pluk

^Well, they couldn't go on about enjoying going down...

With my work I come across this all too frequently. In 4 years I have been to two train suicides (in both cases the person very swiftly and successfully ended their life), one hanging and literally hundreds of overdose and self harm attempts - not one of which has been successful. I would imagine this is why train can be the method of choice. These things don't bother me too much, it's just the way I am and I suppose to an extent I've got used to it. But I know it really freaks a lot of my colleagues out; consider we literally have to go and clear up the mess and then inform loved ones of the deceased, neither of which are very pleasant jobs to say the least. The train driver often will not know they have hit someone, but when they do see it coming it must be a terrible feeling for them. I'm sure some people who commit suicide get to the point where they know the consequences of their actions but just don't care, but I would imagine 99% of people have not given a second thought to these knock on effects of what they do - not out of spite or selfishness but purely because they've got so much on their plate they can't cope with that they just can't see it.Whatever the inconvenience you suffer as a result of this just remember - someone somewhere is having a worse day than you.

Shoddy engineering is shoddy...

With my work I come across this all too frequently. In 4 years I have been to two train suicides (in both cases the person very swiftly and successfully ended their life), one hanging and literally hundreds of overdose and self harm attempts - not one of which has been successful. I would imagine this is why train can be the method of choice. These things don't bother me too much, it's just the way I am and I suppose to an extent I've got used to it. But I know it really freaks a lot of my colleagues out; consider we literally have to go and clear up the mess and then inform loved ones of the deceased, neither of which are very pleasant jobs to say the least. The train driver often will not know they have hit someone, but when they do see it coming it must be a terrible feeling for them. I'm sure some people who commit suicide get to the point where they know the consequences of their actions but just don't care, but I would imagine 99% of people have not given a second thought to these knock on effects of what they do - not out of spite or selfishness but purely because they've got so much on their plate they can't cope with that they just can't see it.Whatever the inconvenience you suffer as a result of this just remember - someone somewhere is having a worse day than you.

With my work I come across this all too frequently. In 4 years I have been to two train suicides (in both cases the person very swiftly and successfully ended their life), one hanging and literally hundreds of overdose and self harm attempts - not one of which has been successful. I would imagine this is why train can be the method of choice. These things don't bother me too much, it's just the way I am and I suppose to an extent I've got used to it. But I know it really freaks a lot of my colleagues out; consider we literally have to go and clear up the mess and then inform loved ones of the deceased, neither of which are very pleasant jobs to say the least. The train driver often will not know they have hit someone, but when they do see it coming it must be a terrible feeling for them. I'm sure some people who commit suicide get to the point where they know the consequences of their actions but just don't care, but I would imagine 99% of people have not given a second thought to these knock on effects of what they do - not out of spite or selfishness but purely because they've got so much on their plate they can't cope with that they just can't see it.Whatever the inconvenience you suffer as a result of this just remember - someone somewhere is having a worse day than you.

He should have watched the safety video.....
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/743c7cd5a7/rollercoaster-safety-with-patrick-warburton
EDIT - Why does nothing I do embed. I'm using the little button and everything. I'm useless at this stuff.

