Kerfuffle

You say that and then there also could've been the millions spent the following year...
 
...right Derren?

Any money spent on it could've literally been used on ANYTHING (even polishing Varney's car fleet) and it would've been a better return...

MickerWan confirmed!

A genuine question, have you visited this winter? The original soundtrack has been restored and the bad cassette recording is finally gone.

Not to its orginal 1990 state with the corridor audio and zoned organ, but definitely to how it was at the time that video clip was recorded, the way it was in the 2000s.
If you have visited this month and think it still sounds bad, it may be more to do with the aging state of the sound system, or that it needs tweaking now that the original audio is back.
 
Although I still think having the same music outdoors on those PA speakers numbs the impact of hearing it the first time in the station, hopefully they will change this to an ambient track outdoors.
 
IPs are purely for business purposes and really nothing to do with thematic storytelling. The motorway service station type ads in Chessington's queue are super tacky, gives a really commercial impression about the park. Yuck!

I'm in

2007 fright nights me and another old member of this forum who worked at the park, platforming Inferno 2 trains,  2 man team as short stagfed.....checked loaded and ready to dispatch waiting for the lift block clear for 2 hours no stacking took place, we basically worked the **** out of the queue, as we dispatched sonearly we had 30-45 seconds to get 1 person from each row to collect the bags rather than every person cramming the bag room etc....
 
it was great fun and a decent results ive never seen since!
 
it just takes will and enthusiasm both with ride hosts and getting the riders on board for the challenge!

Phantasialand meet sounds fantastic. I'm sold

Hello TPM peeps,
 
Please find below a provisional plan for the year ahead. Dates are provisional until I confirm in the individual topics
 
Sunday 3rd Feb - Bowling and meal (other ideas welcome) 
Saturday 30th March - Thorpe Park opening meet
Friday 5th to Sunday 7th April - Blackpool meet
Saturday 18th May - Chessington meet
Saturday 29th to Sunday 30th June - Alton Towers meet (likely to go up Fri evening) 
Friday 2nd August  to Monday 5th Aug - Phantasialand international meet (2 days - Sat and Sun)
Saturday 12th October - Thorpe Park FN
December (Date TBC) - London attractions/Winter Wonderland
 
I might look at adding a few smaller parks in at random weekends across the year as well.
 
Any thoughts/opinions/ideas are welcome. 
 
 
 

Just got back from the Efteling/Netherlands and definitely struggled to leave (quite literally because our flights back got cancelled and had to be rescheduled). 
 
Key points from the park:
Park was decorated with lots of little Christmas decorations, from a Vogel Rock Santa hat to several trees and ornaments in the main path Warm fires and numerous entertainers were scattered throughout the park, including a choir and Live musicians  A large tent (with bar and ice rink) and a small Ferris wheel comprised of additional attractions,  Park was lively on the weekends but literally dead in the week, with queues rarely excieeding 20 minutes (even on Symbolica) Bob Saw some of the longer queues in the park (probably because it’s getting demolished and has a low throughput) Villa Volta featured an ‘impressive’ projection mapping show on it’s facade at night (although riders had to use an alternative exit) Vogel Rock’s audio was ‘experiencing’ some major difficulties, on one train the music didn’t ‘synchronise’ properly whilst on another the music wasn’t working at all Dutchman and Pirana remained closed during the trip due to maintenance  Apart from Baron, you have to take your bags on all the rides now Python is now incredibly smooth since it’s retracking  It also snowed on our third (and what should’ve been our final) day, making it the ‘true’ Winter Efteling  Park looked beautiful as always at night. The park’s dark rides as always were simply beautiful (Carnaval maybe less-so). From the magnificent set pieces of Droomvlucht, atmosphere of Fata, Villa’s effects and the ‘sheer perfection’ of Symbolica. A similar ride system  at Phantasialand would make a perfect replacement for Geister Riksha (assuming it’s getting ripped out next year).
 
The Coasters in general are fun and highly enjoyable all around. Baron compensates it’s small drop and layout which immense details and story telling (which makes it one of the better coaster out there), Joris is great and throws a trick or two. Bob for me is probably the weakest coaster, but is still fun and will be missed.
 

Have any of you guys seen this? It really shows what the vampire station used to look like before it was massively butchered.
 
This is how I remember it from my childhood.

Please vote for coaster. He deserves all the awards.

I dont want to sound like an angry vox pop but I feel like it's justified here after the continued unprofessional attitude from Thorpe Park
 
Absolutely ridiculous that park doesnt just come out and say "Loggers Leap is closed". How hard is that? The moment Loggers Leap closed it got glossed over by people either too over-optimistic on what to expect from Merlin, or who were doing it to save bad press. While it probably could have been refurbished as necessary and reopened (like any other park would), this just isn't Merlin's track record.
 
No surprise to everybody that it's sat there for years seizing up and much is now probably beyond reasonable repair. So just tell your customers Thorpe Park, the ride is closed. It's the least you could do! You've only created far, far worse response by trying to shove your biggest family attraction under the carpet.

And now this tweet, probably because the park is such a joke at the moment that its own staff find it funny (I would). It needs a proper sort out this place.

What a car crash of a thread.

Go on then - Count me in - It's been a long time since I have seen everyone  

2nd to Disney right there folks.
 
Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

A visual representation of me attending the meet after being unable to attend meets all year due to work, college, poor mental health (insert other burdens) etc. etc. etc.:
(This means I'm a straight yes by the way)

Who needs themed facades and shrubbery to conceal a ride building, when you can just put bats and cobwebs there instead.
 
