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Don't worry the sooner closed season is here, the sooner we can get back on Loggers Leap in 2017!

Though not much has changed, I thought I'd share a few photos of the Construction 2018 area I got today for anyone who's interested;
 

 
I hope they don't bin the Totem pole!

 

 
Blue post = support... I think!

 
Wonder how different this will all look next year?

Yup - money talks!  What I find helpful when I'm feeling particularly crud about my teeth is watch a bit of Jeremy Kyle show - it works wonders!

My wife would disagree, she got absolutely drenched on it in the Summer lol

I think I'll rate it 4.5/10..

Must be something in the air since I broke another tooth over the weekend, got any of that valium going spare?
 
Considering, I'm now convinced my teeth issues are related to the equinox since I always suffer bad tooth ache while the earth shifts on it's axis, never at any other time of the year, anybody got a spare tin foil hat?

Crikey, I thought you meant a tooth!

You can borrow one...

My first reaction was "how much?" but I guess the way the Judge looked at it is they never denied liability, have done good by the victims and have acknowledged and fixed the flaws so bankrupting them would do nobody any favours, especially the victims.  It's also in line with previous non-fatal fine levels, if you ignore inflation.
 
I see the judge has rulled it was not human error at fault, I think here he's trying to differentiate between human error and human negligence, but joe public is so thick to understsnd this they may assume he means it was a computer error, but whether the press will run with this is another thing, wonder what Vicky will think of this?

It's easy to see why it wasn't seen, especially if the operator wasn't looking closely, with hindsight we know there's a car there but on quick glance it's hard to see it exactly because it's partly obscured by the track and the seats are a similar pattern to the track itself onscreen.
 
Edit: Also it wasn't a 90mph impact, if it was all 16 would be dead from basal skull fracure with those restraints, a 45mph impact into a stationary object is just that, a 45mph impact, it only becomes s 90mph impact if the object you hit is also doing 45mph iñ the opposite direction to you, it's splitting hairs I know but it's stretching the truth on little things like this that the press then pick up and run with without at least passing it by a physics student for confirmation that makes the whole situation worse for all.

Yup being the point exactly, check don't assume.

Did someone say naked actors were in the mazes?
 
So let me get this right, there's naked people in there that can manhandle you any way they want, but you're not allowed to return the compliment?  Where's the fun in that?

Did someone say naked actors were in the mazes?
 
So let me get this right, there's naked people in there that can manhandle you any way they want, but you're not allowed to return the compliment?  Where's the fun in that?

Probably in vertical video as well, just as one last wind up...

I think something like what happened on the Smiler could potentially cause PTSD in some people.  Yes I do agree about images and videos being helpful to investigations - but to take pictures once the event has happened and when the people on the ride were in distress is plain wrong in my eyes - I couldn't stand there filming etc when there are people screaming out in pain

PTSD you mean?
 
I'm not keen on taking photos either but sometimes it can be helpful to investigators, especially if the actual event is captured, but sure it's just disrespectful to carry on taking photos/videos once the seriousness of a situation becomes clear.

PTSD you mean?
 
I'm not keen on taking photos either but sometimes it can be helpful to investigators, especially if the actual event is captured, but sure it's just disrespectful to carry on taking photos/videos once the seriousness of a situation becomes clear.

That RAP system/description is universal, as you say what may be applicable to one user, may not be another.  I have a friend who is 42, he can queue no problem, as long as there are maybe five people in it, so SRQ is ideal, he could also queue for 5 hours if needed, as long as everybody is quiet.  He suffers from sensory overload so SRQ and RAP is a great combination, if the queue isn't long he'll do that, if it is he'll use the RAP.  He would cope fine in a breakdown.
 
My nephew on the other hand cannot even cope with something as simple as keeping his trousers up, he would probably have a heart attack in a breakdown (he's 10).
 
Both are treated the same and need a "responsible adult" with them when using the RAP.
 
So as you say it's a guide they stick to, if Sam is capable of using the SRQ instead of having to suffer the dirty looks of judgemental chavs by going down the exit and using his RAP, I don't see a problem with him doing that, management on the other hand....

That RAP system/description is universal, as you say what may be applicable to one user, may not be another.  I have a friend who is 42, he can queue no problem, as long as there are maybe five people in it, so SRQ is ideal, he could also queue for 5 hours if needed, as long as everybody is quiet.  He suffers from sensory overload so SRQ and RAP is a great combination, if the queue isn't long he'll do that, if it is he'll use the RAP.  He would cope fine in a breakdown.
 
My nephew on the other hand cannot even cope with something as simple as keeping his trousers up, he would probably have a heart attack in a breakdown (he's 10).
 
Both are treated the same and need a "responsible adult" with them when using the RAP.
 
So as you say it's a guide they stick to, if Sam is capable of using the SRQ instead of having to suffer the dirty looks of judgemental chavs by going down the exit and using his RAP, I don't see a problem with him doing that, management on the other hand....

Needing RAP could be for any number of reasons, it's a RAP requirement that an adult rides with them, not the person themselves (if the RAP user is an adult they still need another adult with them) so if a RAP person is able to queue for 5 minutes in the SRQ surely it's better for them to do that than it is go up the exit and clogings up that way.
 
