JoshC.

I just really can't see them averaging 53k a day. Even if that's what they predict, I just really really can't see that happening! Then there's still questions of will it actually be any good, will it be well received, how will it fare in the long term, how will it be marketed compared to the Merlin parks, etc etc. At this stage, I don't think there's any reason to say either way whether this will be successful or not. But I sometimes feel people make it out to be the best thing since sliced bread, but I just don't think it will be that good or game-changing.

Given the way Paulton's are going recently, I really don't think Paramount Park should be the reason why some (southern) Merlin theme parks need to be looking over their shoulders. Then again, I'm still not sure Paramount will be as successful and challenging towards as people make out any way...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY thorpelaw.

I agree that the system is designed for busy days, but I still think there's worth in trialling it on off peak days. It helps give the park an indicator of what people will do during the day, what they think of the system and so forth. And if it goes horrendously wrong, then it's easier to go back to 'normal queueing'. I do think Thorpe need to take it slow to get it right. I think if they want to try 'queue free', they've got to first try it on a quieter day before on a busier day. I think you might have been misinformed about Studio 13's throughput - I'm guestimating that Asylum's throughput was no more than 700pph (based on what I've read from a couple of forums) when it was on it's very best. I'm doubting that the throughput was reduced by about half! I agree the throughput was probably reduced. But I think that time-wise the mazes take a similar amount of time to go through, as I think Studio 13's route is slightly shorter. As for the last comment, it was mostly a joke - I was saying Studio 13 was the best maze (which it was in my opinion, as you've probably gathered!) and hence the slightly reduced throughput is fine because of it.

Hmm, maybe boringly themed was the wrong way to put it. Lazily themed might express my view more accurately... Scorpion Express is basically your bog standard wild west theme with a twist of "there's scorpions about". The flamethrower effect annoys me so much (probably much more than it should do). It's coming out of an oil tower / whatever the correct name is, so any fire effect should be like an explosion (like Swarm's fire effect, for example), not a line of fire shooting upwards. The main scorpion just looks awful too. The water effect stinks of pointlessness to me too. It just doesn't really work for me. There's a couple of nice little touches, like the scorpion shapes in the concrete and the mini scorpion statues, which I do like. But on the whole, the ride just feels so lazy and boring to me. Oh, I'm honestly not angry about the differing opinion or anything like that either. I do hope I'm not coming across like that! Haven't taken anything badly either, so no worries. I know a fair few people like Scorpion, but for me, I just find it so, so annoying. As for the £8 million investment last year without the hotel, fair enough. However, to me, it really did not feel like that amount of money had been invested in total. Perhaps some nostalgia plays a part in my feelings, but the park felt so bad to me when I visited in 2014 - it's hard to believe it's the same park I genuinely loved visiting in 2012. Gonna call you out on this, as I assume you're referring to me, where I'm defending some of Thorpe's decisions, yet attacking Chessington... As I said above, last season's visit to Chessington was just bad for me; one of the most disappointing days I've had there, and was mostly enjoyable because of the people I was with. The place doesn't feel the same to me any more. Maybe I expect too much from the place; set my expectations too high. But I look back to the park I visited as soon back as 2012, and it just doesn't give me the same buzz and joy as it does now. Hence why I'm not going to visit Chessington this year - I've been disappointed by the place too much. Maybe a break from the place will help reignite my fondness of the place - I hope it does. I won't go into my views on Thorpe or anything (let's no derail the thread hey!). But simply put, I've lost a lot of love for Chessington recently and it's really disappointing. I may "trash talk" the park, but I've got reasons for it, and I'm not going to be a hypocrite about it and go running back to the park at the earliest possible opportunity just so I can moan about it some more.

Was the throughput of Studio 13 significantly smaller than Asylum though? Genuine question. I didn't visit FN enough to be able to get a feel for throughput, but given the mazes take a similar amount of time to get through (Studio 13 felt a bit shorter to me actually, but that might be because it wasn't a repetitive boring drag of strobe lights and mesh fences) and have similar amount of people per group, I'd be surprised if the throughput was significantly less. Though, maybe they did have high throughput mazes and Studio 13 was the one with a lower throughput, since it was "the best" last year.

I'm guessing that includes the hotel though? If you take that away, I'm guessing that takes a large amount of the investment figure away. If you consider the actual investment in the theme park itself, as opposed to the resort as a whole (a funny thing to say perhaps, given Merlin's obsession with calling the places 'resort theme parks'), then it was low. As someone who visited and has no interest in the hotels, a freshened up Market Square, an adventure trail and a boringly-themed powered coaster doesn't exactly feel like a park's "biggest investment" on record.

