Flipper

Not the clearest photos but just grabbed these from Google (credit to their sources which I didn’t take note of sorry) Also sorry posting from phone so IDK how they’re gonna upload.

Regardless of what or how Tomb is perceived, by guests or the park or whomever there’s no doubting it could be far better for little effort. I’m unsure how many on here have been to Gardaland, but for those who haven’t I’d recommend watching a video of Ramses: il Risevigo - it was a simple Egyptian dark ride that got a wacky overhaul. It uses the same guns and targets (to memory) as Tomb. It’s pretty static. And it plays a song throughout on loop. BUT it’s a fun, tidy, shoot ride. Tomb could do the same with a little effort. It would almost be simplifying it to make it reliable, and that’s kind of okay? I’d rather have a simple ride that had working lighting sound and simple effects, over something that doesn’t perform as expected.

I’m not disputing any of what you’ve said; and before I say this I want to point out I grew up with Pleasure Beach, and hold a soft spot for it even though I visit maybe once a year now. But. Valhalla. Everything you’ve said, it’s reflectable onto Valhalla also. The ride was in such an abysmal way it needed to be overhauled a few years ago. The exterior was rotten through to framework, effects didn’t work and were subsequently removed etc. and that was an award winning ride. I’m not knocking that maintenance should be far higher on the scale than it is. But I think the problem lies that Merlin hold a monopoly in the UK sand until someone truly rivals them or a park, they will continue to do enough to turn maximum profits like any business would. Things are different in Heide and Garda, there’s an element of competition so they have to upkeep the parks. Whereas at present the closest competition is Chessington and Legoland vs Paultons Park. And I think that is starting to become apparent as Merlin have suddenly pulled their finger out to invest into LL and CWOA. Towers and Thorpe to a degree still ride on their own branding. Thorpe could be an amusement park (like Cedar Fairs or Six Flags) and people will still go, and through the hundreds of thousands of people who visit only 1-2% will make their opinion known... so things won’t change. It infuriates me to see such effort being put into Thorpe (and Towers somewhat) such as the dome, entrance, X:/TWD, the IMAScore audio... and then we’re left with things like Swarm’s roof. And it’s the same for Towers... And I’ve just realised I’ve gone on a massive tangent on the Wickerman topic so I’ll stop. Wickerman. Clap clap. Nobody noticed the fire anyway.

I’m still somewhat surprised Eastern Express survived through everything being cut away at Towers. But I do feel their new Dark Forest outlets were a mutual decision between them wanting more and Towers preferring to have the outlet opened under franchise over ran by themselves. On the note of Sticky Sisters I’ve never heard of them. I was wandering if this is the same brand that was being advertised at Chessington the other week, but after a google search I can’t find anything, so I might be wrong. Based on the internet though they have an abysmal Facebook following as a brand and very poor reviews on the web. So I’m somewhat cautious if this is going to work out well. I also wonder who’s plucked this idea out; be it someone in Merlin who’s a fan; or the company approaching the park wanting to get a unit within? Either way I’m sure there is a lot of far more popular eateries popping up that could have utilised that better (ie 7Bone is pretty popular around the south now) and likewise Creams. And nothing will stop me feeling bitter at the loss of Pizza Hut. Burger King and KFC stayed, this, Costa and Nitrogenie come in... I know things changed but some of us just really liked Pizza Hut buffet! And Caffè Nero if we’re allowed to dwell!

*fourth Pleasure Beach have Impossible. Drayton have the, um, Haunting? And Towers have Hex so this is four. And Merlin’s third after Hex and Magic House at Gardaland. On a side note this seems a great different direction to head towards over the drop towers. A nice addition of a family attraction for everyone to enjoy. I just hope with this we see some thought and effort / budget go into the exterior to make it look more Lego-like than Ninjago. And hopefully following these two additions we might see some continuation of large investment into Legoland to see it grow similarly to its worldwide counterparts. AKA where’s that new entrance that got mentioned years ago?

Murmurs I’ve heard is new effects having issues, and thus the ride closing down as every effect counts on it from what I’ve heard (yet to ride) whereas SAW gets away with sod all at times. But I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s issues within the braking system now it’s been reinstated.

