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It's currently unavailable!

Any ideas on why this isn't open yet?

Does it still have the same theme music or did this change too?

I think he was on about this sign: 1517590_1400269473552705_2020720571_n.jpg Not the best picture but it reads: 'Private Bubbly Bits. Access To Staff Only'.

It would be amazing if it was rerouted. In my opinion it could cover so much more of the zoo and the park and the route could be extended, maybe even with a second station if people wanted to get off etc. This will, of course never happen. The ride needs some serious attention, its still most popular in the school holidays. Last time I went, the queue stretched out to the doughnut shack. Although that being said, it is the oldest ride in the park and is probably weathered (train wise) quite a bit, especially being high up with the snow/ice so maybe this ride will be the next to be closed for refurbishment due to it being deemed 'unsafe'. Although perhaps they'll get rid of it altogether... I do hope this isn't the case though!

They haven't started yet. I think they were just focussing on Falls and getting that open first. I believe they are removing the mountains/rocks around the ride, or at least some of them. Whether they will be replaced, watch this space....

Going to drag this topic back up again. Sometimes I wonder if its just me who has this opinion of Safari Skyway. It's a fantastic ride, popular, often getting queues (especially in the summer) that stretch the length of the cattlepen queue line. It covers around half the zoo lets say and has a good commentary to help first time guests discover more of what the park has to offer. With this in mind, just way is this ride in such a state? It's true that Chessington have probably been working hard 'behind the scenes' for the upkeep of the ride, which is fair play to them. The trains are so bad now. As I said in my trip report, some of the doors don't close and guests are having to shut them themselves (especially if they are on the operators side who can't leave their post). They are rusty, peeling and altogether in dire need of refurbishment. Paint, anything! As somebody else mentioned on another thread, the track and supports are in a pretty good condition. The point is, if this ride is so popular, why are the park letting it get into this kind of a state. I know and realise they probably don't want it to look like that and they probably have bigger fish to fry. But we've seen what years of neglect have done to Dragon Falls and The Runaway Train recently and thats meant, not only keeping them closed in the open season but spending shed loads of money on keeping them running for another few years. I think the ride itself has a good few years left in it yet IF the park do something about it this season or next. What are your thoughts? Does it need refurbing? Do you like it? Do you think it will stay? Do you think it SHOULD stay? I'd be really interested to hear your views, to see whether I'm the only one!!

In a way, its a shame this ride is now open almost all year round. It means they are unable to do as much maintenance as they used to do (pre 2010). For example, little things like touch ups of paint in the ride, the 'band lights' in the station not working correctly are becoming more and more noticeable. On a more positive note, has anybody noticed the lighting has changed in the finale recently? They are the same colours but more of a quicker sequence rather than the gradual fading it had before. It has made the finale much more colourful and flashy (a little like the strobes) which is great to see.

Is the split track available anywhere? Or do you own it personally? I do miss that Vampire track that used to play with the howls and screams down by the entrance. The ride could do with some queueline music. Something different to the station theme though, there must be a long(ish) piece of music that could be played on a loop to help set the atmosphere.