Not long back from Florida myself now. Won't go into great detail of the parks with my own trip report, as Number 9 did a very good job of that himself, I will hit a few notes though, without starting yet another Florida topic!OK... For those of you who already follow me and my geeky tales on TWITTER, will already know that I had not such a good couple of trips to Sea World. I usually really enjoy this park, but found their operations shocking for their peak season. Far too much ride downtime; every single ride bar the sky tower at one point, and Manta with a filled queue line, duel loading and a decent block system, running one train is not something I'd like to remember or find acceptable either.Universal, as ever run two splendid theme parks and Islands of Adventure's Ripsaw Falls, Bilge Rat.., and in the Studios Revenge of the Mummy are the big stand outs.Spider-Man is still the best use of story and technology that I've seen and look forward to it's big upgrade next year.Harry Potter as well themed as it is, and by far the most technologically advanced ride in the world, just doesn't quite hit the spot, probably due to lack of story and a little too quick projection sequences. The Dementors however are still very scary and all in all, I can't fault such a bold ride experience.Disney, was rammed, although for so many reasons still does what it does the best. All the usual stand outs were there Splash Mountain, Philiarmagic and the Tower of Terror. Although, it must be said, I still find the magic kingdom a little rough around the edges, compared to the Disneyland Park in Paris (exceptions of course to the weather and the huge difference the Americans have Vs the French).I was stunned by the upgrades to the Haunted Mansion. For a ride that didn't really need any more upgrades, I find it outstanding that Disney feel the need to constantly upgrade and improve their attractions so much. The interactive queue line is fantastic in every way, not only because of it's interactivity, but also due to it's nods to the original creators and created fan legends. It was a real plus and not happy to even stop there, once on board the ride, the hitch hiking ghost mirror scene with it's massive upgrade is just stunning and very well done too.Next up was Star Tours: the Adventures Continue, yet another huge attraction upgrade that was again a very high standard. Star Tours was never a ride that I bothered to ride on every visit, but this time I did it 4 times, and every one of those rides were completely different. The ride has over 50 different combos, so you'll never know what to expect and again, with rider interactivity, the best digital 3D ride film that I've ever seen AND a decent story line it makes it very re-ridable. I can only hope that Paris pull their socks up and upgrade theirs too.Next big news was Cheetah Hunt at Busch Gardens. With an already fantastic ride line up.. (Kumba for example-certainly Nemesis intense on a much bigger scale), I was looking forward to this one, following it's construction I already knew it wasn't as fast as we'd all hoped for, but what made it really good was that it never stops before any of it's three launch sections. The rides already at a speedy pace before you're launched off again. It has some great air time, the theming is fantastic, a great section over the water and it's very pretty to look at. A thrill machine? Certainly not, but for Intamin it rode as smooth as a B&M :-oAll in all great trip, the weather was SO stormy here and there and I was pleased to get a peak back stage of Beauty and the Beast and Mermaid construction via the railroad! Both reasons to get over there again next year!

Cole - smash her back doors in.Bieber - smash his face in.

Professor Turds sewage works.A fun trip for all the family through a Transylvanian treatment plant.Could work!

Haha, yeah true. They'd have had to chav it up a bit "yo yo yo ho ho, this is a mother funkin hold up you sons of biscuits. You've got da black spot, innit blud"

Nearly impossible for me to choose between the two. I need both in my life! I couldn't do one top 10 because I can't really compare them. I can completely enjoy and appreciate a great thrill ride with no themeing at all (although 6flags push this too far with parking lot - the ride). In fact I don't think a large outdoor thrill ride can be themed in a way that changes the actual on ride experience much. To really work as an experience, themeing needs to be completely immersive, that's just no possible when you are so high up you can see for miles around. Unless you can build something on Disney scale to block out your surroundings, or in a hole like Nemesis.My perfect ride is TAAO Spiderman, which I guess is an experience ride made thrilling. If I have to decide, I'd go experience rides. When done well they have a soul and joy about them that a coaster can rarely match.

Nearly impossible for me to choose between the two. I need both in my life! I couldn't do one top 10 because I can't really compare them. I can completely enjoy and appreciate a great thrill ride with no themeing at all (although 6flags push this too far with parking lot - the ride). In fact I don't think a large outdoor thrill ride can be themed in a way that changes the actual on ride experience much. To really work as an experience, themeing needs to be completely immersive, that's just no possible when you are so high up you can see for miles around. Unless you can build something on Disney scale to block out your surroundings, or in a hole like Nemesis.My perfect ride is TAAO Spiderman, which I guess is an experience ride made thrilling. If I have to decide, I'd go experience rides. When done well they have a soul and joy about them that a coaster can rarely match.

Nearly impossible for me to choose between the two. I need both in my life! I couldn't do one top 10 because I can't really compare them. I can completely enjoy and appreciate a great thrill ride with no themeing at all (although 6flags push this too far with parking lot - the ride). In fact I don't think a large outdoor thrill ride can be themed in a way that changes the actual on ride experience much. To really work as an experience, themeing needs to be completely immersive, that's just no possible when you are so high up you can see for miles around. Unless you can build something on Disney scale to block out your surroundings, or in a hole like Nemesis.My perfect ride is TAAO Spiderman, which I guess is an experience ride made thrilling. If I have to decide, I'd go experience rides. When done well they have a soul and joy about them that a coaster can rarely match.

