JoshC.

Let's remember the original costs of Summer Nights, £15 for AP holders, £18-20 for non-AP holders. Thorpe do respond to these things, and if it's shown that it's too expensive for people to want to do it, they'll possibly adjust prices.

In some cases, 1 carer is not enough to safely help a disabled person (especially in case of evacuation). I don't think there's any reason as to why one person would need 3 carers though. However, I don't see any harm in it. Remember, disabled guests are just that - guests! They also want to enjoy a day out with their family / friends, so having just 1 person with them is just unfair on them really - it could even be seen as penalising them for being disabled. I think 3 is a good number. 4 people in a group is probably quite average (especially if one of those guests is disabled). Also, it keeps rides filled up evenly. With coasters, they even have 2 or 4 people to a row. Sure, having only 1 carer means that's not an issue, but if you have 2, then it's unlikely that the remaining seat will be filled (especially as you couldn't put 2 disabled guests on the same ride), so by having a fourth person, it in fact make no difference on the throughput compared to three people (and, in 4 row coasters, no difference compared to two people). As for the idea of a Parent Swap, I don't particularly see how that's fair. I have limited knowledge of how it works, but I'm under the impression that if two adults and a child, say, visit, and the adults want to ride a big coaster that the child can't, then one adult queues, whilst the other adult and child are free to go round the park, then the adults can ride together? Or something similar at least? That's the parents' choice; they choose to split up so they can ride a ride they want, whilst being able to keep the child entertained. But why should a group of people have to split up because one of them is disabled? That's one thing I don't think you're seeing...what you've suggested involves splitting up the group for the sheer reason that one of them is disabled and so it doesn't affect throughputs as much. I think it's down to the guest's own choice. With someone who can't walk, or who needs assistance walking, there's a list of rides that they're usually not recommend to go on (due to evacuation procedures). I've seen some people ignore these and ride anyway, whilst I've seen other guests be stopped from riding. I guess it depends on the staff who are on the ride as well. With other rides, where the evacuation procedures are less complicated, some disabled guests are still required to have at least 2 carers if they can't walk unaided, for example. There certainly won't be enough disabled guests to fill every back row of Inferno, back car of Colossus, etc. It's very rare at Thorpe that those rows are continuously closed off. However, when disabled guests arrive, they are of course blocked off to minimise the queueing time for disabled guests. Things like that are more a problem at Chessington I've found, due to the broader appeal (and lower throughputs) of their major coasters. However, something like that is, unfortunately, going to be unavoidable.

Ironic, since this time, you actually have... Anyways, BansterDude, go ride Banesis, your favourite ride!

You've listed your favourite theme park as Banton Towers.

From Thorpe's Facebook: So it's opening this weekend then!

It's a difficult one. A balance has to be reached between making it easy for those who have a right to the disabled pass to get hold of one, but difficult enough that not everyone qualifies for the system / people can't make up an excuse. At the same time, you don't want the parks to discriminate against guests or be overly obtuse about it all. As it stands, the system is quite good. The criteria for who qualifies for the band is fair, and the way it is used is also a fair. As Marc says, a lot, lot better than the system a few years back too. Unfortunately, some people do try to abuse the system, and it is difficult for it be detected. The particular case is probably quite rare, and it's good they've been able to crack down on this. I certainly don't think this should lead to any changes in the disabled system either. I always find it interesting when people with these sorts of injuries go to theme parks anyways (real or faked). Last year, when I broke my ankle, people were suggesting I should go and make use of the disabled system (or even after when it was still healing). In my opinion, if you're normally a fit and well person and you suffer an injury that stops you from standing in queue lines at theme parks for long times, then perhaps you shouldn't be going to theme parks at all...

This. Looks. Incredible.

Don't Look Down, your favourite ride is Obanvion!

The trouble with increasing prices in my mind is that it could well create a very distinct divide between the 'haves' and 'have nots'. Yes, you want to create a premium service, but I think a balance has to be created. Make it too expensive, and you alienate too many people. Make it too affordable, however, and too many people want it. I'm all for raising prices of Fastrack, but I wouldn't want to see prices ridiculously sky-high.

LeBangeHalil_

The closest theme park to you is Adventure Islband.

