pluk

Is it not supposed to be '23,421 miles' which would be just about accurate (if you went the wrong way round the world, that is!)?

Exactly my point

Seems to have gone by unnoticed: http://riderater.co.uk/?p=1722 We don't have all the facts and the decision has been made by a wiser man than me, but I can't say I agree with the outcome. It is an actual castle with all the dangers inherent in an old building, people enter knowing this. It has not been designed by Merlin, it is how it was as a functioning castle. To go around putting fencing up around every possible danger would make the whole enterprise pointless.

I know it is not a popular opinion on here, but I quite agree. These passes are abused and the rules seem to be applied inconsistently. I don't actually know what the rules are or how the system is supposed to work as I am in the fortunate position of not needing to use it, but Thorpe should be as tight as possible with these things for the benefit of everyone.

To be fair to the often objectionable kabz, this was discussed on literally the last page. It wouldn't have taken the poster long to find that. I rarely use the srq's, and am usually not a fan of them where they cause faff (by being shoehorned into exit ramps and run by staff who should be doing something else) often resulting in slower dispatching for the sake of one seat. I always thought Stealth was one where it worked rather well though, as there was space for it to be there and the batching staff are always there anyway. In this case it seems a bit daft getting rid of it to me.

The point of a dungeon is it being somewhat cramped though? It's not the London Caverns. If they use the space to add more attractions, then great. But each space should be cramped and tight, that's kind of the point. It's going to be hard/impossible to 'improve the themeing' by coming out of an actual dungeon into a fake one.

Also, closing in December and opening in January is totally unachievable if everything is to be relocated and both attractions are going to operate fully at all times. I'd say options are: - A massively staggered opening and/or closing with lots of stuff missing towards the end of London Bridge and at the start of County Hall. - A lot of stuff not making the move at all and being replaced with a new version or lost entirely. Probably actually be a combination of the two. What do you think we will see go?

'Rumba Rapids is available for family groups and adults (aged 18+) only.' ? That is still one hell of a mess of a restriction. So adults can not take someone else's children on? What!? Much simpler and, I would say, not ageist and properly and consistently enforceable would be: 'Children (under 18) must be accompanied by and adult (over 18)'

I hope to be proven wrong, but imagine the dungeons will lose a load of it's character and atmosphere during this move. They are currently a dungeons attractions housed in dungeons, they are going to be a dungeons attraction housed in something made to look like dungeons. There's a big big difference and it will be hard to get right. Plans are approved, but not everyone is happy with it. Also seems it is at the request of Network Rail, rather than Merlin actually wanting to move.

The only time I've been in weather that was bad enough (torrential rain and thunder which went on to cause power failure problems) to close rides for most of the day, we were given open tickets to return on leaving. That was in early '08 I think. I've been in horrific rain conditions when everything has remained open, it is only thunder and wind that will regularly close rides, and how long does thunder usually hang around for? High winds are what you really want to avoid as they often stay all day. You should be fine.

Really? 20 minute advert with some fountains and fireworks. I'm sure it's better in person but looks to me like It's got no soul and tells no story. Keeps chopping and changing between clips with no narrative or reason other than to shout at the audience 'hey, aren't we great'.

Meaning the main queue eats less then 120 pph? Wow.

Yes, because it has to be a choice. Both are not possible.

I have one too today, why have all paragraph markers from posts more than a couple of weeks old been removed? Makes things like top 10s a pretty unreadable bunch of text.

Can one of you cool kids take one out to Goliath 6FMM then please, I want to see that graph!

This is the stuff that makes me want to hate them. Absolute *****. Last year on one visit the hidden Saw queue was displaying 1hr, with a woman at the front literally shouting "SKIP THE HOUR QUEUE FOR £5" at people as they entered. That is repulsive enough on its own but then to find, once round the corner, it is practically walk on made me mad as hell. How dare they? They engineer problems for you to pay your way out of, what crooks.

I don't know, I'm just guessing, but the physics of what is being described there don't seem right? The train would be moving only under its own weight, not launched to an 'unnatural' speed. I can not see how it could then hit what must be a big heavy winch truck with such force it causes the winch truck to fly into a support and either wrap itself around the support or cause significant damage to the support. Especially if the train is left in a state where it can still be pulled back to the maintenance shed (which seems to have happened now). Would also have thought you don't have to be a professor of winch driving school to know that parking your winch directly in the path of what you are winching might not be the best idea. Got a feeling there are some fairly big exaggerations going on here. Of course, if anyone is hurt, thoughts to them yada yada.

As I said elsewhere, a sign very much like that should have been up in those awful first couple of weeks when it was clear it was not working properly. There's a lot of people who experienced the failure it originally was and think that is what it was supposed to be and they don't read this stuff to put them straight. People who now think a lot less of Towers and are likely telling their mates not to bother. As for getting one in the UK it is not so much the ride hardware that I think would be the problem, but letting our guys loose with the effects and actual execution would likely end in disaster, that's why I think a clone would be just fine. As for the cost, clearly it's a massive investment but now Universal have basically done the R+D at their own expense I'm sure it is realistic. It is the sort of thing that pretty much alone could turn the fortunes of a park in the UK, Nemesis style.

Want to know some useless random facts? This is fun ... http://news.discovery.com/games-quizzes/discovernator-crazy-amazing-facts-101411.html#mkcpgn=fbdsc17 Squid are bisexual, as are dolphins. 97% of US money contains traces of cocaine. Harrison Ford has a spider named after him. Who knew!

Nice. Is that real, if so where's it from? Assuming there are others, I want something to compare it to.

Agreed. Fingers crossed for them they don't have to kill it with trims after opening, that's the only thing that makes Th13teens outside section actually terrible (as opposed to just average as it was by design). Be interested to see how Zierer do with the drop section because, for all its faults, Intamin pretty much nailed that aspect of it first time.

From a couple of years back, when what seems to be a mission:space rip off flew to pieces, people have been charged with causing the death... http://www.mysinchew.com/node/72735 A quite concerning line,.. Basically, something was wrong at every stage from the actual design right through to operation. Doesn't fill you with confidence with whatever else is at the park!

1 - I've found a topic only posted in by people who have gone away. 2 - Wow, want...... Soft opening has started, it looks amazing. Would love it if Universal would sell a clone of this / Spiderman / Potter to a UK park, it's the only way will ever get anything like it.

And the reason they don't 'need' a new ride and have hundreds of millions of dollars to spend is because they invest in the upkeep, making it such a special place to be so people keep coming back and happily throw their money at them!

I do a very similar thing most days myself. There is usually no way in the world to quietly remove someone by force from somewhere they don't want to leave, regardless of how much you don't want to draw attention to it / damage your image. How do they accomplish this remarkable feat without quests noticing then?