Han30

So apparantly someone decided to run through the exit of the Swarm station and try to run across the track?! According to a staff member stood outside. It's currently unavailable dammit and it's raining aghh

Thanks for the heads up - ooh teacups I should be ok on - although if I'm in one and someone starts spinning it furiously I get a bit nauseous

Ok I know what a meme is but what the hell does dank mean?! wow - what delightful language your class mate has! Did a teacher not hear her? Don't blame you for screaming back - sometimes it's the only way to get yourself heard. Jeez, maybe she has PMS and that's why she went bat crap crazy over....a pen!

There was a discussion on RAP somewhere and about who qualifies for it etc and people who abuse the system. there are no doubt people who will take the pee and use it when they don't need to which sadly can shine a bad light on those who genuinely need it. A couple of years ago I did get a ride access pass at Alton Towers as a small group of us had been swarmed by wasps most of the day and one person actually got stung. I told the lady at customer services about the wasp issue and that it sets off my anxiety (I'm freakin' terrified of them!). She asked a few questions then gave me a wristband and said I would probably qualify for one on each visit. It's hard because if I'm having a good day I would feel like a fraud using it. With a lot of illnesses you can have good days and bad days and sometimes you could be feeling ok and the next minute feel like you're dying.

That's not actually too bad for pricing- I thought it would be a lot more expensive than that. Not sure if I would go for wood from a wooden coaster as it could technically have come from anywhere although a fiver ain't bad! You got a heck of a lot of rides done! - what ones would you recommend and are there any that are really spinny? - I almost vomited on Time Machine at Adventure Island but thankfully I take motion sickness meds which help. As an example - I can do all rides at Thorpe with the exception of Detonator - because that thing is damned evil!

I really need to get my butt up to BPB this year - love the photos that you took. I also really like the fact that they sell ride parts - I'm surprised Merlin haven't cottoned onto that idea as I'm sure they would make a small fortune for enthusiasts. How much are various coaster parts out of a matter of interest?

That is actually really sad that they felt that way - they obviously needed the exit pass but sadly some people in society are damned ignorant and only think people who are wheelchair bound are disabled.With some illnesses they can vary - I have anxiety problems and have done for the past 16 years. I don't get ride access passes (don't even know if I would qualify for one tbh) but at its worse I am housebound. On a good day I can go out taking just a low dose of anti anxiety meds and sometimes none at all. As for queuing - I am usually ok but with anxiety you can get a panic attack out of the blue - a couple of times I've had to leave queues because of it. So people can look perfectly healthy but you never know what issues they are battling. At TP on Wednesday I (and I resent this) bought fast track for Saw - main reason was that we were leaving at 3pm and my niece was desperate to get back on it and also because I don't think I would have coped well with the 70 min queue - one if the main reasons I only got on 7 rides that day

Oh sod that! 45 mins for sea storm?! Though I have to admit I once queued 45 mins for Flying Jumbos only because my niece who was quite small at the time wanted to go on it badly. My sister went last year to pick up their family passes and in the space of about 5 hours my niece got on 2 rides. Anyone know what's up with the unavailable rides? Had a look on their app the other day and they were unavailable then aswell - I mean c'mon Griffins Galleon is the BEST ride at Chessie!

Ah the original Zodiac looked SO much better with the lost city theming! Am I right in thinking they got the current Zodiac from Drayton Manor (I may have dreamt it). Just wondering what they would class as "summer" - because if it's August that's a tad late and you can pretty much guarantee it'll be knackered in time for Fright Nights. Ugh that board is just depressing

I think I would genuinely have soiled my pants if that had happened to me. After 4 rides on Detty I have vowed never again. Oddly I was probably the most relaxed the first time I went on it back in 2013 then the subsequent 3 other goes, the same year got progressively worse until I was almost in tears. I don't mind small drops like Sub Terra or at The Dungeons, or Magma at Paultons but I am terrified of heights and the intensity of detonator is too much for my anxiety

