Sheepie

Haven't been around much these past few days and only found out about it yesterday, but here's what I wrote on TTF:I'm still in such a confused state at what they were thinking when they decided to add Truckers, Jumbos and Toadies to the Fastrack system.These are low throughput rides, particularly Truckers, which struggles to get 200 people an hour as its actual hourly capacity. Not only that, the amount of times this ride needs to be reset (and this sometimes can take time, as a Team Leader has to come and do it, and the pressure on them during busy days is already immense), children and adults get out of the cars and run havoc in the ride area... basically, what I'm saying, the ride shouldn't be there in the first place, let alone have Fastrack added to it.It's going to be an operational nightmare, not helped by the amount of Fastrack that the sales team sell.In a park where the vast majority of rides struggle to break the 1000 pph throughput, I can't help but find this an absolute facepalm of a decision from every possible angle you look at it.Of course, apart from financially, but I think that the amount of complaints and unhappy guests this will create will have a far more detrimental effect than anyone at the park currently realize. I feel like it's two steps forward, and then one step back. If it wasn't for all of the other positive improvements across the park, and some still to be put in place, then I would not have any reason to visit the park this season.

I'm afraid I can't help you there... though this topic has reminded me about some recent improvements to the Spirit of London ride!Whether they're totally new effects, or just ones that have been re-instated, they made a huge improvement to the ride experience and this is now my second favourite dark ride in the UK (I class Hex as a dark ride ).Basically right at the beginning, there were strobe lights, acting as a "gateway", taking you back in time, this was coupled with a wind effect and was a neat way to start the ride. The next noticeably improved effect was the "Black Death" scene. Where bodies are lying on the cart there is a smell of rotting flesh/ general rankness. Also there were other subtle improvements around the ride such as smoke. Overall the ride seemed very looked after and well maintained, even if the animatronics are seriously outdated.

Urm, Wow! ^ I'd actually have to think twice about going on that. How freaky.Travelling over to Orlando now, with Cheetah Hunt news. Over the last couple of days Busch Gardens have been holding "hard-hat tours" in which fansites and members of the press are invited down and given an update of the progress. Much like Sea World did for Manta during its construction.Here are what some of the members from Orlando United learned during their tour: Theming will be incredible. We learned that there will be a section called the "Crossroads" where Morocco, Egypt and Edge of Africa meet. Villagers of the Crossroads celebrate the spirit of the Cheetah. Cheetah Hunt's queue will connect this village to the nature of the actual roller coaster attraction through an integrated back story.Cheetah figures at the front will resemble driftwood carvings.Inside the station, there will be a giant 15 foot high Cheetah Rock that will resemble a cheetah. Villager's celebrate this iconic rock because when found - it resembled the shape of a cheetah. Through chiseling and carving they've managed to carve the head of the cheetah into the top of the rock - the bottom remaining in its natural state.Mack Rides is installing their air gate systems on Cheetah Hunt.First launch will now be 38 mph instead of 30.The Second launch will remain at 60 mph - accelerating in under 2 seconds flat.Third launch will now be 50 mph instead of 40.The Canyon Section will include a run-in with a waterfall. Riders will be skimming above 18 inches of water in a serpentine-like fashion. The river will be designed to run at a fast current in the opposite direction of travel to further give the illusion of speed.The use of trenches in the design of the roller coaster is primarily to inhibit certain aspects of the attraction to pedestrians. Cheetah Hunt was specifically designed to interact with non-riders - and the trenches enable the trains to disappear from sight; thus intensifying the experience for spectators.Parabola hill is 60ft. tall.Cheetah Hunt will do a pull through with the front car and ride clearances.Trains arrive next week.Track completion expected by end of next week. 13 pieces remaining to be installed. Installation from this point forward will start on the Windcatcher Tower and finish at the crown of the "skyride hill".May 27th opening date.The current entrance path will be divided into 4 paths: the Skyride entrance, the Skyride exit, the Cheetah Hunt entrance, and the Cheetah Hunt quick queue.As you come down the stairs, you'll be able to see the monitors of your ride experience. You can purchase either a photo or video of your ride.The gift shop will also have accessories, and cheetah-themed gifts.

I must admit, I've rarely come off of Loggers without being pretty darn soaked.

Who? Wow we're a sexy group aren't we?

