JoshC.

The BBQ has fallen out of favour with my over recent years. Prices slowly creeping up, portion sizes slowly decreasing (particularly noticable with the platters) and the quality of the food just generally not being as good as it used to.

I know - it'll be the world's first psycho-coaster! Oh...

I'm not seeing how it was like that; you aren't explaining yourself - that's what I'mn trying to say. I know that I wouldn't have visted half as often as I did if the park was not taking into account families and apparently trying to make the day out a dissapointment. If I remember correctly, during 1998-2003, adult tickets were reasonable, probably costing in the region of £25-£33 during that era. The park had a small selection of thrill rides (six 1.4m rides I believe, and only about 4 'proper thrill rides' at a maximum). Most of the rides and investments were aimed towards families (1998 - Wet Wet Wet, 1999 - Pirates 4D, 2000 - Tidal Wave, 2001 - Vortex, Detonator, Zodiac, 2002 - Colossus and Rumba Rapids retheme, 2003 - Inferno, Quantum, Eclipse, so 4 thrill investments to 7 family ones). They had shows, the farm and family events which everyone could enjoy. Fastrack wasn't even introduced until about 2001, and didn't cost anything until 2004. In 1997, the park won award(s) for being the best family park in the UK (I think; certainly one an award along those lines). As I've said, it was the prime time for families - it had something for everyone. Sure, it was developing into the thrill park we have today, but 10-15 years ago, it was not like that. Probably best to stop clogging up the Swarm thread with this now. Best to continue the discussion somewhere more suitable, or PM me if you like.

I did go during those years, and previous years to that. Granted, I was quite young during some of those years, but I don't think that makes what I'm trying to say any less valid, even if I didn't go. I'm simply asking for a bit more, in case I've misunderstood you or to see why you think that? There's no need to be somewhat rude.

Chessington's hit capacity AGAIN!? Is it another nice, sunny day down south? Not even the weather can be a sole reason why the park is hitting capacity, and having to refuse entry to many guests 3 days running, surely? (Not saying it's a day thing, it's a very good thing that they're so popular. More just confused as to how? )

I did read what you quoted. I seem to be having a dim moment, can you explain how this is similar to 10-15 years ago?

There's not just maintenance issues with that list of rides there, though, there's logisitics issues. At the moment, all the rides that are open are close together and, more importantly, close to The Zoo. Having rides open in Wild Asia means treking all the way over there, past rides which will be having maintenance and such; doesn't look particularly exciting really. When Wild Asia and Mystic East are usually dead in the first hour or so of an off-peak day, why would the park want to risk opening those parts of the park on a day where they're not advertising a full park? Whilst some rides may be able to open, is there any point in having to trek a long way to get to one or two rides? In the case of Chessie, where the main focus is still the Zoo, probably not.

Huh? 10 years ago, Thorpe was at it's prime for a family audience. They were riding high at the success of Colossus, and were getting ready to introduce Inferno. They had a perfect mix of family rides, thrill rides and everything in between. The farm was going strong, and some see 2003 as one of the park's best seasons. Thorpe, from out of nowhere almost, has become a larger name place which would appeal to everyone. It was reasonably priced, had free Fastrack (or didn't even exist about 12-13 years ago) and aimed at families. Really don't get how you can say it was the same old story?

Chessie's hit capacity two days running it seems. Wow; great stuff for Chessie. On the other hand, the MAP FB page might want to learn the wonders of proof-reading: Sense sentence makes. Fortunately, people get the gist.. EDIT: Seems they realised.

Happy birthday to "the mummy of TPM" herself - Mer! Hope she has a great day!

Rather than destroy the Crash Pad, looks like The Swarm basically moved in. I am disappointed. Though that canvas does look lovely.

Just noticed that! First time I've seen it used since the name was released though! Agree that it's fake though. Safe to assume that until otherwise shown too.

The #getcorrected has not been seen since the name was released (and instead they are using #THESMILER). It a sense of getting that as popular as possible, it would make no sense to drop one hashtag, only to bring it back a month later. Also, mentioning the restraints when they're trying to be as secretive as possible about pretty much everything. Just no. Fake. Seriously, people need to stop creating these fake accounts; if AT are going to go down this route, the more fake accounts that are created, the harder it will be for AT to actually do one in the manner they want.

Wholey moley this thing looks mighty fine! (Photo from CF's Twitter account)

Saw was the steepest freefall drop roller coaster. The S&S El Loco coasters have a trim on their drop, which means they're technically not freefall at all. So, at the time of opening (and I think until Takabisha opened), it did hold the world's steepest freefall drop on a coaster. The Wikipedia bit measures steepest drops, hence why it comes up with N/A there. Mumbo Jumbo was a mick-take out of the fact 'other' parks cling onto silly records such as the 'freefall' thing, I think. Takabisha is now the holder of both of the records, so all is good. Just had to be a bit pedantic there.

