SteveJ

Tomb Blaster doesn't even need a storyline though, it needs to be dramatic and exciting again like it hasn't been since the original rides closed, and very likely won't ever be again. Terror Tomb's story made no sense but was just great fun in a way that most people who rode it will always remember. That kind of real fun has moved elsewhere to other independent parks and Tomb is now a piece of the past being run in a very sorry state.

Yes their earlier public expressions, but now someone trying to suggest they have been changing their story in court based off someone's interpretations of a twitter feed is a bit silly. I'm not pretending to know everything but in my opinion the court really shouldn't go lightly on Merlin for this. They are a billion pound multi national company that regularly overlook essential factors in the designs of their rides (The Smiler is a shining example of this), they provide confusing procedures for people to follow and apply high pressure so no one can question the norm, and usually under-provide integral systems (such as CCTV, thankfully this has been rectified in most parks since then). Unfortunately their tactics are usually to hire more and more managers which only makes clear, common sense decisions near impossible, rather than any efficient on-the-ground operational training and understanding. Their H&S is not "bad", it's highly structured and micromanaged (crossing the line into paranoia territory in UK parks), but yet this awful accident shows that it can still go wrong if the fundamentals aren't there and there's no bottom line of common sense. Very happy to see the individuals involved aren't being blamed, the operator and the engineering technicians. Hopfully this will push for better within the company at all operational levels.

Not being rude but is it any of your business?

It's quite a funky skeleton, but maybe a bit too ghost train-y for the tone of the ride, so I have a feeling it wasn't used. It's from the same person's studio sessions who hand painted the trompe l'oeil murals and features around the rest of the station, which I'm sure stick in every childs memory who went through it. Sadly the lighting for them disappeared when the chandeliers were removed so most the murals are too dark to see these days

Yes, by Tussauds Studios who are/were much the same people in some cases who became a part of Merlin Studios and then Merlin Magic Making, and they always look to Nemesis' 'backstory' as being their best work. When in reality, it was mostly only made to sell the merchandise, even John Wardley has regularly said Nemesis isn't supposed to have a public backstory, just a visual story/theme. So it was amusing how backstory-focussed Sub Terra was, in a deliberate attempt to pat themselves on the back for "creating Nemesis' story" (MMM regularly credit themselves with making Nemesis despite all the context and structure thats since changed within the company) and to try and please enthusiasts who would "get the references". When really - its much more enjoyable to ride Nemesis looking like its a quarry-dwelling alien, than to be told it is with all this Phalanx stuff thrown in.

Yes people can enjoy what they like and they're not wrong for liking something. But it doesn't hurt to raise awareness of what real entertainment can do, and by all accounts Merlin's usual style of attraction design is very much a marketing exercise to keep a fandom loyal to their parks, rather than genuine creative entertainment. Not everyone involved with Derren Brown's Ghost Train had these intentions surely, and there are moments of fun, but for real fun it would reward people to look elsewhere.

It was certainly built for the station somewhere, but perhaps was in a high alcove on the offload side, or not used

Good that you enjoyed it, although interesting because lighting is mainly all that changed in the refurbishment? Entire scenes no longer do anything at all, no animations or sound, until the train has half-exited the scene (unless they've changed the timing of the trains back to how its supposed to be since summer). The other changes were audio effects being removed, light effects removed, music being oddly remixed with ear-hurting sounds and some scenes patchily retouched in UV colours. Some set pieces removed from the fire pit, and a fire door installed. So considering nothing except the laser guns and awfully installed UV lights were actually added, its unusual you think the ride gained more drama. To be honest as a themed ride, it is in just an amateaur, shoddy a state as it was before the H&S refurbishment and a far far cry from when it was first opened as Terror Tomb, unbotched

Why? They are boring 'brand-able names' relating to nothing thought up by unimaginative people in a boardroom, are they worth your attention? The Sanctuary was a great attraction and you'll notice the Ministry of Joy was pretty much just a parody name in that one, the other characters, shock and drama is what made that attraction fun. Then its popularity got leeched off in the most superficial way, but just using the "ministry of joy" on everything and putting it on the Smiler at the last minute, because some marketing person decided so. Go to most real theme parks around the world and you'll find 'fun' in ways you couldn't pre imagine, that's the point. Go to one of Merlin's "world leading innovative" attractions and you'll be told about a company with an acronym name, lots of TV screens and vinyl signs as "entertainment" instead.

