Mitchada04

I rememer it well at Cyprus Gardens. That picture is no illusion, it really did look that nice with a sleek wooden station, a tower that doesn't stick out like a sore thumb and rust clear track. I also remember it having a much better loading system of 1 in and 1 out. The only thing I never got is why there was a man at the top.

If we get something like Leviathans statue but more suited to The Swarm I'll be a happy bunny. Imagine The Swarm creature all lit up at night like the one from Leviathan does. Unfortunately, it will most likely be a fastrack unit because this is Merlin we are talking about.

1) Nemesis- The only ride to make me grey out. Its aged really well and isn't the slky smooth B&M which is great as unlike Swarm or Air, Nemesis isn't meant to be a flight, it's a monster. Absolutely amazing and love being able to get many rides in ert, the best wake up call around. 2) The Swarm- By far the most hyped and anticipated coaster for a long time and lives up to the hype. It is so smooth. The first twist is insane then divin under a misty plane wing. The theming is amazing (bit sparse but still). Love the wing aspect as each seat offers a different experience. A huge throughput coaster that is really re-ridable is what Thorpe have been lacking until this season. 3) Nemesis Inferno- My first ever looping coaster. The theming was great back in its day with a load of mist in the volcano. It is really reliable and can eat up queues pretty well when the staff are on form. Love being able to walk all around the ride with close calls to spectators and it started Thorpe's 3 year coaster system. 4) Air- The last ride I had on it was really intense meaning it has pipped Oblivion. It's nice to have two contrasting coasters in one area and is lovely and relaxing. Nothing amazing or special when you've done other B&M flyers but great fun. 5) Oblivion- By far the best marketing campaing for a ride in the UK (shame SW7 hasn't lived up to it yet but there is still time). The sound of the cars plummeting into a misty hole is amazing. It is only last because it is so short and seems to be very neglected which is a real shame (and Alton lied, it's not vertical, it's 88 degrees).

Personally I think the water effects should be in sync with the train but be aimed away from riders thus keeping them dry but making it good to watch in the surrounding area as you see the train appear from behind a wall of water. Regarding the one car situation, it's better to have it open than closed and all new rides have problems. I remember Luke A posting in the Colossus ert thread about them changing the tightness of the magnetic brakes after the inline to improve throughput so hopefully when the second car is back on track we will see more throughput records which are already high at 1260.

Unfortunately the Rocky Mountain coaster being built as SDC doesn't have a zero-g roll but more of an inverting stengel. Without going too far off topic here, The Swarm's gimmick of a 127ft inverting drop hasn't been promoted as much as it could have been. The TV advert was brilliant and all my friends thought it was a new game but it doesn't show of the gimmick or give any stats which (unfortunately) the general public in this country like. That's why the SW series is so popular as each one is a world first so people can brag about being on the first ever vertical drop coaster for example. You also rarely hear of it as Europes tallest winged coaster which is another good gimmick. Personally I love everything about The Swarm from the ride to the marketing but the general public will never be as interested in a well themed, gimmick free coaster than one with an IP or worlds something so I alo fear for the 2015 coaster. Would love a coaster like the one being bulit at SDC for 2013 though (if Merlin can ever get over their fear of splinters)

Just got back from another day at Thorpe that was heaving at times. Me and my friend arrived at 9:30 to see the gate open so went straight over to Inferno to be the first 2 and only 2 on the ride. This then happened again on Loggers and Rocky. the new boats on Loggers Leap have more backrests and handles on the side of them but camera didn't want to work then and didn't see them later on in the day. Saw and Colossus were pretty much walk on and pretty comfortable. We then did the working S&S at Thorpe, Rush followed by X and Storm Surge. Had some lunch and decided to do The Swarm which was broken so thought we'd do it later. Went back an hour later and it had just broken down again. They seemed to be having problems with one of the cars (the one with the two front rows LEDs broken). Once this was taken off it ran fine just with a horrid capacity (better to have an open ride with a long queue than no ride at all). As we had left the area again we were greeted by a 30min queue which wasn't to bad considering the fastrack line was out of its entrance. This led us to Flying Fish which was great fun due to the team operating it. We were called fish enthusiasts when boarding and just had a generally good time. Before leaving we met my friends friend who works on the crazy Bikes. He told us that the park had 10,000 people today and on Saturday the game stalls alone raised £18,000. Overall a good day with a few photos. Tidal Wave killed Storm Surge, Yay! Stealth works but Swarm doesn't Would have been better with a car but it was still broken. LEDs! My original idea was to have The Swarm killing Flying fish but instead, Look at me, I can be a Wingrider. Twisty Peek-a-boo. Thanks for reading

From Thorpe Parks scroller: Something tells me that will be a busy day.

