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If they are giving themselves a 4,999 person margin of error on their gate figure to avoid breaching the legal capacity they must have a lot of people jumping over the fence each day! Or the girl on the gate with the clicker is very poor at counting. That they do limit around this number instead of the 'real' capacity actually shows they do want to try and keep the park at a manageable level, which can only be to stop people having a crap day. They could keep taking the money instead, good on them.

So on to Toy Story Playland, another much derided area of DLP amongst geeks everywhere. It may just be three flat rides in a small area, but it is well themed with a lot of nice touches and just feels like a fun place to be to me. Probably helps that it wasn't busy, these rides look to be further throughput fails, but that didn't affect us. To get it out the way, Slinky Dog lives up to its name and is an absolute dog of a ride. Slow, clunky, rattly and very worn taty paintwork in the seats after just a couple of years. Just awful. I don't know what the problem is, it feels like it might be a refurbed 20 year old ride, or maybe the theming on it is too heavy, or maybe it is just cheap crap. 1/10 just for the big dog head... With that rubbish out of the way, I didn't have too higher hopes for the other two rides as clearly they are both aimed at the kiddies. Toy Soldiers looks from off ride to be very tame, almost like a sightseeing exercise rather than a drop ride, but it actually feels rather good and the drop is just quick enough to give you the stomach being left behind feeling. It's one big downfall is the seating being in threes leading to plenty of faff even when the queues are short, and currently overlooks a building site which isn't ideal. Was the only unplanned downtime I saw on the trip too, and that was on a couple of occasions, so I'm guessing it is not the most reliable. Excellent introduction to bigger drop rides for the little ones 7/10. The other ride here I'd always thought looked like a massive waste of time is RC Racer, which looked like a lot of effort to give a ride akin to a pirate ship, but again I was pleasantly surprised. It is quite punchy in its movement and gives a decent amount of floaty time at its extremities. It also eats through the modest queue at quite a rate. 7/10 So, Toy Story Playland - better than expected. It does feel like it lacks a central attraction and it is a bit of a crime it didn't come with a MidWay Mania, but most of what's there is decent enough. Raaaaar.

McD's is OK, I'm quite partial to a double cheeseburger when I'm peckish at work, but the Spanish Chorizo burger thing they're currently doing is really delicious. Shame it's only around for a week.

I should imagine they put these messages out to strongly discourage people turning up as they know from pre-sales they are damn close to capacity. But a lot of people will not get this message and after a long journey it would really piss them off to be turned away. I guess it is quite a sensible approach to stop capacity being reached and actually turning people away.

The old ones were far superior. The ride was designed to run those heavy cars , the flicks of the swing were much better timed to the curves and went higher and the whole thing flowed much better whereas now the train kind of shunts along the track. They were beautiful too. Having said that, the new ones do the job and if that was what was necessary to keep the ride open then it's better than nothing.

Where's the dislike button?! I know it's each to their own and all, but I'm intrigued to know why wit Rumba you rate what I consider one of the worst (for reasons of length and dullness) water rides in the country the best? 'Storm' and 'surge' should be nowhere near a conversation about the best anything anywhere. It is a vile ride. I've gone for Valhalla. When it is working properly it is the most immersive and spectacular ride in the country by quite some way, and the physical ride underneath all that is excellent. It is obviously a combination of dark and water ride, in my head I consider it a dark ride primarily. For out and out water ride I'd probably go for Tidal Wave, bit of a one trick pony but it does that trick very well and is excellently themed.

Crush is pretty much that, yes. After the small drop outside of the ride building the 'show' section is short but takes you through some scenes from the film including jellyfish and sharks where you get 'blown' out of the shipwreck scene up the lifthill into the main ride. I guess having the main ride in pretty much pitch dark with nothing other than sound effects will piss off some who want the theming of the first half continued throughout, but that would defy the point of it being a spinner in the dark and the disorientation and feeling of speed that isn't really there that that brings. As a fan of spinners anyway, the coaster itself is solid. For me the queue and possibly the shortness is all it is away from being perfect. I love it. As for Armageddon I guess the attraction as a whole is worse than I have remembered it, the pre show is actually an awful mess and some of the effects show is a bit drawn out. But the finale is so good I can't help but remember it well. If someone blows a huge fireball that close to my face I'm going to love it!

