streetmagix

Taking an educated guess here: it'll be similar to the Humber Bridge/similar tolls. 1/2 lanes with APNR with the correct signage stating who can use it, with 2/3 lanes with the normal barriers for annual passes, pay at barrier and traditional car parking tickets. The best of both worlds....hopefully.

The thing is: Thorpe Park has some of the best public transport links of any UK parks. Only Blackpool (City Centre park with trams and buses) and Chessington (Train station and multiple bus routes) are better. Having a park a 10 minute bus shuttle from a train station on one of the mainlines near one of the worlds biggest cities is something many parks would kill for. I think it's acceptable to charge decent money for parking to discourage it. As others have mentioned: most US parks charge way more and have little/no public transportation. £15 is maybe too much but that's really an idiot tax for paying at the barriers and not online/ticket machines.

I was thinking that too, I'm not sure which side of Hyde Park they use. What time does Winter Wonderland generally open?

A 'Thorpe Loving Care' programme, which as already noticed is kinda happening already. Upgrade/revamp of the Rumba Rapids Removal of all SBNO rides, including Loggers Leap if it's finally actually going. Leaving it to rot is no way to treat a ride like that. A new flat ride, maybe a Gyro Swing or maybe even a Larson Looper. Better integration of the 2 'new' kids flat rides More events with late openings!

As long as they prepare it for cold weather they'll be no issues. Different wheels, grease and maybe a minimum number of guests per train. From my German trip last year Taron and Black Mamba can operate down to -10c (yes, minus 10c). Blue Fire needs a minimum of 4c, Silver Star is 7c and I'm not sure about Wodan or EuroMir. Chessington will still have the best part of 3 months to do annual maintenance though, from January to March. I really hope it's a success, Chessington and Legoland I suspect will go 365/364 day operation in the next few years.

€ 85 for the year for an annual pass with fasttrack https://www.gardaland.it/en/tickets/season-passes/#

*Paddington Stare*

They're still getting hammered on Tripadvisor (I'm aware that people are more likely to complain than praise), things will only get worse as the school trip and summer holidays arrive. Honestly: the next few years could be golden for Thorpe. The late opens have been a success, cheap annual passes and the park is looking better than last year. They just need to quicken the operations, either reopen or remove the SBNO rides and make Project 2020 a success.

You're probably being sarcastic but I've just tweeted them Now we wait.

I mean, it's not the worst idea in the world. If they decide to use the Sub Terra building that end of the park could then be open in the evenings (Rollercoaster Restaurant, Galactica, Nemesis, Dungeons and Mini Golf). There are other areas of the park that need more urgent work rather than a new attraction. Just cleaning up the park would do wonders really, the less said about The Smiler the better, more flat rides, more entertainment and longer hours should be higher priority.

The big difference is that the other swinging suspended coasters still kept their original trains. Vampire had replacement trains a few years ago from Vekoma (who are still in business unlike Arrow). As long as the structure is still sound/can be repaired then it'll stay, it may need a big overhaul at some point in the medium term however.

When I went for the 19th May late opening (Royal Wedding/Football day) I was the only one heading INTO the park at around 7pm. The bus back was rammed with people heading back to the station. All rides had short queues and yeah, the park seemed dead. Having some form of an event seems like a sensible option. Personally I would have set up a stage and had live music in the evenings but I totally understand why they are going with Love Island.

On Saturday I assumed that Colossus was on one train the dispatches were so slow! SWARM had trains flying out of the station though, the first time in a long time my train has slowed on the lift hill waiting for the previous train to clear the block section.

Is that the smoke that the train then speeds through? I know that some people are allergic to some of the compounds in fake smoke so they may have had to tone it down. (Educated guesswork plus knowing someone who is allergic to some forms of fake smoke)

Officially it's at 'peak times', so Apoloclypse Weekends (weekends in May and June), bank holidays, summer holidays and maybe over Halloween. The most I've seen is 2 in the exit corridor though, not exactly jampacked!

When I was last there, admittedly on the quietest day in the world, they were unlocking the barriers just outside and merging the queue there. No single rider queue open but I can see with the set up how it's confusing. Also, of all the Merlin rides how does a *log flume* still have a single rider queue?

The original is from 1967, I'm sure that quote was in the original movie but I couldn't find a youtube clip of it!

It's actually a Mel Brooks quote (Goodbye!, The Producers). I guess people just don't know their classic comedy anymore, sigh. If it was said maliciously then fair enough, but it sound pretty lighthearted to me.

Both were as 'off the shelf' as you can get with custom layouts. Obviously it's a shame that Wicker Man had such issues upon opening but sometimes these things happen. ICON could have also had issues, both had long testing programmes which should have shown up any issues. Still, it's great to see ICON running pretty smoothly and I can't wait until I ride it in a few weeks time!

I would say it's way more intense than it looks. Really nice airtime, good laterals and a relentless pace. I did however ride it at the end of a hot, sunny day. If it takes a while to warm up then I probably rode it at the best time. Honestly, I was expecting not much from Wicker Man but it's probably my favourite ride at Alton Towers now.

Ah, looks like it's actually a Ministry of Sound night on Saturday. See General Discussion 2018 thread. Tickets for the evening are £5 or free if you're a PMAP or VIP. Sorry for the incorrect info!

If you have a full day ticket (so a valid Day Entry or Season Pass) then you can stay in the evening for free. The exception I believe is for the Ministry of Sound nights which requires a separate ticket no matter which ticket you have for the daytime.

I was there for a few hours this past Saturday for their late opening. Apart from some people who couldn't handle their drink (seriously? It must have cost you a fortune to get drunk at Thorpe) the atmosphere was great, queues were pretty quiet from around 2000 onwards and the staff seemed pretty happy. They are all paid by the hour I believe so they'll all get a couple of extra quid in their pocket at the end of the month. I really do see the future at Thorpe of being open longer but on fewer days. They still need to sort out ride availability though, when I arrived at around 1930 DBGT, The Walking Dead and both of the B&Ms were down. I don't think DBGT:HGVFHBGIFBIF reopened at all, the 2 B&Ms and Walking Dead did though and SWARM was flying!

Thing is, the ride board doesn't say you can't film on the ride. The only warnings are about taking cameras on at the owners risk. I've taken my camera on the rapids before and the staff had no issues with it. I can't say I blame him for leaving Alton Towers, from the outside looking in they seem to be in complete disarray last year and this year.

It's not just Merlin, Ceder Point failed to get a bunch of their biggest coasters open for the opening weekend. They had almost 7 months of closed season yet failed to do it. In the case of Black Buccaneer my guess is that they found out during closed season maintenance that more work was required than usual, understandably they tried to get as many rides ready as possible and come back to Black Buccaneer at a later date. I do agree Merlin should have done better but if even *Ceder Fair* couldn't get everything working for opening day after an even longer closed season then I don't think we should criticise Merlin too much.