JoshC.

I see the Merlin fetish of 'Let's stick a world first element in our new attractions wherever possible' is still present (as seen in the Press Event video). Shame. But yeah, Jason seems like a great guy and knows what he's doing with marketing. It was obvious that last year they were trying different things when it came to marketing, which things worked (family-friendly, optimising digital media, etc.), which things did not work (the Thorpe Park memes for example), and this year we're seeing the positive outcome of this. Customer experience is seeming to a big thing this year too, which is a good thing. Glad to see!

At 850pph, that probably puts it as one of the highest throughput rides on park!

Or they could reuse the 'Fou14teen' sign which they put up on Friday the 13th in 2010 to signify the ride's new top speed?

Build a 200ft tall, enclosed drop tower. Alton need another ride that drops you. Minimal footprint. Add in a couple of shipping containers with cattlepen queue lines in them, pass it off as theming. Just make sure the building that holds the drop tower looks dilapidated, painted grey with bits of dark green in it and has loads of scaffolding around it. Simple!

You see, I didn't think it was too bad a system. When I went, there was trouble with the system which meant that the queues ended up being in the region of 40-50mins (for both forward and backwards). When the problem was realised, they stopped people from being able to book a slot I believe and fixed the system, letting the queue dissipate before starting it up again. I guess that's what tests are for! So yeah, when it worked, I think it worked well. Definitely was good later on in the day when people were fully aware of what was happening too. Looking at the big picture, I don't think it would work on the large scale as a replacement for queueing overall, but it was a nice idea..

They are planning to do further trials with it (well, that's what they've said on the gate map). When, who knows? I wouldn't be surprised if it slowly ends up as a replacement for Fastrack in honesty. But nonetheless, it'll be interesting to see what any new trials bring...

"But if I wanted to look at grass, I'd go to a garden centre, not a theme park."

Surely "popular" and "bringing guests in" can be used pretty much interchangeably? At the very least, if a ride isn't popular, it won't be bringing the guests in. That's how I see it at least. I'm not making generalisations about the public's views - I did say 'some people' may know it as a ride that broke down upside down, for example. Some people will know it as the ride that is always closed when they visit. Some people will indeed like it or want to try it out. There's going to be all sorts of views from the public. Nonetheless, I still don't think Slammer is a ride that can be said to be 'brining guests in'. I personally think it's almost time to admit defeat with the poor ol' thing...

Does it bring people in though? When ordinary members of the public visit Thorpe, what rides will they think of? They'll think of the likes of the five major coasters and Tidal Wave, since these are the rides that are focused upon the most. I doubt there's many, if any, saying 'We need to go to Thorpe Park because it's got Slammer!'. When it is open, how popular of a ride is it? Not very. Slammer likely struggles to get above 400pph, yet I've only ever seen it get over an hour queue once, maybe twice, since it opened. I bet there's loads of other rides on park which get more people in one day want to go on instead of Slammer. I wouldn't call it a popular ride by any means. I bet that some people will call it 'The ride that got stuck upside years ago', since whenever it broke down with people on it, it made it onto BBC news. Regular visitors will see that it's down so often that they may think it's unsafe too, and be reluctant to ride it. Whatever way I look at it, I just can't see how anyone can call Slammer a popular ride, or a ride that brings guests in. From where I'm standing, it's not. There's surely got to be a point where the negatives outweigh the positives, and the park just have to say enough is enough. Even if the parts are cheap, there's other things you have to look at - time consumption for engineers (do you really want your engineers spending loads of time working on a ride that could break down a month later for an extended period of time?), marketing (it doesn't look good having an SBNO ride on park, especially when it's marketed on the map and the website), staffing, etc. Given all those factors, I wouldn't be surprised if Slammer is gone soon (usual cliché, I know, I'm sorry, but it is what I feel).

Doctor Who would be a good IP choice for the park I think. However, I wouldn't want to see another IP. There's already Saw and AB Land, plus the Dr Pepper sponsorship on Tidal Wave. That's enough for a park of Thorpe's size I think!

If I had a penny for every time someone's said this, I wouldn't need to take out a student loan for uni! It does seem like Slammer will eventually be opening, perhaps in the near future.

Angry Birds at Thorpe Park clothing range. Maybe 'Chuck's Speedy Getaway' is still a possibility Reference being TPM's April Fools

Very recently updated my background; really love this graphic!

But what if you don't like any of the parties, but still care about the outcome / politics in general? I certainly did not want UKIP to come first, but I wouldn't have wanted to vote for any other party either. Should I have to vote for the party I dislike the least to have a 'right' to complain?

