Liam T

Well this should be very interesting! And very good competition for Merlin
http://news.sky.com/story/994756/paramount-park-plans-to-rival-disneyland-paris

Hiii guys,
 
Ryan and I have decided to do you forum lot a solid and chalk up the provisional meet calendar for the 2017 season with all of the provisional dates where possible. As you may see it is incredibly busy with a few new and different things, so please do leave a comment or drop a PM to either of us with what you think! 
 
**please note this is a rough, preliminary outline of what we'd expect 2017 to look like, dates and even venues may well change!** 
 
 
January: Guildford meet (Saturday 21st)
February: Adventure Island meet (Saturday 11th)
March: Thorpe Park open meet (Saturday 25th)
April: Chessington meet (Saturday 22nd)
May: Legoland meet (Saturday 20th)
June: Alton Towers weekender (Saturday 17th/Sunday 18th)
July: Ministry of Sound meet (Saturday 22nd) 
August: Oakwood weekender (Saturday 19th/Sunday 20th)
September: Port Aventura (Saturday 9th/Sunday 10th)
October: Fright Nights meet (Sunday 15th)
November: Alton Towers Fireworks weekender (TBC/'whenever that is')
December: London Christmas meet (Saturday 16th)
 
I hope everyone has a happy new year, and I can't wait to see both old and new faces next year  
 
 
 

Anyone travelling with Southern:
 
http://www.southernrailway.com/your-journey/strike/travel-advice-for-aslef-overtime-ban/
 
Basically the whole of December is screwed. It mentions the 17th but there's no more info for that date yet. 
 
It's not to say you won't be able to get into London, or that you shouldn't attempt to travel, but I'd suggest having the National Rail app and having alerts service up for the morning and the evening  

Yay! My favourite meet of the year, I shall be attending (if its the 17th December!) & I have a hotel booked so no need for me to go rushing off after it's finished. 
 
P.S. Luke/Mer I'm doing my research this year so I will know any unexpected surprises you plan to take me on! 

Yay! My favourite meet of the year, I shall be attending (if its the 17th December!) & I have a hotel booked so no need for me to go rushing off after it's finished. 
 
P.S. Luke/Mer I'm doing my research this year so I will know any unexpected surprises you plan to take me on! 

Yes I will be attending!  

Good Morning all of you wonderful people! It's got to that time of year again and I'm very excited to officially announce plans for our traditional end of year meet in LONDON! The event will be held on Saturday 17th December   - I know there was no vote, but it always gets voted for the last weekend before Xmas, so predicted your responses. However a small poll is open just to ensure it doesn't disagree with too many people!
 
As a few people are aware, my career has taken off a fair bit recently and can no longer dedicate 100% to running these meets, so this will be the last one I am properly running - A separate topic about the new meet organiser Can be found here. I'll still be around when I can but I'll be more in the background

The Outline of the day will be as follows: 

Meet under the Waterloo Clock between 09:30 and 10:00 am. If by any chance you happen to miss this meet point due to travel arrangements or just plain lateness you can either a) phone or text so we can arrange to meet you or meet up at the second meeting point later in the day. This first part of the day we will make the most of all the Merlin attractions based in the area by going to London Dungeons, Sealife, London Eye and for those that can get in the New Shrek Adventures. Please bear in mind we will leave without you if you are late as it’s not fair on time keepers! A couple of members have found out this on previous meets. We will stop for a bite to eat around Lunch, which could be Nando's but we will see what people think nearer the time. At lunch we will once again partake inSecret Santa as it was highly popular last year and caused much amusement. After the Waterloo attractions we will head off to Baker Street if we have time to see the wonderful Madame Tussauds or those who wish to break off for a little bit for a pint in the pub before heading back to Hyde Park at the end of the day to go Winter Wonderland. (The date was chosen so we can get actual christmas music   ). I'd imagine we will have another eaten snack in the day and will be finishing it off with some drinks down the pub and/ or possibly a curry!  . 

