Mark9

MaP owners are hilarious. They seem to think loyalty is owning an annual pass. The reality is the 'sell em cheap, pack em in;' worked pre covid but with this year, that philosophy backfired.

Can't we all pretend for a little bit longer that Forbidden Tomb is coming back. it's such a wildly crazy lie, but at least its given people something to talk about in the doldrums of closed season.

Merlins strength with rides is always imagery. I suppose it goes hand in hand with USP and what not. But I like it a lot. Going to look great in promo.

Still 9 rows but the ends look slightly smaller. I imagine a maximum of three at the ends, four in the middle rows.

Wouldn't surprise me if the price increase was to put people off buying one. It's likely capacity reductions will still be in place in 2021 and the annual pass complaints this year were farcical (if highly amusing). I'd side with caution on the loyalty thing, annual pass holders are pretty entitled and seem to think the park owes them a favour.

I've been in this game for a long time. I know how this all works.

They'll hate the refurbishment anyway. Thats how enthusiast circles work anyway, decry something for becoming run down, get their hopes up when it closes to be redone then hate the new version. It's Enthusiast 101.

Yeah just to clarify, I imagine Thorpes target audience of up for it families will be the last to really be vaccinated (thats if the vaccine pasts its test). So that won't have anything to do with it. I also don't think a negative test result will be enough as the NHS still recommends that you only get a test if you are showing any symptoms. The system as Josh says isn't robust enough. I can see Thorpe opening in March however with similar conditions to this years season.

Which is really interesting because Epcot was never designed to be a traditional theme park, more about the relationship between humanity and the world, technology etc. It's been throwing away its identity for over a decade now.

I literally hate everything about this ride, this logo, everything. Why can't they build things that cater solely around me and what I like.

All mine post-lockdown Alton Towers - 4 days Europa Park - 3 days Chessington - 1 day Disneyland Paris - 3 days This year, was supposed to feature Disneyland California, Californias Great America and the Florida Disney parks. It's also the first time since 2000 that I haven't been to Thorpe Park.

Following the 28,000 job cuts across US Disney resorts, yesterday large amount of entertainment cast members have now been let go from Disney World. Just to name a few this includes Festival of fantasy Parade, the castle show, Hoop de doo revue, majority of the entertainment around EPCOT, Indianna Jones Stunt show, any main street entertainers, Beauty and the Beat stage Show, Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Festival of the Lion King and Finding Nemo at Animal Kingdom. Of course there's far more under the radar entertainment cut across the resorts such as the Grand Floridian band.

As they don't even bother to check if you're pre-booked to visit, do we know if they are even bothering to cap the numbers. They say they are but they also say you need to pre-book to visit.

Furius baco screams 2020 to me. Nice monkey, lots of alcohol. Then an absolute car crash and the only redeeming feature being a wine shop at the exit.

I know its not because Tiger Rock and Wild Asia are ride reliability, I know exactly that its cost cutting, because I used to work there. The problem is, when I went, it wasn't a quiet day. And they knew this because they have direct access to gate figures through having to pre-book.. These cost cutting days are nothing new at all. They've been pulling this nonsense since way back when. Is a 60 minute queue for Dragons Fury considered short in the days of covid? When you say these areas don't have many rides, Wild Asia has the most rides of any area in the park and Tiger Rock is the highest throughput ride there. I did a bit of working out. There are 21 rides at Chessington. On my visit, between 10-12, Tiger Rock, Jungle Bus, Jungle Rangers, Monkey Swinger, Kobra, Seastorm, Dragons Fury & Scorpion Express were unavailable. Thats a hell of a lot of real estate just sitting there doing eff all.

