MattyMoo

From bill's post mentioning how the ride sysem would logically be new-ish. Well let me put it this way, dragon falls has a fairly ancient control system of relays etc in it's own space. You could run dragon falls of an I phone (although not nearly reliable enough)
Those vents which let heat/smoke out incase of evacuation can be alarming to the other operators. As Tomb is only one fag butt away from becoming a towering inferno!

so yeah visited today, and what would have been a pretty quiet day turned in to be a bit of a pain with numerous breakdowns and mostly one train operation!
 
still got a great 28 rides done due to 10 minutes early ride time, and just generally planning the day right (although did get unlucky a few times with the breakdowns and shocks of how big the queues were due to one train operation - at least this is small thorpe park and not massive alton towers otherwise it would have been awful)
 
Rush x4
Vortex x3
Swarm x2 (front and back row)
X x2
Nemesis Inferno x2 (front row x2)
Detonator x2
Slammer x2
Colossus x1 (front row)
Stealth x1 (back row)
Saw x1 (front row)
Quantum x1
Flying Fish x1
Depth Charge x1
Loggers Leap x1
Rumba Rapids x1
Chief Rangers Carousel x1 (first time ever which means I've now done every ride currently available at thorpe park!)
King Pigs Dodgems x1
Samurai x1
 
Pros:
- Billy the puppet on Saw had sunglasses on, I was literally in hysterics, found it way funnier than I should have.
- Slammer had all seats open again and seemed like they were getting through the cycles quick even though there was pretty much no queue.
- Swarm was running amazingly fast and smooth throughout the day, and so was Nemesis Inferno on my two goes first thing in the morning, also had an intense but smooth go on Saw.
- Vortex running amazing yet again, please stay like this forever!
- Not sure if a good or a bad thing but got soaked on Rumba Rapids (and that never happens), and hit the bottom of Loggers Leap with a massive thud and got soaked even with a poncho on, still fun haha!
 
Cons:
- Stealth was down for what seemed like quite a long period of time, not sure what was wrong but seen 2 workers looking at the fins on the launch.
- Angry Birds 4D was down from about lunch, and was then down all day as far as I'm aware due to technical difficulties (LOL).
- 40+ minute queue all day pretty much on Nemesis Inferno, Stealth & Colossus due to 1 train operation (and The Swarm at the beginning of the day seemed to have 1 train and racked up a nice 40+ minute queue before it went down) - funnily enough it seemed like they added a second train on Colossus right at the end of the day (as I seen it testing and then started loading people on the 2nd train) to get the queue down so the workers go home quicker.
- Man selling fast track at the entrance of The Swarm when it was on 2 trains and there was no queue before the baggage room pretty much, and seen people going through the fast track entrance - absolutely ridiculous!
- Samurai was closed for most of the day, and then opened to 30/40 minutes queues for most of the remainder of the afternoon!
- Rumba rapids had a queue up to the bridge... decide to join and notice them sending round like 2 in a boat (even 1 by themself at one point - so no batching), decide to stay in the queue, be in it for about 10 minutes with queue staying about the same, and then a little bit before we go on, they finally decide to batch which really does my head in when they don't do it before the queue gets too big, as I was looking forward to getting a picture of just us 2, and then batch just before we get on after we've been waiting all that time!
 
Found out general day guests can pay £20 for an unlimited digital download pass for the day.
 
All in all can't believe I got such a good ride count... stayed on the flats and water rides for most of the day as they had barely any queues... so did really enjoy it... I just hate merlin with their one train operation and scamming fast track schemes!

Haha yes I agree with you there. Last year was a bit of a disaster and there are literally dosens of incidents which were kept quiet. I guess thats something they are just as good as disney at, keeping it all out of the press!
I do wonder, if the hotel was to change overall ownership (rather like the way it used to be, or run as a franchise) what would happen on the payroll, as maintenance now look after the hotel - not an external company.
I really can't help but think that money spent would mean money saved in the long run. That, and people panicking and making unprofessional mistakes!
Bring the painters in I say, like the old days.

It's a week away, there is no point getting antsy about it, because if they're closed there's nothing that can be done about it... I'm sure if they reopen someone will mention it...

"Chessington is not Disneyland nor does it pretend to be Disneyland,"
Well in the handbook it does say...
"our vision, to be the global leader in location based branded family entertainment"
sounds distinctly disney to me.
The facts are that Runaway was more than capable of running last year after the decaying fire hazard rockwork was removed. But it was eventually decided after several weeks of sitting on hands that runaway could be re-packaged as a new attraction.
The same I regret to tell you is true of ramesies, all it needed was a new restraint system to be shipped post haste. But as merlin don't much care for post haste it was left to decay yet further.
I must make something clear, you can't blame the engineers. They are overworked as it stands and with the ailing rides lineup along with the uncertian future of the park, and it's assets. The morale sadly isn't great!

If the visiting reason is night rides then Towers does win though...

What do we think are the chances of Asylums theme music being kept? Be nice if they kept it for Studio 13 but similarly it'd be nice if they created a new one equally as good. Thoughts?

Maybe they just fancied cutting the grass? 

SAW was broken down almost all day on Wednesday, not that I particularly minded tbh, its probably my least favourite coaster there. That's not to say its all bad, the theming is great and the inside section is awesome... its just rough and unreliable and tbh the outside section and the main drop are slightly underwhelming. I swear it was a lot better when it first opened. I find it to be more painful than Colossus, though perhaps that's because Colossus has more going on and is tbh overall better IMO and it distracts you from the pain
Either way- NOT impressed with an all day break down!

Yeah about that, if you want to throw the grammar card out, you might want to make sure your own post is perfect first. Pot kettle black and all that.

People enjoyed Rodeo, Boneshaker, Dynamo, Vampire with its classic trains, Big Bad Wolf at Williamsburg was adored, Samurai at Chessington was a force to be reckoned with. I even used to love a pulled pork sandwich which Waitrose used to sell. It doesnt change the fact that Slammer has been on borrowed time for years and it is only to Thorpe's credit that they have put up with its reliability for so long.

No they won't. Whats with this Merlin will do this, Merlin will do that rubbish people keep spouting. It didn't save the worlds first blackwards roller coaster being turned to face forwards, what makes you think Slammer will stay if it becomes to expensive to keep.

Lets not build anything ever then, eh? This country is a shambles when it comes to planning.
 
I do wonder though how much Merlin shoot themselves in the foot with with these problems with their tight opening hours, dumping all their traffic out right on top of rush hour. Extending the hours out a bit to spread the pain into quieter roads would surely help.

Love a good talk about social welfare in the Legoland topic.

I do like the rainbow coloured stairs as you exit though!

They'd even gone to the effort of weighting down some of the crisp packets to stop them blowing away (so someone could come and pick them up)...

And 2nd Detty Tower confirmed.

I felt pretty much a legend at Thorpe park on the second walking past a group of people who dropped litter on the floor. You know the usual bottle plastic bag crisp wrapper so I bend down pick up the bottle and the crisp packet a gust of wind blows the plastic bag in the air I catch it with my spare hand and just put it in the bin then walk off that was fun  

And 2nd Detty Tower confirmed.

And 2nd Detty Tower confirmed.

Top Spin.

I love the sound of Rush's hydraulics though it must be said  
 
 
Then again, I just love Rush.

In the dome toilets, hand in hand.

Trees around Fungle Safari (especially near Inferno's exit) are being tagged! The space is marked on the MTDP as a potential ride spot remember.

Do you mind, that's Merlin's finest themeing you're talking about