JoshC.

All part of the plan that Merlin cooked up at the last minute when they realised that they needed to get rid of the theming. I really wish Chessington wasn't one of those places I loved going regardless of the state of the park. Because then it would be easy for me to have not visited this year and wait till they sorted themselves out for next year...

Here's mine, just a general one for life, not to be finished by any particular age, and in no particular order. Ones in red are ones I've done which were in my bucket list... 1) Get married. 2) Have kids (traditional values much?!). 3) Pass my degree (with a first hopefully) and possibly get a PhD (in Maths). 4) Sky dive. 5) Bungee jump. 6) European tour of theme parks. 7) Visit a few theme parks in Asia and America. 8) Ride at least 200 coasters ('cause I'm a credit-seeking enthusiast deep down ) 9) Give blood (despite the fact I'm PETRIFIED of needles and hate blood tests...) 10) Run (in the loosest sense of the word) the London Marathon. 11) Be able to swim (don't worry Smidget, you ain't the only one! ) 12) Be mentioned in a National Newspaper. 13) Appear on TV (even if I have to be one of those annoying people in waves in the background when news reporters are reporting stuffs). 14) Publish a book (probably a novella or a Popular Science book akin to Ian Stewart's Mathsy ones). That seems to be a rather exhaustive list of what I want to do. May not seem a lot compared to others in length, but I guess some of them will be lengthy time-wise, and in saving up the money to do so! Like others, I may add more if I think of them..

Listening to the couple opposite me at uni halls arguing is like my very own Soap Opera. I hate Soap Operas.

I like SRQ, IF it is run properly and designed to have them. For example, the majority at Alton's seem to work fine from what I've seen, and it's because the queue line and loading procedures were in mind with the design of it. If the staff are being reasonably quick and performing well, there's nothing wrong with it. However, with a lot of Thorpe's old ones (Inferno and Colossus spring to mind), SRQs weren't designed to be in mind. Even the Stealth one was poorly thought out. It made it much harder and slowed down everything. Personally, I thought the one that was on Saw in 2009 worked well. Okay, it was designed into the queue line, but the it worked it made use of the queue lines well. It worked because the batching was clear and simple, and the batcher could tell if there was a spare seat avaliable long before people were boarding the cars. The batcher being so close to the SRQ meant it was easy just to direct the odd one guest to the appropriate row. With Smiler have 4 rows per car, which is basically the same as Saw which dispatches 4 rows at once, if the merge point is logically thought out and the batching system works in a similar vein to Saw's, I see no reason why SRQ would be a bad thing for Smiler and won't interfere with throughputs or anything like that.

And now for me Alton Towers has dropped from a 'Probably' to a 'Probably Not' and Drayton Manor has risen from a 'Maybe' to a 'Probably'. Well, at least I'm breaking free from The Merlin Machine...

http://www.chessingtonbuzz.co.uk/interviews/nick-varney-2013/ Chessington Buzz have been fortunate enough to interview Nick Varney, CEO of Merlin, with regards to Chessington in general. It's quite an interesting read really. One thing which stood out to me the most: So, Zufari's investment was over £6million (quite a long way off the rumoured £10-12mill I heard!), and this is a significant high year for Chessie. Now, maybe it's just me, but when we consider Thorpe and AT's 'significant high year' investments are in the region of £18-20million, and the last medium investment year for AT (2012) was £6million, it shows that the amount being invested in Cheesie is still much less than the other Merlin. The first question also says £12million was invested since Sealife was installed, in 2008. As much as I don't like comparing, that is still A LOT less compared to Thorpe, AT and Lego...

http://www.the-smiler.com/merchandise/ Merchandise page has been added to the minisite. That cushion! <3 Those prices! </3

I reckon it's just an opticial illusion inside the station building. We could see a spinning tunnel or, given the amount of time supposedly there is inside the station building (at least 45secs I think I read), maybe something like a Vekoma Madhouse where the 'room' around you spins, and effects occuring to the train make it feel like you're spinning too (I'm sure I read someone on here suggest that, and worded it a lot better than what I've done). I don't think it'll be a 'washing machine' element. We have a coaster with 14 track inversions as it is, why put in more in a technologically difficult way, which is unnecessary? I can see why people may think it hints to a wachine machine, but I doubt AT would bother with it. The whole idea of the washing machine came up because people were expecting trick track after Th13teen, and TT seemed to have a reliable sauce which was in fact sour. If it had never been mentioned then, I think people would be seeing 'The Disoreintator' as a barrel roll or a spinning room. On the actual note of the screens, they look great. As for the fact on isn't working, OH NO!! The first time the screens are turned on, it isn't perfect. Maybe a wire wasn't connected properly / fully? There is no reason to panic about it yet.

What was it about certain rides that made me not go on them? Was the height of them? The speed of them? Just the fact they 'looked scary'? If it's about the height, I'd say get try and get them on something like Loggers Leap or Storm Surge, both of which are quite high really. If they're able to do those sorts of rides, then you can say they'll be fine on anything else because it won't feel any higher really, and they'll be up there for less time; make them think after they've been on Loggers/SS that that's the worst it could get. It will have varying success, but the approach worked a few years ago for me with someone who was scared of heights. If it's the speed (or height, and you want a different approach to my previous idea), then I think pluk's advice about Stealth is a brilliant one. It is over in a few seconds, and after that, the park doesn't have anything faster or higher, so in that sense everything else is a step down and won't feel so bad. If it's because some rides 'look scary', then it will be slightly trickier I think. Just try explaining, calmly and in a non-pressurising way, what the ride is like, try comparing it other rides they've been on, and that it'll probably be no where near as scary as he thinks it is. Try laying down a 'challenge' at the last minute for a certain ride, and see if they accept it. But at the end of the day, it will be up to them from there whether they're feeling brave enough.

