Small News From The Theme Park Industry

[CSLKennyNI]

For 2019 Movie Park Germany are expanding their Nickelodeon kids area with a new Paw Patrol mini themed area.

'With new attractions, many design details and interactive elements, the "Adventure Bay" known from the popular Nickelodeon series is brought to life and made accessible to all fans of the series. The opening of the new PAW Patrol Area is scheduled for spring 2019.

From the spring of 2019, you will be able to enjoy a speedy off-road ride with the entire family on the "PAW Patrol Adventure Tour"
There will be a new interactive children's playground dedicated to Zuma, the brown Labrador, and Rubble, the cheeky bulldog
With "Zuma's Zoomer" you go on a wild air cushion boat ride on the beach of "Adventure Bay"
As a further highlight in addition to numerous details of the well-known TV series the 15-meter high command center of the puppies awaits you!'

Some more info from the designer's website:
"In the new area you will be able to meet the pups from PAW Patrol at a brand new dedicated photo opportunity at the bottom of the 15 meter high command tower, which will be the visible all throughout ‘Adventure Bay’. Next to the new meet and greet, guest can also enjoy the rethemed ‘Zooma’s Zoomer’ and a newly installed Convoy ride by Italian manufacturer Zamperla."
https://leisureexpertgroup.com/paw-patrol-2019-movie-park-germany/

 

[Matt N]

It would seem that West Midlands Safari Park has been purchased by the Looping Group, the owners of Pleasurewood Hills: https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/business/west-midland-safari-park-been-15651930
Hopefully this will mean good things for the park's future!

 

[Matt N]

Sorry for double posting, but I just saw this Guardian article on Facebook about a major theft at Thorpe Park:
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2019/jan/12/rollercoaster-ride-day-at-thorpe-park-ends-with-lost-bag-and-car-theft
It must be terrible to have something like that happen to you, although I must wonder how someone was able to steal a bag from Saw's baggage hold...

 

[CrashCoaster]

The first episode of Wicker Man Winter is here:-

 

[streetmagix]

Sorry for double posting, but I just saw this Guardian article on Facebook about a major theft at Thorpe Park:
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2019/jan/12/rollercoaster-ride-day-at-thorpe-park-ends-with-lost-bag-and-car-theft
It must be terrible to have something like that happen to you, although I must wonder how someone was able to steal a bag from Saw's baggage hold...

'Yeah I dropped my wristband somewhere, it was number 65. Yeah, the blue bag. Thanks'

 

[CrashCoaster]

Alton Towers have submitted the plans for 2 new junior drop towers for this year as an expansion to CBeebies land next to Mr Bloom's Allotment. It will apparently be called "Hip Hop":-

Source.

I wonder what this will mean for the future of CCL and the Frog Hopper.

 

[Lofty]

...yay! Frog hoppers

 

[JoshC.]

Efteling have done an article about how they're improving queueing...
https://www.efteling.com/nl/blog/backstage/20190114-kortere-wachtrijen

Highlights include:
-Sorting out the brakes on Vogel Rok, so it can run 3 trains again
-Getting a 5th train for Joris, in case one requires maintenance during the day
-More SRQs
-New queue for Pirana, splitting group sizes
-Update to the Efteling App, which gives a notification when a ride reaches a queue time

They're making a couple of tweaks to the virtual queueing system for Python again, as that's something they want to persevere with.

 

[Zek_Teh_Kek]

Update to the Efteling App, which gives a notification when a ride reaches a queue time

This
This is what every big or popular park needs. I can't tell you how many times I've thought Cedar Point needs this feature! Does it notify you when a queue reaches a certain time, like "This ride has reached a queue time of 30 minutes"?

 

[JoshC.]

You select a queue length (10min - 60min in 10mon intervals) for a specific ride. Once the queue is that length, or less, you get a notification to tell you so.

So for example, if Symbolica has an hour queue, but you only want to wait 20mins for it, you just choice that option, and wait for the notification to come through.

Another big thing they've done is to now close ride queue lines at park close, rather than closing them so the ride clears the queue at park close (except in rare cases), which is a very good thing in my eyes.

 

[Crazycoaster]

Why is that a good thing? Means you get to ride less things in a day??

 

[JoshC.]

Why is that a good thing? Means you get to ride less things in a day??

How so?

Under the old system, say, if the park closed at 6pm, and Baron had a 15min queue at 5.45pm, the queue would close. You get there at 5.50pm, and you're out of luck. With the new system, you can turn up at 5.59 and still get that one extra ride.

 

[Crazycoaster]

Oh I read it the other way, my bad. I thought they did close the queues at park close already and you were saying they were closing it earlier.

 

[roomraider]

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=755502878147471

An update from Thailand as a small Tribhum in Phuket gets its first visitors. The park has a number of indoor rides and theaters as well as a large zip line coaster which runs round a huge outdoor Volcano.

Full gallery of pics can be found here

 

[vaugc002]

That looks amazing! Such a great use of the often limited layouts these zipwire coasters can offer.

 

[CrashCoaster]

I've noticed the thread about the Fantasilandia woodie has been removed. Any particular reason as to why?

 

[TilenB]

I've noticed the thread about the Fantasilandia woodie has been removed. Any particular reason as to why?

What Fantasilandia woodie?

 

[Matt N]

Not sure if there's a thread for this park, but it would seem that Pleasure Island's Boomerang is headed to Trans Studio Action Zone in Jakarta, Indonesia:
https://rcdb.com/17051.htm
Nice to see it get a home!

 

[Lori Marie Loud]

And just like magic, Knott's boomerang has popped up again. It's also headed to a Trans Studio.
https://rcdb.com/17050.htm

 

[SilverArrow]

Cool, saw what I believe was those two boomerangs getting refurbished in the Netherlands so it's good to see they did go somewhere. The other coaster was apparently the dungeon one but I haven't heard anything about that.