It wasn’t a sole reflection on Pleasure Beach. The Merlin attractions were abysmally quiet, and new ride or not, for it being Easter the attractions should have been busier than they were especially with how busy with tourists the town was.

Given the stance of Blackpool today (I’m visiting) and the post I’m about to make in the Tower thread, I feel very sorry for Pleasure Beach’s alleged low attendance to start the year, as the town as a whole is busy, but struggling to get people into attractions it seems. I drove past PB earlier and the park seemed incredibly quiet in comparison to the town centre.

But the Mouse lives on, in tiny little chunks of butchered wood at £19.99 a piece! Joking aside, the park is missing a bit of common thought process IMO. Mouse is gone, Trauma Towers is gone cool. Future development sure... but couldn’t they have at least put something over the back of Alice to hide the grubby grey wall? It’s quite a shabby look for an area they tried with... I wanted to say not that long back but I worked in FY4 when I was 16, so nearly ten years have been and gone, holy hell. Bitch still. This is the main walkway to ICON this year and first impressions, it isn’t great.

Agreed. Loved the thrill of sitting in a pitch black unthemed tunnel being squirted with scented smoke. I’m sure you’ll love it too.

Wouldn’t surprise me if we see Stealth tweaked sooner or later. With Angry Birds dividing Amity Cove, and now the Dockyard taking place it would not surprise me if we finally see Amity bite the bullet and with it see the loss of the beach and possibly a removal, relocation or rebranding of Fish in the process for a future development. And as such, see Stealth’s speedway rebranded into something like ‘Thorpe Speedway’ - albeit I’d expect this to happen when the island behind Stealth and THE SWARM is occupied and the footpath (theoretical) is added in through sunken gardens.

But firstly, we don’t know the exact reasoning behind why The Walking Dead has been pushed onto an attraction. There could be a lot of reasons, such as the cost of the IP rights or the popularity of Fright Nights but truth is we will never have hard evidence proof of what triggered the decision to dedicate an attraction. Equally whilst I love your idea, who is to say X was ever the intended project? There was such a lot of rumour and suggestion around THE SWARM being rebranded with The Walking Dead, pretty much up until the X rebrand plans surfaced. Who’s to say plans weren’t changed during planning to incorporate X over THE SWARM? And equally we don’t know how long this IP is sitting for. Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t this a ‘low budget’ year for THORPE? So an overlay for an IP they may only hold for say five years wouldn’t be a big scratch to the park, and could see a quick rebrand of X as a last hurrah to hold it before it bites the dust in a few years?

I never ever noticed those X’s in the queue, whoops! And it may be actors vs space (square feet) which makes it actor intense kind of thing.

Overall its an improvement. I completely agree about the audio, it sounds good until you're on the ride and then the dramatic upbeat vibe of Duel has completely gone. But I do like the improvements and I do hope they continue as it's a significantly better presented Duel. The flying heads made me jump. I never realised the first one as you go in existed. So it's refurb is working.

This. The projection however I believe is what was used last year over the tunnel after the train ceased movement (onto a smoke screen) so they've just turned and adjusted the projector in effect. I totally agree with the strobe idea not working too. I feel like if they wanted something like that it could have been better executed by making perhaps smaller tunnels with smoke effects and train noises, or something like that. But there's no escaping how it was originally was its better form. I'd be curious to know who's made the decision and set the changes up, as it feels like its been done to cut the actors; but also seems to have been done very quickly and cheaply by say a on-site department.

I'd like to ask what people's opinion of it is in the stance that this is a retheme blah blah, quality wise. Has it been done well? Yes it's an overlay to X, but is it a good overlay to X. Is it as good as the impact Rise of the Demon changes made? I'm guessing the general consensus of opinion is it is well done, albeit it has been marketed a bit incorrectly? Does that make sense what I'm asking? With regards to the ride, I imagine with it being a small budget year that budget must have spread quite far this year with the entrance improvements also; so to be able to manage everything the park has done this year and give a large theme overhaul to X, well, kudos to them. I look forward to trying it despite not being a Walking Dead fan.

Can’t speak for Colossus but the 1.95m restriction was in place in previous years when I worked on Stealth and Swarm alike. So if you’ve been riding and you’re over that height then you’ve got away with not being checked.