That's a shame, but at least if they weren't willing to resolve the problems altogether, they managed to extend its lifetime by another year or so.

Re: the storyline. This is one of the weirdest things about the ride, as has probably been pointed out before. It's another trope of inexperienced designers being given too much influence. It's quite interesting how bad it is really. I remember quite a few people on here predicted it from a couple of online promo images before the ride even opened - that's how makeshift the story is. Derren Brown is approached about "would you like to make a ride" and he, being the imaginative experienced show writer, insists it is "a ghost train" that is "just fun, not pure horror" and uses his brand of mentalism. He was interviewed about this in an article a few months back. Merlin taking this brief can't possibly create 'just' a really good haunted dark ride and so have to go about it in the usual "psychological" "fully immersive" "world's first" marketing terms. They come up with a bad backstory and lots of brand imagery, instead of creating portfolios of real art direction, core design concepts, visual theme, like a professional studio would. Instead there's a written up storyline that there's a fracking disaster that infects an underground train station, which causes a city to explode and be demon possessed. How to achieve this storyline when it comes to it? Apparently through some torn up queueline posters they get the graphics team to design, a company logo "Sub Core Energy" on screen (because every Merlin ride has to have a fictional organisation "Phalanx", "ACRE", "SQUID", "Ministry of Joy", etc), and then a train passenger character literally sat talking at you for minutes to give the 'backstory'. Is this entertainment? Is it fun or what the public find exciting? No, most people just sit there during these moments thinking the VR is cool - which for the first few minutes for first time users it is, and then goes stale. Few notice or care about this attempt at a story and quite rightly, because it's communicated in a very hazy way that isn't any fun. People are waiting for Derren Brown to do his magic, not have to pay attention to a Wikipedia-style 'backstory' is if they were reading into a piece of ride fan-fiction. The real fun happens when the train crashes and there's some actual drama, some actual visuals and excitement. That's what a good story should provide - the drama. Not sitting down on a seat or standing in a queue being story'd at with logos and words. There should have been much more of this surprise and drama, it's these moments guests latch on to. This is obvious to any experienced attraction designer - except Merlin Magic Making clearly. Yet the worst thing is the designers' attitudes towards this problem. I believe one of the lead creatives actually went around addressing complaints about the bad use of a storyline messaging people they knew on Facebook to say "It's supposed to be like that. It's supposed to make no sense because Derren Brown is messing with your mind." So the ride is patchy and stinted because Derren Brown? That seems like a fan persons excuse you read on an internet forum, but this is the lead creative's actual assertion with the ride. Is this concept any fun? Parts of the ride are better than this - but you could do away with all story and context and it wouldn't effect those fun parts at all, in fact it would enhance it. If there were meant to be more unexplained, surreal and nightmarish experiences "because Derren Brown is messing with your mind", then all the usual Merlin devices to explain this storyline should have been cut, more substance given to the whole attraction, and more should have been left to the imagination. Many abstract films achieve this very well and it takes a lot of workmanship to achieve that kind of "unexplained" atmosphere and make it fun. It's like the difference between Hex V.1 in 2000 when the Chained Oak legend was simply portrayed as a backstory to the "supernatural lightning storm" that possessed the vault, and was told through on screen characters and predictable tropes, without giving riders the drama of the story. However, that time they listened to people's complaints, and the right decision was made to cut all context and just DELIVER the drama, creatively tell the legend with the cinematic preshow and then give the rest the attraction the surprise and atmosphere it needed, without trying to explain everything.

Lost Kingdom is great standard for the UK, it's great fun and families rightly love it. But put it in the UK 20-30 years ago and it would be laughed at. How far everything has fallen in the big scheme of things

The Blue Peter badge thing is very popular and from experience many children would visit in the summer months with the badges. Giving some guests free entry for something entirely unrelated to Merlin's brand wasn't going to last long with them, which lots of people will be rightly annoyed by, but not enough for the company to really take notice.

