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JoshuaA
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Posts posted by JoshuaA
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I agree with the post above me.
It is interesting to why the community is so white-male oriented, but I wouldn't say our community is unfriendly to anybody who was of a different race or a girl. I think its just the hobby, like we can't hold people at gunpoint to join our community just to tick diversity boxes.
Also when it does come to the LGBT community we are very well represented within the community, so I guess it isn't like minorities are excluded from being enthusiasts. I think its a bit dramatic to say that the forum isn't equal, they don't make people admins just because they are white males lol. There is a lot of inequality in the world, but there is better places to look than on a forum for a pretty niche hobby..
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Can't go wrong with a blitz, probably a top 5 Orlando ride. Though its throughput concerns me..
Maverick is advertised at 1200 rides per hour (not very good figure to begin with), though ElToroRyan (a ex ride operator at Cedar Point and a pretty reputable youtuber) claimed the ride could only chew through 936 riders a hour. The ride is physically incapable of achieving a higher throughput, and that the throughput was inflated by Intamin and incorrect. Even if the ride dispatches as fast as humanly possible, it can only achieve 936. There is a informative video in depth on youtube about it.
I am unsure how Taron and Taiga fare, I am unsure if Intamin have rectified their mistake on Maverick, But even if they have, 1200 is probably not good enough for a park like Universal surely?
Unless they find a way to magically up the throughput by a lot. I hope they do, or this thing will have stupid queues.
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52 minutes ago, MarkC said:
How can you comment that you would take this over Black Mirror when you haven't experienced it yet.
Because it is a 'live experience'. Black Mirror is somewhat of a tale we have all heard before.
- IAC- Basically phased out of the park. Probably down to not being popular and draining staff. Also a live experience maze-esque BS
- Saw Alive- Different case. But live attraction that just wasn't popular enough after a couple of years
- Sub Terra- Technically a ride. But had huge emphasis on its story and the actors. Was neutered before being murdered for good.
- DBGT- its a ride okay. But like Sub Terrible, big focus on its flashy bells and whistles. Seems to be on the decline on popularity
TLDR: Live attractions don't end well in parks. People want fun rides, not a bunch of bells and whistles disguised as a ride.
I would rather Chessington receive a mini log flume with bad theming than receive a tryhard attraction that burns out in 3 years time..
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As much as I bash the sh** out of Merlin, I honestly think this area is fine. Its a very small kids area, its not really meant to be immersive or high budget. Its a fresh lick of paint on two old kids rides, and a new kids ride that fits the park's audience perfectly with a small bit of theming. Nothing more, nothing less. I would take this over Black Mirror any day of the bloody week.
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7 hours ago, mrmonkey said:
After watching POVs of the new rides and area all I can say is 'awful' - so cheap and static. ok it's clean and neat (for now) but the lack of budget is so apparent Theming is garden centre standard, and so......dull, boring enough for children, painful for parents!
I disagree. The area for sure is nothing to write home about, but they didn't exactly have much space or much to work with in the first place. It is a really small area, honestly I did not mind the lack of theming considering the area is two rethemes and a mini log flume.
I experienced River Rafts back in March with the nephews and it was a good addition, its good for the children who aren't tall enough for Tiger Rock. Its not elaborate, but it does the job just fine.
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Very good to show all the measures the park is taking. Really makes the best of a bad situation.
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I haven't experienced many, though this is my list.
1. Valhalla: When running at its full potential, easily one of the best dark rides ever made and easily my favourite water attraction.
2. Journey To Alantis (Seaworld Orlando): Brilliant Mack water coaster. Great theming, and fun ride.
3. Fjord Rafting (Europa): Currently my fav rapids ride. The theming is on point, the ride is exciting, and I love how it weaves around the area around it. Even the bloody lift up is themed!
4. Grand Canyon Rapids (PortavenAwful): Great rapids, if only it wasn't a park like Portaventura.
5. Poseidon: (Europa) Great water coaster. The theming is what keeps it here, the finale is also really fun with a pop of air to boot.
6. Tutuki Splash (PortavenBadOps): Another PA ride. Love the second drop.
7. Angkor (Portaventura): Brilliant water ride. Best of its kind IMO.
8: Tirol Log Flume (Europa): Love the cave section of this ride. It is a magical moment and absolutely makes this ride alongside its neighbour.
