Benin

ENGLAND HAVE REACHED THE FINAL OF A MAJOR TOURNAMENT! Might as well bring back this topic for the special occasion of watching them fail miserably Sunday

Went to Paultons, another person to approve of Tornado Springs. Fantastic area design and look to it, Storm Chaser was good fun and a little bit intense with the right spin. Cyclonator was ridiculous in it's intensity but proved popular with the number of schoolkids there so hopefully that'll give Paultons a positive answer for a few more "thrill" rides in the future. Accessibility in the new area seemed good, with dedicated queues rather than up the exit for everything. Can really tell the lessons learnt from Lost Kingdom. Though certainly some confusion over whether staff needed to sign off our pass as we hired a wheelchair from the park as ours is broken. But as the largest queue of the day was 35 minutes in PPW that didn't really affect us. We also only rode Storm Chaser twice so didn't abuse it because we're nice like that. Definitely the park needs a new water and/or dark ride as next big investment as there's no quality in that aspect. So fingers crossed going ahead there. Hopefully the park will revamp all the older areas as well as it looks really bad compared to the newer stuff. Main Street and Cobra areas especially so. Good day, good park.

Maybe someone went to Walibi Holland and thought "well it's called the Dutch Thorpe Park anyway"?

The Gravity Group restraints (those trains look like GG ones) are really good. At least on their smaller ones... on Zeus....... This could be interesting. I love Zeus though the last time I rode it was particularly rough. Hopefully it still maintains the fabness.

The Sex Education ride would have an unforgettable climax.

Looks good. Now make Cobra look pretty.

Farup have announced their latest from the Vekoma catalogue in Fønix. https://www.faarupsommerland.dk/da/foenix/ Interesting feature is a "Stall Loop". Which looks as weird as it sounds. There's also a 360 degree POV. Positive start to 2022.

Ah but an enthusiast did it so it must be good. Right?

I thought the "woke brigade" were pro mask? It's incredibly hard to keep up as to what I should be "woke" about. Towers have been doing this already. Think it caused a few issues with the RAP queues because it obviously had a problem in having to move non-mask wearers but not being able to move disabled guests. Unfortunately people who pretend they are exempt from wearing masks are the exact reason we still have to. Utter scum and bringing in a comparison to racial segregation shows the level of contempt this person has for the actual struggles of those at the time.

I think a lot of the issue has stemmed from the ease of getting one (simple doctor's note) and the lack of staff writing down a time or checking max numbers. Hence it's known as "Free Fastrack". What confuses me is at other parks without the timeslot system don't have these issues? The only park I've found the system poorly implemented was Walibi, mostly as whilst making access guests wait at the exit for the length of time is fair, not providing a safe area to wait in was poor. Have purchased qbots as a result as those best suit the needs. Until Merlin put their foot down on it (and endure the negativity any change will cause) it will get worse.

Must've missed the sarcasm there. I don't think there's much abuse of carer tickets, as these require ACTUAL evidence (PIP, Blue Badge, etc.) according to the website (whether the park follow this is unknown). Whereas the RAP you can get with a doctors note alone. RAP cannot and should not be charged for. It would be arguably discrimination against those unable to queue being charged extra to allow them to. In which case why not make them buy Fastrack? Actually insisting upon the limitations imposed by the park themselves (filling in queue cards correctly and maximum numbers) would be a start.

So we're blaming the parks poor usage of the RAP system (I bet 100% that Thorpe don't fill in correctly given Towers don't either) for aggressive upselling of Fastrack now? I'm very sorry that you think disabled visitors who require carers are so problematic for the park. Maybe if they charged for carers they could afford to fix the wheelchair lifts for Saw and Inferno? The RAP system being abused does NOT mean the park have to aggressively upsell Fastrack. Especially since they've been doing that for a far longer time than RAP has become a real issue. Other parks don't seem to have the same problems with their systems in my experiences and most don't even have a time card.

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https://www.gronalund.com/2024 Hopefully this comes off for them.

It's always surprised me that more smaller parks didn't get a Free Fly. Fairly good concept that could be heightened by theme. Ride was fun too. But I'm guessing maintenance and throughput were a deterrent.

It just bemuses me that they'd build a big thrill ride after getting rid of Rameses and the only 1.4m is Rattlesnake (which is for H&S reasons). There's so many family thrill coasters out there now that are 1.2/1.3m that could fulfil the need. Get a Gerst, a Mack, or Vekoma in and that's ticking a lot of boxes in terms of what the park really needs. Winged Launched Shuttle coaster sounds exactly the sort of thing to come out of a business meeting.

I mean the bulk of the area has just been repainted for the... Third time in the last decade? Ride itself is ok. Though it does just... End suddenly. No real ending sequence bar the finale "cannon". What's REALLY annoying me is that the massive "Welcome to Raj's Shop" is over a door with "Exit Only" signs by it due to Covid. I mean that's just poor foresight 😉

The hangtime coming out of the station just looks horrible. Be interesting to see if this is a successful addition to the park. Certainly more imposing than Anubis.

It's so adorably cute, like Daemonen There's a POV somewhere. Looks like it's got a bit of bite to it and one or two good leg choppers. Jealous of those riding it.

It'll be a Vekoma Jr Boomerang and some kids rides nicked from another Sea-Life funfair area. And still be the best thing the park has done in years.

I don't think anyone would say those are unpopular opinions. The Vekoma SFCs are generally fantastic coasters and certainly better than the other fayre at Paultons currently. I don't think there are many good Junior Boomerangs though. They're all a bit meh filler.

I mean I don't watch his vlogs or keep tabs on his every move so that was information I wouldn't have known without additional explanation. Fully aware of all the stuff that came out last year. But posting vague comments without explanation as to why it is a problem doesn't really contribute to discussion when most of us aren't following the lives and times of numerous vloggers. Besides, filming POVs probably means in this regard that he has gone through the proper channels to film them. Rather than officially doing some for the park.

Seems to work fine at every other park that have an equivalent system (which is most parks due to legality). Hell most don't even have a time card and are far more open for abuse but aren't. Probably because the UK is full of entitled idiots (and that's just the MAP holders!).

I too like to post random things on message boards without sufficient evidence.

If I recall they already state that RAP does not mean instant access anyway. But restricting it to wheelchair users only like you suggested is a fair more discriminatory system that the current one. Especially when there are immediate steps the parks can take to attempt to resolve some of the issues.