Matt 236

Asterisk is a park I really want to get too ASAP with its two great looking coasters, theming and more (not to mention being on the way to DLP). Those fillers rides look pretty decent and well themed and can't wait to see what this new coaster is for 2017.

I never knew Italy was full of such little wonders. Gardaland is a park I've been wanting to visit for a while now as seems to have so much charm and love (2017 maybe). Did you try out the dark rides there and how was Mammut?

Not speculating it 'wont' be a coaster for the WC16 ride system, but I recall in the past Merlin have sourced existing coasters for noise assessments when it comes to installing new rides. When Towers were planning Thirteen, they sourced Colossus for the assets,ent and Saw the ride when Smiler was built. Can't remember what they used for Saw & Swarm, but probably Air for Swarm.

Zufari, Skyway, toadies, Jumbos, Canopy Capers & the zoo close at dusk (based on previous years). Everything else should be open, including all coasters, water, flat & dark rides (hoping Rattles is finally open (whys it been closed so long in the first place?)). Rides that close at dusk are generally either to do with insufficient lighting or added complications in the off chance of an evac I believe.

Shame to hear you didn't feel great on the second leg of the trip, but still sounds like most of it was highly enjoyable. I've heard good things about Troy there and it's a ride I really want to do in the near future (amongst the others there), but I think I'll wait until the park add something else major not to mention apparently it's difficult to get here without car.

This isn't Europa though this is Merlin. The day we see the revoke of fastrack is the day Chessington becomes the Uk's no.1 again (it just don't happen I'm afraid). Chessington could have new/replaced rides by doing the following 1/ new large coaster on Toadies/Peeking site 2/ new dark ride on Tomb's site (watered rumours have appeared pending how wellWC16 goes) 3/ new coaster/dark ride on Temple/Lorikeets area 4/ Chiapas style flume to replace falls 5/ Sky ways to be rebuilt (would be worth it) Then re-enhance Bubbles, give sea storm the Columbus dinghy treatment and another stage for more entertainment. Vampire is the concerning one as though it's (technically) the park's most popular ride, at 25 years it's now coming towards the end of its life (25 being the general expectancy of these suspended rides) and even though trains snd hardware was replaced 13/14 years ago, it cant have a long left and when it does fail beyond repair, there's the sticky issue with planning as something similar to the ride could not be built there. It's a shame Chessington cant invest the level of dedication they in to hotels in to the main park as then we wouldn't have a lot to complain about. The food outlets are slowly improving, fish & chips was a start and chicken shack should help too (no doubt Pizza Pasta & Chicken Co. Will be next).

I don't think park expansion is possible with land situations (even if they could buy more). Something needs to be done done though the excessive ride closures & both main coasters earning three hour queues, but I'm not sure what.

10/10 It's Tower Of Terror!

when I did my VIP lift walk, I was told the dome www here to stay for the forseable future as it's such a central building and is helpful for the park for a number of events etc. Whilst that's not set in stone, I can't see the Dome going anytime soon (unless major fire) due to its prominent size and location, not to mention it'll cost millions just to remove potentially (let alone Merlin (merlin=$ )). Although it is looking dated in most areas, I think a major overhaul could work very well, strip down the theming with updated shark stuff, change the surroundings, rebar use the floor, repair the walls and make the outside cleaner snd repainted. One thing I've always thought is how much the dome looks like a smaller O2 arena so maybe they could look in to styling that a similar way.

Just a week now until this exciting meet takes off!

Daymn knew I was missing someone Edit- you'll be happy to know I've added it in now [sort of].

The second video of the Wales trip is now live, this time featuring all the shenanigans of what was covered in Cardiff. https://youtu.be/LHpLO30Lbeg

I'm hoping and praying Wild Mouse isn't leaving Blackpool anytime soon due to the following reasons. 1/ it's still a popular ride and one of only few left in the world (at least til Dreamlands opens). 2/ it was rumoured to be going in 2012 and didn't 3/ We will likely be losing two rides at the Pleasure Beach next year for Project 2017 (floating rumours suggest), Wild Mouse won't be one of those and the two are will likely be the go karts & Grand Prix.

