KarlaKoaster

I wasn't sure where to post this, but in the UK the government have today announced that VAT will be cut from 20% to just 5% for the hospitality sector until next year. Along with restaurants and pubs, this of course includes theme parks. The cut will not only mean admission will be less (in theory, anyway, I suppose the parks could put prices up to offset these savings), but most things within the park too such as food and drink. Idea is to encourage people to support the hospitality industry.

I think this is the year to cut parks a bit of slack. There are going to be a lot of things that are annoying and disappointing. We're enthusiasts and should understand better than anyone why some of these changes are necessary.

Thanks for a great report. I'm really impressed with Six Flags' use of technology at park entry. With the camera-based temperature checks and the new Evolv bag scanners it's totally frictionless and requires almost no staff interaction. Compared to Seaworld they seem to be taking it really seriously and that message seems to be filtering down to the guests too.

Behind the Thrills has posted what appears to be a lien filed against Seaworld by Bolliger & Mabillard which seems to endorse the theory that a Surf Coaster is on its way at some point: So far we know B&M have trademarked the name 'Surf Coaster' and that Seaworld Orlando received a shipment of parts labelled 'SF-A' (Surf Coaster 1). So far enthusiasts have been speculating on this being a new stand up coaster (and there was a pretty bad fake 'blueprint' circulating around), but I've always backed the idea that it could be B&M's take on the Blitz Coaster, and the lien menti

I've seen video where they slip down and your nose comes out, but that's it. Generally they seem to go down rather than up. So long as they are snug they should be fine.

Agree with larrygator that it just makes commercial sense not to open it this year. Not only is it one of the worst rides when it comes to social distancing, with half the season gone and the rest of the season likely to be a washout it doesn't really make sense to open this year because by next year the hype has gone. Also it makes sense to take a rain check on this year, because then at least by pushing everything back a year they don't need to worry about getting (or not getting) any new rides next year. I'm actually surprised not more parks in America have pushed back ride opening

Some good news. The park have received a £247,000 grant from the Heritage Emergency Fund which is run by the National Lottery in the UK and set up in response to covid with a percentage of lottery ticket sales going towards charitable causes. They have also raised £129,203 via a fundraising campaign meaning they have a total of £376,203. The trust backed the formation of a new smaller company, with the aim of raising money to re-open the park. BBC News article

To be honest, I didn't intend to 'change anything' by posting, but I get what you're saying in that I shouldn't get frustrated with things that are out of my control. But having seen people make observations about other parks and the way they're handling things, I thought I would do the same with Indiana Beach, particularly in the context of this conversation. Anyway I'll take your advice and let it go

I was curious about the reopening too and found a video on a well-known coaster channel which showed what I would describe as decent crowds on the VIP day, but also a living breathing petri dish of potential covid infections. I am not sure I have ever felt so uncomfortable watching a video. I felt like Ace Ventura when he found out Finkle is Einhorn. Virtually nobody was wearing masks (staff included) and social distancing didn't exist. I don't mean it was there and people were ignoring it, it just wasn't a thing. Every table was being used, every seat on every row on every ride

Oh my god, BDG, you have just won the coveted 'best post I have read for a really long time and maybe ever' award. Congratulations. Honestly the picture I posted looked like an explosion at a spaghetti factory, so thanks so much for putting so much work into explaining what we're looking at so clearly.

I couldn't hear much because of the wind noise, but if you can hear a clunk over every hill then it's just the antirollbacks lifting up/falling back into place with the airtime that this coaster apparently doesn't have. You can also hear a similar clunk towards the bottom on Dive Coasters and on the slow inline twists that Wing Coasters have. (Now that my street cred has totally gone, I'm doubling down on the nerdiness)

Here's a picture posted by Michael Mack on Twitter of the new Piraten in Batavia ride at Europa Park. There is also a video on his timeline showing the ride in action. I'm not sure if this will feature the rocking boat technology they showed off recently, but this tweet suggests it might. I think it would be a wasted opportunity not to show off this new tech, so fingers crossed.