I’m not denying that they’re both great in their own way; but, I can’t oversee that (theming ruled out) we’ve got a surprisingly good woodie and a mediocre 40-odd miles per hour launch coaster. I understand it’s the overall concept of ICON abut Wicker Man is delivering such a massive performance I can’t help but feel that it’ll fall like 1994 where Nemesis and PMBO were such big hitters that Shockwave didn’t really affect anybody and just continues to ‘exist’

I really hope this goes well for them and kudos to the park for bringing something so popular amongst enthusiasts (a Mack Launch) and making it somewhat different to the UK offering. However, it is still a slow launch coaster. And whilst I was holding higher expectations for Icon over Wicker Man having Now experienced the latter I’m somewhat paranoid that this isn’t going to match the overall experience of what towers have pulled off.

Wicker Man. Well done Towers. Even opened today for ERT.

I kind of find that hard to believe simply on the basis as an ex-Ride Host of various parks and rides including SAW I can safely say SAW in my time easily hit its 900 expected throughout, so for Smiler to hit only 950 surprises me considering it’s theoretical throughputs were higher. Equally I can’t see it making that much of a difference overall if it’s managed correctly. It would be like saying Nemesis and such could achieve an extra 200+ an hour by having a bag room, it’s doubtful and you’re probably only talking the difference of a couple of trains so even if you’re generous it’s 60 people or so an hour? It’s not worth the hassle of a bag room.

Wasn’t aware of Mack-GCI tie in, thanks for that! regarding Mack and Vekoma though the only thing that makes me shrug them aside is their turn around time. Icon was allegedly planned in to be constructed for a while (I'm sure somebody on here could confirm and give a time frame), and likewise if the rumour is true about the second Mack ‘ride’ with Pleasure Beach already agreed and purchased, again this is suggestive that Mack are taking bookings ahead at the moment. Andthe same with Vekoma. Again I’m sure somebody could confirm but I’m sure Pterosaur and Velociraptor were purchased and planned for Paultons for a few years.

Stealth’s works, but it’s pointless given Rita’s cupboard works absolutely fine. Swarm’s I agree with Benin is just painful and unnessecary considering the options implemented on both Raptor and Flug (bearing in mind Raptor’s was changed/updated). And SAW’s really was the only option without using lockers. Nemesis, AIR, Oblivion, Spinball, they’ve all proved that bag rooms aren’t required, so I agree with Mark - good riddance.

I don’t know why I just don’t see an RMC happening, although I would like to see one at THORPE. But I think that I’m sceptical on the basis of RMC in Europe being a combination project with Vekoma (Wildfire?) and the fact Vekoma seem to still like to be booked up in advance and to my understanding their books still work a few years ahead, I don’t believe it’s something we’d see happen considering planning permissions etc haven’t been granted yet and so forth. Not to mention Wildfire cost just over £9m equivalent in the ride system itself it wouldn’t leave much spare change for development of an area around it, considering a future development would either be on ‘the island’ between Swarm and Stealth or replace an existing attraction. IF we were to see a wooden coaster come to Thorpe I would (expect) to see a GCI to follow on from Wicker Man, but would (like) to see an Intamin woodie on the Thrill par of Colossos at Heide Park, which I doubt considering it’s about to undergo a €12m (approx) maintenance program. Which would then leave the options that aren’t wood. It’s pretty much a given that Merlin don’t seem to show an interest in buying another B&M in the current financial position; and rightly so Magic Making are seemingly investing more of their budgets into experience and themes to rides over premium rides such as B&M’s and Intamin’s. For me I’d love to see an Intamin MegaLite or something similar to Maverick at Cedar Point, but I doubt it would happen. So I’d flip that and look towards Mack, but given their sudden surge in projects on their books, and amongst rumours they already have projects booked for the UK and Europe in the next few years again I question if Merlin would be able to get their hands on their time. So, if we rule out RMC because of Vekoma, rule out B&M and Intamin because of budgets, and rule out Mack because of bookings for projects; it really does leave us in a toss up between a GCI (or another) woodie, or towards something less expected such as Gerstlauer, who, in fairness probably could deliver a Hyper-esque coaster at a reasonable rate, should either party agree to work together again.

At least it looks... better... I really like this new “theming” around the entrance, but dislike that this is going to most likely result in another delay in a new entrance...