Matt 236

Absolutely can't wait for this to open. I love being patronised by attractions intended for someone much younger than me.

Well said. Certainly enjoyed Big Top and compared to last year it feels much better and the flow feels more consistent, not to mention the Ranger figure that appears within. Platform 15 has set me a new personal record, but sadly not an acceptable one. Nearly Three and a half hours of queuing. The longest queue I've ever queued in my life. May have well travelled to Universal Halloween Horror Nights in the time it took to get in. Platform 15 in extreme contradictory was actually surprisingly good. The buildup from scene to scene and the conductor story line was done rather well. Still not worth the queue though and really needs it's batching sorted. Inferno in the dark is bliss, that is all. Not the best end of season to Thorpe though, 2013's and 2014's were more acceptable in comparison.

Alton Towers becomes CBeebies World then. Yay for a balamory overlay for Smiler.

So it's official, even though most saw it coming.

Well we know already that the one after WC16, will be Derren Brown's Ghost Train 2. The WC16 tagline was actually for the toilet refurbishment near the Thorpe Store, considering the code name WC16.

Phantasialand's music as a whole is generally fab. Alongside Chiapas I also love the Berlin Street music and Taron theme. As a result I now own the Klugheim soundtrack too.

It could be good. It could be very good. But Tomb Blaster 2, Zufari and others don't fill me with much optimism unfortunately. If it turns out to be better than the Imperial Leather Bubble works, I'll buy the first person to say told you so, half a pint.

The only comparison between the Gruffalo ride and Burger Kitchen is they are both Merlin and both Chessington. Does this mean the ride is going to be awful? Who knows, but I'll be amazed if it makes my top 20, let alone my top 10.

When the Imperial Leather closed, the ducks took a ride on the Vampire. They quacked up.

Well this is a surprise, as I honestly thought the only changes would be the VR. As long as this is shipping container free and the new shop is heavily themed, then it's an acceptable change.

Loving the scary report here and it certainly sounds like an event to definitely consider visiting in the future. I'm guessing in regards to closing just at 11:30, it may be something to do with noise levels or placement in the village but it's difficult to say. I think Silver Star closes after a certain time as a result of this.

Probably Loggers Leap. As if they're honestly going to reopen a ride that's been derelict for a year. I will buy someone a pint if it actually does reopen.

I just hope they build something with an acceptable throughput. If I wanted to wait three hours in a queue I would go to the Post Office.

Clue two is up guys and this time features an Owl. . I think this one makes it pretty obvious what new attraction they are going to announce. Harry Potter obviously because it's got owls.

Everything. everything is a joke. Except the Gruaffalo ride.

Wow, I never expected to see this coming. Next thing you know they'll announce a short lived kids IP overlay to replace a once cherished dark ride through some shoddy animal clues. I'm sure it'll be fine though like their other magic additions as nothing's more immersive than cheesy stage shows and Homebase UV lit dark rides.

Pie Factory at Xtreme Scream is stunning. just love the buildup between scenes and the fact it isn't all just jump scares.

E-ticket= major ride for a park. Obviously as this isn't Disney my point is perhaps redundant. I don't know why this is considered such a problem? At the end of the day, some of us may relate things to one thing or another without realising. Perhaps I was more referring to Symbolica being a larger scale ride. But it doesn't matter as both rides look to be aprrooriate credentials to both their parks.

Sick Bruv: the ride enter an interactive oversized cattlepen queue line and experience countless chavs smoking, spitting, fighting, throwing their food everywhere, punching and sitting on queue line fences. the best part is before you experience the main ride, it will break down.

The ride yesterday was generally in an unacceptable state for a new ride. queue line already chipped and worn paint in places already, closed bag hold and already looking dirty. This is before mentioning the queue was moving extremely slowly at a pace comparable to Rattlesnake. Especially considering a nearly full queue line warranted a three hour wait which as a result was only using one ride vehicle. Amongst this, a noticeable number of VR head sets were broken, pacing felt more stretched out and the train animatronic is already broken. Acting was acceptable but the way they were presumably covering up from the broken train in the third section was laughable. The final VR still retains its usual problems and I am debating on whether my headset was iffy as silver shapes appeared on the screen at times which had no correlation to the goings on. Derren Brown's ghost train could be a work of art if done right, but judging from yesterday it was anything but that. The ride really requires an excessive restructure from what it is and has become otherwise all efforts into the ride are just a waste and embarrassment. Especially as this is supposed to be a modern styling of a dark ride (besides the Merlin PR fluff). Derren Brown in it's current state doesn't really do that and feels disjointointed and I hope 2017 for the sake of this ride and Thorpe, I hope they can give this a worthwhile repair job. Sadly I don't feel too optimistic for this, given recent situations and previous comparisons in Merlin. .

Hearing of Vampire now increasingly running one train is both disappointing and unacceptable. My girlfriend (who used to work at Chessington and operate Vampire) mentioned how the ride around 2006 used to have a dispatch target of around 30 seconds. A time in which guests would be unloaded and reloaded. This was used especially when all three trains were in use, achieving a throughput of 900-1000PHH. Sadly cannot see dispatches ever becoming that efficient again especially considering the further complicated station layout and further enthasis and safety procedures (which others have mentioned above). This is before considering the ride's age and the Smiler accident which make things even more complicated. I believe it was 2011 time when Vampire was decommissioned from ever using three trains again and I feel the way things are going, we will be lucky to see it operating two now, let alone three.

Ninjago construction latest courtesy of Thrill Nation. Foundations are taking place rather nicely and more area advertisement too. Should hopefully be another decent ride at the park and much needed major attraction. In addition, this appears to be the only worthwhile attraction in the UK for 2017.

Me, Terror Tomb and David certainly scared/amused a few people at the Fright Night meet yesterday. The scariest thing was how busy the place was and how long Ghost Trsin was taking.