Coaster

That really isn't good, if the opening is delayed (or even has a chance of being delayed) then they should be making people aware of it.

A hyper could potentially make use of the park space as well with careful planning - therefore it wouldn't have to be confined to one site.

An interesting interview with Amanda Thompson: http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/news/amanda-we-have-an-amazing-story-to-tell-1-7876786 This particular quote confirms that a major new ride will open in 2018;

Adding a second train if the queue builds? That's an alien concept around here!

Just a small point, it now requires you to log in with your display name rather than user name (not sure if this was intentional or not).

I'm not sure about that, but according to the British Dark Rides documentary the budget was initially going to be spent on restoring Duel to the Haunted House.

It's even worse when you find out what they were originally planning to spend that money on!

There are rumours of it either being removed or rethemed (possibly including an IP). Nothing solid though.

Isn't something happening with Bubbleworks for next year?

Juvelen looks like a good family coaster, something like that would be a good investment for Chessington IMO.

Can anyone pinpoint any potential manufacturers for those two concepts based on the pictures?

Ah, I haven't seen it for myself but was under the impression it was boarded up!Is the small Tavern-style part closed as well?

Apparently not, the whole courtyard BBQ area is closed.

Now that's just ridiculous!

It was a joke (or rather, an attempt at humour).

There shouldn't be any actors aside from themed ride staff, previous Merlin attractions have proved that they are just not sustainable in the long run and the attraction will feel incomplete if/when they are cut. Regarding the Ghost Train, I have a theory. Loggers site was closed for construction, and the DBGT warehouse houses nothing more than the start of a tunnel (seen in the recent promo video) which leads to the CCR station (which will be boarded up), from there you go round the old railway route with VR goggles on. Okay, maybe not but it's an idea!

Still? That's awful, they are well into the main season now!

Wait are actors confirmed in this?

Really not impressed with what the new management are doing with the place, it seems to be a case of removing lots of rides without replacement. So far Speed Wave, Waltzers, Crazy Boats, Mirror Maze and the Sky Flyer (only arrived last year!) have been removed with only Disko as a replacement. They are also not maintaining the effects in the two dark rides as well as Cadell did from what I've heard. Xtreme is very visible from outside the park which is important for a seaside park relying on walking trade, removing it is a bad move.

Seriously?!

It certainly looks like it could be a racing coaster of some sort, but could it be drawn like that just for clearance/other reasons?

Urgh (at the "wizard" thing).

It does look very much like a wooden coaster layout (please!!) but I'm not getting my hopes up until there's further evidence.

To be fair, older wooden coasters in the UK are (or were in some cases) much more intense than Vampire and were around long before it. In terms of modern steel coasters I do get your point (although there were more intense rides than Vampire around at the time, but on a smaller scale than nowadays). Regarding the theatrical aspect of the ride, it does look good swinging across Transylvania, it's just a shame that the station and area has had some of its atmosphere removed over the years.

That makes sense given the circumstances, but when it gets to the stage where they are having to prioritise when to run it due to unreliability, surely it's time for a replacement? (And I'm not talking about replacing it with a pay-extra game, an actual ride please!) If Samurai offered something unique then I would understand the reasoning for Thorpe keeping it, but better Topscans can be found both at fairs and parks across the UK, and Samurai seems to have been limping along for years now.