Benin

You expect roads and paths to be gritted as soon as snow falls?Never gonna happen... Even if they did it would still take ages for some areas to be gritted...Half the time it's not the actual snow falling that is the problem... It's the ice and settled hard snow that is the main issue... Ever been hit with a properly packed snowball? It hurts more than a fresh one mainly as the snow is a lot harder as it's been compacted (I could go deeper into how the molecule behave, but cba)... Hence it can cause immense problems with train suspension... And the issues with ice should be obvious... I bloody skidded in my car today around a corner due to ice... Imagine what a metallic rail suffers from when it gets iced up...And why were you meant to go into college today? That sucks big time...On the subject of snow... I just drove down to London from Manchester today... And snow didn't affect me in the slightest... It damn well affected my train on Saturday because ended up being on one for 4 odd hours... But I didn't moan because the snow was indeed heavy...So basically, DEAL WITH IT... Stop whinging about it...

Why do I have this vision of a Towers fanboy hiding under the snow with a mega-zoom lens camera taking an extremely blurry photo of this scene?

Can I have what he's having if he thinks Saw is world class?That's made my evening and my already sore throat even worse. Cheers.

Quality over Quantity... Disney will ALWAYS be better than Merlin no matter what because of how they treat the majority (let's ignore the terribleness of WDS) of their parks with care and imagination...

Please tell me you mean in the UK...Let alone the fact that all three of those are generally considered to be the 'worst' of their types in a worldwide situation, it just goes to show how generally poor our coasters are...I'm also gonna go out and say I don't like National anymore since the new trains and what-not... A right shame really...

As Mikey said, "World-Class" is very much all in the personal opinion and subjective...Hence, what is "World-Class" to one person will not be to the next... And this is no doubt dependant on that person's experiences on other rides of the same type and what-not... I love Air and Oblivion and find them better than their American counterparts that I have ridden (Tatsu, Sheikra and Griffon), but someone else could say the exact opposite (in Air's case, they do regularly)...Can we expect another one? God knows... It's too hard to predict how coasters can ride in comparison to how they look on paper... Let alone factoring in personal opinion... I'm sure many on here may class Stealth "World Class" for some reasons... Doesn't make it so though...Would we get one from Merlin? Again it's too hard to predict by their varying amounts of effort we've seen out of the major additions from the parks... Saw and Thirteen are certainly nowhere near "World Class" (let's be honest, they're not even "UK Class"), so it's very hard to predict what will happen in the future in regards to management views and budget constraints...Any park can get something deemed "World Class", from the biggest (Cedar Point, Six Flags Great Adventure) to the smallest (Holiday Park, Oakwood)... Just a case of the managers taking a risk, something that seems to lack sometimes over here (I.e. Wooden coasters can be made awesome Merlin)...

Let's be honest, it's not entirely Towers' fault that everytime they do some excavation/restoration work some ancient being appears wreaking havoc and becomes a central part of the ride...

A cross valley coaster will NEVER happen... That simple... It's a wonderful idea but it got canned in 2005/6/whenever and I have no doubts it would be shunned by the council now... Look at the problems they had with Thirteen's permission with that bloody Stone Age Fort thing...Also, 2012? Not likely... 3 years seems to be the cycle Merlin have put into their parks... And many reckon we won't see another coaster until 2013/14... Two things, firstly, a drop tower at Alton? Just no... Tree height is the main issue here and unless they dug down (and then down, and then down some more) similar to Oblivion would be the only way we'd see one... Will that happen? Unlikely...Secondly, the Secret Weapon term is reserved for their coasters... Unique 'World's Firsts'... Not a drop tower...

Actually, who removed the Buccaneer pic? My post earlier now exists for no reason... (Same for hitman90)...SOMEONE EXPLAIN!!!!

Or maybe it has absolutely nothing to do with the world 'ending' and will be some form of apocalypse theme?Six Flags are renaming Terminator as Apocalypse... So it's certainly a viable theme, and it probably won't look too different from Staines town centre...

