TPJames

Thorpe park Saturday 19th October 2014: Ride count: Swarm x1 Nemesis inferno x1 Detonator x2 Rush x4 Vortex x3 Zodiac x2 X x2 Dodgems x2 Slammer x1 Teacups x1 Carousel x1 Banana boat x1 Rocky road x1 Cabin in the woods x2 Studio 13 x1 Quantum x2 Saw Alive x1 Rumba rapids x2 Storm surge x1 Total: 31 Pros: -We were emergency stopped in cabin in the woods! Meaning we got to go a 2nd time! Found the control room as well, cabin was the best maze of the night. -Rush and vortex in the dark were great. Really enjoyed them. -Slammer was open! That's about it... Cons: -'"Ride and reserve"(as the staff were calling it, even though that makes no sense) was an utter failure, was good at first as we did studio 13 and cabin in quick succession with no wait. However later on we had to wait 45mins for saw alive after a 2hour virtual wait and after a 5hour virtual wait for studio 13 we were told that there would be a 120minute further standby wait to get in, with fastrack queue at 60minutes and main queue at 4hours long. -Samurai down all day. -Coasters up to 120mins and never really came down, stayed around 60mins all day. -There was cabin in the woods music playing in the X queueline. -Storm turd got my feet soaked. -Lack of roaming actors as there were more normal park guests scaring people than actual actors. -Stealth kept breaking down. -Mazes went up to 4hours in wait, at one point all mazes were 5hours virtual and 3-4hours standby queueing. When Blair witch opened it went straight to 3hours as well so didn't get a chance to do that. -Swarm went straight to 120mins at 10am due to one train operation. -Massive queue at collection building due to annual pass holders wanting to collect their tickets. -Mazes were OK, don't think actors were putting their all into it. -Friend got a wasp trapped in his pocket on quantum. -Only half the cars were running on the Dodgems. -No mist near tidal wave or stealth like last week. -Fire and water effects off on swarm. -Got denied to go on the good swing on rush as the lady said they swing at the 'same height' which she didn't even know what the height was. Apparently the reason they look different heights is because one swing goes faster than the other as well which caused a heated argument. Ended up riding swing B and was much worse than swing A. -Got stuck at top of detonator as car refused to release and the tower started to shake and vibrate. -No mist on inferno and was on one train operation meaning it went straight to 90mins. -Massive queue at guest services all day due to reserve n ride being awful. There was a 30minute wait at one point for guests services. So there's like no good points and loads of bad points, after visiting alton I'm really disappointed, will be back next Sunday and hope for better operations as they are really really poor.

Thorpe park Saturday 19th October 2014: Ride count: Swarm x1 Nemesis inferno x1 Detonator x2 Rush x4 Vortex x3 Zodiac x2 X x2 Dodgems x2 Slammer x1 Teacups x1 Carousel x1 Banana boat x1 Rocky road x1 Cabin in the woods x2 Studio 13 x1 Quantum x2 Saw Alive x1 Rumba rapids x2 Storm surge x1 Total: 31 Pros: -We were emergency stopped in cabin in the woods! Meaning we got to go a 2nd time! Found the control room as well, cabin was the best maze of the night. -Rush and vortex in the dark were great. Really enjoyed them. -Slammer was open! That's about it... Cons: -'"Ride and reserve"(as the staff were calling it, even though that makes no sense) was an utter failure, was good at first as we did studio 13 and cabin in quick succession with no wait. However later on we had to wait 45mins for saw alive after a 2hour virtual wait and after a 5hour virtual wait for studio 13 we were told that there would be a 120minute further standby wait to get in, with fastrack queue at 60minutes and main queue at 4hours long. -Samurai down all day. -Coasters up to 120mins and never really came down, stayed around 60mins all day. -There was cabin in the woods music playing in the X queueline. -Storm turd got my feet soaked. -Lack of roaming actors as there were more normal park guests scaring people than actual actors. -Stealth kept breaking down. -Mazes went up to 4hours in wait, at one point all mazes were 5hours virtual and 3-4hours standby queueing. When Blair witch opened it went straight to 3hours as well so didn't get a chance to do that. -Swarm went straight to 120mins at 10am due to one train operation. -Massive queue at collection building due to annual pass holders wanting to collect their tickets. -Mazes were OK, don't think actors were putting their all into it. -Friend got a wasp trapped in his pocket on quantum. -Only half the cars were running on the Dodgems. -No mist near tidal wave or stealth like last week. -Fire and water effects off on swarm. -Got denied to go on the good swing on rush as the lady said they swing at the 'same height' which she didn't even know what the height was. Apparently the reason they look different heights is because one swing goes faster than the other as well which caused a heated argument. Ended up riding swing B and was much worse than swing A. -Got stuck at top of detonator as car refused to release and the tower started to shake and vibrate. -No mist on inferno and was on one train operation meaning it went straight to 90mins. -Massive queue at guest services all day due to reserve n ride being awful. There was a 30minute wait at one point for guests services. So there's like no good points and loads of bad points, after visiting alton I'm really disappointed, will be back next Sunday and hope for better operations as they are really really poor.

