Mitchada04

Not really. Howl-O-Scream uses dashes, not apostrophes. But seriously, that event is heavily aimed at the older market where as this will be entirely family based. At least it's easier to say that Halloween Hocus Pocus and is a bit of fun with the word play. If the event gets stronger then Chessie are onto a winner as their mazes at Halloween are brill as is the lighting and quite often the park wide theming effort. Bring back the trick or treat doors and I'll be more than happy!

It's just essential maintenance. Some seats had no lap bars yesterday so it's just a mid season, heavy duty inspection, much like Stealth having its new launch cable put in on Wednesday. It's nothing to do with the incident (yes they'll check the cables but they do that anyway).

Well the opening times over half term week have returned to 8pm. I guess a rebrand is due since Hocus Pocus Hall Bewitched has changed. They don't really need to do anything to this event in my eyes as it's already really good, maybe just another maze and a good show.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Universal Studios opened with no coasters, then Woody Woodpecker which is just a cred and in 2004 The Mummy which is a highly immersive dark ride coaster. The star of Harry Potter World is Forbidden Journey, Dragon Challenge never gets a queue much longer than 10 minutes (and it's not because of a huge throughput, FJ is capable of 2056 if ran flat out with no delays). The stars of the Disney parks are dark rides, stuff like Snow White, Its a Small World, Tower of Terror. Whilst roller coasters for many might be seen as the defining factor of a theme park, there is only so much you can do with them whilst the potential with dark rides is so much more! I recommend having a look at the Top100 on theme park tourist and seeing how readers of that site rate rides and how the large majority are the classic, highly themed dark rides. This country doesn't need big coasters in a park, then we'll just end up with big lumberrson coasters that meander around. This country needs highly immersive experiences in rides, dining, shopping etc to rejuvenate the theme park over in the UK.

Everyone's been in the position of being too short for a ride at one point or another and it is annoying, especially if you've done other rides with the same restriction in that Park that day (first time I did Inferno no problem, went to Colossus and suddenly I was too short so had to leave the station). People wouldn't boo at that (unless it was towards the staff). The problem is, had Alvey been in the queue and some kid was deemed to short and the parents kicked off and held up the queue as they tried to sort the problem, he'd have complained to the park and written about it. But when it's his kid who is suddenly too short and he (presumably) kicks off it's the "awfully run" parks fault who are clearly "money grabbing." If you are against it that much don't go! I'd have certainly booed Alvey for holding up the queue. There must have been some doubt in the staffs eyes as I'm sure more than one person would have checked the height had a fuss been kicked up. Oh well, he loves the new woodie and says it's one of the best woodies (although not the best RMC). Strange as it's definitely a steel coaster. At least Iron Medusa is advertised as a steel or hybrid and that's the same as Goliath.

Thorpe Park scroller. My moneys on the launch cable being changed as it's around this time of year it's done.

I'm just waiting for the day Alvey has to do the walk of shame. That'll be a good day.

Well... You do have the Magical Merlin Month of May I guess it depends on the type of flat ride, if it meets the requirements of the MTDP for the possible 9 flat rides (so is in one of the proposed locations and doesn't exceed the height etc like the dodgems) then they can get planning permission later depending on how complicated the ride itself is to construct etc. The beach will get done up, possibly something new to go on the half with the FlowRider just make it more modern (or update the Neptune's theme). Not sure if it'll be a medium or small investment year, I'd guess small as I believe (pure guess work this) that Merlin are doing large, small, medium, small, large and so on which would make sense. But is Cbeebies land small or medium? Not sure on that front but either way the next large large year (not coaster, just a large ride investment) should be 2016.

I thought there was a 2 for £15 offer on but maybe that was for a limited time only.