I find it interesting that on the website it says "here are some of our top fast track rides". I would hate for them to add it to even more rides. Especially when a lot of their rides don't have the hourly throughputs to be able to cope with it.In fact, I'd suggest that Fury would just about cope with its queues even without the addition of fast track. This just proves to me, that the park need to consider adding a couple of more high- throughput rides. Anything below 1000 an hour for one of your headlining attractions is unacceptable in my view!

Don't lie Peter! You'd love a picture of your mug on here...

Who is these sexy Mofos?

Aww, That IS cute! I love pictures like this that show the construction process. I think I can make out a Merlin Studios logo on the back of that jacket there. Hopefully the station will be nicely themed.

^Benin, has anyone mentioned that you can come across quite blunt in your posts? Yeah, I agree with this. Very exciting news for European parks. Only thing left to do is win the Lottery so I can go travelling. And remember with concept art.... they're allowed some artistic license as the actual ride doesn't exist yet.

This is a lot more difficult than I thought guys! In order: Nemesis Hex Oblivion Dragon's Fury Air Thirteen Saw Rush Vampire RMT Missing out on the top 10 were Duel, Logger's Leap, Colossus and Detonator.

Oh Raptor you sexy thing. I have yet to see any part of this ride that isn't sexy.

I agree with you Mark. Management are talking about these things, and if they could do it all at once then they would. These things you talk about will get done, just not all at once, they're having to think wisely about where their budget is spent.This brings me to your original point about Chessington being sold off and being a family-run theme park. I suppose I have thought about it, but I'm unsure of what it would mean for the park. If it was to be sold off, it would have to be to a family that loved theme parks, and be able to provide the budget to do the park the justice it deserves.This is where I'm out of my depth, as I'm no expert on family run theme parks. But to me, it would be a huge risk for the theme park on both a creative and financial level.

Wow, I know it's marketing speak, but I absolutely love the way they're talking about their ride, you can tell they're really excited, and I couldn't help but feel that same excitement as I read along.I don't think I've ever read a Merlin press release that focused so much on the thematic experience as much as this, sounds promising. I found this part the most interesting. Merlin Studios eh? Let's hope they can pull it off for them, so far it sounds as though they have!

I've taken time to think about all the comments made because as everyone knows, I absolutely love Chessington, and deep down I'd like to think the park is going in the right direction. I honestly think people are disappointed because there is no new attraction this year after a cancelled Toytown retheme.To quote a comment I made on my last Chessie trip report back in November: And then to quote Benin in response to my post: I don't think the UK theme parks will see the level of investment that the 90's saw all in one season- for example, 1990: Transylvania- Bubbleworks and Vampire, 1992: Katanga Canyon, Mine Train and The Haunted House and 1994: Forbidden Valley- Nemesis and Toyland Tours.When we think about it, Chessington's developments have always been gradual from the 90's, onwards, it was very unusual for the park to open several major attractions.Although Tussauds invested a great deal with Land of the Dragons and was particularly significant, we have to think of the larger picture. At the time the park was being marketed towards the very young, which IMO completely ruined the park's image, with in reality the majority of the park's attractions being suitable for an extremely broad range of age groups.Operationally, towards the end of the Tussauds reign, it was not unusual for some of the smaller attractions to be "dual operated", which was a budget cut that management made at the time to satisfy the minimal budgets Tussauds imposed on the park. We also saw very little investment into infrastructure, and I mean minimal. This is where all the rotten, tatty looking attractions that you see today started to go down the pan. The complete lack of care from DIC's Tussauds meant that the management at the park were unable to carry out the work that they may have wanted to do.Merlin takes over and has its first full season in 2008. Whilst Chessie's Sea- Life is far from perfect, both on the outside and the inside, it represented the first investment made to the park since Dragon's Fury, in fact, since then the park had lost attractions with the removal of the Rodeo.At the time I think it would be fair to say that Merlin were still unsure as to the direction of the park, however they increased operational and engineering budgets significantly, which meant that the current park management were able to perform some much needed changes. For example- enough staff to cover all attractions, all the time, there was actually enough cleaning equipment to go around, the normally expected paint- jobs were able to be carried out, all of these were unable to be performed with DIC's Tussauds lack of throught, planning and passion.In 2009, there was a big management change at Chessington, and things were seriously bubbling behind the scenes; there was talk about causing a huge fuss and a relaunch of the park as a brand the following year. After a fantastic 2008 season, it seems as though Merlin realized that the park had a lot of potential and could do incredibly well with the right care and investment. We saw the operational budgets increase again- this meant staff could start earlier and more time was spent to motivate staff, do general morning cleaning around rides and also enable more time to talk to your team leaders should you need to. The fact that extra positions became available on rides such as the Vampire and Dragon Falls meant that the levels of customer service greatly improved.2010 saw a huge rebrand for the park. the marketing team were advertising Chessington as an experience for everyone in the family. Wild Asia opened, which was a very significant investment for Chessington as it sets the standard for all future additions. Whilst the retheme remaining relatively cheap, it's important to note the level of thought that went in to the new area. I believe that everything Chessington management are doing now is for the future. The possibility of merging Wild Asia with Mystic East to create an Asian theme continent is the type of detail that I love as it makes perfect sense and takes the park back to its roots in terms of places around the world.Whilst operationally, the park did suffer from some budget cuts towards the middle of the season (staff went back to starting later on weekdays, end of season party for the staff was cut), I feel it is important to note the continual improvements that were still made on park despite some of these cuts. Also, Alton Towers also received some similar cuts, especially in the Entertainments department, which saw the temporary loss of the Wraiths and Bush demons in the Dark Forest.This year, the park are being allowed the budget to make the essential improvements to the park infrastructure that should have been done years ago when Tussauds were still in the game. If Tussauds had made those improvements, then I honestly believe the park would not have suffered as many power cuts that it did during the 2009 season. Whilst it may be frustrating not being able to see where the money is going, it definitely is being spent, just not all at once and as much as we'd like. This year, the park will look much fresher and be up to the standard that people should automatically expect. Once again, I ask that people are patient, the park management are so passionate about the park, they love it as much as some of us here do, but in order for them to give us some fantastic attractions, they need to sort out the basics first. Adding attractions only paints over the cracks for a short period, if the park wish to expand and be able to accommodate the extra guest figures, they need to be able to have the infrastructure to be able to deal with it.Thanks if you read to the end. Chessington is very dear to me and am obviously very passionate about it.

