Matt 236

Seeing the Scenic testing is certainly a pleasing site (and should mean very soon we'll have another woodie Cree back in the uk). Despite the debatable OTT mesh panels, I look how the train has retained many of the original features of the old ride, rather than a bog standard 'this will do' train; or worse, Bakkenista. By the looks, they have only one train (for now) but judging by the size of the warehouse, hopefully another one or two should be appearing in the future. With the amount of things added, it almost feels like a brand new ride built in a traditional style considering all the wood, trains & mechanics (presumably) were all replaced in the restoration.

Ooh, most of the building is done, I'm getting a little bit excited here, Thorpe's marketing team are doing a great job so far. Looking at the building, it is definitely looking much more of an orangey red now compared to the similarities of the light brown it appeared to have earlier on.

It looks pretty, very pretty! Almost reminds me of a cross between Disney & Efteling style architecture for some reason (I wonder why ) If a teacups ride at the park looks impressive, I can't to see what they do with a full blown GCI!

Anyone braving it alone may want to bring scruffy clothes and/or a spare change, judging from what happened to Peaj last Sunday. Proper excited for this meet now!

Agree with everything except maybe MBV, Cabin is the best maze, Big Top maybe the worst, Saw is much better and Containment is good fun.

Ok, my turn, time to Creeken the Thorpe. 2016 WC16 opens [and is a roaring success hopefully] Areas surrounding new ride given touch up's and external imporvements to make it look nicer. 2017 Rumba Rapids is rethemed to an Aztec themed adventure, queueline, entrance and tunnel are rebuilt and some areas of the ride are re-tracked.The updated ride will now feature dark ride sections. IMA score will create a long soundtrack to the new ride. Samurai is replaced with a brand new model due to it's old age yet high popularity Colossus receives brand new trains with lapbars and the surrounding area is cleaned up alongside some effects in the queue too, PR stunt done. I'm A Celeb becomes SBNO Slammer & X close as part of major project dubbed TPC19 2018 Thorpe Hotel opens and features a loose waterside/ party theme with many rooms available, a water bus service is offered daily Calypso Quay Burger King closes down and is replaced by a Food Loop style restaurant which features unique track routes based on Thorpe coasters, Dome receives some major works where the theming is rebuilt to look like a lost paradise and freshen the place up. The exterior of the dome is repainted blue and white with the lower level given more of an ocean underwater theme to reflect it's level underwater. IAC area becomes home to daily shows based on a successful non dying IP Entrance plaza is demolished as part of a major rebuilding project to modernize the entrance, a tempory entrance is built with water buses taking people to the island. 2019 TPC ride opens on former X & Slammer sites, which is a new dark ride [different to WC16] and will be a coaster ride [if WC16 isn't] and will use a retro space theme and be some kind of obscure world first. Brand new entrance plaza opens with a modernised ticket collection area, electronic collection machines, updated pass centre, wider improved entrance bridge and centre piece item which will either be fountain or shark like object. Park holds massive 40th anniversary celebrations by doing evening concerts and fireworks in the summer and releasing limited merchandise too. 2020 New hotel extension opens up with exotic topical island theme High ropes course opens Angry birds Ip expires and area is disolved in to Amity cove with a new film created too. 2021 Family coaster opens on Fungle site which is a mack family all star. Loggers leap closes for major development. 2022 Brand new state of the art water ride opens in canada creek with a native theme styled like Chiapas. Rocky express lightly rethemed, canada creek area resurfaced and updated. 2023 New wooden coaster opens Meh

Seeing a ride running/testing months before opening [presuming this is opening in March] is always a happy sight. Once the other rides are running this shall hopefully give them more time to work on the theming and landscaping which like the whole project looks rather exciting.

Safe to say, Universal is building is new ride for 2016 called Hulk which is replacing an old ride called Hulk, which had exactly the same theme & layout but the newer version will be more updated with more effects and theming most likely.