9. Supersplash (Europa): Short but sweet. Great airtime pop and interaction with Wodan.
10. Tiger Falls (Chessington): It isn't perfect. But its a fun ride where you get to see tigers. Also a fun log flume.
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2 hours ago, terrortomb said:
In terms of the new queuing system, you’d think with the lower capacity the queues won’t be as long, but then again the cars will be on lower capacity as well. It might still feel “busy” and the queue times could take the same length of time as usual.
Also, it may be a case of having far fewer people in the queue lines, but they’ll all be strung out and it will look really long! The hosts are likely going to have to re-adjust how to determine the queue times too!The perk of Europa is that a lot of there rides have amazing throughputs to begin with. Even with reduced throughputs the rides will still have better throughputs than what some rides at Thorpe probably achieve. A ride like Silver Star or Euromir will probably still get more riders through than any Thorpe coaster, even if they do enforce staggered seating and operations are slowed down.
I honestly think the park will be operated with high efficiency while ensuring safety. I see the park having a lot of initiative and common sense, they are one of the best operated theme parks in the world.
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15 minutes ago, JoshC. said:
Europa Park, as previously mentioned, will be reopening from May 29th. It's been said they will max the daily capacity at 15,000, a quarter of their usual capacity (just for a fun comparison in park sizes, 15k is around Thorpe's capacity these days I believe...)
However, to book tickets you have to get in a virtual queue (similar to buying concert tickets and the like I guess). At time of writing, the virtual queue has over 28,000 people are is estimated to take an hour.
Will be interesting to see how it levels out in the future, and what this means for booking park visits in general over the next couple of months.
Man that is a pretty high capacity.
I think if any park can make this work, its Europa. The park is so huge and spread out, and the rides probably won't get much of a queue anyway with the limited capacity+Europa operations.
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Honestly the poor operations and people who pay to skip the queue offend me more. Especially on rides like DBGT that have a throughput of 20 people per hour..
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I wouldn't even say testing arrivals, testing in general is something the government failed horribly at doing.
Testing, tracking, and tracing is something Germany did a lot of. Arrivals would be a start, but ideally we need as many people being tested as humanly possible. But the government probably won't, because we don't have a smart leader and government like Germany. I think its no surprise that the UK and US are the worst affected..
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Tbf it does seem really fast for a B&M hyper, like its taking those airtime hills faster than most hypers. It also has that floatjector Shambhala esque hill.
I think B&M have really been killing it with the pacing recently on their Hypers. Even if Candymonium is a little bit short, I guess Skyrush is too.
On 5/7/2020 at 9:19 AM, Mark9 said:let's hope it can be RMCed in a few years'
Talking about RMC. They have a pretty good candidate in the park for one lol.
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That is hauling a** man. I see this being amongst Mako and Shambhala for hypers (very good).
2 hours ago, Mark9 said:Will be the more public friendly alternative to Skyrush. I personally find it interesting that whilst Intamin mega/hypers are far better received by coaster fans, the sales have pretty much stopped whereas twenty years later, the B&M equivalent continues to sell so well.
I think its really down to Intamin's reputation. Rides such as Skyrush or I305 are popular with us because they are intense, but the GP just find them too intense so they don't get enough ridership to be worth investing in. This is made worse by the various problems that Intamin coasters have had (I305's black out turn, Maverick's Heartline, constant downtime, throughputs that are way above what is actually possible being promised).
B&M is just a no brainer I guess. High throughputs, reliable, and the GP and enthusiasts are happy.
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The Walking Dead is a coaster that IMO worked best in its X format, because to put it simply, it is a family coaster.
Even when it ran backward and in the dark, it was a tame ride that had lower ridership as the height restriction stopped families from riding and the ride was too tame and the ride was also uncomfortable.
X fixed this, ditched the stop and start breaks, lowered the height restriction so pretty much anyone could ride it, and consequently was a lot more popular among the GP.
TWD right now is IMO the second most expendable ride at the park. The ridership seems to be criminally low, the past few visits during peak times this coaster was completely walk on when other rides had 2 hour waits. It is not a bad ride at all, but it certainly has failed to keep people coming back to it. I do enjoy the ride, but I do think retheming X was a stupid decision as this ride will always be a family coaster. Even when you throw barbed wire around it and cover it in zombies.
