Mark9

I must admit, I wasn't particularly excited for Drakon either, I think euro-fighters are kinda boring and things like the Mack big dipper are far more versatile and interesting. That being said, Paultons know their target audience incredibly well and have built a ride that caters to that. Obviously Drakon is a massive step up from Storm Chaser in terms of thrill. To be honest I'm far more excited for Serpents Curse. I cannot believe that no other UK park has chased the UK's first water coaster title frankly and I think it's a brilliant choice for Paultons for 2027. One thing I really like about Paultons is how each caters for the different family members. Take Valgard, it has the thrill coaster, the family coaster, the family flat ride, the play area for kids and in 2027 the water attraction as well as the kids water ride. They pack so much into small areas and theres no wasted space.

Woo. Everyone's talking about it. Brand new theme park focused on Minecraft. Theres no way that intamin is going to have a high enough capacity for the crowds this area will attract.

The benefit comes from cost saving. Ever since the death on Drayton Manors rapids, the amount of staff needed to run Rumba was slightly ridiculous. There's the training of staff for a ride that runs for what 4 months if that. There's the amount it costs to run a water ride. And frankly riding Rumba over the last few years has never been great. Constant announcements reminding you to sit down, PA announcements every 30 seconds aimed at particular boats where people are clearly disobeying the rules, risk of death signs everywhere. A void of atmosphere as you go through the shed of silence. It should have been put out of its misery years ago.

I know its not exactly a big priority for the Merlin parks but I will never understand how even Six Flags in its bankruptcy era was able to repaint their coasters and yet inferno still looks god awful and they can't even finish a Colossus repaint. Baron 1898 just got a massive refurbishment and repaint and that's half the age of Inferno. I find it incredibly frustrating that they don't mind if their parks look like a dump.

This is the wrong topic but Chessington in particular should be at near all year round operation now. They had Mandrill open through December (it was running on xmas eve) and Fury and Rattlesnake being open in February is a real first. I'm amazed Fury hasn't vallied.

£492 for two nights at Chessington?!?! Puts my £510 for Europa Park for three nights into perspective 😂

As I said before, remove the Annual Passes. There will be backlash but not along the lines of being accused of discrimination. They seem to be doubling down on AP's now though, offering free AP's for staying on property. That's a bad move.

This is a very tricky subject and it's purely because of the idea of putting any restriction on Rap users is discrimination. I remember when Chessington attempted to restrict the amount of use on their rides (you got one go on the major stuff for example) and there was complaints that autistic children only liked riding Vampire so stoping them from riding that all day was against the law. And it isn't, it just isn't. I think what's been frustrating with me this for a long time is that whenever something is suggested, its immediately shut down as being anti disabled, so that change doesn't take place and the problem of long RAP queues just continues. I've also seen a few videos suggesting that it's Merlins fault for limiting ride line ups and taking away entertainment. Which would be fine if the park that seems to be most affected by RAP is Thorpe which has lost very little over the last ten years and had very little entertainment to begin with. As for the European/other UK park thing. Well we've seen across the industry, big changes to Annual Pass systems. The Merlin pass remains incredibly affordable and cheap and is a great deal. And I personally think it drives the RAP use. A lot of coaster enthusiasts are on the spectrum or have a physical disability. Why wouldn't they have an AP to get in all the time and a RAP to bypass long waits. You have a Rap system that is always full on popular rides (Wicker Man, Hyperia for example) and you add in a fastrack system that will always be a priority.... If I were Merlin I would make the Annual Pass much more expensive or remove it entirely. We've seen several parks do this like Phantasialand and Tokyo Disneyland and it has proved to be a good move for them. I know there's the argument that the pass pushes for repeat visits. But these repeat visitors are driving up queue times whilst spending very little on food and merchandise. It has a detrimental effect on the average day guest who just sees people going past them in every direction all day long. And that isn't discriminatory language, that's just the reality of three different queues diverging at one point and everyone moving just that little bit slower. I do think Merlin are their own worst enemy on this whole situation as well. For years they don't implement their policies properly or have tried around the edges to make changes but they backtrack or ignore things so often that ititss led to this.

Genuinely the best post you have ever made.

I wish they'd just bin it off, riding it is embarrassing these days. The problem is there no obvious replacement in the pipeline (that we know off).

Some would say it's the past of theme parks.

2 Nebulas and an ART wild swing please. It should be government mandated that every park has these rides.

They'll just remove any mention of him, the rides will probably remain for a short while.

If Annual Passes still exist then you can bet all the RAP will be gone.

Just for Josh, (who did his top 10% in 2024 as well), here is the rest of my top 10% from (11-61). This won't be in any order because after the top 10, it becomes impossible to put them in preference order. On any given day I could prefer Oz'Iris to Taron and so forth. Stardust Racers Yellow Oz'Iris Katun Helix Wodan Blue Fire Copperhead Strike Afterburn Wildcats Revenge Stealth Black Mamba Fly Superman la Atrocciones de acero Manta/Acrobat Incredible Hulk iSpeed Shambhala Kumba Griffon Alpengeist Juvelen The Smiler Medusa (discovery kingdom) Tatsu Taron Alpina Blitz (Nigloland) Monster (Walygator) Icon Karnan Flug der Demon Raging Bull Twisted Timbers Behemoth Magnum XL 2000 Maverick Gatekeeper Untamed Dwiverlwind Velocicoaster Monster (Grona Lund) Wildfire (Kolmarden) Hyperion Abyssus Dominator Pantheon Farenheight Candymonium Mako Steel Dragon 2000 Nitro El Toro Batman Gotham city Escape Iron Grawzi Goliath (Six Flags over Georgia) Aerieforce One Thunderhead The Beast Fianna Force The Voyage Piraten Dragons Fury I love lists so much.