Please don't come back with the classic "well if you can do an SRQ then you can do the main queue", the two are not the remotest bit comparable, especially at Chessie where their expert operations can easily turn a 10 minute main queue into an hour in the blink of an eye.

Needing RAP could be for any number of reasons, it's a RAP requirement that an adult rides with them, not the person themselves (if the RAP user is an adult they still need another adult with them) so if a RAP person is able to queue for 5 minutes in the SRQ surely it's better for them to do that than it is go up the exit and clogings up that way.
 
Please don't come back with the classic "well if you can do an SRQ then you can do the main queue", the two are not the remotest bit comparable, especially at Chessie where their expert operations can easily turn a 10 minute main queue into an hour in the blink of an eye.

Needing RAP could be for any number of reasons, it's a RAP requirement that an adult rides with them, not the person themselves (if the RAP user is an adult they still need another adult with them) so if a RAP person is able to queue for 5 minutes in the SRQ surely it's better for them to do that than it is go up the exit and clogings up that way.
 
Please don't come back with the classic "well if you can do an SRQ then you can do the main queue", the two are not the remotest bit comparable, especially at Chessie where their expert operations can easily turn a 10 minute main queue into an hour in the blink of an eye.

I don't remember there being any last year but the place was rammed, we only stayed for an hour because the RAP queue was so long the park would have closed before we got to the front of it so we only did trick or treat wood and left.
 
Have they been date stamping you RAP pass?  Last time we went the silly dove in the office tried to stamp the date on it, black ink on navy blue card doesn't show up and she kept trying over and over, to the point where our card now looks like a 3 year old has been using it to wipe their nose.

Are ouija boards real? I don't know, let's ask the spirits.
 

 
There we are, conclusive proof.

Merlin can choose to invest in Chessington any time of day. But they put Chessington on a back burner because it already makes the profits they want from it, despite much the infrastructure being on the verge of condemnation and the rides in dire states. Chessington themselves also often make weird decisions and seemingly ignore the real state of their park.
 
Merlin have vastly more money than Tussauds did when they built Chessington in the first place. They could rebuild all the infrastructure and faltering rides if they wanted to, but instead they continue to run the theme park on a minimal budget and only spend on frivolous short/medium term investments like a themed carousel, cheaply repainting one falling apart facade at a time, or a random panda show with an MDF stage. On their doorstep are huge rides originally built to a fantastic standard, Vampire, BubbleWorks, Tomb, sitting there with enormous creative potential just waiting to be restored or reinvented, but instead they make them worse through menial projects.
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It was known many years ago that expenditure would have to be spent on new Dragon Falls theming, BubbleWorks maintenance, Trail of The Kings infrastructure, Tomb Blaster's interior for many years. These things were constantly delayed with many excuses, meanwhile Merlin easily constructed a large hotel costing millions of pounds at lightning speed.
 
Merlin as a company also regularly build whole theme parks around the world now. They are not a company who just "dont have the budget". Rather, they deliberately choose not to disseminate that budget on their UK theme parks as they should, not until it is justified by their rubbish investment cycle system and brand marketability processes. They also class essential "maintenance" as "refurbishment" in order to budget for it differently and justify it as capital expenditure rather than a necessary cost.
 
It is a requirement of new significant projects at Chessington that they all be animal or safari themed, as no idea is allowed to pass before it satisfies the park's imposed "Unique Selling Point". Euehh. They've already turned the park into a low budget imitation of Animal Kingdom and borrowed their image from Longleat Safari Park. Yet it's only superficial branding that they're interested in like bamboo and animal prints painted on things. And it's very much rumored that the future major investments will all be turning the remaining distinctive, fun themes into animal-based themes just because of this boring formula.
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Merlin can also 'choose' to make amazing theming if ever they want to, there are so many fantastic design studios around that go without this work because the big companies rarely hire them for theme parks anymore. Sometimes Merlin do theme well if they see it necessary, but even then they've never achieved anything truly great in my opinion, in light of the amazing independent parks around the world like Phantasialand, Efteling and Europa (which have much smaller company backing). MMM is not a true functioning attraction design studio in that sense - it operates and project manages according to Merlin's internal policies and only persues projects that satisfy Merlin's aims.
 
Everything they do has to be justified in terms of marketability, projected figures and their 'USP' policies. Not according to what people will respond to and find surprising or entertaining like Chessington & Alton Towers did in the 90s. This more often than not means reducing detail, restraining ideas and rarely allowing for true innovation. Their themes are stingy and feel like they've been written on Wikipedia, their humour dull and corporate, because MMM are keen to look as 'serious' as possible to impress the company shareholders. Not what a successful creative company should be like. Yet MMM advertise themselves as "the highest quality creative company in the world, delivering faster than any of their competitors", a proper lie, and ignoring that Disney, Universal or their European competitors even exist.
 
The corporate barrier and lack of real care shows in things like their handling of BubbleWorks closure, the terrible state of the rides that they claim "most people wouldn't notice", the atrociously poor value entrance prices. Yet they have no reason to change, because the big numbers keep coming and parks like Chessington are still, wrongly, seen as being in a different league of quality to other independent UK attractions.