Matt N

Hi guys. As of late, I've noticed that roller coaster names seem to have become a lot more divisive than they used to be. From tongue twisters like Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure to nods to modern slang like Sik, enthusiasts are increasingly beginning to question some of the decision making that goes into naming roller coasters at times. So the question I ask you today is; if the names that parks are churning out are sub-par, then what unused roller coaster names do you feel would be better? What are some of your favourite potential roller coaster names that haven't been used? What names do you think would sound really cool if applied to a ride? I'll get the ball rolling with some of my choices... Zenith - I think this would make a really cool name for the tallest ride in any park, or more generally, something like a hyper or giga coaster. The word quite literally means “highest point”, and I think it rolls off the tongue quite nicely! Gargantua - Again playing into the theme of big rides and bigness, I also think that Gargantua would suit a tall ride well. It’s a play on the word “gargantuan”, and I think that taking the “t” off the end makes it sound really cool, almost like some sort of big ruling deity or something! Torchwood - This might sound a bit random, but I think this would have made quite a cool alternative name for Wicker Man at Alton Towers, and I think it would suit any ride that blends wood and fire and capitalises upon that for the theme (a la Wicker Man). It’s sort of a play on words on how wood that’s set on fire is “torched wood” (although I might be reaching a bit with that one…), and to be honest, I just think it sounds cool and rolls off the tongue quite nicely! Cataclysm - I think this would be a cool name for any ride themed to disaster, the apocalypse or any sort of destructive beast or similar. Cataclysm means “a disastrous or seismic event”, and any sort of disaster or destructive creature, as quite a few rides seem to lean upon for a theme, certainly would be a cataclysm! And to be honest, I just think it rolls off the tongue quite nicely! We have lots of rides called “Tornado” or “Cyclone”; maybe this would make a nice change? Catalyst - I know it sounds similar to the name above, but I reckon this would make a cool name for a launch coaster or something. A catalyst is something that stimulates a chemical reaction, and I reckon that it would suit a launch coaster pretty well, because a launch moves a train pretty quickly! And it just sounds cool… Inferna - I think this would have been a really cool alternative name for Nemesis Inferno at Thorpe Park, and I think it would suit any ride themed to something like a fire dragon or anything to do with fire or heat (like Inferno is). It sounds similar to Inferno, but is a slightly different version of the word with the “a” instead of the “o”, and I just really like it! Euphoria - I know this doesn’t really lend itself to a theme as such, but I quite like this one as a more simple name, because I think it sounds cool and I also think it sums up the feelings of thrill and excitement that a roller coaster is designed to provide! Keeping to a similar train of thought, I also think that Ecstasy would be a cool name too! To be honest, there are also a number of scientific and computational words that I think would make really cool coaster names…. not for any particular reason, though; I just think they sound cool! Things like Ion, Xeon, Ryzen… actually, I guess there’s only 3 I can think of. I know my naming skills aren’t brilliant, but that’s what I could come up with. But what are some of your favourite unused roller coaster names?

I got that Tidal Wave capacity from WhiteWater West, who gives a blanket figure of 1,800 riders per hour for their 20-person Shoot the Chutes ride: https://www.whitewaterwest.com/en/products/water-rides/shoot-the-chute/ I believe WWW superseded Hopkins and started selling their water ride products, as Tidal Wave is one of the first case studies given on that site. So WWW’s figure is effectively a manufacturer figure for Tidal Wave.

Park audio at Thorpe seemed a little bit weird today, for numerous reasons. Some things I noticed included: There was no audio playing at all in the entrance area, on the bridge or in the Dome. I did initially wonder if this was out of respect following the Queen's death, but the audio in the rest of the park suggested otherwise. Swarm's area and station were very quiet, apart from the dispatch sound sequence. Speakers seemed to be playing a mix of the original area track and the 2021 area track. Colossus/Lost City seemed to be alternating between the original track and the IMAScore track. Both Inferno and Saw's station speakers now make a rather horrid crackling noise when certain sound effects play; on Inferno, it crackled when the dispatch track ended, and on Saw, it crackled after the alarm sound that begins Jigsaw's safety spiel and after the dispatch track ended. Inferno's exterior queue didn't seem to have any audio at all.