The only time when I think they really needed the ridiculously high fences was for the entrance and exit walkways to the area, as you have to cross the service road, and that would have been even less of a build up to the area. Even then, they could have done it better - only have high fences near the service road, and have the other fences gradually getting smaller as you get further away from the road. Even if the thought process behind the high fences elsewhere was because of the Tomb Blaster fall, it's still pretty silly tbh and could have been better.

Yay, the track's finished. Does anyone know if they have to cement in the supports fully (or whatever needs to be done to the supports, as I believe they're not fully set in?) before they can start testing? Things to look forward to now track's been complete: -Testing. -Enthusiasts complaining that not enough testing is happening. -Enthusiasts saying that the ride won't open in May. -Enthusiasts complaining that the ride isn't self duelling to their expectations. -The ride opening.

I wouldn't have been surprised if X has pictures this season really; it's now a family ride and something I bet younger kids enjoy riding. If Flying Fish has ORPs, then surely there could also be a market for X? I guess we look at the fact Depth Charge and Detonator have had their ORP points removed for this season, so I guess even if there would be a market for them, it probably just wouldn't be big enough to warrant it.

Exactly what pluk said - 2006 was 7 years ago, the park was quite different and was still quite family orientated at that stage. With the current target market and marketing strategies, it's surely worth a go? I guess the only thing which could be holding them back is budgets? It's all well and good have the opportunity to be open that long, but if they can't afford to (or would much rather focus late nights to the MoS events), then I guess that would indeed hold them back. As James said, the FN hours seem to be shortening, and really and truly, that's probably the best time of year to be opening really late. Surely if they can keep some rides open till 11pm for the MoS events, they can keep the park open till 10pm for FN?

Going back to this, the opening hours of the dome have been granted on a permanent basis - http://planning.runnymede.gov.uk/Northgate/PlanningExplorer/Generic/StdDetails.aspx?PT=Planning%20Applications%20On-Line&TYPE=PL/PlanningPK.xml&PARAM0=181720&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 So: -The public can be in the park between 9am and midnight. -The Dome is open to the public until 2am. -The Dome can stay open till 3:30am up to 42 times a year, with no more than 6 per calendar month. Good to see it's been granted. Whilst the nightclub thing isn't really for me, they seem to be quite successful at the moment, and this can only help in expanding the events and making them better!

To be fair, in my experiences this season, when the flame has meant to ignite, it has ignited. And even if the gas cloud of death has been happening this season, I'd bet my bottom dollar it's no where near as often as last season. Anyways, Inferno, 10 years old, woo, etc.

It was like that last season I believe, though in my visits where it's been working (I assume the times when it didn't 'work' was because it was turned off due to the weather more than anything else?), it was reacting every 3 trains.

Last season they were £5, so I assume they're the same price (or maybe a little cheaper, though that's unlikely) this season. I think you can get them in the Amity Mega Store (by Storm Surge) or the Emergency Supplies shop on Swarm's Island.

Thorpe have been pretty darn good with effects the past couple of seasons in my opinion. The only time I've known there to be problems with effects recently is on Swarm when they were tweaking them around a bit last year (and I think the water spray behind the fire engine has been turned off). Don't see any reason why they won't last outright. Saw had fire effects on top of the shop in 2009 (and there used to be ones by the Asylum's sign as well around that time), don't think they've returned since then though. The thing with Swarm's fire effect is it was designed to have the fire effect incorporated; it wasn't an after thought. It fits in perfectly. With Inferno, it would have to be shoe-horned in, and I can't see anywhere where it could nicely 'fit in' if you will. Personally, I just don't think it's necessary - unlike other rides with fire effects, it wouldn't add anything to the on ride experience (like it does with Swarm for example), or the spectator experience (like it does with Swarm and did with Tidal Wave). So whilst there's no reason to stop Inferno having them, there's no reason to have them really..

Really nice interview to listen to; really shows his enthusiasm for the job he had, as well as the down-to-earth personality he's known for. My copy of the book is due to arrive in the post tomorrow; looking forward to it.

Just tried, and I'm getting the same problem. Found it quite amusing that the random number I got for 'Value for Money' was a 2... I'm fine with the how strongly do you agree style questions, just the number-rating ones. Strange..

Damn you Ryan - I was just about to post that! When I went on Monday (which was an Inset Day, so probably similar busy-ness to a Saturday), the queue peaked at around 45mins (well, what I saw at least). Over the Easter break, I heard it reached 1 hour plus. So, I'd expect about a 25-45 min wait, depending on what time of the day you go on it.

I like the addition of people's birthdays showing up on the side; adds to the community feel all the more. Can I just suggest though that the 'Welcome....' box gets scrapped? Personally I just don't think it's needed, in general it just seems a pointless tbh.