Matt 236

I do wish Six flags would stop RMC'ing rides for the sake of RMC'ing. By 2020 there won't be any proper woodies left in their parks, just a whole load of hybrids. I so t get why they can't just built a new outstanding one without converting an existing woodie in to one, the earlier ones looked good but I think they're starting to go a bit overboard on these things now.

Crinkley Bottom is a (defunct) park I have always been interested in, being perhaps of the most famous themepark failures in modern times resulting in two themeparks emerging in the mid nineties based on TV character Mr Blobby (whom I sort of grew up with in my early childhood). The first park which I think was around Scarborough closed after just a few months whilst the one in St Thomas lasted until around 1999 when the Tv show blobby was based on, Noel's House Party was axed. The park itself lasted three years and is now owned by Warner hotel group as I'm aware. The park's centrepiece attraction the Blobby House (Dunblobbin) remained derelict (although became home to illegal raves & vandalism) until the start of 2015 when the ageing structure was put out of its misery and demolished. I found this video which shows many sections of the park including the Dunblobbin Nostalgia aside, the park was probably never that good (no surprises it didn't last that long) and was probably not a patch on other parks around such as Chessington, Legoland and others (90's here). However it is very interesting footage and from a park where all official knowledge and information of is rare and far few between is highly sought after. If the park was built today, it would indeed look very dated, old and tacky.

Plopsaland looks a loverly family themepark which appears to be a cross between a slightly bigger Paultons and a slightly better Drayton (minus the thrill rides) with a small pinch of Chessington. It is a park I'll perhaps look in yo visiting when the new coaster opens (possibly a 2017 trip). The writing style seems highly appropriate and I like the critical approach of analysing the rides and areas whilst keeping it within real time to an extent. I expect SCB's report will have a different writing approach altogether resulting in two different blogs from the same time frame.

I like the fact they are heading Marketing with rides that are generally reliable, seriously the rides they're using are generally reliable. (No dub terra, Rita or spinball).

Another Chessington accommodation object? Yawwwwwwwwwwwwnnnnn Seriously the park doesn't need any more accommodation things and rather investments in to the park itself, such as new and heavily rethemed rides, plus that land there could be something much better such as a new coaster site.

Really hoping that it's just a really dodgy translation. From I read, I interpreted it as the ride having an evac with people onboard. All rides have breakdowns from time to time (even B&Ms). Hopefully this was just a standard breakdown evac occurrence and the Dutch press have just escalated the incident.

Interesting read, I think the magic bands an interesting idea and with a moderate amount of looking in to it could work well. I'm excited for the launch of Avatar land and I think the installation of this area (with its Yeo major rides & theming) along with the nighttime Kilimanjaro and nighttime show the park will feel a lot more complete although apparently delays might push the opening until 2018 ( when I'm thinking of going). How was Holkywood studios? As its park that's in the middle of a long refurb yet is closing tonnes of attractions like there's no tommorow yet not replacing them.

Well it seems despite resubmitting the application for the haunted house, Windsor Cancel (council) have ruled out the application due to it being too similar to the old one. Source- Southparks http://www.southparks.co.uk/2015/07/15/legoland-windsor-resort-haunted-house-experiences-further-set-back/ Really hope they can get around this as its ride the park really need and would add to the lineup well. If they lose this again, I wonder if they can appeal to the high court/ government or discretely build it (snd claim the construction is hotel related) I wonder. Windsor cancel (council) have just made it to. Y list of enemies (The term cancel implies an event or plan scheduled to go ahead that no longer happens).

Topspin jokes are old. Like Ripsaw Seriously though, would love to see more immersive experiences added to the park and I'd rather not see any more new flats unless they're replacing existing ones (Samurai is on the way out).

This all looks potentially exciting stuff for Shanghai Disney. Adventure Isle looks lush with that sheer scale of theming, and that Rapids ride looks to be one of the best and original ride ideas by Disney since Mystic Manor. The Tron ride looks pretty and very different from other tommorow land coasters we've had so far (all of which have been Space Mountain), as long as there is a decent chunk of dark ride it should be a very good coaster. That castle looks massive here though! Never realised Hong Kong bad the smallest Disney castle (Paris's being around the middle in size) and apparently there's going to be a jungle cruise like ride underneath it or something. Mickey's avenue I'm not too sure on that as a starter,which will be very different from the main street approach but the fantasy gardens sounds a loverly area for a park. Apparently the tommorow land here will be pretty small (at least to begin with) as apart from the coaster, there's only a jet pack spinning ride (orbiter), Buzz Lightyear blast ride and a stage and couple of meet and greets, no star tours or autopia (mark9 is probably happy about that though). Despite Fantasy Land being the largest area, there might not be an it's a small world either, although they will be cloning Seven a Dwarfs Mine a Train from Magic Kingdom. This will be a very different style Magic Kingdom type of park.

