dragon2000

Broke down this afternoon, looks like something is wrong with the conveyor belt which drops the boats over the main drop. Mechanics trying to fix it still at closing time.

Rameses lives again! Working fine today.

Thoughts on Zufari: Quite enjoyed it! But you get the feeling everything has been done 'on the cheap' - non-automatic doors for pre-show, having to push open the gates to board etc. The lemur in the pre-show is soooo annoying. As others have said before, lemurs don't even come from Africa... Queue time today ranged from 15mins - 2 hours! Around park opening and park closing times it was quite frustrating having to sit through the pre-show when you knew that there were empty trucks sitting waiting for passengers... Had one ride of the day shortly after opening, all the animals were out in the sunshine and close to the truck. Had a second ride at the end of the day and the flamingos and rhinos had been put to bed - I can understand how you would have been disappointed if you had just waited 60mins + Spoilers: Cave is ok, got some good screams from passengers as the water flooded down. However, those jets of water spray that are directed straight into the faces of passengers is not nice! Avoid the front row left and right corners if you don't want to get *soaked*.

Haven't got a picture from Thorpe, but the large scrollers outside rides are like this: http://www.qssuperplayer.com/ Some rides with with the smaller, circular, time only boards have also been updated.

Don't think it's been said anywhere else yet - most of the rides now have a new, larger, colour led scrolling information board at their entrance now. Really helpful to see how long queues are from further away - e.g. seeing Saw's queue time from the Colossus pathway. They were installing the new large information/queue time board next to Rush on Thursday, so they should be back up and running soon (if not already).

There is now a dreadful 'closing alarm/announcement' that starts playing across the park at closing time and for the next 5 minutes. It literally says "The rides are now shut; we hope you have enjoyed your day at Thorpe Park; thanks for visiting; join us online now on Facebook & Twitter", over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over (Hopefully you get the point! ) It has a really horrible alarm clock/evacuation type alarm backing. Yuck. Even the staff said "Thank God" when it finally stopped playing...

Tried it yesterday. You know what, going forwards was surprisingly fun! For me, not worth more than a 20min queue still, but I was more impressed than I thought it would be. Just need the rest of the trains to arrive quickly, queue was 45-60mins most of the day!

It was just a cheap shot at getting people wet. Same with the hoses before the lifthill. The water tower also made a lot of people stand up to try and avoid it, thus very dangerous. I have the same opinion with the showers at the end of The Flume at Alton... they are just annoying. Agree with this completely. I'm not a big fan of water rides in general - maybe in a nice hot sunny country, but not in grey & cold England. I enjoy the ride after lunch as a nice tour along the river with mild risk of a splash before hitting the coasters again. As most people would agree, they just need to sort out the themeing.

You never know, if they have the parts available it might be back open in the next day or two...maybe...

Looks like it could be another motor/gear box issue with the scaffolding placement. Like RideAddict said a few posts ago, Rameses has not been the most reliable of rides. 2005 (10th birthday) it was shut for months and almost removed by the park. The ride was shut for replacement parts needed mid-season in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011 - usually this is for a new gearbox/motor. Ripsaw has suffered similarly. Both Top Spins are very temperamental when the fountains get to the electronics too... Last year I saw Rameses break down/running empty/shut for the day on about a third of my visits. Rameses has a weird role at the park. The settings it operates on nowadays give a lame, boring ride on the first cycle - good for 'thrill ride newbies'; followed by the more intense (and thrilling!) second cycle. I'm sure it's a good draw for families/young thrill seekers, but from a personal point of view I just don't bother riding it anymore - way too much faffing around involved.

Good good, glad to hear they are still working. They had them up and running most of last year which was nice. Though the snakes in the cave needed a good clean... Remembering back to the opening year when you had to wait 60mins+ and having to queue in the switchbacks at the top of the pit before the stairway down. With the Mexican who would pee on you!

Was everyone secured and just sat there doing nothing for 4 minutes? Wonder if it's a case of needing to allow the previous truck to get ahead enough? Or maybe spacing the available trucks out - have all the trucks arrived from the manufacturer now? If it's taking so long getting everyone secured, Chessington management need to take a trip to Disney and see how they manage to get Tower of Terror elevators sent out so quickly...

Why do they still think that batching people into the gates is a good idea? The tried it last year and it lasted 2 weeks (or less?) because it simply didn't work. There has never been an issue with people getting into the gates by themselves. *Real problems* in the station that have built up over the years: Train takes forever to park. Air gates not aligned with rows. Confusion over the majority of restraints needing to be pushed in before they can be raised during unload. Chains blocking the exit stairs - not needed imo... Back rows going empty when there are no exit riders. Non-stop and unnecessary announcements. Operators who shout and deafen the front half of the station. SLOW AS TREACLE STAFF! My goodness, it's now been about 3 years+ since I've seen a decent crew in that station...

This is the kind of comment that should have been taken to guest services straight away so the member of staff can be dealt with. Unacceptable attitude from someone supposed to be providing an enjoyable day out. No one should ever be forced into having a photo taken of them.

This situation is madness! At the moment it would be quicker to drive to Paultons Park in Hampshire and ride their Disco Coaster rather than wait in line for Kobra at the moment. At Paultons *one* ride operator can unload and load a full load in about 2 minutes. Seriously Chessington - what are you playing at this year?! I've not had a visit to the park yet this year, and I'm not looking forward to it by the sounds of it. (This is coming from someone who visited last year pretty much every fortnight). Depressing.

Believe it or not, people have actually done Dragon Falls backwards already. If you are old enough to remember Michael Barrymore's 'My Kind of Music' (I think it was...) they showed clips of the ride with people sat round going backwards!

Oh gawd, another year of poor operations on Vampire here we go

The sad thing is that Zufari does actually need to be shut for a week for improvement. At the moment the ride is just so bare... I guess we just have to wait for the foliage to grow.

Exactly the same as Saw's restraints. I'm fine with them, just have the problem of them over-tightening during the ride and end up with a crushed crotch...

It's definitely nice to have the dispatch theme back, loud and proud. Unfortunately I will say that it is delayed by a quite a few seconds which ruins the effect. As pluk says above, the thumping heart beat should start as the floor is lowering, where as at moment the theme seems to start once the train is moving out the station.

Samurai has had the parking issue for *years* now. I really can't believe they still haven't sorted it. It was quite frustrating how on Sunday there were so few people in the park that they ended up closing Samurai (at least for a while) so they didn't have any breakdown issues with half loads! The ride I ended up getting in the morning was once again 30 seconds of good action and then 30 seconds of lame slow rotation, followed up (by no exaggeration) *3 minutes* of it trying to park! And yes, we also noticed the ride is parking much higher/at a different angle to the platform. Even though they were Annual Pass holders people waiting to ride were all commenting on how they wouldn't be able to reach the seats!

If you take a look on the plans for Zufari: http://www.themeparknewsuk.com/2013/01/zufari-2013-plans.html It says 'finale cave and water experience'. My guesses - the cave starts flooding, splashing riders. You can also see the tree on the plans which I assume will be an animatronic and fall as the truck approaches, blocking that route and forcing the truck to go into the cave.

Final thoughts... well done to Swarm, a deserved winner. What on Earth was going on with Colossus & NI going out before Rush I'll never know (personal opinion...).

Nemesis Inferno (6) Rush (4) Stealth (4) The Swarm (6) NI + Rush -