JoshC.

I'm afraid I'm going to have to pull out of this! A few things have happened recently which means I won't be able to make it now. A real shame, as I was looking forward to seeing some faces for the first time and catching up with everyone else. No doubt this will be one of the best meets of the year, so everyone have fun and don't miss me too much yeah!

Is it possibly this link - http://www.merlinentertainments.biz/DC72F004-00B6-486F-A9CF-D31965E1CF6D.CFILE (slide 16)? Find this quite interesting actually - Slide 13 mentions how the theme parks (well, Garda, Heide and Chessington at least) are on a 4 year cycle now, where they have one 'Peak' year, followed by three 'low' years, and that a peak year is about £10-12m investment, and a low investment is £1-2m. An interesting cycle to say the least, and quite different to the High, Medium, Low investment that sorta happened in the past.

Kinda seems like a bit of a non-point, since many parks will work on theming after they've finished the main ride system. Look at where Swarm was at this point in 2011 - a slight bit of the plane structure and the body of a building!

In Merlin's eyes: IPs are very easy to market and it makes it easier to draw people in. In the case of a 'dark ride', the public my not necessarily know what that is (even enthusiasts seem to disagree, as was seen on here! ), which may make it more difficult to market than a roller coaster, say. Sticking the IP on makes it easy to keep the ride itself a secret, and draws loads of people in. That's why people are expecting an IP - Merlin see it as an easy way to draw people in! It's no secret really, and the logic behind it is reasonable, even if not everyone agrees! As for the Thorpe Depot thing, the plans won't always be accurate with those sorts of things. Plans for Swarm showed a sign on the bridge to the island saying 'Isle of St. Christopher'; something which of course didn't come to fruition. At first, I did also think it would point towards an original concept, but it's not a guarantee. The uniquely themed thing doesn't mean much really - Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts is a uniquely themed dark ride, as is Golden Nugget and Drayton Manor!

Am I the only one who's enjoyed the backstory and videos, regardless of how silly and lacking in anything substantial they've been? Disappointed if Oblivion does indeed end up being the final name - they could have at least poked fun at themselves and called it Oblivion Inferno!

Colossus (5) Depth Charge (5) Detonator (5) Loggers Leap (5) Nemesis Inferno (5) Rumba Rapids (2) Rush (5) Samurai (5) Saw: The Ride (6) Slammer (6) Stealth (6) The Swarm (5) Tidal Wave (5) Vortex (5) X (5) Rapids + Slammer -

The one train op this past season seems to boil down to the topic of the park's engineering capabilities, of which it seems like they've had to deal with a shortage in the number of engineers. Assuming that they can get enough engineers to get everything ready, I see no reason why they won't be able to run two trains during the event (if they are required). I can't believe people STILL give the same old rubbish of "Thorpe will only run one train to annoy guests and encourage Fastrack sales" - it's a load of rubbish...

Time to end on a high... SATURDAY - Simply the best record ever made Simple choice for me: First time I heard this was during a fireworks event at Thorpe (must have been sometime between 2001-2003? Definitely was when there were lasers included in their shows). Loved it. Since then, hearing it gives me - albeit vague - memories of that show and, as time goes on, so many more memories. Then, of course, it's just a brilliant tune! And that's it for me. JoshC. - over and out.

I don't think there's ever been 17k (or whatever the actual capacity is) has been reached in the sense of there have been 17000 guests in the park at any one point. But there have definitely been days (including over this past FN) where they had around about that number of guests in the park over the course of the day - or, at least, that's what I've been told!

Colossus (5) Depth Charge (4) Detonator (6) Loggers Leap (5) King Pig's Wild Hog Dodgems (2) Nemesis Inferno (5) Rumba Rapids (5) Rush (6) Samurai (5) Saw: The Ride (5) Slammer (5) Stealth (5) The Swarm (5) Tidal Wave (6) Vortex (4) X (6) Dodgems + Slammer -

(Unfortunately, I won't be able to make this meet. I'll be at uni and my one visit back to Surrey during the term will be in February - sorry!)

Personally, I'm still waiting to make full judgement until we hear what exactly the event has. Brainiac Live is returning, but we don't know to what extent (could be bigger than at Easter) and if anything else is happening. I mean, it's still possible that they could be doing more than what we currently know.. Fright Nights specifically mention the entire, fully open, park's maximum capacity (or there abouts) since it's so popular and busy. So, to compare the 17k-ish people "limited" capacity to the limited capacity of February half term is a little unfair in my opinion. As I've said in the past, previous events were quite quiet, and I'd be very surprised if we will see long queues during this event. I'd expect - at most - 30 minute queues for Stealth and Swarm, and everything else to be under 10 minutes!

^Looked it up; definitely a fantastic remix! FRIDAY - Your favourite party track A few tracks came to mind when thinking about this one. A couple of near misses are and . However, the winner is... Great tune!

I'm not saying complaining now is a futile / pointless thing; far from it! All I'm saying is, I don't think sending an email will make any more of a difference than a public complaint on Facebook / Twitter - the response from the park will be the same, it'll just be that less people see it. Just the way I see it at least! They could change ticket prices after they go on sale (they did with SN, and refunded people who had paid before hand the difference), though I agree that's unlikely. Will be interesting to see what Thorpe's next move is on this though, and how successful it is for them.

