SteveJ

It's still a good procedure in theory to keep attractions 'good' in the short term (which is all they care about anyway). Let's hope MMM actually keep close attention to this one, as it's so FX heavy.

It's not a rumour, Merlin Magic Making fund, maintain and essentially warranty the ride for the first two seasons of operation. Including staffing costs for actors, etc. After that, the entire budget for running the attraction and the maintenance is handed over to Thorpe Park management, a different internal company with a different budget Yes IAC will still be having its actors budgeted by MMM. Same when Saw had its actors for only 2 years, Sub Terra really struggled with budget after its 2 years were up, Galactica hasn't increased Alton's staffing costs during the cuts because the extra staff needed for the VR is funded independently for 2 years, etc

The preshow does not contain VR but a differnt kind of traditional illusion. The significant flaws with the VR he refers to have presumbaly been worked around now in order for the attraction to be opened, so will be interesting to see if all the attraction is functioning upon opening or if there are elements they've had to give up with.

Maybe it will be an innovative and boundary pushing theme of nothing, with printed signs screwed on fences talking about how pirates now fit in somewhere and others with 'SW8' written in big letters as a "subtle" nod to fans, plus fracking?

That's a bit of an overraction. Is it really "repulsive" to expect a very expensive attraction to treat its customers well? Sure, many guests do have a horrible interpretation of 'rights' as a customer, and that's unfortunate; the park has a right to close its rides but guests would be very justified to complain about the way this ride's advertised opening has been handled. The sign in question simply prevents the onslaught of questions to staff of 'who are they queueing/is the ride open then/why aren't I allowed to queue with them?, etc. Nothing more.

The ride is currently testing to staff members but I believe it's had a few riders on it occasionally over the last few weeks anyway, so not sure if everything is fully operational yet. Hopefully an opening could be soon.

Why does everyone keep posting tabloid articles on the forum? The reason they post such trash is because they know people will go and click on their links anyway so you're just playing their game.

Ahhh how soothing to hear some logic. It's odd how some people treat these things like its a kind of court case. It's not a game of secret agents for goodness sake, and whether the information posted is true or not will become clear soon anyway, nor does it really matter either way to be honest..

They are a big business because that's all they aspire to be, a big influential profitable business, and it most certainly comes at the cost of any entertainment and filters down to every aspect of their attractions, including why this new attraction is so badly managed and delayed. The fact that we need to 'respect' a company's decisions in order to excuse their carelessness towards to guest's experience is ridiculous. They'll happily overprice everything, upsell to excess, underpay contractors, ignore negative guest feedback.. Capitalising on bland trends, buying out existing attractions and ploughing all money into marketing is how they've become so big, do we need to respect that? Yes, delays happen across the industry often, but not to this repeated extent with this many flaws in process; the difference with Disney and Merlin is that Disney's rides are of exceptional professional quality even after all the corporateness, while Merlin's are always mismanaged hashes with an ugly layer of politics & egotrips kept hidden under the PR surface. Anyway, I'm not actually here to moan, just it's a bit saddening how much fans will believe PR and make excuses for a massive company that is doing its job incorrectly without any care for the industry's heritage or really its guests. Let's hope Derren Brown's Ghost Train is both a well-rounded entertaining attraction and a wake up call for the company.

Could it be perhaps I know the reasons why it is delayed? And that I have good reason to be saying these things in a (admittedly rather feeble) attempt to change people's accepting attitudes and get Merlin to up their game? Except that's not the point, the "reasons" for its delay and the fact it's delayed is by the by, the main problem behind all these flaws is the same as it's always been. People have the wrong ethos in the industry and blame others for their own mistakes. Also I know many moaning enthusiasts often blindly band around "Merlin this, Merlin that" just because it's a company name they know, so I'd understand why you'd think I were doing the same. And good on you for waiting for some clear proof before you make some judgement, I'd be inclined to point out everything that's happened in recent years with massively flawed projects is proof enough, but maybe once this Derren Brown ride opens more of the truth will come out.

