Coaster

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I'd be glad to see the back of Angry Birds Land. You could easily tie the Dodgems into Amity Cove, have them themed as retro cars to go with Stealth. Detonator could simply revert back to how it was before.

Thunderbolt at Coney is vile, my all-time least favourite coaster. Just a hideous, hideous ride.

The Swarm's area and theming isn't that great IMO. It's really just a bunch of vehicles and theming items plonked around the ride with no cohesion, it isn't visually nice to look at either. Why is there a huge motorway billboard right next to a church? What's a helicopter doing in a lake? It's just bizarre. I do feel that it was better when the ride first opened and it had the special effects, triggered sound effects etc. As with most Merlin investments though it's been left to fall apart, had random items added and many items of theming are now missing or have been replaced with generic, un-themed items (e.g. the queue fencing). To be honest, I was never a fan of the queue videos being throughout the entire queue, it would have worked much better having them in one section IMO. It just became pretty grating during long queues listening to it I thought. And of course, it all got naff when the screens stopped working, speakers broke etc. There's also that ugly wooden cover around part of the church that totally detracts from the look of the station. Things like that are such a shame; if they'd picked one idea and put all their efforts into that (e.g. a destroyed church as the main centrepiece), it could have looked much better. The area as it is now is just a jumbled mess IMO.

Merlin are objecting to the London Resort planning application; https://escapismproject.co.uk/news/1623419409?s=04&fbclid=IwAR10_0Tg26gWSoUVxXpB3cw7_nU2mQ7g0jdJK-ou_zD7Za4MVoncCuUaxsE My thoughts on this? Merlin need to do one. They have strangled the life out of the UK theme park industry for years; they own the monopoly yet have such low standards in their parks, with no real drive to improve anything. The Merlin short-term model of "slap an IP on it" whilst neglecting rides and basic infrastructure has killed the offering at their parks and, if the London Resort was to happen, it would most likely come back to bite them. My view is that they feel threatened by the prospect of a company coming in and doing a really good job with a park, as it would shift the public perception of Merlin being "the expected standard" in the UK. Merlin are a company that call themselves second only to Disney, yet copy-paste ideas across the world, copy Paultons with Peppa Pig world (albeit not in the UK, as they can't) and they can't even invest satisfactorily in their major parks in the UK. Thorpe hasn't seen solid investment since 2012 despite supposedly being the UK's "thrill capital". London Resort would challenge Merlin, which they clearly don't want. In my opinion, London Resort is exactly what the UK industry needs for it to thrive, some healthy competition which would force Merlin to act. Look at America, there's a rivalry between Cedar Fair and Six Flags, or the European parks which are all owned by different companies. It's much healthier and means that parks have to be at the top of their game to stay in competition. The fact that Merlin are making a fuss over this this says everything about them as a company, second rate and not willing to adjust and improve their offering to compete.

I think you've missed the point of the post, which highlights a major issue that UK parks simply cannot cope when they are busy. Of course people expect the parks to be busy during half term, but operations need to be swift and the park should be running to maximum to reduce waiting times as much as possible, but that just doesn't happen. It's very much a case of it being how the park is running, rather than how busy it is, that causes the most issues IMO.

Blackpool Pleasure Beach was atrocious on Sunday. Saturday was an excellent day helped by the 10pm close; we arrived in the morning to find Alice, Ice Blast, Nickelodeon Streak, Avalanche and Revolution on delayed opening, which wrecked our chances of riding the low capacity rides first, but fortunately things picked up later on and the rides ran excellently throughout the day. Icon was unfortunately still running very slowly once up to 3 trains, I waited earlier on 2 and the queue moved faster but some of my group ended up waiting over 90 minutes later on. Sunday however, was the worst day I have ever had at BPB. The park was busier than the Saturday, which I presume was due to the bank holiday, and yet there was no extension to the 6pm closing time. We arrived early again to find Ice Blast, Alice, Derby Racer and the entirety of Nickelodeon Land opening at 11am! Nick Land was completely fenced off until 11, which was utterly useless when you consider that getting on the Streak early is the only way to avoid waiting an eternity for it. The coasters due to open at 10:30am were closer to 11 by the time they actually opened, meaning that for the first hour, the only ride in the entire park open was Flying Machines! The Big One and Icon's operations were woefully slow on the Sunday, I have never seen such slow dispatch times in all my visits to the Pleasure Beach. Icon was stacking for 5 minutes each time, meaning it took us 10 minutes to get off the thing, since we had to wait in two places as the ride was on 3 trains. 450pph was calculated I believe which is just abysmal, also bearing in mind that the Speedy Pass queue was enormous. Icon had major capacity problems with it starting the day on 2 trains both times, at which point it was moving the queue reasonably, but they would then hold it up to add on the third train at around midday (which took them 20 minutes to do on the Sunday), after which operations slowed down to an absolute snail's pace. This caused the queue to overspill the extended queueline; past the entrance gate, all the way down the path next to it and back up, and overflowing out next to the Icon shop. It would then hardly move for the rest of the day making for some utterly horrible wait times. Despite the park being absolutely heaving, Grand National, Ghost Train and River Caves closed an hour early at 5pm due to a private event?! This was absolute madness given how busy the park was, and again, I have never seen anything like it. I've tried to see the good in the Pleasure Beach, but Sunday was an utter shambles and the worst day I've ever spend at BPB.

