JoshC.

Yeah, happy birthday Sheep! Hope you're having a great day, whatever you're doing.

Air (5) Congo River Rapids (4) Duel - The Haunted House Strikes Back (5) Hex: The Legend Of The Towers (5) Nemesis (5) Nemesis: Sub-Terra (6) Oblivion (5) Runaway Mine Train (5) The Flume (5) The Gardens (5) Th13teen (5) Sub Terra + CRR -

First of all, great idea for a topic Benin! For me, 2013 looks set to be much of the usual, with a couple of extras. No doubt regular Thorpe trips will happen, along with a couple of Chessie trips. This year it looks likely I'll have a couple of days at AT in late summer / early Autumn (currently looking into that; nearby hotels with good transport links are a must there) and, depending on the dates, there should hopefully be a Scarefest visit on the cards as well. Then there'll probably be the usual MAP abuse, with London and Warwick Castle. When it comes to new cred, Drayton Manor is looking to be happening, either in late Spring / early Summer or Autumn. When it comes to the UK parks I haven't visited, Drayton and Flamingo Land have been the two I've wanted to visit the most, but FL is unlikely to happen this year for various reasons. But still, new cred is new cred. At the moment, European parks are off the menu it seems, mainly due to costs at this stage. However, looking ahead quite a way into the future, 2015 or 2016 could be quite huge, with the long term plan of saving up enough money to do a large Euro-trip to hit up the big parks I've wanted to visit (at this stage, really don't have a clue where exactly, but Germany, Holland and Italy are countries high up on my list at the moment... A case of waiting another year or two to make more concrete plans...)

Wasn't really like that tbh - there was a LOT of focus on booking for the hotels, with all the benefits and such. They showed some rides, certainly some clips from that ad are used in this one though. No doubt someone will get a recording of it and upload soon enough though.

The ad I saw, which was aired about 1ish, had nothing related to SW7 in it. The main focus was about booking hotels and the like, and showed some standard clips which I think I recognised from older ads.

Had no idea where to post this, but may as well post it here: This was recently posted on Lightwater's Twitter account: "A few laps on The Ultimate is usually sufficient! #GetCorrected" Niceuse of that hashtag there to perhaps get people following the 'getcorrected' hashtag to look at other theme parks? Seriously love LWV's marketing / social media usage!

So, new year, let's try and make use of the TPM calendar a bit more (this is said every so often and never works out, but let's try.. ). A happy birthday to scarycoasterboy, aka Adam, who turned 16 today! Hope he's had a great day.

Personally, I don't see the point in having an on ride camera on Vortex. In general, flat rides aren't particularly suited to having them and sometimes look very displeasing to the eye (I think that in particular would be a problem for Vortex). Also, I just don't think there'd be enough demand for it. Detonator had ORPs installed in 2011, and during most of my visits last season, I didn't even see it open - probably due to lack of demand. Out of all the rides on park, I just don't think Vortex is a ride people would want to have a photo of themselves to take home.

In my eyes, it will be a disappointment if this ride doesn't open when the park opens. 16th March has always been the planned opening, as shown on some PR releases and the countdown. Regardless of how many people know when the ride was planned to be opened, if the park opens without SW7, there will no doubt be some issues with people. However, this things do happen. Rides do get delayed, issues do come up. I think we'd all much rather have a complete experience than a half-complete one. I guess it comes down to what people would prefer - the whole experience late, or a weak experience early? Whatever the answer to that question is, in my eyes, there's no doubting that a delayed opening of SW7 would be a huge disappointment, and seen by some to be a failure.

Interesting that the theming has been removed... Let's not jump to gun just yet though; hopefully they're just moving it during the refurb of the restuarant / replacing it. *fingers crossed*

Air (6) Battle Galleons (4) Congo River Rapids (5) Duel - The Haunted House Strikes Back (5) Hex: The Legend Of The Towers (5) Nemesis (6) Nemesis: Sub-Terra (5) Oblivion (6) Runaway Mine Train (5) Skyride (0) The Flume (5) The Gardens (7) Th13teen (6) The Flume +1 Skyride -1 Catch ya later Skyride (unless you burn down...) SCORES RESET: Air (5) Battle Galleons (5) Congo River Rapids (5) Duel - The Haunted House Strikes Back (5) Hex: The Legend Of The Towers (5) Nemesis (5) Nemesis: Sub-Terra (5) Oblivion (5) Runaway Mine Train (5) The Flume (5) The Gardens (5) Th13teen (5)

Alton remain very clever with their marketing of this. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A_oQUtnCQAE7pGD.jpg:large This was posted on their Twitter for the usual hashtag 'getcorrected'. I like the background they've got there - the glimpse of the Ministry of Joy logo and the dark board thing they've got going.. They're really giving away as little as possible, which I'm pleased with - it's what enthusiasts have always wanted! (For some reason, I'm not allowed to post that image extension :S )

