MattyMoo

I am now... employed!! My first ever job, I am so grateful for the opportunity I got given by college to go and work there for work placement and at the end of it, they gave me a temporary Christmas job! Very happy Liam is happy!

I haven't gone running around shouting about my private life, but...
This summer my mum was diagnosed with breast cancer. Fast forward to now and she's finished her chemo, is due to start radiotherapy in a week, and is doing really well! She hasn't been given the all clear yet but after the initial surgery she was told things are looking positive, and she was given extra treatment as a preventative measure.
As much as I could rant about how cancer is horrible, blah blah blah, I don't see the point. I'd rather focus on how well my mum is doing than fixate on the fact she was diagnosed with it in the first place.
Proud daughter right here!

There doesn't seem to be any positive equivalent of the ever popular rant thread. What a miserable bunch. I'll start...
Right now I am on a month long driving course at work where I get to spend all day every day driving a variety of fairly high performance vehicles very very fast. Learning to do it safely of course, and the concentration required is very draining, but I don't know how it would not be possible to not love every minute of it. Three weeks still to go, big grin on my face at the thought of going back to 'work' on Monday.

Naked Swarm trains make you glad Merlin actually bothered to theme them...

http://thorpeparkmania.co.uk/news/26-11-2013/Closed-Season-November-2013
Closed season update from the park here.
Please avoid taking these pictures / uploading them to your own twitter / FB
Enjoy!

Yeah you can't just make a comment like that and not go into further detail....it's cruel.

Hi everyone, I am new to this forum, and I wanted to start by asking a quick question about the trip I am planning to Chessington on the 14th of December. I have been to the park once before during the summer time and it has been really busy - should I do expecting this for my trip in December, or is it going to be much quieter? Also, it would be useful to know which rides to do first, queue times expected, and places to eat. I hope it's going to be a great trip!
Thanks!!

Hey look guys, Thorpe have posted a picture of a wooden coaster, they MUST be getting one now, otherwise why would they post it?
Right?

And who are you?

£400 each
roughly

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?

I think Squirrel Nutty closes at regular time even if the park opens later sadly.

They need to sort out these issues. After finally getting on The Smiler I really enjoy it and it's a great ride - now sort out the issues!

Chessington Buzz have just posted this picture on their facebook page:

Fast track no longer available on Vampire this season due to how busy the ride was with it over the summer.
Hopefully this means a more sensible, faster-moving queue over the Halloween season - and the possibility of more than one night ride!

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.

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.

"Civilised TPM Christmas Meet"
Civilised....Really....that makes it sound like an old persons function

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.

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.

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.

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

I don't want to look at naked men....

Digging down is a good option, look at Rattlesnake, it is a tall ride, but you don't notice it until you are almost on top of the ride due to it being dug down. There are always options.
I do wonder if they shut down Chessie and move it elsewhere if Kingston suddenly change their mind...? Probably not as the council are always in it for themselves/their own gain or personal opinions and not the people they serve.
I agree they can't build 100ft drop tower and traffic has to be managed, but there is no reason why Chessington can not expand and put in decent car parks and even improve the local traffic junctions. If huge supermarkets can get new roundabouts, dual carriageways, traffic light junctions put in, then so can Chessington.
*cough* back handers *cough*

Ahh okay thanks this helped a lot! My only issue now is that the website states that 'your first maze will always be at three' regardless of what time you pick... its so confusing xD but thanks a lot, I think I will get them, if only because two of my friends who are coming are really nervous and queuing for too long might just make them feel worse haha

I would say the not touching thing is an American problem that unfortunately for them probably cannot be solved without changing their culture...
"Ew they breathed on me, I'm sueing the park for mental trauma!"