Haha, yeah true. They'd have had to chav it up a bit "yo yo yo ho ho, this is a mother funkin hold up you sons of biscuits. You've got da black spot, innit blud"

Double post, but meh.The Inbetweeners movie full trailer is now out :)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDTudLDCx5U&feature=player_embedded

Who remembers the black spot? A long time ago, a bit sketchy in my mind.I seem to remember the train to the farm being diverted occasionally, some went straight to the farm, others got theatrically 'hijacked' by pirates where a kind of show was put on by actors when the train stopped. A few terrified kiddies were pulled from the train to be used in the show and at some point a black spot was put in the palm of the hand of one of them. They would then be told they would die a slow and painful death because of their black spot(!), but be given a voucher for a free ice cream to make up for it. Such a good idea and I remember loving it as a child. Why was it gotten rid of? Would such a thing have a place in todays Thorpe?My little sister was once infected, she got the black spot (+free ice cream!), and I am forever jealous.

Someones message on Twitter to Piers Morgan@piersmorgan I'd like to regulate your face. With a train. #bbcqt

TUUUUNE...

Got back from Spain the other day and I of course had to spend a day (or 2) at Port Aventura after sight-seeing in Barcelona.Day 1We got the train to the park and got there for opening time and foolishly decided to head for Furious Baco first thing, I didn't realise that this was the first and only ride in the park for a a large amount of space so it was incredibly busy and we waited almost 2 hoursFurious Baco - Theming was great overall, it seemed that it was supposed to be a winery that had been overtaken by monkeys. As you leave the station, you enter a tunnel where there are lots of spinning cogs and flashing lights, then out of nowhere, a monkey comes along (at this point the train is hooking onto launch system) and the moneky presses a button and off you go! After the launch straight you go downwards slightly which created a bunch of negative gs for a second or two. You then whip round the first corner in extremely close proximity to the canyon which was very claustrophobic and at 80mph, VERY intense. This ride truly kicks the crap out of Stealth and Rita as I found it much more intense. The in-line twist at the end was yummy too. The only bad feedback from the ride was that sitting at the far sides of the train created a rougher ride than sitting closer to the middle and whilst I agree with this, I didn't mind it too much. Easily the best ride in the park. the low throughput created long queues unfortunately but we managed to sit at the front to make it worth it.We then headed over to Dragon Khan which took about 10 or 15 minutes as we couldn't find the bloody thing. The queue wasn't too bad, half an hour approx. Dragon Khan - The queueline could have been a bit more imaginative since it was just cattlepens under a Pagoda building but we were not too bothered due to the short queue and high throughput. I honestly expected the ride to be bigger when I first saw it but hey, it was still quite impressive. The ride itself is fairly smooth but you'd expect that from a B&M. There were no particularly intense parts of the ride apart from exiting the zero g roll which you seems to get pulled out of. Overall a very fun ride which isn't as intense as its appearence and the high throughput made it very re-ridable. It is similar to Nemesis Inferno because its fun without being very intense, but Dragon Khan was twice as long so twice as good as Nemesis Inferno. I got a really nice t-shirt too which is black and has a silver dragon on it with Dragon Khan writte below it which was 16.90 Euros (more expensive than other shirts because it was nicer I imagine).We were now getting closer to the intimidating tower overlooking the whole of the park: Hurrakan Condor. However we stumbled across the El Diablo - Tren De La Mina first which was a relief since I avoid Detonator every single time when I got to Thorpe Park.El Diablo - Amazingly themed, just like Thunder Moutain Railroad. with waterwheels, windmills and great theming scattered around the whole ride area. 3 lifthills created a nice long ride, I was dissapointed at the lack of any vaguely steep drops though. It was great how it interacted with the log flume though when it was flying overhead and you could wave to people in the logs. The second lifthill was suich a waste, after climbing to the top, you glide round 180 degrees before being attacked by trim-brakes, it was just wasted speed, so pointless. The last drop was good, a really long drop built up lots of speed which was great and then went through a couple of tunnels too.So Hurrakan Condor was looming upon us with only 1 out of 3 of us wanting to go on it. So we walked up to it in peril thinking how sickening it was just to watch it. I then thought, I'm only coming here once (and the day after) so I thought I had to give it ago despite consciously avoiding Detonator everytime I go to Thorpe Park. I find drop towers the most intense ride experiences by far.Hurrakan Condor - After reluctently joining the queue and after waiting 20 minutes or so, a choice was upon on, stand-up or sit-down. We chose to sit down since it seemed less scary. It is themed as a broken tower with the middle missing so about 80ft of tower was remaining which was where the brakes kicked in, so if one were to view from a distance, you would not be able to see the cars braking after the drop which was quite a clever idea. The top of the tower was jsut a themed piece of roof which was slightly wonky which added to the 'ruined' effect very nicely. So climbed the tower as speed, much faster than other drop towers since