Matt N

Thank you! Unfortunately Poseidon’s Fury closed last month, so we won’t get to experience it on this trip.

12th June 2023 (Islands of Adventure) Today was a very exciting day; our first theme park day of the trip! As we had booked 14-day Universal Orlando tickets, we decided to start with one of those parks, and our choice was Islands of Adventure! We were really excited to get on both VelociCoaster and Hagrid’s, so we thought we may as well start in IOA! We left our villa in Haines City at about 8am, and the drive took about 1h 15m, so we arrived at about 9:15am. I must say that it was nice to be entering back into Universal Orlando after 7 years: After entering Universal, we had to collect our tickets and get our fingerprints scanned at Islands of Adventure to get the tickets activated for the 2 weeks, so we didn’t end up entering the park until about 10am: After entering the park, we looked at the queue times and noticed that a certain much anticipated ride was only on a 45 minute queue… VelociCoaster VelociCoaster was on only an advertised 45 minute wait, so we decided to take a ride. It was only me, my parents and my sister who did this; my grandparents decided to sit this one out, as they’re not so big on intense rides. The ride did go down briefly while we were in the queue, so it took a little longer than 45 minutes (probably 55 minutes to an hour). But seeing as VelociCoaster was one of my most anticipated rides of the trip, how was it? Well, I was seated in row 9, and it was an absolutely phenomenal ride! The second launch, top hat and mosasaurus roll were all sublimely brilliant, there were a couple of other very nice pops of airtime, it carried an excellent sense of speed throughout, and it was comfortable and extremely fun! The theming was also excellent, particularly in the queue; I was a big fan of the raptor animatronics in particular! If I’m being completely honest, however, it perhaps wasn’t quite as phenomenal as I’d hoped, and it didn’t quite live up to some of the obscene hyperbole it receives for me. Don’t get me wrong, it was an excellent, excellent coaster with some absolutely phenomenal elements, and easily 10/10 tier for me (one of my top coasters). I also feel it would be somewhat harsh to say that I was underwhelmed, because as I say, it was a truly brilliant ride. However, I was led to believe that it would be some absolutely life-changing ride that would comfortably obliterate everything else I’d ever ridden and be my instant, undeniable number 1, and it wasn’t quite that for me. Overall, VelociCoaster was an absolutely phenomenal ride with some brilliant elements, and my initial feeling towards it could well be down to my overly high expectations rather than the ride itself, but it did fall ever so slightly short of the sky-high hype for me. I apologise if that’s triggering or controversial, and I know I’m probably being unfair on it, but I would never be dishonest in a review, and those were my true, honest thoughts: After VelociCoaster, we met back up with my grandparents and headed for the other ride in Jurassic Park, which we could all ride together… Jurassic Park River Adventure Jurassic Park River Adventure was on only a 20 minute queue, so as it was a quiet(ish) ride that everyone could go on, we decided to give it a try. The queue ended up being slightly underestimated, only taking around 15 minutes; always a bonus! So, how was the ride? Well, I thought it was brilliant, and my family seemed to agree! The ride had some great animatronics and theming, the drop was exhilarating, the wetness level was perfect (refreshing on a hot day, but not unbearably wet), and overall, it was just a really fun, feel-good ride; it’s easily one of my top water rides: After Jurassic Park River Adventure, we decided to head to another ride that was new for all of us… Skull Island: Reign of Kong Skull Island: Reign of Kong was on an advertised 35 minute queue, so we decided to have a go on it. We were interested to ride Kong, as it was the big new thing at Islands of Adventure on our last visit in 2016, yet we were never able to ride it. It was only me, my parents and my nan who rode this one; my grandad had “hit his zenith” on Jurassic Park River Adventure, and my sister was unsure on the ride. The queue took 20-25 minutes rather than the advertised 35, which is always a bonus, and it was also one of the fastest moving queues I have ever stood in; it was basically a path of people gradually walking forwards, as it hardly ever stopped moving! The queue was also stunningly themed, with one particularly phenomenal animatronic of a tribal lady! But how was the ride? Well, I was going in with quite low expectations after reading many ambivalent to negative reviews, but I have to say that it massively exceeded expectations for me; I thought that it was absolutely brilliant! The 3D was excellent, with it being very good quality, and there were some really good action scenes with paired effects on the screens and in the motion base. There were also 1 or 2 very convincing freefall effects during the ride film, and some surprisingly nice physical set pieces around the screens! Furthermore, the Kong animatronic in the final scene was incredible; it was absolutely huge! Overall, I thought Kong was a brilliant ride, and a really pleasant surprise, and it was a big hit with my family too; my nan in particular really enjoyed it: After Kong, we walked into Toon Lagoon, and me and my dad pondered a ride on Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls. However, the ride broke down just as we were walking into the area, so that idea was quickly stymied. We instead decided to sit down for 15-30 minutes or so to reapply sun cream, go to the toilet and have a bite to eat. After this, we headed into Marvel Super Hero Island and pondered a ride on The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, which was on an advertised 40 minute queue. However, the queue turned out to be extending outside of the building, so it was deemed that the queue was too long. As such, me and my sister headed to a different Marvel ride that had a much shorter queue… Doctor Doom’s FearFall Doctor Doom’s FearFall was on an advertised 5 minute queue, so me and my sister decided to quickly hop into the queue; no one else joined us here, as no one else overly likes intense drop towers. As promised, the queue was very short, with us taking only 5-10 minutes to get on and off the ride. So, how was the ride? Well, it was good fun; the launch was reasonably punchy, there was a nice pop of airtime at the top, and I have to say that the ride was a little more fun than I’d remembered! From memory, it was certainly punchier than Blackpool Pleasure Beach’s Ice Blast, but I do still prefer a good drop tower to a shot tower, personally. Overall, Doctor Doom’s FearFall was good fun, providing a nice shot tower experience to vary things up: After Doctor Doom’s FearFall, we had a look at another ride in Marvel Super Hero Island, which had a shorter queue than earlier in the day… Incredible Hulk Coaster The Incredible Hulk Coaster was on an advertised 45 minute queue, so my dad, my sister and I decided to take a ride on it, with my mum and my grandparents sitting out of this one. As it turned out, 45 minutes was a vast overestimate, with the queue taking just 15 minutes in reality; you can’t complain about that! But how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 4, and it was a good ride; the launch and initial zero-g roll never fail to deliver, and the ride packs good speed throughout! However, I’m not sure that it’s one of my absolute favourites; the ride, while not unbearably rough by any means, was a little bit of a headbasher in places, and I do wonder if it’s a touch too intense in terms of sustained positive g’s in places for my liking; there was one particularly uncomfortable segment from the cobra roll to the end of the loop where I greyed out for an extended period, which I didn’t find the most pleasant, personally. Nonetheless, these are niggles rather than dealbreakers, and the ride was pretty good overall: After Hulk, we spent 15 minutes or so trying to find my mum and grandparents, who had gone elsewhere while we were riding. After we all met back up, we headed to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter to ride on another much-anticipated new coaster… Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure Hagrid’s was on a 70 minute advertised queue time, which seemed short relative to some of the queue times we had seen for it, so we decided to take this opportunity to ride it. Only my parents, my sister and I rode this, as my grandparents felt that 70 minutes was too long of a queue for them. Similarly to Kong, however, the queue hardly stopped moving, and it initially took only 40-45 minutes to get on. However, just as I was sat in the row 4 bike seat ready to go, the ride broke down, so we were evacuated and sent to wait in the exit corridor, where we waited for 10 minutes or so before being let back on. Even with the breakdown, however, we only waited for around 55 minutes, which was 15 minutes less than advertised. So, how was the ride? Well, I scored the back row bike seat, and I thought it was stunning; I was really quite floored by it! I had heard very good things about Hagrid’s, so I had high expectations, but in many ways, I was still pretty blown away and surprised by it; I thought that it was absolutely phenomenal! I had heard plaudits levelled towards the theme and experience aspects, and I do have to firmly reiterate those, but I must say that I was extremely surprised by just how fun and thrilling the coaster itself was! For a “family” coaster that only goes 50mph, the launches are really quite snappy, and it feels incredibly fast in areas! Overall, though, my main takeaway from the ride is that is simply phenomenally, enormously fun, and it just makes you laugh and puts a huge smile on your face throughout the experience in a way that very few rides can match! I’m also going to make a potentially controversial statement; I think I preferred it to VelociCoaster. While VelociCoaster does have some real standout moments of thrill in a way that Hagrid’s perhaps doesn’t, Hagrid’s is just so incredibly fun throughout that it made me laugh hysterically and smile hitting the brake run in a way that VelociCoaster couldn’t quite match. Overall, then, I thought Hagrid’s was absolutely phenomenal, and my family firmly agreed (including with the verdict that it usurped VelociCoaster; even though my dad and sister in particular were quick to declare VelociCoaster their favourite coaster unlike me, we were all in unanimous agreement that Hagrid’s was top dog out of the duo): After coming off Hagrid’s, we pondered a ride on Forbidden Journey, but the queue was 25 minutes, which my family thought was too long at that point in the day. It was around 3:30pm by this point, and my grandparents in particular were reaching their limit, so we decided to leave the park and go home: So, that concluded our day at Islands of Adventure! I had a brilliant day; both VelociCoaster and Hagrid’s were absolutely phenomenal rides that easily became two of my top coasters (my review of VelociCoaster makes it sound like I liked the ride far less than I actually did; I still absolutely loved it and thought it was a phenomenal ride, it just didn’t quite live up to the sky-high hype for me), Kong was surprisingly great, and I enjoyed getting back on some previous classics like Hulk and Jurassic Park! Islands of Adventure is still easily one of my top parks ever, if not my top park ever; I loved it back in 2016, and the additions of VelociCoaster and Hagrid’s have only strengthened it further, in my view! The ride selection is just amazing, and so well-rounded (by my reckoning, they have at least one top-class ride in most categories), and the theming and atmosphere are spectacular too! Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed this report! Tomorrow, I think we’re probably going to head to Universal Studios Florida, so stay tuned for a report from there!

