Benin

Not in the budget I'd guess...

Everything under this should just (and does at many other parks) happen... It's that simple...

Given that there's nothing to be excited about in terms of new additions or no news on Loggers, it's no surprise that people are pessimistic about it reopening... I do think saying Merlin is anti-coaster is weird though, purely because one major investment was a dark ride? If anything they're anti-flat ride...

Why are we comparing a non Merlin spruce up to Gruffalo? W&G makes zero difference as it's a different park and company behind it... Oblivio is decent, that's about it though, those few pieces of theming around the drop are all you get in terms of that... Building is still bland and the queue just reuses an old tent from before... I do love the old arguments that come from these things... YOUVE NOT RIDDEN IT SO CANT DECIDE IF IT'S GOOD! I think you'll find we can, I know Project V will be dull and a Soarin rip off because of expectations, so with this until Merlin subvert our expectations with pushing the boat out on a new addition, not just focusing on USPs and putting full on effort in we can expect this to be minimal effort based on all their other additions, because that's what Merlin do...

I bet that this will be successful and Disney will plot a replacement for Florida and Paris in the future... If so, the apathy that many groups put on this "because it's only California" will bite them all on the arse...

Is Mack's mob even that good at rendering realism though? Like surely the point of the second VR should be to continue the well done portion in the first one? Also, budget would probably dictate the options... Merlin do love a good deal but as in a lot of situations cheaping out on something centrally important to the concept can be a poor overall decision...

Concept Art: Promotional Art: Working for Merlin's Marketing team for new attractions must be the easiest thing ever... "What's the selling point of this attraction?" "No-one's done a Gruffalo ride before have they?" "That makes it a World's First right?" LUNCH

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That V2 is so fab as well, damn the spite </3 I liked DK, though I dont' remember thinking it was particularly compact... I'm also not a fan of them spiting Roar cos that was really fun, but jeez a fair amount has changed in that corner by V2 and Joker, Superman is the 3rd coaster they've had there since I went almost 10 years ago!

God it's bad that I remember pretty much most of those attractions existing... #soold

Europa are apparently going to remove the VR off Pegasus next year because of throughput issues and stuff... Not that it'll affect the whole thing, but it's something to note...

To be fair, he also goes on to say about having 'a screen on your face', so I think its not about having screens in general, but just having them on your face meaning that parks don't need to put the effort in for those portions of the attraction (or the whole thing)...

There's a distinct lack of direction throughout the parks in general, though I can agree that moving the Carousel is a good move, hiding behind the shop was always a weird place for a ride type that is usually front and centre in parks... Perhaps attaching animals is the only USP they can get away with? Saying that Market Square could easily be changed into an old England Explorer base camp without much grasping at straws... There's a lot more that needs doing in the park though, unfortunately as it's mostly infrastructure it won't be...

Once VR is widely available in the home (I.e. Once PSVR drops like a stone in price), then the fad will end very quickly before a park can actually implement it in a consistent and unique way...

As with all Plopsa's work, looks very good indeed and sure the kids will love being part of the world of the show...

Phantasialand's existence basically destroys that argument... Any good park works within their limits to produce a quality result, and a small kid based flat ride is not going to demand the removal of say, Colossus... Far from it! As Josh says, parks need variety, Thorpe lacks it because of having the majority of rides be thrill based or scary... It's part of that age old question of what can a park provide after eating lunch? Thorpe provides Angry Birds 4D or perhaps IAC as the answer, which clearly is the worst answer ever...

Transylvania, like most of Chessie was once fantastic, sure Bubbleworks has always been 'odd', but the concept of the original just worked so well... Butchered scenery and design choices have really brought the area down completely...

LEGOLAND is for kids, Chessie seemingly stuck in an even worse set of crossroads of confusion of direction as well... This splitting of the demographics to go to a specific park is also a problem (and kinda has been since Tussauds initially purchased Thorpe), as what do groups do when kids are bored of one but unable to experience the bigger attractions? Families are more likely to spend more money on the higher ticket items like merch and what not... Plus more likely to buy sweets, drinks, etc in higher quantities... I'll never understand why families with babies visit the place, but they do, and I'll wager there's a fair amount of complaints that come with that due to a lack of things to do (especially for those kids who have to pay for entry but aren't tall enough for anything)... Yes its awful that they cannot be bothered to think these additions through, but the park have been suffering for ages because of a distinct lack of customer spend and trying to get the disillusioned groups back into the park...

Changing back to more families has nothing to do with Smiler though, just years of driving away the one demographic that actually spends money... Same thing happened with Six Flags in some cases... Even at the height of thrill marketing families STILL visited the park, so there is a demand to add some attractions for them, although that wasn't realised by those in charge hence the constant removal and really badly thought out additions (Storm Surge, Angry Birds)... DBGT shows the utter confusion of direction too, as dark rides tend to be the best sort of family ride, yet the USP decided it must be scary and hence unsuitable for that market... The parks are at a massive crossroads right now, just need some actual consideration to the future, which I fear is unlikely...

Just admit you saw it off my Twitter Ryan, it's ok... I too fear that this is going into Heide, such a waste of the technology involved and it's generally so awful looking...

Nothing ever goes wrong when people pin insanely high expectations on something new... Nothing at all... As for best park Josh, Thorpe still had equal shares of problems, Mothers being closed, continuation of breakdown issues that have plagued the park for years, Darren Brown in general and probably some other issues... Towers still trades off the name and history, which is still probably the best overall park in the country even through all the issues...

Time Machine is dreadfully vomtastic, and also it's at a park that isn't Thorpe or Merlin so it's not got a good ridership on here... Not a good flat ride...

Two things tonight then; Russian ambassador in Turkey shot and a hostage situation going on... Berlin marketplace gets a truck ploughing through it, currently 9 confirmed dead at time of writing... 2016 has been just dreadful...

I'd guess even a full queue would only take about 15 minutes with 5 trains on German efficiency... Also omg contactless creds <3

Yes, but it buggered up the building because LOL MERLIN...