Coaster

You seem to be forgetting that Blackpool Pleasure Beach is a family owned business that doesn't have the vast amount of money that a merlin owned company has.Actually, since the refurb (this year especially) all effects have been working most of the time - the fire arch and on the water worked 12 out of 12 rides I had on it at Easter.
Anyway, comparing a simple swinging axe and light (which wouldn't take much to fix) to the multitude of complicated spectacular effects used on Valhalla is silly.

^ Because a theme park with that much reputation (and money) should maintain their effects!

^ Because a theme park with that much reputation (and money) should maintain their effects!

Brean Leisure Park is a brilliant place located in Somerset, with an indoor and outdoor swimming pool (with waterslides), a brilliant crazy golf course (and huge proper golf course, although we didn't do this) and most importantly Fun City - home to Astro Storm (which was formerly Space Invader at Blackpool Pleasure Beach )

Fun City has two brilliant dark rides - which is great for an amusement park which in reality isn't massive (although does have quite a few quality rides).

TERROR CASTLE is probably the scariest ghost train I have ever been on, and I have been on a lot. It is a constant array of loud noises, strobe lighting, scenes of horror (very gory) and fast downward slopes both indoors and outdoors. Things come at you from every angle, left right and celing, often at the same time!

ASTRO STORM is absolutely fantastic! I really liked Space Invader 2 (never rode the original) but it is so much better here! The ride is taken in almost total darkness, but there are a multitude of effects, aliens and more that light up as you whizz past them. There is a massive air cannon at one stage that genuinely makes you jump and the ride actually has a really good storyline (and Theme music!)
The best thing about it that wasn't present last year (or at Blackpool) is that it actually runs with intent now! Whilst the trim brakes still slow the car down, they have been reduced a lot this year so that you actually feel a fair amount of force on the drops and final spiral section. The shuttles were also running faster this year, I think the wheels had been replaced or something.
Plus throughput isn't a problem at Fun City, because it never has a very long queue (and is usually near to walk on).

Staff at Fun City are generally pleased to see you reriding the rides, although I didn't stay on, I walked round each time.

RIDECOUNT: (Over two days, one daytime wristband 10:30am - 5pm and one evening wristband 5pm - 9:30pm)
Astro Storm x51
Terror Castle x32
Magic Mouse x11
Shockwave x7 (Quite efficiently run for a Pinfari - shame about the roughness ) Throughput I believe is 940pph
Wild Water x3 (Honestly this thing got us soaked! And it's just a standard off the shelf model. Other's of these don't get you that wet!)
Disco Fever x3 (Funniest ride ever!)
Dodgems x1
Wipeout x1 (KMG Afterburner, run well)
Xtreme x1 (Good but they leave it on for far too long! Closest I'll ever come to experiencing Spin Doctor )
Waltzer x1
Hellraiser x1
Sizzler x1

I would reccomend this park (and leisure park as a whole) to anyone, Fun City is a brilliant amusement park with two brilliant dark rides (and for the record, Astro Storm is much, much better than X) and a selection of other great rides and it's just generally great fun.

Thank you for reading, comments and questions are very welcome

Oakwood have officially announced their partnership with the Great Ormond Street Hospital, and part of the £21 entry ticket price will go to them, and the park will be used for GOSH day trips, it seems a themepark has a heart for once and it's not all for profit, which makes me feels warm inside.

This is going to sound very random, but does anyone have the ambient audio that is played around the the Experiment 10 (or arena) area during fright nights? would be good to have for a project I am working on....
In my opinion, after visiting the awesome parks in America over easter, having rides play theme music is really a much better choice than chart music, however given the crash pad being where it is, having the upbeat, well known chart music would probably add to the whole experience of staying there....

Meanwhile at alton towers...

A very interesting article here by TowersTimes which explains one of the set backs for the project, and how the HSE was involved with dealing with errors made during the groundworks process.
HSE report: http://www.hse.gov.uk/notices/notices/Notice_details.asp?SF=CN&SV=304321528
http://old.towerstimes.co.uk/news/news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1369595511&archive=&start_from=&ucat=1,10,11&
EDIT:
This did make me laugh... hahaha oh dear!

I'd actually love to see an interactive shooter, but themed around THE SWARM, so your basically fighting back!

Given the fact it's been widely publicised that The Smiler "will not be open" tomorrow, I was unsurprised to receive this:
To receive it just 16 hours before the prize was due to be claimed is cutting things a little fine though...!

They did say that was an option I think, but not a certainty. With what is going on up North I think one thing we can rule out is it being a gerstlauer!

"Opens May 2013" should be rewritten as "May open 2013"

No it still doesn't, which is stupid. I think that all log flumes should have a baggage hold facility!

I wouldnt be surprised

Don't they know Hydro (drenched) is taller?? It's not even tallest in the UK let alone the world, what stupid stupid claims!

Lack of money, lack of interest, lack of good experienced engineers, same as last year wh en I worked there!

