pluk

If I wanted cultivated plants... I agree the railway should still be in use, by which I mean it should never have been retired not that there is any prospect of them restoring it.

Like Bubble Works before it, the original awesome Rameses died long ago. The casual swinging about it has been doing for the last decade or so was not what should have been. The park continues in a direction I don't care for.

As you've identified yourself, no criminal offence has occurred. The police are not civil enforcement, nothing for them here.

I've always wondered why this doesn't happen more often, especially in our marketing over substance driven times. You make a significant investment, typical guests turn up to ride it once that first season to try it and then are looking for another reason (or somewhere else with something newer) to visit a couple of years later. Stick a small investment year cost level upgrade on it a few years down the line and you have a headline attraction marketable as new again rather than some crappy sideshow size addition that noone really cares about.

Fastrack please.

Looking into yesterday's incident it a little further, the inquest into this rides fatality in Australia cited a serious design flaw in the airmaxx 360's restraints with excessive gaps to the front and side between the OTSR and seat. That being the case you'd expect to see some amendments made to the restraints wouldn't you? Well... Australia, immediately after fatality Hull, immediately after this incident Restrain appears identical to me. They do look incredibly narrow leaving a big gap between each shoulder. Will be interesting to find out the build of this rider and whether they have let history repeat itself.

China - three year old child and their mother dies after theme park helium balloon ride breaks moorings and ascends rapidly into the atmosphere before rupturing and falling to the ground.

Woman seriously injured at Hull Goose Fair. Ejected from a ride, looking at the picture it's the Airmax 360. These do not have a great safety record. Reads like she may have collided with a bystander as she fell, no indication of their injuries, if any.

It should not be possible for that part of the ride to operate while the main cable is inactive. If the main cable was inactive that would suggest suggests the ride had effectively been e-stopped, but not all parts of the ride had halted at the same time. All educated guesswork bit either way that this can happen at all suggests strongly a hardware/software failure, not human error.

Looping returns. Hollenblitz continues its absence. If anything new is attending I'd like to hear about it!

Looks like the station rail and feeder has kept moving when the cable has been stopped, so the gondalas leaving the station had nowhere to go and bunched up. Obviously that should not be allowed to happen!

I'd forgotten I'd put myself through this a couple of weeks back. It doesn't spin, there are no pads. The boats are ankle deep in water. They leave the water curtain on in cold drizzly weather. The staff don't care if you sit with your feet up, cross legged, etc. Which is fun I suppose but I'm guessing not compliant with their own operating guidance and asking for an incident really. They've somehow managed to make the position of it even more if a nonsense with the pointless blocking in of X. It sucks. It sucks as hard as it is possible to suck.

To clarify the mechanics of this, the last car derailed on the long sweeping turn after a loop, leaving the track and coliding with a support beam then the ground. It looks like the fatalities would have been pretty much instantaneous. As a side note, the same ride was involved in an accident at Flamingo land when it stuck a worker who found himself somehow in the trains path.

Australia - Young girl injures arm on weird double axis booster type contraption.

If it wasn't for the glare of those lights you'd just be able to make out the figure of Mandy in that cab, laughing demonically as she swings the leavers knowing that with every swipe she is not just tearing down wood but also tearing a chunk out of the heart of geeks everywhere.

An ideal couple of coasters for the place. I really liked the 'old park / new park' definition between the two areas, a little shame that this newness encroaches on the traditional side rather than adding to the more modern side where the rides are a bit sparse and could definaely take some additions. Tripsdrill remains a park I will happily travel well out of may way for, a couple of new bits may well persuade me to do just that.

That'll mostly be it then. I love me a sustained g manoeuvre, a real brain draining sustained force. But if that is not for you then there's not much about Swarm that would be! It is too short, the station is dire (especially now it has been unclad), the theme is dull, but I've come to love what there actually is of the actual ride. It has worn in superbly.

An excellent post, thanks for that. I'm intrigued as to what you (and maybe Merlin) did envisage for this plot of land? I do struggle to understand how something as deeply flawed and conceptually misguided actually happens, especially when money is so tight the parks are crumbling around whatever is new. I also wonder, why this plot of land? As you point out, there have been other options since well before DBGT, and it seems ever since they removed the previously under used arena they've been trying fit events into unsuitable places when an arena type space is exactly what they needed!

It's surely only a matter of time before Swarm billboard becomes an actual billboard for real ads?

