Coaster

So they've brought back the fast track kiosk near Inferno? Or was that brought back ages ago and I just didn't notice?

Neither was Walking Dead The Ride though...

Turning the screens off if it's a poor day probably helps with those guest satisfaction ratings.

I'd personally much rather spend £400 experiencing a new park with different rides, rather than skipping the queues on Thorpe's rides for a year. ...that said, this time last year I hadn't ventured outside the UK in terms of theme parks - but the idea of a year-long Fastrack ticket just seems wrong to me.

It's excellent to hear that the park appear to have improved since last weekend. In my opinion, there is one key issue with PB that needs resolving now. Speedy Pass needs to be removed from PMBO, it's absolutely ludicrous that PB have allowed it to drag the throughput of their signature ride down for so long, on 2 trains without stacking it can shift a queue well but once you factor in an additional 2 minutes to load Speedy Pass holders and stacking on the brake run it becomes a complete farce. Instead of being able to open the airgates as people start to leave the train, therefore being able to fill and check a train in a minute, they have to wait until everyone has passed the exit rope (30 - 45 seconds), then scan and load the speedy pass holders (I've seen this take over 2 minutes but I'd suggest on average it probably takes 60 seconds), then open the airgates and load the rest of the train from the main queue (another 60 seconds), then get onto the belt checks. By this point the second train will have got back, stacked and the riders probably fallen asleep waiting. This has been an issue for years now and I've never seen other parks allow their fast pass system to jeapordise the physical operations of their coasters to such an extent, it's insane that it's allowed to happen at PB to be frank. They either need to adjust the station to run the system properly or scrap it from the ride, IMO. Footage on Saturday showed the queue past the cans (outside the extension), yet they allow the operations to be dragged down by a fast pass system? Avalanche is much the same, though arguably even worse considering the ride already has a low throughput on 2 trains even when it doesn't stack. The park could choose not to run Speedy Pass on these rides and improve guest experience for everyone. Instead they prioritise short-term money and allow their main queues to become unbearable. They simply do not care.

Looks slow.

It's of my bucket list coasters due to it being the original hypercoaster and the inspiration for The Big One.

Excellent move by the park.

Stunning.

That's a disgrace. The only reason it lost its magic is because they left it to rot and didn't maintain it properly! Even now they still show complete disrespect to their customers by saying things like this.

Bit of a hectic year for me; Definitely Cedar Point King's Island Six Flags Great Adventure Kennywood Coney Island Efteling Toverland Walibi Holland (before Untamed opens... grr!) Duinrell Blackpool Pleasure Beach Alton Towers Thorpe Park Adventure Island Maybe Phantasialand Parc Asterix Oakwood Adventure Island Chessington Expect there'll be a few other UK parks joining the list.

A terrible decision. Loggers Leap was, as has been said previously, a very popular family ride which filled a much-needed gap at Thorpe. It was of a far superior quality to the likes of Storm Surge and had a much higher throughput to match. The loss of this ride further displays Thorpe's absolute lack of direction, when they prioritise IP attractions over maintaining key staple attractions you know there is something wrong. Furthermore, the communication on social media regarding this over the last 3 years has been absolutely unacceptable. Saying it's closed for maintenance (at the very first stage), then that it'll make a splashback, saying the area was under redevelopment (looks like that's gone well... 3 years?!). It's a joke. Thorpe is in a dire state and this further highlights that. 3 years to announce that it'll never return, that's 3 years that they could've been refurbishing it or rebuilding its replacement. Also, remind me why we have to have one-in, one-out with things like this? Like, Wicker Man at Alton is great but now the park only has two water rides (one of which is broken, the other has only worth doing on the hottest of days). Why not build a new coaster, and keep the water ride? -- In other news, Pleasurewood Hills have announced today that their Rattlesnake roller coaster (closed in 2016) will reopen this year. Isn't that nice.

Can someone edit the title of this topic please, as it is not technically a completely "new" attraction as it uses the old Hocus Pocus Hall building. #petty

Any season includes 2019 though so...

What a nightmare

Ah I remember those dusty old TV's, they were in the queue for years but I never saw them working!

The Big One is one of the worst, it's lost all its team from two/three years ago and the operations have plummeted to absolutely unbelievable low standards as a result.

One of the biggest issues with ride operations is that they've lost virtually all the experienced staff who had been at the park for years, mainly due to awful, awful management who treat both their staff and guests with disdain. The Big One for example, a very complex ride to run and with no-one there who knows what they're doing now it's a complete shambles. Compare that to three/four years ago when they'd have it running two trains in 40 mph winds because they knew exactly what the operating limits and optimum wind directions were! The second issue is the engineering department, the team themselves are fantastic and dedicated people but when their hours are being cut a week before opening when the park is nowhere near ready, their job becomes impossible. Good old Amanda eh? The staffing at the park is an absolute mess and turning away staff with experience whilst keeping certain members of management on is, quite simply, lunacy.

