Marc

If i felt i was visiting a place which didn't want me to have a good time I quite simply wouldn't visit - sure the parks are not perfect I don't think anyone ever claims them to be - but Merlin run them significantly better than they were ran in the latter tussauds years. The parks are full of passionate people trying to improve things every day and things do improve - i'm really not sure i would describe any of the merlin parks as heartbreaking. As for the Ghost train delay - what new ride projects would you say Merlin have "royaly ballsed up"? From the top of my head DBGT and Smiler are the only Merlin projects significantly delayed - Smiler turned out to be probably the groups most successful ride (ignoring the accident) NST turned out to be not very great and feedback was listened to and it was improved. Other than that I cant think of anything else - Of course there may be projects we dont like (Swarm backwards, Storm Surge) but thats a whole different issue. As i said - they are not perfect - we all know that - but they are far from awful and im confident they will deliver here.

The thing is parks are notoriously quiet about things like this - they don't want to go into details because that could ruin any potential rides on it, they don't want to set an date to avoid any more potential backlash if they miss it. People are suggesting not setting an opening date in the first place would have been a good idea - but i feel if we had got to now with still no open date the backlash would also be as bad if not worse than it is now. That said theres plenty of evidence we are getting closer to a date, the almost daily hotel trials prove that. Not sure where things like this come from but id be amazed if thats the case, the ride will be built to the plans prepared, plans which i assume Derren will have agreed to. You only have to walk around the shop to realise this isn't anything like Merlin have undertaken before.. As i said before I get why people are disappointed (myself included) but there is certainly a level of negativity on here from people complaining about just about everything Merlin / Thorpe do - personally if I ever felt so strongly against them i think id just not visit but thats for another discussion. There is progress though, with the hotel rides and we've started to see a trickle of things re-appear in the media.

Indeed - but the bits we have seen are looking promising ?

There's still 4 and a bit months left - I think stating it won't open for another 3 months when there are daily hotel guest trials is a little unrealistic That and the many years it will be open - 2 months isn't much!

Please don't assume we are all that way. Of course I'm disappointed it's not open yet and a couple month delay is far from ideal for us looking forward to getting on it (and even more so the park!!) but that said - the quality from what we've seen of this so far is significantly better than anything Merlin have produced before and I really can't wait for it to open and get on it!!

No. There will be a reason behind it other than its not ready.

All I have so far!

Boris Johnson had come out and massively u-turned on their promises here - remember the points based immigration system?! With Scotland I a mess, Ireland in a mess, France getting iffy on our boarder agreements and the markets in termoil it wouldn't surprise me if we never leave and Boris is setting the ground work for that. His column said: "I cannot stress too much that Britain is part of Europe, and always will be. "There will still be intense and intensifying European co-operation and partnership in a huge number of fields: the arts, the sciences, the universities, and on improving the environment. "EU citizens living in this country will have their rights fully protected, and the same goes for British citizens living in the EU. "British people will still be able to go and work in the EU; to live; to travel; to study; to buy homes and to settle down. As the German equivalent of the CBI - the BDI - has very sensibly reminded us, there will continue to be free trade, and access to the single market. "The only change - and it will not come in any great rush - is that the UK will extricate itself from the EU's extraordinary and opaque system of legislation: the vast and growing corpus of law enacted by a European Court of Justice from which there can be no appeal."

I wouldn't assume that - Running a ride to 200 or so people is going to be very different to opening the ride up to 1000's - Timed tickets is still very plausible when this fully opens - it could simply be they didn't use timed tickets yesterday as they are confident the staff have enough experience with running the timed system from previous tests.

I feel like we have totally blindly walked into this - it's frankly embarising I'm sure plenty of people are having a good old laugh at our expense. How on earth can Vote Leave have no plan? The below images sum it up nicely for me.

People at Ghost Train

Good spot - wouldn't surprise me assuming they can use this without people tripping up to much on the tracks!

^ this was scrapped - no idea the reason why!

^ Inferno has an automatic announcement like all other coasters telling you to hold tight and brace your self each dispatch

I assume you've not ridden it recently - is now much clearer - will admit it's not as bassy in there when the train departs as it was back in 03 but the cannons are certainly on

They are on and have been on for years.

The park is getting busier now that school trips have started - they usually go home at 3/4pm though. The bad weather may put people off too!

Who are we - as customers, to decide what priorities hotel guests should or should not get?!

People didn't actually seem to bothered - attraction which was advertised as closed was closed

Shark was showing as sold out ha!

It's open for hotel guest previews

1. Shambarla - easy! 2. Furios Baco - yes it's rough, painful possibly deadly but that launch is the most incredible thing on a rollercoaster ever! 3. Manta - really shows what the flyers can do 4. Nemesis 5. Montu 6. The Swarm 7. Stealth 8. Colossus 9. Khan 10. Cheetah hunt

Bin bags were being added in the queue line yesterday

Cameras are not permitted on any of the rides at Thorpe - enforcing rules for H&S is not over reacting.

Its been on my last 3/4 visits