Mattgwise

It certainly is strange. Although annoying when queuing for Vortex and it plays loud, then cuts out, then plays the actual Vortex music for one or two cycles, then goes back to a muffled Chart music! Seems to be taking a hell of a long time for them to get used to the supposedly "upgraded" Park wide link. Would have thought the music would have been zoned correctly by now and played at normal speed.

I have been on three visits this year and on all three visits, Dragon's Fury opened in the morning and was closed by 2pm every time due to some form of technical fault. Dragon Falls was also closed almost all day on one of my visits, just opened around an hour before park close.

Haha - Going to start that one again!

Totally agree with you about the fastrack situation being a complete joke. However I complained to Thorpe Park the other week about various issues including Fastrack causing the Saw queue to completely come to a stand still for 15 minutes at a time (nearly 2 hours total queuing), whilst fastrackers were let through in their thousands and got this as part of the response, suggesting they "do" make it fair. Yeah right! Regarding Fastrack, they have allocated time slots in which certain allocations are sold by the sales team. Therefore there is only a limited number of Fastrack for each ride. Our rides team dispatches the ride in proportion for Fastrack and non-Fastrack holders and so that the Fastrack queue does not extend the main queue line. I apologise you do not feel that this was effective and that the queue lines were extended as a result of Fastrack ticket holders. Please be assured that I have passed your comments on to ensure that the dispatching of both queues is being carried out fairly.

Haven't heard any queueline audio at all this year on my visits. One of the worst places to have no audio as that area is so quiet.

Samurai actually went down for a long time during the summer holidays of the 2010 season and had what looked like some major work done to it. If you click on the following link you can see a picture of it in a very unusual position: http://forum.maniahu..._180#entry97652

I know Samurai has had a fair few problems over the years, but the ride is 13 years old and has been operating 8 years since going back to Mondial before relocating at Thorpe Park. Maybe a replacement top scan could be the answer, I would guess Mondial have improved the way they have built them since 13 years ago, even if only slightly. I know it's time must come to an end some day but I do hope it is not any time soon.

The area of the park that the attraction lies in.

She was going to and has finished going to Thorpe Park, Alton Towers and then Blackpool Pleasure Beach in that order according to her previous posts!

Wow it must have happened twice then. It was definitely boarded up on the 29th.

Strange as it was boarded up exactly like that when I went last Wednesday (29th Aug). I find it hard to believe it got fixed and then shattered again in the same spot yesterday.

No. That was Dead End, placed in Lost City, On the path near Zodiac that leads round to Vortex.

Just a shame Colossus still has the pitch problem. Other things I noticed last Weds - Beach/ Flying Fish/neptunes kingdom area was back to chart music just like dome & entrance and there was no End of day music played at all either.

What is great about Europa Park is that they decide a closing time at lunch time then advertise the time on the website and around the park. It's great as it means the park can close any time between 6pm and usually 9pm depending on weather and how many people went through the gates by lunch time. However I bet it is annoying for the staff never knowing when they will finish before their shift starts. When I visited it was open until 7:30 the first day and 8pm the second. If only the same thing happened with Merlin parks.

Of course I know that, I'm not a complete idiot! What I meant was the person probably meant to avoid extending the wait any more than it should as the whole problem was that far more fast track guests were let through than normal queuing guests which was not normal procedure.

I think they meant to avoid extending the wait of the main queue line.

Here is the response I got from Thorpe Park regarding my complaint about the filming and fasttrack causing the Saw queue line to take 1 hour and 50 minutes. Funny thing is the have offered me 4 fast track tickets for a future visit when the whole problem was me thinking too many were sold/given out. Still I appreciate they have offered something and apologised. Thank you for taking the time to email into us regarding your recent visit to THORPE PARK. We appreciate all guest comments and queries as without guests such as you contacting us we would be unable to improve our services for future visitors. THORPE PARK is the Nations Thrill capital and attracts a very high volume of guests each year to come and experience our thrilling and exciting rides and attractions, and this does impact on our queue lines and waiting times for our rides. As it is currently peak season, our queue lines are longer than they would be on an off peak day. Please also be aware that THORPE PARK does have a maximum capacity for guests who can enter the park, and should this capacity be reached, no further guests will be permitted entry. Due to the nature and complexity of our rides there may be times where we may need to take a ride out of operation briefly. This can be due to many reasons such as a technical fault or a guest's actions. However, in any circumstance we have a dedicated team of engineers and ride operators on standby to ensure that the ride is back in operation as quickly as possible. We understand that any shutdowns can increase the wait time and so we would like to apologise for any delays that may have been caused. We can understand that shutdowns can be extremely frustrating and would like to apologise for any disappointment this caused. Regarding Fastrack, they have allocated time slots in which certain allocations are sold by the sales team. Therefore there is only a limited number of Fastrack for each ride. Our rides team dispatches the ride in proportion for Fastrack and non-Fastrack holders and so that the Fastrack queue does not extend the main queue line. I apologise you do not feel that this was effective and that the queue lines were extended as a result of Fastrack ticket holders. Please be assured that I have passed your comments on to ensure that the dispatching of both queues is being carried out fairly. I apologise for the difficulties you encountered regarding the film crew on the day of your visit. Incase you were not aware, both ITV and Dave Berry himself on the radio made a formal apology for the frustration caused to guests during their visit.

