TPJames

Something I noticed when I visited on Saturday was that the atmosphere around the ride was the best it has ever been when I've been in the area. The soundscape and the tunes were all playing and collaborating as usually I only hear a couple of them playing at a time. One thing which did disappoint me though was that none of the effects were working. The mist under the plane wing, the two water effects and the fire effect were all off/broken. I have heard they were working during half term, it was just a shame to see none of them on!

It's frustrating to see that a good four rides won't be open on the preview weekend, considering it could turn out to be a popular event for the annual pass holders. In a way I can understand why slammer and samurai won't be open, considering their current reliability status. It's a shame to see that both of the rides struggle so much, although admiteddly slammer has been improving while samurai has been breaking down more and more. Let's just hope they are both up and running once more for park opening weekend and certainly for easter holidays, as the park will need those important filler rides to remove some of the crowds. I don't seem to get why rumba and tidal wave are closed, reliability wise they should manage the extra weekend, however the cold weather may mean they are unpopular and it may not make business sense to open them up. In terms of the 4pm closing, I imagine if it's particularly busy, they may extend hours till 5pm, however if it's not too popular, then I'm sure 6 hours on park will be enough to experience everything!

I saw loads of people taking photos while the show was going on and certainly loads of people had their phones out. The rule was certainly there as upon entry we were told no filming or flash photography was permitted, however the rule didn't appear to have been enforced once inside the marquee.

I made a montage of the event, however unfortunately didn't have time to capture any footage of any of the science stalls or Brainiac Live! Filming was not permitted as such during Brainiac Live anyway! So this is just a small montage of the limited rides on offer during February Half Term I hope to get some more footage and photos on Annual Pass preview weekend and/or I'm a Celebrity opening weekend!

Sunday 22nd February 2015- Chessington, "African Adventures" event. Ride-Count: -Amazu Treetop Adventure x1 -Seastorm x9 -Hocus Pocus Hall x5 -Carousel x2 -Scorpion Express x0 (Unavailable all day) -Tomb Blaster x0 (Unavailable all day) I had a great day at the park today and experienced the zoo in the first time for over two years. It was a really enjoyable day and I enjoyed the park with a really calm and relaxed atmosphere, despite some heavy rain in the last hour or so! Instead of doing a full written report, I would like to pick upon some positive and negative aspects from the day! -Tomb Blaster and Scorpion Express failed to open all day. Shame really as these were the two main attractions we were looking forward to riding, however I do appreciate that rides and attractions are subject to availability. -Seastorm was operating reduced cars today so thethroughput was reduced by a fair few people, however queues didn't reach over 15-20minutes and it was giving a fairly long cycle. Managed it an amazing 9 times though, although admittedly most of these were done in the last hour when the park was dead. -We managed Hocus Pocus Hall 5 times!? We must have been crazy, the staff member thought so too! We even waited 20minutes for it at one point, was I absolutely insane!? We tried to go through it as slowly as we could on one occasion and ended up having fun getting "lost" inside the mirror maze I'm pretty fond of the haunted house however I certainly wouldn't waste so much time going through it on a normal them park day. -The zoo as a whole was pretty average; I remember it feeling much larger a couple of years ago. I think one of the reasons for this is the addition of Amazu. Whilst it was good fun, I miss the monkey and bird garden which used to be there. A lot of the animals in the zoo were hiding or just weren't there either; none of the lions or tigers out on the trail of the kings etc. Was pretty quick to complete compared to previous visits unfortunately. -The sea life centre was magical! Highlight of the day, I love it in there! We spent so much time in there and also spent ages getting our finger nails cleaned by the Cleaning-Shrimp! Was really nice in there and all the fish could actually be seen versus the zoo. -The park as a whole looked reasonably tacky. I don't want to say this however there was scaffolding everywhere on all the rides having work. There were random metal barriers placed everywhere and the park's appearance looked no where near as nice as during the main season. -The park was also reasonably empty which was good, however rides did become crowded due to Scorpion and tomb being closed. At around 2pm, everyone seemed to have left as it started to rain and there was no more than 10 people in the market square. However, seastorm and the carousel battled on with around 2 people per cycle and stayed open right until 3pm! I can't imagine there would have been more than 100peple on park at around 2pm and no more than 50people at about 2:30pm. -The main point I picked up on was the lack of indoors spots! Thorpe Park are really lucky to have the dome, we ended up eating our lunch outside in the cold as there was no coffee shop open to go in or anything! The only places inside where you can sit down are paying resturants! I know the problem doesn't exist as much during main season, but there needs more indoor locations open during African Adventures. Also, an indoor picnic area needs to be built urgently!! Overall, a good day out! I look forward to returning in main season when hopefully the park will look better and will have a full ride line up!

