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I was working very well on my visit. It is a great effect, but very on and off. However, its reliability has improved quite a lot in recent years. I remember when it used to just sit there rolling, or not moving at all. It is amazing how they can get that effect to work so well (often enough), yet they could not with the Flying Ghost to work from the old Haunted House at Alton Towers.Anyway, I really like the whole the boulder on the ramp, it starts the ride off very well.

Bass cannons? Inside the ride, in the station or elsewhere? They might have installed them recently, if so we might be seeing some nice audio improvments...I like all these little improvments!

It was always green, which suits the area much better in my opinion:Bear in mind this photo is of old Vampire and therefore has more theming to hide the mechanisms. Perhaps if they used this same lighting it would illuminate what you are not meant to see, in which case I understand why they changed it.As long as things are still nice and ark in there and the theming looks realistic, I guess it does not really matter. Last time I visited, and for quite a long time before, the lighting was mostly red around the platform, green on the organist and a mixture of red, green, blue and yellow on various bits of theming around the air gates. I hope it is not as messy now.

Metal bin? I am sure he/she just banged it on the wall (respect for old rides?!!? ). That was my favourite part. I wanted to go around again just for that moment. One time, our car stopped, as they do, right next to that green-faced woman with the spade... She came right up to us and whispered, "Oh dear...!" You could hear the bang echo throughout the whole ride, right from the Screaming Room to the exit platform!

This was not the case last year, it stayed as Duel Live for the entire day.It was spectacular, I really enjoyed it. The Haunted House must have been such a brilliant experience and surprisingly a lot of it still exists. I loved the atmosphere with the music, effects and even the lighting. There were one or two great actors/actresses that made me jump, and many could be seen around the ride in great places. Lots of Haunted House effects were fixed, too, such as the flashing windows in the Sinister Garden and near the Pillar Demon, as well as touch ups.It is the only time of year when Duel gets properly loved. It shows how stupid the guns are, too.For anybody who wants to get the picture of what it was like last year, see my video if you want (about 8 minutes long).

Seeing that photo has reminded me of Rush's old look. I totally forgot about those wheels and it looks surprisingly bare without the maintenance platforms that were installed a few years ago. I completely forgot about all that.

Hello there!Nemesis Inferno has a pretty good layout. It has a pre-lift section and, since the station is elevated, the train starts with a small drop and turn into the volcano tunnel. Heavy smoke (when working) and lighting effects are used in the tunnel to give a fire-like effect, before the train exits out the other end and turns into the lift hill. The lift goes quite high up at a fairly quick speed, before swooping downwards to the left. So, yes, it does drop but turns at the same time. The drop is very steep and therefore picks up a lot of speed, before going immediately into a forceful vertical loop. A pond is situated under the loop, and if working you may feel the water of the geyser effects. The track then performs a zero G roll and turns around near to Detonator (at the other side of the Calypso Quey area). Here the ride performs interlocking inverted corkscrews; in which the train travels through one corkscrew, does a stall turn and comes back on itself, then does another one which 'twists' around the other. As the ride slows down, the trains head off back towards the volcano area and goes through two upward helixes, one to the left and one to the right, before entering the break run and returning to the station.Hope that helps and makes sense! Glad you like the ride too.

I don't like the way they advertised Fright Nights.They are still trying to push Saw around everywhere. I find it misleading because it makes it sound as if Saw Alive is only for the event, when it has been there all year. Why? It is nothing to do with Fright Nights at all. Apart from maybe some Halloween decoration, nothing is going to happen to it; they are certainly not going to add another scene. Then again, I think Thorpe Park's press release marketing in general is rubbish. It does not carry the brand very well or emphasis the fact that it is a very good theme park. Just "THORPE PARK!!!1" capitalized everywhere and stupid 'target audience' stuff like Dr Pepper slogans and "Test your nerve on our gut-wrenching Unholy Trinity of rollercoasters!!!11!1"

