JoshC.

Air (5) Battle Galleons (5) Berry Bish Bash (5) Charlie & The Chocolate Factory (4) Congo River Rapids (5) Driving School (5) Doodle Doo Derby (5) Duel - The Haunted House Strikes Back (5) Enterprise (5) Frog Hopper (5) Galloper's Carousel (4) Haunted Hollow (5) Heave Ho! (5) Hex - The Legend Of The Towers (6) Ice Age The 4D Experience (5) Marauders Mayhem (5) Nemesis (6) Nemesis: Sub-Terra (6) Oblivion (9) Old Macdnalds Singing Barn (4) Ripsaw (8) Rita (5) Riverbank Eye Spy (5) Runaway Mine Train (5) Twirling Toadstool (1) The Blade (3) The Flume (5) The Gardens (5) The Towers (5) Th13teen (5) Sonic Spinball (4) Sharkbait Reef by SEA LIFE (5) Skyride (4) Squirrel Nutty Ride (6) Sub Terra + Twirling Toadstools -

Chief Rangers Carousel (3) Colossus (6) Depth Charge (4) Detonator (6) Flying Fish (5) Loggers Leap (5) Mr Monkeys Banana Ride (6) Nemesis Inferno (7) Quantum (5) Rocky Express (4) Rumba Rapids (5) Rush (8) Samurai (5) Saw: The Ride (2) Slammer (4) Stealth (5) Storm In A Teacup (5) The Swarm (4) Tidal Wave (6) Vortex (5) X://No Way Out (5) Zodiac (5) Saw + CRC -

Chief Rangers Carousel (4) Colossus (6) Depth Charge (4) Detonator (5) Flying Fish (5) Logger's Leap (5) Mr Monkey's Banana Boat Ride (5) Nemesis Inferno (6) Quantum (5) Rocky Express (4) Rumba Rapids (5) Rush (5) Samurai (5) Saw: The Ride (4) Slammer (5) Stealth (5) Storm In A Teacup (5) The Swarm (5) Tidal Wave (6) Vortex (5) X:/No Way Out (5) Zodiac (5) Rumba Rapids + (May not be brilliant, but I love it) CRC - (Nice and all, but I don't use it these days)

Oh. I just copied the reset scores from Cookie Dough's post, but he had taken a turn, adding one to Colossus, and taking one away from Fish, but I don't think he's allowed the do that? :S So, it should be that all the rides are set back to 5, and then you can plus / minus from any ride you want...I think. Oh dear, I think I've made this a lot more confusing than it should be...

Woah; 2-1 is not zero!? Not that it matters too much anyway, as I'll just say: Swarm + Neptune's Beach - to deliver the final blow and take us back to the starting point. Chief Rangers Carousel (5) Colossus (5) Depth Charge (5) Detonator (5) Flying Fish (5) Logger's Leap (5) Mr Monkey's Banana Boat Ride (5) Nemesis Inferno (5) Quantum (5) Rocky Express (5) Rumba Rapids (5) Rush (5) Samurai (5) Saw: The Ride (5) Slammer (5) Stealth (5) Storm In A Teacup (5) The Swarm (5) Tidal Wave (5) Vortex (5) X:/No Way Out (5) Zodiac (5)

Air (5) Battle Galleons (5) Berry Bish Bash (5) Charlie & The Chocolate Factory (6) Congo River Rapids (5) Driving School (5) Doodle Doo Derby (5) Duel - The Haunted House Strikes Back (5) Enterprise (5) Frog Hopper (5) Galloper's Carousel (5) Haunted Hollow (5) Heave Ho! (5) Hex - The Legend Of The Towers (5) Ice Age The 4D Experience (5) Marauders Mayhem (5) Nemesis (6) Nemesis: Sub-Terra (5) Oblivion (6) Old Macdnalds Singing Barn (4) Ripsaw (5) Rita (5) Riverbank Eye Spy (5) Runaway Mine Train (5) Twirling Toadstool (4) The Blade (4) The Flume (5) The Gardens (5) The Towers (5) Th13teen (5) Sonic Spinball (5) Sharkbait Reef by SEA LIFE (5) Skyride (5) Squirrel Nutty Ride (5) Twirling Toadstool + Old McDonald's Singing Barn -

