JoshC.

The ride in general felt like it was just struggling to operate in my opinion. It felt very 'juttery' in its operation, so we it swung in a different direction, it felt very unnatural, forced and that everything just wasn't quite right. Whether that was something enforced by engineering to try and reduce wear and tear or not I don't know, but either way, the way it was riding, it needed a huge amount of attention, which I'm glad to hear it has!

In May 2010, there was a live performance by Peter Andre in the arena, so it is something that has been done before. I don't know how popular it was (though I do seem to remember tickets getting cheaper and cheaper the closer to the event it got, so maybe it didn't sell out?), so maybe it wasn't as popular as the park had hoped. There was also Ride n Rave in 2012 (though I have no idea where the performances for that were? ), so having a concert-esque type thing at Thorpe isn't unheard of, but maybe they're not popular enough to do regularly?

Sounds great to me as well! Any chance of creating this as a mini meet (I know it's a paid-for event and as a forum meets are usually planned to be free and accessible to all, but would be nice! )

That support is rather ugly, but the track itself still looks fab. To be fair, if the worse thing about this ends up being a dodgy-looking support, I don't think anyone's really going to have heart attacks over it.

Maintenance and small re-themes do not bring in guests, I agree. However, Scorpion Express should not be a 'small retheme'. It's one of the parks major attractions - it should get a huge retheme, with money splashed at it left, right and centre. You wouldn't want Thorpe to have a 'small retheme' of, for example, Saw whereby they just removed anything remotely related to the Saw brand. Nor would you a expect a small retheme of, say, Nemesis at Alton. You would expect the parks to go all out as much as possible. Yet, *seemingly*, Chessington hasn't done. Regardless, I think my point still stands. Chessington aren't getting the same level of investment as the other parks, are they? Zufari, which was meant to be a HUGE attraction for the park (indeed, you'd expect a safari-style ride at a place which combines a zoo and a theme park to be the signature attraction). It had £4million cut from it's budget apparently (which, for perspective, was about 40% of the original budget). Something like that wouldn't happen at any of the other parks, would it? So why at Chessington? I just don't get it As I say, I don't 'get' how businesses should run optimally. No one on here has run a transnational company that makes millions every year though (unless anyone on here is a secret millionaire??), so I don't think anyone really knows 100% how Merlin should run. But still, I just think it's very frustrating that we see Chessington not putting in the care and attention into some of their rides, and the park as a whole. It's something Thorpe have learnt recently it seems - if you make the park look good, feel good and have things that will keep the guests happy, you'll be able to run a good park. If you do the bare minimum, and focus on just trying to 'bring the guests in', sooner or later, you'll have no guests to bring in, as everyone will have visited once, and say the dreaded words for any company, 'never again'.

When this was being developed (and the developers were asking for donations), I was under the impression the full game would cost approximately £60. I'd be rather surprised if £23 was the full thing, but if it is, then that'd be pretty sweet.

I'll freely admit that I don't know that much about how to run a business or anything like that, but one thing which has me stumped is this: Why is it Merlin can afford to splash the cash at different places, new midway attractions, and so forth, yet can't be that same level of effort or investment into Chessie? I think people would have a hard time arguing that the likes of Swarm, Smiler, Flight of the Demon, Legoland developments, Raptor, etc. were a waste of money / a bad investment. Yet, when you look at Chessie, Wild Asia was good, Madagascar was okay, but there's many negatives. Specifically, many more then any of the other Merlin parks. Scorpion Express is a major attraction at Chessie, but I it feels like this retheme hasn't been given the effort it deserves. As I say, I don't actually 'get' the ins and outs of running a business, but surely everyone can see the amount of investment and effort being put into Chessington is noticeably less than the other parks. And that, for everyone, is frustrating. Very frustrating

http://www.merlinentertainments.biz/458DF475-3A9D-467B-B311-A9C0F9FD62AA.CFILE (From a link Benin posted in the Merlin topic). Go down to Slide 21 and it says "Thorpe Park - 'Shark Hotel'". Looks like we have a preferred concept! Really glad they chose that idea. It's different, quirky, clever, and works. Certainly think it will look great when you are entering the park! Hopefully guests will 'take the bait' and fall for this slight gimmick 'hook, line and sinker'.

Saw 8 is "in active development" apparently. I'd reckon we'd see it next Halloween tbh. Would be great for the park of it did happen. Saw is already one of the besr-rated rides on park, so a rejuvenation of the brand could only encourage more people to come and ride it!

Whether could be a lot nicer this year, so I'd expect 4-6k as a more reasonable guess. Really hard to judge though, what with it being split over 2 days and coinciding with Chessie's weekend.

Feel's like 3's response to O2's 'Be more Dog' campaign. Except they decided to make it weird, and try and be funny, and sorta fail...

Why should we get over it? Regardless how it may come across with all the whining, pretty much everyone on here actually wants Chessington to go well, to create great rides, with great themes. We want to see why Merlin are only second best to Disney, and we want to see that they can push to be Number 1. This, so far, isn't giving us what we, what everyone, wants! We want a park's major attraction to be special. So far, this doesn't seem special. The way it's looking, I'd much rather take a Disney ride that has 3 months till opening than the completed Scorpion Express. That doesn't express, to me, this high level of competition and standard which Merlin apparently set. You say that as long as it looks good, it's a good thing. That's the trouble though - people are afraid it won't look good! Think of other major projects at Merlin parks a month before opening. Most of them looked pretty darn good at that stage. What does this look like though? Surely you can see where the concerns are about all of this, and why people are worried and whining and such. Of course, we should wait till the ride opens before making full judgement. But as it stands, I'm worried my full judgement won't exactly be a positive one...

"iconic international entertainment" "unlike anything that currently exists" IPs Could almost start a bingo game for common phrases / things that appear in a Merlin-related press release! It's going to bring in visitors I guess. Makes more sense to go with an IP with this sorta of thing though, seeinghow it's just sorta there, and not integrated within one of Merlin's big attractions. Still, would much rather see Merlin go for SOMETHING original and non-IP related...

Where do any of the posts state anything about the wealth of the guests they point, or the wealth of the poster in question. I come from a working class background, believe it or not, and there people who are would regard as a 'chav' who are not poorer than me; indeed, they are much richer than me. Chav is very much a wooly word; what some people define as a 'chav', others may not. But something like J.S217's post didn't even refer to chavs, but instead people who are underage smokers and the way people talk (which I presume means people who talk rudely, etc.). When a large number of travelling guests have a visit day, there is indeed a bit of a different feel to the park, with more guests than usual being ruder and more shoving and such in the queue line. If you ever visit on such a day, there's a small, but noticeable, number more security guards on park. It feels like you're trying to make an issue out of a non-issue. People on here, including all those who you quoted, are nice people, who enjoy going to theme parks and are there to have fun. The worst types of visitors to a theme park are the ones who try and ruin a day out for others, be that by being to rude to other guests, queue jumping, breaking some of the courtesy-related park rules and so on.

Of course, this is the few spoiling it for the many. From what I've seen, the majority of enthusiasts (teenager or not) are usually fine, and have a great deal of respect for the parks. There are the few who feels they have the right to break park rules (cameras on rides without permission, vandalism, be rude to people, etc.), but it is just the few.

From what I hear, there were some people there who were incredibly rude to the staff members for no good reason whatsoever. Simply thought that because they were a passholder and had 'gotten there first', they were entitled to ride Swarm backwards or something.

Hmm, interesting! Have to say, I'd much prefer a more padded-out, 'realistic' (well, as realistic as you can get with an oversized creature! - as a side note, I think it's a decent size) creature, much like in the marketing image. It just seems more in-line with Chessington's overall image, and fits with the idea of the back story of the ride. But if that's the look they were planning, then so be it I guess. *Insert standard 'I'm not judging it till I ride' and 'I'm trying to keep an open mind about it all' comments, even though I am dubious about it all*

Unless I'm mistaken, 2011 has been the only bad AP day Thorpe have had. 2009 there was a mini-AP day (well, afternoon), which was executed well. Was mainly for a Saw preview, but some other rides were open and all went down well! 2010 was reasonably well done and rather quiet from what I heard. Last year seemed to be okay, though the limited backwards Swarm seats seem to cause some issues. Nothing drastic mind! So yeah, 2011 was the only bad AP day. Having an AP weekend now means it will probably be an alright weekend to go on park.

https://www.facebook.com/themeparkguide Train. And this looks to be the scorpion... I'm assuming hoping that the scorpion is no where near complete yet

We all know it's no secret that Merlin try to be as 'careful with money' as possible, so it's no surprise in some way that they like to go for coasters with a big USP. Spend money on something that's relatively unique, it seems to be a more sure-thing that more people will come flocking in. The logic of course being Merlin think 'Well, if people realise this coaster is "similar" to another coaster, then they won't visit our parks!! Panic!' But until a Merlin park takes the apparent-'risk' goes for a tried-and-tested coaster type, that is in no way unique, but instead is just really fun and beams sheer quality, they'll never know if that sorta thing will bring in the crowds. Shame really.

For me, it's just so difficult to visualise how this thing will actually look when it's built. These different renderings just aren't helping me get a 'feel' for what the coaster will look like as a whole; what the finished product will look like. It's a case of wait and see for me; this thing could end up looking great, or looking like someone's barfed up a mixture of wood and steel and hoped for the best.

It is a new ride experience though. New name, new theming (or no theming, but who knows?), new audio, etc. Bar the fact it's the same train on the same track, it is all new. Not much different to how they marketed CCL at AT as new; same with CBeebies Land.

Coventry Uni students supporting their ice hockey team...

Well that's shut me right up, hasn't it? Still, a bit of a shame that that look couldn't have been passed onto the coaster.

You know what that coaster needs? MORE CONCRETE! Thank goodness that Merlin parks are actually bothering with a theme / theming on the major installations.