Project LC

Parm Pap translation service:
 
Wait, this one actually makes sense. These must be troubling times.

The situation is entirely caused by management loosing sight of how theme parks make money. 
 
The gate fee covers the running costs, the spend in the park makes the money. Management decided to start contracting things out and cutting on maintenance so short term spend looked good. Unfortunately this meant Merlin earns less per head as another company is skimming off the top and guests spend less when unhappy. They lost sight of the absolute basics and now there is very little room for course correction. 

The situation is entirely caused by management loosing sight of how theme parks make money. 
 
The gate fee covers the running costs, the spend in the park makes the money. Management decided to start contracting things out and cutting on maintenance so short term spend looked good. Unfortunately this meant Merlin earns less per head as another company is skimming off the top and guests spend less when unhappy. They lost sight of the absolute basics and now there is very little room for course correction. 

Merlin entertainments credit rating has been downgraded by S&P due to its growing debts and cash outflow with declining revenues. 
 
"Persistent high cash burn could lead to insufficient liquidity after 12 months, without further cash injection"
 
All in all thats a pretty poor outlook and it does make me wonder what it means for future investments at the parks. 
 
 

Merlin entertainments credit rating has been downgraded by S&P due to its growing debts and cash outflow with declining revenues. 
 
"Persistent high cash burn could lead to insufficient liquidity after 12 months, without further cash injection"
 
All in all thats a pretty poor outlook and it does make me wonder what it means for future investments at the parks. 
 
 

About as excited as ordering a burger kitchen meal. 

Aaaaaand also the soon to be open Epic Universe!!  

Nothing official, just lots of rumours to do with the wheels not being able to take the strain of the speed and launches. Lots of conversations around hairline fractures in the wheel assemblies.
 
ThunderVolt (which is the other Intamin to Zamperla conversion) is open and running with none of TT2's issues. 
 
Sirens Curse feels like a knee jerk reaction to something more than a required investment. Cedar Point isn't lacking in the beyond vertical drop department or the thrill rollercoaster department. Beyond the hype of another tilt coaster being added, this is a pretty odd investment which I don't really get. But its there park, they can do what they want with it.

Zamperla.

Its looking like Cedar Point may have 2 new rides opening in 2025 with top thrill 2 and another new coaster, as they have just announced Sirens curse which is a Vekoma Tilt track. Have to say I wasn't expecting a vekoma tilt track to be on the cards. 

Its looking like Cedar Point may have 2 new rides opening in 2025 with top thrill 2 and another new coaster, as they have just announced Sirens curse which is a Vekoma Tilt track. Have to say I wasn't expecting a vekoma tilt track to be on the cards. 

Finally been on it.
 
Area looks crap. Station is a weird attempt at Icon for some reason.
 
It's a great ride until the trims. All that momentum just thrown in the bin, leaving you wanting the rest of the layout rather than awkward corner.
 
Best ride on park? Sure.
Best ride ever? Not even close.

Same vibe

The rumour mill has been saying for a while that top thrill dragster is likely to undergo a modernisation. Converting the ride from its hydraulic cable winch to a LSM system like that of Red Force in Porta Ventura. 
 
I suspect they might also change the end of the ride so they have something to market. 

Looks like even Parm Pap has lost their mind with all this waiting now. That's their most incomprehensible post yet.
 
 
They should go all 2018 and 'Year of the Walking Dead' with it.
Stormzy: The Roller Coaster
Stormzy Surge
Stormzy in a Teacup
Stormzy's Ghost Train
The Stormzy
Stormzy Inferno
The Stormzy Express

Must’ve done this the same time they concreted the lake. 
 
Helium in rides? Now that’s a scheme that could take off. 

In thickened treacle we find the best bees.
 
A wardrobe is not a cupboard.
 
The walrus only escapes at midnight.
 
Thing that are tall and bigger than small things.
 
Wheeeeeee
 
WHEEEEEEEE

I agree - I think grab and go is still what people want but they don’t just want a normal hot dog. People want gourmet hotdogs or topped chips rather than just the standard options. Think you can see this by the popularity of the food stalls that have been outsourcing or just any event that you go to where people want basically food that looks good in photos.

Id argue f&b has moved more to the grab and go concept lately. So theoretically hot dog stands should be doing well. However what the theme parks never attempted or even really acknowledge was the changing tastes.
 
Merlin continued to provide the same incredibly poor standard burgers and hot dogs across the parks. While generally tastes became more varied. 
 
Mexican grab and go should have been added years ago. The burger places should have started doing various things with chicken like the McDonald's wraps. Not to mention the vast move to healthy eating and vegi/vegan options. 
 
Meanwhile the sit down places should have been offering a higher quality product so that spending more there felt worth it. 
 
I don't see how contracting out the food operations is going to help the feeling of overpriced food and drinks in the parks but I guess we will have to wait and see.
 
 

I genuinely can't understand who thought this ride was a good idea.
It doesn't appeal to standard Chessington goers (too tall a height restriction despite not really being a very "thrilling" ride).
It takes away from their neighbour park's claim of "Only UK Wing rider coaster".
It will likely have an extremely bad throughput.
It's a B&M so will have an extremely expensive initial cost.
It's a B&M Wing Rider so will probably be quite slow through the elements as well.
The layout is already shown to be far too short.
 
