MattyMoo

Just found this on Youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPD4CAa61V0It's labelled as 1980s but the Vampire opened in 1990 of course Very interesting footage - including a bit of the 5th Dimension. The Runaway Mine Train is noticably faster, and it's amazing how exposed the Vampire looks compared to how integral it looks now, 21 years on! Also shown is Dragon Falls, and you can see they have the "year" sign on the drop so that it shows in the photo - remember those days?

Thanks for those extra pictures Joel...http://www.themeparkmania.com/Galleries/Thorpe%20Park/Amity%20Cove/Stormsurge/Pictures/Storm%20Surge%20%2823%29.jpgThe positioning of the queue seems completely bizarre, and as already stated, very easy for queue jumpers... that's a massive expanse of tarmac in that photo too... looks bloomin' awful!EDIT: I spot from another photo there is some themeing as such to the left of that tarmac, some wood fence type things with rubber rings on!Also - the Youtube videos have started appearing:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VAIWT44leMI love the "sped up" lift hill bit, my god, that is painfully slow! Some cracking leaks too....!

Yep!! Alot of those things - well near enough all - are rogue apps that are designed to nick your profile if you add them/like them - and then if you do add them/like them, they spam all your friends.

Ahhhhh the pre 2006 music! Beauuutiful!

That's true - when I was at TP on the 11th, the Stealth side of the park was very empty at 11am, because everyone's over at SAW and Samurai!

Just to let you know, all effects on SAW were working yesterday, with the exception of the timer at the start of the lift hill.

Indeed, lol. I was impressed at reliability today, I was worried that my beloved Stealth would misbehave!You don't realise just how much of an area Octopus Garden took up. Going to be a bit awkward with crowds when the FN's kick in though, what with the narrow access to X and that Herras fencing.

Inferno & Colossus on one train as far as I saw. Stealth started on one in the morning, then changed to two late morning.

Been to Thorpe Park today - Slammer is still down and fenced off. No visible work being done, mobile crane is now not extended.Other than that - the rides were well behaved all day!

Went to Thorpe today on a non-Fright Night - park was pretty empty! We were greeted with a 20 min queue at admissions which was a tad annoying, wish they'd have more staff on the ticket desks to deal with guests - the sooner you're in the park, the sooner you can spend your moolah! That aside, had a thoroughly good day in the park!Ride count:Stealth 4 (inc. 1 at the front)Rapids 2Loggers 2Rush 1Detonator 1Nemesis Inferno 1SAW The Ride 1SAW Alive 1Flying Fish 1Depth Charge 1CCR 1We couldn't deal with Colossus as we were shattered! Longest queue we witnessed was 35 mins for SAW and Nemesis. Stealth maxed at 15 mins, SAW Alive at 20, Colossus at 30. Everything else was near enough walk on all day... Rapids got busier after lunch as expected! We headed straight to Stealth in the morning and queued for 5 mins - everyone was over on SAW Island Have to say that Stealth in the front seat is still so so good!!Highlight of my day was on Stealth - music stops and we get "Attention in the Stealth queue line, Stealth has had to cease operation due to essential cleaning". Spew we thought? Alas no - someone had peed themselves!! The same ride op who announced earlier, then announces "Attention in the Stealth queue line, as you are aware Stealth has ceased operation due to essential cleaning... and can I take this opportunity to remind you that there are toilets throughout the park for you to use" The queue line applauded and laughed, epic!!SAW Alive was good, I was at the back and had a couple of strange noises made in my ears which made me jump! Seems to have improved since my first visit in March - one of the rooms in particular was so so smoky! (the room with the man who raps the chains on the floor!)So yes, all in all - a very pleasant day! Gorgeous weather too!!

Oh and I'm off to Thorpe Park tomorrow for a non-Fright Night should be-completely-empty-day! Fingers crossed that cruel Mistress, Stealth behaves herself. Doesn't look like I'll get to ride my beloved Slammer either!

Agree 100% with Ryan, we were with two mates who hate Jedward, but I caught them bopping to All The Small Things - was a real laugh Very well organised as I say too, on the whole! I shall put up some videos on to Facebook this evening of Jedward, should anyone be interested The Mr Stay Puft was epic too! ;)I don't normally dabble with TP or CWoA on peak days, so have never witness queues like that for such small rides (although I guess it's all about target audience!) Past the solider for Truckers? Ouch! I do like Ramases having such a short queue though!We love Bayun Maximus - "You've got a very excited face, where have you come from today?" "Portsmouth" "Oh, Portsmouth, that sounds exotic!" And some kid asked "Who's your favourite out of idiot & Dom?" (who were presenting Wii Party) "I'll say Dom because saying the other one out loud is very rude" :PWe chatted to Bayun a couple of times, one of our highlights haha. And we're all in our mid-late 20s....!!

