Ricky

I wouldn't take much notice of that plan, it is quite an old plan, I think it was released in mid 2010 with the last MTDP. I know it says '2016 park plan' in the link, but it is a very old plan. Edit: The plans where submitted with this 'proposal' which does indeed highlight the key features in that plan.

I think the thoughts going through Merlins minds buying the Star Wars IP would spell out " Bankruptcy"

I think they need to regroup and reproduce some better images! The Smiler Page's background is just hideous, why they felt the need to stretch it such a way I will have no idea. Oblivions photo on the guide page, the train isn't half near being in the photo! Nemesis appears to only have 4 people on the train. Nemesis Sub Terra looks like a deserted shipping port.

The only explanation I can think is due to the fact it's a reduced line-up, more likely to hit capacity assuming it's lowered to fit in the with line-up and in order to keep the balance charge for AP holders. I do agree rather a strange one, and probably a bad move on the parks behalf. I will enjoy reading the TPOFFICIAL & MAP Facebook pages over the coming weeks.

I think they are talking about generalised dark rides that come in category's Marc rather then the ride experience on its own

Whilst I do agree with you on this one, but as I am sure many of us on here can concur, the 'areas' as such do not really exist as they did some 10 years ago. The only prominent area that still exists as it opened, is Amity Cove/Amity Speedway. I am not including Angry Birds in this because it's just not the same, nor is it that great in regards to depth of experience. In essence, Thorpe don't really still 'have' ranger county, but another pathway through nothingness that adds nothing to any kind of experience. Anything that had any relation to being the Ranger County has long since gone from the park, the only relation left, being Mr Monkeys Banana Ride. With additional rides, you could say there is plenty of room in the former Ranger County vicinity, however the same cannot be said in the former Calypso Quay area without removing all the buildings. The last year the areas where actively known by their names was 2007, but Merlin took over Tussauds in 2007 and as of 2008, the areas where categorised down into Extreme Thrills, Thrilling And Fun and Young Thrills. It is a shame that areas are non-existent now. I do remember pre-Colossus, being able to walk into each area and knowing you've entered a separate area from the last. In my eyes Colossus was the downfall of the areas which eventually made the showcase of areas whittled down to a large scaled decaying mess.

Apparently somebody doesn't know the difference between a dark ride and ride type. Dark Ride - A ride in the dark/dimly lit enclosed area, Ride Type - Ride specific information for example Intamin Rocket Coaster. Conclusion, your argument that Tower Of Terror and Spiderman are the same 'ride type' is invalid. Neither are the same, one of which isn't solely in the dark unless you ride at night. I do agree that X isn't technically a dark ride, but an indoor coaster though.

Annoyingly though, it was only the supports that where repainted! The track never changed.

No, no, you misunderstand me, people cannot comment on what they do not see. Other than in shutdown situations you will rarely see anyone from the engineering team because they are busy working in workshops. People obviously can say a ride breaks down a lot, but that isn't always due to poor maintenance, could be a faulty PLC which would be a manufacturing error not the parks. I think people are too quick to blame the park on a lot of things without saying, Do you know what, we do not the nature of this shutdown, there are thousands of error messages that could display or cause the ride to shut down, Maybe engineering are aware of the issues, maybe they are in the process of fixing it as we speak, Maybe it is a part of the ride that the manufacturer didn't display as a high risk area which needs checking on a regular basis, Maybe it is a manufacturing fault that is causing maintenance issues. But no, you are all quick to shoot down the park because you all enjoy picking at anything within the parks boundaries. And that could be said to any park in the world

I don't think a great deal of people can actually have any opinion on the maintenance side of operations with the park. The TP Engineering team work excessively hard to ensure all rides are up and running as quickly as possible, and as much as possible. An example of this, where the engineering team worked throughout the night, well past their shift times, to get SAW up and running after the incident on it's opening day. SAW cannot run in high wind speeds and cold weather due to the high risk of stalling. Which it has done many times, It's not the park's maintenance stopping them, it's the fact they don't want 8 people stalling and stuck in the cold for several hours.

Since when? The storyline behind is and has always been a contraption to capture water built by some Hillbillys.

There is a chance that may be the case anyway as Braniac Live could easily accommodate an alternative location such as The Dome.

I seriously find it hard to believe that it's not butter! But in all seriousness you need to invest in some Rose-Tinted glasses.

Seriously? I'm giving up. If you can't find the positivity you need to open your eyes, broaden your horizon and swim the warm waters of sins of the flesh.

Hmmm so you're saying, that they don't invest? 2000 - Tidal Wave accompanied by an entire new area, Amity Cove. 2001 - Sensory Overload, Zodiac, Vortex and Detonator. 2002 - Colossus a world's first 10 looping roller Coaster accompanying The Lost City. 2003 - Nemesis Inferno, Quantum and Eclipse. 2004 - Samurai. 2005 - Slammer and Rush. 2006 - Stealth, UK's highest and fastest coaster at the time. 2007 - Flying Fish returned after a refurbishment. 2008 - Time Voyagers. 2009 - SAW - The Ride. 2010 - SAW Alive. 2011 - Storm Surge. 2012 - The SWARM. 2013 - X Refurbishment & The SWARM's ReInvestment 2014 - Angry Birds Land That is 14 years of investment, with at least a new attraction or a refurbished import every single year totalling 19 new/imported attractions. As well as three reinvestments which themselves would have cost a fortune. If anything we have been blessed with investments when you compare to chessington who had 1 new attraction in something like 7-10 years.