The only positive (and even then, slightly) thing that can be said is the likely IP, whilst extremely outdated, at least fits Chessington and isn't completely random (I think everyone at this point knows it's going to be Jumanji).
Me, personally, I would have have put a Vekoma Suspended Family Coaster or something that can accommodate a much wider range of people (height restriction-wise) whilst filling the need for Chessington to have something slightly more thrilling than their standard line-up.
 
This must be one of the few rides in the world where there is a unanimous hate towards it because it just doesn't fit. If I were Merlin I'd go back to the drawing board for this one because it will be such a waste of space and money if they plough through with it.

From an engineering perspective it is likely to be mandated that the structure survives 25 years. Where the pieces of track are deemed replaceable. Non replaceable parts will be designed for atleast 50.
 
Fatigue issues in steel start occuring at 2x10^6 load cycles which rollercoasters will start hitting around 25-30 years old. So if we assume 240 operating days a year at 8 hours. In that time lets assume perfect capacity for nemesis of 37.5 dispatches an hour. It would result in a lifespan of 27.7 years. 
 
Time to hit 2,000,000 cycles.
Colossus - 24y
Nemesis Inferno -29y
Stealth - 19y
Saw - 21y*
 
You can design for more cycles. The eurocodes permit allowances up to 5x10^6 but it requires the stresses in the steel to be low. Saw can probably get away with that hence it not being 8 years. I cant be bothered to work out allowable cycle ranges so for saw I assumed the maximum and the other coasters the minimum. 
 
Basically Thorpe park would have an expensive few years coming up if you couldn't extend lifespan in other ways. It would just come down to is it worth extending. Unfortunately for Colossus I think the answer is no. 

From an engineering perspective it is likely to be mandated that the structure survives 25 years. Where the pieces of track are deemed replaceable. Non replaceable parts will be designed for atleast 50.
 
Fatigue issues in steel start occuring at 2x10^6 load cycles which rollercoasters will start hitting around 25-30 years old. So if we assume 240 operating days a year at 8 hours. In that time lets assume perfect capacity for nemesis of 37.5 dispatches an hour. It would result in a lifespan of 27.7 years. 
 
Time to hit 2,000,000 cycles.
Colossus - 24y
Nemesis Inferno -29y
Stealth - 19y
Saw - 21y*
 
You can design for more cycles. The eurocodes permit allowances up to 5x10^6 but it requires the stresses in the steel to be low. Saw can probably get away with that hence it not being 8 years. I cant be bothered to work out allowable cycle ranges so for saw I assumed the maximum and the other coasters the minimum. 
 
Basically Thorpe park would have an expensive few years coming up if you couldn't extend lifespan in other ways. It would just come down to is it worth extending. Unfortunately for Colossus I think the answer is no. 

From an engineering perspective it is likely to be mandated that the structure survives 25 years. Where the pieces of track are deemed replaceable. Non replaceable parts will be designed for atleast 50.
 
Fatigue issues in steel start occuring at 2x10^6 load cycles which rollercoasters will start hitting around 25-30 years old. So if we assume 240 operating days a year at 8 hours. In that time lets assume perfect capacity for nemesis of 37.5 dispatches an hour. It would result in a lifespan of 27.7 years. 
 
Time to hit 2,000,000 cycles.
Colossus - 24y
Nemesis Inferno -29y
Stealth - 19y
Saw - 21y*
 
You can design for more cycles. The eurocodes permit allowances up to 5x10^6 but it requires the stresses in the steel to be low. Saw can probably get away with that hence it not being 8 years. I cant be bothered to work out allowable cycle ranges so for saw I assumed the maximum and the other coasters the minimum. 
 
Basically Thorpe park would have an expensive few years coming up if you couldn't extend lifespan in other ways. It would just come down to is it worth extending. Unfortunately for Colossus I think the answer is no. 

From an engineering perspective it is likely to be mandated that the structure survives 25 years. Where the pieces of track are deemed replaceable. Non replaceable parts will be designed for atleast 50.
 
Fatigue issues in steel start occuring at 2x10^6 load cycles which rollercoasters will start hitting around 25-30 years old. So if we assume 240 operating days a year at 8 hours. In that time lets assume perfect capacity for nemesis of 37.5 dispatches an hour. It would result in a lifespan of 27.7 years. 
 
Time to hit 2,000,000 cycles.
Colossus - 24y
Nemesis Inferno -29y
Stealth - 19y
Saw - 21y*
 
You can design for more cycles. The eurocodes permit allowances up to 5x10^6 but it requires the stresses in the steel to be low. Saw can probably get away with that hence it not being 8 years. I cant be bothered to work out allowable cycle ranges so for saw I assumed the maximum and the other coasters the minimum. 
 
Basically Thorpe park would have an expensive few years coming up if you couldn't extend lifespan in other ways. It would just come down to is it worth extending. Unfortunately for Colossus I think the answer is no. 

Roses are Red
 
Violets are Blue
 
I have limited patience...
 
...for lame cryptic Clues