SteveJ

It would be great if Merlin paid to maintained their parks you mean? Yes, yes it would! Wouldnt that be a turn up for the books But fantastic scenic work here, amazing job.

I hope the preshow is just that scene projected all around the room. Probably more entertaining than whatever preshow idea they already have planned. #toocynical #neverforgetZufaripreshow

It's almost certainly going to be Wickerman ever since the deleted tweet from the Flume site! Sorry, THE Wicker Man

Nothing from the previous ride exists now, the sets were completely stripped and probably completely demolished inside. It will be hardly recognisable from what I know, other than the trough layout.

That's the surprise of a dark ride, you don't know what's inside until you ride it! Although Merlin projects usually do the reverse and show what they've got as much as possible (or a CGI version at least) to draw guests in, without much a surprise. I believe it's just not been in a finished enough state to show.

They are seriously asking people not to discuss it, to cover their own chronic mistakes?

That was some subtle sarcasm there !

Some rides are built for a good run of 10 years or so, before the next creative challenge in taking their space and a total redesign (ideally). Like The 5th Dimension and Terror Tomb. But in the 2000s park managements changed rapidly and there was no longer a creative culture driving these developments. So when there rose an opportunity to redesign a dark ride, it would more often just get botched in a very short term, low budget change. Dark rides may be fantastic for as long as they're maintained, as soon as details start to drop and after the warranty is expired or the maintenance is handed over entirely to the park's own teams (who are almost always underfunded and have not the skills or awareness - or time - to professionally maintain a show), then there's a slippery slope to the ride's closure. Professor Burp's BubbleWorks was a different case because it really was timeless, it had so much to it and still wholeheartedly entertained families in a really classic, addictive colourful way. It also had a lot of quality work put into its animations and artwork, and was all original ideas too remember, so worth a lot of the industry's early heritage in the UK. And yet it was destroyed in a very vandalistic way, both behind the scenes and in the scenes, by sheer corporate stiffness. The ride was still very popular but needed some structural maintenance to the building that DIC who owned Tussauds then didn't give a toss about and didn't pay. So a quick-fix sponsorship was brought in to get some money, and an extremely corporate, charmless retheme plan drawn up to cater for it. But oh well, no need to be angry, just on to the next challenge. The ride may have turned the ride into an embarassment in 2006 compared to what 'BubbleWorks' truly was, I wish they'd changed the name in 2006 too just to keep it separate in guests' minds. But it didn't stop the original ride from being fantastic for the millions who rode it, and I hope the industry can get something as original and from-the-hip fun as Prof Burp's BubbleWorks again some time... you'll see it in a smaller creative company and not the big multinational machines most likely.

All scenes were in mono in the ride, since your boat was spinning, there was no left and right to the room, so it would have made no difference. If you like, the whole ride was actually in 12 track - one channel for each scene's music all synchronised together, bar the finale (the 13th track) which was on its own loop. The finale was the only track in "stereo" on its own. However it wasn't typical stereo, it was just mixed slightly differently to open up the sound a bit more in that scene. It was always like this as far as I know, but probably fiddled with in 2006 and then the sound system was redone in there in 2014 similar to how it used to be. The ride's audio is a much-fiddled catastrophe. It used to be a shining example of how to do attraction music, a really fun theme with ingenious variations and a diverse audio experience, as well as technically a very good set up for its time. But it became fiddled with and fiddled with in its later years that it didnt really matter which track went where in the end - no scene had any identity anymore and the music was edited and downsampled to death. A real shame. People tried to put parts back over the years but it needed a whole new system which was never paid for. If they really wanted to change the music in 2006, they should have created their own score, not ruined the brilliant original.