I have passed my comments onto the park for that reason. If people don't say anything, they are not going to be aware it is having an impact on visitors days out and nothing will change.

Stealth as well? Or did you mean Swarm. What is also odd is that I was told it was Talkback Thames filming (however to be fair the person who told me didn't really know much about what was going on so could have been wrong), so with you saying Dave from Capital apologised for Stealth hold up due to filming, then this could mean two lots of different filming went on if the attendant was correct. Terrible. I wrote to the park yesterday, Will let everyone know if I get a response.

Went yesterday - Fire triggered once from what I saw, then got the smell of gas for a bit, then nothing! Water was coming out of fire engine and only coming out slightly when the train passed the helicopter. No sound effects were played and oddly tvs and music turned off around 6pm. To be fair though didnt get to Swarm until about 4pm so can't comment on what worked before that point in time.

A good addition would be Canada Creek railway turned into a ghost train with actors! Trains are all still there, track in good condition! Would be something different. Although personally I reckon it is more likely to be Hellgate's replacement.

2010 Fright Nights I visited on I think the first Saturday (might have been second). The park was quiet with queues of no and had done all main rides by 3pm and then had rerides and maze. At around 9:30pm got on Stealth 7 times in a row, Didn't even have to walk round the queue line, straight through the gate between the onload and offload platform. Last year I also went on the first saturday and was busier but still ok. Longest ride queue around 45 mins and longest maze was experiment 10 at 70 mins. Curse was walkon and Seven fairly short later on in evening. Didnt go on Asylum but was around 45 mins from what I remember. Hope that helps a little.

Yep disgraceful in my opinion. The rides team didn't really know what was going on themselves. The ride attendant I spoke to said all he knew was it was Talkback Thames doing a show about a guy who is petrified of roller coasters who is marrying a woman who loves rollercoasters. When people started shouting as we had already waited two hours with the previous problem he said he wasn't even aware they would be there at that point and that they were just told to stop letting people on the ride with no further information. I suggested it made sense to do this at end of day and he agreed. Another person in the queue said it came up on the scroller earlier on in the day that there may be filming, but whenever I went to The Swarm entrance all I saw was the scroller simply saying "Waiting time 50 mins" and the attendant was just shouting "Fast track only £5" Inferno was on two trains all day, didn't find out or see what the problem was but certainly wasn't adding the second train, may I also add that Nemesis Inferno seems much more popular this year on the visits I've made. Whilst on the topic of trains from what I saw at 10am all coasters were on two trains, Not sure about Saw. But Swarm had two closures to clean up sick, two restraint problems (row 5 on one of the trains left side), and the fifth they made out it was a technical fault, but was clearly just to allow the film crew to access the station platform as it "magically" got fixed after they left the station.

Dissapointing visit today. Got on very few rides due to painfully slow queuing on Saw and Swarm. First headed to Nemesis Inferno to a 40 minute queue for it to have a technical fault. Must admit it was up and running again in no time. Then after a quick go on Rumba Rapids and Loggers Leap headed to Saw the Ride. A tolerable 60 minute queue was advertised. The queue seemed to be moving quick but broke down just as it hammered down with rain. After 15/20 mins it was back up and running but from this point onward the queue crawled. Insane amounts of fasttrack tickets sold meant the normal queue was only allowing people inside every 15 - 20 mins, which meant a painfully slow queue. After a total of 1hr 50 mins finally get on to find the guy shout over the station PA that the queue was 60 mins (speakers in outside queue didnt actually work so pointless advice anyway!) I told a guy on the platform about the queue time and he was not interested and just said oh they probably know now (not five mins after the announcement. I thought the problems would end there. Over to Swarm. The ride shut down not 1, 2, 3 or 4 times but 5 times! Took over 15 mins for one of those times just to clear sick! 2 hours later we get down to the platform. and an announcement is yet again made to say they have to send an empty train, after one is sent empty we all get told to move back and to all of the queue lines disgust they let a film crew in to take a 10 minute shot of a guy sitting in the car! Several people in the queue shout boos and that they are taking the mick but nothing done. Eventually get on and it is suddenly 630pm. Only managed 7 rides all day! Also to add they then closed the Samurai queue line at 655pm! They obviously could not wait to get home! On a more positive note however the rides team on Colossus were excellent and on the last train of the day even let us have an extra go! Food and beverages staff very efficient too. I know you technical faults are out of anyones control but when insane amounts of fast track is sold and allowing filming on a busy day after several technical problems and long queues, it is frustating when the queues take 3 times longer than they should do. Very dissapointing visit.

Forgot about that. Believe it or not it has been sold in Asda for around 15 months. No where else sells it as far as I know for some strange reason. I agree, It is very nice.