Matt 236

Popped into Fright Nights yesterday for a bit and did a few of the mazes. Vulcan Peak: I was honestly expecting the worst maze in existence given how negative it is, but it was just very very mediocre. Quite dull but mediocre. The first bit was literally walking around an area with a rope and people saying names and things. The second half was better, where you were non hooded and featured some actors, a blow up passageway and an adequate ending. Still not a great maze though which doesn’t beat Hellements, let alone Hodoo Vodoo at Xtreme Scream. 3/10 Dead Creek Woods: Better than I expected, a vague storyline, some crazy theming, actors and a surprise midway chainsaw. Still too short though and quite a lot of toilets. Maybe these are the old ones from the Jungle? 5/10 Sanctum Do Or Die: I actually didn’t mind the original Sanctum, but I hated this maze. There was no explained story, plot or anything. I get that it is Walking Dead and things but there was nothing in any form. Poor theming, maze scares and a setting that just didn’t make sense. The bus was the only thing I liked about this one and I think I actually disliked it more than Vulcan Peak. I’m probably in a crazy minority here. 1/10 Whilst roaming actors were ok, I found the lighting and audio setup was perhaps the weakest one I have seen in all my years visiting Fright Nights. It’s an embarrassment if you ask me I hate to admit. Will be returning there this week to see what else can be offered but am not holding my breath.

Sadly there’s a better chance of me becoming divisional director next season than there is of Loggers ever reopening and Slammer being removed. The park really need a good look at what they are offering and how they can be different from other attractions. A new attraction would be nice but is somewhat unlikely. If it means giving them more time to make their next big thing special then so be it. It’s sad but no surprise that despite the theme park division doing well, the park is by far the worst performing in the group on both attendance and positive feedback. Sadly the staff don’t have enough motivation as many either leave or lose any form of initiative as a likely result of lack of morale. Oh and £15 for parking won’t improve Park incentive for anyone.

Thorpe Park could take so many directions as a park but it needs to stick with it. Chessington is something of a wild adventure park and Legoland is, erm, well Lego. There are so many different ways and styles the park could develop in the coming years if they kept with it. Sure, there will always be people unsatisfied with things, but pleasing a majority is the important thing. 1/ The Cedar Fair Style, Attractions with appropriate style, but not necessarily theming. This doesn’t however mean attractions can share similar styling if in the same area of the park. The park is mainly based for Thrill seekers, but families are not forgotten either. Cedar Point for example still have areas clustered with family attractions, plus several less thrilling coasters with lower height restrictions. 2/ The Phantasialand Style, Different themed areas and segments with a selection of attractions. Really make the areas diverse and feature suitable attractions. Unfortunately due to space and the water table, we would never see any thing terrain like such as Taron, but if they build things upwards nothing is impossible. 3/ The Port Aventura Style Lush areas, bring back some entertainment, clean up things and give it an Island feel. The only thing notbto do is make the food or operations like it either though. These are just ideas the park could develop in, which may suite it’s style. I don’t think an Efteling or Europa type of style would fit Thorpe in any way, but that’s not to say it can take some of it’s elements from either. Back into reality now. I want the park to: Deep clean areas- including jetwash, repainting, rebuilding, tidying and restoring different places. I’d love to see Universal rocks replace the rockwork on Inferno like they did for Mamba, however they probably don’t have the budget and it’s likely low down on their list. Redevelop or Restore Canada Creek- I want to see Loggers either reopened or just demolished for redevelopment, the park need to now make a decision as it’s getting a little out of hand now. Continue with events- Keep the Summer lates, just drop the Love Island stuff, the park has a good vibe late at night. Fright Nights needs seriously reviewing with a potential refresh and the return of Big Top. I know they are limited with with they can do here, but I would like the Car Park to see some improvements as it can take in excess of an hour to leave in super peak days. Plus £10 to park is crazy. Yes Disney charge like $25 (around £19), but at least they keep theirs in spotless condition. Wow, that was long!

Tover definitely sounds a lovely park and hopefully somewhere which is up and coming. Avalon looks a stunning investment and fingers crossed will be successful enough for future additions of a similar or better quality. Out of interest, how easy is it to access from Efteling and Phantasialand?

These just remind me of that Father Ted episode where they go to a small caravan park, except they didn’t charge £200 a night.

It’s a great shame Dom Jones has left as the park’s divisional director, however I am not surprised either. Sure he wasn’t perfect but definitely had some ambitious plans, many of which were likely noticeably downsized or cancelled altogether such as the reopening of Loggers. I’ve met him many times and seemed a down to earth guy who tried to improve the park’s cosmetic appearances such as tweaking the entrance, bridge and Dome areas. Sadly I’m not surprised he’s gone as I thought it was a matter of time before he went. Despite being the now former front man, he was likely restricted into what he could realistically do amongst insufficient resources too maybe.

