Mattgwise

The original theme was back all of last season. It returned after the fright nights 2011 was over. An employee at the time told me it was reprogrammed incorrectly but as they preferred the original (Black Hole theme) they decided to keep it for 2012. Don't know if that was true as it seemed like it was done purposely as both Slammer and Samurai (loading) returned to their old soundtracks too.

I still can't see it lasting. Everytime they sort it out everyone gets excited and it Never lasts. A couple of months and most if not all of the misters are broken again.

Possibilty but seriously, Doubtful!!!

And then wait until we have mass overselling of fasttrack on weekends/holidays. Going to be insane queuing times !!

Or having professor burp return from the dead as an evil character/creature would fit the horror theme.

And who knows the price may have increased this year. I bet the car park goes up a quid again and the bottled drinks another 10 or 20p.

Me too. Although despite them saying it closed due to running costs, I do find it strange that nothing was touched last season. If the ride is still there this year, complete with track, LC barriers and shed still full of the trains, then surely one would think logistically they have some plan for it. (I know this sounds slightly contradictory as the Fungle track is still there and there aren't plans to reopen that) Also a shame they removed all the track adjacent to Monks Walk as they could have used it as a transport link from Canada Creek to the island next to Swarm's when it is used in a few of years time for the next coaster. Other ways round the running costs could have been to only dispatch half hourly rather than every tenish minutes. They could have gone back to operating with the original 5 carriages to increase capacity for when it did a half hourly cycle. A lot of money would have been saved there on diesel costs.

Heide Park entrance music. Not sure if this is the extended version as the one I have downloaded as Chesssington Pre 2009 entrance theme is also 6:52.

Thats Ok. That press release was what I remember reading too. Still seems strange though as it definitely seems longer than three times Oblivion in the video. but based on the length given it should only be three times the length of Oblivion.

That is not possible. Air is 840m long. But The Smiler does seem a hell of a lot longer in the No Limits POV videos. I read somewhere that The Smiler will be three times the length of Rita, but even that is 640m so that doesn't quite add up either, otherwise The Smiler would have to be 1920m long.

They have played for last three years on and off in the neptunes beach area/flying fish, but yeah originally the ranger county/central area. and of course that particular one posted is the Mr Monkey's Banana Ride music as already mentioned. It got changed (again) to chart music around The middle of last season.

That boat area is listed on the park map as under development and is covered over in white. Hopefully another new attraction.

I have to say that the list of rides open has definitely changed. Up until yesterday it 100% said Black Buccanear and Carousel also open next to Bubbleworks and Hocus Pocus Hall. I've been backing Chessington up all the way, but that is sneaky. At least they have updated it though, but unless you have logged on their recently you would expect the other two to be open. But they covered themselves with the "subject to availability" term anyway.

It wouldnt say why, I have never seen a ride give a reason why. Did slammer ever say. "Slammer will be unavailable due to it being a pile of crap that likes to go down for long periods of time every year" As far as I am aware the park are not supposed to tell you why a ride is not open! When rides break down they just tell you they dont know whats going on. They would have all sorts of pronlems if they told you why. Imagine when Stealth's cable snapped if the had a sign saying that it was closed dut to part of the ride snapping, there would be sll sorts of rumours going around and people exaggerating and being put off of riding.

Shame that they were closed but does clearly say subject to availability and I believe the ticket price didnt increase from the standard zoo only days meaning the rides were an added bonus. Was very nice that they extended the opening hours. I believe they have done that all week. My weather forecast says the opposite. It says it was 2 today, 3 tomorrow and 4 at the weekend.

http://www.chessington.com/plan-your-trip/african-adventures.aspx

Sorry if I didn't make sense or have confused people. I am good at that When I said it hadn't played since 2010 I was refering to the "end of the day" music playing in the lower dome all day long. Since 2010 throughout the day it plays chart music whereas before it used to play the 3:15 section all day in the lower dome/toilets area. Once the end of the day comes it plays park wide including in the lower dome. I only asked if the overall end of day theme had been abolished in an earlier post as on all of my visits in 2012 except for one in April, the end of day theme failed to play.

The lower dome music was a part of the end of day track although this hasn't played in lower dome since 2010. The Park has played chart music in the lower dome/toilets for the last two seasons. For some reason the theme isn't on TPM anymore but here is a link to one on youtube, although this is about 4 mins short and misses the more upbeat piano section at the end. The part that used to play in lower dome was the part from approx 3 min - 7 mins. It definitely suited the toilets with the sound of all that flowing water

Those people really sound like morons that just don't have a clue.

Does anyone know roughly what their capacity actually is during Zoo only Days?

The only thing they are good for is watching the riders get a soaking. More people watch them than ride them.

I guess I Must have just been unfortunate on all my visits then. I really hope they sort out some of the stuff you have mentioned too. Cant see Vortex returning. Thorpe said they changed it to chart music as it was what the public wanted (see Thorpe Park Questions topic). I do also hope that Colossus sounds normal this year and yes would be nice to hear the theme on the bridge again rather than just the queue. It was awful queuing for Saw with nothing playing so also hope that has been sorted. Another thing I wish is for them to return to the old Cananda Creek loop. The songs used were classics and much more country sounding plus just created a better atmosphere. The current playlist is just awful and most songs don't fit with the theme of the area.

Well good news then. Samurai loading theme, old Slammer and old detonator all returned after fright nights 2011 and played throughout whole of 2012. So some of your requests have already been met Although apparently on some days at the end of the day the entrance theme played instead of the end of day music. I didn't personally hear this though. In fact on all of my visits in 2012 there wasn't even any end of day change to music. Just went silent in ride areas and chart music continued to play in dome and entrance area. Anyone know if they abolished end of day music too??

Shocking that the second train waits in the break run. I saw this many a time last year. At one stage when three trains ran you had 40 seconds (I think) between dispatches and now they cant even dispatch it in 3 minutes. There was a sign mentioning you needed to be seated extremely quickly. I think it doesn't help that the train stops two or three times as it enters the station wasting time. Has done this ever since the new trains were put on. If a train dispatches every 3 mins the ride has a shocking throughput of 480 people per hour. There is no surprise the queue moves painfully slow with a low capacity and fasttrack.

It is clearly shown in the video the person clinging on to the OTSR.