Benin

What I love about Nemesis is how at 9am it provides an extremely intense experience, even when it was rather cold... Then it warms up and gets even better... She's getting rattly, but she's still smoother than rides 15 years younger... Nemmie <3

Lol wut? Selling Fastrack in large quantities on a midweek day in September after schools are back? Not even having the dedicated Fastrack queues open? Thorpe really, really, really need to be kicked up the arse about this... Cos that is stupidity...

Knotts isn't small (Cedar Fair owned) and nearby residents don't really affect the American parks like they do for us, especially since most of the parks are plonked in residential areas. And I liked Silver Bullet I'd like a B&M though, Intamin might be shakey considering the problems they've had. I'd half expect another Dinosaurs Alive thong though, cos Cedar Fair are crap at life...

And nothing of value was lost...

Might not have been announced by the time of press... Then again, I've not received this magazine since the first one... Bit crap really...

I think it's undecided right now, but West Ham FC want to move into the Olympic Stadium, but they'll never fill it... Need to basically use it in a similar fashion to Wembley really, with concerts, other events and athletics happening throughout the year... The Aquatics is meant to become more for local usage if I recall as well... Sure they'll find sommat to do with the permanent structures...

Edited for accuracy

Depends on what phobias they would put in, sure there's a couple which if done well could scare non-phobics as well as phobics...

Actually went to Olympic Park yesterday... Wow... The park is amazing to be in, and the atmosphere better than many other sporting events... The Swimming in the morning was alright, hard to get excited over heats, but watching a British guy break a World Record (saw 4 broken in the pool) is brilliant, especially considering that these guys in the Paras have a lot more to do... Then the Athletics in the evening... THAT T44 FINAL <3<3<3 Amazing scenes with that... The silence before 10 seconds of 80'000 people yelling Peacock over that line... Nothing I have experienced in football (be it play-off final 10 minutes of pure noise or the madness at Old Trafford last year) has come close to that... It must be amazing for them to know that near enough everyone in the stadium is cheering them on... 9 World Records were broken last night as well... Brilliant... Although I think my favourite moment was one of the British lads reaction to getting a Bronze, he was absolutely delighted and started pegging it around the stadium in absolute glee... The Tunisian guy crying during his gold medal ceremony was also brilliant to see, as was the crowd singing along to the French national anthem... The crowd was spectacular, indeed, the fact that during both Olympics we have been cheering everyone, even in races without British athletes, there was a great amount of noise... For all involved... It's a shame I didn't get a chance to go to the Olympics, but the Paralympics were just as good if not more amazing and inspirational... It's too late for me to become Olympic level athlete, but I'm sure this event will have inspired many a younger child into doing something with their lives... So glad I was able to go to the Stadium and see 3 British gold medals, nothing comes close to it...

They don't really need to do anything desperately until 2015, when they're planning (I hope) to connect it between Swarm and whatever the next island is gonna be called... Sunken Gardens is a bit weird really... It's so small nowadays and I half expect it to be completely gone in a few years... Just cos that's how Thorpe rolls with greenery...

More people might be more likely to hang around till close (I.e. 9pm, as opposed to the old 10pm, just so people know what I mean) if they're getting a train home as well mind, as most people might well have had to leave early for a specific train (similar to people going to Towers' via public transport and having to leave at 7/8 to get home)... So it might well not be as quiet in that last hour of operation this year... Would imagine more are willing to stay till 9 than 10, especially if they've been there since opening...

I wish they would, it's in a right state..

Chessie had a fair few extended park hours back when I was working there, not many but still a few... Nothing is more deflating mind, but such is the way...

In natural expectation, the expectation and reality of the effect Fastrack makes on queues is ignored by the park's management... Then again, it doesn't help that Retail don't get told the overall effect their upselling makes on the Rides mob...

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I guess it's similar in all the parks in the world, each department gets it's own separate budget and outlays, just an easier way to run the system around... Vengeance could work in a theme park situation if it had about 20 pre shows beforehand... It seats 40 odd doesn't it? And it would plug a big gap in Thorpe's line up in a potentially decent dark ride if (a big one at that) done well...

It's the SECOND of the month... Give the park a chance to actually decide on what the next step is (unsurprisingly, it's not simple to design/build a new attraction)... The park will reveal things in their own time when ready... Who knows what's going on inside the Studios on here? No one... Besides, do we not like to be surprised by new rides or MUST we know EVERYTHING these days? Of course, does the park NEED a new ride? I'd rather the park have a set out well planned new ride than another Storm Surge... Different department, different budget, different situation...