Nope. As much as I'd love to believe it was delayed because of any of those reasons, but that's not how the UK theme park industry works sadly. Do you really think Merlin would put creative decisions and finishing touches over just getting the damn thing open so they can get the rise in stats they created it for? I'm not just being a miserable pessimist. Everything to do with Derren Brown's input had wrapped up months ago, it's now a case of everyone just pressuring each other to get the damn thing open. Also I am well aware of the many factors and elements of creating an attraction, how one affects the other in time, technology, show and process - that is the entire job of the project managers to be aware of and bring it together. And no it's nothing to do with Figment or Scruffy Dog (surprise surprise, the 'rumours' only know about the contractors who have publically announced their involvement in the project, sounds like clutching at straws to me). It's sad that people are still so naive when time and time again Merlin don't deliver. Expectations are now so low that customers actually defend poor quality and invent their own excuses as to why it is flawed. That is just silly. When the ride opens, everyone is going to flock to it anyway, so what's the point in defending or debating this current mess. Just let them sort themselves out, hope they actually get it right next time and stop letting so many people down.

Ha no, that goes without saying they didn't do it on purpose, no one was suggesting that. It's the same people who havn't learnt from their mistakes of the past and have seemingly proven time and again that they cannot produce projects of quality on time. They rush into grand ideas that are beyond their skill and then point blame at other people when it comes to situations like this. They have the wrong theme park ethos, but plough on regardless with their schemes of how they're revolutionising the industry with new technology (that has not worked) without a care for the decades of learning and expertise from the past. People seem to assume the reason this is delayed is because of some unfortunate fate that was totally out of their control. It isn't, it's just standard project mismanagement and flaws in design, like all the other recent projects. It's sad because a lot of people would have worked very hard indeed on this attraction, who will probably be highly stressed at this point, and yet again it has been mismanaged.

That's Merlin's problem that they created for themselves and fully deserve to feel the bite of their own mistakes. They might actually learn a thing or two. So don't feel sorry that a massive global couldn't-care-less corporate mess isn't getting the rise in profits they thought they would with this Ghost Train opening.

The snake hissing spot FX (which were timed to when the snakes jumped up, originally along with timed lighting), axe spot FX (timed with the animations and lighting, unlike how it is now played continuously through the music), the mummy laughs, etc, they were all still in the ride as on 2015 and were removed this year, and not replaced. When I found them the sound stores, they were in perfectly good condition so I don't know why they were removed anyway. There were more timed spot FX removed after Terror Tomb (like a lot more mummy laughs and the explosions from the fire pit, for example) and I had hoped these would be returned, but no. The audio team at Tussauds Studios and some people from Farmer Studios oversaw the audio changes in the 2002 refurbishment, which was a bit hit and miss. This time it was left to Chessington's own technicians who may have had good intentions but were obviously rushed doing work around the rest of the park anyway. As you can hear it solved a few problems and made more problems. The whole project should have been more professional, especially the UV lighting which any professional lighting designer could tell you was awfully put together.

The new upgraded sound system is arguably cheaper spec than the old one though (most 90s tech was solidly built to last and the new amps are basically average), and doesn't include any spot SFX, so what was the point? As for the loudness.. The music throughout the ride does deserve to be loud and bombastic, which the speakers in there are good spec for, but the audio mix now being played through them is of poor quality that it sounds horrible to the ear. Also many of the "Merlin haters" as you call them have worked in Merlin in various places for years, and who only wanted the best for that ride, so to see it ruined by a lazy H&S-focussed refurbishment ridiculously overhyped as a "rebirth of a classic ride" with cheap spec UV lights spilling out everywhere and a flawed gun system... yes of course it's worse than before, and in insult to the park's heritage with famous influential attractions like 5D and Terror Tomb that once put Chessington on the map.

Hm Sub Terra was closed for design and cost reasons and nothing to do with quality of the experience (otherwise it would have closed straight away surely, *ba dum tiss*) Although the same general team that did Zufari, Sub Terra, The Smiler are now doing this, good track record havn't they. From what I hear the Ghost Train is not complete otherwise it would be open, since Merlin management, Thorpe Park management and Derren Brown are currently screaming for it to open whether its ready or not. The 'creative perfection' line is, as is always the case, PR spin. People will just have to wait until the team get the ride working.

That's not quite how Merlin contracts tend to work and the reason they can't open the ride yet is not because it is bad or the effects don't work well enough yet.

