Matt 236

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

Difference between big one and Nemesis If Nemesis opened this year, it would still be an amazing and well received coaster and appraised by most enthusiasts alike If a big One opened this year, it would look old out dated and behind the times Big one is an okay ride but compared to rides like Shambhala & Silver Star (which I'm hoping to experience in the near future), it's not a patch

This looks one crazy awesome coaster, Orlando definitely looks one exciting place next year with pretty much every major park (group) out there opening something new and major.

IF I DONT MAKE THIS MEET I WILL BURN DOWN HALF OF PARIS!!!! I chose the first date only because chances are I'll be at uni during the rest (although I'd likely still go anyway)

I think this topic needs to be renamed Dead Or Alive the way things are going

Good to see Thorpe have resolved their issues How is it parks like Towers, DLP & Blackpool (to most extents) amongst others can operate daily two train p,U.S. Operations and Thorpe at the best of times somehow cannot, I just can't understand it, it's things like this that can be the difference of somewhere being a world class or regional park.

I reckon my Bloody Valentine will be going on the island next to Dwarm as it was apparently meant to go there last year and was a last minute thing it returned back to its main location. As for Studio, I don't know what to say if it will return or be replaced again, but one things for sure, it's unlikely IAC is goi g anywhere except receiving a more intense setting for fright nights maybe. I can see S13 if it does return either going in a tent on the beach or even going in the conference area where they did Braniac in February half term.

Came back from Chessington and although it was very busy (something expected at half term and Chessington), I still had a good day Queues were pretty high today with vampire and fury peaking 100 minutes at some point with bubbles & safari reaching 75 minutes, zufari & tombs reaching 60 minutes and Dragon Falls 90 minutes (at the time I was in the queue), which is an insult to wait that long for at least in its current state. Despite that, coasters were being operated very well with vampire trains often batched before the second hit the brakes and fury trains all seemed to be running and loaded quickly. I still enjoy Chessington despite its major stagnation and problems and hope we see some major improvements next year as a new show and updated enclosure don't help the crowds or the fact most of the park is still very fun down in places.

This ride looks amazing and seeing what Manta is like, this should be another excellent ride for the park. Hopefully will get to experience this if/when Creeklando happens in 2017/18.

I dread to think what it'll be like in the summer, At this rate I can see the park hitting capacity and primary rides exceeding 2 hours and secondary passing 1.5 hours with the rest being 45 or more.

That looks amazing, definitely hoping to ride this beauty in the near future.

I'm still yet to experience a proper Boomerang style coaster (although I have done Revolution which slightly counts) Wipeout surely must be the better UK boomerang ride as I've heard the one in Pleasure island is just painful and still uses a vekoma train as I'm aware.

£200 for VIP is a massive increase, but for the almost celebrity treatment these things offer, one could argue hey were too cheap to start off with. I wouldn't consider buying Merlin VIP at the moment as I'm happy enough with premium at the moment and £700 could be a hearty chunk used on a big trip to somewhere like Europa for a few days in one of the onsite hotels with left overs to spare.

Unfortunately there are a lot of problems at Chessington at the moment and I'm not sure when and how they can deal with them. 1/ despite only installing 4 rides since 2004 (32 of them major), the park's attendance levels seem to be rising at an amazing yet concerning speed which probably due more to the increasing population, addition of two themed on site hotels on top of it being the most rounded of age ranges of the South East parks plus also being the closest 'big' park to London. 2/ the bulk of the park's rides were built between 1987 and 1998 which seeing as many are nearly their 30th birthday shows a lot of park rides are getting very old (one could say it was a much smaller Europa in its hey day considering how much of the core is by Mack and the themed areas too). 3/ most of the ride's suffer poor throughputs with falls so far the only one which can get 1000 currently with most other primary rides mostly between 500-700 PPH which considering the average queue has been 90 minutes for primary and 60 minutes for secondary rides is not a great sign. Whilst Legoland's rides are often criticised for low'ish throughputs, the park has at least three rides capable of 1000+ PPH with the dragon getting 900 on three trains (the queue wasn't more than 20 minutes from steps near the entrance) on top of improving park wide throughputs with things like a 3rd lane on boating school, doing two shows on the lighthouse and replacing a 10 digger thing with a 40 seater Disko coaster. With some major work I think black Buccaneers, vampire & tombs could easily take on near 1000 an hour. 4/ the road and infrastructure still needs sorting and whilst Legoland's here is clearly worse with tailbacks on exit 90 minutes after close (turning left is clobbered) and the fact Chessie slightly improved things in 2010, it is still a serious issue that needs sorting plus not to mention a big chunk of the main hotel car park is hotel guests only which makes parking here much harder now. I think Merlin need to realise despite its planning difficulties (which are even worse than the others with their own difficulties), they need to invest lots in to Chessington in the future in both rides and infrastructure to bring a park with a hub spoke design from the 80's/99's to present day to cope with its projected 2 million per year guests and unfortunately a new show & penguin enclosure (as great as they are won't make much difference).

Wow, that's a hefty amount of refurbs coming up especially in 2016 when at least two major rides & a supporting attraction plus more will be closed (Peaj won't be happy about Animagicue). I probably won't visit the park in 2016 (and won't renew my pass until 2017) as no BTM and others is too greater loss plus I have some pretty big plans with other parks too.