Marc

Capacity?! No where near, fireworks were very quiet!

We're planning to send over some questions to the park regarding this development, so if you have any questions you would love to know the answers to please PM them to me and we will send them over to the park

Seems more a Merlin thing surely? The fact that people got excited the "UK's Number One theme park" will open past 4PM during September / October says alot. Agree its frustrating they close the ride for filming, maybe these comments are best passed on to the park, if enough people complain they will look at it.

Last year the annual pass preview wasnt really a preview day as such, it was just the only day of the event where standard / thorpe annual pass holders were let in for free, the park was still open as normal to guests. Thing is your friend would have to pay full price to get in!

I know that water has been switched back on now and seems to work fine, I'm not sure if they've fixed the problem with the fire lighting yet

Water and fire are working?

They are very different parks, but walking out the dome seeing some of the UK's tallest, fastest and most intense coasters from every corner of the eye is also pretty neat

I'm guessing this was a merlin idea and not thorpe, I wonder if this is linked with Altons very cheap offers in their hotel this year and they are just not as busy as expected - hence the cheap offers and hence this? Still aslong as its "styled" nicely it will look ok I hope, whilst its never going to look amazing I just hope some efforts made into its appearance.

I did wonder this too...... Also agree with this, but I guess times are hard at the moment all the merlin parks have been subject to budget cuts and what not, I do wonder if its so they can get a "hotel" open for the 2013 season which wouldnt be possible with a full hotel.

I dont think we can say its a "fact" this is a poor decision just yet, whilst I agree they will look pretty naff from the outside the rooms look a reasonable quality inside, we will only know if its a poor decision once we know how the hotel performs. Surely by the 24 hour security on site?

Agree with this, can see them being pretty popular with the club nights which seem to sell out every time and being open till 3AM limits public transport options for those drinking.

I agree, thorpe wont match it, but then how many guests can the alton hotel sleep compared? With 117 bedrooms the Bar 360 is probably big enough to facilitate guests, although I suspect most would leave the site and go into Staines. I get the feeling their obviously not to sure if they can warrant the investment in a hotel which would obviously be way more expensive than this. By the sounds of it they only plan to trial it a year then go full steam ahead and build the hotel at the end of 2013.

I guess if the dome stays open it would equal the offerings of Altons hotel? Food / Bar / Arcade? Just not all on site. Thorpes also open later more often with their club nights which are open till 3am, with very little public transport at that time I can see these being popular then. I guess we will see, and hope there successful enough for them to justify going ahead with the full plans for hotel.

Having read through the plans, there are delays with building the full hotel for a few reasons (I'm guessing mainly money). The Snoozebox is due to open Spring next year, much quicker they could ever dream of opening a hotel (and much cheaper if it fails), its due to be open for 3 years (close when new main hotel opens) and will have no effect on the coaster developments. If you think Runnymede denying this would be in anyway shape or form good for the park your crazy, that would set them back yonks and damage potential future investments.

Stealth all the way

I dont think single rider could ever work on Swarm for the same reason which front row queue dont, unless you were batched to rows from the bag room point but that would get even more confusing.

Thankfully though, issues such as Monday with many rides down is quite rare now, which is why free tickets were issued.

It wont be new by then

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I guess its a fine line, ive been on park and Swarms opened on 1 train for literally 5 minutes to then shutdown and the other added, whilst it only takes 5/10 mins its abit frustrating, but if there's a good 30 mins or so before the train will be ready I personally would rather it opened on 1 train till the others ready. Why there not both ready for 9:30 is a whole different matter to which I guess we may never know the reasons behind.

I guess we shall ignore the fact that 9 times out of 10 they open the entire park 30 mins earlier than advertised

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Anyone here up for a TPM Fantasy Football league?

The reason staff say they don't know is down to things change so often, If you were told a ride was due to be open In 20 min that would cause even more complaints than them giving nothing away. No idea why the sudden change back to their old ways, but hopefully they can sort it soon, reliability hasn't been a huge issue for a couple of years now.

Thankfully not really, hence the free tickets?