Mitchada04

Me and J.S217 will be leaving for Towers on the Friday morning to get up there for 10am so we can have two days at Towers. If anyone wants a lift from the Thorpeish area and is able to leave at about 7am the Friday morning just message me

*Prepares for the up roar from people who want to see the system fail* R'n'R dates for 2015 have been announced! Few moderate summer days but one major test. Fright Nights half term week (presumably to try and eliminate the 140+ minutes physical waits the coasters achieved last year). Hopefully this time round they close the standby queues for the coasters and give 100% of the queue to R'n'R (which Fastrack will also be done through). However, it doesn't seem like they'll be using the cards again (at least for the first test) so I guess standby queue will have to be open. Oh and to get through the loophole that everyone was trying to exploit last year... Good. Scan your ticket with a QR on the app or type in the code then it can only be put on one account once a day. Obviously it's still going to have blips, problems and so on but the only way to fix them is to keep trialling it and seeing what works and what doesn't. Yes, the same old arguments of people being dispersed elsewhere can arise, mathematical formulae can be implemented for the worst possible situation where all 1000000000000 people in the coaster queues are all of a sudden straight in a flat ride queue meaning Vortex will have a 5 hour wait and so on. The system can work, it has worked for many people. For all you moaning about how this will destroy rerides, it won't. If there's no one in the station you will probably still be allowed to stay in your seat. All those moaning about not wanting to go on your phone because it makes an unsocial society. You'll have to go on it what, once an hour for a minute at most? Oh no you might miss out on Geoff telling you about the piece of broccoli he brought yesterday. If you hate the system, then don't visit when it's happening. And instead of watching the RnR site all day on your phone just to see how busy it is, how about you go outside and talke to Geoff? https://www.thorpepark.com/tickets-passes/reserve-n-ride/overview/

WC16's entrance is more the Amity/X side of the construction zone so it's "areas" entrance is in Thorpe's area terms a long way from the Jungle. I think Calypso still exists as Inferno and Rapids with the Jungle being the Bush BBQ and IAC. Old Town looks like it could be Canada Creek and that area does need some work (it's still littered in fat heads and old branding). Maybe this is a sign of themed areas returning? (Or should I save this for closed season chatter along with the wooden zactopbamboofireseatbeltspin of fun? ) The are ones looks so, just why? They have nothing to them really. Did see a manager wearing a Lost City one on Thursday though so they are about for you collectors.

What if demand is just the public lingo they use like when a ride is broken, they don't delve into details. I've said it before, they don't have the staff to service all the rides ready on two trains each morning. Yes, they should have the staff and budget to allow two train op at any time. Do you think park managers and ride staff want rides open on one train? As much as you might think it help aids fast track that really isn't the aim even if it sometimes seems like that. It's not acceptable for a ride like Swarm to have a 110 minute queue on one train but Thorpe are only doing the best they can with what they've got. It's higher up you need to look when trying to pin the blame.

It's been announced. MAKO. A 200ft 73mph B&M Mega coaster! Pretty cool entrance! Plaza and it dips into the SWO lagoon Woosh! So it doesn't go around the lake behind Kraken, it goes over it! And it looks the like the Shark encounter walk through thing will finally get a makeover to go alongside the new ride (presumably much like the penguin enclosure got with Antarctica and the Manta aquarium linking with that queue.) http://youtu.be/O4pFi1awh3o And the website. http://seaworldparks.com/en/seaworld-orlando/attractions/rides/mako/?from=Home_promo Gonna be a good year for Orlando with this, Kong and Frozen all opening up!

Engineers could have been testing the audio out. They'll probably check everything. New staff might take 18hours to train on it but if they have staff who worked on it last year they can probably just be refreshed on it which would be an hour or so so if they had enough returners they could get it open sooner and then train new staff on it alongside them. It's best just to wait till it's actually open rather than trying to guess when it will be. It's Slammer, it'll probably bugger itself up due to all the testing.

Lift Hill evacs on Colossus were always common back in the day so it's not an unusual occurrence and when it does happen it might just remain closed for the rest of that day, not usually more than that. Was working Sunday on two trains

Thorpe have to go to external companies for most of the parts needed for Slammer. That's why it often takes ridiculously long for the parts to arrive as they are being made from scratch with little to no design of the original part as it's not S&S producing it. Slammer is essentially Thorpe's engineers toy that they hate having to fix. It's probably almost made entirely from in house/external company parts with little resemblance to the original S&S that sat there failing in 2005.