10th June 2023 (Travel) Hi guys. Today was a very exciting day; the start of my 2023 Florida trip! This trip is my first time heading to Florida in 4 years, and my first time heading to the parks we’re visiting this time (Universal Orlando, SeaWorld and Busch Gardens) in 7 years, as well as the first time my grandparents have joined my family and I in Florida since 2014. There are so many new rides I’m excited to get on; VelociCoaster, Iron Gwazi, Hagrid’s, Pipeline… the list goes on! We’re here until 24th June, so today’s report represents the first in a series of trip reports posted over 14 days. I apologise in advance, as today’s report will likely be a bit dull; today’s report only covers the travel aspect of our trip. Nonetheless, I’ll start the day off from the very beginning! The start of the trip was actually a lot more relaxed than usual. Normally, our Florida trips begin with either an early morning dash to the airport at 4am or a stay at an airport hotel, but due to the combination of our flight being later than usual (3:40pm) and us going from London Heathrow (a little under 2 hours’ drive from us) rather than the usual choices of London Gatwick or Manchester (easily 3 hours’ drive from us on a bad run), we were able to leave Gloucestershire at a more reasonable time of around 9:45am. The drive was fine; there was no traffic, so even with a brief stop at Reading services, we managed to get to London Heathrow’s long stay parking by about 12pm, getting to Terminal 3 itself (the terminal from which our flight departed) by around 12:30pm after the bus ride from the car park: I’d never been to Heathrow before, and I have to say that it’s one of the most fascinating airports I’ve ever been to! I’ve never been to an airport where you can park so close to the runway before, and seeing all of the planes queueing up in the sky to land is quite a sight! I also have to say that check in and security were an awful lot quieter than I’d ever remembered in the past; security in particular was very efficient and took no time at all to go through! After that, we sat in the departure lounge and ate some lunch before heading to our gate and boarding the plane. Our flight was with Virgin Atlantic, and I have to say that it was really good; we’ve always liked Virgin, and today was no exception! While we flew, I did quite a few different things; I watched a few episodes of Ghosts and Young Sheldon, I did a theme park dot-to-dot drawing out of a book that I got given for Christmas (the drawing was of Parc Asterix!), and I spent some time trying to progress on Need for Speed: Most Wanted, which I recently re-downloaded on my iPad after having not played since I was about 14. Sadly, being a learner driver of 1 year has made me no better at it! Another cool thing I should mention about our flight is that we travelled on an Airbus A350-1000, which my dad helped to design! Initially, it looked like our flight was going pretty well in terms of scheduling. The captain’s announced flight time was around 8.5 hours, which was a fair amount shorter than expected, and we were supposed to land at 7:15pm local time. However… things went awry towards the end of the flight. As we got nearer to Orlando, we were informed that there was an unpredicted thunderstorm in the area, meaning that we were unable to land safely. As such, the plane circled above a patch of ocean just off the east coast of Florida for over an hour while we waited for the storm to clear. The repeated circling formed this interesting paperclip-shaped path on the flight map: The prospect of us being diverted to Tampa was heavily discussed, which would have really put a spanner in the works… thankfully, the storm eventually subsided and we landed, albeit with a fair amount of turbulence, in Orlando about an hour later than expected. The storm also meant that we were held on the runway for the best part of an hour after landing, so we spent about 10.5 hours on the plane in total and didn’t get off until gone 9pm local time. We then went through immigration and baggage reclaim, which were quicker than usual in fairness, and then we finally exited Orlando International Airport to get our rental car. I must say, seeing the grand foyer of Orlando International Airport was nice after the longer-than-expected flight: After collecting our rental car, we drove for around 50 minutes to our villa in Haines City, arriving there at around 11:30pm local time. After that, we unpacked and settled down for the night. So, that was the first day of our June 2023 Florida trip! I’m sorry that this report was so boring; the next one I write will be far more interesting, because it will be from an actual theme park! Given that they are the parks we have 14-day tickets for, I’d expect it to be one of the two Universal Orlando theme parks. Due to us all feeling pretty tired after our late arrival into Orlando, as well as us still needing to handle things like grocery shopping, I’m not necessarily expecting us to do a theme park tomorrow; if we do go to a park tomorrow, I’ll write about it, but I think our first park visit is more likely to be on Monday. Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this report; the next one will come either tomorrow or on Monday and will probably be from one of the two Universal Orlando theme parks!

