AJ

I was going to audition for that this year but then I got busy the week of the auditions. Oh well theres always next year. (I just have this strange interest to see what it will be like to be locked away from the outside world with a load of weird people and get booed on the way out)I fancy some Cheese and I think the nearest 24 hour shop is 3-4 miles away, should I go or should I not.....

I really miss that ride, when it left the park I was gutted. I remember at one point how scary I thought it all was and for some reason the ride attracted a lot of wasps - the amount of bins in it's queueline...That was one of my favourite rides at the park at the time, and for me samurai just hasn't replaced it properly for me (not that I'm saying it's a bad ride, I just can't move on from the fact when it was once great)With regards to it fitting into the area, I can understand even though at the time didn't really notice that much - it just belonged - but regarding it's name after a hard long think the only conclusion I could think of how the name came to be was:1) Needs that cowboyish name to fit in with Canada Creek2) At the time it was one of the fastest most intense rides so that's how 'stampede' came into the equation3) (far fetched one) 'Calgary' relates to the horses/ cowboy, and on horses cowboys did Lassos(?) Lassos(?) are circle shaped at an angle, which was how the ride kinda operated....

We are all very curious people on wanting to know why it is closed, but you must remember that the attendants passing on this message usually don't know why the ride is closed themselves and are merely the messengers, and even if they did they're not supposed to say to the public the true reason why it's closed because some Joe public may take it the wrong way and think it's a serious problem, when it's not, which in turn puts a negative spin on things for the ride and the park depending on how it's perceived.

Has anyone ever done Rush, when the attendants and operators tell you to hold the tip of your feet throughout the whole ride (on this occasiona, if successful you got another ride) Even if it's not a challenge I recommend you should try it as it's mighty fun. May hurt your stomach a bit but your just swinging madly round the restraint when the swing goes back the opposite direction. It was a good time.(there was also an occasion when someone evily threw water over me whilst ride was in motion....)

Just out of interest, what do people think of the park music these days. I've noticed some of the voice overs and music have been changing (especially in ranger county) and even though 1 or 2 tracks I prefer slightly, I just don't think the music that's replacing it is as catchy as it once was. This is especially true with the fright night music which I personally thought had some of the best music 05.I know the the parks are being run differently, and that the company wants to make it's stamp on things, I just hope that not all the music is going to change in the coming years.

One other thing you have to remember though in general (and I know it won't happen as we are in the UK). Good point in the fact you don't need to see people for them to be fixing a ride - but in the bigger picture, shall we say you go to another park, outside the UK or if it's with the UK a smaller park, probably family run - the park makes a big effort to get the rides up and running again as soon as possible and even though you may see no one, you know work is being done. The usual case that seems to happen round though is that if a ride is closed, there doesn't seem to be a rush/ effort to get the ride up and running again and it can just make the ride look dormant.Fair enough if a ride needs to wait for a replacement part, nothing can be helped - but some of these parks it happens a bit to often for that excuse/ reason to be used all the time, there are still times when there is no replacement being waited but still, the ride looks dormant/ taking it's time to get it working again.

It's really good to see that the park is making an effort this year to get some of the effects working again and maintaining the park rather than what they have been doing of recent years and just letting everything fall apart.

Even though personally I wouldn't find Depth Charge a loss, it does eat up some queues (hence why I hardly go on it as it's not worth the queue). And one day however long in the future it is when it eventually goes, I wouldn't personally wanted it to be replaced by more thrill rides in that part of the park. It would just be nice to see that whole section stay family friendly as it is. It does take up some space so they'll be able to fit some not-to-thrilling flats or other things.However it is a nice little ride - a bit dated yes compared to recent rides of the same type - but still fun. Alas I think we'll be seeing a lot more of depth charge for at least a few more years as at the end of the day - why do they need to get rid of it?

That makes the two of us ;)Duel is a fun ride, it's got that bit of cheese that I love but I much prefered when it was just a haunted house. What I liked about it was that it was just what you would expect a traditional haunted house to have but now it's just another shoot em rides.Don't get me wrong I love Duel but Tomb Blaster wins for me, it's a more epic experience.

Has anyone ever seen the two swings in perfect alignment as I know one of the swings is a bit more 'lazy' than the other. Really since it's opened it's either been on 1 swing or out of sync, perhaps it's just not possible to get perfect alignment for a lot of various reasons - (stupid examples, weather and one swing is used more than the other...)

With me the longest queue I've probably done is waiting 3.5+ hours for the freezer, I had never been on anything like it at the time and all the people I was with were very excited and just had to go in the maze.Nowadays I see no point queuing more than 45 mins for a good ride at Thorpe, as ive been on them so much I might as well just go on the ride when it is shorter the next time I visit. I may stretch to an hour if I'm forced but really for me unless I haven't done it before then that is as long as I would usually queue.

Got an assessment for Barclays tomorrow, I think they said it's going to take around about 2-3 hours. Interviews are never short these days, never been to one yet where you don't take any practical tests while your there....Got another application going through with some solicitors as well at the moment, but due to all the checks they're having to do, they said it could take a while before anything can go ahead, so I need another job in the meantime to ge the money coming in rather than waiting a few months to see if I get through to the next stage with the solicitor!

I've got one busy day tomorrow, Job interview at Barclays then I have to rush to Bromley so I can drive to West Wickham for my Driving Test, then I need to get back to Bromley and get to the job center and then finish it all off by attending a tutorial for for degree. I want to know when I can eat....

