JoshC.

Alton Towers now has Snapchat: alton-towers An interesting move; don't think there's many companies that have tried this tactic before!

I too have heard the dark ride rumour for 2016, with a £20-30 million potential budget. Much like Benin, I'll believe it when I see it! (Not that I'd complain of it every happened of course!)

I'm guessing it was just some theming for the Pirates Cove area (or whatever it was called back then)?

That's more edging on the side of Statistics / Psychology; pure mathematician all the way!! As a mathematician, I wouldn't propose there's 'always' a small proportion anyways, far too strong a claim to make. Would more go with 'most likely'...

Looking forward to your TR James! Given there's at least 2-3 other members I can think of who loved Baco, and the reviews I've read of it, I'm beginning to think that TPM attracts some sadists, as well as theme park enthusiasts! (Awaits comments labelling me some sort of hypocrite since I enjoy Saw... :-P )

Apparently, you LOVE Afterbaners.

Huh? What are you trying to say there? Surely a 30 minute queue (for on ride) is the same as an hour queue for "2 go's"? Or are you suggesting that RnR is going to turn a 30 minute queue into a 2 hour queue (one hour for a virtual queue, another hour in the physical queue after that)? I'm confused. If it's the former, then there's no difference. If it's the latter, then I'm pretty sure you're over-exaggerating a tad - no way is RnR going to quadruple you're queue time for a ride...

I actually quite like the Storm Surge music (probably about the only thing I do like about the ride...). It's just a shame you can hardly ever hear it over the noise the lift hill makes...

As many will no doubt be aware, Alton were doing a 'Whirlled Cup of Rides'; a knockout tournament to find the best ride. Somewhat to my surprise, Smiler has beaten Nemesis with 52% of the vote in the final! Just goes to show that, despite the mixed response from enthusiasts, Smiler was the thing Alton really needed and it's worked a treat. Regardless of how good a judge Facebook is, it still shows Smiler is a very popular ride and that Alton and Merlin are doing something right.

Which is better than Diagon Alley anyway, so it's fine. On a serious note, I seemed to miss the point you were getting at in your first post; sorry!

To be fair, very few parks would spend £100m+ on a new area. Bar Disney, I don't even think any investment in Europe has ever reached the £40m mark?

Apparently the 750min time is a mistake, as the queue time has been getting 'shorter'. Probably means the queue is 'just' 3-4 hours now... I just don't think anyone could physically queue for 12 and a half hours, what with eating, drinking, toileting, etc.

Surprised that they're going full scale with it really! I too would love to be on park one day to try it out and see how well it works first-hand. I guess with Swarm, they've scrapped having forwards and backwards reservations, and you just choose when you get there?

Ollivander just found out about the queue time. His response you ask?

Photo from TPR's Twitter to show Ricky's point You have to ask yourself - is ANY theme park experience worth a 7 and a half hour wait?

Next in the 'Gringotts Queue Time Top Trump' game... From Coasterforce

*Insert 'Smiler is just inversion after inversions and is already boring' comment here*.

Are their weight restrictions on Zacspins (genuine question)? If there are not, then I don't think the person's weight could excuse Intamin here. If a person's weight did have the ability of causing the restraints to fail, then Intamin should have tested that and mentioned it...

Diagon Alley has officially opened today... Photo by UO. You may wonder what the apparent queue time for Escape from Gringotts? Just a mere 4 hours as it stands.

Fortunately, if I wanted to look at trees, I'd go to a garden centre, not a theme park.

Given Alton are apparently going to make a big(ish) deal about Nemesis' 21st birthday next year, it'd be lovely if they could give the station a repaint. Not the track though; that's great just the way it is!

Seemed to go okay - http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/whats-on/family-kids-news/vamps-open-drayton-manor-air-7378448. Looks very busy, which is a good thing for Drayton! Really looking forward to trying this out in a couple of week's time!

I feel like turning that into a powered coaster would make it faster and more enjoyable! I guess this is what happens when you do a mirror image of a Vekoma layout though...

I wouldn't necessarily call Smiler rough. The jolt on the cobra roll is, but the rest of the ride isn't. Thing is, whilst the first half of the ride is okay in how it rides, I find the second half to be quite uncomfortable, and after the airtime hill, just not really pleasant. Saw is intense, on the other hand. I've only ever felt the jolt at the bottom of the drop once, never found it rough or uncomfortable like so many people claim it to be.

I expect they'll have loads of wetsuits and that there's certain rules they have to follow for cleaning it. There's Flowriders around, and I guess many of them do have wetsuit hire as an option, so it'll be a problem already thought about and hopefully solved. As long as Thorpe have sought advice about it - which no doubt they will have - then there's nothing to worry about in my opinion.