrossed in talking to guests he didn't load a car until it was at the dispatch point, and the fabled time the staff wouldn't send the car until we "Flapped our arms like a Dragon" and we point blank refused to after spending an hour in that queue... Customer interaction should never be at the expense of platforming a ride... I don't mind interaction at times, but it should just be those positions which have constant long points of interaction, like at the batch gates (especially now on Vampire since there is no constant stream of people going on every single train)...

Especially if you phase out needing staff to sell ORPs...

Well, I'm sure the Merlin hotel vinyl theming will make it look less cluttered...

Q-Bots are a decent system in my experience... Would love to see Swarm's batcher deal with them though, they struggle enough now with the non time-consuming Fastrack tickets now in use...

There were targets, but more guidelines than actual targets...

An educational coaster would be a boon for Thorpe indeed, though I'm not sure how it would fit in... Even so, the topography of Thorpe itself isn't much to really play around with is it? I mean it's not like Towers and you have a giant valley, a terrain woodie wouldn't really have much in the way of terrain...

If this is happening, then the removal of Silver Mine (the old dark ride of looooong) will go a long way into creating the space... I think with Chiapas, I expected more dark ride stuff... As fab as the disco cave is, it really wasn't what I was expecting to see... But nothing hurt for a ride to have a very light-hearted take on matters, especially given the park's themes being rather dark (and Talocan already existing in the Mexican area)... I look forward to returning to the park this year, especially with Maus au Chocolat on the menu too...

Won't be paying £10 for an ORP... Amazing difference when you go abroad and see €6 a photo... Or indeed at Plopsaland you get a full digital video and 6 photos for sommat stupid like €2... The photopass value has also decreased, even if it's still decent value... Real shame...