daboywunda

They would pre-make and pre-set the concrete in a factory and lower it in - much like they did with The Smiler's footers (albeit NOT under water). I believe they did that with Kumali too?

So, for years and years, the rumour mill has been rife with these woddie shenanigans. Thorpe have now just whipped them all up again by posting a picture of a woodie on their Facebook page, asking if people would ride it... Just before planning applications are due for the 2015/2016 coaster and after they were apparently seen snooping around the CGI and intamin wooden coaster stands at the expo.. So, does this mean that wood is on the cards? Discuss

Didn't Thorpe have planning permission denied for a planned re-landscape of the car parks including tarmacing it all etc?

X wasn't open for Ministry Of Sound (night) last week... Of ALL the rides on park that I thought would be open to compliment this night, X would be top of the list!!!

Swarm is absolutely amazing in the dark... Not so much backwards though... Shame that not all of the lights were working on the trains & no fire effect on the engine but the billboard is great in the dark!

I saw the heaters on at the AP Preview day too... It's interesting how one ride can and one ride can't operate based on manufacturer and even model variance (ie Stealth / Colossus both being Intimin yet experiencing different outages)

It's the queue music... From TPM: http://content.maniahub.com/audio/Thorpe/Rush/Rush%20-%20Queue%20Loop%202005.mp3 AND this one from the movie sountrack: But I can't find the scene it's in...

Not sure if this has ever been mentioned, but the ride music from 2005 (as listed on this site anyway) was also used in the Blade: Trinity movie in one of the chase scenes.. Any-one know anything about this? I was watching E4 last night & the film was on.. I recognised it immediately as I'd been playing RCT with that music on in the background..

I've not been offered it at the entrance.. I've seen it being sold there, but never shoved down my throat. The system had been updated on Good Friday, I saw it changing from 30 mins up to 60, down to 45, back up to 60 in the space of 2 hours, but the queue was still non existent. I think they were selling fast-track, but not sure how effective them sales were... It certainly wasn't affecting the queue times!

oh wow... I hadn't even thought that it would be to inflate fast-track sales!! But if that were true, why on Earth would they risk telling people that the queue is 60 mins when there is no-one in the queue at the bag drop-off point? That just seems quite brazen.. You can get away with over inflating a queue time, when there is actually a queue.. If it's true, it just seems so dishonest... And would be quite bad for business reputation and trust.

I thought Stealth's was stage fog (which isn't mist), which if I remember rightly from media and stage experience, wouldn't be affected by the cold weather as much as mist does. My understanding is that the mist on Inferno is the same system as Oblivion - based around spraying water in a fine mist, where-as the smoke effect on Stealth like is a dry ice, which can work in many temperatures (you get it in low lying, mid and high, then in dense and sparse) and is used in night clubs.. Edit: In fact, it's the same system that fills X with smoke now....

Yesterday (Good Friday) was NOT busy... Thorpe were expecting 15,000 and ended up with 4,000 (according to a member of retail staff). Swarm was walk-on most of the day with Brave it Backwards max 20 mins. Nemesis Inferno walk on, Saw 40 mins, Colossus 30 mins (walk on towards the end of the day), Rush 20 mins (on 1 arm most of the day), Stealth 10 mins most of the day, Detonator 10 mins most of the day. The queue boards were showing 60 mins for Swarm when there wasn't a soul in the queue.. Thought it a bit odd, but I guess the staff have to get their fun from some-where! In fact, ALL of the queue boards were wrong yesterday - very much over exaggerating the times. When I joined the Saw queue, it was showing 25 mins (was actually only 10), then when we came off, the boards were showing 45 yet the queue was SHORTER than it was when we joined!

The video makes the experience look so much better than it actually is... I was so underwhelmed by this today

How busy do we think it'll be for the MAP day tomorrow?

Well, with Slammer potentially being the only sky swat in the world, that's Thorpe's 2014 marketing strategy sorted for them... No need for a new ride or ruining modification of an existing ride to draw in the idiots willing to throw fistfulls of cash at them...

Not sure if it's mentioned yet... but, why are the rails of the track red? Some-thing we've not been told, or just an Alton Towers style false imagery (ie Oblivion's track being red and clearly Vekoma)

lol, I wasn't suggesting that they WOULD remove the pyramid btw, just one of my random thoughts I have every now and again..

Imagine if they DO refurb X and they take the pyramid away so that it's no longer inside!

I didn't think it was possible, but I've fallen out of love with Thorpe. It's one gimmick too far - They were skating on thin ice any-way. We all knew that they'd find a way to ruin their best ride to date... It didn't take long

No, a while back some-one posted some concept images from The Swarm and on one of the slides had the heading "2013 Swarm extension" (or something like that) with a picture of aliens in a tube.. Made me think of the mirrors and hidden wall features in X's queue line..

Actually, wasn't there a picture of the plans for a "2013 extension" ride taken from a PowerPoint slide going around some-where? Maybe X could be rethemed to be the extension ride?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but X NWO operating backwards is actually forwards, right? So, maybe this is nothing to do with Swarm's row being turned around... If it is however, I'm boycotting until they put them back

Do you think it counts for anything that there is a picture of The Swarm in the snow taken on Monday, with NO seats turned around. Surely they'd need to have the trains in the workshop being, well, worked on to turn the seats around....?

Thorpe have always wanted a woodie, wasn't one for Canada Creek debated behind CCR at one point, but settled on Saw instead? I'm not sure what they should do next.. To be fair, a B&M flyer as intense as Starry Sky Ripper at World Joyland would fit in fantastically next to Swarm as an aerial assault on it!!

Thanks for that reply.. It's one of the most level headed matter of fact posts I think I've ever seen on any forum. You mentioned about the management being on the case if there is a ride opened minus effects.. So do you know what the management say about the obvious missing effects from rides? For example, mist and both rows of lights on Nemesis Inferno's tunnel, smoke effect on Stealth's launch, Swam's intermittent effects (mainly the water skims), water effects on Rumba? Who would be placed responsible for ensuring the effects are working and/or repaired? I only ask because there doesn't seem to be any sense of urgency fix some of them or even have them running (namely the Stealth smoke effect and Nemesis Inferno's mist / lights) - Rather than jumping on the "Thorpe just don't care" opinion some people have, I'd like to fully understand the process it goes through to end up not working... Although, I do have to say that Thorpe have gotten better with their effects in recent years.