Sheepie

Just a quick reminder to everyone that the poll closes tomorrow. If you're interested in the meet and can make a certain day, then please vote! If you can do more than one day then vote for that too! :)I realise four weeks may seem far in advance, but this is to make sure people can book off any dates should they need to. It's looking likely that the meet shall take place on Sunday 25th March. If you've never been to a meet before then this will be a good one to attend due to the relatively small group of people that are likely to attend!Once we've confirmed the date, if you can attend please use the selections available so we can have a vague idea of who is attending and I can give you contact details. If not, then don't worry, there'll be other meets throughout the season, including Chessington; which was excellent last year. Hope to see all of you at a meet soon.

Sweet Lord. :oThat station is phenomenal, I seriously cannot criticise anything; it is perfection. It just shows what £20M can do without any IPs to pay out for.Merlin and I are off to make a lustrous love-baby now. I'll set them free when they have to start work on SW7. Wow.

Attending lists have now been added to the first post. You're able to select whichever applies to you! You may change your option at any time. Currently not many votes in it between Saturday 17th and Sunday 25th.

Kelly at Magic Kingdom whilst she was in Orlando over the weekend.

Ah, in that case, once we get a good idea of the most popular, we'll stick with that one. For arguments' sake, let's say the poll will end next Sunday. That will give people 4 weeks to be able to book time off of work should they need to.

Right guys, due to poor planning and judgement on my part, I was unaware that Sunday 18th March was a bad option. After discussing further with members of the team, I have discovered that there will be nobody available to attend on this day. Mark, Ian, Marc, Sidders and I are unavailable. This leaves Ryan to be responsible for everything and I don't think this is fair on him.There are also planned engineering works on that Sunday towards Staines for those of you getting public transport. As a result, I've had to remove that option in the poll. If you voted for that day, please could you choose another option? :)Once again I do apologise, it was my own short-sightedness about the team's availability on this day. Are you able to do Sunday 25th Ryan? We will go with the majority. You can view the results once you've voted! The most popular right now is Sunday 25th March.

The reason why I'm suggesting the Saturday is because public transport is a bit iffy on Sundays, people will most likely have work/ college the next day and it was only a short few months ago that people were moaning that all of the meets were on a Sunday! :PI'll be honest, I cannot do that Sunday and very unlikely to be able to attend due to work commitments which I cannot get out of. The meet still can go ahead, just that someone else will have to lead it and take hold of the organisation on the day.

Looking forward to seeing you there Maxy!

Good evening all of you cheeky members! I'm very excited to be able to announce plans for our Open Season Meet!We've got two weekends in which we'd like to hold the event, 17th and 24/25 March. Please select from the poll which day suits you best. The option with the most votes shall be the date of the meet. :)However, with that in mind, I am going to conditionally plan the event for Sunday 25th March. Bear in mind we also have an ERT meet on Friday 23rd March.The plan shall be to meet over by The Swarm's fire engine between 11:30am and 12pm.This will give people time to explore the Swarm area and give people a chance to ride it; we understand that it's a new ride and people will be rushing to go and ride it. I will be handing out my phone number for people attending on the day should there be any problems.For those of you that attended the Chessington meet last year, then we shall be taking a very similar approach. We aim to stay together as a group for the day, going from ride to ride and enjoying getting to know people who you share very similar interests with. If you did attend, then you'd probably agree that it was one of the best (if not best) meets of the year.I don't personally like strict itineraries, especially at theme parks where there are so many factors such as queue times, and occasional break downs, the idea is to just go with the flow and enjoy the day with some awesome people. Whilst we cannot force you to stay with the group, we kindly ask you to wait for the group if you do not wish to ride an attraction out of respect for all members attending this meet. It does get very frustrating when people wander off as it completely undermines the whole purpose of these events; that's me being very honest!The meets are a fantastic laugh and everyone is invited, even if you've never posted before or been to any kind of meet at all. All we request is that you are a member on the forums.With lunch, we realise people have very different tastes, you're welcome to go and eat wherever you'd like, just let people know so we can arrange a time and place to meet back! Once again, everyone will have my phone number so please use it on the day. :DIf anyone has any issues or concerns, feel free to post here, or PM a member of the team and we'll try to help you out as much as we can. Please PM me or post here to say if you're attending. I'll update the lists where appropriate!So to summarise: Thorpe Park Open Season Meet Sunday 25th March 2012 Swarm Fire Engine 11:30am-12pm. Confirmed as Attending Maybe Attending