Dragon Falls is a pretty good log flume - I personally prefer Loggers due to the final drop but I think Falls is fun plus you gave the added bonus of not tasting scabby lake water. Didn't they run a competition back in 2013 for a new design for the ride? I know the ride experience is the same but removing them Buddhas makes the final drop so boring to look at. #bringbackbuddhas

Oh I'm glad you said that he survived- when I read it I felt really sad, although being hit by a vehicle isn't nice. That whole situation regarding the kid and his parents has probably been made even worse than it was before that incident. Back to Dragon Falls - does anyone know if they are even going to get around to that retheme or sorting out the lack of Buddhas next to the main drop? It makes me sad seeing it look so naked!

Aha yeah I've often thought that with some restraints, when checking them a slight slip of the hand and it could end up somewhere else haha. I think that would be what I would be most worried about if I worked at a theme park! Lol no chance I would punch someone unless I was really angry. I have 18 piercings and am a complete wuss - people always think I'm goth due to my black hair and piercings and I always wear dark clothes but I'm too old for that! I almost nodded off myself having been awake for almost 24 hours at the point my lap bar was "checked". Love your sons response to you jumping and scaring the ride attendant - that's the sort of thing my niece would come out with!

I've wondered for a while now how long it will be before they implement some sort of restraints on log flumes because of H&S. When I first went on Dragon River (it was that long ago!) I panicked whilst approaching the main drop but despite being quite young and wanting to get out of the boat I thought better of it (which is pretty good for me as I have not a lot of common sense). Someone should have been supervising the kid that got out - I've taken my niece on log flumes since she was quite young and always made sure she is sat at the front so we know where she is - not that I think she would jump out of a boat but ya never know with kids. I don't know what's worse - the fact he got out and no one stopped him, or the fact that staff were alerted by a guest and didn't see it on the cameras. Ian-S - holy crap that story is horrific - so sad

My niece returns to school on 11th after Easter break - my nephews finished later for their Easter hols but they are in Hertfordshire so the 11th should be a lot quieter than this coming week. Yup agree with you entirely about Samurai - my fave flat aswell and is very disheartening when you walk past it just sitting there doing naff all

Completely agree with you about Samurai and X (I didn't do Colossus or Vortex so can't comment on that) - Samuari looks like its just been sat there as there was no sign of life at all and that damn board up with says "currently unavailable". X was a pain in the butt - the queue inside was moving so slow it was ridiculous. Staff I generally found to be pretty good - most of them were pretty cheerful (have to say the lady that served us a coffee was lovely - we spent about half an hour trying to track down somewhere that had hot drinks available). I think the slowness will be down to new staff and that will pick up as the season continues but yeah it was quite slow at times today which I do understand even if it can be frustrating at times. As for restraint checking - I loved the guy working on X who's idea of checking our bars was to touch them with one finger Slammer is pretty lengthy at loading I think at the best of times because of balance issues - that, and potentially new staff working on it and it is sort of understandable, albeit a bit frustrating.

The queue time boards not working was so frustrating. spoke to a lady visiting with her kids who said that she had queued up for 3 rides which had all broken down - same thing happened to me but only on Slammer. Sizeable queues, one trains ops and misleading queue time boards isn't great. Ok so they can't control how many people queue for a ride but if a coaster has a sizeable queue then adding the other train you would think would be common sense- unless of course it's out of action or not signed off by engineers but if it is a case of "not being enough demand" that is a blatant cop out. Ashamed to say I got fast track for Saw only because we had to leave at 3pm and it is my nieces fave ride- told my sister I resent giving £6 (gone up from £5 last year) for a piece of paper essentially (well and to cut down queue time) when if things were managed better maybe queues would have been more manageable potentially. When I read about summer nights and told my sister she was gutted - that was the main reason that she renewed her family pass. I agree about petitions being great for charity causes etc but I don't think in the case of summer nights it would work. Someone set up a petition about that 12p ticket thing and it probably got them nowhere - so I doubt that a petition to bring back summer nights would do much (if it did I would happily sign) It's frustrating because they introduced summer nights in 2013 which gradually built up popularity only to scrap it which is just going to disappoint guests. I get that they are a business and have to make money and that you can't please all of the people all of the time but I do wonder if they go out of their way to p£&s people off. I have Merlin membership - another thing which was a great idea for people who can't afford to buy a pass upfront but that's been done away with - there probably was people that signed up to it, abused it for a fe months and then cancelled but then others who that is their only way of affording a pass - especially families are penalised. Not all families can afford to fork out a few hundred quid in one go. I'm very doubtful if I will actually bother with a pass once my membership runs out in September (to their credit they gave people with Membership a free 6 month which is good of them) - I'm just a bit disheartened with Merlin at the moment - and today was my first visit of the season