It seems to have been used in court and so has since been released to the media. People should see it to see what a ridiculous situation and huge failures of basic procedures happened. Not an easy watch

The independent parks are more dependent on ticketing & passes for their finances, the Merlin annual pass is quite a unique model and one only such a large company with almost all the major UK parks people recognise can operate, it has nationwide and worldwide divisions set up to sell these passes and drive up sales & revenue of them every year. A Paultons Park annual pass is cost of about 4 visits in a year - Only really for very avid fans living locally and it's hardly advertised on their website. Can be expected for a park of lesser recognition and smaller size, which is family owned, and return profits are retained within the park. The pass also includes no restrictions, lots of standard discounts and parking is free anyway. Drayton Manor, a fairly well known park, is the cost of 3 visits, it also includes no restrictions to events and parking is free to all guests. Again, as an independent park the money is retained within. To get exactly the equivalent perks with a Merlin pass you'd need to pay for the premium pass, which was the original pass perks just with a price hike and the tiers underneath it introduced. This is £209 per person, the cost of 7 visits to a Merlin park in a year (based on a guide price of £28 per park, since Thorpe and Chessington are about £27 each and Alton Towers in advance is over £35, Legoland in advance is £37). Those include much higher day ticket prices than the smaller parks, and a family would be drawn to visit their parks all over the country in order to claim value for money. Over 7 visits to parks in a year is a lot for one family, but this is now becoming the standard, it is the model that the Merlin annual pass encourages most families to take. It is a very efficient system that Merlin now exactly how to use. For a STANDARD pass, £170 each, you'd pay yourself back in 6 visits, an average £5 each for parking (Chessington is £3, Legoland £5, Alton Towers and Thorpe £6), 6x£5 is an extra £30 taken off you - most the £30 you saved by not going for the PREMIUM pass. What a silly game. Read into it either way. But to any guests who just want to visit around 10 Merlin parks in a year, then it will be good value, but there are so many factors and systems at play with the Merlin Annual Pass that I don't believe it can be easily compared to other smaller parks. It's a unique, premium product and a lifeline of Merlin's brand schemes, revenue, customer base and business model, whereas in smaller parks a season pass is usually just a discount for regular guests.

Does anyone who visited Vampire in its best years 1990-2000 remember this? It was in the ride somewhere, I have no idea where as there's no trace of it around now.

Price increase because people will still continue to buy the passes regardless. As soon as people stop to wonder if these parks are actually worth their time and start finding out about other more fun places to visit, then perhaps the prices will better reflect the quality. Sadly there's too much a monopoly on theme parks in the country and the public & fans are too easily persuaded by their 'brands'. The annual pass is designed to keep it that way, brand awareness and keeping guests loyal to Merlin's parks only.

Pump plants have to be regularly run to prevent them ceasing up and becoming useless. Water systems on the whole are very complicated and much more than I know. It would need a whole lot more work than sweeping the trough, it would need many essential repairs from what I gather, plus the repairs that forced it to close anyway. Also, what the social media teams say is the line they've been given (or in many cases, half assumed from word of mouth around the offices) and unfortunately from experience communication between tech services teams and social media / PR teams is often very fragmented. I wouldn't really take much notice of what they say. All Merlin parks are packed full of uncertain decisions being reported as finalised, or managers viewing the reopening of things like Loggers as "nice to haves" and it gets reported as confirmed, but then when it comes to it, nothing happens. It may still happen, and it seems Thorpe would love it to reopen, but track record and company attitudes would indicate not.