Damn... I cannot think of something witty to link Thorpe and the End of the World in an amusing manner... As you were folks...Here's to several pages of fanboy speculation, excitement, then disappointment... *raises glass*

He already has a topic about his 3d models though?

I would guess that many kids would disagree with you on that... I have no idea what it's about, but considering the amount of Ben 10 merch and stuff kids wear these days no doubt it will be relatively successful for the park... Obviously when compared to Thomas it's hard to beat, but still, it's a popular and well-known brand for the young people...Indeed, Drayton could have a decent plan here is focusing on the IP generation a lot more than the Merlin parks... Thomas Town was well recieved by many and playing something similar to that can only boost people's expectations...Of course, it is a 50/50 thing, it depends on the level of effort going into it, but hopefully with Thomas Town as a precursor, it should be pretty decent, even for us who don't have a clue...

Same for Asda, and I could probs do with some right now... Effort though...

From Towerstimes...I fully expect the other parks to follow suit... The number of passes is getting more and more silly by the day at this rate... Will they be releasing London Midway ones soon?

I'm gonna go cry in a corner...What an awful week regarding theme park news

D'awwwwwww... Cute trains are cute...

2010 AP Price = £1502011 Premium Pass Price = £175That's where Mark got the 25 quid from... As to get the same basic thing as last year (bar the London August restriction) you have to pay that as a 'difference'... Decrease or no decrease in the actual cost, there's still an increase...In addition, renewal of a standard pass has gone UP by 8 quid... Where did they pull that from?

I never knew ANY of that was happening before... If it wasn't for "Yo Chessington" I'd have never had known... Many thanks...

STOP EATING MY SESAME CAKE!

It won't... Because people are easily swayed by marketing... But they'll still lose some APers who will probs be replaced by new ones and so on...I got mine in October so I don't have much choice or worry... But it's still the principle of the thing...

Of course the Premium wasn't worth it... Hence why no-one got one...But doing it this way hasn't worked for them... Simple as... Not everyone can afford to give out the extra money at the current time... People's reactions say it all... In this economic climate, we don't want to over-spend too much on needless entertainment things... Playing around with the perks in this manner will lose Merlin custom... No more short staying customers will mean quite likely a loss of income somewhere along the line, be it for food or merch...I keep saying disillusion right now because that's how the majority of people feel... And of course for enthusiasts why stay with Merlin when there's a vast number of cheaper, newer and more awesome European parks?If it was obvious that the money from the parking charge was going into the parks, it would be more easy to deal with... But what are we getting this year? A 2nd hand 'water' ride, a 4D cinema, a Sea-Life and new barriers... You go to places like America and Europe where both charged and non-charged car parks exist it is obvious that for the most part they do care, repainting and repairing things nicely, even if it takes longer to do... That doesn't happen here...You go to Europa Park and know EXACTLY that the money you paid for parking and entry is going straight into the park in some way shape or form due to the quality all around...And if it ends up with the standard one being phased out, what's the point of all this? We'll just end up in the same situation...

I never said it wasn't bad value, the AP has ALWAYS been good value, regardless of the price increases that have occurred...HOWEVER, what I have a problem is that in order to get the full amount of perks now I have to part with even more money to Merlin... That's just not on... Especially when they're bombarding normal pass holders with restrictions in order to make the more expensive one more attractive... A simple ruse that I just don't approve of because of how poorly those tickets sold last year...

But Mark also said... So I don't get your point about that... Yes it might be worth me getting the Premium Pass, but why should I just so I can get rid of restrictions? Merlin have handled this really badly by leaving it a day before coming out with something, as due to the nature of Facebook, the reputation was tarnished within minutes of the discovery...As I said, it didn't sell last year, Merlin are trying to make up the numbers but the way they have done so has disillusioned many of their AP holders both enthusiast and non-enthusiast alike... What with holidays abroad being relatively cheap now (especially to Europe), annoying your more loyal customers is not a great business plan...

This is the point...Make something that wasn't selling more marketable... Simple business plan...Best way to do it? No...