JoshC.

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.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=SegaWorld (Though I'd never heard of it before now!)

Let's not forget all the good things MMM have done. Granted, things which they've done at Chessington haven't been great, but for the most part, MMM's creations have been top notch.

I wonder whether that view will look any different this time next year..?

Turtle does indeed raise a good point, but I think Ryan's idea could still work. We have the blog features on the forum and, no doubt, if someone wanted to write a blog entitled 'Why I think Thorpe is rubbish' (or whatever), and give a good argument for why they think that, then it would stay on the forum. The forum itself is all about free speech of course, so there'd be nothing wrong with that. Indeed, I would love to see someone write a good blog post on why they think Thorpe is rubbish (if that's their view), as it would no doubt lead to a good debate. But I think having articles written by members could work as well. Yes, of course, with TPM being the official fansite, it would be unwise for the website to publish an article giving heavy critique of Thorpe, but there could be articles praising Thorpe, people giving their views on what they'd realistically like to see at Thorpe in the future, or reviews on other parks, just to mix things up a little bit. It could generate more discussion, leading to more membership on the forum, and then more balanced debate, meaning that we're not going to see 'THORPE PARK IS AMAZING' everywhere and, at the same time, avoid publishing negative-Thorpe articles on the main TPM page. I definitely like the idea and think it could work if the articles were of the right topic. Would love to see it trialled out if the Team think it's a good idea!

I quite like the little Twitter was the parks have. Creates a bit of fun, keeps all the Merlin parks in the limelight, and does no harm. More importantly, it's actually pretty decent - not like the cringey 'Thorpe Memes' or anything like that.

Low and behold - a picture of what everyone is talking about! (From Towers Nerd Live - http://live.towersnerd.com/, of course) Could be for SW8, could not be. It's not been that much of a secret that there's been rumours of SW8 replacing the flume, going near Gloomy Wood, etc., and that this is the original SW7 which was delayed due to technical issues, etc. etc. Not much more that we can speculate over for the time being. Could just be the felling of trees; there seems to have been quite a lot of that judging on the pictures from TNL.

Tallest inverting flat ride in the world is going to be at least 200ft, surely? I really don't think a flat ride that could go that tall would suit Thorpe, and do not issues of capacity would play a part. Plus, any ride which dwarfs Stealth would have to be a no-no in my books. Plus, I don't think it'd be that big of an appeal to guests, if we thinking in the Merlin-way. "Tallest upside non-coaster in the world" doesn't have that big of a pull-factor in my books. Slammer's the 4th tallest ride on park, when it reaches maximum height, I believe. 'Tis behind Stealth, Swarm and Detonator. Even then, you're only really 'upside down' when you reach the height of the supports, so at about 60ft.

Track almost finished. (From Premier's Twitter) I still really don't what I think about this sort of ride. I can see why it'd appeal to people, but at the same time, just seems a bit 'meh' to me...