Stealth was outstanding today. No queue at all but they were still storming the dispatches. I didn't see a moment's down time or delay. Repeat front row rides for me. That has to be the single best coater experience in the county. It's incredible and I'll never tire of it.

Second ever ride on the train for me today, first in its ROTD guise. It's fair to say there have been improvements over the first effort. - The sound is hugely better and isolating - The graphics seem smoother, if just as low quality - The second ride VR section is much better than playstation 1 apocalypse - The post show incident gives the ride its only opportunity to provide an actual scare, and goes some way to delivering it But it is nowhere near enough to save this utter turkey - Throughput is minuscule, queuing is ssllllooooowwwww and not close to worth the reward of riding - The staff approach is all over the place. Real aggressive introduction about phone use, not sure if that is supposed to be a 'character' or just a real obnoxious way to make a point? - The second room 'pre-show' immediately prior to the train entrance is downright bizarre. A stumbling attempt to be jokey, bring someone from the front to the back, do nothing with them, clap them(?), bang a door, go through the door. WOT? A pre-boarding stall I imagine, but just in every way possible from pacing to storytelling to atmosphere to point, utterly wrong. - The 'middle-show' is immeasurably worse. The old concept of being in a tunnel with no obvious way out and simulate a train approaching was actually a really good idea poorly done. Walking into a dark room where nothing happens before being turned round to walk back out of it is a really bad idea poorly done. Getting on and off the train doesn't even make sense in the narrative any more. - The second VR I can't quite get my head around. Augmented reality would have been hugely better rather than pretend augmented reality, but whatever. This breaks the fourth wall of suspension of belief the ride is asking us to make; the whole point seemed to be that the hyper reality of the simulation of being on a train would be the driver behind messing with your mind in that relate-able, mundane situation. You are now looking at people, like you, who are clearly on a theme park ride of a train, not an actual underground train. What am I supposed to do with this in the context of the narrative? - While we are on the second VR, the image quality as a whole is better than it was, but why is the main character we are supposed to scared of so poorly defined? For the most part it is an indistinguishable fuzzy blob floating around the screen about as menacingly as a rain cloud. - The laboured situation and 'acting' to hold people in the post-show goes a long way to ruining an otherwise decent effect. They may as well put up a big flashing sign saying 'wait a mo, something else is going to happen'. There must be a better, more natural way. Overall, there is no getting away from the fact that the whole thing is an ACTUAL TRAIN SIMULATOR. Not a rocket to the moon. Not a flight on an X wing. Not dive in a submarine. Not a time travelling jump in a Delorean. Why? I can get on a train, I don't need it simulated. I want fantasy. There is nothing fantastical about this Ghost Train. I honestly do not think it is rescuable. It's sad, but the whole concept is so deeply flawed I really feel the best thing to do would be to rip it out and start again. At the moment it is just a very expensive way to damage your brand and reputation.

First time ride for me today. - It's really well hidden and has broken the flow around the area. No approach from Storm Surge, cut off the walkway around the store, and actual entrance isn't even in view when you commit to the path that only goes to it. All for an 'exit through the shop' opportunity? - Pre-show is OK, doesn't rely too heavily on having to know TWD already. - Long smelly corridors on entrance and exit remain long and smelly. No actors today. - Requiring two riders per row remains an incredibly dumb and troublesome rule. - The little scenes you shoot through are passable, the last one with the screens is the best but hardly breathtaking. - The ride is too light throughout to be dark. Highlights the overall poor nature of the hardware the dark can disguise quite well. It's so obviously a kiddie/family coaster with an adult theme. That being a thing is still just mental. Overall? Meh. It was far more enjoyable in its previous guise as a pointless but straight up cheesy fun rave coaster in the dark. I'd happily ride X a couple of times any visit, I'm not sure I'd want to bother going back on TWD ever again really.

This was being advertised today on the screens in Inferno queue. A clothing range. Really adds to the tropical volcano theming I'm sure you'll agree.

Sometimes being in any way associated with the enthusiast community I want to cringe myself to death. This is one of those times.

Couple of my non geek work mates went to Thorpe on Friday not knowing anything much about DBGT. Having ridden they were very annoyed that they had 'wasted' 45 minutes to queue for this. Their reviews to me: "I've had more fun on the actual underground train playing candy crush on my phone" "What's the point? It's just shit" Hard to argue with that really!