I will be handing out my phone number for everyone who is attending the meet that day, should there be any problems. We aim to stay together as a group for the day, going from one activity to the next, enjoying getting to know people you share very similar interests with, the idea is to just go with the flow and enjoy the day with some awesome people. There will be many photo’s in the day being taken I’m sure and the possibility of a few video clips. Whilst we cannot force you to stay with the group, it is the general purpose of these meets! You will have my number (and some of the senior teams) if you become split so by all means use it. The meets are a fantastic laugh and everyone is invited, even if you’ve never posted before or been to any kind of meet at all. If it's your first meet, I understand it can be nerve breaking - but we were all there at one point so know how it feels, please don't let this stop you from attending. Look at previous trip reports ( from 2013 - I am seriously behind) to give yourself a taster - (or videos people have been posting) Once there you'll be part of the group in no time!

Once again, everyone will have my phone number so please use it on the day If anyone has any issues or concerns or even nervous about coming, feel free to post here, or PM myself and I will get back to you as soon as possible. If you feel like my response is taking too long another member of the team will be more than happy to help. We will all try and help you out as much as we can.

Please PM me or post here to say if you’re attending. If you are bringing a mate along with you, please also include who they
are otherwise they will be known as ‘Thing 1/ 2 etc.’ The events with TPM have been fantastic this year, so that's finish this amazing year of events with a bang. Names will be added to the list once the date for the trip has been confirmed.
 
Update (Rough Plan)
We meet at 10 and will go straight to London eye
At 11 we will do London dungeons
At half 12 those who want a small lunch snack before nandos please go ahead and use the county halo facilities those who don't want to eat have a pint in the tavern at the dungeons
At half 1 we will do sea life and those who want to do shriek can go through at 1 before moving onto Baker Street
Predictably I'll say tussauds will start at half 3/4 those who don't want to do that can go weather spoons next door
Which means nandos will this year start roughly at 5
This will give us enough time to enjoy winter wonderland with predicted arrival of 7:30pm (possibly earlier like everything else but hey this is a rough plan for those who need slots for shrek and dungeons) and we will stay there till people filter out. 
(As it's my last meet I'm running - it seems fitting to have some drinks as that's how people have come to know me haha)
 
Attending (35-39)
Airtime Falcon
Alexander
Amarghh
Baron C
Cian
Han30
jamesTheManTheMyth
J.S217
Kerfuffle
KingNemesis (Maybe)
Liam_T
LG95
Luke_A
Marc
Mark9
Martin C
Martin Doyle
Matt Creek 
Mer
MilesK
Mitchada04
Mr Fish
mrmonkey
Nick Hutson
Paige
PasajeDelTerrorFan (Maybe)
Peaj
Phill Pritchard
Rocket (Maybe)
Roodie (Maybe)
Ryan
SmilerGeorge
StevenVig
Stuntman707
TallGuyDom (Evening only)
terrortomb
TopsyTurvy15 (Evening)
Wegloo (when he turns up)
Weronika (Paige's Friend)

And I very rarely do visit these days in all honesty, I no longer have a MAP and will only venture in when when it's quiet so my day is not fastracked to death by all around me. But I will always visit to an extent, I can't help enjoying the rides in spite of everything!
 
I find it very difficult to believe someone visiting Chessington for the first time since the late 90s wouldn't be heartbroken.
 
The Smiler may have been popular, but the way it opened late was damaging and badly handled at the time. Although the incident was a failure of operator and not the ride I'm sure the issues it had from the very poor build are what created an environment for that mistake to happen.
The station building is falling apart already with great swathes of light from the gaps in the walls in what is supposed to be the dark section, the effects are persistently broken even though they are new, the queue line is a mess that often floods. It goes on. The fact that such mediocrity in delivery can lead to such perceived 'success' as an attraction says a lot more about the state of our parks than it does about the quality of that ride.
 
