Coaster

Virtual Reality has made its debut in UK theme parks as well as worldwide, with mixed reception. In your opinion, does VR have a place in theme parks?

The replacement of an ornamental carousel with rich paintings of the park's history with one that "has animals on it" doesn't impress me.

Regarding the opening the date, the banner outside Bubbleworks said March 2017; Also, is it just me that was hoping for a completely new exterior for Gruffalo, and one that didn't detract from the rest of the area? Going by the photos showing the exact same facade in different colours, it still looks like Bubbleworks, except that it'll clash with the colour palette of the area now. Is this really the standard we have come to expect from a "retheme?"

Are they actually just going to paint it green?! Was it too much to expect a completely refreshed exterior, that had no resemblance to Bubbleworks, rather than (what looks like) the same exterior painted over in green. It'll look so out of place, not to mention the fact that, unless more work happens, it'll just look like Bubbleworks but green.

Trouble is, "live action" probably just means more people poking you whilst you watch the VR. I hope they introduce some real entertainment to the train section.

Nonsense, there's loads of parks smaller than Thorpe (in terms of ground space) that cater for the whole family.

http://www.itv.com/news/2016-12-22/derren-brown-thorpe-park-advert-banned-for-being-too-scary/

A park should have enough rides in each category so that it appeals to everyone IMO, otherwise there's the problem of not enough to entertain a whole family - not everyone is a thrillseeker etc...

I didn't go on expecting it to be a top 10 ride and I'm not saying it's any worse for not being in my top 10; as a coaster experience it's a lot of fun and when you consider that it's a portable coaster, the history behind it and that it has come to the UK for the first time, it really is amazing. However, it has been overhyped a lot IMO, and whilst I understand how lucky we are to have it here, I used the "top 10" example to give a sense of how I liked it, but didn't find it "phenomenal."

There were screens in some other rooms I'm sure, e.g. the projected faces and one in the Sweeney Todd scene. I agree the new Great Fire of London scene is better than the Tooley Street one, that was awful!

Waiting from outside the pay booths, we were on within 25 minutes.

They show a scene overlooking London on fire, it's effective but when combined with use of screens in quite a few other rooms, it becomes a bit same-y IMO.

There seemed to be more screens than last time I did the new Dungeons (must be about two years ago now), e.g. the new Great Fire of London scene. I found that the Ten Bells Pub scene would have benefited from louder audio, as it doesn't build up the atmosphere enough Also, IMO the appearance of Jack the Ripper isn't great as the strobes are on for too long, and it was much more effective in the old Dungeon where he stood on the ledge and swiped out at the crowd, rather than walking around the room whilst the strobe goes off twice; before it had the effect of "did I just see that?" rather than "oh, he doesn't actually look that scary." Just my opinion though.

Forgot to mention the bus actually, is it supposed to move? It didn't yesterday.

Boat ride? Hmph. Must have been broken today, however we weren't informed on arrival, just skipped past it. Mixed bag in the rest of the Dungeons, some actors were fantastic (in particular the Pie Shop scene) whereas others were less so, though overall was enjoyable. It still feels like a corporate building rather than a dungeon which isn't helped by the low and unthemed ceilings; the taller ceilings in the Tooley Street Dungeon added to the effect of being in a dungeon and made it a much more authentic experience, this is lost in the new Dungeon which is void of any atmosphere and feeling of immersion. I found that some of the rooms were too dark, which is probably to try to hide the ceiling, however it also hides the theming! Jack the Ripper scene was still poorly executed, the strobe goes on for too long and the sound effects aren't loud enough IMO. Too many screens!

Wasn't too impressed by Shrek's Adventure in all honesty, it relied far too much on screens for my liking and there was little in the way of animated figures, Shrek hardly made an appearance (aside from on screens - not much in person) and there wasn't even a scene in his house! One of my least favourite things was the lack of creativity put into the whole attraction; many of the features are the exact same ones as those used next door (in the Dungeons)! Examples of this are the "leech" chairs, the projected face of Shrek and the mirror maze... come on, put some new ideas in rather than reusing the same ones! Some aspects were good (lighting effects) but, IMO, it's not great.

Went on Olympia Looping for the first time today, got the back row and had a night ride. It's certainly impressive to watch and looks superb at night. It was running three trains during my visit which meant that there was some interaction between them, as well as a good throughput! Onto the coaster itself, I thought it was "good," but not outstanding. There was some good force at points, such as the second loop, and the exit from the third. I didn't find it very intense aside from the odd forceful moment, however the ride duration was good. The first drop looked a lot better than it was, as did the loop that followed, however the second and third loops were the highlight for me as well as some of the turns near the end, which packed a punch. Unfortunately the ride was somewhat ruined by the restraints which tightened throughout to the point where they were very uncomfortable throughout the second half of the ride. With that said, it's amazing that such a huge coaster can travel around, and I enjoyed it, but it's nowhere near my top 10! Also went on Wilde Maus XXL which was good, and great that the trims were off! Also, Chessington, THIS is how you should be operating Rattlesnake! Haunted Mansion was good with lots of scares, and Ski Jump was pretty good as well.

The one at Chessington is manufactured by Zierer according to Wikipedia, so is a different ride. Things like Sea Storm, Rainforest Rescue, the sort of rides you see in Thomas Land or Nickelodeon Land. If the rides at Thorpe are given a complete overhaul to bring them up to theme park standards, I'll happily take what I've said back, but I think it's unlikely that much will happen beyond installing the rides. Octopus Gardens could have been developed on the basis of remove a ride and replace, then repeat. They could install a few rides for more adventurous families, such as one of the ones mentioned above. Regarding Zodiac, Samurai and Detonator, they're not really of theme park standard IMO, but Detonator does its job well - Samurai used to when it ran properly!

I actually give up with the media... Like, they actually think it's going to be 643 feet high?

That castle is filthy, how Chessington/Merlin can look at that and go "meh, that'll do" is beyond me. "Magical World?" Yeah, right.

They focused on thrills for a long time, but I don't remember them actively pushing away families until around 2012ish? By not permanent I mean it appears to be a ride that can just be set up, much like a fair ride. Unless I'm wrong, aren't Griffin's Galleon, Heave Ho and Longboat Invader much larger models of the ride?

It's not the target market for these rides that's being ridiculed, it's the quality; they're not permanent theme park rides, and they've essentially been thrown in on a shoestring budget because the park hasn't got enough for families. Introducing two cheap, temporary rides whilst Loggers continues to fester and installing nothing in the way of permanent additions is going to cause (justified IMO) criticism. Moving on to their lack of direction, I think that anyone could have told them that pushing families away wasn't going to work, theme parks are supposed to appeal to and entertain everyone in concept and Thorpe was built originally as a family park. Octopus Gardens could have been redeveloped (and by that I don't mean a Loggers style fence around it) with new rides instead of Storm Surge. Regards the family ride lineup and exaggeration of rides being removed, the park already had a very limited lineup of rides that appeal to families, so the removals and closures there have been make the situation far worse as there is now a serious lack of quality family rides. Canada Creek has hardly been rethemed aside from the name change, unless they're going for "abandoned theme park."

I'd take real, fun, spectacular theming and effects over projections or screens; the fountain finale (original, not the half-baked version we saw in recent years) far surpasses anything Merlin will do as a piece of quality entertainment with a brilliant soundtrack to match. Not to mention that if The Smiler is anything to go by, the projection mapping will probably be off, poorly alligned or showing the Windows logo within a few weeks of the ride opening.

Post of the year!