pluk

Would that gearbox on the way out have been what was causing it to be jerky and vibrate badly couple of weeks back, or does it always feel like that these days?

If the queue is just going to be your standard cattle pen, for me throughput is essential. I simply will not wait for more than about an hour for any ride like that - I am very much a quiet day man and wouldn't dream of going on a summer weekend. If the throughput is that low it keeps the queue that high the ride may as well not exist to me.I find Saws queue particularly painful, mainly because of the queue being released into the station in batches, so it's stand still for 5 minutes, 10 seconds of shuffling forward, then another five minutes wait. Makes it drag something rotten. Constant movement is much easier for me to deal with.But the real thing that makes a queue fly by for me is entertainment. Hex is really three rooms of queue line entertainment for the ride at the end, and you don't even realise you are queuing. Similar with tower of terror. I could stand and watch Mr Potato Head in the TSMM queue for ages, so I don't notice I'm waiting. Even stealth radio when it's live provides enough variety to keep me occupied. Pre shows and queue line entertainment are the way forward, and should be designed into every substantial new ride.

They keep playing this on MTV, I can't escape it ...... Truly truly awful, don't you think? Sounds like some kind of horrible mash up of ting tings / b*witched / tweenies.How the hell does this rubbish get released?

Absolutely. What I don't understand is why do they need telling? The levels are so obviously wrong the ride ops MUST be able to hear it. Unless by a massive coincidence they have employed only deaf people in Transylvania.

I understand and am comfortable with them moving up and down a bit, as there is going to be a bit of give between the notches. What really unnerves me are samurai restraints. I remember when it opened at Chessington they were absolutely solid with no movement at all, now they move side to side a couple of inches when locked. This does not seem right to me, what is that is giving way for them to move like that? There should be no side to side moving part in there!I'm not a worrier in general, but it really makes me feel uneasy on there, I can't relax and enjoy it.

As I understand it, yes, the plans were not accepted by the council, but the issues were supposedly quite easy to overcome with some adjustments but the amended plans were never resubmitted because of the survey nonsense.Either way, I so agree - just give a pile of money to GCI and let them get on with it. Everything I've riden by them has been extraordinary.

The reasons given for the original woodie plans not being built make me more angry than the fact it was not built. Surveys of the public will always find an average result, and the result of that will be an average attraction, never at the extremes of what is possible.The public, me included, are mostly idiots. Do you think when they built Nemesis they asked the public "Do you think it would be a good idea to build the most intense ride in the world? Your legs will be dangling and it will feel like your about to smash into the surroundings" when nothing like this existed anywhere? Of course they didn't, because most of the public would have said "Well, that doesn't sound terribly safe" and it would never have been built. Instead they put their trust in experts of the industry who built the best thing they could, which was a thing of real beauty.They went to the trouble of planning an epic wooden coaster, they knew it was the right thing to build but lost their bottle because of the results of a bunch of surveys. They should have trusted their instincts and built it, if they'd done it as well as we know they can people would now be travelling from around the world to get on it. They should get their bottle back and build it, or something like it, now.

Or, it could be easier just to stop warning people for stuff like banter instead!!!

True that, not a fan of the whole idea tbh, all feels a bit clique to me. This is a public forum, not a private club.

Yeah. Id hope not too. But that's thinking of a water coaster as we know it, this could be something entirely new and a whole lot better than previous water coaster attempts.Just imagine a massive woodie winding around the existing but referbed flume. That's SW stuff.

So, having riden a few weeks back, I thought the setting was most odd, don't know if this would be a 'new' one as I hadn't been for years and years. It was split in two, the first half was lame as a dead duck - a top spin with no spin at the top, just some mild swinging about. Then it spent about 30 seconds bringing itself to a stop and aligning itself, the ride op gave some spiel about getting off if you want to, no one did, and then we were off for a 'proper' go, roughly as I remember it from years ago.Is this normal, or was it due to it being a very quiet day? If they are messing about with all that when it is busy and has a queue then the whole first half seems like a waste of time to me, especially bringing it to a stop between the two halves.

