Zappomatic

X really needs this on loop as its soundtrack

Somehow sounds a bit cheap to me and I think would begin to grate quite quickly.

I remember when Slammer first opened it had someone where the queue splits directing people to either side and marking them off on a whiteboard, and batching into rows as the ride was running. It was a real people eater!

Oh dear... because that area's not congested enough already on busy days!

And hey... have a super day. http://reride.net/parks/thorpepark/mp3/superday.mp3

Just noticed the strange looking white panel poking out the top of the Burger King roof. This I think was a big sign saying something like "TOUCH DOWN!", and the inside of Burger King had an American Football theme with the floor tiles recreating the field markings, and American football memorabilia on the walls. Anyone remember that? Other than the outdoor seating being enclosed the layout in the restaurant is pretty much unchanged and the ceiling with its neon remains.

The Burger King/Mexican Cantina and 4D cinema buildings would have gone up in 1986 as part of European Square. The photo AdventureRyan has kindly dug up looks like it would have been taken around 2002.

Or actually is that covered in terracotta tile? Hard to tell from the photo. But those of you with longer memories will remember when that dilapidated looking blue box had a dome on top of it!

Ugh, what is their obsession with corrugated metal? (Oh yeah, it's cheap and maintenance free). Every time they replace a thatch-type roof at Thorpe Park ie. Ranger County kiosks, Rumba Rapids photo kiosk they cheap out and go for industrial looking finishes. It's almost as if someone loves the way shipping containers look and wants everything else to look similar...

Cineworld is still open. You have to take the escalator up from Shaftesbury Avenue or climb the broken escalator from the Leicester Square side and pass a very strange Lebanese cafe and a clutch of old arcade machines.

Anyone taken a look in the window on the end of the WWTP radio van? Nice humorous bit of backstory to the shop there!

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I'm wondering if the park will be using the bag drop at the entrance on quiet days (so that the person staffing it is also the ride's greeter) and then on busy days using the one just before the station and having a separate person outside?

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If it's any consolation they do seem to have fixed Quantum's jolting...

On Sunday something was obviously not quite right with the audio - safety announcements playing but no music or countdown on the ride or platform, and the queue line was playing what I think was the old Pirates 4D waiting area atmosphere (seagulls, waves, bell chiming). Odd!

Seems like for once they've actually had a good clean-up over the closed season! On Sunday I noticed that the Park appear to have removed all gum from pathways over the closed season, and I noticed some of the staff patrolling with litter grabbers appeared to be carrying an aerosol of some sort which I think was for removing chewing gum. I did notice a few random bottles and things in awkward places on Rumba Rapids and Loggers Leap and a piece of gum stuck inside my Swarm restraint but otherwise the park was unusually spotless. On Sunday when Nemesis Inferno was running on one train and the sign outside advised of a 45 minute queue they had someone selling Fastrack at the entrance to the ride. Not really a good way to treat APs! Queue dropped down to about 10 minutes when they got the second train running.

No more "2 meals for £x.xx" at Bar 360 which is a shame, but the menu has been tweaked a bit to add some more appealing healthy options and quality seemed pretty decent on Sunday. Food took quite a while to come but service was friendly. The bill came up when the plates were taken away and then we had to pay at the bar. I'm just hoping they don't get too many people doing a runner without paying!

Really like the fact X is now very loud from the moment you enter the queue line, and the new lighting is great especially the bit where they've created a kind of laser tunnel! My only criticism would be that on both my rides I seemed to hit a part of whatever track was playing where the beat had stopped - I think all the tracks used need to be relentless ones with no let-ups in the middle.

The BBC News article mentions "a parade of shops" being affected... I wonder if that actually means the frontage to the buildings on that side of Transylvania? Some reviews of the Santa attraction on here mention there being electric heaters inside set too high. I wonder if a heater is the source of the blaze.

Hmm so they've finally found a way to have smoke in the ride without triggering the fire systems?

The company that made the original faces and dragon tunnel (and incidentally a fair bit of stuff at Thorpe Park - some of it still there) are still in business, so there's hope yet!

They've had a good clean - very bright and shiny inside!