I've never written a Thorpe Park trip report before, so lets see how this goes (I may raise points that have already been discussed, so I apologise in advance!). We had left Chessington at 1pm due to most of the rides shutting down due to the weather. I didn't realise how close TP was to Chessington. We arrived (due to some traffic) at 1:45pm. We walked up to the entrance (no queues, yay!) with our annual passes and tried scanning them to enter. However, we were told by a member of staff that because our passes were created at Chessington, they won't work at the TP turnstyles. By the reaction of the person on the gate, this seemed like a regular occurrence. We headed into the park (BITTERLY cold) and straight over to Samurai. The queue was about 25 minutes. I had been on this ride before (about 2 years ago) and I had said back then that it was probably my favourite ride in the park. This changed today. It started off well, but whatever setting it was on was really quite poor. No thrills really, just flying around in the air. Its such a shame, as I know there are other settings and maybe the weather was responsible. Either way, I was disappointed, especially when it took ages to 'park'. The experience wasn't made great by people rocking the arms. They were 'dealt' with by a great ride operator, who was really rather upbeat and entertaining not only the people on the ride but the people in the queue. I liked how she would tell them to get off the fence, but follow it up with a comment to make them laugh. Suffice to say, they didn't sit on it again so the tactic worked well! After Samurai, we headed over to Loggers Leap. My friend has specifically said 'NO WATER RIDES'. I assured him, this one was okay because you didn't really get wet (how wrong I was!). I was quite upset to hear that the lovely country songs were no longer playing. I'm not sure if this is a long term thing, but I used to love queueing up listening to strands of Jolene by Dolly Parton (sad I know) but it fitted the area so well. None the less, we boarded our boat within 5 minutes and were off. I personally don't mind the tunnel/roof not being there. I just feel they could have been a bit neater with it. It literally looks as if its been ripped off (I know it actually was!). Hopefully they will neaten this up at some stage (or not). The actual ride was really nice, one of my favourites. I was impressed to see they had replaced all of the roll back devices on the lift hill too. Last time I rode this, there were literally 5/6 out of about 20 that were actually catching the boat when it went past them. We were offered the chance to stay on as there was no queue, but we got off, simply because we got much more wet than we expected. We then spent the next TWENTY minutes trying to find the Swarm. I could see it was behind Stealth, but wasn't sure how to get there!! Eventually we made our way through the slow blizzard up the main gate. I would have liked to have ridden it backwards, but had never ridden the ride before and wasn't sure if you had to pay etc, so we stuck with going forwards. The theming is absolutely amazing. Even my friend, who doesn't usually mention or pick up on the theming of rides was mega impressed. The news report playing on the tv in the queueline was a great touch too. Interesting to watch (I was reminded by my friend more than once that it wasn't real! - it's quite hard not to get into it though!). We boarded the third row on the right hand side. I wasn't sure whether you were allowed to go over to the left side or not? We weren't really directed anywhere, so presumed we should just bear left. The ride itself was immense. I had never ridden it before, to the billboard was a fantastic point in the ride, a real near miss. Next we went on to Stealth which had a 10 minute queue. By this time, it had a two train operation so the batching was quite quick. (Really pleased to still hear WWTP still playing in this area! - I'm pretty sure Thorpe Park is the reason 90% of my itunes is 60s music!). I loved the steam effect and the ride itself was its usually awesome self. After Stealth, we headed over to the Nemesis Inferno. Another great ride, this ride is consistantly great, so not much to add. The only negative point of this ride is the 10 mile walk to the exit after exiting the station . Next we headed down to Zodiac, which I rode by myself. I've only ever been on the ride once, and I have to say, in my opinion, its nothing special. It's a fun ride and definately one I'd ride again, but it seems to be over really quickly and you don't seem to feel much when your on there. I find it to be quite relaxing! After Zodiac, Vortex followed naturally. I do love this ride, but the scariest bit for me is when the restraints are brought down!!!!! The speakers need to be replaced too, the operator was speaking to the ride, but the speakers kept cutting out and was just heard in the queueline instead. Another great ride and another of my favourites. We walked straight past Rush (simply because it was only using one swing and I always find its too short to get any thrill from it anyway). We decided to go on the SWARM again. This time the ride was almost walk on, and again awesome. We finished with another ride on Stealth, which marked the end to a fantastic afternoon. The park was really quiet (probably owing to the weather) so most rides were walk on and the only rides unavailable were Colossus and SAW. I can't believe the people that were braving Tidal wave! The crash pad looks ummm okay! I'd be quite interested in staying the night to see what it is like. We exited the park and paid £4 to exit the car park. Why is Chessington £2 and TP £4?! A great day had by us and we'll definately be back in a few weeks with our AP again! Ride Count: SWARM x 2 Stealth x 2 Samurai x 1 Loggers Leap x 1 Vortex x 1 Zodiac x 1 Nemesis Inferno x 1

