Benin

The problem I see with the fire is that it's not catching everytime... Once that's sorted it'll be fine... The water jets weren't even on last time...

There's nothing specifically wrong with the Air tunnel, aside from how much I enjoy looking at bare soggy concrete to get me excited for a ride (and now being blinded by excessively bright lights for the pointless on ride video)... Although, flying over the shed is just as fab <3

Why isn't it red? [/pedantic] Tis good really, dunno what else they could add in future... Indeed, I doubt we'll see any major stuff until the island is used... As for the other rides, they don't need any extra theming (aside from Inferno getting the backside of the volcano), rather a repaint and spruce up...

Hit capacity today... As well as Chessie AND Drayton... Bank Holidays <3

Best country? It's gotta be Germany surely? Just for the sheer overall quality of rides and atmosphere... Places like Europa, Phantasialand and Hansa show that the country has parks of the normal types (big corporation owned down to small family run parks) and have some of the best rides in Europe (Black Mamba, Fluch, Blue Fire, etc)... Overall the atmosphere and general operation policies also help, with a preference for the rides people to focus on the rides and bring down those queues, whilst the rest of the departments organise the interactive qualities also desired... Italy come a close second... 3 major parks, all of which have some quality within (although the Merlin park is the weakest of the 3, similar situation in Germany out of the parks I've visited), and with Mirabilandia home to Katun and iSpeed, the quality of rides is very high (aside from Gardaland's coasters)... It's also home to my favourite dark ride, Huntik... Be interesting to see how successful Etnaland is to see how Italy's future goes... Dunno where the UK would come in... Need to visit some other European countries to see how those compare...

Chessie get absolutely no budget... So being a resort doesn't make the budget bigger...

I'm still lost tbh... Raptor has little to no theming or styling to link it into anything really... It's station and queue are atypically generic American things really... Very much a case of you could pick it up and put it into a random allocated amusement park (say any other Cedar Fair or Six Flags park) and you wouldn't need to change anything... Griffon and SheiKra are both themed, both rather nicely I might add, and fit into their areas well... Kraken's station and queue is also nicely themed... Maverick's theme is mainly in the surrounding area (rather than just the ride, although CP cheated as the queue/station building already existed), but it gives it an actual embedded feeling, rather than the plonked emotions of nearly every other ride there...

Indeed, not everyone at Thorpe is legally able to drink for one...

Shame the view gets ruined by a mouldy beach, Depth Charge, NWO and Storm Surge...

Raptor? Styled? If you mean styled to be absolutely generic (like most American rides) then yes... I'll give you Maverick though, that's nearly full on themed...

Revamp of Duploland being put forward as next year's potential addition... http://www.rbwm.gov.uk/pam/planning_application_search.jsp?appnum=12%2F02314%2FFULL Legoland's ride policy seems to be...

Liam was just asking you to expand on your reasonings, allowing for a well supported arguement putting across why you hope that Thorpe becomes the 'official' UK number 1 over Towers... It's better to back up your opinions than just state them...

What even about the European parks which have even smaller a budget? Places like Plopsaland (at a guess here, maybe they just have a company who know what they're doing), or the quality of the last additions at Hansa Park, or places like Toverland? Disney run at a loss because a company that big and across multiple industries probably will do regardless... However, they seem to approach business with a whole "add things that'll bring quality" (excusing California Adventure and Paris Studios, but, they were both still better than many other parks in the world), instead of worrying about the balance, because they know that they will more than likely make the money back, whether that's through the theme parks or another section of the business... Merlin seem to be focused on being sustainable, but because of that, the last few years have been rather lacklustre, especially the last two years (2010 was a decent year aside from Saw Alive), add into this the cost cutting methods poorly applied to the parks and the overall price per entry (even with a low percentage actually paying on the gate costs), it does leave a bad taste in the mouth... The car park is still grass? Ew, dunno if I prefer that to Thorpe's gravel pit tbh... Both are pretty damn awful really... Although £2 for Chessie is much cheaper than both Asterix and Plopsaland, even with conversion rates... Though I expect it might well go up soon to get in line with the rest of them... I'll agree on the staff factor, but that might be a UK thing, as working at a park for 90% of the people is seen as a part time job just to do whilst on the weekend/summer... Of course there are those enthusiastic lot somewhere around the park, but at Chessie and Thorpe, the majority seem happy to just natter to each other... Moaning about having to stay behind to get people on Vampire though is silly, if they really cared about getting home, they'd get people on the ride faster... It's not hard to get rid of a 45 minute queue after closing in 30 minutes after park closure on 2 trains... Although Vampire on 2 trains these days is just dire... The overselling of Fastrack is the park's problem... And needs to be nipped in the bud by the rides managers getting at the retail lot for overselling... It does happen because the retail people get told to take advantage of the demand, but more often than not, overselling screws EVERYONE over... I dunno what methods they could use to improve it (assuming it will never be free (and easy to abuse as it was back in the day)), perhaps bringing in timed slots again or the introduction of a Q-Bot system might help prevent both overselling and also help spread the crowds of Fastrack...

