Mer

Wouldn't surprise me...

Lol and wtf at ranting about not being served by a British person. I'm sorry but that is a ridiculously old-fashioned, conservative thing to say. As others have said, what do you expect in such a diverse city and in this day and age??

Thanks Thorpe Park for that helpful post And yeah I noticed that Steve, and also in both photos some people are wearing wearing dark clothes. Perhaps they've become stricter on this recently? Ah well, as long as everyone wears what we've been told to EDIT: Just noticed that people's arrival times have been added and coloured coded! Love the organisation

Hmm yes I was thinking that too Peaj but Sarah has a good point, something which I also recently raised in chat. Not sure I'm up for freezing myself for 2 hours! Of course, we can hope the weather will change but I can't see it changing that much to not need a coat. And it will be the evening and getting dark! It was 9c on Saturday when I went and I was chilly even with a coat! Also Peaj has answered another question I had, also in relation to wearing coats - the only coat I have which would stand out is my blue one, so assuming the colours don't literally have to be light, and just need to stand out, then it sounds like that will be fine to wear! But yeah, I did wonder about winter clothing. Maybe someone can contact Thorpe about this?

Friends & Family day, Saturday 9th March On Saturday I was privileged to be invited to F&F day along with Peaj and Maxy This was my first F&F day and I'm thrilled I got to go to one! Now I've been to one I want to go to more in the future It was a fantastic day! Nice quiet park and lots of laughs! First ride of the day: braving it backwards on Swarm! Meaning my last ride of last season was front left on Swarm and first ride this year was back left Swarm There was a delay of about 20 minutes before being allowed onto the island, and when we were, there was the expected rush! I didn't want to run as I'm not like that anymore and would find it embarrassing but due to the flood of people coming up fast behind me, I ended up having no choice! Almost got lost in the crowd The queue entrance has changed now with the left hand side being for backwards and the right hand side being forwards. I'm confused as to how this will work when the extensions are open though as the backwards part is the old fastrack queue. Or have I missed something and is backwards going to be a paid ticket thing? Anyhoo, we grabbed our backwards tickets and me and Peaj made our way over to the left hand side while the others went on the right. It's interesting now being able to wave to people as they go up the lift hill We didn't have to wait too long and as we got nearer I was starting to get nervous! Soon it was our turn to brave it backwards! Peaj sneakily took the outside seat so I sat down in the inside seat, lowered the restraint and stared ahead at t the brake run. Very odd view! Imagine that when it's on two trains and seeing that Swarm face coming towards you! Off we went! Felt very strange departing the station backwards, and even more so on the lift hill. I was feeling rather nervous at this point and that lift hill seemed to go on forever! We eventually reached the top and experienced the drop. It was just bizarre! I still prefer sitting on the right hand side for the drop and whilst dropping backwards is forceful, it also felt shorter. Possibly because you can't see the drop and the train ahead of you, I'm not too sure. But overall I definitely prefer facing forwards for the drop, the experience is more fun and the twist into the drop feels scarier. The rest of the ride: The zero-g, again, felt weird! Being pulled backwards through it is just crazy. I heard the fire go off but didn't see it and felt so disorientated that I couldn't work out which direction to look in to see it! Infact I was disorientated for the rest if the ride after that I totally forgot about the inclined loop and it took me by surprise! Going around the helicopter turn I knew what was coming... That corkscrew. Wow. Totally threw me (and my stomach - it really went over!) and had me laughing. Then the inline twist - WOW! It's intense enough going forwards but going through it backwards is insane! Just like the zero-g and the corkscrew it made my stomach go over Even the final turn took me by surprise Upon arriving at the brake run I was lost for words. My legs were trembling, I was grinning like a Cheshire cat and I felt a little queasy! I can't remember what I actually said but it was accompanied by some kind of exasperated laugh. Absolutely brilliant experience. There are a lot of mixed views on it currently. I initially feared the intensity would be taken away, became nervous and excited as the time grew nearer and upon seeing and hearing the reactions from guests and staff, expected it to be good fun (and sickly)! It was certainly fun and more intense than I expected! Right hand side, back row was done later on and whilst still good does not compare to the left. I personally love it and love the feeling of my stomach going over and