MikeyT

So after riding Thirteen three times over the last few days, I can honestly say that I love this ride and is up there with the other Secret Weapons for me.As coaster enthusiasts we sometimes over-analyse everything, perhaps becoming too narrow- minded about how roller coasters should be. I get so fed up of reading and hearing people that say roller coasters are automatically rubbish if they don't go upside down, go really fast or pull enough G's to give you a brain haemorrhage.Yes it has flaws, as with the entire area, but I'm willing to overlook them briefly because my overall opinion of the ride is so high. The queue moves satisfyingly quickly thanks to speedy loading procedures. Didn't queue more than an hour, even when the queue was at the entrance.There were five people in our group, myself (20), brother (6), sister (9), Step- dad (40) and mum (46); so a real range of ages there, each and everyone of us with our arms up, laughing and screaming with huge smiles on our faces.The station atmosphere is just awesome, in fact it was so awesome, I found myself not caring about that awful cloth on the ceiling. The ride itself was faster than I remember, with a good few pops of air time. It's beautifully smooth. My brother freaked inside the crypt, and the whole train screamed in shock as to what was happening. I've got to say, it really is a cracking ending to the ride.As we enter the brakes, I look at my brother as we emerge from a cloud of smoke in the station, his face showing confusion and shock as to what had happened, before shouting, 'AGAIN!'Indeed, every time I went on it, everyone around us spoke of how much they enjoyed it, not expecting the crypt section or helix, or better than expected, more people were enjoying it than not, that's for certain. Three times on it as well, it's fantastically re- rideable.I cannot wait to get back on it again.

Leaving for Alton Towers very soon. Spending a couple of days there with the family. Brother is looking forward to Thirteen a lot, he's become obsessed.I'll try and take lots of photos and post a Trip Report when I get back.

Some days I look down, afraid, afraid I will fall, and though the sun shines, I see nothing. But I hear your sweet voice, oh come and go....You tell me softly, that you love me so.

Just listened to some Kelly Clarkson demos (naughty Mikey!); didn't think it was possible to love her even more, I was wrong.

This x 1000. The interaction between staff and guests is what makes this ride a favourite of mine at Chessington. The ride is calling out to have costumed staff possibly more than any other at the park. I used to love it on days where it wasn't as busy where could could spend a bit more time interacting with guests- wishing happy birthdays, that sort of thing!

Yeah, sort of, the Skyride does go over it. Alton's landscape has many hills and deep valleys. One possible location for a new roller coaster would use the valley so it could have enough height to have a decent layout. Does that answer some of your questions?

Basically, the ride manufacturer was called in, to do some repairs on the track and also to try and prevent the ride from valleying over the camel back on the Lorikeet's side.They ended up putting new wheels on the Gondola, which unfortunately has slowed the ride down quite a bit, ride doesn't reach the top anymore, literally no feeling of weightlessness on the camel back.

I believe the only parks that offer a free service are the Disney Parks (and even they were trialling an upcharge not so long ago), Even Disney have their issues with it, but luckily their parks can cope much better because they're bigger and have more attractions, plus their rides have just the most insane throughputs.I find it does work quite well at Alton, they don't seem to sell so many that they cannot cope- they seem to have got the balance just right.

Hello auntie Shannon :P(Seeing my auntie today, haven't seen her in months!)

Meant to be leaving now- since I've moved it now takes an extra 45 minutes, making my total journey time, door to door, 2 hours and 30 minutes. But a certain person is not waking up or answering their phone! So angry! HA!

Anndd Today's special day belongs to Benin!Happy Birthday Benin!

Oh dear! Sounds like the southern parks had a bit of a mare today! Totally feel for all those staff today, absolute nightmare situation.

I have to say I've actually had both excellent experiences and terrible experiences of customer service at all three ex- Tussauds Parks. It can be very difficult within the rides team- especially where there are high throughputs and you're going like the clappers to keep queue times acceptable, to properly interact with guests, though you can be pleasant and diplomatic and respect guests. Obviously rides where you're in contact with people for an extended amount of time, you can interact a lot more.Also with retail, they really are awesome, I've never had a bad experience with any retail outlet at any of the parks. You're more than welcome to PM me if you want any info about jobs there, but let's keep it off the forums! Yeah, again, on the whole I've had a positive experience with the staff, though if someone is looking a bit down then I tend to start conversation with them, asking how their day has been, with the hope at the back of my mind that they will be encouraged to do it back to other guests.

All Merlin parks have daily morning briefings and evening de-briefings. This is where staff are given feedback from the previous day and usually games designed to help motivate the team. On top of this all staff have to attend an intensive induction which they have to complete before they start work. This gives them park information and training in customer service. Though there is more that can be done.Not having worked at Thorpe, I can't really speak on behalf of the staff there. At Chessington though, last year I think they had the balance just right for the rides department; teams weren't too big, which meant you would get really close with your team mates, my area in particular also had some great team leaders who worked their butts off to make sure we were having a good day. We would do morning games and if we weren't too tired in the evening we'd do evening games as well. Hide and seek! We had great area socials, and a lot of the time our Team Leaders would do things for us out of their own pockets.Sorry, going off on a tangent- I think Thorpe have the problem of the clientèle. The amount of times I've seen the staff there being spoken to like a piece of dirt; they spoil it for the rest of the general public who treat the staff with respect and aren't receiving the best customer service.There are ways the park could help (though I must admit I've rarely experienced bad customer service since 2008), having a more thorough incentive scheme being at the heart of it. Taking a page out of Holiday World's book, guests should be given tokens (just as an example- could be anything) which can be handed over to staff who have provided excellent customer service. I think the parks do something similar but this should be everyday.However, what I've found is that guests will either give it to the staff members at their first ride, or realize they still have it at the end of the day and just give it to anyone to get rid of it. The way to get round this would be to have these tokens in shops, at till points, in guest services, ride photo points. Of course this would involve trusting the staff not to just take them. Each department could be given a budget each month. The more tokens, the better the prize.Just a suggestion anyway. As you can see I'm really passionate about this sort of thing. Of course this is a more elaborate way, there are many small ways which could help improve staff motivation and morale and therefore customer service.

No I don't think they were either. Though I did much prefer the deep red lights rather than the mix we have today. As the mist was so thick back then, the red actually glowed so well.

Yeah that's true. There aren't too many "blown" speakers throughout the park.

In an ideal world, you'd start all over again, working out each problem, one by one. You'd get Bose in to replace every speaker that's broken and get an engineer (that knows what they're doing) to go through the whole park with the right amount of time and resources.It's a shame because Thorpe does have some impressive, very expensive equipment in place, the fact that they're just sitting there is a bit of an insult!

Going to Chessie on Thursday! Yaay

I've always found the opposite. I have long legs as well, but always go for the back of each car. The floor in the back is flat, which means I can actually extend my legs out if I wanted to, however the floor in the front of each car is tilted upwards which means I can't move my feet at all once I'm pinned in,