Benin

The sense of theatre that Vampire has/had was always the best part... The second half especially with diving towards and over the main pathway is such a simple piece of ride theatre but is one of the most iconic Chessington images... Certainly in the grand scheme of things, it's been evolved past, but comparing to other Arrow suspendeds, it's probably the best that still exists after the closure of Big Bad Wolf (which was Vamps on a larger scale essentially, but that finale was insane), and Eagle Fortress... Vampire was also my first coaster, so it does hold some nostalgia there as well... Yeah it's been butchered a bit, and unlikely to go back to the original days, but it still has the same sense of theatre and adventure for the target audience... Kids love the thing, and that's the important part...

Asterix is also an utterly fab park to boot... You can balance out trips abroad and real life when you have money... It's easy... Even in US you can do a few trips for a surprisingly low cost (£1000) for most things (not Orlando though, that's ridiculously priced)...

It kills our system at work whenever we do bulk emails, even when it's only to 1'000 odd people... But I look forward to the impatient ones...

Personally I hope Thorpe gives everyone on here a 12p ticket apart from anyone constantly asking about others receiving emails...

Don't really remember you being so sympathetic to Towers when Smiler got delayed Marc... I'm gonna guess that this will have a fair amount of teething problems, purely down to the amount of new technology involved...

Cos it's a Ghost Train and demons are spoopy is my guess... Like the dolls, any direct link would appear rather tenuous beyond it being creepy and what not... Looks like a walkthrough portion there, presumbly part of the VR element... Maybe into a mirror naze...

The beach should go, but be turned into a massive open plaza affair... Maybe a permanent stage, some planters/rockwork, a shop or restaurants or similar... It would certainly improve initial impressions more than an usually closed beach, and not having it filled with a ride would actually allow some breathing space...

Shame we can't trust people to ruin things thematically...

Why does something have to be better or worse than another? Just judge it based on it's own aspects first, rather than with any expectations of comparison... That's for the post ride...

Until the actor budget disappears eh?

Coaster-Count knocked my count down by one cos of #DuaneGate deciding completely replaced creds don't count as separate ones... I blame Hulk for this...

I'd been pretty much ignoring this project for general pointlessness of it, but can't deny it looks like fun... Do love the way the splash just APPEARS as well...

Hopefully with the success of this area they might look to the next step up of coaster level... Something like Lost Gravity or Anubis for example... Or Alpina Blitz, there's a lot of options for 1.2m rides... That advert is so much better than Galactica's...

Will the bar have a Starlord meet n greet?

I believe if you stay onsite you get tickets included, which given they are €45 a pop, isn't the worst option really... You can get a train and bus to the park via Bruhl, but it's only 30 mins if you wanna taxi it... Hotels are entirely up to you...

That fracking poster is annoying me more than it should, why is it going all pseudo-political all of a sudden? I like the 2+2=5 connection of a hydraulics company being involved, therefore a launch... SOOOO many things use hydraulics, especially if it's a Simworx simulator involved... The track could be from an Immersive Tunnel, since it moves forwards and backwards... No need to go cred crazy just yet...

So if the entire site has always been green belt, how did they build stuff in the first place? Didn't hold it back before did it? As Josh says, goes back to my original point, any park has restrictions, the challenge is to work within them...

Nope, due to height restrictions so the top of the ride would not be visible outside the park (much like Fury and it's temporary permission when originally built)... Like, these restrictions are NOT purely down to it existing on green belt land, but due to the nearby residential areas... Like pretty much every other park in the world... The area of green belt the park is on is the boundary/where Zufari is anyway... As I mentioned beforehand... Let's also bear in mind that Rattlesnake was built in 1998, so if these changes have come about, dates would be very useful, rather than stating "it's on wiki" all the time...

Stealth Dr Who ride confirmed!

Rattlesnake was also in a pit due to height... The only areas of the park that they cannot build rides on are were Zufari sits now, which got permission due to the zoo stuff being a part of it... The entire park doesn't sit on green belt land, and also has noise issues with neighbours (Vampire)... The point still remains that a good park can work around constraints, rather than just not bother...

Wait, did you just say the land Rattlesnake is built on can't be modified? You mean the ride they dug a pit for?

I always love the "but X park hasn't put in the complete effort of doing Y, so why should Z?" Thorpe could have EASILY hidden the entire warehouse... In relation to Bubbles' warehouse now being visible, that's down to the Cafe building burning down and no desire to replace it... That people are going "Well it's the same colour as X so its fine" shows how bad it is to be happy with mediocrity...

Yet there is still a fair amount of land available for the park to play with, especially as they're more than likely having to start removing things before they fall down... Zufari is built on green belt land anyway, so it's doable, just unlikely for an actual ride... Besides, as the point of my post which you seemingly ignored was, a good park works within the limitations set in by local restrictions... Chessie could easily add things worthwhile if they thought things through (instead of half arsing everything)...

What about the water splashes? Apart from the one that goes into the fire engine obviously...