MattyMoo

Yep very unappealing this year, Zoo Days http://www.chessington.com/plan-your-trip/festive-zoo-days.aspx There is a new Christmas walkthrough attraction I suppose....? No mention of Hocus Pocus Hall. I think if you go not expecting too much from the day you'll be alright! I don't think it would hurt them to open a couple of smaller rides in my opinion!

The next big thing at Thorpe Park is the fabled Detty 2nd tower for duelling Dettys.

More cracking press for The Smiler - glad I got my first ride on it a few weeks ago! Any truth in the rumour that Thorpe's new Top Spin for 2014 is now being installed at Alton to replace the Smiler?

Rode the Smiler for the first time yesterday - decided to head straight for it in the morning just in case it decided to misbehave. The sheer size and integrity of the thing is quite overwhelming when you see it. I won't ramble on too much, but: Even walking round it (without queuing) - that enclosed cattle pen goes on for-ev-er, I can't imagine having to queue for 60 mins plus like that (hence why I'll never visit a theme park on a peak day!) Drainage does seem to be a bit of an issue in parts of the queue Area on the whole though is very impressive as I say - very imposing and so dense in terms of track! Pre-loading area of the station would be impressive except one of the projectors had a blue screen showing "no input" which rather killed the effect! Surely that should've been spotted on a walk round in the morning as we were literally the first batch of people on? I do love the clinical look of the main station, and the lights when you leave but the station is almost "too" sparse? And particularly unappealing from the outside The ride itself was pretty brilliant I have to say - even with playing the game I had no real idea where I was heading next,other than there was going to be a bit of respite in a minute for the vertical lift hill Second section - I definitely felt that "jolt" that everyone talks about, ouch! Other than that though, I thought the ride was pretty smooth - seemed far less rough than Saw For what AT have achieved in such a comparatively small area, is to be commended in my view. I did come off the ride feeling rather disorientated, and, other than that jolt - couldn't really fault it from start to finish. I actually like the fact that after the vertical lift hill, there isn't a beyond vertical drop as it would be too obvious Loved the shop (how often can you say that...!), attention to detail is brilliant and Smiler Shop TV is spot on. Particularly liked the Smiler pen bit where the presenter uses it to write "Smile smile smile smile" over and over. Bought myself a cushion (£15) cos it matches our yellow sofa and a paperweight (reduced to £18 from £40!) as I thought that was a fair price! Loved the hype in the queue line, good mix of first time riders and also re-riders - certainly has people talking, which is good. And as a sidenote - I'm not a Rita fan anyway (Stealth ftw) - but that scaffolding in Dark Forest looks absolutely TERRIBLE. Th13teen broke down yesterday but other than that, all rides behaved themslves - and as any FB fwends would have seen, Sonic had longer queues than Smiler for a fair bit of the afternoon, peaking at 70 - yes, 70 - minutes against Smiler's 50. All other rides were 0-30 all day really, with the majority being 0-10.

Yep no bother at all on the gate, the chap had a wadge of replacement tickets and swapped it Park is so dead today! Except for Spinball...!

Cheers folks I did think I shouldn't worry. Benin - I'm going this Tuesday, and am pleased the weather forecast has changed from "heavy rain and sunny spells" to "light rain and sunny spells"...!

I know double post, but just wondering if anyone can help on this?

Power cut currently on park, affecting all areas except Forbidden Valley and Katanga Canyon...

Quick question... I've been given two gate passes (complementaries), however one is faded... How good are the scanners at the gate? Tried the faded one with a barcode scanner on my phone and it couldn't read it, but it could on the non faded one! I would assume the scanners on the gate are better than my phone and more tolerant

I'm off on Tuesday 22nd, I'm hoping this day should be quiet - I don't think the schools are on half term at that point?

Mods - could someone take a look at planenut's account please, think he may have been hacked?

If it is going, I really hope Thorpe don't leave it SBNO for the 2014 season, that area near Saw Island is bad enough with CCR remains and Saw Alive being derelict for most of the season!

Didn't realise there was new Lucy Rose stuff - will listen when back from work!

Love both of Miley's singles and can't wait for the album... Gaga's "Applause" is a grower, "Roar" by Katy Perry far more instant. Looking forward to those two albums arriving too Bought Birdy's new album this week which is rather gorgeous even if I say so myself. "Wings" - Just beautiful <3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJTXDCh2YiA Haim's new one on it's way too

Would LOVE to do this but that weekend is manic as my girlfriend is off to New York and I'm heading up to Alton Towers for the 22nd. Have fun folks and you'll see me on a meet again soon

I'm guessing sandbags will be with regards to the flooding/drainage issues?

I don't like the idea of having to play metaphorical "russian roulette" as to if the Smiler will be open or not when you visit - who does it think it is, Slammer?!

Impressive stuff.... hope Smiler starts behaving a little better by the time Scarefest comes around.....!

Towers Street have just posted a photo of a pump truck on site - reported drainage issues at the bottom of the lift hill. Facepalm.

Post and photo on TTF shows work being done on the vertical lift hill. Again. All I know is, when I go on 22nd October, I am heading straight for the Smiler queue with it's current track record

Smiler... currently closed... yada yada... EDIT: Maybe it's closed as they need to remove that extra "N" from "Innoculator"

Smiler is closed again - apparently never opened this morning...

Just reading some of the horror stories on Facebook posted by guests - 2 rides in a days visit, cracking! Mentions of 4 rides being down - RMT, RR... what else?

Puppets are freaky and creepy full stop. Bring it on!

Nor have I (sadly) - couldn't go to Fright Nights last year! I really hope that FN's 2013 are a return to the glory years - more park wide audio, roaming actors, lights and dry ice please