Icon being closed was, from what I've seen and been told, the tip of the iceberg. Coasters and flats/other rides were going down left right and centre, the only coaster on full capacity was Dipper, catering sounds like it was a nightmare and a staff member in a managerial position was heard telling guests to "deal with it" and calling them "tits" due to them complaining about being evacuated out of Icon's queue, just after it had opened (mid afternoon!) It sounds like one of the worst weekends in the park's history, and due to many more factors than just Icon being down for the majority of the time.

Not really, last year's opening weekend was decent enough with a few breakdowns (but in most cases the rides reopened shortly after) and some rides on low capacity; about what I'd expect from BPB in February. The weather affects The Big One, it can't run in high winds otherwise it would stall. With that said, the operating limits to seem to be getting lower and lower and often they just send the staff home now whereas they always used to keep the staff on to do cleaning around the ride until such time as the winds lowered; even if the forecast suggested that they wouldn't. But that's a whole different debate. Today sounds much, much worse than last year. The number of rides closed, breaking down and/or on low capacity far surpasses that of last year, plus Icon which closed at lunchtime today and failed to reopen. Ultimately operations at PB have, in recent years, been very hit-and-miss. But in the second half of 2018, they got worse and worse (there were reasons for this which I won't go into but ultimately the operations are in a mess behind the scenes). I see today as a combination of early-season teething troubles, but also, far more worryingly, a continuation of the downturn we saw towards the end of 2018. As for why enthusiasts rush to go to opening weekend, I can't answer that one.

Opening day last year was fine. A couple of breakdowns but the rides reopened shortly afterwards, some coasters on low capacity but the park held together pretty well overall.

That's just terrible I'm sorry, this place isn't BPB anymore. It's just an embarrassment. If you're still on park I'd recommend going into guest services (or if you've left maybe speak with the staff outside Noah's Ark).

I wasn't on park or anywhere near Blackpool today, but it sounds like it's been one of the worst days in the park's history. Icon closed by lunchtime, every coaster (apart from Dipper and Icon in the morning) on one train, PMBO e-stopping on the lifthill constantly, most coasters closed for some or all of the day and Valhalla/flats going down constantly. The Big One only started testing in the last week, is that really long enough? For comparison, I went to opening weekend last year and whilst there were a few breakdowns (as to be expected really) and some rides on low capacity, it was an enjoyable weekend and we managed to get on everything. This highlights, IMO, how far the park has fallen in the past year in terms of being able to hold together on a busy day. It was awful towards the end of last season, and seems that it's even worse now. The park has lost many of its most experienced staff and it shows.

We've had top 10 coaster counts, we've had park counts, but what about your top 10 roller coaster manufacturers? I'll start with my current list, bearing in mind I haven’t yet visited many non-UK parks and am yet to ride an RMC (hence me not being able to judge them); 5. Intamin - They've produced some shockers and I'm not generally a huge fan of the UK collection we have, but they've also brought us some incredible rides such as Taron, and I'm sure with various ventures this year I'll get to ride some of their better rides. 4. Mack Rides - Their rich family values and innovative technology make them a special company, who have produced some of the most globally-recognised and comfortable coasters of modern times. They've started new design trends, but (from my experience) their coasters are a little to "polite" for my personal taste. 3. B&M - Some of their coasters are incredible, some I find fairly dull, but in terms of quality and durability they're second-to-none. 2. Great Coasters International – Just amazing. They've taken the classic concept of a wooden coaster and completely reinvented it with modern technology, from the insane fast turns of Troy to frantic bunny-hops on Joris, they push the capabilities of a wooden coaster to its absolute limits and it’s fantastic. 1. Arrow Dynamics - Just an absolutely incredible company with a fascinating history. Sure, they had their shortfalls; plenty of them. But this is the company that invented the modern steel coaster - the company that started log flumes, hyper coasters and so many other coaster/ride types that we now take for granted. I sometimes wonder where the industry would be today if Arrow hadn't existed. Considering the huge amount of concepts they introduced, and the fact that many employees from Arrow went on to work in other, or in some cases, started their own company, they truly left a huge legacy behind. I love the quirkiness and awkwardness of some of their coasters, which is probably quite telling of why I hold The Big One in such high regard, and the work Arrow did set the stage for the future of the industry in so many ways.

Efteling seem to be doing a lot of good, though the replacement for Bob does look to be a bit of a downgrade. Crossing my fingers that it's open in April, missed it by a week last October!