So, I spent over an hour cooking for myself this evening. It was rice nuggets in a herby-tomato sauce; something from my cookbook I'd been wanting to try for absolutely ages. Everything had been going well, and the last 5 minutes were just getting the nuggets and the sauce together in a frying pan. I was stirring, and then boom - frying pan somehow flies off the hob and the food goes over me and all over the food. An hour's worth of effort, a reasonable amount of matter, especially when on a student budget, and a lot of food down the bin. Tried starting again, completely mucked it up, so resorted to pizza... A bit annoyed now to be honest... ¬¬ (And considering a couple of days ago I set fire to spaghetti, I seem to be on a bit of a bad luck streak with cooking at the moment), though this does feel like a bit of a pathetic rant compared to the above.. :/

Chief Rangers Carousel (5) Colossus (6) Depth charge (5) Detonator (5) Flying Fish (5) Loggers Leap (5) Mr Monkey's Banana Boat Ride (5) Nemesis Inferno (5) Neptune's Beach (5) Quantum (5) Rocky Express (5) Rumba Rapids (5) Rush (6) Samurai (4) Saw: The Ride (5) Slammer (5) Stealth (6) Storm In A Teacup (5) The Showcase (1) The Swarm (6) Tidal Wave (5) Vortex (5) X://No Way Out (5) Zodiac (5) Swarm + Showcase - EDIT: Includes Peaj's and ThorpePark=: )'s scores

Chief Rangers Carousel (5) Colossus (6) Depth charge (5) Detonator (5) Flying Fish (5) Loggers Leap (5) Mr Monkey's Banana Boat Ride (5) Nemesis Inferno (5) Neptune's Beach (5) Quantum (5) Rocky Express (5) Rumba Rapids (5) Rush (5) Samurai (5) Saw: The Ride (5) Slammer (5) Stealth (5) Storm In A Teacup (5) The Showcase (4) The Swarm (5) Tidal Wave (5) Vortex (5) X://No Way Out (5) Zodiac (5) Quantum +1 The Showcase -1

Air (6) Battle Galleons (5) Berry Bish Bash (5) Charlie & The Chocolate Factory (4) Congo River Rapids (5) Driving School (5) Doodle Doo Derby (5) Duel - The Haunted House Strikes Back (6) Enterprise (5) Frog Hopper (4) Galloper's Carousel (5) Haunted Hollow (5) Heave Ho! (5) Hex - The Legend Of The Towers (6) Ice Age The 4D Experience (5) Marauders Mayhem (5) Nemesis (6) Nemesis Sub-Terra (5) Oblivion (6) Old Macdonalds Singing Barn (5) Ripsaw (5) Rita (5) Riverbank Eye Spy (5) Runaway Mine Train (5) Twirling Toadstool (5) The Blade (5) The Flume (5) The Gardens (5) The Towers (5) Th13teen (5) Sonic Spinball (5) Sharkbait Reef by SEA LIFE (5) Skyride (5) Squirrel Nutty Ride (5) Wobble World (2) Th13teen +1 Wobble World -1

I'm really disappointed if this is the case. The tunnel adds to the whole experience. It's a bit of the unknown, adds variety into the ride and makes it more enjoyable. The fact that it's been in a not-so-good state the past few years really speaks volumes about the situation...