Sorry... I never knew there was a thread already.

Hi guys. I don’t know about any of you, but one thing I personally like doing in queues is throughput timing. I have an app on my phone called Dispatch Timer which allows me to time how quickly trains are being dispatched on a ride, and I often try and get a number of readings while I’m in the queue. So I decided to make a thread regarding the topic of operations/throughputs at Thorpe Park, where you can post any of your own timings, or just general comments about ride operations. I made this thread because I visited Thorpe Park today, and I grabbed throughput timings from various different rides. Coasters Colossus (Theoretical: 1,300pph): 689pph (average of 4, 2 trains, taken from Rush's queue line), 437pph (average of 2, 2 trains, taken from Colossus' queue line) Nemesis Inferno (Theoretical: 1,150pph): 831pph (average of 5, 2 trains) Saw The Ride (Theoretical: 1,000pph): 363pph (average of 10 dual dispatches, 5 cars) Stealth (Theoretical: 1,000pph): 796pph (average of 10, 2 trains) The Swarm (Theoretical: 1,100pph): 905pph (average of 7, 2 trains) Non-Coasters Detonator (Theoretical: Unknown): 315pph (average of 3) Rush (Theoretical: 960pph): 476pph (average of 5, 2 swings) Tidal Wave (Theoretical: 1,800pph, did not ride): 471pph (average of 2, 2 boats, taken from Stealth's queue line) I hope you find my timings interesting! I'd be really intrigued to hear any of your personal timings or any general thoughts on Thorpe Park's throughputs or operations.