Went two days ago, vastly different trip to other parks I've been to this year. I'll start with the negatives. - Park reliability. Deary me. Closed all day were Scorpion Express, Seastorm and Jungle Rangers (what was Toadies). Add in that Dragons Fury opened at 12. - Couple that last point with the fact that Wild Asia and Tiger Rock opened at 1pm. Not even 12pm but 1pm. Tiger Rock didn't open at that time either. I'm not that plugged into the matrix anymore so I didn't know that a quarter of the park doesn't open till further into the day. There was no signage to indicate that at the park entrances, only once you get to the areas themselves. - There was some kind of gathering today because there was thousands of Jewish kids on park. - No social distancing whatsoever. By far the worst park for it that I've visited this year. I genuinely find it astounding that after the year its been, the park has such huge reliability issues, that they open 5 of their rides half way into park opening and that based on pre-book numbers (after all you can't get in unless you book so they know numbers) that there was no foresight to have everything open at 10. With Fury having a moment, there was no fallback, with no Scorpion or Seastorm, there was no support rides. I've just come from Europa Park where without fail, rides are either open on time or open earlier. I will hold them to the same standard because the on the door price is only £7 more expensive. And breathe. Positives are:- - The rides are looking the best they have done in years. I genuinely feel happy that all of these 30 year old rides are getting the attention they deserve. Vampire station was lovely with disco organist and the new music mix they're using. Really really nice to see. - I liked the new Tomb Blaster. Even with the cheesy factor of the radio, I think they've done a good job with lighting and a lot to the scenes were very dark with only the lasers from the gun creating lights, particularly in the sphinx room. - Gruffalo is my favourite ride in the park. It's got so much charm and you can tell that it is really looked after with all effects working. - Love the Zoo. Two tortoises were having the slowest time of their lives.. So all in all, a mixed bag

Taken me a week to process my thoughts on my trip. As it was supposed to be my honey moon, we decided to make money no object and just kind of went for it. - Virtual queuing. I guess they must have changed it as both virtual queuing and stand by queues were in use. I can see this being a precursor to some kind of fastrack system becoming permanent as that is essentially what we used it for. The numbers using the system were incredibly low though, the only ride it went quickly for is Wodan. Wodan in particular was the busiest ride on park everyday with 40 minute queues a regular feature. - Blue Fire and its new sponsor are fine. I can see why they altered the queue completely although it seems rather more permanent then a social distancing measure. The new Blue Fire cafe area had its own separate queue although wasn't open at all on our visit. - Snorri Tourren is incredible. How this little dark ride must have had, what a year in development for them to build this charming little ride into a previously vacant area is amazing. The work they've done with Scandanavia is also top notch. - Pirates in Batavia was great. It was the busiest I've ever seen it, fair enough as its the new ride. They've done a great job and if I was fluent in German, I bet all the animatronics and dialogue is top notch too. Over the three days we were there, Koffie Koppies went from being the normal teacup attraction, to its halloween equivalent. - Silver Star. I didn't use to be the biggest fan of Silver Star. I don't know if its because I'm getting older or if Silver Star has fundamentally changed (it does have magnetic breaks now for example) but I'm getting more and more out of it. It has so much air time through-out its course and it caught me by surprise several times. Part of me wants to go and get back on Shambhala. - Social Distancing. Ok the big one. Germans are excellent at social distancing. They are also excellent at wearing masks. This is true across the theme park and on their train networks where no one was wearing face masks incorrectly or deliberately getting close to others. The only thing that felt weird in this pandemic world is that they load full trains on Silver Star, Atlantica Supersplash and Arthur. I felt uneasy at first on Silver Star in particular as there's not much room between the person next to you and yourself. After a few rides I was over it. It's just weird as I've been riding Nemesis half empty for all my visits and yet every train in Europa Park is at maximum capacity. It's one to look out for if you feel uneasy. - I really enjoyed Rulantica and I traditionally dislike water parks. It has a lot to do and variation which is key. Also appreciated the pool side bars. - Stayed at Bell Rock and Kronosar. I love Kronosar and its setting. it's only drawback being so far away from Europa Park. It has that fun theme park hotel feel that I absolutely adore. I would much rather stay at official hotels these days than drive around to random hotel in the middle of nowhere. Over the three days we got on over 100 rides. There are just so many attractions in the place that its hard not to rack up high ride counts, even without really trying.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-54350423 All the while, the top managers at Disney returned to full salary a month ago. A lot of long term workers getting the boot. Several entertainers across the Disney World resorts have been made redundant such as the Grand Floridian band who have performed at the hotel for 32 years. The heart of Disney, the people, being thrown to the bin.

I'm already drooling with anticipation over the facebook complaints.

Can't wait for your review.

Agreed on most of your review. Phantasialand has moments of class mixed with areas of complete rubbish. For every Taron there's three rides begging to be destroyed. I can't say the same for Europa Park where every ride has a purpose and is looked after to the highest degree. Yes even snow bench the ride. I value capacity highly and I could rip my hair out waiting for either of the Winja brothers.

How do you alleviate that problem exactly? We don't live in a normal circumstances world right now.

Very interesting insight into your wants and needs here gents.

And it was unprofitable.

I'd say its the only one where the park is large enough and the rides have high enough capacity to deal with the covid measures. Chessington getting mullered right now.