dragon2000

Legoland and Chessington extended their opening hours until 7pm today. Alton Towers still closed the rides at 5pm - crazy! Even after several of the coasters had periods of downtime during the day and it's so busy being Easter holidays. Madness...

Was watching Vortex from the restaurant in the Dome on Wednesday and concur that it looked to be running brilliantly. 6 broken seats mind you... Might be tempted to ride it if it keeps up this decent behaviour!

Fantastic ride on Samurai on Wednesday. Got the really decent setting which lasts a good time, goes multiple directions and includes the bit of time windmilling at the top. Instantly parked at the end too! If only they would always use this setting.

The hose at the load platform has been in place for at least 2 years. It is the work of the devil. You get drenched and is just not fun.

Yep, the lasers are pretty awesome!

Had a pretty decent ride on it on Sunday morning, then went back on for what I hoped would be an even better cycle in the last hour as the ride was walk-on. Unfortunately the op had decided to put the ride on the lamest setting, probably to get home faster... We didn't even spin a second direction and it lasted about 30s.

This actually quite often seems to happen at the start of seasons, as the year goes by the staff tend to not to do it anymore...

http://www.ltci.co.uk/naflic_technical_bulletins/NAFLIC_Mondial_Top_Scan_TB344.pdf

Another video has appeared on YouTube of Terror Tomb, a bit easier to see what's happening in this version:

I had almost forgotten about the horror that is Storm Surge. Then I looked at this thread and saw the above picture. Yuk, going to have nightmares tonight...

It's the Flying Fish all over again. Are they joking a year shut and it looks like this...

Dragons Fury (5) Vampire (5) Rattlesnake (5) Dragon Falls (5) Bubbleworks (6) Black Buccaneer (6) Kobra (5) Monkey Swinger (4) Rameses Revenge (6) Tomb Blaster (6) Sea Storm (5) Carousel (4) Flying Jumbos (5) Tuk Tuk Turmoil (5) Griffins Galleon (3) Tomb Blaster + Monkey Swinger -

Driving School (4) Duel (5) Enterprise (5) Frog Hopper (4) Galloper's Carousel (5) Heave Ho! (5) Hex (5) Ice Age 4D (4) Marauders Mayhem (5) Nemesis (6) Nemesis Sub Terra (5) Oblivion (6) Ripsaw (5) Rita (5) Runaway Mine Train (6) Twirling Toadstool (4) Blade (5) The Flume (5) The Smiler (7) Th13teen (5) Sonic Spinball (6) Skyride (5) Squirrel Nutty Ride (4) Submission (4) Smiler + Driving School -

Dragons Fury (5) Vampire (6) Rattlesnake (5) Dragon Falls (5) Bubbleworks (5) Black Buccaneer (7) Kobra (4) Monkey Swinger (5) Rameses Revenge (6) Tomb Blaster (5) Safari Skyway (3) Sea Storm (5) Carousel (5) Flying Jumbos (5) Tuk Tuk Turmoil (5) Griffins Galleon (5) Toadies Crazy Cars (4) Kobra - Safari Skyway +

Fingers crossed 2014 is the season that Samurai can make it through an entire season at Thorpe: 1. Working 2. On a decent setting all the time...

Air (5) Battle Galleons (3) Driving School (5) Duel (6) Enterprise (5) Frog Hopper (5) Galloper's Carousel (5) Heave Ho! (5) Hex (6) Ice Age 4D (5) Marauders Mayhem (5) Nemesis (5) Nemesis Sub Terra (5) Oblivion (5) Ripsaw (5) Rita (6) Riverbank Eye Spy (3) Runaway Mine Train (5) Twirling Toadstool (5) Blade (5) The Flume (5) The Smiler (5) Th13teen (5) Sonic Spinball (5) Skyride (6) Squirrel Nutty Ride (5) Submission (5) Battle Galleons - Rita +

Dragons Fury (7) Vampire (5) Rattlesnake (5) Dragon Falls (5) Bubbleworks (6) Black Buccaneer (5) Kobra (5) Monkey Swinger (3) Peeking Heights (4) Rameses Revenge (6) Tomb Blaster (5) Safari Skyway (5) Sea Storm (5) Carousel (5) Flying Jumbos (5) Jungle Bouncers (5) Madagascar Show (3) Tuk Tuk Turmoil (5) Griffins Galleon (5) Toadies Crazy Cars (5) Bubbleworks + Monkey Swinger -

Detonator (5) Loggers Leap (5) Nemesis Inferno (6) Quantum (3) Rush (5) Saw the ride (2) Slammer (6) Stealth (6) Tidal Wave (4) X (8) Quantum + Tidal Wave -

New for 2014: separate buttons so that the effects can be restarted during the day...