it did a lot more going backwards than forwards. Both directions offer different things. As Peaj said himself when we were there, forwards is more about the experience and the near misses whereas backwards is more about the intensity. I certainly agree with this. Therefore I cannot possibly choose which I prefer as I love both the thrilling and experience/theming aspects of rides Some photos: Onto the rest of the day (I've waffled a lot so I'll try and keep it brief!): After Swarm was Detty which looks lovely with its new restraints and felt more forceful. Not sure if this because it's my first ride of the season or if closed season work has had an effect. It still felt very forceful on our ride towards the end of the day too! After this we did Rumba after seeing that Stealth was still not open. Still no water effects working but it seemed more rapid than usual and we had the usual laughs! The lake absolutely stinks worse than ever. Maxy described it as something like "Death and depression" After a quick stop to get some Munchies (some of which Peaj dropped on the floor but proceeded to eat. Filthy man!) we decided we needed more wetness and headed to Loggers. Good fun as usual and the half tunnel thing cracked me up. The entrance is there, then there is nothing, then after the drop the tunnel of smelliness continues. I actually don't mind it and it's quite a refreshing change (literally, clean air!) and provided much amusement! Next up was Saw which now has a front row queue. I still cannot get my head around this. Speaking of heads, the ride wasn't too bad but we refused a re ride! Never have I before seen an empty Saw queue! Samurai and Colossus were next. Samurai was just awful. Tragic. Hideous. Atrocious. I can't find the word. We had setting 2 apparently but it may as well not exist. We only flipped once and that was at the very end. My mum could have gone on the ride and been bored! It then took ages to zero. I actually feel sorry for the ride (yes I know that sounds weird). It's so awkward and embarrassing. I do question how much longer it will survive... Colossus however was great fun as always and won't be leaving anytime soon. (Referring to chat last week where people were suggesting it hurry up and be removed. Silly people ) I've always loved it and always will. Rarely have any discomfort issues and always laugh my way around the track. For some reason coming out of the cobra roll and entering the first corkscrew had me in hysterics I also experienced blue spots in my vision when going through the inlines which I've had before a number of times. I'm assuming it's something to do with the forces of the ride and all that jazz. In the hope it had improved we took a ride on Storm Surge. It still sucks. The revolving hug me, Peaj and Maxy had was more fun than SS (and Samurai!) Rush wooo! It had a short cycle BUT I'm not complaining as I'm aware it's not official open season yet! After a lovely warm sit down in Bar 360, accompanied by some delicious nachos and a glass of rose wine, we HAD to try out Depth Charge with the shiny new RED BOATS! They do appear to go faster, they certainly are easier to start off with, no more awkward shuffling Went on Swarm for some front row times and had a lovely Peaj hug while waiting to board Which then became singing the Strictly Come Dancing theme and spinning around. As you do in the Swarm station! That billboard. DAYUM! It is the best near miss on the ride and amazing in the front left seats! Then it was time for Peaj - The Ride! I got a piggy back on the Peajinator all the way from Swarm island entrance right to my seat on Inferno, via Stealth plaza where we had a think about what to do (chose Inferno as it had a shorter queue)! Was very enjoyable I even got to brave it backwards through the Inferno queue! Aaah, Inferno. Good old Inferno Looking fantastic with its lights and mist in the tunnel! And it's great to hear the return of the dispatch theme It was so quiet that we got ourselves a reride! It was afterwards that I noticed I had been dripped on with rusty water. I now feel kinda special and like I'm part of a club now I've been experienced this "The Rust Club", anyone? We had a second ride on Detty before heading over to Swarm for our last ride of the day. Braving it backwards again, this time on back right. As said earlier it's still great fun but definitely better on the left. Annnd there you have it. May have gone on a bit too much, I do apologise! Ride count Swarm - 3 (2x backwards 1x forwards) Detonator - 2 Inferno - 2 Colossus - 1 Depth Charge - 1 Loggers - 1 Rumba - 1 Rush - 1 Samurai - 1 Saw - 1 Storm Surge - 1

Just realised in my last post I forgot to mention the billboard! The only time we did forwards facing was front row (left), so perfect row for the near misses! WOW!!! It is the best near miss on the ride and probably the best near miss I have ever experienced! I actually ducked and lowered my arms! It also provides another near miss later on but I won't spoil it EDIT: Thinking about it, the second near miss is possibly only experienced on the left hand side.

