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Merlin 2015?

djtruefitt

djtruefitt

TS Team
So the 2014 season might have not ended just yet, but with just over 4 months until the 2015 season starts we seem to know very little about what Merlin have planned for their UK parks next year.

Alton Towers:
There have been rumors of a new CBeebies Land ride, most likely a childrens coaster and also rumors of Ripsaw moving to X-Sector. However neither have been confirmed by the park and no kind of marketing has started yet. CBeebies Land was started to be advertised before Scarefest last year, Smiler was advertised way before the season ended. Even Sub-Terra had marketing during October before it opened.

Thorpe Park:
So THORPE PARK resort have submitted plans for a 2016 dark ride, yet we have no clue what (if anything) they have planned for next year. They surely can't have another season with nothing of note to be installed? It wouldn't surprise me if they get another last minute addition once Merlin find some loose change to give the park.

Chessington:
They do have a countdown on their website for a new ride next year, however there is no mention of what it could possibly be. It might be another re-theme as dragon falls is due one. Or maybe a completely new ride?

LegoLand:
They did submit plans for that new haunted house sub-terra style ride, but that got refused by the council. I'm not sure if they have reapplied for that or if they just intend on having a quiet 2015, and maybe a bigger ride for 2016.
 
You make some good points @djtruefitt - surely the entire Merlin UK park family wont be that quiet?

You've probably just created mass panic in the creative development team :D

Marketing have to decide which buzz phrase they want to use first I guess, then fit an attraction around it, as seems to be the new way of making rides.
 
It seems like it might be a quiet year for 2015 for all Merlin parks.
 
I think next year will be a well earned break. We've have three years of solid investment, even more so over the last two.

I do get a feeling however that each park will still improve in some form or another. Weather it be accommodation, entertainment or refurbishments.
 
I'm pretty sure that Total Thorpe Park hasn't been updated for a long time cause it says 2015 - new coaster which we know has been pushed back.
 
Now be fair... running a theme park is tiring work.

Imagine all those guests wanting new experiences, year on year on year. Why shouldnt they just enjoy whatever is there. Its time cinemas took up the same policy, stop making new films, settle with whats there. I mean if Alton has a 30 year old Enterprise how dare we think its not acceptable.

LEAVE MERLIN ALONE.
 
Well it's not a very exciting year for the British parks, but then again I'm not really surprised so I'm not disappointed. Saying that though I am annoyed that there isn't anything remotely rumoured for Thorpe next year.
 
To give a serious response, it is really sad that Mandyland seems to have the biggest investment with a horrid flat ride.

Im expecting Merlin to whip out some lazy re themes of rides tbh.
 
Merlin are keeping their hands close to their chest, but overall I think it’s going to be an exciting year for the British parks:

Paultons Park are getting Critter Creek. Not sure exactly what it’ll involve, but after Peppa Pig World it’s going to be the park’s second fully themed area (as opposed to individually themed rides) and judging from the investment in recent years it could be pretty impressive. It looks like they’re re-theming the Stinger, and possibly putting a new attraction where Toad Hall was. It expands a little further around the pond towards the water wheel.

Oakwood might be opening their Sleepy Hollow area which was delayed from this season. If it opens it won’t be as big as Neverland, but £2 million would be a decent investment for Oakwood.

Adventure Island are adding an indoor area where Blackbeards used to be. I’m not personally excited by this one and kind of miss seeing the pirate ship, but it might allow them to develop their winter offerings.

Drayton Manor are expanding Thomas Land. Again, not personally that excited as I’m not the demographic, but Thomas Land was very successful and the quality of theming is very good. I’m looking forwards to seeing what they do. I believe there’s also a monkey walk through coming, possibly where the Dinosaur Land used to be.

Dreamland Heritage Park: Not sure which rides are opening in the first stage, but being able to ride the Scenic Railway is enough to excite me.

