pluk

It does as many as it can I think. It sometimes makes it all the way over on the last spin and sometimes it falls back without making it over. A less knackered model with a good operator can do them perpetually.

As most know but is hasn't been discussed much here, John Wardley has recently announced his retirement and released his autobiography which immediately got into the Amazon top 100. I've just started it on Kindle and so far it is a really good read. John can be heard talking about his career and autobiography here, which is well worth a listen.

That is some mighty good going! Beer and pizza to celebrate?!

Anyone managed to complete the feedback questionnaire on the Chessington website? It seems to have decided what answers I should give! Only lets me click on one random number on each question.

Midweeks should be very quiet now until the kids break up again.

Nice!

America just seems to be generally exploding at the moment http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22195495

After having my expectations suitably lowered by people here I actually quite enjoyed it. -Quite why they've built all that MASSIVE and no doubt expensive fencing I do not know. Maybe to make it feel secluded? Puts it in an awful setting anyway. -The photo op is harmless, don't want it, don't buy it. -The photo, preshow and boarding area are stupidly cramped up and a mess. They could have put everything wherever they wanted, so why put it all on top of each other? Makes me think the pre show itself might have been an afterthought. -The pre show is a bit confused, but the kids seemed to get the idea and really got into the roaring / monkeying. The animation of whatever that animal is is shocking though, looks really really amatuer and cheapens the whole thing. -I know it is not the parks fault that people are morons, but they should be used to that being fact by now and plan for them. The gates you are batched to don't line up with the rows on the truck, not even close to doing so (why?! You've designed it from scratch for goodness sake) so as soon as you are let through everyone just walks to whatever is their nearest row and all the batching goes out the window. Needs lines on the floor or something. -I don't get why people struggle with the seatbelts, they seemed simple enough to me. -The safari itself is alright if a bit short, we got decent views of all the animals apart from the flamingos which seem really strangely placed set back away from the ride. Clearly needs time to grow in but some of the shed concealing is half arsed which breaks the illusion of being transported to Africa somewhat, don't think that will change much however much the plants grow. -The danger cave is poorly executed. You just sort of trundle in with no fanfare or theatrical flare to build it up, the people on the left are blasted unpleasantly in the face with too close misters and a waterfall happens on a similar scale to the constantly flowing Vampire entrance one. The exit through the waterfall itself is the highlight of this part. Then the ride just ends with no attempt to account for whatever it was that just happened. Sounds a bit negative, but I did enjoy it and everyone in our truck seemed happy enough. The problem isn't really that what they have done isn't OK, it is that with a bit of thought and a bit more money it could have been immeasurably better. It is stuffed full of missed opportunities throughout, you have to wonder whether the people who have produced this have even been to existing attractions of a similar type to see what works and what doesn't. I fear it is another case of 'good enough' syndrome which is the mindset of Merlin a lot of the time, it could be spectacular but what they've done is good enough to get people to turn up and not actually complain. From that point of view I guess it will be a success.

Mid week weigh in happened yesterday and I've dropped 3lb to a nice round 16st. Not spectacular but means I've broken through the 1 stone lost since my peak a couple of months back. This week I'm back to making excuses having reasons for not sticking to it, having been out for a boozy meal for my Sisters birthday followed by a day in Chessington which included fried chicken and free doughnuts which I wasn't going to turn down. I'll stick to the diet for the rest of the week, if I manage to remain the same weight I'll take that as a result and hopefully see some actual loss the week after...

To answer my own questions, in case it helps anyone else: I used the vouchers for all adult meals with no problems. They are the standard meal deals (usually c£7). It is 5 free doughnuts per transaction. There were 4 of us, we booked as two twos and got 10 free doughnuts. Don't book a family of four! Only downsides -selection on quiet days; our first choice Mexican and second choice Orient Express were both closed. We went for Fried Chicken which was quite delicious anyway. -you have to use the tortuous line of chaos where clueless customers discuss at length with clueless staff the limitations of their multi level annual pass to pick up the pre booked voucher. Give us a simple 'pick up a ticket' line Chessington! The deal seems too good to be true, but it is true! If you plan to eat in these places you'd be daft not to use it while it is available.

Meanwhile in America, Disney don't show themselves in the best light safety wise... http://www.scpr.org/news/2013/04/16/36847/disneyland-faces-fines-after-worker-hurt-in-park-r/ Soarin' and Space Mountain remain closed after some mostly non specified citations, probably means some sort of remedial work is necessary. Maybe they'll announce it as a "$5million upgrade plan"

If this thing is open by May 18th I'll eat my socks*. If it opens in May I'll be surprised but May 25th is the start of the school half term break so I reckon that's a good bet, maybe with some 'previews' of an unfinished article beforehand. *Disclaimer: I'm not wearing any socks.

It is Chessingtons only remaining inversion, it can't go! Without it, regardless of height restrictions, the place is a childrens park not a family one if you look at the line up. There is nothing there remotely intimidating to anyone but the youngest child. I thought Ramesis was running particularly well today, even if it does sound like every moving part is made of pure rust (although I love that noise it sounds like it needs a can of WD40 or two). It was gliding round and managing 5 or 6 flips, last time I went a couple of years ago it would rarely do more than two.

10/10 Mostly for the wording below the pic.

Is the lift hill also where they put customers they want out the way?

Probably worth linking to this here too.

Having the time of your life... http://youtu.be/j9cd0ortxu0

I'll go for that on. I hope it's that one.

I think that could be quite a good compromise between getting something like topspin without people looking at it and thinking it is the same thing as Chessie and Towers have. I used to quite like boneshaker, this looks like it gives a much better variety of ride but in a similar way. Wouldn't say no.

I actually agree with this. I believe it was set quite low from the days when thanks was counted and it became a bit of an unhealthy race for reputation. Now there's no need for the limit. I personally like to give thanks for posts which I agree with, are amusing, are interesting or even if someone has put a lot of effort in even if I don't actually agree with them. In a place so full of wonderful people I often don't have enough thanks to go round.

Really? Thats quite a positive step if it is correct. If that is how they are targeted it might force them into running both fastrack and rides properly.

I don't think there is any arguably about it. Every time they have changed something on that ride they have made it a bit lot worse. Fifth Dimension was a stunning ride, all it needed was to be run and marketed correctly. For other examples of the same thing happening see every ride at Chessington (maybe except Wild Asia).

Going back to this if I may, the T+Cs have been update since the original post, they are... All seems good, in fact too good. Am I missing something? I read it that it can be used for a group comprising exclusively of adults as they are the same price and it doesn't state otherwise. I presume it includes the standard meal deals from each location? Has anyone actually used it? Would like to know how it went.

Worth dusting this off now. I can't see scare rooms as we know them happening at the crash pad, although they could be ideal with their naturally claustrophobic nature. I would imagine something scare based from the evening entertainment should happen. As for the mazes, some one (sidders? peaj?) pointed out to me The Passing still has all of its external set up in place so it is safe to presume it will return this years, but nothing remains on display of The Asylum, which I think last year at least kept its signage out through the season? So a change there maybe? What I'd like more than anything is more effort in the park ride theming and lighting to create an event out of it, rather than the simple park with mazes added on style of event.