SteveJ

That sounds both pretty terrible and much better than the previous dispatch sound. Because the world wants to be Disney so much

I think they have rolled this system out to a lot of UK Merlin parks. It's done by bluetooth from people's phones as they advance through the queue, not just from the entrance. Unless Thorpe uses a different system. I don't know exactly how it works (or if keeping track of individual people's phones without notifying them is questionable or not too )

Legoland uses a mix because different AV contractors used their own preferences over the last couple years, new Bose ones here and Void ones there... The Yamaha ones at Chessington replacing some of the Bose speakers is very suspicious, eg Tomb Blaster entrance - the Bose ones seemingly worked fine and are much better than the replacements, sold off to make profit at a cost to the quality of guest experience? I think Alton Towers use Ohm because that's the preference of the Ents department there, who do the equivalent of Thorpe Park's show services now. The new background ambient areas are Ohm too I fink. There's no one golden speaker brand, it depends on how much the parks are willing to spend on quality, but some brands will be better than others. I'm always being told that replacing whole Bose speaker areas with this brand or that brand is going to instantly improve the sound quality - it's not that simple. And with permanent outdoor speakers for theme parks, you're never going to get stunning sound quality if its loud music playing.

Yes the press were leaking it after it was found the park had a kind of misleading sign and covered up the fox attack.

Thats disappointing to hear, I never did the previous versions but heard good things about it! I don't think it's really supposed to be a haunted house anymore, more of a spooky romp through B-movie type themes, hence the sci fi parts. But yes it's a lot less theatrical now, sadly I think its a case of a park not wanting to maintain effects so just putting static stuff around the place instead. It's got a fun vibe and still dark enough to feel theatrical I thought, but hadn't realised it used to be a lot more animated. It's a shame a lot more dark rides are going this way.

I used to think this too, but then I learnt a lot more about the inner workings of Merlin and my views changed. It really comes down to if you actually enjoy an experience at a Merlin park or not, and I realised I wasn't enjoying all their second-best, cheap dumbing down so I stopped going and stopped being an apologist for them. They are after all an enormous company with a very deep wallet, and they know what they can get away with in the UK, so always get away with poorer standards, often treating their staff, contractors and even guests as idiots just to make a bigger buck. However I agree it is very annoying when "Merlin this", "Merlin that" is spouted about everything without any justification on some forums, or pure cynicism which doesn't help anything whatsoever! My only "trigger" is when enthusiasts bang on about stats, manufacturers or pointless information, above their actual enjoyment of the parks. Lots of people seem to need reminding that theme parks are ultimately about fun, not Wikipedia!

Yeh I'm not sure anyone will be watching this for a plot, as inspirational as the story clearly is. Sadly I won't be available to help some suits at Lionsgate make more millions out of hot air, but well done for creating a formula so dumb that people around the world will pay to watch a gore version of the Crystal Maze over and over. b o r I n g

Yes, it's lots of fun for a kids ghost train! A perfect match with Adventureville too. I didn't ride Over The Hill or Beezlee Bob's though, but this felt like a good retro ride that had no dead spots and was a fun trip round.

I think the Smiler's planning application only masked the extra inversions to keep the world record a secret a bit longer. No one knows what it's like to ride until it opens, but still gives an accurate ballpark impression I suppose for people who can 'read' coaster plans. I fink it will be a bit better than people are expecting but no where near what could've been. Not the wooden coaster Alton Towers needed but a beefing out of the coaster line up beyond just 1 minute steel coasters. We have a 1 minute wooden coaster now too! Generally planning applications must show exactly what the park intend to build structure-wise. Details and aesthetics, not so much depending on the area it falls in. A Mid Term plan is just a forecast and will see many changes, but the project's final planning application will be accurate except under certain circumstances (like Smiler's redesigned pits and walkways, which was caused by incorrect planning and didn't need to be resubmitted presumably because of the GDO)

No length of track has been replaced in Dragon Falls ever, the troughs were taken out for maintenance that year and that is it. It is still the original, patchwork trough. The troughs arent reeeeally Dragon Falls' big problem though.