Sometimes it truly feels like I've been experiencing a different park to others who have been there, on several occasions! Here is my report anyway: Sunday 22nd February 2015- Chessington, "African Adventures" event. Ride-Count: -Amazu Treetop Adventure x1 -Seastorm x9 -Hocus Pocus Hall x5 -Carousel x2 -Scorpion Express x0 (Unavailable all day) -Tomb Blaster x0 (Unavailable all day) I had a great day at the park today and experienced the zoo in the first time for over two years. It was a really enjoyable day and I enjoyed the park with a really calm and relaxed atmosphere, despite some heavy rain in the last hour or so! Instead of doing a full written report, I would like to pick upon some positive and negative aspects from the day! -Tomb Blaster and Scorpion Express failed to open all day. Shame really as these were the two main attractions we were looking forward to riding, however I do appreciate that rides and attractions are subject to availability. -Seastorm was operating reduced cars today so the throughput was reduced by a fair few people, however queues didn't reach over 15-20minutes and it was giving a fairly long cycle. Managed it an amazing 9 times though, although admittedly most of these were done in the last hour when the park was dead. -We managed Hocus Pocus Hall 5 times!? We must have been crazy, the staff member thought so too! We even waited 20minutes for it at one point, was I absolutely insane!? We tried to go through it as slowly as we could on one occasion and ended up having fun getting "lost" inside the mirror maze I'm pretty fond of the haunted house however I certainly wouldn't waste so much time going through it on a normal them park day. -The zoo as a whole was pretty average; I remember it feeling much larger a couple of years ago. I think one of the reasons for this is the addition of Amazu. Whilst it was good fun, I miss the monkey and bird garden which used to be there. A lot of the animals in the zoo were hiding or just weren't there either; none of the lions or tigers out on the trail of the kings etc. Was pretty quick to complete compared to previous visits unfortunately. -The sea life centre was magical! Highlight of the day, I love it in there! We spent so much time in there and also spent ages getting our finger nails cleaned by the Cleaning-Shrimp! Was really nice in there and all the fish could actually be seen versus the zoo. -The park as a whole looked reasonably tacky. I don't want to say this however there was scaffolding everywhere on all the rides having work. There were random metal barriers placed everywhere and the park's appearance looked no where near as nice as during the main season. -The park was also reasonably empty which was good, however rides did become crowded due to Scorpion and tomb being closed. At around 2pm, everyone seemed to have left as it started to rain and there was no more than 10 people in the market square. However, seastorm and the carousel battled on with around 2 people per cycle and stayed open right until 3pm! I can't imagine there would have been more than 100peple on park at around 2pm and no more than 50people at about 2:30pm. -The main point I picked up on was the lack of indoors spots! Thorpe Park are really lucky to have the dome, we ended up eating our lunch outside in the cold as there was no coffee shop open to go in or anything! The only places inside where you can sit down are paying resturants! I know the problem doesn't exist as much during main season, but there needs more indoor locations open during African Adventures. Also, an indoor picnic area needs to be built urgently!! Overall, a good day out! I look forward to returning in main season when hopefully the park will look better and will have a full ride line up!

Pop music was creeping in around the park entrance yesterday! Really didn't blend in well with the entrance video playing as at tines the pop music was considerably louder than the video and sometimes it was virtually not able to be heard.

There is the cloud free wifi operating throughout the park. It is certainly useful however you have to sign up giving details like your email address and postcode etc. If you don't wish to reveal your true postcode, you can always enter thorpe's in (KT16 8PN)

If the penguin enclosure and experience are of a good size and are interesting then I think it could be a neat little addition. With the addition of Amazu, the zoo felt particularly small today when not having the monkey and bird garden. The addition of a new encolsure will be extending it out and making it more worthwhile. Hopefully also means that the whole of this new area will be open for African adventures next year as it is the ideal area to open up!

