Fred

I would disagree with poor and unimaginative... if they hadn't had pretty much the same mazes for the nth year now.Yeah, they're boring.

What I adore is lighting. There's only so much they can (and ultimately will) do with lighting when outdoors, particularly when they'll only be needed a few weeks a year. Expect boring floodlights .

Lack of protection from rain/wind/snow/cold/heat/birds is just very irritating indeed. I do feel for the staff.Meh, I just like my sheltered areas.Edit: Oh, lack of lighting and decent effects, quieter music as to not upset neighbours. Bum.

I don't understand why lego don't cater for the more thrill seeking kids, especially as they become more used to thrills.What I personally hate is why scarab bouncers and longboat invader are run on **** slow settings whereas frog hopper and heave ho at towers practically want to make you fly out your seat. It's the same damn age range riding those rides!!

...waaaiiitt a second.. there's no roof on this station?To be fair.. when Nemesis opened.. it had monster, mushroom cloud bus, nemesis nosh bus, another army truck thing next to the bus.. the drill.. the nemesis kitchen.. all bits of vehicles and blobs of theming which can be directly compared to swarmy.

I had a dream thingy talking to someone about SuperVue Seating last night. Giving you a clear view. I cannot tell if this is better or worse than theme park dreams.Damn you vue.

The signage even originally said the edge. It was extremely last minute!

Small ride? The cinema is a massive site, bigger than towers' new attraction footprint for this year anyway

Edge was cool, Stealth was quick last minute just using the project name, but we all know that Humdinger should've been the winner.

Awkward when the advert says 27th .I remember this well though, I love it.. never a fan of the purple logo. Silver was sexy. But Rush opening was amazing!

Thanks Kevin - and now, from a towers POV of a Top Spin.Towers on busy days has two or three hosts - onload, offload and occasionally a helper as well. It is better laid out than Rameses, allowing a batching area with a proper baggage point and a disabled waiting area directly infront of the pond. This allows the 40 guests to be ready waiting and loaded the second the ride stops. The gates open to allow guests up the second the rides stopped and the bars open buttons have been pressed (for there are two on towers' ride).The target is 18 gondolas an hour (the way towers does throughput - rather than people, but it can be easily equated). However, the highest it is best to get is 16 per hour. That's 640pph. That's on programme 4, which lasts 80 seconds (the one with the four spins).This does not include what chessie calls a "Phase L1" - which towers calls trips out. Reason being is same as chessies, however they have a cover on the bottom and they have a far better way of controlling the water fountains (which is why they're continually used during loading and throughout the ride unlike chessies). It's a problem ALL top spins get when guests are closer to the limit that the restraint allows. However, unlike chessie, towers ride staff are allowed to lower it themselves without the need for anyone to come do it - typical chessington faff for no reason whatsoever (unless the restraint is still shown as unlocked - and techies are needed to battery power it down which happens rarely). Therefore targets are slightly more achievable.HOWEVER, 640pph for a ride? Better than what most thorpe throughputs are like, I bet!

Double post. Only person (apart from benins one post) posting on here?Godsake. You're all useless!

Go to sleep. Santas coming.

It doesn't work like that sheepie - remember, we haven't visited with you, so never had the mega urge in first place .But I'm about to read it in a minute or two!

Well, for one.. this thing was never, ever, mentioned whilst I was at towers! So, pretty surprised at this news tbh.Be interesting, hopefully whatever it is it won't affect oblivions stance. And yeah, first thing I also thought was about neighbours?

We got our trailers for Dark Knight sent in yesterday. Coooarrr the excitement in the office!

Try working in a cinema.. oh wait, noone goes cinema pre-christmas. It's lovely where I'm working atm

Okay mr pedantic, Merlin are pretty damn decent at ensuring that they get a contractor to come in and do something like this, mr slevin

If you go down to the woods today...If anything, merlin are pretty damn decent at their dispatch music/sound/audio usually!

Avengers, Dark Knight Rises, Hobbit.Only three films I'm really looking forward to. Other than that... I dunno, small films. Iron Lady, Snow White... Dunno what else yet.

Adverts on child neglect/abuse/starvation.I was on the train yesterday and I saw three (by seperate organisations). All talking about how awful their lives are around christmas, that we're all close nit and have amazing lives, but think of these poor people. Now donateOkay cool, dampen my mood a bit. Yes its thought provoking, but is is seriously affective?Who remembers the advert after seeing them (I've only written it after seeing way too many of them that it's annoyed me to write about it). And more importantly, who instantly texts to send the money from the adverts?I highly doubt it's a cost effective way of achieving funding or getting notice and support for the organisations. Many people, especially in these economic times, paying high prices for trains to do costly leisure activities (or going to work and paying more due to peak time fares) aren't gonna randomly whip out their phones to spend the £3 they want to support them. So how do the adverts pay for themselves? I bet they don't.I hate the negativity of it all, it's very Daily Mail style. For the sake of funding, but surely there's other ways of raising funding (like the ridiculous singers at East Croydon at the moment) which achieves their goals without turning to negativity. Gerrrrrr.

I think personally the parks prefer to spend money on the physical advertising of the ride, rather than a real opening ceremony to a few thousand people at beginning of the day (barely anyone actually arrives for opening - even if this was spread on the internet, it wouldn't have same marketing effect as just spending the money elsewhere).

I always think that the UK don't just because we're too cynical as a culture. Much like the whole clapping when people come in.However, I'm sure we'll always have some sort of event and rave and PR event like usual. We just do our opening ceremonies *slightly* differently!

It'd be interesting if they do make it more in line with towers... but I've always considered it to appeal primarily more to business market than leisure, and therefore ending up more chessie "stylish" than themed. Maybe with drayton manor style pictures or something related to the park. Concept art seems to go that way, but who knows!Didn't know chessie may be removing their holiday inn association next year. It's all run by them anyway, and they can do practically anything they want (as long as service standards are kept to IHG procedures). So, I doubt we'll see anything different to what has already happened to it.

I imagine the hotel will look and feel more like Chessingtons holiday inn than the Towers/lego variety of hotels.As for hopper shuttle bus... I doubt it, but only for lack of demand. The parks do still do hopper tickets I believe between the three parks, and its always been part of merlins strategy to sell other attractions at their locations (moreso in midway at the moment)