stretchy

I am surprised that no one has picked out the odd wording. . 'something new is brewing' - well that has nothing to do with Darren's Brown Goat Training (Training brown goats since 1871). Brewing? Hmm... Are we going to see a maze themed around my favorite subject -- Beer ? p.s. the cabin sign was up on MAP day. I just think they didn't bother taking it down last year,

Also check out MSQRD. That has face swap as one of the many really cool facey things you can do, like........ face swap videos, or my favorite, become a zombie. What is cool about MSQRD is that the face mapping on the app makes the figure do the same expressions. Also Free http://msqrd.me/ (want to see why it is better, just go to a google image or video search)

I am sure thorpe will open Derren Brown in a similar way

If you want to have a play with it yourself you can book a session on them at a few places. I did this the other weekend an did a review from the slant of being a theme park enthusiast over on the main site. p.s. You don't realise how good the experience is unless you try yourself so go and book up for an experience. http://www.thorpeparkmania.co.uk/articles/27-03-2016/HTC+VIVE+-+Review+from+a+theme+park+perspective EDIT -- Fixed meaning changing typo - thanks Ian

I normally just search on vouchercodes or hotukdeals. They change frequently so I have just put the links to the full lists. http://www.vouchercodes.co.uk/draytonmanor.co.uk http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/draytonmanor.co.uk

I'm not sure if this is the right thread for this. I wonder what B&M think about one of their coasters being in this: Please note, it is a bit morbid and its not for the feint hearted really. http://io9.gizmodo.com/a-man-embraces-his-grim-fate-with-daredevil-flair-in-th-1768966491

If you do I would suggest that you book sooner rather than later

I was on park today and just to give you a clue on how bad the hail and thunder was, here is a picture. By the way, power was out for less than 10 minutes and was a power cut in the north end of the park only.

Are those new trains or just re-themed #trains?

Galactica started with a soft opening at 12:15 today. For anyone who hasn't read any reviews, we will be doing a mini live tomorrow at live.towersnerd.com with loads of pics of the area, queue line and any changes we find.

I'm going to have to back out of this trip sorry guys. I recently realised that I was watching Jean Michael Jarre at Jodrell bank that same evening.

Quite a nice little article about it. http://arstechnica.co.uk/gaming/2016/03/planet-coaster-theme-park-sim-alpha-preview/ For you alpha users:

The first ride of the day was populated by Park Management.

Mark me down as attending please Peaj.

Well we are currently running at just under one page per day (11 pages /13 days ) so I estimate that we will have 150 pages by the time we get some solid news (I.e. planning permission) as they normally put planning permission in around the end of august beginning September a year and a half before it goes live if they are planning a SW.

not a bad article over at Engadget http://www.engadget.com/2016/03/18/galactica-vr-roller-coaster/in I find it interesting that even he, a tech reporter, seems to think that it will be a slow process dispatching trains.

I recognise the formula in the 4th pic is the solving for x of a quadratic equation. Oddly I cant see anything that would need that on that sheet. Also there is a repeated use of the word Tarot.

Interesting reactions from the news person there. At the end of that piece I was convinced that the guy who was at Alton Towers hates theme parks. The words he used and the inflections he used and more importantly the expressions on his face as he was saying them felt to me like he had been told to say that there was lots of checking going on and he personally didn't believe theme parks were safe. Maybe that is just my 'pro theme park' biased view reading of his expressions.

Nope its actually a huge pack of Chilli Xtra Strong Mints. Nothing to see here. Move along.

In case you are not aware of such a thing - May I present to you the concept of Thesaurus :- A thesaurus is like a dictionary but it tells you words that mean similar to your word. So I thought of 3 words Fan, Mania and Expert and plumbed them into the thesaurus http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/fan?s=t http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/mania?s=t http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/expert?s=t How about ThemeParkDementia or CoasterDementia CoastersOnTheBrain CoasterLunacy ThemeParkGuru NOTE I have done NO research to see if these names already exist. I like Theme Park Dementia the most mainly because it invokes an image of someone who has forgotten how to do life's basic things like getting dressed in the morning due to too much coastering, basically me EDIT ::: I have just re-read this and the top sounded a bit belittling - this was meant as a helpful post and is not meant to be demeaning or sarcastic.

I totally agree that this is meant to be a short term fix to bring back the crowds. BUT I believe it has been on the table since well lbefore the Smiler Accident.

What is it about the newness that excites? I don't think it is the newness that excites. If, a theme park got a new ride and it was aimed at the under 5's then to be honest I wouldn't care about it at all. That isn't the kind or ride that would get me to go to a theme park. It is only when a new ride is interesting, unique or recommended via word of mouth that I start getting excited. How important is it to tell a story in each ride? That totally depends on the ride. A rollercoaster doesn't need a story, but a story can add to the experience. BUT, whatever the ride, I think it needs to guide you through an experience. To be honest it depends what you want to do. If you want to tell a story the story is the important part and the ride system is just a vehicle to tell that story. If you just want to give a ride then that is equally fine. I prefer being told a story, but only if that story is engaging and full. If not then I don't see the benefit over a basic ride. The fact that Nemesis is a monster has no affect on how frequently I re-ride it but it did excite me the first time I rode. Are there rides that give you the same enjoyment each time? Yes, Nemesis (brilliant ride), Hex (watching newbies on it is fun) and 13 (also the reactions of people who have never ridden is priceless) at Alton Towers

Universal California is getting a permanent horror maze based on Walking Dead - http://io9.gizmodo.com/universal-studios-is-making-the-walking-dead-a-permanen-1764725523

The grass is a brilliant touch.

Yesterday we joining the queue at 14:05 and got into the ride at 15:45. It was the first time I had done it. My thoughts. The actors were good, they all, without fail, acted their hearts out. The experience didn't quite knit together correctly I answered incorrectly in the booth and nothing happened. In fact all of the challenges were kindergarten level The only vaguely interesting challenge was the star one, which got people working as a team. If it wasn't for the acting it would have been a pathetic experience, The actors brought it up to an ok experience.