BenC

Great trip reports both Mark9 and Benin! I went to Denmark myself last weekend to do a shorter version of your trip, with just Djurs, Farup and Legoland Billund visited. All 3 lovely Parks and well worth a trip over there – Ryanair £50 return flights to Billund win! You’ve covered everything really well, but my thoughts for what they’re worth: Djurs Sommerland A really well presented Park, and lovely place to be. However, I felt it was a shame the themeing wasn’t more immersive – there were lots of empty green spaces in between areas, so I never really felt that I was in “Mexico” or “Pirateland”. The Wild West area was the only space I felt this wasn’t true. Nevertheless, Djurs was very clean & tidy, and I would love to visit again when more “developed”. It also has some outstanding Intamin machines: Juvelen: a complete surprise, I really loved this ride. Unassuming as a spectator, but filled with tight turns, airtime and a really powerful second launch. It was also well themed, lots of fun and (at over 1km) really long. Pitched squarely at the family, this is exactly the sort of investment that Chessington should be making. In fact, Chessie should just get a carbon Juvelen copy right now. Piraten: completely agree that this gets better as the day goes on, but feel this has been slightly under-rated; after 8 hours’ running, this ride is an absolute airtime MACHINE! Given the tunnel, turns and relentless hills, I actually found that the second half of the coaster was better than the first – how many coasters can you say that of? Don’t think I’ve ever had as much severe ejector airtime from a coaster before. Really, really good fun. Thor’s Hammer: a long Gerstlauer Mouse-type ride with an excellent first downward helix, and an equally good final helix over water. Better than most of its type. Special mention at Djurs must also go to Solguden, a Zierer Flying Fish with a horribly catchy theme tune... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmWsGax5-lI Farup Sommerland My favourite Park of the trip, which felt larger than Djurs and was almost completely surrounded by forest. Less effort made to theme areas to specific themes, though – it was all natural/woodland (but very pretty). The coasters were all fun, although none quite matched Djurs’ headliners: Orkanen: a brand new Vekoma suspended family coaster with a first drop that dives into the lake and out the other side. One of the new super-smooth Vekomas with lapbar restraints, and was a perfect fit in this family Park. Would like to see more of these – would make a great “step-up” attraction for a Park like Paultons. Good fun, and an improvement on the smaller (and similar) Kvasten at Grona Lund (Sweden). Lynet: I thought this was good, but not great. I liked the rolling launch, the airtime pops and the length of the track, but it was still a bit Gerstlauer-rough, and the airtime was a bit painful on the legs with the Gerst OTSRs. Would almost certainly be improved with lapbars! Falken: Riding this in the torrential rain was hilarious, and so the roughness of it all was less of a concern! It was certainly jolty, although not painfully so – and I’ve been on far worse wooden machines (Coaster Express at Parque Warner, Madrid, for one). Not super intense due to the family target market, it certainly ticked the “out of control feeling” box – I liked it. Legoland Billund My favourite of the Legoland Parks I’ve been to – large and very little “Merlin” to be seen. Just 20 mins walk from Billund Airport (no joke), it’s just a shame that when on any ride that goes above tree-height, all you see is an industrial park or a runway! Polar X-Plorer: Would have to agree with Mark9/Benin that the drop sequence here was not an improvement on Intamin’s, purely because the mechanism was totally visible and there was such poor themeing/storytelling during the sequence. Perhaps the Park’s fault as much as Zierer’s. No pre-drop bouncing a la Th13teen, but the actual drop was relatively forceful. The rest of the coaster was pretty good though; a fun first drop went some way to make up for these shortcomings. X-treme Racers: Categorically the worst Wild Mouse I’ve ever been on, save its (now defunct) sister Jungle Coaster at Windsor, where the ride cars were boxed in with Perspex due to noise complaints (now at Lego Florida, back in its original un-boxed state). X-treme Racers was trimmed to death, to the point where I was just bored. Tedious. Dragen: Better than Windsor’s Dragon, with a longer indoor section, and more thrilling outdoor section. Went round again because it was impossible to see everything inside the Castle section first time around! Overall, Denmark is a lovely country, with some lovely Parks and impressive rides (might be slightly biased due to not visiting Bakken/Bon Bon…). Well worth a trip over there for any enthusiast looking to experience some Scandi goodness! Top 5: Piraten – just (Djurs) Juvelen (Djurs) Orkanen (Farup) Lynet (Farup) Polar X-Plorer (Legoland Billund)

Competely agree. Have ridden drop towers nearly 3 times the height that aren't a patch on Detonator's brute force. Higher towers can make you feel more insecure/acrophobic, but I've yet to find any tower that beats Detty's airtime.

