Coaster

He needs to get a life. Absolutely ridiculous complaint.

Nope, they don't own it anymore so it's off the App store I think.

As long as they are turning a profit it's still better than staying closed until the Scenic is ready. I agree it is unfortunate though and they need to get it open ASAP.

It's just a light-hearted pun, what is wrong with people these days?

It was a joke, but I think that Thorpe have definitely been guilty of this sort of thing on several occasions, for example artificially inflating the queue times and leaving anyone who hasn't bought Fastrack stood still for over half an hour! (MBV last year).

They often closed it if the single rider queue was longer than the main queue, or if they wanted to sell more Fastrack. *runs

Yes I agree that it would be a shame to lose the current theme, but let's be honest, it isn't exactly conveyed well. I'm pretty sure that very few people who ride it actually know the full Ministry of Joy theme as there is nothing really explaining it, the idea that "The Smiler will mess with your body and mind" is there but apart from that it's not really made clear.

Just a thought, they could keep the name and theme music for The Smiler but completely change the concept to a less sinister theme, it could have a more "crazy" theme rather than all the "mess with your body and mind" stuff.

Oh no, those Oblivion queue videos were the best thing about the ride! Have they been edited or switched off altogether?

To be fair, The Sanctuary could work as a stand alone theme if they remove any mention of the "Ministry of Joy" and change the logo so that it doesn't resemble The Smiler's in any way.

I doubt that Speed's one car op is related to the incident on Smiler, it was on one car last year with an overflowing queueline and fastpass queue (although they did put another one on in the end) so I think it's just the norm for Oakwood - however, they may be more wary of putting a second train on at the moment. Megafobia on one train is poor but on this occasion I think it was just about acceptable considering how quiet the park was, hopefully they see fit to improve operations as the park gets busier because I don't want to see a repeat of last summer's fiasco.

One car operation on The Smiler would be absolute chaos considering the popularity and length of the ride as well as the fact that it only seats 16 people. They could however operate it with one car and timed slots but I can't see that being viable as a long term solution.

The Wild West area is still exactly the same as last year with the addition of orange boards to hide it, so no progress has been made yet. Here's my trip report for anyone interested: http://forum.maniahub.com/topic/10966-oakwood-sat-20th-june-2015-ptr/