It's been a while since I've posted on here, so I thought I'd write a trip report from my short trip to Chessington today. Arrived at the park at around 10:45am. The north car park was about half full, so I was pleasantly surprised, as I was expecting to have to park in the south car park. We (myself and my friend) had come to the park to pick up our annual passes. It had been about 3/4 years since we had last got an annual pass, so we went for the standard Merlin one. I was expecting to queue at the kiosk next to the guest toilets just outside of the gates, but the booths that were used for day tickets last time I went had been changed to just deal with annual pass processing. The actual online process I found to be quite easy and was pleased I was able to upload a picture to have on the pass. It was processed within about 2 minutes. Great service. Once inside the park, we headed straight to the Bubbleworks. I personally liked the exterior of the Bubbleworks. The music playing in the area is great too, one of the tracks 'Clarinet Polka' is a particular favourite of mine! The grey seems to fit much better than the contrasting red/blue/yellow that it had before. The actual exterior building does need some TLC though. The ride itself had a 5 minute queue. The ride itself was still bad. People often ask me why I still ride it (they say to me 'it's for kids'. This may be true, but for me it brings back some of my childhood. Admittedly, not so much anymore since its all about the ducks, but hey, the ride will always be special to me). I found the lighting in the finale to be improved this year. The transitions to each colour were quicker and it was much more colourful and 'flashy'. After Bubbleworks, we headed to the Safari Skyway. I really liked how they had got rid of the bamboo roof in the upper queueline. They have added a wire type game for children to complete whilst waiting. The actual ride is in such a sorry state. I have always loved Skyway and it upsets me to see it in such a state. As somebody mentioned in another topic, the actual track itself is in a fine condition, but the trains are absolutely awful. For instance, the doors don't all close at the same time, some stay open. I actually observed a guest closing the doors themselves on one of the trains, as it was on the operators side of the platform and the platformer was unable to reach over to pull it shut (she did manage to lean over and check it was closed in the end). Due to this and the fact the platformer has to check every door has shut properly (I don't recall them having to do this pre 2012) meant that the dispatching of the trains was extremely slow. At one point 5 trains were stacked up OUTSIDE of the station. I really hope they do something to this ride soon, it may not cover much of the zoo, but in the summer it still pulls in the crowds. After Skyway, we took a walk over to Dragon Falls. It really does look extremely bare without the faces by the drop. The water was running down the drop (although this stopped later in the morning). I wonder if it will open on the 10th April. It was interesting to see signs all around it asking for adventurers views and sketches on what it should look like. I wonder how many guests will respond to this. Peeking Heights was next. I really think you get some amazing views around the park and its a nice gentle ride to see whats happening around the park. Our last ride of the morning was the Black Buccaneer. I see they have added 'rows' this year. You are told where to sit by a host. I can see how this may be frustrating for some guests who may want to sit on the back rows and get the middle ones instead. Before, it was more of a luck of the draw and most people got to sit where they wanted to (when I rode at least). I always find the operators of this ride to be really enthusiastic, I think they have more freedom on what they can say on this ride and its always amusing to hear what they come out with. I think the boat has had a bit of a touch up (where the cross bars are) too, which looks nice. We broke for lunch in the Pizza Pasta buffet. We were seated within minutes and the staff were very friendly. The pizza's were constantly replenished so a big thanks to those staff who worked so hard considering how busy it was. The park itself was absolutely freezing, and by the time we had finished our lunch, the queue for the buffet had reached the doughnut kiosk. I wonder how many people actually wanted to just come into the warm rather than have Pizza! (Although, the 'Burger Kitchen' was of a similar queue, people were standing, leaning on walls eating burgers, literally! After lunch, we went to go on some more rides, but they were literally shutting down around us (due to the weather). Vampire, Safari Skyway, Rattlesnake, Rameses, Tomb Blaster and Dragon's Fury were all down by 1pm. We decided to leave and drive up the road to Thorpe Park. We got into the car and drove up to the turnstyle to exit. However, due to the fact I had never driven before to the park and the fact we had a Merlin pass, we didn't pick up a car park ticket (we knew you had to pay, but where if you have a pass?!). So I had to run back in and pay £2 to exit. I expected to do this, but before I had paid for day tickets and got asked if I had a car in the car park, so I'll remember this in future! All in all, a good day, but as mentioned above, I'm hoping Chessington are putting this £5 million to good use, there's so much of the park that needs some of that money! Ride count: Bubbleworks x 1 Safari Skyway x 1 Peeking Heights x 1 Black Buccaneer x 1

Heard this track playing in the Transylvania area today 'Clarinet Polka'. Here is a clip of it (NOT taken by me):

Good to get it cleared up, Thanks Mark, lots of differing dates!

Dragging up an old topic I know... Thought this would be the best place to post this. Picked up the 'Merlin Top Trumps' today. Was looking at the Chessington cards and something caught my eye about Safari Skyway. It says it opened in 1986, and on several websites it says the same thing, however on many others it says 1987. Saying that it also says Runaway Train opened in 1986 and Bubbleworks/Vampire in 1989. So with that basis, does anyone know which year Safari Skyway actually opened, I've always gone with 1987. Just out of pure interest.

Will add my own report again, went today to the park.After the shuttle bus turned into the park and the whole bus gasped with shock, I could tell it would be busy. It was about 10am and not only were guests queueing around ALL of the metal fencing outside the ticket booths but they had another extension added to that. Guests even began queueing out into the car park under the big entrance sign. I was quite worried we would only get one or two rides in. Being a Chessington fanboy I wasn't used to ever seeing a park this busy.Once we were inside it was quite different. It wasn't quiet but it wasn't packed either. We went straight onto Loggers Leap where they were already queue batching. Only waited for 10 minutes, got suprisingly wet this time, has to be my favourite log flume. We then went over to Stealth which was actually open before midday! (hooray!). It advertised the queue time to be 45 minutes, and we queued from where it says in the queue "45 minutes from this point" but it only took 25 minutes thanks to the efficient staff. We then opted to go for lunch in Burger King early in order to beat the "lunchtime rush".Lunch was followed by a trip to Rumba Rapids where the rapids were quite fierce today! Although in the queueline there was a lot of confusion between the entrance for Fast-track and the main entrance, where people were going down the fast-track entrance without fast-track. They were stopping the queue to batch where the two lines meet. After this (and spending £3 on lockers in just two hours) we went off to SAW - The Ride. It advertised 75 minutes and this was about 5 minutes out. Took just over an hour to get onto and off the ride. Had a fantastic ride operator who spoke to the queue making several humourous jokes/comments which made the whole queue smile. It's staff like this who REALLY make the day better, just little touches. Something he wasn't joking about was the live actors inside. I guess with SAW-Alive shut, they have to go somewhere! They were walking around in the queue line (inside).After SAW - The Ride we went onto Slammer. I'd only ever been on it once before and I don't remember it being as painful. Being quite tall the top restraint hurt! Suffice to say, I doubt I'll be rushing to go back on in a hurry. We then decided to brave Tidalwave. Its worth mentioning that engineers were working hard on the 3rd boat which was put into operation today, so all three boats were running. We only had to wait about half an hour and didn't get 'that' wet. In fact the "Splash Zone" remained pretty much bone dry all day. Then we went onto Samurai which has become my new favourite ride. Took ages to get on. We queued for about 40 minutes, but it was definately worth the wait. This was followed by Vortex which was a nice ride, with a nice queue was on and off really quickly (well for a busy day it was quick anyway!). Our final ride was Quantum and it only took 5 minutes to queue for. Not suprising since it was probably the most painful ride of the day. Sitting at the back row and going forwards and back round again it seemed to jolt ALOT. This resulted in lots of bouncing around in the seat which was at least interesting. We then opted to leave at around 5:15.Queue time averages for today;Storm Surge - 60-90 minsSAW - The Ride - 60-75 minsTidalwave/Stealth/Colossus/Nemesis Inferno/Loggers Leap/Rumba Rapids - 45 - 60 minsDetonator/Vortex/Zodiac/Rush/Slammer - 20 - 30 minsQuantum - 5 minsRide CountLoggers Leap x 1Stealth x 1Rumba Rapids x 1SAW - The Ride x 1Slammer x 1Tidalwave x 1Samurai x 1Vortex x 1Quantum x 1

I want to say it was something to do with the new trains. Coffins removed due to air gates being installed in the queueline. (Can you imagine Vampire today without air gates?! times have changed!!). The new trains were slightly longer too (I think) and so some theming had to be removed to accomodate them. It's theming, which could somehow have been put back, but sadly wasn't. In my view, I don't think they nescessarily needed to do so much work on the station as they did.

Here goes, my first Thorpe Park trip report.Was pleased to hear there were hardly any queues from other guests for this week and last and so decided to visit on a school day. To say today was like that would be a lie, we arrived at the park just before 9:30 and already cars were constantly seeping into the car park. The park opened around 9:50 and we went to SAW - The Ride which opened 5 minutes early! Got to ride this twice before the queues (which were small at the time) built up. Next we went to Stealth where we were greeted by "This ride will be open from midday" - okay then, onto Tidalwave which of course, lived up to its name!!Then we went onto Nemesis Inferno. Not a good idea after Tidalwave, I myself was worried someone might have thought the pressure of Inferno was too much and I had wet myself as I was soaked. It ran well and there was lots of smoke in the tunnel which was nothing short of epic. Then we moved onto Storm Surge which in my opinion, wasn't worth the half hour wait. The lift hill was very slow, but the downhill spiral was actually quite fun, and the water guns at the end were a great effect. It got quite fast going down which also added to the ride experience, however it didn't leave me wanting to ride again right away!By this time, because of the weather, the queues had really started to build up. We headed off to Loggers Leap which had no queue, straight on. Daylight shining through the tunnel in the dark ruined the effect slightly as it wasn't pitch black like before, but its still a fantastic drop inside and the outdoor one is so fast too! Since we were wet already we went onto the Rumba Rapids which is such a good ride (I'm sorry, but I like the slow ones too!). It always makes me laugh how people go onto a wet ride, but when it comes to the water guns at the end they cover themselves up trying not to get hit by them, well I find it strange anyway!!After this we went onto Vortex which didn't have a queue, and provided a fantastic ride experience (except the restraints which scared me a tad as they just shoot down really quickly!). Won't go into Lunch too much, Burger King was empty-ish. After sorting lockers out we moved onto Stealth which had finally opened half hour late. Queued for the front row which took an extra half an hour. We knew this when we started queueing, but what we found annoying was how some of the people who had queued for any part of the train, were allowed to drop their bags off and then join the front row queue. I know the ride probably has rules/regulations, but it was really annoying as we were left standing there, waiting for 20 minutes without moving whilst some other groups were allowed to go to the front when they hadn't queued especially for it!. Stealth was awesome and the wait was definately worth while.After this we ended up going on Colossus twice and then onto Samurai which is always a lot of fun, especially as you seem to move about in your seat so much. Although the smell (egg, not nice) really changed to atmosphere of the whole ride as a lot of riders were covering their noses due to it. Back to SAW which again was great. We then decided to queue up for Stealth again which was probably a mistake. We had been queueing for 10 minutes when it broke down for 10 minutes. We sat it out and got all the way up to the ride platform when it broke down again for another 10 minutes. We were just about the get onto the train when it broke down again (just for a few minutes, but still!), again though, what can I say, it was worth it!!. Afterwards we went back to Loggers Leap with its new 1.2 (I think) height restriction and back to SAW for the last ride of the day. It broke down at 4:55pm. I bet the staff were annoyed. After about 20 minutes and several test runs later we eventually got our ride and left at 5:30pm to a packed bus stop and a 3 and a half hour journey home which should take half that time.Overall a fantastic day, made even better by the weather conditions. Wouldn't say the staff were ALL on top form, where as last wednesday at Chessington, every ride seemed to have staff that were a lot more interactive with the guests, maybe I'm just set in my Chessington ways, I don't know.Ride Count:SAW - The Ride - x 4Stealth - x 2Nemesis Inferno - x 2Loggers Leap - x 2Colossus - x 2Tidalwave - x 1Vortex - x 1Storm Surge - x 1Rumba Rapids - x 1

