JoshC.

How can you be so sure though?

In no way am I expecting roads to be gritted straight away.But the fact that no grit whatsoever had been laid down prior - and yes, it was predicted (granted, not as much) - that is what I don't like.Yep, been hit by a properly packed snowball, and it does blooming hurt. Also, was in a skidding car on Saturday, striking the kerb with a bit of force. That hurts a bit too..Yeah, college term meant to finish tomorrow, though will probably not open tomorrow. I was meant to be getting past papers today dor revision, which is why I'm annoyed.In the end, yeah, I'm moaning about the snow. So? I can deal with it, and have dealt with it so far, but there's a point where I just tire of how unprepared this country can be...

One thing that has annoyed me slightly...Now, I completely understand that snow will affect transport. I know that with the heavy downpour I've had the past few days - resulting is about 5 inches of snow - is bound to cancel a few trains and flights and buses and whatever else.On Saturday and Sunday, when the snow was falling, trains were running. Yet now, despite the condition of the tracks improving, trains are now cancelled in my area. Meant I couldn't get into college today, which was annoying. And now the snow is falling again, already had nearly an inch in about half an hour. No roads gritted, no paths gritted. I sure do hope that Philip Hammond is choking on his words that we'd "be able to cope with (the snow)."

Between now and then is the best answer to give. There COULD be a chance that they're submitted this week, what with them 'officially' announcing the project. We don't know. The MTDP indicate it could be ~50m / 150ft, but we know how much a MTDP is worth, don't we...

I'm sorry, that is an advert.The fact that they have a tagline, an image and 'Thorpe Park 2012' means that it can't be a simple hint. Also, I'm interested to how they've always hinted to a new project.. Whilst I'm unfamiliar with Inferno's construction, just because we knew about it before Colossus was finished, doesn't mean it was advertised?Also, taking all my post in context, I see no logic in advertising a ride a year before it opens unless they have a year long strategy for marketing it...

To be fair, everything else is pretty darn awesome! Yeah, we got that too. Thankfully, it's just been harmless joking for the most part. But agreed - just 'genius'.

So, got a case of keyboard warriors happening at college. Basically, a teacher set up a website called '*College Name* Independent', whereby the students of the college could post articles on whatever they wanted (after they had been moderated by the editorial team) and could remain anonymous or not (having to give the team their college email to verify that they're a college student). It would be free from all teacher comments so the students could independently express all their views.Anyways, beginning of the week comes, and an article, from an anonymous author, comes up which criticises the Laws department and how it is run. Now, the head of department is a right and utter idiot in my eyes, he thinks he's sovereign above the college and can make all his own rules. The department is much stricter and gives out a heck of a lot more homework than other departments do. The rule is, if you don't do your homework, you get given an 3 page minimum essay due for the next day, regardless or what else is going on - as well as the homework due in. Anyway, gone off on a tangent. Thinking he's above the rules, he comments on the article, needlessly dismissing all of the valid points because of the anonymity of the article. It is published as a 'one off' for fairness, as the article did, to some extent, personal criticise him. Then, another anonymous article comes up on Wednesday about the pope, which argued that the pope was a 'wickedly immoral man'. He then kicks up a fuss, say they're being religiously discriminating, not worthy of being a student at the college, and that the website's editorial team and the teacher behind it should either 'resign or leave the college'. Of course, rather than maturely going up to the teacher behind it all, he posts this on his own blog, which all Laws students use for lesson materials. It's now just slid downhill further and further into this teacher become the ultimate keyboard warrior, saying that anonymity is wrong and all this and that. He says that they're tarnishing the college, because one person gave a view about the pope. Now this independent website is closing down, out of pure tiredness for this pathetic teacher's views. Sigh, why oh why did I take Politics?

Well, with the whole 8 words and picture that the park has given us, we can hardly have a better idea at what the ride will be. Maybe a slight hint towards a theme, but even then, it's quite generic.So, here's my theory:- B&M- Situated on Island C (behind Flying Fish)- 40-50m tall.- Some form of monster involved in the ride's theme.Hopefully we can get a ride that has more of a story line, like Oblivion. Something that Saw could have done a lot better at.

Nope, not on their site as far as I'm aware. However, TPM - being an official link, and appealing to the GP as well as fans - will probably mean the news spreads over Facebook and the like relatively quickly. I don't see the logic in advertising a ride a year before it will open, before the park is open for the preceding season and before they've got confirmation they can build the ride. Of course, I'm assuming that they won't follow this one with others on a regular basis, creating a good story or something, and that they haven't got confirmation they can construct it. Is it possible for a planning application to not be published online with a specific request? You never know, they may have already submitted it in if that's possible...

Yep, Storm Surge sure did. Stealth, thought that was first officially advertised when the park opened, but meh. But how can you be so sure that it won't be refused? If locals don't like and kick up a big enough fuss, anything is possible...

Interesting tactic from Thorpe though.Advertising a ride before planning application is accepted...

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.