Will PM you shortly, don't worry! Been away at alton towers so didn't have time but seeing as fright nights doesn't restart till Friday I thought it wouldn't matter! So bear with

Alton Towers Monday 20th October 2014: As I hadn't visited the park since I was little, I was pretty excited. I went in with high expectations from what I had heard and recently visiting Portaventura and being amazed. To say I was impressed is an understatement. The park was amazingly themed, with added extra scarefest theming and lighting all over the park. Every land was done to perfect detail and the park overall was to a very high standard. I wouldn't say it was as good as Portaventura but it did have a very high standard and was far superior to thorpe park. We got to the park early at 9:30am however was greeted with a trip on the monorail! This was unexpected as I thought only hotel guests got to ride the monorail but it was great fun. Passing by all the lands built up the tension and the excitement. Once we got to the entrance, we literally went straight into the park as the gates had opened early. We had been given some free priority passes along with our free tickets so we decided to collect these early as we knew the park was very big and would take a while to walk around. We went straight to the smiler and was greeted with a 50minute queue. Bear in mind today was an off peak day however everyone appeared to go straight to the smiler. We had a pleasant suprise as the queue was more like 20-30mins and 30mins appeared to be the max queue time on park throughout the whole day which was great. I think my expectations were a little high for the smiler, although it was a great ride and it was insane how many times we looped, it was not my favourite and I think the actual ride experience could have been a little more interesting. Still a good, fun and long ride experience though! The smiler: 7/10. Next up, we decided to tackle the rest of X-Sector and went to oblivion. The queue was stated at 15mins but we actually only waited around 5 mins to get on. I don't think it got busier than this all day which was great. Visually, the ride was higher than I expected and was pretty stunning. The fact that you just drop into darkness is pretty insane. The actual ride experience was just as intense, I loved the feeling of the drop it felt so fast and intense. Despite the ride being so short, it was great and is a B&M rollercoaster which made it so much better Oblivion: 9/10. Next up we made our way over to dark forest, however we tackled HEX on the way. Hex was an interesting one, we had to wait a long time for the ride to start as we had to wait for the first room to fill up before the experience could begin. I did love the theming inside the attraction, it was done to a great standard and the pre-show was great fun. The actual ride was pretty cool in itself, we all got very confused as to whether the ride was going upside down or if the walls were moving around us! It did feel like we were going upside down though! The attraction was great and was done to very high standards. When we reached the dark forest, the first ride in sight was Rita. As it was known as queen of speed I was excited to get on and see how it compared to stealth. There was about a 5minute wait and it was on 2trains which was brilliant(I'll take this oppertunity to say that smiler was on 5trains I believe however may have been 4 and oblivion was on 4 shuttles with a longer wait to get off than on!). Just as we got on it started to pour which made it so painful and I had to cover my face the whole way round. However, later on we did go on again and it was much better as I could actually see where we were going. The ride was good fun and pretty fast and longer than stealth. Unsure which I prefer however I think stealth had the slight edge as it's faster than Rita. Rita: 7/10. We headed over to th13teen however as it was having technical problems, we decided to take the skyride over to the forbidden valley. I was looking forward to the forbidden valley most as it