Air (5) Battle Galleons (4) Congo River Rapids (5) Duel - The Haunted House Strikes Back (5) Hex: The Legend Of The Towers (5) Nemesis (5) Nemesis: Sub-Terra (5) Oblivion (6) Runaway Mine Train (5) Skyride (3) The Flume (4) The Gardens (7) Th13teen (6) Duel + Skyride -

-The key thing here though is you still rode Swarm in its opening season. If you were to have only visited Thorpe once last season, and Swarm had a 90 minute queue, would you be prepared to queue that for what could be your only chance in a year? For me, I would. The same goes with SW7. I'm planning to visit early on in the season on a weekday so hopefully should visit when SW7's queue isn't too busy (basically as Fred says - it will be busy when it's busy, and quiet when it's quiet). However, if those plans fall through, my only visit is likely to be the first weekend of Scarefest - sure, SW7 will have a long queue, but for a new ride, you have to expect that. If people aren't prepared to queue for so long, that's understandable, as everyone has their limit. However, with an opening season of a huge new ride, busyness has to be expected. I reckon that with Oblivion on ERT again and it's high throughput, there will no doubt be times when Oblivion has a short queue, especially near the beginning of the day - even though it's close to SW7, most will still head there first.. But hey, why worry about Oblivion - the likes of Nemesis will be walk on for a good period of the day!

http://www.chessington.com/zufari/behind-the-scenes/ Don't know how long this has been around, but there's now a sort of Developer's Diary for Zufari on the main page. Notice how they also refer to Zufari as a 'themed land', and the attraction as 'Zufari: Ride into Africa'. Probably reading into that too much, but possibly this could mean that this African theme could expand, possibly seeing a retheme of Forbidden Kingdom into a more Zufari-style African theme? Also, this was posted on Chessie's Facebook page a couple of days ago: Gyasi and Kanty. Seriously, Chessington are hitting all the right notes with this project!

The X:\NWO spruce up was mentioned before closed season even started this time around - sorry! If this whole retheme / spruce up happens, I'm really hoping we don't see another dark / scary / rundown theme. I know it's popular with guests, and for upkeeping reasons for Merlin, but X isn't a 'scary' ride in respect really, whether you face forwards or backwards. As it is, one reason I love X is because I don't take it seriously and, in a way, I'd say this is what the park want it to be perceived. The ride has no consistencies whatsoever, and is just a mash of things, which is one of the reasons why it needs sorting out. But if the park wanted the ride to be taken seriously, they'd have done something about that long ago, rather than tweaking bits of the experience to mash things up. So, if it gets a retheme, give it a consistent theme, but make it so it's clear the ride isn't serious - have something like a club or rave, florescent lights and such. Or make it a little jokey, tongue-in-cheek and such. I don't know really, but just don't have anything serious or scary, otherwise it will make the actual ride a total let down.

