BigBobJones

I heard somewhere that many of the rides/coasters were leased and not owned by the park, which in that case go back to whoever owns them?

I only went on the Swarm around 15 times last season, but I went on Stealth, Inferno, Saw etc 50+ times I'm all for new rides, but not if they come with a 90 minute queue and I'm not buying into Fast Tracks either. The downside is that Oblivion will be very busy too as with more people flocking over to SW7, we can say goodbye to being able to almost walk on to Oblivion

On a Visit to the Winter Wonderland today, I'm thinking the Wild Maus XXL would be a great addition to Thorpe, it doesn't take up too much space either

I can see a Tomb Blaster type ride not doing well at Thorpe, it will only really be good for the small number of families, the only way they could improve it is to make it a very intense horror ride, maybe have a Th13teen track drop in there somewhere. Thorpe have got themselves into a sticky situation, as they have moved away from a family park and they are a thrill park, their target audience now want thrills and bigger and better, so the normal generic dark rides will not fit in. Time Voyages was closed this year, I guess to lack of demand. There is talk of Vengeance 5D, but it has low capacity, if this goes in and is themed to the Swarm it might as well work. Now for the first year it will have mega long queues, but the re-ride ability will be low, so as the popularity falls, it may in fact have the right capacity for the park and a filler attraction, not take up too much space either. Now if its big thrills, then Thorpe can only realistically install another three big coasters before they run out of space, so they will need to use space wisely and fill up on flats where possible. But even with all space used, I still would not see Thorpe as a two day park, so I can really see the hotel being a major benefit, only to those guests who travel a very long way or people staying over from a club night/ride n rave.

At the end of the day it comes down to price and value for money, if you believe its good value, you will pay it, if you believe you are being ripped off, then you won't pay it. I would never pay £45 to get into Thorpe, but the price of a MAP with all its benefits is very good value indeed and the current MAP offer makes a Thorpe AP look expensive, but it is in Merlin's interests for you to visit their many other attractions, rather than one. When all I want is a bed for the night, I choose to stay in a Premier Inn rather than the Alton Towers hotel as I can't justify paying twice the price. The money saved can then be spent on ORP, food and travel expenses. I have said this before, people will or should vote with their feet, if people don't pay the price, they will have to amend it. Just like Fast Tracks, while people pay the price, they will still charge it. Others have said they will most likely do deals like BOGOF or book x days in advance and save x % We will know by Easter if the Crash Pad is working or not to see if the prices changes and how many offers they try and throw out to fill the rooms.

I agree with Congo, I have queues for ages and ages watching loads of boats go out with 2-3 people on them, then when I get the the station on a few times they have realised the queue is a mile long then expect us to share, I have refused in the past out of principle. Also I refuse to buy an ORP photo with other people in the boat, I want my friends or family in the photo no some strangers.

I didn't know there was an EX10 meet until it had happened

It doesn't bother me as I will never stay in them, but lets see what happens, this could be the start of Thorpe becoming a Resort or just testing the water.

The key for me to getting the most out of TP is to get there as the gates open and head straight to Stealth/Nemesis/Saw and Colossus, you can easily get these done in the first 30/40 mins if your quick, this then means you have more time to chill out later when the queues fill up and you can do quieter rides like Loggers, Vortex, Rush etc then after lunch to the Swarm when the main rush is over. But if there is a meet, then people need to turn up on time, we don't need excuses like missing busses and if the group end up getting into the park at 11am as they have been waiting outside for some late comers, then the whole group will end up spending a lot more time in queues which could have been avoided. For example if the park opens at 10, we all know on a Saturday/Sunday the gates open at 9:30, then the meet time should be 9am, that way it allows time for people to meet up and if somebody is running late then there is a 30 min window. I would rather queue up for 30 mins waiting for the gates to open and get more rides in than get in late and queue for ages. If you are the first people at Stealth, you can often get 2-3 re-rides in before you have to start going back around the queue lines as well.

I guess it will be like Fast Tracks, if people are prepare to pay premium prices, then they will continue to charge it, voting with your feet is the only way to get a fair price.