The Studios park sometimes feels like it loses it's way with having any kind of blend between areas / attractions. I know that is kind of the thing with a studio park - the whole premise is they are in production doing one thing here and another there, but it is so physically small that it sometimes feels a bit jarring and cramped. In a park that has been designed from scratch I don't know why they've done that. This is worst in the area loosely clustered as Toon Studio. The star attraction here, and if queue times are to go by the whole park, is Crush's Coaster. So this MS spinner simply can't cope with the numbers required at a Disney park and the constantly full queue is a dull cattlepen which, like Asterix, leads to many queue jumping opportunities gratefully seized upon by hoards of French. They also dont stop smoking and the staff don't have any problem with any of this, we were truly grateful this ride was pretty much it for us queuing in either park, I can imagine it descending into Asterix level torture quite rapidly on busy days. As soon as we entered the building though, it was all worth while Mine! I've got a thing for spinners anyway, but we both LOVED this. The station and slow section of the ride are beautifully done, a mixture of animatronics and video screens blend tell the short story with care and humour leading up to a fun and decent length coaster. I've heard some people on forums give this a bad review but I don't understand that, the ride itself is superb, it's just they should have built two of them to cope with the demand. 9/10 Next door is Flying Carpets which is like Dumbo but tilting themed Aladdin style. Is what it is, 6/10 While riding that you are looking down over both Crush and Cars Rally which is a shrunken clone of those Disney figure of 8 teacups in a tiny car. Yeah it's a kids ride, but man those seats are needlessly small and uncomfortable The figure of 8 set up Disney use is good though, and they actually got a good spin on them sometimes. 6/10 Animation Academy is another direct import from USA, but they've messed this one up. It is still interesting but it doesn't work with the translations being pumped in to some headphones off of tape while the host tries to do it live in French. The hosts speakers in the room are far too loud so can be heard over the out of sync English recording and the whole thing is a headache and a mess. They should just do English an French show times, the simplest solutions are usually the best. 4/10. The only other thing around here is the small meet and greet area consisting of two small queues to met characters with photographer. I kind of like the stumble upon meets more than this, feels a bit like a cheat to me choosing who to meet and queuing up, you should have to find them. There star was Woody btw, much longer queue than for Mickey. Poor Mickey, we gave him some company.

BOOOOM!! If it is MoS the ride I want my commision!! Seriously though, it would be great if they fixed it properly, although I'll take the 'rumour' with a pinch of salt until something official comes our way. I would be sad to see it turned to forwards, it would be a very nothing coaster going the right way, and I can see a lot more potential with effects with the backwards position. If this is a fix up like the last few though (ie a video in the queue or one speaker and a flashing light in the ride) then they're best off not bothering. Do it properly or don't do it at all - it's just embarrassing otherwise, especially if it is used in promotion.

Not saying it hasn't got its uses, but for me that price is a big no as I'm not happy in a room that size with another couple. I don't know how they'll structure it, but 'prices from' indicates It'll be more per person with under occupancy and I'll guess substantially so. Just as a comparison, alton have been doing £99 per couple with breakfast and park tickets in a proper hotel room. This will be a minimum of £128 per couple, probably quite a bit more for just two, in accommodation which looks to be of considerable lesser quality, with less resturant and bar options and with access to what I realised again yesterday is a considerably lesser theme park. The only thing they are offering which is superior is the 2 day entry rather than one, although I'm not too sure I could take Thorpe for two days in a row anymore and it is not needed to get everything done in the same way Towers can be. Again, just saying it's not for me and I appreciate it will work for some people. If I was going on a stag or something it'd be ideal, but I'm not. I want a proper hotel for normal use for a couple at a reasonable price.

