2026: General Discussion

[KolonelKlink]

Of course everyone's entitled to complain about the apparent decline, including vloggers, but when you're as big as him the the theme park world with a total of nearly half a million subscribers on YouTube alone, you have to go a bit careful about what you're saying and how you're saying it. He's not saying anything bad or untrue, but it's the overall negative vibe he often puts across.

So we’re tone policing vloggers now even if their content is factually accurate?

For various reasons, Towers isn't at its best at the moment, so if I were him I'd be acknowledging the bad bits (of course) but then getting behind the park and encouraging people to visit; not be totally negative all the time which will inevitably put some people off from planning a trip

Of all the things you can say about Shawn Sanbrooke, he is undeniably a glass-half-full man (too much so sometimes) and won’t say things are bad unless they really are.

He’s done more than most to get people visiting UK theme parks (particularly smaller attractions) and is entitled to give a fair critique of what he sees - I mean he’s a former Towers employee of however many years, for goodness’ sake, so if he thinks ops are bad, I believe him. Others can choose not to - that’s the beauty of freedom of speech and freedom of thought! But suggesting he should tone down criticism of a major conglomerate to save Merlin’s blushes when there is quite clearly some fairly serious costcutting going on is utterly, utterly farcical.

 

[MrCoaster]

Looks like the app map hasn't been updated for 2026 yet!

 

[Ash]

As opening days go it’s not been too bad today. There’s been no sewage leaking from any rides… yet.

There is also a light show on at the towers at 6:30pm- which I’ve not seen advertised previously.

A light show on the towers you say?…

So Drayton have set the bar and Alton have said hold my beer!

Great to see. Where’s the bird? That’s another item off the wishlist!

Projection mapping next…

 

[Skyscraper]

Looks like the app map hasn't been updated for 2026 yet!

It has, you may need to update it manually via your settings.

 

[Alfredo]

A light show on the towers you say?…

So Drayton have set the bar and Alton have said hold my beer!

Great to see. Where’s the bird? That’s another item off the wishlist!

Projection mapping next…

You're right, how come they never did towers ruins projection mapping before?

Also apparently the hand in a jar from the haunted house has been put back into curse so i've been told

 

[Hid]

Also apparently the hand in a jar from the haunted house has been put back into curse so i've been told

This is true in the Attic scene keep your eyes peeled.

On another note fast track is ridculous for Wickerman

 

[Vik]

This is true in the Attic scene keep your eyes peeled.

On another note fast track is ridculous for Wickerman

Yep. It’s spilling out the main entrance. Might as well join main.

 

[AT86]

One hour+ fastrack for Wickerman according to TowersTimes.

Almost like giving platinum pass holders a free fastrack with no timeslots on a day when night rides are the main draw wasn’t the best idea after all. Who could have possibly seen that coming?

 

[Benzin]

Sounds like that one summer where they said MAP holders could use Fastrack for the last hour of the day and every day resulted in a full Fastrack queue.

 

[Bowser]

Thirteen apparently closed 90 minutes ago due to low temperature??

 

[VerticalLoop123]

Light show review

Spoiler: Spoiler light show

2015 Fireworks soundtrack + GCSE drama students do the lighting. Very underwhelming! Thought by this point they will have projection mapped the towers. It reminded me that the 2015 fireworks finale song works so much better with actual fireworks

 

[Dobba]

Spectacular amounts of compensation face on themepark social media accounts this evening.

 

[spotweld]

Spectacular amounts of compensation face on themepark social media accounts this evening.

Bite-your-tongue worthy antics.

 

[George W]

You're right, how come they never did towers ruins projection mapping before?

Also apparently the hand in a jar from the haunted house has been put back into curse so i've been told

I was wondering if it was always there and I somehow only just noticed it today but that's amazing to hear it used to be in the haunted house!

 

[Alfredo]

I was wondering if it was always there and I somehow only just noticed it today but that's amazing to hear it used to be in the haunted house!

Yes it was took out when they put in duel it was originally in the queue when you entered the house, they probably just chucked it into a storage closet and forgot about it

 

[Secret Weapon]

In non-opening day news - John Burton has confirmed on his Instagram that he has now left Merlin.

I wonder if Merlin (and John Wardley specifically) now regret annointing John Burton as the official successor to John Wardley * ?

It was a luxury that wasn't afforded to some of John Burton's predecessors (e.g. Bradley Wynne and Ben Dowson).

I remember thinking at the time that it was a risky move to make him (or anybody) the public face of Merlin, as there is always the risk that they could leave the company and then take all of the credibility with them.

(*I say this because, at the end of John Wardley's 2024 book, he ends with "John Burton - over to you", and I also remember reading - in John Burton's 2024 Guardian interview, I think - that John Wardley specifically requested that John Burton sit beside him on Nemesis' final ride in 2022, as he wanted it to be a 'passing of the torch' moment)

I also wonder why he chose to make the announcement on opening day (notwithstanding the fact that he inadvertently let the cat out of the bag on LinkedIn earlier this week), and didn't at least wait for Bluey to open first? Maybe Merlin hoped that it would get buried in the noise?

 

[rob666]

I remember thinking at the time that it was a risky move to make him (or anybody) the public face of Merlin, as there is always the risk that they could leave the company and then take all of the credibility with them.

What credibility?
The park was sliding when he was appointed, and it is still sliding.

 

[QTXAdsy]

Regarding losing JB, is it honestly a bad thing? When you look at the work at the park from 2023 to 2026, nothing has been groundbreaking as they have been just glorified refurbishments which admittingly I appreciate but to the GP they didn't get them excited.

WoJ at Chessington wasn't really the best that I suspect likely had more oversight from the IP owners rather than Merlin themselves, the same goes for Paw Patrol, Bluey and eventually Minecraft etc, how much did JB have a say in those now?

And ofc Hyperia, it's lack of theming by design and short length was thanks to Nick Varney than Burton so you begin to question if he really did half the stuff he did or was made as a face for the company to take credit or be the punching bag if the final product was poor.

So if rumours are to be believed that he's off to Universal, then honestly given his track record so far, could be a mistake on their part. Despite all this though, he did have something of a vision for the park in which right now Towers is massively lacking as with PH still up in the air and no real solid rumours about what is going on other than ride closures and survival, I don't think even Merlin know what they want with the park in contrast to Chessington which at least has a vision for better or worse.

 

[Hid]

John Burton intial design for Wickerman was going to mostly be the turn with no banking on all the turns so its speed would of been lost he is not a coaster designer

 

[BarryZola]

Let's be honest, hardly any of these imagineers or whatever they're known as are irreplaceable. There are probably people on this forum who given the chance and ambition could do as good a job as the likes of JB at dreaming up new concepts. Indeed I think JB himself used to be a member of this forum (or TT). The difference is, only one person can get that job at Merlin and then they become the default hero to impressionable thoosies for a while. Wardley was clearly on a higher level to the pretenders who have followed, and as pointed out above, it's said that he had to come in at the last minute and save Wicker Man from a bad coaster layout. There has been nothing totally remarkable in recent years and the theme for Hyperia, in my opinion, was pretty weak.