Marc

They were giving out letters at the exit today giving everyone the chance to return for free later in the year. It looked like Saw was very close to opening with all its theming on and the ride constantly going round, Tidal Wave was also testing and id assume will open at the weekend.

Less than a quarter of the shop.

I think Matt is partly right, Samurai and Slammer are un-reliable rides, theres no getting away from that. Samurai closed before Fright Nights due to technical problems, clearly to keep it closed for over a month during the parks busiest time is a serious fault, nothing to do with getting it ready for this year. Slammer as you say, is Slammer, it looks like its getting major works again and if its able to run through the season from the extra work its getting than its a small sacrifice which will be worth it. As for the water rides who knows Tidal Wave has had most of its metal work on the lift replaced, Rumbas had most of its lift replaced too, certainly not normal work. Tidal was filling up yesterday so I guess will be ready any day now.

So your saying there is no valid excuse for a ride / rides to be down at the start of the season?

Thing is, there's alot more behind these rides than what you can see from a distance, from inferno today I could see most of the wooden slats on the lift have been replaced since the weekend. It's obviously not ideal, but if the extra work these rides get help them stay open (samurai and slammer in particular) then it's worth the wait.

Because you would love that to be true.. It's having more maintaince than usual that's why it's taking slightly longer.

Slammer and Samurai are notoriously un-reliable nowadays - slammer looks like it's had a lot of work done to it. Tidal wave looks like it's had more work than usual done with half the structure on the lift hill being replaced, rumba Rapids looked like it was getting most of its lift replaced too

They are saying Tidal, Rumba, Samurai and Slammer will remain closed at the weekend. Samurais sign says it will return at Easter, they were working on it today though.

Oh getting mixed up with pipes at the end! My bad

Believe that was working at the end of season - not sure if it was on at the weekend.

Would be good for it to get fixed, they have been slowly fixing audio around the park (Colossus and Inferno being the main ones) would be nice to hear storm surge music working again!

Hey ive never aid Baco isnt rough.. Dont mean I cant enjoy it

Plenty has been done this year to be fair and the parks looking better than it has in years. In a perfect world everything would be done, but there will never be an unlimited budget for them kind of things. What has been done is good and I'm sure theres more to come!

Some people find it quite bad - it used to be particularly bad in some points back in 2004/5 but now its fine to ride and quite enjoyable. Its certainly not what id call smooth, but its not what id call rough either *Looks at Saw and Smiler"

Thorpe's rule is no cameras of any kind on any ride, that's been the case for years. Some people do manage to sometimes sneak cameras on rides but if caught they will be asked to put them away.

X has 4 trains not 5 (I think x no way out had 5?) only ever runs 3 trains too, '4 makes no difference as it requires a train to allways stop. I expect it will be back to 3 for main season.

I don't think its fair to call VIP pass holders queue jumpers... regardless of if you agree with the pass or not, if you buy fastrack your entitled to a shorter queue, I'm sure at some point we've all used some form of means to a sorter queue be that fastrack, priority pass, I don't think that makes any of us queue jumpers now!

There's no pully cables on it yet or restraints. It looks like it's had a lot of work this year again - wouldnt surprise me if it's slightly late.

Training on a preview day? Surely not !

The vip pass diss not affect your premium / standard pass. Fastrack is going to be there regardless. A vip pass holder simply gets a ultimate faetrack ticket from the allocation so imo don't really affect me as a premum pass holder.

Moved all the VIP Annual pass talk to a new topic so we can carry on the discussion in a more relevant thread http://forum.maniahub.com/topic/10893-merlin-vip-annual-pass/ Cheers!

I see your point , and your right every guest Should be treated to the same standard regardless of what they've paid. Maybe they could brand it better - maybe as a platinum pass or somthing. Don't have a problem with what the product is personally, if people are happy to pay that much then a buffet and a few rides after park close is fair enough IMO

Could be worse - I remember at towers last year in the front row queue for Rita , one train was broken and vip pass holders were re-riding the only open front row meaning the front row queue was liturally at a standstill... Have no problem with perks after park close - don't effect everyone else and for the cost of it its fair.

Coasters closed around 4:30ish - all other rides at 4. All in all a very good day, we arrived at around 9:30 and didnt see the queues to get in posted earlier but I'm sure they will learn from that tomorrow. But in fairness they did open a few rides later. Was good to get on Detonator, Loggers and X (at the very end!) - all unexpected additions to the line up. Saw the Ride was shut but I'd take X over that anyday Lots of things across the park have been spruced up which is nice to see, really looking forward to the start of the main season now!

By the sounds of it some things will be available a bit later than 4 - not too sure what!Edit: coasters open till 4:30 - may or may not include x ! Queue is being cleaned.