it onyl takes 4 people up at a time (there a 5 sides to the tower, some sit-down, some stand-up which all function independently and thus drop at different times). After emerging out of the building, it seemed you were hhigher all the other rides already and you were not even half way there. To put this into perspective, Detonator is 115ft and Hurrakan Condor is 300ft. at the top, the car slowly began to slow down and when it came to a halt, you knew the catchment car would unhook immediately after so it was VERY tense. You then hear it unhook and the camera catches your 'falling face' which was not pretty for me. This is the only ride that I couldn't help but scream on because it is just so ridiculously intense. I hold a steady scream for 3 seconds before I run out of breath. We are still falling and begging for the brakes to kick in at any second which they inevitably did, much to our relief. This truly took my breath away at it was a huge relief to get off. Half of me thought 'this ride was built by the devil' but the other half of me thought 'that was such an adrenaline rush!'. So I was very pleased that I managed to do it.After that, we thought we should do some of the flats in the area before heading for Stampida in the Far West. All the flats were terribly run as only one member of staff was opperating them and when you have to lock and unlock every single restraint or lapbar individually, this takes a huge amount of time which bores the rest of the queueline to death, as well as the riders waiting in the burning hot sun. After a few of these, we headed to Tomohawk which is a small Woodie where you sit single file in a yellow train which again, didn't help throughput. However, it interacted nicely with Stampida so if you were lucky there would be 3 trains at once in relative synchronicity so there was lots of waving to do. Overall though, a crap ride as it was short and had poor throughput. We thought Stampida would be a better bet after this.Stampida - towards the beginning of the queue you are faced with a decision: red or blue. We went on the red train first since its my favourite colour. So the path splits off into 2 seperate queues which zig-zagged up towards the station. After dispatching at the same time, you get to know your enemy (the blue train) which again required lots of waving and evils. The blue train gets a slight head start though because it seemed to make things fairer in the long run. Noth train storm down the first drop where the supports of the track over head create a brilliant head chopper effect so everybody puts their arms down to avoid a percieved collision which was quite funny. The next corner was very rough and very intense and thus forced you to hold on, but after that its safer to hodl your hands up. Later on, the trains split into seperate tunnels where they go their own way for bit. Both trains then come charging at eachother other which is really fun and then they join back up in synchronicity again for the last few drops and turns which was quite clever. Certainly one of the most fun rides in the park due to its competitive nature. The ride was as good as Zeus at Parc Asterix but Stampida tops it due to the fun created by the dual tracks. The graffiti on the queueline was awful, the brown wood was covered in red, blue and black marker pens with innapropriate drawing, words and pictures of Homer Simpson. That's the only downside to the ride. I felt that theming was not too important for this ride because it would get lost in the density of the huge wooden structure. There were a few waggon wheels here and there though.The water rides were incredibly budy throughout the day due to the scorching hot weather which was understandable. We did both the log flume and the rapids though, along with the spinning barrels which was the equivelant of Chessington's old ride, Rodeo. Again, very fun flat but disgraceful throughput as the woman had to unlock each of the 20 cars individually with a key.Grand Canyon Rapids - God throughput as one man was allocating each group of people to the boats. Great theming throughout, it was a canyon in the wild west which had barrels, buildings,, train tracks, tunnels, and waterfalls incorporated into it. The ride itself went very fast for a river rapids which was good because it created more splash when crashing into the white water. The only cattlepen river rapids queue I have ever seen which was strange but it soon shifted and we got our ride.Silver River Flume - A huge cattlepen of boredom, broken fans and queue-jumpers added to a frustrating queuing experience where we waited almost 90 minutes to ride. At least we got a boat to the 3 of us though when we eventually did get on. Quite a long log flume with 3 seperate lifthills and drops which all interacted with the minetrain although we didn't see any trains go past so no waving unfortunately. The splash didn't get you drenched but gave everybody a refreshing soak which was glorious on such a humid day. After having a look at all the shops, we decided to give it a rest for today since it had been very tiring. The ride count ended up at 11 which was okay considering the Furious Baco queue at the start of the day. It was a learning curve though for the next day so we knew what to ride and when to ride. I advise leaving Furious Baco to the end of the day unless you get through the park gates really early. The only major ride we had missed off was Tutuki Splash in Polynesia which we would head for first the next day. I also recommend bringing your own food since their's is overpriced, poor quality and far from generous portions.#1 - Furious Baco#2 - Stampida#3 - Hurrakan Condor#4 - Dragon KhanIf people are interested I will post Day 2 soon. Hope you enjoyed reading it (this has been longer than any of my English essays lol)

