SteveJ

That's ok I wasn't referencing your post "it is very easy to tell his dislike for Merlin. " Again why is dislike for Merlin an "agenda"? Why are we required to like a place we're paying to visit if we don't like the product? It's very reasonable to not visit (or at least go in with low expectations), considering the consistent poor quality and disappointments of many projects in the past, and the product Merlin tends to offer. Optimism is fine, but saying others have an agenda is jumping the gun. The problem with Merlin is that there is very little alternative for big theme parks and themed rides in the UK, so you can't just choose to visit somewhere else like you would with any other product. That's more reason to be vocal. Yeah there may be some people with a closed-minded agenda, unfortunately, if they're constantly criticising with no justification behind what they say. But I mean more in general .

I doubt anyone has an actual agenda against Merlin, most fans all visit their parks. As paying guests we need to vocalise what we feel is poor or standards dropping (as long as we can reason it), as well as what we enjoy. If we don't like how the parks are heading, visit less/ stop visiting, then as a business they will have to listen. If you think there's nothing wrong with the Merlin parks, then keep visiting, but don't accuse others of having an agenda (unless they're just criticising unreasonably). Merlin is one of the biggest leisure companies in the world, it doesn't need sympathy!

You seem to have far more of an agenda than anyone else? At least this 'Merlin project' is panning out very different from most others, which I'd expect to be a good thing - time will tell I guess. But you can't blame people for being concerned by the underwhelming prospects so far. Going in with low expectations but an open mind is better than going in with high expectations, only to be treated to Merlin's cheap formulaic usual. I'm not expecting much from the Wickerman after years of disappointments that have all ended up the same way. But I will love to be pleasantly surprised when it opens, if I am enticed enough to visit. It will be something different for the UK, and that can only be good.

This says it all! Yeah Chessington in the 90s was a big hit with the public, with fans, with everyone. It was the park's best era in many ways and the current management /Merlin could learn a lot from it if they dropped their corporate preconception. Bear in mind Merlin's resort theme parks overall make a loss (even with the addition of hotels), while Tussauds' parks were very successful, that even on the hard-nosed business side the 90s were the best period for it. Chessington ought to be less proud of their falling apart, bland Zufari and cheapo repaints of old rides and learn a thing about the success of their past. Still we're not in the nadir, that was 2006-7, but it's tacky and extremely poor value for money now, in my opinion. Literally a joke that they have run out of glasses stock.

It's not necessarily better or worse than BubbleWorks, they were two very different rides. (Talking about the real BubbleWorks here when it was actually entertaining, not the Imperial Leather advert nothing-actually-does-anything-anymore version) Gruffalo is aimed more at just the younger children, BubbleWorks had a wider range of appeal to families. The Gruffalo is more of a relaxed fairy grotto rather than the wildness & surprises of the original BW. It's a shame it doesn't really entertain with energy anymore, but that disappeared from the ride a long time back. Gruffalo's pretty generic but it isn't bad, the team appeared to do their very best given Merlin's usual inadequate theming/effects budgets and rushed time scales. It's average but it definitely isn't bad

The Vampire (in its better days when it was ACTUALLY properly creepy) was my favourite ride when I was 9... It depends how the horror style is done. I Also think lots of enthusiasts are getting wound up over nothing with whether SW8 "fits in" with Mutiny Bay. I certainly agree a theme park shouldn't be jarring changes between rides with themes that don't go together. But The Flume site was always set back from the rest the area, and since when was Mutiny Bay a particularly interesting theme anyway ? Would a "pirate" themed wooden coaster really be very good? Pirates is literally the most generic theme in the box! What will make SW8 good is if it is designed well with fun features and atmosphere, not thinly spread token theming with a humourless grey theme like The Swarm or Saw

Is that a clue? AR on the Swarm would actually be a good idea, of all the coasters lacking something and without much of a strong identity, this is a good one for a proper 'upgrade' I think.

I just saw I got some awards and hadnt checked this properly,... sorry I'm not ungrateful! Thanks for the appreciation, I promise to be less moany in response!!

