JoshC.

Sign is now up:

Is it me, or have some trees been cut just before the figure of 8 element? Looks weird! Also, some fun little signs in the queue:

This made me laugh a bit more than it should have done! But yes, I plan to stay for the whole day and even chill out at Fin's afterwards. Though if it gets too much for me, I'll be saying that dreaded phrase: "I'm a TPM Member...get me out of here!"

An easy link to this for those too lazy to find it - http://forum.maniahub.com/forum/105-membership-charter/. Definitely worth a read over once in a while! I do agree that the forums are a lot better at the moment than they've been in the past. But I guess if some people are seeing the forums as a bit hostile, best to just openly say it now before it descends into madness

I'm fine with the fee. Given there were people who booked several tickets for AP day and didn't use them, it stops that happening with such strict availability. That being said, I hope this isn't the future of AP events.

Until you realise that the 'celebrities' are C-list celebrities who agent famous enough to experience the real thing... Though hopefully Ant n Dec make an appearance!

Towers in decision-reversal shocker. What is this, 2011/2012?

Advert is nice - the Ant and Dec voiceover will certainly grab people's attention. Hopefully the mixture of I'm a Celeb clips and scenes from inside the maze get the point across that the attraction is going to be like the show, but won't contain really bugs and the like, and so doesn't scare people away.

Uses " " just a bit too much for my liking.

Certainly not unheard of, especially at the beginning of season. I believe it happens on some other B&M inverts too!

Did you miss out Thorpe on purpose?

Any news on post-meet fun times?

You see, this is the thing - I do agree that if the parks can't get everything open in time, then they shouldn't be opening up so early. But for me as a passholder, if a park runs a preview day for passholders, and not all rides are operating, I'd be fine with that (as long as they've warned in advance, etc etc). If there was too much closed for me, then it's a simple case of "Thanks, but not thanks". It's different when the park is fully open and, despite what's going on behind the scenes, I totally agree that a significant number of ride closures isn't good enough. In the case of Thorpe, for example, possibly another week or so should have been given.

How signs are printed and old toilets. I thought these sorts of conversation were for closed season? (Not that I'm complaining, better than the usual 1 train operation discussion that crops up this time of year!)

It's an interesting one really. It feels like a bit of deja vu has come around, as many people had the same concerns (long queues) about Saw Alive when that was opening! However, I think those concerns could wind up as unfounded. Why? Because of a different concern. We've seen time and time again that 'mazes' aren't popular in a theme park scenario outside of Halloween. Saw Alive's popularity declined quickly. Sanctuary was open at Alton Towers for the first couple of months of 2013, and wasn't popular, despite being free. Krake Lebt at Heide Park wasn't all that popular from what I heard (though lasted a bit longer than Saw Alive). I think Freakshow 3D opened up in Summer 2005 before it was replaced by Hellgate too, and that wasn't that popular either. You get my point - mazes just don't have the same draw in themes park outside of Halloween. I'm hoping this is different though, given that it doesn't sound like it's going to be a scare maze, and more something like Thorpe's own version of Dungeons / an actor-led Hocus Pocus Hall. I guess only time will tell. But there's definitely that fear that it could be too popular, and have rather long queues during the busy season (though I'd personally be surprised if it hits anything above 2 hours!). RnR is a very good point though. During the standard season, this is the sort of attraction that Thorpe should have to give people something to do whilst waiting for their rides. But it could just end up being another attraction and reaching down to the age old point of "What can you do whilst waiting for your RnR slot? Queue!". Of course, we have no clue what the throughput of this will be. I'd expect 600-800 is realistic, but hey, we can hope until we find out! My Bloody Valentine is definitely returning this year for Fright Nights (to my understanding, the park are locked into a three year contract with all the Lionsgate films). Where it will return is anyone's guess though! So, technically, we'll have the same number of mazes as last year at the very least. We would all hope that at least one other Fright Nights attraction will come about somewhere, even if it's not Studio 13. Whether they would want to bite the bullet and use the marquee, or go back to tents on the beach, though, is unknown at the moment. Fingers crossed! Hey there; welcome! The Swarm island wasn't marked to have any more attractions on it (that was the island next to it), though there was a "themed experience" marked as nearby; I think the marquee. I don't really think that area would have worked though - the only suitable place would have been putting it in the marquee (since it's a lot easier to put the attraction in an already made building), but since that's used for other events during the year, it doesn't seem practical. I think the concept without the IP near Swarm would have been a nice idea. But with the IP, and given the constraints, I don't think the location is all that bad!

Probably very long considering people won't have time to throw chewing gum and graffiti it, since you'll be walking through it? How much graffiti and chewing gum is on Saw Alive, for example.

I just find it difficult to slate the parks about ride availability when the park is opening for what is technically a preview day. It's not something the parks have to do, it's before the park is technically "open" and (in Chessington's case) they did at least make it clear that those major rides weren't going to be open. Maybe they shouldn't have opened as early as they have done, but that's a slightly different story in my eyes.

List of closures for the preview weekend, from UK Theme Parks FB I think Rameses is the only we didn't know about that previously? My view is the same it was for Thorpe's closures on preview weekend - it's a preview weekend, the park being open should be considered a bonus. It's a lot harder to defend the park when three of the rides closed are the major rides on park, but hopefully numbers have been limited to reflect this. As a side note, Fury is testing at the moment - so hopefully will be open for when the main season comes around. Hooray!

New stage for the Penguins show From UK Theme Parks FB page

It's funny, when I first saw the sign I thought "Well that's a neat little thing to add but I bet people will hate it". What was Inferno's exit before this? A walkway. What's Inferno's exit now? A walkway with a sign. The sign does nothing to detract from Inferno's experience and adds a silly bit of fun to Inferno's / IAC's shop . It's a little addition, which was completely unnecessary, to add a bit of fun and feel to a shop. People really do complain about ANYTHING don't they?

What I love about this most is the Gardens weren't even originally in this game, and yet managed to get 8th. Nice work!

Any ride closure at any point in the season is not good. It should be as simple as that. It send that the for rides that are 'meant' to be closed at the moment have had extra maintenance - Tidal Wave to its lift hill, Rumba Rapids had had general work, Slammer is showing why it should be gotten rid of and Samurai is trying its best to become Slammer II. It's not good that the maintenance had spilled into main season, but Thorpe maintenance budget just doesn't seem to stretch very far at the moment... Saw seems to have died recently too for whatever reason; these things do unfortunately happen, but to suggest it is down to poor maintenance - as some have - is ridiculous. I've noticed Thorpe are telling guests on social media what rides are closed if people ask, but there's no easy reference point on the main website saying this (to my knowledge). Simply put though, there should be. tl;dr - It's not good what's happening, but I can see why it's happened. They should be informing people clearly of what is not open. Hopefully that can sort out out soon.

They won't use real bugs. They've mentioned it many times when asked on social media. I imagine they could even have some animal rights issues if they did. ---- Personally, I think this attraction will be worthwhile for the Ant and Dec banter alone to be honest...

*blows off cobwebs* This season's new map has been uploaded online: https://www.altontowers.com/media/2568/atr-gate-map-map-2015_v9.pdf Worth noting that The Blade is no longer listed on the map at all. Is this the end?