Coaster

Went to Thorpe park today (Sunday) RIDECOUNT: The Swarm x8 (The ride got stuck! For full details read my post in The Swarm topic) (2 FR) Saw: The ride x2 (Seemed slightly slower but smoother than usual - more enjoyable!) Colossus x2 Nemesis inferno x2 X:/ No way out x2 Samurai x1 (On a very bad setting today! Very short and not very spinny. Also took about 5 minutes to lower at the end of the ride.) Stealth x1 I am sure that I went on more but I can't remember it off the top of my head.

I got stuck on The Swarm today! After the ride we were in the station for 20 minutes because the bars wouldn't release. They then sent us up the chainlift where it got stuck again for another 10 minutes!!! Me and my friend were laughing but there was a VERY angry man in the seat in front of us! At least we got to go round twice once they fixed it

Is the fire effect up and running yet does anyone know?

In an ideal world (yes it probably won't happen) I would like to see Vengeance as a pre-ride where you battle the swarm of aliens, then some sort of storyline saying you have failed to beat them and then a sub-terra style ride followed by a walk through alien life form models and strobe lights in order to get out. Probably won't happen though!

Why don't they try something new for 2013 and open a new scare maze that uses anamatronics and props rather than live actors?

This is so annoying, I always start my Alton towers day with Duel, Nemesis, Air and now Sub terra after air. It's been messed up! Why the hell have they closed two of their major attractions though, it just doesn't make sense at all! Air always gets a big queue from opening!

I much prefered this theme in the station: http://youtu.be/nbZmhprwcgc

Why are Air and Thi3teen closed until 11? They are two of the park's most popular rides! In my opinion why not close Rita and something else as Rita's queue only builds up early due to poor capacity.

Yes but whatever they do the general public will always pull then down as far as possible because they feel safer even though it doesn't really make a difference.

I think this is a lot better than ripsaw! This does 4-5 loops in a row and ripsaw does 2! Also the water reaches you on this and it only does sometimes on Ripsaw.

If I owned Chessington at the moment I would make these four things my top pritoritys: 1. Closure of the tomb blaster bridges. (After the recent accident I would not use those. If the ride was busy I would put temporary fencing outside of the ride entrance.) 2. New family dark rollercoaster. (It doesn't have to be expensive, just fun and with a high capacity.) 3. Improvements to the car park. (Exit road tarmac etc...) 4. Bubbleworks revamped with strobes back in the final.

Just found this on youtube: http://youtu.be/CGdYzlqGg-4 I think you might be interested

I have never understood why they have kept the bridges open when the ride rarley ever gets a queue long enough to justify it. It's a shame as I love this ride, but it is understandable.

Yeah, I went on it a lot on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday so I wasn't too bothered about it being closed, I was just a bit confused about "it drank all the Irn Bru" as you would be. I'm a MAP holder so I wasn't too bothered about it being shut as I had been on it a lot.

Today I was at the park and I recieved the weirdest customer service ever!!! This is not a joke: The ride closed at around half 11 today and there were two members of staff at the gate. I asked one of them why it was closed and they said "it drank all the Irn Bru!" Then they both laughed and refused to tell us what really happened. I mean what the hell??? Usually you recieve excellent customer service at Alton towers, what on earth was all that about?

I'm not too keen on rita, it's a bit of fun when there's no queue but it's bumpiness, roughness (I have been on worse, a lot worse but this could still be smoother), shortness and the fact that it's not very thrilling means that I'm not that fussed about it. I would rather be riding THI3TEEN next to it!

Well, after 5 goes in the improved Sub terra I am very impressed. The changes I spotted were: - Louder television audio in the first room - TV screens and sound effects in the first lift to simulate going down - The ride chamber door was closed on three out of the five goes until we got closer to it - New longer pre-speech before the drop - Much more time spent in the cavern and it was a lot clearer as to what it was (nest of eggs.) Loads of leg ticklers and back pokers. Also the audio was coming out of speakers behind us as well. - Much more chaos and urgency to get out with a new 30 second countdown. - Air, fans and strobe lighting in the corridor to the exit lift. - Louder SFX in the exit lift and one of the roof panels "caved in" slightly to simulate the alien trying to get in. - A new scare maze. (Actors in gas masks, banging, lots of strobe lighting, fans, hisses and more.) - Smell effects in the new scare maze. Overall a much improved version, although it wasn't clear that the scare maze exit was a decontamination chamber.

I will be at Alton towers on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday so on Saturday or Sunday I will post a review of the improved Nemesis: Sub terra. (Although AstroDan has already done a great job!) I went on it last time when it had only been slightly improved so I will be comparing it to how it was then.

Liking the advertisment sign!

Haha, I really enjoy dark rides and although X isn't the best, I still like it and it was running in almost total darkness yesterday whereas usually it seems lighter, which is why we went on it a lot! The purple UV lights are good though because they don't make it too light.

Went to Thorpe park today. Great weather, not too many queues and got on most of the rides that we wanted to more than once RIDECOUNT: Stealth x3 Nemesis inferno x2 Colossus x4 The Swarm x7 Samurai x1 Rush x1 Tidal wave x1 X:/ No way out x7 Saw: The ride x1 The Swarm today had it's LED's on which looked amazing, but still no fire. The water effects though need to be changed because the spray actually hurted today when it hit you in the face! I wasn't too bothered but I could see people getting off the ride with looks of disgust on their face and some were shouting. Overall a good day

Personally this is what I would like to see for fright nights 2012: - Asylum kept the same except for some new anamatronics added into the massive strobe area. Also it would be nice if at one point in the strobe area they put a "tunnel" on it to block out the strobes for a short section of the maze and add a new scene. - Se7en changed slightly to make it scarier. - Curse replaced with a new horror maze. (Traditional haunted house theme with great atmospheres.) - Experiment 10 kept as it is but revert back to shutting people in a room on their own like at the start of Fright nights 2011. - Hellgate's old site to be replaced with a tamer maze than any of the others. It should be advertised as a "less scary horror maze for the faint hearted" or something along those lines. - New maze on The Swarm island. (The space where they currently have the extra fencing (usually used for FN.) It could have special effects to simulate being attacked by an alien before you have to walk past all the people who have already been attacked. (I know it's ages until Fright nights, but these are just some ideas.)

When I went on this last weekend the Chain lift's emergancy lights were on . The ride is just not the same in the light, when you are in the dark you don't realise how compact it is and that the drops are not really very big...

I think that the tv screens should be taken away to allow the queue to become scary and atmospheric once again. (Well, ideally I would like the lasers scrapped and back like Haunted house!)

Not sure if people are aware of this, but here is a news article: http://travel.aol.co.uk/2012/05/09/man-rescued-from-alton-towers-oblivion-ride/ Some people really are idiots. It's because of things like this that we have to put up with ride closures, or in some cases the park's main target audience being banned from rides. Not good