TPDave

I love EP operations!! the high throughputs are probably the best upshot of a park being owned by a rides company :)Dan, thanks for the info on 2011. I can't wait to go back, it's such a great park!Dave

I would be very impressed if you went to the states for a week or two in the summer and visited 10-12 parks and didn't get caught up in queues :)Dave

When you're a student, it's hard to plan trips in term time

I used to hate fastrack until I started travelling further afield to go to parks. Fastrack isn't designed for enthusiasts to use at their home park as it's not particularly difficult to go to the park again if you miss out on some rides.Once you've travelled internationally to get to a park, most people will pay a little bit extra to make sure they ride everything that they want to. Of course the tickets seem really pricey (I think the prices at Thorpe offer the worst value of any system I've seen) but on top of the cost of getting to an international park and staying in the area, fastrack really isn't that much more.I find it's the same with families on days out. They don't plan on coming back any time soon so they buy fastrack to get the most out of their day. After all, it's cheaper to buy the fastrack than cart the whole family back in a few weeks because you missed a ride.Sorry, I'm massively off topic! Stealth...

If you're going for a few days you've got no worries, even in the summer.Take it slow, absorb the ambience and see as many shows as you can. The nightly show over the lake is pretty cool (as is the europop they play on the way out!).Dave

What are these groups everyone is talking about?!?

Has anyone else played the santa claw?I've become borderline obsessed with this thing recently! It's a massive crane game that some US ad agency has set up and you can play it over the internet. The only problems are they don't ship prizes to the UK and it takes ages of waiting to play but it's addictive! Check it out: www.thesantaclaw.comDave

^ Yup.Seriously, the only time to visit Orlando is late September/early October. The crowds are light but the weather is still ok (probably better for Brits because you don't have to get used to it being hot!) and you get to experience the parks in normal mode and Halloween mode. HHN is by far the best Halloween event (although it's declining in quality apparently) and things like MNSSHP are really fun (not to mention a good chance to get into the MK when the capacity of the park is limited!).I hope the planning works out for you ^_^Dave

More than you could possibly imagine Given that my favourite TV shows include top gear, have I got news for you and QI my namesake TV station suits me pretty well!Oh God, I see Neilfever is a member here. Let the old times roll!Dave

Hello people!I've had an account on here for a while but clearly haven't been too active, I just thought I'd say hi!My name is Dave, the oldies amongst you will remember me as TPDave from SouthParks. I spend most of my time on Theme Park Review now but thought it would be nice to get back on the Thorpe forums I recognise a few names, but I see things have moved on a lot since I was active in the TPCommunity ;)Dave

That's crazy, I only met him a couple of times but he was a really great guy.RIP

I'm pretty confident that 2012 will be a B&M for TP.Apparently Merlin have a 3 coaster deal with B&M for Gardaland, Heide and TP. I've been told that when the 3 coasters were put out to tender, Merlin wanted them all to be the same (for obvious cost reasons) so apparently all three parks will get the same B&M, not sure I'm convinced of that though. Here's some more info on Gardaland's 2011 coaster:http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=915303#p915303