Matt 236
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Posts posted by Matt 236
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The logo is fine if I’m honest. Maybe fine pick it in some places but nothing extremely drastic.
The track record of recent logo redesigns in U.K. parks in recent years has been mostly disappointing. Drayton and Light-water’s for example are bland and characterless, unlike their previous designs.
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I CALL BINGO!
Chessington is anyones guess at this moment in time, but what we know for sure is that we are getting Jumanji (which according to the press is a whole theme park) and the ‘proposed’ water park.
I don’t see Tomb Blaster (2.1) getting a retheme or replacement for at least several years, but I could be spectacularly wrong. There’s a better chance of Alton Towers buying Apocalypse to replace Enterprise, than there is of Thorpe reopening Rocky!
Lets be honest, Scorpion is probably at the end of its life, but that’s not to say they will get rid of it immediately. After all, there are still some older powered coasters still running.
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I miss Orlando already.
Top 10 Theme Park Restaurants:
1/ Mythos-Islands Of Adventure
2/ Via Napoli-Epcot
3/ Yak & Yeti-AnimalKingdom
4/ Rutmoores Tavern- Phantasialand
5/ Polle’s Kitchen- Efteling
6/ Lombards- Universal Studios
7/ Toothsome’s Emporium, Universal Orlando
8/ Silver Lake Saloon, Europa
9/ Lisebergbanen Restaurant, Liseberg
10/ Mel’s Diner, Paultons
Orlando blog coming up.
- Matt N and Martin Doyle
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Massive shake up time for my top 10’s
Coasters:
1/ Steel Vengeance
2/ Veloci-coaster (IOA)
3/ Zadra
4/ Mako
5/ Iron Gwazi
6/ Taron
7/ Oziris
8/ Hyperion
9/ Nemesis
10/ Wodan
Dark Rides:
1/ Tower Of Terror (WDW HS)
2/ Rise Of The Resistance (WDW HS)
3/ Forbidden Journey
4/ Symbolica
5/ Amazing Adventures Of Spiderman
6/ Pirates Of The Caribbean (DLRP)
7/ Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
8/ Avatar Flight Of Passage
9/ Fata Morgana (Efteling)
10/ Dinosaur
Water Rides:
1/ Chiapas
2/ Popeye IOA
3/ Splash Mountain
4/ JP River Adventure
5/ River Quest
6/ De Vlieglande Hollander
7/ Fjord Rafting
8/ Tidal Wave
9/ Kali River Rapids
10/ Journey To Atlantis
Parks:
1/ Europa Park
2/ Universal Orlando
3/ Cedar Point
4/ Animal Kingdom
5/ Phantasialand
6/ Energylandia
7/ Hollywood Studios
8/ Epcot
9/ Efteling
10/ Alton Towers
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Right, so went to Fright Nights 22 last weekend. Here’s my thoughts.
Survival Games/
Something of an original idea, especially with the “game show” type element. One of the better mazes this year, especially with the cage thing at the start and multiple routes inside.
Creek Freek/
Still my favourite, the actors were on form when we went and the props and setting help too. Going to miss this maze.
Trailers/
I enjoyed it, but it just seems to be missing something now, especially since the newness has worn off. Wasn’t awful but just not my favourite now.
Deaths Door/
An interesting and unique concept, given the actors go in/out of doors, but could maybe be implemented better in the future. If it returns.
Meakin Meadow/
Enjoyable, but the second route just feels like it’s been bolted on for the sake of it. It feels like you miss more of the action that way.
Amity high/
Fun, lively, musical. Makes a nice break from the mazes indeed.
I didn’t get chance to do the terminal or legacy. If they return next year maybe I’ll give them a go.
I do enjoy Fright Nights, but as always the usual criticisms arise, better lighting, music balance (why isn’t it as good now) and other bits and bobs. I really think they should revert back to 10pm closings, at least for some days because 9 doesn’t feel like there’s enough time to take in the action or do night rides.
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WWH’s future where the fire never happened? Difficult to say really.
Seens unlikely they would’ve fully ripped it out, but a gun ride system like Duel & Tomb Blaster happening would’ve been highly plausible at the time. They would’ve probably rethemed or replaced it again by now. Maybe a Sony IP?
If it wasn’t ripped out, then Inferno wouldn’t have happened (least in its existing guise) due to building location. No DBGT either? Yeah I can take that.
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Enterprises’s official demise was imminent.
It hasn’t been running reliably for almost a decade, let alone this season. Where it hasn’t rotated fully for a long time.
Enterprises seem to be a dying breed these days with only some left in existence.
Towers do seriously need to broaden their selection of support attractions, as this leaves Blade is the last family/thrill ride left, which too is on its last legs. -
7 hours ago, Theme Park Fanatic said:
I’ve heard that a couple of the original Vampire trains operate in America. Can someone tell me which Theme Park they operate at? Apparently an Arrow Coaster needed trains and a few of Chessington’s still worked. Due to this Chessington exported a couple to America. I heard thease were stored behind the scenes at Chessington for a few Seasons. The rest of the original fleet were unfortunately scrapped. Even though defective I think Chessington should have retained at least one. Vampire is there flagship ride,and accounts for a lot of the Theme Parks success.
This is not something I have heard about, nor have I heard been rumoured before. Let alone confirmed.
Aside from Vampire, only four other suspended coasters remain. All of which are in the USA. Having ridden two of them, at no point did they appear to look or resemble the original Vampire trains thematically , apart from being the same car design.
I cannot comment for the other two, although Ninja at SF Magic Mountain did use the former trains of XLR8. The former long demolished suspended coaster from SF Astroworld. Also Vortex at Canada’s Wonderland is largely similar to Bat anyway in many respects.
