Benin

To be fair, Raptor and Sub Terra are two very well themed experiences, as is Swarm and Thirteen... I reckon if Thorpe hadn't wasted so much money on the Saw licensing, that too would've had some truly quality theming... I think the problem is the lack of consistency throughout, with a lack of details and facades in a few cases... But there is some quality...

But how many people pay the "on the gate" price? BOGOFs are a major factor into gate figures, especially here, and with the ability to make BOGOFs look like exceptional value for money, it doesn't seem to make too much of a difference how many people visit the parks... Of course, if BOGOFs were removed, we might well see a big old difference...

In regards to not lowering the queues at the end of the day, yeah, it's due to sheer laziness and wanting to go home

No, just get the mod team to talk to everyone milling around, be it first timers or regulars... No need for some rather awkward games and 'enforced fun times' until the meets get actually half decent... For the remainder of people, talking will occur in queues, simples...

It's unfair to make every meet at Thorpe... Especially as not EVERYONE lives down south... Need some balance, it's not particularly difficult to get up to Towers anyways really...

What sort of world do we live in when a mod double posts eh?

Always been left off I think, Chessie Engineers being a bit lazy

People who are in charge of the meet (or mod/admin team) share out their contact details... Therefore people have several points of contact if running late and such... Hard to do meet ups at 9, defo from park opening is best for about 30 minutes... If not, let someone know you'll be late and sort out a meeting place... Faff is inevitable, with toilet breaks, sorting out who is riding and stuff... Just need to make it clear that the group WILL move on without you if you choose to move off whilst people are queuing and the like... It needs to be made as a group effort, which means people going should also adhere to meet up guidelines, rather than just the organiser(s)... Easy things to do really... Just need someone to take charge and ensure that people follow a set of guidelines... I remember taking charge at the mini-Legoland meet t'other year, and then people ended up going off forgetting about others... That does not make a good meet, let alone on the Swarm ERT where no-one knew who half the people were... Need to make the meets much more special and all day, spreading it to other parks (Paultons for example wouldn't be a bad shout, easy enough to get to between people on trains and car drivers) would also be beneficial, cos Thorpe every two months is boring as hell...

Seems to be a Twitter account with the same name as the Youtube user... Phalanx level of social media advertising? Yes please Towers <3

How about making a meet properly (I.e. have it ALL day, not meet up for an hour and then that's it... That does not a meet make)... It's rather simple to do all day meets really... Loads of other forums do it with much larger numbers than what TPM have...

Good old fashioned British comedy right there... Absolutely brilliant...

I love this... Like... Seriously... That's amazing

Technically, Alton have entertainment... And more than 2 square metres of space in their rooms...

Judging by what people say about Volares, I don't think ANYTHING could make up for it... It's low capacity, gimmicky, and deemed crap... PERFECT for the park...

I know there are some weirdos people who like Saw... But my thing was more saying that they were a copy... Indoor drop aside (which is also on Mystery Mine, so they both copied that one), there is very little to no similarity between the two... Least you can actually hear the ghost/animatronics on Fluch eh?

That level of pedantry is awful... Practically cheating some would say...

It is a copy, aside from the launch, indoor lift hill, theme, layout, etc... Fluch is nowhere near the awfulness of Saw... Funny how they opened the same year too...

Sometimes it's better to think about things logically... Let's look at what turning Swarm backwards would mean... Make it more intense, but isn't the point of NWO going forward to LIMIT the vomit? Surely a backwards Swarm would be WORSE? Extra stress and strain added onto the trains - Clearly not designed to go backwards is it? Even the most minimal change in shape, size or weight distrubition can have a knock-on effect... Change of track shape probably required - Taking Disney Paris as a guide here, when they retrofitted Indiana Jones, they had to change the banking of the track to compensate for many factors, wonder how much that would cost on a B&M... Guest Experience - Surely this is a given here, whilst backwards rides have been done (NWO, Indiana Jones, El Diablo, Superman/Tower of Terror) there is a distinct trend there in that these rides are either family level coasters, or go in a straight line... Indiana Jones was also quite low on the customer satisfaction scale after a while, hence it's now forwards (same for El Diablo)... B&M - This is the most important one, would B&M condone this? I highly doubt it for a company who don't even do launches... They have a very set way of ride construction, and I doubt they would agree to Thorpe doing this... Quite frankly, I think it's the stupidest rumour I've heard in a long, long time... Especially when putting my enthusiast and engineer hat on... It makes little sense beyond the "We need a gimmick to get people in" point of thinking... Logistically it's poor (and I haven't even mentioned how the queue could be done)... It just won't happen... Simple as...

Gonna plump for the ALLLL the Tower of Terrors... You would certainly make much more song and dance of having been to DisneySea...

Inverted - Nemesis Suspended - Big Bad Wolf (R.I.P in peace) Water Ride - River Quest Stand Up - There are no good ones Flying - Air Floorless - Medusa Eurofighter - Fluch von Novgorod Giga/Mega - Phantom's Revenge Launched - Top Thrill Dragster Wing Rider - Raptor Drop Tower - Mystery Castle Boomerang - Deja Vu Wooden - The Beast That'll do methinks...

Sub Terra doesn't have any 'extra' staff loitering around the ride (unless it's broken, which resulted in not many people asking questions about it), just a whole load of staff members... And it's not terrible, never has been tbh, but that's a different matter... I would hope they do something for opening, I wish our parks on a whole would make more of an effort with ride's opening, Swarm seemed to be a step in the right direction this year, can only hope the parks continue that... As for having actors, I'd rather not, a big expense and they need to be integrated well into an attraction, not just tacked on a la Sub Terra (although that made everyone like it, so what do I know)... It's a tricky balance, but I'd rather the parks focus spending on using permanent features to create an experience and atmosphere, not rely on "boo scares" to do things...

I would post a list, but god knows how many bits of merch I actually have hidden away in my house, especially from Europe and America... Cuddly toys, photos, shirts, snow globes, shot glasses, maps, guide books, lanyards... And that's off the top of my head... I think the fact that at Europa this year and Rainbow Magicland last year I spent €100 in BOTH shops separately says a lot about my merch habit... I have near enough the entire Merlin mohawk bear collection though, including Raptor and Krake (Also the original Oblivion one)... Never did buy that Krake hoodie though... Shame... Yeah... There's a lot... When I move out, I'm gonna take it all with me too... Should be fun...

I'll think you find there are MANY more reasons why people will want to go to Towers instead of Thorpe already, let alone the promise of a new coaster...