It was awesome when Chessington built sizeable rides that were surprising, inventive, bold, that bit different for families. It was always fairly simple but had a great fun edge and quality, not cheap imitations and very commercial/sentimental. The park has really been thrown to amateaurs and has no real direction now. Well it's been that way for 15 years. Sad that Vampire is now so cheap feeling and DIY, it's really a big tombstone for the early ambitious days of the park.

It's because the ride will be disappointing for thrill seekers, because the plans for a wooden coaster were so compromised, so it's more a family thrills coaster. So for once they're playing it safer with the promotional stuff before the ride actually opens.

Not related to the coaster, but.... The Secret Weapon thing is quite silly now, a label which never meant anything until Thirteen came along, when Merlin realised it could call every coaster a "secret weapon" as if part of a franchise of rollercoasters, no matter what the coasters actually were. The Smiler was called a SW before the final coaster type or location was even decided on. SW1 and SW2 never got beyond drawings stages either, were never put to the Tussauds board, so their forced inclusion to suit the non existent "Programme" is silly. It was a bit of fun for the last few years, now it's been turned into another misleading promotional thing to keep geeks in check, just like "Towers Loving Care".

I think to add in some extra line about the new gates or a new rule theyve introduced. Instead of the hissy internet download they're playing now, the station music used to have the organ part (solo) playing from the actual organ, in sync with the rest the music (the original mix) coming in for the chorus through the rest the station. All that setup is gone now. Today the downloaded station music is now played all through the queue from cheap speakers too, so you are long since bored of it before you even reach the station anyway! When guests are paying this much, this completely amateaur approach to themed audio takes a very jaded & clueless attitude, same with what happened to Tomb Blaster in 2016. It's criminal how pathetic Vampire is now when it used to be brilliant. Terribly lit, stripped back scenery, wobbly organist and the once cool music now feels token and lame. But they will never spend the money to professionally restore the ride, even thought 80% of it is there and Merlin can easily afford it. So it'll carry on feeling DIY, homemade props in the queue here and flashing LEDs on demo mode there.

I've always felt it was really underwhelming, a flat square pavement with 'bits n bobs' parked on it. A very blocky, bland 'church' which is a less atmospheric station than Colossus or nemesis Inferno - and they were pretty simple steel-box jobs to begin with. The ambulance upended is cool because it's not just a token vehicle parked behind a fence, and the joke telephone box I suppose. The plane is featureless and looks like it's been carefully lowered into place, on a little mound of earth they scraped from the trench they dug for the track. The billboard pretty much sums it up. There's nothing iconic about the place and only looks 'devastated' in the most boring interpretation of what could've been. It's all very 'average', so I guess it is the perfect theme for the coaster! It has the kind of formulaic theming that would probably please UK enthusiasts these days, but not grab the imagination of anybody else - and unlike others it doesn't have a good enough coaster at its core to make up for it this time.

Ahh I loved it, great feature! Just like the original Frazzle dragon and the laughing pirate.

The worst VIP experience when I worked at a park was a VIP passholder who wanted to skip all queues and go up the exit on the park's biggest ride, on a peak day. Host explained his pass didn't entitle him to do that, along with all the other guests trying the same thing. So then the 'VIP' (ie bloke with enough money to throw around on mediocre entertainment) rang up the park's managing director in his office and handed the phone to the host to speak to him, then let him on the ride.

I can't wait for the videos to be removed completely. I think it's the most boring, unentertaining preshow video I've ever seen and conjures up no atmosphere. Just badly acted cliches on a loop, to distract you from the fact you're waiting for an overhyped coaster on a patch of tarmac and what from some angles looks like a church (if you squint!)

Wow who remembers this short lived mascot from 2004 Only picture I could find, apparently even Wayback machine can't be bothered to store much of that year's awful website. The tagline is "If you’re here for fear, Thorpe Park will satisfy your twisted cravings. We’ll take you to limits you didn’t know existed." The first time the park went solely towards thrill seekers but went way too far in that direction, I remember the page for the 'new' Rumba Rapids tried to sell it as being so intense you were guaranteed to vomit. Ha ha

If it works even slightly, it will be an enormous improvement on the previous 'guestimate' method! This is the kind of great use of tech we need in the parks, a positive.

