MattyMoo

But... but... Mr. Worldwide is elite, no? Rules are for normal guests

Was it hot/sunny in the faster one by any chance? Wicker Man definitely runs better in the heat. We were thrown into a few of the corners when we rode on 20th April and it was a scorcher of a day then.

DBGTROTD retheme to Dr. Wh0 confirmed, now those fake leaked images make sense ?

That fence around the Buddha looks incredible... ?

Drinks offerings on park at Towers were Stella and Stella Cidre at the Welcome Inn, with some other similar mainstream stuff.

Good work on the Goose Island - was similarly impressed the other year when they had some Meantime beers in that little street food bit that randomly appeared near Crust. Goose Island is now owned by InBev mind you so they are "mainstream" if you like, but that's me being pedantic Better beer selection than Towers anyway!

Didn't know the Tiger Rock tunnel had a PopWorld IP but fair play for securing that one on the quiet, lads!

15/10 on the tunnel scale

Is Quantum still dead? I hear the beloved Rocky Express has been a little under the weather recently too May as well just close off the whole of "Old Town"

Towers isn't exactly heaving "off peak" - looking at today for example, the longest queue I've seen is 20 mins (good old Galactica) with everything else being 0 mins - 15 mins. Right now on the "Family" side of rides at Towers, 19 out of 21 rides have a 0 minute queue. That's a lot of staff doing not a lot - as said above, Merlin can probably cope with that better than a one off attraction could do.

Double post to say - "real" flame effects were off when we visited, everything else was working as it should. There was a bit of a wait for the train to move back into the station as we were stacked behind another both times, but I'm sure this will improve over time

Thanks! Oooh interesting (and also half arsed of Thorpe at the same time!) Maybe the SAW IP is finally going?

Anyone have any photos of that symbol at Fright Nights? New on me....

Got to ride Wickerman on Friday at Towers - I was very concerned we weren't going to get on after travelling 200 miles to get to Towers - but, fair play to Merlin, as despite being down from 1.30 ish, they re-opened at 3.45 with officially 15 minutes of queue-open time remaining - and then stayed open until 4.45pm. In the morning - the ride didn't open until AFTER ERT (oops) and the queues in the morning were peaking at 60-80 minutes so we decided to wait until the afternoon and do the 0 minute queue rides instead, which nearly ended in our downfall Anyway - have to say that I think Merlin are on to a winner with Wickerman here. The queueline is the best I've been in some time in terms of setting you up for the ride, the Wickerman statue looks awesome, and the coaster as a whole is stunning. It really does roar round <3 The pre-show was spot on and sets the scene perfectly. The ride itself I loved (got to ride twice!) - screamed and laughed around the track, fantastic stuff - you can really feel it slide into the corners and it's pretty relentless, and picks up decent speed - it's pitched perfectly if you ask me, a properly fun and thrilling ride, that looks incredible and rides just as well. Great attraction to the lineup, and glad it's come to fruition as I wonder if it was close to getting shelved due to the Smiler accident. Well done Towers - now just fingers crossed the Wickerman starts behaving itself and has less down-time.

15/10 on the justice scale.

Incredible. Is this the same member of staff responsible for #BetterThanNothingGate?

I messaged Alton Towers about this and they said that marked up merchandise was better than nothing

That's good to know anyway - going all that way for 10-4 opening with some rides opening at 11am or midday seems a bit of a joke.

Apparently XNWOTWD was down all day yesterday? The website ticker says Opens Saturday, but that could be an old message...

We're going on Friday 20th April - I find it somewhat ridiculous that Towers still haven't put online the opening hours for that day as yet, but I'm guessing it's going to be a 10-4, sigh. EDIT: They've just gone online, 10-4 it is then....

"You'd never even recognize that it used to be X" I'd beg to differ m8. EDIT: Sir Sanbrooke Esq. speaks the truth lads. He rates it a 5/10 (not a 15/10) and says "You could still tell it was X basically"

This 100%. If the PR machine goes into super HYPE mode, and the reality is something very different and the public are disappointed, then that's no-one's fault other than Merlin's.

@BaronC. Did you charge your phone after the ride? Seemed like a lot of "VIPs" in the queue last night - I understand DBGTROTD broke down last night too, for a change

Hurrah Hope that motorbike is screwed down properly - that looks far too easily accessible for people to mess about with!

Incredible...