Part way through 2015. There was a problem of what defined an "adult" and operators not realising why the 3 adult rule was there in the first place. A group of 2 parents and 2 teenagers for example might have been considered 4 adults by one operator and not by the next. It got a bit ridiculous when people would be penalised for letting on clearly very slim, lightweight young people with the rest their family, when there was absolutely no risk of the car being over the weight limit. Operators just got told rules with no explanation or reasoning behind them. (Most the rules were additions to additions over years of failing eliminate the root of the problem anyway.) So it was thought a huge weighing scale would put this 4 adult situation right, which it did. But the scales were put in a stupid place - which should have warranted an extra batcher, but instead complicated the platform further. Along with the shoved-in single rider, it created more inefficient "rules" about how to batch the ride, more convoluted than ever before. The ride badly needs a fresh platform system from scratch, or a replacement coaster altogether. The high pressure and ridership for such a cheap, wobbling coaster are mad. But fixing the park's problems costs money, whereas creating more inefficient rules and flogging dead horses doesn't, so they continue to do that instead.

According to the park management post Smiler, as much as I can remember the words spoken: "We thought for years that high throughput and low queues were what guests wanted, now we realise that actually it's the impression of safety they want. So we are slowing the rides down and no more throughput challenges." Arbitrary safety theatre, and a stupid attitude that only makes the guest expeirence far worse for everybody. Put that on top of what were already poor operations, poor training and inefficient ride procedures/capacities, and you get Chessington today.

Hex has always had a 20 minute queue whenever I've ridden it, thankfully it does get good ridership Very annoying that Alton Towers still havnt sorted the audio. The original audio system was high grade anyway and I hear it just needed repairs to speakers. But they seemingly can't swallow their pride and see that they have caused issues with this new system and the bright lighting too.

The dragon head will be staying according to the plans. Maybe guests will be treated with a DIY repaint to look like a tiger at the last minute, just like Transylvania's incredible transformation into 'Wild Woods' with the aid of a sign and some painted trees?

Yeah but it's Tiger Falls now. The architectural elevations and plans are the actual proposals for construction, the rest are illustrative and may change or turn out differently. So lots of metal fences everywhere but some pretty Oriental touches/structures around the enclosures too, as well as the odd Zufari-esque beige tent unfortunately. Here are the main parts, there's more of the individual structures on the above link.

The log flume is barely being invested in apart from a more exciting drop feature, most the money seems to be on the enclosures. The new layout for the area is nice, it keeps what is great about the view to the drop and introduces the tigers in a not-too-hasty way. If they actually use the 'tunnels' then cooool, that'd be great. But yeah why so bland on the actual plans? And why restricted to the drop zone only? (The answer is saving money of course, despite the rest of Falls being in desperate need of it) Ignoring the pre-viz model (which looks like it was done in a hurry!) the concept art looks lovely yet the actual submitted elevations show very little of those oriental structures and details. Let's hope it all comes to fruition. Got it on reliable authority that this project design was outsourced rather than an MMM design, but with Merlin stepping in here and there other than obviously giving their original brief. That hasn't been done at Chessington since the 90s I think, where external designers have brought in their ideas. It makes for a more creative output, providing Merlin then deliver the money.

Surprised it hasn't been shut due to risk of Toadie about to collapse on to somebody's face yet. The thing is literally in pieces and the site has been down for redevelopment for many years, it was meant to have shut last year too.

It was pretty dimly lit in the early days, especially in the UV scenes - the old wind tunnel and fairground. Not as dark as Gruffalo (which is mainly a smart way to hide the distinct lack of scenery in most scenes) but nothing like Bubbleworks in its later years when the ride & station were lit up like a dentist's waiting room.

Yeah that article is a bit misleading, the trough wasn't replaced and is still very patchy. The ride had repairs done to the conveyors but the whole ride needs a proper refurbishment with new parts, not just piecemeal repairs.

