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Fair enough that’s a valid assumption. I’ve only been an enthusiast for about 2/3 years so I’ve never witnessed thorpe build attractions and see what easter eggs and clues they put. Definitely excited to witness the construction of exodus though!

I seem to remember Jack saying that the bird was an old peice of theming left from loggers leap that has nothing to do with the theme of exodus. He could have been trying to keep the theme a secret but I don't believe he would have mentioned it they wanted that to be part of the theme and wanted it to be kept secret.

The gold definitely gives me lost city vibes, I could see it working as an extension of that area 100%. The only issue I have with this is the fading to white of the track. I know that probably have to do it for planning reason but I just feel it takes away from the scale and beauty of the coaster. Same with stealth in my opinion, I think the coaster would look better it was all one colour. Also the track fades to white at 32m, which is definitely less tall than swarm if I remember correctly. How come swarm doesn’t have to have the white for the top kinda 5/10 meters of its track?

Is that the logo in the kind of block capitals with the middle bit of each letter cut out? If so I totally agree, it seems like the logo for a modern tech brand almost not a ghost train at all.

Odds on their being a Jack Silkstone video on exactly this in the next few days?

They could probably just say it's too foggy outside to see or something like that so the windows are black. The concept art seems like their is some kind of fog or mist so they could play on that I guess.

Now we have a date for Ghost Train we can start putting bets on if we think Colossus with open before it 😂 I do think the photo looks like there may have been drastic changes to the ride, or at least to the storyline. Hopefully they have changed the theming on the train/station to match what seems to be a graveyard theme. It would just be odd to walk of a London Underground train into a graveyard with church behind it

That's actually a valid point to be honest. TV advertising won't target the main audience Thorpe want to attract (I assume they are still going for the thrillseeker, teen/young adult demographic). Even without the TV advertising etc. though, as you said, they have been very quiet on social media and in advertising the ride in general. Either they are going to drop something massive tomorrow that they have been waiting to reveal until now, or the marketing budget for Ghost Train is practically non existant, which in my opinnion makes the investment almost not worthwile.

That is so true. At this rate we’re not going to get any TV advert or anything close to Curse at Alton Manner got. I think the park have missed out out on that behalf. The scale of the refurbishment is pretty similar to what happened to duel (or I hope it is at least!) so you would have thought they would have seen the success of that and advertised it like Curse at Alton Manner was. I do have a slight feeling that the lack of advertising is due to the fact that they worked with Jack Silkstone for advertising for the start of the campaign. No offence to Jack at all but he’s just not skilled enough to do marketing for a massive cooperation like Merlin, especially they’re not paying him or paying him very little to do it. Hopefully we do see something new come out so because I don’t want this to be a wasted investment for Thorpe.

Just seen that too. Do you think that means they will announce the opening date tomorrow?

That's true, the only good bits of airtime at the park are the hill on saw and stealth. Would love to see an RMC on the back of swarm island, but then we've been asking for that for ages so my hopes for aren't very high.

A straight airtime coaster would have just turned out to be another generic B&M hyper in my opinion. It would have had your usual long floater hills, camelbacks etc and not been any different from any of the other hypers built. I do think that B&M hypers are great coasters but then don't offer something innovative or special like thorpe wants. I really like the layout of exodus (even if it is a tad short) and as you said it seems very unique, which is definitly a massive positive.

Oh yh, I forgot about that. That is very true.

I think thorpe have just tried too much with the themed rooms. They tried to make their hotel feel like a resort by adding the theming, but the rooms are way to small for anything major to be added. I think the first focus for the park if they want to be classed as a resort is to build a proper hotel, then they can start theming the rooms.

Cool, hope you got everything sorted! Enjoy the park.

I don’t know that much abt RAP at Thorpe but I’d definitely assume that they would accept a photo. If you explained to them that it was too much of a risk taking in your passport I’m sure they would 100% understand. Like I said I’m not the most knowledgeable about access cards so might be best to get someone who knows a bit more about them advise you, but I assume it would be ok.

I thought when they got the approval from the council they could just go ahead and build the coaster. I don't know how planning works so do they have to get new planning everytime they want to move to a new part of construction. And does this mean that the vertical construction could in theory not be allowed, and if so then what happens?

Does anyone actually know if there is any track on park yet or are we still completely in the dark about how long this will take? I seem to remember seeing Thorpe reply to a comment on instagram about a week ago saying 'Colossus will open late spring, not long now!' or something like that. That could be taken in 2 ways really; either it's opening very soon as they said not long now, or it's going to be end of may opening as they said late spring. I'm inclined to believe the latter though as if it was opening soon, I assume we would see track on park and maybe even have the ride testing by now.

Cool, I'll definitly get some extra trips planned in Oktoberfest and FN so I can see the coaster being built! Shame about the opening date, but then the whole schedule was messed up by the disagreements with the environmental agency I assume. Better a slightly later opening than no coaster at all though.

What do you mean by 3 months for foundations, does that like count as ground pins and supports or do the supports count as track construction. I’m just really keen to see some of the coaster being built lol Also sounds like the rain has had a bigger impact that I thought unfortunately, but then I guess the great british weather is what it is. Hopefully the park can maybe make some of that time back so exodus can open for the start of the 2024 season!

Just been watching Jack Silkstone’s construction update and he was saying that we are in a period where no construction can really happen until the track and supports arrive on site from Germany. Does anyone know/have an idea on when those arrive as I’m kinda curious when we will start to see vertical construction on the coaster?

That is very true. The park is a questionable place.

Oh yh, that makes sense. I don't see why they use wood to be honest; plastic would be cheaper too. Then I guess plastic fencing does give off a cheaper feel though and the park don't want their new investment to seem cheap.

Plastic fencing would have led to the same thing though. People will still bring markers and draw/engrave stuff into the queue lines regardless what material it is made of or what colour it is. I don't really see any way the park can stop it either as it is all down to people having the decency to not graffiti which is never going to happen. If the park try and inplement a harsh sanction (kicked out of the park) for anyone doing it and actually enforce the rule the graffitti may slightly decrease, but like queue jumping I think it's a thing we will always see due to the park just not having the resources to stop people.

It will probably be a scare zone in my opinion, cause I don't really see the space for a maze there (unless it has a very linear design). Maybe they are just evaluating the area so they can see how much space they have to work with for the crows due to their now being more space as the saw alive queue is gone. A new ride would be great, but I think that is too ambitious with ghost train and exodus both being big adittions this season and next season. Also due to the fact that the Colossus retrack will be taking place near that area over the next few seasons, it might be difficult to install a new ride on that path while that is going on. The most likly thing I see the park building in that area is a new food and beverages unit to compliment the seating area, just like a small kiosk that sells snacks and stuff.