Fred

They don't care about customer experience - each person riding is money to them. So they extend to make more money, literally. They're a fairgound with far different attitudes to even a crappy theme park.

Rameses fountains are powered by a stupid button - so you have no choice of fountain level. Either full, or nothing. Operators press it, there's a delay. Accuracy is ****. Ripsaw has a sliding control, so you can CHOOSE what level to have it on, it's almost instant rather than any delay. Accuracy is awesome, and so almost all water related things are deliberate!! Reason why Rameses water is not touching front row? Bar pressure through the fountains. They can raise them much much higher, and it's LITERALLY just a choice of changing the bar. Ripsaw is the same, and often changes such as over winter to try and make sure the operators dont soak the gondola (they find ways, dont worry!!)

Towers are closed so you can't wander around... Air runs two crafts on one station... Again, it's not Thorpe Park (Oblivion on 1 shuttle operation is still 4 shuttles at a minimum). Ripsaw - it'll depend entirely on the operator and if the fountains can reach (as they change the height of them from time to time). In scarefest they're more likely to soak you, particularly as it gets dark cos they can't see the fountains as well If you make the full use of your 11 hours during Scarefest, then you'll be bound to get on pretty much all rides, particularly on the first week of the event.

Thorpe use the term energy efficiency.. they dont care about the wear and tear cos they have soooo much time to sort that out

I'm still trying to locate the number for their psychologist.

I do love Thorpes excuse for not running two trains. Energy efficiency.. yes if you were sending them completely empty, but considering the cost of that lifthill chain isn't really costing that much in the scale of things... it's far better to have guest satisfaction over saving the pennies. The throughput argument was fun btw.

Weird that EDF decided to have a whole 2/3 and a half years rather than full seasons (until January shut down!). Imagine London Eye itself is still very EDFy until January.

Oopsy - Hotel stands in it's place! Atlantis stands where Dino Dipper used to be before it was moved into Knights Kingdom!

Nah, chlorinated water corrodes. Plus it'd be a heavier jet stream. Chessington isn't helped by the lack of cover on the bottom - one shot into those electrics will guarantee a good hour or so downtime.

The small boards will have signage around them. Chessie has decided to put the signs in beforehand. These boards are all linked up - you can change them from a central point (or from the rides themselves.. unsure if they have those yet) and then they'll show absolutely everywhere. Alton got this first with the new boards and CBeebies Land. The remainder of the rides will have the same entrance boards from next year I believe. Should lead to better Queue Time information (or at least not having boards saying other things!)

I'd do differently - start in Dark Forest, skyride over to Valley, then head around the park from there. Oblivion is quietest mid-afternoon, same as The Smiler. All rides are on full capacity during Scarefest, even on the quiet period. Air would go onto two stations once it gets a 10min queue. Though.. rides remain on full capacity throughout the year. Air runs on one station until a 10-15min queue, and Oblivion runs single Shuttle operation (only one of the two station bays) when it's really quiet. Other than that, everything remains at full capacity, even on a stupidly quiet day like this week. This isn't Thorpe Park!

Swarm can dispatch the second the previous train leaves the lifthill. You're an idiot. As long as the following train doesn't have to sit on the brakes then OF COURSE it makes it go quicker. 15 seconds adds up over the hour, and the day. Look at the London Underground where every single second counts. You only need them to send 4 trains 15 seconds quicker and then you've got an additional 28 riders out than you would've done (as loading is less than 60 seconds on Swarm).

.....yes you can. There'll be a reason why it's not even in the hands of the in-house engineers at the moment. And that'll ENTIRELY bubble down to Chessington itself.

Thorpes Fastrack systems are utter cack. They're planning on using Reserve'n'Ride for the mazes this year BTW. They haven't announced it yet, but they fully intend on doing so. Screw you all in the main queue!!!!!

Or show them on your mobile and they work too (unless you haven't bought tickets through their website)

Visited Chessie twice this year, really enjoyed both times. Vampire operations were good (in terms of.. they were working to the pretty much to the speed they used to back in 08). The Park just has some nice vibe to it, and everyones friendly to chat to. Bubbles is better as the result of lighting changes which means it's not lit up like a christmas tree. Chessies becoming a firm favourite of mine. Still dislike Zufari, still has so much work to make it better (bye lemur, hello stuff that actually happens), but its getting there. No safari on both of my trips though, lols. Would adore to see operations on Vampire which leads to a train being dispatched as the other is on lift2 though.. or close to that. On my last occasion it was on the lifthill as the other hit the brakes - still a VAST improvement over the past few years, but could be better!!!

Throughput on Topspins are ****. Rameses without a doubt wont be getting more than 300 per hour. 450 in a queueline does not a popular ride make. Duel would have a 0min queue throughout, yet get throughputs of a MINIMUM 900 people per hour if the park has queues elsewhere. Does that mean it's unpopular?

Top of that page (not easy to miss): http://www.thorpebreaks.co.uk/annualpass.html

Skyrides been open since 10 for a couple of months now. It's only the water rides and barely rode first thing which are closed til 11 (A reminder: Rapids, Flume, Terra, Ripsaw and Hex). As for ERT.. there's no Early Rider for Annual Passholders at Chessie.

Well that looks like a crappy park.

You're an idiot. Got no time for people who bully.

I think the extention of the hotel plus investment in the theming of the park kinda shows that they are intending to keep it nowadays. At least it's more secure than it's ever been. Of course you can't blame the engineers. It's definitely all down to budgets and staffing.

Ticket machines were fine. Internet, and therefore card machines, were not

Ticket machines were working fine. They had no internet across park until 5pm - so all card payments were done manually, and you couldn't pay by card across the theme park! (plus stuff like queue time boards weren't really working etc)

Swarm seems to be on one train at the beginning of the day WAY more often than it should be. It's not difficult to get the rides signed off full trains. Seriously.