Apparently Ghost Train is closing for improvements from Tuesday to Friday next week, according to Thorpe Park on their Facebook group.

It’s funny you should say that, because Chessington Buzz reported back in April that the ride is rumoured to be closing at the end of this season for a Nemesis-style retrack, reopening in March 2025 for its 35th anniversary: Take this with as much salt as you like, but Chessington Buzz seem to be very reliable for predicting Chessington’s future plans, for what it’s worth.

According to Theme Park Insanity, Thorpe Park have stated in their pass holder group that they are taking on board feedback regarding Ghost Train: https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid02A84hB12ci1nW1vtTL1h24okGHmwk1Xe9fNn2iV1LTKmjgyiHmgwSBZb8KxUNpjN8l&id=100063806040092 Some of the key things they have said include: They are currently working to optimise the experience, and they are still fine tuning the effects and such. They are aware that Ghost Train is no longer primarily a ride and will try to stop referring to it as such. The implementation of timed tickets on Ghost Train is being considered to improve guest experience and throughput efficiency.

On the flip side, however, Nemesis Sub-Terra’s new logo still uses the modern Nemesis font rather than the original one. I’m not sure if that’s necessarily indicative of anything, but I imagine it could mean something. If they were resurrecting the old Nemesis logo, surely they’d have updated Sub-Terra’s logo accordingly?

I agree with the first point, but in terms of the second point; will Exodus necessarily be any more intense than, say, Ride to Happiness, which solely uses spinning trains?

Out of interest, does anyone know how much involvement Derren Brown himself actually had in the design of DBGT? The PR material always inferred that he'd been very heavily involved in the design of the ride, but I've heard rumblings that most of the finer details of the experience had already been decided upon prior to Derren's arrival, and his role was merely as a marketing figurehead for the attraction. Indeed, I've heard rumours that Derren himself actually wasn't very fond of the attraction at all... Does anyone know how much involvement Derren Brown actually had in the attraction's design and development?