Glad you enjoyed Efteling. Definitely a lovely park with much charm and atmosphere. Their park music is excellent. Joris is is definitely a fun great ride, and probably my second favourite Woodie and best duelling ride I’ve probably done. Dutchman is definitely fantastic and features what is arguably one of the best ride stations out there. Glad you liked Python, I’m yet to do it since the retrack. I love Symbolica, Dream Flight, Bird Rock and Symbolica. Did you do Fata Morgana, Villa Volta and Carnaval? I know Baron’s drop isn’t the best but as a ride package I think it’s excellent. Bob for me personally was the weakest coaster, so you didn’t miss much IMO.

Wall in it would be nice. That’s one mighty styled wall. With nicer inkeeping Wuze touches.

The true factor is that for better and for worse, demographic trends have changed. Everything in the 80’s/90’s was generally more creative, not just in theme parks, but everything including films, shops and products. Whether that be the likes of Labyrinth, Never Ending Story to things like the Lego Pirates and the launch of the original Disney Stores, which featured animatronic models in their early years. Theme Park’s big and small at this time we’re creating original definitive attractions. From the large scale Lost Continent, Discovery Land and Test Track at Disney and Universal, to the likes of Pirate Adventure and Magic Theatre (LLW). The U.K. was generally blessed with some interesting attractions in those years. Nowadays there is generally a lot more of a trend to go with popular IP’s from books, TV, film, other etc. As opposed to original ideas and more parks have been doing this a lot more especially in the last 5-10 years. Disney and Universal essentially only use IP’s for their attractions now (see Potter, Toy Story & Star Wars Lands). Even the likes of Europa and P.A are using IP’s more too. This isn’t to say non IP attractions aren’t being created though, but there is noticeable higher trend for IP’s. As choices go, Room On The Broom seems more fitting to Chessington currently and probably makes sense considering it’s a British I?P that’s quite popular and the park has another themed ride based from the same author. And Yes, I hate to admit it but the 90’s nearly started 30 years. Sure it’s 28 right now but it’s definitely much closer to 30 indefinitely.

It was going to happen indefinitely and could be an amusing attraction for a good proportion of visitors. My biggest criticidm to the project project is not only the fact they are opening ‘yet another’ dark themed ride in what’s supposed to be a happy upbeat area, but the fact this could be an upcharge attraction. Something the park don’t necessarily need, at least in their current position.

It’s definitely a budget related reason why it is shut, especially considering it requires a minimum of six staff (two operators) now to run. It’s almost crazy how it could’ve run on just three staff a few years back, before the recent Rapids accidents. They are probably short on staff too psrkwide, I expect. The most affected guests will be those under 10 or ones that hate Horror/Scare Mazes, which is still a shame really.

Just demolish, tear out and flatten Canada Creek for a fresh Western area with new buildings, theming and infrastructure. Then build Chiapas and Taron type rides interweaving between each other I would say, then you have an updated area with two great new attractions. There’s a better chance of them reopening Slammer than Loggers right now.

Well we didn’t see this one coming now did we? Next thing you know, Rattlesnake will be rethemed to stick man or something.

After almost 34 years, the Bob ride will be getting removed and replaced by Max and Moritz, a double family roller coaster. Source- Loopings The ride will be based on a German story where two people make their village unsafe. Amongst a higher capacity, the original station building of Bob is expected to be reused. The Bob Ride has experienced countless problems recently which resulted in the ride being closed for months. However the attraction is expected to reopen one last time before it is shuttered for good next September. This is likely subject to how comprehensible the ride is in it’s current state. Given Efteling’s motives for keeping older attractions, this was probably a last resort from them. Especially given the likely technical defects and the ride was apparently becoming higher maintenance for them. Intamin apparently don’t supply for this ride type anymore.Bob marks the second major attraction to be removed from the park after Pegasus. Bob closing may be sad in some respects, but I personally found it the weakest coaster at the park. Hopefully it’s replacement will be a worthwhile addition, especially to it’s target audience. Add up next year’s Fairy Tale expansions and (the slightly delayed) 2021 launch coaster and the park has an exciting few years ahead (fingers crossed).

Hey don’t you bad mouth Rumba! Sure it’s no River Quest, Fjord or Kallerado but one thing it does well is being a entertaining ride for family and groups. With enough work and effort it could be pretty special. Honestly speaking I’m not surprised it hasn’t seen the season out, what with it’s higher staff and maintenance costs and also no longer fun at dusk. I also get the impression the park’s attendance still leaves something to be desired. Fingers crossed it won’t end up getting abandoned and rotting away like it’s estranged cousin Loggers.

I too have only just realised/remembered about the pre-booking for passes and can strongly say £20 is not acceptable and as a result of Tomb not going amongst other things arising, I must make the difficult decision and unfortunately also decline attendance on this occasion. I would like to wish those that go, a frightfully enjoyable time and hope to see you all at another meet soon (fingers crossed for Christmas). Until then, Dead Creek Out!

