jom222

I don’t think that looks like a holding brake, I imagine it’s just to reduce spending incase the train was going too fast and was getting close to the end of the track.

I know this has been said time and time again but it’s great to see that Merlin are investing in getting new attractions for their parks with the likes of Exodus and Jumanji, but I feel that this effort so often goes to waste with upkeep. Went to Thorpe Park yesterday and the state of some things in the park were shocking! Part of the wall in the station for The Swarm are rotten and graffiti everywhere. Gutter covers on the floor missing in the queue for Vortex. Whole bricks missing in the queue floor for Stealth in two different areas. This is along with so many other things in the park either not working or just looking extremely old and worn out. It’s all well and good getting new rides to bring people in, but the whole experience doesn’t make you want to rush back again.

Will be interesting to find out how much of the movement can actually be felt. Definitely a unique idea and fits perfectly with the theme.

Agree with the above - it’s nice for parks to pay tribute to their past with merchandise and Easter eggs in theming but overall they need to move onto the next new thing. Sometimes rethemes or other changes to rides don’t go down well but I don’t think the solution is to try to go back in time. It’s looking to the future that brings innovation and makes the parks more exciting!

Just seen a tweet from Chessington Buzz saying that all of the Capybara’s have died. Does anyone know what happened? They were one of my favourite animals there so very sad to hear this news.

Visited Busch Gardens a couple of days ago, mixed opinions on the place. The rollercoasters there were really good and a nice mix of different styles and each had their own stand out features. Bit of a toss up between Iron Gwazi and Cheetah Hunt for the top spot here. What seemed to let the park down though was its overall presentation/condition and staff. A lot of the park needs quite a bit of TLC as it was generally grubby and tired looking. As for the staff, almost everyone we spoke to came across rude or weren’t able to help as they’d been moved to Busch Gardens temporarily from the water park opposite so couldn’t point us to simple things like the closest toilets. Still had a good day though as the max we queued was 10 minutes for Tigris, just hope they take a look at their overall guest experience soon as it’s quite a noticeable difference to somewhere like Magic Kingdom.

Potential Spoiler Alert Went to EPCOT today and took a ride on Guardians Of The Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. Towards the end of the coaster it did an e-stop (engineer said it was to do with the sensor detecting the train before it was expecting to) and we had to evacuate through the show building. Took some photos with the lights on, thought might be interesting to see.

Thanks everyone for the tips! We didn’t realise we had to reserve Disney even though we had tickets so definitely glad that was mentioned as some of the parks have already started running out of spaces!

Hi Guys! Next week I’m off to Florida for a couple of weeks and will be doing all of the theme parks (Disney, Universal, Busch Gardens, etc.). I’ve not been before so very excited but wondered if anyone has any quick tips or things to be aware of? Done a lot of research but just realised that here is probably one of the best places to ask!

What are the flat rides that will be part of this area? I think this addition makes complete sense for the park and fits in well with the ‘explorer’ theme that’s seen across most of the area. I am intrigued to see how the rollercoaster rides, as mentioned above wing riders work well with speed and height to allow for zero-g elements but this seems to lack that at the moment. I suppose if it was a Vekoma then that could be seen as too similar to what Paulton’s have so this differentiates them more.

I went to Paultons Park on Friday for the first time in a few years and it really makes you realise how strong they are as competition to Chessington. We started over at Cobra and then gradually moved our way around to the right hand side of the park. Doing this you could see so easily how the park has evolved over time to get more and more detailed with their theming going from Cobra and Edge which are essentially completely plain, to Lost Kingdom and finally Tornado Springs. It’s not just themeing though that’s impressive for a relatively small park, it’s the fact that everything is immaculate that stood out the most. You could tell they work hard on repainting, cleaning, gardening, etc. It’s probably this that makes the biggest difference between here and some of the Merlin parks, like Chessington, where many elements just look tired now. I’m looking forward to see what Paultons have to bring in the future as they’ve got so much potential. I think Chessington have started to see them as a threat and have been gradually improving over the past couple of years but I still feel that if I was recommending a park to a family with younger children then Paultons would be the top suggestion.

Saw on twitter today that the pneumatics have currently been removed from Detonator. Hope either this isn’t a permanent change or that there is no noticeable difference as the forcefulness of Detonator is what makes it really.

Swinging Seashells from Octopus Gardens at Thorpe Park went to Weymouth - not sure if that’s still there or if that went anywhere

I agree - I think grab and go is still what people want but they don’t just want a normal hot dog. People want gourmet hotdogs or topped chips rather than just the standard options. Think you can see this by the popularity of the food stalls that have been outsourcing or just any event that you go to where people want basically food that looks good in photos.

Looking forward to this, think it’s going to be a great addition and gives something for the older members of families.

Although it may be low throughout, it will still be great to finally have another rollercoaster at Chessington after over 15 years! It is a shame it couldn’t be something a bit more exciting though...

This is great news for the park if it gets the go ahead. I can’t believe how long it has been since Chessington actually got a new rollercoaster so this investment is well earned! It’s the ideal location as well, it’s nice having the green area but really it is a bit of a waste of space so I’m looking forward to it having a better use.

I know what you mean, the resin definitely doesn’t make them anything premium. But the durability of them is what I love, you can do anything to them and they don’t stop working!

Yeah those signs look really good. I only went to BPB for the first time in 2019 and thought the car park looked really rough. So definitely much better for first impressions now!

Alongside Theme Parks, the other thing that I love are G-Shocks - anyone else got any? Latest addition to my collection is the stealth black GA-2100 - got given it as a Christmas present from my girlfriend who had to get it imported from Italy as everywhere was sold out still! Screen can be hard to read at times but overall I love the look!

Thought I might as well introduce myself as I’ve been sort of a lurker on the site for years and now thought I should try and be a bit more of an active member. - so hello! I’m Jordan from Dorset, I used to live in Addlestone, just down the road from Thorpe Park and have been to there countless amounts of times. For 18 years in a row I held a MAP so have spent most of my time going to Merlin theme parks. A couple of years ago I decided not to renew it and try out some different places, since then I’ve been to Europa Park, Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Paultons Park and plan on going to Drayton Manor and Flamingo Land later this year - been so nice to go to some new places!

All booked for Blackpool in the summer - went a couple of years ago for the first time at Halloween so looking forward to going in (hopefully!) nicer weather. Was also going to go to Flamingo Land whilst up that direction but they aren’t opening thrill rides until after 21st June which is such a shame, was really looking forward to the Colossus clone!

Thinking of going to Drayton Manor for the first time this summer as it will be somewhere different. Anyone got any tips or things to be aware of?

My sister and I actually found it much easier to shoot the targets and preferred it to what it was before.

If it is Underground themed could it possibly be about Jack The Ripper seeing as he murdered people in the Whitechapel area and that's the code name.