SteveJ

No, otherwise where would the staff park? That park is always full during full season. It was only a temporary thingy

I'm surprised to hear this, we were given excellent communication by staff today, who were far more up front about how they were trying to get it open early in the day. Also some managers were even roaming the park and talking to guests, they were also well informed about ride status and kept everyone up to date. There was some confusion later on when Tomb's area was blocked off entirely without explanation but the staff were generally quite helpful.

Why else would they have cleared the Fungle Safari area, that must be where the big switchback queue is going.

Opening hours were extended by an hour quite often in peak times last year. If it does get extended its usually always by an hour and no more or less, but since this was not full open season…

It's funny they'd a prompt for that. Surely "hello and welcome to" is the go-to phrase when you forget your line when presenting. I wonder how many other I'm A Celebrity Mazes there will be in the world..

Yes shame I don't have any pictures from it. Looked amazing and full on jungle, I think the monkeys were carrying bags of bananas? (real bananas or not I don't know! But it looked cool!)

Anyone remember when it was Sleepy Joe's Rib Shack many years ago? With the hanging monkeys travelling around the restaurant above you? The restaurant looked great then, glad it's looking a little better now.

Who'd have thought it? The sets look good. That's the basic standard most sets should be at but it doesn't always happen at Merlin parks. Much better than I expected, but quite what the attraction is and why it exists still mystifies me a bit.

Actors are very popular now with small attractions like this because the studios don't have to build as much preshow, story driven, AV stuff, and can just hand over the project to the park to hire actors to do that job instead. The studios love to save as much money as they can, hiring the expensive actors comes out of the park's budget. That's really the only reason, not because the public demand experiences be actor-led or anything, it's just another example of corner cutting.It's also why Sub Terra started off with hardly any actors but now totally relies on them to give the ending. It's also why they had enough money to build the much anticipated (at the time) Saw Alive, but then the park could not afford to run it. However seeing the photos the studios have done more than usual in terms of setting up the theme, and they would be daft to ignore the mistakes of Sub Terra and Saw Alive, so I agree it will probably (hopefully) not be quite so actor-led. I must seem like Mr Grumpy, well I am this is silly

They've made so many U turns they clearly don't. This thing is already getting the mickey taken on social media. It's another basic formula attraction, satisfies market stats, cheap to build, expensive to run and I highly doubt it will be built to last more than 5 years. You know they don't know what they're doing when even Thorpe Park fans are struggling to defend it! The question is, what's worse, a bad last minute addition or no new addition at all?

It's the least jungly place on earth and this is such a late, lazy decision. Whatever, just a shame a once legitimate amusement park is now totally under the thumb of bad market research and desperate decision making. I'm not even sure if it will be popular just because the TV show still gets a fair number of viewers, totally depends how the attraction is run. They thought Saw Alive would be super popular because of the IP, they thought Angry Birds Bland would magically turn the well established thrill park into a family resort. Thorpe Park is quickly becoming a giant passé TV set and it doesn't need to be

I remember there was elation when Oblivion was painted and a lot of fans giving it a lot of attention when the new season began. Especially as Oblivion's image was its whole theme yet it had been looking awful for years. But a track repaint's a track repaint, it doesn't really warrant a huge celebration, would just be good to have in the case of Fury and Vampire. The public DO notice as it all adds to the overall impression of the park. But why paint something that you don't even know if it will still be there in a couple of years?

Hint: this noise thingy is just an excuse, the rides actually much much quieter around the station & plaza because the lift 1 motor was replaced in 2014.

They only happen when I've just been to a theme park and am feeling exceptionally silly, who knows!

Well done! Go go gobi

Proves that large sums of money do not guarantee good entertainment and creative quality in the outcome. But yes 2014 should be remembered as one of the better years as the park only improved and became a more exciting place to be.

There's no real rotation cycle because building new rides is not a priority and a lot of money is being invested this year despite no major attractions. At least it's better than a decade back when nothing was happening… at all.

Okay, I suppose they are thinking of something bigger in the medium term, and it would be a dream for them to open a major new ride like a rapids or rollercoaster. But for the next few years as far as I reliably know nothing exciting is happening.A lot of money is constantly being spent but they've got to solve (read: demolish) the inherit problems of the last 15 years first.

Nice ideas I wouldn't be so optimistic! Not sure how long ago these rumours came about? I wouldn't get your hopes up just yet

The real ones were supposed to be there since March but..

Yes the response was totally reactionary and a complete overreaction in many places. But it's done now, a lot has already changed as a result of this incident. I'm not saying that's an excuse, for what happened 3 years ago but it's a dated view of the park

Hex's cinema room isn't the best start to a dark ride is it? Most guests get quite awkward in the cinema because standing in a dark empty room watching a strangely camp creepy video (although of course its fun to watch for its daftness) is not that engaging. The cinema room is the best they could do to deliver the plot-heavy theme within the limitations of the Towers. Even then, the video they show now was drafted in to replace the original "live video link" concept with the Professor character that was dropped after the first season. Some walkthroughs/madhouses use animatronic shows and other more spectacular ways to create tension before the finale. Hex's rather humble series of videos are forgettable in comparison, but this always seems to get overlooked by enthusiasts because "it's Hex". Tower of Terror and Indiana Jones certainly do not rely on videos on TVs to set up the story. Indiana Jones has one of the most amazing immersive queues ever, the TVs are almost superfluous. Just walking in sets you in the atmosphere and the story. And Forbidden Journey pulls so many effects and tricks to amaze guests in its odyssey of a queue, that it's not even comparable to the likes of Sub Terra and its forgettable TV screens in an empty room. It costs very little to commission some company to create graphics and shoot for a video preshow, compared to the cost of designing sets, effects and other theatrical ways to deliver a story. That's really the main reason so many video preshows exist in UK theme parks. It's alright for some rides but soon every new ride is going to begin with watching TV. It's a boring formula which will become so predictable for the average guest very soon.

Yeah Sub Terra is a fun ride that I enjoy now but wouldn't queue more than 15 minutes for. I know some of the people involved in its construction and it wasn't a pleasant sounding project at all. The original version, which was considered 'finished' by the design team, sounded really rather shocking. Dark rides are almost always touched up and improved post opening, but this really shouldn't have been opened in the state it was. Considering the scale and budget of this 2016 ride, I'm sure more attention will be paid now so hopefully those mistakes won't be made again.

And The Swarm was considered a disappointment by Merlin exactly because of the confusion around the theme and its brand, in fact it's a case in point. But The Swarm is a rollercoaster, so even without the theme it still has something good to entertain guests with, which is not the case with a dark ride. And if you do miss the queueline TVs in The Swarm, you probably have a much more pleasant ride experience because you havn't been treated to a badly scripted, characterlessly acted video while you wait. Sub Terra was an unfortunate disaster, the original plan was so flawed that it now relies on not one but three video points to make any sense. Two of which were drafted in very late when they realised the mistakes they made in delivering the story. Sub Terra was testing the waters if you like for a small spin off dark ride like the one proposed to follow up The Swarm. No wonder it was shelved, although it might have been very good, we'll never know.

No, it's not.