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Are the restraints quite forgiving for us lardarses?

I imagine the precision required for the track lining up if it is going to be traversed at such speed means this isn't as easy to pull of as it first seems. There's usually a clunk clunk over transfer track sections on even the smoothest coasters, over time and in constant use I can see this being a reliability and comfort issue.

Not had a chance to get down there yet. Does it use the old tub cars and track layout?

I don't know, there have been plenty of rides which have caused fatalities and subsequently reopened. I strongly doubt the ride is inherently dangerous, I'm sure it could have been made perfectly safe with fairly little effort, but it's probably the right thing to do in this case for the parks reputation recovery.

Hows Blackpools log flume doing these days?! Maybe they have it in storage in Trauma Towers or the Ark, which have been SBNO for a decade. Disgraceful! As has been said, if they want to repoen the ride they will fix it up and reopen the ride - there is no question that Merin have the resources to do it, the question is whether they have the will. That they weren't willing to spend the money to prevent it falling into the dilapidated state it did prior to its closure strongly suggests that will is lacking.

Depth Charge (3) Mr Monkey's Banana Ride (5) Nemesis Inferno (7) Quantum (4) Rocky Express (7) Rumba Rapids (4) Rush (5) Samurai (1) SAW - The Ride (5) Slammer (5) Stealth (6) Storm in a Teacup (5) The Swarm (7) Tidal Wave (4) X (6 DC + Rapids - (good ride, but due to their current terrible state)

Angry Birds 4D Experience (5) Colossus (5) DBGT (5) Depth Charge (5) Detonator: Bombs Away (5) Flying Fish (5) I'm A Celebrity (5) King Pig's Wild Hog Dodgems (5) Mr. Monkey's Banana Ride (5) Nemesis Inferno (5) Quantum (5) Rocky Express (5) Rumba Rapids (5) Rush (5) Samurai (6) SAW - The Ride (5) Slammer (7) Stealth (6) Storm In A Teacup (5) Storm Surge (1) The Swarm (5) Tidal Wave (5) Vortex (5) X (5) Zodiac (5) Storm Surge - Slammer +

I live 20 mins from exactly the opposite M25 junction to Thorpe, which handily gives me a choice of clock or anti depending on traffic, but that is usually a choice between different levels of hell so isn't great. If I get a good run it's under 2 hours.

Another vote here for it just looks awful. Are American geeks excited for it? I can't believe Twister went for this nonsense.

Not mutually exclusive. Tower of Terror is a pretty good example of this; it is the absolute wonder that it is because of the theming over the ride system, but it is actually quite an extreme physical ride. Both have their place, but when they are combined is when the magic happens for me.

The people who are starting this up posted on another forum and were widely derided. I don't see how it can work. Who wants merch for parks they've never been to and rides they've never been on? And this market is too niche for this to ever be viable and operate on a scale which makes it worthwhile to them or to any park which might consider being involved.

Yep, park did look great. I also don't think the maze free-for-all works particularly well. My issues is of course fastrack - I'm sure if all the main queues were processing twice as many people and no-one could jump them people would be much happier overall. But I really think the way to go with frightnights is the opposite: all the mazes should be timed and ticketed. It's the one thing the otherwise dire Reserve and Ride system could actually be good for with no standby queue, and could be done on a paid for basis. The mazes are extra, they are something else above what a normal themepark offering is. I'd have no problem paying for them individually if it were to remove some of the current chaos that a busy frightnight brings. While no-one expects firghtnights to be quite, when they get so busy that the park fails to cope any longer then something really should change. For me it was getting to that point on my visit, which in the scheme of things wasn't a stupidly busy night I understand. Maybe the simplest answer is to lower the park capacity, and if we're not going for paid mazes up the price a little to compensate. I don't think anyone could argue it's not still good value, as long as you are able to atually get on things once you are in!

...and according to TPM facebook has now had its signage removed, as it has in previous yours when it hasn't quite made the season. I went to Thorpe last Monday and one of the things I was going to say if I ever got round to writing a trip report was how wonderfully Slammer was running. A couple of years back it felt like it was limping through its rotations, but now it was really whipping through. The whole structure felt solid, it accelerated to an impressive speed really quickly, and I saw no issues with it all day. It was running full of people and even loading and unloading pretty swiftly. Of course, when the signage comes down the immediate rumor is that's it, it's gone for good. In previous years, although I'd have been sad to see it go as I really do enjoy it and love having something so unique here, I thought that might be for the best as it had been struggling so much. Would be a real shame if now they had it running so well for so long it finally dies for good.

A bit of a chicken and egg question: Do all the slowest, miserable, useless staff get put in the bag rooms because they have those traits, or do they have those traits because they are in the bag room having previously been little energetic rays of sunshine? I guess we'll never know.

I saw people using walking sticks a couple of nights ago, so yes you can, although whether any medical note or proof is required I'm not so sure. You are probably best contacting the park to check before going.

Having just seen the footage on BBC news, this is certainly at the bottom of the lift, not the top, so I can't see it could be a conveyor vs turntable error. I wonder if it was simply the boat behind being abe to get under the float of the one which flipped, if it was unevenly laden, and the force of the water pushed it right up and over. I can't get my head around any mechanics of a moving conveyor flipping the boat in that direction, even with slats missing, unless the conveyor was somehow running in reverse.

To me that's a bit of nose spiting face abuse. It's too good to lose.

Yes, that would certainly make sense as a possibility. I can't really tell from the pics if this is the top or bottom of the lift hill.

I did the walk of shame on samurai yesterday. Where's my compo?

You are likely to get knocked into and have to walk with a crouch though, so be careful!

Horrible incident. Looks like a boat has tipped up at the point it should engage with the conveyor, throwing the occupants into the water and mechanism bellow. I can only imagine this can happen of one of the slats falls off or fails in some way, most likely constantly wet wood rotting through I'd have thought. I expect all other wooden slat conveyors will be having an inspection in the coming days.

There was a bit of a fight in the dodgems queue this evening. It made it feel like I was at the normal dodgems at the fair. Good atmosphere in general on park today though, felt less tense and fighty than previous years.

Wow, I thought they binned that idea off years ago. Don't see it promoted much.

Is the rainy day guarantee still a thing? I didn't think so. You sure you not thinking of Blackpool?!

Zing. I've heard people say they want/expect the fountains to go and for the designers to come up with their own finalé. I don't agree with that, I hope the fountains remain and are incorporated in a meaningful way. They are such a neat trick and hope they can be enjoyed by generations in the future. Of course the best thing about them was the strobes, unfortunately I can't see them returning on something aimed at toddlers.