Dan9

Many staff members in the past have also said Slammer was being decommissioned, with the ride ending up open a few weeks later. I would always take bold comments like that with a pinch of salt...

Not surprising to see they've now changed their wording to 'hardly any queues' and 'very small queues'. Subtle but it can make a difference. Would explain why they've not sold out if they've increased the amount of numbers they're letting in to make up for the lost projected profit after the price drop. From Thorpe's perspective 'hardly any queues' probably means anything up to 20 minutes...

Surely... no... it can't be... is it?! *curveball*

Rollercoasters! (having been on ToT, it's now necessary to make that clear) 1) Blue Fire (Europa Park) To get straight to the point, I think it's the perfect thrill ride. It's not the fastest or tallest or most intense, but it offers everyone a bit of everything. How so? Whilst the launch isn't as instantly forceful as Stealth or Baco's (lol), it's one that feels like it keeps going and retains it's fun all the way down the launch track. The big, overbanked turn is great on the left hand side and especially nearer the back, where you really feel like you get dragged through the peak. The loop is, erm... a good loop? (I rarely find vertical loops spectacularly interesting) The following banked turn is lovely and snappy. Somehow even just heading up to the MCBR feels sudden and full of force. Nearer the back there's bundles of airtime exiting the MCBR. The two corkscrew's are great fun and wonderfully smooth. Next, what sounds better than an airtime hill? A twisty airtime hill! The next turn offers a second's breather; is it losing momentum now? Be careful before you relax, as it suddenly throws you into the craziest of heartline rolls. Finally, wonder what the hell just happened, turn, pose for a photo and into the brakes. Exit, gather belongings, re-join queue etc... wow. The music is fabulous, the restraints are the best of any manufacturer and it's smooth as silk all the way round. It's perfect for those wanting to experience their first major thrill ride, as well as seasoned rollercoaster goons (yay!). An unquestionable 10/10 from me. 2) Nemesis (Alton Towers) Is any explanation required? Yet to deliver a ride to me less than amazing every time. I wonder if Mark9 remembers my brake run reaction following my first ride? 3) Wodan (Europa Park) Having only been on one woodie, Stampida (lol) many years before, Wodan blew me away. I can imagine there are better GCI's out there but even so, this ride is fantastic. 4) Shambhala (Port Aventura) Mocked by many 'established' enthusiasts for being, wait for it... received well; I can contribute to their angst further by saying I think Shambhala is outstanding. It's big and beautiful and barrels of fun. But then, I have only been to parks from Europe, so what do I know? 5) Dragon Kahn (Port Aventura) Probably the only ride I’ve been on that rivals Nemesis for pure intensity. The zero-g is a particular highlight, but the speed it retains in the second half of the ride through tight turns and corkscrews is just absurd. To summarise, it’s the only ride I’ve ever been on where I couldn’t manipulate my on ride photo in any way due to its forcefulness. Also, dat roaaarrrr! 6) Oblivion (Alton Towers) A simple yet always fulfilling experience, Oblivion has an almost unmatched sense of drama and intimidation. Oh, and a drop I doubt I’ll ever tire of. 7) Black Mamba (Phantasialand) It’s testament to the ride that after so long, its effects on me are still fairly well remembered. A blistering invert backed up by theming of the most immense scale. 8) Space Mountain: Mission 2 (Disneyland Paris) I’d have been surprised to have this in my top ten a few months ago, but the ‘Vekoma death machine’ definitely didn’t live up to its *painful* hype. No discomfort to be found on any of my rides, all of which I loved. Even when all the outdoor effects aren’t working it’s an incredible looking building, amazing soundtrack, love the indoor effects etc. Vekoma <3 9) The Smiler (Alton Towers) I’ve already written a lengthy blog with my thoughts on this, so there’s no need to go into detail here. Great ride, great music, love the indoor drop, smooth, fun, good length, disorientating, great to watch blah blah. A worthy addition to the Towers lineup. 10) Big Thunder Mountain (Disneyland Paris) It’s difficult to rank rides against eachother which try to offer different kinds of experience. For example I don’t really know if I prefer this to The Smiler or The Swarm since they are so very different but I felt Big Thunder deserved a place in my top ten. It’s not as OMFG thrilling as a Stealth or a Dragon Kahn but it’s one of those ‘complete’ attractions that are impossible not to love. The ride itself is still very fun, but it’s made excellent by the utterly gorgeous setting the ride takes place in. The station, the trains, the noises it makes, the tunnels, the mountains themselves... it all comes together so perfectly to create a fantastic ride. The nearly made-it's: The Swarm, Nemesis Inferno, Silver Star, Euro Sat

Banned for having been on 41 less inversions than me this year. Take that mere peasant!