Having read some discussion of the height balloons and god Wardley both being seen in the flume area, and the decrepit state of said flume, could it be a possibility the flume is going, to make way for SW7?If so I think a water coaster could be a possibility, to directly replace the old and at the same time make something new. I hope not though, I'm not a fan.

I remember as a kid being so much more intimidated by the Black Hole compared to The Beast, which was basically the same ride but not in a tent. Amazing what a difference it makes to a ride by putting it in the dark, feels a lot faster and more disorientating.Was sad to see it go, but probably the right decision if they would have had to throw that much money at it to get it up to spec. As long as they spend that money saved on something special and new in there instead. Oh.

Although that could create its own problem, with people making B.S. posts in the main forum to get their count up to gain access!!So maybe a minimum rep would be better?

The threat level has not gone up to critical, which it would if they were concerned by a specific threat, so should be nothing to worry about. I hate that my branch line has a really early last train, leaving me to fork out for taxis after a late night. Would it kill them to run one late night train so I could stay in town at least until the pubs close?

I take it you have not riden Toy Story Midway Mania then? It is immense and we have nothing like it here. If it is basically the same ride then it is lot better than either of those.And as both of those are about 20 years old, why can't we have nice new things?

If that daily charge is transferable across all the locker sites in any one day that is much more convenient, Alton is too spread out to have to keep returning to one place every time you want your stuff. It's easy to spend a fiver in a day on repeated single use ones a at a pound a go, so not bad value really.But if these are like the ones in IOA they were nothing but a pain in the arse, partly because of stupid people not working it out and partly because some lockers felt like taking your possessions prisoner occasionally.

I don't think it's there yet. I was at Peter Pans (as it should be called!) last weekend and didn't notice it. I think a big new shiny ride would stand out to me, but I was not really looking for it as I didn't know it was coming.Quite intrigued by the idea of an in house ride, love that they try this sort of thing. Can't wait to know what it is going to be.

There's no point in this discussion going round and round in circles, I still don't understand the point of this powered backstop idea and hope it is correct. I don't know who on here has first hand experience/knowledge of these things or who is having a guess and opinion is split. As I said initially, my assumption IS that an alternative safety measure is in place. But nothing is ever completely safe, risks are managed with safety features and this safety feature appears to me to not have been maintained. If it were 100% true that any attraction would not be operating if it were not safe then accidents would never happen. We know they have happened and we know that Thorpe/Tussauds have previously been fined for breach of health and safety in relation to this, so I think this was a legitimate question to ask.

Fair enough then, maybe they are. Would seem crazy to spend tonnes of money sending people all the way out there with so many different parks they could use a lot closer to home. Would be quite a good prize for the UK version, to go and compete against the yanks.There is a full American version being made at 6 flags though, so if there is a brit version filming out there it's likely to be a MM.

I've always wondered why they bother on a lot of rides. No one physically checks them on vortex - if the light is right they know it is locked properly. Saw also has these lights, so why bother. It just slows down dispatch.

It's being recorded at 6 flags magic mountain, but it is an American version of the show with American hosts/guests, not our version being recorded in America. So no one is getting flown around the world courtesy of a low budget tv show I'm afraid!

That's what I thought Smiffy, and as you say the anti slip grips to the belt. But if that belt breaks it is gripping to nothing so backwards it will go along the rollers. Other things can also effect the belt grips effectiveness, like this...http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=5507982It's a long way up there, I was kind of exaggerating when I wrote it but I'm quite sure a log coming right down from the top to one at the bottom would be going fast enough and be heavy enough to kill.

Clasic... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLSIU9BG41U

Yeah, I did see that discussion, but couldn't see it resolved with any kind of explanation. I'm (kind of) sure they wouldn't run it if it was unsafe, but it seems bazaar to build in an operating system to something which works fine if it's just left alone.