JoshuaA

Yeah chavs sadly are very present at Thorpe, you will probably find Alton much better as overall the crowds (bar travellers day) are usually much less of a pain. With your fear I think the best thing is to do is to just not think about it and just hop in the queue line, don't compare any other coasters to the ride in question, just hop in the queue and give it a go. When I went to Portaventura this year I had a huge fear of Hurakan Condor, this fear mainly came from me comparing Detonator to Hurakan Condor, Detonator left me shaken after every ride so how could I possibly do something 3 times the size? It turned out Hurakan Condor wasn't as intense as Detonator anyway. I shouted and screamed all the way up the tower and I trembled like a leaf but it came one of my favorites in the park, I think fear on rides is more of us building the ride up to be something terrifying, most of the time we get off realizing how stupid we were for being so afraid! Maybe you'll overcome this fear this year or in 5 years, do it at your own pace. With Alton I have to say maybe try Nemesis (sure its intense but its smooth and a great ride) to get used to inverting. The Smiler is probably another good option but obviously inverting 14 times in a few minutes might be a little overwhelming.

I honestly think BPB really missed the mark on marketing, sure the new ad looks great but summer is coming to a close and it feels a little too late tbh.

I think the layout looks decent before the MCBR and I like the drop under Vortex but I think it won't be the best dive coaster. I have heard a lot of people saying the vest restraints on Valravn kill the weightlessness on the drop so I'm guessing this might have a similar issue.. The ending of the ride also looks dreadful, at least Valravn has that cool zero-g roll at the end. Overall I think this will be a fun ride but not anything to scream about.

I honestly think that Containment going really isn't a loss, honestly it wasn't worth the money IMO and I think it won't be missed at all. I wouldn't mind a third Walking Dead maze, I think as long as they make it well themed and fun that is one step above what Containment ever was. I think Platform and Big Top returning will be enough to make the event as good as last year, Living Nightmare is also a decent maze IMO. Sanctum I hope they heavily change and extend, if so then it could be a really good warm-up attraction for the bigger mazes. Saw Alive will probably be mundane as per usual, but if the new maze is good then I think this could be a great lineup.

I think maybe its just a rough transition on Gerstlauer's part? Like The Smiler's jolt on the cobra roll and the final corkscrew?

Innovation in the industry is a good thing, but in some cases Merlin are needlessly complicated, look at the Ghost Train! The heavy reliance on VR makes the attraction incredibly unreliable, and ironically the best parts of the attraction are the non VR sections! Honestly I think Thorpe could of done a Vekoma Madhouse with a pre-show and that would of been better than The Ghost Train! Its the more simple aspects of the attraction that are the most enjoyable IMO! Like the theming and final Dungeon style effect. Using new technology and doing different stuff is good, but if the technology is unreliable and inferior to a more traditional ride, then whats the damn point? Merlin could of easily built a madhouse/tracked dark ride for fractions of what The Ghost Train cost and it would of been more reliable and more enjoyable!

Its beyond obvious we're getting a Aquatrax to replace it.

I think 2017 was actually a decent year for the event.. Platform and Big Top were both really strong IMO and Living Nightmare was fairly good. Sure the events atmosphere is a bit weak with a roaming team that sometimes you forget exist at all and decorations that look like a really tacky halloween party, but maze wise I think the event is better than ever. Hopefully they improve that this year..

Had a great day at Thorpe today! Queues were 5-30 minutes for most of the day for the main rides and the all the main coasters were on two trains! Stacking is still present on Colossus and a tad on Swarm, though it seemed much better than last time. I think after 3 rides on Saw today I have to say I think the Saw team deserve a medal, the batches were lightning quick and the queue moved really damn fast. All of the main coasters didn't break down/close throughout the day despite the horrible rain, overall very impressed.

If I'm being honest I find the Ghost Train dull by this point, I think its one of the most boring dark rides to grace the industry.. I think with every ride the more I dislike it, the finale is the only really section that doesn't put me to sleep.. The unreliability does not help either.. I think some dark rides like Hex you can experience them multiple times a year and still enjoy it, with the Ghost Train I felt bored on my first ride of the year..

Anyway going back on topic, its bad to see Vortex having so much downtime as it does usually eat up the queues quite nicely and usually its one of the more reliable flats.. I really think Thorpe soon will need to do some work/replace some of their flats soon, Vortex might not make it for much longer at this rate.. Samurai is a even more drastic case.. Well at least they have flat rides unlike Alton I guess..

Honestly I think Screamland need more quality than quantity.. Last year was really a poor showing with Crank Jack being really the only saving grace.. The rest of the mazes felt incredibly half-arsed compared to 2016, I think they really need to up the quality of their current mazes before adding more.. The prices as per usual at Screamland are very good and are worth it just for the rides, hopefully this year they bring back the creativity that 2016 had in the mazes. I know it probably will not happen but it would awesome if they bring back The Paradise Foundation! That maze really deserved a better run than 1 year, that maze was perhaps one of the most creative themes to grace the scare attraction world and it left us after one year! From memory you can leave and enter as many times as you want. Dead and Breakfast and The Final Cut are/were even outside of the main park! The Margate seafront is far from pretty though so don't expect anything too nice lol.