had the ride I was most looking forward to, Air. The first ride we saw was the blade which was fun however I believe black buccaneer swings higher. Next up, was ripsaw. Ripsaw was on a decent cycle and was walk on all day. The first time I went on it we stayed dry however I did go on twice more in the dark and got the spinniest cycle with a MASSIVE drenching!! So the next ride we did was air. The queue time was stated as a 'bubbly 20mins' and I think it was around that if not a bit less. When we rode only the left station was open however was on two trains. They opened the right station just as we were getting on however continued to operate two trains which was very strange. Air never peaked over 20minutes all day which was good so was unsure why they decided to do the alternate station operation. I was suprised that my legs got strapped in aswell as my body and when we raised it was pretty amazing. The ride has such a great concept and the execution of the actual ride was amazing and pretty intense. I wouldn't say I felt like I was flying as at points it was very intense however I did feel like I was gliding through the air. I did love this ride, probably my favourite of the day as it had such an interesting concept and ride design to it. B&M as well so I knew it would be great! Air: 9/10. Next up was nemesis before lunch. Nemesis was stated at 15mins but was actually around 5. Once again, two train operation which was brilliant so the queue moved up pretty smoothly. I will review it now, despite my second ride being better than my first. This ride is far superior to nemesis inferno, the layout and intensity is much better. However, on the first ride it was good, but not great. On the 2nd ride though, I rode it in the dark and it felt much faster and more intense. After the first corkscrew, it just got pretty crazy. The fact that it was in the dark as well meant that I couldn't see a thing. Nemesis: 8/10. Next we took a walk to the gloomy wood and decided to do duel. This time it was DUEL LIVE. There were actors inside the queueline and exit which scared us a lot! These actors made the ride so much better however, as otherwise it was practically tomb blaster. The actors were meant to be alton towers ancestors and they were pretty great! I even had a photo with then earlier on in the morning at the entrance aswell! We then entered Kantaga Canyon and MutinyBay. We wanted to do the mine train however it was experiencing technical difficulties which was upsetting so we decided to go into the sea life centre. Pretty much the standard sea life centre with a bit of theming which was nice. Then we did heave ho which was also great fun as it had a much longer cycle than griffins galleon and actually had theming and a soundtrack as well! We had basically done all we wanted to do in that area so went over to spinball to try and use our dedicated priority pass to it. However, the queue was only 5mins so we decided to use the normal queue and fastrack later. We didn't spin that much, but it was a pretty fun and intense ride and I think I prefered it to dragons fury as the S-bend makes the ride a lot better. Did enjoy it but ovbiously doesn't compare to the other coasters. Good for what it is though. Spinball: 6/10. So then we decided to tackle th13teen as it had reopened with a 30minute queue! We went straight there and used our dedicated priority passes. I knew what was coming in th13teen and won't ruin it directly here incase people haven't done it. It was fun, but again not amazing however was much better when I did it in the dark in the evening. The ending is the best bit if course, the rest is just a bit like the runaway mine train! Th13teen: 6/10. We then went into the wobble world and took on Charlie and the chocolate factory. Once again, hopes were a bit high for this and there was no sign of chocolate anywhere!!! The glass elevator at the end was fun though. Would have liked a bit more attention out into it. We then did ice age 4D which was good and the effects were much better than angry birds 4D! I