MattyB

https://www.instagram.com/p/C3DwDhTt2jh/?igsh=cXZmYjBrYTR4dTdl
 
The main drop is twisting up

New promo for Epic Universe
 
Introducing Universal Epic Universe
 
And park fly through
 
Epic Universe Flythrough Animation

The Difficult Creation of Thorpe Park: The Educational Era
 
New vid by Expedition Theme Park

The Difficult Creation of Thorpe Park: The Educational Era
 
New vid by Expedition Theme Park

Big Easy Boulevard is announced to take over angry birds land next season. More concept photos on Thorpe park’s instagram now

Here's a screenshot from when our 2004 website was full of American bikers calling guests mummy's boy.

Of course, agreed.  End of season for TP has always been extremely busy.  I think the issue is whether the park focuses investment to meet the demand for 1 week of the year.   I remember doing Universal and it took us 3 nights to get around all the mazes.  The Studios park was heaving and we couldn't get near the place on actual Halloween.  I think my biggest issue is the upcharge (however I'm biased as I come from a time when the mazes were part of the entry ticket price).  Universal charges an extra ticket price for the evening (or did when I visited in 2009), and I think it makes sense that Thorpe should.  However, I think the way the mazes are currently designed don't meet the demand for this last week of the year from a throughput perspective. (I.e. batching in smaller groups, pre-shows etc).  I think its nice that Thorpe are able to offer these experiences, however at some point as the park expands they would need to start looking at volume and throughputs.  Granted, the conga line method may be a lesser experience overall, however I think it would be a great challenge for the design teams to do something different with it?  Or they put more mazes on.  I'm surprised that as part of the Hyperion development site, they didn't factor in a purpose built fright nights building as part of that development. Somewhere to store everything throughout the year and then maybe use the space for 1/2 mazes.   

I think you misunderstood me.  What I meant was, if the park closes at 10pm, some staff could potentially be working until 12pm.  I remember when we had 10pm closes, and Megastore was still heaving at 11pm.  I didn't get out until 1am.  Luckily I lived locally and had understanding parents. If I lived in London or relied on public transport to get home, not sure I would have many options open to me.
 
Regarding mazes, I think its a tricky one.  Do you go down the conga line route (Universal), increasing throughputs, or just add more of them?  If the park is struggling with capacity, I should imagine it would need to change it up a bit over the coming years, especially with Hyperia on the way.

Nailed it 😎

Trailer for Behind the Attraction Season 2 on Disney Plus.
 
Looks like attractions covered are:
Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Indiana Jones Adventure
Also firework shows and food
 
Behind the Attraction Season 2
 

I would say the Florida parks.  Haven't been since 2009.  Would love to get back out there at some point as there has been many additions since!

It's purely irrational but I hate it when parks leave their obsolete crap all over the place. And that includes Saw the Ride. 😱
 
 

I think in an ideal world a flat ride would have replaced Slammer this year, helping to revamp the area, draw eyes to that part of the park, then you have a ready made new support ride for Exodus next year for people who haven't visited in a couple of years. Black Mirror could still exist in the space too.
 
Hopefully the park revamp the toilets in the area too. Again, they need it, and they're the last ones on park which need it.
 
The biggest 'disappointment' in my eyes over the Exodus investment is the lack of anything else (as things stand). We're getting the coaster, and then either a shop or food unit with it. That part of the park is in need of another non-coaster ride, another F&B unit serving lunch options and a shop as a minimum ideally. Hopefully it'll all come sooner or later, but it's a bit of a disappointment it's not all as one big cohesive investment.

Yeah what Josh said.  Should imagine it would be quite expensive and quite a project to remove Slammer.  Its a great space for a new flat though.  If it were me I would be planning to develop that space after Exodus opens so that there is a supporting ride for the area.  Also I would probably look at expanding BK2 as I can imagine that's going to be rammed next year

Looking at the website, I think I over estimated the attraction lol!

https://yullbe.com/alton-towers/?lang=en - on the YULLBE website.  Looks like its opening end of this month.  Looks like a free roaming VR attraction

I would love them to do a version of the Alien Encounter experience that used to be at Magic Kingdom (a "theatre in the round" attraction). I heard it was quite extreme, thus Disney had to eventually remove it. I rode Stich's Great Escape and whilst this got a lot of flack as it was nowhere near the level of its predecessor, I could see (and hear lol) the potential.  Maybe they could split the building in two, one half as the theatre, the other half as a walkthrough/Fright Nights maze.  

Bring back the Arena and the 2003 Spiderman show instead.

Tbf Thorpe could be a lot better if they nicked more of Walibi Holland's ideas, so I'm not against the notion.

Sod it, why not?

Hats off to the construction team. Pulling this right back on track. Piling for foundations has commenced… 
 
https://themeparkguide.co.uk/news-page/Project-Exodus-Foundations-Begin

https://youtu.be/5gs58KGQZuY
 
looks like land infill has began… and as previously suspected is being bought in lorries which will obviously add cost to the project. 

Positive that the infill has commenced and should progress rapidly given the number of deliveries seen in the video. 

Yeah 100% could have a big detrimental impact on the project if they can’t get it resolved soon. 
 
If they need to purchase all that infill, it will bring a big cost too which again will probably impact the project elsewhere in terms of budget **cough** theming **cough**, so let’s hope that’s not the case. 
 
As a side note, I’ve noticed the most recent planning application has now been approved, meaning that they can proceed up until vertical construction without any issue. 

Yeah I thought the same from the videos, but then noticed there didn't appear to be an infilling set up as such.  Hope they have got it sorted as something like this could lead to a delay to project delivery.  Who would of thought chucking mud in a lake would be so complex lol?  Next couple of weeks will be interesting (from a dirt enthusiasts POV anyway haha)