BenC

Lulwut

Who's got £500 to blow? http://www.merlinannualpass.co.uk/vip.aspx 1,000 available to purchase on Wednesday 18th June only, for 3 hours only (6pm - 9pm). Because it's exclusive and VIP and that. Biggest perks are clearly the unlimited fastrack everywhere, as well as free global attraction entry. There's also unlimited drinks, and parking... Not for me, but I think they'll sell!

There's a pizza Link: Goodfella's New Smiler Pizza

I enjoyed this much more than I thought I was going to. The new theatre looks like a quality investment, and Simworx have done a particularly great job on the plush seating - a world away from Towers' Ice Age 4D wooden boxes. The film itself is also a lot of fun, and I love that the range of Angry Birds games (Space, Bad Piggies, Go!, etc.) were weaved into the story. With no dialogue, too, it looks to be a very easy "port" to any other international Park. Theming is on the sparse side, and there are definitely one or two overused effects (many people came out looking a little soggy). Overall though this is a solid attraction, and was certainly well received by audiences when I visited. Full review and photos over at Total Thorpe Park!

New high-res photos of construction today at Angry Birds Land available at Total Thorpe Park. Couldn't see much sign of the Detonator re-theme, but there's been a lot more facade/themeing put in during the last week and the overall area I think is shaping up quite nicely!

Small construction update of Angry Birds Land over at Total Thorpe Park, mainly showing the work that Ricky mentioned! Also - apologies if this has been posted already - but Park World reported on the new Angry Birds development back in their February issue. Park World is largely a trade magazine and it looks as if Rovio/3DBA/Simworx are trying hard to sell the film to other parks - don't think Thorpe has any kind of exclusivity on the film! The article also confirms that the new Simworx theatre at Thorpe seats 326 people, and effects include water sprays, air blasts, leg ticklers and back pokers. Linky

I much prefer this map to the ones in recent years - it's cleaner and more vibrant, and does away with the cartoon "big heads" which I was never a huge fan of. I think the plain fonts look far fresher too. I like that they're leaning heavily on their 5 big coasters, and despite not being particularly accurate, it's enough such that people won't get lost - Thorpe's not a huge place! Yet another nod towards the more family-oriented market, with the huge "Endless Fun" strap line at the top, rather than anything on thrills...

I'm doing the same. Grona Lund is a lovely (if cramped) park, and I found Twister (super-twisty Gravity Group woodie), Kvasten (surprisingly-enjoyable Vekoma family suspended) and Zacspin (a bigger 32m Intamin Zacspin) all worth riding. It also has a rough Schwarzkopf and one of the best ghost trains I've been on in Tuff-Tuff Tåget! Whether it's worth the 470km journey over from Gothenburg though is debatable...

The excellent Theme Park Tourist has just posted an article asking what Thorpe's almost-inevitable next "world's first coaster" could be in 2016/2017. It guesses at: 1) S&S 4D free-rotation prototype coaster (untested, but there's potential) 2) Vekoma Dragon Fly prototype coaster (an inverted motocoaster; looks a bit awkward) 3) Record-setting Rocky Mountain wood/steel hybrid coaster (great, but would it happen?) Not sure 1 & 2 are that desirable, nor 3 that plausible, but interesting nonetheless. And if not any of these, what else does the industry offer that Thorpe could install instead to be a "world's first"?

I have my flights booked already. At the very worst Helix looks like it's going to be a good terrain coaster. But I'd say there's a pretty good chance it's going to be top 5 material - Mack make such a quality product.

I had a good year of European Parks in 2013 (Parque Warner, Parque de Atracciones, Djurs Sommerland, Fårup Sommerland, Legoland Billund, Port Aventura), so am looking forward to doing the same again this year: - Heide Park (Flug der Dämonen) - Liseberg (Helix) - Disneyland Paris (Ratatouille) - Nigloland (Alpina Blitz) And maybe... - Holiday Park (Unknown Superman Ultimate Flight clone) - Tripsdrill (Karacho) UK wise, I'll obviously be at Thorpe, but I might try to get to some of the independent parks given 2014 will be a quieter year for Merlin.

