pluk

Apart from the new things that have to be done at Alton and Chessington, I must hit Oakwood this year. Considering my love of wood it's shameful that I've not ridden Megafobia. Probably be a bit of a quite one other than that though.

Wow, I strangely don't remember that at all, and I went plenty around that time. Maybe it was because we were an on the cheap picnic type family! Although I much prefer the look of the more modern décor I love the organist show idea, shame that couldn't have continued in some form after the refurb. Although if it was there now we'd only be moaning about it inevitably not working any more anyway! I remember Zappomatic having some pretty impressive moves going on too, they really did do a lot more animatronics back then.

Yes, many thanks to Peaj for keeping the rabble together. Apologies for general rubbishment on my part for arriving last (no AP £), leaving first (branch line last train at 10 to 10 silliness) and being with a rather unsociable friend. But great to meet a some of you again and a some of you for the first time, hopefully I'll be a bit more with it next time!

So, today. London Baby!

Exactly why I haven't made plans yet. It depends how they handle it from here on in. It may well open in time, then fair enough. It may not, then they need to communicate that as soon as is possible, ie as soon as they know themselves. If a couple of weeks before opening they are still advertising and taking bookings with the promise of an open SW7 when they know full well it ain't gonna happen, that would be wrong. Outside of natural disasters the problem / delay thing of engineering isn't really good enough. There's no need to cut things that fine and a delay like that shouldn't be unforeseeable this close to opening. I think we are getting close enough now for them to know when it'll be ready, in which case they should tell, just bite the bullet and announce. The USA way of having an opening date, but opening for 'previews' if it is ready earlier, works fine by me. Would stop a lot of silliness. Really? As the hotels are already full for opening weekend I think you may be wrong. I know if I had more faith in opening happening I would have booked by now!

Wow, never seen those lap bars before. Want in a very big way.

Going to AT is quite a big deal for me and people who live as far away as I do, requiring a significant amount of planning. I would be genuinely annoyed if I had planned a visit around an advertised opening of a big new attraction and it wasn't ready in time, and I wouldn't consider myself a hater! I'd view this very differently to it having been opened but closing for an unforeseeable reason. Luckily I've made no plans at the moment!

That does seem kind of ominous! There were people asking why The Sanctuary had been left in situ after Halloween, I always thought it might be reopened as a bonus attraction if SW7 didn't open at the start of the season. Is The Sanctuary still there?

If they turn that wonderfully themed eatery into a pale bland box it'll be time to get the pitchforks. We'll see.

With this many questions you are probably best off phoning them!! 020 7403 7221

You are pretty much right there, I hadn't thought of th13teen and what they have done there seems to be a good standard to manage fastrack by if it has to exist (which it doesn't, but that's another conversation!). Although while being in the Th13teen queue during a RITA breakdown in September I stood still for about 15 minutes (in a queue that was only supposed to be 25 minutes long) as they seemed to sell their whole days allocation at once, so they too are not adverse to giving up on fairness and taking the money when the opportunity comes along. Alton doesn't always get it right, the ratios on Spinball always have been way off of being fair and we've all seen the farcical pictures on Nemesis from this summer. N:ST does not have the capacity to deal with fastrack at all and it should never have been included, capacity should't be a problem for SW7 though, so fingers crossed you are right!

Long queues suck, and any time the park is busy this season SW7 will be too. The first time I go after opening I will queue to try it no matter how long it takes and expect a hefty wait, how acceptable this will be to me will depend greatly on how many people are farcetracking themselves in front of me creating a queue which should't exist. I'm hoping this will be the first coaster Merlin install with a manageable farcetrack plan in place which is sold at acceptable levels, I'm very much not holding my breath that that will happen though. After that I have an aversion to anything above around 30 minutes, so I'll whore everything else while people are elsewhere getting themselves corrected.

Air (5) Battle Galleons (5) Congo River Rapids (5) Duel - The Haunted House Strikes Back (6) Hex: The Legend Of The Towers (5) Marauder's Mayhem (1) Nemesis (6) Nemesis: Sub-Terra (6) Oblivion (6) Runaway Mine Train (5) Skyride (4) The Flume (5) The Gardens (6) Th13teen (5) mm- st+

I know what you are saying, and you are almost certainly right to say we will not get anything like this for a long long time due to the cost, but it is the D in R+D that am thinking about also. The perfected animations already exist, that will have been a huge part of the initial overall cost and can simply be copied. The ride vehicle design and transit system will have also been something very hard to get right, but they have. Any mistakes along the way have been worked out and it would now be as 'simple' as reproducing what has already been done. Darkastle itself isn't a recognised IP as far as I know so should be achievable with the consent of the right people, in the same sort of way Pirates 4D turned up all over. It would still be a huge cost, I'd think it could be done for around double our usual investment levels, but if one of the parks did it they would be putting themselves in a league of their own in the UK.