It is a real bird Will. It'll be chained to the station roof so it cannot escape. It'll act as a close encounter for many guests as they try to escape death from the wrath of the eagle, angered as it writhes in its chained containment.Dollywood is deep.Sorry WIll, was feeling sarcastic. What else do you think it could be then if it's not themeing?

Absolutely phenomenal photo, credit to Pafans.com. Seriously gives this whole ride an amazing sense of scale now. Phew!

That picture was taken last year. Notice the lack of Fanta presence.

Irishman, that may be the most sense I have ever read from you! :PI can spy a cheeky fire effect housing in that pic from Wossy's show. Mmm.

Remember that crazy B&M Flying Coaster in China which opened last year? Starry Night Ripper is one of the most unique rides of its type that I have seen. Here is a fantastic video which showcases the ride's unique approach to the ride type!

I guess the same could have been said about Colossus and it's repaint. Sadly, it's looking worse than the Hulk did a couple of years ago!

Yeah what is that black? Is it where it's been snowing and damp?For comparison, a picture from opening year.

I'd love to see them clean the volcano properly. It's green in many places!

That's how long the station is, the station is 11.3M tall.

I really don't know what to make of these just yet. Only seen the images on here and haven't done any further investigating. There's something suspicious about these plans and something I can't put my finger on. There looks to be quite a bit of corrugated metal around the maintenance building with a graphic on. All I'm getting from the station plans is an aged concrete fascia.I have high hopes for the attraction but at the moment I'm not completely sold on the themeing.

It's fantastic news. A massive thank you to Thorpe Park for offering this event for us. We're all very grateful! And a huge thank you to Marc for remaining in contact and sorting it out for us. What a great year to be a theme park enthusiast. :)I'll definitely be there in the evening.

I think you misread, Benin. There actually is a front row queue, it's in place of the single rider queue.Thanks for the summary Drawin! Still hoping for 1200pph. I still can't get my head round the Wing-rider's blocking system.

It's a difficult one. It's very easy to give reasons such as, "they wanted people with experience", or, "they wanted people with more flexibility" or, "perhaps I missed out on a chance because there were only a few positions". The truth is though, it is likely we use these reasons to make ourselves feel better about not getting the job. I should know, I've used those reasons before in the past.The reality is... and I'm being as delicate as I can here without hurting your feelings- though I feel as though you're a decent enough person to deserve honesty... there is a valid reason why they didn't think you were suitable on this occasion. I do hope that you receive the constructive feedback you deserve and respect you as a candidate to provide you with honesty as well. It could be something so small that you're doing without realising and knowing that could improve your chances in the future.Then again, this is coming from someone who is in full time education and has only applied for two jobs in the last 12 months, one of which I was unsuccessful for. I'm hardly the best person to comment on the matter but I hope I make sense and you appreciate my honesty.

According to Adz over on TTF (very reliable with information across all Merlin related things), there will be two water skims and the helicopter will have its own effects too.

To be fair, the park cannot win. If they'd opened and experienced similar problems then the park would have been criticised. I've read on various forums that they're happy Annual Pass day isn't happening this year. Plus, the park is open midweek to ease the season in gently. Annual Pass preview would have been nice, but with such high demand for the new attraction, I'm not really surprised Thorpe have made this decision. It avoids another PR nightmare.