Silver Dollar City are opening a Rocky Mountain Coaster (woodie) next year. Constrcution is happening very quickly and it seems it will do something very special... By the look of the curve already in place it could be a very steep overbanked turn but the next set of supports will be positioned in front and to the right of the photo. Are we looking at the first ever zero g-roll on a wooden coaster? I really hope Merlin are keeping an eye on this. 3 pages of more images can be found here: http://midwestinfogu...t2013/06.27.12/

The AP evening started when Merlin started charging a £5 entry fee to Fright Nights so AP holders could visit Fright Nights for free. As both years it has occured have been quiet I would love it to return. Closing a day earlier would mean we only get one day of Fireworks so I'd rather it stayed open to the public as I wouldn't want to give Merlin the idea of cutting an event just to please some pass holders.

Ever wanted the life of John Wardley summed up in a song then this is your dream come true. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=7rW8I6PWyFs

Yep, I live a few minutes away from it. Nice to see other people like the Rocky Horror which to me is heaven

Saws capacity is bad enough on 8 cars but with only 4 the queue must barely move. Then you factor in fastrack which would have been high with the 20% off deal for pass holders. Anyone know why it's running such a reduced capacity?

Just filled my self up with the Original Combo and Rocky Horror from the Harvester whilst deciding to start my own dog walking business.

If it's anything like last Sunday then quiet with queues reaching up to 30mins for coasters and 10mins for flats with THE SWARM being near walk on after lunch.

According to the opening times on Chessies website Halloween Hocus Pocus has lost an hour so is now closing at 7 instead of 8. This really annoys me as it was always a struggle to get the two main coasters done in the dark but now it will be even harder. First an hour lost at Fright Nights and now this. They've also highlighted the weekdays from 9th-21th July in pink to warn possible visitors that they expect lots of local schools.

On the 2nd July my school has an inset day so many schools in Runnymede may be the same.The last two weeks of school term (9th-20th July) are always heaving as this is when many schools attend on trips. However, all of this may mean nothing as Thorpe has been very quiet all season. Whenever you do go though have fun and just go with the flow.

After flicking through Facebook in boredom I came across a very interesting page. Everything on it is unofficial art work but I wouldn't mind the design he made for THE SWARM extension ride. It looks like a cross between Vengence and a tracked dark ride. Link to the page http://www.facebook.com/JohnBurtonCreative

