Sheepie

I have a couple of points here:Why should there be a mentality of; "Thorpe's target market only want thrill rides"...?I'm throwing away all politics and company circumstances here- if you're aiming to make a big impact on the theme park industry then you need to buck the trend. Why can't theme parks go above and beyond what is expected of them? Thorpe can build thrilling attractions and also add great themeing to them as well. There are some fantastic special effects out there that if used creatively can appeal to the target market. If you asked every single guest at a theme park, then they would possibly be indifferent to scenery and special effects, or perhaps not consciously take note of that. However, the same can be said for most audience members at a theatre/ cinema if you asked them about the music. A good score can often be unnoticed and act as an accompaniment to the production; however, without the music, it wouldn't be as good. I could apply this basic principal to lots of everyday situations where effort, time and money is put into things that aren't the bare bones, essential, but actually improve whatever is being offered and may make more money for them in the long run.Alton will remain my personal number one for reasons I've stated previously- location, the attractions, the choice of themes, the staff, the music, the food and the hotels. ;)I've recently found out that I'm going in September. I'm looking forward to subsequent visits next year and the year after much more though!

When I was a toddler, Rainbow used to be my favourite- Zippy and Bungle ;)I loved a lot of TV programs, Sabrina is one that sticks out. I used to be glued to those marathons they used to do on Nick.

If you were scared of Saw interior, then mate, you'll easily release your bowels on Hex. Very eerie, very creepy genuine atmosphere.

I have a lot of thoughts on a potential IP that I'm unable to express articulately into a post at the moment. My conclusion is however, I'll be disappointed if this is another IP, I was looking forward to seeing the creative juices at the studios flow like we got a glimpse of with Raptor.Also, if it is an IP, that £18M-£20M feels a little less impressive.

Amazing cover.

No, I posted it on the previous page. I would imagine a mini site shall launch on the 1st, possible competitions and general public release about the ride. I imagine they'll keep the mini-site updated with construction, outline a backstory and develop an overall style for the ride.

I love it. Great video, and interesting theme. Remember the general theme is "urban destruction". The war reference could be a war with anything. There has been a lot of talk about aliens. Alien war?I've been watching Falling Skies on FX and watched Mars Attacks last night so I find this quite interesting.

Just ask that Torchwood lot, there is no God, all we have to look forward to is the cold and the dark. Enjoy life whilst it's here folks.

Could anyone who has ridden Hex recently comment on the ride's upkeep this season in terms of effects? The last time I rode it, a few of the Octagon effects weren't working and the speakers in the vault were very quiet. This was not during the time when the ride had major effects issues last year either.

I'd be very surprised if B&M ever made a 4D coaster. I just doubt they'd build something that just has so many variables and unpredictability. Everything they do is to replicate the sensation of flight and rider freedom. Wrenching their riders in awkward and sometimes uncomfortable positions is not something B&M do on purpose. But I can understand why people would want one and as it hasn't been stated that it isn't one, then go ahead and speculate. Ha.One comment I'll make though, I've seen several posts on here and other forums saying how they want an inverted/ standup wing rider. Are you guys thinking this through? There is no track above you, no track below you- this has to be one of the most exposed riding experiences out there. Not only does it already have the qualities of an Inverted Coaster, the thought of making it a "stand up" coaster makes me want to go and bottle up my own sperm and store it for future use; I can assure you they won't be in working order afterwards!

On my way to the first Broadditch Farm BBQ social/ induction. I'll find out where I'm going to be acting and also which character. Proper excited and also relieved that I was able to find a lift. Haha!

