pluk

Each summer is defined by one tune, this year it will be this... Daft Punk, incapable of making anything other than perfection.

You won't get the same returns if you don't invest. And so the spiral continues... Although they seem to be trying to break this now.

ert Better?

Oooh, forgot to update this week. As hoped for / expected I remained static which is fine by me considering the amount of crap I ate on a few days. Onwards and downwards...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-22308165 The world has gone, errr.. nuts.

As much as the quality of the food is improving at Chessington and all of the other attractions that Merlin operates, why is it that the individual themes of some of the larger eateries such as the restaurant in Transylvania are being diluted when they become rebranded? I don’t think that they are. We are focusing on better quality food and service in standard formats across the Merlin Entertainments Group. While all will benefit from more unique theming over time, they are a considerable step forward from high street style Burger Kings and Pizza Huts. You can't just remove nearly all of the theming over many years and serve poor food then say you haven't/don't. Has he even been in there? Other than that a decent and seemingly honest interview, without the PR speak the info is usually buried in. Was glad to see him fairly shoot down whoever it was that claimed there had been a massive thrill decline, seems to be said so much and is totally untrue. Shame it seems that is it for fright nights, no hint of any hours extension coming.

It is poor, but standard everywhere these days. When I was a Saturday boy at Safeway (ask your Mum) we got double time Sunday, triple time bank holidays, time and a third between 7PM and 7AM if we didn'y go through 2AM or time and a half between those hours if we did. Now my friends who are still in retail are pretty much all on a flat rate regardless of hours worked, except full nights which pay time and a third. Life sucks while there's more people than jobs. But it is not a trick or a scam, it's in the contract and if you don't want work on those times you just have to find something else.

The talk of a '90's Anthems' MoS night at Thorpe in the summer has got me excited about some of the old music my clubbing days were made from. I'm a bit past clubbing these days, but from my few experiences of recent times things have changed for the worse in club land. Everyone seems to take themselves too seriously, the music is either angry or made by numbers lightweight commercial rubbish, and the mixing is soulless; relying on computers to keep it too slick and taking all the energy out of it. Clubs used to be dirty, sweaty and carefree places, it didn't matter what you looked like as long as you were having a good time. Now it's all posturing and posing. If I jumped round the dancefloor like I used to I think I'd get sectioned. Maybe it's the manifestation of the change of most people being on acid or ecstasy back then to nearly everyone being on coke or truly excessively drunk now. Maybe it is because clubbing has become the standard after pub choice for drinkers, rather than the original destination for music as it was back then, not an after pub bolt on to the evening to grab some bonus drinking time. People didn't go to clubs to get smashed, you were there for the music and that's all you needed really. There are some tunes you haven't lived until you've heard them ear-splittingly loud in a room full of buzzing people who are loving it just as much as you are. Here are a few that spring to mind and I hope to hear at Thorpe in June... http://youtu.be/Z4NpnPBfI44 I could go on forever. Oh dear, seems like I've turned into my Dad where everything was 'better in my day'. Well it was.

I'd rather not have it too, and from construction pics I really don't think there is one. It's easy to interpret that clip in many ways but it suggests to me either a rotating track or something giving the illusion of a rotating track happening. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151364779916050 The giggler looks like it includes water squirters like a fire sprinkler system from the graphic? LOVE the sequence with the close up of the eyes going round like a never ending multi eyed face, with the smiler swirl reflect in them. That screen is stunning.

dreams

Thanks for making it clearly. The thing actually stating 'carriage rotation' then, as it will when they've fixed it, seems even more like a description of that element to me, not less!

Calling it 'rotation carriage' and showing a ride train that appears to be static (ie not coming towards or going away from the perspective of the viewer) while rotating on its axis, next to a spinning arrow showing exactly that motion too, really strongly suggest to me that 'washing machine' element will be present. And I have been very strongly against that idea happening since it was first mentioned.

Mentioned are: 'The disorientatior' 'Strobes' 'Rotation Carriage' And what appears to be a clear graphic of the washing machine element? Hmmmmmmmmm. Then some bits about 'scanning cortex', 'smile detected' and 'scanning memories', which I presume to not relate to actual elements.

That is excellent advice. So many people fail to grasp that keeping your eyes closed will lead to disorientation and make every maneuver feel exaggerated.

Mrs Browns Boys is just about the least funny thing ever committed to film.

All the 'no can dos' on the possibility of longer openings given above are fairly comprehensively undermined by the fact that for fright nights they do exactly that. What's the difference doing the same thing for a couple of months in the summer? None. It would be really quite simple in terms of resourcing; two shifts, early and late, with a crossover in the middle for when the park will be busiest and to cover break times. Simple. It's not about mistreating or 'not giving a crap about' the staff at all, it's just about planning. The park can easily plan for the predictable variables of demands and if people want a job they need to be available where these demands are and know that when they take the role. Not suggesting it should be sprung on them now for dates in a few weeks time.

I'm a deep believer of try everything once. My encouragement techniques, tried and tested with various levels of success: -The wait is usually the problem as tension builds up. Don't mention the 'challenges' until just before you do it and do all you can to avoid queues. Then just spring it very matter of factly that they are going on that with you now. No time for them to talk themselves out of it. - If there is a queue get them to 'wait with you while you queue so you don't have to wait alone', then again at the last minute lay the challenge. - Have a plan of order, if you know what they do/don't like and build them up to that. At Thorpe I usually get them on Stealth under the agreement that even if they hate it it is over in a few seconds anyway, but most people enjoy it because it is smooth and comfortable. After that you can tell them they've done the biggest ride in the park so they can do anything, if you start with Colossos or Saw you are unlikely to get them on anything else big so end there! -If people don't like spinny things then they just don't like them and you might get covered in sick if you trick them on! Good luck with it, I love being with people enjoying their first experience of rides and seeing their reactions.

They're going to want to steam ahead now. If they've been working on the systems in conjunction with construction we could see the first runs in the next day or so surely? Am I right in thinking Gurst don't do any sort of pull through and just sent a train instead?

So why aren't any of our politicians like this?

Because no one wanted them. They still don't want them, so no I can't see it returning as it wouldn't make money.

That's a long time ago, it is a different park with different marketing now. If it didn't work out last time they need to do it another way. The rest of the world shows us it can work, time to give it a go again.

Is Lightwater in s****horpe?

For this years ERT/photo event it was activating every time all day. I guess that was incase it was needed for the photos but shows that it is variable and presumably they can change the regularity easily if they want to.

They should give some consistent late night summer openings a try, like 22.00hrs close for the whole of the summer holidays rather than just events. See what it does for attendance generally, how much more of a spend they get out of everyone if they keep them there for two meals/a lot more snacks and also pick a bit of 'enter for the evening only' trade at a reduced gate price. Would be worth a try, that's what I'd do. If it doesn't work out they can just stop it.

That is clearly one of the best rides ever made, you don't need to go over the and get on it to see that. Beautiful. I've not really been following it but isn't Ratatouille this same trackless system? Hopefully it'll be similarly impressive.