Short trip report from trip today. It won't be a post of beauty like Jacks as I couldn't be bothered to get the camera out.Went with a group of 12 workmates who don't have the same ride addiction issues as me, so much time wasting messing around with toilets, shops, decision making etc. grrrrr.Arrived just after 10, heart sank at the size of the queue to buy my ticket but it moved along at an impressive rate with all but one booth open and it only took 10mins. Some of my friends had pre booked their tickets but with only one collection window open it took them ages, meaning we didn't get in to nearly 11 which really takes the piss. Not the best start to the day. I also wanted to get some cash out but the (free) machine outside was out of cash, so had to get it from the (expensive) machine inside. I'm sure this was just one of those things and not another Merlin money making scheme.Straight to Stealth, 10min queue, all good. By the time we got off it was up to 45mins and all major rides were a similar length, by my standards that's a busy day and I was not impressed. We found though that many advertised queue times were wildly inaccurate, Saw showed 60mins, was really 20, Rush showed 10mins was really 35. Don't know if the system they use was broken but it's not a problem I've had before.Rumba Rapids, since I last went at the start of the season (and moaned about the state of it on here) has had a bit of a clean up. Someone has gone at the queue line and tunnel with a pressure washer and some fairy lights have been but up over the old berry advertising in the dark (both things suggested on the forum). It's not amazing, but looks respectable and is exactly what was needed.Detonator sounds like it's blown it's speakers at the top, just muffled noise which kept cutting out. Still a great ride though.Tea cups, always fun. One of my group commented on how great it is that they were actually Tetley teacups, not my feelings but goes to show that sponsorship isn't seen so negatively by 'normal' people.Saw and Colossus were brilliant, neither felt rough to me.X/WTF - I appreciate them making some effort with the lights and music, but it just illuminates the whole inside too much for me. I've always thought the only thing that made it in any way good to ride was the darkness making it disorientating, and that's been lost. Lasers which don't throw light in all directions would work better for me.Rides on Slammer and Rush were great, but the dispatch time is shocking. The staff just seem to meander about the place with no real purpose and certainly no hurry. I know safety checks must not be rushed but I think someone needs a kick up the bum. Girl checking our restraints on Rush was great though, gave us jazz hands and did a little dance throughout the ride. Random but fun. (To balance this out all the coasters were being run with mega efficiency which I'm not used to on my quiet days. Well done all round).What the hell with Vortex restraint slamming itself into my nuts at a thousand miles an hour. Least safe safety feature ever.Inferno has had it's station given a much needed clean (something else I'd moaned about on here). Lack of tunnel effects throughout.Loggers suddenly has all it's backstops out on the top half of the lift, some of which looked shiny and new (another thing recently discussed on here at length - begining to think we are being watched! If we are, please put a bin liner or something over the tunnel roof hole - ta).Surprise of the day - Samurai. Rode at lunchtime, the standard short and so much less forceful than before ride. Then rode again later, last ride of the day (they shut the queue line behind us) and WOW. It honestly felt like stealth when it started, acceleration wise. It was so intense, I thought I was back at Chessington. And it went on for ages, it really is an amazing ride when it is like this. So, can someone tell me: did the controller use a more intense setting (does one even exist), or was it because it weighed less at only about 30% full it was able to be so awesome?Got on basically everything, some multiple times, on a 'busy' day with an indecisive group. Quite impressive. One of my best trips in a long time.

