Benin

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...

Photo contains spoilers

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...

I went to see the Wheelchair Basketball today... It was amazing <3 It's such a shame Channel 4 are a bit useless at broadcasting, and that the BBC weren't gonna give it that much coverage (probably because they went all out on the Olympics themselves)... But it's not just the broadcasters... Today, after the GB Girls played, lots of people left, leaving the final game even more muted than the first game... A real shame, cos these guys and gals deserve so much support because they are truly awesome at taking it (especially in a rather violent sport)... Can't wait for next week's trip to the Park itself <3<3

Six Flags Magic Mountain has revealed some parts of their next coaster... FULL THROTTLE! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzZcHQT_q58&feature=player_embedded Oh Premier

The park logo... Probably nothing else...

The staff never get told things... It's silly really... There's often such a lack of communication it seems (hell, for the TPM Swarm ERT day, the staff didn't even know, thought they would be told that they'd be working extra) between departments... Disappointing that they'd do such a daft thing during this time of year... Way to make guests happy Thorpe... As for 2 trains at 10, the park did open at 9:30 Based on what they've done so far this year, I wouldn't be surprised if they were still doing it...

YAY! I hope that whatever they get, they use the hilly terrain of the area... Could make sommat very good if they use it well...

Filming crew? In the middle of the day? Weird that they didn't advertise this fact... It's quite poor show really, could they have not done it before ride opening? Or indeed after park close? Wouldn't be surprised if your technical fault on Inferno was adding the second train... If they are still doing that then Thorpe need to seriously consider their operations...

I've never been in that car park (at least not in the past decade) to comment on it's overall quality... The queues are (in comparison to things that can be dealt with like the car park situation) not as major an issue, as they aren't as easy to manage when you have a generally busy time of year (not just the bank holidays, expecting school holidays to be empty to beyond ludicrous)... There are methods of improving these queues, but that's for another paragraph, let's look at Fury and Vampire... Fury has always had a slow moving queue (and quite regularly is on of the longest queues on any day, let alone a holiday period), it's just the nature of the lack of throughput the ride system has, the staff can go as fast as they can/want but will forever be limited by the ride... This is a really impossible one to fix... As for Vampire, 2 hours from the mini tunnel? Ew much? This might not just be down to fastrack though, as the lack of 3rd train and poor ride staff will also mean the queue will be longer... But 2 hours? Sommat's up with it really... I think the 3rd train being removed for good really killed Vampire's ability to take on a queue in the summer... As I've never seen (personally) the queue be that long when the line is full, but considering the times I went last year how slow that queue moved (not because of lots of fastrack), I'm not surprised it's gotten worse... A shame, cos that queue used to get blitz through... It kinda coincides with other complaints about the staff's general attitude you hear these days... You can tell I haven't visited this year yet can't you? Wait till Saturday night, I'll be trumpeting the "Chessie staff need a kick up the arse" view once again (and have done since 2011 tbh)...

The queue complaints are silly, quite clearly went on Sunday (when at capacity)... Why people think going on certain days won't make it busy I have no idea... Of course, another high capacity throughput coaster and replacing the crap throughput rides with good ones would help, but how many parks can really handle their capacity well? As for South Car Park, can they even pave it? Someone did claim that but I have no idea if that's true... To be honest that entrance does need redoing though, make it bigger and able to withstand the people entering from that end of the park... Really, the only complaints that should be paid attention to, are the state of the car parks, although it is possible that they can't pave over (sure someone will know)... The rest are a result of a park at capacity and hence should be deemed relatively trivial... The only solution to that is increasing the park's capacity or throughputs...