Benin

What's the betting that there will be more scuffles/fights at the Crystal Palace vs Millwall footie match this Saturday in comparison to Thorpe? Yeah, there is nothing to worry about, unsurprisingly, the parks DO know what they are doing for the most part...

Nail pretty much on head here, the GP reaction to Thirteen after it's had a chance to bed into the park is so much better than the initial reactions on opening day and the weeks after... Nowhere near as bad as some people seem to make it out to be...

4 rows of 4? Perhaps it won't be a Gerstlauer - http://www.maurer-rides.com/x-coaster/x-train/

Deja Vu <3 Panda Express <3 Good to see a review of a park people rarely hear about... And horray for over-hyped Intamin rubbish!

8 passenger launch vehicles? Fluch? Iron Shark lapbar cars though would be much approved... Probs won't happen but still... Do want...

Yep, and that's been EXTREMELY successful in bringing in the crowds this year hasn't it? Oh wait, no, Thorpe aren't hitting the numbers they expected are they?

Bad Thorpe? What if the woman had been messing about and it was her fault she got caught in the conveyor? I swear like half of all theme park incidents are down to guest idiocy...

Ahhh, but was the loss of guests solely because of no new attractions? There's always something more to things, as last year was a HORRID year for all Merlin parks, not just Towers...

They don't need a new ride... They need to improve the atmosphere and look of the park, as currently, it's a bit lacking in both those areas...

Because the original Zodiac model was ancient and prone to throwing pods into trees... Sometimes rides do need replacing, but why replace rides which have nothing wrong with them?

I wonder though if Burger King gets busy because of being a recognised brand... Thorpe's restaurants outside of Burger King, KFC and Pizza Hut very rarely get very busy in my experience...

That last picture just goes to prove that Disney face characters always look really really bad... Especially it seems the American ones... The Circus looks great though... I'm still holding back till Fantasyland is actually finished though...

Won't be McDonalds because they made them go away from Chessie and Towers in the first place... Yay for more branded outlets though, one thing Merlin have done well, is the park food, so much better now...

Didn't actually know about it, but that's quite an exceptional case and kinda needed to be done? Since there's nothing really wrong with Det or Vortex, why replace them?

Oh it's clear they do, and I like Slammer as a ride, but should it continue as it has been over the next year, I just don't think it'd be worth the constant expensive investment Thorpe are doing... You have to draw the line somewhere... God knows where the money saved would end up though, none of us can truly know that...

I support the whole "better things Thorpe could spend money on" approach here, mainly because of how much of a drain Slammer must be to the maintenance budget... Why will it be a drain? Can't go to S&S and I doubt the ride has any form of warranty anymore because S&S themselves have gone "nah, it's dire" and given up on the entire concept... That leaves Thorpe with needing to go and create replacement parts through custom methods, possibly either through getting one company to manufacture the parts for them, or getting multiple companies involved... Either way, it's a costly and long (as proven by this year) process, and might well outweigh the positives of having the ride still running in the future if it continues to constantly be a thorn in the side of the park with prolonged breakdowns that have plagued the ride since 2005... As much as the uniqueness helps the ride, I wouldn't be surprised if one day Thorpe just give up on it if it continues acting up like this... I know I would look elsewhere eventually...

People bother to queue so long because when Thorpe is busy it's often the shortest queue on park... As for quiet days... Well, the low throughput contributes to the long queue...

Until you try and cross the road... What IS it with the continental cousins being so mental in inner city roads (Germans aside, but they have common sense)...

Erm, no, this will never happen and has never happened in any theme park...

Take it then the sheds were efficiently hidden from view then?

Also, I'd imagine like with many rides, there may be other 'incidents' that don't make it out into the obvious public domain... Still though, this ride is a bit awful isn't it?

I was expecting someone had gotten bored on the lift hill and jumped... Hope person is ok, hope the ride isn't...

Problem with that is how would you be able to tell between a staff member or park guest?

To be fair though, the Spanish economy is absolutely buggered...

Hard Rock Park's situation with the change of name/owner/etc was more down to be it being a complete and utter failure though, rather than Hard Rock just pulling out for the lols... Looking at that list, perhaps a Dreamworks area would be likely, it depends on the distribution rights for stuff like this could be worked out, defo wouldn't be getting a Transformers based ride though, which is why we need a Star Trek ride... Aside from that I can't really see any other franchises jumping out at me that weren't already done at their original parks (Tomb Raider and Italian Job)...