AstroDan

Alton Towers have community first responders, trained by the ambulance service. They deal with incidents around the local area and would have assessed the situation and given high quality medical support immediately.

Whilst I agree with your comments - where have you got the £5m over budget figure from? It isn't something I am familiar with.

The trains are cheap and tacky. Sure the ride will be good!

The UK Merlin figures are not published. Alton Towers was far nearer 3m last year...

The Alton Towers social media effort has been first class. They've tried to respond to every query. Nick Varney has also been excellent.

Awful news. I have friends who work on the ride. I am saddened and shocked. My thoughts with anyone affected.

Any park I would not want 8 days in a row at.Even Europa-Park, where I do 3 on a break. 8 days at any UK park is, to me, insane. But I guess if you don't get bored by that time you've a different chemical balance to me!

You say that - and somewhere like Alton it would be fine - but at Chessington you've got huge waits for a scenic monorail, even half an hour for a seastorm or 40 minutes for a pirate ship.At most parks, this kind of ride would be walk on, supporting larger rides.

The ride gets terrible satisfaction scores and very short queues. The current closure is a technical problem which cannot be resolved easily.

Chesington needs: - To drill ride teams about throughputs on busier days. - To limit Fastrack sales as rides cannot cope - Stop removing theming - Add a high capacity ride This needs doing as soon as possible.

Left today at 2.00pm. I've been to a lot of theme parks and Chessington 2015 is one of the worst. Breakdowns all over the park, some rides closed entirely, theming removed and throughputs which make Blackpool look good. Dire.

Blackpool fans typically complain that Alton Towers' rides aren't thrilling.

Maybe because they know it's rubbish? *runs*

Excellent!

It's going to be perfectly adequate.

Towers do close too early but this week I would take 1/2 hour less hours at Alton Towers than the figurative operational rollercoaster of the southern parks.

I'll be sure to look at it this weekend. Really hope it'll be OK as it's my only visit this year to the park. At the moment I am almost wishing I hadn't pencilled the date in.

Our meet is May Half Term every year.There are never usually 90 minute waits. Canopy Capers is currently 90. What even is it? It's not just half term either. It's been like this on weekends most of this season!

Looks like Silver Star or Nitro.

Why can't these parks take a leaf out of Alton Towers' book? It would be like the Smiler opening on 2 or something.

Why does Swarm nearly always open on 1 train and thus have a massive queue? Right now it's 110 minutes... why not open on 2? Seems poor service. Or is there a genuine reason?

This Saturday is the annual TS meet to Chessington. Usually it's OK. This time though? Dreading it.

I'm glad to hear it's putting some people off. Hopefully they'll barely sell any.

Black Buccaneer 75? Hahaha!

Yes! Great to see massive rises! I look forward to seeing people pay it.