Flipper

Oh no of course, the cable just hit a rider allegedly albeit with no major injury (so pretty similar sounding to the Rush accident in the day) whilst another was taken to hospital after the cable hit a fence, and smashed a piece of wood into her face. But yeah, nobody severely injured and many more people having a worse time than they are; especially those who are pissed because they can't go on a ride. But you know, I'm sure the young girl with cuts and bruises to her face, and probably a little traumatised and stressed out is deeply sorry for this causing you disappointment. ... It's called respect.

But we've seen outlines of plans when Paramount proposed plans. They didn't show in their plans any roller coasters of extravagant rides of any kind to be frank, within the first three phases of development. So on that basis, say it opens 2016, two years per a phase, we'd be looking at 2022 for any potential 'Merlin challenging' rides on the basis of any actual roller coasters or family thrill rides, or even water rides on that matter.

I'm sorry but whoever told you this clearly fell out of Slammer and got hit by it as they fell... However they're running it, is more than likely either precautious to avoid any cracking; or simply in-experienced. When I worked on Slammer it was a difference of two riders, so you could run two on one paddle, and none on the other. Maybe this has changed, but I have never heard of having to have it balanced more to one end than the other. Might I also add that batchers on Slammer is more than likely to be down to budgets. Adding an additional member of staff or two to the ride; on a team who has SAW: The Ride, Loggers Leap, Detonator and a lot of one-man-ops probably isn't in their interest to do, not when they could be using fore-mentioned member of staff as a second host on Detonator, or a batcher on Loggers Leap (a different additional position that is often overlooked on a busier ride). From experience, a batcher on Slammer isn't overly needed. If it's quiet, it's a balancing game, if it's busy it's usually fifteen or sixteen people a paddle anyway and can be done quickly when staff know what their doing. The issue alines that for the team batching clearly isn't a strong point when out of everything they run, Slammer is probably the most complex for them to batch. SAW free-flows nowadays, with no real concentration on batching rows; Loggers is rarely batched (but hey we can all count to five) and Detonator is starting and stopping a queue at around twelve people. So trying to get them to batch sixteen people into gates (which they have to actually properly batch) clearly isn't something they're grasping as easily as others may.

I'm sorry but are we all actually comparing Paramount to what Merlin offer? Because I'm pretty sure Paramount isn't going to be some extravagant theme park offering various rides; but merely a lot of 'IP attractions' such as what Universal is built upon out in Hollywood for example... So on that coin flip; no, Paramount isn't likely to be a threat to Merlin's London Parks, or attractions; just like Harry Potter isn't

Thats strange. It used to allow a weight difference of up to two, so as a group of two in previous seasons you could sit together... same as it being out by two when it's 'got a queue'. Odd.

Sorry Tommy that wasn't a dig at you, it was passive sarcasm. Yes, it's still externally ran.

Made me think of Benin, don't know why.

Oh sorry, did I let the secret out?

Hahahaha, oh my. You don't know Thorpe very well. The canteen will probably stop food at like 4pm. Yes to going to Advance Ticket. It'll be £15. It's only £5 if you're already in the park on the day, as a ticket upgrade. I'd advise turning up for around 6.30pm to pick up your wristband.

I recall on my last ride on Colossus, I ended up on the back car, front row. Thought oh crap, gonna try really hard to brace myself. Now, going up the lift hill was even bloody rough. You could feel the square patches in the wheels as it went, bang, bang, bang, up the lift. Anyway I braced myself, got an almighty jolt in the loop; to then be thrown off by that battered worse than a domestic relationship in the cobra and corkscrews, and have my balls grabbed tightly by the bar in the inlines. I'm 5ft 7, so I can understand the height thing; but I stand by the fact the thing is rough, and the only thing rougher than it in my opinion has to be credited to Furius Baco; but then having seen it's wheels (LMFAO AT ITS WHEELS OR LACK OF) it's no wonder why. I blame Intamin. Even Stealth hurts me because it throws my head into the bar as it goes up, but then maybe it's a case of learning to brace on that, because I minimise it on Rita by moving my head so

I recon we'll see dramatic changes to the beach next year

I think given some of the feedback that has started increasingly popping up on Trip Advisor, Twitter and Facebook; it's fair to say guests are now finding Colossus too rough for comfort.