Chief Rangers Carousel (5) Colossus (6) Depth Charge (5) Detonator (5) Flying Fish (5) Loggers Leap (5) Mr Monkeys Banana Ride (5) Nemesis Inferno (6) Neptune's Beach (3) Quantum (5) Rocky Express (5) Rumba Rapids (5) Rush (5) Samurai (5) Saw: The Ride (5) Slammer (5) Stealth (6) Storm In A Teacup (5) Storm Surge (3) The Showcase (5) The Swarm (6) Tidal Wave (5) Vortex (5) X://No Way Out (5) Zodiac (5) Storm Surge +1 Neptune's Beach -1

Air (5) Battle Galleons (5) Berry Bish Bash (5) Charlie & The Chocolate Factory (5) Congo River Rapids (5) Driving School (5) Doodle Doo Derby (5) Duel - The Haunted House Strikes Back (5) Enterprise (5) Frog Hopper (6) Galloper's Carousel (5) Haunted Hollow (5) Heave Ho! (5) Hex - The Legend Of The Towers (6) Ice Age The 4D Experience (5) Marauders Mayhem (5) Nemesis (6) Nemesis Sub-Terra (6) Oblivion (6) Old Macdonalds Singing Barn (5) Ripsaw (6) Rita (4) Riverbank Eye Spy (5) Runaway Mine Train (5) Twirling Toadstool (5) There's Something In The Dungheap (2) The Blade (4) The Flume (5) The Gardens (5) The Towers (5) Th13teen (5) Sonic Spinball (5) Sharkbait Reef by SEA LIFE (5) Skyride (4) Squirrel Nutty Ride (5) Wobble World (5) Nemesis +1 Dungheap -1

Let's see if we actually finish this one this year.. Chief Rangers Carousel (5) Colossus (5) Depth Charge (5) Detonator (5) Flying Fish (5) Loggers Leap (5) Mr Monkeys Banana Ride (5) Nemesis Inferno (6) Neptune's Beach (5) Quantum (5) Rocky Express (5) Rumba Rapids (5) Rush (7) Samurai (5) Saw: The Ride (6) Slammer (5) Stealth (6) Storm In A Teacup (5) Storm Surge (4) The Showcase (4) The Swarm (6) Tidal Wave (5) Vortex (5) Wet Wet Wet (1) X://No Way Out (5) Zodiac (5) Swarm + Wet Wet Wet -

Submission's gone?! Noooooo :'( Air (5) Battle Galleons (5) Berry Bish Bash (5) Charlie & The Chocolate Factory (5) Congo River Rapids (5) Driving School (5) Doodle Doo Derby (5) Duel - The Haunted House Strikes Back (5) Enterprise (5) Frog Hopper (5) Galloper's Carousel (5) Haunted Hollow (5) Heave Ho! (5) Hex - The Legend Of The Towers (5) Ice Age The 4D Experience (5) Marauders Mayhem (5) Nemesis (5) Nemesis Sub-Terra (6) Oblivion (5) Old Macdonalds Singing Barn (5) Ripsaw (6) Rita (4) Riverbank Eye Spy (5) Runaway Mine Train (5) Twirling Toadstool (5) There's Something In The Dungheap (4) The Blade (5) The Flume (5) The Gardens (5) The Towers (5) Th13teen (5) Sonic Spinball (5) Sharkbait Reef by SEA LIFE (5) Skyride (5) Squirrel Nutty Ride (5) Wobble World (5) Sub Terra +1 Dungheap -1

I like the idea of running it over half term. As others have said, keeps attention on SW7 and will possibly bring in more guests (if this ends up being true, I'd more consider a trip up there!) However, no more than half term please. I'd much rather more money went into SW7 / X-Sector than staffing a maze to open all year route.

