Mitchada04

No, this was a few Saturdays ago I will be there on Friday though so shall let you know if rides are on two trains etc.

Before we start the fun, the boring stuff must be dealt with. Firstly, I don't own any of these photos, they are all from other people who attended. Secondly, this report is an account of my day so the photos are of me, therefore, if you don't like looking at my lovely face stop reading now It was a sunny morning as a day of fun at Thorpe was to be had! The day started with a lovely climb up Volcano Inferno. But at the top I was shocked to hear that this may be better than Nemesis! So we went again and after a lot of thought... I decided it was good, but not that good. With this dilemma out of the way, I started plotting something! However, the mighty Merlin drinks capsule put a stop to my mischief. Jack didn't like the news I delivered to him on Rush though... That the influence of all the Chavs made me act cool And gave me the power of magic! Luckily, the rapids of Calypso Quay returned me to normality. Simple caption, don't ask. I tried telling everyone that I would get an extra ride on X, they didn't believe me! But an extra ride on X was had for me (and James) before the shadows amazed me! But not wanting to disappoint the hard work Stealth had put in to be at the top of this photo, I looked at the camera. And the day was over, but not before The Swarm tried to attack us Fortunately, we all survived to live another day! Thank you for reading, I know its late but finally had some spare time and needed to get it done before my next trip this Friday

http://www.imascore.com/en/the-smiler-soundtrack-produced-by-imascore A great little article here from the creators of The Smiler's soundtrack along with a snippet of it. Also, if you look at their portfolio you'll see that they've made many other ride soundtracks such as Krake and Blue Fire, all with a snippet and bit of info on the task they had to produce the soundtrack. Quite interesting really. Oh, and you better not stall on Sunday Smiler

That doesn't sound fun for either queue but it wouldn't surprise me if half the Fasttrack queue were actually non Fasttrackers. Because of the new queue entrance (Fasttrack straight on, main queue to the right) I have seen it many times this year where lots of people are getting confused and going in the wrong one. Either way it isn't great!

The general school trip season will be between the 8th July and 19th July as it is usually the last two weeks of term this trips occur. My school also has an inset day on the 5th July so there could be a few other schools around the area also on inset (my school is 5 minutes away). Fridays and Mondays are also the busiest with school trips so midweek would be best but Thursdays also tend to be a bit busy. I did visit one day in the first week of July last year and there were a fair few school trips there, but most didn't arrive till 11 and had left by 4 which gave us 3 hours of peace and quiet. So basically I'd recommend avoiding July just to be safe and visiting midweek. Whenever you do chose to visit though have fun and I hope its not too busy

Not sure where this should go but I suppose it is a change for 2013. I know a few people have been wandering if Bar 360 remains open after park hours for non Crash Pad guests and the answer is yes. This is taken from the opening times page on Thorpe's website and I haven't seen it before. Makes sense really if you've already got it open for Crash Pad guests.

The rumours can now come to an end regarding the manufacture because... It is to be a B&M (as suspected) with quite nice looking dark green supports! But will the track be dark to go with these dark supports? Nope, a very nice white! Can't work out what type of B&M it will be but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a Wingrider. It is nice to see Merlin branching away from the dark track colours of there coasters, but why at the park that already has 2 coasters with white track and green supports? Oh well, I'm interested to see how this turns out. All photos from here- http://www.heide-park-world.de/baublog/blog/saison-2014/2569-erste-stuetzen-der-neuen-attraktion-2014-ziehen-in-das-heide-park-resort-ein - in case the watermark didn't give it a way.

That figure goes to show how important the midway attractions are to Merlin's success. Interesting to see how the worst 4 performed parks in Europe last year were all Merlin- Thorpe -10%, Gardaland -10%, Towers -9.4%, and Heide Park -7.1%. At least Legoland Windsor did well with a 5.3% increase. Good old Magic Kingdom with its 17,536,000 visitors though

My college have let me know that my induction day finishes at 2:45 so I should be able to get there for 3:30

It would be great to see the park change its target audience to suit families as well as thrill seekers. They've been very keen on the 'Up for it families' statement this year and like Marc said with the great change of X into a brilliant family coaster it definitely seems to be changing this way. The park has a brilliant range of thrill rides and coasters to last them a while so a few years focused on families wouldn't go a miss. Maybe a rebrand of Ranger County with the addition of a good family ride on the old Miss Hippos site. The return of the train would also be great! Do a bit of work to Rumba Rapids as well and you've got a good set of family rides, not amazing but good. It would also be great if a family woodie was built as the next large coaster then, something with the speed and thrills of Wodan but the low height restriction of 1.2 metres. Good times ahead (possibly). It does seem strange that this change seems to be happening mid-season as many thought a re-brand would occur over the closed season just gone. Maybe they've realised it needs to be done and very swiftly (another struggling season so far?) Would be nice to see a sensible map as well, and I'd love to see the ride logos return by the rides on it instead of the name in CAPITALS! But that may be too much too ask for

I've heard it is superior to Nemesis I'll decide on that one in 16 days!

