Fred

Thorpe makes millions in profit every year. Millions. I don't buy this whole not-caring-about-experience-merlin-thing otherwise we wouldn't get **** like Swarm, Smiler.. and wouldn't get inferno budgets would we?

Inferno love is a surprise. And a very good surprise as well. A new station announcement? Ahh, that should stop those bloody ops talking over the PA during dispatch theme, and prevent threats of being punched eh Ian?

Whats it look like towards vampire entrance? Exactly the same as McDonalds?

http://www.adips.co.uk/about/regulatoryinformation.html This helps a bit. It's a self-regulated certifying scheme. You do not need to be part of it. As I mentioned before, two of the merlin parks don't use it. Lightwater Valley doesn't use it. Dunno if the other merlin sites have stopped using it yet.

Shame really. Can't imagine many people coming.. for an Adventure Park. The entrance fees have risen too sharply for what they actually have on offer also. Plus Angry Birds just feels like it's on it's way out.. not many people play it anymore, so that area will feel ridiculously outdated soon enough, surely way before the 1m investment is returned.

I shall try find out if I can get the day off today. Shall keep you posted!

Not entirely correct there - ADIPS is a voluntary body which comes to ensure you're doing correct periodical maintenance and you're following procedures. They then provide a lovely sticker to put on to prove that you're doing it correctly. It costs a bomb, no guests knows what it stands for, you don't need it. Towers stopped being with ADIPS last year, lego stopped in 2009.

http://old.towerstimes.co.uk/downloads/ugland.mp3 Boom. This forum is stupid. It turned it into an audio vice. It's on towers times under media. OH, and it's not the full version. Sorry. God knows where that's gone to then

The parks will naturally make a far higher amount from running the units themselves than having franchises.. and merlin themselves are obviously very confident in running the places themselves again (otherwise they would not have been removed from towers - naturally the busiest outlets are there). Merlin will get rid of eventually. It'll be a natural thing for them to do.

No. They were pre-dominantly a thrill-seeking style park late 90s. They've gone pretty much the same route as Drayton. Drayton does not need more thrill rides.

Agreed with Marc - beastie was kept at towers (though relatively hidden behind a fence) for an entire two seasons until it was removed from park.. yesterday!

Does it need one though? It's not like they're actively removing the thrill rides.. they're still there, all working (apart from black revolver but that was nothing special). I personally think their balance is perfect now. Just invest in more decent family attractions to remove the older ones, and refresh the thrill selection by painting them up and making them look new.

Think that's what everyone was getting at. It wasn't done for the satisfaction for the guests, none of it was. It was done to provide a sponsor to a park to get money for DIC to be happy with. Literally it. Thank god those times are seemingly behind us now.

That'll be it. The other cycle of Rameses is pretty much the 2nd half of programme 8 of ripsaw, as shown here: Contrary to what the guy says in the video, this is just one setting. Definitely my favourite cycle of ripsaw. It's rather good.

I rode it twice or three times in 2005. It broke down with me on it twice. It's ****.

They're going for rather safe bets. And I don't blame them, don't wanna take the wrong turn during economic downturn do ya? I don't mind - Drayton needs to continue being for younger families. Ben10 is their best addition in a while. Keep adding stuff like that!

It was put in during the chessington "LETS GO FOR KIDS" era. It's an awful bloody track. Adds no magic or excitement or build-up to the day. A call to adventure is just pure amazeballs, particularly when compared to this crap.

My god you love arguing for the sake of arguing. Go on that page, and click edit on the top right hand corner of any section you want. Then change it to "Bubbleworks was a piece of poo". It'll save.

Now, you see this track in person and my god it's just purely bloody mental. It's very difficult to follow it's direction! Psychcoaster marketing or not, when people turn up and see this they'll be blown away. There's no chance of disappointment from guests ala thirteen.

Yeah, always link the image source (right click, copy image location) rather than using the URL. That generally sorts it.

Bloody hope not - why would it be? It's just a pre-fab 70s-80s style leisure centre building.

Good. I hate closed season, or nit-picking. Or just "enthusiasts" in general.

It's fantastic to see them work on it. Is this so they can tick tranny off refreshed/rethemed lands list? Hopefully we'll see the back of imperial leather branding, at least on the outside of the building. Lazy gits are lazy.

As I said, it may be open every now and then to replace a certain ride. Apart from when it was on valley ERT. I think I'd know this somehow.. ERT is currently run so everyone is spread out at the beginning of the day - you can choose to go to a certain area of the park, ride the open rides then wait for the other rides to open. Not really run so everyone rides every ERT ride before 10. Though whether it should be run like that is another thing.. Ripsaw and Blade could easily open for ERT, it's just noone would ride them. Rendering it pointless.

Spinball was down more than it was open, always being replaced by Rita. Hence rita becoming the ERT option in 2011.