Benin

Right then... Mediocre... This whole thing is very, VERY Merlin in the design, ideas and final production of their new attractions... A bland cattlepen queueline, the indoor section whilst nice is devoid of anything (no live scorpions and some 'interactive' holes in walls... Outside, it lacks a lot of things... It looks bland (as wild west themes are usually), empty and pretty lacking in soul... But it looks ok... Just ok mind, the scorpion is poorly executed and looks tiny, whilst the backdrop is too small and lacking depth to feel like an abandoned town... The fire is good, but the amount the use it'll be gone by the first gas bill... It feels like there were lots of ideas, and once again these were all poorly executed... They had a chance to cement the Mexicana (loose as it is) to something interesting, instead we have a paint by numbers wild west theme which is bland as hell and lacks much in the way of well, anything... Maybe it's that I have high standards, but I wasn't particularly impressed by the final product...

When did it test? Because didn't see it move all day...

Why? Because Chessington...

The 15 people rule is to do with the breakdown last year (weight distribution)... In additions chains have been added to the side to assist should the situation happen again...

Well, erm, today this was so, so bad... No working revolving wall, Anubis was dead, and the snake, and the finale mummies... Like, seriously never seen it as bad as that, not even worth it opening tbh...

So new trains then? The way they said it on Facebook the other day made it more sound like they were letting the new arrivals in the Monkey garden settle in first, which is fair enough...

Lets not forget that Woodland Walk will be open for ERT like it was last year... So you don't even have to go to the main entrance anymore...

Much rave... July needs to come like, now...

Will only be a good thing if the overall staffing/operations improve... Otherwise as said, we'll be all stuck on the second lift...

Its not really awesome... Whilst its relatively nicely presented, it has little in the way of quality... Cyclone is rough as well too... Plus the Volare </3

POV Ahoy!

Still is if your first destination is Oblivion or Smiler... Or indeed, Rita or Thirteen, since Skyride would actually take longer than a walk...

POV!

Tiny park no one has ever heard of and Alvey is excited? It'll be crap then, even with his INSIDER info...

The only really burdenous one there is Skyride... Barely anyone rides Terry at the best of times, whilst Hex rarely has enough of a queue for it to affect people... Couldn't care less about Ripsaw...

To be fair, the majority of Terror Tomb still exists in Tomb Blaster, bar the finale sequence and the Abdab figures... That finale is SO 90s though...

Sometimes, you can just tell when Disney take charge, and that's with "PUT MORE CARS FILMS OUT SO WE CAN PUSH UP THE MERCH SALES!" Sigh, Cars 2 was hideous... I can imagine a 3rd would not improve matters... Incredibles 2 though is something that has needed to happen with all their sequel/prequel stuff... So yay...

IMAScore soundtrack demo (a 30 minute demo naturally) released... http://projekthelix.se/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/IMAscore_-_Helix_Station_Full_Demo.mp3

What about the phrase "Better safe than sorry"? As in, "In order to ensure that the ride is working perfectly we shall check the bars physically, as this could easily detect something that may not be noticeable by visual checks alone"... Just because a system can detect whether or not things are in a set position (we'll use Vampire as the example, which uses hydraulic restraints, and will not dispatch unless the connector has risen, which senses if all the bars are in the 'down' position), doesn't mean that: 1 - It can be over-ridden, which is certainly doable on Vampire as quite often the connector would not raise yet all the bars (after being checked twice) were secure... Usually due to a large person being on board on the level... 2 - Can sometimes be wrong... Even if you had two separate systems, what would you do if they BOTH failed? You need a failsafe, and usually that goes down to the staff who are physically checking the bars... The seatbelts on Vampire do have one use (aside from that extra idea of safety, and potential to ensure that should a restraint fail mid-ride it would not completely lift up and let the rider be prey to the games of gravity and momentum), and that's as a limiter for larger guests... If the seatbelt doesn't fit, you can't ride, again, a safety measure that needs physical checking (and more often than not, a bit of effort) to ensure it's safe for the rider to go on... I've waffled a bit here, but the last comment shows a bit of non-knowledge on the whole case really... It's not a case of bars failing to lock that results in the checks, it's to do with safety procedures that ensure that the guests feel safe and secure, as well as to attempt to prevent any misfortune or idiocy... Whilst rides like Skyway, Flumes, most Rapids and a few other attractions have no restraining system, it's because of: 1 - Loading times and checks would increase and reduce throughput... However some Rapids DO have seatbelts on them, because they can get pretty wild... 2 - Common sense tends to win the day, although some idiotic people have been seen jumping out of water rides, the threat of potential severe injury or death seems to be missed for some people...

Alternatively, if the train times work well, get a train to Uttoxeter and a bus from there... Hanley isn't too far from Stoke Train Station fortunately, but it's still a burden...

The higher ups in companies tend to be pretty useless at that sorta thing... Or just generally useless at treating their employees correctly...

If someone I know is doing something charitable then I will donate sommat... It's to do with personality, not financial stability...

I swear they never got rid of that version... I definitely remember working to it, doing the keyboard section sat on the giant speaker waiting for the train to come in...

IMAScore posted up some news story, but the promotional image is more interesting as no music was linked... Nice logo, even if it seems Merlin are being uber generic with the similarity to Swarm's one...