Mitchada04

For a lot of areas yes. The Runnymede schools (and probably Surrey) don't break up till this coming Wednesday.

This would explain what the Coca Cola red shipping container is for.

The islands restrictions aren't actually that relaxed. The height they proposed to the council for that island was the 127foot which was instead used for Swarm meaning the images they mocked up of views would be different if they wanted taller. That island is a larger flood risk I believe. The 850 metre thing is just a number, if they wanted to they could apply for a 1200 metre coaster for 2016 in that island, the council would just have to agree to it. The centre of the park doesn't have huge restrictions, just little space. And at any moment, the council could refuse any application. After the current MTDP is done and the new one submitted, doesn't mean they'll be allowed to build coasters over 850 metres, they'll have to apply etc. The council might turn round and say no, 850 is fine. A large family thrill coaster that is highly themed and has a brilliant story can be better than a big bash roller coaster. And the problem is this country is the public are just used to big coasters. You go to Florida and often the coasters have shorter queues. Spiderman and Forbidden Journey had the longest queues while we were at Islands, Manta and Kraken walk on at SeaWorld while Empire of the Penguin 60 minutes. Soarin, It's A Small World, Tower of Terror, Toy Story Mania, all get huge queues! The whole of Universal Studios was dark rides with a family coaster until 2004 and even then Mummy is largely a dark ride. Only Rip Ride Rokit has been added as a coaster since and Transformers often gets longer queues than it.

A family coaster can be the scale of Expedition Everest though which is a brilliant coaster! And for the parks new target audience a large family/thrill coaster would be a sensible choice. Don't forget that the Shark Hotel island is still for a coaster, just maybe not for a long time. They won't switch back to the thrill only market because there is little money in that, teenagers don't have money to spend on merch and stuff, this is what makes the money. X and Fish are good for the younger end of the family, the big 5 good for the higher end, but what about those kids who want a thrill, are 1.2 metres. Something like Everest (we'll think more sensible) Juvelen is the way forward for their next coaster. They have 5 large scale coasters, a family coaster doesn't have to be small, do no inversions and be boring. It can be a highly immersive themed adventure. Whilst a dark ride would be a good move, it's still not known if the public in England really want one. Just look at the queues Duel, Hex and Sub Terra get. A family thrill coaster would be easy to market, pull in a crowd if done well and not cost a bomb. You can probably make a decent one for £10 million as the hardware won't be as expensive.

Depends on the scale of the dark ride. Something like Sub-Terra may not need permission till September. Especially if they plan on opening it in the Merlin Magical Month of May. But yes, 2016 should see a big scale dark ride with one of if not Merlin's largest budget for a ride. It'll be interesting to see what they theme it too and if they change Ranger County around whatever goes there. I'd also like to think the Canada Creek might get some work this closed season, especially as it's the only area of the park to have all of the old branding splattered across it (fat heads on the noodle place etc.)

New bright red shipping container has been put in place opposite Storm Surge, full of Coca-Cola fridges. Guessing it's a shop for the summer to buy drinks. It's an eye sore though (sorry about no photos).

Thought this might be more of an appropriate place to post this as it's more likely to be a 2015 thing than the large 2016 investment. All the trees from Inferno's exit stairs down to the entrance of the old Fungle Safari site (so basically this whole site) have white tags on starting at F001. This might be just for some counting purposes or for their removal. No idea but it's interesting as there has been moments of slight activity on this dormant site. So hopefully we might actually see something there (probably a Volare now that the Zac-Spins are killing people). Also worth noting and I'm not sure what this is, parts of some ride queue lines have yellow paint strips on. At first I thought it might be a way to judge queue times but then Rumba has one of its wooden beams around the turntable painted this yellow as well. It might just be that these need treating or something. Speculate away

Quote from the scroller on the website. Today was pretty bad between 11 and 4. We got 8 rides done between 9:15 and 10 and then a decent amount after 4/4:30 as the queues seriously drop as kids leave. Just hit the big rides first, do the smaller stuff over peak time then the rest of the big ones towards close. If Tidal is closed all day like it was today then Loggers will be very bust (hit 90 minutes today).