Hi guys. Today was, interestingly, my first visit to Thorpe Park of the season; by my usual standards, September is quite late in the season for me to be visiting Thorpe for the first time! Today was also the return of my solo theme park tripping; as with last September, my parents’ love of professional golf was greatly useful, as they were going to watch the championship at Wentworth and offered to drop me at Thorpe for the day. We left early and made very good time; entry was very prompt, and I was in well before opening: Once the park opened, I headed to my first ride… Nemesis Inferno Nemesis Inferno was on a walk-on queue, so I decided to start my day there. As promised by the queue times board, it was deserted and I waltzed straight onto the second train of the day; always a bonus! So how was the ride? Well, I was seated on the outer seat of the back row, and I’ve got to say that it was absolutely brilliant! It was glass smooth, had just the right amount of force, had great pacing, and was an overall awesome coaster; having ridden the original Nemesis at Alton Towers a month ago, I perhaps controversially prefer its Thorpe Park sibling, and by a fair bit. I should also add that the operations were awesome on this run, with no stacking whatsoever! All in all, Inferno was fantastic, and a brilliant way to start the day: After Nemesis Inferno, I decided to try another ride nearby… Detonator Detonator was on an advertised walk-on queue, so I decided to take a ride. The ride was very quiet as promised; I only waited one cycle! But how was the ride? Well, it was absolutely fantastic! Even though I’m not generally a huge lover of flat rides, a glaring exception to that is drop towers; I can’t get enough of a good drop tower, and Detonator stacks up very well against others in the genre for me! In spite of it not being the tallest drop tower in the world, that drop is phenomenally punchy! One interesting thing that was also happening today was that the ride host appeared to be overriding the regular ride soundtrack and doing their own spiel, holding us up there for quite some time; it almost reminded me of HangOver at HPWW! Overall, though, Detonator was very good; I thoroughly enjoyed it: After Detonator, I went to do another coaster… Stealth Stealth was on an advertised 20 minute queue, so I decided to take a ride. It took slightly longer than this in reality, taking more like 30 minutes. So, how was the ride? Well I’ve got to say that it was absolutely fantastic! I was seated in row 5, and the launch hit just as well as it ever does, the airtime was brilliant, and the ride also seemed a fair amount smoother than it was last year; it seemed really quite jolty at times last year, but it wasn’t overly rough at all today, which made it a fair amount more enjoyable for me! Overall, Stealth was awesome today, and has definitely shot up a fair bit for me: After Stealth, I headed down towards Old Town to go on another coaster… Saw The Ride Saw was on an advertised 30 minute queue, so I decided to head over there and have a go on it. The advertised queue time absolutely skyrocketed before too long; it had hit 60 minutes by the time I reached the ride, and it quickly hit 120 minutes shortly after I joined the queue. However, I had a secret weapon up my sleeves… the newly added single rider queue! As anyone who’s read my recent Alton Towers trip reports will know, the single rider queue on The Smiler has been a very useful asset to me in terms of reducing queue time, so I was intrigued to see what it would do on Saw, particularly with a 120 minute queue time. It wasn’t quite as much of a remarkable silver bullet as Smiler’s, as I waited 40 minutes, but in fairness, I did only queue for 1/3 of the advertised main queue time, which I can’t really complain about! But how was the ride? Well, Saw isn’t really a favourite of mine, and today wasn’t too much of an exception, but in all fairness, my front outer seat ride was not exactly the worst ride I’ve ever had on Saw by any stretch. The first drop jolt got me pretty badly, and the ending was pretty rough, but the ride wasn’t too terrible other than those two sections. One thing I must commend about Saw that I’ve never really noticed before is that the ride actually has quite a bit of airtime; I can think of at least 3 pretty strong pops on there, and that drop off the MCBR gives off considerable shades of Silver Star! In reality, it is probably one of the strongest coasters for airtime in the UK, in my opinion; it’s a shame it’s so rough in places, as I think I’d really like it if it were smoother: After Saw, I decided to break up the coastering with a flat ride… Rush Rush was on an advertised queue time of 40 minutes, so I decided to have a ride on there. This ended up being pretty accurate; always a bonus! So, how was the ride? Well, I may have talked above about drop towers being an exception to me not generally being a huge flat ride fan, but Screamin’ Swings are another notable exception; I really enjoy Rush, and today’s ride was no exception! I really like the gorgeous pops of floaty airtime at the top of each peak, there’s a great sense of speed in each trough, and it’s also nice and thrilling without being overly intense, which always gets me on side! Overall, Rush was great fun; it’s always a ride I thoroughly enjoy, and today was no exception! Perhaps controversially, I'd take it over either of the gyroswings I've ridden any day of the week, and it's not even close for me: After Rush, I had a reride on Nemesis Inferno, as it had a mere 40 minute queue. I was seated in row 2 this time, and it was every bit as good as earlier; Inferno is just an incredibly solid ride, in my opinion, and really good fun! It’s definitely one that has considerably grown on me over the years: After Inferno, I sat down to eat my packed lunch on a bench near to Derren Brown’s Ghost Train, timing the throughput of Detonator as I ate (I had a very good vantage point!). After that, I took a bit of a walk to my next ride… The Swarm The Swarm was on an advertised 40 minute queue time, so I decided to have a go on it. This queue ultimately ended up taking a bit longer, taking close to an hour in the end. But how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 5, and I’m sad to say that while enjoyable, it was probably one of the weakest rides I’ve had on Swarm. I like Swarm, don't get me wrong, but I don't really love it any more like I used to, and I think today's ride reinforced that. It is a slightly frustrating one for me these days; there are still many elements of it that I absolutely adore, but there are a few niggles that do take away from it a fair bit for me these days. The first is its smoothness; this wasn't too much of an issue today, as the ride was fairly smooth on my inner seat ride, but it's definitely not the glossy smooth ride it once was, and I've had outer seat rides that were really quite bumpy. The second is the fact that I always grey out for several seconds on the helix over the water when I never used to; I know that some people like this, so I'm probably being overly picky, but I don't personally find it an overly pleasant sensation, and it does take away from my enjoyment of the ride somewhat for me. The third, and to be honest probably the main one, is the vest restraints. I used to really like them when I was young, but I'm afraid to say I'm not particularly fond of them at all anymore, and they do detract from the ride a fair amount for me. I'm not personally a fan of how rigid they are and how much they tighten during the ride; they seemed to particularly detract today, even taking some of the sting out of that awesome final inversion. It's a real shame, as Swarm was my first real Thorpe Park love; it spent a 2 year stint as my number 1 coaster of all time (yes, had I joined the forums prior to riding Mako at SeaWorld Orlando in 2016, Swarm would have been the coaster I'd have gushed about endlessly!), and it's also my most ridden coaster of all time outside of Alton Towers (some of those Towers classics are in another league of ridership numbers, really...). And there are still many elements I really love about it; the sense of speed, particularly on that first drop, is absolutely phenomenal, and that last heartline roll over the station is just absolutely sublime! Overall, while my ride on Swarm was still enjoyable, I'm afraid to say that it fell a bit flat compared to some of my phenomenal experiences on it in the past. I know I probably come across very picky here, so I apologise for being overly harsh, but I cannot lie about my own thoughts: After my ride on Swarm, I headed for a reride on Stealth at an advertised 50 minute queue, which ended up being closer to 70 in reality. I was once again seated in row 5, and it was just as fantastic as it had been earlier; Stealth really was riding excellently today, and I've really fallen back in love with it! I really need to get back on the front row at some point... my one experience of the front row, in 2020, sticks out in my mind as being my most enjoyable ride on Stealth by a fair margin: After my ride on Stealth, I headed down to Lost City to ride... Colossus Colossus was on an advertised 50 minute queue, so I decided to give it a go. Now anyone who has read my posts for a while will know that I do not hold much love for Colossus, but by this point it was one of the shorter advertised queues on park, and I also hadn't done it yet today, so I thought it might be worth giving it a spin. This turned out to be a slightly poor choice... because the queue ultimately took 110 minutes, meaning that I waited nearly 2 hours for Colossus and ultimately frittered away any opportunities to ride anything else today (I joined the queue at about 4:15pm, and by the time I exited the ride at about 6:05pm, I had to dash back to my parents in the drop off zone). Ah well; it can't be helped, and I'm sure that the ride staff were certainly trying their darnedest to shift the near 2 hour queue! But how was Colossus? Well, I'm afraid to say that I didn't enjoy the ride at all; I was seated in row 10, and it was incredibly rough and uncomfortable; I got very sore ears and a properly good headache out of the experience. I also find the cars/restraints extremely uncomfortable, and I'm not a fan of the consecutive series of slow heartline rolls. On the plus side, I think the layout of the first half is quite strong, and I did get a very, very slight tickle of airtime on the ride's airtime hill, which I've never had before! Overall, though, I do not find Colossus enjoyable at all; it's definitely one of my all time least favourite coasters. I apologise if that comes across harsh, as I know some of my reasons for disliking it are very picky, but I feel like honesty is the best policy when it comes to my opinions on these things: After Colossus, it was just gone 6pm and my parents were waiting in the drop off zone, so my day ended there: I had to rush out pretty abruptly, as I was informed that my parents only had 9 minutes left in the drop off zone... after I reached the car park, we all headed home. So, that sums up my day at Thorpe Park! I had a really good day; I was very pleased with my ride count of 9, and it was great to get back on some of my favourites! Inferno was awesome, Stealth was great, Detonator was fantastic, Rush was really fun, Swarm was good... there were loads of really good rides today! Thorpe is a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine, and today was no exception; I had a great day! Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed my report from Thorpe Park! That's probably going to be my final trip report of the 2022 season (I don't see myself going anywhere else this year), so... trip reports wise, I guess I'll see you in 2023!