Oh, this game again! :') Air (5) Battle Galleons (5) Berry Bish Bash (4) Charlie & The Chocolate Factory (5) Congo River Rapids (5) Driving School (5) Doodle Doo Derby (5) Duel - The Haunted House Strikes Back (6) Enterprise (5) Frog Hopper (5) Galloper's Carousel (5) Haunted Hollow (5) Heave Ho! (5) Hex - The Legend Of The Towers (5) Ice Age The 4D Experience (5) Marauders Mayhem (5) Nemesis (7) Nemesis Sub-Terra (6) Oblivion (7) Old Macdonalds Singing Barn (5) Ripsaw (5) Rita (4) Riverbank Eye Spy (5) Runaway Mine Train (5) Twirling Toadstool (5) There's Something In The Dungheap (1) The Blade (5) The Flume (5) The Gardens (6) The Towers (5) Th13teen (6) Sonic Spinball (4) Sharkbait Reef by SEA LIFE (6) Skyride (5) Squirrel Nutty Ride (5) Submission (4) Wobble World (4) --- Submission + Dungheap -

Going to do one of these now as well, otherwise I'll forget.. I tend to do a Top 5 for coasters and non-coasters (simply as I haven't done that many!), and then sometimes a Top 10 rides list as to how the coasters compete with the non coasters. Having done many new things this year actually, but my views have changed a fair bit since around this time last year. Coasters 1) The Swarm (Thorpe Park). Absolutely incredible ride. Paced perfectly, brilliant theme, great theming and landscaping, nice audio and a great back story / story in general. Very re-ridable and practically perfect in every way. (At night is just amazing too! ). 9.5/10 2) Nemesis (Alton Towers). After 5 years sitting on top of the perch, it's been kicked off. However, it is still amazing in all of the departments and ticks all the boxes. 9/10 3) Th13teen (Alton Towers). Ignoring the bad marketing of the ride (which you should), this ride is great, bar the trims. The theming is great and is growing well with age already I think. The outdoor section is fun, but the fact that the trims are painfully obvious knocks of loads of points. The inside section is pure genius in my eyes. 8/10 4) Saw - The Ride (Thorpe Park). Probably the biggest change leaper this year. My only real gripe with the ride is the audio. The ride is great, as per usual, I'll argue it's intense, not rough , and everything else works well. Though not the best themed ride ever, it's very well styled. 7.5/10 5) Nemesis Inferno (Thorpe Park). With two new additions in the coaster top 5, it was almost inevitable that this was going to drop a place or two, but it's at the bottom of my top 5 now. I enjoy it, love the audio and think it's better than people make it out to be. However, it's just that there's coaster which are better and enjoy more. 7.5/10 (NB: Whilst Saw and Inferno have the same rating, I wouldn't call them equal. In actual fact, Saw's probably more rated as 7.6-7.7, but I just like to round to the nearest half otherwise it looks a bit untidy / strange). Honorary Mention) The Antelope (Gulliver's World). I always stick an honorary mention in; usually it's one that I have a soft spot for / just missed out. I did a dedicated blog entry to this, so I'll keep it short and sweet - not the greatest ride or layout, but I loved it when I went on it. What else is there to say? Non-Coasters 1) Nemesis: Sub Terra (Alton Towers). Despite knowing what the ride system was, and feeling a little underwhelmed by that element on my first ride, the whole experience is great. The frantic, high speed worrying scenario it creates is amazing. The story line is brilliant, and the way the ride plays out (well, at least now, as having read reviews from when it opened, it sounded Sub-Standard) is brilliant. 8/10 2) Hex (Alton Towers). I don't think this really needs explanation. The experience as a whole is amazing, and everything works so well, and yet feels effortless. 8/10 (NB: Same rating as Sub Terra as they are equally good, but I simply prefer Sub Terra). 3) Rush (Thorpe Park). The big swing designed for big kids makes me feel like a little boy. I enjoy it so much, always gives a buzz afterwards as well. Just as long as the cycle in long enough, it's a great ride. 7/10 4) Detonator (Thorpe Park). A large enough drop tower that builds great suspense and shoves you down. If you like drop towers, how can you not like this? 7/10 5) I really can't place one here. Rides such as Kobra, Tomb Blaster (Chessie), Submission, Duel (AT) and Loggers Leap (Thorpe) all jostle for places here, along with a couple of others. Really could not put a fifth place one here.

