Ricky

My current top 3 are: Happy - Pharrell Williams Timber - Pitbull ft Kesha This is what it feels like - Armin Van Buuren Amongst other things I have a guilty pleasure for orchestral music, In The Hall Of The Mountain King - Edvard Grieg (Alton Towers Theme, sounds so much better by a live orchestra!) Hedwigs Theme -John Williams Are just a couple of my favourites

You will need to make your own way to the park, the 950 only runs in the open season. You can find useful information on buses from Staines bus station / train station here: thorpeparkmania.co.uk/page/info_travel Hope that helps!

Checked mine earlier it does state an entry fee may be applied (this is on the premium pass)

Doesn't it say at the base of both passes, "some events may be charged at individual attractions"?

Do you mean the queue line to the left of the entrance? If so, I've queued in the many times, last year I queued in it twice! If it's the queue behind the stall turn I completely agree!

I would LOVE to choose 22nd but unfortunately I land from orlando at 10:15am and would be so jet lagged! If it is 22nd I can try and pop in late afternoon but no guarantees

So far, in order of visiting: February Alton Towers March: DisneyWorld Fl. Universal Studios Fl. Seaworld Fl. Busch Gardens Tampa Legoland Fl. Thorpe Park April onwards Alton Towers Thorpe Park Europa Park This is taking longer than I thought as I'm trying to extract two splinters from my finger, how did they get there, I've not even been near any wood recently?! Chessington? Not sure what else, probably a few others... Ps got the splinters out, ouch!

True say, maybe a bad choice of words! It was only the once where it was really noticeable that the majority of the effects where not working! From what I remember, The Giggler The Innoculator The Flasher The Smoke in the Station as you leave The Indoor queue, 1 screen had a lovely blue screen advertising the projectors company on, 1 screen was playing The Flashers role, and the other had a nice mouse pointer in the middle of it. The Audio seems to have taken its toll a few speakers seemed to of blown, including a bass one by the shop, it gave my a headache whilst stood under it! Before then it was quite nice, but this was my last trip and me being me was whoring The Smiler ( I know I slated it, but its very good!)

The thing is, with regards to Thorpe, they are under very strict planning permission guidelines. They are only allowed to buld 'so big' before it will get refused, that includes height, width as well the floor space. We have to look at the bigger picture. Problems Facing - The MTDP from whenever it was to whenever it was, to my memory, didn't have a building on it. If there was a building on it, it would have been granted consent to the specifications in the MDTP so X by Y by Z. Deciding to build a much larger building would caused a thousand and one over problems, including having to have the new sizes granted by the council. Also much bigger evacuation planning, Fire planning, Flood planning and loads more, the integrity of the man made island would also have to be considered for the enormous weight gain. When the island was in-filled it would always of had a maximum weight restriction, other the island would just sink, cave in or slip (landslide). Atmosphere - Whilst a bigger building could of given us more fire exits meaning more people being allowed into the building, it would of just looked hideous with fire exit signs dotted every few meters, ruining the 'atmosphere'. The general idea behind gaps in the slats, is to allow air to circulate in the building where guests will be situated, without so it would be so hot you would have guests falling ill every 10 minutes! If my memory serves me correctly even with the gaps the building was still far too hot in the summer period and both staff and guests where falling ill at regular intervals, leading to new air vents to be installed on the roof. General Size - Let's face it, if the building was much bigger it would completely dwarf the plaza, which would mean you would literally be sniffing the armpits of the person stood next to you, which isn't pleasant on any level. Integrity - It would also receive problems that I stated above, going into a bit more detail. The island is basically free/loose mud which is submerged in water. Mud + Water are very dangerous to mix, in the right condition if the island hasn't compacted well enough the weight may cause the island to sink, which would mean eventually the island would give way and a few million pounds worth of technology as well as the possibility of life itself being lost to the lake. Which would be the end of Thorpe Park and probably Merlin as a company. As the island is evenly distributed the land will be sinking at an angle, which eventually will lead to some problems. If you wanted to add the extra width of the building, whilst you are evening out the weight across the island, your adding more weight for the ground underneath to compact, which will in turn leave the island under water and a ride that cannot operate. Personally I think we should just be happy with what we have, its a superbly themed ride, and I am positive all the size decisions for the building sizes where all to compensate for the islands integrity, to allow H&S to pass it off easily in evacuations & emergency's (another thing I actually missed, in the event of a shut down, that cannot be resolved, the small area in front of picsolve booth is occupied to evacuate guests from the ride. IT's the only feasable area to use). This is ironic as Towers don't turn their audio off during shut down's, I seem to remember a lot of people saying that The Smiler was 'laughing' at them whilst the ride/area was evacuate HA HA HA, HA HA HA.... bad taste, real bad

Infernos water bombs are actually very reliable! Every time I go they are on

Followed by their attempt to keep all 'marmalising' effects working.... last time I went only The Giggler was on/working..