I'm gonna presume its supposed to be playing but was off/broken (like so OFTEN before!) I'm also intrigued as to whether they have moved the Explosion/Danger music into the area after the Giggle Gas scene, like before!I see they have kept the 17second loop in the fairground too. I still wonder why they took away the original fairground music, it would have still fitted in the ride today and the full loop was about the same length as the other music tracks. Its a shame they haven't yet installed this one again, as I always thought it was probably one of, if not the best music track in the ride!

Rest in Peace.

Okay maybe the model does look a bit fake, so what? In my opinion I'm actually pleased Chessington bothered to make an effort to try and theme the queue. Poor it might be, who knows? However, they put time into doing it and obviously care enough about the ride to try and theme, although whats the point when they are slated for putting out 'fake' animatronics. If it was outside, moving, without any restraints it would be more likely to be vandalised anyway.

I don't know for sure, but I don't think they would have taken away windows just for the sake of it, it would be pointless to do so and probably cost money, if they decided not to use one of the windows they might have just darkened the room. I always thought those white lights for some sort of security light or something? - However it's probably not as dark as it used to be due to new health and safety regulations, the same reason why the airgates were installed. The lights were most probably added during the retheme because the park wouldn't want people to slip, fall and then sue!

I agree, the exterior music this year has been such a welcome addition, although sadly, it was turned down during the year and I think being really loud gave maximum effect! The ride is still bursting with memories for me, especially with the reappearance of Professor Burp last year. I wonder what will happen to that poster this year, if it will be replaced with the same design or a completely different poster. I'm also intrigued to see whether Imperial Leather will last another season, as it was meant to end about 2 years ago!! Whichever way, the old Bubbleworks will never re-appear, we still have the memories, and lets face it, children nowadays still like riding the Bubbleworks, and its capturing, possibly even enchanting for them (the finale) in the newer generation, just like it was for us all those years ago.

My opinion? Of course it has a future at Chessington. You just need to glance at the queues it got last year, especially for Halloween & Summer. It was almost right up to the Bubbleworks entrance, the park can see how popular it is. However, I think from an objective point of view, it does need some work done. Granted whenever the park does actually do work on it, it never seems to be enough, and just spending a few weeks/months giving it some TLC. Repaints/Cobwebs/Maybe using the old entrance as the Express Pass entrance, so at least it can still be integrated onto the ride. I like the idea of painting the track black, and adding strobe/smoke to the tunnel. All very expensive yes, but I think this would only enhance the riders experience, and maybe at least SOME of this can be included in the future as the ride becomes older, needing more attention. I can see it easily lasting another 5-10 years if the park inject a little money into it every now and again.

That's airgates for you! - The station could be much better, of course it could. However, it is still really scary for children nowadays, so in that respect its still meeting its target. Basically, the only main thing missing in the 'newer' station is the cobwebs, much like what they have for Halloween. I think they should keep this all year round, although some extra cobwebs would also be very nice too!

What great pictures, shows they didn't use much glue! Did they colour his face? It seems a bit pointless really, maybe to make it last a little longer. I still wonder why exactly its off, its the most damaged poster, yet the only one that didn't get replaced with the new Imperial Leather logo. Lets just hope this poster doesn't get damaged anymore than it has been, as if I remember, this old poster was also the one most vandalised when it was PBBW.