Fred

It'll be like that today, and next saturday. The two peak days. Tomorrow will be busy, but not as busy. Friday and next sunday will be similar. Between monday and thursday will not be on the more quieter end, expect 30-45min queues.

Queues like when? Overwhelming majority of the season, you won't see queues breach 30mins. In holidays, you won't see them breach 60mins unless you're visiting over the scarefest half term, fireworks or the very end of summer holidays. Easy.

This is mentioned every single year, so it'll be nice for it to actually happen. I imagine it'll almost completely erradicate the sickness on the ride as well, reducing downtime! Winner!

I cant believe a maze, which you have to pay for on top of the already increased gate entry fee for fright nights, has had an hour queue to get in. That is just pure madness, not to mention it just sounds like Hellgate with a bag on your head.

I am a towers fanboy, and I've visited thorpe way more often to know it's ****. I do like some things they do, but most of it (mainly operation side) is utter cack. Their mazes are cheap and nasty, I enjoy being in immersive experiences and thorpe does not provide, excluding swarm island.

Loving the live feature. It's the worst live feature I've ever watched.

They've done £99 rooms, they're doing them this scarefest. Some days they're not filling - and £99, including park tickets, is incredibly good value for money. It's down to the economy, rather than long term issues. They'll pick up once economy picks up, and this time they'll have extra accomodation to provide for the extra people. Very good planning!

I imagine they don't do that because there's still potential for stuff to go missing/nicked, like the cages found on other rides. Baggage holds almost completely irradicate this happening, increases security and feeling of being secure on park, and adds to customer service. Something they do right is baggage holds! Don't try and change that!!

Luckily, and rarely it seems, merlin/towers are actually looking long term investment, rather than letting this year affect anything.

Wonder if this leads to just one train being loaded at a time, or dual loading again - 32 loading at one time? However, with Gerstlauer's restraint system, and a appropriate baggage point, you'd very very easily be able to hit whatever the dispatch interval is - like thorpe could if the staff actually were able to work efficiently!

They're building on the grounds rarely used, extending their onsite overnight capacity which is regularly at 100%, and going towards their long term aim at longer stays, and capturing the guests who like to visit the Peak district (of which towers is literally on the border of) as well. Sensible, and glad that they've secured funding even after this tough year!

Food improvements are ace. Unsure how anyone likes KFC, or moans about FCC. Sure, if you compare FCC at chessington to KFC, then you may have a few points. Compare to FCC at towers, where meal sizes are bigger, meals are cheaper and the food just feels so much more fresh and tastier.. then you can't lose. Plus, bring in the big red button towers style, and noone will ever miss KFC . But BK needs to go, it's ****e. PH would love to be gone from the park as well.

There is literally nothing wrong with the park security arrangements. They'll have put months of planning into this and meetings etc, and they could've realised they've overstaffed security in recent years creating the wrong atmosphere on park. Thorpe is fine, merlin is fine, tussauds were awful. Stop hating for hating sake, seriously. It gets boring and irritating.

Drayton hire a different film every year - currently it's the incredibly boring and rubbish Prince.. thingy something or other.

As long as it doesn't do a towers and lose 250,000 guests in a year due to lack of new ride

What the hell is this thread? Daily Mail? Calm the **** down and stop overreacting, they know what they're doing.

It won't be up to whether PH want the lease to go or not - it'll be down to thorpe and what their contracts state and any clauses in it. Obviously, if PH is paying them a rather healthy percentage to keep their brand there, then that'll be what we'll keep seeing. All depends on what's best for good old thorpey!

Evil child in one of those photos. Scary times, 11 months til 2nd ever visit. Eek!

Oops. Thought I missed out on something, I wrote Hellgate instead. That's how up to date I am with thorpes aging mazes! All done

Soo just wondered really, what people prefer most? Scarefest Mazes, or Fright Night Mazes? Why/who/what/where/how?

I think the addition of FCC at towers really have proven that they can do fast. The service there is mega quick, but actually with a smile and polite staff, unlike what KFC had beforehand! BK, good riddance. Wonder if it is actually gonna disappear at thorpe though, with its whole target market and audience crap. Heck, they're the only park still to have KFC and PH operating!

To make it absolutely clear, Lego group (whatever their name is, begins with a K) owns 30% of merlin, not just the lego parks. I believe they have suffered the same as the rest of the group though. Lego is less volatile due to the branding though, winner for them!

Our country sucks at everything... apart from France grinds to a halt seemingly once a week because they're all on strike over something incredibly stupid

That's damage, purely because it wasn't like that before. Wonder when the ceiling will finally collapse inside.

Equally, how many people in that queue have ridden it before to know how awful it is? It's the same as spinball at towers, people queue because its so bloody visable and one of the first rides on park. Doesn't have good throughputs, and doesn't get great scores. It just is busy because of location pretty much.