The next morning we once again enjoyed our buffet breakast and headed of to Alton nice and early to take full advantage of ert. Upon arrival at the gates I was shocked to see a designated queue for annual passholders. Luckily for us we got the first monorail train of the day so were at the front of the queue but come 9 the line was past the nearest ticket booth. As there was only one staff member scanning the passes with one of those dodgy handheld scanners the queue must have taken forever. When we got to the bottom of Towers Street we took our passes out thinking they were going to check them here as they have done in previous years to stop non ert guests recieving this perk but no, everyone was just streaming in. We headed straight to Rita as I love the ride and layout and know it is likely to get a huge queue. As we were expecting everyone to be allowed on we were a tad worried there would be a queue but they were checking your tickets at the entrance to all ert rides so the only waiting we had to do was for our dad to find our passes once again to show the staff members. After getting front row walk on we headed straight over to Nemesis (would have been nice to have the Skyride but that's life). After showing our passes once again we got straight on to the back row. I had heard alot about Nemesis running well this year and it most definately was. Quite possibly my best ever ride on the beast. As we still had 30mins till Air opened we did it another 4 times. It was now just before 10 and Air was just opening. As they were only running the 1 station at that time we had to wait 10mins but it was worth it because it really packed a punch in some places. As Sub-Terra had an hours wait we hopped on the Skyride over to Dark Forest to find Thirteen broken so we did the parks other new attraction, Ice Age 4D. The theming is really well done and the experience is great for families with snow, bubbles, leg ticklers, wind and changing lights to suit the area you're in. The only downside to it is it has no new material, it is all just snippets from Ice Age 3 and not many things fly out of the screen at you. Overall a great additon to the park tbut am unsure how long it will stay as Ice Age due to its popularity. As Thirteen was now open we did that and othe than a little blip whilst we were at the baggage hold it was running well. My dad thought the drop was really forceful and unique (as he'd never done it before) and thought the ride was a good fun experience. We then entered X-Sector to find Enterprise and Submission with 20min queues. With Oblivion having a 40min queue the areas popularity seems to have shot up without SW7 so that area will be heaving next year. We did Oblivion single rider and thanks to the second car only being loaded with fastrack they used the single rider queue to fill up all of the spare spaces (and there weren't many fastrack). The person I sat next to said 'I never knew the drop was that steep.' Didn't you see it upon entering X-Sector, it's quite hard to miss. After some lunch at the pizza/pasta buffet we did Runaway Train and the rapids. RMT is really good fun and it's nice to see a unique layout instead of the figure of 8. The rapids were soaking with our boat dipping into a wave so the water just flooded into our laps. We thought this was a good time to do the Flume which now has adapted boats for families with children over 1m and under 1.2m. These boats basically have a second back pad and handles on the side of the pads. The queue seperate just before loading and seems to be quite popular and working well. I then soaked my sister on Battle Galleons and sat next to a grumpy kid on Sonic Spinball which is a great ride just with an awful throughput. We then shot of to Forbidden Valley to get my ride on N:ST to find it was broken so never did get my ride on Sub-terra After going on Nemesis and Air again to lift my spirits I went on Duel and just sat there for the whole ride admiring the theming which really is amazing because half of it I've never noticed before as I'm to busy shooting the little red lights. We then realised it was 5 so decided to leave to avoid the car park madness at half 5. Other than not getting on N:ST it was a good day with a pretty decent ride count. Ride count: Nemesis: 6 Rita:1 Air:2 Oblivion:1 Thirteen:1 Duel:1 Flume:1 RMT:1 (3 laps) Rapids:1 Sonic:1 Ice Age:1 Battle Galleons:1 Skyride:4 Monorail:2 Picture time Me trying to be artsy again Bye Alton for another year, now comes the persuading to try and get a trip to Scarefest.