Personally, I'd prefer a ride to open at full capacity on time then open earlier on reduced capacity. The period of time Swarm operated on one train, for example, was usually an hour or so in my experiences, then with the length of time you'd wait for the train to be put on, and for that train to be tested and such, it just felt a lot longer. Again, going to personal preference, I'd prefer to be in a regularly moving queue than one that opened early, only to move rather slowly.

The site has been updated again, with a little bit more back story, and a competition for kids. http://www.chessington.com/zufari/ Must admit, I'm slowly getting more and more excited for this!

Strangely enough, I believe Swarm has the longest ride duration out of all the coasters at Thorpe. Inferno and Saw probably feel longer due to the pre-lift sections, and the fact Saw has MCBR in the layout. Granted, the lift and final turn on Swarm probably do add a fair bit of time to the ride, but still, time-wise, Swarm is the longest. Personally, I think Swarm doesn't feel too short and the timing of the ride is perfect; each to one's own I guess. Might be worth noting that the most recent MTDP stated that the 2012 and 2015/6 coasters would not exceed 850m in length (ie Colossus' length).

So, in a contrast to my other blog, these entries will be about all things not related to theme parks. There'll be entries which are a little bit serious and / or personal, like this one, and there'll be some which are just random. Either way, hope you enjoy! So, this is going to ramble on for ages, but basically it's about me and exercising / sports. Probably sounds quite boring in honesty, but hey-ho. A few years back, (about 7 or 8 years actually thinking about it; I'm starting to feel a little bit old now... ) I was part of a local fencing club. I was by no means great at it, and only took part in one competition after a few months of taking part and lost every match, but I really enjoyed it - which is what counts when playing sports. I did improve as I went on, but unfortunately after about 18 months, the head coach did a runner from the club; a couple of years later I saw his name pop up in the paper following a court case, and I'll leave that there... So, after 18 months, I stopped fencing. The nearest club to me was about 30-40 minutes train ride to me, and was over twice the price for yearly membership; it was just something that couldn't be committed to financially. So, until recently, the only sport I really did was the sports done in PE at school, and that was only until I was 16. The only real exercise I did was cycle my bike (which I enjoy doing, but I just don't do it as regular as I should). So, needless to say that over this time, I got quite 'big' - by which I basically mean overweight. Doing little exercise and sometimes 'binge eating' if you will due to many spouts of bullying, it would of course happen. Fortunately, I've never been clinically obese, but I have indeed been overweight, unfit and so forth. Being perfectly honest, I was probably in denial for a period of time thinking that it was just a 'phase' that I would 'grow out of', and would eventually just magically lose weight. To those of you who have met me in real life, or stalked photos of me on Facebook for whatever reason, you would no doubt agree that I am on 'the large side', if you were to put in politely. Whilst I am, naturally, self-conscious about my weight, I have no problems with people who do put it politely / helpfully, as I agree. Anyways, back to the topic in hand... As some who read this may know, I started university last month. When joining, I always had the intention of joining one of the many sports clubs and sticking to it - maybe even be part of one of the teams / take part in competitions, just for the fun of it mainly, but also to get back on track with my fitness. There's a fencing club at my uni; all seems great I think; I can get my fitness back on track and get back into a sport I know I enjoy! But things are never that easy it seems. I went along to a free taster session, and was getting kitted up after arriving. For those not aware, you need a fair bit of clothing to fence, namely an 'under jacket' (which I forget the name of) and a jacket, basically to make sure you don't get hurt. So, I picked up all the clothes necessary and was fine until the jacket. I struggled to get it zipped up, so asked for some help (it's a 'side-back' zip, for the record - so not the easiest of things to zip up anyway!) from a helper, and was told it was too small for me, so should find a larger size. Turned out I picked out a women's one by accident, tiny bit awkward. So, found a men's one, picked up the