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1 hour ago, JoshC. said:
Vekoma's redemption has been been ongoing for the last 4 years. This is the point now where they should be hitting full speed with their new products. Between their STC, flying coaster and their variety of sit down models, along with their family ranges too, they've got enough that most parks should consider them in most cases now.
I think this year/next year will really prove a sink or swim year or two for the company. The wheels are in motion in Europe and Asia, but it does beg the question whether we'll see a project over the pond. I know S&S and Vekoma are pretty much the same company now, but their products are different enough for Vekoma to branch outside of Europe and Asia.
I sincerely hope more parks snatch these models up.
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I certainly think this is just the start of Vekoma's redemption. Tripsdrill I think were pretty smart to get the first STC as it'll probably be a great coaster. Tripsdrill is certainly on the bucket list now. Karacho looks like enough reason.
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It certainly is a rough time for all the operators. Cedar Fair, Seaworld, and Six Flags included too. Hopefully all these operators get support and survive this difficult period.
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On 4/23/2020 at 1:12 PM, JoshC. said:
I don't buy the whole 'a park has to have themed areas to be a theme park'. If you work with that logic, then you have to call Efteling an "amusement park" instead of a "theme park", which does a great disservice to Efteling. These two terms aren't enough to encapsulate all types of parks in the world.
I think it just boils down to how important the role of theming plays within the park. I think Thorpe Park has theming but in most areas its pretty loose and the areas are just kinda there. The area around Colossus and the cluster of flats in that area is a good example, it looks good for the most part, but its more loose.
Like Six Flags has 'themed areas' too, doesn't make 'em a theme park lol. When I visit Thorpe Park it gives me Six Flags vibes to be fair, and that is not a bad thing. Six Flags Great America is very similar, some areas are themed well (Southwest territory) and others not so much.
On 4/23/2020 at 1:12 PM, JoshC. said:More importantly though, does it matter? Whether it's a theme park or an amusement park, their core purpose is to have rides which people will enjoy. Both of those types of parks will know that some rides need to have theming to enhance their enjoyment, whilst some rides don't need theming to enhance their enjoyment. So in my opinion, it doesn't matter whether a park is one or the other, they'll do what's right.
They do vary a lot though. Parks like Europa are meant to fully immerse you in its world. Then look at a park like Cedar Point which has no theming on any ride (I guess Steel Vengeance and Maverick have some pretty queue lines?). These parks are both brilliant, but they are incredibly different. You go to Europa Park for the experience, for the theming. The rides are kinda like the cherry on top. You go to Cedar Point exclusively for the rides. That I think is the core difference between an amusement park and a theme park (though obviously a lot of parks straddle this line). I think Thorpe sits toward the middle, but is more in the direction of being a amusement park as the theming is more secondary to the rides.
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1 hour ago, JoshC. said:
Around 2014 (when planning for Ghost Train was in full swing), plenty of people were crying out for something different. And Thorpe needed a dark ride.
It was still a huge risk to opt for a dark ride over a coaster, and one that in hindsight really hasn't paid off. But at the same time, when this was announced and being constructed, the overwhelming majority thought it was a good idea.
The issue isn't that Thorpe didn't build a coaster, the issue is that they built the wrong dark ride.
Yeah sure the park needed something that was different from the big thrill coasters. That is why X was so popular, it was a coaster that was fun, everyone could ride it, and it focused on being fun, not 'OMG THIS IS SCARY'. That is another mistake the park made, not making the Ghost Train accessible for families. I think what people wanted was more attractions that everyone could enjoy as a family, and Thorpe just built another attraction that really isn't much different from the coasters when it comes to theme and the type of people it attracts.
1 hour ago, Mark9 said:I remember the period of around 2013-2015 where all Thorpe fans banged on about was Thorpe getting a dark ride. Josh C nailed it, they just got the wrong dark ride. I look at rides like Gruffalo, Wallace and Gromit, Symoblica and wonder why they hell we didn't get something on that level.
Yeah I wasn't saying it being a dark ride was the issue. Was just listing a bunch of stuff they could of got for the price that they paid.
Its sad cos Wallace and Gromit and Hex are such fun rides and a decent dark ride like that would be good at Thorpe.
1 hour ago, Ivsetti said:Also, like almost everything else at Thorpe Park, there's no synergy between it's location and surroundings. Why's there a nautical themed ship close to it's entrance? It really messes up the immersion whilst walking to it.