[sarcasm] Oh, yeah, in fact the whole of Chessington is nothing but a small, trashy park that does so badly in terms of visitor numbers, apart from all the people who go there who probably hate it anyway. Other than the great theming, which for some random reason that I am going to make up is rubbish anyway, there is nothing there. The only reason it got famous was because of what John Wardley did to it but even he is awful. [/sarcasm]Weird attitue, don't you think? How can you describe the theming as 'poor concrete pre fab slabs' when it does not look poor at all and it was all scupltured especially for the park by an architectural company? And what did you want it to be made of other than concrete? You purpousfuly ignored all the other features in the area, too. Remember the music, tuk tuks, photo points, bird enclosure, statues, plants, fixed/refurbished effects? Oh and those big snakes, remember them? Really sorry if I come across argumentative, but in the big picture Wild Asia is so much more.Monkey Swinger I think had a lot of potential for its own ride, but ended up being just another part of Wild Asia. Not that that is a bad thing, it was how Beanloand worked after all. However I was expecting something bigger to happen because the potential for a chairswing themed as swinging monkeys is endless. The concept art showed tails attached to the back of the chairs, but I kind of half expected that not to happen. I was thinking more of theming in the queueline relating to the monkey idea but this did not happen either. In fact, is there any reference to monkeys? I don't remember seeing the "Do not feed the monkeys" sign.Also, I think it has lost its flare. Billy's Whizzer was a fantastic ride because it was so simply and cheeky at the same time. A low thrilling chairswing, but with water added it fitted Beanoland and the rest of Chessington perfectly. I also loved watching the cartoon storyboards rotating on the central column. Now that it has the Wild Asia theme, it is not quite as funny and the water seems too random. It is still a good, fun ride, however.

John Wardley did say that, when they were deciding on what to do with Saw, they wanted a dark section but there was not enough space to create a ride such as Revenge of the Mummy. It is also pretty likely that, being a so-called 'thrill park', Thorpe would want to emphasise the rollercoaster more than the dark section anyway. If they had the whole thing indoors, it would cost a lot more and have to be extremely compact. They would not be able to boast the drop or the inversions either.

It looks like it had pretty good theming around there. A big shame... Seeing abandoned queuelines covered in leaves feels very mysterious...

Water effect, as in those fountains activated by the buttons? Or is there something new?

Thanks for uploading them, but they are apparently 'temporarily unavailable'. I will just have to wait. I am glad they have come about, though. By the way, the Tomb Blaster theme has already been posted (look above).

I think the Mexicana theme is the same as the Runaway Train Theme, but I could be wrong. Here it is anyway, along with the Dragon Falls ThemeDragon Falls (45 minutes)Runaway TrainPlease note that the Runaway Train music was not especially composed for the ride.

Tomb Blaster Main Theme!

It is definitely somewhere along those lines. Which reminds me, I like the way you have no idea what Vampire is all about the first time you ride it. All you can see is the rollercoaster occasionally flying overhead and climbing lift hills in the distance. The station is hidden so well behind the trees and uses the crypt area to hide the warehouse. It is also very far back and it feels like a journey going through the queue and getting closer all the time.The place itself is never meant to be anything. You have the organist and the windows, with the darkish corridor going before. Riders don't know exactly where they are. The actual 'Vampire' is never hinted apon or heard of, maybe the rollercoaster is flying like the vampire? In a way it does something clever and leaves everything down to the rider's imagination. In recent years the castle/crypt/church emphasis has been half replaced with such marketing as: "Fly like a bat out of hell", "Are you ready for a fright? Grab your garlic and dare to ride the fang-tastic Vampire roller coaster" and especially "Vampire has one of the lowest height restrictions of any rollercoaster! Even little adventurers can fly."Uh oh. It has been dumbed down.

I agree. Vampire, though I never saw the whole ride it in its original form, used to be fantastic throughout. It was more than just a suspended rollercoaster that flew over some buildings, it had emphasis on the graveyard queueline, the castle station and the flight around Transylvania and into the cave tunnel. It seems to have worn off so much, and this is only partly down to this 'purple retheme' but mostly down to the lack of TLC.The old colour scheme/signage was black and red, with lots of theming all over the area. Most of the theming thankfully still exists or has been recently restored. There seems to have also been an emphasis on bats, but naturally this left along with the old themed trains.

I am not sure purple actually fits Vampire. It would look good on the track, at least it would be better than what we have now, but the rest of the ride is almost a mash between purple and old style. For example, the old entrance is themed well, with flickering wall lights and crumbling walls, but then the current entrance is a simple, boring purple bar.Then we have the queueline and its purple fences, but which leads to the crypt and dark corridor that leads to the station. The station itself is extremely half and half. The track colours suited the black bat trains well, but with non-sensical purple trains flying about it now looks ugly.I am not sure if I prefer this 'purple' theme or the original theme. Well, obviously the old one was much better and more of a full-on theatrical experience, but it would take a lot of effort to reinstate. I would do it, though, if it was my decision. The ride would also benefit heavily from brand new features to really improve it.However, for now I think the track ought to lose its old style and change to Vampire's newish purple/black colours. Then it would be great if the clash between styles was sorted out.