I agree that they need to get rid of Samurai and replace it with another top scan as it is a popular ride but is clearly knackered and walking past a ride that a great deal of the time is unavailable is frustrating. There is only so much fixing of a ride they can realistically do before giving up on it and actually invest some goddam money into something new. I get that they have invested a lot in Slammer with it being the only remaining sky swat and its popularity but I would say that Samurai is more popular than Slammer with the general public. Slammer they can't replace with a new model but they could do with Samurai. Won't hold my breath for a summer reopening of it - would be nice if it did reopen but it may as well be SBNO considering the amount of time it's out of action

Omg chocolate? Where?!! Just got home from visiting today and managed a whopping 7 rides - though we arrived at gone 10 and left before 3. Ugh I just hate queues so much so I lost count of the amount of times I went to queue for something then decided against it. I guess because I am used to going mid week when the kids are at school it was a bit of a shocker. Colossus and Saw on 70 mins at one point, Stealth was advertised as 20 mins but was actually 45-60mins. Flip side is that when we headed to Swarm it was pretty much walk on. Inferno was around an hour at a guess (some of the queue times weren't showing). Had a good day but very frustrated when going to X and it saying a 5 min queue - no queue outside the building but once we joined the queue inside it was a good 30-40 mins before we got on. And the floor was sticky to the point I thought I was going to get glued to it. Flat rides were varied but generally between 20-30 mins with Rumba and Tidal about 5-10 mins. I know the summer holidays get crazy busy so today was probably not considered a busy day but it felt like it. And I am ashamed to say that I bought fast track for Saw because it is both mine and my nieces fave ride and the queue was ridiculous - I feel robbed! Apologies - I appear to have typed a trip report!

Not sure if this is in the right place but someone asked on TPs Facebook page if Summer Nights are returning this year and they have confirmed that they aren't. I'm gutted as they were great for getting lots of rides in and a good atmosphere. Meh.

I will never forget queuing for Samurai literally 2 or 3 days after The Smiler crash and when Saw was closed - a couple of people behind us said "oh yeah, Saw is shut cos 2 people died on it the other day". I literally smacked myself round the head! chessingtonSam - your friend should get his butt to Towers - no amount of POVs give that ride the credit it deserves - I don't like comparing Nemesis to Inferno but out of the 2, for me Nemesis wins hands down.

they should have call Galactica GalacticAir - 2 rides in 1. One station for Air with same theming as before and the other for Galactica with the VR and new stuff. Everyone happy, sorted

I was pondering that earlier - not a lot they can do once you've left the lift hill - just make sure you wop them back once you hit the brake run

Gah dammit they should give the option of not having to use VR. I would imagine it could make some people nauseous plus others may just want to ride it as Air. If this info is correct I'm screwed as I have a major phobia of space. Surely one station for VR and one for those that don't want to use it would make sense and keep everyone happy rather than peeing off those that don't want to use the VR. Ah well - goodbye Air

How busy tomorrow guys? I've been in Easter hols before and got on about 3 rides. Niece is on Easter break but my nephews haven't started their Easter break yet so I'm a tad confused!