Mark9

Agreed with all, I've always found Merlin's food to be of pretty good standard and actually really good value. They offer a good range of food from your fast food to your restaurant stuff and never had any complaints.

It was far more then just Burp removed from the ride. We're talking the corny jokes, the moving props, the personality, the humour, the enjoyment. All replaced by static figures and jokes that don't make sense. The cola coaster was a clever play on words, the duck and dive revitaliser means nothing to anyone. It's just one example in which the lack of imagination went into the new Bubbleworks. The things that remained were ruined. Take the fountain finale, what were they thinking? My favourite review of the new Bubbleworks (back in 2006) http://www.s104638357.websitehome.co.uk/html/bubbleworks_main.htm

Wants better and then brings up Maurer Sohne spinner. Do we need another low throughput, unreliable attraction at Thorpe? No we don't. We have the best spinner of its type at Chessington anyway so one at Thorpe would be a waste of valuable space.

Welcome to our pain in 2005. Everything that was wonderful about Bubbleworks was ripped out, destroyed or given away ten years ago. It's probably why I am so less bothered about Gruffalo then others of a younger age because anything special about the ride went a long time ago.

2005 was a pretty awesome time when I worked at Chessie. 8 car Fury operation, 5 cars on Toadies, 5 trains on Tomb etc.

That isn't the point I'm making.

Wait a minute.. Park opening was extended to 6pm?! That was the standard summer closing when I used to work there. Jesus

Are you only using hyperbole for your post or do you genuinely believe the Gruffalo is the worst investment ever? (Edit to Add:- Genuinely thought you were talking about Pandemonium at Drayton Manor here. Then I read JoshC's trip report and got what you meant) 1) They tried to improve Bubbleworks in 2006, thats how we got this mess of a ride the first time. 2) It's throughput isn't as high as you think it is. It's only in the 400/500 bracket. 3) The basic dark ride will remain whatever the ride becomes. The current Bubbleworks is tired, messy and boring. 4) The public seem to like IP's. Look at the success of Saw, Peppa-Pig Land, Nickeldoeon Land, Thomas the Tank Engine Land, Cbeebies Land and you can see the reason why Chessington are being 'lazy' and arguing over the USP. I'm not defending that for a second but clearly there is a brain drain at Chessington in particular and they have no intent to be original anymore. This is why I gave up being a Chessington fan years ago. Gone are the days of Rodeo, Samurai, Professor Burps Bubbleworks, long loved days where the park genuinely cared about experiences. Now its all about the quick return and as you can see with attendance figures that continue to grow, the public love it. I don't which is why I haven't been for two and a half years.

Are you ever going to stop listing Loggers Leap as closed for the year? Although I have doubts that it will return next year, it currently lies in the same bracket as rides such as Big Thunder Mountain and Star Tours at Disneyland Paris, I.e. closed for refurbishment.

I'd like to borrow one of your time machines please. I know at some point, Merlin might build something that people will like and I'd prefer the positivity over the constant pessimism. Right now even the thought of something drives people crazy and they've already designated it to the dustbin. The Gruffalo doesn't exactly send me running to the turnstiles but as far as I can tell, Chessingtons target audience hasn't changed and the Gruffalo is within the remit of younger families.

The state of this thread.

It must be so tough being a manager of Thorpe. To think there biggest attendance achievement in the last five years was Storm Surge. The Swarm was a genuinely good ride with a great theme and it fell on its backside, Angry Birds Land was a non event, I'm a Celeb is just a throughput nightmare and Derren Brown's Ghost Train doesn't work properly. They didn't know when they were better off did they, the park is completely adrift in its ambitions right now.

It wasn't very good. You didn't miss out on anything remotely special.

This has been discussed a few times. The parks quieten down so drastically whenever they have attempted later closing that the first things cut the next season are the opening hours. I've always maintained that Thorpe in particular needs something to keep the guests attention for later hours. The rides themselves are not enough.

With how short the UK parks opening hours are, they could easily do this stuff after park close but they choose not to.

I'd move it to a seaside park. Or preferably into the sea.

On the other hand, Pete's Dragon is absolutely charming and thought provoking. Worth a watch.

The comments make it for me.

Thanks everyone for doing the searching so I didn't have to. It all sounds really wishy washy. Winky face emojis in the tweet, 'the resort hopes' on the official website. Until they say what they are doing, I'd consider Loggers isn't getting anything done or an major relevance.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but have Thorpe ever said there was a refurbishment on the cards. Is it even re-opening in 2017?

To save time, I'll just go to the countries that have air-time rollercoasters. Better to be realistic then to chase dreams that won't come true.

You lost me at Cheetah Hunt. I don't get the hype for it at all. Launch, slow to a crawl, Launch, slow to a crawl, do a tree thing, drop and slow to a crawl constantly. Rides like Taron and Helix blow it out of the water. Points for having Space Mountain in your top ten though. I'm a big fan of it

It's not really for safety frankly, its a BS rule that seems to be all about theory and not reality. And it's inconsistent across Merlin.

Thats because Universal are going for the everything and the kitchen sink approach and so far, its kind of worked. And as we know, any investment in a Florida park equals attendance rises for all parks. Disney don't have to do anything and people still flock to their parks. Is it any wonder they don't rush investment.

It was in the Blade/Ripsaw pit. It was the reverse Oblivion if you like with majority of the ride sunk down. I had always heard it was removed because of the noise it made, more then the track being visible outside the park.