Honestly I kinda view Thorpe as more of a amusement park. Its loosely themed, but I honestly think the park really isn't about the theming or immersion and more about the rides.
Like sure some rides are well themed there, but the areas themselves aren't really immersive or anything worth caring about. Angry Birds Land is a brilliant example of how seriously you should take Thorpe as a theme park lol. If they made it more of an amusement park in the future I honestly wouldn't mind.
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It is a grave shame the park didn't just build a freespin or a Raptor with that money.
Also lets not forget Wildfire cost less than this.
- CharlieN and Martin Doyle
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So due to boredom I have decided to make a thread to rank the Merlin Parks. This will be by recent investments and just how each park fall in the hierarchy.
I think this will be a lot harder than Cedar Fair and Six Flags as Merlin is pretty even with their parks tbh. I'm gonna be ranking all of the abroad parks but I will lump the Legoland's into one category because ranking them individually would take a while.
A Tier: Alton Towers
Easily the most loved Merlin Park. When this park receives a coaster, its usually very high quality and unique.
They usually have good in between years to boot, with constant money being thrown into their hotels, the resort, and into their family and kiddie offering.
This year's addition is a real good example of a solid intermediate investment and Wickerman back in 2018 was an amazing investment for the park.
This park is only behind Legoland in attendance in the UK, and with that you can expect a great new coaster here soon.
B Tier: Legolands (all of 'em)
These parks are absolutely everywhere. There is 9 currently, and more are coming. They are really a strong point for Merlin, they draw in a lot of families and must make the company a stupid amount of money. They have a simple but fun IP, and they usually receive a fair amount of investment to keep the masses of families coming in. These usually are not coasters, but if you look at Legoland Windsor's investments in the past 10 years its surprisingly respectable. A bunch of brilliant medium sized investments that give the park a pretty decent lineup of dark rides.
As stated, Legoland Windsor has the highest attendance in the UK, these parks bring in the crowds.
C tier: Gardaland
I was going back and forward for this placement, but then I saw Gardaland's attendance and nearly spat out my coffee.
I think this park gets kinda overlooked due to its shaky coaster lineup, but Gardaland drew in 2.9 million people in 2018. That is a incredible amount in comparison to other Merlin Parks.
The park hasn't received a big coaster since 2015, though the additions certainly haven't been bad either and I could see this getting some good investment in the future. No wonder the park decided to add 2 B&M's to this place with gate figures like that..
Heide Park:
This park has had decent investment in the past decade, actually pretty much ditto to Gardaland. Other than that they revived their Intamin pre-fab woodie, so that was cool I guess.
I think with Colossus back this park is very ready to continue to compete with Hansa down the road. Though it is lower than Gardaland due to its attendance not being as impressive.
D Tier:
Chessington:
Chessington have had a decent enough past 5 years or so to keep them out of rock bottom. Now this park just generally is a smaller park and I think is seen as such by Merlin.
Recently they have been improving their old rides (bar Tomb Blaster) and dragging them into the modern era. Tiger Rock is a fun redo of Dragon Falls, and Gruffalo is much better than Bubbleworks was in its final years. They received a mini log flume this year, and next year they are replacing the problematic Rameses with a fun looking drop tower. Overall Merlin seems to be interested in keeping this park decent and fresh enough. Even if its just with small rethemes or small additions. Either way its a much better position to be in that the park below it.
F Tier:
Thorpe Park:
If I made this list in 2012, this would be A Tier. Every investment they have gotten since then has lead this park to its current state.
What has the park done since 2012? Added a huge failed mess of a dark ride, added another room to it that sometimes works as a good finale? Lost their best family ride in Loggers, lost their second best family ride in X by converting it to something scary which now means their mild Vekoma coaster is now back to low ridership..
Basically a whole lot of nothing. And the park seems really like the last in the queue for any major investment in the future. It is a shame as the park has a pretty relaxed location when it comes to permits, and the park has a fair amount of space they could utilise if they wanted to. But this park I think will remain the park that receives small investments that fail in the long-haul (Black Mirror next yay!)
Anyway feel free to rank the parks,
I'm interested to see what people's opinions are. I think Merlin parks are actually quite hard to rank tbh, as investment wise they kinda spread out their money. Like Thorpe is at the bottom of my list but that could change big time in 5 years.