I heard the 2 minute track. Bear in mind I used to love the Colossus music, but even then found it got VERY tiresome over the years in the louder sections, blasting at you from tarmac pathways everywhere you went. Overall I think this new track is a step forward and a step back, I still don't believe this IMAscore-isation of the park is the way forward. They have kept the Ian Habgood theme - good, it was really well written, MELODIC and dramatic. Except the original was badly produced (the brass always sounded pretty flat and grating in your ear), so the new version has really improved on its sound while taking away none of its previous effect. I'm really glad of this. However now it shows up the new part as being more generic and cliched, which I think is the formula with most of IMAscore's work for Merlin - sounds good, but is actually pretty overblown. To make Lost City an enjoyable area for everyone, it needs a fresh redesign with substance behind it, not adding more music to bland tarmac paths. It's a good step forwards, but like I've always said you can't just "convert" the park's music to IMAscore just because enthusiasts like it and say instant improvement. There needs to be money spent on design and adding music is an easy eay out. Currently there's barely any different atmosphere between Lost City, Saw The Ride, "Old Town", etc. They are names with loud music added and nothing else.

Yes good point, they have been upfront with Slammer and that is a good thing. Although perhaps it is unavoidable because it was shut mid season and probably had a critical failure, with Loggers it seems to be the same case as the rides at Alton Towers swept under the carpet or "for future redevelopment". If it could reopen at any point, then great - get it back open and make the decision quickly. But in that case, leaving it unoperational for over a year would have created a lot of unnecessary difficulty. It would be very expensive to get it back up running now and need even more maintenance, like any machine the longer you leave it..

I'd often see Loggers get 1hour + queues in the summer, but even a 20 minute queue with its fairly good throughput surely means it was popular? That's still millions of riders going through it a year. What I mean is, this was not a managed decision. If they faced the facts, they had years of warning that it would need something done to it, either a removal or refurbishment. That's enough time to at least tell people the truth that it was shut for good, and not repeatedly mislead people just to stop them complaining (justifiably) about the cutting of a major ride from the park's offering. You're right about the Black Hole, it was the right decision to remove it because it wouldnt have been worth a refurbishment (still a good ride but poor hardware), when a better replacement could have been on the cards. But they didn't have a replacement, not for years, and it was shut "for redevelopment" when they had no idea what to do with it. With this in mind, they couldve easily got another 5+ years out of it and it'd be worth the money for those millions of riders. So we can't shout people down for complaining when a ride has been swept under the carpet, as saying "redevelopment is happening behind the scenes" and pretend it was all part of some big plan. We got to face the fact that Thorpe Park / Merlin did not handle this correctly, and have ended up with yet another SBNO major ride simply through previous years of stingy maintenance, marketing not letting the budgets through for a refurbishment and not having a solid plan in place.

This is where the attitude is totally wrong with them. Keeping Loggers open is not a "waste of money", because millions of people would have ridden it in the years that it's been SBNO. Millions of people riding it means the ride is doing its job, it was one of the most popular rides on park. It's only a waste of money to them, even though Merlin can easily afford it, because they can't get a buck off rebranding it and calling it "new" in doing so. And so they didn't grant the budget to Thorpe. And the park are short on a decent, staple family water ride, Rumba is poor and Tidal Wave unrideable most the year - Loggers was one of the best water rides in the country. I know I've felt a loss of "fun stuff to do" while on park. The truth is that Loggers' "redevelopment" only began after it HAD to be shut because they didn't want to pay to continue its operation. They have had plenty of time to make plans if this were any kind of planned closure, or the site was suited to redevelopment and Loggers had become unpopular. I think the ride will now just stay dormant like Black Hole did, which faced exactly the same situation in 2005 - "reached the end of its life", yet mysteriously the ride still runs absolutely fine in another park... Odd what happens when you spend a bit of money. Sure, it would have been better value replacing it, if a replacement indoor coaster had been in the pipeline - but instead it just sat there for years as 'development space'. The denial on here about Loggers has been ongoing for years now. I said it would never reopen from the start and nobody wanted to believe it - I didn't want to either, but you got to see the reality of these things sometimes . Merlin want you to believe everything you say, even if the park offering gets continually worse.

The Flume site had been on the hit list for some time I think and it timed with the ride's evac procedures needing a sort out. It got old, but Benin is right it SW8 wasn't always supposed to be there I'm pretty sure. I mean you can already tell that from its layout that probably took a day to design.

I was told they were going to fix the weird sound & lighting things, guess not. Another DIY repair job then. The original sound system was actually better suited than the one they replaced it with, shows what kind of silly decisions goes on when the park has a strange agenda and not the proper money from above, even if intentions are good.