"I completely understand the delay, clearly with all the ideas being put into this project some are not working well with each other and feels a bit naff, I think if Derrons name wasn't on it would be open now. It's only because Derron is a perfectionist and if his name and face is being plastered everywhere he wants it to be the very best... " This is not quite the reason the ride isn't open yet. Also the project is still owned and managed by Merlin Magic Making (and will be throughout the ride's first two seasons) and so it's not a case of waiting for Derren's permission to open, as such.

"The only similar thing we have is Smiler, where there were delays in construction from a structural perspective which caused delays. And this is, at least, being dealt with slightly better as there's more notice at the lack of opening. So I don't get the whole 'Do they ever learn', 'Typical', blah, blah, blah. ...it seems that time and time again it just feels like the majority of the (Thorpe) enthusiast community just seems to want to moan, and type before thinking. Just makes you wonder what's the point." You would be quite right to feel so exasperated Josh if things under the surface were all rosey in the industry, but sadly it often isn't as straigtforward as that. People are justified to express disappointment when projects are handled as dysfunctionally as the recent ones in Merlin parks. Often the more you know behind the scenes about projects like this one, the more the constant delays and lack of quality & completion starts to make sense. In my opinion the systems under current project managements needs to become more professional, more solidly learnt and more focussed on the final product than the ego-satisfying, oversights and over-ambitions decisions that are on the rise. There are no excuses for why The Smiler had so many mistakes in construction and planning, why Sub Terra closed after only a few seasons, why this that and the other were only completed a couple of hours before opening, etc. Building a massive project such as this is extremely difficult even with the best teams, and Derren Brown's Ghost Train has every reason to turn out very well in the end (it has every reason to be Merlin's best theatrical attraction ever), but they've both made it more difficult for themselves in many ways by making poor decisions along the way and getting caught up in internal politcs. Perhaps they should focus on learning from mistakes in designing and funding an attraction, rather than racing to "beat Disney", "prove that the new attraction will make X amount of money" and other such lopsided priorities in the future. That being said, often negative enthusiast response is simply cynical, uninformed and very black and white, which you are quite right does nothing to help anyone. If the ride is delayed then so be it, all I truly worry about at the moment is the people urging it to open when it simply isn't a complete attraction yet. It will be much more worth it in the end.

I'd trust the Financial Times to report on figures much more accurately than Merlin's own PR where the figures are always spun to sound more appealing to guests.

They're just REALLY desperate for someone to come and see their Panda show.

Ah why would Marcel be grey and scruffy? He's a gentleman after all and he now has his elegant sense of fashion back with a Georgian period wig. You can't dye the wig as it needs to be fire proof, although the old one was actually brown and went grey from all the dust. The new wig is wilder than the old one so not sure there's really a problem as such... (his new wig matches the original one in Black Forest Chateau, yes I replaced it so I'm biased so there)

The organist's old wig had disintegrated to a few thin whisps of hair that had slipped off his head and didn't look remotely good anymore on him poor chap

It was proposed to happen a few years back but they kept delaying it when the rest of the park fell down. It will be a standard IP themed, Scruffy Dog built Merlin 'retheme' project.

Chessington have no TLC programme, they have no system or budget or will to make anything truly better and correctly, professionally restored. Merlin want the park for their style of branding and their idea of entertainment - trends, hotels and cuteness. The old flamboyant, dramatic Chessington classics do not fit with Merlin's values, and as such it would take a lot to even convince someone with power at Chessington why half the park is an utter shambles compared to its old self. They experimented with spending on an old ride inherited from the Tussauds days with this year's Tomb Blaster refurb (because it came to a point where they had to spend money on it anyway to get it back open) and it turned out to be a total joke. They won't want to do that again as they're a laughing stock for it. It was a perfect opportunity to restore a once magnificent attraction and they blew it. Don't expect any big refurbishment for the terrible state of Vampire or BubbleWorks because according to them "most guests don't notice those details". They just don't get the original message of Chessington or see any need to spend big on it. They were about to install a mini water tea cups this year instead as a way of improving the park for goodness sake, until the obvious was pointed out to them. There are a very few good people at Chessington trying to make improvements where they can (the long long awaited paint jobs around park that took forever to get paid, the nice touches in the audio upgrades) but it's always short term, cheapest options that can be gotten away with, I'm sorry to say.