TraX

I would say a most definite yes.Raptor's water effects are triggered as the train passes various turns over the swamp. It doesn't use any water scoops and the train gets pretty wet! Thorpe would be crazy to have missed such effect. If that isn't proof enough, just check out that concept art; looks like water won't be the only effect either!

I think that Thorpe are being as carefully secret about this as they can. Obviously with plans having to be submitted, there's only so much they can hide although, I do know the park were furious with so many leaked details with the run up to Saws opening.Without over exciting anyone, I think there will be plenty of surprises to come.

some shots from Gardalands Raptor TV ad too. Nothing wrong with that!

Anyone on park today to see whats going on?

For those of you that have riden Raptor, will understand how exciting this is! Raptor is so comfy and good to ride. To have a bigger one so close to home is very exciting. As always as a concept art fan, love the look so far and look forward to see how the missing faces will come into it. Good work to all at Thorpe involved with this.

Think many of us will be watching! This is already an epic project and fingers crossed we'll see something real from them today and not just more banter.

I believe the idea is to have the additional path from the dome available too, although I do feel sometimes that Thorpe enjoy creating chaos! With just the 'fishway' path open, it will be ugly, with everyone heading to the LC12 island first, you can only imagine cramming alongthe pathway, into a bottle neck small bridge and onto the dead end LC12 island.. THEN, to turn around and battle back through the other way..God only knows why an additional bridge isn't on the current plans, connecting LC12 into the Sunken Garden and Stealth. Crazy!

When did half of it burn down the last time?!

As soon as this ride goes vertical, there will be plenty of viewing areas. Fish bridge, depth charge and stealth platforms.It's gonna be a monster, so dont worry if you can't see it yet!

Not long back from Florida myself now. Won't go into great detail of the parks with my own trip report, as Number 9 did a very good job of that himself, I will hit a few notes though, without starting yet another Florida topic!OK... For those of you who already follow me and my geeky tales on TWITTER, will already know that I had not such a good couple of trips to Sea World. I usually really enjoy this park, but found their operations shocking for their peak season. Far too much ride downtime; every single ride bar the sky tower at one point, and Manta with a filled queue line, duel loading and a decent block system, running one train is not something I'd like to remember or find acceptable either.Universal, as ever run two splendid theme parks and Islands of Adventure's Ripsaw Falls, Bilge Rat.., and in the Studios Revenge of the Mummy are the big stand outs.Spider-Man is still the best use of story and technology that I've seen and look forward to it's big upgrade next year.Harry Potter as well themed as it is, and by far the most technologically advanced ride in the world, just doesn't quite hit the spot, probably due to lack of story and a little too quick projection sequences. The Dementors however are still very scary and all in all, I can't fault such a bold ride experience.Disney, was rammed, although for so many reasons still does what it does the best. All the usual stand outs were there Splash Mountain, Philiarmagic and the Tower of Terror. Although, it must be said, I still find the magic kingdom a little rough around the edges, compared to the Disneyland Park in Paris (exceptions of course to the weather and the huge difference the Americans have Vs the French).I was stunned by the upgrades to the Haunted Mansion. For a ride that didn't really need any more upgrades, I find it outstanding that Disney feel the need to constantly upgrade and improve their attractions so much. The interactive queue line is fantastic in every way, not only because of it's interactivity, but also due to it's nods to the original creators and created fan legends. It was a real plus and not happy to even stop there, once on board the ride, the hitch hiking ghost mirror scene with it's massive upgrade is just stunning and very well done too.Next up was Star Tours: the Adventures Continue, yet another huge attraction upgrade that was again a very high standard. Star Tours was never a ride that I bothered to ride on every visit, but this time I did it 4 times, and every one of those rides were completely different. The ride has over 50 different combos, so you'll never know what to expect and again, with rider interactivity, the best digital 3D ride film that I've ever seen AND a decent story line it makes it very re-ridable. I can only hope that Paris pull their socks up and upgrade theirs too.Next big news was Cheetah Hunt at Busch Gardens. With an already fantastic ride line up.. (Kumba for example-certainly Nemesis intense on a much bigger scale), I was looking forward to this one, following it's construction I already knew it wasn't as fast as we'd all hoped for, but what made it really good was that it never stops before any of it's three launch sections. The rides already at a speedy pace before you're launched off again. It has some great air time, the theming is fantastic, a great section over the water and it's very pretty to look at. A thrill machine? Certainly not, but for Intamin it rode as smooth as a B&M :-oAll in all great trip, the weather was SO stormy here and there and I was pleased to get a peak back stage of Beauty and the Beast and Mermaid construction via the railroad! Both reasons to get over there again next year!