LC, out of pure interest, why did you complain about the event fee and then not take advantage of what the event has to offer? Brainiac live was absolutely fantastic and I think you would have enjoyed it, thus making the £5 more worth it! --- I think all of you need to cut LC some slack, I was too originally very negative about the event taking place during half term however after experiencing it, my opinion changed and I really enjoyed my day out. Even so that I retract my original statement and will say the event was superior to my experience on African Adventures. As a forum we are a community, and while a forum is the perfect place for discussion, sometimes I feel people are too harsh and can be giving quite mean and hurtful comments to others. I have experienced some mean and disrespectful opinions myself on the forums and while I may ignore them and move on with life, these comments can be extremely hurtful at times. I appreciate there needs to be two sides of an argument on a forum and there needs to be a debate to bring the community closer, however sometimes I feel there is a lack of respect being passed around between individuals. Everyone has an opinion and these opinions may change over time. Everyone has rights to express their opinion, however sometimes I feel people go about doing it in the wrong way. In no way am I having a go at anyone here, as at times I may have been disrespectful myself, however I think particularly in this situation people are giving LC a harsh time and this has happened in other situations before. It may not be my place to say it, and I'm truly sorry if I offend anyone, however I am trying to put forward my opinion in the most respectful way possible, treating everyone fairly.

I was so embarrassed as the staff member kept noticing me coming back for more food and was joking around. The staff in the kitchen(and around the whole of the restaurant) were really friendly though and it's great they have the new clippers which hold the tray down as I was an absolute embarrassment and couldn't get the pizza out Also loving the new additions of Garlic Bread and the juice machines compared to Pizza Hut. A really nice improvement overall, looks and feels much better and getting the pizza was so much easier in terms of location and was being topped up much more often (despite it being empty). Really pleased with this investment, they are slowly making the conversion to all in-brands which a resort should have instead of fast food outlets.

Of course I know that if a ride is broken, the team will immediately work as hard as possible to try and get it up and running as soon as possible. However, it was just a shame there was no one to explain what was going on or anyone to prove that the ride was actually being worked on and trying to be fixed. Seastorm had a very small technical issue in the afternoon and emergency stopped while we were on it. The staff dealt with the situation very well, notify the surrounding area of what was going on and trying to get it up and running. Sure enough, after a couple of minutes and a test run it was back up and running. I'm sure there was a same attitude going on towards the other rides, however a bit of notice from the ride team of what was actually happening would have been very appreciated. Part of me thinks that if the rides had been fixed by around 2-2:30pm, they still wouldn't have opened them up due to lack of demand and risking them breaking down again. I know that seems like an extremely negative view, but in business sense it isn't logical to open a ride when there is no one left on park and risk of it suffering another technical fault. Maybe this is a completely wrong view, however I can't see them opening a ride up for the last half an hour when there is virtually no one left on park due to bad weather. Don't shoot me down for this, I'm just presuming something at this point and I admittedly have no supporting evidence. If chessington were actually trying their hardest to get Scorpion and Tomb running, hats off to them however a bit more notice from staff members would have been extremely valued.

During the morning, both rides were closed however accessible. However, after around 2pm, barriers were in place to clearly show the areas were not to be accessed.

I laugh how you believe the ride status. The ride status said tomb blaster was 5 minutes all morning(when reality it was closed) before they updated it to closed in the late afternoon. There was absolutely no access in the afternoon to tomb blaster and scorpion express as massive metal barriers were blocking the path. Both rides were clearly abandoned all day and neither opened, I'm pretty sure I would have seen if they had opened as I was constantly checking all day.

Jason, neither opened. Whoever told you that is talking complete bollocks.

