Matt 236

I have a phobia of wasps, especially hornets.

I've just realised something Thirteen was the thirteenth roller coaster at towers whilst Smiler was the fourteenth. However that includes Runaway Train which statistically speaking is a powered coaster which means Smiler was the 13th proper roller coaster, which means the rollercoaster is unlucky! :0 To add further the opening date 31st may if reversed spells 13 (again unlucky) and it is/was the park's sixth big coaster in the big six challenge (another unlucky number). IN EHOLE, THE SMILER IS AN UNLICKY ROLLER COASTER!

For those wondering what replaced the original Xbox game bit in the park, a new walk through attraction called Olivia's House replaced it. It's not a bad little attraction and features soon cool models and interactive features. Not a patch on the old Magic Theatre but somewhere worth visiting to pass the time for a few minutes if your in the area.

Hmmm, it's not good then. I wonder when the park reopen again?

Well it definitely looks a lot nicer than I was expecting, considering I was unsure of that front design to begin with.

Things to note since looking at the table (mostly Europe, USA & overall) 1/ Magic Kingdom has seen noticeable rise in guest levels and judging by the way things are going I expect it to reach or exceed 20 million this year 2/ Tokyo and California Disney have also seen some slight increases (Cali more so than Tokyo but is still 3rd place). I wonder how big the 60th anniversaries will have at the park this year? 3/ Universal has seen the biggest growth in terms of park operators with 10% although Merlin have seen a steady increase with 5%. Disney also increased but only by a percent or so although it is a much bigger company than the formers. 4/ Parque Warner, Asterix, Liseberg and two other park's I haven't heard of gained the biggest growth in 2014, the highest by 25% 5/ Legoland Windsor saw the biggest growth in UK theme parks reaching 2.2 million guests which is astounding since the only new attractions last year were a new play area and rethemed log flume (however I do wonder if the Lego Movie had a role in this) 6/ Alton Towers is still the most visited UK park with just under 2.6 million guests only 375k more than Lego and still holds it's 9th place position. Could we see Legoland stealing that crown any time soon I wonder? 7/ Thorpe saw a modest 5% increase (presumably making ABL a success) and was beaten by legoland by just 100k. 8/ Chessington reached 17th and saw the second highest increase of guests at UK parks increasing by 6.7% gaining 1.6 million guests and only narrowly missing out to futoroscope & Asterix, judging by its steadily increasing numbers it'll be interesting to see where it ends up next year. 9/ All the park's in Europe experienced positive growth except for Disney 10/ Disneyland Park attendance was down by nearly 5% last year which is now 9th busiest worldwide (6th in 2013) however is still the most visited park in Europe by 4 million guests. 11/ Walt Disney Studios saw further decline by nearly 5% too, gaining just over 4 million guests last year. Having fallen to 3rd place in 2013, the park has fallen even further now to 5th now behind Tivoli Gardens & Efteling as well. Judging by this year's refurbishments and the even more severe ones next year, I can only see DLP spiralling further down the leader board which is a shame. Whilst Disneyland park will probably still come first when the 2015 ones come out, could we see WDS slip back to 6th or even 7th? Who knows 12/ Europa Park saw a small increase reaching 5 Million guests a year, could we ever see this place ever get the top spot? 13/ Efteling came 4th and with this year's major addition I wouldn't be surprised if it reaches 3rd next time. Quite interesting results this year.

Ok, whilst I've never been (I'll end that there!) I'm not too sure what they're like when it comes to filming however they did let someone do a food loop POV without a problem (Shawn Sanbrooke) and I've seen lots of people online use go pros on rides so assume it's ok. Have a great time,

The Smiler has just an absolute disaster for the park since it first opened

This is terrible, forget when something this major happened at a UK park, but just hope everyone is ok. On a less important note, was going to do a lift walk on Smiler this Saturday, but that's obviously off now, not sure what to do

I don't know how I feel right now

Whilst I didn't visit the park in 2003, it looks to me to have been one of the best years of the park overall. It had a perfect balance then of fun and thrill rides, a decent selection of shows plus lots of atmosphere on top of everything being reasonably well kept.

Proof there is still a long way to go [Yes the quality is pretty awful in places]

Another problem with Chessie is not just that their two main rides struggle with crowds (gaining an average queue of 90 minutes each day) but that one was originally temporary and the other has passed its life expectancy. I think the park could add a decent family coaster on toadies site and while they're at it Peeking heights too, something like Juvelin, fire chaser express or even a ground hugging Mack launch coaster. The park could do so much but unfortunately has stagnated to a degree that most of the park (excluding the zoo & hotels) needs a major refurb, rides like tomb blaster & Bubbleworks could do with a great facelift and become decent dark rides again if done right. The concerning thing is the council at least since Vampire's existence have hated the park and most things planned by the park have been refused including an inverted coaster (like Nemesis) at some point in 1998 which is why Rattlesnake exists on top of those long lost rumours of that island ride and topple tower. On the assumption this is probably still the case, the council need to realise how popular and successful the park is regardless of how little investment the park has received (outside of Hotels) which outside of animal enclosures has only received a Ferris wheel, disco coaster and Safari ride since 2005.

