SteveJ

Yeah there's really no reason to complain about the sets when they are up to standard. They look very engaging and well designed. Who cares if they get worn out in the future, that's the same for every set ever built. Enjoy it

Not exaggerating, if they wanted to responded fully to all the health and safety concerns that were brought up they'd have to demolish half the park and shut down major rides. …Oh.

Looooool Maybe someone at Merlin has a friend who runs an untreated wooden fence business? This will last considerably shorter than the old concrete walls, and look shockingly ugly. At a guess it's to move the batch point closer to station? This was always a massive flaw when fastrack was introduced. Another reason why Fastrack is ruining theme parks. How embarrassing. They'll run out of things to demolish soon.

Never judge photos to have an opinion, that's one of the only things I learnt being a theme park enthusiast.

Really interesting that the name The Edge was changed so late on even the sign had to be printed over. They've clearly scrubbed the sign to the point where the unused Edge logo is showing through. Actually I seem to remember the name Stealth being publicised pretty late and without much announcement, and it wasn't on the list of potential names that went out

Did moving the entrance actually make it more popular in the end? I'd argue it didnt really. Even though you'd think more people cluster around Nemesis, it just ended up more tucked away. Blade was a cool niche ride but very boring in the grand scheme. Rides get removed or shut for many greater reasons than because they decline in popularity, it's much more complicated than that. But still the sight of an unoperational ride is never a good thing, that's why I'm so glad they bothered paying to remove Submission rather than let that sit there too.

They don't make as much profit as you'd think if I've heard correctly. Blade is one of the least popular and well on its way out anyway, although unoperational rides always give a terrible impression. What rides are you thinking about anyway? They don't SNBO rides on a whim or queue basis, Beastie and Submission were justified I think. By your reasoning Ripsaw, Duel, Enterprise, etc would be removed as well. Oh wait.

Ah, theme parks when run competently, successfully and with actual people in mind.

And several other reasons why the track is down. They must have run into further problems which is concerning. Or maybe it's fine and there's nothing to worry about... hmm

I laughed a lot.

Haha well in my experience (other parks may operate this differently or dependent on each ride) VIPs often just come up the exit on their own accord when they deem the Fastrack queue to be too long for them. It's a big grey area in terms of a queueing system. But I'd rather that than have a dedicated VIP queue. No.

It's made out like an exclusive experience for premium paying guests, but it's laughable how there are often many VIP groups roaming the parks in peak days, each thinking they have exclusivity over the rest, only to end up in long queues full of other "VIP Ultimate fastrack" guests. So many people just buy it for the price tag and that 'VIP lanyard' status - rather than because they value the perks. There's nothing actually glamorous about visiting a theme park, no matter how much extra you pay to get in, so you have the ridiculous situation of staff being instructed to give these VIP guests all their attention and treat them better than the rest to make up for it. Which no one really buys into, especially when VIP guests from my experience are often irate and arrogant in their behaviour. Maybe it's just me and my idea that everyone should be enjoying themselves equally, regardless of disposable income/stupidity to pay such a high price? Quite sad really and nothing but a money-hungry, opportunist idea.

Thanks, yes Chessington really was the home of dark rides in the 80s/90s. 5th Dimension, BubbleWorks and Tomb were each by completely different studios and all very innovative for their period. But quite helpful for people down south that they all happened to be built in the same park! Haunted House was by the same team that did BubbleWorks and a vast range of smaller attractions at Thorpe Park and Alton Towers in the mid 80s. Cheeky Facebook page link. It's always been my ambition to do a project like this, ever since I went on Terror Tomb in its final season and was left to find out what happened to all the spooks, and I'm dedicating a lot to get the film done so really great that people are interested.

This is silly and actually a bit worrying.

Forgive me for advertising! I'm creating a (not dull) documentary on dark rides in Britain and have interviewed most of the original designers that created rides like Hauntd House, Bubble Works and 5th Dimension. I've done an enormous amount of research (it's hard work but well worth it!) so the film really will be very insightful and in depth, I'm amazed at the stories of how these rides were thought up and brought to life in such weird ways and the people I've met have all been fascinating. Haunted House was one of the more simple rides to do, although as you'll probably know it went through so many bizarre changes during construction and post-opening. If you're interested there's a Facebook page, search "British Dark Rides - Better Luck Next Time". I've actually got permission to use that HH footage in the film funnily enough, along with unseen footage. And a heck of a lot more archive material that I've dug up. I'm going to publish the first part of the doc in September.

Website cost too much to keep online. More active on the facebook page. I've worked a lot with Mick who is HauntedOne for my dark ride project, he hasn't stopped research.

Been kicking around for a while, but yes this is great footage as it has a lot of the original stronger lighting design.

He's being sarcastic because vehicles are massively overused for the simple fact they are cheap to buy as scrap. But this one probably cost more or has some relevance to the IP but I wouldn't know

Merlin Merlin Merlin. Quiet I say. Merlin will get you.

Pops a lot better than the previous design which was getting cluttered and dull with years of revisions. This one's simple, continues the character of the previous and has better colours.

So a publically advertised version of what they had last year for Nemesis 20th. Really what's left to say about Nemesis?

The Falls redesign was cancelled forever over a year ago, let it goooo!

That's because the Vampire exit queue is the BubbleWorks evac route. The two rides are in the same show building, one on top of the other. But you wouldn't want to evacuate X in a hurry only to find it leads into another building!

It two days ago. It doesn't take so long to put it back up, even if it is being left rather late.

Doesn't count, I was wearing geek disguise!