did prefer it overall was a fun and interesting show with a genuine storyline unlike angry birds 4D. Then we decided to do twirling toadstool! This was great fun as the operators were doing a lot of guest interaction which just made it great fun! Prefered it to monkey swings as well which was a suprise. After a long stay in wobble world cafe, we went and watched the trick or treat party show. This was fun and the songs were great and I just thought it was great for the kids who wanted to do it. Once again, we got the sky ride over to the forbidden valley and decided to do nemesis sub terra. Nemesis sub terra was actually better than expected. The whole experience was pretty fast paced and intense except for the slow and boring extremely long wait inside the preschool before it started. The ending was pretty good too , nice to see they are putting some scare actors into their attractions as well as wasn't expecting any. Then we went over to the mine train which was far superior to the one at chessington, great fun and loved the smoke being pumped inside the tunnel. Great fun overall and once again a lot of interaction from the ride team who were very friendly! #choochoo! We then went over to spinball as it was advertised as 20mins but was actually broken down so we headed to oblivion. Once again a 5minute wait for oblivion so we did that and was as brilliant as before. Afterwards, we headed back to spinball which was reopen however on a 3per car rule. As there were no single riders it was practically 2 per car so it was lucky we had our fastracks to hand! It was also much spinnier with only 3 in our car which was also great fun! Afterwards, we went for dinner in the cafe before doing some night rides. As the sky ride was now closed, there was a lot of walking involved. For a start we walked all the way over to the dark forest just to do th13teen in the dark(which was walk on luckily) before having to walk all the way back to the towers to get to the forbidden valley. On the way to the forbidden valley we did the mine train again which was once again great and even better in the dark! Once inside the forbidden valley, we decided to tackle nemesis, air and ripsaw. Both nemesis and air were walk on however running one train full followed by one train empty. Strange system as I understand they don't want to waste time by removing the trains however why not just fill both trains? Nemesis and air were also superior in the dark and then we decided to do ripsaw twice. Ripsaw at the end of the day was great, we got a particularly good cycle and he gave us a soaking. Unsure if that was a good thing or not though aha! We then took a walk back through kantaga canyon to the entrance and got the monorail back to the car park. I had a great day and think kantaga canyon is my favourite area, it had great lighting in the dark and the area is well themed and the music is amazing. Despite only having family attractions, I loved the area and both attractions in it were of high quality. We did not do the mazes or scarezones as £7 per maze was pretty hefty. I understand the scare zoneswere free however they had long queues and I didn't particularly fancy getting scared like at fright nights. I wouldn't like to see the queues for zombies and scary tales next week as they were out of the railings(two lengths long) last night. Scary tales looked particularly good though, looked very well themed from the outside with nice music. All the rides on park were great and the weather held off for most of the day, the atmosphere and theming was brilliant and the park was very big and there was a lot to do. A great day out and is highly reccomend visiting the park. The longest queue on park was 30mins all day for the smiler but most rides stayed at 5-10mins for most of the day. Ride count: Smiler x1 Oblivion x2 Rita x2 Hex x1 Blade x1 Air x2 Ripsaw x3 Spinball x2 Duel x1 Heave HO x1 Th13teen x2 Charlie and the chocolate factory x1 Ice age 4D x1 Twirling toadstool x1 Sub-terra x1 Mine train x2 Nemesis x2 Sea life centre x1 Total: 27.

