Project LC

Some important things to consider here regarding a hyper or a RMC. A hyper by very definition would have to be over 200ft. This is something that the park will struggle to get planning permission for. Stealth took a lot of consultation, was situated in the back corner of the park and had to be painted white. The mtdp (which is definitely out of date but the best point to work from) outlined that the coaster on swarm island would be 40m and the coaster on the island behind it would be up to 50m. Too short for the desired 61m and even if they did get permission it would overshadow Stealth. The loggers leap site which seems the most likely for the next development is the closest point to Staines and planning concerns relating to noise and looks will limit the height of the site accordingly. I struggle to believe they will get permission for anything over 35m there. Because of this I would be highly surprised if thrope get a hyper next. As for an RMC/GCI my concern with these is the sudden rise in timber costs. Any return on investment for these is now unlikely to be viable. Covid poses a huge risk to guest numbers meanwhile the project would have sky rocketed in price. Merlin doesn't like risks and always seeks unrealistic returns so will likely avoid it for now. In my opinion Merlin are going to play it safe. It will have some world's first tag line and an IP slapped on the side. Probably fitting the disaster/end of the world theme they love so much.

An odd choice to say the least. Like what on earth was the brief for the ride to end up with an energy guzzling winged shuttle coaster as the best option*. However if it is Jumanji themed it would mean an IP that isnt dead for once. Providing they go with the newer films based off a video game and not the board game original... *Subject to planning permission. Better hope London resort doesn't object on environmental grounds.

I don't think the planning consultation would bother to show an inversion if there wasn't going to be one. Typically consultation documents are based off designs a couple of months old. They also need to reflect the designs to a reasonable extent otherwise the consultation is pointless. Assuming the ride will have trains like Wild Eagle (and the swarm for that matter) that gives 28 riders a train. A typical family boomerang from vekoma has 20 riders a train giving a throughput of 750pph. Given that this ride looks a little longer than a family boomerang but a bigger train id say the expected throughput will be pretty similar. Not great but not horrific either. To me it seems like a poor choice in design, throughput should have been one of the highest priorities in design for cwoa and yet it seems that has been compromised for whatever vision MMM have gone with. When the planning documents come in it will be easier to judge if it was the right choice or not.

Better go visit all the cedar fair parks before they are ruined. Hopefully this falls through as I can't think of a worse owner for cedar fair.

The dome is a very large open space where the structure itself wouldn't be that strong and airflow is a nightmare. I have doubts that the dome would be able to support an air-conditioning system large enough to be able to cool the dome effectively. The other issue is that as standards change any updates to the building typically require the whole structure to be brought up to standards. So the cost of installing air-conditioning might lead to significantly more work. Its just not worth the hassle for a couple of days where its too hot.

Is the issue related to Top Thrill Dragster? That has also been down for a similar period of time.

Sometimes people will know things but are under non disclosure agreements so can't say there sources. That being said it is really annoying when you do know something and then other peoples nonsense mean your claim is now thrown into doubt.

Merlin has once again blamed bad weather for poor performance financially and also stated that the Lego movie 2 failed to boost revenue as was seen with the first film. Profits fell to £34m for the group while sales grew by 8.1%. one day they might see the current approach doesn't work... Unfortunately a consequence of them going private is that figures like these will stop being published. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49189375

For the time being very little. Blackstone are already heavily involved with Merlin Entertainments as well as other parks (Port Aventura and Busch Gardens/Sea World). The Lego family are also already involved with Merlin. It should make the parks less accountable to shareholders but it would mean more accountablity to Blackstone. With any luck if the buyout goes ahead they will replace the board and get a team that actually knows what they are doing. Someone who is willing to use the overall Merlin brand to entice people as well as the sub-brands. As well as someone who is willing to invest in higher risk projects to increase growth and profit while ensuring existing assets remain functional in the long term.

The end goal is to make profit. This Legoland VIP pass (and the other parks to follow) enable customers to pay a higher price if they are willing to do so. Merlin operate a similar model to airlines. You have standard class (day tickets), business class (MAP holders) and first class (VIP pass). An airline makes its money from business class, standard is to fill the plane and get customers who are unwilling to pay more. While first is to extract as much money as possible from customers who can and are willing to pay more. (Its a little more complex than that but I deemed it a reasonable comparison). I don't think that the VIP pass is going to be an issue, demand won't be high and it seems like they are still restricting the number anyway. For the park to really maximise profit they should invest in complex algorithms for day tickets. Not only would it increase revenue but it would also help on distributing crowds.

The janky coaster which was basically designed and built as if it was in rollercoaster tycoon is your favourite coaster of all time? I can appreciate your love for magnum as it is fun but Millennium force, TTD and maverick were just... I haven't experienced the magnificent Steel Vengeance yet but you are going to have to explain Magnum.

What a mad rumor to come true. Never been a fan of Colossus due to how rough it is and the contortionist act you have to perform to get into the seat. If this fixes those issues I will look forward to what should be a good day trip.

