Matt 236

Due to financial reasons and unconfirmed plans, I will regretibly have to pull out of this meet. Have a great time. There goes my chain of 11 consecutive meets

Unfortunately rides breakdowns happen from time to time and in this instance both were down. As Baron has mentioned, I'm assuming you visited in the summer where both rides suffered drastic and unfortunate down time over major hardware issues. Hopefully this year neither attractions (and most of the park preferably) won't suffer drastic downtime and should be open for your visit. N.B if you visit the park after Mattymoo and Jadam ride Stealth after eating kebabs and alcohol, be prepared to be disappointed.

Painting coasters won't make them any smoother. However it would be nice if Colossus was given a paint pup was it currently looks worse than it rides.

As much as I'm a big fan of TGIS, Staines is sadly the weakest I've been to. Having been to the Ines in Watford, Crawley, Cardiff and Leicester SQ. which are much better. Reviews are Here. I homestly have no preference at all at all where we eat, but am curious as to why Harvester isn't featured on the poll, unless it's closed down since I last went which would be a shame.

Yes! Bring on the most exciting new ride of 2018! Can't wait to see this ride being constructed.

Me and Tomb will be there! Rise Of The Duo

The thing I love about Europa is not only is it always thriving to improve but the whole park is generally tidy and well kept. No areas looking worn or grotty snd in need of desperate repair. So many parks could take a leaf out of Europa's book. Agree on Wodan and Blue Fire. Both are amazing rides in their own ways and whilst I slightly prefer Wodan, the latter makes me very excited for Blackpool getting one. Eurosat is an interesting one, as I didn't like it on my first ride but found my second round considerably better as I sat nearer the front. Rumour has it the ride is getting retracted in the future, so one can hope. Geisterschloss and Batavia are definitely charming attractions and the better dark rides there, the latter very reminiscent to Phantom Phantasia. Dinosaur is certainly one of the weaker dark attractions there, but I don't mind bench as I find it quite hilarious. Europa is certainly a park you could spend days visiting and not get tired of the place for sure. Project V may not be as exciting or ground breaking as other recent developments, but I'm sure will compliment the lineup nicely. Haven't stayed in the park hotels so can't comment unfortunately. Are they cheap and easy to book?

Toverland has always been a place I've wanted to visit for a while. Thst will become a must once this new wing rider opens which sounds an exceptional addition to the park. Hopefully by by the time it's open, road trip material will be comprehensible. The whole expansion project of this park sounds fantastic and could give the Netherlands another game player (amongst The Efteling) but we shall see. Hopefully they'll eventually build a dark ride too since it currently lacks those.

The name sounds like a sequel to a moderately successful film series. Video didn't really tell us more about the updated attraction minus the name, but I suppose it may help build excitement for the GP. Lets hope the ride is more reliable than southern this year.

More Symbolica goodness in part 2 of the making of the ride.

Indeed. Toadstool at 33 is now one of the oldest rides at the park now with the Blade (37) being the only attraction which is older. It's probably a combination of high maintenance and 'smoke screen' budget cuts as to why it's closed given the closed Season isn't 4-5 months for nothing. A future revamp for Cloud Cuckoo is highly essential given it feels neglected, derelict and dated. Rebuilding the area from scratch in future would be nice (but somewhat unlikely). The park hours are certainly a dire embrassment not just for Merlin, but UK park's and are now clearly the worst of any major/secondary theme park in Europe. Even Blackpool & Pleasure Wood Hills have better openings now.

Yay working rides. Might as well rack up those rides on Truckers! This line up is about as exciting as modern day Chessington.

Great to have the UK's greatest experience back open again. I thought it was going to be sealed for two centuries with the way things are going. The rest of the mothballs just confirm how things will continue to go on, even if the minority enjoy Charlie and Ice Age. Not me. The toadstall closure is clearly more budget cuts as thinking a simple flat takes a whole season to get refurbished is quite laughable. But if it means Hex can open in current situations, so be it!

Maybe the twist is the ride isn't reopening and they are just trolling us? Wouldnt surprise me if they swapped Duel for Hex. That's the Towers. Way currently.

Really Odd temperamental dark ride? Might make sense.

Well that's another one biting the dust, or rotting away for the foreseeable future. The UK has definitely had it's large share of SBNO stuff recently. Apparently Tales Of The Coast (that strange water/dark ride) was demolished last season and replaced with a wave swinger, which is quite laughable TBH even if the old ride wasn't great to begin with. Track issues may apparently be Rattlesnake's issue preventing it from running so it must be pretty serious if that's the case.

The above plans are highly acceptable. Lightwater/Flamingo yes please, but Oakwood is good too. I was joking and being jibberish about Europa, but it's a park everyone should visit meet or non meet. Port Av is high on the priority list so Ryan has the pain or pleasure in having tagging along.

Let's just all go back to Europa Park! I need more absinthe to get me immersed to that place and re-rides on Wodan. I'm no meet organiser so I don't mind what happens, we could do Brighton Pier for all I know.

The building is blocky, grotty and there's too much shed. I like the lighting though and the ride isn't finished.

Not the most exciting attractions for the resort. Then again I'm not a 5 year old. The show is a curious addition though and I'm sure will do well the demographic market and those staying the hotel.

I'll form a fully armed battalion to get one of those tickets!

Comparing the promo art to the ride experience in the park is a bit like news stories. Where telling the news and the telling the truth are two completely different things. Take for example the original Derren Brown's Ghost Train advert and promo art. At least 80% of what actually appears in them, does not appear on the ride. Whether that be the twin dolls, duplicated and the duplicated/demented Derren never appears in the actual ride. Scorpion Express, Enchanted Village and other such investments remain other examples here. The promo art mostly there to get people excited and interested for the next new ride rather than offer a realistic expectation on the attraction. The ride could be good if everything is tackled correctly, although recent projects unfortunately don't show much optimism I'm afraid and we will just have to wait and see whether they pull off something nice or it's just another sub-standard investment.

Sad times, it looked an acceptable coaster amongst being the only one in a Merlin park currently. I'm curious as to why the ride has been SBNO so long and needs so much excessive work? Surely it must be structural if it's this bad. Guess thats Heide park off the list for now.

Surely the latter one in that Mark as I've not heard of anything happening and it's approaching peak season. Then again, seems very bizarre and the rumour of an extension/refurbishment seems to float around often. In regards to the pushed open times, very strange and not overly acceptable for the UK's flagship park, especially given weekdays only offer 6 hours of In park time. I wonder if this will ever u-turn, especially if vast numbers still arrive for 10?

With the exception all of Chessington, all of Merlin's parks have built several major coasters in recent years. Towers has Smiler (2013) and SW8 (2018), Thorpe has Swarm (2012), Garda has Raptor (2011) and Oblivion Black Hole (2015) and Heide has Krake (2011) and Flug Der Daemon (2014). The problem isn't so much the gap between each major coaster, but fills that gap. Phantasialand for example left a ten year gap before building their most recent major coaster and filling the between years with a major flume Ride, dark ride, major flat, splash battle amongst enhanced kids rides and reworking of the park's hub.