JoshC.

Literally.

New map ahoy! (From the park's FB) Just a slight redesign of last season's so that it includes all rides. Couple of things of note... -Neptune's Beach has been renamed Amity Beach now. -Carousel is definitely gone. -I'm a Celeb does have a Fastrack queue. -No mention of 2016. Maybe a second map will be released later in the season to advertise it a bit more?

Angry Birds 4D and the dodgems have been added to the line up now. Presumably that were just missed off by accident?

Don't worry, I let all my hope for Chessington to deliver on the things they say they'll do almost a year ago.

The plans show the rides will be two entstorage separate buildings, with their own fire exits and such. There is a small gap between the buildings though, which could be an issue during construction in my opinion.

In fairness, if it is because of fire escape routes - well, in this case, lack of - then there might not be a lot they can do about it. I'm sure they'd try everything to make sure they have suitable fire exits, but if some lead to a construction site, then that's not exactly any safer, is it? Wouldn't be surprised if X is closed a few times this season because of construction for the dark ride, again for the reason of lack of suitable fire escape routes.

So the line up has changed again: https://www.thorpepark.com/events-experiences/events/annual-pass-preview-weekend/ Rides NOT available this weekend are: -Slammer -Samurai -Rumba Rapids -Tidal Wave (all already known) -X -Angry Birds Land (I.e. Detonator, Dodgems and AB4D) -Loggers Leap It's a shame to see so many rides unavailable, but given that it's a preview weekend which is by no means necessary, I personally would find it hard to complain about it, so long as the guest numbers are limited accordingly. The non-opening of ABL is very weird though, given how little it presumably requires in upkeep and staffing costs? I think the bigger matter is how many of those rides will be closed come full opening of the park. You do have to wonder if they know they can't get those rides open this weekend, will they be able to get them open by next Thursday? It certainly would look bad on the park to be open for their main season with several rides not yet open..

It was a joke. Though, whilst we're on the topic, I personally hate "videos" which are just a slideshow of pictures. If I wanted to look at pictures, I'd look at a photo album, not a Youtube video. Just as good for documenting the past. --- Anyway, to stop this thread getting derailed completely, X isn't opening for AP holders weekend. Wonder why that is?

I blame Thorpe/Merlin and their EXCLUSIVE/ WORLD FIRST chasing. Fans now need to have WORLD FIRST YOUTUBE VIDEO CONTAINING THIS MUSIC or WORLD FIRST YOUTUBE VIDEO CONTAINING PHOTOS OF THIS CONSTRUCTION SITE THAT'S ACTUALLY JUST A LOAD OF MUD AT THE MOMENT.

Personally, I don't think the exterior needs any work done. Regardless of the colour, it's not going to make anyone any more or any less enticed to go on in my opinion - how many people judge an indoor ride by the colour of its building after all? So long as it's kept clean and such, I'm really not that fussed by it. Not to mention it'd be a terrible waste of time and resources, especially when there's other rides / areas which need paint jobs more urgently (Colossus, Rumba Rapids, Canada Creek - I'm looking at you). I'd also be interested to see if they actually could repaint it. Given how large it is, the council may only approve certain colour schemes. And at one point (albeit almost 20 years ago now), the council didn't allow the park to put 3 non-illuminated 'X' signs on the pyramid, so it might prove difficult in itself.

There's nothing to suggest anything either way at the moment - though I'd expect they will give it a bit of an update / add more songs to it. After all, they do a similar thing with the Amity loop!

What exactly do you mean by 'inner' and 'outer' seats? Also, whatever this means, I don't think it really matters - you still cover the same radius! For me personally, I find Zodiac quite tame and very rarely feel queasy / dizzy from it. I'd personally say just go for it, even if you feel a bit unsure about it. It very much seems to differ from person to person, so there's no way to find out if you'll be alright with it unless you try it. Zodiac doesn't have as long a ride time compared to some other Enterprises though, so it's probably a good one to do first.

Since I'm both not going to Chessington this year and at uni during all of those dates, I shall not be attending. Hope everyone has fun (and makes the most of me during the Thorpe meet ).

I think this is a very good point. Regardless of how much someone pays, if they know the walk up price on a peak day is £60, that's the figure they're going to be thinking of. They'll always be the questions of "Is this worth £60?" or "Would I have been happy to pay £60 to come here?". And I think most people will answer those questions with a no. It's certainly a strange tactic, but I can see the logic behind it. Many people are (hopefully) booking in advance, or using vouchers or something, and so get into the park for somewhere between £25-30. Personally, I think that's very reasonable. And then by doing so, Thorpe can predict gate figures better and prepare accordingly, which is great considering Thorpe sometimes have been very unprepared on busy days. It also encourages more people to try and go on off peak days; something that Thorpe have wanted to do for a few years now.

Hope everyone has / is having fun today!

In fairness, a day out at a theme park is not usually a cheap thing - most people expect to pay that sort of price for one of the UK's most well-known theme parks. £60 for a day out at Thorpe Park is ridiculous; anyone who pays that will not get value for money. However, £30 is a lot more reasonable in my opinion, and probably represents good value for money (look back 10 or so years ago - the on the day price then was around £32, and online was about £20. Given everything added in the past 10 years, paying an extra £10 online seems quite decent!). Also worth noting how there are no 'adult' or 'child' tickets. If you're under 1m tall, you get in for free. If you're over 1m, you have to pay that price. That's a bigger issue in my eyes, especially at the moment when there's not that much for someone to do when they're just over the 1m mark!

Whilst we're on 'optical illusion'-esque things, here's a classic one to keep you entertained... Which way is this cube facing?

Definitely blue/purple 'n' black. *Awaits toofpikk to post an Illuminati picture*

Now that theming is nice and quite clever too. Really do like that!

Yeah, Storm Surge having over a 2 hour queue (even if that was on reduced capacity) definitely means no one was interested in it.

#PlateGate2k15

I don't think last year's or 2013's AP preview days were that busy for Thorpe though in fairness? The only bad AP day they've had was 2011, and that was because of seriously under-estimating how people would turn up.

It was on the site at one point for this season I think. I guess it's possible that they've just taken down any mention of it until they have dates decided, if they bring it back this season (and I expect they will!). Last season, they started in the second or third week of July I think, and happened each weekend until the end of August.

TPM have an exclusive picture update: http://www.thorpeparkmania.co.uk/news/24-02-2015/%27I%27m-A-Celebrity%27-Construction-Update (I won't post pictures here in case people I tyring to avoid all possible spoilers). Does look very nicely themed though!