Matt 236

Having ridden the Swarm backwards recently, I have to admit its a strange and odd experience. The lift and the inversion drop are quite impressive whilst the rest is quite disorienting experience. It's quite enjoyable and thrilling, but I prefer forwards on the ride tbh.

Great trip report Adam, I love the stories incorporated in there too. I'll have to hurry with my one now.

Oh dear, The Smiler's construction and opening is a complete disaster. Sure rly Merlin must have a real headache with all the problems and delays that have suddenly cropped up since the project began.

Just come back from my trip. Another great day at the park, really enjoyed myself on all the rides ( except when I was almost sick on Samurai after eating too much chocolate). The park for a bank holiday weekend wasn't too busy and the longest queue being backwards on the Swarm 30 mins. It was great meeting new members such as Styles who was very friendly and helpful on the visit as well as meeting with the many other wonderful members who I met at the Chessington trip. Overall another fantastic trip and thoroughly enjoyed it, a trip report will follow soon highlighting the adventures of this TPM mini meet. I can't wait to meet everyone again in the June meet.

Went on X today for the first time, its an enjoyable ride which the light effects also help the experience too. The loading is also pretty fast too as when a train arrives, they load everyone quick and then it leaves 20 seconds later before another train arrives shortly afterwards.

Inferno wasn't running the mist again today on all three rides which was rather disappointing. On the other hand, ride was.still as enjoyable as ever and the return of the dispatch theme is a welcome return IMO.

Just been on Slammer for the first time and despite being unsure of it I loved it and enjoyed the ride thoroughly. I hope the ride will remain at Thorpe for at least a few years as its quite a unique experience. I can now happily say I've been on the worlds only sky swat.

Visited the park today and am disappointed to report apart from Inferno and Swarm, every area of the park was playing cart music, AKA The Noise. This even included the Colossus, Stealth and Canada Creek areas which gave the park a different vibe. Although the way they've done it with the noise etc. I'm hoping this will only be a tempory thing as the noise should only be restricted to the entrance, dome and beach areas except when an event is on.

Went on Saw today. As far asim aware, some of the effects appeared missing which I believe we're the blades as it just seemed dark instead of those objects being included which was quite disappointing. On another note, the ride seemed reasonably smooth (when I rode it at least).

That's very generous of a park like Oakwood doing this and shows they don't just want profit. I've heard the gate price hasn't gone up too unlike certain other places who may open much smaller scale cough 'merlin' cough.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.387806801335078.1073741836.321600547955704&type=1 More pics from the developers diary showing much of the area now finished.

Wow, this looks to be a great mini meet. All we need now is Peaj and then it could be an official meet.

I would like to say happy birthday to Jaymiee and Phil Pritchard. I hope you both have fantastic days.

I expect Towers will have loads of complaints for a while now because of this, there's already over 400 fb posts on the post. What I don't get though is what's caused the ride to 'very' suddenly be deemed unable to be open.

Thorpe Park has expanded terrifically over the recent years to become the great park it has now become. However along the way, the park has sadly closed and removed a number of rides attractions. Out of all the many lost rides at the park, which one do you miss the most?

Maximum amount of trains Thorpes coasters 'could, manage Swarm, 3 trains (if staff run it efficiently) Saw 8 trains, Stealth,2 (3 if done very fast) Inferno 3 trains, if staff are pretty fast Colossus, 2 trains X, 4 trains (possibly 5) Flying Fish 1 train, unless you want a crash.

Here's the latest developments from Oakwood's new Never Land area. https://www.facebook.com/matthew.wakefield.9?ref=tn_tnmn#!/media/set/?set=a.386552774793814.1073741833.321600547955704&type=1 The area is looking really nice so far and the Crocodile Coaster looks alot more appealing than it did at Camelot.

If that is so, I might as well say the Big One is the tallest coaster in the world, The Ultimate is the longest coaster in the world and Stealth is the fastest coaster in Europe

2013, potentially Chessie's worst year since Vampire being Sbno.

Have to admit, I've got mixed reviews on this ride. What I like about the new one is the fresh clean models, the animatronics and effects and that the ride still appears enjoyable. What I don't like about the new one is some of the model dialogue which I feel detracts from the charm and experience slightly too. Although I expect the children may like that. Secondly, I find some of the newer scenes lacking the previous humorous charm of the original ones (the whisk and mobile phone) and also the goats have vanished. Also though the new music sounds nice, I do slightly miss the old one which had great charm to it (as well as my childhood). Overall, though I'm mostly impressed with the re-work of the ride. But as good as lot of it is, I do admit the changes are quite a big punch in the stomach of my childhood days there.

Theme park logic have posted this picture of what appears to be the Smiler'sover flow over flow queue. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=663286080364024&set=a.405527049473263.116039.190814374277866&type=1&theater Looks like people may be in for a long wait that day.

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=ulh82q8BTxk Video of the new updated Fairy Tale Brook if any ones interested.

Dragons always been running on three trains I think but until recently was likely only for busy days. In terms of ride throughputs, the park is very mixed. There's rides like Atlantis, Jolly Rocker and Viking Rapids which really munch and if they ave queues often move very fast but then there's attractions like Boating School, Sky Ride and Laser Raiders which have terrible thoughts and doubt the first two exceed 300 on a busy day. If the train ride there used two locomotives (only uses one), it could be pretty good at throughput.

This could also apply to Chessington as well (especially in recent years). Inferno would be amazing at throughputs if the ride could use 3 trains.

Ten films, I strongly enjoy (no particular order) 1 Gladiator/ brilliant action film with great setting and filming. Also features last film of Oliver Reed. 2 The Matrix/ Very intriguing plot line as well as some impressive action scenes. 3 The Shining, quite nostalgic and creepy as well as brilliant acting of Jack Nicholson. 4 Les Mis, brilliant musical score with brilliant actors/singers with several touching moment in the film (watch if you like musicals) 5 Toy Story 3, great film with more charms than the first 2, brings me back to my childhood. 6 Forest Gump, interesting comedy film that shows anybody can be somebody. 7 The Sixth Sense, amazing supernatural thriller with ghosts which features a twist at the end. 8 Spirited Away, I love a lot of the anime cartoons and Spirited Away is no exception, great plot, animation and music. 9 Shaun of the dead, funny black comedy film with Pegg and Frost with zombies. 10 Hunger Games. I enjoy many other films too.