What's worse is that the engineers clearly weren't bothering to even try and fix the rides from what I could see: Scorpion express had no staff members around the surrounding area to announce that it was closed, it was also clear that there were no engineers working on the ride from the three visits we made to check if the ride was open. Tomb Blaster had its ride team in the early morning telling people they were to get it up and running by the afternoon with engineers working on it. However, by the afternoon they had clearly given up and just chucked some barriers in front of the Forbidden Kingdom entrance to stop people trying and getting to the rides. I appreciate rides and attractions are subject to availability but there was no effort to notify people that there were technical faults and there appeared to be no one working on the two broken attractions either(although admittedly tomb blaster is harder to see inside when it's closed). Having two out of four rides closed was pretty awful considering the park was fairly busy around midday, with hocus pocus hall at 20-30mintues and seastorm around the same queue time. Unfortunately not the queue times a guest wants to be waiting for fairly small attractions on what was one of the emptiest African Adventures days this week.

If last ride entry is at 4pm, the ride's queueline should be closed no earlier than 4pm. Closing a ride earlier than advertised, is quite frankly false advertising as a guest to the park should be allowed entry into the queuelines until the specified closing time and no earlier. Whilst a couple of minutes might not make the biggest difference, it can be the difference between getting on a ride you haven't been on yet or not. In this case, it can then be viewed as completely unfair to close the queueline early unless of a genuine technical fault. Seastorm today is a prime example of what should happen in terms of ride closing. From 2pm onwards, the Market square was completely abandoned with around 5-10people in the area. Seastorm was getting no more than 4-5people per ride yet they didn't close the queueline for the attraction until bang on 3pm. Yet it was operating for an hour with virtually no one on it in moderate rain. It's not exactly a massive problem if a ride closes early, however it shouldn't happen as the ride is clearly advertised to close at a later time. I appreciate rides are subject to status, however if there isn't a technical fault or something along those lines, there is no valid reason for the ride to close early and it quite frankly unfair on park visitors.

Tomb blaster and scorpion express have failed to open, with seastorm operating reduced capacity. I'll post a report later.

Went down to the Brainiac Live "Event" today and actually had a really enjoyable and fun day out! Paying a five pound fee for a reduced line up, as an annual pass holder is beyond ridiculous, no matter if it's stated in the terms or conditions or not. However, once on park, I put this aside and really had a really exciting and fairly relaxed day. Ridecount: Swarm Forwards x7 Swarm Backwards x1 Stealth x13 Angry Birds 4D x1 Dodgems x1 Flying fish x1 Depth charge x1 Brainiac Live x1 Total: 26. Overall notes: -Swarm and stealth were on one train operation, with flying fish operating reduced rows. However, this didn't matter as queues didn't top 5-10minutes all day, with the exception of depth charge which I believe reached 15-25minutes. -King Pig's Wild Hog Dodgems had all of the cars operating which was great; first time I have seen all of the cars running! However, the smell is still absolutely disgusting and the ride time seemed considerably shorter than it was last year. -Storm in a teacup had all of the turntables fixed which was great, however like the Dodgems, the ride time seemed shorter than usual! -Inferno's Pizza Pasta turned out to be open, which was a big surprise. However, no one seemed to know this and there ended up being plenty of food for a little amount of people. The staff were also really friendly inside and it looks much better overall and feels more spacious. Only downside is that the tables at the moment look really tacky. -All the staff today were really jolly, however most were quite slow at operations. This didn't matter though as there were virtually no queues and staff interactions were absolutely brilliant! The stealth ride team was amazing and on the last train of the day a ride host told us we had to hold our hands up the whole way round otherwise we owed her five pounds. The operator was also absolutely hilarious and was making jokes down the mic all day! #Onedirection5ever #IloveLiamPain #NyalisOk -Brainiac Live was also great fun and I really enjoyed it. The lighting and atmosphere was amazing and the actual show was really hilarious, audience engaging and really fun to watch. The science experiments were also pretty cool! It would have been nice to have a couple of more rides and attractions open, however what was open was running well and the day was relaxed and great fun overall. The sun was shining and the day was brilliant and I look forward to returning in the main season