It seems that Zufari's height restriction has been lowered to 1 metre opposed to the original 1.1 metre. From what I've read on various sources they have implemented a lap bar system thus leading to the lowering of the minimum height. Whilst is isn't a massive difference it is nice to see they are listening to criticism and hopefully this has improved the throughput as there should be no fiddling about with seatbelts.

I'm saying it will open Monday 17th June purely because I'm going on the 16th and that would be just my luck. If it is closed when I go though yes I'll be a bit disappointed but it's not like there isn't enough to keep you occupied all day. Last year I went and struggled to fit everything I wanted to do in and still haven't done the brand new version of Sub Terra so my day will be great either way. It will be nice to have The Smiler open but if not my dad says we can go back again during Scarefest. So in a way I don't want it to be open just so I get to go to Scarefest

Got my first shift rota today After searching for a job for a few months I finally got one, had a few successful training shifts and am now officially employed part-time at my local leisure centre. It's not an amazing job- just keeping the place clean, setting up stuff and stocking up the vending machines- but it pays well at £6.50 an hour. Just have to wait till the 14th June to get my first payslip for the 3 training shifts I did and I'll be earning a steady(ish) £200 a month

Might as well do part 2 today as I have the time. The time was now lunchtime! Phil had left us for a party, such a dedicated enthusiast The fun continued though for another 4 hours. Matt and Jack were getting very confused at how the money should be distributed. Fortunately the service was nice and slow so they'd worked it out by the time the food had arrived James was waiting patiently for his meal... Then suddenly anger took over as he demanded his food. Luckily, George the dragon was there to protect us from the fuming James. The mighty warrior Samurai was next and is that... It is, Han braved the mighty warrior and won! A celebratory puddle splash was had by Han at our congratulations for riding Samurai However, Styles didn't seem to enjoy it too much and much to the unknowing Alex (you can tell Mer was trying to warn him or take cover), he shared a bit of his vomit. Even with James being prepared for this he was still splattered by little green bits. Lovely! Fish wasn't so sure about sitting next to Styles after his last incident, but all went well. EC and Han were also ready to fight the war. EC has very nice sandals on doesn't he We ended the day on Stealth where Jack still insisted The Smiler was at Thorpe By this time though everyone had given up trying to persuade him otherwise so just ignored him. And that concluded the day I will post one last photo though which Mer owns and was taken by Rob. Such a great group photo! The setting (as suggested by Mer) was perfect and thanks to Rob for taking it with the Stealth train at the top I'd just like to say a massive thank you to everyone who attended and made the day awesome. I had some great conversations and whilst I didn't get to speak to all of you it was great to see you! Also, a massive thanks to Styles and his amazing way of charming the staff, without you we (except me and James ) wouldn't have got on X and me and James wouldn't have gotten on Stealth. Rumba Rapids was also so much better with the added effect! Hope to see you all soon- either at MoS or later on in the year

It's time for me to begin my trip report with part 1 of 2! It was a beautiful sunny morning as I headed to this place called Thorpe Park. Surprisingly, the weather stayed this way all day! We entered and headed straight to Inferno. I am really developing a new love for this ride as the back row was amazing yesterday (more so than usual). Everyone got a second go except me and Phil as we thought that not everyone was staying on and not all the seats were taken, then we realised there were 2 empty seats on the front row After this we did Slammer which was new for so a few people so well done Matt and James for taking on the worlds only sky swat! Saw followed which was seemingly smooth on the left side of our car but not the right. Then the power of 10 whilst it still holds on to the most inversions of any ride in the world that is operating Now the photo part begins... Alex, Fish, James and EC are amazed at this giant playground swing! Alex, James and Mer get ready to brave it backwards whilst Styles isn't so sure. Meanwhile Matt is looking concerned for his first backwards ride and Jack is confused where he is. He was devastated when he realised Smiler wasn't at Thorpe EC and Phil enjoy the front right on The Swarm though even after destroying a billboard. And EC's legs at the top (they really are). Phil does his bit to save the world... And his burst of strength continues when he realises X is open Some of us need an energy boost after all that running so delve into Han's bag of goodies. In part 2 we shall meet George and see who has braved the mighty Samurai...