Chances are it'll all look great when it's completely finished, hopefully there won't be much of a train skid mark

Yeah, the music definitely sounds Main Street USAesque, sort of a marching band sort of style I'd say. Even so, I'm sure it'll fit the attraction's theme and surroundings perfectly. Whoever gets to ride it this year, I envy you 1898 times

Professor drunk's minions

It might work, it might not work, I'll reserve my judgement until I ride the system Interesting to see the park trailing it out again, but fastrack usage too is a little concerning

Really liking the new surf/beach elements to the dome, is a refreshing sight to see from the other ageing theming there. I'm guessing the retheme of the dome will be a slow but continuous process, maybe next year the theming will be redone

Re-Riding of course, love doing rides again and again, no idea what next riding is? Baron 1898 or Chiapas?

Part 2 is now officially here from the Creaky Legoland Vlog I'm definitely planning on using this camera more often now as I'm so far impressed with the quality of how everything has turned out on the videos with the yellow probably being a spare and used for social bits. Assuming my other camera is a gerst, what type of ride would this one be? I wonder if that makes my first camera [ from my early days] a pinifari?

The problem isn't really Sub Terra but Merlin really with their cut corners strategy and over money bearing tactics, some could say Disney are money based but least they know how to balance money and customers evenly. Sub-Terra may not be the best ride in the park (and not quite a patch on Hex & Duel), but it's a decent supporting ride which doesn't get the budget it deserves.

Despite choosing one of the worst weeks to visit (in terms of crowds) I went to Chessington on Thursday 28th May as I was invited to a friend's birthday trip. Ride count Vampire 1 Dragons Fury 2x (1 fastracked ) Dragon falls Scorpion express Rattlesnake Tomb blaster Bubbleworks Tuk tuk turmoil Black buccaneer Ramesis 0 (almost once) Total 10 The park was very busy that day with vampire and fury peaking 100 minutes in the day, Falls reaching 90 minutes and everything else except caroulsel and hocus pocus receiving queues anywhere between 30-75 minutes. Kobra and Griffins galleon were closed all day and monkey swinger for some reason was as well (despite not bring advertised as closed). Ramesis suffered a major breakdown around lunchtime (frustratingly when I was queuing up) as it kept stopping in a fixed position several times and was eventually closed. I hate the new entrance to the ride, it looks such a tacky and cheap job to the once grander entrance that has now been replaced with a penguin photo shoot, pity merlin didn't fund the cash to restore it to all its glory. Bubbleworks whilst I still enjoy it and much prefer it to Its A Small World does need a major refurb in the future as the ride is looking rather tired and worn in lots of places, the factory room is looking rather dated now, the fairground coaster is still broken and the fountain finale isn't a patch on what it used to be. Tomb Blaster is just as bad, if not worse as many targets were not working, took ages to reset plus numerous effects as I'm aware didn't seem to be working including the Boulder send one of the spinning tunnels, the ride also feels rather dated and in need of a refurbishment. Park operations were mixed when I went, a Fury was running well on all cars (by the looks) and Vampire was dispatching trains a good 10 seconds or more before the 2nd trains hit the station brakes. Falls on the other hand was running a bit slowly as I saw several empty boats go by during a 90 minute queue which is never a good sign on the park's only high throughput ride currently. Whilst I somehow still managed to enjoy the day to a fairly large extent, I can't help but criticise the amount of run down areas in the park. Fury needs a good paint job (dare I say more than Vampire now), Vampire's removed crypt & chandliers are quite disappointing to see too on top of an overworked skyway which may as well be fully replaced. Even Rattlesnake looks like it could do with some care. Chessington is a great park to. Visit, but needs lots and lots of care, attention and General TLC. I knew 2015 was going to be a small year but a new show & refurbished penguin area just don't help the crowd and run down situation there and more work should be done. I just hope Merlin realise ASAP how popular & successful Chessington is and pull out the stops and invest more in to the park to make it the top class park it deserves to be. On a positive note, the park close was pushed to 6:30pm which was great to see on a day like this and very much needed IMO. We also parked in the north car park (the first time I've been there) and never realised how big Chessington's car park was (possibly twice the size of Thorpe's). I was also put in charge of the group as my mate had invited 8 further friends along too, which was hefty but doable challenging organising everything on top of looking after many teenagers (who had your typical behaviour really). Probably won't return to Chessington now until Howl O ween as it's something I've really been wanting to do for a while now.

4 Days Later and here is Part 1 of the TPM Legoland Trip/Vlog I'm using a different camera by the way