JoshC.

Disappointing.

I'm still with The Resistance. I dunno how well we'll do; spent most of the pre-season training fighting off swarming alien races and convincing people they're Lez Cougan...

I doesn't look like it's going for the accuracy of the likes of RCT, with more the 'it's meant to be preposterous, let's have some fun with it'. Given that, I think it looks okay to be honest.

^Yep, it is that model! Great theme for an indoor spinning coaster and should be a nice little addition to the park. Definitely high up on the list of US parks I want to visit one day for sure!

^I dunno if it's that simple; from what I've seen, the public can't normally access the underneath of top hat sections of launch coasters (could well be wrong there, just what I've seen from pictures). So it just seems to be a more general thing of not letting people underneath the ride section. From what I've seen, the station and queue line are quite enclosed on Zumanjaro(?), so I guess that minimises risks of getting hit by loose items and whatnot.

Zombies are in Cabin in the Woods, so it could be reference to that. I don't think there's a Lionsgate-distributed film that's main focus in zombies though and is particularly popular (someone correct me if I'm wrong though!). I've noticed that on this link - http://www.thorpebreaks.co.uk/fright-nights.html , they say: Since it says 'some', that probably means there'll be more. Not groundbreaking news, but it does confirm that there'll probably be at least one new IP this season, meaning that there should be an Asylum replacement of some kind. Well, hopefully at least!

If you want something to facepalm at today - http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/whats-on/family-kids-news/watch-lightwater-valley-flamingo-land-7594234 There is no 'best' coaster - it's all so personal. You cannot come up with some sort of systematic formula for deciding how good a ride is. Indeed, things like this annoy me all the more, as it can lead to Maths getting a bad image in the public...

Verbolten (Let's see how quickly we can reach Farup from here!)

(which JoshC. dislikes)

No more progress yet unfortunately; too much work going on unfortunately. Hopefully some more progress will come sooner or later though.

Summer Nights is meant to be minimal queues though, not no queues. Yeah, it's nicer to have with no queues, but it's not like the event is any different to what it's being advertised if there's short queues.

Favourite coaster manufacturer is a difficult one. B&M do make some quality, but at the same time, they can be very formulaic with their rides. Then again, that could just be down to the parks who order their rides. Then there's Intamin; despite all their flaws, they are very innovative, and do contribute to the industry. Perhaps too innovative though, but heyho. But then you get the 'smaller' ones, like Mack and even Gerstlauer, who are improving their ride selections, and being involved in bigger and more exciting projects. So really difficult to choose. In terms of rides I've ridden, I've always favoured B&M rides, so I'll have to go for them. As for flat rides, I'll have to go for Fabbri. Just because they've got a great selection of rides and seem to be quite reliable.

Given that the plans valued the project at £2.3 million, yet we got everything that was including in the plans, it's a bit weird (unless there was some sorta crossover whereby the plans were changed before submitted, but the value of the project wasn't?). To be honest, for under £1m, I think the cinema experience alone is worth it. Shame though; double the budget could have seen some very nice things!

http://www.altontowersguide.com/gallery/behind-the-scenes/the-smiler/ Behind the Scenes / Lift Hill walk of Smiler!

Whoops, just deleted that post after realising that You're Next has been taken off this season's adverts, which would mean it's not returning. :S I agree with you that TCM Would be a good choice though!

Unfortunately, I won't be making this meet. Really, really want to, but it's just not feasible. I hope it's a great success and that this is the first of many 'more exotic' trips to come!

You see, the trouble is, I don't think if you simply spruce up the park, it'll make people want to visit. It definitely will make people who are already there want to visit again, but it won't necessarily entice people to want to go there in the first place. They'd need more. In the case of Thorpe, they've had such large amounts of investments (the last time there was nothing new was 1997; before a fair few members on here were born!), so people could well 'expect' something new, otherwise they won't feel the need to go there. Whether that new thing is a new ride, a new show, some gimmicky event, whatever, they'll need to get something new to entice people in. Simply sprucing up areas won't be enough (unless it's a large retheme). It will have to be a slow process - adding new things and sprucing things up until such a time they've given people enough reason to want to return that they can afford to just take a year to not add anything new. And I just don't think that year will come for another 2-3 years.. The care of rides is certainly one of the highlighted problems with Merlin's parks. Of course, they can't take all the blame, but still, it's something which really needs to be addressed. We don't want to see more cases like Loggers tunnel, Dragon Falls theming, RMT, etc.

They wouldn't put another attraction on Swarm's island - simply because there isn't enough space! Lost City has always been a mish-mash of very loose themes and if Thorpe were to ever go back to themed areas, that'd be the most difficult one to sort out (certainly wouldn't envy the creative team that would have to do it!). I'd like an Air Race at Thorpe, but at the same time, the place has enough rides which spin, twist and flip you. Would be a good ride for the current target market though, given it's only got a 1.2m restriction.

Pretty sure I've seen this mentioned before, but no pictures: (Photo by TowersStreet). You can pay to charge you phone whilst on park. This one is near Dark Forest, and there's one by Forbidden Valley as well.

My only trouble with the new branding, as it stands, is that it can feel 'too professional'. I feel like there's a bit of life and soul missing in it; there's no real character - just a kinda corporate idea. Despite all the old branding's flaws, you can't question the fact that it had life and character. Not even asking for much; just something that splashes some sort of life or humour or something into the place.

"polygon-like shapes" So 2D shapes. It's a shame that all this effort went into background research, and the final result feels like it's missing something to tie it all together.

Don't think anything had been said either way yet. Only thing that's been confirmed so far is that the event itself is being called Howl'o'ween now.. From what I heard about it, I hope it does return!

I like you already! Welcome to the forums.

Was seemingly the Azteca grand opening today... Restaurant Entertainers (All images from Chessington's Twitter).

Aww man, I thought the Fright Nights meet was met meant to be a killer get together.