I could be wrong here, but I think that it has 8 in total and usually runs 7. That's definitely a number I remember hearing somewhere.

Something very interesting was happening on Saw today that I've never actually seen before on any of my previous Thorpe visits. The ride appeared to be running on substantially reduced capacity; only 5 cars appeared to be running, and the throughput was around 350pph (363pph across 10 readings, to be exact; my usual timing of Saw tends to be around 700-750pph, for some idea), with the interval between dual dispatches averaging just over 2.5 minutes across 10 readings. The park were even announcing over the intercom that the ride was on "reduced capacity", and Saw's queue time loitered in the 90-120 minute for most of the day. The interesting thing was, however, that while there were cars occupying both onload stations (I did wonder whether "reduced capacity" meant one station operation like Oblivion at Alton Towers sometimes runs, but this was not the case), the offload area was always completely empty for a period of 2 minutes or more... despite there always being a car filled with riders waiting to get off stacking immediately prior to it. Even though there was a car waiting behind it to offload people, it wasn't allowed to move into the offload area for a pretty long period of time, instead being stacked there for 2 minutes or more until another car came in behind it. This left the offload area completely empty for a good 2 minutes or so. I also noticed that there was a wait of more than a minute to open the airgates even once both cars had arrived into the onload area, and once guests were loaded and restraints were checked, staff were also having to wait a bit before being able to dispatch a dual dispatch. The staff were as prompt at checking restraints as ever, but there seemed to be a fair amount of waiting before they could open the airgates and another extra bit of waiting before they could dispatch. Does anyone know why this is, out of interest? I've never seen this happen before on any of my prior visits to Thorpe, and even on slightly reduced capacity, I wouldn't normally expect those types of operating procedures on Saw.