Pop badges are the pin badge alternative for kids.They're for kids to put on their lanyards. This is just my opinion but to me they look cheap. They're pieces of coloured plastic with a bit of paper in. Big woop. I know they're essentially freebies (once you've given in to Merlin and have brought a meal to start your collection) but they're still cheap. They're clunky on a lanyard and just aren't nice in my eyes. For kids yes, for adults no. But for some reason staff and enthusiasts alike are obsessed with them. They're so not nice. That Swarm Island one is horrific. I just don't get the obsession. Nor get why they become worth so much. If you just get an empty plastic shell and print out and image for yourself, tadah done. Look at that you've made your own one. If I went to Fish & Chips in half term, I would only get a kids meal knowing that if I got a Stealth pop badge I could probably sell it for a fortune compared to its real value of like 5p.

The changes to it are fantastic! Having the same tour guide the whole time works much better and you feel more like a team trying to accomplish something and gain stars! (You actually collect gold stars from the trials!) It's still a really good long experience with many cool effects in it. I love the scruffy dog theming, clever effects and feelings. There's one bit that's even like a trial The roof: It's visible, so is X's, and all of the Dungeons. It's not a problem in my eyes as the theming is so immersive around you if you're looking up then you're odd, you're surrounded by an amazing theme and setting that is more than enough to detract you from the bare ceiling (that is very dark and not exactly stand out). You say about the throughput, yes it's low but it's not really a problem. If people are happy queueing 85 minutes then it's fine. A ride with higher throughput doesn't instantly guarantee low queues. It's a flawed logic. Like Forbidden Journey gets 1900+ every hour yet can still surpass a 2 hour queue. It's all about what people are willing to queue. It may look like a short line in comparison to other rides, but you can't compare ride for ride. By that logic, Disney geeks would see Swarms queue half full and think "Oh that'll only be like 15 minutes" when in reality it's 50. You can't compare an idea that it looks "short" because other rides with the same queue length are only 10 minute queues. It doesn't work. It's something Thorpe have lacked which this and the dodgems brought back, FUN! It's interactive, fun for the whole family, well themed and something different to do. Yes it's got a low throughput but it's all about the experience, to get the throughput up you'd slash the experience just like FN mazes and so on. Nice to see they've tweaked it heavily from press night and the like to something that'll be much more consistent.

*prepares to be killed* I don't get Nandos. It's overpriced chicken that really isn't that amazing. So my cheekiest Nandos experience is deciding last minute to go to Pizza Hut. There I can have a pizza and a dessert which is the only reason I actually eat out.

https://www.thorpepark.com/events-experiences/events/summer-nights/ Summer Nights information available. 4-10 every Friday and Saturday in July/August bar the 3rd and 4th as it hasn't started then and the 18th July and 22nd August as they're MoS nights. Tickets £15 normal, £5 for standard pass holders and FREE for Premium and VIP ( https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/summer-nights-premium-and-vip-annual-pass-tickets-tickets-16803994199 ) Still no idea how this is all going to coexist together. Different types of wristbands and stuff in place? Could get crazy, but woop either way!

Lots of activity on site today! Most importantly, a few shipping container portacabins for the workers have arrived! YAY! This fence is also down And he has a hose! Water effects confirmed They were actually just moving/installing more gates for site access so instead of getting out the barriers all the time, the gates can just open and close. like a level crossing look at them all working hard. Shame it's just a gate and not the actual dark ride. Oh well. Not like it could have delays or anything. Site is also very secure! High quality padlock right there! No block thing. No idea what that block is they've found and placed there. All in like 30 minutes! Guy on the right is from Merlin. He had a personalised branded hi vis! Now I wasn't sure what to make of these grey things to the right of the Webb digger. They are hollow cylindrical mould like things. Could they be footer moulds? I'm not sure so any ideas on what they could be would be ace! There was also a hose running through the Colossus queue with little wooden bridges installed for you to walk over. Was then heading up the Cabin fastpass route and away. Bridge was put here as well for it to run under, odd as it isn't a public area unless it's FN. Long term thing for construction of WC16 as the people working on this today were also on the construction site Bridge thing. And the planks of wood removed from the queue posts to get the hose through. Conveniently placed to start a fire... But activity is lively, very lively! Lots of ground broken, Merlin people on site and padlocks! All very exciting

You know that running joke with Colossus? The one about painting it? Well they've listened. For this bit a least. Yay it's grey and dull. Will fit in much nicer with Saw now! Seriously though, it's just this piece and a cross beam on the cobra roll. I'm guessing it's something structural/stress related but I've no idea! Anyone else know what's going on?

