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Small News From The Theme Park Industry

The park have been considering this change for years. A good 4-5 years by my reckoning.

I guess with Hyperia opening they can go full rebrand with that. Hopefully it pays off, as at this point, the infinity logo is pretty synonymous with Thorpe.
 
I remember reading an interview with Merlin's CEO Scott O'Neill somewhere (maybe Blooloop? Don't remember), where he stated his plan was to establish Merlin itself as a more recognizable brand, so I wonder if we will see something along the line of "Merlin Thorpe Park Resort" or "Thorpe Park - a Merlin resort".
 
I can imagine the word "Resort" is definately going to be added as they have referred to themselves as Thorpe Park Resort for a while now.

I believe Thorpe Park is the only Merlin park without "Resort" in the logo? Although Thorpe don't have a 'proper' hotel like all the others do either.
 
Santa's Village have released a video for their new Vekoma Midnight Flyer. The physics are looking a bit.....off but it looks like a nice little coaster for the park.
 
For anyone heading to Efteling soon, Joris en de Draak was announced today to be shut until the end of April 2024 starting on October 30th, with one brief operating period during the Christmas holidays. It was originally set to only be shut from the start of November to the holidays, but the park has decided to increase the maintenance work and basically refurbish the entire attraction in one go, including retracking as much as possible with a special type of hardwood that'll hopefully last longer. No additional Titan Track will be put in, however.

 
For anyone heading to Efteling soon, Joris en de Draak was announced today to be shut until the end of April 2024 starting on October 30th, with one brief operating period during the Christmas holidays. It was originally set to only be shut from the start of November to the holidays, but the park has decided to increase the maintenance work and basically refurbish the entire attraction in one go, including retracking as much as possible with a special type of hardwood that'll hopefully last longer. No additional Titan Track will be put in, however.

If their already retracking then why not go with Titan Track? It just doesn't make sense from a financial perspective. I know I dont own the park but it seems like a better choice would be Titan Track so they dont have to retrack it again.
 
The managing director of Germany's Freizeitland Geiselwind was arrested on fraud and tax evasion charges. According to the Würzburg public prosecutor's office, he is said to have embezzled €374,000. The charges include fraud and tax evasion in numerous cases. The public prosecutor's office accuses him of paying Romanian employees less salary than promised in 21 cases. He then paid the difference to the agreed wage off the books.

Additionally, the managing director is said to have received short-time work benefits totaling €244,000 euros for 20 of his employees during the coronavirus pandemic. However, the money was paid out incorrectly because, according to the public prosecutor, he used the money for renovation work in the park. There obviously were no short-time workers in the park during the corona-related closure. If all of this can be proven, a prison sentence seems unavoidable. The case will be heard next Thursday. Source (in German)
 
Not sure if it’s worth bumping the accident thread for this, but the infamous Orlando Freefall is being listed for sale on amusement-rides.com:

 
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Not sure if it’s worth bumping the accident thread for this, but the infamous Orlando Freefall is being listed as for sale on amusement-rides.com:

Coming to a random European park near you!
 
SFGAm is giving some of Demon's rockwork the axe.

Apparently the rockwork was in awful state outside and in even worse state inside, but this development has kicked off a flurry of discussion stating the ride's going to be removed. I don't buy it. If it were on the chopping block it'd have been teased/announced already.

Demon lives! All of the rockwork around the loops was removed.

sfgamDemonRockwork1.jpg

sfgamDemonRockwork2.jpg
Source: https://www.facebook.com/JiggidyNDG...TqZHWvS8ja85BVgaYHH2Wn42EWNfwdbodUw4trk4LZJUl
 
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