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Good on you for being positive! Far more generous than I'd have been! 😂

So... I went on this for the first time on Friday and was simply astonished by it. Astonished that somebody, somewhere, signed off a huge sum of money to build this. I went into this with an open mind and not knowing what to expect, but it was quite simply, terrible. I believe that the ride has already been here for a couple of years, I can't see any way that this thing lasts longer than maybe another couple, even with enhancements and changes, the concept is just poor. They'd be better off ripping down whats inside and making this into a scare-maze.

When this is what we ended up with, you think back to all the rubbish that was spoken about DBGT on its launch. So many enthusiasts coming out telling everyone it was near enough better than Universal, the best attraction "the UK" had ever produced, "that I couldnt help but clap when it finished". I even had some enthusiast friends who were scorned for not having done it yet as if it was a duty to go see it the moment it opened, as if Thorpe Park was a charity and you had an obligation to support the greatest ride ever made. Honestly... All this was said about the original version too. I wouldnt be surprised if all those people were just getting free tickets from Thorpe to say whatever the park wanted.

Thought I’d just leave this image below as a reminder of some of what this event once had over the years..... *cries in a corner!! Going from Freezer to Do or die really is like holidaying in the Bahamas one minute then finding yourself in Bognor (no offence to anyone with any connection to Bognor!!)

I like the bit where he says "My Ghost Train" and hope Thorpe release merch with this on next year.

My favourite part of the attraction is the exit!

One of the things they could do is actually dismantle it? If I wanted to see an interesting ornament I’d visit a sculpture park!

This is exactly what I think it should be! A real ghost train.

Why does it have a rectum? 🤣

So when can we have Slammer back? My favourite flat ride still sat there rusting away

I still can't believe they took out the live scene, the only good part of the entire experience.

DBGTROTD has a lot to answer for. The lack of any brand new, not recycled investments since, for one thing I reckon Bouncezilla will be back for 2020, bigger and bouncier than before.

Definitely agree to put asylum/hellgate etc in the same category as e.g. dead creek woods is just silly. I guess bognor is cheap and cheerful? lol.

make sure we all light a candle 🕯️ for all big top fans who think it's coming back this year.

Oh yes @JoshC. also sent me a clue: BiGT0P iz N0T ComINg BacK. Could you help me decipher it please?

Didn’t realise there was a topic on this so I may as well attempt to sort of revive it. After having done 1st year Civil and Structural Engineering at Leeds, I decided it wasn’t the right course for me. This is because I wasn’t particularly enjoying it, I was really struggling to take in information during lectures (whilst did attend every lecture, it wouldn’t have made a difference if decided to bunk off most of them instead) and I didn’t take to it naturally unlike many other students who naturally enjoyed it and could take to it very well. I did manage to get 65% which was a huge shock (in a good way) that was mainly due to some insane cramming and was also dragged up by getting 85% in the maths module. So instead I will be switching to Mathematics and repeating first year whilst still staying at Leeds because it’s an amazing city (and the music society is brilliant). Maths has always been my strongest subject, a subject I personally found easy (whilst still enjoyable at A Level) and have always been intrigued with as it gets more advanced. The maths lectures during first year engineering were also the only lectures I genuinely enjoyed so I’m pretty confident I will enjoy studying it a lot more than engineering. So yeah... time to do first year for the second time!

We finally have footage of the Black Forest Chateau organist. He pretty much looks like a human version of the one in the Vampire's station.

You’re so negative. It might? Jeez.

Can we just be clear about Big Top:

Oh right, ok.

BigTopDan... it ain’t coming back.

Has anyone been to the park during halloween season? I'm planning on going this year on the way to DLP, and it does seem like they have a few scare attractions according to the website, as well as late night opening on certain nights, but I'm not 100% sure what they are like - so would be keen to hear any thoughts on whether they are worth doing or not. If nobody here has been at that time of year, I'll report back how I get on

Ahhh the million dollar question

Another classic from Face-Fok ltd!!

Is it that grand though from the tight angle you see it from? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Another thing, I find it really naff that you see guests getting off the train carriage before/whilst you board, ideally the offload should have been on the other side surely? It'd be really nice if Thorpe arranged a behind the scenes tour for TPM, the same way that PBE members (myself included) have had tours round the interior of Valhalla.

