Fred

Friday wasn't that busy.. the Thursday and Sunday were busier whereas by comparison Friday was dead (45min queues on main rides).

Aww damn I've missed it. Closed season coming around too quickly yet again!

Canada Creek Railway (4)Colossus (7)Detonator (5)Flying Fish (6)Loggers Leap (6)Nemesis Inferno (5)Quantum (4)Rocky Express (5)Rush (6)Samurai (3)Slammer (3)Stealth (5)Storm in a teacup (5)Vortex (5)Tidal Wave (6)Stealth -1Slammer +1

Ahh can't be arsed to read 6 pages, so hopefully people haven't mentioned this.One train inferno, 30min queue.. is incredibly frustrating when you know on two trains, it'll be 5-10mins. It was frustrating, particularly when the next time I visited, it was quieter (still a dead day though) and had two trains. Fastrack.. gah, its not available on "dead" days!!Unless they have a problem, air will always run 3 trains, 2 stations if the queue is 20mins on one station. The rest of the coasters don't particularly have a problem, as they will very quickly add extra shuttles/crafts/cars/trains should there be a queue.It doesn't cost much more to run an additional train.. maybe one extra staff member, and a slight bit more on wear and tear. It's barely worth mentioning when compared to a guests overall experience.Maybe this is why the park is currently advertising for Product Excellence Analysts and other random rubbish like that?!

That's a general prebook thing anyway.. confirmation/card holder and proof of ID. It's incase they don't believe you're the legitimate person to collect them etc.

Nah. Don't think they need them, they can easily get to the track without some random ball anyway!

Oh god. Visited this park last month, and by christ it was laughable at how poor the place is. I think one of the main things about the park which mehhed me is there is no signature real attraction, nothing worth noting about. People mentioned Maelstrom, but it's just an alright ride I spose!However, dunno why people moan about the staff as they were genuinely rather friendly and chatty, however could be that the park was completely and utterly dead. We were the only two people on most rides.Some rides are cute, but the lack of maintenance is unbareable, and tainted the attractions (the haunting/excalibur).This park came bottom of my list comprising of Oakwood, Flamingo land and Lightwater Valley

Lack of money I'd presume.. starting parks need to ensure return on investment.There's nothing wrong with WGH though! Pretty much half the park is made by them, ridewise

Well, for number one.. Alton Towers is in the top three for an industry award against two other parks, which are both in america. Says something?You can't really compare the dismal years of 03-07 in this really, the company has changed, the targets have changed, their orientations have changed.. the logos have definitely changed.I went to thorpe the other day, and oh god didn't it feel like a seaside fairground. How could you possibly say that'll become number one?

Gah why do people keep insisting that pirates of the carribean soundtracks are mutiny bay! Winds me right up

Woo for PR!As for the parking charge, interestings.. they're moving the staff carparking as well (finally!).

Looks like the parks going through what towers had, and getting money to spend on bald or bland areas which shows holes in their theming! Loving it, may it continue to happen to all parks, make them look utterly sexy again!

The merchandise is better than it used to be [one stage being non-existant, useless lazy tussauds], but could be far better.

That's just being a ****, considering you have the full, high quality, theme.

I liked reading legos notices when I went, I couldn't help but think "every single one of those things on that list, they did DAILY anyway. Thats what one of their depts is for", and that lego seemingly had a billion more wasps than any other park I've visited this year.However, lets bring everyone around to the attention that it is now september - they're all pissing off now. Very difficult to see, apart from dying on the floor

Tomb has fallen to bits now, riding it the other week, someone has decided to go all out on UV light cannon things. Which, yeah, light up the place and the effects, but it lights up *everything*. You now just cannot ignore that you can see behind the scenes, that you can always see the ceiling and the lighting rigs. It's just frustrating, its happened in charlie at towers as well.. makes the effects look better, but ruins absolutely everything else around it.What happened to them being so called "dark rides"?!

Correct. If you've noticed its a temporary ride.. not permenantly placed. Fantasy World starts theirs with the diesel engines.. you can hear them go down turn it on

I'd presume the taking bags on with you is now due to light, so you can see where your bags are and its not like you're gonna lose them easily?

I'd much rather meet at thorpe farm than the new stealth.

Was going to say that, it'll be interesting if the park will make money from it.

It's not exactly H&S, its practicality as well. Plus, why when the staff have an option of sending a ride every 15mins with 15 people on, than just send it instantly with one? .H&S is very much parkwise anyway, each park has different procedures which those themselves WILL stick to.

The fastrack point, I saw both the entrance to the building and at the stairs last year, depending on how busy the park is. Maybe its down to that?Easier to deal with fastrackers pushing past each other/turning away people without fastrack on busy days..

Yup, but go on the 10pm days anyway, cos Fright Nights are worth it.

I'm pretty sure they would've followed them. It's not like samurai is hidden, any manager walking past would've been like OMFG!I've been on rocky express by myself at thorpe, countless rides at chessie by myself. None at towers, because almost all of them require a minimum of 2 people incase of breakdowns!

Always worth trying it, merlin staff get in free to Heide Park.. so would've thought there'd be an offer or deal for standard merlin passholders as well.