A nice little video here showing some mounted on-ride shots and the legend himself, John Wardley.

^ The posters were clinical and hospital like though, saying things like "a smile a day keeps the doctor away". The station should recreate the good atmosphere that the sanctuary queueline had in my opinion, which was clinical and there were well themed posters.

2013, potentially Chessie's worst year since Vampire being Sbno.

For those new to Legoland and the Fairy Tale Brook, I think the changes will be well welcomed.
However, for someone who has grown up with the ride like me, I feel slightly saddened by this new version. I am thrilled to see so much attention given to the ride but what with the lack of original music etc, and the oddly placed models, it is just doesn't cut the cake for me.
Shame.
EDIT: The effects on the other hand, top notch!

Hmmm I actually really liked the advert. I didn't want it to be too sinister as that's not what this ride's about, it's a sort of quirky fun sinister advert. I agree with Josh in the sense that they should have used the laughing version of the Towers theme, but I can see why they stuck with the original. Most people don't watch adverts and they're looking down at their phones etc, so continuously using a well known track for a brand is good marketing as people will hear that and think "OH ALTON TOWERS" and look up at the screen. Very good advert though!
One other little thing about this, us enthusiasts know it's all about the marmalisation etc but I wonder how many of the general public will get the story line? Let's just hope they go down the Oblivion route and use very very very good queue-line videos to get the story line out there!

I'm not keen on Legoland - far too overpriced and the throughputs of most of the rides is dire, and there is need there for a big throughput.
Never seen The Dragon running three trains though, is this new this year?

Just finished that episode, SO confused.

One word from today's thorpe park trip, WOW
Today I was totally expecting it to be really busy as yesterday was apparently packed. We arrived at 10am to go straight in and went straight to swarm. It was a 10 minute queue, which in reality was 5, however we had a great ride on it and got the fire! After swarm we headed towards saw and decided to do rush. This was walk on and we suspected that the queues would get longer as the day went on. Great ride but not as good as I remember it to be. We then decided to do the new X. the ride itself is really good now and the fact that it doesnt stop on the block breaks makes it even better. It was walk on and I have to say that it is a big improvement. Next, it was over to saw. A 10 minute queue was in reality 5 minutes but the ride itself was good. We sat on the front row and when we were going up the lift I was so scared! After a good ride on that, we were suprised the queues weren't getting longer. We did samurai which had a 5 minute queue and got a suprisiling bad spin. Shame. We then did slammer which was a 5 minute queue. We decided to 'freefall' on it and although it was really scary it was a great ride. Off to loggers leap next, we got straight on and the ride is good, I didn't get wet but my friend got soaked! After that we headed towards nemesis inferno, the queue was 5 minutes and we had finally decided that today was an empty day. We were really suprised as we thought it would have been really busy. Nemesis inferno is great but makes me really dizzy. After nemmy inferno, we decided to head over to the detonator. Once again, a 5 minute queue was ahead of us. We deicded to repeat it again as we loved it. Detonator is really scary but a great experience! We then went over to stealth, it had a 15 minute queue but in reality this was 5 minutes. I haven't been on stealth in ages and I loved it! After that we decided to head over to lunch, we had a quick game of battle beam on the way I was really bad and lost 3-0 to my friend! We ate lunch at Burger King and then decided to do rumba rapids. We waited 10 minutes for this but I love the ride and they finally had the water jets back on! After that we headed over to Colossus, this had a 5 minute queue and we were extremely pleased. After a quick spin on Colossus we headed over to saw. Unfortunately it was broken so we decided to do samurai again! The wait was 5 minutes and this time we had a much better ride. I really do love samurai. Saw was reopened so we deicded to head back and wait 10 minutes for it. Once again it was really good! We then decided that we would go down into the lost city. We rode rush again. This time it seemed much worse than the first. I don't think it was swinging as high. We then did quantum twice as there was no queue and he let us stay on! We then did zodiac which I was regretting as I felt really sick after!' Vortex awaited us next with no queue. This was not a good idea after zodiac as I came off feeling even more sick than before! We decided to then head over to stealth and do it again. This time we waited about 10 minutes for the front row seats. The front row is much better than any of the rows and I highly reccomend it! We then did tidal wave which I really did not like as I got drenched! Afterwards we decided to do detonator as the final ride of the day.
Time in park:
10-4:30(we left really early but did not matter as we had done everything)
Key points:
Saw broke for a period of time
Saw queue being advertised as 45 minutes when in reality it was 5 minutes.
No mist or lights in inferno tunnel
All rides on 2 trains and great quick dispatching made queues short
Tidal wave is a stupid ride to do
Ride count:
Detonator X3
Stealth X2
Saw X2
Nemesis inferno X1
Colossus X1
Samurai X2
Slammer X1
Rush X2
Quantum X2
Loggers leap X1
Tidal wave X1
x X1
Swarm X1
Vortex X1
Rumba rapids X1
Total ride count:21