Heh, I haven't been keeping that up to date with this attraction but I've gone through all the plans and construction updates this morning and it suddenly reminded me of a drawing for a floorless roller coaster I did for this very site back 8 years ago when I was only a wee lad in 2005. Looks like I...

I just remembered, I never got to do a classic 'I'm leaving' post; I just faded away. So here it is now; 4 years late.  :P Some of you younglings won't remember me, so this post will go right over your head. I'll leave others to explain. I actually haven't visited a theme park since 2008 (I van...

You would think that AT learnt their lesson after Th13teen, but they still seem to be taking themselves far too seriously. They can't afford to make another marketing mistake, can they? Th13teen and its marketing led to a 200,000 plus increase in visitor numbers, plus a 26% increase in profit for 2...

This is what can happen when you don't have a theme park monopoly running everything. It'll be stunning and it's excellent for Britain that the ride will be set in London - I suspect the facade to the rest of the park will be a version of Charing Cross Road with a mocked up Big Ben poking up over th...

Interesting. Looks promising. I like the name, and agree with the poster above; unusually a definite article works here because it turns the noun into an event. Perfect start in creating a communicable - yet detailed - back story. I've hardly followed any park project for a few years now. I presume ...

This poll has missed the more relevant and interesting question by limiting it to the UK. Except for those parks that AstroDan mentioned, Merlin has a monopoly on UK theme parks which means they'll all stay roughly static. Indeed it's almost in Merlin's interest now to bring all their parks to the s...

Almost all of the major theme park attractions in this country have been hoovered up by the private equity firm The Blackstone Group. I remember saying back in 2007 that this was not good for the park despite others getting sucked into the PR spin that this would enable Alton Towers (as Merlin's &qu...

^ That was a bizarre choice when they took over/merged with Tussauds. Madame Tussauds is a real historic figure and a name that is recognised throughout the world. It has great gravitas, and is totally strange that they didn't take that as the name of the group at the time. Whilst we're on about bra...

It is very possible. All you need is a few lift shafts drilled down into the ground along with an emergency staircase. The rest of the ride can be at ground level. Would be expensive though; takes some proper civil engineering. But they did that same engineering with Oblvion! Could be a great experi...

The post-2005 management team were always going to be bad for this park and this is another example of that. They are POOR theme park managers; there's no way of getting around this. Years ago I used to regularly post long intricate posts on here about how this park should be run. I'm not even going...

To be fair to them, those pictures look quite good. Well done!

Oh, and only found out today that a Shrek attraction was even planned. Who's bright idea was that? Tragic that it was even mentioned at all in blue sky thinking. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was on the edge as it was, but just about acceptable as a theme as it was so quirky and British. Somethi...

2002 remains the last time something truly ambitious was attempted. I'm not sure they'll ever be something akin to that, '98 or '94 again though. It's the nature of companies that are bought out by private equity groups that they become machines that are kept to pay off the debts that bought them in...

Well done Alton Towers... :roll:

Get over it. Every single year the country is spending £150billion more than it earns. Within a few years our debt will be £1trillion . And guess what? We have to pay every single penny of that back. That's around £30,000 each... And... not only that, but the interest payments on that debt alone wil...

The PR stunts are great for Alton Towers, it's free advertising and gets people talking. The park can't afford to run multi-million pound advertising campaigns all season and things like this really keep the park in the media. I think Alton Towers marketing has become quite clever in recent years, ...

Bravo to the original poster! It's one of the key things the park doesn't seem to get (one of many). Theming has been improved yet only to a generic Roller Coaster Tycoon level. Create a proper (and original!) story instead of a vague reference. Add in a tonne of detail. Treat it like you would a mo...

:lol: :lol: :lol: 8 years of waiting, and this is the result! The Barnes legacy is truly a disaster. This park holds opportunities that theme parks across the globe would die for and they all get wasted. This was no Secret Weapon; "SW6" should be put back on the shelf for something more wo...

Merlin has opened today a brand new 4D cinema attraction to the London Eye, buried beneath the Grade II listed County Hall. Visitors will proceed into the Europe's best 4D cinema after purchasing tickets, as a prelude to their flight on the Eye. The film features an emotional journey of a little gir...

This could have been hugely worse if it hadn't been a wet week. I suspect those very close trees could have gone up too if it has been a very hot dry summer, and it could have spread across the woodland. I hope they rebuild it to a Jules Vernian style, instead of magnolia MDF. Post made via Mobile D...