The Duel is now over. In spite of no official announcement from Alton Towers, the ride did indeed close today. Photos are now circulating online showing that the front door of the building is boarded up with wooden planks, and a sign has appeared outside the building saying that it has been "repossessed"... take from that what you will. RIP Duel 2003-2022 EDIT - Here is a source for the photos: https://towersstreet.com/talk/threads/duel-the-haunted-house-actually-strikes-back-refurb-incoming.4426/page-100

The other thing to note is that for many people living in the immediate vicinity of Alton Towers, it may not simply be a case of “dealing with it” when it comes to living near a theme park. Some residents may have lived there since before the site became a nationally renowned theme park. Also, some residents may not like the theme park aspect, but may consider having Alton Towers in their back garden a worthy sacrifice to get other benefits, such as close proximity to friends and family, jobs etc. A lot of enthusiasts always say “if you don’t like living near a theme park, don’t live near a theme park”, but I don’t think it’s that simple.

Cedar Point have today confirmed that Top Thrill Dragster is no more. The ride will not be returning in its present form: The tweet seems to suggest a possibility that the park could be “reviving” it in the form of a TTD Mk2, if you like (I found the use of “as you know it” very interesting), but for now; TTD in its original form is definitely done. I am somewhat sad about this (I was very keen to ride it!), but I must admit that I’m not 100% surprised after the events of the last year or so. It should also be noted that the ride was allegedly somewhat unreliable even when it did operate. I can sense that this ride will now be topping a number of “favourite defunct coaster” lists… RIP Top Thrill Dragster 2003-2021

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I don't think the Alton Mouse or Alton Beast (the coasters which this attraction is replacing) were ever part of that area. They were part of an area colloquially referred to as Coaster Corner, which wasn't part of Talbot Street and is actually quite a walk from the area that is now The World of David Walliams (was Talbot Street back then). The Mini Apple was part of a separate kids' area called Adventureland 4-11 until 1992, when it became part of that area. In terms of objections; I'd like to think that the possibility of it being objected to is low simply due to the attraction being indoors. An indoor attraction will lower noise levels significantly, which was a key factor in the demise of the original Coaster Corner.