I agree, it is awful. The supports are an awful brown colour, and most of them have huge patches of cream or yellow for some reason. The whole track looks very mouldy, actually. Why they had to change the colour is beyond me, the supports looked far better black and the purple trains clash badly with the cream coloured track.

Thanks for the photos! You have lots of other interesting pictures too.What do you mean the snakes were the reason for its retheme? I quite like them, a shame theming touches like this often get run over and forgotten.

It was rethemed in 2000, according to Theme UK.Also thanks to Theme UK, I found these promotional images showing the ride before and after. It looks better before, in my opinion. Was there any need to make it look like an Egyptian 'machine' (if there is such a thing?!). I preferred it with its ancient wooden/decorative look, though somewhere between the two would have been perfect.In this promotional image, a completely different looking ride is pictured. Is it a different ride or just concept art? Notice Tomb Blaster's queueline in the background and an Egyptian statue at the bottom of the page.This time the actual ride is pictured. Notice the snake wrapping around the wooden-themed support and the old colour scheme.Promotional images for the new look ride.

Wow, just found this great photographs from Rameses' Revenge's early days. Thanks a lot to whoever posted them on Photobucket. Well, I can see why they changed it, but why change it to something completely irrelevent to Ancient Egypt? If you look closely on the entrance sign and background piece as they are today, you can see marks where the bigger logos used to be.

Spot the difference:Do you think it just fell off? Probably deemed unsafe because of rot or something along those lines. Also notice the Express Queue sign moving places.

The tunnel effects are very on and off it seems. I have always experienced the ride with at least some of them working. In Fright Nights the mist was spectacular and worked together with the lights really well, as you could barely see anything past the heavy red glow. It is great that they have fixed the smoke on the entrance to the tunnel, which adds a little bit more drama to the first drop into the volcano.However, if nothing in there is working, it must be rather anti-climatic. The thing is, it relies on these effects to impress, and they are simple sensory effects that vary in performance. Not much else can be added without ruining the 'inferno' effect, but in the case that the mist breaks the effect will again be ruined. I think there simply needs to be a good upkeep of effects (this has certainly improved recently but will naturally fall over the year); as well as rock face theming throughout the firey cave, so that riders are not left with corrugated metal if the mist isn't working.A shame that Inferno suffers from failing effects every now and then, but overall the ride is so good because it has these twists. The volcano tunnel is a great start to the ride, and so are the little touches like the volcanic rocks in Calypso Quey and ponds under the loop and photo point, with those geysers sometimes adding another effect. I am so glad it has been saved from the same fate as X No Way Out and Tidal Wave in which there used to be many good effects that have since been forgotten.

Oops, I missed this deadline by quite a lot! So, who will I be voting for in this Bubbleworks-style election?SmartGuy, well the concept is not very imaginative and it would be impossible to make the current channel transit sytem more rapids-like. So, I won't be voting for your black, red and purple retheme idea, sorry!Treeis, I think any chocolate factory theme will be bogged down by sponsorships and gimmicks. As you said, it has already been done at Alton Towers, meaning the resulting ride with your chocolate fountains and giant lollies would be too similar. Sorry!Noob230 has a very creative idea, but it sounds too much of a mash of Bubbleworks as it is now, old Bubbleworks and a new monster-type theme. It is not very clear what the factory is about, but the scenes sound very distinct and characteristic. Some great ideas, especially having the band play the music in each scene. I love the simple humour of having little music in one scene and seeing the band frozen. However, I am not sure all of the ideas would work on a real ride and still look as fun as they sound, for example the 'Staff Room' would be a bit drab. It does have good consistency with the previous incarnations of Bubbleworks, however, and if it did come about it would be a lot better than what is there now. You entry almost gets my vote, but not quite.Benin has an amazing concept. Firstly, the name and setting of a 'Phantom Factory' is both simple and imaginative. It has a lot of potential and within your description it sounds as if you have created some great ideas for scenes. The station sounds well themed and I like the idea of the chandelier and arched roof, even if it is not as lively as it could be. Each scene has been well thought out and has its own characteristics, with charming effects and animatronics in a similar style to the old Bubbleworks. The actual theme of a monster factory is a bit dodgy, simply because Transylvania was initially meant to be 'a calm Bavarian village' with Vampire being the surprise around the corner, but this original setting has mostly worn off anyway, so I doubt the clash would be much of a problem. The characters are pretty lovable from the sounds of it and I would really enjoy going on your ride. I am voting for this entry.MikeyT has a good backstory, though it would suffer from the problem of most riders not understanding it. The idea of Dr Chessington going insane from 'emotional torture' is also rather frightening! Therefore it needs a bit more potential to actually become a ride, but is still a very good backstory.