RideAddict

With views like this I want this man out of this country: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4800037/Anjem-Choudary-claims-his-Jihad-Seekers-Allowance-rant-has-been-misunderstood.html

Sometimes I manage to park on the hard-standing, after weaving my way through past the gravel (really hate that). However, in the days when you used to drive in through the gate and slip through the gap (keep in the far right lane) and park immediately on the hard-standing without going via the gravel car park, I was once caught. They scanned my pass and knew exactly where I had parked, so I had to go and move. But how do to they know this? Binoculars? Clever spyers? My pass isn't linked to my car details, so how?! On full days when it is heaving and doing my head in, I park in Penton Hook Marina, near the mini roundabout and residential area. It says private yes, and I've done it a few times without being questioned or having notices put on my car.

I don't even use Twitter, but I'll throw my hat in the ring and suggest: #getbuilt_getopen_getsmiling

Zufari I can see opening, but not Tomb Blaster, considering it's location.

Are the ReRide and YouTube ones different? Can you post or PM me so links for all 3 please? Thanks. Simple - it's old hat! As Benin pointed out, the PA volume just needs sorting, but I think I'd rather have a real-time voice on Vampire as opposed to some of the recorded ones on other rides. Only last season, Fury was finally ditched of the "Exit to the left", because if you came into the station backwards, exiting to the left would be the loading platform.

On a weekday visit shortly after a bank holiday last year (I think it was April), I was told gate figures were down. They had only had about 500 people in - and I was told their target gate figure for the day was about 1700. I remember walking around the park seeing it so dead, thinking how I'd never seen it so quiet. Apparently it had been that quiet since the bank holiday (just over a week ago) and the audiences hadn't recovered.

What I'm saying is that there should be a simple list for steepest drop and current record holders. Wikipedia usually lets you re-organise table listings by any category. Even the RCDB search filter is useless.

Now there's someone who knows what he's talking about. The lower dome music and the end of the day music - are they the same track? I know the lower dome music is very relaxing and sinnister, whereas the end of day music, if I stand corrected, is the more quirky one similar to the entrance theme? In answer to your quote: 1) Yes, get it back. 2) Yes, let's have the entire Colossus area blasting again, preferrably not on high-pitch. 3) That's the best, had it as my phone ringtone for years now. About time I changed it. 4) It's good to listen to but to say I miss it is lying. 5) It sounds great! I have 3 main sources where I keep my entire theme park music. My computer, my iPad, and my USB stick which I play in the car. If I don't get audio satisfaction after a day out, I play some music through one of these to satisfy my eardrums.

That image is easy to understand. It's going down the first main drop off the lift hill, with the redhead at the back still going through the inline twists. At first, it does look a little bit messed, but study it carefully, from the left to the right (or from the bottom of the track up to the top) and you'll realise it is actually one entire ride car. Hang on, now I'm confused. Are you saying that the Fanta branding is good or bad? Personally, I hated it at first, but like most things I get used to it. I hope it's gone for this year considering X Sector is being spruced up, can anyone confirm whether it has or hasn't been de-Fanta'd? I don't. I go back every year, on the lookout for changes, minor and major. And I see lots of changes that still haven't been made. It's the small things that really get me.

Change the TV's for flat screens. I was glad to see Octopus Gardens go. I've said for years now that they need to flatten the area occupied by the Beach, Depth Charge, Storm Surge, and yes, dare I say it, X:\. Think of what coaster they could put in there (no, not a woodie). Visually the area isn't an improvement, infact it's taken a step back. I mean, does anyone remember this?: Yes, it's X:\ No Way Out, with the path straight ahead, and nothing standing in the way. That was until they plonked Storm Surge in. If Thorpe really want to keep X:\ for a few more years, and promote it (considering it's one of their oldest and finest), then sticking a Friday afternoon ride from a US park really isn't the way to go about it, and I hope that Storm Surge is gone in the next few years before someone kicks the crap out of it! They couldn't have named it better: Storm = causing trouble. Surge = in criticsm of the ride And I'll still never understand that police car nearby. Rant over.

I've waited for so long for the Tidal Wave fire effect to return that I've given up - just like the old never-ending Colossus repaint rumour that fails to go away.

It's about time they did something with the old Pirates building. Been empty for too long. I'm not sure if I'd rather see another movie in there, or convert it to (yet another) restaurant. Can't see the point in that, considering Rameses @ Chessington is 18 years old now, and I think Ripsaw is about the same age.

I'm not sure what X:\ audio we will get this year, but I would like to see the Queue 2007 and Interior 2007 re-introduced. Play it alternately inside and outside. Also, I would like to see the Rush boarding music from 2005 re-introduced. The best track for that ride!

Get a move on, get it built, test and commission it! This is so slow! However, interesting goings-on. When they build rides, does the park rent out these cranes? And who operates them, the crane company or the construction workers? I've noticed there's a few companies about.

