Mitchada04

I have to say when I first saw the log flume development I was concerned that theming wouldn't be added but I'm glad to have been proven wrong. The skull looks great and I'm sure this whole area will once finished. Themed entrance to the inside section. As long as they cover up the rest of the shed and that gap in the skull it will look great. Theming within the dark ride section (hopefully animatronic) All photos from the Developers Diary Overall I think this is a great investment for quite a small park and is making great use of a previous mediocre log flume as it was at Camelot. Oakwood is definitely one theme park in Britain I have yet to visit and really want too. P.S. Sorry EC for posting these pictures, I know its your thing but I was just too excited about the development

After reading a few posts about posting trip reports as blogs I have decided all of my 2013 Thorpe trips will be in this blog thread. Each one will have the date of visit in the title making it nice and easy for those of you who want to view certain ones etc. It was a beautiful Saturday morning when we set of for Thorpe. We were spited by intermittent rain throughout the morning but it ended out being a lovely day. For a Saturday with nice weather the queues weren't too bad with the longest we queued being 30 minutes for Swarm backwards. It was a thrill packed day from 10-6:30 and a great way to end the life on my MAP (as I'm unlikely to use it again before it runs out due to exams). I love the way the park is being run this year with operations on top notch that I saw yesterday. Everything was running full capacity (except Stealth) and the only 'breakdowns' I witnessed were twice on X due to 'essential cleaning.' Even on 1 car though Stealth was running brilliantly and the staff were very efficient as the second car was obviously broken as they did bring it out but it went straight back in after 1 test run. But the main reason for visiting was to use the brand new queue line signs which I have to say are great and only have a few downsides which I'll get to later. We started and ended the day on Stealth which reminded me where I was. Without this I would have been lost. When the time is shown it says (I think) 'Stealth launching in T-minus ## minutes.' We then went to feel the heat on Inferno (don't know why this picture is so small) Followed by riding on a wave of sound and light on X (not sure there are enough X's in this picture) This was followed by Colossus and Saw both with these lovely scrolling signs. Colossus' is related to the power of 10 and Saw's is about making your choice of life or death in ## minutes. At this time the sun had come out so we went on our wild, wet adventure on Loggers Leap Then Thorpe Mega Store. I wasn't going to queue 50 minutes for a soakin' With lunch settled it was time for the flat rides. Simple signs work well. Quantum doesn't get enough attention but I'm sure with its brand new sign it will receive all the attention. And then all of a sudden it was the end of the day and rides were close d The new signs are great and seem to update more often (or have the chance to if the time changes). The only 2 negatives are the fact that closed can't fit properly on the flat ride signs and Nemesis Inferno is referred to as Nemesis on the big boards because it wouldn't fit otherwise. May seem a bit picky but it will just add to the 'never knew Thorpe had the same ride as Alton' discussion. To make up for this though Swarm forwards and backwards times are on the large boards.

Slammer was running well today and had a 10 minute queue most of the day (may not seem much but for Slammer it's good)

From what I've read they are going to move the train chasis to run the ride backwards around the Six Flags parks so they can all offer this limited time Batman backwards at some point.

The lack of brakes 1 and 2 massively improve the ride and give it more sense. It still runs 4 trains just you stop on brake 3 and the one before the exit. To try and remove this waiting on brake 3 the staff were loading and dispatching each train as fast as possible today. The queue did get quite high at certain points today but you've got to remember more people can ride it now and it did close twice that I saw due to 'essential cleaning.' Yes people are still being sick on X even though it's going forwards now. Overall today the experience was great. Lots of haze throughout the building creating what you could call tunnels of light due to the lasers. Love the way they've randomly numbered the trains with train 3 having 3 red pieces of tape and train 4 having a 4 on front made out of masking tape My only complaint is the lack of music in the zig-zag queue line part where you are often likely to have to wait.

I went last year on May Day bank holiday and it was really quiet. Did Swarm 10 times in an hour and most other rides multiple times. It was even a beautiful day so if last year's anything to go by it will be quiet or at least moderatly quiet.

