Fred

If hauntedone, or british dark rides, want some lovely web space to keep costs low... PM me. I'd much rather the website(s) stay alive than die due to costs of running them!

Flipper's just gone crazy . I didn't say the ride was presentable or anything, I just said that the bloody winter maintenance checks have been done, as you know they would be. The ride would not be running if not. Plus you'd know from new parts that it takes a while for stuff to wear in - think new ride and it's downtime.

I think I prefer you hating thorpe rather than becoming an apologist with no real idea of how things run. Winter maintenance can easily be half complete. It's complete in that it has 2 trains running and the system has been signed off for guest use, it's not fully complete in that it doesn't have it's optimum amount of trains. Coasters don't run in manual with guests on in Merlin parks (nor do majority of their other rides either).

To be fair, it can be fact. The park has looked a right craphole in recent years. Even cleaning a pathway will make the park look best it's done in years. Fact.

This has probably been covered, but it's not as simple as that. Fastrack have allocations (well, at parks where they care...), VIP can't come out of that. I heard Alton actually removed sale of their platinum fastrack over Fireworks just because of VIP fastrackholders. So they lose potential revenue to ensure fastrack isn't that bad? It also all depends where you go - obviously chessington will have less VIP holders each day than Lego or Alton. Hopefully merlin will ruin their parks so noone wants to visit, then it'll all be okay

Don't worry - next year you'll have queue-times.com to inform you

Chessie has decided to do an 06 towers, and go habbo hotel style. Woo!

Project LC.. you're the biggest complainer on here. You're obviously an Annual Passholder. Do I need to go any further with the fact they'll receive the same, if not more complaints on those days?

That's exactly how the park runs. Not. Having 9 attractions down on a day without much notice (as reading here they only stated 4 closed when most people would've got the tickets) will only result in ridiculous amounts of complaints. Here's hoping for 2 train operation on coasters.

Utter bollocks. Charlie & Lola's Moonsquirters and Greendrops would've won if you didn't class the entire flipping area consisting of 8 attractions as one! I vote for Forbidden Valley.

It generates ridiculous amounts of complaints. It also completely screws the value for money thing - as people are now expecting a product worth the full price, and the park is NOT worth £60. So Value from the vouchers has gone too. They've gone stupid now, which is not to the benefit of anyone whatsoever.

If it is down to fire exits, then either it's a very simple fix to have open during preview weekend, or X will be closed due to construction. Latter sounds plausible, thorpe hate spending money on things and anything to save on staffing!!!!

It'd be interesting to see what their actual online bookings rate is. A certain other Theme Park has online bookings of less than 20% of their gate. It's crazy!

Beautiful. Purely beautiful. I feel ashamed for never visiting Efteling before. Time to go!

I love not being on this forum for ages. This has been proven wrong by Big One running one train service throughout their weekends so far. Also Flipper, don't talk nonsense. All Air crafts have been completely stripped down and rebuilt, like all coaster trains have to. As you'd know. The wheels have a set limit, as you'd know. If the wheels had issues, the ride wouldn't run as it'd cause difficulties in moving, as you'd know. Fanboyism without any facts or valid reasoning is really tedious.

It's about continuity of a theme or a brand. Trust me, far more people notice than you realise. Because you've got sod all to do in a queue rather than notice these details. And it's the lack of details and care which instantly affects the VFM feeling. Dislike thorpe workers who back the park to the tilt. It looks shoddy, end of.

First weekend is dead. 10-8 is standard Waterpark weekend opening times this season (I know, it's amazing!)

Towers is definitely a Resort. There's no denying it. God knows what those calling for a 'Resort' require to make it one!

Surprising to hear that staff were helpful and informative to another staff member visiting on the day .

I didn't mean in terms of what they say to the public - I mean in terms of how the parks adopt the wording, therefore blocking out Feb Half Term at an attraction but not at others, discounts available at different outlets depending what park you're at... and then using the T&Cs to cover themselves against the rightly irritated guest. Have a blanket rule for every park (20% off F&B means 20% off all F&B regardless of promotions)

It's obvious they don't have a company like Leek signs to do absolutely everything for them

It's certainly not in the contract for them to have to provide guest appearances - they'll have separate contracts on hefty appearance fees. The Annual Pass issues are far too confusing and the rules are bent to suit any attraction in any way possible - they really need someone in MAP to lay down the rules as to exactly what the parks can do, and make them stick to it for the sake of the integrity (and the saleability) of the pass. But that's for another topic.

They're stuck with what the IP owners and the BBC want to call them - they wouldn't call something 'In the Night Garden Magical Boat Ride' if they had their own way I'm sure!

Don't think trees have been removed? Rhododendrons have been removed as they're a horrible plant which suffocates every other plant. Considering Towers in recent years has been made up of about 60% of these things everything will look a bit bare soon. Hence why you can suddenly see all the way into the gardens from Valley skyride now.

Yes. Disney fansites do about the most boring of crap (Follow insideDLP on twitter). So why don't we? It's far nicer than someone making an effort and it being blasted - meaning those people don't bother doing it in future.