JoshC.

The way I see it, we have: Wild Asia, Zufari, Forbidden Kingdom and, to a lesser extent, Mystic East all themed about around a lost / ancient world which has been discovered. That's pretty much half the park, and is most of the park's major rides as well. Yes, all the areas are very different, but the core of it is the same. Having yet another idea about a lost / ancient world bores me. When half the park is all about it, I'm really not interested in discovering yet another lost civilisation. I want to go exploring elsewhere, in a much more modern time. That's why I like areas like Transylvania and Mexicana; even though they're cheesey, they offer something which is completely different to the rest of the park (though, in saying that, Wild Asia is my favourite area of the park because it is done so well). To be honest, I'm not overly fussed by it all. It's a theme for a small hotel extension, which I will likely never need to use, and won't have the same 'story' about it as a park area does. But if the park do go for another one of these lost / ancient world themes for their next big thing, I'll likely be bored of it before it even opens.

Unfortunately it looks like I can't make this now! Have fun everyone; see you in March for Thorpe!

Cornflakes and James & Co. are happy that no one is getting them confused with one another! Wait a minute...

Dragon's Fury (6) Vampire (5) Rattlesnake (6) Runaway Train (2) Dragon Falls (5) Bubbleworks (5) Black Buccaneer (5) Kobra (6) Monkey Swinger (5) Peeking Heights (3) Rameses Revenge (6) Tomb Blaster (5) Safari Skyway (5) Seastorm (5) Carousel (5) Flying Jumbos (5) Jungle Bouncers (5) Madagascar Show (5) Tuk Tuk Turmoil (6) Griffin's Galleon (5) Canopy Capers (5) Toadie's Crazy Cars (5) Hocus Pocus Hall (5) Zufari (5) Peeking Heights + Runaway Train -

I've also got the paperweight (£14.40 with AP discount). It's made from glass and got a really decent weight to it! Definitely think £18 is a reasonable amount to pay for it; £40 would have been a huge no from me though! I've never got why the parks started charging for digital downloads. I mean, like seriously? If it was 50p or something, that would be more okay, but £2 a photo!? Especially when people can scan them up if they really want (even if you don't have a scanner at home, I bet people could find somewhere where they could do it). And it's not like a scanned copy is much worse than a digital copy (I notice next to no difference between the ORPs I've scanned up and digital copies I've seen of others), so I really don't agree with that one. THAT really is penny pinching...

The thing which always makes me think when people say about the park's non-coaster year investments: What worthwhile addition could Thorpe add? Thorpe have quite a large variety of flats; I can't think of many flat rides the park could add which aren't overly similar to other rides on park and which would be a good addition. A dark ride is missing from the line up, but where could you put that? All about the right place at the right time for that. I think a couple of smaller things (return of cinema, CCR, a show, etc) would be great. But you can bet your bottom dollar that if that's what Thorpe did one year, people would moan it wasn't 'a good year of investment' or something like that. People can say about the park losing the ability to add rides outside of coasters - but the question is, what can they add which will satisfy everyone?

Aren't special editions of Monopoly usually £20-£25 at least anyways? So £30 is, whilst on the expensive side, reasonable.

To be fair, some (but by no means all) rooms probably do give you a nice view across the lake, and a little outsidey area looking onto will be nice. May as well give it a name which reflects those opportunities. Then again, it will have NOTHING on the lovely views the Chertsey Travelodge will have overlooking an average gym and an accountancy firm...

I think (read - hope) that one of the reasons for the shipping container hotel, if you will, is that there are troubles with the building of the actual hotel. The fact that it's been in their long term plan for so long, and they've gotten planning approval for a hotel twice (I think?) says to me that there must be something big up behind the scenes that we don't know about, and it's not just the cost (even if it is a contributing factor). I'm pretty sure the Snoozeboxes wouldn't have been cheap to hire from the company (I think it was Sidders who found out they cost Silverstone £15million a couple of years ago or something?). Whilst it's risky for the park to take it into their own hands, hopefully the full control they can have will work in their favour. Crash Pad / Waterfront Hotel / whatever is, and hopefully always will be, a temporary - almost kneejerk - solution to the problems that the proper hotel has been plagued with. It's probably also a kneejerk to the bad year Thorpe had last year as well. The whole thing does really feel very sprung on and out of the blue, but I really do hope it turns out the be a short term thing. You could view it as polishing a turd I guess, but it is at least making the best out of a bad situation.

