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Cedar Point has decided that Top Thrill Dragster will remain shut for the entirety of the 2022 season. https://www.cedarpoint.com/rides-experiences/top-thrill-dragster This is presumably in direct relation the bit of metal which struck a customer. The park had only performed a more limited maintenance check for the 2021 season compared to the usual rigorous one expected between each and every season (after having the go-ahead by Intamin).

https://youtu.be/sCrvjZNdpUA?t=449 There's loads of other cool facts in that video as well.

Wow Tidal Wave looked so clean! And I had no idea how powerful Rumba Rapids can be.

Apparently, due to the fact this is sinking, some of the Colossus supports are filled with Helium. And that's something, you might not know.

Lumber Jump is now in Amity. https://www.facebook.com/thorpepark/posts/10159696666915867

Merlin are just trying to bog down their opponents with paperwork to delay them whilst they build their own 2023-2024 attractions. I don't think they expect their attempt at this to be successful however considering the government has taken an interest in it. Matt N's link above is the same as this: https://riderater.co.uk/9543/merlin-calls-for-withdrawal-of-london-resort-plans/

I genuinely can't understand who thought this ride was a good idea. It doesn't appeal to standard Chessington goers (too tall a height restriction despite not really being a very "thrilling" ride). It takes away from their neighbour park's claim of "Only UK Wing rider coaster". It will likely have an extremely bad throughput. It's a B&M so will have an extremely expensive initial cost. It's a B&M Wing Rider so will probably be quite slow through the elements as well. The layout is already shown to be far too short. The only positive (and even then, slightly) thing that can be said is the likely IP, whilst extremely outdated, at least fits Chessington and isn't completely random (I think everyone at this point knows it's going to be Jumanji). Me, personally, I would have have put a Vekoma Suspended Family Coaster or something that can accommodate a much wider range of people (height restriction-wise) whilst filling the need for Chessington to have something slightly more thrilling than their standard line-up. This must be one of the few rides in the world where there is a unanimous hate towards it because it just doesn't fit. If I were Merlin I'd go back to the drawing board for this one because it will be such a waste of space and money if they plough through with it.

It's that time of year where we look forward to the new season. Obviously everyone here is much more excited for the 23/24 season when *fingers crossed* the new coaster will be built but for now at least we can watch progress in real time of quite possibly one of the best coasters ever to be built in the UK if not at Thorpe Park. To kick off this thread, Park Vibes has been confirmed to be returning for this season.

Best POVs from coasters in the planning stages always come from Amusement Insider (imo) and they tend to be fairly accurate to when they're finally built, so without further ado the best POV based on the current plans.

Saw and Colossus are absolutely dwarfed by this thing in all the renderings of Exodus. I wonder how many people are going to go on this thing first, and then be absolutely disappointed by the older coasters afterwards. Even just visually, Saw looks like a children's ride in front of this thing. In all honesty, I hope this paves the way for bigger and faster coasters in the UK like the ones our cousins in America enjoy.

I mean if Thorpe get a 72m coaster that is truly impressive.

I have to say though I heard back in 2019 that over the next decade Thorpe would be getting 2 coasters - one in the mid decade (so obviously this one) and the next towards the end/ 2030-40 decade so I'm not sure why it's a surprise. I don't think it's any doubt that Thorpe was always going to get a coaster (although I think we're all glad it's gonna be a coaster and not some doomed "experience" like DBGT). I believe I also heard that one of these two coasters would be more family-oriented as opposed to extreme thrill. Guessing, given the location and proximity to Saw:TR this will be more family oriented and the spare island by Swarm will be for the later, more thrilling ride (or more realistically to replace Colossus). If you look at what Thorpe Park call their "exhilarating rides" these tend to be their Tidal Wave; Storm Surge and other "smaller" rides compared to their coasters which they term "adrenaline" (based on their Fast Track package descriptions). Considering the consultation leaflet called this an "exhilarating" as opposed to "adrenaline" ride we can presume this is more family-oriented and I also think it'll have a height limit of 20 - 30m. The track length of the coaster is really unlikely to exceed 750m and for a standard lift-chain coaster model is likely to be 2 trains with 7 cars = 28 passengers (750m I believe is what Thorpe Park consider a balance between ride experience, throughputs and maintenance costs). That said, my favourite proposal that I'd really love to see (and to prove everything I said above wrong ahaha) is this one on YouTube that's been out for some time now:

