Benin

Alpen Hotel returns! Nothing else is needed...

Never heard of unexpected setbacks? Of course the park would aim to get it open for Fright Nights, indeed, that's the minimum aim they should have been doing... But it's clear sommat else came up and as such has caused this ride to be once again shut for extended periods of time... Every year it gets less and less worthwhile keeping...

Priority Passes were probably given out due to Fury conking out and been told that they could use it on Vampire... As such, cannot be considered a burden in the same way as Fastrack because it's down to unexpected things...

Won't stop the ride from being completely and utterly meh though... And be miles away from any major pathway... The exit path was longer than the ride I'm sure of it...

Perfect Day was used in the You're Next film, as the major theme because of irony.

The issue here I would say lies with the fact that these two rides are completely different, yet in an attempt to probably save money not needing to manufacture a new chassis cover, they've cloned the Swarm trains... It's not a clone, whereas with Disney, even their clones usually have completely different features or layouts (Raging Spirits vs Indiana Jones, the MMV Indiana Jones rides, Matterhorn/Space Mountain)... Most of the time the obvious clones are the flat rides or indeed, the Paris/Cali versions of Tower of Terror... So really the majority of Disney clones are because you can't do much with the theme of a flat ride... Although of course the issue of having 3 clones of the same ride in one park is a different arguement all together...

It was (the last time I did it at night many years ago) pitch black... It was also raining so heavily only my boat was loaded and it was the most terrifying ride experience I've had at Thorpe...

Merlin don't do backstories? What about Swarm and Smiler's ones then?

Very long... Like, seriously, even indoors it can take FOREVER...

Flume has closed early for a few years now, mainly due to evacuation purposes being difficult in the dark... Dunno about Rapids, is there any point it running for minimal ridership and heavy expense?

It doesn't link into the Swarm at all... It's just a shame really that it is so similar, but as Mark said, who's going to notice/care?

That's disappointing tbh... At least Raptor has a completely different face and mandibles... But wait! The fangs are a darker brown! Sigh...

Universal scare zones are ACTUAL zones of roaming actors in the park though, not an un-used pathway of pointlessness... See Dead Zone or whatever poor attempt it was they did a few years back...

Fastrack unfortunately has no bearing on the platforming capabilities of the ride... Indeed, this only solves a slow moving queue in one way, and not the way that should be the priority... Weird park...

It did open, then close, then re-opened again at around the time dragon posted... I don't really get your post... Especially considering the website only gets updated every 30 minutes and it says that for accurate queue-times to check on park...

Ew... The M25 was awful last night though, probably half the park has flooded away...

I'd just like to say, that this runs fantastically at night <3 It's such a shame all these problems keep happening, because it really is a great ride... I was astounded at how well it rode on my two rides today and at night I was stunned by it... Fix it properly over close season, and it will be an excellent addition to the park and the UK more than it already is...

Are people really thinking Oakwood can afford something 'on the scale of Smiler'? Abyss at Adventure World seems to be costing 12 million AU Dollars, which equates to £7 million... Which seems to include a fair level of theming (or at least I hope so internally)... Could Oakwood afford that sort of investment? Out of the two, wish they'd get rid of Spooky 3D, because that's dire... Indeed, that whole 'western' area could do with being demolished because it's awful... Actually, thinking about it, that whole front end of the park needs a lot of work doing to it, from the entrance to the western area... Gonna need an excessive plan to sort that stuff out...

Will it even be dark to see if Chessie's lighting is any good? Problem is without getting a budget (or people with a desire) to have decent set of lighting, we aren't going to have any improvements... Though really, I can never seem to get the same level of rage towards floodlights that other enthusiasts seem to be able to...

Where's Michael Fish when you need him to confirm the weather? Something most parks do tbh but don't seem to ever advertise it... Chessie and Drayton I know have had this offer before as examples... But it's such a specific thing most of the time where it has to rain for 3 hours straight or some such crap... Most of the rides won't shut unless it gets REALLY bad though... Like on that Summer Nights visit of mine earlier this year... Can't imagine things being as bad as that...

They're closing cult classic dark ride Brer Rabbit this year... Worst news this year...

It would be amazing and a real unique aspect to the ride... Better than the burdenous internal queue one... Especially when the ride has broken...

Alpen Hotel

Well, it's not like Merlin parks have a fantastic reputation for keeping effects working now is it? I doubt the Flasher would be that good at night anyway because it doesn't 'flash', just turns on for a few seconds and then back off again... Pointless...