So, here's my view on the next Big Thing for Thorpe. In the past 10 years, Thorpe's big additions were Colossus, Inferno, Stealth, Saw and Swarm. Each of them added something unique to them - inversions, inverted-ness, speed and height, (beyond-)vertical and winged coaster. In a park of Thorpe's size, with the number of attractions it has, it would be pretty silly really to have something which mimics these experiences. Immediately, in my mind, this rules out any coaster which would focus on any of these things, so any sort of multi-looper (by which I mean, the key focus is the number of inversions, not any form of coaster which has a large number of inversions), any inverted coaster, any launched coaster, anything with vertical drops as a focus (Euro Fighters, Dive Machines, etc.), or another winged coaster, or a flying coaster (as I believe it is thought that flying and winged coasters are 'similar experiences'). That knocks out quite a lot of options - the two stand out remaining options being a (steel) airtime monster or a woodie. There are of course other options, such as mega coasters, spinning coasters and such, but I don't think these would fit the bill. A mega coaster is something which I think could possibly be the 'big thing after the next big thing', as I think at this stage, it wouldn't suit the park appropriately - they have a maximum height barrier of 50m, and can only exceed 30m once or twice I believe, and their coasters must not exceed 850m (all due to the MTDP). Due to those restrictions, a mega coaster just won't fit the bill at this stage in my mind. Spinning coasters are likely to have too low a throughput, and other ideas probably aren't popular enough. Now then, a steel airtime monster. It is something that Thorpe lacks - airtime. It could realistically be done in the constraints they have, and given the opportunity, it would work perfectly as a step up coaster to the bigger coasters - another thing that Thorpe lacks. It seems like the perfect way to fit everything which the park is missing, as plenty of others have said. This also goes back to Benin's point earlier - a ride with no gimmicks, which is just great quality. Such a ride would no doubt be a cheap ride system as well, meaning that Thorpe have the option of installing a somewhat cheaper major attraction than normal, if they need to save on money, or have extra budget for theming or sprucing up the rest of the park. You can just imagine it on the island next to Swarm and working perfectly really. The only thing I can think of against it would be - is this what the public wants? Will a ride with no gimmicks, no inversions and such draw in the crowds, especially since the UK has been 'spoilt' by gimmicky coasters for so long now (even Swarm comes here, what with the wingrider concept). I guess that's something which only market research can tell... Then, there's a woodie. Again, this fits the bill of giving opportunities for airtime and a step-up coaster to the bigger ones. The fact that one was seriously considered just a few years ago shows that there would definitely be interest in - after all, despite what Merlin's research tells them, the park wouldn't have gotten as far as they did with the plans under Tussauds if the ride wouldn't have been popular. With the whole thrillseeker / experience thing Thorpe have going, surely a woodie is a great idea - there's not too many around the UK right now (there's only been two installed in the past 50...), and it can be marketed to be very appealing. I've heard rumours of RMC being considered, with even a 3 coaster deal for Merlin being possible(!), and that would suit Thorpe well - has the appealing gimmick, can fit in what they'd want in the length required and such. No doubt RMC can develop their hybrids / woodie (whatever people want to call them) further, and if they prove to be a success, the type will naturally develop. Then, there's the tried and tested woodies, any of which could provide something to suit Thorpe. The problems I could think of here are marketability - if Merlin's findings really do reflect the general consensus of the public, is it worth the risk? Then there could be practicality issues - the whole new engineering team required (at least I think that's true, or is that whole thing just a load of rubbish?) and other possible issues. But why does the next big thing have to be a coaster? Alton have apparently said that the Secret Weapon project code isn't necessarily restricted to just coasters now, meaning one of their next big things could be something like a dark ride, so why can't it be the same for Thorpe? Thorpe lacks a dark ride which isn't a coaster, so would be a welcome move in the park. Invest in one instead of a coaster, so spend at least £10 million in today's money, and then there's loads of possibilities to create an amazing dark ride which creates a brilliant atmosphere, and have a great ride system to go with it. I can't think exactly what could come from it, but with the correct ride system and the though put into it, it could be phenomenal. A couple of issues I can think of though - would the next big thing not being a coaster work in the long run? Even if it is a huge hit, I'd say the general link to theme parks is roller coasters - would 6-7 years be too long between coasters to keep the public continually going? Personally, I think this wouldn't be a problem, but it is still something to consider. Another problem is the location. If X is kept as it is, the park would need a large building would need to be created to house the ride. With Thorpe, it would be hard to create such a building in a suitable location (ie, one where it naturally fits in), as I personally think plonking a random building would ruin the skyline and look an eyesore in general. If X were to be removed, then this probably wouldn't be as much of an issue, as it could be housed in the pyramid / have a new building replace it, but otherwise, the location could prove to tricky. So, really, I have no idea what the next big thing could be, or what I even would like it to be. Every idea I can think of has its own flaws / problem, so I seem to think that it just wouldn't happen. So, whenever the next big thing is planned for, I await the surprise of finding out what it is!

You did mention my name in that post though? I was just agreeing with you! And yeah, that was taken from Runnymede's site, from the Snoozebox application I believe.

I think it might have been me who pointed that out, or at least something similar. At the moment, it's unclear whether the next major investment will be 2015 or 2016 in my opinion, as I seem to remember reading different things in the Snoozebox application which conflicted each other (I'll have a look later), though I've heard things which more suggest 2016 than 2015. <br /> <br /> As for what I'd like to see, I'll post that later, after I've thought about it some more.

That's the "Thames at Staines", so only relates to there. Thorpe is surrounded by lakes, so it is different. I can also safely say that the Thames at Staines IS flooded now. Oh, and for whoever cares, the grassy part of the car park is currently waterlogged.

Thought I'd bring this back up - especially as a few people seemed to not be aware of all this in Chat last night1 There are currently New Year sales for the Thorpe Annual Pass and the Merlin Annual Pass! -You can get a Thorpe AP for £58 online at the moment; the offer ends January 2nd. -You can get a Standard Merlin AP for £99. You can visit any Merlin attraction to collect this (even Thorpe - the AP office is open for a few hours each day during January for some reason), or if you have a current MAP, you can still buy one, and use it as a 'renewal' when your pass runs out in affect. This offer runs out at the end of January. So, LG95, if you can afford one now, definitely get an Annual Pass! Depending on how you feel about visiting other attractions and how much money you've got, I'd say go for the Merlin one; it will pay for itself and gives you more flexibility. Hope this has helped. To all who are thinking about taking advantage of this, make sure you've 'Liked' the MAP Facebook page - the most recent sale (ie, the one in Jan 2012), they announced via Facebook that the offer would end a week earlier than planned. They then announced, again through FB, that if you sent an email to customer services, you could still take advantage of the offer till the end of the month. So yeah, keep your eyes peeled if you don't want to miss out. Goodness, I feel like a Merlin advert now..

