pluk

Sexy new shiny things are nice and all, but Lo-Q developments could be amazing if they are run as a guest experience enhancement tool and not just a moneymaking tool.

Bob Mortimer has just tweeted that Shooting Stars has been cancelled by the BBC. Noooooooooooooooooooo.

Quick, someone put you in charge!!Mirrors my thoughts exactly. The UK industry is so short sighted and narrow minded in it's park development it hurts sometimes. Giving people an amazing day out will increase the next few years gate figures a whole lot more than building something shiny and new around a crumbling soul less park and spending a fortune on advertising.It's some years since I've been to Aventura myself, but one of my strongest fondest memories is of a circus show near Khan which was truly outstanding, along with the fire show thing which also had a few live actors and blew me away. Neither of these things have a comparable equivalent here and with Merlins current thinking we never will. Shame for us and for Merlin shareholders.

Has a rep of 111 on 11/11/11 at 11.11.11.Spooky!

That awkward moment when someone you know randomly pops up in a Youporn video you're watching...

I though it was obvious it was the one they would use to be honest, never really considered otherwise. Why would they keep buying fire engines? Didn't consider the planning side of things but that shouldn't be a problem, if it's the same size as in the plans then thats all that really matters.

Dreamland looks like it is actually on the way after so many false starts...http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-15672978This could be amazing, all those classic rides in one place. Fingers crossed they get it together in the end.

To agree with what's gone before:The Lion King is 10/10, as any fule kno,In 3D it's even better, so 11/10 ?It's still showing in some cinemas. If you haven't seen it yet go before it's too late, it will never be as good on a small screen.

So do we have any opportunity for updates now other than what the park feed us? I can't imagine much (other than the tall parts which are complete already) is visible from anywhere on the park perimeter.As much as I want to see the progress it would be kind of good if they didn't show us anything beyond track completion, just have to turn up on the day and see at what point the budget ran out all that lovely lovely theming without any spoilers to what it will actually look like.

Disney Parks are a magical place, like stepping into another world, a world of perfection. Universal are 'just' awesome themeparks.

Drayton can therefore suck on my balls.Why do these places want to make us feel ripped off? Why not put the ticket price to a level where they make enough money, advertise that price, and let people pay it? So many (non theme park geek) friends of mine moan so hard about the parking payment situation, and it's not the loss of £3 (who really is going to miss £3?), it's the fact that they feel tricked, ripped off and conned at the end of their day. What a feeling to leave your guests with.

Story has been around for a while now, and yeah it's sad and bad news. But really? You think UK H+S is tougher than US? Have you been to BPPB? I think in the UK an investigation would have found there was nothing further the park could do to ensure safety, blamed quest stupidity and the duelling would continue. As it should in America,

I can't help judging without my past experiences stuck in the back of my mind.The reason I'm not a massive fan of Inferno is that I've riden Nemesis countess times, and Nemesis is far far superior. I know that's a daft way of looking at it, but I can't help feeling disappointed with it after I've riden Inferno. The little pops of g force are nothing compared to the ever increasing and constant forces of Nemesis. How anyone manages to grey out on inferno really is beyond me.Stealth, however, gives me the opposite problem. I've not ridden TTD or Kingda-ka. The only other 'decent' launch I have access to with any regularity is the vastly inferior RITA. In my world stealth is unique and the best / only of it's type. Therefore my desire to ride it is higher.As for Colossus, I voted for Inferno but it was damn close. On any given day it could be one or the other. I don't understand a lot of the stick that Colossus gets, I don't find it overly rough and actually love the layout which I find interesting with a good flow. Now the greenery has grown up around it it just looks and feels right, Inferno always looks a little bit stark. And the most likely grey out you'll have in the park is on the amazing quad heartline roll, for grey outs are caused not by sudden pops of g force (at the levels coasters deliver) but by the constant application of those forces, even at much lesser levels. (I love greying out, btw!!!)Comparisons to Saw are pointless.So if you could wipe my memory of all past ride experiences, put me in Thorpe park and told me "this is your lot", I may well choose Inferno over everything else. As it is I know it's not a s good as it could or should be and if I want the ultimate invert experience I'm in the wrong place.

