Han30

I do question why some people go into teaching - I understand that it must be stressful and I know I couldn't do it as I don't have the right temperament (or qualifications). its bad enough at school when you get bullied - but you certainly don't expect it from teachers who are meant to be there to help and not make you feel like a stack of poop. A teacher openly making fun of a character in a book is so wrong - at year 6, kids are quite impressionable - someone like that should not be in the teaching profession - it's pretty much giving kids the green light to make fun of anyone with a condition which might make them a bit different to their peers. Thankfully most teachers are there because they want to teach and are great at what they do. Before I had my bitch of a French teacher for GCSE French, I had a brilliant French teacher the year before and I actually enjoyed going into lessons. Going back to bullying- my niece who is in year 7 was reduced to tears recently by a kid from year 10 - I was so shocked as I assumed it was a kid from her year group. I don't condone violence because if you hit a bully you are pretty much going to be the one getting into trouble and not the bully but I can see how a victim of bullying could easily get driven to it. Years ago my younger sister was getting bullied and the school did absolutely nothing about it so my mum went up and waited outside- when the bullies came out of school my mum went up to them and had a quiet word - nothing threatening but the bullying stopped after that. I've told my niece that if this girl does anything else then I'll go along to the school to meet her one day and speak to the other kid

For the first year of riding Saw (so upwards of 50 times) I never got wet - didn't even realise water comes out until 2014 when, after exiting the indoor section I said quite loudly "that thing just spat at me"

I wouldn't let the corpse bother you - I didn't even notice it until after I had ridden Saw around 40 times (although admittedly I'm not the most observant of people)

It used to scare me - I once had quite a bad panic attack just before the lift hill thanks to the Billy puppet - that thing used to seriously freak me out but am fine with it now

It used to be my fave ride before I got the courage to do the coasters - I've not ridden it since a rather unfortunate incident back in 2003.

Saw someone post about the rollback on TPs FB page. I'm SO glad that didn't happen yesterday - I think I would freak out. Would love to see one though (in real life - seen plenty on YouTube).

The fire effect wasn't on yesterday - I love the fire, especially at night when it's dark and a tad chilling. I've also noticed on busy days that the fire effect is used about 1 in every 3 rides - I've been on it before with the fire going off and hadn't noticed though, to be fair I am not the most observant of people (putting it mildly!) When the coasters were all on around an hour + queue yesterday we headed over to Swarm which, according to the queue, was listed as 50 mins - at the entrance it said that the queue time was "up to 90 minutes" but you could see from just looking that it was nowhere near that - we got on after about 15 mins. I sat next to a lady who was with her partner and her child and a couple of his friends - when she asked if she could sit next to me so she could be on the same train as her family I was fine with it and asked which seat she wanted to sit in - she told me she hadn't ridden it before so I pretty much told her to sit on the outside seat - had a lovely chat with her in the station and then going up the lift hill - she was laughing all the way through the ride with the odd "eeeeek" and when we stopped she said "oh that was amazing, I'm going to go on again" - I love having random chats with people at theme parks (the only place I feel comfortable plucking up a conversation with a stranger) and seeing peoples reactions on rides. There was a guy on Stealth that made me laugh - as we were coming down from the top hat he started screaming "FOC********* HELL" whilst laughing like a loon. I thought operations on Swarm were really good - staff were pretty quick with restraint checking - on my last visit it seemed to take forever waiting for the train in the station to be despatched whilst the other one was waiting aimlessly just outside the station.

Ugh that's damned typical - but.....you at least got to the queue so that's a start and next time hopefully it won't break down. Some really great advice given here covering pretty much every aspect which one can encounter when trying a ride for the first time (or facing fears on rides). I like to try things once, if I don't like it then at least I've given it a shot but I do appreciate it can be nerve wracking - it wasn't until 2013 that I started going on proper big rides and even then I did rides gradually - wasn't until the last day of the season that I rode Vortex yet had done all of the coasters at TP. There are only 2 rides I've ridden which I don't think I could ride again but still glad I got the experience. My niece had her first ride on Samurai today - this time last year she was very scared of rides (although much much better than I was at her age)! I know with my niece she finds it helpful to explain how different rides feel before riding them and I am always honest with her (hence probably why she hasn't done Detonator yet oohps). I do agree about watching a ride before going on it - although I think if I had seen the layout of Space Mountain before I went on it 16 years ago I would have wussed out. You can get a good generally idea of a ride by watching it and watching people's reactions. The only exceptions to that which I can think of are Slammer and Detty - for me personally, Slammer looks absolutely terrifying to watch (and took me 18 months to conquer) but is actually ok once you are on it. Then you have Detty which doesn't look that high or intense until you ride it.

