mah boi

I have a question about the backstage tours. I haven't been to one of these so apologies if it may be a silly question, but are people allowed to go onto the brake runs during the tour? Well, the final ones I mean, though the others will be nice.

It will be best to look on Chessington's website for opening times. It contains a key showing what each colour means on the calendar and the way the park will be on those days. The day you have chosen to go as mentioned above, is a festive zoo day with only selected areas of the zoo and sea life centre being open only. Here is a link to the opening times page with the colour key chart on it as well http://www.chessington.com/plan-your-trip/opening-times.aspx

Ok. In that case yes, I am interested.

I will say yes, I will be able to go depending on the date this will occur on, since I am busy with university stuff.

A Vekoma tilting coaster wouldn't be so bad for Thorpe. It will be nice to see another Vekoma at the park.

The most likely outcome would be something like this, if it landed on someone's face.

Whoops, I didn't know it was meant to mean that. I thought it was meant to say magnetic retracting brakes, since that is what the brakes do. Thanks for telling me the definition of the word in other terms.

This is more Gerstlauer related than The Smiler related, but I'll post it here. While I was looking through the Infinity coaster brochure I saw that a mistake was made on one of the words (bottom left of the image where the 2 lines and arrow is). Link to brochure: http://www.gerstlauer-rides.de/assets/downloads/brochures/Infinity-Coaster.pdf Link to Infinity coaster page: http://www.gerstlauer-rides.de/products/roller-coasters/infinity-coaster/#Modelle

Is the aim of the attraction meant to be that the public have to find clues around the whole park, in order to fully understand and discover the disappearance of the explorer? Though it will mostly be explained while in the attraction of course.

When I rode it, it was smooth. However the transition on the cobra roll was very sudden as I was sitting in the back row. I do hope they do something with that part of the cobra roll, even if it may be expensive.

I visited Chessington today with my family and it was a very strange day indeed. The park was the quietest I have ever seen it and it is my home park. Every single ride was a walk on, and I even had a Rattlesnake car to myself . Vampire was only running on one train, but regardless of that the queue was maybe 1 minute. I had a ride on Kobra which was fun as it gives a nice breeze of air. However, there was one thing I didn't feel was so good. On all the other rides all the ride hosts sent us off regardless of how many there were. Tomb Blaster was a different situation. When all of us sat down in our places, the person who was directing people onto the train decided to have a chat with the ride controller, even though nobody was in the queue. I would guess that some 2, nearly 3 minutes passed before more people arrived at the station. Even though some people came, the lady continued talking with her little group. Then maybe 5 minutes passed before we were dispatched (I just reminded my self of RCT3 while typing this). Other than this little thing, the whole day was great. I liked the hosts on the Safari Sky ride, cheerful bunch. Also through the day, I kept on thinking how better the park would be if they added a new rollercoaster, most preferably a GCI. Anyway, as I had travelled today I took some photos of anything of interest I saw at the park, which you will see below. Before I forget, I was able to ride Zufari today. Unfortunately I have some bad news in regards to the cave. The whole water system, except the mist makers, were working. The speakers and lights made the area seem as if something bad was going to happen. But nothing happened. The cave would have been much better with the water effects which is a pity that none of them were working today. I did see however that the elephant on Dragon Falls was being worked on, I think, unless there is a system underneath the elephant that has nothing to do with it. A new area being built beside the Pizza and Pasta Buffet. Monkey and Bird Garden work. Zufari truck on road (nothing so interesting about it, but I think I'll post it because its not on the ride site). The following images are of the runaway mine train. The image below shows the runaway mine train's bridge covered in scaffolding.

I searched for recent things on Chessington and I came across this article (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2411810/LORRAINE-CANDY-Thank-Chessington-worst-days-entire-life.html). Very horrid to read that the park is so crammed and busy. Lets hope this makes Chessington take the decision to add a coaster (hopefully a GCI or a Intamin freefall ride). One thing I feel sorry for though, is the staff. I suspect they have to stand out in the heat to help the public but I am thinking they don't have any special shade for them such as stands with umbrellas to keep them cool. One thing that made me laugh is that the image used in regards to the queues, isn't even of Chessington.

I hope there is some form of near miss located at the base of the tilted pretzel element. Going in at such a angle and at a near miss, would be very good for that section.

Everytime I've ridden Saw, I have never had a rough ride. The only bad part of Saw is the last transition into the final breakrun, as that part made my neck click once. I do hope however that Thorpe decide to change Saw into a lap bar ride. That would make it better, especially with the indoor section.

Looks like the station will have a similar appearance to the swarm's station. It should be interesting to see this wingrider form in the coming weeks, the route and the trains of course.

A question to recent visitors of Thorpe. Has the mid-course brake run been activated when cars pass it, to slow it down a bit before entering the last inversion?

Banned for defying gravity. To the skies!

Apparently it's separated because that's how maintenance are able to take it back into the station, so TTF and TS have said.

Now looking at that image, I remember seeing on my visit to alton towers on the 18th july, that a bolt on the breakrun to a support before the second lifthill was missing. I wonder if that one was missing on purpose or not.

Well my trip to Alton towers went on and it was not good. I only got on a few rides including the smiler, and the rest of my friends went on some rides as well. We didn't even get to forbidden valley because of those school kids and the amount of congestion they caused by weaving in and out and blocking people off. It wasn't helpful at all since once of my friends is disabled and I had to walk through the kids to meet up with her again since they kept of getting between us and cutting her off. And yes there were a lot of schools on that day. The coach park was quite full. It irritated me as to how many rides we got on and nearly spending £600 just for a day where I only went on 5 rides. We live in the south and I travel to Alton with my family every 3 years. So after this trip I'll have to wait another 3 years to go again. Sorry to all the good students who are on this forum, but to all you silly school kids who wasted my time, thanks for ruining my day. A warning to you all, do not go to Alton Towers the week before schools break up.

For me, a coaster by GCI would fit well into Chessington and wouldn't be so hard to fit in, especially with the landscape and the way the park is. So maybe that is why Merlin were apparently (I think), looking at the booths because of a wooden coaster at Chessington. However, a hybrid coaster such as from RMC would be good for Thorpe. Though it would be a bit strange seeing it beside The Swarm, if it will be an extension to the current swarm island in theming. It should be interesting to see if Intamin create their own version of a woodie hybrid.

That voice of the lady speaking with Dr.Kelman, reminds me of the voice of the woman in Oblivion's queue, who says 'Oblivion bekons in T minus 5 minutes. Prepare for embarcation.'

Looking at the update towerstimes made, I saw that many of the supports in the bottom section of the coaster were already or were being concreted in. Only the top sections such as the lifthill, toilet block and dive elements remained. Hopefully testing does indeed start by the beginning of next week.

Could someone post when wakes weeks is please, as I am trying to find information about it but I can't find the dates it takes place. As long as I go when this isn't taking place, I guess it is the best time for me and my group.

Unfortunately not. I plan to visit in July as it is the most convenient time for my friends and myself.