MattyMoo

How INCREDIBLY short sighted was it installing the Fish in it's new location and then moving it again in a few years time - especially considering the Fungle site has been derelict for ages.

Duelling Top Spins with 2nd Detty Tower in the middle. From a reliable sauce.

I can't make this one unfortunately, but will try and make the Christmas meet up!

Yes I spotted this when I visited on the 21st! RIP Creaky Cafe.

How about getting a permanent "Rock Rage" at Thorpe in that place....? Or would it be too "Vortex"-y? Or perhaps they could brand it as the evil offspring of Vortex...

It was definitely on one train last Tuesday 16th FYI

Cheers Fred - I was a little miffed that one of the ride ops insisted it had always been the case with a minimum of 15 riders when I 100% knew that was a lie

Just in case anyone wondered - that video is exactly the program that Ramases operated on Tuesday (2nd cycle has more spins).

Ummmm - the operators definitely did on Tuesday - made sure the back row got particularly wet. Was good fun!

I prefer Fury too - they are both rough to me, but Spinball seems rougher! Not my kind of ride to be honest

As mentioned in my trip report - I went on Tomb Blaster twice with my girlfriend yesterday - first go, gun didn't work at all. 2nd go, my gun worked but the laser didn't, which made it a touch difficult! Couldn't complain too much as it was walk-on!

As I say - it's not half term week, and it's not a weekend - so really you should expect everything to be 0-15 minute queues, 30 at a push! I don't think there would be much difference between Monday/Tuesday, except I guess with Monday there is more chance of people taking it off to make a long weekend from work. Either way - I would anticipate it being quiet! Air was only using one station from memory - Smiler was full capacity... I can't honestly comment on anything else unfortunately. What I have found though, is a screen cap of queue times from 22nd October last year at around 11am when we were there. Spinball must've had some downtime or something...

Towers seem to have no problem showing 0 minutes anyway

Yep, the finale is the best I've seen it for some time. Good work. Shame that some of the animatronics in a number of scenes are dead though. Still love the Bubbleworks theme music - and the finale music!

Good to see the organist working in the station when we went yesterday - looked really good too with the lights surrounding him in my opinion The queue line is pretty poor in parts - please please please remove that dodgy looking Abdab model...! I would hate to be in the Vampire queue on a 60 minute wait time - actually, I hate to be in any queue for more than 10 minutes if I can help it - off peak visiting ftw!

Going a touch off topic (ish) but I remember in the Good Old Days™ of Chessington, when I was about 5, having the fear of death in me in the Vampire station as the loaders said you only had 30 seconds to get in your seat or the train behind would crash into the one in the station

The water jets are pretty powerful compared to rain though! And you don't tend to have a Topspin getting rained on every 10 minutes EDIT: Forgot to mention - and this is no word of a lie - someone on Ramases Revenge behind me yesterday said.... I WISH THEY HAD ONE OF THESE AT THORPE PARK I wouldn't make that sort of sick joke up

I'm going on the 21st and fully expect the park to be pretty empty from past experience Last year we headed straight for the Smiler, purely because it was unreliable so wanted to make sure we got to ride it I wouldn't recommend the "short cut" from Forbidden Valley to X Sector across the gardens unless you fancy killing some time. It's very picturesque but takes some time - and energy Longest queue last year was the Smiler in the morning, at around 30 minutes - other than that, it was 5/10 minute queues for everything. I'd now probably advise heading to Nemesis and Air first as everyone is likely to head to X Sector first for The Smiler.

There's a board at the main entrance by the Otters, there's one near Wild Asia and there's an even bigger board in Market Square. There might be another near Hocus Pocus Hall but I might be wrong! Yes I thought the Tomb Blaster style queue boards need a little more information on them... I mean you'd probably guess that was the queue time, but you'd be forgiven for not realising. Also - the queue times were more like 0 minutes yesterday, not 5 - yet CWoA doesn't seem to like saying 0 minute queues

In case anyone hasn't seen - new central queue boards, plus the minimal queue time board above Tomb Blaster

I was surprised to see those signs being used. You wouldn't necessarily know they were a wait time as all they say is just a number, not even "minutes" after. I was surprised to see an old-style queue board on Scorpion Express. The new queue summary boards are very good though!

Ah - that would make sense actually. Shame but needed to avoid a repeat incident.

