Mitchada04

Officially opening April 7th next year! I'm quite excited being a big fan of Ferrari http://www.traveldailymedia.com/239073/portaventura-confirms-opening-date-for-ferrari-land-theme-park/

Apparently Heidi won't open till Easter 2017 now. At least it should open complete with all the theming.

The launch cable seemed really slack yesterday from the bit you can see going into the launch house. Couldn't see any engineers but they may be waiting for a part or working on the platform. The issue over the weekend seemed to be the train not going to onload from offload so maybe it has something to do with the launch cable at that end.

The beer they have is Meantime which is London brewed!

Was originally going to be S5's, they struggled with water so they were S6's and might still be but S7's are on the cards or have happened since the downtime. They weren't to begin with

Just don't wear it then. Simple. I hear the S6's were overheating and crashing/destroying connections and that they were being upgraded to S7's, so maybe that's what's happened, we now have S7's in place.

Are they changing the launch cable? That's done this time of year isn't it? Ah well, me and Matty may have broken it at 11:10pm... us drunks hey

Phantasialand is still open and they've gotta be the most hated park by locals.

It's running 3 boats today.

Have you been on Kong or Frozen? If not you can't accurately judge them based on a POV. And the theming is okay inside Ghost Train, but you never have anytime to appreciate it due to having to whack on VR or being rushed around. And the train in that live action scene is so clearly just a pole with lights on.

Yeah like I've said multiple times, the coaster itself is pretty much done. They're still playing with the effects though like the water splash and getting the timing of the new launch sequence correct. Kong began testing in January. We have no idea what goes on in the testing regimeand it was only recently the water dummies were taken out. So who knows. The original target was August, they're still on target. They just tried getting it done earlier but that became unrealistic. Makowas ready nearly a month before it's queue but had to wait.

Just get them to relocate over here. I hear there's a big plot of land being cleared in Kent for some company called Paramount... sod them we'll just take Plopsaland. Ta

New resort map even including Fast & Furious coming for 2018!

Whenever I've been to Blackpool and they're open till 8. Come 6 they start taking trains off the big rides because it isn't busy enough to warrant all of them being used. Walking along the promenade is a different vibe and easier than spending your time in a paid entry place with really expensive rides and a general "secluded" feel in that you aren't just freely wandering Blackpool.

As we know, Walibi Belgium and Holland got new Mack's this year. Both new types of Mack's. This is what Belgium asked for. It's really grand. Has a spectacular splash It's really cool And there's a cool turntable to improve throughputs and just be cool! Queue was cool too! So that's what Walibi get when they ask for a ride (and Mack are the company that choose to do it). Don't know what you want? Then roll up, today is your lucky day as Mack now offers mystery box rides! They'll tease the park over snapchat what they're building and just not think one bit. So what did Holland get from their mystery box? A loss of gravity. Seems like a great deal. Mack had some spare yellow and black track pieces floating in their yard and hoped it would all fit together And even though some of it doesn't look like it should fit together It all does Woosh. Now, because Walibi didn't know what they were getting, when they built the exit paths they had to slant these arches, or Mack told them it was necessary. Mystery box fun! They also had some shipping containers that were cluttering the yard And a broken set of these And the cars are too wide for the track. Mystery box risks you see Fancy a Mack Mystery Box for your park? Then send a ? and your budget to sales@mackmystery.com Beware, they may cause you to drink in hope it'll ease the mind confuddling caused. Next week we'll go see some cobras, dinosaurs and critters

This is what you should see. First two weekends are £5 for standards. Half term a tenner bar the 27th-29th which is 15 (guessing that's when they expect to be busy

Half those delays aren't even delays though. Epcot didn't have any? Soarin was ready but had to wait for the Shanghai one to open first as they had the rights to show the new film first. Frozen never had a set date but did meet internal targets. Hulk was originally planned for August, Uni wanted to try and push it forwards to meet the Kong opening. And Kong only missed its soft opening target, but as no date had been publicly set it wasn't really delayed. It opened in Summer. Plopsaland only said Heidi would open on July 1st like once, all year the marketing has said summer. And for all those delayed things, think of all the ones that opened really early. Potter in California softing for a few months before grand opening. Shanghai Disney softing a month before main opening. Galactica opening in March, not April. Pulsar opened a month before planned, Lost Gravity opened with the park. Delays happen everywhere. We had a new changing room fitted at work, went 2 weeks over schedule. Maybe this year just seems worse because they're all big names we know off? But yeah, AI build mostly in house so the odds of it opening this year are who knows. Like said above, Time Machine was 2 years late. Plus, they can just say they were sticking to their statement about not investing if parking wasn't sorted

The Milenium falcon attraction is going to be like you driving one type thing so you'd see others flying around. And they're building a standard dark ride with animatronics etc too. VR is a gimmick, far too computer game like and just loses the magic of dark rides. Add in the fact everyone will be using it at home for things in 5 or so years it's just not going too be special. VR should not be the future of dark rides. They're just like really fancy personal simulators. But the public seem to lap it up so bye bye the dark rides we all wish we could get, as VR will be it for now.