Many of you guys know; I love Chessington, at one point I even lived and breathed it. The truth is, along with Alton Towers, I have some extremely special memories at these parks and I've sort of grown up with them and seen them develop and change into what they are today. Whenever I talk of these parks, it is from my deepest passion and enthusiasm for them, their beauty and the potential that they have and genuinely, how much I want them to succeed. With that in mind, I'll begin...This rather sexy fellow (below), our friend Kirsty and I, decided on a spontaneous visit to Chessie earlier this week. Smoking kills. Don't smoke kids. We spent the afternoon at the park, from around 1pm. So not very long at all, but still, it's not as though we've never done any of the rides at the park a thousand times before and we always enjoy a chilled out pace, taking the day as it comes. We spent absolutely ages just enjoying the beauty and awesomeness of the park. Particularly in Wild Asia, where we spent about an hour chilling by the fountain, observing guests in the area and how much everyone was enjoying themselves. Some of the guests comments were brilliant and very interesting. It's a very humbling and facinating thing to listen to what guests actually think and say. This is why I feel Chessington truly have got Wild Asia spot on in every single possible way imaginable. Excellent.Let me also say, operations from the front line staff were consistently very good indeed all day. Very pleasant and went out of their way to ensure our visit was special. Not once did we feel as though we were just a number in a long conveyor belt of people, but actual individuals. Top work. There was also a lovely girl who offered to take the time (probably coming back from her break and she did not need to offer at all) to take a group photo of us at the Jeep by the Trail of The Kings entrance.Now, if anyone from Chessington is reading this- and I know you are *waves*, then please take the time to pass on the praise, just as she took the time out of her day to make our day great. Unfortunately, I didn't catch her name, however she was wearing black so I'm assuming she was from Pizza Pasta in F&B. I will officially send in the good comments but in the mean time, I just want to get that out there.However, from an operational and guest satisfaction point of view, the health and safety restrictions on Black Buccaneer really put me off from riding this. There was just one ride's worth of guests in the queueline, yet, it took more than 10 minutes to load this ride. Or at least, we had been sitting there for that long- I hadn't seen it go round for ages before that. It's a bit shocking when you think about it. It's ironic, these Health and Safety rules designed for the enjoyment and safety of the guests actually does the complete opposite. I'm pretty sure Chessington do not need to go to such extreme measures on their age restrictions for guests; if the restrictions do not need to be there then for the sake of hindering guest enjoyment, please get rid of them! I heard several guests complain about this, which is a shame because it's such a good ride. I know I'll think twice about riding again. So frustrating!More Wild Asia goodness- it really is awesome. So, getting to the crux of what I want to say; with the exception of Wild Asia and a few other spots, the park is sadly looking very tired and not in the best condition. This is a Merlin- wide comment I suppose. It's all well and good creating themes and investing in scenery, but you need to maintain it please, provide these parks with the money to keep everything looking as though it was built yesterday. By this I mean, keep the illusion going and don't let things deteriorate so much that guests can see the construction methods behind it. It really breaks my heart. Honestly does. A couple of examples:There have been some great improvements across the park this season, which really shows the passion from the park management about this great park. However, you can clearly see that these are low budget additions, I'm clenching my whole body in anticipation that the park will eventually get the budget to properly redo some of the scenery at Chessington. The coyboys that have appeared on the Mexicana facades are great, excellent, but then you take a few steps to Runaway Train and see a faux mountain literally crumbling away so you can see the dated construction method underneath. We know it's been like this for years but it's still there and it hasn't changed.I'll make a few, brief observations from my visit before going into more detail about Vampire:Smells in Bubbleworks are great, music is great (but not when it still doesn't loop), lighting in the lift before the drop is still my fave throughout the ride. Really can't polish a turd though, the ride is still pants, even by UK standards.Falls- station interior I love, station exterior however, looking very tired and needs to be cleaned and re-painted. I'm putting a very critical eye here, but I hate seeing cables for things such as lighting, sound equipment and general infrastructure blatently on show to guests. It seems so silly but these small things really impact my enjoyment. Perhaps this is just a reflection of the "that'll do" culture that we have in the UK though. The landscaping team have done a marvellous job across the whole park and it's beautiful.I got my picture taken with Cinders, she was standing in one spot on her podium. But once I actually approached them for a photo, the ents team were great. It should be them interacting and approaching me though- makes all the difference.Vamp's interactive tombstones are more or less destroyed. You can see the polystyrene that they used to make it completely blown all over the place, huge chunks of it missing, looks pathetic.In fact, going into Vampire in more detail. Well, the good- the music has returned to a decent volume within the station and ride operator was using the PA very well and at a respectable volume, not loud at all. Well done Chessington. I'm sitting on the fence about my next comment:I love that they're changing things with with the lighting and I'm pleased to report that the organist is moving quite well at the moment. However, I am not a fan of the slight lighting change. It does look quite nice but I can't help but think it all feels a bit "discoish" in there now. The green was fantastic, I loved the red and blue combo too. Thought this, in addition to the green and other minor lighting changes makes it feel too colourful and it just doesn't quite feel right. Personal preference perhaps.I'm definitely not a fan of this though....Having worked operations before, I totally get why this has been done. To make the lives of the staff easier, perhaps to try something different, to make things clearer for guests... there are plenty of reasons why and I totally understand why from an operational standpoint, these could be very useful. However, it just looks so unprofessional and tacky. I'm sorry, but I hate them. I hate them on Tomb Blaster as well. In fact, my Team Leader and I ripped them down in 2008 (but have since returned) because, well, it's not very theme parkish is it?I'd love for there to be a budget to get studios to make some proper themed ones, make it all fit in and make the aesthetics flow, but sadly, this is another area where the park have been neglected. Hell, I'd even make them some for both Tomb Blaster and Vampire if they wanted. I've come to the end of my slightly critical report I guess. What I will say is that I still had an absolutely brilliant time at Chessington, this is due to the fantastic staff, interactive family rides, variety of experiences and great atmosphere the park does provide. However I think I'll think twice before visiting any of the UK parks until next season (or perhaps Halloween). I genuinely am very fond of our theme parks, they just need to cash so that it can be splashed!I'll leave you with some yummy food from the Monkey Puzzle and a um, "interesting" photo opportunity. :)Cheers for reading guys.