Oh and I forgot to say - the Elephant/tree in Wild Asia was absolutely legendary yesterday, so so funny!

Went to Chessington yesterday for the Wii Party - we had won 4 free tickets! All in all was a good day, the park was pretty darn busy, haven't been to CWoA when it's been busy for ages (last time I went was on a Thursday in May for my birthday, was so so dead!)Longest queue times I witnessed were:Vampire - 90 minsDragons Fury - 60 minsToytown Truckers - 50 mins (I sh** you not!)Flying Jumbos - 50 mins (again, I sh** you not!)Dragon Falls - 60 minsRattlesnake - 30 minsRamases Revenge - 5 minsToadies Crazy Cars - 20 minsSeastorm - 20 minsBubbleworks - 45 minsKobra - 60 minsBlack Buccaneer - 20 minsSafari Skyway - 30 minsI could not believe the queue times for the kid's rides! Park was looking good though I must say, always well presented. Anyone know why the cut through by the Vampire is blocked off? It's just a dead end at the moment.There was some downtime for a number of rides though - Dragons Fury went down around 4pm (but did reopen after 5), Tomb Blaster was down all day I think (at least, it was from 11am), Ramases went down mid-afternoon, Kobra went down early afternoon and reopened, Dragon Falls was down from 3pm too.... however, the park did stay open till 6 instead of the advertised time of 5pm, which was good of them!I managed to get on Rattlesnake, Ramases Revenge, Bubbleworks, Tuk Tuk Turmoil... and that was it! We just didn't want to queue 60mins to be honest, and as I say, were free tickets so we weren't majorly fussed! We went to feed the Lorikeets, but they'd had too much to eat all day - so our £1 honey was a waste of time, sigh!! There were Wii stations dotted about the park to play on, and the concert in the evening was very well organised - access was through the back past the lorikeets. They closed Wild Asia early at 3:30pm to allow for the concert. That South Car Park was a bit of a mudbath though Had a peek in the Holiday Inn whilst waiting for my mates to turn up, very swish indeed! The new Savannah experience is very well presented, but all the animals were inside at 4pm! So yes, to conclude - was a good day (because it was free entry!) Park looking good, staff were good (other than a chap on admissions who put us in the wrong queue, but that may have been misinformation on Nintendo's part!) - was pretty busy, but enjoyed it! Had lunch at Refresh cos we're healthy like that!

I'm looking forward to it too - I do love Chessington - hoping it won't be toooo busy tomorrow, I mean, it is October?!JoshC - I was waiting for a comment like that

I'm guessing it's for the Nintendo Event tomorrow? Alexandra Burke and Jedward are playing after the park closes! My mate won 4 tickets so we're getting a free visit to CWoA tomorrow

It was awesome and surreal! Loved it, and made the day just that little bit more special!We had Peeking Heights to ourself (more my girlfriends cup of tea!) - but that's not quite the same!

Meant to post this at the time but completely forgot - I went to CWoA on my birthday - park was so so dead other than a couple of school groups that were going on certain rides at certain times, that we just avoided.... anyway, to cut a long story short, I ended up on Ramases completely by myself, completely the highlight of my day!The ride op had a chat with me over the PA, asked my name, said nice to meet you, my name's Chris (I think?) - anyway, was such a good laugh! People looking on too including my girlfriend. After going round once, the ride op said "How was that Mat?" and "Do you fancy some spins?" - to which he then did the cycle with the 4 flips mentioned below.By the sounds of it, this is now regular when it's not busy... however, being by myself made it so special!

It is a good laugh isn't it? You can clearly see in the footage prior to Katie and Amir going on Rush that Swing A goes higher than Swing B... or whichever way round it is

Geek post - anyone notice that the "Detonator" logos had been covered up? Something to do with *too much* advertising perhaps?As previously stated, how good do the overhead shots of the park, and the ride VTs look - Stealth looks sexay! haha

Small world!! I don't think they could believe their luck either, haha. I won't go on something like Colossus if I've just eaten... in fact, I only tend to go on it in the morning before lunch If the whole group had been together, there would've been 4 of us in a line and I'm sure it would've got us!!

Poor Stealthy indeed! I thought that cable was replaced quite recently? Or at least, last year? Or was that just another rumour I hope she feels better soon!! Any rollbacks this year yet? I still want one!