The rock shapes is what used to be the rocky canyon scenery that went all the way through the ride as Thunder River. Some of it, including the old splash waterfall on the first bend, survived presumably because they didn't think to touch that area in the Ribena refurbishment. The tunnel structure was originally all hidden by the 'cave' theming and there was another scenic waterfall where the wave machine is. Shame I can't find any cave pictures but there was a lot more decoration to the ride originally. Here are some photos from Memories of Thorpe Park Looking back to where Nemesis Inferno's station would be now, when the area was so very neat and tidy Vast majority of what was left of the rockery was removed ages ago yes. Because it was well well rotted

I don't think Loggers was going to return ever since it got into such a poor condition years ago, they let it get to a point where it had to be shut. And now that its been isolated for so long, almost certainly won't work again without extensive renovation. Merlin policy rarely allows for complete refurbishment of existing rides (since they don't get direct returns for keeping alive old rides, even when they're very popular, and won't grant a budget for it), unless they add a fire effect to it, repaint it and give it a new logo or something, and that's if they've had enough KPI complaints to take any notice. In common sense world, however, the ride totally deserves to stay - it's a really fun log flume, has always been very popular especially in warm weather, and is different to most log flumes of its kind. Its a lengthy, fun and very solid attraction. It's even famous in some respects for the Princess Diana association. Refurbishment should have been on the list years back. As has been pointed out, such a ride cannot be built like that accross the lake now, so it was worth saving even more. It was very much a product of the big ideas from years ago, so it'll be sad to see another classic disappear after years in such a poor state, like so many in recent times. If the park does find a mechanism to grant a refurbishment and get it reopened, that would be very good but quite an uphill challenge

Looking very nice! I believe Alton Towers often subcontract much of their scare attraction scenic design and stuff to some very passionate designers and its always nice to see. Skin Snatchers reminds me of Silence of the Lambs (Buffalo Bill)

Conditions inside an unvented working ride vehicle AV compartment is very different to your greenhouse

The exit ramp is chaos overload though, and it's appauling that acces pass users are still made to use it. A constant stream of people pushing past from the offload platform, a narrow ramp sandwhiched between brakes and the noisy lift hill with up to 40 minutes worth of RAP users leaning against a flimsy chain link fence on busy days. It's one of the worst people flow systems at Chessington. RAP in general is extremely abused by many guests, handed out willy nilly in ride breakdowns, poorly implemented in practice for rides that weren't designed for it (or fastrack for that matter) other than a cheap queue shoved in later. Makes staff's job a nightmare and guests experience a nightmare.

Hm as much as I don't think the budget was handled properly at all, I believe the situation was more complex than you judge it The animations and visual FX are very simple in the big scheme of things. The train crash, while quite effective (when the lighting behaves itself and doesn't show it up!), is actually a fairly solid, standard animation. Its the kind of thing that would have been quite comfortably in the budget. In fact I was disappointed there was only one big animation in the entire ride really. Universal were opening rides with about 20 of these big animations 25 years ago - even in the UK we've had much better animations than these some 10-20 years ago. The Peppers ghost was alrightish, but probably the least impressive application of this effect I've seen, this wouldn't have cost a lot either. The VR is extensive and expensive, and will certainly cost a fortune for the park to maintain (which Thorpe will be laboured with, not Merlin Magic Making), but should also have been comfortably within the big budget. The (tracked) train transit engineering would have been a massive blow to the budget, obviously a major part of the "illusion" is supposed to be mind tricks on how the train has changed, how it ends up in different places, etc. It was a way over the top idea even on paper, and they're probably realising that throwing millions of pounds at a highly ambitious idea was not a good plan. Especially when 90% guests hardly even notice that the train has changed/moved because the experience is so rushed with no theatrical presentation... The amount of subcontractors used I believe is pretty standard for such a large project. Why this was turned into an advertising trope was odd - "over 1000 specialists" means very little good or bad. The more elements they have to subcontract out, the more fragmented the final thing becomes. MMM always advertise as doing everything "in house" but really they are just a big team of ex-marketing managers who want to impress Nick Varney or rather contrived designers who think of themselves "Imagineers". So.. yes, was the final product worth all that money? Bearing in mind it did go way over the already-high advertised budget too, which would have already been inflated by including peoples salaries over 3 years, the marketing campaigns, etc. Maybe details will come clear in time.

Could you send a video of yourself smashing up both please? Kthnx