Sheepie

Ohh you so would! Come round and let me do your makeup. You'd love it. Ohh I'm getting shivers already!

I applied to a local farm today for their Halloween Event, Hauntfest.Auditions are 30th June. fingers crossed and all that.

I recently read an article regarding the fate of Beastly Kingdom. For the life of me I can't remember where I read it, but then I found it on Orlando United a couple of days ago. I'll quote it here- it's very lengthy but I promise, a great read if you're interested in Disney and Imagineering.Let the marathon commence!

Themed Developer Check out this photostream from this guy. He's worked with a lot of parks including Alton, BPB, Islands of Adventure, Terra Mittica, and Chessington.What I find most interesting is the work on Squirrel Nutkin Nutty and the installation of Kobra's snake. Take a few minutes to check it out though, it's pretty interesting!

I don't know very many people who watch Dexter, which is about to air its 5th season on FX, from Friday. It's an absolutely fantastic show and I strongly recommend everyone to watch it. For those that don't know, it's a drama about a serial killer who has been brought up to put his dark "needs" to good use, by choosing victims that have committed unforgivable crimes and have slipped through the American justice system.My description doesn't do the show justice. Let me tell you, it's dark, it's emotional, it's thrilling and it's also full of deliciously dark humour all in one show that makes you question your own morals on what is and isn't right. The soundtrack for the show is also goosebump-worthy.Here is a snippet of the end of the first episode of the 5th season below. Although if you're thinking of watching any previous seasons if you haven't and don't want to be spoiled, you may want to skip the video.

Like Benin said, it depends on what you want from the park.I love the Scare Mazes so Thorpe is definitely a contender here. They offer the best value for money in that respect, having four on park mazes all included in your entrance fee. The park looks its best at night with all the different lighting and there tends to be a good atmosphere around park, unless it's a super busy day during half term. :lol:Alton... well I haven't been to the previous two Scarefests but last year's looked amazing, I have to say. They also have a good mixture of other attractions for Halloween including Skelvin's Adventure (Duel Live), Thirteen Live (although I doubt it'll be returning after the faff they had last year), halloween shows and walk about characters (the ones at the hotels are actually quite good as well) and I have to say, Alton really raised the quality of the event last year, from reports, photos and reviews I've seen. However, Alton possibly provides the worst value for money, having only 1 on-park maze. There are the ever circulating rumours that the park are looking at bringing another on-park maze this year, along with Hex: Live.Chessington- I had a well good time at Chessie last year. It was the last day of the season and technically the Hocus Pocus event was over but they kept it running for the guests who visited. Wils Asia extra themeing was great, as were rides in the dark. The Vampire especially, was just truly epic in the night time and really set the mood.Even though it's the worst value for money, I would probably still vote for Alton for having the best Halloween event. It's the mixture of the mazes, entertainment and other unique attractions, (I forgot to mention the scare rooms) that easily set the event above the rest. Plus Alton is at its best at this time of year. The atmosphere of the grounds and the landscape itself just really lifts the event to something very special.

HAHA! Gay years?! Thanks, that means a lot to us "old" gays at 21 or over...

Could you give a specific example Holly? PM me if possible! :lol:I'm sorry I haven't responded to your rants yet. I have certainly noticed how repressed you've become. There are a lot of very strong personalities on here and they will clash. Just look at BB5/BB6/ BB7....

I do agree with you Holly to an extent. I've been blunt to people in discussions when they've told me their problems, including asking the very same questions you've just brought up. I'm going to leave your question there, in the hope that James has the opportunity to answer if he wishes. Just as a reminder for everyone, the rant thread is a place where people can vent and basically get whatever they need to off of their chest. It is up to members whether they wish to respond to posts but I would advise that if you don't have anything supportive to say, you kindly ignore it and not take away their right to have a moan. The same way someone may have the decency to do the same for you one day.Holly is right though, no matter how bad you think your circumstances are, there are hundreds of people who are worse off than you. It's about how you deal with whatever issues you're facing and picking yourself up from them.Happy ranting!

That's the scenery finished then. (waits for posts about double standards)Nah in all honesty- how exciting! Well, it might not look much, but it's the start of a new project. It's awesome to follow progress.

Haha. ^They are an advert for anti-drug campaigns in itself.

When Merlin release press statements they tend to like to include all money that was spent on the project (except for the cost of infilling I believe, which is an ongoing budget and project from what I've heard) as it beefs up the amount of investment to make it look even more impressive.

Like Lauren said, I tend to go anti-clockwise around the park, and leaving Saw until later in the day.The reason why is because everyone rushes to Saw and Colossus, and by the time they've gotten out of those queues, when I've done rides like Rush, Stealth, Inferno, Rumba and Detonator with minimal queueing.Then as more guests enter the park and people start chucking out of the Saw and Colossus area, the queues for the other rides shoot up pretty quickly.Of course this will change somewhat next year!

I'd just like to back up what Ellie said here. Very good point. The rant thread is a place to do just that and people need to be allowed the space to do so.Discussions and healthy debates may happen which is fine, but blunt, negative posts that may make someone feel worse about their situation is not acceptable.

I would desperately hope that this project will break that tradition. 2004-2007 are mostly considered "the dark ages" of Tussauds/ Merlin where they added rides with very basic stylising. Saw was also at a disadvantage because over a third of the budget for the project went on buying the rights to use the Saw IP.Let us keep our fingers crossed that this investment will be traditional in terms of where the money is spent- ie; not on any intellectual properties and instead, on the ride hardware, scenic design and effects, area infrastructure and marketing.

Is it really high density themeing though? From the plans it looks well themed with some nice features and certainly a lot of scenery for Thorpe over the last few years. It looks as though it'll have more themeing than, Saw, Stealth, Inferno and even Colossus. With £20M for the project, I would expect that everything in the plans will be added.

Fixed for you Luke. :lol:It's an average addition. They're quickly becoming the 'norm' and it's a very easy investment for Merlin to what will no doubt make them an absolute shed- load of money.