JoshC.

Nice little game, and a great idea from the park! Shame the prizes are individual Fastrack, would've preferred to see something else, but ah well..

Swarm backwards kinda, sorta, maybe makes sense when you think about it. It helps draw in more people, which was the trouble with the ride, and can theoretically handle it (though, in practice, the operational side has been a bit mixed). Also, with rumours floating about that B&M are considering a 4D coaster and that this was one way of them advancing in that direction, it makes sense there. Vampire backwards though. It would be highly difficult for a good queueing system to be implemented. It won't be able to handle it throughput-wise, especially when two rows are almost always used for disabled guests. It makes sense in one respect, as changing the park's icon coaster could draw people in, but surely bringing in more new stuff would be better? Whilst I was a disbeliever of Swarm backwards, and probably said this about that as well - this 100% ain't gonna happen.

I liked Beanoland when I was a kid, but I feel the area was - like too much of Chessington these days - too orientated to the children who visit the park. It felt very worn out to me after 2004/2005 and that it had overstayed its welcome. I get why people dislike the grey, but I just can't help but think that any other colour would look cheap, nasty and work against the area. Even if it was a browny colour, it wouldn't feel the same. The only thing I can think of that I hate about Wild Asia is the voice used for onload/offload onto Kobra - complete mood killer. I'd really give Lorikeet Lagoon a go on your next visit; absolutely amazing place! Speaking of Wild Asia, does anyone know if Bayun Maximus (or however you spell his name; the elephant in the tree) still being 'used' to his proper potential? :

Looks like another wing-over inversion/drop on a wingrider then. Yay?

The £20 deal mixed in with the Thorpe AP deal is an amazing idea by the park. They can coax people in to 'try' the park out for £20, spend a bit of money on park, hang out at the park till late (I think Bar 360 is open till midnight for everyone?), and if they liked the park, can pay £25 to come back whenever they want for the rest of the season. It's a great way to draw in the crowds, whilst the park is on good form too, and is certainly the best way to help change their target market! And there's 2 for 1 vouchers seemingly everywhere at the moment!

I'll say straight away that I don't remember Circus Land that well, as I only visited a couple of times when that area was open and was very young. However, I think that Wild Asia is quite possibly Chessington's biggest success since the turn of the century (or, if it isn't, it comes Second to LotD). The area is amazing. I know people criticise it for being a bit 'grey', but I just don't see it like that. Yes, there's a lot of grey there, but it sets a tone very nicely. There's a lot of quirky features to it as well, and everything just fits together perfectly. Lorikeet Lagoon is the definition of magnificent and is what Chessie should be all about. As I say, I don't remember the circus land, but I personally don't think anything can top Wild Asia. Sorry, just had to get my Wild Asia love in here. Anyway, the current Chessington is in a bit of a state. And when I say current, I mean this season. Previous years have been alright, but could still be improved upon. I don't remember much of 'old Chessington', so I can't compare the two. However, the Chessington of today has a good selection of rides, but needs a couple more and a lot of TLC before the park itself is in a good condition.

This is pretty much what I had in mind. Surely it's just as secure as the cupboards they have on rides like Colossus and Inferno? As for the queue system...whatever way I look at it, there's going to be issues. If you just have one single queue, then split forwards and backwards when people get into the station, it will create congestion and such. Also, people won't know how long the backwards and forwards queues are inside the station, and so will change their mind up until the last minute. The current system is okay really; not great though. The trouble I've found is that it has always had unreliable queue times - and I mean wildly unreliable, moreso than any other - and is always hit and miss with popularity. I can't think of any other way it could have worked though? So, whatever way they did / do it, it will never really be that good in my opinion. What I think needs more sorting out is directing people to each side, or at least making access to the left-hand side of the train clearer. The amount of times, especially this season, I've seen the left hand side queue pretty much empty (particularly the backwards rows) is very surprising.

A semi-accurate portrayal of the media today...

I hope we see a generic, Fright Nights teaser video, such as: http://www.youtube.com/v=EHEffRIyfiU or http://www.youtube.com/v=9LNnTMoa5ig I'd prefer it if we didn't get individual teasers for the mazes, as in recent years they've showed inside the maze, which I feel kinda spoils it. However, if they were to do ones a bit like Passing's, which sets up a story or something, I'd be happy! (EDIT: How do I embed Youtube videos? I can never get it to work?! :S )

Ooh, it is quite close at the top really, as the final round could throw up some serious twists and turns for the points. That Records Round looks to have cost me quite a bit; shoulda done me homework! Looking forward to the final result!

I'll join this again - hopefully I'll pay a bit more attention than I did last season! Following last season's last place finish, I was sacked by Project Calypso. Never fear though - I have joined 'The Resistance'.

To put it in perspective, a 2 hour queue for Storm Surge is probably equivalent to a 50 minute Swarm queue. So it's not 'busy' per se, it just attracts more people than it can handle.

Ah. Didn't explain myself properly there, and sorta said the wrong thing! What I meant to say was it's more styled than themed. Whilst there is theming there, like the queue line traps, the headchopper and the stuff indoors (the police car has now gone and I don't think returning?), it's the way they've styled it all which works much better. The way everything feels abandoned and has grown with age, how the area feels secluded and such. I've always felt that Saw was designed to create a certain feel and tone, and never to be this full out immersive experience. and the way everything feels to me is that it's been styled to be like that, as opposed to themed. Not even sure if that makes much sense to be honest. You could even say 'styling a ride' is the same as 'themeing a ride' I guess, but I think they're slightly different and that Saw is more styled than themed.

