Flipper

Clearly it isn't... go stand at the exit for ten minutes and then tell me how many people of the general public come off without either claiming or showing distinctive signs of being in pain

Don't forget your fastrack by showing your annual pass at rides for the first hour of the day then

I wouldn't call it 'lazy' - limiting maybe. Credit to them for trying to keep a existing ride thats been at Towers for years and trying to tie it in; as it's a ride that no character could easily fit with so having it as a generic channel theme works. I still think it's a bit disappointing that it's just painted acorns and some blobs but again, I throw back to myself and say it's limiting what you can do with Squirrel Nutty.

I can't comment on Beanoland because I never went to Chessington when it existed Did that really die though? I mean, like I've already said; SAW might be dead, but the ride is still popular as much for it's SAW tie in as it is for it's actual experience. So to call any IP a dead IP would be a little unfair; I think if you're creating IP areas as long as it's kept fresh and updated with time, such as Thomas land adding rides, Nickelodeon Land bringing in new events and characters - any IP land can live longer than anyone expects. I think this'll simply fall down to seeing how busy things like Detonator get once Angry Birds opens; and seeing how it all generally gets before we can judge if it will succeed or not.

Simple answer to that is almost guaranteed to be a no; in order to add the time back on they'll need to see your existing pass; which if you've lost, then you either will need to pay the £10 replacement or just cut your losses.

Oh; whenever I've been I've heard the queue line audio but no exit TVs Nice to see the lift TVs back though; and cleaned so you can see Billy properly

So may I sound dumb and ask does Rita have similar problems? Because I've always been lucky and don't recall ever seeing Rita shut down

I think what Marc and Luke are highlighting is that some launch coasters have a consistent spray of some form of coolant onto their launches, another example I can think of is California Screamin' which sprays it's launch between trains. Stealth *might* do it out of operating hours, but I think the point Marc is asking is an inbuilt thing which occurs throughout the day.

So far this year, the queue line audio of SAW has worked faultlessly with the snippets of "They're not to cut through our chains, they're to cut through our feet" and "Be careful, we know there's booby-traps in there..." blah blah blah. So yeah thats back. Still no exit TVs though yet this year.

I'm more surprised that people are surprised it doesn't have the vest... I didn't expect it to It does look like a nice new concept though (so to speak) with the small trains and lap bar - grab bar restraints. Hopefully some of these can be expanded out around the world; and who knows, maybe they could creep in on Vekoma and relaunch a swinging concept (since nobody wants a Vekoma swing coaster)

The boat ride at London is closed at the moment for it's annual maintenance. I'd imagine it will be changed slightly as it has the ability to do so now it uses a lot of projection work over animated theming like the old Traitor Gate: Boat Ride to Hell at London Bridge :'( Also since everyone's comparing; the old Dungeons were a better vibe. The arches played a great part in this but that aside the idea of walking up and down stairs and ramps like you do at present doesn't tick the right boxes with me; and I feel the same about Blackpool at the end.

Just want to say the only thing I'm not fond of is the fact that Get Set Go has used the acorns of Squirrel Nutty and just been painted, I think something better could have been done personally. I also feel that the TV advert lacks some kind of 'oomph' - I mean, I know they're advertising Cbeebies land, but I feel some more 'family' stuff could have been added in at the end of it to show there's a lot more than just Cbeebies for families.

Marc hit the nail on the head. Everyone said SAW was a dead brand when the IP came in and yet it still enticed a fair crowd of people in that year; and it's still a popular ride where you can often hear people talk about it for the SAW brand (usually referring to Billy as Jigsaw and making me want to shout at them) alongside talking about the actual drop (it's usually those two they talk about). Maybe the buzz of Angry Birds has died off a bit, but (and I'll be honest here) unlike SAW it's a much wider IP which more people are aware of in more vivid detail. For example, my mother wouldn't know what a Billy Puppet is, and she wouldn't want to; but she'd know how to throw birds in catapults. *shrugs* So I do think that the debate of a dead IP is unfair here. I don't think an IP truly dies in theme parks. I mean places like Knotts Berry have Snoopy; Six Flags have Loony Tunes - these are quite dated, and yet still incredibly popular. And besides, Angry Birds theme parks if anything, are starting to be overdone, with a few around the world; and the obvious Angry Birds Activity Park at Lightwater Valley

In the past even with a voucher I've had it run from the day it was issued. But then when I bought my renewal the other day at Thorpe they randomly stuck two extra weeks on it for me so I think it's pot luck. Depending how much time you have left on it, you're best way would probably be to buy the replacement if you're going to lose anything more than four weeks IMO.