I've been on Google Earth scoping this area out and doing some comparisons with existing attractions to gauge some idea of what kind of space we have to play with here. From what I could ascertain from a helpful guide that I saw elsewhere online, the Mouse site alone is around 1,795 square metres, the combined area available in and around both the Alton Mouse and the Alton Beast sites is around 4,005 square metres, and the Adventureland 4-11 space is roughly 2,005 square metres (could be a bit more if you felled the trees separating Adventureland 4-11 and Coaster Corner). The whole combined area, if everything is amalgamated together and things like trees in the middle aren't considered (I didn't include the trees separating A4-11 and CC in either measurement) is around 7,079 square metres, but as I said, that is in very broad brush terms and literally includes everything within those 3 areas. I did exclude Merlin Magic Making to the North East, the Flag Tower to the North West, and the historic monument to the South, however, so it does take into account some of the boundaries faced. For some idea, let's look at some existing indoor attractions as points of comparison: Alton Towers' Other Dark Rides Alton Towers Dungeon: 2,951 square metres Duel (excluding garden queue line and Gloomy Wood area): 3,080 square metres Nemesis Sub-Terra (excluding queue line): 743 square metres Gangsta Granny (excluding outdoor queue line): 881 square metres Other Merlin-Built Dark Rides/Areas Derren Brown's Ghost Train (Thorpe Park): 3,680 square metres Flight of the Sky Lion (Legoland Windsor): 869 square metres (Sky Lion alone), 4,627 square metres (entirety of Lego Mythica) Lego Ninjago: The Ride (Legoland Windsor): 1,916 square metres (Lego Ninjago: The Ride alone), 2,843 square metres (entirety of Lego Ninjago World) Ghostbusters 5D (Heide Park): 1,746 square metres (possibly excluding queue line) Worldwide Enclosed/Indoor Coasters The Walking Dead: The Ride (Thorpe Park): 2,563 square metres (excluding queue line) Van Helsing's Factory (Movie Park Germany): 3,859 square metres Movie Park Studio Tour (Movie Park Germany): 5,943 square metres Arthur: The Ride (Europa Park): 6,185 square metres (rough measurement of entire area) Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain (Disneyland Paris): 6,545 square metres Revenge of the Mummy (Universal Studios Florida): 9,358 square metres (rough measurement of entire building) Rock'n'Rollercoaster (Disney's Hollywood Studios): 11,552 square metres (rough measurement of entire area) Space Mountain (Magic Kingdom): 12,183 square metres (dome alone) Vogel Rok (Efteling): 3,987 square metres (possibly excluding some queue line) Crazy Bats (Phantasialand): 5,953 square metres CanCan Coaster (Europa Park): 1,985 square metres Worldwide Dark Rides Symbolica (Efteling): 4,273 square metres (possibly excluding some queue line) Piraten in Batavia (Europa Park): 4,658 square metres (roughly... knowing the design of that Scandinavia/Holland area, god only knows if this is right...) Curse of DarKastle (Busch Gardens Williamsburg): 4,280 square metres The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man (Universal's Islands of Adventure): 5,732 square metres Transformers: The Ride (Universal Studios Florida): 3,079 square metres Valhalla (Blackpool Pleasure Beach): 3,479 square metres Challenge of Tutankhamon (Walibi Belgium): 2,816 square metres Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin (SeaWorld Orlando): 4,643 square metres (ride building alone), 7,698 square metres (entire Antarctica realm) Hotel Transylvania (Motiongate Dubai): 3,672 square metres (including facade) In essence... I think they have a pretty big area to play with here! Bigger than any other Alton dark ride by a fair margin, and on par with some true dark ride and enclosed coaster heavyweights at other parks!

I'm not personally sure it'll be either, having read around a bit. I initially cottoned onto Walliams as well, but the area in which this attraction is being built is pretty far away from Walliams World; I was told that you likely wouldn't even be able to see Walliams from the old Mouse site, so it was unlikely to be a Walliams addition. As for a Dungeons expansion; I'd highly doubt that myself. This building will be a fair old walk from the Alton Towers Dungeon building, so this expansion would either have to be massive (it would need to more than double the size of the attraction), or it would need to have some very long, convoluted way of connecting it to the rest of the Dungeons complex. And even putting aside the stumbling block of the location, the Dungeons haven't exactly been a roaring success; the attraction doesn't seem very highly attended at all, from what I gather, so I'd be surprised if an expansion was on the cards myself. I could be wrong, however; those are just my thoughts.

Hi guys. I have exciting news; it appears that Alton Towers is holding a consultation about building an “indoor attraction” on the former site of the Alton Mouse, within Coaster Corner (the area behind World of David Walliams): Those “in the know” apparently think that this is to be the next Secret Weapon. I’ve got to say, I think this is brilliant news! A new indoor attraction will definitely add some variety to Alton Towers’ lineup, which should hopefully allay recent concerns about the park lacking filler rides! With this being in/near TWODW, I doubt that it’ll be anything too thrilling, but I think the park needs more middle-ground things with a more universal appeal at present, so I don’t think that really matters myself. My personal hunch is that this will be a dark ride or some form of indoor family coaster, but I could be wrong there. What are your thoughts? The consultation is on 19th September. Also, just as a note for the moderators, I made a separate topic for this because it’s not confirmed that this is anything to do with SW9 despite the rumours, so I thought I’d better be safe rather than sorry. If you’d rather this be in with the SW9 discussion, though, I apologise.

Legoland have applied for a “certificate of lawfulness” to determine whether the installation of a duelling roller coaster on the site of Raft Racers is lawful: https://publicaccess.rbwm.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=RH6D7GNIMSS00&activeTab=summary It would appear that the park is planning to install duelling family boomerang-style coasters on the site of Raft Racers. Interestingly, the track design and airgate design in the plans greatly resembles a Zierer Force coaster as opposed to Vekoma’s typical Family Boomerang design, suggesting that there’s a chance that Zierer could be the manufacturer rather than Vekoma. Merlin have worked with Zierer quite a bit in the past when it comes to coasters in Legoland parks, so I wouldn’t be overly surprised if it was a Zierer. I actually think this will be a really good addition to the park! It suits the demographic well, in my opinion, and the duelling factor should ensure that the capacity is fairly decent!

Hi guys. With the recent announcement that Duel at Alton Towers is closing on 6th September, and the ever snowballing rumours about it being rethemed, a lot of discussion has taken place recently about Merlin and dark rides. And rightly or wrongly, Merlin appears to have somewhat of a poor reputation among enthusiasts when it comes to dark rides; most of the ground-up dark rides and dark ride rethemes they’ve done have not been particularly well received at all. So with that in mind, I’d be keen to know; of all the dark ride projects Merlin have undertaken, which is your favourite? I’m including both ground-up dark rides and rethemes here. Personally, I don’t think Merlin’s poor reputation with dark rides is entirely deserved. Yes, some of their dark ride projects haven’t gone down brilliantly, but all of the Merlin-created dark rides I’ve personally done have actually been pretty decently executed attractions for what they are, in my view. Although I must preface that I’m somewhat more tolerant of screens than most enthusiasts… But if I were to pick a favourite, I’d probably go for Flight of the Sky Lion at Legoland Windsor. It was a tough choice between Sky Lion and Ninjago in the same park, as I thought that both were excellent, and definitely two of my favourite UK dark rides, but I think Sky Lion just clinches it because Ninjago, while very fun, can get a touch tiring for the arms… in terms of Sky Lion, though, I think it comes together as a very nice experience! The smells are really good, the film is great, and it just overall has a really nice, feel good vibe! But what is your favourite Merlin-created dark ride or dark ride retheme? And do you feel that Merlin’s reputation on dark rides is deserved?

Are you talking about the low turn by the helicopter? I quite consistently greyed out there last year. Is the ride getting more intense with age, I wonder?

It would appear that Thorpe Park is trialling a single rider queue on Saw The Ride: Brilliant news; I look forward to trying this out on my solo Thorpe visit on 10th September! The one on Smiler works very well indeed, so let’s hope the one on Saw is the same!

PortAventura has announced the construction of a €5m solar farm that will provide a third of the park’s power supply: https://inews.co.uk/news/world/portaventura-solar-powered-theme-park-tourism-energy-crisis-1820391 This has already won planning permission, and it will be up and running by Christmas 2022. Isn’t this a good idea for sustainability? It should also help the resort be less impacted by the energy crisis, which is never a bad thing!

To be honest, I'm not sure. I'm unsure whether the Haunted House in its exact 1992 form would hold up as a new attraction in 2023; I know that the ride was successful in 1992, but we've seen 30 years of technological advancement since then and I do wonder if the original props in the way they were originally done would seem a bit dated in 2023. I'd much rather they do something new and original myself.

The Smiler graphics were only ever on the back row, but for whatever reason, they went and never returned after the crash. The illusions on the seat backs in front were replaced with clearer safety signage, but I'm not quite sure why the Smiler graphics went...

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but... you know Nathan Graveson, who teased that he was working on SW9, and who I talked about above? Well, I've been informed that Nathan Graveson is likely to be a troll who tricked people into thinking they were an Intamin designer. If you search "Nathan Graveson Intamin" into Google, the first thing to come up is the profile of a CoasterForce Forum member named Intamin Forever: https://coasterforce.com/forums/members/intamin-forever.47106/about This is relevant because indexed in the search result was an indicator that their forum signature used to say "Nathan Graveson"... The only other vaguely relevant thing to appear was my TowersStreet post talking about them... Also, it was later discovered that VelociCoaster's layout was designed by Keith McVeen, a Universal Creative employee, rather than anyone named Nathan Graveson: [MEDIA=twitter]1335395925158744068[/MEDIA] From having asked on CF (I genuinely believed this person to be genuine), they apparently have somewhat of a reputation on there for telling tall tales, and it would appear that this was one of those. Because another CFer who knows Merlin employees said that their employee friend checked the Merlin employee database... and no one called Nathan Graveson works for Merlin. Sorry to mislead, folks... it appears my lie detector was broken. I do sincerely apologise...