MattGWise beat me to it. Here is a full image via Chessington Buzz. The planning shows the locker area in market square will be removed for the extension which I believe will be done to the Chicken Shack. There's been mentions also of a grill or something so maybe we will be looking at an increased selection of food too. I do think Chessie a proper full restaurant these days , compared to other Merlin parks recently and that many eateries are starting to struggle with crowds lately, so these changes can only be good things (part of me thinks the loss of Creaky hasn't helped a lot).

Ladies & Gentleman, the solution to Chessington!

My love of themepark's began back at Thorpe during it's early magical days. My first trip was probably 1995(as I remember going as a child) and absolutely loving all the charming rides that existed there including the now removed Thunder River, Octopus Garden, a Caroulsel Kingdom, Farm & Flying a Fish (mk1). Oakwood themepark & Legoland also greatly helped this out too, the former being one of main elements of a family holiday in 1998 (at just 5) which I strongly remember and whilst unfortunately being just about too little for Megafobia, I still enjoyed many rides including the Treetops coaster, Snake a River Falls (which has gained the nick name of the wet bum slide) and the now defunct Nutty Jake's Goldmine. Legoland mainly occurred due to my interest in Lego which still exists to this very day! It was these stepping stones that lead to all future trip progressions where many mile stones have been reached including my first world class park (Alton Towers), first woodie (Megafobia) and first big park outside the UK (Disneyland Paris) and more to come.MC16

Basically Legoland are having extreme difficulty gaining planning permission these days (even more so than Chessie) on the grounds of area congestion so Merlin have their hands tied in this one as they know if they poor openings here they will have no chance of building anything new in the future. I've also heard unlike Thorpe & Chessie Lego's numbers haven't been affected by the Smiler.

Tomb Blaster & Rattlesnake's reliability seemed to have gone down the pan lately and need to be sorted. Pity they couldn't hold off the new ride and instead update Tomb Blaster as that ride really struggles now. Skyway doesn't surprise me one bit as it hasn't worked well for the best part of 10 years and just needs a rebuild. 90 minutes now for Bubbleworks and that seems quite extreme, however 45 for vampire & Fury makes the queue length sound debatable. Safe to say Paultons appear to be overtaking Chessie now.

So we could be losing three attractions at Universal next year by the looks (however Beetlejuice might be moving), however no doubt it's replacements will be of high quality especially seeing how amazing Kong looks already. Wonder what type of ride Fast & Furious will be? I know there's another attraction going to the Hollywood park soon (if it's not there already). Strange about Twister though, I really thought this attraction was on its way out as Theme Park Tourist had been talking about permits for the ride's demolition and Jimmy Fallon opening in 2016 or 17. Shame Disasters going though even if it's old and dated now.

This ride is visually stunning, yet there is still even more parts that haven't even been constructed yet. Either way, this is going to be a stunning ride when it opens.

Some interesting developments at this park, that castle themed teacup ride is already looking really nice. That layout for the woodie though looking very exciting and I guess this will be replacing the Bat coaster which is a bit of a shameless those rides seem to be extremely rare now however I hear their throughputs are awful.

Paulton's upcoming new area coming along nicely. The UK has some new exciting developments next year for once. Some mighty fine theming building up around here, this could well beat WC16's even.

Looks like a washout to me, just like the ride. Storm Splurger would've been a hundred times better at Florida Legoland than Thorpe.

ooh, exciting announcement there, I do like it when the park changes its scare theme each year and look forward to see what's ahead for this year's Fright Nights. New addition wise, I expect one will be a replacement/rework of Studio 13 with a circus theme potentially and the other a scare zone. Unlike Chessington's event which has taken a massive dive suddenly with no HITH & MOHPH I have no doubt this will be another great fright nights event and from what I remember heard earlier this season, the budget is being increased this year.

Curse of the Tomb is apparently free now (source Southparks) which should be the case to begin, however it's still strongly disappointing that both the park's former Halloween attractions however have disappeared as they looked top notch additions snd I never got to experience either of them. I'd really like to no why the decision to chop them were made and whether it was the park or Merlin that gave the 'this maze can't run anymore' order.Part of me is really hoping for a u-turn or change, but this is Chessington. If the 8pm closings are slashed again, I will likely call off my visit (I'm already considering doing a Scarefest instead).