Benin

That, on the ceiling, above the bed... Make it happen Towers!

But why essentially 'lie' about having OTSRs when you could shout about having lapbars? Especially when the difference WILL play on the minds of the guests as lapbars aren't used on massive looping rides... The whole sense of freedom and the like would be a major thing to sell on the ride with of course that all time favourite sense of danger... It would make sense that if it had lapbars then the artwork would have lapbars (then again, so far this year none of the parks have made sense)... It having lapbars was always relatively unlikely given the UK H&S levels and general attitude towards coasters, it was more a hope than a fact...

On the other hand, surely if it were to have lapbars they would really want to push that commercially? No point avoiding a really good push of something that will make a huge difference to the ride experience... Also... ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL ABOARD!

Personally, I'm adverse to the action of fixing things that aren't broken, especially when your own place has had plenty of experience with backwards riding providing a negative effect on the rider... If it wasn't for the revelation of Six Flags (for a weekend only trial, which I think will fail because of the level of intensity Batman gives off at normal) and Universal Japan (Backwards Hyper would be interesting actually, only ride I would approve of here) both going backwards as well, I would say Thorpe are doing something immensely stupid by themselves without the help of B&M, but clearly there is a word in their ear about it... Still think it's a needless addition to their best coaster though... Plenty of other investments the park could make into their own infrastructure in an attempt to bring back returning guests on a regular basis, but this won't cut it... I'm playing the skeptic card once more towards Thorpe because it seems they just cannot do anything good in between coasters... And I do believe that there will be immense levels of downtime (looking at NWO as the example, had to put lights on to stop people throwing up and it semi-worked...) and eventually it'll go back to being forwards again...

WE'RE RUINING SWARM WOOO! Apparently the Batman going backwards is lasting a weekend... Which is weird... So how long will this go on for until Thorpe realise that it closing every 5 minutes due to vomit is not a worthwhile experience? [/cynicism]

Website updated with the sexy (and creepy) artwork ahoy!

At least that name is better than Rita...

In order to avoid this issue, I tended to assume most people visiting a park weren't particularly clever, and needed child like guidance or assistance throughout their day... Usually the kids made much more sense and logical decisions... Batchers make sense when regarding pairing people up in 2s and stuff on Inferno, since few people actually do it... Also helpful when the park is busy and those situations where you can't quite see all the way down t'other end of the platform if there is a space or not (see Colossus and Swarm)...

This is basically the nail on the head... In context, regarding it probably being a device to make us all smile more and get corrected, brilliant, makes sense, fits into the Ministry of Joy (JOY!), etc... Outside of the ride though, it just sounds silly... But I wouldn't say further than that really, there are much, MUCH worse ride names out there that don't fit the ride (Silver Bullet isn't even SILVER! Or a BULLET! False advertising for the loss)...

But... But... Clutch Powers

Jumping to conclusions <3

Wonder why only two were built in the world then... Oh yeah, because it's unreliable (and that's an understatement)... And I like Slammer, but I can see why no other park would touch the ride type with a barge pole, hell even S&S called it quits... No matter how good a ride may be received by guests, or have an unique experience or whatever, there are definitely obvious trends as to why certain rides do catch on (however briefly, you can see Topple Towers for this, which after the issues of Dollywood's, died a death, although were popular on Mainland Europe) or just die a death (Huss Jump2 and Sky Swats) due to technical failings and the costs that come with them... Just because it would be an unique experience, does not mean the park (especially Thorpe and it's history of downtime on EVERYTHING) should get one...

The Huss Jump2, a ride so loved only one exists in the world... Yeah, I doubt we'll ever see one... And you know it's closed season when the cries for Thorpe getting a TopSpin return <3

Only failed at Thorpe, Towers' goes pretty well actually... This will just be seeing if it's a viable option at Chessie...

Enterprise and Subbmission are both being refurbed, like Oblivion will be to make the area look all shiny... Fingers cross Blivvy get loads of new queue line TVs...

Amazing scenes... This marketing is great, Swarm's marketing last year was great (until the stupid limbs falling off stuff)... More of the same please...

I really, do not understand the thought process behind it... Especially as most evidence posts towards it being because the ride wasn't a booming success... Thorpe is really run by idiots isn't it? YOU HAVE A GOOD RIDE THAT DOESN'T NEED ANY STUPID GIMMICKS! IF YOU WANT TO GET PEOPLE IN, HOW ABOUT MAKING THE ONE-OFFS WANT TO GO BACK INSTEAD OF OVERSELLING AND PACKING THE PARK? Sigh... I don't think I can be bothered to go to Thorpe this year...

They did have a Pizza Hut, as did Towers... Merlin told them to go away, why they're still at Thorpe, I'm not sure, must be some different contract going on...

The smiley face is the current associated logo with the ride, if you look on the Towers/SW7 websites, it's all over there...

Just a warning, assuming you visit Salou, it's a dump \o/

I think Mark's point is that the idea of the bridge is good... The execution... Is lacking... Especially when this lovely view of the park is ruined by two cack and rusty water slides... Also, just cos you're a student doesn't mean you can't visit new parks abroad, what do you think I used MY student loan on?

PWETTY Off Facebook...

Still require a fair amount of modification would be required imo, if only to help withstand the extra stress, strain and vibrations that will occur because of the going backwards situation... The change in direction will cause a lot of knock on effects towards these factors which in turn could cause further problems (do we really want more bolts falling?)...

#BunnyGate Yeah, the 'power' of social media rears it's ugly head once more in the case of bad PR for theme parks, and it's Chessie receiving the brunt of it this time... The problem? Some person from an animal shelter complained about the park's lack of effort regarding taking in some rabbits that had been abandoned (not given to) at their doorstep... Naturally being a zoo and unable to take in said rabbits due to laws and legislation, it seems they called the shelter in to deal with it... A member of staff apparently (according to the shelter person of burden) stated it was "not my problem" when the rabbits were picked up... Naturally with Chessie 'rejecting' the rabbits, this has caused outrage as the poor animals designed for outdoors life might have frozen/been eaten to death (assuming Chessie left them in the car park) unattended... The FB page is like reading the Daily Mail, with people stating they will boycott the park as they let someone else (probably more qualified for the job of sheltering rabbits, as Chessie are not a shelter, they are a zoo) do it for them... Amazing scenes really, and once again proves the mob nature of the country ("Ohhhhh someone's complained about something, I will too!") and the general ignorance of people making assumptions about the situation and not attempting to understand why Chessie could not take the rabbits in... And breathe...