Alton Towers Monday 20th October 2014: As I hadn't visited the park since I was little, I was pretty excited. I went in with high expectations from what I had heard and recently visiting Portaventura and being amazed. To say I was impressed is an understatement. The park was amazingly themed, with added extra scarefest theming and lighting all over the park. Every land was done to perfect detail and the park overall was to a very high standard. I wouldn't say it was as good as Portaventura but it did have a very high standard and was far superior to thorpe park. We got to the park early at 9:30am however was greeted with a trip on the monorail! This was unexpected as I thought only hotel guests got to ride the monorail but it was great fun. Passing by all the lands built up the tension and the excitement. Once we got to the entrance, we literally went straight into the park as the gates had opened early. We had been given some free priority passes along with our free tickets so we decided to collect these early as we knew the park was very big and would take a while to walk around. We went straight to the smiler and was greeted with a 50minute queue. Bear in mind today was an off peak day however everyone appeared to go straight to the smiler. We had a pleasant suprise as the queue was more like 20-30mins and 30mins appeared to be the max queue time on park throughout the whole day which was great. I think my expectations were a little high for the smiler, although it was a great ride and it was insane how many times we looped, it was not my favourite and I think the actual ride experience could have been a little more interesting. Still a good, fun and long ride experience though! The smiler: 7/10. Next up, we decided to tackle the rest of X-Sector and went to oblivion. The queue was stated at 15mins but we actually only waited around 5 mins to get on. I don't think it got busier than this all day which was great. Visually, the ride was higher than I expected and was pretty stunning. The fact that you just drop into darkness is pretty insane. The actual ride experience was just as intense, I loved the feeling of the drop it felt so fast and intense. Despite the ride being so short, it was great and is a B&M rollercoaster which made it so much better Oblivion: 9/10. Next up we made our way over to dark forest, however we tackled HEX on the way. Hex was an interesting one, we had to wait a long time for the ride to start as we had to wait for the first room to fill up before the experience could begin. I did love the theming inside the attraction, it was done to a great standard and the pre-show was great fun. The actual ride was pretty cool in itself, we all got very confused as to whether the ride was going upside down or if the walls were moving around us! It did feel like we were going upside down though! The attraction was great and was done to very high standards. When we reached the dark forest, the first ride in sight was Rita. As it was known as queen of speed I was excited to get on and see how it compared to stealth. There was about a 5minute wait and it was on 2trains which was brilliant(I'll take this oppertunity to say that smiler was on 5trains I believe however may have been 4 and oblivion was on 4 shuttles with a longer wait to get off than on!). Just as we got on it started to pour which made it so painful and I had to cover my face the whole way round. However, later on we did go on again and it was much better as I could actually see where we were going. The ride was good fun and pretty fast and longer than stealth. Unsure which I prefer however I think stealth had the slight edge as it's faster than Rita. Rita: 7/10. We headed over to th13teen however as it was having technical problems, we decided to take the skyride over to the forbidden valley. I was looking forward to the forbidden valley most as it had the ride I was most looking forward to, Air. The first ride we saw was the blade which was fun however I believe black buccaneer swings higher. Next up, was ripsaw. Ripsaw was on a decent cycle and was walk on all day. The first time I went on it we stayed dry however I did go on twice more in the dark and got the spinniest cycle with a MASSIVE drenching!! So the next ride we did was air. The queue time was stated as a 'bubbly 20mins' and I think it was around that if not a bit less. When we rode only the left station was open however was on two trains. They opened the right station just as we were getting on however continued to operate two trains which was very strange. Air never peaked over 20minutes all day which was good so was unsure why they decided to do the alternate station operation. I was suprised that my legs got strapped in aswell as my body and when we raised it was pretty amazing. The ride has such a great concept and the execution of the actual ride was amazing and pretty intense. I wouldn't say I felt like I was flying as at points it was very intense however I did feel like I was gliding through the air. I did love this ride, probably my favourite of the day as it had such an interesting concept and ride design to it. B&M as well so I knew it would be great! Air: 9/10. Next up was nemesis before lunch. Nemesis was stated at 15mins but was actually around 5. Once again, two train operation which was brilliant so the queue moved up pretty smoothly. I will review it now, despite my second ride being better than my first. This ride is far superior to nemesis inferno, the layout and intensity is much better. However, on the first ride it was good, but not great. On the 2nd ride though, I rode it in the dark and it felt much faster and more intense. After the first corkscrew, it just got pretty crazy. The fact that it was in the dark as well meant that I couldn't see a thing. Nemesis: 8/10. Next we took a walk to the gloomy wood and decided to do duel. This time it was DUEL LIVE. There were actors inside the queueline and exit which scared us a lot! These actors made the