coasterverse

I wonder if this 'manager' at Alton Towers is @Theme park Fanantic

Yeah I mean I didn't mean a storyline for the main ride - the announcement very much sounded like a pre-requisite to another storyline for a seperate attraction (Sub-Terra). A new evil CEO, trying to entice people into entering the Phalanx headquarters for a tour of some kind, only to 'unleash' Nemesis on them to kill them. I dunno, I'm no theme park storyline designer but that's very much the kind of vibe I'm getting from the announcement.

Surely this is hinting at a new storyline, no? Seems like it would fit into a Sub-Terra style attraction to me!

Interesting choice, why would they advertise ‘Nemesis Is Closing’ and also advertise an announcement by the Phalanx that… Nemesis is closing? Christ, talk about an anticlimax!

Wonder if they'll keep the Sub-Terra branding when reopening the attraction next year... because we're all agreed that that's what today's 'investigation' and 9pm 'announcement' is going to be, right?

Tomorrow, Sunday 6th November, is the final day of the original Nemesis - not today! 😋

Hopefully it'll get demolished long before whenever that is

I’m always left satisfied by your replies, Matty.

She's going ahead... Project Exodus is finally officially approved!!!

I get that, but with new OLED screens - black can be truly black. The problem is that a lot of parks don't pay the extra buck for the newest OLED screens so the blacks are never truly black - but it is absolutely possible. The edges of the screen issue is down to those theming the attraction to hide the bezels. I totally agree that realistic movement animatronics would look out of place if placed in the current Duel! showbuilding without any scenery changes, but I think it's safe to assume that all (if not, a very very large majority of) scenery is due to be replaced. Whether that is like-for-like replacements and bringing them up to the current day or a total replacement of all scenes with brand new ones - one of those two scenarios are certainties. Realistic animatronics with brand new scenes would work perfectly - the exterior to the showbuilding is ridiculously foreboding and (if done right) could make for a really, really eerie and realistic haunted house attraction (but, as I said earlier, that's highly unlikely to be the outcome given Merlin's track record and budget constraits). All we can do is wait and see, really.

No, God, please, no. I appreciate the physical props - nice a cheesy just as a ghost train that's not trying too hard to be intimidating should be - but man the screens and projections are just god awful. Screens/projection mapping need to be done in moderation and done in a way that helps it blend in with the rest of the physical props - looks like they've just slapped some video files onto a Samsung plasma TV and scattered them around the attraction. If the new Duel! is to have screens (which, let's be honest, it almost certainly will) it must be done in a tasteful manner. It should be done in a way that adds to the story and not just a 'let's slap a video on a tv for an easy jumpscare'. I'd love for the new Duel! to be filled with lifelike anamatronics, but let's be honest - Merlin don't have the budget nor time required to manufacture enough of those to fill the attraction. I think we're all best just not getting our hopes up too much, that way regardless of the state of the attraction when the reopening date comes to fruition we'll all be surprised in some way or another. DBGT suffered a similar fate of being marketed as something that it could never live up to - and in an unofficial way among enthusiasts, Duel! seems to be heading in a similar direction. If you always prepare for disappointment, you'll never be disappointed folks.

Can't really see this happening for this reason - not only would it be just bad general business practice, but as far as Thorpe are concerned could also provide a very negative impact on their own business operation considering they're likely going to be marketing for a 2024 opening date, thus potentially also leading to a possible lawsuit for loss of earnings. Not to say that it definitely couldn't happen, especially as Thorpe haven't technically marketed any launch date yet so as far as the GP are concerned there would be no delay, but I feel like it would be extraordinarily bad business practise on Mack's end to go this route (unless Thorpe are happy to let it slide considering the current planning permission fiasco and therefore buying them a little more time).

Wanted to try to get one last trip to Towers before the end of the season but don't think I'll bother if they don't manage to get Wicker Man sorted beforehand 😭

Not wrong, but iirc all of the actual PicSolve bits are already long gone and the area currently only houses arcade bits (could be wrong on that front though so don’t hold me to it). Just surprised that they’ve even bothered to put construction walls up for it considering the very little footfall that Ghost Train shop garners - most people exiting the ride from it probably wouldn’t even notice it.

What do we make of this? Found on the Merlin Passholders group on Facebook (not my photo), but supposedly the old PicSolve corner in the DBGT shop has been boarded up now… 🤔 Wonder what’s going on and if something new is potentially coming?! DERREN BROWN’S GHOST TRAIN: RISE OF THE DEMON (AGAIN) CONFIRMED!!!!!11!!!1

Really hoping he's not going to go down the Jumanji route and fill the place with screens instead of physical theming

Sorry folks, the Blobby costume in the fake Noel Edmunds' House Party set has been decomissioned so they've replaced it with a bloke in a white tshirt instead. Good enough, right?

For what it's worth I think all three are pretty excessive - Creek Freak isn't too terrible, but you'd think that for your money you'd get more than a tour, a look at a fright nights 'museum' (which, let's be honest is just the Containment storage container with a clothes rail in the middle of it most likely) and a poster. Not even so much as a 'I Paid Between £45-55 For A Fright Nights Behind The Scenes Tour And All I Got Was This Lousy T-shirt'. I obviously don't know what the actual numbers are like, but I also can't imagine the demand for these tours is exactly sky high. The general population for the most part just want a day out at a theme park and to get a few scares in before they head home - it's really only us theme park and/or scare attraction enthusiasts that wouldn't mind looking at it behind the scenes. I agree it's definitely a supply and demand issue, but much alike Thorpe's pricing structure for maze admission - I think they seriously need to work on their pricing structure for the behind the scenes stuff too.

Even then you're not guaranteed to be put on a different side, right? Could pay £8-10 for another run and still end up being batched on the same side 😂

Just had a look at the Thorpe Park behind the scenes page on their website - one thing that really pissed me off last year (and even more so this year) are the different pricing points for behind the scenes tours of the different mazes. £45 for Creek Freak, £50 for Trailers and £55 for Survival Games. Like, really?! I get that Survival Games is a fairly big maze... but is it big enough to be worth an additional £10 over Creek Freak?! I genuinely just don't understand - they all have exactly the same benefits so it's not even as if you're getting more for your money by opting for the Survival Games package. Also, Survival Games is big... but is there really that much to justify such a huge price jump? I feel like for the most part once you've seen the first few rooms you've seen everything - I've not been to Fright Nights so far this year (and not entirely sure if I will get the time to) but the common theme I tend to hear is that it's not overly themed in the actual maze itself. Also, not 100% sure but fairly confident that they had the option to have behind the scenes tours of Creek Freak AND Platform 15 as a bundle last year - wonder why they didn't offer the option to do Creek Freak & Trailers as a bundle for this year?

This even happens to me sometimes with the 5pm closes. Get all the rides done early on in the day, look at the clock and it's only midday. Next time you look it's 4:55pm and panicking about whether to round your day off with Stealth or SAW!