We started with studios, mostly because having checked the ride opening schedule day one was the only day the tram tour was open on our visit. It really is a great tool to plan your visit with. http://news.disneyla...ar/index.xhtml# Unfortunately for this report we didn't take many photos, we were just enjoying ourselves and not thinking about such things. Oh wells, dull report ahead. As a term time week day we weren't expecting it to be busy, and it wasn't. Pretty much everything was walk on, except Crushes Coaster and Studio Tram Tour which hovered around 30 minutes. From the front, studio 1 is not the nicest start, just an outsized fast food place really, that you are forced to walk through and was getting congested even when it wasn't a busy day. Dead ahead is the Tram Tour, set up with a very well done forced perspective which you can't really see properly here! The ride itself is not great to be honest - lots of props and a 'scene' from films no one has seen (something about a dragon in London? No idea) and the same special effect set piece from America which can be great but half of it doesn't work. Our carriage had no TV working so for the long gaps between much happening we had nothing to do but take in the views of the staff car park and plain construction fencing twice as the route is double backed on. Not good enough really. 3/10 Rock and Roller Coaster is something I'm not keen on in the first place, a bit of a shoehorned concept that I don't think fits Disney in any way. Having said that the American incarnation is a decent enough coaster, the French one though is rough as hell, like dying corkscrew rough in some seats near the back. The variations in lightshow are nice, though some are a bit too bright so the whole building seems lit up. A couple of times the building was absolutely full of dry ice, and that was superbly disorientating and improved the light show no end. The batching/preshow room does nothing, you all stand there as if you are supposed to watch something but it just is just on a loop without a start or end and you see it from different points each time. As walk on our ride count was well in the double figures so it can't be that bad. It's OK, but inconsistent. 6/10 Next door to that is the Action! stunt Show, another thing I'm comparing to its American equivalent, and again the French one comes out worse off. This time it is purely a language barrier thing, with everything being said a few times in different languages, the show can not achieve the feel spontaneity it is clearly aiming for and too much time is taken up with annoying presenter woman rather than action. The stunt show itself buried beneath all this is pretty damn impressive though, some fairly spectacular and genuinely dangerous stuff going on there, I don't see how it doesn't go spectacularly wrong occasionally. A great show slowed down to a frustrating pace with laboured presenting 7/10 The last attraction in this area is Armageddon Special Effects, something which I think is actually unique and certainly new to me. This was good.The pre show talk thing seems a bit daft and no one seemed to know what it was supposed to be about (practicing acting ready for the set I think), everyone was looking at the presenter with a kind of bemused look, he didn't take us with him. The set itself is good, with plenty going on and a very impressive explosion finale which really feels like you are in the middle of it, in a very real way you are - the flames are huge and very close. I can't help drawing comparisons with Backdraft as it pulls all the same tricks together in a different way, the biggest difference being the circular set with things happening on all sides. This does make it is easy to miss things compared to the all lined up looking one way Backdraft set, but the immersive feeling it gives is worth it and makes it more rerideable. Great main event, shame about the pre show. 7/10

After trying to fit in more than possible for a crammed couple of days we headed off to Disney with a different frame of mind, having 4 days and 3 nights booked at the resort we knew we could relax, go at our own pace and take it all in. In fact, from what we had heard, we were a bit concerned we had too much time for the size of the place. Driving around the edge of Paris and to Disney should be simple enough, but the signage is piss poor in places - what is the point in signs saying 'For Disney follow Marne-la-Vallee' when you then get to a junction (presumably already in Marne-la-Vallee) and the exit says it is both directions? So after some driving towards Paris instead of away from it and lost rural McDonalds staff direction translation faff we made it to our hotel by about 11.00hrs. We had booked the Cheyenne for one reason alone - it was cheap. Cheaper even than any off resort option we found. Having not heard great things, combined with the price, expectations were low but we were pleasantly surprised. Clean, well maintained simply but effectively themed rooms in a very pleasant western setting and a 15 minute stroll or 5 minute bus to the action. It's not classy, it's not spectacular, and I suppose it is not really Disney magic, but for our purposes it was great. The one thing we found actually bad was breakfast - the continental food is decent enough if a little dull, but the buffet area and seating is just chaos in a big cavernous room that fills with screaming din. If they are making it as unpleasant as possible to make you move on quicker and eat less they are achieving. I saw it come very close to actual fights over tables a few times, despite the timing system supposedly spreading the demand. And the sheer volume of food passing though there actually made me feel quite ill, people stuff a disgusting amount of stuff in their face when it is 'free', couldn't wait to get breakfast over with each day. On the plus side Jessie turned up after breakfast each day! Check in takes a bit of time with a slow snaking queue of chaos, but on the flip side we were given a room straight away when it shouldn't have been ready until 16.00hrs. Unfortunately, after leaving out passport, park tickets and money in the room safe we went to get our baggage from the car only to find our room door jammed. When the maintenance man turned up, fiddled with the door then exclaimed "dizzasteeer!" we didn't need a translation dictionary to get the idea it was stuffed. More language barrier problems meant the staff had trouble grasping we couldn't go off to the park and have fun while they fixed it, we were stuck with them because our tickets were in there. Little things like this make you realise how stuck you can get in non English speaking countries when things go wrong if you don't speak the lingo, if something important went wrong it could be a real problem. Anyway, after a 30 minute delay while they smashed the crap out of the door and changed our room we were off to the parks. Now no one wants to read a 4 day we did this then we did this then we did this as I take my 20th ride on Thunder Mountain, so from here I'm going to go round the park maps with my thoughts.

2 day packages start from £64 per person. 4 people per room - £256 per box per night. Don't think so, thanks.