Yeah, I must admit, I'm enjoying this too. Alton Towers website is great this year and still stands proud at the top Merlin attraction.Voting from my side goes to Oblivion. Whilst Nemesis is indeed world class and will no doubt win out, with the exception of it's length, Oblivion has a lot to offer as well..

Managed to get down to the Dungeons yesterday to ride Vengeance.Was an odd one, as one second we were waiting to board and then we were moved into the what I thought was a pre show room.. Turned out to be the next section of the dungeon tour Jack the Ripper and finally we ended up in the gift shop. Tour over then.Tons of people left and didn't seem to even notice that they'd slyly skipped us passed the new ride. Well, time for Fever to investigate! Turns out that the ride has had some technical difficulties and usually when they happen, they just skip over the attraction. I understand all too much about technical difficulties, but I found it rather insulting that they didn't inform anyone or even apologise. I insisted to speak to a manager and by this point, several other people had gathered, all on the same page as us.A Manager arrived and was great, he found out that the ride was now back in operation and we were escorted back to the attraction and loaded straight on, nice work!So onto the ride.. The seats are very nicely themed into large comfy arm chairs, fitted with our own laser gun to your right. In front I could already see the movie screen and else where, very little theming-that I could see at least. It felt like a large seating platform in an empty room with a screen on the front wall and a screen on the back.Whilst the ride is certainly fun, the platform floor spins in both directions and quite fast too. Overall, It lacked any story and just started.. It quickly became an attack of 3D and the usual in seat effects and then quickly ended. I didn't really have any idea what was going on and wondered if perhaps by being fastracked into the ride, we'd missed some kind of pre show. The whole experience seemed a bit random, a back story of London's most haunted house would have been most welcome and with the ride film, some kind of intro. It all just felt a little rushed.It's also difficult for me these days to really get drawn into a 3D film, where both the screens are so small. I imagine it'was supposed to be an extension of the room we're sitting in, although with it's size, it just felt like looking out a window. The 3D effects then, didn't make me react as I was always too aware of how small the screen was and besides, it all comes so fast, I couldn't even see what was meant to be coming at me.The laser guns I won't really go into, as they're completely pointless. No visible laser. There is no scoring system. There is no easy way to aim and apart from perhaps a blinking light on the gun, no real reaction showing that you've hit a target or not. Bit pointless.So the spinning, yay for the spinning! It's a neat little ride the dungeons have added, but to me it feels like a ride platform and a couple of screens. Being in the dark and being the London Dungeons, I was hoping for a creepier build up or even, the odd scare. I'd like to get back down there again to have another look to see if there's any 'meat' to it, any smaller theming details and really give the ride another, even closer look. Sadly, my first impression was not as good as I would have liked; fun, but very average indeed.

No, not this time sadly, it's on my list!Will be interesting to see if Merlin do sort the Krake theming, it would make a huge difference. My bets are a firm NO, unfortunately..

Well, it's not a patch on Raptor, obviously! Tbh it was your earlier comments that lowered my expectations, which was great as the ride took me by surprise. I do find a few of these new themed Merlin coasters the same at the moment in terms of theme; Saw, Thirteen and Krake, as much as they try, the theming still feels like a rush job. With Disney putting so much into queue line experience right now and Merlin can't even make a queue line look nice.I'd swap the bumpy, poor mans dive machine Saw coaster with Krake any day.

