Fred

I imagine the fences would be to stop people accidentally standing in the ride area - same reason that vampire got awful extra fences in their already awful station layout. I'd prefer a seperate queue at the station like a front row would work, if the queue is full people will naturally just fill the main station instead and try later. Means main queue can move smoother and everything will be more accurate and easier to run.

That's what happens on weekends. It just be's busier.

Place to look down girls tops!! Not complaining.

Megafobia <3 <3 <3 <3 <3. Makes me want to go Europa Park tomorrow and ride Wodan.

Have we had any cuts to entertainment? All parks seemingly have way way more than they used to - towers had nothing in 07, same with Chessington outside halloween. We now have daily shows and usually roaming actors. The only place which have been cutting Ents was thorpe, to which I think that's pretty much being reversed - would be good to see a show back in showcase. That'll probably come next year I imagine. For merlin, everything bar operations are way better. Food better quality, parks better maintained, better themed rides with which are usually well thought out in terms of layout and ease of use. Sort out their short sightedness and operations, and we'd be all very happy I think.

Brilliant. Genuinely brilliant. Well done thorpe, you're doing incredibly well this year. Persuading people to visit, persuading people to extend their visit, persuading people to enjoy visiting. Far far better than your old view of "You'll come anyway, and we don't give a toss about you" attitude. I hope this shows back in improved revenue and satisfaction!

I always think they have understaffed swarms baggage - two just doesn't seem enough. Three is fine then, with at least one concentrating on the exit. I understand the "lazy" attitude, as generally baggage takes too long so they need a constant moving main queue otherwise the station completely empties out. Smiler and Thirteen have constantly moving main queues because of this (unless letting in single riders). As Pluk says, the design is awful too. Far too close to station and causes a bottleneck also.

Unit N-ST was only open just over a month. Hilariously huge waste of money.

Just thought, maybe Carnival has swapped with ToTT as that maze is pretty good with length and intensity throughout the years whereas carnival has been hit and miss - also gives people a chance to experience a different maze for free so those who don't pay then have something different to try! It'll be new to them! Making the best out of the worst situation (of having same mazes)

Air has had it's fair share of downtime. Just not days worth. Nemesis is being reliable as ever. Best it's had is 20mins downtime this year (excluding powercut and weather)

I imagine it was successful? From 7 rides, and let's say about 4 F&B units and shops open, I imagine it cost them about 50 staff at a push to run the event. Say they get paid average of £10 an hour, that's £1500. You'd only need 300 annual pass holders to make this event break even (with normal guests paying.. more? And think of cost of crash pad). Just whether or not they made enough money from the lack of guests to make it worthwhile!

Ripsaw was open after about 2.

I dunno, I quite like that idea. Only because ToTT is mega long so would be good value for money, plus it gives those who don't pay for the mazes but still visit every year something completely different to try out. It all relies on ToTT having to be almost completely different, or having a few substancial changes to make paying worthwhile.

Brilliant. No changes, and a cut in the opening hours (not down to a forced budget cut btw). Irritating.

Closed for an entire 20mins. Appeared on ridetimes as closed though

You've probably jinxed it now. Just you wait, you've probably killed the gearbox or something

Thanks for clearing that up!

Makes sense. Removing two family rides on a family event to satisfy a thrillseeker.

Commercial is umbrella which includes Retail. Well, that's me proven wrong then. Marketing run Sales & Info at towers, and pretty certain they run them at Chessie as well. But now I feel wrong

Are they only running this event on the two quietest weeks of the summer? That'll probably be why it's quietest.. they should do it throughout summer as I'm sure the last couple of weeks will be way popular. However, it'll make kicking people out difficult if they continue to close at 6 or whatever the ride close is.

Sounds perfect for a year ago. Now, it'd have to be a 5 door Vauxhall Astra, mid range, with a young family in plain brightly coloured t-shirts happy and smiling.

I imagine this event will pick up as the weeks go on - first couple of weeks are always quiet, during the day or whatever event is happening. Let's see how busy they are towards end of august (weather permitting)

I thought it was actually brilliant when I visited last September. Extremely well themed and felt very british and brill. Plus the guy on the spinning coaster wouldn't let us leave until he told us exactly why he absolutely despises merlin. Nice bloke!

Saw this advert on telly last night. Really, really, really, really like it.

They need to crane the front part of the mine train off to the workshop to work on it - they don't need the entire train, hence it being seperated. Katanga pathway is currently closed until they're able to complete this. It's just maintenance, however yeah a few of their rides happen to be having issues at the same time or close to one another this year!