Quick report from yesterdays visit. Went with wife and (as they had free tickets too) my parents.Overall we had good visit, but this was despite Thorpe trying to make sure we did not enjoy ourselves at various times throughout the day.......Arrived wit our free Sun tickets at 11 expecting an empty park as it was event no mans land, but the carpark was surprisingly full. Straight in, straight to Stealth, 15 min queue, great ride. Then detonator walk on (messing around with the timings of the drop, love that), and thought if it stayed like this all day we were on to a winner. It did not.Next storm surge, and the mission to piss me off began. It was literally walk on, two guys were just getting in a boat. A miserable looking large blonde woman barked "get in that one" and turned away. I said to her back "Cant we get in our own one, there's four of us", she could be bothered only to turn half back to me and said "maximum 6, minimum 4, get in that one". Rude doesn't cover it. It may be tiresome going over the same thing all day but it's your job love, do it with a smile or go home. So then stepped into the boat to about half a foot of water. I've heard people moaning about that before here but never had it myself. Our boat looked like a floating pilates class in our attempts to keep our socks dry, but it didn't work so the next two hours we were uncomfortably squelching around the park. And to top it off the damn thing does not even spin any more. This sort of thing is just basics, the ride it self was worse than it's usual bad self and left with the annoying wet feet.Then a walk on x, back to pitch darkness with no music. Meh, either way really but probably prefer it with music and laser.Then the next piss me off moment. To Saw, approach with time board declaring 60 min queue and a member of staff by the entrance shouting at you as you approach "Skip the hour queue, but fast track tickets, save an hour....". This on it's own I find most objectionable, standing literally infront of a 'no queue jumping' sign but basically saying 'queue jumping is fine as long as you give me a few quid" is a vile way for Thorpe to line their pockets. But it gets better, we obviously ignored her and walked into ....... a 5 minute queue before the merge point! I'd call this fraud. A man who approached the queue directly behind me fell for it and bought himself and 4 kids the tickets. He ended up on the actual same ride as me. I went to have a moan at the seller when I got off but she'd buggered off, for her sake a good thing.Anyway, we went on basically everything. Slammer down all day, Colossus down most of the afternoon (but when it reopened they stuck it on two trains to clear the backlog so got a go later. Glad I didn't wait in the queue that looked huge and was advertised at 70mins in the morning).Got my last ever ride on CCR and after being scathing of the decision to shut it realised how bloody pointless it is now it goes nowhere. Still, it's a lovely little ride and I'll be sad to see it go.Goodbye old friend.Had to queue about 40 mins for both stealth and inferno later on,both on one train operation. Why? what do they achieve by not having two trains running, it's not like it was dead in the end as those queue times demonstrate. And I've never seen such lazy and slow dispatching on inferno, the staff member on the oncoming side just sat by his little green light, thumb poised, for the two minutes the ride was out there each time instead of checking the rows were full. The result? loads of empty seats on a large queued one train operation. A little more pissed off right there.Good to get an hour or so in the dark too.Damn, got to go out. I alwys end up writing more than I intend to. They hadn't finished pissing me off yet, I'll finish this later.........

I would ask B+M if it was possible to build a coaster that all fan boys could agree on.

^I'm not anyone's real life 'friend' here; never been to a meet, not facebook friends, don't skype / I.M. anyone, drop into chat quite infrequently etc. I am an outsider, yet I never feel like I'm excluded, I always feel welcome and to come and go as I please and join in on any discussion that's going on. The odd little in joke or meme pops up that I don't get, so that bit of discussion is not for me.A year or so ago, when this place nearly imploded for some indeterminable reasons, there was a little bit of this unpleasantness going on between a few members and some of the moding was a bit erratic. But that's been dealt with, it's gone. I don't see any hierarchy other than the mods being in a position to do their moding over others (as they should), and the mods are great.Oh, and If you have to explain your joke it is a poorly told joke. Know your audience.

1 - What new concepts have you got in development? I won't tell the competition, honest.2 - As Jack said, will you / when will you design your own launch or 4d system.3 - Can you build me an invert in my back garden?

Was at the park today, no ground breaking new stuff pics, but a few views I liked.....Love the look of that twist from this sideMan at work. And trim.Tighten them nutsThat shed needs theming now your attention is drawn beyond TidalI NEED to get evaced on that!!

Jack frickin Osbourne.

I don't understand her problem, miserable cow.

See this guy noticed the sign announcing the closure while riding Saw. http://www.vidiload.com/video/107223/Double_puke_fail/ Tearing out part of the parks history? Makes you sick.

The only way I think it could stall is if something major tangled in the wheels which although unlikely is most definitely possible. Pretty certain it has never happened though.

Nice pics, but how did you get them? Every time I try and go to any gallery on ATA it tells me 'fatal error', been like that for quite a while.

Wow. That is quite amazing. My personal favourite so far That is impeccable logic. I'm converted.