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Well that's this closed season considered a success then. Angry Birds 4D Experience (5) Colossus (5) Depth Charge (5) Detonator: Bombs Away (4) Flying Fish (5) I'm A Celebrity (4) King Pig's Wild Hog Dodgems (5) Loggers Leap (5) Mr. Monkey's Banana Ride (5) Nemesis Inferno (6) Quantum (5) Rocky Express (5) Rumba Rapids (5) Rush (5) Samurai (5) SAW - The Ride (5) Slammer (5) Stealth (5) Storm In A Teacup (5) The Swarm (5) Tidal Wave (5) Vortex (5) X (6) Zodiac (4) Zodiac - Dodgems +

I think in the last election many many people would consider themselves more anti labour than necessarily pro conservative. Labour just seemed so deeply incompetent, especially when it comes to finance, that they weren't a viable alternative. I still think Lib Dems did a really good job in the coalition, keeping a check on the baser evils of the conservatives, but I seem to be in the minority with that one.

This video seems to have really worked well, it keeps popping up on my facebook from unlikely people I know not part of the geek world who would normally have no interest in theme parks.

Oh God, if we must. Angry Birds 4D Experience (5) Colossus (5) Depth Charge (4) Detonator: Bombs Away (5) Flying Fish (5) I'm A Celebrity (4) King Pig's Wild Hog Dodgems (5) Loggers Leap (6) Mr. Monkey's Banana Ride (5) Nemesis Inferno (5) Quantum (5) Rocky Express (5) Rumba Rapids (5) Rush (5) Samurai (5) SAW - The Ride (6) Slammer (5) Stealth (6) Storm In A Teacup (5) Storm Surge (3) The Swarm (6) Tidal Wave (5) Vortex (5) X (5) Zodiac (5) Surge - IaC +

Does that make you a terrorist though? Dave said so.

Quite a good little round up of some aspects of this.

It's mildly depressing seeing such fantastic looking things that in all likelihood I'll never get to experience.

If that is the case that it is permanently out of action (can TraX confirm?) then that's fair enough, but the staff should just say so.

Went a couple of weeks ago on a very quiet Monday afternoon in London, being the first working day after the Paris attacks. I presume this is why there was no wait at the attraction entrance at all and our group was only big enough to fill less than half the bus, if not and this is standard attendance I imagine this won't be the first of many as initially planned! There's a lot of people working in there, it can't be covering its overheads like this. Is it really doing that badly? Thoughts... The County Hall set up is a mess. The first building you come to has a wall of ticket sellers at the end of a 15 min or so queue. This building has signage for all the attractions there, so we joined the queue. When we got to the front they told us that no, this is just for the London Eye, but you can buy tickets for other attractions there, but not if you are using BOGOF vouchers as we were. What now? How does that make sense to anyone anywhere? Yes, 15 minutes of pointless queue is no major thing, but an annoyance I could do without. Why not just sell all the tickets there and none at each separate attraction, nice and simple? Or if not at least put some bloody signs up to make it clear. Off round to the Shrek counter then, tickets paid for. But not with Amex like every other Merlin attraction I've ever paid for as they don't take it. Why the inconstancy? Then the girl behind the counter said the person we had to give our ticket to had gone outside for some reason, so go and see her, went out side, no one there, security don't know what we're talking about, back to the girl behind the counter who sort of shrugs blankly. So we just wandered in ourselves to the lift, no one took or checked our ticket! I know these are silly little gripes, but they add up to a frustration that does not give the best first impression and is just pointless, all things that could be better with zero effort. So the attraction itself, on the whole, I thought is really rather good. Some scenes stronger than others, but no real low points and a fun narrative tying it all together. The theming is mostly really spot on and actually feels complete in a way that I'm not used to seeing in the UK. Bits that stood out... - The girl doing her welcome blurb at the start was superb, so slick and in character. It really helps set the tone of what is to come. - Getting everyone to sing at the start is a bit much for a group of strangers, all a bit awkward in a collective not wanting to take part sort of way. I think it would work fine later on, but the group isn't comfortable with it straight away. Maybe my group being a bit small didn't help. - The bus. It was static for me. Really very annoying, and as the showpiece of the whole experience it should be advertised on ticket sale if it's down in the same way Drop Dead is in dungeons. It is still a decent effect I suppose, but knowing what it should have been I was really disappointed. - Stand out scenes were the bar, the the bakery, the quiz and the prison cell. It's obviously highly dependent on each actor, and most of them were really solid throughout. Some really clever effects too, the crystal ball, the theatrics of the bar scene and some of the finale being pretty clever. - Although it is by necessity of the narrative of the whole attraction, it suffers from having it's biggest and best trick first and the rest not quite living up to that. These things should end on a high, and as good as the final room is it doesn't manage to bring the attraction back to its peak. - Talking of not ending on a high, the one to one photo sales pitch at the end is nauseatingly cringe inducing for all involved. What a horrible bitter way to send people on their way with a sour taste in their mouths. What on earth are they thinking? - And in a final attempt to not end on a high, the host in the exit lift repeatedly tried to lie to me about the non moving bus. She asked what we thought, we said we enjoyed it all but it was a shame the bus wasn't working, she variously tried to tell us it doesn't ever move and then that it doesn't now so they can fit more people on it at a time. I pointed out that it was less then half full today, she awkwardly protested that all had been as it should have by design, but I know better and really didn't appreciate being lied to. Why not just smile and agree that it is indeed a shame that the star attraction is busted? I presume they've been told to feed people this nonsense. They shouldn't be, being lied to makes people angry. Overall I'm glad I went, but would be in no hurry to go back, especially with no guarantee that the centerpiece would be operational. Some of the ways Merlin go about emptying their customers pockets and sloppy frustrating way of operating the nice things they have are especially evident here, taking the shine off of what is a very solid entertaining attraction at heart. TL:DR - It's good, go try it. But be prepared some frustrations and don't even consider paying the gate price.

