Mega-Lite

Think it would come down more to the GP being upset/annoyed at said "Youtuber" than the park itself. I'd hope most would understand there's nothing the park can do if it's deemed to be too cold to operate their coasters and see it as that "Youtuber" showing off and being selfish. It would make more sense from the creators point of view to delay their video till when the rest of the unwashed masses can experience it, but I suppose that's up to them as individuals.

Still don't give a crap about this thing and that teaser is so low budget it's almost funny. A fairly interesting point has been raised with Jordan though. Is it considered selling out when a well travelled theme park "blogger" is now in a job which publicly requires her to up sell Thorpe Park and presumably go against her own opinions in order to keep a job that feeds her ego by giving her inside information? There's no way I'd be able to be like that. When I worked for Merlin before I was very outspoken with my opinions and if that rubbed anyone the wrong way, so be it. Although I did just amuse myself thinking of me sitting in the X car surrounded by zombies, head in hands with disappointment...

No matter how much I try to, I just can't ever picture Thorpe getting wood of any sort, be that an RMC hybrid or GCI/Gravity traditional. By all means suprise me, but I can't even imagine it. For reasons I've spoken before (the rumour Mack are not thrilled to work on a large scale project with Merlin at the moment) and Merlin wanting to not look like they are copying Icon, I can't see a Mack coming. I reckon an Intamin Mega-Lite isn't impossible, but once again seems unlikely. I for one would love it! It's a really tough one to call...

The drop tower portion was easily the worst part of Billund's Ghost so I'd be intrigued to see what they could pull off with a madhouse, can't be worse right? It's just a shame I'd have to visit Legoland Windsor again...

Colour me slightly unimpressed lads. Yes I know it's a POV so you can't judge how it rides and I know it's a Mack so I'm meant to love it, but... Some weird pacing issues going on that's for sure, coming to a dead stop before the first launch section and the second launch pretty much only used to get you into the brakes, not inspiring in the layout department. Also the insane trimming on the first drop annoys me. I'll reserve judgement on this point till I've experienced it, but to me at least I can't really get behind the idea of making it spin improving a Mack multi launch coaster, that's probably just me though.

Absolutely beautiful! Coaster, if anything it will be running faster when it opens, as things will still be being fine tuned and bedded in during testing. Can't wait doesn't quite cut it in this instance!

While I'm still warming to the paint job, I've just got to say... Those golden lapbar arms are beautiful! I need to go calm down now...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-43242081 Looks like Merlin are facing high levels of marine life mortalities at their Sealife centres, idiots...

Christ...

My office chair is more intense and has a crap load more forces than Swarm, you'll be fine.

If it's not Slammer, then I'm not interested.

I've thankfully got enough experience to know it should be great, it probably won't be top 10. As for the park I'm going in with very low expectations, years of reading how bad it is, coupled with a Madrid trip last year, has made me very aware of what could transpire.

You must be mad. Handing a bag over to a grumpy and useless teen is far easier and much less of a faff then, trying to enter a room with 6,000 raging Germans, faffing around for your park ticket, opening 400 lockers and Germans stealing them in the scrum and riding the whole ride thinking I'll never see my bag again. It was a stain (much like the ride itself) on an otherwise fantastic and incredibly effiecient park. Very similar thing happened at Harry Potter in Japan, but that I'll let that slide because it's Japan.

I will be taking my first (and hopefully last) trip to PA later this month, what have I got myself in for... Funny really this park was going to be my first ever outside of the UK trip, but just kept getting put off, that alone I think sums it up nicely. Oh well, should make for a good trip report if nothing else.

You better be joking...

Very happy to see the fantastic Mack baggage storage has been installed for Icon, was upset to see it missing from DC Rivals. Shouldn't be excited to watch a transfer track test, but here we are... Icon lives!

Custom Mack Mega-Lite or Gravity wood next. Followed 2 years later by a large scale water ride. Followed another 2 years later by an elaborate dark ride. A man can dream... However when I spoke to the park manager during Lost Kingdom media day, not only was he fully aware and excited by a lot of the products available, something I'd be surprised to hear from some other parks, which is very encouraging. He also told me how much he likes Twister at Gronalund and is aware they are lacking a big dark ride, which is interesting. I have so much faith in Paultons, good luck to them.

That's disgusting, f**k them. Like I said earlier I've NEVER had a bad time on park. Thorpe I've had many, you'll live.

The town of Blackpool is God awful, as is the prom if you go past the Pleasure Beach bit. The park itself always has a friendly and safe atmosphere. Thorpe Park and Alton Towers regularly have much worse on park atmosphere. I've been to some real dives and Pleasure Beach is miles from one, did you just have 1 bad experience? Also when did you last visit? My trips started in 2013 and I'm well aware Amanda has done a lot of work in recent times to sort out the nastiness. I've visited coming up for 10 times now and have always enjoyed the feeling only that place can produce.

If you're saying the GP will think it's worse than the Intamin 2 because it's slower, you sadly might be right. If you think it's going to be lesser than Stealth and God forbid Rita, then I'm afraid you're too far gone. Even if the GP aren't as blown away as they should be, I would still hope it'll be more than successful for the park and validate this great investment.

Always get excited seeing that amazing train design roll out! Think I'm with Baron on this one, beautiful train in an interesting dress. Let's get these beasts on track and blow the UK industry away.

A worthy reason to go back and get the creds they spited me. Sounds awesome, Gerts are slowly becoming my second favourite manufacturer, crazy I know!

Ahhhh that makes a bit more sense now... When I last visited we parked in the overflow car park, with by far the closest entrance being China but we were made to mince round the outskirts of the park to get to the main entrance. The first complaint of many on this day... I'm not suprised in the slightest that a local is being an asshole, that park is full of them from the staff to the local clients, a stain on Germany. Wait hold on, I've got to please the hordes of Phantasia fanboys here.... I suppose it's safe to say no matter how bad the parking gets it will never hold a candle to the Chessington swamp (Explorer car park).

Using the extremely accurate method of Google Maps and a tape measure and using the best roller coaster in the World as the bench mark... Helix first launch track - 50 metres Helix second launch track - 70 metres Approx distance between rear of Icon station to the beginning of the first airtime hill 100 metres. So assuming the station and the method of getting you from dispatch to the launch is stupidly long and assuming the launch doesn't go all the way up to the entrance of the air time hill, it's easily going to have a first launch track a similar length to Helix's first launch track. Plus much like Helix and Taron, it's the second launch that's going to really kick ass. Can you tell I'm excited? I'm very much expecting the launch sections on this to bite as hard as the current breed of Mack launches do, more than enough to start the magic and keep it flowing, not enough to cause nose bleeds, if you want that go on Stealth/Bullet Coaster.

How many tickets usually are up for grabs for these preview days? I'll admit I haven't visited on the preview day in years so I'm not aware of how limited it is anymore, but for all the slots to go in less than an hour, either they are extremely limited or there's thousands of highly motivated people who are desperate for an early trip to Thorpe Park, both of those ideas seem a little crazy to me in all honesty. Don't care because I'm already in, just curious...