Something that has been bugging me since it was updated was the fact that they are using heide park's new winged coaster in the background rather than the swarm

I can't help noticing the 3 days in question are actually showing as the park being closed ? Maybe it's just my eyes not focusing the right colour? I don't know. As for June opening till 6 the entire month, maybe something to do with angry birds world, I know it's supposedly opening in May but for all we know it could be May 31st...? Maybe I'm looking in to things too much Maybe, just maybe I'm being too, I'm using the word maybe too much...

NoLimits 2 is out! Strangely enough I woke up checked to see if it was available clicked on standard which was available, clicked on professional which wasn't available. Then waited a few seconds tried and again and it came up! Talk about timing!? I have no purchased it... £66 most expensive game I've brought!

Amity cove area finishes just short of this area, detonator and the 4D cinema are part of calypso quay area. EDIT: also Liam, just because it's a thrill capital doesn't mean it's JUST FOR TEENS, thrilling can be considered differently at all ages bumper cars can be thrilling for a 5 year old, stealth can be thrilling for a 30 year old, heck bumper cars can even be thrilling to a pensioner!

Even when fright nights came about it was a family theme park! what difference is it 12 years down the line....? They tried to make an adult park, it didn't work so they are going back to a family theme park. I wouldn't see that as being desperate? Thorpe having been going for resort since what 2007? After testing the market for a season they obviously came to a conclusion that it was the right thing to do after all these years... Seriously, every business in the world tests the market numerous times, but just because it's Thorpe park, a park that is widely despised by theme park geeks , it is 'The wrong choice', 'a ridiculous move'. Benin I wouldn't see it as 'desperately clinging at the money-friendly money market' when all they are doing is going back to 'old times' after the market they tested in failed' if anything it was clinging on to older generation markets. But let's be honest in the middle of a double dip recession with a record high unemployment rate, It wouldn't of worked in a million years.

Just hours away from the release... I feel far too geeky getting excited after waiting years for this!

Looks so small from that angle!

So it seems it may be a close call to get no limits 2 out this year but it looks bleeding fantastic! The latest news story really shows how much detail there is! http://www.nolimitscoaster.de/index.php?page=news

I bought one at Europa Park last week for 6€ Which works out around £5.04, personally, I feel a bit more happy to give away money for 'happy occasions' when is less money rather £9 or whatever it is at Merlin attractions. It's a very fine line when it comes to Merlin attractions however, as they have an external company (Picsolve), the £9 is straight away split 3 ways, 1. Profit for Picsolve 2. Percentage of profit to Merlin 3. Cost of materials (ink, paper etc) Sometimes it's even more than a 3 way split for instance with Saw lionsgate get a percentage for using the brand logo. But it's still very overpriced for what it is, baring in mind if you get the digital copy for half the price you can go to tesco and print 100's of copies for mere pennies!

Indeed the music is not available anywhere at present, but I am lead to believe this is the company that where used to create the track: http://www.wantsomemedia.com/index.html They have done work for Ministry of Sound so its probably right.

The elephant is pretty much finished. Looks top notch to me! Theme Parks Italia

I remember those days! <3 Shame they were never enforced though

Went up for scarefest last two days, was really good however half of The Smiler seems to be broken? The Giggler, The Innoculator and more annoyingly, The Flasher! The one time of year The Flasher would of had any effect on the ride and it's broken/not turned on?! As Matt said above, one of the projectors was turning off and on displaying "EPSON" and "Press ? For help" - bit of a kill joy. Also what is with the annoying strobe that randomly goes off, it's so irritating! The first day was really good smiler terms not a single shutdown that I saw, the same can't be said for the second day. We headed over upon arrival to see a train stuck at the top of the second lift with one also at the bottom of the second lift. After excitingly watching reversing down the lift ( and watching everyone crap their pants when it dropped several feet) we decided to head off elsewhere. We came back a few hours later and it was shut yet again couple hours later it was shut yet again, we decided to wait as it was dark and we loved it in the dark, it opened, 10 minutes later " we are sorry to announce due to recent delays we will be removing a train from the circuit which will greatly lengthen your queue time" - never again will I queue for Smiler on 3 trains, it was the most depressing thing I've ever endured. Moving what felt like inches every 5 minutes. After about 45 minutes and moving a total of about 50 meters they made an announcement they would be adding a 4th train which everyone was excited about. It reopened after 10 minutes of faffing about, I've never heard so many cheers that a ride had reopened before. We thought this would greatly improve the movement in the queue. We were wrong. Very wrong. We moved exactly the same as before and eventually what was a 30 minute queue the day before turned into a 100 minute queue. So the two days varies quite some. Smiler is still an interesting ride operationally