Summer Nights will be fine as these performances are at 2 and 5:30 so not actually part of Summer Nights. The day could be very busy though, especially as Thorpe have announced afternoon tickets from 2pm till 7 on Saturdays for just £15

Reservenride.com states that the dates are the 22nd to the 26th August

Shame Khan is trimmed like that on the MCBR now because I love the tight corkscrews of Kumba taken at high speed and at times it looked like Khan might have done that. Not now Really want to try Baco too because I feel like I'll be one of the elite group of people who like it

Yesterday we decided to take an important English man to a place of Lego. Mr Lego William Shakespeare. I'll hand him over to you for this report Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind. And this hand is suspicious, but I'm not guilty. Welcome to the very merry land of Lego. Let's not read that rubbish book though, lets read a few of my plays. This life, which had been the tomb of his virtue and of his honour, is but a walking shadow. Certainly a big walking shadow! Look mum it's Darth Vader! O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo? He's right next to you! It's like they've never seen the play. OMG it's a train! Like a real train! Though shall not ask. Or pass. My hair's bad in this one How'd I get up here? I'm full of words. You don't want to eat me. If food be the food of food, eat on! Oh hi there I'm safe here... right? Don't want me dying for a second time! His colour choice is amazing. Do you think he's seen me? Hope not RUN! (Look at that blur... so much speed!) They'll never find me here. Or here. Definitely won't expect me here! I settled in to my hotel room and got it ready for my new girl. The course of true love never did run smooth. Especially not in Legoland. Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow.

On Saw, the next one to arrive (or if you were very quick at offload straight on to the two loading with empty seats). The others varied from no wait to 1 train wait (unless you go front row).

18 rides is 6 rides an hour which equates to one every 10 minutes. For the majority of guests that's brilliant. Plus, we could have got to 33 or whatever if we wanted but we walked to different rides in between our rides. And we had a look at the beach, DJ etc. If we'd have stayed at Saw for 30 minutes, then Colossus and so on we'd have got more done. Everyone was happy though which is what matters most, not how many rides you get done. Thorpe met their statement of minimal queues very well.

15 million is nearing Magic Kingdom numbers. Yeah right.

Saw was on 7. The rest on 1. But it doesn't matter! We only queued once and that was for Stealth front row. The whole atmosphere was brilliant and it didn't feel dead unlike the earlier ones last year. Quite a few families there as well on the beach and stuff like X, dodgems, teacups and Fish. Was great to see! The staff on Saw and Colossus were amazing as well, especially Saw, that station was hilarious! My ride count was: Saw- 5 Inferno- 5 X- 3 Colossus- 2 Swarm, Stealth and dodgems- 1 Was great to see them growing on this from last year and seemingly being quite successful (although the real test will be the next few as they don't have 750 annual pass holders who got it for free).

True. But even with Merlin's large budgets you can produce highly immersive dark rides that surpass the experience of an 850 metre roller coaster. As long as the budget isn't blown on an IP, you can get ride systems similar to that of Transformers and Spiderman much cheaper, stick in some screens and a compelling story line and the need for physical theming is almost none, just some for the queue, to disguise the shed it will be in and for moving between scenes. Simple.

Stealth has been closed since Sunday and has only opened those 2 small stints yesterday like Ricky said. It isn't due to the Zac Spin. Stealth is just being a temperamental Intamin and the most inconvenient time.

Although the Arena does sit empty 90% of the year. And 2016 is a large investment year (doesn't have to be a coaster to be large!). Not too sure on the Doctor Who rumour as I've heard some saying that might be a Towers thing etc but it is likely to be a BBC thing. Just saying. (I've also heard that you may want to think larger than £20 million, although that is 100% pure speculation but you never know)

So I'm at work until 6, can't get the shift off as "apparently" I've taken too many Saturdays off lately (I blame Towers and MoS meets ) so I'll be there for the Summer Nights part

What do I win?

It's up to 375 last picture I saw, over 6 hours

As of an hour ago (credit to TPR).

Double posting like a mad man. How To Train Your Dragon 2: I loved the first film. The way they captured emotions and humour with an amazing sound track was superb! This film builds upon that and surpasses it. Whilst Forbidden Friendship is still my favourite scene out of the two, this film is overall better! Whilst it is a sequel, it's also stand alone. The beginning explains how Berk is with all the dragons and so forth. The storyline is gripping and unique and incorporates the past well. It all just works brilliantly! I didn't think it would be possible, but they also made Toothless funnier, more loveable and cooler! All hail Toothless! So whilst I have faith in the third one living up to expectations, I want them to end it there as the producer originally said it will be a trilogy and that's how I want it to stay. End the franchise on a high Dreamworks, not when it becomes ridiculous like Shrek and Madagascar. Oh and don't let Toothless meet another Nightfury and have kids because that's what destroyed Shrek and Ice Age by bringing in a load of babies. 8.5/10

I thought the Macarena was quite good taking it it was a spontaneous idea of Peaj's when we got to the top