I think the issue that this project always faced is that once you removed the VR and got rid of Derren Brown, there was only so much you could have done to improve the ride without spending huge amounts of money completely gutting the building. Unlike most dark ride systems, the ride system was very bespokely tailored to DBGT and the very specific sequence of events that happened within it. With something like Duel, for instance, the ride system itself had no particular quirks that were tailored to The Haunted House as it was per se, so Merlin were able to make The Curse at Alton Manor into a pretty different ride without performing any overly radical work. With DBGT, on the other hand, the very design of the ride system meant that the same basic structure of the original attraction would always need to be followed. Riders would need to sit on a train, be rushed out of the train for a live action sequence of some sort and then sit on another train to return to the offload station. And with the design of the ride vehicle not really providing much scope for added physical theming due to the VR being the originally intended vehicle for storytelling, that made the park's options very limited in terms of what they could actually do with the train portions in particular. With this in mind, I think it was complicated for Thorpe Park to make a new ride out of it because in the absence of a huge budget to demolish the whole thing and start again, the basic building blocks of the ride experience would always have needed to remain exactly the same, which would have limited the park's options massively.

From what I ascertain, the green belt at Chessington, or more specifically the planning restriction rigmarole that the park deals with as a result of the green belt restrictions combined with the noise-related grievances of local residents, was pretty much the sole reason for Tussauds even expanding their theme park offering past Chessington in the first place, let alone bringing Thorpe Park into the mix. From what I gather, Tussauds’ original intent was to expand Chessington and turn it into the market-leading theme park in the UK. However, the installation of Vampire in 1990 caused great dismay among local residents due to noise, so as such, the local council vowed that they would never allow a ride on that scale to be built again. When considering the noise complaints combined with the green belt restrictions, it became evident to John Wardley and Tussauds that Chessington could not become the market leader that they had hoped it would be, so they instead looked to build their market leader elsewhere. The original intent here was to build a new ground up theme park, with various site options including Woburn Abbey and Corby Steelworks being considered, but various difficulties with this meant that Tussauds instead decided to gain market dominance within the UK theme park sector by purchasing Alton Towers. They purchased Alton Towers, developed it into a market leading UK theme park, and the rest is history. However, Tussauds still wanted a thrill park in the South, and that’s where Thorpe Park comes in. During the mid-90s, Thorpe Park was Chessington’s key competitor in the family stakes, and they arguably had a tamer offering than Chessington from what I’ve read, but they had far looser planning regulations. With this in mind, Tussauds decided to buy the park because it offered the double whammy of allowing them to operate a thrill park in the South while simultaneously eliminating Chessington’s closest competitor in the family stakes. As such, Tussauds bought the park, added loads of thrill rides, and the rest is history. I apologise for the long ramble, but I thought it would add some context. In terms of how it relates to the question of “was the green belt around Chessington the reason why Thorpe Park became a thrill park?”, I would argue that the timeline of Tussauds’ theme park portfolio in the UK would make the answer to that question an emphatic yes. Or even if it wasn’t the sole reason, it was at very least a significant contributing factor. The reason Thorpe Park became so aggressively thrill-focused from the 2000s onwards was because if they hadn’t, Tussauds would have had the issue of the two London parks (Thorpe and Chessington) stepping on each other’s toes, and history would suggest that two parks owned by the same company in a shared market with a shared target demographic can often end with one eventually cannibalising the other (see examples such as Cedar Point/Geauga Lake for reference). As such, Tussauds needed to differentiate the parks, and with the overbearing planning regulations at Chessington, it made the most sense for Chessington to be the family park and Thorpe to be the thrill park. So with that in mind, I think you could most definitely claim that Chessington’s green belt is a key factor in Thorpe Park being a thrill park today. If those green belt restrictions did not exist at Chessington, I wager that we would most definitely have seen more intense thrill rides at Chessington. The construction of Vampire, a pretty intense thrill ride for the time, in 1990 would suggest that this was Tussauds’ original intent, and had Vampire been less poorly received by the locals, I wager that we would have seen more investment of a similar nature. Whether Thorpe Park would have diversified to become a thrill park to compete with this is another question entirely, but the park’s prior history of having generally been tamer than Chessington would suggest that they may well not have done had Tussauds not gotten involved. If Chessington had targeted thrill seekers more comprehensively, Thorpe may well have stuck to targeting families, in my view. It is an interesting thought to consider, though!

It varies. Project Stealth ended up being the final name of Stealth, whereas Project Dylan was simply named after the project manager's cat in the case of Saw. Normally there is some relation, though.

I wouldn’t expect a hugely elaborate theme for this. Very few hyper coasters are heavily themed; they’re such big rides that it’s quite hard to theme them effectively, and the expense of building the ride hardware alone is huge. I’d expect something along the lines of Mako at SeaWorld, where it has a light theme and style and a couple of nice little items, but nothing overly elaborate. And to be honest, I’d be perfectly happy with that.

New documents have been uploaded to the council website... and they reveal that Exodus will be gold at its base, fading to white at a height of 28-33m similar to Stealth:

It's excellent to see that construction is progressing at a good rate! The more happens with this, the more excited I get. I was originally a tad disappointed that Thorpe didn't choose more of an overt airtime machine, but as time goes on, I'm growing increasingly convinced that the layout will be excellent and quite unlike anything ever seen before! And to be honest, I think there could be more airtime than I'd previously anticipated, even if the airtime the ride provides isn't "straight airtime" per se.

I’m not sure I’d necessarily expect theming for Exodus. The planning application stated that “the ride structure itself is the theming” or something along those lines, and hyper coasters are rarely heavily themed anyway. At most, I’d expect something along the lines of Mako; a light style, but not an especially overbearing theme. With the type of ride this is, I don’t think a lack of theme should really be an issue; the height record in itself is a big selling point, and as I said, hyper coasters are not a ride type typically known for having heavy theming. It would be nice if the ride had a mild theme, but at the same time, I wouldn’t overly mind if it had no real theme either. Of the UK Merlin parks, Thorpe Park probably has the least commitment to theme, and with the park’s current focus being on “thrills”, I don't think it really matters for them to head down the amusement park route, personally.

