jon81uk

I think when they finally build a permanant hotel that will be the waterfront hotel as it is planned for the permanant hotel to be on the carpark side of the lake, plus it won't be made out of shipping containers!

this definitely won't be the cheaper accomodation, it looks like each lodge will have more space than traditional hotel rooms, with a more seperate area for the kids to sleep in. The tree houses will have four bedrooms too. These will all be priced higher than the Splash Landings hotel rooms.

Basically because maintanance and small re-themes doesn't bring in new guests. They need something big (The Smiler at AT) or well-known (Madagascar, Ice Age, Shrek) to get people to come to the parks. Midway attractions are cheaper to build so they can get more or them built quickly and Lego is a brand that attracts guests to the parks too. Look at Universal Studios in Florida too, they haven't built anything original in a long time, Simpson, Transformers & Harry Potter are the big draws into the park now. That just seems to be business now, you need a big hook to market something on.

Congratulations on winning, hopefully some of your design ends up on Dragon Falls next year! But just because they put up a sign to advertise a competion for Dragon Falls doesn't rule out that there was a competition for Runaway Train too! *edit* they mentioned both competitions on their facebook in the summer <div id="fb-root"></div> <script>(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script> <div class="fb-post" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/Chessington/posts/10151685297814035" data-width="466"><div class="fb-xfbml-parse-ignore"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Chessington/posts/10151685297814035">Post</a> by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Chessington">Chessington World of Adventures Resort</a>.</div></div>

The completion was definitely for Minetrain and Dragon Falls (http://web.archive.org/web/20130904164639/http://www.chessington.com/updates/). But I agree planning for the hotel and the re-working of the monkey area to make room for the hotel probably took priority in the end.

Most of the work being done this time last year and in the beginning of the 2013 season was demolition of the rotten damaged old theming. They ran a competition to get ideas for a new theme which ended in September. 3 months to finalise the design, then a month to get it made off site and now it is getting put together and should be ready for opening in March. Yes they could of closed the competition to design the ride in July for example and started building before Christmas but I don't think 6 months from September is a bad timescale for design and construction of new theming.

Thirteen is thrilling and only has a height restriction of 1.2m, the only scary thing really is the dark. X now only has a height restriction of 1m since it was changed to forward facing, only issue is that as you can't see the ride from the outside some yoinger guests may be scared of the unknown, but the actual ride is slightly thrilling but fun. Quantum also is only a 1.2m restriction and all of Thorpe's water rides are 1.2m or less. If Saw is a family thrill ride then Nemesis Inferno probably is too, Inferno only has 1 more inversion and Saw has the over vertical drop.

I think the building that's now the dragon playhouse was already there so couldn't of been placed elsewhere, placing the entrance to canopy capers around the back of the land may have helped as well

They are doing something, https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152167179894035&set=a.120311584034.98750.21321734034&type=3&permPage=1 But it doesn't look like any rockwork has been put on Scorpian Express yet

I understand they wanted to keep the Dragon area self-contained bu the section behind the building feels so dull! They should of made the path carry on and exit toward Vampire so they area is a U rather than being a dead end.

The terms for annual passes do state 12. An Annual Pass is subject to additional charges for entry into: 12.1 any concerts taking place at the Attractions; 12.2 any themed and/or special events taking place at the Attractions; 12.3 secondary attractions at Chessington Resort; 12.4 all Christmas event openings; 12.5 secondary attractions at Alton Towers Resort Theme Parks including, but not limited to, the Alton Towers Waterpark, Extraordinary Golf, Alton Towers Spa and Scarefest mazes; 12.6 secondary attractions at THORPE PARK including but not limited to Fright Night scare mazes; and 12.7 any other event as determined by The Merlin Entertainments Group from time to time. see http://www.merlinannualpass.co.uk/terms.aspx I assume Summer Nights counts as a special event and therefore isn't included on any pass (the restrictions of the standard pass are set out separately in term 13). But £5 for an evening with shorter queues than usual isn't a bad deal and if you have a standard pass then its cheaper than parking!

This is beacuse the law was changed in the late 90s and all new water rides can only splash you with clean water. Old rides don't need to be changed so loggers leap and Rhumba Rapids are the same as they always have been, but Tidal Wave uses clean water. It's the same at Alton Towers, the flume and rapids use lake water but battle galleons fills the boats with clean water through the masts when they are in the stations ready for the guns to use.

The park has barely been closed for 2 months! There is still another 2 months to go so something might happen? Maybe the stormy weather has been an issue, don't want to but new themeing in and then the wind and rain destroy it before it opens! They havve already done work on Market Square over the first few closed months

Don't forget that Chessington ran a competition for people to submit ideas for the theme of Runaway Mine Train and Dragon Falls (http://www.chessington.com/updates/) There were restrictions such as it had to fit with the Mexicana theme but something completely new wouldn't be unexpected if they have used a child's submission. Some kids imaginations are great so they could of got some good sketches in.

They are retheming it as a Christmas walk-though (ending with a visit to Santa), similar to what they did for the Halloween walk-through.

I think Hunger Games would make a great stunt show (think of Waterworld at Universal Studios in LA or Indianna Jones at Disney's Hollywood Studios), however I wouldn't expect this at Thorpe Park simply as they don't seem to go for shows, especially big budget stunt shows. I really cannot see how a ride could me made based on the Hunger Games though so this would be best left for a stunt show at another park.