The day should be a yes as long as I get my pass renewed (which I will thanks to Clubcard vouchers) and I'm not at Alton Towers that weekend but I'll just make it so we go the weekend before. As for the meal, I would love to make that and assuming all goes well in my new job I shall have the money to do so Would love to do the MoS and CrashPad but being born in 1997 does have its downsides

Official or not that is brilliant and has seriously hyped me up for this ride when I go in July

Can't believe I took the mick out of Lost Mountain of Coaster Superstition or whatever it is called. What annoys me more is how I was standing next to ThrillseekerAlex when I looked it up on my phone Well played sir, well played (until Phil captured you ). The empire game was great fun and I loved how it was me versus everyone else at the end

It would be nice to complete this before I'm 30 but if not, before death will do. Here we go then (in no specific order). 1. Get through education (GCSE's, College and University). 2. Learn to drive 3. Own a nice car 4. Start a family 5. Go to Monaco for a week and watch the F1 whilst there 6. Do a road trip from North Germany to South Germany visiting all the main theme parks 7. Go down the East coast of the USA 8. Bungee jump off an unnecessarily tall bridge 9. Sky dive 10. Race around the Nurburgring (long course, not the F1 track) 11. Visit all theme parks in Britain 12. Go to Cedar Point just to see what all the fuss is about 13. 2 weeks in China visiting Honk Kong and of course their Disney 14. Stay in an official theme park hotel 15. Go to Scarefest 16. Visit North Italy (1 week skiing in The Alps, 1 week doing the theme parks/sightseeing) 17. Go on a cruise around somewhere hot 18. Holiday in Canada 19. 3 weeks in New Zealand 20. Live life to the full If I do all of this in my lifetime I shall die very happy.

(Credit to Disney Parks Blog). Being a massive Monsters Inc fan (who isn't ) I would have sure loved to have been at Epcot for this. A video for anyone who's interested (explains why the Spaceship Earth building became a 180ft Mike Wazowski ) Nice to see the parks doing this 24 hours thing and Monsters Inc being a big part of their summer, also being referred to as the Monstrous Summer. I just love Monsters Inc and I'm sure this will be great for the parks.

Thank you And the car parks at Chessie are dire. Only one barrier to get out of the car park is utter nonsence.

Does anybody know if the north car park (the one with the hotel and zoo entrance) has a drop-off zone and if so where it is?

As long as it has loads of airtime I'm not too fussed. An RMC woodie would be great or even a GCI. A wooden would also work well at the back of the park e.g 'Island A' as its wooden structure wouldn't obscure the view of the other rides. An Intamin Megalite would also suit the park well in my opinion (if they could work on getting the theoretical throughput higher than 900) with that first turn swooping over the lake so maybe that would suit 'Island E' more. As for will it be 2015 or 2016 I'm not sure. The planning permission for the Crash Pad stated that 'It is likely that the proposed 2015 coaster will now not be bought forward until 2016 as Thorpe Park is prioritising its accommodation strategy.' But the actual hotel is 'meant' to be opening in 2016 so would they want to open two large investments in one year? And with Towers and Chessies 'large investment' years (going by Merlin's three year pattern) expected to be in 2016 it would be a big risk by Merlin. Only time will tell.

The exit line is dreadful on Vampire. At Halloween Hocus Pocus last year, we were in the station for 10 minutes and in that time they had to send two trains just with exit liners because it was so busy and they had to be cleared due to too many people on the exit ramp. I'm sure that the new entrance for the exit liners is a massive improvement.

Great report Luke. This is one of the few parks in Britain that I have yet to visit and actually want to. Love the sound of getting a train over to the entrance and Megafobia looks great next to that lake. Speed doesn't look to bad either Will definitely be paying a visit to this park in the future.

Fright Nights Tango orange or Fanta orange?

I got your point, just wanted to make Chessie sound better for once

Extending the opening of rides by 30 minutes when they close at 5 in the first place isn't great, even Chessie are open till 6 at the moment. I believe they revalidated the tickets for another day so they did offer a few things.

Today queues ranged from 5 minutes to 30 minutes for the coasters (except X which was on 40/50 minutes). The water rides were near walk on and the flats ranged between 5 and 15 minutes (except Rush which was 30 minutes due to one swing operation). The weather wasn't great today though so that may have put a few people off visiting. The weather for Thursday looks better than it was today so it could be a bit busier but shouldn't be as bad as the summer months will be.

