Matt A

I'd pay good money for them to release the old soundtrack from 2013 if they had it at the expo, but alas I doubt it will ever happen

Probably not safe with the drop, it's rare you can take bags onto a roller coaster in the UK from my experience

I think it's the exit station, the door in the photos is in the right position for it to be

They were probably referring to Rush being fixed, given it was broken at the end of last season.

I get the feeling that the idea behind it is that the apocalypse has happened and the survivors have decided to take over X as a safe zone, which is why the building is the same colour (plus Merlin's lack of will to repaint anything at Thorpe).

I really need to explore these forums more!

Defunctland posted this very informative video about Black Hole if anyone is intrested. Also gives a brief history about AT too.

While I'm sad to see X go this does look like it could be a very high quality and good new ride, and will have tidied up a lot of the areas of X that needed work. If the concept art is anything to judge by then I'd say the corridors will all have been made to look like prison corridors or a hospital perhaps. It also appears that when you're on the ride itself the brake runs will be themed with different areas, I'd imagine with actors trying to grab you, projections, maybe animatronics. I'm curious to see if there's a soundtrack in the pyramid and what will happen between the break runs, guessing maybe intense music and some lighting. I'm going to keep my hopes up for this until I see it in person, although I do hold everyone else's skepticism regarding actors staying with Merlin's track record. R.I.P. X 2013 - 2017

Duel is getting some much needed work done to it over the closed season:

Thorpe have shared some more info on the special events this year: https://www.thorpepark.com/blog/your-guide-to-the-year-of-the-walking-dead

More likely to be animatronics if it's got a high enough budget, though it's more likely to just be a waxwork with a strobe light sat in front of it

I'd be down with that if it means we can finally hear the music on the ride

It never usually opened before 12 anyway!

They wouldn't need to do much to achieve that theme, just keep up the lack of maintenance to the theming and job done!

At least IAC didn't get rid of any current rides, biggest problem with this ride is its replacement of a decent (and quite popular) family ride.

I hope they sort out the '2 riders per row' stuff that's been going on for so long now, guess this would need new restraints/new trains so it'd have to be quite a big investment into X. I'd guess the ride will be similar to what it is currently, just with scares/theming on the brake runs, perhaps some flashing lights in the pyramid. I feel there's been so little speculation as it's such an odd ride to try and theme to TWD and difficult to see what could be done with it. I was thinking that too, although I feel it'd be very unlikely as it wouldn't make a great deal of sense. The only thing I can think of is it'll be an entrance to take you all the way down to Living Nightmare, but it'd be odd to walk so far down a corridor to access it. I imagine Thorpe isn't particularly fond of the long tunnel due to H&S limiting the number of people, and requiring extra staff just to control the flow.

I'm getting horrible visions of Thorpe attempting to re-brand all their rides to the Walking Dead

Cheers for posting that on here, would have never found it myself! Always incredibly intresting to hear from people in the industry.

Agreed! Although it's not the first time they've removed a soundtrack quickly, 2013 X had an original dance track which only lasted one year (still want to get my hands on it, best music they ever had on that ride!)

I really don't understand how they're gonna incorporate the ride into this, a relatively small rollercoaster in a big empty room doesn't really match much in WD. This is what's partly lead me to think they might not be changing the ride, it could just be giving X a reason to have the theme that it does now. Prater in Vienna has a similar ride which has you take on the role of a secret agent before going into the ride which plays music and has lights etc. I'm not suggesting this is what it will be but it could be a similar concept to give context before the ride. Also WD in the plans could just mean Working Drawing/Design

Looks like they actually knew the kind of theme they wanted then! Not just a random selection of themes all forced together

That would be great if they did that, I'd certainly make use of it. Fingers crossed something like this happens

You underestimate Merlin

Could someone move the Rock'n'Rollercoaster from Disneyland to somewhere in the UK? I'm gonna need my fix of music based dark rides next year and X ain't gonna give it to me anymore

And they told the shareholders it was down to the threat of terrorism and the weather