Recent content by rickydoodle

It's certainly all about perception. If you pay the gate price to go into the Merlin park, you're either a foreign tourist or a fool. The sheer number of vouchers available is mind blowing. You have to wonder if the posted gate price only exists to make you think "Wow, we're saving so much...

I think it depends on several things. Many of them intangible. I can see the logic in the £1 per ride thing - but I'm not sure I could work with that in terms of making each ride equal. If you take a park like Toverland, each time I go I think I ride four or five different rides but I've...

As mentioned above, I think it will depend on the discounting provided by Merlin. During an interview with Thorpe's marketing manager Andy De Luc, he said; If Alton Towers entry is £40 and Drayton's is £20 but you have a half price entry ticket for Alton - you are given the perception...

I've just put these photographs on - I wasn't expecting the site to be quite so big. It appears to be from infront of the Big Wheel all the way back to the lake near Flying Dutchman.

Hmm. Good topic. My initial thought is that removing any ride and not replacing it is damaging to the overall capacity of any park. While X:WTF is pretty dire, I am more than happy for a lot of unsuspecting people to spend an hour in the pyramid while I enjoy/queue for the other rides. I...

^ Is Merlin still the second largest theme park operator if you only take into account their theme parks? Or does that statistic only work if you include the London Eye, Dungeons etc?

I don't tend to have a number one really, I don't tend to rank rides full stop. Tonnerre de Zeus would be among my favourites, not sure if it would be my top though.

I think it's a culture thing! Culture of the people; As said above, I think people are content not to to to the parks during the winter period. Outside of the hardcore enthusiast market - I think a lot of people are happy to visit the parks during the summer and that's their fix for the year...

I agree the underhandedness of it all sucks. The standard pass is still a valid product for a family who are out of the country two weeks in August yet still plan to hit the parks once a year, head to Blackpool for the Illuminations and Sea Life over the winter. But I agree, it's not a great...

I have very little love for Bling - it's just a shame that the park has lost other spin rides like Spin Dr, Millennium Bug & Black Hole in the same decade. And I guess Turtle Chase, Trauma Towers & Whip on a lower level. Also - the park has lost three dark rides over the past few years...

Hmm - I don't think anyone is being forced to do anything. The price associated with any product, no matter what it is will rise. Running costs for any business rise over time - it's being passed on to the customer.

I love the original Nemesis theme - just because it was so damn different and original. I think anything that starts 'something' is regarded to as the best. Even films that have great sequels - the original is usually considered 'the best' 99% of the time. The volcano theme is great on...

^ If people post things to Duane - he'll update, I think it's almost got to the point where dare I say it, 'the kind of people' who do take note of what's going on and actively update sites like RCDB have given up because it just changes too damn often. Also, the only way of finding out...

I don't understand th is notion that the pass should remain the same price and shouldn't develop as a product. Adding the Blackpool attractions is a very smart move if you plot the existing Merlin attractions on a map (get it?) but yeah...anyway - it's very South centred so bringing some...

I think Ben 10 is a very powerful IP to utilise at the moment - I just wonder how long it will remain this powerful for...? I think Thomas is almost timeless - not sure about Ben 10's longevity though.