I agree that if Thorpe really have to go down the IP route, a Black Mirror retheme to X would have worked much better, suited the ride more than Walking Dead and still kept it accessible to families (which, you know, is always a good idea for a family coaster!). X with the lighting effects etc. would have worked well, IMO.

I like the Smiler and Wicker Man soundtracks, and I didn't mind ITHOTMK being used on The Smiler - it's just that when it's on too many rides, in my opinion it becomes same-y. Wicker Man's soundtrack would work better without it (and its own theme in its place), IMO. That is of course subjective though as you've said. In relation to ITHOTMK - I agree it has a unique feel about it as the park's overall theme but I'm just not a fan of themes being over-used. Imagine if theme parks like Phantasialand (for example) used the same motif on every ride, it wouldn't have the same appeal where every ride/area has its own identity.

I was of the impression the bit about the ride system was common knowledge, but if I've misunderstood then I stand corrected. In relation to the space, am I correct in thinking that Gangsta Granny was built in an existing building? In which case, it again comes down to a park of Alton Towers' size and stature not being given the funds to build from the ground up. From the outside they've just repurposed old buildings again, it's a common trait in Merlin owned parks and something I find rarely achieves the same as a brand new ride or area. Whilst W&G was too a repurposed attraction the length and space was much more suitable. IMO, a better use of space would have been to use the CATCF ride and building, shame that was used for an upcharge Dungeon.

Eh?

I don't agree with this, with stops over a minute in length and 6 seater ride vehicles (I believe), that seems to me like a recipe for low capacity. The logic of "it's not the flagship ride, so capacity doesn't matter" is nonsense. Why not run Duel on 1 car if capacity doesn't matter?!

I'm criticising the ride's throughput and capacity, not the ride itself. It looks like they've done a great job with the interior.

Early days I know but this doesn't look very inspiring. Chessington need a high capacity family-thrill coaster IMO, not a boomerang style ride.

I watched the Gangsta Granny POV, it looks fun but I think the ride is ultimately flawed in that it has to stop multiple times for long periods of time so that it lasts more than 30 seconds. The very short layout means running as a constantly moving ride wouldn't really work - but doesn't this in turn mean that the throughput will be extremely low? Towers look to have done a great job with the ride system they have, but the issue is that it's yet another case of Merlin underfunding a project and giving them a second-hand ride system not designed for a park as busy as Alton. I'd have rather seem something like W&G for the ride system (8 seater vehicles, constantly moving, a much longer layout) than essentially 3 corners which stop constantly.

I don't particularly like Alton Towers having every ride using ITHOTMK, I know it's an iconic theme associated with the park but it's not very creative. It gives the rides/areas no identity and everything just blends into one IMO. Alton don't even own that music! It is in Colossus and Nemesis Inferno's IMAScore themes, and was played in the queues when I last visited (2019) from what I remember.

Everything having exactly the same theme is really getting boring now. Some creativity please!!

I mean, I first visited Fright Nights age 11 and started enjoying scare mazes from that age, I had done other (scarier) attractions younger than that such as the Horror Hotel at Littlehampton. Really don't see the need to tame things down for families, they are called scare attractions for a reason. Look at Creepy Caves! CWOA is hardly a thrill park yet that's more intense than anything Thorpe has produced in years.

I recall one time pre-COVID when we boarded the train as riders were still leaving. They definitely didn't always clean the headsets in between rides.

Blackpool Pleasure Beach's new soundtrack is now available on iTunes and has also been uploaded to YouTube; Full version; Pop version; I absolutely adore these soundtracks, it feels like they have had real care and attention put into them with so many PB sounds and quotes from the Thompsons integrated and the singer's vocals are stunning. In particular the full version - just incredible.

Paultons was indeed excellent on Sunday. Tornado Springs is a stunning new area and Storm Chaser is an incredible addition to the park. I really like how it's a coaster of two halves, you get the calmer first half with views around the park, then you dive into the helix which is packed full of force before the final few turns throw you around a bit before you reach the brakes. Genuinely, I think it's the best Mack coaster in the country. It left me with a real "wow" feeling when I hit the brake run on every ride, and had me eager to get straight back on. As others had said, it does outclass the other rides in terms of throughput, but it also looks very promising for the park's future. Just a brilliant, delightful area and the very best of UK parks at the moment.

Why are they replacing the Bose speakers, out of interest? Surely these are pretty expensive and therefore installed with longevity in mind?

If they are able to find a suitable alternative which enables those who need it to have access but without situations such as 1 hour RAP queues like in those photos - that would of course be the best solution. However - is that possible?

I'd suggest promising them RAP access and them then having to wait an hour on a crowded path not even designed for queueing is more unfair, in all honesty.

It's great I think if more people are being diagnosed correctly, however, I feel that the current RAP queueing situation is worse for everyone. One fast moving queue would surely be better for those whom currently use RAP, as well as guests using the main queues.