But even lunch wasn't something Asterix was able to provide without a huge unmanaged queue snaking across one of the main throughways in the park. It was clear they weren't expecting it to be busy (they obviously don't watch weather forecasts) as most of the little food and drink booths were closed, but again there was a lack of any attempt to to manage the queue with some barriers or serve people with any sort of speed. This is just a little booth with the total number of options being hotdog or tradition sausage with a drink but they still couldn't manage it and it took nearly half an hour to get our snack. It was decent value and tasty though. Now I was starting to get worried I we wouldn't fit in both OzIris and Zeus before the day was out so we decided regardless of queue length to just do them, Oziris was nearest and just as we had seen at Zeus the queue was spilling out of the entrance and even out of the ride area all the way past the the pathway under the logflume. That is a long long way. As ever totally unmanaged, people cutting in all over the place and infuriating to be in, it took us about 50 mins just to get into the main queue. After about two hours we made it to the ride itself. There is no denying the area and ride itself are stunning. Beautifully themed, especially once in the indoor queue. I didn't much care though, two hours wait is too long for me in any conditions but surrounded by the stench of the French in over 100 degree heat with no cover whatsoever I've probably never been in a worse mood getting on a ride. Look at the huge amount of space there. Why are there not tensa barriers or something used to make some sort of queue line when it is this busy. They just make no effort with operations whatsoever. After all that moaning I can't deny the ride itself is near perfection. Enough people have said enough good things about it without me being able to add much insight but the standout for me are the zero g rolls, which are just so perfectly executed. I've never felt anything like it, they seem to last forever in a little bubble of floatiness. The whole thing flows beautifully and is so much fun to ride, I'm not sold on the lack of pre drop but that is probably just a case of getting used to it, other than that there is not a single moment that does not feel just right. Our back row seat was almost worth the two hours wait. Almost. After this we were desperate for a drink but guess what? Asterix didn't want to sell me one. It took ages to even find a stand open and then 20 minutes to get served, all the time fighting off people who wanted to push in front of me. We had only a couple of hours left so decided we had to do Zeus and from what we had seen of the queue earlier, that would be about it. Walking back down to the other side of the park we took a look at what we were missing out on which included a kiddie barrel coaster, a StormSurge-a-like (meh) and a decent looking log flume. Coming across the bobsled coaster 'Hourra' with only a small overspilling queue and a sign declaring '20 minutes from this point' we thought we'd be fine. Just over an hour later when we finally got on I was properly worried about not getting to Zeus on time, again taking away from how much I could enjoy the ride itself. I have something of a soft spot for Mack bobsleds and this was the best I've been on, I loved the length and feeling of out of control speed it gives. Why aren't there more of these about? Not knowing the queue close policy we quickly made our way to Zeus, again going passed things we wouldn't get a go on; Grand Splash, a magic carpet (meh) and a dolphin show which just started to spill out hundreds of people into a narrow pathway causing utter chaos (who the hell designed this place) to find Zeus looking exactly as it did earlier in the day but with no one telling us not to join, we did. This time there actually was someone at the entrance stopping the constant parade of queue jump attempts and as a result after 15 minutes or so we were through the legs of Zeus in the queue proper where we found every extension closed and we were on within 45 minutes. What a stupid way to run the place - build a queueline, keep it closed and let everyone line up zig zagging across a busy pathway. Utter morons. I love wooden coasters and had been looking forward to this for a long long time. Having said that considering its age I didn't expect Zeus to be right up there with the best of the modern stuff. How wrong I was. Again heading for the back I could not believe as we crested the lift hill how huge it was, so much of it being hidden away. The first drop into the tunnel is a stunner and it does not let up until the final brake run with huge amounts of airtime and a pleasing roughness giving it some real character. I seemed to spend just as long out of my seat as in it and as it pulled into the station I had the most ridiculous grin on my face. My top ten would be very much troubled by this ride. I could have ridden in over and over again. Except I couldn't as we emerged to find the queue line had been closed even though it was still about 10 minutes to park close. Assuming the day was over we wandered back towards the exit where we found Grand Splash was still open with very little queue, so we had a go on that too, which felt like a bit of a bonus really. Not a bad ride with some good water effects on the way round but ends with a poor and anticlimactic final drop. And with that our day was over so it was back to the car for the short drive back to the hotel, which may have included me getting entirely lost and finding out that driving on that side of the road in the dark in small villages is less easy than in the daytime. So what do I think of Asterix overall then? It is a very good looking park, a lot of the theming is spectacular, immersive and well maintained and it has two of the very best rides I have ever been on with Zeus and OzIris. But what is the point of all that if it is absolutely impossible to have a good time there? I know I was unlucky with the weather causing crazy busyness but when you are visiting from so far away, with all the cost and effort involved, it is a risk that is not worth taking if the park can be run that badly when too many people turn up. Most annoyingly it is very much designed and run with the queue jumper in mind, but unfortunately for helping them rather than stopping them. I vowed at the end of the day I'd never go back, which is kind of shocking for a park that has rides entering my top ten twic, but I don't feel like I have actually been to Asterix and experienced what it has the potential to deliver, I've merely been on some of the rides there. Now I've thought about it a bit I probably will return one day but I won't ever base a trip around it. If I am passing I will consider it but if I turn up to 3km queues on the way in I will drive right by to somewhere that can be bothered to actually run their park rather than just open the doors and hope for the best.

Of all the bad things merlin have done I’m not sure closing slammer is one of them, it was a maintenance nightmare it’s amazing it went on as long as it did - along with that it wasn’t overly popular! The biggest shame is it’s not been replaced yet!

Those photos make me sad. Fright Nights used to be such an incredible event, what happened?