ride so much better however, as otherwise it was practically tomb blaster. The actors were meant to be alton towers ancestors and they were pretty great! I even had a photo with then earlier on in the morning at the entrance aswell! We then entered Kantaga Canyon and MutinyBay. We wanted to do the mine train however it was experiencing technical difficulties which was upsetting so we decided to go into the sea life centre. Pretty much the standard sea life centre with a bit of theming which was nice. Then we did heave ho which was also great fun as it had a much longer cycle than griffins galleon and actually had theming and a soundtrack as well! We had basically done all we wanted to do in that area so went over to spinball to try and use our dedicated priority pass to it. However, the queue was only 5mins so we decided to use the normal queue and fastrack later. We didn't spin that much, but it was a pretty fun and intense ride and I think I prefered it to dragons fury as the S-bend makes the ride a lot better. Did enjoy it but ovbiously doesn't compare to the other coasters. Good for what it is though. Spinball: 6/10. So then we decided to tackle th13teen as it had reopened with a 30minute queue! We went straight there and used our dedicated priority passes. I knew what was coming in th13teen and won't ruin it directly here incase people haven't done it. It was fun, but again not amazing however was much better when I did it in the dark in the evening. The ending is the best bit if course, the rest is just a bit like the runaway mine train! Th13teen: 6/10. We then went into the wobble world and took on Charlie and the chocolate factory. Once again, hopes were a bit high for this and there was no sign of chocolate anywhere!!! The glass elevator at the end was fun though. Would have liked a bit more attention out into it. We then did ice age 4D which was good and the effects were much better than angry birds 4D! I did prefer it overall was a fun and interesting show with a genuine storyline unlike angry birds 4D. Then we decided to do twirling toadstool! This was great fun as the operators were doing a lot of guest interaction which just made it great fun! Prefered it to monkey swings as well which was a suprise. After a long stay in wobble world cafe, we went and watched the trick or treat party show. This was fun and the songs were great and I just thought it was great for the kids who wanted to do it. Once again, we got the sky ride over to the forbidden valley and decided to do nemesis sub terra. Nemesis sub terra was actually better than expected. The whole experience was pretty fast paced and intense except for the slow and boring extremely long wait inside the preschool before it started. The ending was pretty good too , nice to see they are putting some scare actors into their attractions as well as wasn't expecting any. Then we went over to the mine train which was far superior to the one at chessington, great fun and loved the smoke being pumped inside the tunnel. Great fun overall and once again a lot of interaction from the ride team who were very friendly! #choochoo! We then went over to spinball as it was advertised as 20mins but was actually broken down so we headed to oblivion. Once again a 5minute wait for oblivion so we did that and was as brilliant as before. Afterwards, we headed back to spinball which was reopen however on a 3per car rule. As there were no single riders it was practically 2 per car so it was lucky we had our fastracks to hand! It was also much spinnier with only 3 in our car which was also great fun! Afterwards, we went for dinner in the cafe before doing some night rides. As the sky ride was now closed, there was a lot of walking involved. For a start we walked all the way over to the dark forest just to do th13teen in the dark(which was walk on luckily) before having to walk all the way back to the towers to get to the forbidden valley. On the way to the forbidden valley we did the mine train again which was once again great and even better in the dark! Once inside the forbidden valley, we decided to tackle nemesis, air and ripsaw. Both nemesis and air were walk on however running one train full followed by one train empty. Strange system as I understand they don't want to waste time by removing the trains however why not just fill both trains? Nemesis and air were also superior in the dark and then we decided to do ripsaw twice. Ripsaw at the end of the day was great, we got a particularly good cycle and he gave us a soaking. Unsure if that was a good thing or not though aha! We then took a walk back through kantaga canyon to the entrance and got the monorail back to the car park. I had a great day and think kantaga canyon is my favourite area, it had great lighting in the dark and the area is well themed and the music is amazing. Despite only having family attractions, I loved the area and both attractions in it were of high quality. We did not do the mazes or scarezones as £7 per maze was pretty hefty. I understand the scare zoneswere free however they had long queues and I didn't particularly fancy getting scared like at fright nights. I wouldn't like to see the queues for zombies and scary tales next week as they were out of the railings(two lengths long) last night. Scary tales looked particularly good though, looked very well themed from the outside with nice music. All the rides on park were great and the weather held off for most of the day, the atmosphere and theming was brilliant and the park was very big and there was a lot to do. A great day out and is highly reccomend visiting the park. The longest queue on park was 30mins all day for the smiler but most rides stayed at 5-10mins for most of the day. Ride count: Smiler x1 Oblivion x2 Rita x2 Hex x1 Blade x1 Air x2 Ripsaw x3 Spinball x2 Duel x1 Heave HO x1 Th13teen x2 Charlie and the chocolate factory x1 Ice age 4D x1 Twirling toadstool x1 Sub-terra x1 Mine train x2 Nemesis x2 Sea life centre x1 Total: 27.