As someone else mentioned, Europe parks prove there is no need for most baggage restrictions in the first place and we should just take stuff on with us. SW7 may be an exception though, if the slow stationary turning thing is 'the' element that would clearly chuck all lose stuff everywhere. It baffles me sometimes, Merlins thinking. They are so maddeningly tight and money grabbing with some things and then run expensive bag holds where there wouldn't be too much of an outcry if they moved to paid lockers instead. So very odd, giving up a potential revenue stream and incurring a cost at the same time, over the year they really ain't cheap to operate. I'm still not grasping the scale of that site and where exactly the station building is sitting. Luckily I'll be able to take a look for myself they day after tomorrow. Exciting stuff.

They also have extremes of demands as school holidays come and go, the extra capacity is very much needed at peak times and probably worth building just for then even, if they stand empty some of the time.

But the devastated KFC of Thorpe and the Transylvanian McDonalds/Burger King of Chessington are a couple of the best themed restaurants around. Them not being in house catering doesn't stop them being in theme. Each on their own merit is how I'd do things, I've never had a problem with KFC or Pizza hut at Thorpe, so why change them? Pizza Pasta at Towers I find a hellish overcrowded mess of a place that can't do what Pizza Hut does as well as Pizza Hut does it, so why want it?

My overwhelming thought after Ellen's Energy Adventure was to find Ellen DeGeneres and hurt her. God awful thing that.

Very Center Parcs, in concept if not style. Fantastic idea - the sort of thing I can see myself using, unlike a container for four. I hope it does come with some new entertainment / eating / drinking options, again in a Center Pars way, making it like a little village and worthy of a good few days rather than the single night I'll currently consider. I hope they use it as an excuse to upgrade the pool too, which has always felt like a massive missed opportunity to me.

I'm afraid you are entering the world of fantasy now. Security guards are not on less than minimum wage and police constables do not earn even near that an hour. Police do not 'make money' out of large scale public order events, but when an event is for a profit making private company they do of course recoup their costs of planned assistance, not to do so would in effect mean the taxpayer paying for a private firms profit margins which would clearly wrong. Although I have no involvement Thorpe Park or Surrey Police I have a good working knowledge of the planning and policing of events. I can assure you the security plans put in place for the whole season and Fright Nights in particular will have been completed with the police, agreeing the proposed levels are safe and sufficient for the predicted size of the crowd and any specific intelligence. If the police were not happy with the plans and things started to go wrong Thorpe would very quickly be losing their liquor licence and operations licence from the council and probably their ability to insure themselves. This is not something they would risk. Should things go wrong police turn up and deal with it free of charge, thats what police do. They are not going to stand at the gate while either staff or public get their heads kicked in waiting for Thorpe to pay them. I doesn't matter where it happens, police will turn up if you call them. There would of course then be a review of the security levels for the rest of the event (and the next one) with amendments agreed if necessary. I'm really not to sure what you are getting at in general, but this seems to be heading quickly towards some sort of groundless scaremongering.

No, they do not have legal exemption for carrying offensive weapons (like batons) or firearms (like cs is classified as). Stab vests and restraint apparatus like handcuffs are just sensible though when you are likely to be manhandling people who don't want to be handled. It is a fine line, visible security should act as a deterrent (which surely is better than cure once wronguns have already played up), but too much security actually makes everyone uneasy as they are constantly thinking why it is necessary. In past years I've thought they have it about right, not been this year to see for myself.

Nice report, SFNE is a park I can't decide whether I should be going too far out of my way to visit or not. It does have a couple of unique things I'd like to try, but so much of the park is clones of things I have ridden I'm not so sure it is worth it. As a side note, hypnotism exists. It is not like fortune telling type clairvoyant nonsense that you can decide to believe in or not, it is a proper thing that happens. I've even dabbled in it myself a little.

Yes, that is it. X is not a great ride, but it is absolutely full of potential as an unusual bit of hardware, if only they'd put the effort in theme wise. I'd be more than happy with the 'new' for 2013 being an x full of sounds and lights and smoke and effects, it would be a totally new ride experience if they did it properly, even if the track stayed the same.

Thought Disney always used the two turnstyle method of one in one out to calculate number and time waiting? Anyway, love the report in a depressing wish I was there kind of way.

I don't want to be a grammar nazi or ought, but it amuses me that this conjures up an image of actually riding on a pile of sh!t, as that is what it says. There are plenty of steamier turds at Thorpe than Slammer. I love having something so unique there and am glad they've put the effort in to get it going again.

I had no idea about that maze at AI this year, think I'll pop down and give it a go. Also they have the rather good fireworks every weekend between now and halloween. AI is really very good for a small place.