Maybe. That'd still involve blowing some people up though! I imagine if we worked with Russia and Assad this'd be a much simpler exercise. I don't know what is the right thing to do, but beyond the politics of the decision making, doing nothing doesn't seem to be an option.

If they have physically taken control of the oil fields there doesn't seem to be a way to break that control other than psychically fighting them. The oil will be under that land, you can't turn it off like a pipe.

I wouldn't describe myself as 'baying for blood', but realistically what options are there? IS have grown into a large and powerful group which terrorise all around them. Surely we shouldn't let that go on anyway, but there's no denying that even with all the physical distance between us and them they still offer a real threat to us with the influence they hold to people who believe in them, as Paris has shown. What is the alternative? Corbyn wants to try and help with deplomacy, I'm not too sure that works with religious fanatics who'd rather chop your head off? Right now it seems to me that inaction is more dangerous than action; this group can not be allowed to continue to grow. Or exist.

Whether people actually walk through that entrance or not is pretty irrelevant, it's in a very prominent position and to see something which could be considered useless but aesthetically pleasing getting attention is a very encouraging thing. Where there is paint there is hope...

If anyone wants read the decision in full it can be found here The whole thing comes down to traffic, and curiously the appeal is upheld on this basis... ... so somehow someone has managed to convince the planners that they intend no extra business as a result of a multi-million pound spend building a fairly major new attraction? That would make some wonderful business sense if true! Someone has the gift of the gab.

But they do do pre-season days (which I presume serve a similar purpose to AP days by warming the staff up with a low gate figure and gusts who have paid little so don't mind slightly slack ops) with the John Lewis staff perk day, and the 'emergency service' days which this year are Sunday 13th and Friday 18th March 2016. I wouldn't be surprised to see The Smiler open for these, making it very low profile with no press access, taking the wind out of the sails of any potential story when it does open to the GP by pointing out people have been going on it for weeks already.

I didn't mean to actually compare The Smiler's problems directly with those of Slammer, but it is already in such a state I can see it being a huge drain in resources to keep it going safely and presented somewhere near acceptably in the same way Slammer was/is. I always got the feeling from both attractions that hey were operated with a cautiousness that shouldn't be necessary and is a little unnerving, like there was something to be nervous about. This is exactly the case, thinking about it. I suppose the bigger the attraction the bigger those issues will shine, and with The Smiler being so huge it really stands out as a wasted opportunity and mess that the park are now saddled with. As with all things in life, you reap what you sow. The situation Alton and Merlin now find themselves in is nothing but their own doing. Hopefully the 'restructuring' announced as part of the cuts includes a full review of how projects are planned and implemented, I think the whole organisation really does need it.

Surely with pretty much anything in the entertainment industry inconsistency is poor? Should be good for every customer every time. I just think the whole thing is so ill conceived and poorly executed it should never have been built in it's current form. Although the incident has had not much to do with the ride hardware, something like this happening felt like an inevitably all along. You can feel that it's been rushed and was a bit of a bodge job just standing looking at it; the theming is a mess and the ride, building and queue line are shoddy. The ride itself could have been good enough if the time was taken to plan it and build it properly, but it wasn't, and now they've spent their money and are stuck with it. It'll be their version of Slammer in years to come, I'm sure! And Towers have done it to themselves with their own short sightedness. No sympathy.

He is clearly intrinsic to the design and presentation if this ride, I don't think it's fair to think that his face being on it a bit is a mark of vanity. His 'presence' itself will probably add something to the experience, he comes with expectations, and some knowledge from the audience of the sort of things he does could well help in some of the delivery.

But surely on the first day of the season a Chessington fan site will be at Chessington to try out their new ride for ... Oh

The cynic in me wonders how this news happened to slip out on the same day world war three started? What a coincidence. As has been said, it was pretty obvious that this is what it would come down to, but I look forward to a more in depth explanation that I'm sure will become apparent on the publication of the HSe report. I'm probably one of the few who would rather it was scrapped than reopened, but not because of the accident, just because I think it is a very poor ride.

Used to be able to mess around like that on the travelling chair-o-planes, great fun. The competition element is genius though.

Paul Daniels, The Ride. Give Thorpe some competition. Handily, for those who remember, Daniels and Chessington already share a catchphrase.

I hope so! What's concerning about this though is that in my eyes there's plenty needs doing across the park, more than a small army would manage across a closed season, not what could be probably achieved in a couple of weeks since the season ended! 'It' suggests this is concentrating on one area. The activity around bubbleworks is encouraging, but even if that has had a decent fix up it still leaves Vampire, Tomb, Zufari, Skyway, some aspects of the zoo, the carpark, the falls saga, and even the general crappyness of the recently referbed mine train along with a tonne of other little bits about the place needing significant attention. I don't want to be unduly negative, and I do believe that general improvements are a better spend than adding something new for the sake of it, but I have a feeling my pants will remain firmly on when next season begins. I wait with bated breath...

Just out of pure stupidity, yes, and at the worst possible time too. On Dragon Falls when a conveyor stops at the top on the tiny pre-drop lift to keep the log spacing at a safe distance people think it's gone wrong and stand up. There used to be (still is?) a 'Please, remain seated' auto announcement, and that should be enough, but apparently people are getting stupider.

^^ Nice one, will look out for that next year. Used to be free (maybe a £5 booking fee) with American Express!