Matt 236

I understand the demand is generally not there in these low peak days, but that is still not really excusable for a big park of this level. As Josh says, there are people who will be travelling a journey similar to the complete opening hours and that will certainly hinder a noticeable chunk of those people, even if they are willing to get, say a travelogue or something for the night. I'm not expecting “Europa Park style” closures in the week like 7/8pm, but a solid 5pm consistent close would be perfectly sufficient for such a park. Just because a park is walk on low peak days does not necessarily mean it’s easy for everyone, especially when everything is spread out in the park.

There are theme parks in small regional towns with better opening hours than Towers. Worst hours of any theme park really, let alone a major one.

Thorpe Park x5 Chessington x4 Legoland x3 Flamingo Land Lightwater Valley Harbour Park (yes I visited and probably my shortest park trip in history) Tivoli Gardens Parc Asterix 2x Cedar Point 3x Kings Island Phantasialand 2x Toverland Europa Park 2x Liseberg 2x Plopsaland Definitely one of the better years for abroad trips which I doubt I’ll top for a while If ever. Also had my share of cultural experiences too such as Rome.Shame I couldn’t get Towers, but then again my social life is currently heading down a rocky road. May still get more stuff done, but probably just Winter Wonderland and maybe Legoland Christmas at best. Will have to see. We are all Benin

*Mr Fish*

And in surprising (or unsurprising) news, Legoland Windsor have confirmed via social media they will be removing their Star Wars Miniland walkthrough. With the other Legoland parks removing their equivalent attractions, it is highly likely the result of Disney’s ownership of the brand and the recent openings of the Galaxy’s Edge areas in Disney resorts. The attraction closes on the 31st December if anyone wants to see it before this disappears into the force.

Thorpe fans be like.

The 6pm thing with Heidi actually makes more sense now that I think about it, especially with all the issues they had with it before it was scheduled to open. Probably also why they put a Scarezone there too. I guess every so often we will get that park where we are heavily spited of rides that are a major draw for us and me so far, Plopsa has been that park. I was really hoping to get Heidi and Anubis, but had to leave accepting the Flume was my favourite and being spited two major Creds. chances are, I probably visited on one of their more supposed off days purely because of the weather. I will give them another chance one day given I have only experienced 60-70% of what the park can offer. the Bratwursts were apparently noticeably better.

I made a vlog on Liseberg too.

Last weekend I had my first visit to Plopsa, which was certainly one of my more interesting trips this year but maybe not for all the right reasons. Day started fairly well. Entrance area looks pretty and reminds me a bit of Parc Asterix in some ways. The hotel on the right hand side is coming along nicely. We did the World Of Plop dark ride, which was simply charming and reminded me of attractions such as Dream Flight and Elf Ride. Even Matt Wise liked it. Sadly things didn’t continue this way as the weather got considerably worse and remained wet and windy for almost the whole day. This resulted in Anubis and Heidi (amongst other attractions) being closed. We did a couple of attractions including the water coaster, which was ok before having a lunch remembered for the wrong reasons. We chose the Pirate Grill, where we waited ages to get served and there was no clear instructions either. I went for a burger and it was disgusting, thought I was going to be sick eating it. Probably the most expensive yet dreadful park meal I have had to date. Maybe tops P.A now. We did some other rides including Victor’s race and K3, these were ok with the latter being my favourite “Operating” coaster. We also did another wave surfer type ride and Draak, which took ages to load. Plopsa had some of the worst park operations I have seen, least when I went. Some big rides had just one staff member doing everything. The dinosaur flume though is great. I love the theming, scenery and rockwork they have done here and the landscaping around there is great. One of my favourite flume rides out there and probably my favourite thing I did in the park. The teacup castle looks great too. As the day went on, we kept checking to see if either major ride were to open, but we were out of luck. They stayed closed almost all day, not only down to poor weather, but they also used their respective areas for scare zones. This doesn’t seem logical. The one around Heidi was the better of the two scare zones, but they were both poor and make last year’s Fright Night mazes look like Tulleys Farm. we left the park an hour early in the end as there wasn’t any reason to stay as we’d done everything else we wanted. I don’t know if I have been very unlucky, but I was somewhat disappointed by Plopsa when I visited. The park had it’s redeeming features, but there were so many negatives too, including operations, quality and experience. Despite this I will probably go back again one day, but not until they open the spinner. Maybe I’m in the minority here. Least we had Peaj’s teacup though.

Surprisingly not working, so should be there for the whole day hopefully.