The tunnel was full of dense mist today. Was really awesome. And of course the ride itself was brilliant as always, it doesn't feel anywhere near 10 years old. Here's to the next 10 years!

Rush was running terribly today. It was only on one swing (still the one nearest the operator cabin) and was having no high swings, highest it ever reached was 90 degrees. I fear that Slammer (which was working perfectly all day) has passed on its S&S unreliability to Rush. Shame really as I enjoy Rush when it's working properly.

Since the third train was removed there seems to be a lack of urgency. I miss the days of staff rushing around the Vampire station filling all available seats and dispatching the train in 25 seconds or slightly more. I can't ever recall having to wait on the second lift for more than 10 seconds during three train operation. How they could warrant the loss of it I don't know, it's not like Vampire became unpopular.

Just got back from a morning at Chessie so I shall review Zufari (this post may contain spoilers). It opened about 30 minutes after park opening which was a bit annoying. We got over to it at around 10:50 to see it had a one hour queue so we decided to queue as this was the main reason we went. The main bridge over to the area is very bland with tall, wooden fencing but I'm sure over time it will look better. The queue is a massive cattle pen but moves quite quickly. The queue offers you a nice view of the Flamingos at the beginning and further on you can just make out the Rhinos through the fencing. Before you reach the batch point for the pre-show you encounter a photo point. It is by far the worst positioning ever and can severely hold up the queue. My favourite comments I herd about it were: 'I'm not putting on that hat, people could have head lice' and 'I haven't queued for my photo to be taken'. Once through this there is another little cattle pen before the pre-show where both the Fastrack and disabled queue join (it's not fair that they get to skip the photo point. The area behind the doors to the pre-show are not large enough for people to wait behind so instead you are mainly fed in through one door regularly being stopped to let in Fastrackers/disabled queue. Once the pre-show is full and doors shut it begins. The pre-show starts very professionally with your expedition leader, Chase Van-Driver, explaining this new area they have found called 'Zufari'. His lemur friend then pops up on screen and you are introduced to her. He then has to leave so the lemur interacts with the audience. The younger kids seem to enjoy it but not so much the adults who have just queued an hour, especially when they are picked upon to make monkey noises. The lemur then warns you about the cave, makes you promise not to go in there and then you leave to the ride itself. However, you will find yet another queue after this to board your vehicles so move as far down to the other side when entering the pre-show (and back row if possible) so you can be the first out and not have to long a wait for the ride. Once behind your gate you wait for your truck, then push (Chessington don't do air gates anymore, they are to main stream for them) your gate and board. The signs on the truck tell you to place your bag in a metal, mesh wire cage under your seat, however, it may get wet down there so you can keep it on your lap, the staff didn't seem fussed. All buckled up and ready to go, your adventure begins. It is a very bumpy ride which is great fun as it makes it seem much more like a safari. Each ride will vary but on my ride we got great views of all the animals, especially a Giraffe who stood in front of the truck stopping us from going anywhere. This was great though as it gave us more time to take in our surroundings and the other animals. You then arrive at the fallen branch (with for us Rhinos right next to it) and are told you have to go another way. Of course, the only other way is the cave. Some younger kids on our truck started screaming saying 'go back, go back, we can't go in the cave.' It's nice to see that the target audience are understanding the story line. The cave is better than I was expecting. Lots of loud noises and lights going out scaring a few children. The sudden burst of water is very effective and even spills into the truck through gaps in the door (the reason not to have your bag down there) and the only way out of the cave is through the waterfall. Again very effective and will get the people on the edge seats a bit wet. You then return to the station having completed your expedition. Overall I was very impressed with the ride and know that overtime it will get better. The only real negatives about it are all with the queuing which does need to be looked at but I'm not sure what can be done. Having been lucky enough to ride Rhino Rally and Kilimanjaro Safari I thought Zufari did quite well and is a great addition to Chessington offering that crucial link between the zoo and theme park.

Dragon Falls is now open (even though the website still says 10th April). It really does look awful with the theming removed but not as bad as I was expecting. The first half of the tunnel remains but the second half doesn't so just like at Thorpe you can brave it tunneless to some extent.