Marhelorpe

For the 12 different experiences offered, this might seem obvious to many already, but it's only just occurred to me. The ride carriage has 60 seats, right? On each side there are 30 seats facing inwards just like the underground. Now, if you look at the logo for the ride, it is essentially 5 people holding shoulders together. So with this in mind, there must be 6 rows of 5 seats on both sides of the carriage, all of which together make up the 60 seats. So, for every 5 seats down the carriage on either side, those 5 people will experience the same VR content, but the other 11 remaining groups of 5 experience something different, hence the 12 different experiences offered. If this is true, I would imagine they organise you into groups of 5 beforehand and when you board the train, you sit into the designated seats they told you to sit in earlier. That is what significance the logo must have on the ride experience I reckon.

Here's a thought, what if the "Arriving May 6th" sign was removed today as they are about to fit the queue time screen in it's place ready for setup and testing soon? It's possible that could be the case as it was in the same place where I'm sure the queue info board will be. As for the description on their homepage website showing the kids go free offer changed the end date from May 1st to May 13th as noted earlier, could it just simply be an extended offer for another reason and doesn't imply the ride is delayed by another 2 weeks and they forgot to remove the description underneath it? That being said, I am sure the ride is delayed. I'm just hoping I'm wrong!

Which video is this? Only wondering.

I'd just like to say a massive thank you to everyone making Saturday such a great day! It was great fun meeting everyone who attended and for my first TPM meet-up, it certainly won't be the last! I wish I could've made the meal afterwards, but I had work the next day unfortunately. Sorry! I know that some members who didn't have a DigiPass would like a copy of some on-ride photos which were taken, so here's all of the ones I've got. Feel free to use and keep them if you wish! Also, many thanks to Peaj for organising the trip. I look forward to the next one!

Short notice, but please may I be put down too? I've only just managed to organise the day off work for this Saturday due to being very busy. This will be my first ever visit to an event like this, so I might be a little nervous when meeting everyone, but I'm sure it'll be great! Yes, I'll be changing at Clapham in the early morning too for a train to Chessington South at around 9am, so I'll be sure to look out for you.

Forgot I made this! As well as The Smiler, thought I'd give Galactica a try as well. Not as long as I wanted the video to be but hope it's OK:

Thought I'd create a video of The Smiler a week after reopening on my visit on Saturday 26th March. It shows most of the screens, effects and the half-way corrected screens and audio working properly (minus a couple of changes visible), as well as various shots of the ride in action, inside and outside. http://youtu.be/-F6vvSWTFm8 Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Closest I can offer to Swarm's plaza area is this other recording which I found a few years ago. Still not perfect, but a longer and higher quality version than the one from YouTube: Swarm Plaza.

Thought I'd confirm it just to be certain:

To add to today, Slammer shut down temporarily in the middle of the afternoon. Not for having a breakdown or fault like it usually does, but for checks by the engineers. I know the ride can be a nightmare to operate and service, but shutting the queue in the middle of the day for over half an hour when quite a few guests clearly wanted to ride it? Is this a new procedure I'm not aware of that occurs daily can someone tell me please? Samurai looked like it has no chance of being open within the next few weeks, everything was in pieces. Quantum gave up around the early afternoon, as did Storm Surge multiple times during the day starting in the morning. Vortex and Loggers Leap both shut with no work around them and 2 coasters were on 1 train operations, despite the fact there were 60+ minute queues for each of them and both had Fastrack queues half the length of the main queue as a result. (Off topic, but Fastrack bothered me a lot on some rides, as it was almost a 50:50 ratio between the main queue and Fastrack queue such as Detonator and X creating what could have been a 15 minute queue to nearly a 45 minute one.) Can't remember the last bad visit I had but this was probably one of the most unreliable and frustrating days I've had at Thorpe Park in quite a few years. And like Altitude said, I too won't be visiting again until this gets sorted out. During the quiet times like March, September or November, it might be OK. But in the middle of the summer holidays when it's one of the busiest times of the year? No. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Don't know if there's a genuine fault with both spare trains or not, but right now, Stealth is currently running on one train and has done since this morning. To add to that, (I'm not joking) the Fastrack queue has almost reached the entrance to the ride, past the 15 minute wait sign for the main queue. As a result, I'm now currently standing in a queue that whilst advertised as 50 minutes has now been a 90 minute queue instead and have only just made it to the station platform. Rarely do I get this annoyed by Thorpe's operations, but this is just ridiculous. A Fastrack queue literally half the length of the main queue with a one train operation whilst every other coaster except Colossus is on two trains? This is stupid. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Not to worry, this is the worst one. I was forced to buy this by my friend after riding it. Hadn't ridden it since 2008 when this was taken, so forgot what the drop felt like! (Had some issues with copying it years ago, hence why the bottom half is too yellow.)

