pluk

Sounds harsh, but such stupidity should be rewarded appropriately. And I totally agree he should have been kicked out.

Gas BBQ or Coal BBQ?

This means the loss of the singing barn then? Well in that case I'm against the whole plan. I love that thing. It is so simple but well done and effective. It's the sort of thing they should be adding, not getting rid of. Things that aren't really an 'attraction' in themselves, are not going to have a queue or anything and barely appear on the map, but just sit there waiting to be discovered by a wide eyed child. Those are the magical things (to little kids anyway) and are few and far between. SAVE THE SINGING BARN!

Surely Fenton: The Ride. "Oh, Jesus, Christ...." then the train launches to a deafening "Feeennttttooon"

Great article posted by Theme Park Tourist with details of a park planned by Tussaurds before they took on Alton instead. Really worth a read through, one thing particularly worth mentioning though... What's that? It's a racing woodie, that's what. Shame the local authority were so adamant they wouldn't allow any of this development, I'm sure in the long run it would have been great for the local area. Planning really is the scourge of theme parks in this country.

As posted by Chessington Buzz work has started destroying developing yet another part of the park. The Monkey and Bird Gardens are no more... Apparently being developed along with an expansion to the hotel, not sure how that all fits together. Nice to the zoo still getting attention now they have had to put some effort into fixing the ride side of the park too.

Intellectual property, ie a brand, character or franchise such as Saw, Thomas the Tank Engine and Peppa Pig as seen elsewhere. They are usually expensive which takes budget away from making things actually good and instead make just it marketable as something already known to the public, so they are often not popular with us lot who would rather an actually good experience instead.

Cue loads of people moaning about an IP coming when the whole area was originally a massive Safeway advert anyway. Could be good, could be crap. Have to wait and see what the IP is I guess, but could lead to a decent show if they have chosen wisely and are prepared to give it a decent budget for both design but also ongoing running costs for staff and effects. We'll see.

You been in Terror of the Towers?!

I don't dislike stand ups as much as most in seems, they can be alright but never exceptional in my experience. I think there are plenty of better options out there. I wouldn't be so dismissive of Thorpe getting one though, they tick a few boxes. They are a self contained gimmick, their rarity means it is easy to get a 'x-est' of type aspect to market, the public have no idea it is a bit of a failed outdated concept, and most importantly of all John Wardley has said one of the alternatives to The Smiler which got a long way into development was a B+M stand up which didn't make it due to planning/ constraints rather than being rejected creatively. It seems clear Merlin consider a stand up a viable option for a new attraction, and maybe B+M have developed something new around the stand up concept if it was to be a SW?

I don't know for certain but I'm pretty sure all the kids have gone back now, so it should have very suddenly died. I hope for you that it has!

What?

End thread. (Cue Benin suggesting it's not that bad. It is. It really really is)

These are literally the first bad words I have heard about these events since they started. If it was really that bad you've been incredibly unlucky.

A bit of greying out chat. After the reserve and ride trial thing finished have they gone back to exactly how it was before or have they made taken the opportunity to attempt to fix the mess of queue lines?

Wiki on greying out I can't feel other peoples experiences obviously, but when people talk of greying/blacking out on coasters like The Swarm I'm not entirely sure that's what has happened to them. I think of it as a very specific thing and it has only fully happened to me on Goliath. As the helix continues on and on and the pressure builds up and up the pressure pulls the blood out of your head and as you see it the world around you turns grey as the colour drains out until what you are seeing is in black and white and slowly fading to nothing. If it were continue it would become a white out which would fairly swiftly lead to loss of conciousness. I don't see that there is any element or combination of elements which could possibly do that on The Swarm, they are just not strong enough or prolonged enough. What I do sometimes get is a light headed feeling on The Swarm (mostly going into the stations flyover), on Colossus (through the rolls) and little spots on plenty of other coasters. I think a lot of people might feel that and think 'whoa, I was starting to grey out there' when really they weren't, they are actually a long long way from it and are just getting a little message from their brain that it can't quite work out what the hell is going on. By its nature a grey out can only be the result of a prolonged application of g's. If people really are getting them on such short forces you've got to wonder if your heart is quite up to the job!

Right handed. Like normal people. time or money?

Don't think the (quite poor) promo vid has been posted. I take it this is being done by Intamin?

I don't think any sane person could seriously say Rumba is better than Congo beyond their own nostalgia based feelings. Conga is patently a better ride in pretty much any comparable aspect. Loggers and Flume are a bit closer though. Both are were good examples but both are not at their best any more. Flume is more knackered right now so loggers takes it, but I'd say flume has the potential to be better if it was fixed up properly.

Grey out will happen with sustained g's, not necessarily high g's, so I suppose it makes sense as Swarm has some quite drawn out manoeuvres. I don't come close to greying out on it though so am surprised if people really do as it should be quite a consistent thing amongst most people. If you grey out on The Swarm I would strongly suggest you never ever get on Goliath at 6 flags magic mountain!

1) I really don't get the love for Aquatrax. Pointless rides. 2) There's nothing wrong with Depth Charge in my book. It's great fun. Everything gets a queue and will find it's level of what people are prepared to wait. The staff could do with a kick up the bum sometimes, but that goes for pretty much everywhere!

If I were going to guess I'd say that would be the last point of no return for stopping a boat, so if the ride thinks the boat in front hasn't cleared the run off (whether it actual hasn't cleared it or a sensor error makes it think that's the case) or the water level is out it'll stop to avoid a collision or dangerous drop. Once it goes over that lip there ain't no stopping it till it hits something, and that really has to be a pool of water!

Just what the world needs, a Robin Williams themed ride. Think it looks odd, like the structure is not strong enough to take it. I'm guessing they've checked it is. I'd like to try one of these outsized drops, but I can't imagine the ride itself is that exciting? Depends if you can get away with nice floaty loose restraints I would think.

That's the way to do backwards in my book - whole train, limited time. Can't think I've ever been on a backwards woodie, would love to try it. Colossus is frankly a bit crap, this might be the sort of thing it needs.

I do like some crap TV. Best thing on at the moment has to be Great British Bake Off, addicted. Then in a couple of weeks it is the excitement of the start of Strictly. Rumoured to be taking part this year are Teri Hatcher, Donna Air, former Gladiator Diane Youdale (better known as Jet), Anneka Rice, Abbey Clancy, Hairy Biker Dave Myers, Rebecca Adlington, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Ben Cohen, Julien Macdonald, Mark Right, Rachel Riley, Corrie’s Natalie Gumede and Vanessa Feltz. Half of this stuff is usually completely wrong, but ti could be good!