Afraid no such event was held, and we weren't there on Friday - we didn't get to Ride It First! Email received on Friday in full:

So, given the soft opening of The Smiler last Friday, no preview event was held for the Ride It First competition winners. However, the Park has offered us all 2 free tickets, free Smiler fastrack and free Gold fastrack for the rest of the Park, for use at any time this season. Can't complain!

Interesting point, pluk. I've noticed this a little through their Facebook updates - just a few days ago they posted this review of the Park from "Mummy Barrow": http://www.mummybarrow.com/thorpe-park-a-review/ Note: "We were guests of Thorpe Park and received complimentary tickets in exchange for a review." - Thorpe clearly wanting to garner blog-based advertising for those with families. Again, a few days earlier, the Thorpe Facebook linked to a blog review from "Northern Mum": http://www.northernmum.com/2013/05/the-exact-moment-I-turned-middle-aged-at-thorpe-park/ They're pushing their events with a family slant, too - a recent cover photo advertising their roller skating events: Can only be a good thing IMO - both for the atmosphere in the Park and for Merlin's bottom line!

Given the fact it's been widely publicised that The Smiler "will not be open" tomorrow, I was unsurprised to receive this: To receive it just 16 hours before the prize was due to be claimed is cutting things a little fine though...!

Towers have now confirmed that the competition winner preview won't happen until Thursday morning...

Looks like it might be this that is really pitting Alton against the clock to get the ride open for Thursday...

An unexpected win! Hoping there won't be any repeats of the press-night breakdowns...

Looks awesome. 2 weeks today...! Credit: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/picturesoftheday/10046152/Pictures-of-the-day-9-May-2013.html?frame=2558124

I was speaking to one of the Crash Pad staff yesterday and they were saying how popular the Crash Pad is proving to be - for that evening, 40 of the 52 rooms were filled. ~80% occupancy isn't bad for a Monday in low season! Hopefully these occupancy rates will continue and show Merlin that there is a real business case for having a permanent hotel on site - particularly given the increase in evening activites/club nights/events. I say Merlin should have been bolder and taken the plunge earlier (Runneymede first approved plans for a hotel back in 2006!). The Crash Pad rep said that they're contracted to stay there all 2013 season, and that they were hopeful they'd return for 2014. Recent news however suggests the company's having difficulties... http://news.sky.com/story/1083296/snoozebox-hotel-company-reports-a-loss

Tried the revamped X this weekend, and whilst I wasn't expecting much, I thought what the Park had done was a significant improvement. Clearly the Park hasn't had a huge budget to do this retheme with, but the new trains are comfier, the queueline smarter, and the lights, music and theme finally give the ride a purpose. One of the things I disliked about X:\ No Way Out was the random and incoherent nature of the ride - the little backstory there was wasn't conveyed at all to the rider. It was just a series of stops and starts in the dark, and then you walk out. At least now with the "rave" theme, the Park is giving the ride a point and firmly repositioning it for the family/younger thrill seeker market. A good move IMO. I think that more self contained/innovative lighting effects would have been better (especially on the brake runs), and the music definitely needs upping in volume a notch or three - it currently sounds a bit distant. But overall, the project gets a thumbs up from me. As ever, photos and a more detailed review is over at Total Thorpe Park.

It's superlative. Aside from maybe Disney, Europa Park is for me the benchmark. Everything they do is classy. (Ryan - you'll have an awesome time!)

Sounds like the Ministry of Sound theme (read: music, lights, rave) without the Ministry of Sound sponsorship! In my eyes, any changes they make to X has to be worth a punt, as the ride as it stands is hardly a "must do" for the average visitor...

Rumours are rumours, but here's one anyway: http://www.themeparktourist.com/news/20130310/12725/rumour-x-roller-coaster-receive-ministry-sound-re-theme-thorpe-park Intrigued to see how this pans out!