A more independent operator that is experienced with good theme parks, not a vastly sized one that needs super inflated numbers to satisfy global shareholders over guest experience, would be far better than the existing management. Also more competition is very badly needed in the UK theme park industry, Merlin control and influence everything and can engineer the whole industry to how they want it.

I remember Colossus being built, but I never took the Colossus music to heart or feel any sense of nostalgia about the music or ride, in fact I found the way it sounded annoying in parts due to the slightly thin production sound. I think (from what I've heard) the reproduced Ian Habgood parts sound like an improvement on the style. However the rest is forgetable and the idea of having a "leitmotif" (theme please, this is a theme park not Bernard Herrmann! ) can be a bit on the nose because Thorpe Park is pretty small and unthemed anyway. The original Ian Habgood composition had great pace, great dynamic, very engaging and not repetitive. It sounded more characteristic and melodic, which is why it stuck. A typical IMAscore track is never like this - they can do loud punchy industrial and whimsical orchestra, but it always feels like an impression of something else (and overblown in my opinion). Unfortunately changing the music is ALWAYS what new PR or marketing departments do when they take on a new park. "Hey we need to modernise 'the brand', how can we do this? Oh we have no real budget? Just replace all the music with our own idea of what's right then". Last time it was chart music, then it got undone. At Legoland it happened and now it plays both the old AND new tracks one after the other, Chessington had their awful 'Call To Adventure' that quickly died a death, at Alton Towers it's another hodge podge of time periods.

They made it this way through years of poor maintenance. It used to be fantastic and exciting, it now looks god awful because they neglected it so long, stripped the station to the bare bones, took out most the original audio and effects, and lit it like a bad local night club. The coaster itself is dated now though could still be great fun for families, but is run so poorly and such a mess. They could build a proper new one if SOMEHOW they got over the tough planning restrictions, but it would never be built to the same scope as the original Vampire. It would be another rushed Merlin-style job, recycling as much of the broken down original as possible.

Very kewl. Looking great, what a turn up for the books. I think interest is low on the internet generally because of past sore disappointments/misleading hype before the ride actually opens, and that this is obviously set to be more a family thrills coaster. But looks like a fun coaster project and quite different to what we've seen in the last decade at Alton Towers.

Thirteen's trick drop and backwards tunnel is far too good for the plastic box it sits in and the lesser-RunawayTrain that precedes it. It's a really brilliant ending to a (family) ride that was never really made.

I've probably moaned about the dumbness of The Swarm's entire theme before. It's not worth thinking about because there's nothing to it, as if one person wrote the script about "devastation at a theme park", another wanted to throw old vehicles everywhere because they were the cheapest big theming they could get, and another said "Wouldn't it be cool to set the station in a destroyed church like the end of the world". And then the quantity surveyor came along and sucked the budget out of everything, so none of it was very interesting or fun anyway. ...The new Colossus music sounds much better produced than the dated production on the original, but the retained Ian Habgood theme is still the best part. It's not a bad job and will hopefully make the area feel more engaging for guests, but IMAscore continue to sell UK parks the same thing over and over. Nothing beats a proper theme and not their pre-edited overproduced style, in my opinion. At the end of the day, it's a tarmac path with a dirty coaster on top, the music doesn't change that unfortunately.

But why wasnt this obvious to whoever made it in the first place? It feels like a have-a-go cliche. Just weird why these things don't occur to people who make them, presumably because they dont actually queue ages for the ride themselves as a guest or stand listening to it every 30 seconds as staff. Oh well! If they MUST have a brace yourself announcement then better to have it themed somehow. The Swarm station will always suffer from a lack of drama or dead atmosphere though from the very un-churchy boxiness and no roof, thanks to cutting corners on building regulations.