pluk

I'm too ashamed to join in this one this year.

I have new little obsession after seeing Caravan Palace on Later... last week.

It is a tough one. Park does good work, loads of money to charity, I'm sure everything has the best care possible in the circumstances, yada yada yada. But there is no denying, those Orcas are so bloody huge there is not really an acceptable space to keep them in. Nothing humans could build realistically would be. They probably shouldn't be there, and you don't really need a Dr, vet, expert or documentary to be able to see that.

... also thought today, how bizarre is it to have an attraction which is closed for the entirety of the peek period of interest in it? Literally the day after the park closed the celebs for this year were announced and will be shoved down our throats for the next couple of months, before all being well over and forgotten by the time this thing opens again in March!

Where can Towers lose that many staff from without it seriously damaging their ability to deliver a day out? As has been said, surely this will really be the 'equivalent' of that many jobs, with the less hours people will be contracted to work next year. Are there even 190 permanent staff at the resort?! If there are that many people who are expendable to the running of the place then what the hell have they been doing previously?! While what has happened this year is pretty much unprecedented both in Merlin and in the industry as a whole, so there is no real comparison to make against previous reactions and recoveries, I can't help feel that they have started to get their response wrong now. Yes, a bad year, yes it's a hell of a financial hit, but surely the way of recovery lies in spending their way out, in presenting the park in the best way possible and delivering a truly great experience, rather than making big sweeping cuts? Surely this will just give people further reason not to visit, quite the opposite of encouraging them back? Although it's something called for from enthusiasts pretty much continuously, now must be the time to hit the park hard with presentation enhancements; people will be looking for things that are run down and give the appearance of being unloved as an indication on the maintenance, and therefore safely, not being right. People must look at things like bits hanging off the Nemesis station and think 'if that's the bits they are happy for us to see, how bad are the backstage areas' in the same way you do at the toilets in a restaurant. Will be interesting to see what sort of park we get up there when the gates open at the start of next season. If they are going to turn this around then it better be good...

Next year will be the last for San Diego Orca show, I can see the other parks following soon... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-34773179

Just in case the rumours are true and loggers has leaped its last I took a final ride on it yesterday with a little tear of nostalgia in my eye. Hopefully the rumours prove to be unfounded, but as a betting man my money is remaining safely in my pocket...

Cats love you because you feed them. Nothing more. The whiskers dries up the cat will wander off to someone who can provide. A dog will die of starvation by your side. Dogs win.

Did look out for you yesterday, assumed you wouldn't have bothered with the lack of stealth! The rule is nuts. Bottom lime is if you want to get out you can get out, but anyone with an ounce of sense knows not to. You can't rule out utter utter buffoonery on that level.

Another first time of being bothered to do something yesterday. Thought this was alright really. It's no pirates (and pirates should never have left as everything since has been money spent on making something worse, which is the worst kind of 'investment' there is), some of the effects are a bit repetitive (and the water a bit aggressive!), but overall a fun little thing and I'm glad the theater is back. I find the whole of the Angry Birds Land 'theming' less offensive than I did at first, it's still tat though.

My first time in IAC yesterday. As someone with zero interest in the program and having heard many bad things I went in with zero expectations, but you know what? I don't think it's that bad really. It doesn't start well; of all the attractions in the world one supposedly set inside a secluded jungle could do without the cattle-pen on slab of tarmac look, especially when there's as much space to play with as they have there, and should be winding among trees and reeds instead obviously. But once inside I was actually quite impressed with how they've used the space and made it look. The theming itself is pretty good and immersive, although they don't seem to know what to do with some of the rooms they have been given and some of the tricks are a bit weak; there should be things like air jets and water sprays in the hand holes, and the booths should have things falling, air jets, vibrating floors etc without fail. Overall though, the basis of what is there is actually pretty solid. Where it falls down most is in two big areas. The first is the throughput, which is worse than dire. They must have know roughly how many people would be able to get through it, so how something this low got to be built as a standard attraction is baffling. The second is the lack of point to what is going on. Ant and Dec should set the challenge in their video, but don't. The staff try hard to pump some enthusiasm and narrative into it, but really they struggle to find a reason to make you bothered. Win some stars, or you can't have dinner, now you lose all your stars, so no dinner after all... do you want a photo, exit through the shop full of sweets. It makes no sense and lacks any real (or decently perceived) risk or reward to motivate any point to the whole thing. In my mind both of these things are fixable with one big change in the operation. This should clearly be a stand alone up-charge attraction. With a few tweaks to the tasks it is of sufficient quality to justify a charge for a timed ticket. Maybe slow things down a little further still to give more of an experience and allow for some real competition between the group. Have an actual prize to win, to play for against your group. That would actually be fun! That ship may have sailed, it having been 'free' for a year people would probably begrudge being asked to pay. But I can't really see any other way of rescuing the otherwise good work they have done here.

Having ridden yesterday, I like what X has become; good and dark with some decent lighting. The coaster itself is a fun little thing really. Scruffy as hell though around the queue line and station, a bit of effort and money could improve it massively.

I know what you mean. It's just nice when people have a bit of care and interest in what they are doing, even if they don't much want to be doing it.

Nice. If only that were Alton's valley.

No queue would mean no fastrack potential, and that ain't gonna happen! Hopefully they do mean something along the lines of Hex; at what point could you say you are actually queuing for that? At no point once you are inside, arguably. The queue lines marked on the plans suggest standard switchback queuing will happen.

What a bizarre idea for an attraction. Surely Fallon has pretty much no international appeal, and with viewing figures of about 3 million in a country the size of America quite a limited following at home. Odd.

That really is looking great!

You make it sound quite a lot like you are currently in jail?!

I think it is also quite easy to lose a sense of scale when looking into a big warehouse type space with nothing much going on for reference points. There's still some big ol' spaces in there!

Exactly what I was thinking... As has been said, this clearly isn't going to be 'Derren Brown - The Ride'. That would just be weird. But I also expect his input to be much more than a celebrity name slapped across the press releases (like the toe curling cringe worthy Jack Osborne / Nemesis SubTerror stuff), because he has far too much to lose if his name is tainted by mediocrity. Surely that 'Autonomon' trademark from months ago will be for this? It is full of cogs, and is directly a thing he has done which also has some real scope for development into a story that could suit an attraction... I can imagine a scenario where the attraction is sold as 'Derren Brown present Autonomons' and invites you to see his autonomon from the old show (footage and the backstory from the show would make decent queue line/pre-show material to develop the storyline) in the dilapidated Victorian theater. Inside the attraction we see the autonomon where Derren demonstration it and explains he has developed it into other more advanced examples, which you go and see. These, it turns out, are so advanced that they understand they are not human and want to be, so try to take your brain. Hence 'Minds Wanted'. The autonomons attacking you trying to take your mind forming the ride part of the experience, whatever that ride system may be, escaping from the show building into the underground system bellow. Maybe the autonomons can't hear or understand humans, just like in the original show, but rather than reacting to the bell they react to screams, so if you scream they get you, if you manage not scream you escape. This could tie in with the stitched mouth images, and could lead to a multi-option ride story/experience/finale as is being hinted at. Or maybe not, I have no idea! But I am really quite excited to see what this develops into though, and I completely trust Derren Brown to make it something special if he really is as deeply involved in this as I hope he is.

I did not know about this happening!

I think that was from the video Thorpe posted at midnight. This has made it into the mainstream press too! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/11954509/Derren-Brown-launches-Thorpe-Park-psychological-ride.html

A 13 minute experience, not ride. I'd be very surprised to see a ride lasting that long, I'd think this time would include any pre-show, walk through or whatever other gubbins is going to go on in there...