The sooner people stop expecting a brand new ride, the better. Otherwise, it could well lead to disappoint and such. The only time I can think Thorpe have EVER opened a new ride mid-way through the season is Rush in 2005, and the planning application for that was submitted around early Autumn in 2004 (the same time as Slammer). Personally, I'm against the idea of opening rides mid way through seasons any way; always seems a bit messy, especially as it feels like closed season should be the time to build things and the like. I would still expect Thorpe to be working on the 3 year plan, so 2013 to be a medium-investment year. However, do any of us really know the actual costs of the Snoozeboxes? For all we know, despite what they are, Snoozebox could have a large cost to them, which in turn means we're perhaps seeing more invested this year than a normal medium year. Another thing to note is that, since 2007, the medium and small investments have been cheap. Flying Fish cost about £1 million, and I've heard the X:\NWO refurb thing cost about £600k (not sure on that though..). 2008 was pretty much free I'd assume, bar getting voice actors for Time Voyagers. I can imagine Alive cost in the region of £1-2 million to create (could be wrong here, more a guestimate), though the running costs are a lot more than other attraction. 2011 was pretty much another freebie with Storm Surge. So, in the 4 'non-large investment' years, the park probably didn't spend more than £5-6 million? It just doesn't seem likely to me that we'll get a new ride. Most new rides would require planning permission, of which we haven't seen yet. So, any new ride would have to require little to no permission - for example, be indoors. The rumour of Vengeance moving to the 4D theatre had been around for a while now, but the big question would be 'Why?'. It just seems to be little more than a low throughput filler ride; something which Thorpe shouldn't really consider if they're expanding. A retheme of Saw Alive to a Swarm maze has also been suggested, but again, what's the need? It's expensive to run and the novelty wears off quickly - just doesn't seem worth the effort really. So, what do I think will happen in 2013? Well, I can see X getting attention if the strong rumours are the case, and perhaps being marketed as new (depending on how much work is done). It's likely a cheaper option than getting a new ride, rejuvenates an old ride and helps give attention. I hope we see general touch ups around the park, but then again, that's always said every year Thorpe doesn't open a coaster, so is that wishful thinking? We'll have to wait and see...

The Thames in Staines is flooded at the moment (for those who know it, I think that The Swan Hotel by Staines Bridge is pretty much inaccessible at the moment!). Penton Park (the place opposite Thorpe) is currently on red alert too. I don't think Thorpe is in any trouble though. I passed it today, and the lake didn't seem much higher than normal. When anything is planned and applications are sent to the council, a Flood Assessment form is shown as well (probably a standard thing for anywhere near lakes / rivers). This shows any affect possible floods may have and such, and I'm pretty sure there's always lee-way for the main park when it comes to flooding. If anything was to flood, it would likely be the site of Thorpe Farm, as that's what is flooded when land is infilled. The only place I've seen affected by high waters on the actual park are the bridges onto Saw Alive. In other words, this is something the park have thought about and are prepared for, and I doubt it will be a problem.

Yesterday was really great for me - it just felt so fantastic. Nothing special really happened - no 'major' presents (sweets, clothes, a couple of games), and just the standard Christmas lunch which was as amazing as ever. But, I dunno, it just felt great. Maybe it's because I'm valuing my time at home more now I'm at uni, but everything about yesterday just felt so special. Happy holidays everyone!

I think one thing which has surprised people is that the prices were MUCH higher than expected. When TPM had a Q&A session with Thorpe around the end of August / beginning of September (link - http://forum.maniahub.com/topic/9758-thorpe-park-snoozebox-details/), this was said: Of course, this was by no means final ("we hope", "yet to be fully confirmed"), but people would be expecting a similar price. Personally, I was expecting to see a maximum of £150 per room (not including tickets). When the park started marketing the Crash Pads at the beginning of October, it came to light that it would be from £56pp, and people were hopeful that would include breakfast and park tickets for all. Now, we're looking at a minimum of nearly £69pp (based on 4 sharing). This comes with breakfast and 2 park tickets. So, say the 2 other people don't have AP and need tickets, and get a BOGOF. That's still over £20 extra for those two people. Unless I've misunderstood something with that; haven't really read the T&Cs to be honest... So, I definitely think one reason for people complaining about the prices is that the possible prices have just gone up and up. It's no doubt taken people by surprise, annoyed some and such. The fact that you can stay in a "proper" hotel or get more included in other park packages for a similar price, or less, has also confused people and certainly made them question the need for the expense.