JoshC.

"Do you have time to talk about Pizza Hut menus?"

I think that the park's investments the past two year, relative to their position have been good: 2013: -Make their big new investment more thrilling and better received. -Create an unpopular thrill ride into a well-received family ride which helped with their shift in target market. 2014: -An IP-themed land to further bring in more people from the new target market, to show that Thorpe Park can indeed accommodate for families with slightly older children. If you say it as 'Turning some cars around, sticking in some dodgems and a 4D film', it's gonna sound awful. But in Thorpe's position over the past couple of years, those investments have been necessary to help the park. Totally agree they could have done more, but as Marc's pointed out, constant high-level investment won't last forever. And those investments haven't made the park worse, which is always good.

As some may be aware, I'm still living in the huge 23 person uni house. One of the great things of this is that the basement of the house is basically our kitchen, so there's 3 different kitchen areas. I walked into one of them to make a smoothie and noticed none of the plugs were working in that room; dunno how long they had been off. Normally I'd check the fuse box, but a few weeks ago, someone did that and completely mucked up the electrics (and led to everyone in the house being fined...), so thought I'd leave. I let our handyman know via text so that they can sort it out. There was a fridge-freezer in that part of the kitchen, so obviously my next thought is to try and make sure none of the stuff in there spoils / defrosts. The nearest, and most convenient, place to put it was next to some of the other fridges, just in front of the fuse box. So I've moved it there and plugged it in, but still left enough room in front of the fuse box for it to be accessed. After posting in our house's Facebook group explaining everything, the two people who use the fridge-freezer come down, moan at me for moving their fridge and moan at me because it's in front of the fuse box. I move it further out the way so they can get all the access they want, and they just randomly (and I do mean randomly, they freely admitted they had no idea what they were doing) flick a couple of switches and press a couple of buttons, and the plugs work again. They then say I shouldn't have let our handyman know because "It's just a fuse and we can sort it out ourselves". After what happened last time, I don't think so! And after all that, they then talk to each other complaining about how they've now got to walk further to get to their fridge (a whole five steps!!), and how their fridge has been "moved from its home". Seemingly trying to suggest that I should move it back. It's annoying that there was absolutely no acknowledgement that I moved the fridge to make sure the stuff in there didn't spoil and that my intentions were good. I wasn't looking for thanks or anything (and, based on the people, wasn't expecting thanks either), but it's just frustrating...

Nothing wrong with posting on an online forum and having negative opinions about the subject of said forum. So long as the negative opinions made are justifiable...

>Doesn't like Thorpe Park. >Goes to Thorpe Park, increasing attendance figures, to show that the public don't think Thorpe odd an amazing place. Perfect sense. If you truly didn't like the place, show them by voting with your feet and don't go. Otherwise it makes your argument seen rather pointless and unnecessary.

Probably just means Jungle Bouncers will get a retheme. The area will still be the same most likely, just either called Madagascar or simply kept as Africa with a larger focus on the IP.

An extreme-sounding, a perhaps somewhat similar, event is coming to the UK: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cracked-Survival-Experience/420966354723423?fref=ts The creators say they're not inspired by McKamey Manor really, but want to create an extreme event in the UK. Sounds...interesting; look forward to reading any reviews come April...

http://www.chessington.com/2015/penguins.aspx Some penguin-themed rooms in the hotel are coming too. Also looks like the penguin enclosure will contain a "walk through experience". No doubt families with young-ish children will lap this up, as Madagascar is still a huge thing really. So good at least that they're getting a new show. However, this just doesn't entice me at all. I'd be surprised if I end up visiting Chessington next year to be honest...

The only problem I've ever had with the food in an in-house eatery is Burger Kitchen (indeed, I ate there once last year and have never gone back...). Fried Chicken Co. is great, Pizza Pasta is nice, Chicken Shack is alright (though no Greedy Goblin), Mexican Cantina is lovely. The original places at Thorpe (Kebabs, R&R, etc.) are great too. Other than Burger Kitchen, I have had no problems with the quality - or the price - of the Merlin places. Getting more in house places is only a good thing in my eyes!