I'm sure discussion of the hotel, the 'Thorpe should get a dark ride' and 'Will Slammer finally be closed down for good?' will replace all of those. And no doubt a Fright Nights *This year +1*' topic will start earlier and earlier too.

They've literally changed a couple of signs and stuck a model of a bird near it? How on earth can that make it look "absolutely horrendous" compared to what it was before? :S

How so? We've got the 'Island like no other' tag line and the park are trying to create an atmosphere which feels special. Hearing the music being played makes me feel like I'm going to a magical place, builds the excitement up, and so forth. I genuinely think that listening to that music will make people think they are on an island like no other. Even if you think it doesn't suit current-day Thorpe, surely you would agree it suits more than The Noise?

My first year counted 10% if my overall degree. Pretty sure it's a Maths / Science thing at my uni; dunno if it's like that anywhere else... I'm glad that it was like that. First year of a maths degree is so vital; you build the foundations for everything you need to know for the rest of your degree. If it wasn't like that, it would be too easy for so many people to coast along, think they could scrap 40%, then fail. What's more, you'd then spend more time ensuring everyone is comfortable with those building blocks, because many people won't ingrain such things in their brain like they should. To be honest, I think that should be how things are across all unis and all subjects. I expect that some degrees don't rely on you being totally comfortable with the ins and outs that you learn in first year. I know that in some degrees (philosophy for example), you can get away with understanding very little in your first year, and hardly building on it at all for the rest of your degree (focusing on breadth rather than depth, essentially). But still, I think having that first year of your degree count for even 5-10% would make all the difference, give people incentive to work harder and make a university degree feel more valuable.

Top work Thorpe.

Hmmm, not gonna lie, I was expecting an audio change. And, in some ways, I kinda wanted an audio change. Would have been interesting to make the audio a bit more comical and light-hearted for such a scary and imposing ride; almost like how Tidal Wave creates a comedy out of a tragedy. Think, if pulled off right, it would have worked really well. I guess I'm more in the minority with the opinion though! I wonder how much guest (or even enthusiast?) views played a part in deciding whether to keep the audio or not?

Huge posters advertising upcoming events, which will be changed on a monthly basis.

Do they? Where? The only time I've ever seen them compare themselves to Disney is when they say that they are "The second largest theme park operator in the world". So it's not even a direct comparison, they're literally just stating a fact about visitor numbers, and then people will think to themselves 'It's popular, so it must be good'. It's just words really. I still don't quite get the claims that this is "lazy", "unimaginative" or "dreadful" being made by people in general. As in, people's opinions are that's it's lazy, but they're not saying why... Maybe the choice of theme is lazy, and a quick appeal to families, but I wouldn't say the final product comes across as lazy. The metal plates on the walls are simple, and maybe they could have been positioned to look a bit more realistic, but I guess it's a game and cartoon - things aren't meant to be totally realistic. You've got to let there be a bit of make believe and stuff. I'm not a big fan of the signs, more could have been done there in my opinion (and, when you compare it to a lot of the other signs on park, they don't feel as good), which is a shame. Be interesting to see (well, hear) what the audio's like in an area - it can make or break it really! The budget is an interesting one, but I wouldn't say that Thorpe's only concern is the profit. That's a Merlin thing. Thorpe really want to focus on customer satisfaction this year, and no doubt there'll be some smaller changes along the season (for the entire park, not just this land) to reflect this. I'm not going to go with the old 'Well, it's not for you' or 'What would you have done?' comebacks either; those points have been argued to death enough times already! Whilst this isn't the peak of originality, the pinnacle of theming and a bit of an easy way to appeal to families, I don't think there's anything wrong with the area, and I wouldn't exactly call it lazy.

Towers Nerd are doing live updates for CBeebies Land today - http://live.towersnerd.com/ Have to say, looks like it's really good. I personally can't make comparisons between the old area and now as I never went in there, however it does seem to be good quality all in all. I wonder if it still has the 'soul' and 'life' in it though when you're in there (certainly looks like it, but you can't tell from a photo!)?

A small selection of photos from TPM's Facebook... Also, a photo from Thorpe's Twitter, which shows Thorpe Divisional Director seemingly doing a small opening ceremony... All in all, it looks good in my opinion. Yes, this isn't a thematic masterpiece that we'd see in the likes of Phantasialand, Disney, etc., but it looks and had a bit of humour to it. I bet younger kids will lap it up too, which is obviously the key point of the area. Can't wait to go down next month and try it all out. So, a promising attraction which I think shows that, with bigger budgets and bigger projects, we'll see grander things to come soon (and if there's a small ceremony for ABL, fingers crossed for bigger opening ceremonies with the big attractions, ey?)...