That sounds like a challenge, I feel like I must accept this challenge and try to one day beat that record of 30 rides in a day whenever I can get myself to the park in the future

It's good I found this topic, I've just been on the receiving end of finding out about someone's sexuality and from the word go you could see how uncomfortable he was letting it all out. just a little back story about it before people get confused...In short me and this guy called Sean went to School with each other and we were like the best of mates - however due to some protection thing he had to leave to Scotland for his safety and none of us were to know where he was. However 2 weeks ago as everything is now safe he has now come back to London and he managed to find me. Anyway on the first meet for 3/4 years I was invited to his home and then he got rather fidgety and then said how worried me and his mum (who he also ain't seen) would react to this. A big sigh later said he was gay. A lot of respect to this guy cause I understand how difficult it is for someone to let it out and especially in front of two people, a good pat on the back I say. I remember the first thing the mum said and it was quite automatic was "Oh no, what about my grandchildren" but she accepted it quite quickly. I wasn't too shocked (remembering what he was like sometimes) and being a friend be supportive, and it didn't really bother me - in fact it explained a lot. Sadly it was a different case back in Scotland as his dad was really against it and from remembering his dad wasn't surprised with his reaction. To cut a long story short he made Sean's life very difficult up there and hence why Sean came back to London as living conditions were becoming unbearable.I also later found out he had a crush on me at school (that I was ultra shocked about - didn't see that one coming), but in a way it tells me a lot about the type of person he is because he's one of these gay guys who doesn't intrude his sexuality on you, and respects your sexuality and therefore you can still be good mates and laugh about the whole situation. End of the day he is the type of gay guy I like. Really the only things that really annoys me and makes me feel really uncomfortable (and I've had to work with this) about certain gay people are the one's who think they can turn you and when your out and about dominate there presence on top of you and the only thing on their mind is the sexual type of things. That I don't appreciate.I'm comfortable around all types of people, and I can be quite a huggy type of person (in fact like hugs), I just don't think it's right when you do hug, some people take this as there window/ opportunity to make there move. At least I know with Sean and the majority of people respect other people for who they are.Just thought I'd share to all about the real life story of these experiences (for either Sean or myself) as I would imagine it could relate to a lot of people.

Good sign James, if only the 'high street' sign warned me of those sharp edges

Random outburst of painOOoouchhhhh!!! I can't feel my thumb, I don't like street signs now, I found out tonight that they're very sharp on the edge which causes severe bleeding. I'll have to be more careful of the street signs in future....

Not the best flume ride I've been on but it's also not the worse. I'm glad they rethemed it to what it's like now though as it does provide more entertainment to what it used to be like. It was weird but when I first went on it in it's old state I thought at the time the ride seemed a bit unkept and outdated to other areas of the park - I got the impression it was forgotten about, so in all glad about the ducks coming to this ride (even if I'm not so happy about ducks on other rides.) However I do miss the dinosaurs.

I'm going to try and get back to Alton Towers this year, but I'm still not sure if I can be bothered to go on the Whizzer. Now I'm a person who believes you must try something first before you can slam it down, but when I'm at Alton there are so much other great rides in the park like Nemesis and Hex just to name a few and I don't know if I can be bothered to queue up for Spinball when Dragon;s Fury is basically on my doorstep. And just from looking at the track of Spinball it just doesn't seem as fun as Fury - I could be wrong but I'd rather try other things at Alton when I hardly ever get to go there.

When I rode Rita last year I wasn't expecting that much, but it proved better than my expectations (but then again I do like a launch) even though it's not the best ride in the world, I just somehow seemed to like going round those corners at that kind of speed. It's a weird one there's nothing exceptional about it but I loved the experience and I was just somehow impressed by it.

Do you go on ride to be bored or to get excited, Personally I love the indoor station that builds up the excitement and I think that's a good thing ,Vampire is a classic ride in my opinion, and whenever you go to Chessington and don't get to ride the vampire you have missed out. Last time I went there that was when the vampire had it's recent breakdown and me and the people I was with was gutted we could not get on it.Even though I like the vampire as it is, being a fun ride and just pure enjoyment (something I think Chessington has over Thorpe, a fun day out rather than just rides) I still kinda miss the old vampire bat cars....

I can't go to Thorpe without riding Rocky, otherwise I don't feel like the day has been complete. It's a nice little ride that breaks up the day and I absolutely enjoy every minute of it, once or twice I have danced in the queue line with various peeps to 5,6,7,8 and sung along to Dolly Parton but enough of my silly little antics and back to how great the wonderful ride of Rocky Express is. I remember as a little kid riding rocky when it was situated in Octopus Gardens, many people seem to forget that it hasn't spent all it's life at Thorpe in Canada Creek. Where it used to be situated you could get a good backdrop of Depth Charge in the background when it used to be one of the main rides in the park.Rocky is a Hoot - Woot, Rocky is a hoot - Woot

I certainly agree about the guns, that can be really annoying, but according it's one of the main rides at Chessington AND ZOO, The amount of times I've visited, I've never really seen it that long. Recently for me it's been a walk on - Of course I'm not there all the time so I can't judge completely, but from my experiences.I think in regards to Duel, as it was my first time last year on it - even though I really enjoyed it I haven't got round to appreciating it yet.

NOOOOoooooooooooooooooooo!!! I'm gutted for ya Chels, I know how much you wanted to pass it

Woot some success at last, only thing is it's voluntary. It appears I'm going to be an assistant scout leader but at the meeting today it sounds like they want me to take charge of a group at some point , don't even know how I'd do yet!!At least though I get experience and it shows I haven't been sitting on my backside all the time.