PARK OPEN: 10am - 5pm RIDES CLOSED: None! BREAKDOWNS: Megafobia opened at 11am as it was having a few issues in the morning, but apart from that I don't think there were any. After the poor days we had at Oakwood last year (http://forum.maniahub.com/topic/10719-oakwood-theme-park-wednesday-30th-july-monday-4th-august-2014/) we vowed never to return, however it was decided that we were going to give them one last chance - after all, it was one of my first ever theme parks and it houses Megafobia! We had a fantastic day at Oakwood, everything was open and the park was quiet meaning that queues were minimal and the ride count was great! It is clear that money has been spent on some areas of the park as some areas are looking much better than they did last year, and there was very little downtime on the rides so they have clearly upped their game since last year with regards to getting rides open. Bounce for example has had both compressors replaced meaning that it can run both cycles again, and it didn't break down once today, so money has clearly been spent on this. Some areas of the park (such as the burger bar, mini golf and gold panning) have seen some paint and are looking really good, however other areas are still in dire need of attention (such as the area around Spooky 3D and Speed). Operations were pretty much the usual for Oakwood, only one train on Megafobia and one car on Speed but thankfully it was a quiet day so this was acceptable most of the time. However, there are staffing issues as most rides were being operated with only one member of staff, which on Megafobia is a bit unfair as they have to operate the ride, check all the restraints and lock off the exit gate meaning that dispatch times aren't great. Speed with one ride op is okay but Megafobia definitely needs at least two so that they can efficiently run the ride. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow still remains a legend, as despite being told last year that it would be ready by the start of this season, they haven't even started demolishing the old Wild West/Brer Rabbit area yet so I'm not sure what is going on with this, bearing in mind that the project has already been delayed twice this is poor. For those who haven't been to Oakwood, here is a review of some of the rides; Megafobia is still as brilliant as ever, it was running amazingly throughout the day and offering insane airtime, I'm sure we spent more time out of the seat than on it! It is still riding as well as ever, and the fact that it was walk-on pretty much all afternoon meant that we could just stay in the seats without walking round, or go to another row if there was someone behind our airgates. I must credit Oakwood for this, they are very good with allowing re-rides in a fair and efficient manner. Speed was still good, however the ride is in absolutely appalling condition. The track is peeling off, and the car was making some very concerning noises as it went round the track that it never used to make. The track is rusty in places and the flaking track (not just the paintwork, the actual lining of the track) meant that it didn't ride as well as it used to, even since last year it has seriously deteriorated and the car "grinds" it's way around the track now rather than flowing the way it used to. A real shame, this used to be one of my top coasters but it seems as if very little maintenance has taken place on it recently, and it shows! It was great to get back on Drenched after it being closed last year due to the cable snap, the drop is very forceful in the back row and it is a much better ride than Tidal Wave at Thorpe IMO. Bounce was back on form and the launch was quite forceful, whilst it's not hugely thrilling I do enjoy it. Bobsleigh is a brilliant ride, I really enjoy rides where the rider is in control and in my opinion every park should have one of these, it's brilliant fun and was great to get on it with a short queue. Spooky 3D is also in very poor condition, lots of effects were broken and it just generally looks like it needs a lot of TLC, also the ride op forgot to gave us glasses the first time! RIDECOUNT: Megafobia x14 Speed x6 Bounce x3 Treetops x3 Bobsleigh x3 Drenched x2 Snake River Falls x2 (Running much better than last year, actually got airtime at one point in the tunnel slide!) Spooky 3D x2 Waterfall x1 Skull Rock x1 Tinkerbell's Flying School x1 Neverland Walkthrough x1 Crocodile Coaster x1 TOTAL: 40 Photos! Megafobia, one of the UK's top coasters without question; Speed, still a good coaster and probably my favourite Gerstlauer; Drenched; (These photos were taken after the park closed and the water had been switched off). Finally, a view across Vertigo and the Bobsleigh; Thanks for reading.

An argument on TPM... ...and it's nothing to do with me! My opinion is that it doesn't matter whether people have a physical or mental disability, if they cannot queue then that's that.

Not by looking at the queue times website, no, but by the fact that it doesn't seem to have much downtime. Maybe I'm wrong, but surely if a ride is open most of the time rather than breaking down a lot then it's reliable?

Yeah I'm not defending the dire wages or how they treat their employees (but I don't have a clue about the second one as I've never worked there) but I still think that staff who are generally grumpy and give off a bad impression on the park aren't worth keeping.

So you also made an assumption then? It could be the case that it was just a new rule. Also, I know that it has been closed recently, but it has generally been quite reliable hasn't it? Anyway, not really worth bickering about!

What was wrong with the old restraints then?The ride rarely had any downtime because of them and they could fit people in them, which is more than can be said for the new ones!

My view is that there are so many people out there looking for jobs, if staff don't appreciate it then get them out and get someone in who does!

It could have done though, it certainly damaged their reputation.

But there was nothing wrong with the old restraints? Also, doesn't that mean that you can't get away from the leg ticklers now?

Sounds like the same guy that did ours last weekend, he just dumped the bags on the counter in the grumpiest way possible!

It has a £6 "non-rider" fee for people who don't want a wristband, you can buy tickets on top of that but they are so expensive these days it's not really worth bothering with unless you are literally only going on one ride.Nearly everyone buys wristbands as a result of this meaning that the park is losing out on the stream of income they used to get throughout the day. Anyway... Back to Chessington!

No I wasn't suggesting that the introduction of modern thrill rides was a bad thing, but they are trying to be a theme park now and have put people off with the entrance fee which is what I was saying is bad. And I only brought finances in to show that BPB aren't as successful as some people think at the moment, as you made some comment about them being successful at the moment.Also, Great Yarmouth is still successful isn't it?