Benin

BTM has always been fairly unreliable over the years for some reason. Can't say for why though.

Zamperla.

Wild Asia was 2010. Since then it's been Zufari, Croc Drop, new Carousel, the random Pirate flats, a mini flume & a few rethemed rides until Jumanji last year. Still feels new purely down to the crap levels of investment.

You're assuming that TT2 will re-open. Not a good year for coasters weirdly.

Did the water even work on it last few years? 25 years old would you believe (if memory serves). Yet not the oldest attraction (or buildings, something weirdly pointed out in the detail) in the park either.

Big news from Chessie then. https://www.cwoa-consultation.com/ TL;DR Wild Asia to be rethemed with a new coaster. Kobra survives. The Glamping binned off too as seemingly only on temp permission anyway. Mexican (but not Rattlesnake) killed off for a land akin to CBeebies. Other stuff like Lodges (when did that happen) and Water Park are on-going.

Chop your legs off. Then you get double bonus of going on rides AND getting RAP.

Event/general plaza would be my desire.

Would be great, but alas we are not in Phantasialand. Imagine the complaints Chessie would get for testing it in the morning!

Was one of the worst designed rides in Merlin's ownership. Not helped by having no budget for the finale, which presumably was wasted on the god awful interactive preshow. Chessie's future does seem at a crossroads mind. Probably realising how much of a drain on finances the zoo is. However to remove that would remove the history of the park's roots and require a LOT of clever replacing. Can't exactly put a coaster right by the hotels.

To be fair most theme park staff go back to school/uni in September. Until theme park work is seen as far more long term it'll be the only thing people end up doing (like I did).

Sad times, I'm a great believer of that since it can sort a lot of potential bother out. Towers sounds like they're ditching them with the cuts though.

I'd say the first ride staff to go are those at front gate. Would've been useful on my visit as seemed that none of the staff really understood parent swap. Especially when GS didn't have any passes to give out.

I'd presume Sparkle was designed to be over a number of years like Towers' equivalent. So everything that's done first will look tired by the time the project is "complete". I reckon this year hasn't been profit heavy so far (for a number of reasons) and panic is setting in.

Yay capitalism! Merlin don't seem to ever learn from the past. Presumably because the parks go through management types like I do a box of Lindor. This season has seen a lot of the flaws from previous seasons come to the forefront. Maintenance has been a big issue for years and they wonder why rides break down left, right and centre. Hyperia's closures haven't helped Thorpe (especially when opening it late into the season stopped many visiting prior). Towers hasn't even seen Hex or Skyride. And then the weather has been extremely off-putting to many across the board. The problem is that the parks have become major problems because of years of mismanagement. And now the response to that is to make more cuts via closed rides and reduced staffing, therefore lessening the overall product, resulting in more issues. Short-termism appears to be back. Again.

Thorpe are just being more subtle with their cuts after seeing the flak Towers got for daring to go similar to the Rapids that no one rides anyway.

First ride was row 6, then row 4. So even that makes no sense. Might be a train thing. Didn't notice much rattle either.

Gonna add on to my initial impressions. My second ride was wildly different and not in a particularly positive way. I've no idea why either. But two rows further forward and suddenly it was ALL the sustained g-forces and making me feel quite glad of the short layout come the end. A peculiar situation, and something I've not encountered since Tatsu and Firehawk at King's Island. Both of which I put down to the flying positions. But this was just weird. So yeah. Strange situation given there was maybe an hour between rides and the rain that was in abundance the first go had gone. Done at least, and I can ignore Thorpe's existence for next few years (mostly down to child).

I saw them doing an initial run through of the show yesterday. Cringe doesn't even cover it. Granted not helped by no actual audience since park was quiet so the attempts at audience participation were fruitless. Felt sorry for them. Not their fault the show is utter pants.

Finally been on it. Area looks crap. Station is a weird attempt at Icon for some reason. It's a great ride until the trims. All that momentum just thrown in the bin, leaving you wanting the rest of the layout rather than awkward corner. Best ride on park? Sure. Best ride ever? Not even close.

Probably having to make up for the lack of maintenance in the years prior. Or things just happen that need work now. It's not a good look for any seasonal park though.

Potentially adding fans/misters at the end of summer is such an incredibly Merlin thing.

100% doable I'm sure on the app to put exact opening times for each ride on them. However I think having a very open ended "it MIGHT close early" is more of an issue. Either say it WILL close say 30 minutes prior to advertised park closing time or just close it at that point and damn the consequences. Giving such vague wiggle room can cause issues. Thorpe's communication back on my May visit (the day they didn't tell anyone in the park about Hyperia being closed until letting people in) still irks me. Now THAT was terrible communication, and probably part of that is out of fear of backlash that the big new thing wasn't open, but making it worse by not communicating properly to those visiting on park (social media posts, especially whilst people are travelling or already there don't help much). Fear of bad PR often leads to it moreso than clear and open communication. Must've been a reason why the early closure announcement was only made in the Hyperia area after all.

Bring back Love Island Lates or whatever it was called. Genuinely think there's such little demand culturally for such late closures. Though I'd imagine a lot of that is down to there being very little variation in activity at Thorpe/Towers and Chessie/Lego are full of kids who need routine.

Depends when they were allowed to operate till. Might have pulled the plug on it a bit early just in case they broke any "curfew" agreed with local council etc. Which would be fine if communicated properly.