G-Force is pretty wacky but in a quirky way. Dragon Flyer at Camelot is probably the wackiest in a "WHAAAT ON EARTH" sense. It's basically a really bad diesel powered coaster driven by a grumpy old sod. It is essentially a monorail but somehow was classed a coaster. I'll never know why Camelot closed looking at this. http://rcdb.com/1372.htm#

Whilst many would love longer opening hours till midnight or similar, it's not financially viable at the moment from a business point of view. The park on most occasions empties out an hour before close, most noticeably at Fright Nights which is open till 10pm. However, never say never what with the 9pm close of a few rides last summer on non Summer Nights and of Summer Nights itself. It's not impossible and they have slowly been testing the waters it would seem (I guess the next step would be for next summer the park to open till 8pm with Summer Nights on Fridays and Saturdays being 8-11). They could try get it through the council, maybe with a term of just over the summer period and Fright Nights. Never say never (also, weren't for the first few MoS the rides open 9-12? Because I remember it changing to 8-11).

Looks odd seeing a B&M with trains that short and no lift hill Although we did see them clone a Vekoma Junior inverted thing in China so Bolliger and Walter are obviously on some dodgy stuff. Although I remember them saying with Leviathan that they'd never gone to and over 300 feet previously because they weren't previously asked to do so. Oh well, the short trains on such large track do look strange but they will hold 20 people each which is the same as Stealth and Rita. And although the launch mechanism isn't done by B&M I still class Hulk a launched B&M as after all, it is B&M track and trains and they designed the coaster around the launched hill Will be interesting to see how this turns out. Also, 52 inches is 1.32 metres which many more B&M's seem to be going for their height restrictions as they were known for only doing 1.4 or 54 inches.

I wouldn't put a bet on it 75 minutes is the longest it's got and we've had the busiest 2 weeks of the year. Plus Slammer probably won't still be running by Sun Scream (and they had enough staff last Tuesday to batch with the ride in operation and I think they did so it can be done).

I love how a Thorpe Park season pass is still only £48, new slogan will be cheaper than visiting once! Big question is, will or more like when will they break the £50 barrier.

It seems Chessington are getting some new queue boards much like Towers (they were desperately needed as well) Credit to Chessington Buzz's FB page.

Disney had plans ready for when IoA opened but didn't need to use them as it didn't have the huge impact they were expecting. Merlin have such a large grip on the UK market I can't see one park substantially effecting this. Kent is a long way away for most people, and it won't be cheap. Paramount will see what Merlin charge and probably charge more as they can sell it as a higher quality product. Merlin isn't even that bad, they do invest, more than other UK parks. People over here don't like change, I'll be amazed if Paramount works. People complain that Swarm is too short, they don't care about the theming! They just wanted a longer ride! Wardley spoke about this when he was at Thorpe and wasn't worried at all. Six Flags, Universal, Disney, they've all looked at building parks over here but it's not worth the expense of setting it up. Merlin shouldn't panic, or invest stupid amounts. It's not sensible business wise. After all, they are a business and are in it to make money. They don't need to change there ways, all the parks get steady investment and are learning. A lot of the time Merlin is still stuck fixing some of Tussauds work. If anything Paramount will have a tougher time setting up over here. I won't be visiting it that often, 2 hours from me when I have 3 Merlin parks within a 30 minute radius. I think everyone is so set on this being the best thing ever that it will just flop. Don't get your hopes up, just because it's fastracked through planning doesn't mean it will still take off. They might even scrap the theme park project and just build the rest of the entertainment complex. Anyway, 2015. Can't say I'm overly looking forward to it although it could be good if they add a ride of some sort with the redevelopment.

Popped in this morning and found some things OMG! I have a top hat How on Earth did you get that?!?! I want one! Thorpe clearly went to a garden centre. 3 potted plants in total No Colossus repaint this closed season then Dr Pepper obviously want some more stuff. So yeah, CAPTURE THE SPLASH And then... SHARE THE SPLASH! What's the worst that could happen? You become a Wally.