Went down to the Brainiac Live "Event" today and actually had a really enjoyable and fun day out! Paying a five pound fee for a reduced line up, as an annual pass holder is beyond ridiculous, no matter if it's stated in the terms or conditions or not. However, once on park, I put this aside and really had a really exciting and fairly relaxed day. Ridecount: Swarm Forwards x7 Swarm Backwards x1 Stealth x13 Angry Birds 4D x1 Dodgems x1 Flying fish x1 Depth charge x1 Brainiac Live x1 Total: 26. Overall notes: -Swarm and stealth were on one train operation, with flying fish operating reduced rows. However, this didn't matter as queues didn't top 5-10minutes all day, with the exception of depth charge which I believe reached 15-25minutes. -King Pig's Wild Hog Dodgems had all of the cars operating which was great; first time I have seen all of the cars running! However, the smell is still absolutely disgusting and the ride time seemed considerably shorter than it was last year. -Storm in a teacup had all of the turntables fixed which was great, however like the Dodgems, the ride time seemed shorter than usual! -Inferno's Pizza Pasta turned out to be open, which was a big surprise. However, no one seemed to know this and there ended up being plenty of food for a little amount of people. The staff were also really friendly inside and it looks much better overall and feels more spacious. Only downside is that the tables at the moment look really tacky. -All the staff today were really jolly, however most were quite slow at operations. This didn't matter though as there were virtually no queues and staff interactions were absolutely brilliant! The stealth ride team was amazing and on the last train of the day a ride host told us we had to hold our hands up the whole way round otherwise we owed her five pounds. The operator was also absolutely hilarious and was making jokes down the mic all day! #Onedirection5ever #IloveLiamPain #NyalisOk -Brainiac Live was also great fun and I really enjoyed it. The lighting and atmosphere was amazing and the actual show was really hilarious, audience engaging and really fun to watch. The science experiments were also pretty cool! It would have been nice to have a couple of more rides and attractions open, however what was open was running well and the day was relaxed and great fun overall. The sun was shining and the day was brilliant and I look forward to returning in the main season

I'm really struggling to see how people didn't realise it's only selected rides open. It's advertised all over the website and social media, and being on park now there are at least 4 notices saying that only selected rides open. Baffles me really.

I've personally had opening hours extended from 5 till 5:30 on a fully-operational day when it was busier than expected and remember leaving the park around 7:00 due to sneaking in to the vampire queue just before 5:30 and being subjected to over an hours wait. I've never seen the opening hours extended by an hour and half though, I recall maybe seeing them extending by an hour before however that may just be my imagination. As far as I'm aware, this is the first time they have extended their hours by over an hour.

Yesterday and the day before the weather was particularly good and the parks were busier across the board. I imagine today was much emptier due to worse weather. I am still failing to see where they get their price structuring from though. It's £12.50 in advance or £20 on the door for 7 rides and a show. Whereas, down the road its £9 in advance or £14 on the door for 6 rides, several animal shows, meet and greets around the park, a sealife centre and a zoo at chessington. Chessington's African adventures event proves popular year upon year, far simply as there is more to do for a cheaper price. Thorpe's pricing structure for this event is just simply not worth what you are getting on the day unfortunately. Thorpe is still a good event and I will be down Saturday however I can see why the GP just can't be bothered to visit in the current operations. (If queue times reach above 20-30minutes on Saturday, I will be expecting a two train operation as I will be paying an event fee to the park for a limited ride line-up).

I've heard from several sources that it has been absolutely packed, especially the last couple of days when the sun has been shining. According to these sources, queues for scorpion express and tomb blaster have reached 70mins at points, with seastorm reaching 30mins and the carousel and hocus pocus reaching 20minutes. As for the zoo and sea life, apparently the zoo has been crammed and it has been hard to get around and look at the various animals. The sea-life centre has also had up to 90minute queues to get in at points. I haven't visited, just heard from other people. Will try and pop down Sunday if I get the chance though and will report back. (Also heard fastrack ISN'T in operation, obviously they realised their original mistakes...)

Just a quick thought here, is it possible that RNR is used on this attraction to prevent them building a proper queue line? Seeing as there isn't much space for a cattle pen, I would imagine it as a sensible decision as only a few barriers would be needed to monitor guest flow. The problem with using RNR or a timed-ticket is that when there is a system error, or the attraction experiences technical faults, the whole system gets delayed and knocked-back which will result in heavy crowds forming around the entrance and an overflowed pathway. I would imagine Thorpe will try and build as big of a queue as possible to ensure guests aren't blocking up pathways while waiting even if RNR is used. Also, having a standby queue line is also particularly useful if the system gets delayed or stops working and there needs to be somewhere for those waiting for the attraction to queue.