Mattgwise

I saw on a Thorpe Park Facebook post "Rides will close 9-10pm depending on demand".

That is a nice extension. Although I can confirm even Chessington extended ride close until 7pm today. (Well yesterday now)

But isn't the proposed Dreamland heritage park supposed to be opening with one they have in storage in a couple of years.

Looks awesome.

Have you been on park? Even without wasting time saying that the queues are too long results in a very small ride count. The operations in terms of batching, loading and dispatching is dire on most of the rides. If run properly the queues could have easily been reduced by a significant amount.

Well your day was very different to mine on Wednesday. Nothing but queues except of course a couple of the small kids rides. And very different to those commenting on FB. Out of interest how many rides did you get on each day?

Fair comment as it is there to reduce queueing times not a VIP system with no queuing at all, BUT I have heard the fast track sales team on several occassions, whether it be in the fast track kiosk or at ride entrances advertise it is skipping the queues. That would be perceived by many as instant access. Do you think paying for fast track and waiting 1 hour for Kobra is acceptable as that was the situation going on there which led to the exclusive rides occuring.

Insane day. Just look at the "Recent Posts by others" section of the Chessington Facebook page! Yep the train was often waiting in the brakes and always came straight in after the other left. I took a screenshot from the mobile queuetimes when Dragon's fury reached 2 hours 10 mins, but can't find an option to attach to here.

May as well just make the rides permanent opening schedule March until May and September to October. This happens most years.

Not a great day at Chessington today, got on 7 rides, but at least the park did extend ride opening until 6:30pm, although I think it should be open until at least 7 during August as Standard. I can also confirm the wasp saga really is not that bad. Saw more than usual but not too many and could comfortably hold food or drink (only had a wasp come near me three times in the whole day) Upon arrival the park was already extremely busy and by 10:15 Vampire already had a 75 minute queue. 70 minutes later we were on. They really are useless with this ride. The whole ride system needs an upgrade, the staff need rockets up their bums and the third train needs to return. I timed on two occassions in the station 2m30s between train arriving in station and leaving. Then when I said to the worker that they used to dispatch in 45 seconds at one point he said that it was impossible and that I must be wrong!!! By the time we got off the queue had reached the 2 hour mark. Next wandered over to Dragon Falls to be presented with an 80 minute advertised queue although 45 minutes later we were on. Why are they redeveloping this ride? Other areas look in much worse condition. In my view all they need to do is restore it back to it's former glory putting back the rock work. After this headed over to Wild Asia. Attempted to join Monkey Swinger queue to be told it had shutdown and needed to be tested. We then headed over to Kobra which was advertised as 2 hours. We decided to leave that and lined up for Tuk Tuk Turmoil. 30-40 minutes later we were at the front and it started to kick off between to families as one tried to let people through the queue to join them. The staff member was very professional and dealt with the situation very well defusing the argument. Though we were going to have a repeat of Legoland at this point. After this Monkey Swinger had reopened so waited 40 minutes to ride that. It is ridiculous that only one member of staff operates this ride, causing loading, unloading and checking to be painfully slow. What happened to the days of being counted into the batching area during the ride, not after the previous rides guests have left. At least 5 minutes passed between each cycle and of course large numbers of people using the exit gate, slowing the queue further. Also does anyone know how long the water has not been working, it was off or broken today and really reduces the experience? Then had lunch in a deserted Zafari, which was pretty average. Next headed to bubble works to be faced with a 60 minute queue. After this was offered a free fast track ticket for Dragon's Fury by a random who had to leave the park early. As much as I HATE fast track of course I didn't decline. However we had to wait 25 minutes for the ride. I found this outrageous and would have complained to AS had I purchased the ticket. Finally at 5:20 decided to attempt the 70 minute queue for Kobra. This ride is another that has a painful waiting time and I was horrified to find twice throughout the wait the operator announce that the next ride will be exclusive to fast track ticket holders and exit passes to reduce theirs and then the main queue time. Fast track was clearly over sold and caused even Tiny Truckers to have an hour queue. I mean seriously, an hour for that!!!!! And by then it was 6:40pm and the end of the day. Some other queue lines we saw included 90 minutes for Zufari, 100 minutes for Tomb Blaster, and Fury peaked at 2 hours 10 mins at one point. Apart from the poor operations still tried to make the day a good one and have to say all retail staff were amazing.

