TPJames

haha, I would buy them not for much money though!

I really want all the maps as a collection but can only find 2007,2009 and 2012 on ebay

I love the old maps with the 'thrillometer' it is great to see how samurai was only intense excitement I prefer the old maps more, they just have a charm to them, and the rides actually look something like the actual thing unlike what we get today, a mangled mess of metal for Colossus!

Just wondering, how big waas the farm area? I cannot seem to remember the size of it myself

Does anyone know what has actually happened to the area where the farm was, as far as I am aware it still remains there and hasn't been used to this day. Maybe thorpe have some plans to put something there in the near future? I remember when I visited the farm, it was good old days. I think thorpe have made a big mistake to remove the farm and CRC and just hope they bring it back sometime soon, although this is unlikely to happen. If they brought it back it would certainly be nice and thorpe could maybe open up for feb half term- as I will post in a different topic. Go on thorpe, you have just left CRC there to rot so why not bring it back?

When I was there it just said: ' Welcome to chessington, zoo days will be avalible from 10am-3pm on weekends and school holidays' or something like that, it just kept scrolling over that again and again! EDIT: because bubbleworks will be closed for the rest of the zoo days- the park seem to be trying to get black buccaneer and the carousel running for the zoo days to compensate...

Lots of unhappy faces by black buccaneer yesterday, but it is good that chessington have updated their website- I don't think we will be seeing black buccaneer or the carousel open again this week. I'm not sure how the zoo is this popular, if I wanted to go to the best zoo, I would go to london zoo so I'm not sure why chessington keeps reaching capacity...

Well it didn't say a reason, it just had a sign stuck on it saying: 'The rides and attractions avalible for today are hocus pocus hall and bubbleworks'

The carousel was closed for no reason Black buccaneer was closed due to the fact that the motor wouldn't start in the cold Safari skyway was still undergoing maintenance. Chessington could have opened up the carousel but that didn't really appeal to me anyway, I just wanted black buccaneer open but that is not chessies fault because of the weather

Guys on the topic of the billboard, does anyone know who has won the slogan competition yet?

Having visited today, I was very disappointed. Firstly, I was suprised that chessington reached its capacity as the park seemed rather empty to me. The only sign of it being busy was that bubbleworks had hit 45 minutes at around 1:00pm. Tha rides and attractions were open till 4pm which was strange although there weren't many rides and attractions to be honest. I was looking forward so much to riding black buccaneer, we arrived in the morning to find it testing, and the ride operator said it would be open later in the day. However, it did not reopen due to it being 'cold' and the motor not being able to work also the carousel was closed for no reason it appears. Safari skyway was still broken... So if anyone is visiting this week then don't expect black buccaneer open as it was closed today at 4 degrees and its only meant to be getting colder as the week goes on.

It's a bit ovbious isn't it though. If the price is 1/4 of what it would be normally then ovbiously something isn't going to be open. In this case half the park. However, I would love to see rattlesnake, runaway train and sea storm open during these zoo days. I'm off tomorrow anyway, aiming to get there for 9:00am so we can avoid the queues and do a couple of rides before it gets busy and then we will hit the zoo(not literally!)

Haha classic! People need to look at the website before they actually go to the park because half the people there think all the rides are open...

Most people on facebook are complaining that most of the park isn't open but then its a zoo day and if they went on the website they would find out that most of the park wasn't open. People these days...

When I was there, a few of the boats in bubbleworks had boards on top of them which said "boat out of use" maybe that's what made bubbleworks less than usual. Do you think the queues will be about an hour long or maybe half an hour tomorrow for the rides? Thanks guys!

By less working than usual do you mean less boats or what? And on the topic of the rides what were the queue times like? Were they really bad or just a reasonable 10 mins?

Yep here it is: http://thorpeparkpreview-fb.eventbrite.com/# I advise you book before tickets become unavlible!

I am not saying they were but the people on facebook are! Were all the advertised rides open excluding safari skyway which should have been?

I really think merlin need to sort out some sort of prebooking system with the merlin pass... Yes the park is full and once it is full it is full but people turning up just after opening and not being able to get in is ridiculous! If merlin invented a prebooking system where passholders could book their day out for free online by typing in their pass code, then everyone would be happy and there would be no need for complaints as there would have been a way to prebook. I am aiming for 9:30 tomorrow to the park but with traffic no one knows what can happen. If I turn up to chessington to be turned away, there is not going to be a happy look on my face and they are going to recieve a big mouth of complaining about no prebooking system! I say they need to get this sorted out in future, if they have unhappy customers, people are unlikely to renew their merlin passes. Another complaint from facebook- I better not get turned down tomorrow! Were all the rides open yesterday bar safari skyway? Will be interesting to see if they have it up and running tomorrow!

In the near furture, most likely yes. I have had a look on thorpe's website and they don't even seem to include Pizza Hut and Burger King as food outlets on site. In furture we are likely to see a pizza pasta replacing Pizza Hut and a Burger Kitchen replacing Burger King. I think because alton and chessington are changing the outlets to merlin ones, thorpe will soon follow!

Wow I have to get there about 9:30 tomorrow morning to secure a place! Do you think this will be early enough to get in with my merlin pass? Thanks guys it will be a real help!

If they have that long pathway open however they will be able to get more guests through their gates. It's a benefit and a non-benefit to be honest! I think even if they didn't open up wild Asia and mystic east they could open up the rattlesnake instead of Kobra along with runaway train. Then it could expand over to tomb blaster and peaking heights because they are quite close together. One thing I noticed on the zoo days was that the stalls/shops were opening and closing at random times, usually they will be open during the course of the day but this time one was opening at opening and closing at midday and then another one opened one hour after the first one closed. Very strange if you ask me...

Well I hope I can get in tomorrow anyway

Well I don't see why chessington can't open up a few extra rides when alton towers have 2 of their star attractions open during half term. You have to remember it is NOT a zoo days this half term it is African adventures. I would like to see a few extra attractions open and in future I think they could expand so they have wild Asia open too. This could mean the monkey swinger and jungle bus would be running with the possibility of Kobra. This could then expand to forbidden kingdom and Mexicana where they could open up tomb blaster and runaway train. Part of the mystic east could be open as peaking heights could be open too.I don't think that is half of the rides but is certainly a large amount, I do have to say that the ticket prices would have to go up to about £20 per person in this situation though but I think many people would be willing to pay extra so they could get on a wider range of rides. Here is what would be open including the sea life centre: Hocus pocus hall Bubbleworks Sea storm Black buccaneer Safari skyway Tomb blaster Runaway train Monkey swinger Jungle bus Peaking heights And possibly Kobra. Even though this is a big amount of rides I think chessington would do well in opening them, yes there are maintenance issues so they would not all necessarily get to be open but they could select a range of rides from this list, therefore getting more people through their gates and making more people likely to return. No mentioning if they bumped ticket prices up(£20 online £25 on day) I think they could be making more profit aswell- but of course the weather determines everything if the rides will be open etc.!

I am not sure it is really being maintenaced probably, I went on a zoo day a couple of weeks ago and the carriages were just sitting off the rails! When I visit tomorrow, I will see if it is in the same condition and if work is actually in progress on it! As for the zoo days, I think in future we will have to see more of the park open due to it becoming full. I don't actually understand why they cannot open tomb blaster up during the week. I think if they opened up runaway train, peaking heights, tomb blaster and a few other small rides we would be seeing more guests put through the gates and less complaints. The more space there is avalible, the more happy customers chessington have!