Just want to throw it out there that I rode La Revolucion at Knotts Berry Farm a few weeks back, and the cycle and swing heights seemed to be pretty much identical to how Vortex was when I went on with Han last week. So I don't think it's just Vortex that has issues, I think it seems to be quite a common thing amongst the theme park ones. This kind of shows it the best but it's been put into slow-mo. But it shows how there's no actual heigh difference...

I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often to be honest. I don't know what Florida's bobsleds are like, however having been on the Anaheim one a few weeks back the platforms are incredibly small; with easy places to trip and fall into small drops of rockery; and considering they do quite a lot of walking up and down them. Hopefully it's just bumps and grazes, and nothing's broken; having said that it could have ended much worse - aka falling onto the track or, depending where she fell, fall down into the mountain and onto the lift hill.

I'm 5ft 7 and without meaning to brag or anything, I'm just shy of 9 stone, and I struggle climbing across the back row of each car. Also, at 5ft 7 my head sits perfectly in the chunkiest bit of the bar; so Colossus to me is constant head banging except for the inlines - and they just kill my thighs. Although the other day I jolted really badly coming out of the loop which hurt like hell.

TowersTimes thought that a roller coaster could have a washing machine element hidden inside it - they're not the most reliable, believable, intelligent, or pretty much any of the above of fan sites - especially when it comes to Thorpe. #Burn I now refer back to Ricky's post. "Don't get you're hopes up".

I took thought the Detonator sign was going to take on some kind of catapult idea until it got darkened. Also agree with Tommy upon thinking about it, it could have used the wall well to incorporate the brand. My only concern right now is just what they will do with Detonator. If they do too little, people will moan that its been 'thrown in' but if they do too much it could clash with it's Inferno backdrop...

GladiatorFanKyle has a point; a Giga coaster could be plausible - but then you could have a B&M hyper at an unusual small height. Thorpe could benefit from a lap bar, airtime coaster. Almost like the woodie they proposed; but made of steel, so there's no alleged claims of being unsafe from the general public.

I really really wish people would stop arse-licking Colossus this year. Having ridden it myself with several people, and having been on it with a large group of non-enthusiasts the general report of it is that it is still uncomfortable. I rode it last weekend, and I'd go as far as saying it was the roughest I've ever experienced it. That aside though, it is easily going to be the first coaster to leave as it currently stands. Like I said, the amount of crack detection paint is concerning; you can see points along the inlines where the track is wearing thinner with wear and tear and flattening off; and the whole thing has been left to fall into an unappealing state! Sorry, it really riles me up. Because no park, and no coaster, should be in the state Colossus is in.

Regarding the cinema, I believe it's made by SimWorks now who made the 4D cinema at Paultons Park; so keeping the internal cinema relatively themeless will make sense as if the Paultons 4Ds are anything to go by a lot of lighting is used throughout the films they run, and theming would just reflect the light in weird ways (much better to have plain dark walls). Also the stage was always there, and it works well to keep people away from the screen because those cinema screens are not 'cheep cheap'

Sorry, have you been on it lately? The track is at a point where it needs SERIOUS work. When you next go look at the amount of crack detection paint on Colossus alone. Yes, a lot of rides have it but Colossus is overloaded with it. I'm not saying rip it out, it's a key coaster. But it's roughness isn't going to improve without serious track work. I mean you could feel the flat spots on the wheels today on the lift hill, as it thumped as it went up. Realistically it's got to a point where it needs more than a litter pick and some paint to make it stay IMO. It needs some money spending on it which I doubt will happen, which ultimately will leave no choice but to have it removed due to it's own safety / wear and tear.

I'm surprised it hasn't been given up on yet, but even without getting our hopes up we can still praise the park for making active efforts. Personally I like it being closed. When I rode it early last year a couple of times all it did was give me horrific headaches and blood rushes to the head - that ain't fun nor thrilling. So the longer it's closed the longer I go without being dragged on it :-)

Today witnessed Slammer at the top with its pins retracted (?) - basically it was holding itself up there; and it was doing it for pro-longed periods of time on a couple of occasions. Again, no spinning; but glad to see some work going on. Water dummies have also been removed - don't know if thats good news or bad.