Looks absolutely lavish, especially around the drop area of the ride. Animatronic dinosaurs also sounds great. Hopefully everything will fit in. I do wonder if the Dark ride is replacing the Forest Of Plop, because there were rumours of it being removed a little while back.

Fingers crossed it will be a good and successful event for them. Would like to see a U.K. park try to do a Winter event similar to something like Efteling or Phantasialand, although maintenance and schedules would need to be on point. Three months maintenance for Vampire is possible as some parks have even less time to prepare.

Definitely not directly aimed at you and more intentionally as a perspective thing than any. I can see your point on the stacking as trains waiting does nothing for throughputs. When I was there, sometimes they wouldn’t stack for long, whereas sometimes all three trains stacked which was not ideal. every park will naturally have their good and bad ride teams regardless of size and location. Gate Keeper’s operations were slightly better on our second ride whereas Maverick’s were worse as 4 trains (two loads) were stacking more. Apparently China has very strict legislations and operations in parks like Happy Valley are paint dry slow. I'm not taking anything away from Towers or Bpb. As things go, Towers is generally still one of the better parks for operations. Wickerman and Nemy were run well on my previous visits. The only coaster with iffy operations generally is Galactica (VR to thank There). Blackpool’s operations have definitely improved in the last few years and found all major rides run efficiently except Nash. P.A is amongst the worst for operations.

Wheelchair users only make up around 15-20% of Disabled people and to only consider those with a disability is just ludicrous. Not all disabilities all visible, there are plenty of invisible disabilities such autism/Aspergers, ADHD, learning difficulties etc. I do think something desperately needs to change with the park’s RAP systems though as the queues for it have become considerably longer during the last couple of years and it begs the question whether some are abusing the system for what it is. At times I have seen as many as seven people with a group of 1 RAP which is quite a lot. Whatever the system currently is, it needs changing to system which becomes something a guest needs, not wants and analyses whether the user 100% needs the service. Despite the high number of current users, some who need the system still to fall below the lines. I once spoke to a woman with an autistic son and was shocked to learn they hadn’t been given RAP as he certainly looked like he needed it. Changing the system may not be an easy job though, especially at a time when things are so sensitive and fragile on this subject. At least a quarter of people would likely resort to noisy complaints through social media, to the point the daily fail are contacted. It is not an easy one.

Thought it was time to post in this thread again. The park have released some new art work for the brand new Coaster opening in 2019. It is crazy to think that (what could be) an Intamin will replace two former B&Ms. Interesting developments here.

I think Cedar Point’s operations were very good most of the time, although very different to the ones in the U.K. Every Park will be different for operations, whether that be due to different loose belonging rules, restrictions or the scale of ride vehicles and block systems. On my last visit, Nemesis took about 1 minute 20 seconds to unload and dispatch on two trains, which is pretty good as operations go and rarely stacked either. Towers is probably the best park in the UK as operations go. One of the the reasons why Europa is so high from a throughput and efficiency side is not just down to great operations, but the factor a lot of the rides are designed for max capacity with as many blocks possible without deterring the ride experience. Blue Fire has as many as five trains, Eurosat seven and Euromir May have as many as nine. So a comparison to Towers is irrelevant. There is no point dispatching a ride if the train ahead hasn’t reached or passed the next block stage.

Naturally everyone will have their favourite and least favourite attractions. Some love Stealth, others love Saw. There are even people out there who love Storm Surge. I’m not one of those.

With Fly/ Rookburgh likely to open next year, comes the big question. Which attraction/s will be the next to be removed/demolished? Previous rumours and speculation has cited that either Geister Riksha (Chinese Dark ride) or TOTNH and Hollywood are on the chopping block. Some have speculated/heard it is the former that is being spited, however an interesting development has occurred with the park’s Fantassima dinner show, which shares the same building as the latter. From Phanta Friends. The park have built a brand new entrance for Fantassima, which is now accessed from the street. Looks quite pretty from the front. Not sure on the park side entrance. An interesting decision from the park, but what does it mean? 1/ Temple and Hollywood will be the next to go and an alternative entrance for the show is necessary. It is possible that the building won’t be completely demolished and instead keep part of/ all of the building. This could well be due to being one of the nearest areas to the park nimbys. 2/ The Park just wanted to make a nicer/more secluded entrance to their premium dinner show. The newer entrance makes it more exclusive and removes the needs of entering by the park. Whichever attraction/s are for the chop next, I expect we will know by December/January time. No park announcements, just the sudden arrival of construction/demolition vehicles. I am no construction expert, but, I have always wondered if it is possible with modern machinery if a large building can only be partly demolished, with an even bigger building attached to the remainder of the old building. What if The Hollywood Tour isn’t being demolished but is instead getting rethemed?

Unless you have Tesco club card points, online is the best way from the park’s main site as you save quite a bit of money from the ‘on the day price’. The Mouse is definitely dead and not coming back! Mandy invested in mouse traps of course! Nothing was closed on my last visit.