Halloween! It’s usually my favourite time of year. Parks are open longer, the darkening evenings lead to more night rides and the parks play host to scare mazes, spooky shows and creepy theming. Maybe all three. Now 2019 is far from my best and favourite year of Halloween. I haven’t visited as many attractions this year, due to numerous commitments and setbacks unexpectedly happening to me lately. However I’ve tried to enjoy and make the best of what I have been able to do. Fright Nights Last year’s event was something of a travesty. Lots of attractions, but absolutely nothing to note about quality. Blair Witch was probably the least terrible maze there. This year the event was a noticeable improvement. Creek Freek is easily the best maze of the event. It’s pacing, set design and length seem to fit it perfectly, easily making it the best maze the event has seen for years, which probably isn’t easy to be fair. Platform 15 was surprisingly good and I love the new ending they have for it. Terror At Amity High makes a great change from just scare-mazes and I hope this continues. The event was mostly enjoyable but there is still way to go, before we start getting onto the lines of previous years. Atmosphere seemed to be lacking and a need for better parkwide lighting and audio are definitely required. Whatsmore seeing Saw Alive delapidated didn’t help either as that’s yet another abandoned attraction. Living Nightmare is already getting stale besides it’s reasonable set design. Liseberg Halloween/ I had always wanted to go to Liseberg’s Halloween event, and this year seemed to be the best year to go. The park don’t hold off when it comes to decorations, with pumpkins and other bits of spooky theming scattered throughout. The cheesy entrance tunes are also thrown out for some catchy spooky tunes! There were five mazes and two scare zones. I got to six of those. The scare zones were quite impressive, by utilising not only scare actors, but set pieces they can interact with as you pass by. Some of the reactions from others were simply priceless. The mazes were scattered around reasonably, with Vinden near the marquee, Skogen just off the entrance, Zombie next to Balder and The Experiment between Helix and the big wheel. Vinden was my favourite, as you went up an elevator into a building (presumably unused staff areas) and get bombarded with numerous scenes including a power area and other industrial areas. The Zombie maze was surprisingly good and really built up tension as you went around the maze. The use of Bill Wither’s Lovely Day really sets the scene well. The Experiment was probably the weakest maze, but still really well done and good use of the Atmosphere queue line. The ride was closed with the rapids. The park’s permanent scare attraction Hotel Gasten featured some more spooky touch ups and still proves to be an excellent scare attraction amongst it’s immaculate set design. The park sure does look spooky at night with it’s lighting and features Halloween attractions for a calibre of ages. It was great to get back on the park’s attractions after so long too. Balder is just relentless and I forgot how phenomenal the airtime is on it. Valkyria is a great addition to the park and is themed to such a great level in this park. It is probably my favourite dive coaster overall. Helix is still great, but I think I’m more Team Taron now. Lisebergbanen is still as fun as ever, even with the new trains. Loke is still my favourite flat ride. The rest are hit and miss. The original Fairy Tale dark ride was removed to makeway for Valkyria. The fairy tale is over and the real world replaces it. If there’s anything scarier than any of these mazes, then it’s riding a scooter, falling off and crashing into a fence leaving you with a braised ankle! Tulleys Farm Shocktoberfest Pretty much the finale and final major halloween event for me. I didn’t visit last year, but am happy to confirm it has retained (if not increased) it’s high standards from last year. The new Wastelands Maze is simply excellent and by far my favourite maze of the whole event. I love the whole pacing and interaction of the whole maze which works so well. As does it’s occasional outside show. The Wreckening (formerly The Colony) was also very good, although some parts were a little questionable. I really enjoyed the other previous mazes such as Twisted Clowns, The Village Coven of 13 and The Cellar. Chop Shop was still an enjoyable contender too and the Hounted Hayride was as great as ever,varying from scary and action packed scenes, to more comical ones such as the crazy nuns at the end. The cowgirl really tried chatting me up on my go, which seemed ironically appropriate. We also saw the Circus Of Horrors show which was both fascinating and gruesome. Not for the faint hearted, although Doyle definitely enjoyed his seat choice! Well that’s it for Halloween 2019. Maybe next years will be more spooky, but we shall have to see, although this year there hasn’t been a single event I have not really disliked. Until next time. Adios!

Enough until Thorpe Park actually announce something. I think it’s gonna be a long long time.

Sounds great. Think I’ll try and plan a visit there some point next year.

More likely to be events/premium experiences than an actual new attraction. Maybe at best a possible re-theme or something. Thorpe don’t get money for new things anymore.

I definitely started riding it later than others, but Ramesis was definitely an impressive attraction, especially in it’s day. You could almost enjoy watching as much as riding. The ride’s departure after 24 years of service not only means the end of Chessington’s last inverting attraction but the UK’s last (permant) Top Spin. Hopefully it’s replacement will be worthy.

I think we may see a flat ride at Thorpe next year. They will run a steam roller over Slammer!

What will Thorpe add next year? No idea, I don’t have 2020 vision. Anything but a new ride is possible.

Funnily enough there were some rumours a couple of years ago of Thorpe getting Ramesis. But of course not, Thorpe don’t get money for new stuff these days anyway.

As great as it is looking, they really need to speed up the process it is taking to build this. It has been a construction site for four years now and there is definitely some work they still need to do before the hopeful 2020 opening.

There were definitely much worser I.Ps they could’ve chosen, which is why I am quite happy about this. And as an added bonus it’s a British I.P and isn’t actually a dark modern horror theme for once.

Actually looks a decent coaster layout and hopefully with the concept art, we could actually have one that looks pretty too. Everything they have added since Hyperion just looks so much better and permanent.

The colour looks great because not many UK parks use yellow track on rollercoasters anymore.

Finally went to Fright Nights this year, so I’ll drop a few thoughts. Creek Freak: Great lighting and theming Decent length maze, just about right Queue ok but seeing abandoned Loggers is sad surprise finally 8/10 Living Nightmare: Lacking actors and scares Nothing new or interesting Anticlimactic finale (lack of finale) Set pieces still great 5/10 Platform 15: Noticeably different beginning and finale Feels atmospheric Some interesting effects around and leading upto the abandoned CCR train Tunnel felt noticeably longer this time felt a more rounded experience 7/10 Amity High was a short but sweet dance show where actors dressed in American high school outfits danced to numerous cheesy/spooky songs. It wasn’t anything spectacular but still made a nice change and difference from just having mazes. Didn't have time for Do or Die or Blair Witch, so if I return I will give them a try. Event seemed noticeably better this year, especially compared to 2018’s disaster, but there is still much room for improvement. Could see a few more roaming actors perhaps and some better lighting around the park would go a long way. There needs to be more zoned audio in the park too as it seemed to be lacking for this year’s event. It was a shame to see Saw Alive abandoned, even if it was not the best maze.

Thanks for another great meet up guys, especially Matt Wise for organising this.

My Thorpe Park wouldn’t exist because I would be sacked as divisional director before I even got it off the ground.