Mitchada04

Let's rethink this with new and improved views from last night! S13: highlight of the night, did it twice and wow! Both times me and Jack went around as the only two with actors picking on us and interacting brilliantly! The strobes didn't seem as intense either so I could see the theming (and the lots of blood splatter). And being the only two the end corridor felt much better too. MBV: Slightly better, splitting of the groups was good and the dark corridor with no actors built some suspense (although I think there was probably meant to be an actor) Saw Alive: Oh my. Pitiful. Police lady waved a toy gun in my face, pig mask person came up to me made a random noise which set me off in hysterics for some reason and that was it really. Oh and I hit a wall which was fun. Cabin: Found the control room which was no where near as fun as last year, tunnel still broken, and you always seem to catch up with like 10 other groups so towards the end it gets very crowded. Blair Witch: Got pinned against a tree as the actor did my hoodie up really tight, was good fun. Had to queue to get through the shed though but that was great as us Brits love queueing! Roamers: 2 groups, red demon figure things which are just intimidating and I'm guessing the cult. The Cult are great with their variety of weapons and one guy has a teddy bear! Didn't see Olly Murs. So better night maze wise.

Me and ATF saw a ghost. J.S217 however saw a girl. Perv.

Thorpe aren't restricted in where buildings can go at all. They can try and put a building anywhere, it's whether or not it would get approved. Fungle site is not much more liable to flooding than The Arena. A building would be much more suited to Fungle site for view reasons (Arena site would build up and be a stupid building in the core of the park whereas at Fungle it'd be out of the way). If the park applies for a building in The Arena or Fungle site it won't be able to go under reserved matters as nothing like it was mentioned on the MTDP (although Fungle site was earmarked for development, The Arena was not). Dark ride would be much more suited to Fungle and with a large push on entertainment this year and mind to increase artists next year (those surveys have meaning you know) refurbing the Arena to a proper stadium like thing would make sense. Anyway, why would they have suddenly bothered to cut the trees down on the Fungle site if it wasn't significant, not like they've been keen to do it for ages. Oh and a flat ride on Fungle wouldn't require trees down the service road to be tagged. Maybe Thorpe are fed up with the amount of trees and are just removing them all.

Well now we can't discuss X being rethemed every year like Top Spins I guess we have to talk about its removal. Think logically about this all like a jigsaw puzzle. Why would Thorpe say MBV would by Swarm thus leaving the Arena vacant? Oh and now they've taken the seats out? Maybe they wanted to start work on whatever they're doing to it for next year during FN to get it finished in time. Flat ride in Fungle would be such a waste of space. There's loads of room to stick flat rides here and there but Fungle site is actually quite large (looks very odd with all the trees gone) and with it going all the way behind Inferno (the tagged trees) it could make a decent sized building for a dark ride. After all, Thorpe doesn't need more flat rides, it needs more experience based rides. We'd have seen planning permission for a flat ride next year by now anyway if they wanted it open by summer.

We did all the mazes today with an extra go on S13 all because of R'n'R without it we would have only done one maze and BWP probably. This was along with Ninfernox2, Stealth, Swarm, Saw, Slammer, Rush, X, Detty, Rumba and some general meandering. Not bad for 3:30-10 on what was a relatively busy day anyway even if R'n'R hadn't been in use.

The sooner in half term the better I'd say as Halloween itself is the Friday. Tuesday would be my guess as the best day to go out of them all in half term. Maybe Wednesday.

Every Park should have an Air Race. Screw bloody top spins and scans, air races are amazing! If Blackpool getsan Air Race then brilliant! I don't think any flat ride they install would lure masses of people to the place. Not like Drayton is next to Blackpool either so people further north won't necessarily even have seen one let alone ridden one! Air race please Thanks.

If you go in the standby queue you will be waiting for ages even if the queue looks short because Thorpe will be pushing R'n'R and it'll work even better at FN as while queueing virtually for a maze you can do a coaster. Go tothe maze, queue vivirtually for the next one and go on another coaster. Simple. Fastrack and R'n'R will get priority over the main queue. Simple.

Can actually make any of the dates Unless a surprise unannounced trip to Florida arises... but have put the two Saturdays because the 6th is too early for Christmas music (yes it is) and Sunday trains are horrid.

Another launched coaster would work though. You should know this LC you've done Cedar Point with Dragster and Maverick on the same piece of land. As long as the ride isn't focused on the speed or height then it won't detract from Stealth at all!

Would be surprised if any of the rides got to 10 minutes even on one train op.

Kinda irrelevant as this Wednesday in question isn't FN anyway and is only a 10-5 day so it will be quiet

Don't think it out performs itself. 4 hours of decent running really shouldn't mean the ride is down for a few days and if that is the cause then it really means it should leave. In 2012 it was dismantled mid September with a sign saying it wouldn't open till the 2013 season. It did open again for FN on around the 19th October that year. So that was down to something else. Last year I think it made it through the first weekend and died in the quiet week in between.

Could be worse. At least Stealth has only been down for short periods of time today. Saw always has blips. Swarm who knows but that wasn't down for long. Rumba is just being Rumba and rubbish. Loggers was open till 5 which is when it closes throughout FN due to lighting. Samurai I can only assume has killed itself, won't be planned maintenance as they wouldn't chose FN they'd choose a week day where it is dead.

A few of us went the last Sunday of last year and it was dead! Helped massively by the awful weather but it will be like the first two Sundays either way I believe.

