Charles Parry

See that logic I could follow. A traditional, ubiquitous ride updated across all parks. No doubt Merlin would get a hefty discount if they did 3 at once. And definitely take longer than a closed season to install. Would love for that to be the end result.

Kong is indeed looking spectacular. Universal's theming is a proper rival to Disney now. Hopefully this level will reach the UK soon.

Maybe they've seen your great little documentary and been inspired to return it to it's former glory... Well a man can dream, can't he?!

I'm struggling to find the logic here, maybe I am an idiot. Step 1: There is an incident at a Merlin park, caused by incorrect operation of a ride. This ride has restraints. Step 2: Merlin's solution is to apparently reopen said ride the following season, but close a trio of rides that are completely unrelated, have had no serious incidents, purely because an incident MIGHT occur which will almost certainly bare no resemblance to the original one and the ride doesn't have restraints despite many other attractions in the park also not having restraints and any incident caused by the lack of restraints will almost certainly be a patrons fault (unlike original incident) I just can't see it being a health and safety thing.

I am a theatre sound technician by trade, and would love to do the full sound design for a dark ride. It is very difficult to make visual stuff actually believable in dark rides, but the sound can be spot on. Sadly the only time I have come across someone working as a sound designer for a theme park was on Expedition Everest as Disney World, most ride companies wouldn't employ one very often if at all.

Interestingly, this tweet appeared on Thorpe's favourite theming company Scruffy Dog Ltd's twitter: Now although we have no way of knowing, but it seems very likely they would be new theming for The Flume at Alton Towers (that or it is a tiny truck and Bubbleworks is getting a couple of new ducks), which would mean Merlin aren't scrapping their log flumes. So hopefully Logger's Leap going is a miscommunication, and it is actually getting an extensive rebuild that would justify the 14 month closure.

Interesting, I thought it was said that Marvel couldn't actually build any new Marvel attractions, only revamp old ones, as Marvel (and hence Disney) has/had to sign off on all new attractions to protect their brand. Otherwise Universal could of made v. cheap attractions that were detrimental the Marvel name.

I would have thought they mean it would be more like Haunted Mansion at Disney, where you create a group to enter the stretching room preshow. Not an issue when busy, but it the park is quiet you might have to wait a few minutes before going in.

So what has caused this policy change? I mean, log flumes are still popular the world over and I can't think of any recent incident involving one.

Yes, and surely there is enough space in County Hall for a gift shop elsewhere, perhaps a combined gift shop serving both the Dungeons and other attractions (Shrek, Sea Life etc)?

Surely this kind of stuff will push Merlin parks into a downward spiral? If park numbers are down, closing popular rides will give people less of a reason to go, so less money going in, so more cuts... Or maybe they are just complacent as no one is really competing at the level in the UK currently.

All track is custom... But tt is 2 foot gauge (width), which is very common in the UK for narrow gauge railways, and steel prices are at rock bottom so not really a decent excuse. I think it won't be back for the simple reason that it doesn't appeal to the demographic the park is now aimed at.

So the park has now received £100 million of investment: http://www.standard.co.uk/business/london-paramount-theme-park-gets-100-million-from-chinese-investor-a3093506.html They actually only intend to raise one billion, the remaining two billion being a loan, so the park is essentially 10% funded.

Not a great sign, but I think they has realised just how congested that area of the country is and so significant transport provisions will have to be in place at opening, as opposed to opening the park and them trickling transport stuff. Hopefully financial backing shouldn't be too hard to come by, as The Smiler incident has sullied Merlin's name so it is the prime opportunity for a competitor to strike.

I'd wager Disney have all Marvel rights unless there are apparent previous agreements (hence Marvel at Universal) and if I were them I'd save Marvel for if Paramount Park proves to be a hit to give a major boost to Disneyland Paris.

New concept art here: http://www.londonparamount.info/the-project/rides-and-attractions/