Benin

Mushu

Hence how we ended up with the best ride at the park right in front of the entrance area, yet it completely gets ignored at opening because of Crush's Coaster... Such poor planning... Maybe they did Zufari as well?

This... A LOT...

Knowing the way the parks operate currently, I wouldn't be too sure

None of the others I've ridden have one, so you might well be on to sommat...

When Smiler opened didn't Towers say they wouldn't sell Fastrack for a reasonable amount of time? 10'000 was probably an over-exaggeration, hell I didn't even notice they used the term 'without queueing', which is completely shooting themselves in the foot if there is any actual queueing... But let's remember, this is Merlin (and Blackstone, who are probably the bigger villains in charge of the Merlin puppets), if the event is popular enough (and why wouldn't it be to the main public when they've stated that there will be NO queues whatsoever) then they might well have a rather large limit...

+1 not going to pay £16 for 3 hours of ride time... Of course, they SAY limited, but of course this limit could well be 10'000 tickets... Or more... Just because it says limited doesn't automatically mean there will be no queues, they have to make such events profitable...

I believe those images were of the prototype set at their Utah base, even so however, Astroworld's SWAT (now defunct) was built in 2003, so unless Slammer was an adapted version, it was just as reliable as the American one...

>Become known as "THRILL CAPITAL" >Change audience due to the teenage market being aimed at not being successful >Change to families who might have been disillusioned by the original "THRILL CAPITAL" marketing >Aim to draw in families with low quality product I'm more towards getting in the quality, getting a new coaster in 2015/16/17/whenever isn't the thing (blah blah airtime machine blah conversation is overdone somewhat), but to invest further into something like this when you also want to bring in the families who will want space to stay in and a quality product is insanely confusing... Unless the family market thing is now being reverted... It's a confusing decision to go for the CrashPad expansion (sans losing money to the original runners) when they might as well go for a full on hotel experience instead, since CrashPad is doing so well and the 'trial' it was must have been insanely successful to prove to investors that a hotel is a viable option...

The weird thing is, they have SPACE for one, so why they didn't think to put one in is interesting... Though really with the lack of seatbelts and reasonably quick changeover rate when it comes to loading/unloading I don't really think it would make THAT much of a difference to the overall throughput and timings personally... I sense the high sales of Fastrack are purely down to the money the park didn't get due to the later opening... As I've said before, their sales teams aren't very good when it comes to selling Fastrack... I think the amount of blocks might be the limiting factor towards the throughput, since really you can only have 3 trains actually on the track at any time... So as per any Gerstlauer we'll never really see an amazing throughput level...

Ah yes, I remember the smooth sailing of Stealth's opening year (and beyond)... We gotta be honest, this (and last year) for the park have not been great in regards to constant busyness like the years gone by, especially when you look at said northern park which seems since Smiler opened (since lots of people held their trips off, as predicted) extremely busy everyday... IF they are looking to really bring in the high end premium family market from now, then how is adding MORE cheap as hell shipping container hotel boxes going to promote this change? A theme park hotel should not be looking to be a direct competitor with a Travelodge, it should be better than one at minimum (which cannot really be said of Towers' two mind, but at least they don't have a Little Chef as the meal option)... Will more rooms really bring the price down? What evidence actually provides this idea? As for opening the hotel with a new coaster, there is logic, but what if said coaster fails? Then they have a problem in too much expense too little return, it's a risky strategy unless the new ride was a definite hit with the public... Also, how does this cost them £9 million? Like, seriously? £9 million on shipping container rooms? HOW? Surely filling these things with IKEA furniture can't cost that much? Mental costings if true, because that's £9 million that could be spent on tarting the park up more to help bring in those new market audience...

Hah, I predicted that they'd rather expand Crash Pad over a new hotel because it's cheaper to create for a quick opening... Temporary build my arse...

Stay at halls, worth the experience if anything... This time last year I was graduating... Jesus...

This is gonna look sexual

Newcastle under Lyme? Good nightlife? Methinks you be in the wrong Newcastle...

You don't spend 5 minutes staring at puddles though? Are the house lights constantly on atm? Probably why the mist has been turned off tbh [the puddles], but hell, the light up exit of it is effort at least (and pretty fab)..

Expansion please, because it's not exactly as bad as Air's...

Have a POV! It is, unfinished like most things seem to be when it comes to Tripsdrill (Mammut was unfinished when it opened, then had additional stuff added since)... Looks a decent ride though regardless...

Tower's Sales mob really are bad at over-selling on busy days aren't they? Though more than likely any break-downs won't help the attempt at limiting the numbers if that's still happening...

Probably still better than Polar X-Plorer even with the open shutter...

British media in over-sensationalist shocker!

It's not just the work on RMT and DF though... It's the poor operations, the over-reaction to any event that goes wrong, the poor maintenance that leads to such events, the state of Bubbleworks, the decision to have Zufari have a minimum height limit, the general choices made regarding Zufari are poor which lead to be an attraction that just reeks of "could be better", the idea that Madagascar is a good show, getting rid of the 3rd train on Vampire because the staff aren't good enough to run with 3 trains, expanding the hotel into the zoo meaning that they cannot further develop that area, that epic looking plans are made then cancelled for budgetary reasons, etc, etc, etc... The problems are far, far beyond the issues between RMT and DF being re-worked on...

Was in Brighton today so unsurprisingly took a spin on it (opened on Thursday)... Since I had rather enjoyed Tivoli's it isn't hard to assume I also enjoyed this one... I do wonder if it could be a success in a park that isn't pay per ride... Maybe a Merlin park could grab one of the 4 seater 8 arms variants in the near future... For the longest ride cycle, go for arm AA...