Interesting news today that ValueAct who is an activist investor (owns 9.3%) in Merlin wants to take the firm private following a fall in its share price. The board doesn't want to go private but as ValueAct has such a high percentage ownership it will be hard for them to ignore the pressure.

Flat rides probably don't draw in guests. For Merlin's rediculously high rate of return targets its pretty clear why very few flat rides are built. They cant sell them as a world's first so they stick a bunch of actors to them to make them an "experience" which in turn leads to negative feedback due to the low throughput and the attraction being inconsistent. So they now have an expensive to run actor led experience that will last 1-3 years. This phenomenon is bad for the park but is being made significantly worse by the fact that the old flat rides have come to the end of their life. They need replacing. Which means instead of just all new attractions being inadequate and short lived, replacement ones now suffer the same fate.

https://www.visittornadosprings.com/ What a charming advertising campaign. It would seem we have a date and details of what it involves looking at the website.

Ok, we have reached the point of a joke. Nice early April fools Thorpe with that advert you would never let standards be that low . Oh hang on... Loggers mishandling, Old town/ghost town, Nemesis Inferno is filthy, dbgtrotd is still the worst Merlin investment to ever be made, Rumba is in a sorry state, tidal wave shortcut removed, twd is still horribly out of place, Swarm is looking dreadful, the dome is boring and empty, poor quality food, appalling social media team and then there is Colossus where there are not enough words in the English language to describe the sorry state that structure of rust is in.

The introduction of ANPR would require full compliance with the British parking association regulations. This would involve paying monthly membership fees as well as getting the car park up to standard. There would be a massive increase in admin only to result in damage in brand reputation as they start issuing fines for people who don't pay. ANPR is not the solution.

I do believe the park are still playing with the launches which is why the pov was released one launch at a time. I'm not sure if they are going to get faster but I suspect there is still some tweaking going on.

I am all for the public waking up to Merlin's dominant position in the market and forcing change on the company but negative press attention won't bring about that change. As people go elsewhere Varneys nonsensical business strategy kicks in where he treats the exercise as damage control and limits spending. The best way I see the parks getting better is Varney being kicked out and that will not happen while the shareholders and the board support him. What is needed is a a potential successor to be on the board while confidence is destroyed in his leadership. Unfortunately its an unlikely scenario. A likely change heading our way is an increase in competitors quality and new competition popping up. I think an unexpected consequence of the death of the high street will be the rise of smaller attractions taking advantage of reduced rent in large empty shops and warehouses. A market that Merlin will likely end up being pioneers of. Hopefully it results in improvements to the resorts as they end up competing with new comers, improving smaller parks and even themselves as they try and attract people out of cities.

The gravel car park is to help with drainage. Sustainable urban drainage systems will often use gravel to slow down the rate water enters the ground and sewage systems as well as lakes and rivers. If the car park were to be tarmac then it would need significant drainage systems put in place which would cost a fortune for very little reward. The price hike seems to be money grabbing in the name of sustainable travel. If they want to encourage sustainable transport then they should use the car park money to improve public transport to the park.

This is just the preliminary report and goes into little detail. What was published is the overall numbers for the group. They did cite that revenue in the theme park division is up 9.2% but this was helped significantly by the weather during the summer and strong performance during Halloween. The crash happened in 2015 so it's not exactly recent anymore. Also the group still grew revenue in 2015 (2.3%), 2016 (11.7%) and 2017 (11.6%). 2018 is currently looking to be between 5.2-5.9% revenue growth (to be finalised), which whilst still positive is no where near the success of the previous 2 years.

The data reveals a slowdown in growth when compared to 2017, 2016 and 2015. Profits are still lackluster and the current direction implied by Varney is worrying to say the least. However they are better than I was expecting and seems to be inline with what the market's were expecting as the share price remains flat today. Sounds like they will be going down the Disney Quest route. Many expensive city centre locations with high numbers of staff and a constant battle to replace ageing attractions to get people to return. It could pay off but seeing as Disney didn't manage it I have my doubts on if Merlin can.

An unnecessary expenditure for the park. They are restricted with capital so are unable to build a new half decent attraction and so have no choice but to try and focus on events to bolster the line up and sell as a reason to return. I suspect that they have very little impact on the parks revenue and advertising these events is just a way of reminding the public Thorpe Park exists. These events aren't going to turn anyone away but I doubt they will bring that many people in either. It just seems like a trick to get Merlin to release some capital for advertising so they can draw people into the park on the merits of existing attractions. Tomorrow will be a fun one when Merlin provide the preliminary financial results for 2018. That might be able to give us an insight into the lack of investment.

A strong safety culture is always important and should always be a company's priority (I suspect Merlin also has this). On the railways it is estimated that a fatality will cost the railways £1.94m and that is the figure we use for cost benefit analysis tasks. For the entertainment industry this figure will be much much higher. Merlin can not afford a fatality, they were only just able to withstand an injury. It makes economic sense to have safety first and any member of staff that doesn't put it first shouldn't be working for Merlin. Some staff won't be saftey conscious but they will be the small minority. To suggest the company doesn't value saftey just doesn't make sense.

Thorpe posted something about infinite possibilities for 2019 which has resulted in this gem of comment.