To be fair, with things like that, they may as well get as much money from the outside firms as possible, or just run it themselves with their own in-house versions. Indeed, one could argue that them pushing the outside brands for all they can is a good thing, as it leads to Merlin running their own outlets, which can be better value and quality than outside brands...

Nothing in the rules that says you can't vote for yourself either! Missed my opportunity to get myself 1 vote for Sexiest Male.

Great to see TPM going all high tech with Awards! Any chance this topic can be pinned so it doesn't get lost with all the other Nonsense?

Whilst it's true that things like Swarm's water jets don't run all the time (which I agree is not good and a shame), what's that got to do with things like theming on rides, original audio, queue lines, etc.?

So so so bored of Thorpe-bashing like this. It's needless and (in many of those cases) incorrect. Also, if you can point me in the direction of a park that will create a "plotful" queue line with character portrayal throughout the entire experience, whilst keeping the queue line itself short and interactive, for a topspin - a ride notoriously known to be a filler attraction which is mainly for spectators - then I'd love to see it...

Didn't seem particularly worthy of its own topic... Towers are planning to put in a high rope course near the Hotel - http://publicaccess.staffsmoorlands.gov.uk/portal/servlets/ApplicationSearchServlet?PKID=69394 It'll include a Cafe too. Looks good fun for everyone and the sorta thing that should be added to a resort to give that more complete feel. Plans suggest it will have an upcharge (which is reasonable in my opinion), and you can either purchase a ticket for it by itself, or in conjunction with the theme park or waterpark. It's expected to only attract 250-300 guests a day, but will be open all year round by the sounds of it. Hope it does come to fruition; sounds like a nice concept all in all!

The trouble is, whilst it may seem like there's space, it's not so easy and find a space and plonk a building down. And remember that Thorpe are restricted on the amount of how much floorspace they can have for buildings (and with this dark ride, they are nearing the agreed limit). It would be nice to see a small scale dark ride - or, indeed, any indoor attraction (I wouldn't grumble at seeing a small Sealife at Thorpe to be honest...) - they'd have to be careful and creative. I also wouldn't want to see one for the sake of having one either...

If Thorpe were gonna add a ghost train to the line up next season (or, indeed, any substantial ride to the line up), then we'd have seen planning permission by now; something which I believe Ricky and others have said in this thread already. Anything added to the line up next season will be minor at best and require next-to-no planning permission. So I can't really see a ghost train coming next year (or, indeed, any time soon - there's much better choices out there in my opinion!).

So I gave a research seminar-style talk today! It was based on the research I did over summer; giving a background to it all and explaining the results and conclusions I've reached so far. It was quite nerve-racking (and I did get a couple of tricky questions during the talk to keep me on my toes!), but I think it went okay. Hard to tell how good any sort of feedback is though, as people always seem afraid of giving criticisms (even if it is constructive), but heyho. Definitely a great experience and hopefully the first of many such talks I give...

Surely CBeebies Land should be several separate attractions? Also, surprised there is not a 'Disneyland Paris Ride Game 2014' or 'Port Aventura Ride Game 2014' given how many members have visited those parks this year...

Thorpe have posted on Facebook that they're going to be giving an exciting announcement soon (would post link but on phone). Potential news about 2015 investment? Or even the dark ride? Or nothing exciting at all?

A nice aerial photo of the construction site as it stands, from Tatenhill Aviation's Facebook...

Surprisingly, that was all the way back in Easter 2012, when Hunger Games first hit cinemas! Doesn't feel that long ago mind. Given what John Wardley said about IPs and dark rides in the BLNT video below, I'd be very surprised if we don't see an IP for this. Yes, it's a shame, but I can see why they'd want to minimise risk on such a large investment...

Just came across a review of The Ultimate Sleepover - http://www.scaretouruk.com/review---alton-towers-ultimate-sleepover.html (Warning - spoilers) Sounds like a good experience!

I'm gonna go with 3), you seem like a TV man more than a stage man!

Storm Surge is pretty bad if everyone's being honest. Maybe we, as enthusiasts, make it out to be worse than it really is. But it's still pretty bad. It's gonna be a looooooong Closed Season...