Mark9

Hanging with my Oscar friends

For Toby that's quite a low number actually Love your Avatar by the way Toby, Katun

They should just stick with aiming to be number one for attendance. They will never match the quality of a Disney product if they continue building things like Angry Bird Land or Scorpion Express. Hell they can't even match the majority of quality parks in Europe, they haven't a chance of catching Disney.

Luckily, no one on heres considers Thorpe a world class player. The thing is right, for the majority of people they go "I don't like the hotel" and move on their thoughts to things they do like. When it comes to the Crash Pad and the Thorpe Shark Hotel, People get deep feelings of hate over it, like it personally offends them. You've already said that there's loads of other places to stay near by so what is the point in getting so worked up over it. Of course, the only world class players I see you've listed is Disney and Universal. PortAventura runs their park dreadfully, Alton Towers needs serious work to get it to any good standard and Six Flags... well is Six Flags.

As a few people have said there did used to be targets at Chessington but it was rarely ever enforced. I can remember in my first season working at Chessington, there were quite a few park competitions. Fury used to compete with Spinball on an hourly throughput, same with the two Runaway Trains. Unfortunately it's all gone with the wind now, but it used to really get staff motivated to work efficiently.

I'm one of those exceptions that really likes floorless rides. I don't think Thorpe need it particularly. There's definitely enough looping coasters at the park now for sure. (There's also Dæmonen at Tivoli and if we were being really pedantic, Krake at Heide has floor less seating)

Correct me if I'm wrong Vortex workers, but the cycles are longer in the morning due to the cold motor. Once it warms up its far more efficient at slowing the ride and reducing the amount of swings you get.

Considering this thing is a year late, if they decided log flumes was the thing to build, they might want to plan them better in future.

It's doubly worse for Heide as the competition in Germany is so much more then say the UK or in Italy with Gardaland. I'm sure that explains why Heide continually gets these frequent but lazy investments. My main concern though is how Merlin seem committed to making Heide and Gardaland so similar. There are strong rumours that Garda will be getting a Dive Machine for next season; just seems so irrelevant when that park needs something more like Juvelen or a Mack coaster.

So this opened yesterday and based on a few reviews I've read, despite looking interesting and being very photogenic, the ride completely loses momentum after the first drop and camelback hill. Shame but not unexpected.

The IP might not age but those day glo-painted buildings will look pretty poor in a years time.

It's going to be amazing. You heard it here first.

Yeah, families with babies and toddlers love massive launching roller coasters. If the advert just featured the Banana Ride and the Carousel I'd agree but the only none thrilling rides in that video is Depth Charge and Rumba; The Swarm and Stealth certainly dominate that advert.

Baco is still the worst ride of all time.

I suppose thats what happens when you delete half of my post in a quote. Alton is the Mecca of theme park operation compared to Chessington. I wasn't beginning to say Alton is the best out there was I.

So what are you saying MarkC, that AdamP is lying and it never actually tested. Come on now, you can be queuing/riding Tomb Blaster and Skyway trains can do two circuits in that time.

Hate to say it but it looks really bland. Not that I am saying it will be, after all POV's aren't a true representation. It just feels like there's nothing truly new here and after Merlin already doing this ride type twice over, it feels like we've already walked down this well worn path.

You seem to be forgetting that Alton is a well run theme park and Chessington makes up rules completely on the fly.

What a ridiculous rule. Who came up with that one? I suppose it's one of those rules made up completely on the fly like 15 people to run Rameses or loading Fury with two or three adults depending on how they are feeling that week.

A sign of common sense prevailing per chance? Any sighting of air gates at Buccaneer then?

Wowser. Great looking ride there. Take out the lift hill and the backwards section and it reminds me heavily of Juvelen. The last part of the ride seems a bit cumbersome but hey ho, the rest of it is fab.

Quiet close to dead. Tis Mothers day y'know. Although I could be wrong and everyone decides to go because its mothers day y'know. But traditionally, Mothers Day has been very quiet.

Heide taking a leaf out of Smiler's pre-opening promotion with the new rides logo appearing on some buildings in Germany. Somehow doesn't captivate the mind like the brilliant marketing done for The Smiler last year.

Anyone going to this one then?

Just spent half an hour listening to that beautiful music. No Shame. It has the Mark9 seal of approval.