largest size and tried again. Again, struggled to get it zipped up, asked for help again, and again to no avail. The sniggers started from the helper and his friend, which was pretty obvious despite their poor efforts of disguising them; I've been here before. And so, I left, with one of my little ambitions of uni left shredded up. Needless to say I was a bit upset really. After 7 weeks at uni, I still haven't joined a sports club, and have no intentions to. Instead, as the title suggests, I've taken up jogging. Now, jogging is never really something I've liked the idea of before. It seems so time consuming, laborious and not worth the effort to me. However, a few days after my fencing club experience, a few other people in my halls were planning to start doing some jogging together, so I thought why not, and gave it a try. On my first jog, I did 'badly', if that's possible. Not even 10 minutes of jogging and I was way behind the group, out of breath and needed a break, and so just walked back to my halls. The group jog became a semi-regular thing, about every 3-4 days, and more people would join in, and I was always the one left trailing behind, and cutting short the route. Due to the weather getting colder, people's timetables getting less flexible and so forth, the group runs have pretty much fizzled away, and some who have joined sport clubs have used that as their way of keeping active. However, for the past 4 weeks now, I've carried on, just going for jogs by myself. I'd go at my own pace, stop when I needed to stop, cut the route short when I needed to, etc. I jog 3-4 times a week; so jog one day, have the next one 'off'. Just over 2 weeks ago, the breakthrough came when I went for a jog without stopping. Sounds silly I know, but considered I'd always had a break or quit half way through, it gives a real sense of satisfaction, even if it was only a 15 minute jog. From there, I've been able to build myself up, increasing the lengths of the runs and picking up pace as well. Today, my jog involved going up two hills and lasted nearly half an hour. I'm really noticing the benefits of it now as well. I've definitely lost weight and this is visible as well - rather annoying now though that all my jeans are a bit too big me.. I 'feel' fitter as well, and things just seem better in general. Whilst I don't really have long term aims as to a specific weight I want to reach, are a specific time of jog I'd like to do or anything like that, I'll just carry on, push myself and sorta enjoy it. In saying that though, one thing I consider on my 'to do list in life' is to run the London Marathon - even though it's a big though and I'm a long way away from even seriously considering that, if I keep at this, then maybe in a couple of years time, that won't seem like such a crazy idea... So just as a random, general statement, if anyone is considering doing a bit more exercise, wants to get their fitness up a bit, don't knock the idea of the good old fashioned jog. It's free to do and you feel the rewards of it quickly (oh, and despite how you always feel when you jog, people don't judge / laugh at you when you do it...well, at least I haven't seen anyone do it towards me.. XD). Most importantly though, as corny as it sounds, do something you'd enjoy or will get satisfaction out of doing, otherwise there's no point. I know for sure that after every jog that the sense of satisfaction I feel is what spurs me on to do more.

I think here you've accidentally highlighted one of the key issues about all of this. If guests are content with what's happening, then that's fine. In this case, Thorpe (and in general cases, Merlin as well) are seemingly happy as long as their guests 'aren't unhappy'. So if guests think 'Oh, this ride is new this year and it's only got a 40 minute queue, great!' or 'WOW, when I came here last time this was like 2 hours long, now it's only 30 minutes', then guests are not going to be unhappy, and will happily ride with the one train operation. Yet, I don't think there's any doubt that guests would be happier / more impressed if these queues were even less. So, it does almost seem like they're happy to make guests not unhappy, but then that's as far as they stop so they can penny pinch. It's also worth remembering that a 30 minute queue on a coaster with one train will feel longer than a 30 minute queue with a coaster on two trains, especially if guests have experienced the queues when the coasters are on both trains.

You see, despite the size of it, I completely didn't think of Sub Terra! Just shows how well they've styled that and made it work in my opinion. The Swarm shop makes sense in my opinion and seems to suit the area as well I think.