I won something!

Zufari is going to be the best addition to Chessington since the Vampire Bubbleworks, if they don't include this in the Zoo days I feel this will be a huge loss. If they DO include it, then the Zoo days will be come a lot more popular. I love my thrill rides, but I also have enjoyed the Zoo days there, Chessington has so much to offer for a family day out.

CCR should return for the younger people, it's not going to be a crowd puller, but its a granny ride which you can do after food or if the other rides are too busy. As for paying for Vengeance, no chance, its an OK ride, but there is no way I would pay for it or queue 30 mins for it, so TP will need to be careful as if they become greedy and go outside of the "One price entry for all rides" then this will flop and all what will happen is we will loose the ride.

I'm very happy with the selections of rides and other attractions open on the Zoo days. The only other thing I would like to see op if the Safari Sky Ride.

Hence I won't be going as it seems too expensive for what it is

I hope the real one has lap bars :-)

I think Rameses is the only ride which doesn't fit in at Chessington, if you look at the main customer base there, most can't ride as they are not 1.4m. I would have thought they would have moved it to Thorpe a long time ago.

I'm sure in March there will be a lot of TPM members heading to Loggers with their cameras at the ready to see what has changed. I expect on opening day to see updates/pictures and this topic explode with either delight or anger... ooh I can't wait.

I seriously doubt they will put all that effort to get the ride up and running for the last two weeks of the season, to then remove it over the closed season. I strongly believe Slammer is here for at least another season or when something breaks again.

There you go problem identified! Really? That really shocks me, I went in 2008 with my niece and noticed that many of the bricks were discoloured, this year (4 years later) there is very little colour in most of the bricks and most of the effects in the Legocity which were working back in 2008 no longer worked and the Lego City looks worse for wear IMO. The City is now very out of date (No Shard and other new buildings) and the number of broken buildings. Eve on opening day this year the Lego City looked a state so if they do have people to maintain attractions, they either don't have enough people, high enough budget or the priorities are else where. Maybe Merlin need to address this, but they are too busy opening up new parks an attractions all over the world which will give them a much higher return on their investment.

I have more confidence that SW7 will open on time than Colossus running on 2 cars for most of the season :-)

Its all about the money money money, sell as many fast tracks, spend a little on maintaining the rides and make as much profit. This seems to be the way Thorpe operates. The Swarm has had so much money spent on it and then you go to their older rides, Loggers and Rumba are in a shocking state.

If they don't replace the roof, then it shows they really don't want to or can't be arsed to maintain these rides. There is nothing wrong with loggers, it just needs some TLC. Remove the roof and you take away part of the ride. But lets see what they do when it opens up, they may replace it or do it up, also one thing I didn't like was the emergency lights had greed LEDs which spoilt it, I want my tunnel to be dark and not lit up with LEDs.

Awful lot of downtime.... That means there is a transporter waiting to take it to Thorpe :-) If not Vengeance then some other dark ride would be welcomed at Thorpe IMO, the black hole tent was an eye sore, so even if Thorpe got a Black hole type ride in a tent, it won't look any worse than Storm Surge or the Crash Pad

I think Saw Alive should have been a more permanent feature, having it open all day every day was not doing to work IMO, but if they opened it on the busy days and during the school holidays + any other events when the park is going to be busy, then there is no reason why it could not have worked. I can understand for half of the season it would not be economical to open it, but Thorpe has had some very busy days and the additional attraction would have come in handy. If the Towers are going to have an all year round scare maze, maybe they will not open it on the quiet days, rather than run it through, March, April and May when the park isn't as busy then cut it out. For example Every Saturday and Sunday and bank holiday = open Easter and Summer holidays = open Any special events where the park will be very busy + Scarefest/Fireworks = Open Closed Monday - Friday unless event or busy period so if the season is 225 days, using this method, the maze will only need to be open 160 days out of the 225 which if you add up the running and staffing costs, this possibly could make it more viable. No matter how good the maze is, they will need to make changes regularly otherwise guests who are re-doing the maze will get bored of it.