Has anyone here actually been recently that could tell me whether the wasp numbers really are that bad, or are people exaggerating. I am going soon and it's just I am not a huge fan of them and will provide entertainment to others in the queues and embarrassment to myself.

Except you only get to experience it for just over an hour. Should definitely revert back to the 8pm close at least in my view.

Barbara Ann by Beach Boys

I have an old playlist (was written 2006) of songs played on WWTP Radio in general (Tidal Wave and Stealth Side). I'm not sure all of the songs still play but better than Nothing. It's In Alphabetical Order by Artist. Apologies for it being so long, I tried to paste a table, but it changes the format of two columns to a single list. Song name not in bold, Artist in Bold. We Gotta Get Out Of This Place The Animals Barbara Anne Beach Boys Fun Fun Fun Beach Boys I Get Around Beach Boys Do It Again Beach Boys Surfin' Safari Beach Boys California Girls Beach Boys Good Vibrations Beach Boys 409 Beach Boys Surfin' USA Beach Boys Wouldn't It Be Nice Beach Boys California Dreaming Beach Boys When I Grow Up Beach Boys Hippy Hippy Shake The Beatles Chantilly Lace The Big Bopper Shake Rattle and Roll Bill Haley & The Comets In The Cool Cool, Cool of The Evening Bing Crosby Let's Coast Awhile Bo Davis Harlem Shuffle Bob and Earl Dream Lover Bobby Darin I Fought The Law Bobby Fuller Four Red Hot Car Bobby Verne Do You Love Me Brian Poole & The Tremeloes Hey Baby Bruce Channel Mr. Tambourine Man The Bryds That'll Be The Day Buddy Holly Rhythm of The Falling Rain Cascades Tequila The Champs Sweet Talking Guy The Chiffons He's So Fine The Chiffons Lollypop The Chordettes Let's Dance Chris Montez Sweet Little Sixteen Chuck Berry Living Doll Cliff Richard On The Beach Cliff Richard Yakety Yak The Coasters Mr Sandman The Cordettes Gimme Gimme Good Lovin' Crazy Elephants Sixteen Candles The Crests Da Doo Ron Ron The Crystals At The Hop Danny & The Juniors The Stipper Dave Rose Runaway Del Shannon Runaround Sue Dion The Wanderer Dion A Teenager in Love Dion & The Belmonts Up On The Roof The Drifters Rebel Rouser Duane Eddy Summetime Blues Eddie Cochran C'mon Everybody Eddie Cochrane Rock 'n' Bones Elroy Dietzel Hard Headed Woman Elvis Presley The Wonder of You Elvis Presley I'm All Shook Up Elvis Presley The Lighthouse Elvis Presley A Little Less Conversation Elvis Presley Teddy Bear Elvis Presley Jailhouse Rock Elvis Presley Bright Side Of Life Eric Idle Shortnin' Bread Rock Elta James Wake Up Little Susie Everly Brothers Bye Bye Love Everly Brothers I'm Walkin' Fats Domino Build Me Up Buttercup The Foundations Let's Hang On The Four Seasons New York New York Frank Sinatra Jezebel Frankie Lane Why Do Fools Fall in Love Frankie Lymon Grease Is The Word Frankie Valli Twist Twist Senora Gary US Bonds Duke Of Earl Gene Chandler Be Bop a Lula Gene Vincent Tears On My Pillow Grease Carrie Anne The Hollies Have I The Right The Honeycombs Twist And Shout The Isley Brothers Higher and Higher Jackie Wilson I Get the Sweetest Feeling Jackie Wilson Papas Got a Brand New Bag James Brown Surf City Jan & Dean Sunny Afternoon Jan & Dean Great Balls of Fire Jerry Lee Lewis When My Little Girl Is Crying Jimmy Justice Judy In Disguise John Fred & His Playboy Band Johnny Remember Me John Leyton We Go Together John Travolta The Promised Land Johnnie Allen Just Walking in The Rain Johnnie Ray You're Sixteen Johnny Burnette Ring Of Fire Johnny Cash Folsom Prison Blues Johnny Cash Get Rhythm Johnny Cash Shaking All Over Jonny Kidd How Sweet It Is Jr Walker & The Allstars Bony Moronie Larry Williams It's My Party Lesley Gore The Locomotion Little Eva Good Golly Miss Molly Little Richard Long Tall Sally Little Richard Rip It Up Little Richard Tooty Fruity Little Richard True Fine Mama Little Richard Black is Black Los Bravos Jeepers Creepers Louis Armstrong Stormy Weather Louis Armstrong C'est Si Bon Louis Armstrong Everlasting Love Love Affair Summer In the City Lovin' Spoonful California Dreaming Mamas and the Papas Do Wah Diddy Manfred Mann Blue Moon The Marcels Venus In Blue Jeans Mark Wynter Nowhere To Run Martha and The Vandellas Dancing In The Streets Martha and The Vandellas Hang On Sloopy The McCoys 59 Volvo The Medallions Day Dream Believer The Monkees Flowers In the Rain The Move In The Summertime Mungo Jerry Tobacco Road Nashville Teens Everybodys Talking Nilsson Yummy Yummy Yummy The Ohio Express Hopelessly Devoted to You Olivia Newton-John The Great Pretender The Platters First Cut Is The Deepest PP Arnold Hello Mary Lou Ricky Nelson Only The Lonely Roy Orbison Oh Pretty Woman Roy Orbison Soul Man Sam & Dave Needles And Pins The Searchers Sweets For My Sweet The Searchers Wow Wow Baby The Searchers Foot Tapper The Shadows FBI The Shadows Rock "N" Roll Is Here To Stay Sha-Na-Na Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow The Shirelles The Big Bounce Shirley Caddell Venus Shocking Blue Barwick Green Sidney Torch Dance To The Music Sly And The Family Stone Lazy Sundays Small Faces Wipeout Surfaris Rock Everybody The Teen Queens Little Bitty Pretty One Thurston Harris Mony Mony Tommy James & The Shodells I'm So Dizzy Tommy Roe Amarillo Tony Christie Even The Bad Times Are Gone The Tremeloes She'd Rather Be With Me The Turtles We're Going To Barbados Typically Tropical The Musters Unknown Brand New Cadillac Vince taylor We're Gonna Rock, We're Gonna Roll Wild Bill Moore Black And White Rag Winifred Atwell