What's this??? A positive post about Chessington from me? I like "Adventure Point" a lot better than Market Square as a name, since Market Square stopped being nicely Olde English decorated decades ago. It's a good clean change for a central hub of the park. The carousel is decorated nicely, a good addition to the area, even though Chessington's desperate attempt to be Disney's Animal Kingdom (despite having only a falling apart bunch of 70s cages) is very tiring. This is perhaps the most on-the-nose Animal Kingdom borrowing to date. But its a carousel, kids will like it, a fine 'bonus' for the park. Can they rename the whole park Merlin's Animal Kingdom while they're at it and stop repurposing the old theme park people remember? Then do whatever they like with it. This octopus is the best thing to happen to the park this year, this is great! Characteristic and a nice touch to replace the rotten sail. Look at eet Wild Woods though... Should have redone the whole area properly and put the corpse of a good area to rest.

Well it had been destroyed long before, it wasn't fun anymore let alone coherent, after practically every management in the last 20 years had decided they knew better instead of just maintaining it and keeping its original "Bavarian" detailed design. This is just another one of those fiddly, short term changes.

That is one heck of a lazy sign. Perfect for the one of the laziest area redesigns ever. Well done Chessington! Going to 'catch that mouse' any day now!

That's exactly what I said in the post

It is a prototype design, that's all that means. Like most attractions around the world in one way or another. If they want to update it with newer technology in years down the line, then they will have to pay, and it is the willingness to spend any money on existing attractions - not the willingness to use technology - that is Merlin's big flaw. I don't want to sound like I'm just being pessimistic, I'm being honest, this happens all across Merlin. Proper coolant systems were not in the design for the ride originally because it was an oversight and a corner being cut basically, and it came to bite them. And quite rightly to be honest, it is very basic, if they wanted a proper VR attraction they need to learn to stop cheaping out on back-end systems and contractors. This article may have good intentions, but it is pure PR. A bit concerning how Merlin keep trying to use jargon to out-impress the general public regardless of whether the attraction is entertaining, to make out they are right on the ball when they're not. It reeks of telling people what to think and not to think for themselves, and that is my issue with Merlin's attractions. Is the ride any good? No, but it's CUTTING EDGE and LATEST TECHNOLOGY so that's all that matters apparently. They don't need Derren Brown to brainwash people it seems.

People know what they want and not what they need. The surveys would have of course said "It's not scary enough". What people would have actually responded to is just the ride being better engaging and better structured. There are many greater creative things you can do than have a man talk to you, then a 'posessed' woman (the biggest horror cliche ever) crawl through a window, and a demon growling in your face. So much of the ride was under-used in the original version in favour of the token VR. Just making something scary is the easiest option. Put people in a pitch black room with lots of tension and have a sudden loud noise or a chainsaw, etc, that is as scary as it is really possible to get in an attraction. Theres very little real substance in that kind of thing, anything else is just a variation on that old tension/jump format. To really make people entertained (and more scared while your at it) is to make the whole thing more effective, more substantial and more theatrical. Not so cheap feeling. When people said it wasn't scary enough, their subtext is that it wasn't effective enough on the whole and so they felt underwhelmed at the end. If alll they have done is leave the attraction's many flaws in place, while just swapping out the VR graphics and adding a jumpscare maze ending, that will be very disappointing. Here's hoping the entire thing is taken in a whole new direction.

They didn't dear, it was a PR stunt to get more guests in over the summer, and it worked. They also lied to all the press that the ride had been the same for the past 25 years in order to capitalise on the 'nostalgia' of the original and get more attention. They did not give a jot about the Bubbleworks and they knew/cared very little about the original. But they knew they could capitalise on it and it worked. They also (deliberately) ensured the ride stayed untouched in broken shoddy state, for the last 5 years while they set up their new plans. Any new ride would look good against something as ruined as the state Bubbleworks was in, and the "seen better days" excuse is easy to use if you've not spent any money on show maintenance for years! The send off consisted of an actor in a bad costume, and a tour that existed only to squeeze some more money off guests, filled with made up facts and nonsense. Not being a moaner, this is simply what happened, or what many witnessed happening.