In fairness, I doubt that Alton Towers have “decided” that The Curse at Alton Manor and Hex can’t operate together. I imagine it’s more likely to be very poor luck, and a wild coincidence, that the two haven’t operated alongside each other very reliably.

Are they making the lake bigger, by any chance? I only wondered because if that is the lake’s final size, the splashdown is further up the site than I’d imagined…

This isn’t related to opening, but I had a random thought about Ghost Train. Could the ride potentially employ UV paint in some capacity? Thorpe’s teaser video potentially hinted at this, with words suddenly appearing on the side of the building when the grim reaper-type figure appeared: And The Curse at Alton Manor’s pre-show utilises a similar effect: Could we potentially see a similar trick employed on Ghost Train in some capacity?

Well, I rode this for the first time today! I'll admit that I initially struggled to coherently review the ride, and my actual first ride itself was a bit of a blur, but having watched a few POVs of the ride, I can better process what happened, and I now feel more at liberty to talk about it in a bit more depth. Be warned; this review does contain spoilers of The Curse at Alton Manor. If you do not want spoilers, read no further. Let me start with the area. Gloomy Wood looks brilliant; given that they haven't changed much, the area feels weirdly fleshed out and lively compared to how it did before, and I'm a big fan of the darker colour scheme that they've adopted with the facade and area buildings. It looks great! As the ride was walk on when I did it, I didn't get to see an awful lot of the outdoor queue, but what I did see looked very nice. I particularly liked the copious amounts of smoke; this made it feel very ambient! Moving onto the indoor queue; this hasn't changed a huge amount, but has been spruced up somewhat to fit the new theme. The vestibule looks very similar to how it did before, but they have added some cloth over the theming items to make it look like it's been "repossessed". The more notably different room is the Drawing Room, which, although quite similar to how it was before on the face of it, does feel notably enhanced to me. There's now a pre-show telling the story of Emily Alton, and this culminates with some brilliant projection mapping and a really surprising reveal of UV paint all over the walls, showing what seem to be Emily Alton's deranged ramblings. I thought this was a very clever effect, and set up the ride very nicely! Let's move onto the ride itself. Now as I said, I found this to be a bit of a blur when I physically rode, and as stupid as it sounds, I had to watch a few POVs to actually process it. It is a lot to take in, and as someone who's a bit of a weakling when it comes to horror stuff, I did find the first ride a bit overwhelming. With that being said, I do feel that the ride is a definite improvement on its predecessor Duel, and in terms of production value, I think it's a nicely done ride overall, although there are odd things I'd improve. I won't do a scene-by-scene breakdown, but some key points of interest include: I thought that projection mapping was used to great effect within the ride, and I felt that it definitely did add something. The Trommel Tunnel is working again, and I have to say that this effect did surprise me! I'd never actually experienced this effect in a working state (I.e. spinning) before, and I never really understood what people thought was so great about the Trommel Tunnel. I have to say that its use within The Curse at Alton Manor definitely proved me wrong on that front; it is a surprisingly convincing effect, particularly when paired with the spinning clock at the end, and it was probably one of my favourite individual effects in the ride! The mirror scene that replaced what was previously the Skeleton Corridor now houses a very clever effect, wherein you seem to disappear from the car and Emily Alton "replaces" you. I thought that this was very clever! The ending is an excellently executed jumpscare; I have to admit that I audibly shrieked when the massive Emily head suddenly appeared! Paradoxically, the ride feels very similar to how it was before, yet also very different, if that makes any sense? There was perhaps more reuse of old scenes from the previous iterations than I was expecting, but I think that this mostly works well because the park have made these scenes befitting of the new storyline; they feel very different to how they were before. There were some surprisingly impressive physical sets built new for the ride; I was particularly impressed with what they've done with the Attic scene. I've heard people mention the dark area between the Trommel and the Attic scene. I think the audio does still make this area feel quite unnerving, but I do get what people mean when they say that it feels a bit unfinished. I think it could do with an extra something to properly finish it off; maybe some UV paint like in the pre-show and exit corridor, or some light flashes? The other scene that I don't think entirely works is the Screaming Heads scene. I'm not entirely sure how it fits into the ride, and it feels a bit out of place to me. As I said above, I do think that it's quite an overwhelming attraction overall. When combining the noise, the darkness and the jumpscares, it is quite a lot to take in. Although with that being said, that could just be because I'm not the biggest horror lover and it was my first ride on a ghost train-style attraction; I felt similarly about Duel the first time I rode that. Overall, I thought that it was a nicely executed ride; Merlin Magic Making have done a very good job given the budget and timeframe, and they have definitely improved upon Duel, in my view! If I'm being completely honest, however, I didn't exactly come off feeling entirely blown away. I'd stop short of saying that I was disappointed, because as I said, it is a very nicely done ride with high production value overall, in my view, and my initial gut reaction upon exiting could well be due to my initial struggling to process it all. I did only have 1 ride, after all. I must admit, though, that I'm not sure the ride entirely lived up to some of the hyperbole being thrown around for me. It's a very nicely executed ride overall, but it's not my favourite dark ride in the UK and I would still say that I prefer Hex within the park. That could be down to it not being entirely my sort of thing, it could be down to the fact that I felt a little overwhelmed by it on my first ride, or it could be down to the fact that I only got 1 ride on it, but for whatever reason, I'm perhaps not feeling as enamoured with it and enthralled by it as many others seem to be. It's nice and it's well executed, but I'm not quite gelling with it like everyone else seems to be for some reason; I don't deny that they've done very well, but I'm not quite on board the hype train like everyone else seems to be. I apologise if I come across a bit cynical or moany here, but I'm just being 100% honest about how I personally felt about the attraction on my ride. Nonetheless, it is a nice ride overall, I'm sure that it will be tweaked and improved with time, and Alton Towers should be really proud of what they've pulled off!