So, some good news about all this... Thorpe are changing the colours of the Waterfront Hotel to fit in with the idea that it's on the water front: http://planning.runnymede.gov.uk/Northgate/PlanningExplorer/Generic/StdDetails.aspx?PT=Planning%20Applications%20On-Line&TYPE=PL/PlanningPK.xml&PARAM0=186334&XSLT=/Northgate/PlanningExplorer/SiteFiles/Skins/Runnymede_AA/xslt/PL/PLDetails.xslt&FT=Planning%20Application%20Details&PUBLIC=Y&XMLSIDE=/Northgate/PlanningExplorer/SiteFiles/Skins/Runnymede_AA/Menus/PL.xml&DAURI=PLANNING Whilst it will be made exactly the same (ie shipping container esque), it won't be painted grey, but instead we have: 'Wedgewood blue' containers, with 'Saphire blue' doors and a wavy canopy on the top painted in a nice 'Cornflower'. So, the colours are a lot brighter and will hopefully look more inviting. Also, as the park are planning these top canopies instead of 'steel solar sheets', it reduces the maximum height of the containers by almost a meter (max height 6.1m instead of 7m). Not exactly anything which will shake the earth, but nice to see better colours which reflect the overall idea are hopefully going to be used!

Couple more pictures from the minisite - http://www.heide-park.de/wingcoaster2014/baublog/ Dat ruined church-esque feel, ey? Bag drop in the station area. Apparently, you drop your bag in one section, and it then rotates around so it is safe and the next person has a free compartment to use. It then rotates again when you arrive back in the station for you to collect. Seems like a nice idea - hopefully it will work out (and it can then be installed in Swarm's station )

Going for another lost / ancient world theme for Chessie then? If they invest in another theme like this any time soon, my days I'll scream.

Amazing piece of marketing is probably the wrong way to word it actually. What I mean is they've created a story which no one knew was fake and, in turn, drum up plenty of attention. They've got loads of support from people, and for those who they annoyed, they can show they're a 'good company', which might help them in some ways. They made it into the papers and multiple online sites even after the park had closed; surely that's something? I do agree that there's other, less controversial, ways they could have gone about it. The 'movie studio' idea could have been milked so much more for example. That said, if the park did make up the initial compliant (which is how I've understood Chaz's post), then I'm pretty amazed at how they've pulled it off.

Wait, so are you essentially saying that Thorpe made up the initial compliant?! And then let it build from there and just continually market it? Or that they just capitalised from the initial complaint to market Asylum? If it's the former, then well done Thorpe for creating an amazing piece of marketing...

Let's not expect it to return. They're going down the film route. If rumours are to be believed, it was meant to have a retheme this year anyway. It's all but gone in my opinion.

Santa does seem to have gone on an extreme diet this year!

So that's what Storm Surge's box is for...recording marketing material... Dat backwards front wheel wheelie down a hill at 3:44 though

ScareTOUR have said on their FB page that Thorpe and Lionsgate have a 3 year agreement for FN and the usage of their characters. So, there we go! I assume we'll have new films every year; can't wait to see what they come up with. (Would lift the direct quote, but I'm on my phone and I can't seem to copy things from FB!)

Did anyone else watch Barry and Stuart's 'The Happenings' in Watch tonight? If not, watch it! Absolutely incredible stuff I thought!

Colossus (5) Depth Charge (5) Detonator (5) Flying Fish (5) Loggers Leap (5) Nemesis Inferno (6) Quantum (5) Rocky Express (5) Rush (5) Samurai (5) SAW: The Ride (5) Slammer (7) Stealth (5) Storm in a Teacup (0) Swarm (7) Tidal Wave (5) X (5) Swarm + Teacups - May as well kill it...

I think that part of the approval of Wanyama Village was that it would be available all year round, and as such, Zoo Days need to happen otherwise they'd be breaching what the council approved. Is anyone expecting it to be impressive at all in the first place?

The addition of Sub Terra is great. Must say, all in all, the event looks good value for money and has a well balanced line up for everyone, so good stuff really.

Colossus (5) Depth Charge (5) Detonator (5) Flying Fish (5) Loggers Leap (5) Nemesis Inferno (6) Quantum (5) Rocky Express (5) Rumba Rapids (3) Rush (5) Samurai (2) SAW: The Ride (5) Slammer (7) Stealth (6) Storm in a Teacup (3) Swarm (8) Tidal Wave (5) X (6) Rumba Rapids + Samurai -

I'm pretty sure that an updated Crash Pad isn't all we'll get. There's likely to be something new / other things improved which will keep the park feeling fresh.