I voted good.I believe it's a unique design that simulates a fantastic sensation of flight. Every piece of marketing about this ride focused on the flight aspect and not necessarily the thrills.I believe the flying position is so unique, it takes very little for the coaster to be thrilling. When I rode Manta at Sea World, for example, the pretzel loop was verging on painful. Even though I much preferred Manta, this was mainly down to the beautiful landscaping more than the ride hardware itself.It's this reason why I haven't rated Air "excellent". For me, it isn't a complete experience and lacks a few scenic features to be able to gain an excellent grade.

No ignoring from me! Haha, it's little touches like that which are just genius and comical. Looks an incredibly tight fit through those supports. Can't wait to see more testing footage. Trip to Italy is in order I believe. Now where's my fit Italian?

I love trolls. Trolls come in many shapes, sizes, ages and forms. People tend not to feed them, but I love feeding them. The more you feed them, the more the entertainment value rises. You've got to love the lols.

Great pics Ryan! Hope you had a great trip! I've just realized, on those scenic websites I posted earlier, it showed them making those exact props from Toy Story Playland in your first two pictures. Looks really cool!

So I've been poking around the internet this evening as I've been finishing my logbook for my Scenic Construction Unit. Whilst on my exploration, I found some various scenic artist companies that have worked on various theme parks and attractions, including Disney and our very own Merlin ones.Spur Creative- stuff for Madame Tussauds.Scenic Services- Stuff for Alton, Legoland and Disneyland Paris Resort; here's their Facebook Page (very interesting photos on there).I'm sure there is much more if you look hard enough.What I find interesting is, why do Merlin go to outside companies when they have their own creative services? Especially Alton Towers.

Paha oh, I see. Cheers. I'll have to give it a go.

Looks like another brilliant coaster from GCI. Too bad I'll never be able to get a chance to ride it.

Ricky how do you design your own scenery in No Limits? I've never looked properly but I'd love to give it a go. Hopefully it'll give me an insight into CAD design before I do my unit on it at college. :DThat looks fantastic btw, well done!

Haha! Is that the actual advert for it? See, Oblivion's advert is just so good, it's recycled for other rides. :DLove the random shots from the Colossus ad, too.

Cheetah Hunt Update Great new update showing off the latest Cheetah Hunt construction. I also read on Orlando United (or somewhere similar) that the ride will incorporate the modified Intimidator-305 restraints, which should improve the ride experience, especially on those quick transitions.