Galactica destroying the throughput of an otherwise decent coaster with funding for 2 years for the tonnes of staff needed, while other attractions close because of staff funding,
Zoofari being a joke,
NST being poor, then OK for a bit, then closed,
IAC with its double digit throughput,
Th13teen doing its trick well but everything else poorly,
Storm Surge being a pathetic eyesore,
 
What these have in common is being just about good enough to get the punters in for a couple of seasons with some strong marketing, but nothing that actually has underlying quality to get people returning or to deliver into the future. And all the while the older attractions are simply not cared for.
 
Turn it on its head; when is the last time a park in this country did something and made you go 'oh, wow!'? Truly surprised, amazed or impressed you?
 
This is going off topic. I really do think that DBGT will be good, from what we've seen so far I have faith in the project to deliver in the end, but there should be no surprise that there is scepticism about what is to come and disappointment that a couple of months after advertised opening there is a distinct lack of it being open.
 
 
 
 

People at Ghost Train

Here's a few photos I've taken in Orlando the past few days. 

Indeed let's not start arguing again - any further posts will be removed. 
 
The uniforms are nice and fit in with the theme - hopefully getting even closer!

I come onto the forums to see the first signs of life at DBGT, and y'all complaining about a SIGN.
 
I'm please to see its actually testing, hopefully this means the ride will be open this month! The social media team are still keep hush so who knows. 
 

Where have I heard this before?
 
...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE ... UNDERGROUND! 

Think we need to get back on track of the topic and stop moaning.... Just saying ?

I come onto the forums to see the first signs of life at DBGT, and y'all complaining about a SIGN.
 
I'm please to see its actually testing, hopefully this means the ride will be open this month! The social media team are still keep hush so who knows. 
 

I come onto the forums to see the first signs of life at DBGT, and y'all complaining about a SIGN.
 
I'm please to see its actually testing, hopefully this means the ride will be open this month! The social media team are still keep hush so who knows. 
 

I come onto the forums to see the first signs of life at DBGT, and y'all complaining about a SIGN.
 
I'm please to see its actually testing, hopefully this means the ride will be open this month! The social media team are still keep hush so who knows. 
 

I come onto the forums to see the first signs of life at DBGT, and y'all complaining about a SIGN.
 
I'm please to see its actually testing, hopefully this means the ride will be open this month! The social media team are still keep hush so who knows. 
 

I come onto the forums to see the first signs of life at DBGT, and y'all complaining about a SIGN.
 
I'm please to see its actually testing, hopefully this means the ride will be open this month! The social media team are still keep hush so who knows. 
 

118 times.
 

Looks fun enough.  If the 'lift hill' is more a launch and gets a bit of speed, it'll be a lot better.  Mix in the large set pieces, the general feel of the area and maybe an effect or two in the building / sound tunnel and it'll be a neat family coaster that'll fit right in at Alton.  
 
Nothing ground breaking or special, just a fun ride that'd get 'Europe's first launched wooden roller coaster' tagged onto it to draw a bit more attention to it.  

Any trip to Blackpool with Coaster Jamie is a good trip.

These plans have been out 24 hours and still no no limits recreation has hit the forums? I'm disappointed in you all.

"But if I wanted to look at grass, I'd go to a garden centre, not a theme park"
 
Alton Towers - the park where you can do both! 

"BACK TO BASICS 
Theme Park set to go back to old fashioned roller coasters after losing trust in modern steel ones.
Alton Towers Resort have submitted plans for a roller coaster to made entirely from WOOD, going back 100 years to old fashioned, basic roller coasters.  This follows the tragic accident last year on steel roller coaster The Smiler, where 5 people were seriously injured after 2 trains collided together, including two girls having to have a leg amputated.
Many have questioned the decision, saying that going back to lo-tech, rickety rides from the past is more dangerous.  "They should be putting in more technology, making these rides safer" said a random Twitter user, who also added "Wooden roller coasters are not safe, you feel like you'll die on them!"  A Facebook user said "To go back to such old technology shows they've lost faith in themselves - Alton Towers and Merlin should close down!!!' "