Mysta Ghoul

Anyone remember Theme Park World Con Tour's weird kickstarter With your money his channel promises "the professional feel of a Hollywood studio". Pay him £250 for him to resell you park tickets and a t shirt. Sounds legit. What a shock that he managed to launch his channel without all that money after all. Remember when his YouTube channel was suspended and the thousands of subscribers he got in one week magically reset. Really weird... To be honest it always sounded like he never visited Alton Towers before in his life and 99% of his 'history' is off Wikipedia.

Everyone I know says Bouncezilla is usually deserted and forgotten is a bit of a joke with the state the park is in. I believe a mix of both, I'm sure it's a fun summer event as far as they go in UK parks. But I can't believe people genuinly "can't wait to go back" to do a bouncy castle. Does this mean they're attending all the summer fairs where bouncy castle courses pop up, or is it just because of the Thorpe hype again?

Untamed was jolly fun when I went on it recently. Really enjoyed it.

To be honest even without having been told that story, it sounds as if it were true anyway if you look at the way the industry was changing and needing a new product on the scene. So I totally get it, it was a big risk but the important thing is it paid off. EP really benefitted because of it Merlin hardly ever take creative risks like that, and the premature public float meant they never could again, I'd argue it has played a factor in their stagnation. The only risk I will credit them with is DBGT, which was a disaster. Can you imagine if Europa-Park had done the same ride, it would have been done very differently and most likely a lot more popular.

Europa was still a great park and much better (in terms of value for money) even before Blue Fire opened, and Merlin have made many more mistakes on big projects than taking a risk on just one coaster, so I dont really buy that. All successes come with taking risk anyway, and Europa have an excellent track record of taking those risks and making successes. But I totally agree Europa has built their success over a long period of time. I think theyre a real beacon of the value in developing your park long term and making a success of it at every step. While Merlin are a clear example of how parks can be squandered by constant short term time and cost decisions. I'm really pleased with the news although it certainly doesnt automatically mean any big change or improvement.

The whole VIP thing apart from usual bonus packages like animal visits, etc, should be abolished. It just rewards greediness paying to skip queues, to have park managers' phone numbers, creates the most vile arrogant guests on park and is also totally poor value for money. 'Behind the scenes' tours when the 'front of scene' rides are so poor and left to rot is especially bad. Brand new rides is ok, but it's like the rest are just bags of money to be squeezed dry with zero care for reinvestment or proper maintenance

I think they were fixed couple years back, maybe not, but they're lots of fun. The toilet is pretty busted now though and has a plastic seat sort of stuck on top (used to be a themed toilet like from the 50s) with a perspex cover to stop people, err..! I think the radio on the shelf in the first 'house' used to speak too? The house sets looking pretty worn out these days sadly. It was a brilliant themed area when looked after, the best in park!

If they give all the existing mazes a big kick up the rear to get them back on top form, plus a great new version of TOTT, this could be the best Scarefest ever. If they just drag the old mazes out again then it could be a big disappointment, they were starting to slide a bit last year and P42 needs a rethink in my opinion. House of Monsters was brilliant, surprised that it's disappeared when it was such a good production. But I suppose it's just in the deadest corner of the park now.

It does because they are all quite big, there are usually 4 mazes to build and it's all done in house by Alton Towers. All the sets have to be built, dressed and props made, the sound and lighting run in, probably more. Gives about 1 month per maze. So I do sympathise but like I say I reckon it could be done quicker if they paid to get bigger teams, to build them all at the same time?

Oh yeah.... why do they say these things and assume nobody will notice when it doesnt actually happen But I mean what was there to auction anyway, some old signs and that's it. Its just another episode of silly

You can if you spend a bit more money on labour to set up events. At the other end of the scale, how long does it take for Winter Wonderland to set up? Although I understand it is a complex job to dismantle all the mazes and set up again. I think they just believe not enough people go in the Towers for the maze setup to require a tighter schedule and bigger budget. They might be right, so maybe a better solution would be to keep as much of the Towers clear as possible and just build mazes in the basement. Then build in the upper floors only in the run up to Scarefest

Sounds like the necessary details getting overlooked in bad retrofits again. And then they probably don't have the opportunity to go back up there during the season to fix what they got wrong.

They don't have to ask permission from the landowners, that's nonsense. It's Thorpe Park who usually have to ask Merlin HQ for budget and development approval, anything bigger Merlin HQ dictate the projects themselves (and design/deliver them with MMM) with consultation from the park. This is literally irrelevant to Bouncezilla. Thorpe Park arent 'testing' anything new here, theme parks have been doing summer events for decades. It's an important part of the season cycle, it's just that Thorpe Park havnt been doing much in recent years. Let's all just get our feet back on the ground. What are you basing this on? How would you even measure "worldwide theme park culture"? Do guests think to themselves "No I dont want a new ride, that's so 2002, I was a bouncy castle!" One doesnt replace the other. The reason Thorpe park installed a lot of coasters in the early 2000s was to expand the park. After the buyout, it had to go from an independent family park into a big player for Tussauds, and that meant growing the market and doubling attendance. 3 big coasters in quick succession was their way of doing that and it worked, it changed the park. Afterwards, it became a matter of sustaining attendance. Merlin's formula was a steel coaster every 3 years and go for IPs, horror and an 'Inbetweeners' type audience. Merlin realised it wasnt working, but spent years faffing around not giving the park the budget and cleanup it really needed. DBGT was meant to solve the park's problems but it was a spectacular misfire. I agree that adding coasters every year is not necessary or sustainable, BUT you're talking an over-simplified version of events and pulling logic out of thin air. Whichever way you cut it, the park's development these last 10 years has been managed very poorly. Its clearly put the park in an identity crisis and that's the bigger issue.

Thats not a result of Bouncezilla though because its a free event. Free events/ seasonal attractions are put on to boost attendance, which is noticeably poor this year.

The reason it closed was nothing to do with a rattle or the integrity of the ride, so I think that's fine.