Mark9

Completely disagree. Aside from the Burger Kitchen (and even then, the chicken burger is fine), the Merlin stuff is fit for purpose and pretty affordable. Especially when you compare with Europe where it can be double the price for meals with smaller portions.

Lack of effort? it's an amusement park, not a theme park. Any theming Six Flags add is more effort then usual.

Magic Mountain is hardly renowned for its theming quality. Whatever they do with twisted Colossus, it will be window dressing more then a coherent storyline. Expect the ride to do the talking and not a vibe.

Yes, unashamedly so.

Lets face it CJ, this is still the bare minimum that Merlin can get away with. The lack of ambition and effort undermines what the coaster could be. It's Krake with an extra inversion, nothing more.

I hope not too many points Benin. Out of all the dive machines, this for me is the most uninteresting. Just seems to lack anything beyond Merlin's need to make Gardaland and Heide Park completely similar.

I think its an amazing discussion. Bless the closed season.

This 1000 times.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"!!

I can take my bag on Rock N Rollercoaster, California Screamin;, Dinosaur, Indianna Jones, All Tower of Terrors, Space Mountain Mission 2 and yet I need to pass my bag and loose belongings to a person at Thirteen.

So in other words, we should all be looking at Asia if we want a dark ride without an IP shackled to it, necessary or not. Suits me, anyone wanna come Tokyo and Hong Kong

I hope Africa is thankful to all those 'stars', they did give up an afternoon after all.

I have Storm Surge operator envy now Ricky, you bad boy. No the thing is, it's not five years later we are STILL moaning about Storm Surge, it's more passing comment that five years later, they haven't found a way to improve Storm Surge's drainage so to speak. I doubt anyone cares that much about Storm Surge beyond it sticking into the sky like a sore thumb.

Wonderful stuff Pluk, great find. Always preferred the older styling to Rameses and whilst they talk about the snakes blending in, the thing that scared me the most about Rameses was the wonderful snake theming.

Isn't that the point then Marc, it happens far less frequently on Loggers then it does Storm Surge.

Not that I think you'd be wasting your money or anything... but I don't see the point anymore of people filming their own on ride videos. If I want to watch a vid of say, Breakdance 32, there are loads on youtube already. How would your videos be different is what I am really asking.

We live in a world where thugs would kill a pensioner for a fiver. The threat of being mugged won't stop me in buying something like the apple watch.

Still feel really uninspired with this. It just looks way to similar to Krake. I don't like the colour scheme either. I like that it has an underground bit though.

If I'm free, I'll attend the meal and the Winter Wonderland part of the meet. I'm not really feeling the Merlin stuff. SO if anyone after lunch wants to go to the pub with me instead of the quick rush through Madame Tussauds just to go on the Taxi ride, then feel free to join me

Mini trip report from my days there this week. Odd week in which Monday and Tuesday were packed, Wednesday and Thursday less so. Big Thunder, Buzz Lightyear and the Teacups were closed for refurbishment and on Thursday, Space Mountain was closed all day. So at least I know I can survive a day without DLP's biggest roller coasters. Our longest wait was Ratatouille on Tuesday, we queued two hours (40 minutes of that was a breakdown) and on Thursday it was having massive technical problems. They were also only using half the rides capacity so when it reopened, the fastpass queue was out of the entrance and only one of the three cars was being given to the main queue meaning what should have been a 15 minute queue was 75 minutes. The ride itself is pure class and for all the criticism of it being lots of screens, well go ride it and see for yourself because it's definitely more then the sum of its parts. My partner says its his 3rd favourite ride ever. Enough said. Wednesday was insanely quiet. We managed to get on all open rides in the resort and even Crush's coaster only had a 5 minute queue. Walk on Space Mountain, easy, Peter Pan, 10 minute queue. Winter dreams is a travesty. Focusing so much on Frozen is a detriment to the whole display. The Toy Story segment goes down like a lead balloon. The only part really enjoyed is when 'Let it go' plays. I'd rather they just kept playing normal Dreams, now thats a quality firework display. Some pics. A very quiet Thunder Mesa I still maintain that this is a beautiful castle. It looks so beautiful. Xmas fun for everyone Beautiful France No one does it like Disney And finally some Princesses

Maybe they plan to sink it in the Atlantic. That would be a vast improvement.

This just shows how low confidence is in Merlin to be able to deliver fully on an attraction these days. Isn't that kind of the problem. We know they are capable of doing it. Areas like Wild Asia and rides like Raptor prove they have what it takes to make stand out attractions. So when they don't its always down to budget cuts or rushing a project through. Nobody wants to bad mouth Merlin intentionally but have done a few things recently like Angry Birds Land or rushing through The Smiler that knocks confidence. An expensive dark ride like this is the ultimate test. I like Sub Terra but it wasn't well received, lets face it.

I'm in a Christmas jumper right now, I've spent four days at theme parks covered with Christmas decorations, tinsel, christmas trees, seen a 20 minute show dedicated to the season (and Olaf from Frozen stealing every scene with his irritating attempts at humour) and I've been snowed on. It's definitely Christmas

I love a big, brash and bright American B&M anyday of the week, thanks for the pics.

Oh I envy them. They have a world of potential with a dark ride where literally anything is possible with the right emphasis or effect, animatronic or screen, where a mood can be created from the right lighting or the right viewpoint. I really want this ride to be top of their game stuff and I shall attempt to remain positive despite another abandoned warehouse theme based on the plans. I agree with ElectricBill here, it's a shame the queue isn't more adventurous or interesting but hopefully there will be something to look at or do whilst people are waiting.