Despite not initially planning to return until October, I visited Chessington again this week with some mates on TPM. Ride Count Vampire 3x Dragons Fury Bubble works 2x Kobra Dragon Falls Tomb Blaster Jumbos Zufari Safari Skyway Hocus Pocus Hall Caroulsel (teacup) Scorpion Express Total 15 Park busyness-average Favourite ride that day- Vampire Pros Vampire was running well Vampire runs noticeably better at the end of the day Fury Fish & chip rethemed building looks very nice The Caroulsel tea cup spinning (but I'm sure it's more manic with Peaj though) Bubble work fountains were working Myk & Fish Cons Fish and chips was very expensive, £6 for a small bit of cod with some chips (bit much especially with discount) Part of Kobra's theming is a it broken (one of the tails) Bubblework's fountain finale still isn't a patch on what it used to be with the missing mirrors and the absence of strobes (I hate to see what it be like without fountains) Fury's queue line stunk near the shop (one of the worst smells I've witnessed at a themepark) Tomb blaster was in a right state with many targets broken, no spinning tunnel plus the music from the Sphinx scene broken where you could just hear a very tiny theme tune (as if someone's playing it off their phone at full volume) Skyway was shaking more than Polaroid picture The North car park doesn't have the greatness the south entrance has (damn that £10 parking fee) Someone had a protein spill on Buccaneer on tye cycle before the one we should've had, closing the tide down for a while Zufari, that is all Chessington could do with more adult ride t-shirts as I couldn't find any Waiting 30 minutes for a pint of lager in monkey puzzle because the tank had runout and they forgot The burger was very very mediocre and quite overpriced really (almost as bad as fish and chips really) Despite these many many flaws, I still had a good day out at Chessington (though maybe the company helped that). It's a park for some reason I still seem to like and enjoy despite many on here heavily slating it (maybe I did just kinda contradict myself). If the park were to sort out its many many issues and sort the place up in the coming years, it could be an amazing place to go. 20 million a year would do great rounders, returning a major ride each year, adding new theming in, repainting Dragons fury & vampire and even rebuilding skyway with a more up to date ride system would do wonders. It would be worth it, especially considering it's been receiving the highest surge of guest increases of the four parks really despite the lack of investment.

I think those photo updates made me even more excited about this project which is probably the best addition to a non merlin uk park since I can remember. Why can't we see water fall & rockwork structures more frequently in our parks?

So it seems some point over the weekend this happened 'Extreme' safety signs have appeared at many ride fences throughout the park warning danger of death and trespassers will be prosecuted. Also Somic's fence near the ride has been slightly increased in height. Justifiable extreme precautions or petty over the top safety? Personally I'd say as annoying it seems, seeing that around 5% of guests who visit don't always oblige with safety, cause havoc and have their 'mortal' attitudes of going in to restricted areas, this is the best way even when ironically you go over to Europe and many parks there get away (and don't seem to have problems) with fences half that level.

Well one day is much better than no days at all (so wanna go here). Europa is probably a park that needs 3 days to cover it properly (4-5 if busy times). On another note, there planning another hotel with a Scandinavian theme which will be located near where the waterpark is going.

Unfortunately Merlin seem too money based. The only way I think we will see some (duressed) TLC occur is this It seems the only way merlin seem to do something about 'very worn areas' that aren't becoming re themed as new or next to new rides.

Disappointing but not surprised by this, after all this is modern Chessington, rundown original rides with amazing theming that becomes neglected and eventually removed leaving an empty gap. As insulting falls now looks to even a few years ago, at least the ride system still works well especially when skyway is falling apart more by the day, tomb is a safety nightmare (apparently), Fury & Vampire are reliability nightmares (for headliners) and bubble works, a former shadow of itself.

Banned for visiting Efteling & Phantasialand before me

Tower of Terror Enough said

Great to see Saw reopen following its lengthily sagetly closure due to Smiler which is sooner than I expected (even if it's my least fav of the big 5). 60 minutes queue isn't surprising especially as it often receives lengthily waits. Wonder if we will see all eight cars continue to operate and when the safety results of Smiler are out?

Tomb definitely needs some work done to it as its starting to look dated now, however I'd say rides like Falls, Bubbles, fury, skyway & vampire are higher up on the to do list as in their current state they're pretty shocking for what's one of the Leading parks in the UK.

Nemesis (the original) WC16 or Lost Kingdom (Paultons)

Onsite preparations are going ahead now at the park I don't know whether I'm more excited about this or Thorpe's new dark ride when it comes to the 2016 UK additions, however it'll definitely be the best year for new rides for a while and potentially be the biggest rival addition to Merlin yet (exciting times). Source-Vekoma

Meanwhile on TPM, Matt Creek was jealous over a holiday of prancing fanboys who rode many surprisingly, monstrously large dark rides and drank lots of very strong beer! This meant Professor Drunk got more drunk with envy and jealousy...as well as creating crazy music involving sucking children's lollies making a world shortage in major happiness because of Smiler - a ride that isn't perfectly safe until it becomes a boring flat Pile of rubble.

Meanwhile on TPM, Matt Creek was jealous over a holiday of prancing fanboys who rode many surprisingly, monstrously large dark rides and drank lots of very strong beer! This meant Professor Drunk got more drunk with envy and jealousy...as well as creating crazy music involving sucking children's lollies making a world shortage in major happiness because of Smiler - a ride that isn't perfectly safe

All Merlin parks need new rides, Thorpe & Towers have very much seen the lions share of investment (aside from one of them going wrong), Legoland has received a large chunk of investment (even if things have slowed down a lot in the last few years) whilst Chessington seems to have been given merely the leftovers when it comes to investment. Back on topic though! Pretty sure and hopeful it will be a coaster after the dark ride. Who will make it who knows but B&M, jack, GCI & RMC are likely candidates. Vekoma & Intamin are less likely and following g recent events it definitely won't be a Gerst.