Project LC

I don't think this is the right move at all. I strongly dislike actor led attractions as I get no enjoyment from them. On top of that they have high running costs and they are polarising with audiences. I can see the dungeons working at Alton towers if implemented correctly but by no means should they be trying to install it now. They have almost no flat rides, the park is full of closed shops and food outlets and the opening hours are terrible. There are better investments to be made.

There operations were bad a few years ago and the service was poor so I just stopped visiting. It was in decline and by the posts on this forum it sounds like it has stayed in constant decline. They under invest in the essentials and as a result it's starting to impact on them. In a few years time the bill to fix the place is going to be staggering.

I suspect they have changed tune to love island because it's a current talking point. Also there is the fact that the year of the walking dead was a stupid idea from the off as it's been proven time and time again Halloween attractions in the UK don't do well outside of Halloween. Thorpe's marketing has always been poor and Merlin's guidelines are very restrictive. They can't even advertise a new coaster on the merit of being a new coaster. It always has to have some nonsense gimmick.

For structural engineering we currently use the BS EN 1993 for steel structures. Which is the European standards with the British national annex. The old British standard was more conservative and so the load calculations would have to deal with greater values (EN BS 1993 1-1 the partial safety factor for steel is 1 due to high control over steel manufacturing where as the old method had a combined saftey factor of 3, I believe). The thing with the suspended coasters is that the supports would suffer very large bending moments due to the distance from the train whereas a ride like fury has a small load directly above the support so buckling or axial loading would likely be the failure mode. Manufacturing choice would also be a difference between the 2 as more modern supports are far harder to manufacture than a steel tube with an I beam on top.

The wobbling of fury will result in metal fatigue which will make the life span of the ride significantly shorter than vampire. Although it would have been designed with a shorter lifespan anyway so the wobbling will have been deemed acceptable. One of the main differences in design will be that fury would have been designed in accordance to the eurocodes where as vampire would have had to follow the older British standard which was far more conservative in its saftey factors and so would be a far more solid structure.

Yeah no one would give it insurance due to health and safety concerns. The risk associated with the ride was not worth the pay off for the insurer. Admittedly there would be other things that increase the risk with the ride but health and safety would have been the biggest one.

Can we please stop banging on about bpb and the Mouse. Just like loggers it was evidently closed for health and safety reasons. Also like loggers neither had any chance of reopening once it closed so it might as well be torn down. Loggers is typical Merlin were they don't see any value in reopening it. I'm just thankful they didn't stick a dated or inappropriate IP on it with a load of actors to reopen it.

Yeah it would be a step backwards but they have limited resources. They can't just keep spending money on actors. The year of the walking dead was always going to suffer from this problem. Personally I doubt that the spending the money on extra actors would bring about a return on the investment. The park has been moving towards higher running costs for years with throwing actors at everything and the year of the walking dead is another prime example of throwing actors at something as a "cheap" solution to pulling people in. It is unsustainable as they are sacrificing long term assets for short term gain.

I doubt it would be back for fright nights. They would have to employ more actors which they shouldn't be doing if they want to maximise profit.

It looks like it should have just been that little bit faster or just a bit shorter as towards the end it just seems to drag on too much. No idea if that's how it feels on the ride but from the pov that is what I would be concerned about.

The water table is normally determined by boreholes and the geotechnical engineers would have been able to design for it. The sheetpiles are taking care of the water inflow and pumps during excavation would deal with any possible upward seepage of water. If the temperature has been below freezing then the sheetpiles wouldn't have been able to go in. Winds could have caused issues and any rain would have delayed the excavation. Any issues not detected in the boreholes could have caused delay as well. I'm surprised they have had trouble digging a hole with a sheetpile cofferdam seeing as they are normally used in much more complicated sites.

It will be something like pass holders spend more so more pass holders is more profit. While true in the short term it is unlikely to be long term. More passes would likely lead to a lower amount spent per person and if they go multiple times in one year for a discount price they are less likely to return in following years at full price. That being said if they used the short term gain in profits and invested it wisely to encourage people back then the vast amount of discounted passes wouldn't be too much of an issue. But the park has no long term vision so it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Leaning positive or negative compared to your expectations atm?

I meant general filming around the park. Rides are under there own conditions ontop of the park wide condition which I was explaining.

It's just no film or photography for commercial gain. Private use is fine.

A lot of places will have a no commercial gain clause about filming on there property. While technically YouTube does fall into that category most places are sensible enough to realise it's free advertising. The clause is mainly there to stop TV, adverts or films being filmed there without them getting paid for the production company using their land.

It had a low speed collision in the station on opening day and has been running on reduced capacity since. The park are currently operating a boarding pass system where if guests want to ride they must collect a boarding pass first. This was introduced because of running on one train.

Truly brilliant. I love the shambles that is Merlin and I love the over the top reactions of the public. Today is a good day. Legoland seems to hit capacity quite often. Maybe Merlin should spend some more money on increasing capacity or (if the council forbids increasing capacity) develop a system so MAP holders can book.

London Resort Company Holdings is delaying the planning application again this time until 2019 along with the 5th public consultation. It appears to be they completely under estimated how long a traffic assessment takes so in a statement they said they need more time. Apparently they are £55m in at the moment and they do have highway modification drawings from engineering firm WSP so it would seem the project is progressing although very slowly. If it wasn't for the engineering drawings I would have said "Paramount Park" was dead in the water.

It's likely that the poor attendance at the start of the year means the advertising budget had taken a hit and so they can not afford to ramp up the hype train.

When I rode maverick it did have the stealth restraints so atleast the park noted the issue and tried to improve it, although it was still a wonderful ride even with the stealth otsr. The horseshoe roll followed by the second launch is just my idea of perfection.

Good it wasn't just me who thought the departure terminal with easyJet is just the worst and a highly unpleasant place to be.

I would not say that the park are responding to market conditions. They are randomly changing direction presumably because of the change in director. The park seems to have no long term vision and doesn't consider that there investments are going to be there for 20+ years. This ride is another where the same mistake has happened again. Thorpe is going to look incredibly dated in 10 years time without serious investment. Not only should they consider replacing Colossus by then but also, Saw, IAC, walking dead, Angry Birds, DBGTROTD, samurai, vortex, slammer, and loggers leap. I highly doubt Merlin will be spending the kind of money ontop of new investments to make up for the rapidly aging park they have built themselves.

We must be looking at different rides because to me it looks like a dated IP plastered all over a kiddie coaster for the sake of something new for as little cost as possible. The IP is a bad choice and I think it looks cheap. They didn't even get rid of the old station signs.

I understand shambhala, dragon khan and baco but I don't understand how you enjoyed stampedia. The food in the park is appalling at the restaurants. The side places serving food are ok.