coaster38

Maze tickets released for the passholder event. All the maze titles say "Outdoor maze experience" - I did wonder if Trailers would have an outdoor section but clearly this is not correct unless they're planning to remove Creek Freak's roof as a covid precaution or something. "Take your seat" - are we getting something Hayride-like, but down the service road? 🤣 pan widget

Whatever FN 20 ends up being like, at least we're getting good teaser videos now! At last these have some decent production quality which is consistent with a major theme park..

Hmm, tweets about "volts"...now "spark"... My tinfoil hat is going on, it's all related to one big Fright Nights *thing*

Anyone have the Ghost Train one of these?

To anyone who has managed to get timed tickets for BML or DBGT, is this bit of the website correct? Has anyone headed into the ticket centre before the gates open and booked a slot successfully? 🤔

TWD it is then! Looks like a fun day 😅 Surely the app is having a hiccup

Supposedly Thorpe have altered a few parts of Mr. Brown's creation this year, including a "new" storyline ... Unfortunately I'm stuck at work today so can't go down there to have a look, but has anyone else managed to get a timed ticket today? It seemed, on a quiet Monday as well, they ran out of them by midday, so I can only assume this is now a solo experience? 🤣

They were pretty old, I would bet that some were still from the Tussaud's days. Because of this, a lot of them were either dead or dying quickly (e.g. areas such as Colossus with lots of rattling, broken speaker cones). Yes Bose speakers do last a long time generally, and have done well at thorpe. They are more consumer level than they are "pro audio" though. RCF are heavy duty. Saying that though, a lot of them were newer and still okay, such as Saw and Swarm's areas. So that leads me to think that they got a deal on bulk buying from RCF and decided to do the whole place in one go. It gives them a more consistent audio setup and it's better than having the new speakers waiting around until the existing systems die, which could cause problems mid-season. As of this season it's only the new RCF speakers and some Electro-Voice EVID 3.2/4.2/6.2 models across the park now AFAIK. They began to rollout EVID speakers to many areas (e.g. they were fitted to newer areas such as Ghost Train from opening day, and were later added to areas such as the entrance bridge and Rumba Rapids) but they seem to have changed their minds, used up remaining EVID stock and bulk ordered from RCF for going forward with audio upgrades as of last year.

This may be due to the speakers used for the triggers being removed - there used to be what looked like a couple of Bose 402s stacked on top of each other sat under the plane wing which played the sound effect when triggered by the train passing. These were removed over winter prior to (what we got of) the 2020 season. At the same time the new top of the fencing was added and a tall black pole type thing appeared near the wing, never been sure what that is, possibly a sensor to detect if there are people in the ride area who shouldn't be? Looks like we won't get the audio triggers back until either that audio is worked into the rest of the system, I.e. two of the pole mounted RCF speakers nearest the plane wing are programmed to play the sound effect by linking with the track sensor somehow, OR the triggered speakers are put back, likely with new RCF models. I'm not sure about the tower trigger as I was never really sure where it played from.

Have the Bose cannons been replaced with these? Noticed new speakers in there last season but the cannons were still in place. I agree aside from Swarm's extended queue where the audio was either extremely quiet or didn't work at all last season, maybe there was an issue and they decided to replace the whole lot to bring it in line with the rest of the park? Or could have just been that it's zoned and someone had messed with the levels. As Marc said, Swarm is currently very quiet so they must still be making adjustments. There'd be no point investing in all that new equipment for it to not be used properly. They must have got a bargain from RCF as they've bought literally hundreds of speakers from them over the past 2 seasons. They sound a lot better than the mix of models and brands that were across the park before. Having decent audio during normal operation is enough of a reason really, but I wonder if part of the reason for this huge rolling overhaul is to ensure that there is enough capability with parkwide audio for events/corporate buyouts. Most areas now have RCF line array style speakers which are capable of both background audio and nightclub level volume and everything in-between. If a company wants loud music played park wide when they are renting the whole place out for a client/celebrity/launch event (think Boohoo Man event type of thing from pre-covid days) it's a bit embarrassing to let them find out that half the audio zones don't work properly or at all.

And it actually sounds good! Nice to see little things like this getting attention. It had one the other day, but it was a new version which just sounds like someone reading off a script. Not very thematic. As far as I know Colossus has never had any subs for the bass, the 2 Bose speakers have just been swapped out with what are, ultimately, superior RCF speakers, so I would think they are completely capable of giving much more bass, the settings probably just need tweaking. For example, the bass has massively improved in Inferno's station since reopening, but I don't think it's the Bose cannons in the ceiling as they seem to be off, they must have just upped the bass in whatever software they use which is pumping the music through the new system in there. Stealth's queue and station now have a ridiculous number of speakers, and they're all large, heavy-duty RCF models. If they wanted it to that whole area could seriously rock. If they cut down on the radio host segments and adverts a bit (seeing as the WWTP Radio truck is gone, so those bits don't make much sense anymore) and focused on the music it could be great.

The huge overhaul of the audio systems across the park seems to be continuing. Many new speakers that had been fitted over closed season have been connected and are working (for instance on the balcony overlooking the park when you come out of the dome, and there is now audio again on the climb up the volcano on Inferno, don't remember those speakers working for years prior). Volume levels seem to be different in many areas every time I visit, showing they're experimenting a little to find the best levels in various places. For example the audio around Stealth's plaza and queue is so quiet at the moment it's pretty much inaudible, but Angry Birds Land and Storm Surge have had their annoying soundtracks cranked up. Many areas (e.g. the entrance plaza, Colossus & Lost City, Swarm Island, Inferno & Jungle) that used to sound pretty meh now sound amazing.

There's air con somewhere inside, as it was the large condenser unit mounted on the side of the building that was running, they can only run to an AC system and don't really serve other purposes as they just pump and cool refrigerant. Possibly just inside the ops rooms and back areas but still it shows activity indoors. I don't expect it to open this year either but at least it shows there is work ongoing to get it open.

Noticed yesterday when queuing for Colossus that the air con for TWD building was running, and there was a sign placed on the emergency exit door near Colossus's station regarding COVID-19 safety - normal style as found around the rest of the park saying "no entry". So there must be something happening inside, probably just engineers routine testing/maintenance but hopefully the park has found a way to get it open at some point soon.