Having worked at a theme park (for 2 months so far) the only people I've ever even considered looking twice at age-wise are people who are much much older than you (70/ 80 years old) and only out of admiration for their insatiable desire for adrenaline which I hope to have if I ever reach that age. The majority (read 90+%) of the populace visiting (Thorpe Park) tend to be teens to middle aged people so there's still plenty of time for you to feel "old" when visiting a theme park. That said, you become "too old" for theme parks when they stop being enjoyable days out and you're no longer excited by them in which case it's time for a new (and maybe even cheaper!) hobby .

I've heard rumours that Rocky Express is being removed whilst the other small rides (TT/ LJ) in that area are being relocated to make way for a "family-&-thrill" coaster (if that makes sense) which will open either 2023/2024.

I think the audio is to make it more upbeat for the Park Vibes event. They'll probably change it back after the event or for FN but for what it's worth I prefer the new soundtrack. I also think that for the type of park Thorpe is it's much more suited to its target audience and the park as opposed to say Universal or Disney where you're going for 100% immersion into the theme of the area. Honestly the ride could be themed to Toy Story and the target audience wouldn't give more than a minutes thought to the theme. People visit for the ride, not the theme so 100% cohesive theming isn't a necessity and making a doom and gloom ride slightly less doom and gloom is always a good vibe for a park which is 50% themed to doom and gloom.

It appears, due to the huge queue times in recent days, that the park have decided to increase opening hours by 1 to 2 whole hours over the next week starting from this Sat. It appears this is due to the school holidays :

Full walkthrough of the attraction below:

For me personally considering CWOA's target market I thought it'd be one of these: http://s-s.com/rides/288/ But with the 1.4m height restriction I'm not sure though. It might be one of these: http://s-s.com/rides/axis-coaster/ Especially considering the launch aspect, and that it's clearly a very "unique" coaster compared to the other rides at the Merlin theme parks.

I don't understand adding a 1.4m height restriction ride when Thorpe are next door. Wouldn't a 1.2 or 1.3m be better for who visits the park?

This ride also has lights on the underside of the trains. I'm not sure if there are any other inverts with a similar feature?

Finally finished updating my massive control panel list (we're probably one of the few theme park fan sites that has a control panel image list for most of their park's rides). The 6 rides above are extremely unlikely to ever have a picture of their panel shown (no one does behind the scenes of these rides and they have enclosed op cabins).

Was looking at a timeline of the park and seeing as nothing major's going ahead for 2022* (and realistically 2023 is also unlikely to bring anything major) this'll be the first period since the park's opening in 1979 where nothing major has been added to the park for a 5 or 6 year period (2018 - 2022/2023). With all that said I think that park are probably going to get an RMC (most likely a Raptor) replacing Logger's Leap as their next attraction. I think they'll save the space behind the Swarm for when the park's in better shape. Also, given that Merlin are set to run the park until 2042, I'm sure at some point within the next decade the park will have some form of new major attraction. *based on lack of planning permissions to Runnymede which are usually submitted 1 to 2 seasons in advance

Amazing how similar a 2012 Thorpe Park looks to a 2021 Thorpe Park:

It appears Detonator no longer gets pushed down (doesn't have the mechanism that pushes it down idk what it's called) and instead is a normal freefall tower (I believe this was the same in 2020 so this has been true for 2 seasons now). On another note, much bigger note, all traces of Storm Surge has been removed from the app (bar the image of the ride) which is very interesting. Perhaps they're finally removing that eye sore in line with all the other fresh changes across the park and putting it where the tree were cut down around Loggers Leap?

What does this mean rides-wise though? Like Saw or Nemesis for example