I realise I could lose any street cred I had left by making this observation as this is 'peak geek', but I noticed there is no antirollback noise at all. It looks like B&M are using the same system as Intamin now where rollback dogs only engage when the train slows/stops as it appears there is a fin to the right of the antirollbacks.

Yes, I think that was always the assumption. I think it's a combination of not needing to open it for the games, the fact the area is quite compact and relies on touchy-feely elements like the AR binoculars, plus I guess construction did slow down as a result of coronavirus. My expectation would be that they will open it at least a few months before the games, because then at least they can take advantage of tourists during the busy Spring season and then can hopefully enjoy a second wave (the good kind) should the games take place as normal.

Yes, loading odds and cleaning evens and alternating after every cycle seems to be a decent compromise. Hopefully once they find their stride they'll be able to improve the process.

Here's some drone footage of FLY. I am really excited about this ride as I have absolutely no expectations of what it will be like. This whole area looks really overwhelming, the walls make it look like they've forgotten to put the lid on an enclosed coaster. Source: nicoxx68xx on Youtube

Super Nintendo World in Universal Studios Japan has been delayed. No new date announced yet. The construction (from the outside) looked close to completion but not sure how much work was left on the inside. This new land looks amazing, but totally understand why it has been delayed, both for commercial and practicality reasons. TDR Explorer (in English) NHK News Web (in Japanese)

Crazy how Six Flags seems to be doing a better job than the Seaworld parks. The operations seem to be borderline bonkers, but it doesn't look much better at Seaworld in that respect either.

Wow, this is a surprise! I thought it was curtains since the coasters ended up at Tripsdrill. It makes sense that there'll be a few years before they open as hopefully there will be some kind of upswing in the tourism industry by then.

I adore Splash Mountain, but the Song of the South has sat uncomfortably with me for several years and I think this is a classy response by Disney that by including their first black princess goes further than I expected. I'm cautiously excited about the future for the ride.

Thank you. Yeah, I think there's light at the end of the tunnel but I'm not 100% sure yet if it's daylight or a train coming the other way. I think we were too slow to lockdown and too slow to take testing seriously, but our health service wasn't overwhelmed and the government here has an extremely generous furlough scheme which has meant staff are paid 80% of their salary by the state. This has undoubtedly saved companies and saved jobs.

The government in the UK have announced today that theme parks will be able to open from 4th of July, so Alton Towers (along with all Merlin parks, Blackpool and Paultons etc) will be reopening. In addition to my previous post masks will be required on most major rides/coasters within the park. I'm not in a rush to visit but probably will at some point as I have a season pass.

Thinking about the Grand National at Blackpool, I don't really see any problems specific to racing coasters. Each side is not really that close and it looks the same at Kennywood. The only thing I can think of being a problem is unloading two trains at the same time, but that's quite easy to work around. Sorry if I'm missing something obvious here.

I didn't realise this was the oldest theme park in the UK. Normally administration means the park is essentially taken over by accountants who look to salvage the park and either sell it on or wind it down. This happened to Fantasy Island and arguably the administrators did a better job of running the park than the previous owners! The 'gates will not be opening again' line sounded pretty certain, but the quote from the owner at least makes it sound like they are at least hoping there is some way out. M&Ds in Scotland also went into administration a while ago, but I feel like this

Thanks for taking the time to explain about the laws surrounding reopenings, AJ, that's really interesting. I feel like Seaworld's plans were well intentioned but badly managed. I can't wait to hear follow-up reports to see if they nip the problem in the bud. For me the lack of people wearing masks was a self-fulfilling prophecy in that as soon as a few people go unchallenged, everyone else thinks 'why bother' and give up and it snowballs from there. It's sort of like a gum wall where as soon as one person sticks some gum there and it's not removed, everyone does it!