Coaster

I have a phobia of most creepy crawlies, but spiders, moths and daddy longlegs are the worst. If there is one in the house I am too scared to even try to kill them because I think that they will fly past my hand and go onto my body. With spiders I'm always worried that they are attached to a web and will get stuck on me if I try to get rid of them. I also have a social phobia, I don't know how to explain it but I get really nervous in some social situations and start shaking (which makes me more nervous because I know I look stupid ad no one knows why I am shaking). Also, gas masks... URGH! I know where that phobia came from, but I'm still terrified of the things! (Which is why E10 was the only maze to scare me at fright nights in 2011 - they didn't have gas masks in 2012 so it didn't have the same fear factor).

When they change the audio for fright nights do they change it back during the week when fright nights isn't on?

Yesterday at the Exit of Thorpe Park (at the end of the day) there were staff directing people who had paid full price for a day ticket to the annual pass building for a "free annual pass". I asked what they meant and they said that if you had paid for a ticket that day then you could get a free Thorpe Park annual pass.

It was weird yesterday! There was no member of staff at the entrance and the queue was huge. It was almost out of the entrance, and it went through all the corridors.

I would love the next Secret Weapon to be a dark ride! If executed correctly it could be brilliant - they could of course combine a dark ride with a coaster.

Good that they are trying to bring everyone back again. I still remember being there on the school trip last year where the man told us that they were trying to push "up for it families" out and only have teenagers. I thought then that it was never going to work... Still, this is good.

Upside down. Wooden or Steel? (Coasters)

As with most Merlin mazes, I think that it would really benefit from a few triggered effects (such as hanging bodies moving or something of the sort) because they are, in some ways, scarier than actors.

Banned for being very clumsy since 1996...

I'm looking forward to Grown Ups 2! Really enjoyed the first film, hope the second one will be as good. Also, B&M restraints FTW! http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/29/Grown_Ups_2_Poster.jpg

Ok fair enough. I would like to see Terror of the Towers receive a revamp - although I quite enjoyed it last year, probably because I hadn't done it before.

If it goes then they should replace it with another model! (Same ride). Too much is leaving Chessington at the moment - it has gone from a very nice themed park to a construction site with little theming in places in a very short space of time.

Why did they bother deconstructing The Sanctuary? The Towers are barely open so it was a bit pointless. I'll be saving my money anyway - I went in it both last Scarefest and at Easter. Still, great maze!

I don't know why but I have the awful feeling that Thorpe are going to start charging for the mazes like Towers. What with them saying "you haven't guessed it yet" and all that I think it might be the case. Please prove me wrong!

The scare zone was a good attraction for people who don't like to be as scared though. For example my younger brother went in that as a build up to the mazes, which, after enjoying the scare zone, he went in. It was also nice to see all the old thorpe park stuff.

^ I agree that the National needs a repaint, however that doesn't stop it being a brilliant ride! I do get what your saying though and I think that Grand National should be the next ride on their list to receive a spruce up. As for the Space Invader Building, it has been adopted into a pizza kitchen and the facade has been covered up.

There are theme park games but I've seen it all now...

Regarding the dark rides, admittedly Alice is hilarious but the others are great! River caves and the Ghost train are classics which are brilliant in their own right. Valhalla and Wallace and Gromit are of top quality, beating most (if not all) UK dark rides.You say the TLC is a recent thing, well yes it is but it has made all the difference between how the park looks now to how it looked 5 or so years ago. Beaver Creek was bad, so they changed it! Nick Land it is brilliant and once again looks really modern. Pleasure Beach manages to keep classic attractions while keeping them looking stylish rather than neglected. They are all well looked after and still run brilliantly after all these years. Regarding all classic rides, they need to remove some so they can move on. The Whip was replaced with the most stylish dodgems I have ever seen. (I think they should have kept Noah's Ark open though). Also, for a family owned park to be able to pay for the upkeep of all these classic rides is amazing, but you can't expect them to keep all of them. They cost much more to maintain than modern rides.

Looks quite forceless in that video, but I'm sure it will speed up with the addition of people and proper wheels etc...

Pleasure Beach is in no way whatsoever tacky! The park is in far better condition than any other park in England - you can clearly see that care goes in to keeping all the rides not only running, but looking their absolute best. The woodies, whilst old are brilliant rides and top the experiences of a lot of steel coasters. That sets Pleasure Beach apart for me - they are prepared to keep classic attractions, which are brilliant. Not to mention that have the best collection of dark rides of any park in England - and they are all of top quality. The park is quite the opposite of tacky! The ticket centre being a perfect example of this - it is very grand and posh. The park and rides are constantly receiving TLC - whilst not necessary it makes the park look cared for and very "in with the now" - this is where the Merlin parks fail because they do not fix what isn't broken (and when they do it looks awful again within a few weeks because they don't clean/maintain it). So yeah, what you are saying is completely false. If you get the chance to visit, go for it!

They have installed quite a lot over the past few years! They have a brilliant new dark ride this year, which while not being a thrill ride caters for everyone and is of a very high standard. Referring to the title of this topic, the Pleasure Beach is now a much nicer place to be in than any other park in England. Security is high, the park looks really good and areas which were previously in need of a lot of TLC have now got that and look fantastic! It speaks volumes about how much passion the Thompson's must have for the park when they are prepared to spend millions replacing the facade of Valhalla to look better than it did when it opened, and repainting the Revolution which now looks brand new. (Not to mention the ongoing refurbishment work on Steeplechase's station). I'm sure the time will come for them to install more thrill rides, although as it stands at the moment they still outrank most other UK parks coaster wise (and most of the coasters there are thrilling).

Oblivion for me, but I haven't yet ridden The Smiler.

It could be Vengeance! (Very unlikely although it is onsite isn't it?)

Much better idea than fumbling around with those seatbelts!

But I've seen several occasions with an almost walk on queue advertised as around 45 minutes with someone stood outside the ride selling fastrack (they must be well aware that the queue is shorter than advertised given that it is just behind them). This happens on Saw mostly but I've seen it on Swarm.