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I think each Arrow suspended coaster is its own case tbh. They are dying out, and I would not be surprised if Vampire was forced to run with the new Vekoma trains or close completely. Like Iron Dragon is still operating yes, but that ride is much more tame and I could imagine that ride doesn't put much stress on the track at all.
Vortex, Bat, and Ninja obviously still operate despite seemingly being as intense or if not more intense on the track, though obviously this could be due to a variety of reasons and each coaster I bet has its own set of circumstances which means one size does not fit all
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I think the Ghost Train could not function without VR. It relies on it so much, the main VR sections are dull with VR, without VR they would even more bland.
I honestly cannot think of a route to make this into an attraction that will be sustainable for the park. In some of my last visits the attraction seems to be fairly unpopular for a fairly new ride, and the queue it did have made sense considering the ride is unreliable and never seems to achieve a decent throughput.
If I were Thorpe I would just completely start again. I would keep the building but everything inside would be completely removed. I really think this attraction on the whole is just a mistake. Anyway here is a few outcomes that I see with DBGT.
- The VR sections are just kinda of skipped through. The attraction is turned into a makeshift scare maze which is fun but will be unpopular and removed in a couple of years time
- The attraction is closed due to 'hygiene' reasons that is blamed on coronavirus. The attraction sits SBNO until further notice.
- The attraction briefly reopens, but closes down in a year or two due to low popularity and is SBNO until Merlin want to use that space again
- The attractions operates, but operates with limited capacity and limited hours to cut costs and parts of the attraction are compromised because of its low ridership. Maybe like only open it on weekends, after 12am opening, closures on quiet months.
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On 4/17/2020 at 12:09 PM, JoshC. said:
Here's a quote about the 11th attraction from the owner of Tulleys, who commented on a Facebook post made by Scare Tour re the 11th attraction:
The idea for Wastelands Infirmary was for it to grow the Wastelands area; in particular, the entrance to the maze would have been where the ironmongers, etc were based (to the left of the area). The idea (in-story) being that those people were expanding the Wastelands area, and an Infirmary being what would next be needed to help with survival and whatnot.
The drivethrough farm shop is probably earning them a little bit of money and keeping them occupied, but nowhere near the levels they'd normally be with the escape rooms. They very much had a long-term plan for the Wastelands area, which is why the invested so heavily in it last year. One can only hope for their sake's that they stay afloat, as I highly doubt they just had a spare £400k lying around to build that area willy-nilly.
I did not hear about this. That is very interesting. Its a huge shame the park's investment has been kinda stalled by the virus. Have to admit I did not see another expansion to Wastelands coming, Tulleys were not messing about, that is some aggressive expansion.
Its a huge blow for them but I think they will be okay, they have running for 25+ years now so I see them being able to push this investment back another year or so. Though obviously it will be not be easy at all for them.
On 4/17/2020 at 11:56 AM, Mattgwise said:Do you realistically think we will be seeing any Halloween events this year?
I mean you have to be close and with social distancing likely to be in some form until a vaccine is ready I just can't see how these types of attractions will be possible this year even if lockdown is relaxed.
Just my gut feeling!
I think its very hard to predict. In 6 months time this could be a complete distant memory, or it could be still lingering. I think with most scare events it will ultimately depend on if other leisure attractions (like theme parks) are back open, But even then I could see the park running with certain attractions tweaked or closed. Like VIXI for example probably wouldn't work (the rope being touched by a lot of guests, ect).. I think JoshC has a point with the attractions adapting, you can certainly scare without being close to people. But obviously in some mazes (Cellar, Cottage) the small spaces kinda might make doing scares from a distance a chore.
Fingers crossed things are less grim by August.
Busch Gardens Tampa Bay
in International Attractions
Posted
The thing is though, some RMC's only really roughly use the existing structure (RMC Gwazi is a brilliant example of this). But in general, they are usually a fairly budget manufacturer and a good deal. Zadra only cost around 12.5 million pounds, which for a Hyper coaster with over 4,000 feet of track, it really speaks to how economical RMC is.
Remember RMC got their start with Six Flags, they got their start working for a chain that infamously only builds cheap rides. Their Raptor model probably doesn't cost much either, especially considering a random waterpark in South Dakota just reportedly just bought one.