I still genuinely think Thorpe should try RnR without a standby queue at least once on the 5 coasters. When they first trialled the system in 2013 on just Swarm, it seemed to work well when the system didn't crash (well, in my opinion at least!). RnR was designed with the 'queue free park' in mind, so it would be interesting to see how the system works with that in operation. I fully understand the impracticalities of it all and do think it should be trialled on a relatively quiet day, but I think the system needs trialling like that at some point in the upcoming season! If it doesn't work, then Thorpe should rethink the whole idea; maybe use it as just a Fastrack only thing or something? On a related point, I was always shocked that Thorpe have trialled this system during such busy periods. That must surely say something about Thorpe's faith within the system!

^If the park are working on a 4 year cycle (which seems to be the more adopted strategy from Merlin now), then Chessington's next 'major' thing should open in 2017. Given they'd have to submit plans in about a year, I'd hope they've got a couple of plans which are in some more in depth! Then again, one more major attraction won't help Chessington. They really need to sort out Mexicana a bit more, give Mystic East (and particular Dragon Falls) some work, spruce up Tomb Blaster, do something worthwhile with the Skyway, do some work to Transylvania, the list goes on... Being pedantic even, they should make Land of the Dragons actually fit in with the park too. And for a family park, the park feels far too child-orientated for my liking - I expect that many kids actually do enjoy the park, but older visitors are left a bit bored by some of the attractions which are targeted for 'everyone'. That needs sorting too.

Ah, the Blogs feature really is great - http://forum.maniahub.com/blog/10/entry-309-why-saw-is-actually-a-really-good-coaster/ NB: The title of the blog was really just designed to make people read it. Whilst I do like Saw, I think my opinion of it is not as high now as I make it out to be in that blog. But alas, that's what time does I guess!

Hulk. Because you said you like Spiderman. P or NP?

Don't get the fuss about the lack of advertising. This is clearly a very low key coaster. It's going to be aimed at young children. At the moment, a family with young children isn't going to be any more persuaded to think about visiting the park because 'they're building a coaster for kids'. At this stage, a family (and indeed most people) will be more likely to book a visit after hearing about the Enchanted Village and such. I'm sure once the ride is built / nearly built, the park will advertise it and use it as an opportunity to push CBeebies Land further into the eyes of the young family market. But at this stage, do they need to? I don't really think so.

^ I think they were added a couple of months after opening. (Well, despite being stuck in the tunnel for so long and having a good look, I didn't see any during my visit in April!)

Two in one day? Crikey, we've reached the heights of Closed Season...

Bingo! Now cue 5 pages of discussion about it.

Looks like Matt's up all night to get pluky...

Supports are on park for the rumoured coaster: http://www.towersstreet.com/news/2015/supports-arrive-on-site-for-rumoured-cbeebies-coaster/ Come on now, manufacturer nerds - who do you think those supports are from?

Line up is looking good! If all goes well, I can make at least 3 of these meets. Depending on where I end up from September onwards, how much funding I get (if any), I might be able to make some more later in the year too.

The trouble with linking the system with admission tickets is that it makes the whole thing more complicated, more laborious and makes the system more prone to faults. Sure, it stops abuse of the system, but it makes the system much worse. I guess that is the biggest flaw with the system: It's either too easy to abuse it, or it's too overwhelming to make it worthwhile. Hopefully they can find some form of middle ground, as I expect the park are fully aware of this. I think it's worth saying though that you don't need to abuse the system to get the most out of it. When I went to Fright Nights, in about 5 hours, I got all 5 scare attractions done, as well as Swarm, along with time for a quick break. Given that it was a rather busy day, I don't think I'd have gotten all that done normally (indeed, back in 2012, I got 2 mazes done in 4 hours before giving up with the rest of the park and leaving, questioning if the 200 mile round trip was worth it...).

This is a no brainer. It's JoshC. The C. stands for Cougan. (Since we are all Lez Cougan, Lez is a legitimate TPM member)

Probably a no from me. I'm spending time at home and Thorpe on the 14th/15th, and at conferences the next two weekends I believe. Very slim chance I can make it if it's the 1st, so we shall see!

^Last year was Opening Weekend in fairness! But yeah, of course, agree that whatever is most popular is best. XD

I can only do 21st, 22nd and 28th. However, I do feel the Official Meet should really be during Opening Weekend!

In fairness, it takes 30 seconds to book a ride. It is ever so slightly more unsociable, yes, but I don't think it's anything that should be made an issue out of.

In fairness, it can connect to the internet, so can be used for RnR. But yeah, as Marc says, they've got the paper system as well, so it's alright I guess. I still think that 99% of people who go to Thorpe will be in a group where someone has a smart device that can connect to the internet. So the whole argument about not having smart phones / not taking phones doesn't really seem to hold much worth in my eyes!