James6

Hmmm Iphone :PHalloween Hocus Pocus or THORPE PARK Fright Nights

Not a lot of operating, it was more of a see how the park is run.The operating of Fury was more for Video-ing purposes

Cereal100 minutes or 100 texts

Tea :POn Slammer, Starting going forwards or backwards?

I felt like I did!

The lap bar is similar to that on The Blade for example, there just there to stop you mucking around and don't really serve any purpose. It does also increase the realistic-ness for first timers who think that it must be real if they've got a lap bar.

Facebook, any day of the week!On Dragon's Fury or Spinball Whizzer, Start facing backwards or forwards?

It's the best non coaster ride in the park.It's got Excellent theming but I do wish the effects were maintained better as sometimes, you do get a disappointing ride, but it is absolutely brilliant and, after Oblivion it's my favourite ride to go on with first timers.

That's great to hear Sheepie, And I agree completely about the operator having to do announcements, some eery pre-recorded ones would be great and stop the awesome atmosphere being broken every time people have to load/unload.

If it's not Nemesis Inferno what is it?

I agree completely, the amount of extra stress it puts on the staff isn't fair to be honest. I wish there was a simpler way but there's not.

For me, single rider wasn't a way to get on rides loads of times, it was just a way to get on the rides. The people I go with usually either won't go on a lot of the rides or aren't prepared to queue long amounts of time, and a good day out for me isn't queueing for hours at a time by myself.Like has been mentioned it is great on the rides it's in operation, but on the rides it's not it's just bloomin' frustrating to see 2-3 empty seats on every cycle, and to watch from the sides thinking, " I could be on there now at no extra cost to anyone"

I "think" that there is plans and in fact has been plans for a good while, they've just never come to anything.

Lol yeah I know the one you mean. Adverts which try to be funny and aren't funny are the worst. Adverts that try to be funny and are funny are awesome

Track Construction has now begun!Thanks TowersTimes TowersTimes

Well seeing as you asked so nicely :blink:Firstly sorry for the lack of detail.I can't believe it was almost a week ago! Enterered through the security entrance at about 20 past 8, the room at the Holiday Inn overlooked it and we mistakenly drove into it the night before.Saw a few spare Bubbleworks boats one of which was still in the colours before the refurb.Then was taken through to the training room, sort of behind the Runaway Train and was briefed what I was going to do. It was here I relaised I had the best job out of the 4 of usI then went off with Lorraine, an amazingly lovely Team Leader as I was Rides Manager. We went off for a backstage tour of Tomb Blaster, Which was unbelieveable, maintenance area and everything and found out about the ghost that haunts the Tomb!Did a test run of Tomb Blaster and noted effects not working. For example the spotlight on the Mummy in one of the first scenes wasn't working and you could pretty much only see his eyes. Following that, the park had just opened by now, we went to Rattlesnake and this is where lots of pictures were taken, but all the photography/videography was worth it by far in the end.So a few goes on Rattlesnake and then a queline check of Rattlesnake to check all effects are working and turned on and had a detailed chat with the guy responsible for getting a lot of the effects working again and heard a lot of interesting things for even more old effects planned to come back which all sounds exciting.And from now I can't really remember what order but it consisted of a lot of testing of the rides, to make sure they were "fun" enoughSome more backstage area peeks and I think I saw pretty much every control panel on park! :DBy the way, sorry if this should have been in Chessington Trip Reports , I thought I'd just put it in here as techincally I was a Chessington member of staff, for a day.I've now got a Chessington name badge which I'll hold on to forever and also one of those Chessington lanyard and card things.Piccies :DOh and also got a great tour of the Maintenance Shed!Tomb Blaster Electrical stuff We've all seen himAn old piece of theming, I'm guessing from the "olden" daysRodeo's queue and a glimpse of the horse, somewhere I do haev a pic of the control booth aswell.Bubble Boat in Maintenance shed. Each boat costs £10,000 if bought new and every season 32 boats are sent away for a service at £1,000 pounds each.I am proud of myself I remembered that Vampire brake, you don't know how heavy these are!This car looked absolutely brand new, like it's never run.That is all for now .I must just say firstly that the new thing you do when putting images on is awesome.And also thank you so much to Chessington for truly one of the best days of my life.

Oh my god...That is sooo embarrasing. :blink:At least they didn't use my interview though!

It's probably the same as what happened to the Haunted House at Alton. Times move on, once people have ridden a ride like that, the most people won't want to ride it again.Adding in the guns creates another dimension to the ride. One thing I would like to do to Tomb Blaster, is create a sort of on-board guide with you, so there's a plot of some sort and the guy in the video that birefs you, is helping you on your mission. I think that would be really fantastic and some of the bore sections ( long stop on snake) may be eliminated and may make up for the lack of pace.

I think everyone wished that grandstand would have been built. In my opinion they possibly should have done a sort of compromise of what we have now and what the original plan was, maybe 1 over bank and an airtime hill.

A new recording is being made for the guy that turns his head.Also the guy who climbs up the wire tower thing , which you can see before entering the station, is also being fixed.2 effects that have not been working for years.

In my opinion, Today Vampire's Music in the station was the loudest I've heard it. The station was buzzing :blink:Such a good atmosphere.

Running Chessington , it's a hard life :blink:Today was amazing, in short, there aren't enough words to describe how good it was!Chessington's staff team is pyhsically unbelieveable and the nicest group of genuine people I've ever met anywhere.Sorry for the lack of detail but I'm exhausted!It was however much, much busier than I expected with Vampire's Queue getting up to 70 minutes!Oh, one bad thing from today, while testing Bubbleworks , Someone had stood up in there boat and pulled one of the little workers, snapping it from it's foot.I rode it twice, once after it had not long happened, with the little man lieing there broken, and later once it had been removed. All that remains at this moment is his foot.

By the way , if I remember correctly they've had planning permission accepted for a hotel to be built where Jungle Coaster is currently. :blink:Having Dragon's Fury and Spinball Whizzer in the same park would be pretty ridiculous, can you imagine. "Come ride Extreme Dragon's Fury, the ride thats the exact same type as the ride we've had here for years thats a more thrilling, bigger version of the one we're going to install Dragons Fury."I can see it now :blink:But I really can't see it moving to anywhere to be honest.

A rapids, is rumoured to be on the way in 2011 which would be great. Although, this was topic was more for "improvements to the park" and less on the "what new rides you want".

Agree with all of those ! Remove Rattlesnake ?Also, if we're adding a new roller coaster I definately wouldn't go for a Mack E-motion coaster, the ones I've read reviews for have been terrible!I agree something needs to be done with Bubbleworks though.