According to queue times site it hit a 60 minute queue quite quickly then was unavailable for a bit. Managed to get on using an exit pass after Inferno ceased operation as we were about to ride. Was great that they managed to get it open - same with X which was closed for most of the day

I had never used single rider until my first ride on Samurai today - very handy as the people I was with didn't fancy going on it at the time and the queue was about 50mins. There did seem to be a lot of people in groups using single rider which is fair enough - if there is a spare seat on a couple of pods, it enables them to be filled. But on my 3rd ride there was a group of 3 single riders (they were all together) and the ride host asked if they were single riders and then let them all on at the same time - on the same pod which sort of defeats the object.

Was told in was down for maintenance earlier so this is a nice surprise!

Been on this twice so far today - went single rider first time (so handy!) and the cycle was ok. Second time with my niece it was a tad intense but fab - we both loved it

£20 bargain - definitely interested in this!

Great - cheers guys! I am able to get a lift back home at 11pm so can swerve the clubbing part wahay

Yup ^^ I made the mistake of recently asking the host on Slammer to ram me into my seat - had a panic attack as the ride started as I could barely breath and thought I was going to faint.

Really would love to come to this meet as it has been almost 3 years since my last one - will probably only do the day though as I'm too much of an old fart for clubbing....and I can't dance either. What time do the rides close? Seeing as Summer Nights are no more I would happily buy an MOS ticket and then naff off when the rides close!

Swarm I have found can vary on queue times - maybe because it is sort of on its own. I've headed over there on relatively busy days before at varying times and it's been almost walk on. I would try to get front row if you can Depth charge won't get you wet - much like Rumba Rapids! I've not actually bothered with Depth Charge since 2013 but only because it can accumulate quite a queue but it's an ok ride Give Angry Birds a try - it's not bad and gives you somewhere to sit for a while!

You can do it! - It looks scarier than it actually is - make sure you sit in the front row!

Some of the comments here regarding the news article had me in stitches ahhh Anyhoo - I love Paultons and think that it has surpassed Chessie - they've actually invested in the park and although it lacks theming in some areas, it is better maintained and doesn't look run down. Also when you compare The Edge to Kobra, and Kontiki to Griffins Galleon, Paultons seem to run those 2 rides on a more intense setting - I almost barfed on both of them a few years back

Last night I thought my mouth felt odd, like I had something stuck in my tooth so I shoved a finger in there and pulled out a sodding filling! Ugh, not the first time it's happened - I once had one come out on a sweet I was chewing. Absolutely hate the dentist - or rather, I hate having fillings despite having a fair few already. Tooth extraction I quite enjoy - have had 5 teeth out including 2 wisdom teeth and found it quite therapeutic.

Nothing wrong with that. I was into theme parks and interested in rides a loooong time before I was brave enough to go on anything big. I was 18 before I went on Vampire at Chessie. I remember following the construction of Colossus and being excited for when it opened - only to stand there for 2 hours holding my sisters bags while she rode.

What was the cycle like? I can recommend some excellent anti sickness tablets - if I didnt take them, I'd be barfing my guts up on pretty much everything

Not something I've ever really thought about but after seeing the pics, Tidal Wave is a pretty good one. I also like The Smiler logo as it is quite trippy

Nothing wrong with your photography - got some pretty good photos in there. I've never seen Duel with a queue before - although when I went a few weeks ago we had to walk around the queue line which I've never done before - was odd as the ride was walk on. Ah Smiler looks so sad with no lights but at leasts its running again!

I also thought you meant Saw the Ride! Jesus so I'm a bit confused - did you kind of saw your finger in half but vertically? Not fully in half? Whatever happened it sounds bloody painful. Saws and even lawn mowers scare me - I was quite proud of myself when I used my electric drill to do some DIY but it was terrifying. I just don't fully trust equipment like that. I remember a thing at school in woodwork - this thing (can't remember the name) but its like a massive sand paper sheet which is powered - our teacher told us to be careful as we could easily lose a finger - then wondered why we weren't keen on using the damn thing. Did they give you crutches if you can't put weight on your foot? How the heck have you managed to sprain the same ankle 12 times!? Ahh I had to lay off of sports when my toes went black (think they were broken) and I could barely walk - gutted as I was on a lot of sports teams. You could try using a tubi-grip bandage thing - they're really good for support for injuries (useless for toes though!)