Continued!Another one of my favorites. Just about time to fit in some Black Buccaneer. Vampire again. And a last ride on Rattlesnake just before the queue closed. A great day. I'll leave you with my best of the day. Thanks for reading, well done if you made it through! More to come this summer if you can cope!

Merde...Regarding kids tv...

Today was the day. Exams over therefore it was time to get the ball rolling theme park wise. In preparation for what should be a fantastic season I purchased a new Panasonic Lumix TZ8 camera which I tried during this visit. I found the camera to be very user friendly and although the weather was rather miserable, some of the images still turned out pretty well. Packed in 34 rides without really trying to be honest, the park was relatively quiet for a weekend with Saw and Colossus peaking at 45 but staying at 30 for the most part of the day. I never thought I would say this but operationally Thorpe were fantastic. Especially in the morning. Headed to inferno first thing and was convinced it was on one train. However even if there were just us two they were dispatching before the train reached the break run. Brilliant from the inferno team. Also, massive well done to the Stealth team. The best dispatching I have ever seen on the ride. Unfortunetly the usual problems with Rush staff have continued this season, lots of staff dossing by the console. Even so, with only Storm Surge down for around 90 minutes even reliability was decent. Yet despite all of this I felt something was missing. I can't quite place it. Something small, just left me very slightly underwhelmed. Maybe it was the ease of which rides were riden or the weather but I dont think so. Maybe I will find what it is later in the season. Still, great visit and a promising start to my 2011 season. Till the next report, thanks for reading and here are the photos...Rush in all its glory. Swing A on both my rides was pretty poor barely reaching 90 degrees. Bit of Stealth. Bit of tree. Happy days. Detonater was excellent as usual. Only queued ten minutes for it. I think I have lost it with Inferno now. It completely lacks ANY sort of forces/unique ride experience. I think Vampire packs more of a punch. Hopefully LC12 will at least have some character. Sad to report that Colossus is now ROUGHT AS boo. It had improved over the last couple of seasons but my two rides bashed the crap out of me. Saw was fantastic. Defo my Thorpe n.o 1. It has everthing. A decent theme, fun indoor section and an outdoor section which really does blow your mind. The last turn into the bracks is really intense!Another shot of Mr Forceless himself. Lots of deceleration on the brakes. Intamin goodness. The overback is the only slight let up after the main drop. Ejector airtime of the MCBR. End is nigh. Loggers was good fun as usual. Into the MCBR.Didnt get on Storm Surge today, stayed at around 60 minutes pretty much all day. After the loop, you could fall asleep. Decent shot of Stealth from Crumba. Through the trees!Final shot of the coma inducing Colossus. Thanks for reading, more PTRs to come soon!

I'll blow this conversation back open and back you up here - I've helped refit the ones on Dragon Falls when the springs and the like have broken and it is an anti rollback system - in the event that the main conveyor belt did snap. Yes the ride will stop more than safely but anti grip will rarely work well enough to hold a boat load of potentially 500kg from slipping down the hill - what if the belt snaps, as Pluk has pointed out?Whoever thinks that 'it's meant to be like that' is talking total cottage cheese - all the ones on Dragon Falls are working and click properly onto the boats! If one was broken, the ride wouldn't open!