*holds up hand* I think my sub-conscious tries as hard as possible to forget Saw's existence...

If it really was 30 minutes then the ride would have been having a separate problem. Standard time it takes to add an Inferno train (not counting the empty runs) is never beyond 5 minutes.

Really enjoyed this round, happy I managed to score well even when making a fair few educated guesses (chuffed to get Q5 and 7!). A shame I had to then go and stupidly misread Q4.

Most schools break up midweek this week, so school trips are still on. If they've put out a message of warning about that day then I definitely wouldn't be telling people it 'shouldn't be too busy'.

I am CONVINCED they've done something to Space Mountain, maybe changed all the wheels or something, because a few weeks ago it was absolutely brilliant and all in our party agreed. It was even as smooth as most B&M's I've been on...

Tidal Wave. Despicable Me 2 or Monsters University?

Oops!

I haven't been on Tidal Wave since April 2007 Might make it a mission to go on it sometime over my following two trips.

I'm not sure what I meant by that, I just saw a trend in most film critics reviews that it was a considerable cut below other efforts - 'bland', 'tired', 'derivative', 'half-baked', 'forgettable' were some of the descriptions I read - yet after seeing it myself these seem like unfair brandings. I'm someone who'd rather Pixar made more new films rather than sequels, I even said so one page ago, but to me this film had all the charm and heart of the first, was clever in execution considering prequels can be tricky subjects, and helped broaden the monster universe. It definitely isn't as outstanding as The Incredibles, Wall-E or Toy Story, but I'm slightly baffled by some of the scorn aimed in its direction.

I'm worried I'm sounding whinier than I intend, I'm not telling people to post less at all. For example, Peaj's reports are split into five parts but at the moment he only uses one entry, which to me is a better way of doing it under the current system as it doesn't wipe out every other blog from the recent pile. But he's still got all the content there. The other side of it is that it's difficult to know when he's added to it, as you have to go back into the entry to check. So yes I agree the system should be adjusted, perhaps have a separate trip reports section or increase how many blogs are shown at the side so they all get the attention they deserve? As I'm not an admin I wouldn't know which is an easier to do solution. It's just a small change needed to make it more 'reader friendly'.

I thought Man of Steel was good, but nothing amazing. Weirdly the action parts were more annoying than anything, which surely defeats the point? For me watching a group of people basically invincible fighting eachother gets tiring after about a minute. The last fight in particular felt very unnecessary and you can tell by the fairly anti-climactic finale: 'how will either of them win?! Oh...'. Less time should have been spent on samey fights and more time on character development, which was good when it happened but there just wasn't enough of it. The flashback parts and watching Clarke coming to terms with having to live and work in the real world were all great. Today I saw Monsters University, and having heard it may disappoint the more seasoned Pixar fan I wasn't expecting much, but I absolutely loved it!

Yeah same thanks Tommy

I'm talking about the recent blogs box on the right side of the main forum, which shows the last 5 blogs posted and doesn't collect different entries from the same people into one. So for example, if someone decided to split their trip report into five parts and posted it into separate blogs, they would have completely monopolised that section.

Can I request that those who want to put their trip reports into blogs try to condense it into one entry? It's just with only five spots allowed on the recent blogs section (which is probably how 95% of people find them), if everyone starts splitting their own personal trip reports into multiple entries, it would monopolise it a bit.

Intamin accelerators always were more effective than coffee... I shall be there!

There are many other places ahead of Thorpe where Spinball would be more useful. For example... http://I.imgur.com/Gy65wxv.jpg

£15 regular, £5 Annual Pass. Comes into effect on Monday.

That's more like it, definitely up for a long summers day now!

That is, if there's any way we can know how many standard tickets were bought compared to annual pass tickets. I had a quick check on their Facebook status regarding this and the feedback has been almost identical to here. Good idea, too expensive.