Benin

Staff members selling Fastrack should not be making up the queue time and go by the queue time given by the queue time board... The flat out lying to get people to fork over money is indefensible...

Of course, did you really expect that they would have solved that issue?

Krypt was ridiculously fab <3 Apart from the really crappy ending of course... But I guess it suffered from location and general awful throughput... A shame though...

Blah blah Merlin Gerstlauers are awfully unreliable for some reason when none of the others seem to ever have had such issues... Though most of Smiler's isn't down to Gerstlauer really when they weren't responsible for the groundwork...

Another batch of photos for you all! http://www.heide-park-world.de/baublog/blog/saison-2014/2626-baustellenupdate-13-september-2013 My guess is the building being built will be a shop/food outlet...

LOL GERST FAIL POST!

Precisely the host... I hadn't been for several months so to me it was a change... People don't update on Chessie that much anyway... No one had mentioned the tarp of trees hiding Mine Train from Jumbos...

The park is exceptionally weird atm, as in some cases, it looks terrible (although they've now taken steps to hide Runaway Train completely, especially from Jumbos)... But on the other hand, they've added the odd little bit that looks nice and makes the park slightly better... Vampire opens up at 9:30 which allows for some early morning whoring if you can withstand the poor operations, and the new method of pre-show and lapbars on Zufari improves the loading situation greatly... Shame that the pre-show is still awful mind... Two lots of construction in the Zoo, the aforementioned Monkey and Bird Garden looks to be a new style enclosure, whilst there's also a new thing going into Wanyama... I had a decent enough day yesterday... Skyway is ridiculously fun in the rain going down by the back of Sea-Life...

In comparison to the old version, it's god-awful... In comparison to most dark rides, it's so lifeless, sterile and reeks of marketing... Pretty colours do not make up for broken effects and still figures staring into the distance... As for the ride yesterday, weirdly all the house lights were on throughout... I don't understand why but that's something I say about Chessie a lot atm...

Depends if you like Sub Terra or not

The Annette's Brownie

First drop/lift is now done...

Shame Boulderdash requires a terrain... Something Thorpe cannot provide...

The old entrance was like Oakwood's... Therefore, it's good that they're changing it...

Issue is that because of the hotel/Monkey Puzzle I really doubt Chessie will be able to build sommat like Vampire on that site if/when it gets removed... Anything that would go there nowadays would have to be ridiculously quiet...

I thought Thunderhead was a bit meh really... Just didn't do much to blow me away... Granted I was on one of the first trains in the morning, but as a say, a really good ride is good no matter when you ride it...

Suggesting that Fright Nights isn't a serious event? The Americans tend to begin construction end of August/Start of September... Considering how much more work goes into their mazes (and the number of mazes most parks tend to do over there), it really doesn't take 'months'... Here's an example from Westcoaster from an update on the 26th August: That's about the only one that's been set up to a reasonable level... Nothing else has been touched as of yet... Another example of a maze which is still in the early stages of mid-build... Considering this was a whole month before the event is due to start and neither of the two examples look anywhere near finished, I would say that it doesn't take months to sort out, but weeks... Ergo, there is very little need to worry, especially when most of the construction at Thorpe will take place internally...

It doesn't exactly take long for them to create mazes, just looking at the way the Americans do it, putting up a few cheap walls and then theming them is a few weeks work... The preview night is actually tempting tbh... At least, for the rides...

It's like Lightwater, the place is so inoffensive it's hard not to like it... It's nothing spectacular, but it does the job and has a lovely atmosphere... Their plans for a new entrance next year should help it even more...

Well that's a surprise when they had to put in mass amounts of concrete into the area because the earth survey people goofed up originally... As we all know, concrete is a natural drainage solution... I swear half of the issues with Smiler have been as a result of the surveyors getting it wrong...

I didn't personally find it excessively rough back at the start of August mind, but I did realise the whole shock that it's not even been half a year... Whether or not it's up to the same levels of Saw, I cannot say yet... Saw was bearly rideable for me in it's first season, so it's all going into personal opinions here... Then again, with the heavy amount of work the cars have to go through on a daily basis, it can't be that big a surprise that they're wearing down a lot faster compared to other rides... Hell, it probably does a lot more work than Nemmie does... But that can't be compared since B&M actually think through their designs... It's a weird one how the two Merlin Gerstlauers are quite bad for roughness, as even Mystery Mine with it's set-square corners isn't awful...

A ride getting rougher as it gets older? SAY IT ISN'T SO! Wouldn't be surprised if the original one or two jolts around the Cobra Roll exit/Inverting drops are the cause of this... Be interesting to see how rough it's gotten...

There is a shuttle service from El Prat Barcelona through the PA website... Park can probs be done in 2 days including shows and what-not... Dunno on the hotel front, the Western one has been highly rated for the theming (IN THE TOILET!), but aside from that I have no idea... Be adventurous...

What would be the point in having Lionsgate turn up and then have a non IP based maze?

If it means having to look at that lovely concept art then I approve