ChessingtonSam

Mainly a reference to the fact that the ending is practically his intro lol, I'm assuming Perfect Day has some kind of connection to Fright Nights but I can't find it (admittedly I've only been going to Fright Nights for two years so I'm probably not the best person for it).It's also not necessarily a bad thing that he's had some involvement, but it does run the risk of becoming too obscure in places

Just saw Legacy. I'll leave spoilers out, but it's a nice little show. One thing I can say is it has Jack Silkstone and Co's fingerprints all over it, and is absolutely lost on anyone who isn't a fan. Lots of very confused faces. But it's a decent show and a nice extra.

Christ, alot has happened since someone last touched this thread 😅 Brentford have won the Playoffs and broken all football curses by the looks of it, no matter what happens tomorrow this has been the best year of my life footballing wise haha.

Went to Thorpe today and got to experience the new Swarm stuff in person. The area soundtrack is strange, the spoken parts are pretty bland, sometimes it overexplains stuff a bit, and again the whole thing is so unrealistic to the actual situation depicted in the ride. Which is fine, if the area is also themed in an unrealistic and outlandish way. This works for WWTP Radio, the hosts are constantly cracking jokes and it's all a bit nonchalant given the town is being hit by multiple tidal waves, but not only are there actual jokes in the WWTP Radio audio, but the area isn't exactly a serious area, whereas The Swarm is literally themed to the end of the world. I'm seeing crashed vehicles and a destroyed church, yet I'm hearing a completely calm sounding reverend being interviewed by a newsreader who keeps casually mentioning that the entire country is under attack? It doesn't really work. The song choices also don't really work, unsurprisingly. I can't tell if it's some kind of attempt at humour to be playing 'Highway to Hell' on this fake radio station as the world is literally ending around us, but again, it doesn't work when the rest of the area and even the audio is entirely serious up until then. The station audio is something else entirely though, it's actually really good. You can hear a clip of it here: I really wish the area audio was closer to this than what we got.

This story is also sort of now laid out by the new audio, as seen here: Although I think this time the church is supposed to be in the 'village of Thorpe', so at least that's explained. And also the Swarm itself apparently came from a research facility. The audio is very, very strange. 'The world is literally ending around us, quick, organise an interview with the reverend of the church, and in the meantime, play You Me At Six!' At least the Swarm Invasion audio is back in parts.

Was gonna post about this but I really don't think it's worth giving a person like her the time of day. In other news, The Swarm has a new soundtrack... and it's Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen... apparently?

Teaching kids that the M25 moves at all is giving them false hope, surely?

https://www.thorpepark.com/explore/theme-park/events/parkvibes/ Right.

From the plans, it looks to be a full circuit, so I'm assuming track switches. There's also an inversion in there by the looks of it.

In a truly shocking turn of events, Tomb Blaster is... exactly the same. https://twitter.com/ChessingtonBuzz/status/1394256497517993986?s=19

I've been caught out. Do apologise everyone.

Visited Thorpe twice this season. It's still very much possible to have a fun day at Thorpe (provided you visit on a quiet, off peak day) but wow some areas are just sad at the moment. Visiting Chessington and then this place one after the other is such a stark contrast, one looks better than it ever has in the fairly short time I've been going, whereas Thorpe is almost exactly the same as it was last season. The only real changes I noticed were the interesting Tidal Wave changes, which I'm honestly not sure if they're good or bad, and on the second visit some leaves had been cleared from a fence at Colossus. It is worth noting that on the second visit, lots of effects were fixed. Off the top of my head, the water effect on the heartline roll on Saw was working (I've only ever seen that work once or twice if ever), Inferno had it's mist back, Swarm's plane, fire engine and helicopter had mist (no water or fire though 🙁), and the water tower at Tidal Wave. Nemesis Inferno has been brilliant every time I've ridden it this year, I honestly think it's just as good as Nemesis now, although that may be recency bias as I've not ridden Nemesis in a while. It also has it's old soundtrack back, with the new one playing in the station, which is good. Audio all around the park was very loud, sometimes too loud. It's basically impossible to have a conversation around Colossus, Saw and Stealth. Old Town is in a really sad state, with Slammer more visible than last season, the rotting corpse of Loggers behind a fence, and with quite a bit of Creek Freak theming still up. The tents over the picnic benches have 'Creek Woods Sawmill' on, and there's wanted posters everywhere. I saw from Samurai that there's still some bears up around Loggers, except one has fallen over, which is sad and kind of a metaphor for the whole area. Black Mirror Labrynth has a cool sign but the building isn't pretty. Overall, I still think Thorpe can be quite fun on quiet days, but, and I know I'm stating the obvious here, the park is crying out for some TLC and most importantly something new.

I visited on a random Friday a couple of weeks ago, and it was probably the best day I've ever had at Chessington. Pretty much all the rides we were interested in were walk on, and the only rides that got any queues whatsoever were the lower capacity children's rides, like Jungle Rangers and River Rafts, as you'd expect really. I loved Croc Drop, as others have pointed out the ride is nothing special, I still found it fairly fun but I also hate drop towers, so what's my opinion worth haha. The theming, though, is. Pretty much every angle looks good, and it's fairly imposing, especially when approaching from the pathway under Dragon's Fury. The whole park has had some TLC, Mexicana looks brilliant with lots of colourful new theming everywhere, although that area might not be for everyone. Dragon's Fury's entrance has had an interesting bright yellow and red repaint, Zufari has had some changes in the cave, lots of signage has been replaced and there's been lots of small repaints everywhere. It's certainly a far cry from the Chessington of a few years ago where everything was either beige or falling apart. Blue Barnacle is... probably the second best pirate ship I've ever ridden in that pit, it looks good and it's decently themed, certainly more so than Black Buccaneer was although some of the pirate figures are a bit tacky. There's also been some new audio around the park, most notably around the entrance area where they've remixed the previous entrance music and added bits from Vampire, Tiger Rock and Croc Drop. Mexicana has a nice, but quiet new soundtrack, and Croc Drop's audio is all quite good. Adventure Point had some... interesting music playing, not quite a fan of that. Overall, not really many negatives, if any. This year is, in my opinion, the best Chessington have had while I've been interested in theme parks.

Went through Creepy Caves: Resurgence as my first indoor maze the other day. Wow! Will post a full review in a spoiler tag, but I thought it was excellent, very intense, very loud, and the ending is something I have never seen or heard of before in a maze.

Video of Saw's new dispatch: https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1314884471645245440/pu/vid/640x360/NBH4kLaQHV4mdM14.mp4?tag=10 Credit to @_Olli_SM_ on Twitter Absolutely love this. Always wondered why they don't use Hello Zepp on Saw, really hope they keep it beyond Fright Nights.