And Pizza Hut delivery. I recieved two valid at Thorpe and Madam Tussauds.

Didn't see any pictures as such, but this video shows the fire fighter using the equipment. http://youtu.be/eFbyERgUnJo

Except the queue line audio let me guess?

Video of the valleyed train being rescued https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=D-iJKhpHF9s

Ok then but have to say since the change have never heard pop music play on any of my visits since 2010. Like you say though might be due to the noise the ride itself makes.

It has had a sonic soundtrack. Had voices of the characters and ring sound effects. I have heard it on all my visits since it was rethemed. Two sources to back this up also... This page on towersstreet mentions Sonic Spinball as having one of the most Annoying soundtracks on park due to the sonic voices etc: http://www.towersstreet.com/wiki/Alton_Towers_Music_Database#Adventure_Land This website actually has loads of the announcements and voices: http://www.sonicwrecks.com/dep/gamesounds/altontowers/

It always had a playlist of general songs up until it was Sonic Spinball, although often you couldn't hear it due to the loudness of the ride. When it changed to Sonic Spinball it had a sonic themed soundtrack. Maybe they have reverted back to the original tracklist.

Maybe they are planning to do something with Logger's Leap next year. Someone asked on facebook if they plan to replace the dark section and this is the response from Thorpe Park: "Glad you had fun and enjoyed X - we think it's fab too! Watch this space re. Logger's Leap... we'll let you know if we have any plans to change this for next year" Does this hint at a full retheme/refurb or just a replacement of the tunnel?

Get rid of it and put knightmare in it's place! If only!

It looks so open still. Surprised weeds and rubbish hasn't grown through the tracked area. I always think when crossing into Canada Creek that a train is going to go by. Hopefully one day it will happen. Have they still got the trains?

Sorry made it sound like I was saying the dispatch times were quick due to the fastrack. I purely meant for them to be two separate points, So firstly I was praising the efficiency of staff despite the place being empty and meant as a second point that next to no fasttrack was used. Which I guess is obvious seeing as the park was so empty for a half term.