26th March 2023: Alton Towers Day 2 We had our second day in the park today! And it was an interesting one, with some new stuff experienced today that we hadn’t done yesterday! We started out somewhat earlier than we did yesterday, arriving at Alton Towers at around 9:30am for entry into the park at around 9:45am: For our first ride, we headed off down Haunted Hollow to a certain new ride that none of us had ever done before… The Curse at Alton Manor The Curse at Alton Manor was closed for most of the day yesterday, so I was hoping to get it in today. Thankfully, the ride was open, and it was also pretty much walk on! As such, I didn’t really see much of the queue, although I did get a brief look at the new indoor queue, which I thought was quite neat! So, how was the ride? Well, I’ll keep it spoiler-free for now… in part because I don’t think my review containing spoilers would go into an awful lot more detail at this stage! I thought it seemed like nicely done ride, but I did perhaps find it a little overwhelming on my first ride; it is a lot to take in, and being a bit of a weakling with horror stuff, I spent most of the ride either on edge or jumping out of my skin! It was all a bit of a blur for me! My mum went round the ride terrified, as evidenced by our on-ride photo (she was always frightened of The Haunted House and Duel, so this wasn’t too surprising), but my dad said he was “underwhelmed”, saying that “it’s nice, and better than Duel, but the marketing over-egged it”. I’ll watch a POV later and see if I can do a more in-depth review with some spoilers, but that’s about as much as I’ll say for the time being: After The Curse at Alton Manor, we headed onto our first coaster of the day… Galactica Galactica was on an advertised 0 minute wait, and it was a ride that my grandad hadn’t ridden yet, so we decided to take a ride. The queue time board was pretty true to its word, with us waiting very little before entering the station! But how was the ride? Well, we were seated in row 3, and I must admit that I found it a bit uncomfortable. Galactica isn’t a favourite of mine, and today’s ride did seem like one of the more uncomfortable I’ve had on it; I’m a bit sceptical about whether flying coasters are really my sort of thing. As for my grandad, he said that the experience was “different” and that he found the ride “less intense than some of the others”: After Galactica, we were initially going to go on the Runaway Mine Train, but the queue was spilling well out of the entrance, we decided to steer clear and go on a different ride… Wicker Man Wicker Man was on an advertised 50 minute queue, so we decided to have a go on it. The queue time was ultimately somewhat overstated; we waited around 35 minutes to the pre-show, and we were even on the ride within 40-45 minutes, which is always a bonus! So, how was it? Well, I was seated in row 6, and it was phenomenal; the airtime was stunning, the speed was incredible, and it was overall an incredibly fun ride! My grandad seemed to really enjoy it too, as he had yesterday; he even bought himself a Wicker Man hoodie from the shop straight after our ride, which must surely be a good sign: After Wicker Man, we noticed that a certain non-coaster staple had opened for the first time this trip… Congo River Rapids Congo River Rapids had just opened while we had been on Wicker Man, so we decided to have a ride on it. The queue was fairly short; we were on within just a few minutes, which is always good! So, how was the ride? Well, it was decent; I got a somewhat wet back, there were a few fair waves, and my grandad seemed to enjoy himself! The ride was also spiced up somewhat this time by a jazzy new soundtrack, complete with an Australian announcer making various enthusiastic remarks during the ride; this was a fun touch, but I must digress that the irony was palpable when the announcer encouraged us to “face these waterfalls head on!” just before the waterfall section, even though there were no waterfalls running: After Congo River Rapids, we decided to try the other ride in the area… Runaway Mine Train Runaway Mine Train’s queue looked visibly shorter than it had done earlier, so we decided to give it a go. The queue ultimately took around 25-30 minutes, which I wouldn’t say was too bad at all, personally! But how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 10, and I thought it was great fun; it is a guilty pleasure of mine! My grandad thoroughly enjoyed it too; his first words to me upon getting off were “That tunnel bend was absolutely mental!”: After our ride on the Runaway Mine Train, we sat in the Mutiny Bay Courtyard and ate our packed lunch for a bit before asking my grandad what ride he fancied doing next. To our surprise, he said “I’ve done all the others, so I want to try The Smiler!”. As such, we headed over to… The Smiler As my grandad wanted to give Smiler a go before we left, we obliged his wishes and joined the queue. Unusually for The Smiler, the queue was only advertised at 30 minutes, and while it wasn’t quite this short in reality, it only took around 40-45 minutes, which is honestly quite a short queue for The Smiler! So, how was the ride? Well, we were seated in the back row, and I personally found it a fair bit less pleasurable than yesterday’s ride; it was rougher and also seemed notably more nauseating for me. My grandad initially seemed a bit overwhelmed by the experience when we hit the brake run, but later remarked that he did thoroughly enjoy the ride, saying that he found it “absolutely mental”! He also remarked that going upside down was nowhere near as bad as he’d feared it might be, saying that he dealt with inverting far better than he’s dealt with spinning things in the past. However, he did say that he was glad that Smiler had been his final ride, declaring that “doing that first might have terrorised [him]!”: After The Smiler, we headed to one final coaster that was on a very short queue… Oblivion Oblivion was on a mere 10 minute advertised queue time, so I, for one, couldn’t resist one final ride! My dad and my grandad joined me, and the advertised queue time seemed pretty accurate; we were on in no time! But how was the ride? Well, we were seated in the back row, and it was absolutely sublime; I had a loose restraint, so I got some impeccable airtime, and the sense of speed in the hole seemed particularly amazing today! My dad and grandad also seemed to enjoy it, and overall, it was a brilliant way to close our Alton Towers trip, in my view: By this point, it was heading towards 3pm, so we decided to head home. As it was quiet, we took my grandad on the Monorail to head back to the car park, which was certainly a welcome sit down after all the walking and standing during the day! After we rode the Monorail, we got in the car to head back home and our trip to Alton Towers ended. On the whole, this was a brilliant trip, in my view! Yes, it started off slightly rocky yesterday with the rain and the long Thirteen queue, but today was brilliant, yesterday afternoon was an improvement on the morning, and I overall thoroughly enjoyed seeing my grandad’s first reactions to Alton Towers and theme parks in general! He said that his weekend had been “fabulous”, and while he admitted that Alton Towers probably wouldn’t be somewhere he’d want to revisit too frequently and that he hadn’t become a “convert” like me, he didn’t rule out potentially visiting a theme park again in the future and said that he'd thoroughly enjoyed his weekend. His favourite ride of the trip was Wicker Man, but he also leant an honourable mention to The Smiler, which he deemed "absolutely mental"! Thanks for reading; I hope you've enjoyed this trip report! I'm not sure when I'll next be writing one or where it will be from, but I hope to be writing another one soon!