Better than nothing I suppose.

I have...
 
But of course, you'd never get anything wrong. ?

If I had a quid for every time Chessie had PLANNED to do something etc...

Apologies for the long pedantic post, but to save misunderstanding, here's the full story behind Vampire's audio over the years!

Obviously all the following is more technical info, no guests are gonna go in Vampire thinking 'hang on this is the wrong mix' – but the point is for the music to sound good and have good effect, and clearly this is not happening today. The ride currently sounds awful.

Here is where it gets pretty complicated and you need to consider how technology has changed massively over time to get your head around it.

Let's break it down to:
Production tapes (pre dubbing, pre downsampling)
1990 Ride 'dual zoned' mix
1990 stereo cassette mix
2016 Smart mix

The original music would have been produced from tapes as a high quality production master by the composer in 1990.

A standard mix for listening would have been in stereo obviously, but for use in the ride it was mixed differently. Theme park audio is usually always in mono mix, or 'multi mono' if its a score for a whole ride that changes as you move through it. This is because a stereo image requires a left and a right speaker, but in an attraction you're constantly moving around space with usually multiple speakers playing the same track, so it makes more sense to have it in mono.

Vampire actually had a 'dual' zoned effect where the same music played throughout the station, where the organ stage played the organ instrument, and the backing track played through the rest the station (guitar in both). This opened up the sound a bit more and gave the effect of the organ playing the actual organ part.

To do this effect, a mix with split organ and backing was sent to Sparks (who produced the Vampire station), with one on the L channel and other on R. This wasn't a traditional stereo mix, it was more of an installation mix, so would sound great standing in the station, but would sound bizarre played on a home stereo. Sparks also dubbed it with the familiar screams and thunder sounds. This mix was unique to any other mixes, which is why all other versions sound slightly different.

However, because of the technical limitations of the time, the ride track needed to be downsampled to play on solid state EPROM chips, which could only hold a certain amount of memory. The downsampling means it's lacking bass, but otherwise is good and wouldnt have been noticeable on the big station sound system – as anyone who went in Vampire in the 90s would remember it still sounded great! However, in mono, it wouldnt sound so good in isolation on a home stereo.

This zoned effect was lost in Vampire around 2000 when the sound system was changed. From then on it played as one zone throughout the station, but was the same 'mix'.

Then there was a souvenir cassette that was sold in the Chessington shop in the 90s, this was a very different mix to the ride version – and was in stereo (for listening). This is the one more commonly heard online. Although a more polished mix, the sound quality has always been dire, because the same warbly digital transfer has been passed around since forever (the original cassettes are hard to come by).

Somehow this was the track that Chessington replaced the original with in 2014 when the sound system was changed to mp3 playback. What! It sounds awful due to the poor quality of the transfer from cassette and is not edited to loop correctly.

Then a few years back the composer put up his own version (the Smart mix), from his own tapes, pre-downsampling... BUT it was actually yet another mix, half the 'cassette' version and half the 'original' version. This is the best quality version of the track available, but doesnt have the zoned effect or the 'rawer' guitar.

After years of trying to find the original track, I first found just the backing part on its own, which only had the guitar and organ on it faintly. This is what's on Soundcloud, edited to sound less 'mono' and with the organ part turned up a bit. More recently I finally found the organ track to go with it, so will update the Soundcloud track soon. Have sent this to Chessington.

These are the downsampled, dubbed tracks that played in the ride from 1990 to around 2000. So, not full listening quality and would sound weird played on a stereo, but would sound good restored in the dual zones in the station. Much better than the current dodgy mp3 being played.

Ideally, a brand new mix should be struck from the original master tapes (if they still exist with the composer) to recreate the dual zoning and the more 'raw' original mix – but without the downsampling, since this is no longer necessary with today's playback technology. Combine this with a repaired sound system and it would sound amazing. However, the original composer seems to be completely uncontactable.

So, there's the saga of Vampire's audio! Once sounded classic, now sounding very lame with the poor recording they're using at the moment. But, simply putting back the orginal mix on a broken, mono system probably wouldnt make much difference. What it needs is a new, overhauled sound system and a full quality zoned mix.

Shots fired from tulleys ?

I won't do a huge rambling post like I just did for my blog, but I will say that the Liseberg Halloween event is incredible and I highly recommend it!

All 4 mazes are fab, and a lot of effort has gone into the event. The park is really well decorated, obviously night rides on Helix were a ride based highlight, and Valkyria is fab!

The Experiment was short but crammed in the scares, they also sent me round alone. 8/10

Zombie was longer, loads of actors, looked amazing, and the make up was spot on. Not wheelchair accessible as stated though.
8/10

Smittharden Gasten was the most beautiful maze I've ever been in, and I wish I'd had time to do it again, again lots of actors and lots of scares.
9.5/10

Vinden was a surprise, it included a very big and fast industrial lift, and some of the most impressive animatronics I've seen inside a maze.
9/10

There were also a tonne of actors in both the scare zones, and they really did interact with everyone, even children.

Probably the best event I've been to at a park, loved it.

Rather than repeating all the problems I and others have with this attraction, I'll just leave here one extremely major flaw I had with this yesterday on the preview event for Fright Nights (29th September 2018).

The fake shop at the end of the attraction wasn't working and so the entire group walked through it without the demon jumping out in front of guests because......... *drum roll*
 

Honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the new attractions were just like dead end ?