JoshC.

There's a difference between what the staff selling Fastrack claim the queue length is and what the queue board time is though. Queue board times are controlled by different people, and they aim to be as accurate as possible. They won't inflate the queue time to sell Fastracks. The people by the entrance won't aim for accuracy, and will instead aim to sell you Fastrack however they can. It DOES happen, but not with the queue boards - which should always be seen as the first point of call.

Was planning on wait till I got my Efteling TR up before giving a fuller review, but since it's going to be ages before I get round to that, may as well give a fuller review now. I've tried to avoid spoilers of the indoors section, but read at your own risk I guess... Simply put, I loved Baron. Yes, it's not a very long ride. Yes, the layout is nothing special. Yes, the ride isn't that long. But I'm not so fussed with that sort of stuff. I look for a fun ride, with a good story and good theming. So the layout isn't so important to me. I was a bit disappointed with the queue line though. Very away from the good bits, but I guess you can't have everything. I thought that the split for front row and rows 2 and 3 was a bit too soon as well - it says it's a 20 minute wait for front row from the split point, but it was longer last week (understandable, given staff were still getting used to the ride). Interestingly, they give you a ticket to show your row before you enter the building, and take it away from you before you enter the station. Hopefully it will work in the long term for them.. The pre-shows are fab - even better that there's English translations for it too! Even after 5 rides last week, I kept finding loads of little details dotted around them which just made the whole story so believable and real. There's an animatronic of the Baron just before you enter the station which I adored and found quite life-like! As for the ride itself, I liked the pre-lift section; very fitting for the overall experience. One thing which I loved most about the overall experience was the sound of the ringing bell at the top of the lift hill, and just before you drop. It's such a simple effect, but it just fits beautifully with the whole ride. I found the drop to be very floaty and fun on the way down, followed by a bit of force as you exit into the Immelmann. The Immelmann and zero-g roll had nice pops of airtime floatyness too actually. The helix had a bit of force too (especially at the back!) and even gives a pop of airtime as you leave. The airtime hill at the end caught me a bit off guard too - it gave a surprising amount of airtime for something at the end of the ride! All in all, I just adored the experience. The ride is very "floaty" and fun, has a great story that flows throughout the entire area and has some wonderful bits of theming. I personally can't ask for any more in a coaster. Oh, I also just have to add in that the milkshake and pizza place underneath the lift hill is just amazing I know others won't have as much love for the ride as I do. It's probably been a bit overhyped too during construction, and some may be left a bit underwhelmed. But at the same time, I do think everyone will still be able to enjoy it for what it is and Efteling really are onto a winner with this!

Possibly playing devil's advocate here, but is Chessington really a leading park in the UK now? Sure, they're the 4th biggest in terms of attendance, but that means next to nothing really. They don't do anything particularly spectacular, the majority of their headline attractions are over 15 years old, they have added two major attractions in the past 12 years. Maybe too much is expected of Chessington? Or maybe that just highlights how low our expectations are?

Bit of a misunderstanding on my part here. I thought you were saying that those who control the queue boards were inflating queues to sell Fastrack tickets. Still, it sounds like you're suggesting that at times, the park deliberately don't add a second train to increase Fastrack sales? I don't think that's what you're trying to say, but that's just how I'm reading it! It's seems almost obvious that Thorpe have had budget cuts across their maintenance team in some respect - struggling to get everything open on two trains on busy days is an big indication to that. Naturally such a thing can lead to longer queues and more opportunity to sell Fastrack. I guess looking at the bigger picture, they're making an overall profit - they're saving money from one department and able to make more money from another. Just to reiterate my point on this - I totally agree that it does happen; I'm sure everyone on these forums have seen cases where the park has profited from Fastrack because of pushy salesmen, reduced capacity for seemingly unnecessary reasons or other reasons. But the way I've been reading some points on here make it sounds like those who control the queue time boards are inflating queue times on purpose to sell Fastrack. That is simply not the case, and it's one of my personal bugbears when someone suggests it is. Seems I may have misinterpreted some posts though.. Have to disagree with you here though. I've seen it happen at plenty of places - open the rides on maximum capacity straight away and be done with it. Let Fastrack be sold to the people who want it and that's that. Towers regularly work like that from my experiences, for an obvious example!

It'll be interesting to see if there's been any noticeable operational changes, or whether they've kept everything the same. Glad they've reopened it just as the summer season is kicking in!

I wonder if the Wave Surfer thing (whatever it's called) could be returning for summer, and they're changing rooms?

BUT THEY DO NOT DO THIS. Even from a theoretical perspective. Two who control queue times and those who control Fastrack are different people with different aims. Queues are not artificially inflated to increase Fastrack sales.

To be fair, shooter rides CAN be great fun. Tomb is just not a great example of one. Whatever this is, for them to begin teaser trailers this early on, one would hope it's a pretty major or significant thing. Not holding my breath yet mind.