I'd just like to point out that I came up with the name TPM TPMM (Thorpe Park Mania Thorpe Park Mini Meet). Don't want credit going where it isn't due I am looking forward to it though, is going to be a great way to start the May half term (and make me less jealous of the many people riding The Smiler this weekend )

Popped into Legoland this morning as I had yet to visit this year. I had forgotten it was the Duplo Valley opening but it didn't make the park any busier (was quite quiet for the 3 hours I was there). Got a nice soaking on Vikings and Pirate Falls and a very efficient three train operation on The Dragon. Some areas of the park are looking great but some are looking 15 years old, especially Mini Land which could do with a serious paint (hopefully this is on there list of things to do as they only ever seem to re-do areas at the moment). Duplo Valley looks great (for its target audience). The old water area by the helicopters is now a dry play area and up on the hill where the golf once laid is this pretty spectacular water tower. I caught the large bucket emptying and it really encases the tower. Yes the blocks are brightly coloured and kind of an eye sore from the entrance area but it is Duplo, big and colourful Lego. Overall I think it will be successful but only in summer months, like most water attractions in England. At least we got some nice new models and animatronics on Fairy Tale Brook.

I never knew Smiler was a suspended ride

Unfortunately I'm a no for this due to my prom being the night before (possibly even that morning). Shame really as I was one of the people wanting a Legoland meet Oh well, will have to wait till MoS till my next meet, enjoy Lego Bingo (and Legoland of course )

So they're going to enclose the lift hill in shipping containers? That'll explain why we have yet to see any being used

I'd just like to wish everyone starting there exams soon good luck. I have 13 exams over 4 weeks (with half term in the middle so technically 5 weeks) and it is stressful but it will soon all be over and your results will reflect how hard you have worked. Good luck everyone

We have a Welsh teacher (doesn't teach us Welsh, he is Welsh) and we always bring up the sheep joke or if he goes out in the schools van we say he's gone to collect some more sheep. Been using this for the past 5 years and it never gets old Anyways I need to get this off my chest before my exams start on Monday. All of our teachers are saying not to stress about our exams, just revise, keep calm and we'll do fine. Now this is all well in good when the teachers are calm. However, at the moment they seem to be more stressed that us. Each department is fighting to have us for extra lessons thinking there subject is superior to everything else (primarily maths) thus creating confusion as we never know what lessons we have anymore. I understand that each subject is very important, maths being one of the more important but I can't get into College with just a maths GCSE (if I could life would be so much easier). It's nice that they each subject cares about our results and is trying to help us get the best possible results but as a year group we are more stressed than we should be. If they wanted to change the timetables giving us more lessons in certain subjects it should have been arranged just after Easter, not a couple of days before our exams start. Over the past 3 weeks I've had 4 'tweaked' timetables which have not helped me learn anything additional in the slightest. The one question that all year 11's want to know the answer to though has 'yet to be thought about.' We only want to know what we are doing after half term, are we in full time or just attending lessons we have tests remaining? Another thing that will really annoy me is if we match our predicted 5 A*-C rate (86% I think) and it is written in the local newspapers that it is down to the new leadership team. It has nothing to do with them! In the past year we've had 4 different head teachers and constantly changing SLT-Senior Leadership Team (even though it seems to have settled down now). Since year 7 we as a year group have been predicted around 85% 5 A*-Cs and would beat all previous years. If anything as a year group we are doing brilliantly as individuals to be able to pass all of our exams last summer and January under an unstable leadership team. Our high predicted results is nothing to do with them, if they had drastically increased since they arrived then yes but no, nothing has changed. I'm sure though the new head teacher will receive all the praise if we get our results for 'changing the school around' and making it 'a success.' We have always been predicted as the best year the school will have for results (may seem cocky but that's the statistics). If you look at they year 10s they are expected 82% 5 A*-Cs and year 9 only 68%. This shows that the new head has had nothing to do with our results, they are as predicted from the off. It just goes to show it is down to the students wanting to learn as year 9s are known in my school as a bunch of prats. Yes having a solid leadership team and good teachers contribute but it is ultimately down to the student. Phew, glad I got that added bit off stress out before my exams.

Whatever the ride experience is like (guaranteed to be at least fun and enjoyable as it's a B&M) it certainly looks amazing! CP Facebook

Typical, it's opening about 6 months after I go, just like the Hogwarts side did. Oh well, at least I'll have a reason to go to Florida again in the future (much like my visit this December is for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter )