Everything posted by JoshC.
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David Cameron phone pictures just keep on coming...
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From living with a people doing a variety of subjects, it very much depends on what you end up doing at uni which determines how many deadlines you have to keep up with. For example, last term, I was having to do 3 Assignments every fortnight (two of which were due at the same time each time, which was annoying), as well as having to chip away at doing an essay (yes, Maths students have essays too ). This term has been a bit more relaxed for me, but the past couple of weeks have been a nightmare, with essays to do, Assignments to hand in, a presentation next week, as well as revision for exams which are just over a month away. However, other people seem to not have many deadlines at all, and just have bigger project due in about once or twice a term. Then there's others who have loads of essays due in in the same week, so unless you start them early, you just have a week of pure misery, with 9 other weeks of doing very little. Then there's some people who just do exams pretty much, so have very little to worry about in terms of deadlines. As with anything, if you keep on top of things to the best of your ability, you'll be fine (even if it is really stressful!). (Oh, and Tommy, I'm sure you'll have plenty of work to do in second year and beyond; enjoy it whilst you can... )
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http://www.toynews-online.biz/news/read/yoohoo-friends-teams-with-chessington-world-of-adventures/041931 For those of you unaquainted: http://yoohoo.auroraworld.com/ I've noticed some toys in Merlin shops the past couple of yeas which I think are YooHoos. But still, a needless sponsorship for no apparent reason. Yay?
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I hit the 1.4m meter barrier between the 2003 and 2004 closed season (so when I was 9; wow I feel a bit old now...) Great marketing from Thorpe. When I first read this, I thought it said opening day, not opening weekend, so was a bit concerned.. But nah, it's a very good move from the park me thinks.
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Woah! Looks like I won't be going then. Had to do a bit of planning to make sure I could justify the cost; should've acted quicker it seems. Ah well, an extra £40 in my pocket is probably a good thing for a student Glad to see it's been popular though!
It's a preview weekend spanned over 2 days. Yes, it's a shame they aren't opening for an extra hour, but if it means the park is better prepared for full opening, then all the better.
I didn't actually know people walked on that thing?! Not the most pleasing thing to the eye, but I guess if they want to be safe rather than sorry, that's the simplest thing to do. Could be worse.
To be fair, if we wanted to be facetious about it all, Saw did technically open on time, even if it was just for an hour.. I can see that my point did ignore a couple of points, but the general point I was getting at is that Thorpe have never left anything till the last minute, and other than the 2011 AP event, have never opened anything new half-done or anything, Why would there be concern that Angry Birds Land would be rushed, incomplete and poor quality given that track record?
That wasn't Opening Day though; that was the AP Preview Event. Admittedly, Storm Surge was a bit of a mess for the Preview Event, but other than that, everything else has been fine.
The trouble with a wristband system is you'd need to give wristbands to those who ARE going to be riding the rides (otherwise one could easily get a wristband and then take it off when they get into the park). This then makes everything more difficult, adding a few more costs to the general running of the park, and makes it more difficult for guests. A wristband system would just be silly.
Other than the waterfalls mid way through the slide, it is essentially the same. Storm Surge isn't good, we all know that, but it's not exactly like we were promised much more than a ride which would just spin you round and get you slightly wet. Regardless, my point still stands - under Merlin, Thorpe have managed to get everything open on time (bar X last year, which was Vekoma's fault, so I'm not *really* counting that)
The promised quality of Storm Surge wasn't exactly great. We all knew it was going to be a cheap ride that looked cheap and felt cheap. It was just meant to be a ride which everyone could ride really. Got we were promised really...
Thorpe (under Merlin) have managed to get everything opened to the promised quality on time. Don't see why Angry Birds Land would be any different.
Christ, weird to think Samurai's been at Thorpe for 10 years now...
Dunno whether you're joking or not there Sids, but what makes you think that?
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'.