More supports have been going up today! Photo taken by Towers Nerd from their live stream from earlier today - http://live.towersnerd.com/

This seems like a nice time to bring up my blog entry on Saw - http://forum.maniahub.com/blog/10/entry-309-why-saw-is-actually-a-really-good-coaster/ Specifically, these couple of paragraphs about the theming (though I think styling is a more appropriate word) and effects: I quite like Saw. I've never really found it rough, it has nice touches to it and it just works well. I would say that it is my second favourite Thorpe coaster too, though completely smashed by Swarm. As I also say in my blog: "It's by no means perfect, and it's not going to win any awards for the best roller coaster in the world - heck, it wouldn't win best coaster in the country." The theming is not to the standard of Swarm or Tidal Wave either and doesn't have a certain charm to it. However, it's still got 'something' which makes work, in my opinion.

"Look at me, I'm going to copy Storm Surge and have a random box-like structure on me!" Let's hope it doesn't copy Storm Surge in having a garish colour scheme, sticking out like a sore thumb and be generally a wasted investment...

Darn Americans being several hours behind us! Speaking of the cams, am I the only who thinks that, whilst they show some key features of the ride, they don't show them off very well? I'm absolutely loving the looks of this and following construction, and I still think this ride will look amazing, but those cams make everything look a bit...underwhelming.

I'm a bit confused here Mark - what do you disagree with? Yep, 1995 they were competiting with Chessington, and the opening of Legoland drew ever nearer. The park was still a completely different place, and no doubt a thrill ride was thought as a natural step for a family park, especially when you look at the succusses of others, like you say. But still, I think X was never meant to be this scary thrill ride - at the time, the park had Calgary Stampede for thrill rides. But they needed something big, a centre point, and whilst it was designed to target the older audiences, it could never have been a proper thrill ride of a coaster; it wasn't the sort of park to install such a thing. I completely agree with the incorrect advertising in recent years, as whilse the park developed and installed 'real' thrill rides, X seemingly remained as a 'big boy'; just one who was wearing shoes a couple of sizes too big. In the past 2-3 years, the pinching and pushing you speak of has been blindingly obvious, and hopefully we can finally see X find its place at the park. I have mixed opinions on queueing outside. The queueing outside keeps the mystery for longer I think. But at the same time, it builds suspense, creating a fear of the unknown to those who don't know what to expect inside, which is not what should happen with X - it is not a ride to be feared any more. That's why X needs an upbeat theme - adding a scary / dark theme makes people expect a scary ride, and X is anything but scary. I guess that H&S stop there being too many people queueing inside, but I think depending on how any possible retheme works out, the outside queueing section could be made to 'fit in' better. As for the possibility of it being turned forwards (I know it's pretty much all but officially confirmed that it will turn forwards, but I'm not going to say it will be till it's confirmed..), that doesn't take away from the fact it was the the world's first backwards in the dark coaster. Colossus is still the first 10 looping coaster, despite there be other 10 looping coasters, and an 11 looping coaster opening this year. It would just so happen it is now facing forward. As for the 'X:' (it's a bakslash, not a forward one! ) part of the name, I believe that was due to the original theme of the ride, a computer virus, as it is computer-related. I agree about the forwards bit; the backwardsness of the ride is what helps make the ride so random. Turning it forwards could well make the random less random and, instead, further highlight the weak layout that X has. And thanks!

This is the trouble though, the public pretty much expect a gimmick in a ride now. If a coaster doesn't have a gimmick, the public seem to think it's not as attention worthy / worthwhile, but if it has one, it must be good. Until parks break away from the ideas of coasters relying on gimmicks, the public aren't going to lap up coasters that don't rely on ones. The thing with Swarm's advertising is, they did all the things they would normally do, except a bit better (in my honest opinion of course, and I think that's agreed with many non-enthusiasts I speak to), and there was more of it. So where could they go wrong, other than the fact the advertising wasn't focusing on a gimmick. And, in truth, Swarm is a bit of a gimmicky coaster in reality, but nonetheless a solid, well-rounded ride. I genuinely cannot think how they could have marketed bettered...

I think what he meant was that before the plans were released, he thought it would just go underneath it. As for the slogan competition, the winner(s) will be contacted by tomorrow, the 'results' might not necessarily be 'revealed', if you will. I doubt my entry of 'SMASH THE SWARM, join the Resistance' will get chosen..

Looks rather nice - a lot bigger than I was expecting too! Though not ground breaking news, the plan states that "the reaction to the ride has been very positive" but the economic climate and "the response to...the marketing...was not as successful as anticipated". So, Swarm's "thrill factor" needs increasing, which is the point of this additional miss (and presumably the backwards things. The graphic on the billboard (so I guess the slogan and whatever else) will be applied on the front and back using self-adhesive vinyl. Woo. Should look great!

There are still buses, but not the Thorpe Park Express (for obvious reasons). You can either get the 446 or the 51 from Bus Stop 2 at the bus station. I think these are the most up to date timetables for them: 446 - http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/?a=357416 51 - http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/?a=173424