25th March 2023: Alton Towers Day 1 Hi guys. Today was an exciting day; it was my first visit to Alton Towers of the season! But this visit was particularly exciting for a different reason… my parents and I brought my grandad along with us for what was not just his first ever visit to Alton Towers, but his first ever visit to a theme park full stop! Yes, he’d never set foot into a theme park or ridden a roller coaster prior to this morning, but after seeing Oblivion on the TV, he expressed great keenness to visit, so my parents and I took him as a 70th birthday present! We set off from Gloucestershire at about 7:15am this morning, and we arrived in Alton Towers at about 10am, making good time for entry into the park at about 10:20am: When we entered the park, we decided to make a beeline for Oblivion, as that was my grandad’s key bucket list ride. “I need to do Oblivion first in case it’s the only one I do!” he said! However, when we got over there, it was closed, so we had to change tack: Instead, we took a look at the queue times, and went to a different ride that was displaying a short queue time… Rita Rita was only displaying a 10 minute queue, so we decided to give it a go. My dad felt that as Rita “is short and doesn’t really do much aside from being fast”, it was a good one to start my grandad off on. When we joined the queue, the advertised time quickly went up to 45 minutes, but we decided to persist regardless, and it ultimately took about 55 minutes. Interestingly, my grandad was absolutely perplexed about why people were screaming on the ride; he asked “what on earth are they all screaming for?”. So, how was the ride? Well, I was sat in row 4, and I thought it was awesome; the ride was relatively smooth, and it had awesome airtime and speed! As for my grandad, he seemed to enjoy the ride, and said that it felt a lot faster and more exhilarating than it looked from off-ride; he did, however, quickly retract his previous criticism of the screamers: After Rita, we decided to have a go on the other roller coaster in the area… Thirteen Thirteen had just opened and was on an advertised 45 minute queue, so we decided to take a ride on it. This initially seemed like a sound move; with rumblings circulating that the ride was still unable to operate in the rain, we wanted to do Thirteen quickly so that we could get it in while it was dry. This decision later proved to be a grave error… as in spite of the queue not looking exceptionally long compared to previous visits (albeit far from short), we waited for 105 minutes in total, and the heavens well and truly opened while we were waiting. On the plus side, the rumours that the ride was still unable to operate in the rain were untrue, as I saw it running in a rather heavy downpour with my own two eyes! So, how was the ride? Well, I got the front row, and it was great fun; there were some fun twists and turns, the odd pop of airtime, and an indoor section that never fails to deliver! As for my grandad, he simply turned to me at the end and said “Well, I wasn’t expecting that… I almost wet myself!”. On a positive note, he also got off and said to me “These roller coasters are rather addictive things, aren’t they? When you get off one, you just want to go straight on another one!”; he was really starting to enjoy the rides by this point: After we got off Thirteen, the rain became truly biblical, so we camped under a tree to try and escape the rain. After a few minutes had passed, we decided to take shelter indoors for a longer period of time, so we had a go on… Hex Hex was located nearby, so we decided to take cover on there for a few minutes. It appeared as though everyone else in that area had the same idea, as the queue quickly spilled out of the building and we later ascertained that it was advertised at 30 minutes. I think that’s the first time I’ve ever queued through the entire building and seen the queue line videos on Hex! Nonetheless, it ultimately only took about 15 minutes, and we were in the first pre-show quite quickly. So, how was the ride? Well, I have to say that it was excellent; it was my first ride on there since 2020, and it felt like everything was working and in absolutely top notch condition, and I noticed things I’ve never noticed in that ride before! Overall, it was brilliant, and I think my grandad found it interesting too: After that, we decided to head for another roller coaster… Wicker Man Wicker Man was on a 50 minute advertised queue, so we decided to give it a go. This was another one that my grandad was particularly keen to ride; he said he wanted to ride the ride after having completed the Wicker Man jigsaw puzzle that we gave him a couple of years ago (which I ascertain was quite difficult; he complained about every piece being the same shade of black/brown!)! The queue time was somewhat understated, ultimately taking 70-75 minutes. So, how was the ride? Well, I was sat in row 3, and I thought it was as brilliant as always, with an awesome sense of speed and loads of brilliant airtime! My grandad was particularly impressed with Wicker Man as well, stating that it was “the best ride yet” and “definitely better than Rita”: After Wicker Man, we noticed that a certain bucket list ride for my grandad was finally open, so we made a beeline for it… Oblivion When we had just stepped off of Wicker Man, my dad noticed that Oblivion was open and on an advertised 15 minute queue, so seeing as it was the main ride my grandad wanted to ride, we headed over there. We were greeted with a surprise when we got there, as the queue had risen substantially to 50 minutes rather than 15, but we joined it nonetheless seeing as it was my grandad’s most anticipated ride and me and my dad both really enjoy it too. The queue ultimately didn’t take 50 minutes, instead taking 35-40 minutes. So, how was the ride? Well, I do absolutely love Oblivion, and for me, it was as excellent as it always is, with a phenomenal sense of speed in the tunnel and some sublime airtime while plummeting down the drop! My grandad was blown away by the experience; he called it “barmy” and “utterly insane”, and looked in disbelief at how exhilarating Oblivion was; it was certainly the ride photo he looked the least unfazed in, anyhow!: After Oblivion, it was getting close to the 5pm ride close, but I managed to sneak in one final ride… The Smiler The Smiler was on an advertised 40 minute queue, but as my grandad didn’t quite seem up for The Smiler, my parents stayed off it with him and I went on it via the Single Rider Queue. This queue often produces very good results as far as waiting time reduction goes; today wasn’t quite as good as some occasions, as I waited 20 minutes, but that was still a significant reduction on the advertised queue time of 40 minutes! So, how was the ride? Well, I’m not normally the biggest fan of The Smiler, but I have to say that that was the most enjoyable ride I’ve had on The Smiler in quite some time! I was seated in the front row, and it was actually really quite good; the inversions were fun and floaty, the ride wasn’t quite as intense and nauseating as it sometimes is, it was reasonably smooth for the most part (even the ending wasn’t that bad today)… I can’t really complain too much! It’s still not my favourite coaster by any means, but overall, The Smiler was a pleasant surprise today, and a very good way to end the day! On a side note, the operations were outstanding; the average dispatch interval was barely over a minute, and the staff were really hammering the trains out: After The Smiler, we headed out of the park and back to our hotel in the local area. So, that sums up the first day of our Alton Towers weekend! While I’d be lying if I said that it was my greatest ever day at the park in terms of ride count, and the weather at points of the day did detract somewhat, I still had a great day, and I loved introducing my grandad to the park (and theme parks full stop) for the first time! I asked him what his thoughts to his first day were as we left, and he said that it was “awesome” and “even better than [he’d] ever hoped that it could be”; I was very gratified by that response! His favourite ride overall was “easily” Wicker Man (he called it “superb”), but he seemed to enjoy everything we did to some extent, which I was glad about! Thanks for reading! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this report, and I’ll be back at you tomorrow with the report from our second day on park, which will cover some of the things we didn’t do today (hopefully including a ride on The Curse at Alton Manor, which none of us have done before…)!