Meh, yesterday was relatively quiet. Never saw a queue above 40 minutes and coasters opened on two trains I believe. Park even opened half hour earlier than stated. Then again, I left early so there might have been an afternoon rush (though I doubt it). You can still have nice days during the busy period.

It'll be successful. People expect to pay money at theme parks and will be prepared to pay extra for the idea of something 'magical'. This is just a high-end product on park. Personally I'd prefer to try this franchise outside of a theme park as it does sound pretty cool. But at a theme park, I look either for quick and easy food or themed food Since this is neither, I likely won't be trying it at Alton any time soon.

Complete line up of acts for Island Beats - which started today! - is now on Thorpe's website: https://www.thorpepark.com/island-beats/events/island-beats/

I know Towers are subject to budget cuts, but a roller coaster powered by Mark9 pedalling a bike or something is taking cost cutting to a whole new level...

That's certainly the best way to word it! I don't want to hype the ride up any more than enthusiasts already have, as I think I'll love it more than others. It's a solid ride that flows well. It's not the best, it's not exactly special, just a very well done ride which I enjoyed a lot.

As an overall experience, Baron is quite possibly my favourite attraction. The ride itself is a little short, but great fun and very graceful. The theming, effects and story are perfect though. Others didn't love it as much as me, but each to their own. I think it depends on what you want from a coaster.

We didn't I'm afraid - been driving instead! Hope you have fun. Not sure if you're aware, school kids are breaking up for summer this week in Germany, but hopefully it's not too busy for you.

My apologises - being on a phone with only 4G signal meant I didn't read the description (and I very rarely do on YouTube videos anyway). Ah well, a lesson learnt..

Let's wait and see if the Disney meet is a success first ey? Taron is progressing well; the site is a hive of activity and the track looks like a twisted mess. I've got a few pictures but can't upload them till next week (and I'll save my views about the park, which I also visited today with Peaj, till then too).

"Confirmed" with no source. Colour me sceptical.

Haven't watched the POV, but looking forward to doing this tomorrow / Thursday / Friday...

I don't see the problem with the lanyard? It's no different to the Premium one and it's just a lanyard at the end of the day. Don't get me wrong, I'd new ever we wear one to a park, but the hate on them seems silly?

So Thorpe are going to get rid of Rush, Zodiac, Samurai, Slammer, Rocky Express, Vortex, Dodgems, and Teacups in 10 years and replace them with nothing? I genuinely don't see why you would think that all those rides would: 1) leave 2) not be replaced by other 'filler' attractions Especially given that Thorpe haven't removed any flat rides at all and seem to work themselves to the bone to keep them operational...

I was on park today. Depth Charge opened late due to a fault which was dealt with quickly (worth noting that the queue board said it was meant to open at 10). Stealth seemed to be having troubles in the morning but opened before 12 I believe. Whenever I was near Colossus, it was running fine. Slammer seemed to have a lot of trouble during the day however. The other rides above listed as closed opened at 11 and ran fine during the day. The spread of people during the morning saw most people go to Swarm or Inferno and then spread around afterwards. Once Stealth opened that saw a lot of people go to it, naturally. Colossus see-sawed a lot between short and long queues, which I found unusual. The queue boards seemed quite inaccurate at a lot of points - Colossus stated a 40 minute queue at one point when it couldn't have been longer than 15 or 20. Samurai was sporting a 50 minute queue when it was about 10. Rush's queue never seemed longer than 15 minutes either. It was certainly a weird day for queues on park. The first hour wasn't helped by having Stealth out of action, and the usually reliable Depth Charge (the first ride you see) being fenced off. Not to mention school trips are coming in thick and fast and Saw being closed and fenced off make it feel a lot worse than it actually was to be honest.

On park advertising usually starts in August-time; I expect that this year will be no different. We'll probably get info on new attractions (if there are any) and maze locations in September-time.

I hope the next ambiguous clue they release revolves around trees and plywood now.

Horror fans can rejoice - the new Paranormal Activity film will be the last one! http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2015/06/22/paranormal-activity-ghost-dimension-sneak-peek-first-look-exclusive/29069709/ Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (aka PA5, but then the weird but alright spin off happened and worked its way into the story) will answer loads of questions about the series and round it off. Personally, I've never been a fan of the series and have never been too impressed with it, but have always followed it; almost feels like a guilty pleasure of mine in a weird way. Curiously, the people behind the franchise have said in the past they had an end game in mind, but would take a few films to reach to it, and yet they're now going to try and end it off now. Bit worried really that it will feel rushed.. Also find it funny that the producer doesn't want to run the franchise "into the ground"; some may argue that's already been done... Anyway, we also have a short teaser, with another coming tomorrow apparently: