tomathy

Thorpe have blocked me on Twitter after tweeting them the Derren Brown image.

My posts keep getting deleted

Thorpe have definitely worked out that we know, I tweeted the Derren Brown photo to them and they have completely blocked me on twitter. I would suggest Derren is right and the rest is damage control.

Just a quick mention towards Derren Brown as his name has cropped up a few times. He used to have a pet parrot named Figaro and currently has two by the names of Rasputin and Baxter. No idea if that is relevant to the clues within the Big Top or not.

Nemesis appears to be having some work done on its lift hill, closed for ERT and fenced off.

I greyed out slightly on the Time Machine at Adventure Island over the weekend, not that surprising considering the speed that it spins and the forces it puts you under for so long; nothing else has ever caused this though.

And that the pedals are on the wrong side of the cars

I thought it was! Great little layout to be honest, and agree with the theme, nice to see something a bit different.

It would appear to be a standard Maurer Sohne spinning coaster layout. Same as Crush's Coaster at Disney Paris (if I remember correctly) without the dark ride and outdoor section before hand. Track layout (if I am correct) can be found here: http://www.maurer-rides.com/files/amusement/pdf/PI_SC2000_Lagoon.pdf

Its back open now, still no idea why it was evacuated though

The entire swarm island has just been evacuated, anyone have any idea why?

Guys, I'm attending summer nights with my family tomorrow and have booked the tickets online from our hotel. We were just wondering where to collect them from and when it was possible to collect these tickets as we will be spending the rest of the day on park as well. Those ridecounts looked too good to miss

Going back to the Starflyer incident at T in the Park, I was there and noticed that the ride was closed after dark one night as we were watching the lights on the tower one minute and they were off the next. The ride was closed most of the next day but reopened later with two of the seats tied together to keep them away from the others and to stop people from riding in them. Obviously the highlight of the funfair was Danter's Air though

As far as I can work out this is one of the worst ideas that Thorpe have ever had. Closing the five largest queues in the park will only cause the other queues in the park to increase; considering most of the flat rides have a low throughputs their queue times will surely soar. Also having to go back and forth to the dome every time you wish to ride one of the coasters if you do not have a smart phone seems ridiculous to say the least. If they can get the system to work efficiently without having a huge effect on the neighbouring rides and attractions then hats off to them. I'd like to be proven wrong on this one.

ALTON TOWERS - Monday 14th - Thursday 17th April 2014 I live in Suffolk so Alton Towers is a fairly large journey compared to Thorpe and Chessie but as a family we just bought Merlin Annual Passes and so decided a trip up that way was in order. We have been before and stayed at the Alton Towers Hotel last time but worked out that it the price of our 4 premium MAPs (£400) plus the price of a room at the premier inn in Uttoxeter for 3 nights (just north of £300) was the same price as staying at the resort hotel for the same dates. Day 1 - Monday We set off from our house in Suffolk at half 8 and managed to get to the park and on the monorail by around 1:30 which gave us a few hours to get on some rides. Once on park we realised that it was fairly empty and so headed to the Skyride to get to Forbidden Valley where we walked on to Sub-Terra (which scared the hell out of my little 9 year old sister) and Nemesis (which she loved). Air had a measly 10 minute queue so we took a flight on that before heading back to the Skyride to head over to Gloomy wood. Again we queued around 10 minutes for Th13teen, decided to pass Rita with its 45 minute queue and headed for Hex as its a personal favourite dark ride for me. After this we headed straight over to Oblivion which always seems to be close to walk on every time we visit the park. Lastly me and my two sisters headed over to get marmalised by The Smiler which had a huge 120 minute queue. Out of all the days that we were at the park The Smiler heavily dominated the queue boards with times at least twice as high as any other ride. Anyway, after this we jumped on the monorail and headed back to the Premier Inn. Ride Count: Air - 1 Nemesis - 1 Oblivion - 1 Th13teen - 1 The Smiler - 1 Hex - 1 Sub-Terra - 1 Skyride - 2 Monorail - 2 (I count this as I love flying over the park listening to the soundtrack at the beginning and end of the day) Total - 11 The Premier Inn Considering it was a lot cheaper than the resort hotels we were not expecting much but ended up being pleasantly surprised. The room was about the same size as the ones we had experienced before on resort and the beds were fairly comfortable. The restaurant was reasonably priced and served a combination of pub grub and slightly more 'classy' dishes. There was something for everyone (which is saying a lot as my sister and I are fairly fussy) and the staff were also on the whole pleasant and helpful. We had a waitress called Alex that served us a couple of times over the course of our stay who was happy to have a laugh and joke with us when collecting plates and bringing meals. Day 2 - Tuesday Smiler's queue was 60+ minutes from 10am onwards so we spent the time taking the route through Katanga Canyon to take a trip on the Runaway Mine Train followed by a walk to Duel for a double ride and then to Forbidden Valley to take a ride on Nemesis and Air when it opened at 10. We took the same route everyday as it seemed to be the most effective way of getting things done. Skyride was shut so we walked through the haunted hollow and along to Rita and Th13teen to get on before a large queue developed. This did not go to plan. Rita was running on one train operation with a calculated throughput of just under 500pph. Needless to say the queue was moving at a snails pace but it was bearable considering we were almost under the launch track after queueing for 5 minutes. At this point we heard that Rita was going to be adding a second train over the speaker system which would take a few minutes. It ended up taking 20 minutes just to add the second train and perform a test. Afterwards we took a trip to Th13teen followed by Charlie and Ice Age. Hex was down as we passed by and so gave it a miss on the way to the flume and rapids. Whilst towards that side of the park we decided to try out Sub Terra again this time without my little sister who I quote "never ever wants to go in there again". Afterwards we took a couple of rides on Duel on the way back towards Oblivion and The Smiler which were the last rides of day 2. Ride Count: Air - 1 Nemesis - 1 Oblivion - 1 Rita - 1 Runaway Mine Train - 1 Th13teen - 1 The Smiler - 1 Congo River Rapids - 1 The Flume - 1 Charlie - 1 Duel - 4 Ice Age 4D - 1 Sub Terra - 1 Monorail - 2 Total - 18 Day 3 Much the same as the previous day in terms of ride planning minus a trip on Air in the morning substituted by 2 trips on Nemesis. We also took a couple of trips on Sonic Spinball which seems to get a huge queue yet an almost empty single rider line allowing us to get on twice within 15 minutes. Hex was back open again which made me extremely happy but this was only counteracted by Rita getting up to her seemingly normal tricks. One train operation until half 10 when a 50 minute queue had emerged. This queue barely died down all day even when the second train had been added. It is beyond me why it isn't ran on 2 train operation from park opening. Ride Count: Nemesis - 2 Oblivion - 2 Rita - 1 Sonic Spinball - 2 Th13teen - 1 The Smiler - 1 Congo River Rapids - 1 Charlie - 1 Duel - 2 Enterprise - 1 Hex - 1 Sub-Terra - 1 Monorail - 2 Total - 18 Day 4 Our last day on park and the only day that we rode all of the 8 coasters. It was fairly similar to days 2 and 3 in the order that we rode each attraction with the exception of Rita. 1 train operation in the morning had caused a rather large queue early on in the day which never seemed to go away and so we decided to use our £5 discount fast-track coupons from our annual pass packs to get free fast-track for Rita. This however was short-lived as whilst queueing to get on the queue-line was evacuated due to technical difficulties that could not be solved in the foreseeable future. At the point we decided to get unlimited pizza and pasta and head back afterwards when Rita had re-opened. Th13teen's shutter didn't shut whilst we were on the ride that day and by the sounds of other people in the area it had been happening a few times. Hopefully this was just bad luck though. Along with this Hex was running without the show lights in the Madhouse/Haunted Swing section of the ride which meant no sparkling branch, no smoke, no glowing eyes, no blackout and just no show really. The cinema section was also rather light as well as the octagon which was a bit lighter than normal, although normally I can't see my own hand in front of my face in there. So disappointing to a degree for a last day but hopefully I was just unlucky and the rides mentioned above were on best behaviour for the rest of the day. Ride Count: Air - 1 Nemesis - 1 Oblivion - 1 Rita - 1 Runaway Mine train - 1 Sonic Spinball - 1 Th13teen - 1 The Smiler - 1 Congo River Rapids - 1 Charlie - 1 Duel - 1 Hex - 1 Sub-Terra - 1 Monorail - 2 Total: 15 Overall Trip Review Premier Inn at Uttoxeter is only half an hour (with traffic) from the park and is rather nice with some very friendly staff. Premier Inn's free wifi policy is a little bit to be desired as it actually means half an hour free but the bar also has unlimited free wifi so it's nothing to worry about. The Smiler was better than I expected although seemed rather rough/rattly in the back row. That might be down to getting a rough train but still, its only a couple of years old and shouldn't be rattly yet. Saying that there are rough points in the track which caught me off guard and the trims are very noticeable, at one point we barely made it through the knot element. It also isn't duelling like it is capable of when two trains leave each lift hill at the same time which was slightly disappointing. Rita needs to be ran on two train operation all the time, it wasn't too busy on park but it wasn't exactly dead either and throughputs of 500pph is just silly considering what it is capable of. I have decided that after riding Sub-Terra with both the short maze ending and without I prefer it with although it needs to have at least a couple of actors in it instead of the one that we encountered every time we rode. It is also slightly odd that the masked men appear to be helping you out at some points but then jump out and chase you at others. We were slightly confused at this sign on the side of Woodcutters Bar & Grill which read "Miss the traffic, just let us cook for you" which suggested that it was open after park close when in fact it isn't. Also when did the Nemesis River stop running red, or is that just a beginning of the season thing? Overall a very nice weekend at Alton Towers that my entire family and I enjoyed. Especially my mum who conquered her fear of Oblivion and then proceeded to ride it each day. We could have got on more rides but with 4 park days we decided to have a more laid back approach and just meander around after the first couple of hours on park. I also picked up a copy of John Wardley's autobiography 'Creating My Own Nemesis' hidden under a pile of Air Bears in Air's shop which has proved to be a fantastic read. I read the entire thing within a day of having it and would definitely recommend it to anyone who either has a keen interest in his career or particularly enjoy learning the history of the UK theme parks mostly Chessington and Alton. Overall Trip Ride Count Air - 3 Nemesis - 5 Oblivion - 5 Rita - 3 Runaway Mine Train - 2 Sonic Spinball - 3 Th13teen - 4 The Smiler - 4 Congo River Rapids - 3 The Flume - 1 Charlie - 3 Duel - 7 (family favourite, couldn't score above 38,500) Enterprise - 1 Hex - 3 Sub-Terra - 4 Ice Age 4D - 1 Skyride - 2 Monorail - 8 Total Trip Ride Count - 62 A couple of photos to follow taken with my trusty Nokia Lumia 920. The Smiler from the single rider queue line Perfectly timed photo of Nemesis mid loop Just a little photo of Th13teen that I took just before Rita got round to adding it's second train Amusing little sign near the Duel toilets that I had somehow never noticed before For those of you that managed to read all of that you deserve gold stars and many many Easter eggs.

Detonator (5) Nemesis Inferno (6) Quantum (4) Rush (6) Slammer (4) Stealth (7) Tidal Wave (3) X (5) Stealth + Slammer -

This probably doesn't help anyone but the font appears to be Futura or a 20th Century Bold. More details here.

Riding the Snails and the Mountain Tubs up at Joyland are some of the best early childhood memories that I have. I am in no way shamed to say that I rode both of them 3 times a few weeks ago whilst my family sat and watched me.

I rode the Family Star coaster a couple of weeks ago and can vouch for it being a "lumbering turd". The wooden coaster however is a classic woodie, one of very few side friction coasters remaining and still runs with a brakeman on board. Whilst there is nothing exceptional at the park there are very few queues and a great Fun House attraction with blacklights, 3D effects and the good old moving floors. Well worth a visit for a few hours if anyone is ever in the area, me and my family always seem to get out there once a year and still enjoy it.

I may have missed sarcasm but isn't it because there's tw*t when you put light water together

Doubt the lift hill will be launched seeing as we can clearly see the chains mechanism

Just wondering if it is possible to change my display name as when I made my account a few years back I thought it would be clever to use a zero instead of an 'O' which I'm starting to regret. Also it would be nice to have all my accounts across forums and other sites e.g. ridecount.com reading the same display name (tomathy) thats all.

