Mark9

Nobody is too important to take a little bit of commentary.

Yeah, I remember everybody slagging off the Wicker Man before that opened to.

From what I've heard, Buccaneer could be at the end of its life and may not come back at all. We don't have to make little digs at Merlin at every opportunity, sometimes we can just resist that urge, that feeling that we must criticise something, especially in the *checks notes* Adventure Island thread.

Spoilers. 2020 won't have a big investment.

It sounds like INFERNO has not really had any cleaning attention this year as you're not the first person who has spoken about all the chewing gum.

Pirates in Batavia due to reopen next year. I just...

It's not even a theme park fatigue. You've just grown out of theme parks. Thats the rose tinted glasses. Back when Dragons Fury opened, the period between 2005-2009 was its darkest days. The only new addition being Peeking Heights but we had Bubbleworks trashed, theming ripped off Dragon Falls and minimal investment across the Zoo. Whilst you say a handful of re-themes, we've seen refurbishments of Flying Jumbos and the Berry Bouncers, Runaway Train into Scorpion, Bubbleworks into the vastly superior Gruffalo, Buccaneer refurbished, Dragon Falls refurbished, re-themed and new systems in place this year, Room on the Broom and the Zoo area significantly expanded and improved. Wanyama Village is one of my Chessington guilty pleasures. And finally, I didn't realise this that Chessington has the longest season openings of them all with Winter offerings (Xmas 2018 had Vampire, Seastorm, Gruffalo and Buccaneer available).

Copperhead Strike looks excellent. When Mack get their pacing right, they are unstoppable.

Sick.

Happy 25th to the UK's most well loved and admired rollercoaster. To think on this day in 1994 a coaster that would come to define a generation of fans was opening for the first time. And in all this time, for me at least, nothing built since can match this iconic ride.

When you say try do you actually mean 'hides show building completely'?

Air's theme was non existent so I mean we've gained a bit of theming. I think this is great news personally, I'd always liked Air but the VR really stopped me riding as the queue was just way too damn long. Welcome back great operations and shorter queue times.

Knowing that number 5 was a genuine Thorpe meme says a lot.

I worry about the pacing on this and the Parc Asterix ride. Taron and Helix (and potentially the new Finnish coaster) is they build up and up and they have a really good flow. I don't really like the slowing to a stop then falling back down feeling.

As we know, Annual Pass holders are the most considerate, open minded and tolerant of Thorpe Parks guests. They will be completely fine with Stealth and Quantum being closed. Crap.

I mean, this is already happening hence why Thorpe has been completely directionless for years.

Is this easy money? Because in two years time it will be budget cut, limited opening hours, closed on off peak. I question if something with this limited a shelf life should be opening anyway and if they should spend any money on something that when the advertisers get bored of it, deserves to have extensive work. For something that in 2021 (like everything that side of the park) will be completely forgotten, it looks fine. I remember a year ago, pre-opening, when the Wicker Man was ripped to shreds by enthusiasts too. It's what we do.

Looks fine. Clearly not finished. I'd slag it off but I'm never going to go in it anyway and the negative reactions on here with this and RotB have been predictable AF.

It's changed already. I enjoyed the outrage though.

Oh the memories.

The more I think about RMC, the more I really like them. Whether its original creations or reimagining older woodies, they have a real knack for quality. I'm really starting to regret Heide not RMC'ing Colossos.

Thats still the second most exciting thing they've added in the last decade.

'Guest satisfaction Our ongoing product investment and innovation, and relentless focus on creating memorable experiences for our guests throughout 2018 have resulted in continued strong levels of guest satisfaction. Guest feedback is monitored daily through the touchscreens at our attractions, generating over one million reviews each year. In 2018 we delivered an overall guest satisfaction score across the Group of 95%, and ‘Net Promoter’ score of 57%, which increased by three percentage points.' Interesting.

That looks really cool.

Heading? It's on an increasingly downward spiral and has been since The Smiler/Drayton rapid incidents. With Brexit and higher costs of living about to hit and hit hard, I think we are going to lose a lot of parks over the next few years.