Pleasure Island may get this crowd sourced ride, but I don’t think anything’s been confirmed.

Alton Towers: Holiday Village

Blackpool Pleasure Beach: Red Arrows Ride. Won’t be a great throughput, but their first new thrill ride in a long time.

New Pleasureland: Were negotiating to open a 'corkscrew coaster' next year. Presumably the Corkscrew from Flamingo Land? But don't think this has been 100% confirmed. The park has been steadily investing.

There aren’t any major new rides in there and no new roller coasters (although the Scenic Railway will be new to a generation), but I think there’s a bit to look forwards to. In recent years the vast majority of investment has come from Merlin. It might be nice to see things balance out a bit more next season.
 
Compelling points made @Funcone for wanting a quieter Merlin year!

It's a shame on reflection that an independent didn't spot this coming and use it as an opportunity to launch a big investment and pinch custom back.

It's very doubtful Merlin will have something big now, if I was a smaller park, I think I would have an attraction agreed and ready to go, and wait till I knew the big parks were having a small year, then launch it short notice to make a bigger impact and pinch custom!
 
This is the problem, with Merlin's obsession with unique selling point rides that must be marketable in a gimmicky way, they simply don't know how to fill up the quiet years with investment... There are so many flaws with their parks on a ride wise basis, yet they never look to solve the issues and just look towards the next big thing...

It's not their fault Ghost got spited by the locals though, but its a shame that our parks have little rapport with the locals so that projects still get built...

Least Chessie are planning on redeveloping Penguin Cove eh?

As for the UK as a whole, no parks have made actual announcements for things apart from Blackpool... We don't actually know what anyone else is getting...
 
Towers are getting a new holiday village, that's a huge investment year, almost certainly they are also getting something in CBeebies.

Not every season requires massive ride investment. I agree Thorpe are naff at adding small investments but I think it's over critical to say nothing is happening at Towers with the holiday village costing a lot of money.

Lego have had bad luck, chessimgtom are getting something also so it's not a dead year.
 
Legoland's "Lego City" is being rethemed to "Lego Friends" next year after their Haunted House got rejected and they didn't really bother with appeal/have a plan B. So they just decided to turn that area of the park into Lego Friends but don't expect anything major.

Chessington are completely redoing penguin cove with new seating, entrances, signage, an expanded enclosure and all sorts and to tie into this, Penguins of Madagascar will be the new Africa stage show (unless there's some crazy last minute change). But Dragon Falls won't be touched next season (and most likely not 2016 with that budget focused on something else).
 
These things we're saying here, do not quality additions make.

Don't give me that rubbish about the holiday village, that's a money making pure revenue generating investment. Yes it does look good, but let's not mistake that for an attraction. Resort capital high return investment is what that is.

I'm not saying nothing else will happen, but nothing there for me so far sounds of an appreciable standard for the worlds second biggest operator.
 
Imagination said:
Chessington are completely redoing penguin cove with new seating, entrances, signage, an expanded enclosure and all sorts and to tie into this, Penguins of Madagascar will be the new Africa stage show (unless there's some crazy last minute change). But Dragon Falls won't be touched next season (and most likely not 2016 with that budget focused on something else).
Click to expand...

Last year Chessington also replaced market square (which nobody expected) and did many other new painting jobs so I expect to see refurbishment works continue across the park, even things that are unexpected.
 
Ben said:
Now be fair... running a theme park is tiring work.

Imagine all those guests wanting new experiences, year on year on year. Why shouldnt they just enjoy whatever is there. Its time cinemas took up the same policy, stop making new films, settle with whats there. I mean if Alton has a 30 year old Enterprise how dare we think its not acceptable.

LEAVE MERLIN ALONE.
Click to expand...
I know this isn't what you were going with.. but Cinemas don't make the films, cinemas don't invest in their own sites, and cinemas are definitely relying on 30 year old infrastructure (apart from projectors - we've got The Smiler projectors) ;)
 
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