This is gonna be a bit of a long write up, brownie points to anyone that manages to get through the entire thing Okay, so I went to Thorpe Park on Tuesday and Wednesday (9th & 10th) with my family as an Easter treat with an overnight stay at the Crash-Pad. A couple of days before we left my mum rang the park to check details about the Crash-Pad as the information emailed to us seemed to be fairly vague, turns out what we were told on the phone was 1. completely different and 2. wrong. If I wasn't a member of TPM we would have expected to park right next to the Crash-Pad, to need to collect day tickets from their reception and that the Crash-Pad would be connected via a separate set of turnstiles so that we wouldn't need to use the main bridge. So in other words, staff need to be more informed. Anyway, Day 1 We turned up at about 9 and parked in the Crash-Pad car park which is over where the disabled parking is near the front gates. Seems obvious to people on here but my mum got confused when we went through the main turnstiles as she was told that we needed to use other ones, she was also confused when she found we didn't need to collect any more tickets like she had been told. Obviously though this is far more convenient than what we were told and made the day easier. To avoid the queues that were already building to get to the Swarm side of the park we opted to walk on our own over to Saw - The Ride and get one of the first rides of the day followed by a walk on Colossus, X, Stealth and Nemesis Inferno. The longest queue all day was for backwards seats on The Swarm which was 25 minutes, with the front facing seats having a queue of about 10 minutes. Ridecount for Day 1: Colossus - 2 Inferno - 2 Saw TR - 2 Stealth - 3 Swarm - 2 X - 1 Loggers - 1 Rumba - 1 Storm Surge - 1 Tidal Wave - 1 Detonator - 1 Samurai - 1 Slammer - 1 Rush - 1 Total - 20 We left the park just before 6 and headed towards the gates to get our stuff from the car so go and check in at the Crash-Pad, we got our hands stamped to get back into the park as we had'nt been told by staff that we needed to collect wristbands from the Crash-Pad reception but staff were helpful and just let us get on with it. Once again all we needed was a little bit more information but things still moved on smoothly. Now the Crash-Pad. I don't think I have ever had such a laugh with my family before, we knew it was going to be small but my goodness it was tiny. It does exactly what it says on the tin though, its a crash pad, somewhere to sleep and wash and nothing more. The beds were surprisingly comfortable and would have led to a great nights sleep if it wasn't for the temperature of the room. We had the climate control set to the highest fan speed on the lowest temperature possible but the room remained baking hot all night, in the end we opened the door for a few minutes to let some cold air in and from then on it wasn't too bad. The bathroom made us laugh constantly as the toilets are fitted with the worlds loudest flush and the shower makes some impressively loud sucking noises every few seconds. The toilet scared the crap out of me at first (no pun intended) but became one of the funniest parts of the evening. Our evening meal at Bar 360 was lovely as well, decent prices and fairly large portions of both starters and mains. None of us could manage a dessert afterwards and so left back into the dome to go back to our room. The evening entertainment made us laugh as well due to how simplistic it was, table tennis within an inflatable dome with a few led lights didn't really appeal to us. I guess we were expecting something a little bit more but nonetheless it had no effect on how much we enjoyed our stay and with only a few amount of guests in the dome I can see why it wouldn't be worth investing on more evening entertainment. Day 2 Our day stated with breakfast at Bar 360 which we were told we needed to book with them in our booking email but it turns out you only have to book for dinner and that for breakfast you can just turn up. There was a nice selection in their continental breakfast with warm croissants, toast and jam, a load of cereals and fruit and yogurt to choose from. The only downside to breakfast was one of Thorpe Parks major downsides, the up-selling of fast track passes. As we entered Bar 360 we were given a fast track price list by a member of staff and also found a price list in the middle of our table. There was also a leaflet telling us that we could get ERT on The Swarm if we headed down to Depth Charge at 9:15 (15 minutes later than what our booking information specified) which we thought we would take advantage of. Unfortunately ERT was rather short lived as we didn't get allowed onto the Swarm island until 9:25 and The Swarm hadn't completed any test runs yet and so by the time we got on the first train of the day the main gates had opened and all the other guests were starting to join the queue. However due to a bit of running from me and my sister we got 3 rides in the morning, backwards on both right and left sides and a frontwards journey on the left due to people not crossing the bridge. So the queue for one side of the train was at least double that of the other side with the left hand side of the station being walk on for the backwards rows. We also managed a front row trip on Stealth and go on Saw - The Ride before queues started to build up for the day. X was queued outside of the building all day but we decided to join it as the rest of my family needed a break from the rides and so we queued more for relaxation than for the ride. The re-theme is substantially better than what it used to be with a clear theme present throughout but the lights and sound don't quite do it for me and just reminds me of a poor mans Rock 'n' Rollercoaster. If they can get a few more speakers spaced out in the pyramid though to increase the volume and a few more lights away from the main light rig with more lasers instead of them just being in the corners of the room as they didn't appear to have much impact. Some tunnels around the break runs would also do the ride wonders. Having said that both my sisters enjoyed themselves on it but me and my mum felt a little bit cheated after waiting 30 minutes for it. Ridecount for Day 2: Inferno - 1 Stealth - 3 Saw - The Ride - 1 X - 1 Swarm - 5 (3 backwards, 2 forwards) Loggers Leap - 1 Rumba - 1 Detonator - 1 Total - 14 Even though this report contains a fair few criticisms and downsides of our trip we had a great time and will be sure to visit again. The positives have far outweighed the negatives, its just easier to write about the things that went wrong than the things that went right. Once again, brownie points if you managed to get through all of this, I owe you cookies

I second scarycoasterboy, I havn't queued more than half an hour for anything today (Saw - The Ride) and queued 10 minutes for X as we got on it fairly early in the day but the queue was outside the building later in the day. The Swarm had a queue of 0 minutes for forward facing seats both times I rode it today, ended up queuing 20 minutes to "Brave it Backwards" later in the day but the main queue was walk on.

I have tickets for it, buzzing already! Their setlists look amazing on setlist.fm