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Thorpe Park 2017: DBGT: Rise of The Demon

Lordy said:
Merlin still claim to be "second only to Disney" remember? With that in mind surely they should be creating attractions better than Universal, regardless of attendance? Hell, even on par with them would be good.

And Transformers cost under $100m, with a much bigger building, with the ride on two floors. The scale of it is huge, where as this is quite small. If they made Transformers the size of DBGT, the cost probably wouldn't have been too much different.

But ultimately, Terror Castle at Brean is a lot scarier than DBGT, so that's £30m well spent Merlin!
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Correct me if i'm wrong but Merlins claims to be second to Disney are more aimed internally / to shareholders regarding visitor numbers rather to the every day guest visiting for a day out at one of their theme parks..

Guest feedback for DBGT seems to be very good (saw most people giving it 8/9's out of 10 during the tech rehearsal surveys) and that was over me 4/5 rides on it during that period - so if the GP love it then it is money well spent.
 
Lordy said:
Ignorance is another thing that really ****s me off ;)

Merlin still claim to be "second only to Disney" remember? With that in mind surely they should be creating attractions better than Universal, regardless of attendance? Hell, even on par with them would be good.
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You seem to be ignorant toward the way the business works.

Merlin is second to Disney in terms of the number of guests that they host. The difference of course, is that Disney hosts more people, over a smaller number of properties.

While both operators operate 11/12 parks each (including Disney's joint ventures), Merlin has over 100 midway attractions in addition to this, so the number of "park" visitors is much lower and the capex decisions are reflected in this.

In addition, Disney is a destination park where per-cap spending is infinitely higher than at a Merlin park because there is so much more to the product than the parks (hotels, water parks, dining etc) - they're true resorts at the end of the day, they attract families who are going to spunk $1000s on a holiday, whereas at Thorpe you have some kid on a school trip with a fiver in their pocket for some donuts. That's just the way it is and will continue to be so, forever.

Further - the Florida parks operate year round, whatever Merlin build sits idle for 4/5 months a year - your opportunity for ROI is reduced.

The Universal offering is somewhere in the middle, but they're still huge players in comparison.

Lordy said:
And Transformers cost under $100m, with a much bigger building, with the ride on two floors. The scale of it is huge, where as this is quite small. If they made Transformers the size of DBGT, the cost probably wouldn't have been too much different.
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Each Transformers ride cost $100m million to build, with R&D split between Singapore and the US.

That's not a slam on Merlin, quite the opposite. There are a few things that I don't like as both a visitor and as a shareholder, but one thing I will defend them on is where they spend their money - they're pretty smart most of the time. They build what a park and its market can support.

Badly financed parks, or parks that over spend on ride hardware never work out. Look at Six Flags ten years ago, or the Walibi group after they bought the SF parks, look at Geagua Lake, look at Hard Rock Park. Look at Warner Madrid. The examples of how not to do it are everywhere and for all their faults, Merlin are very safe with their investments.

Look how big Valhalla is and how much money it eats for every second that it's open and how much money it costs in maintenance every time it's closed. There's a reason we haven't seen such an elaborate ride built in this country since then.

If you spend too much money, you are going out of business or you're going to hinder your prospects for long term investment and that's just the way it is.

Here endeth the lesson. Another one same time next week.
 
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Today I experienced the ride when "fully open"
All I can say is , put it back in tech rehearsals ! It was so much better.
:(
How can something go to fully open and make it worse ?
The pre-show the now force everyone to the front (can't stand on the raised area) so no one can see.
You have to queue to board the train as the previous group are still on it finishing their experience.
And what's with the megaphones !
Oh lord !
 
bluesonichd said:
You have to queue to board the train as the previous group are still on it finishing their experience.
And what's with the megaphones !
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We had this on Saturday. I thought it was an intentional thing to make you wait for the train and see the others leaving but perhaps not.
Don't know why they're getting everyone to stand at the front of the preshow. I bet it's something to do with H&S
 
Went again today and it seemed better in the first section and worse in the remainder of it.

In addition to that they are making everyone squeeze onto the platforms in the pre-show now, no one is allowed to stand at the front, which is ridiculous, and they seem to actively encourage everyone shoving each other out of the way and trampling on other people. Something needs to change.
 
AliceHL91 said:
Went again today and it seemed better in the first section and worse in the remainder of it.

In addition to that they are making everyone squeeze onto the platforms in the pre-show now, no one is allowed to stand at the front, which is ridiculous, and they seem to actively encourage everyone shoving each other out of the way and trampling on other people. Something needs to change.
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From having no one on the platform the other day to having everyone on the platform today... This could be turned into a farcical play!
 
Took my first ride on it at the weekend, I had a great time. I don't get the hate, at all.
 
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Are they making everyone stand at the back because you can see the screen that projects on the ceiling if you stand up to the rail?
 
Here's the full review of my first experience. I thought it was brilliant.
I was in the first group of the day so I didn't have to wait long to get on the train. Something I didn't notice which other people have mentioned is that the train is actually surrounded by mirrors to create the illusion it is fully suspended. I had no idea how they got the inner tube train out of the "suspended" Victorian carriage.
Even though the graphics are not quite good enough yet, it still impressed me how the virtual train matched the physical train really well.
The first scene on the train actually really scared me. I had the man with the dog. When the girl started reaching over and someone touched me, that made me jump! It was actually very immersive.
I was very impressed when I took off the VR goggles to find we were actually in an underground station and the train was now a tube train on the outside.
From here on I feel the ride starts to go downhill somewhat. So we enter a service tunnel from the station and there is a train which crashes into the entrance of one of the tunnels. It felt too much on rails and it would have been good to have more immersion like having the ground shake, sparks and filling up with real smoke.
On the second platform, we board the next train which has the side torn off. I thought the train would start tilting and I'd be grabbing onto my seat but that never happened. The graphics of the city and monsters was laughable. The rumble from the gas was quite good. Then we waited for what felt like 5 mins in green gas purgatory. Could hardly see anything. Then suddenly there were terribly fake flames out of nowhere and we fell quickly into a pit and the ride was over.
Leaving the suspended Victiorian carriage, I was still in a bit of a haze as to how they moved the trains around. The good thing about this ride however, is that the VR is upgradable and the story could be easily changed to make this ride even better. It's not perfect, but I'm still blown away by the whole illusion. I fully recommend trying it out!
 
I know that I criticised it at first, but I'm actually quite excited to try it again now that it's out of rehearsals. I didn't know before what was an illusion and what the ride actually did, so now I know I will appreciate certain scenes more. I'm also hoping that the vr works a little better this time and maybe that the staff are more helpful because last time they just didn't care at all.

Are the heads availing yet? Last time the jars weren't in stock, and if anyone has one, how good are they?
 
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