JoshC.

X:/ No Way Out is an indoor coaster though..?

LC12 - I immeadiatly though 'Large Coaster 2012'. :)Why do I smell an Oblivion style marketing / theme? XD

Ah right, see what he means now. Cheers for clearing that up.

When we already knew of a decrease in price...

Slightly confused. How would you pay £25 more for the pass? Unless I'm missing something really simple?

By unlimited, I meant there's no restrictions as to how many times you can visit, not when. Pretty sure a few years back the Tussuads AP had a limit as to how many times you could use it in a season.. I'll assume I was one of those 'people'...I'm wasn't defending it - I am impartial to a car parking charge being put to APs. In the end, I don't use them, so it won't effect me either way. And if I ever would use them, it would be a small - yes, inconvenient - expense. Yet it would still be miles cheaper than taking public transport. So in no way am I defending it, in fact, I'm largely against car parking charges altogether - especially at Thorpe and Chessie - where their car parks are hardly worth paying for at all. But that's the situation we are in. With these new changes, very little actually effect me, so I'm just impartial to it.Anyway...Well done Merlin for actually responding so quickly and trying to clear things up. The price reductions are clever (despite the fact they are small), getting more for less, etc. and the renewal upgrades from standard to premium also seem interesting as well. I'll bide my time, and see what pass will end up being more worthwhile to me, especially with inevitable deals to come in the new year as well..

So, for 20 visits, you'd pay £200 - £10 a visit.How can you argue for against that? Yes, parking could double the costs, but it's still good value nonetheless.

Personally, I'm not that fussed about it.Do I use the car parks? Nope. So I don't care all that much. As for people who do, yes, I can see the point there as to just how much more it will cost. However, Merlin are a business, and if they decide that they can penny-pinch, then they will. What I am against is how parking can be, for example, paying for parking between two logs on a bit of gravel (a la Thorpe). That is silly. But that's a different story...The Blackpool thing isn't that much of a biggy. Yes, okay, you can't go during one of the half terms, but still, it's an ENTIRELY new attraction that's being added onto the Merlin pass for little extra. And yet people moan about not being able to go there with a pass for one week? Doesn't make much sense. The Lego thing is... interesting. I haven't been to Lego since I was... 6, so I don't care. But for families, that is a big deal. Maybe they should introduce a reduced cost rather than cutting out all entries entirely?A standard MAP costs about £150 and renewals are about £100. Quite a few probably get them from Tesco Vounchers (though they're value has decreased slightly, but again, another story...). To take myself as an example, I got mine half price in January. So, that's £75 for nearly 30 visits is Merlin attractions - about £2.50 each visit. If I was to add on parking for me, it would be... £2.50 a visit. Sure, if I used used the car park it would have cost a bit more, but still. I'm looking at under £10 a visit (not including petrol / merchandise buying and that). For the attractions themselves, is that really that bad? You get copious attractions, for unlimited amount of times, reduced merchandise prices, discounts, discounts for international Merlin parks, Passholder days, and much more. There's even a few non-Merlin perks from it. And remember, we're talking about a multi-national business here who, at the end of the day, want money.How people can complain when they get so much and have a bare little taken away is beyond me...

So...I can't be bothered to do my Maths homework, yet I can be bothered to look into Maths stuff I'll be doing in second year, or uni level stuff.There's no hope for me..

Darn, I really wanted to see that gif again! :DBut yeah, talk about the time RMC owned the park here. Just in general really. Did the old Thorpe have any true 'quality'? Well, depends on what you'd call quality. No way did it have any world class quality (and, arguably, still doesn't) and didn't really have anything that would pull people in from round the UK. Yeah, X came, and that probably pulled a lot of people in, but it still isn't enough.However, when you take into consideration the company running it, I'd say they made many good decisions attraction-wise. In the end, Thorpe wasn't one of the big boys like AT, Drayton, etc. and didn't have that massive budget background. Yet, they made very good ride choices that are still favourite today. I would agree on the poor layout though.Yeah, okay, SSZ isn't standing, but still, FF is basically the same thing. The point more would be they chose a good, family ride that appeals to practically everyone. And yeah, when I went, I was probably finished by lunch (and that's what it was like till 2002/3 for me) and prolonged the day at the farm. But the thing is, that's what made the park enjoyable! There was something for everyone, family rides, kids rides and adult rides (well, Calgary) and then there's the farm as well, isolated from the park - almost like visiting two places for one. You couldn't get much better than that in my eyes...

Heya Nicky, welcome!Love the DP by the way!

This Closed Season just seems... different. Probably just I'm so busy at the mo I probably wouldn't be going to parks anyways...

I may never have been to Gardaland, but just looking at those pictures and others, you can just tell that it fits in perfectly. What's more, it is a sexy, elegant looking B&M. Bring on the trains!

Most of it is scare-monger rubbish to be honest. Over several years of riding rough rides, and yeah, probably a little bit of 'damage' done to the brain, but barely enough to cause anything remotely major...I highly doubt any true scientific research has ever gone into it, and is just something that's thrown into the odd news report here and there.

Do you know how childish that sounds? :PI'm just saying I don't see the point in Chessie opening rides in the middle of closed season for a Santa grotto or whtever when they can just have the zoo open! Sheesh

Do you know how childish that sounds? :PI'm just saying I don't see the point in Chessie opening rides in the middle of closed season for a Santa grotto or whtever when they can just have the zoo open! Sheesh

To be honest, I'd see no need for Chessie to open rides to do so. Simply have it added with a zoo day. Lego could as well I guess, but what's the point in get a part of the park suitably ready, with rides working and looking presentable, midway through the close season!? Makes no logical sense.

And how much more successful are they than the seasonal parks exactly?

I do not understand? How people can be complaining it is opening late and shutting early is beyond me. I remember when Thorpe in particular would open in April and would be closed by the end of October. For the weather we have, the British parks' opening hours are pretty darn good!

I'm disagreeing with a post that's 10 miles away from me because that's the truth. Chertsey was fine (apart from train cancellations probably), yet elsewhere it wasn't. Oh...my...gosh...

I strongly disagree with this. Living relatively close to you, and travelling to Egham daily, I'm in a very similar situation to you. The public transport is very good, where I have only ever had a couple of bad experiences with it. Main roads and some other roads in Chertsey had been suitably gritted.Just so happens that the Weybridge and Walton area were slightly worse off than some other surrounding areas...

Jesus, no need to have a go.If you read my post, you'll see that I was making the assumption that there would be buses in the Weybridge area as they were running practically everywhere else. In the end, you relied on public transport when it was suffering, and you paid the consequences. It's as much your own fault as it is the transport minister's...

Why not take the bus? They were running fine (probably a little late, but nothing new there really) between Staines, Kingston, Chertsey and Woking, and all those places were probably as bad as Weybridge. Pretty sure you could have got to Egham that way in a much shorter amount of time with a couple of bus changes...Trains aren't the only mode of transport in the world y'know..

I understand peoples' frustration, but in the end, as long as you get from A to B in a decent amount of time - even if stuff does get delayed - then that's that. It's what happens.What annoys me the most though is people who compare us to places like Russia or other places that get heavy snow regularly, they're properly prepared. Unfortunately, we're not. As clichéd as it sounds, I'd like to see most of the people who moan about the way the government are doing things try and do a better job themselves...

Is there actually anything wrong with that?Also, how nerdy is it to go back, see everyone who you're slowly losing contact with, and get a certificate?