And the Stealth launch mist is working The park looks really tidy right now - I know it's the start of the season, but it's clear that they've had a really good tidy up! New signage, queue matrix signs replace where applicable (e.g. Banana Boat) - good stuff!

Agree with BenC to be honest - just posted a review of today in Trip Reports - themeing on SAW Alive is top notch, but I rate Asylum and Hellgate as more of a head**** (for want of a better word!!) than SAW Alive... For me, the SWAT guys at the start were very good on both occasions, one girl told him to "eff off" and he bellowed in her face "DON'T YOU DARE SWEAR AT ME, JUST SHUTUP AND WATCH THE VIDEO" They also took the mickey out of a chap in front for tidying his hair, and also the guys behind for not wanting to touch each other's shoulders The final scene was the best for me on SAW Alive - prior to that, there were some good scares of people grabbing my legs, the pig mask chappy turning up in our queue line... but there was a lack of actors today as a whole. The electric fence part was particularly dead - what are they going to do there now they can't have it electrified?!I like the countdown clocks... but I'm sure they were wrong at one part and time went backwards in that we suddenly had 8 minutes left then 10 or something? Hmmm!So yes - all in all, good effort, I just hope it continues to improve and be tweaked. Those actors must be shattered though doing that all day, so credit to them. Must be hard work!

Went to Thorpe today... and as confirmed already, lovely and empty! Perfect if you're with peeps who don't want to do everything, as they only have a 5 min wait for you to get on a ride and get off!Longest queue we were in all day was 20 mins for SAW... the boards said 30 but it was more like 20! Highest queue times we saw was 30 mins for SAW, 20 mins for SAW Alive, 30 for Nemesis Inferno. Everything else was 0 or 5 mins! Other than Samurai, which, thanks to it's new found popularity being near SAW Island, had a 15 minute queue.Ride counts:SAW The Ride x1SAW: Alive x2Rush x1Detonator x2 (I still love Detty!! It's classic! On our second go, we were left waiting at the top... we thought it was going to drop but it took aaaaages!!)Slammer x1Nemesis Inferno x1 (at the front... epic! Full mist in that tunnel too, and the lights working - good stuff Thorpe!)Stealth x1 (at the front - also epic! I still love Stealth, still my favourite, despite what I'm getting onto next....)Colossus x1Admitedally, the ride counts were a little lower than usual as I was being social today!! I sat out of a ride on SAW because I'd just "felt the force of the mighty Slammer" Also no water rides as it was raining in the afternoon!My only slight niggle of the day was that spiteful mistress Stealth, haha. We joined the 5 minute queue at 11am and it ceased operation... managed to get a ride front row later... then came back at 3 and she wasn't in operation again! The ride attendant suggested it might be down for the rest of the afternoon - anyone know what's up with it? I love the ride, but her reliability has been questionable so far!! Didn't see any other breakdowns at all during the day... Rush was on two swings (woot!), Colossus on 2 trains, Stealth on 1 train, Nemmy on 1 train. My mates managed to dodge a load of falling vomit on Colossus when they were walking under the arch near the final stretch into the station before the final barrell roll... yuck!! Haha.SAW Alive I was on the whole, impressed with. Themeing inside is very good, but I think - to be brutally honest - Asylum and Hellgate pack more of a punch than SAW Alive... there was some great scares with people jumping up from the floor, grabbing your legs... and the two chaps who make you watch the "welcome" video at the start were fab both times. Their voices must be shot to pieces!! I felt compelled to do what they said, haha. Second "ride" on SAW Alive wasn't as good as the first, there were a number of instances where there were no actors at all. Similarly, the scene that *did* have the electrified fence is rather weak to say the least, as there was no one in there at all. The final room was v. good on both occassions, so thumbs up there. I know it's still early days, and work in progress... but I think I was expecting to be more grossed out than I was! Credit where credit's due though, it did whiff in there! Summary for today was more actors required, specifically in the electric fence part... all in all though, a pretty good job and I'm sure it'll get better. Pig mask person - thumbs up to them too!!To conclude - the park is looking very presentable, everything's been degummed, the signs - EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE ALL IN CAPITALS - look good - in a way! - and it was good to see the new Colossus sign, Nemesis Inferno's volcano working, Stealth smoke working - and CCR choo chooing!! Another niggle whilst I think of it - the new Nemesis Inferno music is rather awful, as is the new Colossus theme - bring back the "Power of 10" whispering music please! Stealth launch was a mix of "5! 4! 3! 2! 1! GO GO GO!" and "Beware, the car is about to move" or something similar, which amused me!