Certainly is possible. Indeed, when Summer Nights was introduced last year, the prices were £15 for AP holders and £18 for non-AP holders (which I think was an early bird price as well!). Following mostly negative feedback to those prices via social media and the like, the prices were changed. Since tickets aren't even on sale yet, though, I doubt any complaint email will get much more than the standard "Thank you for your email, we'll take your comments on board" at the moment though!

Yes (see SCB's post further up this page ). Never seemed necessary to rebuild it and it doesn't seem like there were any serious plans to actually add any theming to it.

I tempted to say that, as a Contributor, you technically shouldn't be able to give me a warn, but I don't want to push my luck and tempt fate! Anyways... THURSDAY - Anything goes Been thinking long and hard what to do for today. But one choice that I kept coming back to was this... I've yet to meet someone who dislikes this (though, I expect I will do now that I've said this! ). This has been played at any small party / get together I've been to over the past few years. It's just one that everyone enjoys, sings along to and such. So yeah, seemed appropriate that this made an appearance this week!

Can see when you're coming from here. But given how Thorpe were marketing the TPAP this past season (essentially, 'If you're thinking of coming back, buy a TPAP. And you get 20% of stuff too!!'), I wouldn't be surprised if many people bought them just because they were planning on making two trips, and wanted to save a bit of money. I wouldn't exactly say those sorts of people are "loyal" - or at least, as loyal as people are making them out to be! Then again, no doubt there's plenty of people who do own a TPAP and are loyal to the park (and, indeed, Standard MAP holders). I do think it's just silly to make annual pass holders have to pay extra for something like this. It seems that Thorpe are doing this to control numbers, but why can't they just make it a case of them having to prebook a ticket for free (like with Premium AP holders)? Who knows. I do hope that either this event is particularly special or, if not, that Thorpe make it a free event for Standards / TPAPs in the future - it's all well and good having good guest satisfaction for people in the park, but they've got to get people into the park first and foremost, and this may well drive some away...

So the council committee date for approval of the ride was yesterday. Given that there's been no negative response from anyone, can only assume it was a positive result...hopefully we shall see soon! On a more interesting note, I noticed this little thing on the one of the consultation responses from the Drainage people: Those width and length dimensions are pretty much identical to the 'Attraction Building Part I' that is labelled on the plans. Make of that whatever you want!

Probably a bit of a non-post, but I noticed when going past the park that the metal box structure on top of the lift hill was partially dismantled. As I say, probably means nothing, but if they plan on doing something with it, it can only be an improvement!

Previous February half term events at Thorpe were 10am-5pm (at least, that's what I remember them being - someone correct me if I'm wrong!). Thorpe have had the best opening hours out of any Merlin park the past couple of seasons, don't see any reason why they won't open 10-5 this time around. There's been speculation on this before, but I'm pretty confident more than that will be open. On top of what you say, I wouldn't be surprised if we see Flying Fish, Depth Charge, Quantum, Zodiac and maybe even a couple of others open up. There'll be Brainiac Live too. If previous years are anything to go by, it won't be *that* busy. There definitely wasn't overly long queues in previous events (I can't remember queueing more than 20 minutes for any given ride during the Thrill Chill events. Heck, even Stealth was had a 5 minute queue in the 2007 season, on one train!). Given how Towers' February half term event is (not that busy), I expect that the park won't be particularly busy. Probably will be on sale, yeah. However, if it's not that busy, I doubt that will cause much trouble! (As a side note, does anyone know if AT sell Fastrack during their Feb. half term event?) So yeah, personally, I think you're looking at the very very worst case scenario there - don't be so pessimistic! I can see why people are against this - as far as we know, February half term isn't exactly a special event (like FN and Summer Nights are). Charging what's meant to be some of the park's more loyal guests extra to go in sounds shocking. But as has been pointed out - are Thorpe AP holders really 'loyal' guests? A TPAP was cheaper than visiting twice. Is visiting a park 2 times in a 12 month period 'loyal'? Not really, and especially not from a business perspective. Standard MAP holders are more 'loyal' I guess, so definitely a stronger argument there for not charging for this event... I'm still guessing the reason for this charge is to control guest numbers, given the large number of TPAP holders and (possibly) large number of Standard MAP holders visiting Thorpe. I can certainly see the logic behind that. But I can still see why some will be pretty annoyed by that.

WEDNESDAY - A guilty pleasure I have two particularly guilty pleasures, but there's one which I think is more guilty than the other... To be honest, I hate the song so so much. However, every time I hear it, I find myself singing along to it (very badly of course!). Very very irritating. (For those interested, is the other high-up guilty pleasure)

It's a weird one. Why would an Annual Pass holder pay £5 to get into a theme park with a reduced line up when they can wait five or so weeks and get into a full theme park for no extra cost? Seems silly, doesn't it? But I can sorta see why they'd want to charge extra for AP holders. Thorpe were selling TPAPs dirt cheap last year, and loads of people will have one no doubt. I expect that there's plenty of Standard MAP holders that visit the park too. So, to ensure that the park doesn't get too crowded and allow guests to have the best experience possible, charge a small fee for guests who who would normally get in for free, helping to regulate numbers and such. I'm sure quite a lot of people will have no problem paying £5 to visit once during February half term; especially if the park make it seem like a bonus that they're open at this time of the year. Of course, we don't know the full details of the half term event. There could be other extras which could justify the extra charge for AP holders. Guess we should just wait and see.!

TUESDAY - Your hottest record in the world right now Heard this during a party last Friday and I can't get it out of my head at the moment... Hopefully I can get it out of my head sooner rather than later to be honest!