Alastair said:
I'm glad they aren't succumbing to the Zamperla flats - they're frankly vile however much they might represent new rides. Also, there are about 100 clones of them in this country alone given every other park outside of Merlin only cares for kids anyway. I just hope that they are still considering thrill flats for 2015 instead of concentrating all the money into CBeebies - as neglecting thrill flats for another year would not go down well.
Zamperla's coasters leave a lot to be desired but I think their flat rides actually aren't that bad, in fact they have some pretty decent ones. In terms of thrill flats, they make the Power Surge and the Air Race. As for family rides, they produce crowd pleasers such as the Disko. When it comes to kiddie rides, they have rides such as the Rockin' Tug and the Crazy Bus.
I think it's important to remember that Zamperla have a very wide product range and that not all of their products are cheap and bottom-of-the-range. Incidentally, the cheap rides they do produce aren't necessarily a bad thing as they allow smaller parks to buy new rides that they otherwise wouldn't be able to afford. I do accept that these aren't really suitable for a park such as Alton though.