But what if someone has done that R+D for you? I wonder how open to offers some of the existing owners of these sorts of rides would be to allowing a clone on the other side of the world where it won't effect their business? The most likely being BGWs Darkastle. That may come at a more realistic budget when all the film and programming exists already.

I've wondered about this. The MTDP does state those figures, but why? I understood they were merely numbers they were working towards because they wanted to, not because they had to. Due to its location Thorpe have the laxest planning restrictions of the major UK parks, what is the maximum height they would be allowed to build to? The only thing I think could effect any height restrictions would be the 'local' airports, but it is a bit of a stretch to think Thorpe could actually build something tall enough to get in the way of a plane. And as for the coasters length, I don't see that has got anything to do with anyone outside the park, so that restriction could surely be broken if the park decided to go that way? Do we have to completely rule out a hyper, or even giga, coaster?

Air (5) Battle Galleons (5) Congo River Rapids (5) Duel - The Haunted House Strikes Back (6) Hex: The Legend Of The Towers (6) Marauder's Mayhem (5) Nemesis (6) Nemesis: Sub-Terra (5) Oblivion (6) Rita (0) Runaway Mine Train (5) Skyride (5) The Flume (5) The Gardens (6) Th13teen (5) Hex+ Ria - (Although it is not really my choice of what should go next I'll put the wounded beast out of her misery) ....... Air (5) Battle Galleons (5) Congo River Rapids (5) Duel - The Haunted House Strikes Back (5) Hex: The Legend Of The Towers (5) Marauder's Mayhem (5) Nemesis (5) Nemesis: Sub-Terra (5) Oblivion (5) Runaway Mine Train (5) Skyride (5) The Flume (5) The Gardens (5) Th13teen (5)

With The Swarms opening season out of the way I'm sure the park have started to think about their next big thing already, so lets join them! If the MTDP is adhered to we have a couple of fairly barren years ahead, but then we should be hit with something special again. Yesterday Ride Rater posted this Now that might be the most non committal, easily guessable almost non rumour you are ever likely to see, but the stuff on there is often reliable and there's no reason to think it's not grounded in some sort of truth. For me it would be the best possible news if it came true, a modern woodie of some sort is long overdue in the UK. We have lost out while the rest of the world has moved on, I hope Thorpe can be the ones to stick their necks and see the beauty of wood before anyone else in the UK. So what will we get? What should we get? And when? And where? A coaster? A dark ride? A whole new area? Anything is possible. Speculate away...

An 8 year old me found this hilarious... Yeah, I'm not sure why it tickled me so much.

Shame it was so hard to squeeze that well written, non ranty and reasoned post out of you, but we got there in the end! I never set out to belittle, humiliate or personally attack you in any way. My role here is primarily to ensure people post within the guidelines but also to promote a healthy forum that people want to be part of. If you can not see your initial and subsequent posts (for reasons I've already pointed out) would not fall within that then you have a real problem, but I believe you can. You've just said you know you 'come across as sarcastic and mean on the internet', well don't then! I only commented that I do't know who you are because of your reply to Mark where you seemed to think he shot you down because of your past and not because of your post, well it was your post. There's clearly other bits in there but that's for a PM not here, but I'd just like to point out this was only done publicly because of your own responses bringing it here. If you are going to dish out that sort of aggressive post you are going to have to take it too, so don't feel sorry for yourself or put upon by me. ------------- Going back to the snoozebox, now you've described it I can actually see where you are coming from. But I still don't think it is right. It may well be they need to charge these prices to cover their investment, if that is the case I simply think it is a poor investment and one they shouldn't be making. An empty hotel makes no money and if those prices stay the same I fear that is what they are building.

Alton Towers ticket £45 Thorpe Park ticket £43.20 Cheapest nearby hotel to Alton £40 Cheapest nearby hotel to Thorpe £39.78 so yeah...

A further comparable service would be something like the Yotel. In the most premium space imaginable (actually inside airports) they look to be a little smaller but much better equipped room. [apparently I am not allowed to use this image type on this community. Have a look at the photos and room plans in the link, they are quite stunning] The price? Around £60 per night standard, £80 premium. Roughly what I was expecting the crashpad to be!

Interesting article singing the praises of Merlin Magic Making... http://entertainmentdesigner.com/featured/an-inside-look-at-merlin-magic-making/