Is this the end?

Made a vlog on my trip to Thorpe last saturday. Here's how it went.

I guess this means Shanghai Disney won't open until 2017 now .

Indeed it has. Probably a good job I'm not going now as plans to go that day fell through with this being the last nail in the coffin. Really really wish they'd stop doing these late minute opening hour cut backs as some people they've got to abruptly change their plans or worse, waste three hours done nothing.

Thanks so much for creating this. I have never realised how crucial & prominent the Fifth Dimension was in setting the bar & standard for dark rides and Themepark park standards at the time. A group of ride creators building a Disney style dark ride on limited budget & resources yet trying to obtain a similar level of magic is remarkable, from things such as lights in pipes to replicate space, the creative Mack transit system (which still exists) to the swamp scene even. The changes just a year later mentioned is interesting, in the way they tried to enhance the ride with re-recoded dubs, especially some of the suggestions of him using different accents amongst replacing the giant Gorg at the end, it's just such a shame the ride was such a technical struggle and it didn't receive the understanding by the gp as well as first hoped. The designers of this ride definitely had more creativity in their fingers than the current ones have in their whole body and makes me disappointed I never got to experience this amazing sounding ride in what was likely the golden age of Uk theme parks. I'm assuming Layout wise: The lights to space was where the boulder is now The zappomatic scene is where the mummies shooting scene is now The Gorgs & ice are where the tomb shooting bits are now The Swamp was where the Sphinx is now The giant Gorg scene is where the snake finale is now. Such an interesting watch.

Merlin uk council relationships in summary, Thorpe Park & Runnymede council Can build a lot of things they want,high limit is around 130ft (except special conditions like Stealth), but they can't go much underground (if at all). The end result however must be very similar to what's been proposed Current park council relations good. expected Success rate for planning 90% Alton Towers & Runnymede council Have fairly strict height & sound restrictions hence why Nemy was built in a pit, Blivvy was built underground, Rita has some dark green track and Thunder Looper left after 6 years. However have a fair share of Terran areas to play with to build new rides, don't need to stick as strict to the plan as thorpe do and have areas in the park such as Adventure land, mutiny bay & Cloud Cuckoo where planning isn't necessarily needed (unless it's something massive). Often meet in the middle when it comes to needs. Current relations, mixed, they're strict but eventually reach agreements, expected success rate for planning 65% Chessington & Kingston council Also have strict planning rules, no over tree height rides, nothing too noisy either. Unlike like towers lack areas for 'creative' expansion, council generally don't get on well with the park and expansion has been much harder since Transylvania due to Vampire's noise issues etc. Many plans have been made but been either refused or unschievable. Current relations, not good, hated and ignored needs. Expected success for planning 40% General,y expectations anyway.

Today wasn't the best of days unfortunately as many rides broke down during evening and remained closed all night, 14 in total plus Big Top was shockingly disaponting not to mention only managing 4 rides somewhat. Containment however was really good, as were Csbin & Saw Alive but can't save what operation wise has possibly been my worst trip for 4 years.

Went to Thorpe today and was possibly my worst trip there for 4 years years, at least from an operational point of view, lots of ride breakdowns, mixed operations and many rides shut down completely at the end of the night including Colossus, X, Slammer, Swarm & depth charge, there was 14 rides closed by the end of the night before closing. Mazes were very hit and miss. Big Top was shockingly poor today, waited 2 hours due to breakdown and the tunthrough severely lacked the greatness of Thursday's preview, even Blair Witch mk1 was better. 3/10 Cabin Best maze by a long shot, actors were on a roll and really in character. 10/10 Containment Proper good attraction, really felt involved in the games which involved people sorting puzzles, a bit like an escape room with some live/scare actors in really. Just about worth the £8. 8/10 Blair Witch As good as preview night, actors are very good but the light of WC16 ruined settings a little, though couldn't be helped really. 7/10 Saw Alive Much better this year, really grown to this maze this year which may be my second favourite now. 8.5/10 Did some BTS with southpark on Saw Alive & Big Top and was really interesting seeing the mazes and vsn definitely appreciate them more especially the former and interesting the changes the maze has gone through since its existence. Was a good event. Also got an evac from Cabin too which was interesting how everything suddenly stopped and the actors going from scaring you to going out of character and guiding you to the exit. Overall some good bite but some negative bits too, going back in a weeks time for the meet which will probe be my final trip this year due to major commitments, so hopefully ride operations will be much better as a whole, the BTS, cabin, containment and company made up for what doodle otherwise been a terrible day.