So my annual trip to Alton Towers occured over the Diamond Jubilee and for the first time in 5 years we visited Warwick Castle and Blackpool Pleasure Beach. We set of Saturday morning to the hotel when my dad surprised us with a visit to Warwick Castle. It's such a great place. Every staff member is in costume which just makes the place so unique (for Merlin anyway). As we only had 3 hours to spend there we passed on the Castle Dungeon and Merlin Tower thing and headed straight for the birds of prey show whci were all eagles. It was a great show and they really make the eagles fly low over your heads which makes everyone duck and dive. We were told that one of the eagles (Merlin) is known to fly so low he hits people with his wings so I put this to the test and his wing just skimmed my head. Overall a great show with a decent bit of humour. We then realised that the Jubilee Jousting event was starting so headed straight to the arena by the Trebuchet and watched that which again included some great snippets of humour. One line I remember in particular is 'give him a boo, give him a hiss, now I need to go and have a huge...' King Henry stopped the jester from finishing. There was also a slight break from the jousting to the rest the horses whci led to the jester playing the drums, trumpet and blowing fire. Once again a great show. Whilst walking back to the castle to walk around the ruins I saw loads of game stalls. Normally these annoy me as they ruin the theme of the area and the staff are shouting at you to 'have a go' '1 hoop to win' but here all the games were themed such as archery and shield painting. Yes the prices were still ridiculous (£8 to paint a shield) but the staff weren't shouting at you so the atmosphere remained in tact. I remember going to the catle when I was younger and came out loving it but couldn't remember why, until Saturday. Great place and atmosphere which Merlin haven't ruined since they took over. After a restless night with rain banging on the hotels window all night we woke up nice and early to have our buffet breakfast and head of to Blackpool. We arrived just after 10 to meet my uncle and 2 cousins. After being ushered through this really posh building to buy our wristbands and having our bags searched we were pushed into the park, literally. The turnstiles force you in as if to say there is no turning back. As I was expecting the worst from it, we headed straight to Infusion all prepared for a banging headache. I have never been so surprised. I came off wanting to go again, quite possibly the smoothest Vekoma SLC I've been on. We then headed to the madness that is Wildmouse. My uncle literally had to duck to avoid hitting the 'mind your head' signs but again a great ride helped by the comfy cars. As it was one of the few rides I hadn't done before I went to Ice Blast as I love drop towers but this one was so dissapointing. After being on Dr Doom and Cliffhanger I was expecting something special from this but it just felt forceless compared to others I have ridden. Whilst walking to the Big One I noticed that the Ghost Train has also closed down but wasn't covered up so really mad the place look like it was dying especially with the Goldmine closed the other side. I was really looking forward to the Big One as the last time I came it stopped 50ft up the lift so we had to walk down and the ride didn't dissapoint. We sat at the back andthe pull you get off the lift is ridiculously amazing. Even though the ride was seriously rough and felt like it was going to stall going over each hill it was brilliant. Just felt sorry for Richard Rodriguez who has to ride it consecutively for 103 days to beat his own record as the rain was like hail. After some lunch at Burger King we did Steeple Chase which was fun, nothing more, nothing less. Avalanche was next and that ride really pushes you up the sides it was insane. Just don't get stuck in a long queue in the station as the music is really annoying and repetitive. we then went over to the newest area at Pleasure Beach, Nickelodeon Land. The old rides that have been used have been given a really nice spruce up and work well with the new rides. The Mack splash battle was great and the floor was really cool as it raises to drain the water so you can get on and off. Nick Streak, formerly the Rollercoaster, has recieved an awesome orange coat of paint and is really fun for the whole family with great pops of airtime. After wandering past this really annoying animatronic laughing clown we did the freshly painted Revolution. The ride itself is a bit meh but the new colour scheme is great and doesn't stick out like a sore thumb. It also has quite possibly the coolest surpport structure of any coaster. We then did a family race on Grand National and wow, the ride never slows down. The airtime is ridiculous and the double drop is mental but it really does look disgusting and needs a paint job. This led us to Big Dipper as we were in a wooden mood and it's so comfy and pretty smooth. To finish the day we went on quite possibly the best water ride I've ever ridden. It is so good. The waterfall effect is amazing and is the best way to disguise a building (take note Merlin). The theming inside is something I wasn't expecting form Pleasure Beach and the amount of fire effects used is ridiculous. You even get a great view of the park when turning to go backwards. The ice room is well placed as you've just been soaked so feel like you're going to freeze. You then enter a battleground with this huge revolving mace about your head and water explosions. Once again you drop and end up in a tube of water (much like Bubbleworks but much lower so you get soaked). Before the end you drop again and enter more rooms of fire. Then you leave the building soaked but wanting more. Ride count and rating /10 Valhalla: 1 9.5 Big One: 3 8 Infusion: 3 7.5 Revolution:2 6 Avalanche:1 7 Big Dipper:2 8 Grand Nash:1 7.5 Nick Streak:2 6 Steeple Chase:1 5 Ice Blast:1 4.5 Avatar Airbender:1 6 Derby Racers:1 5 Alice :1 4 Wild Mouse:1 7 Spongebob splash battle:1 7 River Caves:1 6 Pics Me trying to get artsy shots Revenge on my uncle for telling us we wouldn't get soaked on Valhalla Alton Towers report to follow soon.

An awesome new video of THE SWARM has been posted by Thorpe Park. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1rctdp8WKA&feature=player_detailpage

Of course THE SWARMs trains would win with its mighty LEDs but as you didn't put it X Flight wins in my opinion. The eagles on Wild Eagle look like the icing on the cake, literally. Furious Backache is just some barrels and Raptors trains are nice but the sleek look of X Flights and the brilliant red and black colour scheme make it simple but really effective.

I was reading through Wikipedia and noticed a SW7 section so took alook and found something very interesting. Now I know anything from Wikipedia needs to be taken with a huge pinch of salt as any idiot could have written it but 4D seats could be quite interesting.

Anyone got any pictures of the LEDs in action?

I think we'll be seeing a rebrand of Reload very soon. This was posted on Thorpes Facebook page. The three options they posted are: Gravity, Vertigo and Charged. Could this be why all the details for Reload have vanished of their website and might we be seeing a rebrand of Blow Sh!t Up aswell.