In fairness, I’m not sure that it was only you who predicted Project Amazon would be themed to Jumanji; most people in the know at Chessington seemed to point that way. If you are correct, I’ll be the first to stand up and admit that I was wrong, but I don’t see it. Personally, I’m not sure we’ll be seeing a full-on “revival” of the Haunted House, and I honestly hope we don’t. I’m not sure that the average guest would really understand the appeal of bringing back the Haunted House (and I’m not so sure that too many below the age of about 30 will have any strong memory of it seeing as it closed in 2002), and I fear that enthusiasts would be very critical of such a “revival” not being identical in every way to the 1992 ride. It inevitably would differ from the 1992 original in various ways due to the world having changed and technology having advanced since 1992, and this would naturally make things different, which I feel would displease the very die-hard fans that such a “revival” would be aimed at. My view is that it wouldn’t be the same ride no matter how hard the park marketed it as a “revival” of the HH, hence I fear that the die-hard fans that such a nostalgia move would be aimed at wouldn’t be very pleased and you’d be left with a ride that was ultimately pleasing few. My prediction, and hope, is that we see something that leans on the basic concept of HH, and pays homage to it in some subtle ways, but is ultimately a completely new ride experience with its own identity. While the HH clearly succeeded in 1992, I’m not sure that an identical ride designed in 2023 would, because society has changed and the props and sets in there are arguably beginning to show their age somewhat. The concept still has a lot of potential, in my opinion, but I don’t think implementing it in the exact same way as it was implemented in 1992 would be the best execution of it for a modern audience.

Hi guys. It's been 4 years since Alton Towers' 8th Secret Weapon, Wicker Man, opened, so I thought SW9 deserved its own speculation thread! I made this thread, however, because we've now had confirmation as good as any that SW9 is well and truly in the pipeline; Nathan Graveson, a designer who worked for Intamin and designed the likes of VelociCoaster, Toutatis and the Parque Warner Madrid launch coaster, has announced that he is now a project director for Merlin Magic Making, and has stated SW9 to be one of MMM's upcoming projects. He said the following, and the bolded explicitly references SW9: "I also have a massive announcement. Since my recent departure from Intamin as a thrill coaster designer, I have recently been hired by Merlin Magic Making and have officially been made the project director and designer for Alton Towers, Thorpe Park and the Legoland parks. This means I have now moved from just coaster layout design, to full coaster and theming design, which will test my artist qualifications I got at University, all them years ago. When I worked for Intamin I was actually allowed to do some area design as well, so you will see that at Parc Asterix for Toutatis, which I designed the theming for and looking back, I worked closely with Universal Orlando on the Velocicoaster project. I can officially say that the final project that I did for Intamin was the new Batman coaster at Parque Warner Madrid, which I can tell you is the best layout I have done for a coaster, which I look forward for you all to see and ride. So, look out in the future as us at Merlin Magic Making are going to be developing some incredible attractions, Alton Towers' Secret Weapon 9, Thorpe Park's Project Exodus, Chessington' "World of Jumanji", and the various Legoland Projects coming. So I say thank you for the amazing reception to my coaster designs at Intamin and I look forward to your reactions to our future attractions!" Source: https://towersstreet.com/talk/threads/chessington-world-of-adventures-resort.97/page-293#post-374226 So what do we think SW9 might be, then? I'm not really sure myself. I personally reckon it could be some sort of Intamin Blitz Coaster or similar, but I'm not sure whether that's just me saying what I want rather than what I think will happen. Whatever happens, though, I don't think it'll be your typical ride; both Chessington and Thorpe's recent new coaster announcements have certainly been pretty crazy, out-there choices, so I don't see why Alton's wouldn't be the same! But what do you guys think SW9 might be? I'd be really keen to know!