Back in the day FN would sell out. A few nights once my dad finished work we were refused as they were full, I'll be amazed if they reach capacity though

You have to remember Whirlwind does 7 hour days at the most and that's at weekends. In the quieter months (September and stuff) the park is only open weekends so it's easier to maintain it as they can strip it down each week and give it a service before the following weekend if needed much like the travelling ones will receive. Whirlwind is also so not the most intense setting, it's good but still not to the standard of how fun fairs operate their top scans.

Let's get real here. Everyone knows that Tussauds wanted to build a Zac Spin on Fungle's site they just never got round to it. Merlin were in the process but shelved the plans. Now they're clearing trees in the site but not taking out the stumps it is obvious, an RMC Zac Spin because undoubtedly they will eventually make one! It'll duel as well, so we'll get the first track next year and the second one in 2016. Simple. Or maybe they're just clearing the trees to start their own paper manufacturing.

Studio 13, first run through of the night. Started so well, ended very disappointingly! Hopefully it's improved next Friday as I heard it was better later on last night. MBV is still awful. How that gets 5 star scare rating is the scary thing. Saw Alive has new evil apparently. No idea where just seemed like a load of people shouting at me. Cabin is cabin. Had such high hopes for this after last year but again it was just meh. Loved the costume that we voted for or whatever that was amazingly done but yeah. No spinning tunnel (well no spinning) just boring I thought. Blair Witch exceeded expectations! Maybe my hopes were so low it couldn't get any worse. It was fun, raining and dark. Didn't hear the new ambient soundtrack though! Roaming actors were like non existent in our experience. Saw them once all together on Swarm island. Saw Olly Murs more times (and his costume was better). Maybe I've been spoilt with Tulleys, they have next week to redeem themselves otherwise Chessington will be scarier, not just better! Negative review done.

Okay then. S13 was hugely meh. MBV was still awful. Cabin seemed worse or just more boring. Saw Alive was averagely itself. Blair Witch was great fun. S13: 1 MBV: 1 Cabin: 2 Saw Alive: 1 Saw le Ride: 1 BWP: 1 Stealth: 3 Swarm: 1 X: 1 Depth Charge: 1 Rush: 1 Slammer: 1 Colossus: 1 Ninferno: 3 And before the preview event we also did Loggers, Detty, Colossus, Rush and Inferno between 4 and 5. Fair to say was mightily impressed with the way the event was run. They added the second trains to the coasters between 5 and 6 (although removed Colossus and Inferno quite quick but can't complain was still walk on!) All rides bar Fish, Loggers, Rocky and Carousel were open (yes even Mr Monkey!)

Tripsdrill did that same with Karacho as well. Just means they can invest heavily one year in decent ride hardware and then decent (or amazing looking by the family coaster and Flutch) theming the following year. But it is obviously impossible to theme a tall tower because Tower of Terror looks awful doesn't it.

If you don't have a smartphone you'll get one of those plastic cards again just like with the coasters. It'll be no different other than it's on the mazes not the coasters and the coasters will be able to absorb the apparent millions of people who will be waiting for the mazes on R'n'R. I think if there is no standby queue in place it will work well! If the maze is walk on it will still be walk on on R'n'R, just "ride right now" instead of being given a waiting time. I'd much rather be able to queue 2 hours for a maze virtually and go on some rides rather than being stuck in a cattle pen of boredom waiting for a maze. The feedback from the users of R'n'R was hugely successful, it allowed people to go one many things. It won't cause the maze queues to increase as long as the standby queue is removed so the throughput minus fastrack will all go to R'n'R. It won't ruin your day, if the park is quiet the mazes will still be quiet. It's a clever system that adjusts to ride shut downs very quickly and adjusts the wait times well. It works, just give it a chance. Maybe on that Sunday you'll be able to go on all the mazes and coasters as you'll only be queuing for 5 things in reality instead of 10. It's the moaning about lack of standby queue that causes R'n'R to mess up. Disney have been trialling a similar thing on Soarin where you join a virtual queue and return back at a certain time. If all the slots had gone that's it you couldn't ride, no standby queue. Thorpe just need to stick to their guns and go all out with just R'n'R and Fastrack in operation, no standby queue where you'll join going "oh this looks short" but still queue 2 hours. Use the system that's there, if you choose not to use it for some bizarre reason and do end up waiting forever in standby it's your own fault, you had the choice. Edit: hopefully they choose to bring back the plastic cards (didn't read up sorry)

Europa Park is Disney's biggest competitor in Europe. Although it might not take British tourists away from Disney like Port Aventura can do, Europa has the second highest attendance in Europe after Disney. And even with the falling numbers I'm sure Disney Land Paris is still top of attendance figures in Europe by quite some margin. After all, it is still Disney.

Don't get your hopes up about Slammer can't see them opening that for obvious Slammer reasons! Weather looks like it'll be pretty meh, people will have booked extra tickets for their friends in case they could come but they might not be able to. I wouldn't worry about it until the night. I'm getting there early to go on the flats and coasters so then we only have to worry about the mazes (coasters in the dark can be done the following Friday )

Basically: 1) at 5pm the Park closes and everyone leaves. 2) make sure you have the eventbrite ticket printed off 3) once the Park is clear of day guests (5:45 ish) they'll start letting Pass holders in 4) this happens by you joining the cattle pen queue set up by the ticket boothes, the staff then manage the front taking the paper ticket you have printed off at home from you 5) walk up to the turnstiles as usual and scan your pass 6) go in and enjoy Don't worry, there are lots of staff ensuring no one jumps that queue or tries to sneak up to the turnstiles just to scan their pass. It's a tried and tested system that works well.