Having ridden it backwards twice today and once forwards (plus of course numerous other times forwards in the past), I can say that backwards certainly does feel more intense. Back left is still the more intense side. My first go was back left and it blew me away. Was so nervous going up the lift hill, it seemed to go on forever! The drop was a weird feeling (still better on the right though). As expected the near misses are not as noticeable although I noticed more on my second time backwards. The drop and inversions feel pretty intense and it's all very disorientating, didn't know there I was! It also made my stomach go a fair bit which resulted in me and Peaj both making some amusing noises! We came off feeling rather queasy! Did find it amusing seeing the obtuse photos; they haven't sorted it out yet (assuming they will get another camera for the backwards facing rows) so there were some lovely shots of the backs of the seats

Gaaaaah so excited for this! The exclusives we've previously had from Thorpe are wonderful but this event just makes me feel so privileged and proud to be a member of their official fansite

The TPM Magic Carpet of course! People either drive, get lifts or get the train then the Thorpe Park Express bus from Staines station to the park. Whereabouts are you coming from? If you get the train then bus you could always arrange to meet any others getting the bus at the station

What on earth am I looking at?! If you stare long enough you can follow the paths, but then again I know in my mind my way around the park. As others have said, first time visitors would have a struggle! It's like the rides etc are taking up too much room to be able to quickly navigate the map. When you're at a busy theme park, the quicker you can get around, the better! Also I can't seem to find the Skyride stations on there, the picture loses quality when I zoom in to find them. I was looking for them to see if they're easy to find for new visitors but I think my question has been answered EDIT: I can see them now! Small pale blue labels with white font? Oh dear

Going by this year's map, it still looks to have a rave theme to it. I was hoping for something a *bit* more interesting and thought they would remove this rave shizz seeing as the ride is now more aimed at younger audiences. Ah well, I can still hope they've spruced the interior up at least...

It sure does! You can see it shining in one photo, ooft! Getting so excited about this now, can't wait to see the station too! I wonder if it will be like the game and have that clinical look to it

I'm confused. Why are both trains not ready with backwards facing seats? Leaving it a bit late aren't they!

I just want to know who this "Gaylord" is that the Wiki quote mentions Sorry but I couldn't help but giggle!

Aww Mark such cute kittehs And yes, Siamese are known for being pretty vocal cats

That's what I was doing though, it's weird

Naughty mods Haha I know it isn't mods editing it, because it's happened to other people's posts too I'm pretty sure it is Facebook fannying about, JamesC had the issue when trying to post a photo last night and it had all the gobbledegook after .jpg, came up as a square, removed the gobbledegook and it worked! Problem *hopefully* solved, thanks guys (well, mainly pluk as he was the first to mention Facebook links not working etc )

What a face for the camera to freeze on!

Good point; I've noticed recently that with Facebook image links, sometimes they end in .jpg and sometimes there's a load of other stuff after the .jpg. This was happening when I made the post but initially they all worked. It's also happened in chat but they'll still work. You'd think the ones with stuff after .jpg wouldn't work, so maybe that's what's happened. Silly Facebook.

Why are some of my images disappearing from posts and being replaced with little square things? Very annoying, especially in posts like trip reports! Happens on both my phone and PC, although I haven't tried a different browser yet. But I don't think it's that, because it doesn't happen to all photos. For example, in my Guildford TR, some photos show up and some don't, yet they are all from the same album and I haven't moved them or done anything that would affect the link. It only seems to be Facebook photos it happens to, I *think* Photobucket links are ok (that's the only other site I upload pics to). After having a browse, I see it's happened to other people's posts, glad it's not just me Would be grateful if this is looked into Thanks!

Not as buff tings as this: EDIT: Someone got sleepy in Skype Isn't it just adorable?

Why are you lying in an empty bath?

Turtle... (In all seriousness it's not awkward Me and Ben are still friends so I think I can tell him if he makes me laugh ) Unless you're referring to something else, in which case I've waffled on for no reason Oh well, this is the random topic!

Embarrassing Bodies. My brother stomped into the lounge earlier while I was watching a repeat, claiming it's repetitive and boring now... But then...reconstructing a penis after it (and one unfortunate testicle!) was ripped off a man when he was ran over and dragged along when he was 7 years old :O Deffo not seen that before Apologies if that's a tad OTT/graphic or made any guys wince, just saying it how it was described! On a serious note, it really is amazing what surgeons can do these days! They used part if his arm to reconstruct it! I did laugh when the doc was like "You have a nice big arm" (I'm sure you can work out the rest) And when after the operation they were like "I bet you can't wait to get home to your wife "

Somebody needs to be marmalised