To the best of my knowledge, all the original Vampire Arrow trains were scrapped, unless they were donated or preserved by anyone. Again, largely unlikely. I just can’t see why an American chain park would randomly invest tonnes of money to ship some old coaster trains across the Atlantic to marginally improve supplies.
The ride would’ve only had 3 trains anyway and who’s to say one of them didn’t become a spare parts doner, which is possible.
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Going? Going to reopen next year it seems.
I’m sure Chessington now what they are doing. Maybe the development plan or whatever is will drop more ‘possible’ hints at the future.
Nothing is set in stone, unless it was built by universal rocks.
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After some work shuffling, I am now able to make this.
Just need to sort out my pass/entry now.
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I’m a maybe for now.
Just have to sort out work and then renew my pass or membership.
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I’m sorry. But if we are going on the tangent of rides like Tomb Blaster and Duel, being restored to their original states of operation, then I see no reason of Runaway Train being exempt. However any man and his dog could easily say this would never happen
Burrito Bob is a lie. However the same principal lies around every myth snd rumour, regarding the future of any ride. The mysterious disappearance of the ride on the website is an interesting one. However until we get an official announcement or see the ‘demolition’ vehicles, the closure can neither be confirmed or denied.
I believe we are getting some sort of development plan regarding Chessington any time now, so we shall all have to see what’s happening and whether any of this might affect Scorpion Express. As we know it!
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Scorpion Express closing forever?
Nah. Bob from the Burrito place told me it’s being restored to Runaway Mine Train, although there ain’t be any rock work.
It’s ok, we will know one day!
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4 hours ago, Theme Park Fanatic said:
@Mark9 next year has the potential to be a good season for Alton Towers. With the “rumoured” reopening of The Haunted House and “rumoured” return of Nemesis Sub-Terra it’ll be great. Both rides are sorely missed. From the message written in the Duel queline,I expect the main characters of the returning Haunted House will be Emily Alton and Snowy. I wouldn’t rule out the building being rethemed to Emily Alton’s Dolls house and the ride taking you around scenes. For instance a playroom that features the dolls house and causes children to become possessed. I like most people believe that both rumours are true. If these rides return Alton will technically gain a couple of new/rethemed Dark Rides in the space of a year.
I don’t see next year being a good season for the park (but not necessarily terrible).
With Nemesis being out for the entire season, that is already a substantial amount of throughput already out of the window. Whilst the park still have six other large scale coasters, the problem isn’t the main attractions but the ones that support it.
We don’t know when the (likely) re-themed Duel will reopen and if isn’t towards the start of the season, that’s another large blow. Add that up the ongoing issues with Hex and Enterprise and that’s no fewer than four rides out of action.
If the Retro Squad rides return, it will help a little, but not massively as there still isn’t enough filler besides the main rides, especially if one experiences a prolonged breakdown.
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Yes.
I also liked that song by David Bowie as well.
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Think I’m going to have to go with Skylion.
I mean yes, ok it is basically “Lego Avatar Flight Of Passage”, which I haven’t ridden (yet) at time of writing, but I personally love it.
The attraction is thrilling, immersive and really puts you into a whole different world. I’m so glad they went for this setting than the Lego Movie one. The facade looks great and reminds me a little of Vogel Rock at Efteling and the queue line ain’t too shabby either.
Honourable mention goes to Gruffalo River Adventure, which is fun and a decent rethrme of Professor Drunk’s Bubbleworks. Monster Party is another one to shout at too.
Some Merlin dark rides are definitely better then others. The likes of DBGT are generally poorly executed. I’m yet to ride the ones at Garda and Heide.
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It’s a shame to see it go, but this is probably much needed and the ride has been in a horrid state for the last few years now.
Even the modest updates of 2018 time were not enough.
Let’s see how this develops.
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Two years after my piano version,I finally got the chance to play the original Vampire theme on a real pipe organ.
I only had one take, so excuse the mistakes.
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Jumanji!
Because everybody knew it was going to be an ‘IP’ based land with the listed attractions.
Let’s see what it’s like many months from now.
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Mixed bag today, on my second visit of the 22 season.
Despite the very warm weather, ride reliably seemed reasonable, with just Colossus experiencing any proper down time. It reopened after a while. Samurai was on form and my ride on Saw was probably the smoothest of recent years.
Carnival seems a fun event, although execution seems a bit hit and miss in places. Breakout at Bozos was surprisingly fun and better than expected. The themed announcements are a nice touch, although the rear of the event feels largely overlooked.
Operations could’ve been better. Rush on one swing, Tidal Wave 2 with stacking and Inferno & Swarm we’re stacking a little too. Colossus had the worst operations by far, so many broken seats with dispatches where having one train wouldn’t have been much slower.
Music and audio was shockingly bleak in many areas of the park such as Amity, Jungle and Lost City. This definitely weakened the atmosphere. Closed F&B units along with ‘thinned’ stock levels in shops was also noticed, a sign of the times maybe? My pizza pasta was one of the weakest I’ve had so far.
What’s more, leaving the park is still absolute nightmare. It took my at least 15 minutes to leave when only 8-12 cars were infront of me. The ANPR setup needs to seriously improve because no one is able to leave without pressing the help button.
May do a Fright Nights if there’s time, but we shall see.
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If parks like Tivoli Gardens can replace their old powered coasters with ‘flashy’ new versions which are superior, then Chessington definitely can too.
However they choose not too, so Scorpion will go when it’s literally an operational write off. Which maybe it already is.
Even in the DIC years, Flying Fish got a new train.
Derren Brown's Ghost Train: Rise of the Demon
in The Past
Posted
And there you have it folks.
The future of theme parks!