pluk

Right ok. So your saying that the British audience do not go to Florida because they don't appreciate the shows? Your saying that British market isn't one of Disney's strongest because they don't appreciate the entertainment value of the park?No, because your totally and completely wrong.British theme parks fail at delivering shows because all they have ever provided (certainly in my expereince) is narrow market shows aimed at a specific audience, with poor levels of investment and an overall feel of tackyness. Take, for example, Thorpe Parks SunScream shows. They deliver a show pitched at thrill seekers; they market it as such, which appeals to mostly males in the late teens/early twenties. It's delivered in an environment which is reminiscent of being in a normal street, it doesn't make people want to try different things and certainly doesn't market the shows as part of the experience. This is not the case at disney/Universal/Busch parks. Animals, shows, and entertainment are delivered as a crucial part of the package. They are set in immersive themes and so tempt people towards them as if they are a ride or attraction. It's also broadly aimed, so appeals to a much wider audience, and the set generally is well kept and well presented. Your right, shows don't work in the UK, but it's not because the audience don't want them, it's because the parks do not provide the correct setting, atmosphere or budget to deliver a well presented rounded performance that is part and parcel to the overall experience.

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

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.

Nemesis has all the elements a great coaster should have. It is fast, has a tight course, multiple elements and keeps on relentlessly going right up until the break run. It offers an intense experience that not many coasters can supply from start to finish in the way it does. As much as The Swarm is going to be a fantastic coaster and by all accounts a fast and exhilarating ride, it wont be able to produce the sheer intensity of Nemesis. This you can tell from the layout alone. It is the reason that Nemesis is regularly declared in the top 10 best roller coasters in the world. I don't think The Swarm will match that accolade. But that does not mean it cannot be a great ride.

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

Sounds like it! What was the Gate Figure, I imagine with those lines in excess of 30,000?Anyway here is a video I made... :)

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.........

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!!

Hey,First post so sorry if I'm not doing something I should but ...I am one of the roaming actors at this years Fright Nights and I'd like to thank everyone who has visited and a big thank you for all your positive reviews. :)As JackR said earlier"The day got progressively more and more busy and despite the roaming actors, the atmosphere was ****. Maybe a few smoke machines would have improve it, but nooses and barrels scattered around didn't do the trick for me. All of the mazes were very good (The Curse was substandard) and Other than E 10 we had no queues for them. One of the roaming actors stood on the barrels under the Colossus sign by the over banked turn after the barrel rolls and hit his head on one of the hanging balls "That was me! I smashed my head and nearly knocked myself out lol!

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!!

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

My THORPE PARK and ALTON TOWERS video to skip alton go to 5.30
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Auk-s4uFAEs&feature=channel_video_title

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

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

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.

Ok...If you feel that way about TPM then leave or don't come on the forums?Just I'm not sure who else thinks there is a hierachy. Rep is not used as a bitching tool, please enlighten us, darling.Friends form groups against others? RLY?

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!!

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!!

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!!

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!!

Type in 'do a barrel roll' on Google

I've never had any problems on there in my high heels. Can be tricky keeping my dignity in my miniskirt getting into those seats though.