They never replace their flats anyway. Ripsaw got turned into a tacky game stall, Submission is just free space, and Sub Terra just got left to rot. Toadstools probably has the same fate..

Christ that is another flat gone.. Enterprise and The Blade remain.. Which are also both are at the end of their life.. Merlin really need to add some flat rides/revamp the current ones as the supporting lineup for the park is absolute bollo**s.. Also the whole 'its TLC' crap is kind of annoying now, how they operated Toadstools was anything but love and care..

For me I find the operations on Stealth and Saw to be okay. Nemesis and Swarm are very hit and miss but when they are slow, they are damn slow.. Colossus on both rides was perhaps the most frustrating dispatching I have seen in a long while and I can see why you want fastrack for that one.. The rides ops are so slow the queue barely moves, heck even with fastrack I would get annoyed in that queue.

Energylandia is insane.. To think this was a park barely even on the map a few years ago but now we have a Intamin Water Coaster and a massive awesome looking Intamin Hyper in just one year.. I think in a few years if they get a RMC and a few more coasters this could be easily be one of the parks in Europe (when it comes to coasters anyway). Hyperion does look pretty awesome I have to admit..

You have already done Galactica right? That kinda counts as upside-down, heck the fly the lie element on Airlatica is more intense than most of your usual inversions such as a corkscrew and a loop anyway in my opinion. I'm guessing Speed wouldn't be too bad, it doesn't seem as rough as Saw so it should be a fairly good ride to get you used to inverting. Rameses used to be quite intense though these days it runs fairly sluggish so it will probably bore you more than anything.

Interesting.. I'm guessing this might be a location for a new maze for Scarefest? They could theme it to abandoned and neglected things.. Wouldn't take too much effort considering.. It could also be for the proposed Dungeon style attraction, but I'm more convinced Charlie and the SBNO factory will be the location instead of Sub Terra? I'm not sure the building is big enough to house a full on dungeon unless they expand?

I think X had very sparse theming but I feel like the the very simple 'nightclub' vibe was kinda cool and fun. I think in a park full of depression and uninspired themes galore, X stood out in a positive way. The height restriction being lowered I think also made this a coaster that everyone could ride in between big rides. I think X was by far the best version and best use of the pyramid and the coaster. X: NWO I think was just odd. The theming seemed fairly random, I really have no clue what the hell Thorpe were going for.. I am very glad they re-themed it to be fair, my best memories of it were Chavs talking throughout the whole ride commenting on how boring it is.. I think The Walking Dead is meh. The first ride was cool, but its really not a worth a re-ride.. It has decent theming, but the theme is drab and depressing, everything that X was not.. I think this will be the next 'Sub Terra' if I am being brutally honest.. By next year they will be no actors, but 2020 it will be a ghost town.

I honestly don't dislike this idea, but with the current state of flat rides at the park I think this is the wrong move. Alton have a pathetic lineup of flat rides and it really wouldn't cost Merlin much to buy a few and add them in.. Enterprise and The Blade are really the only two left and both of them seem to be close to death.. I guess it wouldn't be a terrible addition.. Sealife at Chessie and Alton work I guess, but obviously it will require a crap ton of actors..

The Tulleys website has been updated for 2018! So far there is no information on the ninth maze (the new one) but the website says all 8 attractions from last year will all return. The Cellar and The Colony seem to both be getting upgrades or some changes this year with "The Cellar: Imprisoned" and "The Colony: Dystopia". Its going to be interesting to see what they for their ninth maze.. But they have teased it will have a scare factor of 8.

The thing is, it wasn't even the guests and their bags that was the problem when I went.. Everyone was sat down in the train and the staff still seemed to be waiting for a blue moon to load the next train. I think if the park organized and perhaps added some staff and put several rockets up their a*** then that would reduce stacking heavily, though a better locker system would speed things up a little I guess. I know the Inferno team overall started off very limp early on in the season but overall have got much faster, I just think they need to organize the staff better and perhaps make sure they are efficient. I think the slowness has more to do with the current ride team than the ride design itself.. I have seen much faster operations on this ride, heck its been operating for 16 years.. If slow dispatches was a issue due to the design, I think that would of been highlighted ages ago..

Jesus, Thorpe are really scraping the bottom of the barrel here.. A decent park in itself should be able to keep guests in for the late opening.. The amount of try-hardness in this event is cringey..

I think at this point there is no point in constantly living in the past- Wild Mouse was a great ride, but its gone. BPB didn't handle it that well, but its gone, we have just got a top tier looking Mack so I guess I can't complain. I think I'd rather have what you just described above the other UK launch coasters.. Rita smashes your neck and skull in and Stealth is a one trick pony. I'd rather a spread out fairly slow launch like Blue Fire/Icon that a concussion (Rita) or a few seconds of fun (Stealth). Each to their own though. And I can imagine the theming is being beyond hilarious.. This is BPB after all..

I don't think they meant that they have to dispatch lightning quick.. But as soon as that second train hits the brake run then they should be ready to dispatch. On Colossus recently the stacking has been up to a good 3 minutes.. Which is really mostly down to the staff not being efficient or quick enough.. A few seconds of stacking is completely fine, but 3 minutes on the brake run because a member of staff is too busy chatting to dispatch the damn train...