I want free ice cream. I expect free ice cream. I'm demanding free ice cream

Rubbish about Rush being to loud. All the rides on park have permission to operate between 9am and 10/11pm throughout the season (depending on days). As for replacing a ride it depends on staffing. They wouldonly be likely to open a ride with staff from the closed ride so that team as they'll be ttrained on them. So in Stealths case that's the rides they already open as the "other" rides.

It's strange because I've definitely found Colossus smoother this year than it has been in previous seasons.

Amity Kebabs was open on the first night as was Fish and Chips

The thing with these smaller parks is they almost rely solely on good word of mouth. They don't have the marketing budgets that Merlin or the likes of Drayton/Blackpool have. Often they're in the middle of no where (see Oakwood) and for most people it is a serious trek for a lot of the time very little. Angering guests with a completely unnecessary system that the company liked when they went to Towers which has throughputs to deal with Fastrack sales isn't going to help the parks reputation. You'd be stupid to buy a £10 Fastrack for one go when you can get unlimited for £20. Stupid idea. They must just want some quick cash as they're obviously struggling especially as their 2014 large summer investment has been put on hold.

Oddly placed sign in the trees Odd water slide effect at the entrance. "You calling my park odd?" Yes. The Lynx didn't want to argue That's a Fishing Cat. Odd that it wasn't fishing. Odd chimp (because there's one of them ) looks at Appocalypse. This seems more humpty bumpty Compared to this. This is just weird. But a good weird. How odd. BEST ENTRANCE EVER!!! AND QUEUE! This is odd. But so much fun! Rainy Shockwave With odd straight bits. Designed with a ruler. Seats were a bit bumpty. Odd dip before the lift hill. Poor dinosaur. Clearly wan't a good enough oddity for the main park so got stuck on the train route. What a strange looking cloud. How odd, it rained in England. Slowest turn from lift to drop on any water ride. Wouldn't be Drayton if it didn't have an odd feature. Free Radio dodgems were very odd! Especially as it took them longer to check all the cars were empty than load the ride. Odd procedures. Urgh. Not odd, not humpty bumpty, just rubbish. Will be getting my vote for best UK ride Something normal Phew. Oddness best IP on a ride ever! It's literally the sign, that's it! Odd, quirky, but great fun YAY MORE THOMAS! Percy loved this idea! It means we'll get duelling bubble people Back to the oddities. The bats are just weird. Oddly placed lights. The odd stand up with no floor wasn't working. So quite normal really. So let's have some more humpty bumpty goodness! No Merlin, this isn't a colour you seem to know of. It's green. Lot's of green! It has a splash zone, that doesn't get you wet. Really odd. And just in case you'd forgotten where we were. The oddity makes it good fun, the weather made it interesting, if you made it to the end of this then the word odd will probably annoy you from now on. How odd.

See it's an odd one, I really enjoy the quirkiness of G-Force (I still question the drunkard who drew it out). It's one of those rides that lots of enthusiasts dislike but other park visitors rave about it! Yes it'll always have a queue as it's right next to the entrance and has a low throughput (which was actually about the same as Shockwave on 1 train) but the guests love it! It's the same with Rip Ride Rokit, a lot of enthusiasts can't stand it but the other guests love it. But the stapling is bad, it does it in some of the oddest places as well. But if you get a ride where your bar remains comfortable it's actually really good fun (in my opinion). Much like the rest of Drayton, it's an oddity. On another note, I love what Air Race's restraints do. They lock both ways so they won't any more or tighten throughout the ride which makes it really enjoyable. Would like to see this rolled out onto other rides.

So me and JoahC. visited today and what a day we had! Due to the weather the park was dead! Air Race is amazing! Sublimely awesome in every way! On our second go we counted the inversions and got up to 18 (beat that Merlin ). Ben 10 is an excellent family coaster with a great little queue. Really good fun! They're also expanding Thomas Land for next year onto the concrete car park next to the Troublesome Trucks coaster. Oh and Pirate Adventure was using 3 or 4 boats probably