Just got back from Chessington after visiting with my girlfriend today... I've been before in September and thought it was dead - but it seemed even more dead today! The most people I saw congregated together was for the Madagascar LIVE! show at 4pm! All in all a very good day indeed - didn't exactly hammer the ride counts (too old for all that) but it's so nice to be able to walk round and go on anything without queuing AT ALL. Everything was walk on all day from what I saw. Staff were good to very good - very friendly though some evidently a little bored (but I don't blame them on day's like today!) We had lunch at the Chicken Shack which wasn't too shabby at all to be honest - plus they had Stowford Press on draught so that scores major brownie points - was impressed with how well stocked the bar was actually! Rides we went on: Zufari Ramases Revenge x3 Scorpion Express x2 Bubbleworks Vampire x2 Tuk Tuk Turmoil x2 Kobra Toadie's Crazy Cars x½ Lorikeet Lagoon Hocus Pocus Hall Shrimps at the Sea Life Centre Dragon's Fury Dragon Falls Tomb Blaster x2 Flying Jumbos Eclip... I mean Peeking Heights Rattlesnake x2 I think that was everything! The park certainly looks in better shape than previous years. Shame Skyway is down but that looks permanent until next year it would seem. First time on Zufari and was quite impressed - Rhinos were very close indeed, and the driver was particularly good as he decided to "accidentally" reverse back into the cave to get us wet. The ride looks far more established now plant wise than when it first opened and was really rather good all in all! The Hotel looks pretty awesome I have to say, and the Wanyama Reserve around it is well presented still with plenty of animals. As anyone on my Facebook will know - first time we went on Tomb Blaster, my gun wouldn't work at all - so 0 scored. We go again later on, and my gun works - but the laser doesn't, which makes it far more difficult! Still, just a grumble really - not fussed when there was no queue whatsoever. Scorpion Express - first time on it. It's OK but I don't like the "openness" of it now. Feels less thrilling/scary. Good effort to rejuvenate an old ride but could've been better. Got a little wet from the scorpion. Vampire and Fury seemed more fierce than I remember We had a really long go on Tuk Tuk Turmoil in the afternoon due to no queue - and due to the fact, one of the bumper cars managed to get wedged/mounted on top of another so they had to push it off - sounds worse than it is, but I'm surprised there's the force in them to do that! That said - they do seem more powerful than Dodgems I've been at at funfairs etc. Lorikeet Lagoon was great as ever, the birds were obviously hungry - one of the birds feeding from our pots was the one with only one eye, as it had been attacked by another bird! Went on Kobra for the first time (I know right? So out of the game...) and I tolerated it...! My girlfriend wanted to go on Toadie's but the op said it was closed as a car had left the track - not sure that's possible but that's what he said - we went on later, and on our go round, it stopped as the power tripped on one of the cars - so we had to walkthrough the circuit - can't say I've done that before! Have to say that Falls really looks poor with no rocks, at least they've tried to jazz it up a bit with the banner at the top before the drop but I can't wait until the ride finally gets the refurb it deserves... Now - my big bug bear for the day - was Ramases Revenge. That said - I was so pleased it was open after recent down time, but it took me 4 or 5 attempts to ride the thing. Why? The 15 guest rule. Apparently it can only operate now when at least 15 people are riding due to weighting issues. I asked a ride op late in the day, when I finally got on if this was a new thing (because I know it is, as I've ridden RR before by myself and no-one else on the entire ride!) and he said it's always been like that. Maybe since he's been there perhaps My first ride on Ramases, there were around 15 people, and after 1 cycle, ride op asked if we wanted to go round again... most people did, but a handful got off. So we then couldn't go round again, which I find crazy. We waited for a good 5/10 minutes but no passing guests wanted to ride, and by that time, the instant re-ride buzz sort of goes! Managed to get on later in the day, and had 2 rides. 2nd ride certainly seemed more spinny/forceful but I may have imagined it... anyone know the true story behind this 15 rider rule? My view is it's probably because Ramases is nearing 20 years old, so they want to make sure it's only operated as and when is worthwhile, but I may be wrong. Anyway - I managed to ride and rekindle my youth again so I was pleased! All in all - thoroughly enjoyable day and I do honestly feel the CWoA "magic" is back to an extent... it's certainly getting there. Also, kudos to the Madagascar penguins for walking over to us to make us take a photo with them Just little things like that that make all the difference. Ride op on Toadie's was a particularly friendly chap, as was the lady operating the chocolate treats stand near Ramases, and we often got asked how our day was going by staff which is nice!

Thanks for the updates Is Skyway just too old to operate safely now I guess? It does look seriously tired... Good to see RR being tested, I hope it's OK for Tuesday as it's the most thrilling ride there - and a trip without RR is just wrong! As I understand from Twitter, on Saturday the ride stopped at the top leaving a full load of guests stuck temporarily, who were let down safely - and was closed since then.

Hardly anyone even knows it's there or how to get to it...! I see Tomb Blaster and Ramases seem to be open again. I shall report back how dead the park is when we go on Tuesday!