Blublublub

LMAO, I mean I live in Chertsey so it wasnt exactly a long-haul flight, and the event isnt about the ride just how it affects local residents.

Going on from what Josh said, I'm not sure if it was deliberately vague with track structure but it certainly could be a Mack, S&S (like Steel Curtain), Gerstlauer (like Karnan?), maybe an Intamin mega coaster (Hyperion-esque) based on the splash down or outbanked curves? really could be anything trains/theme/anything wasnt really disclosed either. General layout is station over the old train running in same direction, left outbanked curve before lift, huge lift (72m) seeming vertical twisting drop into huge dive loops? (hard to say) that all seem to run parallel to the lift? this part was hard to read. Eventually youll be spat out toward the lake with a splash and a final turn towards the station. So it will probably be another tall, fast and shortish ride. Although from the lift hill direction they showed the main drop will be facing the closest residential properties to the park in Chertsey so Idk if that will be an issue with the design seeing as theyre no further than 500m away. I rather liked that during the presentation one of the planner's mentioned how the colour scheme is going to be influenced by the impact on the sightlines (like Stealth's white) as well as the fact that its more of a replacement rather than an extension so things like flooding and wildlife wont be impacted hugely if at all, excited for everyone to see plans tomorrow!

I should clarify, Its been sent to a few of my friends and family in Thorpe Village/Lea area too so its official!!

Yeah I dont think it's going quite yet but I must admit that the tweet triggered my fight or flight response 😁. Anyone know if work like this has happened on other topscans/what the issue could be? On the plus side, maybe the mighty warrior's paint work will get a bit of a touch up.

https://twitter.com/merlins_bearduk/status/1415997786437439489 This is my supervillain origin story...

Never realised how sun-bleached the mighty warrior was... but fingers crossed this wont take too long 🤞

I have no idea what they think they were doing coz this 90+ mins thing is completely misleading and I can guarantee guests would rather be told a queue is 150 minutes than just guess....... Feel bad for the guest services team these next few days are gonna be rough 😔

Today was really quite busy, most coasters going between 60-100 minutes and Samurai, Rush and Vortex being around 45-60. Really have no clue when schools break up/half-term dates but, being an off-peak day I was a bit surprised. I think if you like the fastrack then go for it because it seems people are eager to go now lockdown's easing off and its almost certain that the next few weeks are going to be REALLY busy. I personally also dont love fastrack and you should really be able to squeeze all the coasters in and its quite expensive but, again, its up to you!

The park's signs showing the lack of direction... there's a joke in there somewhere 🤔

Hey! I thought Id just tell some stories of what I gathered from things friends and employees used to say about the reason it closed. I really have no idea how much truth is in this (its probably very little so take it with a grain of salt) and I assume a lot of you are quite a bit more knowledgeable about this than me. Essentially, in the early to mid 2010s legislation in regards to the operation of water rides and attractions were updated, something to the effect that water rides at parks needed to guarantee a level of quality in the water used. I think it was along the lines of if guests get wet enough the water must be treated for health and safety reasons. For Tidal Wave, not a problem as it already uses treated water in the splashdown but, obviously, with rides that used open-water systems (Rapids, Loggers and the Flume etc) Merlin would need to make some adjustments. You can see this happen on pretty much all of the flumes in the UK and I guess I dont know enough to outright say if these updates included changes to water treatment but: Pirate Falls became Dynamite Drench, Dragons Falls received a mini-update removing some of the rock work, the Flume closed completely and Loggers.... well I'm not sure of specific details in regards to the breakoff point to when this supposed restriction may have occurred but Thorpe held onto Loggers for as long as they could before officially going in for the rework in 2015. The plan was to keep it closed for 2016, and start work on it before the 2017 season. Now I dont think there was any planning permission applications and any evidence of this wouldve been dug up quite quickly so that makes me a bit sceptical of the whole thing, but then again if the update was just closing off the water system and slapping 'Re-Drenched' on the sign maybe it wouldnt have been necessary. Then we all know what happened in 2016... Supposedly the budget went to the DBGT rework ROTD in 2017 instead and Thorpe, not knowing what to do with it, left Loggers hoping that theyd be able to work on it soon enough. This may explain why for a while afterwards the park were still insisting it would reopen, but as we know that didnt last. The ride began to literally rot and reached a point where they just had to abandon ship. I think this would explain a lot of the blank spaces left but I dont know. The park definitely knew that Loggers was incredibly important that we know for sure. Its just a shame that it didnt survive longer. Oh and by the way you can identify a lot of the changes made to Congo and Rumba removing a lot of the features and effects that would soak riders in order to avoid having to update those as well: Rumbas waterfall into the tunnel, the sprinklers on the lift and the bucket next to the camera, I believe Congo has also become much more 'tame' in recent times but I'm not sure on specifics. Anyway, sorry for the long read. I hope it was entertaining and please feel free to debunk it, Id like to know more about Loggers as well.

I dont think there anything to say that hasnt already been said... I would say the state of the park is embarrassing but I dont think Merlin have enough shame to be embarrassed by anything. 🥴 I guess the glimmer of hope is that this season (and maybe the next few ones) will be setting the park up for some much needed overhauls and cleanin up. Especially seeing as Merlin are going to have to start competing with that London Resort soon but then again... 😞