Swarm was marketed amazingly, the park did nothing wrong with that in my eyes. It should have been a success but wasn't and that's not down to the lack of IP. The parks figures were even lower in 2013 than 2012, maybe it was more a flaw in the park overall like I don't know aiming it solely at thrill seekers. But oh look, they then changed their marketing strategy and ta da it looks a bit better for them attendance wise. Saw was more of a success than they were expecting, like a lot more and it was always going to be difficult to surpass that (and they haven't attendance wise ever, 2009 was the highest attendance for the park closely followed by 2011 which fills you with confidence when you look at what they opened that year...) Look at Towers and Smiler. That brand is literally everywhere. Merlin know they can create an iconic brand that is unique to them and with Oblivion Black Hole in Gardaland now they might be pushing their own in house IPs. Although unlikely to not be an IP you'd expect, Merlin will have heavily considered a unique theme for the ride as they can then spend more money on the ride itself. Marketing is key to it all, if you make the public want it they'll get it or go and ride it no matter if it's a well known horror film or made up Smiling joy device with loops.

A major rehaul of The Dome is always talked about, problem is to do it all in one closed season and do it well you're looking at millions of pounds on just essentially am infrastructure project. Yes it'll look much better but it won't draw in the guests so it's never high up the list of things to do although it's always on the list. What they're doing with Fins is superb and definitely the way forward! Themed eateries are great and the food in there is good to! Maybe they'll do the retheme in parts so they've done the bar. Next season The shop and so on? Would be a good way of spreading the overall cost and getting the job done.

From a park perspective: Slammer costs more to maintain and continually repair as undoubtedly it has been more reliable over its life than Samurai plus it is unique, S&S don't make them anymore so don't supply parts therefore the park have to get parts specially made which takes time and costs more money. Samurai is also more popular, shifts more of a queue, takes up less room and probably costs less to run an hour as it doesn't involve compressing air. It also doesn't have to be shut half way through the day to be checked for cracks etc. Neither ride is perfect, but logically Slammer should go before Samurai (ideally they'll both go and we'll get one reliable good replacement- note it doesn't have to be a flat.)

We ban because we can.

Two more MoS dates are on the website with tickets available for them soon! https://www.thorpepark.com/events-experiences/events/ministry-of-sound/

Skull Island: Reign of Kong has been announced by Universal today (I have to say I'm shocked it's King Kong... definitely didn't see that one coming) Universal Creative is working alongside Peter Jackson to create the most accurate immersive experience from the 2005 film (and presumably Skull Island coming in a year or two by legendary) Nice and menacing! Some concept art showing the ride will have an exterior section before heading inside. This will be amazing (Universal can make things look like concept art) Rumours this "Coming soon" animatronic will be the dinosaurs and Kong animatronic: http://www.creaturetechnology.com/exhibitions-themeparks/coming-soon/ And from Universal's website: https://www.universalorlando.com/email-signup/skull-island-reign-of-kong.aspx Have to say I'm very excited for this! You just know it isn't going to be something standard, it will be a whole new level just like Harry Potter has been

Something circulated saying that if the ride broke or some work was needed from B&M themselves they could just say no as the park hasn't been running it as it was designed. Pure rumours though as the rides operate fine independent of the other but I guess it depends on what the contract says (plus I doubt B&M would be that stubborn and not fix it because the park aren't allowed to duel it anymore).

Okay the exterior of Kong is starting to look spectacular! So imposing! And menacing! And huge!!!!! Like really! And they're starting around the other side now From Jurassic. (http://orlandoinformer.com/topic/989-king-kong-at-islands-of-adventure/page-16 all photos on here from member AliciaStella- well worth a follow this forum if you're interested in the project!)

You'd love it Alex... everyone else loves it because all their coasters have helixes. Bizarre.

Yesterday it was every 3 trains (I like to count as I like to try and get fire where possible ) The original timing was when the train was at the top of the zero g roll. Last year it was changed to when the train is at the bottom of the first drop which from what I saw yesterday was what was happening. They tried every one, kept filling the area with gas though as it didn't always ignite (and it would go off every minute or so). 7 was a bit extreme in the it hardly ever happens sense so 3 seems to have become the settled upon number.

Okay then so assuming there is some legitness behind this and a park in the UK is looking into a new coaster and this competition is being run along side it, which park? So basically by the sound of it this park has already decided on the coaster it wants at heart and are looking at alternatives? Still haven't a clue what park it could be though. 150 foot is big for a non Merlin park, no where really has an observation tower, and it has to be capable of running at least 2 trains so it isn't Drayton or Mingo. I call Gullivers. And whilst No Limits is often used by designers to come up with ideas for coasters, I highly doubt it would be put down to the public. If the park are looking at building it any time soon then they'll have plans in place so track can be fabricated (many companies have long waiting lists). Will be interesting to follow! Anyone here thinking of entering?