BigBobJones

Ouch @ 3 hours!

This will never ever happen. They may well open Boris island, but with the billions spent on infrastructure and the fact the entire area around Heathrow relies on the airport will mean this will never happen. In reality we may see expansions at other air ports, maybe even Boris Island, but Heathrow will never close. To close Heathrow would be to put hundreds of thousands of people out of work, de-value the house prices for a good million houses and it would be an economic disaster. I would easily put my money on it that Heathrow is here to stay for a very long time. They would not have spent all that money on Terminal 5 and also Terminal 2 But on the bright side if Heathrow did close and Merlin brought it, just imagine Legoland, Thorpe and Chessington coming together to create a super park on the Heathrow site!

There is only one place I want to go at Thorpe and I doubt they will let you in there or take pictures. Stealth Motor room

Yes for most of the year but if it is one of those rare warm British summer days, the queue is easily 75 mins! Which I find strange for a ride which such a high throughput and which has the ability to soak every guest on and off the ride!

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they may at the last minute open the Bubbleworks or Hocus Pocus...

if people stopped paying the parking charges or just didn't go, I'm sure they would come down quicky

Not a strange comment, I look at all the options when I go to a park, ticket entry, parking etc and if they are charging a very high price to simply park your car as well as high prices to get in, then it seriously puts me off going. If people are happy being ripped off and just pay the parking charge, then the parks win and the guests loose out.

Is a new sign over the entrance a re-theme nowadays in Merlin standards?

Wow they do know how to really put people off with those prices!

They are improving and making investments, so they are doing well, but they do need to work harder and they really need to look at issues such as Fast Track selling, if they are annoying so many customers to make a quick buck, they are making money in the short term, but damaging their long term reputation as people will just remember it for mega long queues and costing a fortune as you had to spend £150 just to have a decent day due to having to buy Fast Tracks etc. Events such as Summer nights and the onsite accommodation are good improvements to the facilities. The highlight of a need for more families to visit is a very good thing as they do need to cater for more families. *hint* re-open CCR and 4D cinema. If anything Thorpe was helped by the late opening and downtime of The Smiler and Chessington's disappointing year with no RMT, Rameses and poor operations/over crowding.

I'm looking forward to the installation of a nice Intamin Megalight coaster

Inferno is a very good coaster, it does what it does very well. It isn't by any means the best coaster out there, but it is no way near the worst. Just like Air, you either love it or hate it. But the main thing to do when you go on these rides is enjoy them for what they are rather than how big/fast or how many G's they pull and to not rate them against each other. There are many B&M inverts I have been on and this is perfectly fine IMO. I have my preference and I would personally go on Nemesis at Alton due to the great theming and extra G's, but I know plenty of people who would rather Inferno as it is not as forceful.

Maybe they need a button on the App which says "Disagree with this queue time?" and let you put in your own estimate. This way the people doing the queue times will get an update and they can call the ride operator to confirm. I would have loved a go on rush, but when I walked to go on Quantum to see the extended queue line filled up, I knew not to bother at all.

I was on park all day, come 3 PM when most of the mazes opened they had almost instant queues of 60-90 mins, so I simply just didn't bother doing any of them.

I used the App today just for queue times and just like those very expensive colour queue signs they have, completely useless (For queue info that is). For example: Rush was displaying 20 mins and the queue looked more like 50 mins due to the extended queue open X displaying at 5 mins, but the queue was all the way down the corridor with the Ride Op announcing over the PA that the queue was going to be 35 mins..... Now if the ride op is announcing over the PA that it was 35 mins, then where is the breakdown in communication to get the queue board system updated? Sometimes you just need to use your own judgement, I do feel sorry for those who don't come that often and trust the information given to them. But on a bright side they were under estimating the queues so not pushing for fast track, but many guests were not happy with the length of time they queued. For example one disgusted guest shouted out "5 mins my a...." But we have waited the entire season for the app, so hopefully by the start of next season it will be working well with all the bugs removed.

Just downloaded the THORPE PARK app for Andorid, it has been a long time coming... Overall opinion, this is a very good app, lots packed into and it has been well worth the wait. I like the options to show you the way to places and you can take the challenge of certain rides. Suggestions for improvements are: IT says you need to be 140 cm to ride X On Wet Wet Wet, if you are less than 0 cm tall, you must be accompanying children? A find my car locator would be nice What are the opinions of others and is the IOS version giving the same functionality or do the features differ?

Well done Chessie!

I believe a consistent experience is the best way, that way everyone gets the same, otherwise you have some people having a great experience, others feeling very disappointed. Very good high quality attractions work very hard to give all their guests a consistent experience, look at the attractions in Orlando for example. Wherever possible if they can enhance the guest experience then even better. For me I would much prefer to get the same level of experience every time.

Digging down is a good option, look at Rattlesnake, it is a tall ride, but you don't notice it until you are almost on top of the ride due to it being dug down. There are always options. I do wonder if they shut down Chessie and move it elsewhere if Kingston suddenly change their mind...? Probably not as the council are always in it for themselves/their own gain or personal opinions and not the people they serve. I agree they can't build 100ft drop tower and traffic has to be managed, but there is no reason why Chessington can not expand and put in decent car parks and even improve the local traffic junctions. If huge supermarkets can get new roundabouts, dual carriageways, traffic light junctions put in, then so can Chessington. *cough* back handers *cough*

Well if people keep paying the price and still have plenty of cash left over for Fast Tracks, Food, Photos etc, then the park will continue to charge it. If you feel the price is too high, then vote with your feet and don't go/buy.

Yes the council can be a pain, but when they started developing as a theme park, they knew the restrictions. It is like the Towers have similar restrictions. But this does not stop them, you just have to be more creative. Look at The Vampire and Dragon's Fury, they are both very good rides and they fit in very well at the park, but you can't see them from the outside so it works for them. Zufari was an excellent attraction. Like everything at Chessington, they just need to spend a little more money and work harder to get good through puts. Chessington is dying out for some dark rides, a Vekoma Madhouse & 4D cinema would be very easy to install and would not go over the tree height, plus being indoors there is no noise to worry about. Plus they would have high throughputs. They also need to ensure there is a very good balance between theme park and Zoo, I would not like to see the Zoo made smaller just so they can put in a new roller coaster, this would be a bad choice. I am worried what the Zoo situation is going to be like after this hotel extension.

The interaction with the driver can be hit and miss, it can be brilliant or very poor. At least with the pre-recorded PA every guest gets the same experience which in all honestly is what they should be aiming at.

This is really bad. They just don't seem to be getting it. Thorpe had a bad year last year but they seem to have pulled out their finger and made some big leaps forwards, but Chessington seem to be going backwards. I love the Zoo days, they are perfect as it is a low cost to get in, so people who like the animals but are not too keen on rides get to go in for a low cost. We went 6-7 times last year and it was perfect, Bubbleworks and Hocus Pocus open and the animals was the perfect balance IMO. But with Halloween nights finishing at 7, no RMT, closure of parts of the Zoo, effects not working (Monkey Swinger), slow operations on loading guests on to the rides (Vampire), lots of complaints due to it being too busy in the summer, now no Zoo days. This is another reason not to renew our Annual passes. Looks like we won't be able to enjoy a half day at the Zoo with Pizza Pasta as a family It is such a shame as Chessington could be such a great theme park, but it does appear that they are just not trying or Merlin are not funding it. How many times have they been full this year and had to turn guests away....

I love Vortex, shame about the restraints

You never know it could be that it is something wrong with the cables/gears which has caused the ride to be down all this time.... *fingers crossed*