10th January it is then - a week today. http://www.nolimitscoaster.de/index.php?page=news

I'm underwhelmed by the discounting levels for this year - 2011/2012 had the Standard passes at 50% off (£79) and 2012/2013 saw them at £99 - this year £105. The ongoing (pre-sale) price has hardly changed during this time. Merlin have been clarifying a few things via their Facebook: Fastrack This explains the "£15 saving" offered (3 x £5), and I actually doubt will impact Fastrack operation/wait times to any horrible degree. Drinks Capsule

http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/Thousands-families-flock-Alton-Towers-ultimate/story-20016191-detail/story.html Will be interesting to see how they do any ride-themed fireworks. Really looking forward to this!

My guess is that this is exactly right. The original train designs for The Swarm were completely different to the trains that made it on to the actual ride (possible ideas included a "terminator-esque" machine alien). In the end they went with a design far closer to the Gardaland Raptor trains, to save money on redesigning every element of the train shells from-scratch again. (More on this here: http://www.totalthorpepark.co.uk/features/btsswarm.shtml) Looks like this time they're not even "tweaking" the existing Swarm shell - just completely reusing it. Can't see that 99.9% of guests riding would know any different though - and would far rather they economised on this to free up budget for themeing/near misses etc!

My 10th consecutive year of Fright Nights this year (!) and I thought the Park had produced some quality attractions with the Lionsgate IP - particularly Cabin for its creativity. My go through MBV didn't chime with what's been said on here - I found it genuinely edgy and unnerving the whole way through, and actually overall scarier than Cabin (I found Cabin more entertaining than scary). Was filled with actors on my run, too. I do mourn the loss of the E10 solitary confinement cells though! Blair Witch was a great idea (taking it outside the Park and into "woodland"), that with some imagination and budget could be really worthwhile. I did have a couple of genuine scares from this (notably from an actor hiding in a bush...), although it suffered from having too few actors overall and looking cheap. I actually hope the Park works on it and we see it return next year! As ever, my full review and photos (they get longer each year...) can be found over at Total Thorpe Park.

For all its failings, Colossus does still serve a purpose at Thorpe Park - as a motivation for weight loss: http://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/dieting/success-stories/kirsty-mewett-fat-thorpe-park-2283800 10 points for guessing which other rollercoaster is being referred to in the article!

So, I went to PortAventura earlier this month, and had a really great time. It's a big, well themed, lush Park with some stellar attractions and shows. But it also has some absolute stinkers - I don't think there is any other Park I can think of which has such a contrast between its good stuff and its bad: The Good: Shambhala - this was an instant top-10 coaster for me, and on back row possibly top-5. A superb 250ft first drop into a tunnel and a relentlessly long, fun series of airtime hills to follow - it is really, really good. Shambhala alone is worth a visit to PortAventura. And it's supported by another excellent forceful B&M in Dragon Khan. Aesthetics - PortAventura looks great, and the attention to detail on some of the themeing is excellent. From Furius Baco's final turn over the lake to the huge bridge up to the China area where Khan and Shambhala sit, the Park certainly has visual impact. Some of their themed areas were Disney-standard. Shows - we only had time to see two shows - Templo del Fuego and Music Generation - but both were great fun and top-notch. Music Generation alone had a cast of 25+, so this stuff can't be cheap to put on, which makes it all the more impressive that PortAventura has so many shows (10+), that are so professionally staged. Operations - not everyone says this following a visit to PA, but on the Friday in August that we visited, the Park Ops were spot on. Top queue times of 45 mins. Batching was fast enough (although no better than Thorpe or Alton) and we saw very little queue-jumping. And the Park stays open 'till midnight, as standard! The Bad: Furius Baco - amazing launch and lovely themeing can't make up for this failure of a ride. When (if) Intamin made a prototype of this ride, did they not think that smoothness might be important? Granted, I (unwisely) chose the outer back row seat, but the relentless vibration and joltiness from the coaster was so uncomfortable - I actually had to hold my head halfway round to keep it steady. An instant headache later, I can unhappily proclaim this Intamin's worst creation yet. Which is a shame, as it looks so pretty! Stampida - nowhere near Baco's league, but Stampida had any enjoyment sucked out of it by the roughness of the whole experience. I spent most of my ride shouting "ow". Nearly the roughest wooden coaster I've ridden (but Parque Warner's Coaster Express takes Gold here...). Queuelines - thankfully we didn't have to stand in them for too long, but considering the thought that has clearly gone into the rest of the Park, it is surprising that the queueline layouts are such an oversight. Hot, boring cattlepens are the order of the day almost everywhere, with headliners Shambhala, Baco and Khan being some of the worst offenders. Any queue over 90 minutes would have been grim. Park Layout - never have I more appreciated Disney's hub-and-spoke approach to building Theme Parks. PortAventura is laid out in one massive circle, such that if you're standing in the East and want to ride something in the West, you have to walk right the way around the circle rather than cutting through the centre of the Park. Potentially frustrating! All things considered, I'd say PortAventura is one of the best Theme Parks in Europe, and absolutely merits a cheap flight to Barcelona / Reus for a long weekend trip. Despite the bad bits, there's a lot of Theme Park quality to be had just a 2 hour flight away!