Kelloggs Cereals - BOGOF - http://www.merlin.kelloggs.co.uk/index.html Coke Zone - BOGOF (5 Coke Zone points required) - http://www.cokezone.co.uk/pages/rewardDetail?itemId=18028&categoryId=4 Student Beans - 40% OFF (Requires Student ID) - http://www.studentbeans.com/national/discounts/entertainment/40-off-thorpe-park-tickets-at-thorpe-park-02.html As usual, they're pretty much everywhere.

What didn't you like about it, out of interest? It looks the same deisgn as Insane, which I rode at Grona Lund last year - and really enjoyed it! (Insane interestingly ranked at #110, vs. Green Lantern's #209). http://www.gronalund.com/en/Rides/All-rides/Insane/ Quite intense, but as a small footprint coaster, I thought it could fit in well at Thorpe as a medium investment... and looks like it would fit in the old Miss Hippo's area!

I agree with JoshC and pluk here. The way I see it is, people largely return to Merlin attractions because of the "new thing" for that season. Merlin's growth strategy has been built with this in mind (continual investment in new attractions, marketing heavily leading on the "new" big thing). The marketed "new thing" for last year was riding Swarm; for this year, it's riding Swarm backwards through a billboard. So, using Marc's guesstimates above, on a busy (15,000 guests) day: % guests that could ride the "new thing" in 2012 (Swarm) = 8,960 / 15,000 = 60% % guests that could ride the "new thing" in 2013 (Swarm Backwards) = 2,560 / 15,000 = 17% Methinks there could be some disappointed guests this season... (Billboard looks good though!)

It's another "scariest coaster in the world ever" marketing line for The Smiler... where have I heard that before? Cool artist impressions though! http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2286085/Alton-Towers-The-Smiler-Psychologists-set-unveil-terrifying-roller-coaster-ever.html

The interview at the "Great Days Out" show on Saturday is shown here: http://youtu.be/hXCp2ac_BMY As Josh says, it confirms that Flamingoland will be getting a Zamperla 3 ride deal: Low Thrills: Magic Bikes http://www.zamperla.com/en/zamperla-details-rides-magic_bikes Medium Thrills: Junior Twister Coaster, on the Junior Driving School site http://www.zamperla.com/en/zamperla-details-rollercoaster-junior_twister_coaster High Thrills (?!): Volare, on the Wild Mouse site http://www.zamperla.com/en/zamperla-details-rollercoaster-volare A good deal? I've not ridden one, but this TPR thread describes the Zamperla Volare as "creepy", "a piece of crap" and "George Foreman Grill: The Ride"... http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=58468

There have been numerous planning applications for a permanent Hotel at Thorpe, but management haven't bitten the bullet with any of them, instead opting for this year's "testing the water" temporary installation. There's a brief article on the previous submitted Hotel proposals at Total Thorpe Park: http://www.totalthorpepark.co.uk/features/futurehotel.shtml

I must say, I've been impressed with the way this project has evolved. 2 months ago I wasn't particularly excited about Alton's new coaster, a probably gimmicky, possibly rough-riding Gerstlauer, painted black and styled (as is the Merlin way of late) on a horror-based theme. If the finished product is as creative and story-led as the marketing and promotion for the ride would lead us to believe, though, then I think we might be in for a treat. Let's hope the ride experience matches up to the stellar advertising of it. And as far as I'm concerned, a May opening is just fine - would much rather wait than see a rushed job in March.

Not to take this too far off-topic, but what do you mean by this Mark? Really enjoying your trip reports as always!

Interesting Josh - I felt that the new ending to E10 was (whilst "done before" with Asylum) a definite improvement - last year had very little to get people running out the exit. Had some very "in-your-face" actors during my runthrough as well! Equally, I thought that there was nothing about The Passing that deemed it worth being an upcharge attraction. I couldn't see that it was any more expensive to build/run than any of the other mazes in Thorpe's lineup, so why charge other than pure profiteering? Waiting an hour to have our go having paid £3 for the privilege just added insult to injury. Thought that the restricted vision was a novel idea though, that if better expolited could make for a decent maze. I enjoyed Fright Nights this year, although mourned the loss of that extra hour 9pm - 10pm to get some night riding in. My full review with photos is, as ever, on Total Thorpe Park: http://www.totalthor...right2012.shtml.

New for 2012 maze The Passing certainly talks a good game! Shame that it is indeed a £3 upcharge attraction...