Mark9

Which makes sense at Blackpool, seaside resort, you can just stumble upon it. You won't have a "no ride ticket" at Towers or Chessington because you have specifically chosen to go there. If your parents or grandparents don't go on anything, they again have made the decision to take the kids to a theme park.

They won't see the need to so they won't. Welcome to 21st century UK theme parks

Mack launch coaster and boring in the same sentence. I've literally seen everything now.

Oh my god. There are no words to describe how hyped I am for this now. Most anticipated ride of the year by a country mile.

June is never really a problem. I've done so many birthday trips in June and you get the advantage of a moderately busy park (I'm talking 20 minute queues max), very few children and the chances of very hot weather. Best time to go IMO.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! No longer will we hear "SUBMISSION AWAITS, BE PREPARED FOR EMBARKATION". That's sad. Very sad. Incredibly sad. Or would be if anyone rode it regularly.

I'd love it for the parks to add high capacity attractions instead. That would be a joy wouldn't add, the parks with rides that don't need fastrack at all because the attractions are designed too eat through people as quickly and efficiently as possible. That way we could destroy the ideas that fastrack is the only way to enjoy a park. Oh yeah, there is a park that does that... unfortunately its a minority. Every other park seems determined to add their own Dragons Fury or Storm Surge and throw a fastrack system at it.

Well you do now! Chessington meet, woo!

I was hoping you'd see the tounge in cheek side of the post more then take it seriously. Ah well, there's always next time.

You mean the kind of indoor queue line that we wouldn't be allowed to queue in because only a certain amount of people would be allowed in the building at any one time. GO THORPE!

The Third Doctor had that kind of cape with red undergarment. Jeeeees, research your Who history boio

I've never seen anyone ever wear something like that.. ever. Well maybe the Third Doctor.

Looks like my year is going to be California in May, Liseberg in September and Disneyland Paris for its Christmas event in November.

My question is. Does Islands of Adventure ever really get busy outside of special events. Both times I went, the only rides that were ever busy was in the Harry Potter area. Walk on Dragon Challenge, no problem, straight onto Hulk, yeah sure why not. Want to ride Flight of the Hippogriff, yeah go for it but remember to join the hour long queue line beforehand. It would seem to me that despite the attendance jumping up consistently ever year, the other main attractions are still going around half empty on every cycle. Ride enthusiast dream but it must be a conundrum for Universal in how to get people away from the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and onto the other rides. And the real interest I real have is when the expansion opens, will Universal Studios have the same problems with walk on Revenge of the Mummy whilst Diagion Alley has two week long queues. Still.. it's nice to see something so notoriously British, being such a success story.

As long as you plan your day properly, DLP should be a piece of cake. Even when queues look long such as Crush's Coaster spilling out of the entrance and Pirates of the Caribbean queuing outside, these queues barely take more then half an hour. Utilising Thunder Mountain and Tower of Terror fast pass makes the day even easier. A few of us went last weekend and whilst there were queues, they were pretty minimal and enjoyable by Disney standard. This is the off season after all.

Thing is right, we've given Chessington over a decade to get its act together. I can give them the benefit of the doubt over the cafe, that was a freak occurrence. But from Vampires refurbishment in 2001 the park has dragged itself through disappointment to disappointment with only Dragons Fury and Wild Asia being any kind of accomplishment. That's two attractions in 14 years. So forgive us if we aren't so forthcoming with our praise. Besides, we want Chessington to be the success it deserves to be. It opened with very generic attractions but what made them excel was the effort and detail went into them. To see the laziness that has been spilled over Vampire, Bubbleworks, Falls and Runaway and the state of rides like Skyway & Bucaneer doesn't inspire confidence.

So really, what you're saying is Merlin compromised on every aspect of Saw. Instead of building an amazing, immersive attraction they cut corners for convenience and so we have this duffer of a ride instead. Nice.

That's not slagging off Thorpe and Alton really though is it. For a start neither of those quotes slag off Alton and secondly, a dodgems shouldn't be the most exciting thing Merlin are adding to their parks in 2014, but it is. A bunch of charming rides at Alton being smeared with IP's but thats about all they are really doing.

As far as I can tell, no one is slagging off Alton Towers and Thorpe.

Doesn't surprise me at all. Even when you give them the benefit of the doubt, they find ways to disappoint you. Merlins best UK project this year is a dodgems and a rethemed Detonator. That literally says it all.

Myk:- "THORPE TOP SPIN 2014, HELL YES" Han:- "Over my dead body"

Blue Fire, taken in 2013. Taken from the old queue line that runs through the middle of the ride. Oz'Iris, taken in 2012. I'm always quite happy with close up shots that show the emotion of the riders. This one does that rather well. Admittedly this could be a lot better, without the blur. But again, it shows what I value from my photos, emotion from the riders.

SHED!!!!! So what were the rides like exactly? For instance, how does the Dragon compare to Windsors version =)

Another instantly forgettable song by Rihanna that will only be good when heavily intoxicated at a club then.

1. For the Ride Games to not appear ever again on TPM. 2. For Thorpe to get a top spin just so that I never have to read those words again. 3. For Pigeons to realise their rightful place as rulers of the Animal Kingdom.