Don't know why, but launch coasters always provide the greatest faces for me. Even though there might be 7 years between them, not much has changed! Stealth in 2006 (left seat): Furius Baco in 2013:

Just been on Bubbleworks and have noticed a couple of changes done, most particularly the ride station. I don't know if it was like this at the end of last year, but the station seems to be a lot darker than I remember and there's almost no visible white lighting shining on the boats that pass through. Instead, a lot more coloured lights are present with blue, red and green and the existing white lights have been dimmed a lot. I like this change as it looks more colourful and gives the station a better look. Here's a picture to show what I mean: It might be hard to see, but it really was this dark inside this morning! Besides from the station, the duck roller coaster wasn't working, the duck helter skelter now makes a horrible screeching sound as it rotates and the mirrors inside the fountain finale have been removed and replaced by a black wall, just like Coaster Jamie said. My only guess as to why is because the mirrors kept steaming up after leaving the fountains on for a while inside.

Looks like it's official then... http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-02-12/brave-enough-for-I'm-a-celebrity-new-theme-park-attraction-will-tests-your-skills http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/showbiz/s100/I'm-a-celebrity/news/a628225/I'm-a-celebrityget-me-out-of-here-maze-heading-to-thorpe-park.html#~p42fBPr6qZowZ0

Not sure why that is happening. Try this one instead.

Here Hunter, I have the copy they played. It was during 2009 and 2011 when it was played in the plaza, but was only played at Stealth's station in 2012: Stealth Plaza (2009, 2011 and 2012) Hope this is the one you are after.

Since Slammer has opened this season, I've noticed that the ride's theme has been extended by another 1 and a half minutes, as this is probably because the ride takes a little longer to raise and lower than it originally used to years ago. After I edited the original soundtrack and added the new segments in-between certain parts of the track, here is the result: Slammer - Extended. The added segments Slammer now plays are between 0:27 -> 0:56 and 2:29 -> the end of the track. Apart from that, the rest sounds exactly the same. Hasn't been posted yet, so thought I'd share the ride's new one!

Agree with others about Vortex's current state. On Saturday, Vortex was taking a while to start swinging and when it did, it only just reached the 90 degrees point. The judder was still there too when it started to swing. Something still doesn't add up though. Why is it that Vortex was swinging very low and had the judder at the very beginning of this season on Annual Pass day, then from late March to early May (roughly) it was performing perfectly with full beyond-90 degree swings with no judder present at all? It might be an age problem, but I know Vortex is currently capable of performing better than this.

What's confusing is that if Vortex has timer cycles, why did almost all of the used cycles this month (annual pass day) and last year have the "stutter" as it began to swing and why did it take so long to get to the 90 degree angle? Compared to today where it went beyond 90 degrees quicker with no stutter. Maybe Thorpe have decided the lower it's swing height and speed, so it can stop quicker to load/unload riders on a busier day?

As promised, here is the video of Vortex working to it's fullest from today: http://youtu.be/nS4h53JJDXM

Didn't get the chance to meet up properly with everyone today, (wish I could but my family were with me all day) as I kept on bumping into everyone a few times, but still had a great time meeting you all during the event! (In case anyone is wondering who the strange person furthest on the left is, that's me).

No word of a lie here, but Vortex is performing perfectly today! All pre-recorded announcements were being used, music sounds better than ever and most importantly, it's reaching its full swing beyond the 90 degree point! (A recorded video of this will follow shortly.) But what I find interesting is 2 days ago, it performed at barely 90 degrees with the slight "stutter" still present as it began to swing. However, none of this was found today. Speedy swings, beyond 90 degrees and no stutter at the beginning. I think the reason as to why there is stutter and low swing angles sometimes is because of the default setting the operator chooses to use. Maybe when Vortex was last calibrated for the "short" setting a while ago, they slowed the ride down and this caused the issues present all of last year. Today for instance, there was around 8 full swings all beyond 90 degrees, but on Friday morning, only 3 full swings barely reaching 90 degrees. I'm beginning to think there's nothing wrong with Vortex's operation. Instead, the problems are being caused by the default setting used on busier days... Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

When I called and booked mine, I asked when and where it starts and I was told to be at the entrance by 10 AM with my reference number. If anyone else has more information about this event, please share. Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

Not sure about 3, but I have an idea for 1 and 2 after booking my ticket over the phone the other day: 1) I was told to be at the entrance at 10AM, so it starts at around that time. 2) I believe it will continue until just after lunch.