Get a feeling it's a new thing! Looks quite like an RCT3 'inline twist', so should be very interesting to experience. It looks like they kinda took inspiration from some wingriders, where an inline is the last inversion / major element, followed by a minor element to finish the ride off.

Investment-wise, Merlin are great. All the parks are getting investments - and good ones at that - and we're seeing attention to older rides too. The only park, in my eyes, that isn't as good is Chessie, for whatever reasons, but I think we're seeing improvements there all the time. Operations haven't been great, we all know that. However, I'd argue Thorpe have been improving a lot this year, with their extended opening hours, consistent ride reliability and such. The only thing which hasn't improved there, arguably, is Fastrack. The other parks haven't been doing as well, with reductions to opening hours, silly decisions (Alton specifically) and other troubles. But I genuinely do think that as time goes on, Merlin's operations will improve. Many things have improved under Merlin as well - merchandise, food outlets (bar the utter miserable failure of Burger Kitchen), attractions, themeing, entertainments (bar Thorpe in the sense that they're not constantly there, but instead just for big events. Though, the events they do pull off are good) and more. I think it goes back to what Cornflakes said - it seems Merlin sometimes value profit too much, and guest satisfaction not enough. Again though, I think that will change in time. I'd happily say Thorpe have recently prioritized guest satisfaction more than before (maybe all this is coincidental with the change in market, but who knows?), and I wouldn't be surprised if we slowly, but surely, see that happen across all parks. So, short answer, Merlin aren't that bad at all. In fact, they're rather good. But the 'wrong' decisions they have made have been big and noticeable ones, which is why they seemingly get so much criticism.

Sidders - absolute loved reading the Slender maze concept! Couple of things though - isn't the route between 2 and 4 crossing over Monk's Walk and off park property? Would mean that, in reality, there would need to be a couple of tweaks to the route. Even if you were to tweak it, maybe so you go around the building where the CCR trains are stored (ie the tankers), then I think the experience would still be pretty darn scary. The torches could possibly utilise Bluetooth technology so they 'work' and 'cut out' at different points in the maze (I believe The Passing used Bluetooth for the sounds inside the helmet, so it's more than achievable) and the maze could be a lot more theatrical than the other mazes. With an appropriate charge and explanation, I reckon it would go down a treat. Also, I think regardless of what themes the mazes have, having a couple of roaming actors around the park dressed as a character from a maze would be amazing. Imagine that, regardless of the maze, you feel like you're being tormented by a character from it all the time, not just inside the maze, and that there's no escape. It would be great.

Certainly is nice to see a new Inverter coming to the world; especially after the Wingrider binge. I quite like the look of the layout. The first drop looks decent, inversions 4 and 5 looks quite fun and the finale looks very interesting. Like others, I love that colour scheme too! The wingrider/flying restraint is any interesting idea and hopefully a norm we will see in future B&M Inverters. I really do find them the comfiest restraints around.

I wouldn't call Saw 'themed'; more styled. I can think of at least 2 rides which are better themed - both of theme are at least as well styled or better too. I genuinely don't think Saw is rough. I must admit, I did have an uncomfortable ride when I went to Summer Nights; it was my second in a row, and followed 5 goes on Swarm and Inferno, so I think it was more just needing a break than anything else. It's intense, and you can't deny that, but I think there's a fine line between intense and rough which is different for everyone.

Just came to post about that! In the article they posted, they mention about a 'ghost walk' attraction that the park held in 2005: Think this was the thing I read about ages ago and mentioned earlier in the thread. Certainly not a full blown attraction then, but it was something. XD

Banned for having now lost the underscore in your name.

You can them if you're an MAP holder, yes.

Whilst I don't disagree it would need small groups for a Slender maze to work, it could be pulled off. I played the Slender game a few months back for the first time, with 5 other people in the room. It was dark outside, and all the lights in the room turned off. At first, we all started playing on our separate laptops, and gradually just moved down to having one and all crowded round watching. All the time, there was a tense atmosphere and every little thing made us jump. It was actually great fun. I think if you were to make a Slender maze a charged attraction, and restrict it to groups of 8 (maximum), you would get people who would be in the 'right' frame of mind to play along with the attraction, so keep quiet and such, whilst still allow for maximum scares. It could be pulled off quite well with a 'tour guide' who has become crazy due to seeing Slenderman so often, so every time someone talks / larks about, he could become very agitated and scary in themselves, and then Slenderman himself and do what he does best. It wouldn't be easy to pull off, and is probably a bit too idealistic to pull off in reality, but I certainly think it is achievable.

This is great news. I'll be going to the event a couple of times! Great stuff Thorpe.

Banned for being sexy

I wouldn't mind another IP based maze to add to the line up, if it's done appropriately, but but having all mazes based on horror films is a bit risky. You could risk alienation of the audience, or becoming too repetitive with themes. It's something that needs to be handled very carefully and marketed for a good, long while before the event. Not saying it can't / shouldn't be done, but it may backfire. Personally, I'd like to see a maximum of 2 IPs, and the rest to be original ideas.