Go to buy tickets, scroll to the date you want. Click and it should be one of the 3 ticket options for the date you're after.

It was going to be revealed at ScareCON yeah, and yeah the focus was still put on Ghost Train, but that was because it was delayed. The announcement would have created marketing. Remember, the BBC were at ScareCON and Thorpe would have pushed the 15th year thing when they announced it so something would have come about. And even if it was for the geeks, all those FB pages would have posted about it and it would just get about.

What's brilliant is how this whole campaign is also about 2 months behind schedule thanks to the delays of Ghost Train. Halloween events are essentially Thorpe's only event now so I expect it to be hugely marketed. Sad we didn't get to play a game and have Platform15 teased to us it's always good fun trying to work out what we're getting. Annual pass reservation tickets are also available now! £1 for premiums but I assume that is still just the to guarantee type thing so if they do hit capacity. You could take the risk. £5 for standard pass holders atm. Also, with the park being closed more in the week between the FN dates, could this be the year we finally see more on park theming? They'll have more time with less people about in the mid weeks.

Nice hi res concept art finally Good length ride as well. SO as we know, it's a gerst family launch backward forward thing like Firechaser. Trains look like this. Backwards launch room? And station. And I have no doubt with how well themed Discobelix and Oziris are that this will follow suit and add something to this area of the park. http://www.androland.com/Asterix/News/pegase-express-concept-art.html

Phantasialand is a stunning park. Up there was one of my favourites, and definitely my favourite non Disney/Uni park. Look at the stunningness. Everything is just so well done. Immersion is great. Rides are fab. Like Maus Au Chocolat. It just has so much magic going for it! Midway Mania sounds tacky compared to this. The fun house down Berlin street is odd for a theme park but great. Destroyed Josh on our second go as well It's a beautiful park. And the most well known top spin lives here. And a solid, well themed B&M. Mamba is an odd case. In the morning near the front it was lame. In the afternoon after some rain at the back it was top 10 contender. But it lacks consistency soooo much! For more park photos see last years report as nothing has changed. Winjas is still awesome. Nighthawk now has music, Hollywood boat tour still looks like it could have the scenery collapse at any moment. Wakabato was just avoided. Still don't get Mystery Castle, had an even shorter cycle this year! River Quest is hilarious. Mad house is an odd theme. KLUGHEIM The area looks great! Intimidating yet deceiving as it's almost on level with the path. Looks like a village in a rocky mountain with a coaster. Woosh Watching the coaster fly all around you in the area is great And Raik which is so much fun with a brill station. This second launch makes one of the coolest sounds I've heard from a ride ever It winds all over the place. WIth a love of design, engineering and sheer immersion it was great to meander about. But that's it really. The queue moves fast and has a geeky view of the transfer track. But what about the ride? Well, Jack Josh and Matt knew when we came off first time it hadn't wowed me. I wasn't really joyous by what I just rode, I was quite mellow. I mean, there was nothing wrong with it. At all. Just, nothing made me go OMG. I love the dive into the second launch and up past the waterfall. That's the only thing that still sticks in my head. It felt like there were lots of lul moments, then crazy, then lul. But I don't feel it flowed in the right order to make a stunning ride. It's not a top 10 for me. Probably not a top 20. But that doesn't mean it's bad. It is a good fun ride, has created a hugely themed area secluded from the park. It is spectacular to watch, wander the little village with Taron roaring overhead. But the ride isn't standout in my eyes. For the next level of theming yes, as a ride, no. It is a solid ride that will do well against time. It won't be a fad. As long as it doesn't get Intamin rough, it'll always be a good ride. It also got me thinking though, why does every new ride these days have to seemingly be a top 10 ride or the next best thing. What's wrong with just building a good solid coaster that no one will dislike. I guess you could see it as Inferno in a way. Nothing special, but a ride that is always liked, pretty popular and serves the park extremely well. So yeah, Taron. Good. Now Chiapas however is special. A gorgeous ride Now with it's weird issues sorted so you can sit properly. Wacky ride. Crazy drop But a fun theme! Great music throughout, lighthearted nature, doesn't soak you so is always enjoyable. Definitely my favourite flume type ride, sorry Dudley's. Intamin will sell lots of these once they're confident it won't have multiple issues again. And Taron too, I'm sure they'll sell more launchers now with the new trains. Go to Phantasialand! 9/10 park at least. In more serious news. If anyone spots Josh, please inform Phantasialand. He is currently trying to rip of the Chiapas rave room somewhere in Monchengladbach. That way he'll get banned

That show has been running since last year so is a new show compared to when we'd have been watching CBeebies. So that's perfect, it's suited for the audience Towers are after, people currently watching the channel.

I think it is just the queue line they're really working on now. The lagoon is ready, splash effects added back in. Walls are down on the bridge. New nets up under the (I hope) blue temp ones. Entrance feature in place with signs, lockers, testing empty. Staff sighted in uniform. I don't know how much testing a new ride needs, but I still haven't heard anything about softs, cast member previews etc other than August. If it doesn't open while you're there, just admire it's gorgeousness