Love you for that Pluk. Very interesting to hear your views on it given your profession.

I agree with some of your points Mark, I can see both sides. I'd like to bring some of the comments made on Facebook if I may as I don't really want to feel as though I'm repeating myself.

Don't get me started. I'm a fairly mutual person but this is something I feel very strongly about indeed. So much so, I get very emotional thinking about it, having friends who have committed suicide and knowing people who have been affected by it and even feeling suicidal myself in the past. It's so easy to say there are other ways out, it's selfish and it's an inconvenience. Please don't forget that there are human beings involved in this and sometimes we get so caught up in our own pathetic, small little lives, we forget the amount of pain and suffering that some people go through to feel as though they need to end their lives. Simple answer (there isn't one), it's got a 99% success rate. If you wanted to kill yourself and wanted it to work, it's probably the best bet rather than taking pills or whatever. It's also very quick, no pain and suffering waiting for your life to fade away.

The assessment was tonight guys. It's probs safe to say if they haven't emailed you then sadly you were unsuccessful on this occasion. Onwards though.

Semi- spontaneous trip to the world of adventures today. Yay. Getting there for midday I shall report back.

I totally agree with your post and I too am not a great fan of the new lighting sequence in there at the moment. However, it is still definitely an improvement of what it was at the end of last season which was literally just the houselights. No exaggeration.

I think it depends on how you take it. I would personally someone did it behind my back because I think I'd be mortified if someone said it to my face, although I would admire their bravery and honesty and possibly respect them for that.If we don't find out what people say behind our back then we're none the wiser. Some people call it being two- faced, some people call it fake, I call it sparing someone's feelings.

"I want to put them on a rainbow." She's behind Nyan Cat! :)If I do start seeing rainbows with cats flying across them then I'll go knocking on her door. Oh bless her.

Sorry to keep going on about it, but RCA have made no comment about the status of Let Me Down. Indeed, it looks unlikely for it to be the new single.What's more, a couple of douche bags are leaking the promo CD that was sent round to radio stations. There are about 7 songs on it. "What Doesn't Kill You" is going to be a gay club anthem .This era is doomed.

I've thought about this, then realised I knew how I felt all along. I do not see attractions as either being thrill, experience or whatever you want to call them, I see all attractions as an opportunity to entertain an audience, to manipulate their emotions and to engage them in a theme/ story.Sure, you get rides that are catered more towards thrillseekers, likewise, you get rides that are aimed more at smaller children, but the main aim is that it has to entertain a very large spectrum of guests as possible because you want them to come back again, recommend their visit to others and in the long run this means more profit and more investment.Greater interactivity is the way forward for all theme parks I feel. Disney have shown this in their recent queueline updates on attractions such as Winnie the Pooh and Haunted Mansion. Both attractions appeal to families yet the beauty is, you can take anyone through them and they will find something that they will be entertained by.I can understand why Merlin are so hesitant to invest in dark rides; to build a decent one you need a budget as big as a multi- million pound coaster, if not more so. With these rides, you do not have the advantage of having the queue interact with the ride and so in order to keep your guests entertained, more effort needs to be put into scenery here. Scenery and special effects are more expensive than what people realise: the Vampire Horseman for example, cost thousands and thousands of pounds just for that one scenic element.However, with the huge spectrum of people that dark rides cater for (due to their accessibility to families), I'd argue that this would make the huge investment worthwhile. I'd love to see dark rides start playing a starring role at our theme parks like they do in other countries, though sadly I feel as though Marketing struggle to find a way to market them and would not be able to guarantee a return on the investment like they would with a new coaster or area, for example.I've sort of gone off on a tangent here, as usual. My main point is supposed to be that you can have whatever type of transit system you want (coaster, water, trackless, tracked dark ride...) but they also need to have substance, story and a great deal of creative depth to them and I do not see them as separate types of attractions. What one person finds entertaining and thrilling, another person may find boring.

I'm in hysterics. My auntie and uncle booked tickets to see Blue Man Group at Universal Orlando for when we go next month..... they paid an extra $40 just so we can sit in the front and get gunged! You get given ponchos but my auntie and I are clearly not going to wear them.I just found it hilarious because my auntie is approaching 50 yet she's the biggest kid out of the three of us. I love it!

They are receiving a high volume of applications right now so please be patient with them. They will get back to you; the parks are usually quite good at this and it's unusual for there to be such a delay, but hold tight. :)Also, I know that no assessments have been booked yet so don't threat just yet as you still may hear good news next week. I hope you do!

It's a completely new rig in the finale scene. Most were out of action at the end of last year.