A Merlin version of Professor Burp's would be the biggest tragedy known to man, they would go to town with brandifying it and sucking out its soul, we already had the 2p budget Prof Burp 'tribute' and that was quite enough! (not the actor's effort, he was great, didn't really have a clue about the ride but did so well with what he'd been given! the park's attitude I'm on about) Merlin wouldn't (and don't) understand the ride's appeal, because it was about colour and energy rather than IPs or abandoned warehouse "serious and edgy" themes.

I've come up with a better PR stunt for the Dungeons to get people interested than posting idiot jokes, build a good attraction that is worth the entrance fee? (Ok I promise I'm not this grumpy really) Really the "offense" is not the content of the jokes but the stupidity. Genital wart rape threat jokes? So this is the London Dungeon "brand"? Stop trying to offend people with trash just to get sales up in your corporate soulless visitor attraction, get a life.

It's a very simple one to get attention and they almost certainly intended to manufacture a big backlash from the start, to get PR attention. Being a fan of themed attractions now is like being a fan of a toilet, I don't get why once fun things have got so wEiRd and tRaShY

I don't believe this is anything to do with history, it is purely Merlin's self confessed style of "making PR noise" and I don't think they give a jot about real history anymore in the new Dungeons. They're probably getting a pat on the back for posting rubbish and offending people instead of entertaining them right now. The more sophisticated theatrical horror made the Dungeons so unique and great in the old days (it had plenty of dark humour and didn't hold back from realities of history much better too), but Merlin's interpretation is now just trash click baitiness it seems. I don't this is that people are too PC, it's that this is pure trash and unhelpful for anyone. Try-hard offensiveness on Facebook is desperate. People might be surprised at how much better The Dungeons used to be really, I'm thinking in the 90s (the Tooley Street version became equally naff in its later years in my opinion), shame really.

The best scenario I've seen is at Legoland, where huge crowds form every day for the long-running and consistently entertaining stunt show, and then the IP-based Lego Friends show which had a bigger budget and more promotion, performing at exactly the same location and at more prime times of day, always lost crowds and had pretty poor guest feedback. The stunt show is simply better performed, less commercial and has more substance than the stiff Lego Friends show, and guests reacted to this regardless of the IP and promotion. UK audiences are very hard, but guests do respond to quality and are happy to make time in the day to watch it. Many often come half an hour before the stunt show starts to get a good seat usually. It might take a little longer to establish a show's reputation, but if it has real substance and is well performed & entertaining, it will succeed. If its a bland, commercial and by-the-numbers 5 minute sell out (or stingy show budgets getting in the way of good experience like at Alton Towers) then it won't be worth the time and feedback will be mixed.

Anyone could have said that from the outset. A good show will keep changing & developing anyway, but the naive reliance on a massive commercial fad like Penguins that it would last was silly from the outset. They were very proud of getting the IP as ever, and boasted the expensive talking heads all over the place, and forget to actually do their bit to make a good show.

So literally nothing out of the ordinary and what happens every closed season Sam. The Ikea-style Hydration kiosks are designed to be plonked about the place, they are not permanent structures. Hence theyre identical across all Merlin parks. I think theyre ugly to have them everywhere all identical, but theyre only kiosks.

That shelf life idea would be totally skew now since the ride has been modified by different manufacturers many times, it's a bit like a vehicle, it will keep going and can have multiple parts repaired/replaced, or be totally renovated and keep going for a long time in special circumstances. However, leave a car with little to no servicing and it will deteriorate very quickly and be much harder to get working again. It's all engineering maintenance when it comes to Vampire I think, and money being spent where it should be. Safari Skyway could have been kept too, had it been properly maintained and the vehicles replaced when they needed to. But their attitude was to 'just not do anything' and constantly shelve plans for it, and then close the whole thing. The ride had outlived its purpose though, should have ideally been retracked but wasn't necessarily practical.