Benin

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...

DEM CURVES

The Hobbit WALKING IS BACK! As is New Zealand, wahey, a different look and take on this, with some extra bits not in the original (and extremely short in comparison to the juggernaught trilogy of LOTR) book thrown in to extend/pad out/make 3 films for money printing purposes... But you know what, the pace of this is really damn good, and the references to the original text (including direct quotes, actual songs and things) make this a really good film... The Hype Train was certainly worth the ride, next stop, Benedict Cumberbatch overload as TWO () characters... I suggest people see it, especially for the Riddles in the Dark scene, great cinema and acting... Serkis

'Superior' Guest Rooms Best part is being able to input AP discount ON THE SITE! Towers and Chessie, do this now please...

The link is broked...

Sexy... Let's just hope the cheap finale option was avoided... I am fearful of that being the case and the experience losing out because of it (due to the severely random nature of safaris, for every good one there'll be a few bad ones)...

Edited for accuracy The Washing Machine concept has always sounded cack though... Hated it from day 1, as well as the whole "this is what it'll be" stuff... Would laugh if it's not true, as would defo put TTF even lower on the chain of enthusiast sites...

Slammer blatently won for opening alone...

Having once stayed in the Nemesis suite, I was upset they removed it. Was so, so good... Good move from Towers here. Hope it looks decent...

I do hope I'm not the only one who realises the sheer irony that a coaster enthusiast site is offering free Fastrack as a competition prize...

Cedar Point needed a decent B&M... They might well get one now...

And pluk hasn't even touched the surface of how many mass shootings America has, even forgetting the last recent event in Aurora Cinema during Dark Knight Rises... Americans really are a bunch of pretentious idiots when it comes to gun control, constantly promoting self-protection and "people will find other methods" is absolutely straight out of their arses... This right to bear arms is so outdated and medieval in the modern world, and it's because of this guns are so easily obtainable to every single person in the country... I saw someone suggest on Facebook that the teachers (of a PRIMARY SCHOOL?) should have be trained and armed... Because more guns in a gunfight makes exactly a lot of sense... They need to stop having such a pro look on guns, yeah we have guns too, but how difficult is it for someone to procure one legally? Incredibly so, as any arguement the Americans could even throw towards us we can point to the fact that we don't have farmers going off on a rampage... Indeed, we had some incidents similar to these, and because of these, we tightened the laws even further... But America won't do that because of the lobbyists and their outdated constitution... When you see them arguing that if people don't use guns, they'll use knives, it's so stupid... Yes people will find other ways to kill or hurt others, but it's a lot harder to kill 20 kids with a knife than it is with an automatic rifle... Let alone someone saying they need guns so people can hunt and stop deers and other animals over-populating the country and eating all their crops (wonder what the Native Indians think of that)... The quicker North Korea nuke those idiots the better... Some can come over here of course... That's fine, cos not all of them are awful, but most are... And there will no doubt be more and more of these incidents in the future unless they bother to change their mindsets about how guns actually cause more problems than they solve...

I remember when I was in halls quite often timing my washing up when the cleaner would be doing her rounds, just to show that the mess (which we had only one person making a fair amount as he would forget to wash up the pillock) wasn't mine... I was a fairly lucky guy in regards to living with relatively clean people...

Chessie already do some extra feed the Zebras, so I would imagine in time once the new animals are used to the vehicles, they'll bring it in as well...

One of my Uncle's cancer has apparently spread a bit further into him, and it's definitely not looking good... Whilst it's not been affecting me directly as much as I've not really known him, you can see in my Dad how much it affects people, especially as him and a few of his siblings are jetting over to Ireland this weekend... Cancer sucks...

Makes sense, they were definitely considering it in 2010, when Wanyama opened, I wouldn't be surprised if that was a Phase 1 jobbie... Yay Rhinos, wonder if this will be ready for opening though...