Hi guys. As of late, I’ve heard it mentioned that Thorpe Park is aiming to pursue more of an “amusement park” style vibe, with the themed areas being de-emphasised. The park allegedly even said this themselves in a recent post in their Facebook group. But in the past, the park has aimed to pursue theming more, with the themed areas being more strongly marketed and more themed rides being installed. With this in mind, I’d be keen to know; what is your stance on Thorpe Park’s alleged new direction? What path do you think the park should take with regard to themed areas? Personally, I’m not too upset that Thorpe Park is moving away from themed areas. While there are admittedly some very heavily themed individual rides at Thorpe Park, I would never have said that the park had any real cohesive themed areas; compared to somewhere like Europa, a typical Orlando park or to a lesser extent somewhere like Alton Towers, I would have said that Thorpe Park lacked easily definable themed areas. If I didn’t know any better, I would have struggled to separate areas like Lost City, Amity Cove and Calypso Quay, and indeed the park’s own grasp on these themed areas has seemed very tenuous at times (for instance, X was always listed as being within Lost City even though its entrance was within Amity Cove, and Samurai is in Old Town even though its theme and aesthetic arguably lend themselves more to Lost City). Often, the things within Thorpe’s themed areas have had very little thematic relation to each other, and at times, I felt that the themed areas were little more than a token gesture. I do also agree somewhat with Thorpe Park’s argument that the park is too compact to make proper themed areas work properly. Because everything is within reasonably close range of a number of other themes, I think that it’s hard to make a whole themed area work compellingly. And in a park like Thorpe, I’d also argue that focusing too much on themed areas could constrain creativity when it comes to devising new rides. The park has never seemed overly focused on immersing guests into themed areas, instead focusing on immersing guests into themed individual rides, and I’d far prefer that they do that well than try and fit things into arbitrary themed areas. And besides, not every park needs to be strongly themed; personally, I would have said that Thorpe Park’s strengths lie more in thrills than theming, and if that’s the case, I don’t really see an issue with them pursuing theming less. But what are your thoughts on this? Do you agree with the park’s move away from themed areas? Or do you feel that the park needs to keep the themed areas in mind?

While I admit that no flat ride was directly replaced by a roller coaster, I’ve often heard it said that in many cases, roller coasters indirectly replaced flat rides in terms of things like staffing and maintenance bills. By that, I mean that when a new roller coaster has been built, the park have had to sacrifice a flat ride to get it built. I also wasn’t talking exclusively about flat rides either. For instance, I’ve heard many say that removing The Flume in favour of Wicker Man was a terrible move, but I think that seeing The Flume go was a price worth paying to get Wicker Man even if it did mean that the park had one less non-coaster.

Based on the rage in Alton Towers fan circles about the recent demise of Enterprise, I’ve got a potentially very blasphemous Alton Towers opinion… while I don’t deny that the park could probably do with a new flat ride or two at this point, as well as a new dark ride in the form of the Dungeons boat ride reopening, I feel that the reduction of the non-coaster lineup at Alton Towers was overall a worthy price to pay for the strengthening of the coaster lineup.