Mark9

Cost to run and maintain is the main culprit. It required a maintenance team 24/7 and for the level of riders it got compared to the other big hitters at Great Adventure, the cost wasn't deemed worthwhile. If TTD2 had been a success this may have had a different outcome and may have been saved in some form. But we'll never know now.

I think this is definitely the problem for most parks. Unless you are a big name like Efteling, Cedar Point or Europa Park, the last five years have been especially tough. I don't find it that unexpected that Oakwood is permanently closed though. The writing has been on the wall probably since the Hydro death in 2004. It's been on a downward spiral ever since and hasn't really ever recovered. It's turned into a dive over the last decade and the only bright spot really has been the megafobia retrack. What a shame for that ride and Speed though. Hopefully something can be done to save Megafobia in particular but it's going to be a difficult one.

I checked the Chessington general discussion thread and there was no outrage. Then again... they announced the closure of Beanoland in advance and had an epic cream pie fight to say goodbye to the area. Wild Asia gone for two years with only a token announcement on their social pages and website. Sure this isn't Kingda Ka, but we're talking four rides just closed until further notice.

Minecraft is 2027. Apparently. It's why they've closed Wild Asia a season earlier than they probably needed to. Too much capacity at Chessington. Needed sorting.

I think you severely underestimate Merlins ability to make things worse.

Just so I understand, Colossus repaint is now a three year project whilst Six Flags have repainted multiple larger rollercoasters over the last two months (2 Goliaths, Panthera and Dominator just off the top of my head). Meanwhile at Thorpe, Inferno still looks like ass and they are deciding if a water feature that worked for about three weeks has any future. And this is the best of the Merlin trio? We really are desperate for any good news at all at this point aren't we.

Yep, parks normally pretty quiet as they restrict numbers but the RAP queues are about there hours long now.

I'm not sure what Merlin can do at this point to be honest. They've attempted relatively good rollercoasters in Mandrill, Hyperia and Nemesis Reborn, they've tried to do entertainment on a better scale then ever which has now all been cut and last years opening hours felt like a push in a better direction (particularly Thorpe). So far we've only really seen the losses at Towers for 2025 but it's looking anonymous at Chessington and Thorpe too. We are bound to see a lot more staggered ride opening hours. Don't be surprised if Rumba and Tidal Wave open mid season for example. The global report highlighted the issues with the Uk tourism industry If you've been to Efteling, Europa Park, Port Aventura (just to name a few) over the last two years, the parks feel alive and vibrant with excited guests and entertainment. In comparison the UK parks have just got long waits because there's less rides and entertainment, short opening hours and terrible food. It's an awful rut to be in and it can't be changed quickly.

Is anyone feeling particularly positive about the upcoming season?

Drenched is no more. One of two Intamin shoot the chute water rides, the first left Knotts Berry Farm a long while back so it is kinda astounding Drenched made it this far. It's been closed for a while for 'restraint work' and has now being removed.

Viewers. He lost the bet. To be fair to the old thing, it spent almost as long SBNO at the park as it spent open.

I've learned that to enthusiasts, every ride is rough and has a rattle. I've learned that our passion is one of the only ones with such a limited life span. These huge pieces of metal have a limited existence and when they're gone, that's it. No one else will experience Wild Mouse at Blackpool, a 400 foot hydraulic launch rollercoaster, the world's only duelling B&M inverter and much much more. For a lot of rides all we have is faded memories, hazy POV's and photos of ourselves in our younger days. I wish I'd taken more photos of some of the rides I've done because that's all I have left. It's kind of sad when you think about it. I've become almost obsessed with the demolition of Green Lantern and Kingda Ka.

I'm looking forward to the Family Gerstlauer the most.

Does this confirm an RMC or should I wait for the great nonsense talker to emerge with some obscure clue and babble.

Sounds good to me. It felt like postman Pat had really dropped off over the last few years. Not particularly bothered by this either way but I'm sure the target audience will love it.

Seems like the disdain to this project was pretty Universal by the end.

How was your 2024? Park count Alton Towers X6 Chessington X1 Thorpe Park X4 Animal Kingdom X1 Hollywood Studios X1 Magic Kingdom X2 Disneyland Parc X3 Studio Parc X1 Linanmaki X1 Europa Park X3 Efteling X3 Emerald Park X1 Six Flags over Georgia X1 Carowinds X2 Fun Spot Atlanta X1 Dollywood X2 Holiday World X1 Kentucky Kingdom X1 Kings Island X2 Cedar Point X3 Kennywood X1 New rollercoasters of the year Year highlights - First day visits for Nemesis Reborn and Hyperia - Finally visiting Dollywood and trying the cinnamon bread - Hitting 500 and 550 credits - Riding some absolute beasts this year (Voltron, Taiga, Afterburn, The Voyage, Steel Vengeance) 2025 is more of a rest year but with big hitters like Tokyo Disneyland, Fuji Q and Nagashima Spa land, I'm hyped. 😃

If anything it's under-rated, its 3 against 1 in here. 😘

I'll balance it out by saying I thought Ride to Happiness was an incredible ride and any park should want a model. Absolutely outstanding.

Isn't a top spin good enough for you Josh. I'm shocked! I'd throw in a pair of nebulas and an intamin gyro swing just for starters. This is Towers, they can work around the height and nebula are the greatest flat ride ever created. They can't go on like this.

Are you saying several billion for a Loggers Leap boat isn't worth it?

It's pretty shocking actually. I completely understand that Blade is coming to the end of its life, arguably it has been for years. But why are they not replacing it with anything? Not even another 'Pirate ship'. It leaves Forbidden Valley as a completely 1.4 metre area. Flavios Fandango; Their little text is absolutely laughable. Talking about how it was required because of how capacity stricken everything was because of covid. What a load of rubbish to remove it now then, if anything the capacity issues remain the same if not worse now. I'm not surprised about dungeons, another completely misjudged attraction built because some marketing guru thought it would make sense but did nothing for the park at any point. Beyond the wonderful way they bought back Nemesis, this season has been shocking and it doesn't look to be getting any better in 2025. A top spin doesn't even scratch the surface.

They'll start putting in little food carts there soon. Slap down a few benches and boom, new food area.

I'm probably more bothered on a personal level because it was closed the entire time I was there and opened like two days later. Yes that's selfish, but it's a spite that I can never get now and the park made sure of that.

It actually feels like there's more closures than there actually are. A lot of them are closed and relocated because their respective parks have closed for example. Desert Race - Operational no issues Formula Rossa - Remains closed, rumoured that its launch system is damaged. Has been down since February and the park have been very coy about what's actually going on Furius Baco - Operational, no issues (beyond being an atrocious rollercoaster) Kanonen - Relocated to the USA as Matugani Kingda Ka - Rust in Pieces Rita - Operational, no issues Senzafito - Closed down due to the park closing completely. Now in Canada and converted to LSM launch. Skycar - Operational no issues Speed Monster - Operational, no issues Stealth - Operational, no issues Storm Runner - Operational, no issues Superman The Escape - Operational, no issues Top Thrill Dragster - I mean.. I'm not delivering lectures on this. Xcelerator - It's currently operational. It spent over a year closed and under refurbishment and opened at the end of last year. Zaturn - Park it was located at in Japan closed down, and the ride now sits in pieces in Russia. I wouldn't worry about Stealth or Rita to be honest. As some of the later models, the technology is slightly perfected from the originals and I would say the reliability of both rides is far better than their American counterparts.