Yeah, SRQ needs a dedicated queue for it to have a chance of being effective. You then also need it to be in a sensible place to works well with batching procedures. That's why it caused faff on Stealth. The only ride SRQ actually worked well on I thought was Saw, as by using the Fastrack queue, it did kinda work. As for Fastrack, someone asked the park via email about this a couple of years ago: http://forum.maniahub.com/topic/9845-park-operations/page-3#entry143624 The response for those too lazy to click a link: Whether this is still the system they use now I don't know. It's worth saying (so we don't go into a time machine and have the same argument as we did then), this is not saying that Fastrack is unlimited. What's being said here is that there's no upper bound to the the number of tickets sold; the number available is proportional to the time of the queue. There's no 'target' if you will that says 'We want to sell x number of Fastrack tickets today'. It is still possible for tickets to sell out though, since if the queue for a ride is consistently the same, then they can reach this maximum number. Given the suggestion that a Fastrack queue is meant to be a third of the waiting time of the ordinary queue, this is where problems to the system could come in, due to the simple fact the queue times change so, so much. It's not too hard to imagine a situation whereby one Fastrack ticket is sold when the main queue is 90mins. another sold when the main queue is 60mins and they both visit the ride at the same time. Then how should that be handled? It's a difficult one... I still don't really know how I feel about this system. It tries to take into account the fluidity of the queues, yet that's also a big flaw in it. I think one thing which needs to happen with Fastrack is that time slots need to be as strict as possible; this can minimise the number of people in the Fastrack queue at any one time, and hopefully control it better.

Prepare to endure the full throttle, rotating, free-fall experience of Banner.

Road-side picnic area. Milk chocolate coated raisins or milk chocolate coated peanuts?

I assume they didn't mention the BWP Overnight thing since very few people would have done it, what with the high costs and small target market. The large majority who went to FN for the mazes will have done Cabin in the Woods though, so makes sense that they mention that. As for the camping thing, I did hear it was terrible the first couple of nights, but they did improve it dramatically as the event progressed, as Scare Tour's reviews show: First night - http://www.scaretouruk.com/review---blair-witch-overnight-experience---thorpe-park.html Later in the event - http://www.scaretouruk.com/review---return-to-blair-witch-overnight.html

Yes. Thorpe read these forums y'know, and I expect that they respect member's opinions (especially if they give reasons for them rather than 'Lolz. Forp Perk is rubbish cos it is!1'). There's members on here who are well-travelled, and have seen some of the best and worse theme parks around. There's some who have worked at the Merlin parks before. So I have no doubt that Thorpe will listen to some of the views on here, and could even trickle down into being implemented... And with music in particular, Thorpe's Marketing Director even said over Twitter that the park were 'Looking into the entrance music', and took the time to listen - and respond! - to tweets from enthusiasts about their views on the entrance music, which included the bringing back of the original. Of course Thorpe would have felt it was time to get rid of the chart music. But I do think that the views on here are at the very least listened to, and could well make a difference.

Happy birthday to the one and only Mark9!

I don't really like the font in the video. Thorpe do have some pretty decent ride logos, so why not show them off in the video? Would create a more complete feel and show how the major coasters have quite separate identities even further!

They only created a single and appeared at the media night. There was no opening ceremony where YMAS preformed live at the park. But yeah, Merlin seem to like going for media / VIP events and get a small gathering of celebs. Then they can say 'Look at these people who came and loved it!' (or, like with Jonathon Ross and Swarm, mention it before the ride opens to build up hype). Angry Birds Land had a very minimal opening ceremony by the looks of it, with Mike Vallis (the park's divisional director) cutting a ribbon to the cinema. Would be nice to see Merlin try and do something slightly bigger and see how the public react.

Paddington Bear anyone?

From Scruffy Dog

From Facebook. Link to ScareCon - http://www.scarecon.org/scars---the-scarecon-annual-recognition-awards.html

Two things Sidders: -Why are you even looking at TPR tweets (or, worse, following them!)? -In fairness, it could indeed be a stunning ride. And everyone's opinions are different. Just ignore TPR...

The idea was to have old 'junk' from the park which was dumped in the lake wash ashore I think. There's Ranger County and Detonator stuff, as well as what looks like some Neptune's Kingdom (blue sign by the mouth) and Amity Cove ("You will get VERY WET in this area") signs. The shark shape I guess is because of being by the water. It's a shame that there's not more 'old' Thorpe signage there really. I don't think it's generic - how many other hotels are there are about entering through a shark! The other two main proposals - a pier-like area and entering through a washed up ship - felt more generic, less quirky and less memorable to me.