If you've been following me on Twitter, you'll know that I'm just back from a two day trip to Heide Park. Will upload some pics to my Facebook pages tomorrow.Firstly, I'm a huge Oblivion fan and so I was confident this wasn't going to be any better. I agree with what was said already of the US dive coasters, they do feel too big and there isn't really any force at all (as great as they are, still).First get the moans out of way.. The queue line is very dull, whilst it's entertaining (for a roller coaster fan), watching the ride shuttles glide into the brakes, anyone else would be pretty fed up. To be honest, the fences looked untreated or painted and in one example, aren't even finished. It feels like they forgot to build a queue line until the day before the ride opened. Then onto the batching area; whilst suitably themed once unto the pirate fortress, the batching area is tiny for such a big thrill machine. I believe this was commented on already, it's not organised at all and almost everyone in the batching area are waiting for the front row seat, preventing anyone to get into rows two or three. The amount of empty seats I saw was criminal, worse as I'd (on day one) waited an hour and 20 mins. All it would take is a batcher getting the rows ready before the gates open. A minor bug, that's easily fixed.The ride itself is surprisingly just as good as Oblivion. Dare I say, I perhaps enjoyed it even more (gasp)! Maybe just as it's new and I've ridden Oblivion to death, or it's that it delivers more than just the drop. The drop took my breath away as much as Oblivion can do and with a huge amount of airtime to be had on an ever so pleasing bunny hop and run into the brakes, it was very re-ridable. Back left seat gets a bit wet and oddly seems to be only the back left!The Germans LOVE this ride, tons of people below in a viewing area around the splash pool, cameras pointed and playing under the splash zone. It seems sad then that everyone seems to have forgotten the theming let down, and oh, what a let down!Whilst the theming in the pool is suitable, smoke and bubbles from the mouth of the Krake, the ship wreck and octopus tentacles look good too, however if it was put together as originally intended, this ride would have been EVEN BETTER. I found it quite hard to swallow this theming let down. Such a promising idea, but alas.The idea that Merlin will revisit this in their closed season, I don't buy for a second. The ride works well in every other way.So to wrap it up, Krake is awesome. Air time filled and very enjoyable. Managed about 8 rides and loved all of them. Just as good-if not as intimidating as Oblivion. So I wonder if I should perhaps be thanking B&M rather than Merlin. Merlin I'm afraid this is your biggest theming cock up of all time. Tut tut.

God, that woman would be a nightmare for any park staff! Lol

It's after the second corkscrew, before going into the inline twists.

As always on this subject, there's tons of excuses flying around. Yes, the rides are complicated, but why has Thorpe Park got a dirty reputation for shocking ride availability?Granted, things are a lot better than they were and keeping rides open longer than expected to make up for ride downtime is great. Using the website to inform guests early that two rides will be down on this day and that is also helpful. However as mentioned, it's a very expensive day out and frankly, the rides should be open. It doesn't matter what way you turn it, the rides should be open.Thorpe Park is STILL the only park that I visit, where I worry that one of my favourite rides may be closed.

I would say it's because the rest of the park is so highly themed. It's a shame with FJ, they went to extrodanary lengths to make the highest themed ride-I think that I have ever seen-although they somehow couldn't finish the small detail of hiding the show building. Some trees would do the job nicely, just ask Disney!

Calm! The ride track will be totally up and in place before the season ends.

I'm surprised that you didn't see Dragon's Challange, or whatever dispatch their trains separately, the two lift hills slow the faster train until the slower train catches up. Both trains then go the same speed. Odd that wasn't happening!Did the Dementors on FJ give you a shock? Gets me every time, even when I know they're coming. Something that big shouldn't be able to follow you and jump out so easily!!Oh and Animal Kingdom is fantastic, totally agree about the Everest queue line, fast moving and tons of story. Just how I feel about Saw-the ri... No, sorry, moving on.NEXT park Number 9!

thanks to Screamscape!

62 .... 62 is the first .... code. What could it .... mean? Something that's been ... locked down, help me fine the answer, .... save them.2 .... 958 is the next .... code I stole from .... them, the temperature is .... sky high now. We must .... crack the codes, 2 more to comeQuickly, I have .... the third code, 3343. We have to crack it, no big capitals and .... I can breathe better now, but time is running outThe last code .... is 4806, It points to a dark .... orifice deep within the .... earth, but the perenial message is Don't Look .... DownWhat's it all mean??

For him to keep 'poking' you, then you must be poking back. Can't be that annoying

Have you seen the on-ride videos? The quality is the best that Ive seen on board any roller coaster. Even the audio is recorded, which makes for quite a giggle!DVD extras such as the ride TV spot, a time-lapse of construction and a front seat POV.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzQJPiR_V-I&feature=youtube_gdata_playerBlue FIre is an amazing air-time filled ride btw! Look forward to riding Sea World San Diego's next year, to see what else they get from Mack.