Went to Chessington on Tuesday, full trip report here: http://forum.maniahub.com/topic/87-chessington-trip-reports/page-31 Quick summary: Day was very busy! Ride queues typically 45mins+ Lunch at Pizza Pasta, yum! Looked around Trail of the Kings and watched the sealion presentation - excellent. Hocus Pocus Hall transformation was good but had a massive 75mins for it due to the popularity, priority pass users and low capacity. Vampire being incredibly slow loading and dispatching, took up most of the night riding time stuck in it's queue. Dragon's Fury to end the day once it reopened from a breakdown in the evening, good end. Pretty disappointed with the amount I got to do at the park. Compared to a trip to Thorpe Park earlier this week we did 6 rides (2 in the dark) + 1 haunt + 30mins in the zoo at Chessington VS 15+ rides (5 in the dark) + 1 haunt at Thorpe Park. Having queues of 60mins+ at closing time really shows Chessington that they should be opening past 7pm - back to 9pm would be good! The park looks excellent at night, probably spending the most effort/money on the additional lighting of all the Merlin parks - ironic seeing as they have the fewest dark opening hours!

Went to Chessington on Tuesday, a trip report: Day was very busy! Started off the day being directed all the way around the grass car parks to the flat field at the top near the lorikeets, despite the closer gravel car park being empty - weird. Was 9.50 and the park was already open so went straight in. Dragon's Fury (10min), good as always. Vampire (40min), very slow loading. Bubbleworks (20min), fun times, looking ok. Safari Skyway (20min), chance to have a look at developments in the zoo - digging! Quick stop at the children's zoo to say hi to the goats - best part of Chessie... Rattlesnake and Tomb Blaster both had 45min queues so off to Zufari (also 45min) - saw a good number of animals, didn't get soaked in the cave unlike most of the other people sat on the outside so was relieved! Lunch at Pizza Pasta, yum! Looked around Trail of the Kings and watched the sealion presentation - excellent. Decided to see what the fuss was about with the Hocus Pocus Hall transformation. Had to queue 75mins for it due to the popularity and number of priority pass users. Only 8 or so people go through in each group due to the tight spaces inside. It was very well done for an attraction aimed at younger adventurers - actors did well and I would recommend it, now if only it had it been a smaller queue! It was now dark and so was time to start night riding. We were hopeful we could get at least 3 rides in the dark... Headed back to Rattlesnake - was now 60mins so skipped it again, went towards Dragon's Fury and on the way noticed that Tomb Blaster was also 60mins. Just as we arrived at the Dragon's Fury queue (advertised as 80mins) we heard those infamous words 'Dragon's Fury has ceased operation due to a technical fault'. Cars stopped on the mid-course brake runs and lift, so on we walk again! Arrived at Vampire which was displaying a 60min queue. Turned out we waited 100mins due to slow loading, what seemed to be at least 2 breakdowns (of course in the queue you don't know because there are no speakers, but the ride wasn't dispatched for at least 10mins each time), and despite there being no Fastrack there were a huge number of people with priority passes coming up the Fastrack gate - can you imaging how long the queue would have been Fastrack in operation ?! On a positive, the ride is pretty good at night and the majority of Vampire's lighting looks great at night - though they have missed out on lighting the train front & backs this year, and there was no lighting in the tunnel . There was also no lighting on the horse rider figure at the base of the second lift, bit of a wasted opportunity imo. After an eternity in the Vampire queue, the time was now 6.45pm. A quick stop off at the toilet and then on to Dragon's Fury which had thankfully decided to work again... Queue said 60mins but of course as usual the stoppage of Fastrack at that time of day plus staff wanting to go home meant dispatching was happening at a good pace. Got on the ride in 30mins - very cool at night. Very busy day and can only imagine the length of the queues today on Halloween itself, Friday, and on Saturday. I would be pretty disappointed with the amount I got to do at the park if I was just a day visitor. Compared to a trip to Thorpe Park earlier this week we did 6 rides (2 in the dark) + 1 haunt + 30mins in the zoo at Chessington VS 15+ rides (5 in the dark) + 1 haunt at Thorpe Park. Perhaps the visitors will be better spread out next year when Rameses and Runaway Train re-open. Having queues of 60mins+ at closing time really shows Chessington that they should be opening past 7pm - back to 9pm would be good! The park looks excellent at night, probably spending the most effort/money on the additional lighting of all the Merlin parks - ironic seeing as they have the fewest dark opening hours! Finally, getting out the grass car park was actually pretty painless compared to previous years - they have even concreted one of the bends on the exit road instead of the muddy craters. More cement to create a proper 'road' that links to it now please!!

It's back open according to Ride Times.

Chessington Buzz have just posted this picture on their facebook page: Fast track no longer available on Vampire this season due to how busy the ride was with it over the summer. Hopefully this means a more sensible, faster-moving queue over the Halloween season - and the possibility of more than one night ride!

Same for us on Sunday Jamie on both our rides. Looks so much worse without the lasers and with no smoke.

Don't know whether it was just because it was night. Or because the ride had no queue. Or because I had a pod to myself. But Samurai was kicking major butt after about 6pm last night. Really good ride after some 'ok' ones earlier in the day.