There was a sign in the samurai entrance saying 'Colossus will be on one train operations today...'. I looked on the other side of the sign and it was blank so unsure what that sign was doing there :L

Slammer opened reasonably on time today just before 12pm and closed a bit early, must have been around 8pm or 9pm but unsure of the problem there. I have a question though, one thing I noticed was that there wasn't the 'SLAMMER' sign on the wooden poles at the entrance(just above where you walk in). I was wondering if this hasn't been there for a long time as I've never noticed it and if it is usually there, is that a sign that it may be leaving soon?

As said before samurai was once again closed yesterday with no action at all. Clear that it was waiting for a part but not clear to the public what was going on. At times, there were groups of people standing outside waiting for it to open. Would be nice if there was a sign saying what was going on or a person saying that it wasn't going to open today.

A lady on storm surge was telling me about that at the end of the night. She said that the reason they got evacuated was because an actor had been punched or something along those lines. However, she said that it was brilliant they got a 2nd run so I guess that's the flip side of the coin of getting evacuated. Earlier on in the night this happened to me in cabin aswell... The emergency stop button was pressed because a door was literally broken, it was half off its hinges. So the lights immediately came on and we all got evacuated by the actors, surprsingly through a route I had never been in before. We waited around 30mins and then we got to go again . Must have been not great in the main queue though as none of them were told that it had been emergency stopped and they were all waiting still thinking the maze was in operation. Would be nice if the staff actually told guests down the queueline what was going on.... My 1st and 2nd run in cabin were great however and we found the control room . However, on the first one it became extremely crowded and there were about 30 people all back in the main room at one point, everyone seemed to be going round in circles and then coming back to the main room. It got very congested and we could easily notice the actors were trying to direct everyone the right way subtly but failing. The control room was amazing though, not going to put spoilers out there but it was hilarious PM if you want to know how to reach the control room and how to use it.

Similarly over facebook LC, however the only solution on facebook seemed to be to go to guest services and they will apparently 'help you' when you get there. Found this absolutely hilarious though Hayden Webster 'Can we fastrack customer services as there is a 30 minute wait'

Studio 13 was the worst tonight I believe though. Fastrack waiting time was 'at least' 60minutes, reserve n ride was 90-120mins after you had waited 5hours for your booking. And then the main queue was a 'garunteed' 3-4hours. There was such a continually long line at guest services today, right from the word go. Thorpe needs go start trying to REDUCE queues instead of trying to MOVE them as all RNR does is move the queues and to be honest it makes everything much worse.