I caved... I went... I had a decent day considering 11k other people turned up, which can result in a dire day... Arriving at 9:30 and walked in at turnstile opening time, wandering up to containment gates, which... WEREN'T OPEN What a shock... Turns out Chessie (in a mixture of magic moments and saving costs) have decided that if rides are open at 9:30, then they will be (as a unscheduled surprise to guests) open... This is something Thorpe were really credited for, so I think Chessie deserve it as well (especially as THEIR rides open at full capacity)... So to Vampire, nothing too strenous (although we avoided the 70 minute queue advertised after 10) for the staff, yet they still managed to stack the train... What's with chaining the exits as well? Health and Safety must LOVE visiting Chessie and sorting out all these random things that make absolutely no sense... But by jove it misses that 3rd train in the summer... Call Vekoma and get a nice new set with the new restraints... Buccaneer was next as Bubbles had yet to open (still before 10 mind) and it also has randomly pointless added gates on the platform... Do they use these in busier times? Although with one man operation being common, whats the point in them? Especially as they don't have enough gates per row... Ride is still good though, but it confuses me why these gates even exist... Bubbles had opened, so we joined the short queue... Nothing has changed so let's move on... SEASTORM! YAY! Actually, we realised there were a LOT of exit riders today (on Bubbles as well) as many circuits had 3/4 boats filled... This was not to be the last incident including them... Apres, we hit up Runaway Train and my first view of Jumbos... WHAT... THE... HELL... It's amazingly bad, I just hope they can repaint it next year... Otherwise it'll be even more embarrassing... Only 2 circuits on Runaway though Rattlesnack's cave filled queue was next, with new lights shining up those old animatronics that could do with a good clean up... God it was jerky, and have they got rid of the old announcements? Disappointment if so... We headed to the Punjabi Prison that is Tomb Blaster's queueline, which was snail like in it's approach... Now the bars are silly, as kids are (as I'm sure I predicted) climbing on them MORE, and potentially gonna get their feet caught in them as the gap is wide enough for such events to happen... It'll happen soon and then more stuff will be added... Look wise, it could be a lot worse, and it doesn't look overally bad... However talk of them being rethemed are apparently incorrect, as the park feel (relatively correctly) that they fit enough (as well as metal prison bars do)... For the ride, someone really over-exaggerated the changes inside... The only room with new lights was the Snake Pit, and that was lit up by a floodlight it seemed... Everything else just seemed to work which is what should be expected... Oh well... We headed to Zafari for lunch, which had some fafftastic staff serving us... Wish they wouldn't cover their burgers with relish, but the 2 courses for £10 is still a decent offer, especially with the new garlic bread but annoying they took the wings off that We pottered around the zoo for a bit, not a lot really going on around there, Zufari is still dirt and not much else... But is being heavily advertised throughout the park, which shows they are really pushing it... A good thing... After the zoo we headed to Dragon Falls, which had a BURDENOUS woman queue jumping almost the entire queue... Karma turned up however, as we saw her have to leave avec children at batching point... The height change making a difference <3 Not so adventurous Lorikeets were next... No more AP Discount on Nectar makes me sad... Then we queued for Tuk Tuk (which were running REALLY well, and the staff were good with parent swapping and the like)... Then Kobra happened, and it was such a bad queue... Why? Because the staff insisted on when batches of Fastrackers AND Exit Riders appeared, they would let them ALLLLLLL on in one go... So for many a go, 50% of the ride was filled with them... That is AWFUL batching from the staff, and made a 35 minute queue actually double in time... Just because they were letting in 20 odd (or less at times) from the normal queue... After that debacle (one full go? Sod off), we trundled home after a quick visit to the shop... Overall it was a good day, but a few improvements are still needed, especially with some ride staff systems and some rides in general (Bubbles, every single low throughput ride)... Zufari is gonna be an interesting addition to the park to see what happens with it... Also, the Madagascar area? It looks SO AWFUL... What a waste...

I can attest to the whole "To have a good day at Thorpe you need to purchase Fastrack" point... Those queues for Inferno's Info and Sales though... Absolute hilarity and stupidity in one fell swoop... S'ok, shipping container hotel guests will get Fastrack as a perk as well no doubt, just to make the problem worse...

It's because internal views rarely need to be shown for the actual stuff inside the building, as Sub Terra only showed the layout of the building, rather than showing off the ride system/theming...

I was spared the dreaded slow moving Fury queue today because it died... As Marky Mark said, I know the burdens of guests on Fury (and Vampire for that matter), but my point is more towards that the ride system can barely be really pushed in a similar way as multi train rides like Vampire, Inferno, Colossus, etc. (although 550 is a target now? What was it back in 2009 Mark?) Instead, Tomb Blaster had 4 trains and Kobra's staff decided to load several rides with around 20 fastrack AND exit riders... That was ridiculously bad... Also, finally saw Jumbos in real life... LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!

Since when did Chessie have some rides open at 9:30? A complete and pleasant surprise to get on Vampire so quickly... More to come when I get home...

Say what? That's mental... Such a small amount of people for the park in what should be an busy set of days...

I blame Ryan for saying Thorpe's Ents department was going really well this year...

They read this forum enough to know what enthusiasts (who are more liable to notice some things let's be honest, although often this things are the most pathetic of issues) see as problematic...