Why Wikipedia have listed it like this is beyond me. A record-breaker for the first, second and third holder is a list - simples! Yes, Thorpe did make that claim. OK, I guess I'm labelling as it Colossus losing its record, which it never did. So more accurately: Colossus was the world first 10 looping rollercoaster in 2002, with the second being the 10 Inversion Roller Coaster at Chimelong Paradise, China in 2006. I hadn't actually realised Thorpe had taken away the area names, although looking at the map now for the first time in ages reveals they have, and a reminder that they haven't been there for a while.

I am in 2 minds about whether to go - there was once a time where you could go to these sort of days on the basis of it not being as busy as a normal day. However, now, given the popularity of the Pass, that is no longer the case.

I beg to differ, but keeping schtum, Thorpe are keeping us waiting in suspense.

Archive, In light of your "essay", you have prroduced a pretty-much accurate description of the ride, however, let me just mention this lot; The queueline is basically one of the most boring ones ever put in at Thorpe. Yep, it goes round the back of the building and you can see the ride a little bit, plus the odd Genie cherry-picker in storage, a whole load of concrete with bricks dropped into it (wow, what an effect), and about £2.50 worth of 1p and 2p coins in a feature in the middle of the queue that is nothing more than a piece of rust. After spotting how fake the CCTV cameras are, and having been "frightened" by the gunshot from above that sounds off, the queueline inside really doesn't get any better. Billy trying to frighten and disorientate anyone on them TV's is just...crap! Things hardly pick up when you get to the loading bays - yes, we have some OK pieces of theming interestingly placed, and then one woyuld wonder why the hell we have digital clocks with the ability to count down from 24 hours only counting down your last few minutes (supposedly!). Anyway, moving onto the ride itself. Comfortable ride cars with lovely restraints greet us, and once strapped in, the Billy animatronic is, as you say, more laughable than frightening. Swinging blades in front of you, thinking you're about to go towards and through them, before, for first-timers, unexpectedly dropping down a drop - *yawn*. Then air guns, that do nothing to excite, yet hold the cars up for a few seconds, and try to deafen people. Heck, at least my ears are cleaned out now. After being spun around and trying to be soaked, we head outside to a tower, again with Billy on TWO TV's to try and stimulate the frightening exprerience. *yawn*. "Game over" he says, before disappearing, laughing, and then the ride winches up you a tower towards the sky which, put simply, is uncomfortable. Again, as you say, snap your neck or claim for whiplash as you're catapulted over the top, down under the spinning blades and off you go, through the various inversions. Soon, you hit the brakes with such a force it's a wonder you don't hit your head. As you exit the station and think to yourself "That's not that much different from other rides", note the slow-spinning fans through the window, before heading down to the photo booth to view your ride photo and video. As you say, Saw is just average. It's a worlds first, but look how long it took to hold that record. See Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_roller_coaster_rankings#Steepest_steel_roller_coasters. Even Colossus lasted 4 years until the record was broken! That's another thing I hate about it - the Saw Island. They couldn't have added it to Canada Creek or called it another name, and the same for goes for the Swarm Island. During it's construction, I thought it would be amazing it, and after 2 or 3 rides it did seem it. But then the novelty soon wore off, and now I class Saw as nothing, certainly not a special case! Infact, I class most rollercoasters in this country as nothing special, even if they hold a record for a while they're bound to be beaten by another in the world! Saw is to the Saw Island to what Colossus is to the Lost City - a ride that held a record for a while before being beaten, only for Thorpe not to give a monkeys about it soon after it was built! It's a case of "Done the ride, beaten a record, let's move on and forget about it." Colossus is in a bad state these days and Saw is rapidly going to head the same way if Thorpe aren't careful, especially if the branding one day eventually gets ripped off. So Billy can do as many circles as he likes on his tricycle, one day he'll fall off it and realise that although Saw once had the world steepest drop, this baby was soon going to be king: Speed is not always everything IMO. The same goes for Air. Take it slow and enjoy those inversions!

No, I got it from ReRide.net. And yes, I think it gag been copied from there loads of times and uploaded to other websites. I once played the tune on an old MP3 player against the one whilst waiting in the station, although my copy was on a 3-second delay I couldn't hear any differences apart from the chimes.

Highly disagree.

That's exactly what I'm saying!

I love it too, the only bad thing about it is the version available for download on the net has 7 church chimes as opposed to the official only having 5. You forgot the stupid, bad impression of the Vampire laughing that someone always has to do! I think I remember seeing them all flicker around about 2003-05.

Yeah, it's called finding some metal and welding equipment, find workers, grab a paint brush and paint, and hey presto. Agreed, it is well overdue the TLC it needs.

That's Mothers Day! Uh-oh!

From what I saw of the ride advertising last year, I was impressed. I'm not really sure if they did do enough, and I can't think of many ways of bettering it. It appears to me though that certain theming elements were missed. I know the flame effect came later in the year due to things beyond their control, but the excellent phonebox and ambulance that both "landed" mid-season are a fantastic addition, and one wonders why this was never installed for its opening. I'm still not in favour of this back row change, I shall try it once but not put myself out too often to ride is backwards.