You're allowed up to three, and under special circumstances this can be increased by Guest Services. I personally would like to see Alton Towers' guidelines introduced, since they are much stricter compared to Thorpe's. Also throwing back, I tried Coca Cola Super Freeze the other day. It was frozen when it came out the £2 a bottle vending machine, and pretty much thawed out within two minutes. It wasn't even a slushie, it was literally very icy coke which quickly became very watery Coke.

Fish and Chips was closed last week; it was just KFC, Amity Kebab, and BK.

Because management are totally going to post a new Fright Nights attraction on a job description Turtle!

My question I want to put in though is: What does PortAventura actually have going for it that the UK parks don't? Okay yeah, it has some theming, and it's good; but it's nothing spectacular to be honest. I mean Dragon Khan is just a square queue pen with a themed roof, and a tired looking dragon head plonked in the middle. The rides aren't exactly anything I'd consider world-class. Yes Khan and Shambhala are good; but I've got rides I'd favourite over them easily. And yet they still do attract more UK visitors than people think they do (a lot of people I know do go to PortAv and they're not enthusiasts). I think what Merlin should look into adding is more side shows and the such, as its the only thing I'd personally say PortAventura has over a UK park. Other than that, it's simply down to being cheap enough that a UK resident can go and spend five days there, with hotel and flights, for less than five days at Alton Towers.

I can't say I've heard this, but as we pretty much know Lionsgate is bringing it back this year, with the same IP mazes and more roaming actors than ever (apparently). And The Director shall be back (which I'm not happy about, his voice worked for me, it goes through me) :'(

To be fair, give Baco credit it can launch smoothly. Colossus can't even go up it's lift hill without creating bumps and bangs

If Merlin are clever, one of the cleverest things they could do would be to use Fungle Safari / Arena area and invest into a family inverted coaster by either Vekoma or B&M, and market it as a 'junior Nemesis Inferno' - it would not only put more spotlight onto one of the park's most underrated coasters, but also create a nice tie-in for families in the form of young ones riding the little one, while adults ride the bigger one.

Dodgem's team were clearly a highlight on opening Summer Nights! #JustSaying

The Dr Pepper deck chairs are some damn sexy deck chairs. Just sayin'.

Oh yeah, Stealth has that problem too. Because you know, Intamin Accelerators can launch at any time; and don't like need to park the train up or anything... Rita operates the same as Stealth, train parks up, all guests get off, the train launches. That's not slow operation to prolong life span, it's called the ride operation because if the train isn't clear it can't be advanced, and if it doesn't advance where does it stop? In waiting, which *can* cause the ride to shut itself down thinking there's an issue. Moving on. Slammer needs a batcher available to fill up the gates during the ride duration. Without a batcher it won't happen, but I think an issue alies with there being a lack of trained staff available on the daily; which is more fool Thorpe; but something I'd expect we'd see rectified as quickly as is possible.

Zodiac had three days, I'm convinced. And Detonator's had two separate days in that period for definite, alongside infinite daily shutdowns. I expected you to be aware of the such Dan9

These dark ride rumours are new to me #FeelLeftOut Also just throwing it out there, a dark ride could go on an island, if the ride is perhaps in the centre and created a frontage around it. Anybody seen that new Ratatouille ride at Walt Disney Studios in Paris? Yes, Disney budget I know, but concept it; as long as you kept pathways close to the lake edges, and created a ride towards the centre you could 'cover the backend' of the building. Falling on from that, the only dark ride rumours I've actually heard are the murmurs of a 'Sub Terra' style attraction for Swarm. But I think thats more sourced from the alleged ex-London Dungeons rides (aka Extremis, Vengeance) being in storage somewhere at the park.

I don't understand this sudden belief Samurai is going anywhere? It's still a popular flat ride at Thorpe. Yes, maybe it's throughput isn't great but it consistently pulls a crowd (well, after mid-day on a quiet day). So I don't think it'll part from the line up lightly.