Benin

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...

Urgh, Swarm would cause so much head rushing it would become extremely uncomfortable after a while... Raptor or Air for me, major rides, but not overtly intense to prevent excessive re-riding...

If they desperately wanted a front row queue then there's probs just about enough space to split the two sides queues... But that wasn't what I meant really, Raptor has no bag drop (or front row queue, but it does have single rider), but because they only batch 14 people per side each time, it alleviates any issue of empty sides (which is quite common on Swarm) and due to the position of the bag 'cupboard' being at the front of the platform (where you end up passing it before getting on AND getting off the ride)... Basically, Swarm's station, in comparison with Raptor's especially, is exceptionally poorly planned and as a result causes problems with both getting on and off the ride...

The only way it would work is if they basically did Raptor and send 14 people each side per train... It's the bag drop, it messes up any sensible loading procedure the park would otherwise have...

No Camelot, therefore, this poll is null and void...

I meant Monday... Police cars entering the park probably means that some stuff went down and the Police were needed as backup...

On busy days, Fastrack can make an EXTREME difference to the normal queueline... Like, making it longer by at least 30 minutes depending on what ride we're talking about (also the batcher makes a big difference depending on how preferential they are to the Fastrackers)... Saying that people who would be in the queues for closed rides would be spending money elsewhere is potentially true, but, do you really want shut rides causing this? Angry or annoyed guests are less likely to spend money just because they are having a bad day... Especially if they've paid a fair amount to enter in the first place... It's simple business really, happy guests tend to spend money, angry guests bugger off... Having 6/7 rides closed (as an example) will annoy guests and there could well be a knock-on effect, as a bad day will not make people want to go again (unless they are masochistic enthusiasts), and as they will talk to friends and family about having a bad day, those who may have been planning a trip may not bother... The other day Thorpe knew how bad it had messed up because it gave out complimentary tickets... But will everyone who got one bother to return? We don't know, but I doubt anyone who ended up having to queue 90 minutes for Saw, Colossus, Inferno, Stealth or Swarm had a good enough day... The park SHOULD have all rides open as much as they possibly can, with two trains minimum from the off unless there is something seriously wrong... The operation of putting a second train on later is quite frankly stupid and has been the whole time it's been in practice, it doesn't save money, and judging by the amount of people who left the Inferno queue, does just annoy people who will stew over it all...

Personally, a darker shade would suit the theme of X Sector better...

That 'problem' is no doubt linked to the absolutely god awful weather we had recently which would have made the area unworkable for safety reasons... DO NOT SPREAD RUMOURS THAT IT WILL NOT OPEN ON TIME! Quite frankly they are rubbish, as I have no doubts in my mind that the timeframe for construction will not only have been rejigged due to the lost time, but also would have initially given some leeway in case of such a situation... These companies know what they're doing... There is no reason to think it won't open with the new season unless they're still building the bloody thing in March 2013..

Should've kept it as a single rider queue... It's amazing how much better organised Raptor is... Simply because it doesn't have a bag drop or a front row queue (not that Thorpe or even the guests use it, like on my first visit this year where we ended up starting the queue for it, proper madness)