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At Summer Nights this year someone in the swarm station shouted bogey (it was supposed to be a jokey call sign to others in their group) within a few seconds everybody was shouting it including the guy in the control box over the PA.
 
Christ knows what anybody must have thought outside hearing "bogey, bogey, bogey, bogey" being chanted over and over.

Trump will quickly learn the things he can do and the things he can't do. 
He could try and reduce women's rights but it is highly unlikely he would ever succeed. He has mid terms and the next election to win so he and his party must ultimately try and please the people. 
The media polarizes everything because people only seem to understand a binary system so the fact he has to try and please people is forgotten as it doesn't make a good story. Women's rights completely destroyed is a much better headline than Trump wants to rework women's rights but can't because his party wants to be relected.

I can't think of an election of recent times that hasn't been won off the back of lies! I don't really think you can look at any mainstream party on either side if the Atlantic as having any moral high ground in that respect!
 
As I said, you've got two awful people running for office. One tries to hide their awfulness and does their dirty deeds in an underhand, hidden, standard political spin kind of way. The other pretty much brazenly stands there being openly awful. Who is actually worse? Who should you trust more? It's hard to be surprised by a fool with no self censorship. 
 
I don't have a 'problem' with protest, but just find this one very odd and pretty pointless. 

Any sort of politics has multiple flaws. Democracy can allow previously unpopular leaders to be victorious in elections during times of fear. As much as I think trump is awful, he was better than Clinton. Back to the protests, they will achieve very little

Not really the same, is it? When people had to protest for those rights it wasn't because a party that were pro had lost an election, it was because there was no one pro in the running, or that there couldn't be anyone in the runnung because their particular rights were suppressed by law in the first place; it wasn't allowed to be pro their cause.
 
This is protest that 'a man won by the legal process and we don't like that man', we'll that actually is too bad! Until he tries to implement something which encroaches on the rights of US citizens,  or has a significant impact on another nation, what is actually being protested against? The course of democracy? It's really a very odd thing.
 
The real issue is the opposition having fielded a damp lettuce as a candidate. I'm pretty sure Trump would have lost against anyone who was half decent and could have capitalised on his many many weaknesses. 

An odd one when what is being fought against is the very result of that democracy.
 
 
I'm a million miles from a Trump fan, the blokes an absolute tool, but some aspects of all this I don't think are entirely negative. What do you think our, or any government, are doing when they make any deal with another nation? This is just honesty that we don't usually get to see, and I thinks it's that honesty the Americans have gone for. He says what he really thinks, even if what he thinks is entirely mental. Even if that honesty shows a repulsive human that might well be better than being lied to by someone else.

This is the problem that Towers Loving Care is going to cause. Theme parks never used to have to make a promotion of their behind the scenes work.
 
However places like Alton Towers had been under-maintained and had almost no scenic schemes for so long, that they needed social media to prove to the management that the public do care when things look better.
 
Blackpool and soon most parks will need to showcase similar maintenance works (which may have been going on every year anyway without us knowing, or are so basic that they should be happening anyway) in order to keep up with the image Towers Loving Care are portraying.
 
So it's a good thing if it leads to more improvements, but pretty embarrassing when they dress up basic maintenance as something special.  And when it becomes poor quality work or cheap remedies dressed up as "improvements" and "£800k upgrades" (see Tomb Blaster redo at Chessington), it is truly awful and stops people being able to think for themselves.

What I don't understand at the moment is the current protests about Trump taking place in the UK. He is an elected official of a different country. The people of the united states may have elected a right wing extremist but the point is he was still elected. 
What exactly are these protests trying to achieve?
They know who he was and they still elected him so continuing to call him a racist/sexist I don't think is going to change the American populations mind.

Yay working rides. Might as well rack up those rides on Truckers!
 
This line up is about as exciting as modern day Chessington.

Like it was when it was open.

Charlie's had all the branding removed and the entrance boarded up iirc, if you didn't know what was supposed to be there you'd think it was just a plain unused building.

The smoothness is to do with how they put the trains back together over winter and the cheaper-than-ideal engineering of the trains. The shunting is annoying indeed and Vampire could be a pretty nifty fast family coaster if it werent for that .

Here's what I'd consider doing in the future if Vampire's still around..
Completely rebuild the track following largely the same layout, as a newer model Vekoma family suspended coaster, not half & half with Arrow and the (not very good) earlier Vekoma model.
Except that would never happen, but would make for a great thrilling family coaster. Make it to fix the dispatch and sequencing issues too, so that the ride can run quickly.
 
And then landscape the area so much more than it currently is. Plant shrubs and build up banks to create some interesting landscape to interact with on the first section. Rebuild the coaster tunnel on the second section as a themed, pitch black tunnel.
 
Landscape the queue as well and completely rebuild the pathways. Build new entrance gates, or link the original gates.  Build a replacement spooky crypt shelter for the one that got demolished, and more themed structures in the queueline to pass around. Re use the queue tunnel and restore its smoke effects.

Restore the whole station and its animatronic, real lighting  & new audio system.
 
Build a castle facade around the side of the building facing the queue, scenically design the exit walkway and portal where the train re-enters the building, for example flying into a grand smashed chapel window  and back into darkness.

And Driving School which is right next to Ice Age.

I was just talking UK yes, Merlin seem a little more hands off with the running of their Euopean parks.
 
But oops, I honestly thought Smiler was older than Swarm for some reason, so err, ill show myself out up the rainbow stairs t... LOL

5 year gap between major coasters is fine for any big park... The problem is that the investments between these periods range from ok to questionable to who agreed to this?

Well they should have got a better idea. If they wanted the steps to come across like an ironic colourful stairway to 'post correction' heaven then they should have been designed and built that way. Instead it looks like they borrowed some spare evac stairs from a gay pride nightclub and stuck them in.

Shame because the idea is actually quite funny, could have been very clever and entertaining. Same about the entire ride really. Parts work well and feel really gripping, but other times it feels like its been built on a budget of £2.

Is it the same management team now that bought us Smiler, Swarm etc.
 
Wonder who **** in their scrambled eggs to make them so anti-coaster/anti-flume nowadays since they used to love them?

Is it the same management team now that bought us Smiler, Swarm etc.
 
Wonder who **** in their scrambled eggs to make them so anti-coaster/anti-flume nowadays since they used to love them?

That reminds me of an old choc orange advert with Dawn French (fair few years ago) "it's not Terry's - it's mine" 

It's ridiculous, the standard pass (without the deal) now costs more than my premium pass back in 2013.
Plus, I don't like the design of the newer passes (the older one made me feel so much more important).

To do that they'd first need to hire some  

I think Thorpe needs a new family-thrill coaster  - I know everyone wants something massive and intense - and thats fine - but Thorpe needs something to balance up their line-up!
 
examples would be
 
Dwervelwind at Toverland, Polar X-plorer at Legoland Billund, Die Schlange von Midgard at Hansa park  etc 
   

Once VR is widely available in the home (I.e. Once PSVR drops like a stone in price), then the fad will end very quickly before a park can actually implement it in a consistent and unique way...

Rest in Peace, Carrie Fisher.
Not only just iconic as Princess Leia, Carrie has always been brutally honest about her experiences with mental illness and drugs.  A very inspiring woman; my thoughts are with her family and friends. 
Probably the only celebrity death I've cried over this year.

Well it's a better investment than Ghost Train at least.
 
It seems a bit naff for a park on Thorpe's scale to be instaling these but as a temporary thing it makes sense, and if they already have the rides available then why not really?
 
Of course, it'll completely kill the theme of Canada Creek/Old Town but they've all-but done that anyway.