I'm in Cabin's queue now and Slammer has been dead all day as far as I'm aware. It's also got a sign outside its entrance explaining its unavailable. The ride may have well packed up for the year now, or worse, for good.

I did Space Mountain for the first time in September and absolutely loved it. The pure steampunk theme & build up really helps this attraction for me and the semi outside station with dual loading helps too. The ride experience is superb with all the meteor effects and lasers and considering its in for another major refurb, things can only get better hopefully.

I'm hoping those medals are more-so indicating a possible redesign of medals or even just a random end of season sale, however there is no smoke without fire as I have heard some on/off aggressive rumours of X & Slammer 'possibly' leaving (take this with a pinch of salt) which hope doesn't happen. I'm hoping Slamner doesn't go (yet) as its a unique exciting attraction and though when it's broken it's messed up, the ride works quite reliably when it is running. It's possible following the Smiler, Merlin will be more ruthless with ride running and if Slsmmer suffers another major failure/mechanical failure they will just close it for good.

My thoughts tonight (Don't read for spoilers) Big Top A maze of two extremes, started well went down hill got better when the ring leader appears but still lacks the greatness of Asylum & Studio. Cabin Virtually identical to last year, but still my favourite MBV Weakest maze of the night, acting is ok but is too short now without the hospital scenes. Saw Alive This has grown on me slit, more theatrical than before so was good fun. Blair Witch Some improvements again but there is still room for more Fright nights overall Once again has its pros and cons but did really enjoy it again. I like that small pieces of theming have no started appearing at this event & considering the problems big top has faced it can only get better through time really.

One of the things I remember from VIP experience was the 'Stealth & Rita were supposed to be one ride' thing and though there are things that make sense, I'm still struggling to believe this potential myth. Back on topic, Thorpe's next big thing should be a coaster but one that aims towards the thrilling end for families. Something along the lines of Blue Fire & Helix with good theming and marketing could work, or even a woodie, Plopsas getting one and that's a park that attracts a similar age group to Paultons.

That Shed some light on the topic then.

Paultons (though I haven't visited yet (MC16)) looks it's already a better park than Chessie. They have great rides, great theming, decent upkeep making an overall well loved park that is slowly turning from a regional park to leasing one in the uk. Despite its falling quality, operations, theming, upkeep etc, it seems Merlin have a strategy to keep it higher than the likes of Paultons. Unfortunately it's the wrong one as its only aimed at getting more guests. Rather than do rightful things like ripping out Toadies for a thrilling major family coaster, replacing Tombs with a better 21st century dark ride amongst other things all the park seem to be doing as adding more non-themepark stuff like more accommodation rather then invest and improve the park it'self which is getting closer and closer to breaking point, the day when vampire fails forever, Tomb shortcircuits and something happens in rattlesnake and falls leaving just scorpion, fury, bubbles & Zufari. Rumour has it yet another hotel could be coming to Chessington in the possible future, or lodges like EV or both.

Really hope 2017 will be the year we see something major added to the park (even at the expense of another ride). If WC16 is a success this will look more hopeful, but then again seeing how well their last big thing Zufari ended up, my optimism is currently on the low side.

Looks like this park is really rolling out on the investments, three coasters in one year? Need I say more.