The jury's out on whether the investment in these IPs will also result in high quality mazes, but one thing I am very glad to see return is the 10pm closing time. The 9pm closing was the biggest thing that disappointed in last year's event, so it's great to see extended night-riding-time return! http://www.totalthorpepark.co.uk/features/fright2012.shtml

I have to say, I quite like this - if it were only to be used on the major attractions and there were enough other attractions to do in the downtime (as Ryan said, a Thorpe Park show would be perfect!). The full potential of the idea probably isn't being harnessed being limited to one ride (e.g. The Swarm), as all 10,000 guests on Park could go and join the virtual queue for it (making the queue time really long). If there were, say, 5 virtual queues for the 5 headline attractions, those 10,000 virtual queuing guests would be spread out over the 5 attractions, bringing the virtual queue time for each down. My only question, assuming the trial run works: are the Park really going to take the likely substantial hit on Fastrack sales (which would surely lower - cutting a virtual queue time must be worth less than cutting an actual queue time) in the name of improving guest satisfaction?

They've got your number! Um, I think Miro Gronau might have confused this: With this: http://www.totalthorpepark.co.uk/

Great find, Josh! Worth explicitly calling out that (if I've read this right) Thorpe Park are removing the current Crash Pad entirely and severing their ties with Snoozebox - bad times for Snoozebox, who aren't doing particularly well at the moment (http://www.cityam.com/article/snoozebox-hits-alarm-10m-cash-call). This means that the new development will be designed and owned by TP - who have apparently chosen not to continue with shipping containers, but still to theme the new installation as a container... As Crash Pad v2 is Thorpe's baby, it's costing the Park £9m to do - which is why the 10 year lease is required "to provide the required returns to make this a viable project". Given that The Crash Pad this season "has proven to be popular with members of the public", and Thorpe themselves say "it is fully anticipated that the provision of [permanent] accommodation will be successful – reflecting the situation at other Resort Parks in the Merlin Group", I'm surprised they haven't chosen to do it properly and stump up the £20m required to build, say, a smaller Alton Towers Hotel... For how many years is this thing going to be pushed back?! Also agree that the pushing back of the "2015 coaster" by at least 2 years suggests the Park isn't in the healthiest shape at the moment

Just to come back to this - IIRC, during the "behind the scenes" tour the Park said they are not averse to installing a wooden coaster, but market research to date suggested that it wouldn't be a popular choice with the public. Marketability was the constraining factor. IMO, it's a case of the "public" not knowing what's good for them...!

It is that bad. Goudurix deserves every bit of negativity it gets. Hero also looks like it annihilates riders. Is it bad that I'm quite intrigued to ride to find out, though....?

Best thing you can do is ask for a Smiler fastrack at the main entrance when you arrive. They're being sold "under the counter" atm (I.e. not advertised) and are very limited in number, but I managed to get a 2pm slot for £7 at 10am on Saturday. Queue was at 150 mins at 2pm on Saturday, so this was £7 well spent for me! Failing that, I'd turn up at one minute before closing time and join the queue then.