Visiting guest services wouldn't help... They refused to let me use my priority pass on BWP despite the fact they weren't stated as ride passes and I hadn't claimed them. Every time I went past guest services however though there must have been a queue of 50-100people each time so they must have been receiving a load of complaints all night.

The whole queueline was full plus an extra length all the way down to the entrance of loggers leap(which guests had just formed themselves). Bear in mind at this point when we asked they said it was 2hours and it had been at 3hours earlier on in the evening so I dread to think where people had actually been queueing for it...

I know but both times we went to look it was 2-3hours. We were too tired at the end of the night to want to do anymore mazes though we had enough stress throughout the day

Here we go... I have been at thorpe the whole day and dont think the system was very good to be honest. For a start, the system glitched out early on meaning we could book early! Brilliant.. So we got studio 13 for 3pm and cabin for 3:30pm, both times the queue for RNR was non-existence. However, when we then reserved for saw later and had to wait around 45mins to get in after the entrance for RNR. Other people in the main queue had been saying they have waited 4hours for saw today in standby queue. Insane. We then booked again for studio 13 just before the mazes all decided to have 5hour virtual waits. When we got to studio 13 we were told it was around 90-120mins even with our reservation and around 4hours standby. Absolutely insane and no doubt are these slow moving queues down to RNR, considering the actual queue line is pretty compact just moves very slowly. At one point all the mazes were 3-4hours standby and 5hours+ on RNR. The system started well and then just went really downhill after that. On a side note, blair witch was 3hours when we got there 'early' at 6 despite it opening at 7, so we gave it a miss for the night as it stayed at 2hours all evening.

Everyone who must have been in that '60minute' studio 13 wait must have waited at least 90mins due to RNR and fastrack in operation if not more. The problem with putting it on ONE maze is virtually everyone will book it who is on park whilst doing other things, meaning that the queue for it virtually could easily get up to 5hours+ for it.

You don't have to register any kind of entry ticket meaning the system can be 'played' to your advantage easily. I was very happy 'reserving' mazes from home yesterday without a ticket and I will be checking out the system on park today.

One thing I did notice is fastrack has a maximum amount which can be sold on the website. At least they are trying to sort out their ratios instead of fastrack overselling.

The fact that the system has gone down is nothing to do with the fact that they want everyone through by 10:30pm, saw alive and studio 13 have not gone above 30mins this evening on RNR and they are closed, system glitch I would imagine. I am almost certain you will still be able to enter the main queues until 10pm meaning you still get a ride!

That's not great... Just like the fact slammer wasn't open due to a lack of staff!! It was almost impossible to get a show when it was every 20 mins without standing outside for ages, but now it's even worse seeing as it will be very difficult to get a show time without having to wait prolonged amounts of time.

I will be going tomorrow so will tell you how it goes. Studio 13 and saw have just closed yet again meaning MBV and cabin in the woods have now had a dramatic increase at over 2hours.

It's not that bad. You have to remember most people don't know what it is or don't know how to use the system in the first place. Just looking now everything is under 90mins on RNR with studio 13 and saw under 10mins. I reckon it's actually a positive thing this weekend if used as most people won't have a clue what's going on meaning a higher rides count. 90mins for a maze anyway is actually pretty low.

100% agree with the two above points.

There is no new rule. Last thursday it was the same as always. They push down your lap bar but the tightness of the shoulders is completely up to you. Might have just been an operator being particularly difficult, but there is no new rule as far as I'm aware...

Just think about it though. The mazes only take 12 people every 2-3mins so that would be giving RNR and fastrack a 50:50ratio towards the main queue. The mazes are ridiculously low throughput and I have a feeling its just going to result in the main queue being about 50people let through per hour... I think that will be a great system when also executed well but its also about 'abusing' the system in a way. If there are 4 of you in your group and you all book a maze at the same time, your done within a couple of hours. However, this tactic relies on other people not knowing how to use the system effectively.