Coaster

I'm not, believe me I've had a good moan at Thorpe as well! That is true, but it's frustrating even if it was completely out of the park's control (something I doubt) and it's not acceptable.

It depends, they may have left inspection of the ride too late, therefore not left enough delivery time? I don't know, I'm not in charge of the park, but it seems strange that other parks can manage yet Chessie can't.

It should definitely be opened, but needs a sign outside the ride warning people that it's on one train so the queue will be slower. They shouldn't even be in this situation, there's no excuse for not having the ride ready on time, this just adds insult to injury.

Nope, they'll send out a staff member to sell Fastracks! (Before people start moaning, that was intended as a joke although I wouldn't be surprised).

It already runs on reduced capacity! Why are Chessie so incompetent these days?

They don't look great, and it sort of defeats the point of Dodgems if you can't drive through the middle. However, if this was a low key investment then I won't really moan, but if it's come in the way of a second train on Enigma then I'm not too happy!

Very slight new look to Oakwood's website, it was well overdue so I'm glad about that. http://www.oakwoodthemepark.co.uk/ They opened today, wonder how it went?

Three person per car operation is the best time for SRQ's!

That we know of. Lots of parks are more secretive and wouldn't have released any details yet, so it's not a definite.

If you don't want to watch it, don't! Out of interest, are you allowed to film in there?

The logo looks slightly like the underground logo.

Not at all, I'd have to ride them both to decide, I haven't been on Mystic Manor. Wallace and Gromit is a good dark ride with some top notch theming but it's nothing groundbreaking, I just think that in general proper theming is more impressive than screens, but not in all cases.

No, I was more referring to rides like Escape from Gringott's (although I've never ridden that so can't judge it), but I just prefer proper theming rather than screens - although of course this opinion could change, I've never actually been on a ride like Spiderman.

I hope it relies on proper full on scenery rather than screens, which seem to be creeping their way into a lot of modern dark rides.

Exciting times, nice to see some advertising up rather than just a blank board! I know we don't have a clue what it's going to be, but I must say I'm looking forward to having another dark ride at Thorpe.

It's not good that they are still having all these closures, they should be sorted out and ready to go for the season by now! As for Colossus still running one train, it's very poor, but for some reason I'm not surprised.

7pm for a park of Chessington's stature is acceptable. Any less would be poor, but I've got to respect Chessington for this, they are making a certain park in Staffordshire look very silly!

5pm on Easter Holidays? That is absolute rubbish!

I'm not suggesting that the SRQ removal is worse than staggered openings, I can see that they are by far the bigger problem with the overall park at the moment but from a personal viewpoint the removal of the SRQ is bad as well. And I'm not really blaming AT for it, but at the end of the day if they aren't being given enough money to run the park properly then they need to speak out.

That's exactly what I'm trying to put across, they don't need to make these cuts, it's just greed.

I'm sure that well over a thousand people use a SRQ on a busy day, and given the negative feedback AT have received over Facebook, Twitter and at the park I think that people do care. Towers won't be getting a visit from me until they change things, I can get awful operations at Thorpe which is 40 minutes away (although, once they get everything open, they will probably be better than AT is at the moment), I don't see why I should make the effort to travel three hours for a park which is making cuts it shouldn't need to make. Blasted M£rlin, or the company above them! I'm not too fussed on that because it rarely has a queue, and it's not an attraction I would re-ride more than 2/3 times in a day, unlike Nemesis which I'd happily stay on for hours!

Nemesis is one of two coasters at Alton Towers that I actually rate, and I make the effort to visit the park in the knowledge that I can re-ride it a lot, as it is a brilliant coaster, and in my opinion most of the others are weak (aside from Smiler), so it does actually leave me with little enthusiasm to visit. And SRQ's don't just have to be used by people on their own, I used it with my family but we just split up. As for it being cuts, that is true, but they have made this cut without caring for guest enjoyment - thousands of people rely on single rider queues at Alton Towers, not just enthusiasts, and it's not as if AT is short of money so these cuts are just being made to maximise profit in a very unfair way.

They really have no consideration for guest enjoyment. Money, money, money!

Is the sign supposed to look that naff? (Not the 21, the overall state of it).

They sound bigger than the ones they had in Feb half term, they really were tiny!