Are you living in Cloud 9 or something!? I have never said TP is perfect, but no theme park in this pigging world is! You're delusional if you think otherwise. What I'm saying is after every single post of yours that I have read, you clearly have huge hate toward the park and yet still find yourself going on a frequent basis! How can you say playing it safe!? Every ride in the world that opens, is a big risk to take, it can even make or break the company! The new dark ride is not a 'step in the right direction', its an investment to broaden themselves on the market. A step in the right direction, was when they opened Colossus, where they went from a small park with small annual guest figures to a park on the map. R 'N' R wasn't perfect no, but that is why it was a TRIAL Nothing more nothing less, they where simply testing a new system, to ensure it worked, and the flaws dealt with. It's not THAT different from Disney's system. Which works really well, might I add after the great lengths of tweaking. You will be the death of me.

I'm sorry, but no. Just no. For the love of god just stop please! If you're not going to stop going to places then STOP moaning about it. I HATED Legoland with a passion, still do, and what have I done? Stopped going there, I am not a great fan of Chessington, so what have I done, reduced visits to once annually. Like most people who go to theme parks, as you have stated, they go there for the rides, they are not spending X amount of money to go to a food kiosk. This is what I do not understand, people have an utmost hatred of the park, and yet still go there frequently. If it's as bad as you say it is, then like Mark said, just don't go. Stop going. Never think about it again. Banish it from you're contradictory mind. Nobody is forcing you to go to TP, so when you say "I would stop going if there was an alternative" you're making it out like TP have embedded themselves into your mind and are forcing you to go. No. You can stop going whenever you want. You don't need to ride thrill rides to live a normal life. It's a BBQ, not many BBQ's happen inside. Plus it has covered seating arrangements which is essentially indoor seating. Think of it as a house with the windows open. Of course mixed brands work, it was never ever the case of not working at Merlin parks. But there is a far too great money loss from them to keep running them. When you can have almost identical in-park brands with 100% profit back into the business, you'd be a fool not to go with park-owned-branding. If you ran a business and half you're potential profit was embezzled out of the park to an external company you'd sit there and go, why am I doing this when I could do it myself? Pizza Hut - £9.99 Unlimited Buffet with Bottomless Drinks. No Discount possible. Pizza Pasta - £10.99 Unlimited buffet with Bottomless Drinks. 20% Discount = £8.79 More bang for your buck.

Stealth's queue was built on (kind of) reclaimed land, the old fish queueline was more Stealth Diner/Stealth Shop area

Rock N Roller Coaster inverts several times, I'm sure anything in this project will not subject us to that

Just come to mind, does anyone remember when they did a Hunger Games event at TP last year or whenever it was?

Because TP is huge...

I very much doubt it would be 150 years, it wouldn't be a wise business decision, not on Pizza-Hut's behalf but on Merlin's. To buy it out at that length would be extortionate (you have to factor in other things also, Thorpe may not even exist in 150 years which would bring a huge loss to Pizza Hut and vice-versa), it would most likely be 10-15 years which would either get renewed, terminated prematurely or the contract would expire and not renewed. I believe KFC is a 10 year contract, which was renewed 3-4 years ago.

So what you're saying is.... That on a busy day when all rides are two hours that, nobody is actually in the queue, because nobody wants to join due to the queue length? The length of the queue is not based on the capacity, the length of queue is based on the projected popularity. The reason storm surge has a smaller queue isn't because it only trickles 450-500pph, it's because it's less likely to draw a crowd for most of the season. The reason behind it being a slow process is due to waiting for boats to come up. The reason The Swarm has a long queue, was because it was a UK's first brand new roller coaster. Which was much more likely to draw a crowd. Queue length = nothing to do with capacity of a ride. Why do you think all rides at Universal have lengthy queues, because they are all based on popular backgrounds and it needs to accommodate a large amount of guests, even if the throughput was terrible. The issue I originally had with your post, was stating it was pretty much the law that rides with 1000+PPh had to have a large queueing area.

Okay.... 1 Yes there does seem to be a pre-show but we don't know how many rooms there will be and how long the pre-show lasts. could be 30 seconds could be 5 minutes. 2 How can you say they haven't learnt anything from Swarm when they haven't had a large scale investment since? Swarms bag room is a nightmare and does slow everything down, I agree but alas unless they invest in some in-station baggage areas we will be living with that. Swarm's Batching has nothing to do with anything, nor does many batching positions on any of the rides. If the ride isn't continuously moving, you will inevitably be stopping and starting.