Project LC

Yeah I've seen the images. But it might just be a paint job rather than a full mechanical overhaul. But to be honest I don't know how rush has been running the last few years so it might not need much mechanical work. I gave up on visiting the park (Merlin Group) a couple of years ago.

There is no way on earth I will be congratulating Thorpe for getting a ride ready for the start of the season when the ride is 2 years old. If it was an issue to get it ready then they should have considered maintenance during its design. Seeing as the ride is ready it does show that the mechanical design for the ride is atleast serviceable. Every closed season on this forum it's claimed rush is getting an extensive refurb and this year it seems that might actually be the case. The thing always seems to have some excess downtime at either the start or end of the season so I'm not surprised it won't be open for pass day.

It's a clear indication that the park either have no direction at all or they intend to turn the park into a park full of horror and disaster. The year of the walking dead is hardly a sustainable business model for the park. I'm assuming that's come about by the new director who came from the midway attractions. I don't see it being successful as the IP must have cost a lot and I imagine it will have almost no impact on attendance seeing as the last 2 years has focused on horror and if they didn't visit previously I doubt they will visit now. I might be wrong but I suspect the pulling power of the walking dead isn't too strong anymore. The parks direction is concerning to say the least. Teenagers have no money, family's have no reason to attend. They are spending money on incredibly short term investments. They could easily boost visitor numbers by offering a more upbeat thrill ride aimed at the older families that isn't horror related. Everyone likes something thrilling and entertaining, not everyone likes horror.

I wonder if anyone at the park has any idea what the park should look like in 10 years time.

I think people aren't offering constructive criticism because the layout looks so lackluster and people are so fed up with Merlin's usual nonsense that they just don't care. Meanwhile you have the fanboys raving over the ride claiming it's the best ride to ever be made and swearing blindly that the effects and theme will be stunning when history tells us that is unlikely. It might be a very good ride with a theme that works amazingly well with the ride but I'll believe it when I experience it myself. Although that won't be anytime soon as if I'm traveling north I'll be going to Blackpool.

Icon doesn't need theming as it's layout looks strong enough to make the ride great. It's also not icons intention to be themed as it's in an amusement park. The wickerman looks like it has a poor layout and by itself would be a terrible ride. It is relying on the theme to make it a better experience.

Ah, you forgot one thing. Merlin don't think things through. The left hand has no idea what the right hand is doing and I'm sure on occasion is completely unaware the right hand even exists. A usb can be very cheap and has a far higher perceived value than what it costs them to produce. So when putting these sort of boxes together they are always a reasonable choice. I suspect the box costs somewhere between £10-£20 to produce so should be retailing for £30-£60. Seeing as they are limiting it to 250 and there are fanboys who think that the wickerman will be the best coaster ever I can see why they are charging £80.

The typical B&m flyers get around the slow loading time with clever station design. Like air and it's dual station.

Jesus that thing is slow towards the end. I know it's in testing and they might still be working with the timings/wheel configurations but I don't think I'll bother with SW8/towers, I'll just go to Icon instead.

Well the use of wood as a building material is most likely to make the coaster carbon negative. So even with the pollutants the fire will causes, for the 2 weeks merlin maintains it, sw8 will be far more enviormentally friendly than a steel coaster.

The fact another attraction is open during the busy season isn't my issue. My issue is its a short term solution for a much larger problem. The parks capacity needs to increase and instead of doing the right thing, by installing new rides to replace the rides they have removed or reduced the capacity on, they have decided to just throw actors at the problem to make the park one jumped up midway attraction.

Yay more actors for no reason and to add nothing to the experience on park. It has been demonstrated time and time again no one cares about Halloween attractions when it's not Halloween. It might add to the 10pm closes (seriously doubt it) but the whole let's just throw actors at stuff to make it better has gone on for too long and is so short sighted. Atleast it's not like Alton so I guess that's something positive.

My opinion on the ride remains unchanged. It looks like a wasted opportunity and has been targeted at completely the wrong people. All I'm saying is the marketing catch line has worked quite well at public engagement.

It's a stupid yet clever world's first claim. The claim is barley true and is just marketing nonsense while at the same time it gets people talking. It was trending on twitter this morning and sparked conversation because of the wood and fire aspect. Normally I think very little of Merlin's marketing however it is one of those rare instances where I think they have actually done a good job.

I just took the last RTD episode and compared it to the last moffat episode viewing figure that was available and finalised. Twice upon a time has now been confirmed as 7.92m which would be a fairer comparison. Best: Voyage of the damned 13.31m Worst: The eaters of light 4.73m

The show has been getting worse for years. This year's Christmas special was forgettable and uneventful. All of moffats Christmas specials have been poor and clearly are written in a fraction of the time he normally writes episodes. The show under his leadership has seen viewing figures fall from 12.27m to 5.29m (not helped by a change in viewing habits but other shows haven't seen the audience fall in half). I don't see how the show could be worse with chibnall and whittaker but it wouldn't be the first time doctor who has surprised me in how bad it can be. The pandorica opens The doctor, the widow and the wardrobe rings of akhaten The time of the doctor all of season 8 except into the dalek and deep breath Last Christmas All of season 9 (Surprisingly season 10 was reasonable but forgettable) I did attempt to list them in an order of worst episodes but some episodes are so poor I can't possibly decide which is worse so they are in order of release.

And yet it was first to go.

Well either 2 marketing teams haven't talked to one another and they just churned out the usual rubbish or we are going to get one stupid world first tag line.

Nemesis Inferno (7) The Swarm (3) Nemesis Inferno - Swarm +

Nemesis Inferno (5) The Swarm (5) - NI + Swarm

Nemesis Inferno (6) Stealth (4) The Swarm (5) + Stealth - swarm

Nemesis Inferno (6) Stealth (6) The Swarm (6) Tidal Wave (1) X (6) Tidal wave - stealth+

Depth Charge (5) Nemesis Inferno (5) Stealth (6) The Swarm (5) Tidal Wave (3) X (6) Stealth + Tidal -

Depth Charge (6)Nemesis Inferno( 5)Rocky Express (4)Stealth (5)The Swarm (5)Tidal Wave (5)X (5) rocky - DC +

Depth Charge (5)Detonator: Bombs Away (3)Nemesis Inferno (5)Rocky Express (5)Rumba Rapids (2)Stealth (6)The Swarm (5)Tidal Wave (6)X (8) Rumba Rapids + Detonator -