Mark9

It's clear that Baco is a marmite ride based on oh so many forum debates. I personally would rather be buried alive or encased in concrete, Han Solo style, then ever touch, let alone ride Baco again.

No. The only surprise willbe how terrible it will look when it opens. Even the worn out, tired looking rockwork that used to encase the ride is better then what we will end up. They had an opportunity to make an old ride look fantastic again. They've chosen the easy option so they can shove it. The more they trample over rides like Vampire, Runaway and Falls, the more laughable the park looks against parks that take pride in their attractions like Paultons and (god help me) Blackpool Pleasure Beach. I know my words will fall to nothing and me not visiting means diddly squat. But that being said, I'd rather drive around the M25 for a day,. At least that gets investment...

We have a cactus. The thing is closed for eighteen months and we get a bloody cactus. That's the extent of Chessingtons work so far. Just astounds me. And yes I am being unfair.

Residents of Chertsey have been urged to meet at the Cannery where a pulley system has been quickly cobbled together which will get residents up and over the sandbags. It is hoped they can get everyone out before the next flood hits. oh no, it's to late!!

We're spending four days out there, two days for Liseberg (I'm betting Helix is worth the two days at the park) and the other two days are for cultural stuff. I doubt you'd need more then four days in Gothenburg itself.

Surely the shorter trains don't effect Krake and Dæmonen that much anyway, they are both so short as it is. Heides wing rider may have problems but never mind ey.

First Coaster - Runaway Mine Train at Chessie in 1992 First inverting coaster - Corkscrew in 2000. First ride that scared the bejeebus out of me but conquered - Samurai at Chessie in 2000.

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.