Orrrrr just ignore this idea, and put money into fixing Samurai and other parts of the park (as well as a new ride, I fear that we won't be getting anything if this goes through, even if Vengeance is going for cheap)...

Why can I see drunk people milling around the park when the engineers start their morning checks as a result of this... I hope they have a good plan for ensuring guests don't wander into the park in the middle of the night...

Surely even a Baco headache cannot be cured by alcohol?

What are people meant to be doing whilst they wait to go to bed after park close btw? I guess Dome will remain open till late then? Either way I cannot see this being good in any way shape or form... This could actually be a worse addition than Storm Surge...

The hell is this? I mean... An American style motel made of shipping containers... Actually literally in the park? No Thorpe... Just... No...

Short Answer - Yes Long Answer - Of course it does, as mentioned, the last major ride investment was 8 years ago, it's pathetic for such a big park but then considering 4 of those years it was spent in such a bad state it's unsurprising it's never seen decent investment, let alone now when it gets barely any money at all given to the park... Zufari is good, but will it draw in the punters? That is yet to be determined... But Chessie desperately needs another top tier (for them) coaster to help Fury and Vampire (both unreliable rides) and ease pressure when one inevitably breaks down... So what could the park get? I'm triumphed a Gerstlauer Launched for years, and after finally riding one this year, I am certain one would be an excellent addition to the park, as it could provide the next step up from Fury, whilst producing an easy to manipulate layout and the potential for an indoor section (which would also be great)... Elsewhere, perhaps even a Maurer Launch could produce the goods? Although both of these would be limited by throughputs similar to Fury, so perhaps these are not the best option considering as well Vampire's lack of 3 trains now... Then what? Perhaps a Zierer drop ride? Both Polar X-Plorer and Verbolten have been well received, and produce high throughputs... But with Thirteen, will Merlin want another (potentially better overall ride) in the same country? Perhaps a Mack Launched then? (A recurring theme with my ideas, for SOME reason, honestly, I can't think of much else) Sea World San Diego's Manta has proven a low height version is doable, which is ESSENTIAL for any new coaster at Chessie, and can involve some good theming and what not, again with decent throughput... It could even be with or without inversions (which is a different arguement all together), depending on how Chessie would want to market it... A new coaster is a must for the future, but the park also needs other rides and redevelopments as well... Not quite California Adventure level, but it gets closer to that every year nothing else gets added or repaired (I half expect Runaway Train to fall down before long)...

All of them? But does that mean all 12 year old girls are bi or lesbian? Since if ALL 12 year old people have them.......... My head hurts...

He means under the ride itself, not underground... Besides, there's no space there for an accompanying ride and resultant cattlepen...

Unless they're planning on moving the conference centre to elsewhere in the park (probs not, but every avenue and all that)...

Won't ride records on Zeus be arguable since you spend half the ride OUT of your seat?

Chessie is in a residential area... They also have an issue of green belt land sitting right next door, so they cannot build tall attractions without a lot of effort or some tactical plays at the office (Fury's lifthill for example)... You cannot simply allow parks to build tall attractions, it's relatively simple that point, as a result of NIMBYs (Towers/Chessie/Paultons), other planning issues such as the aforementioned green belt (Chessie), tree line max height (Towers) and even lack of space (Thorpe in a few years/Blackpool) or money to invest (Every other park not mentioned)... Of course the UK have poor coasters as well, but the overall percentage of them over the entire country is nowhere near the probable percentage of poor coasters at a particular park in the US (Cedar Point is a good example here), let alone the entire place... But you seem to have this view of bigger = better... If there's one thing Nemesis taught the coaster world 18 years ago, you don't have to go up to create an amazing world class coaster... Indeed, these stricter planning permissions allowed Towers to create two of the best rides (Oblivion and Nemesis) which are miles better than their taller, fastest, longer American counterparts...

Whilst Six Flags parks might have more rides than Merlin parks, they also have a lot more crap... Quality over Quantity please... Magic Mountain might have the highest amount of coasters, but some of them are rubbish... Besides, they have barely any (in comparison to the UK especially) much stopping them building 200ft+ coasters everytime... We can't do this aside from one park (and even then it's difficult due to the flight path overhead)... It's way too difficult to compare UK and America parks, as they are way too different in near enough every aspect...