Mark9

The difference is Matt, Thorpe has had the Lions share of the investment over the last ten years whilst Chessington has been left to crumble into the state its become. It's all coming to a head this season. Ironically, the one year where they get a new attraction and good weather is the year that Runaway and Rameses becomes SBNO. If it was at Thorpe, it wouldn't matter if Flying Fish spent a year out but because it's Chessington where Runaway is one of the higher capacity attractions (at 650 pph), having it closed has a major knock on effect. Of course, I'm not saying its just Runaway, it's a culmination of Vampire being condemned to two trains, lower attendance's when the park opened in March leading to budget cuts through the rest of the year and a park that is basically falling to its knees. What they really need to do is get a high capacity rollercoaster like Pegasus or Juvelen in, a ride which gobbles through people but the park won't do that so it's a waste of time going down that road and even if it did get one of those rides in, it would be run so dismally that queues would be two hours long and it wouldn't help in anyway. Talking about Chessington just brings people down in other words, lets discuss a park that gives a toss like Thorpe or Europa Park.

Wow. Not even the busy (Or what I would have considered busy rides back in 2005) rides done. Crazy.

Very busy is my best bet. Last few days of school holidays, potential of good weather. Perfect recipe for busy.

Boring, rubbish looking ride. Colour me not interested in these inverting woodies.

SO FIT! (Thanks to Theme Park Collective)

When's Batman going backwards out of interest?

Go. To. Chessington. (Or not as it isn't open, go to Alton Towers for Ripsaw)

Rule 1. Chessington Lies.

I was thinking more Vietnam personally.

Me to. Come on Thorpe, give us what we really want.

The majority of The Swarm and The Smilers costs comes to the construction process. The Swarm costs more in that figure because of the infilling of the lake. Arguably, The Swarm is much more of a quality product then The Smiler so whilst Smiler is already starting to age (not to mention its frequent bouts of closures), The Swarm feels as smooth as it did on open day and has never had a full day closed.

Colour scheme is the best part of this ride. And that is no criticism of the ride.

You mean that really warm part of America that regularly sees temperatures well into the 30's? Chessington would argue that air on on Tomb would be a waste of money but then upkeeping their rides would also be seen as a waste of money so you-know, va la voom.

My favourite part of that growth is the jump in attendance at Towers thanks to Nemesis

Less talk, MORE TRIP REPORT!

It's been that way for years.

Happy Birthday Big Dipper

That looks so awesome. I swear two days ago there was only the station and a bit of the immelman track and then suddenly, bam, its nearly finished. Very fast construction! Probably but lets not forget that The Swarm is still a great ride. The wing rider should evolve as more parks get their holds on one. I'm not sure it looks better, it certainly looks tidier though.

Fantastic video, thanks to Theme Park Worldwide for hosting the video. It's a rather telling video and there are a few points that really strike me from it. -His love for Megafobia and wooden rollercoasters in general. He quite rightly should be proud of Megafobia, one of the under-rated gems in the UK. It says a lot about him as a person that he prefers rides to be about adventures of experiences and not flash in the pan marketing speil. - His dissatisfaction working on the Smiler. It speaks volumes that a ride creator prefers his 19 year old rollercoaster because of the values it was built upon. Not to be the highest or the biggest but to be the best it could be. Merlin could learn a few lessons from that. - His respect for people like Candy Holland and the way the Smiler was marketed. Clearly, Merlin has some amazing staff that just aren't allowed to reach their limits because of silly rules from up above. - Marketing gets in the way of brilliance. When he describes Saw the ride as successful from IP more then ride, it really says a lot about the way the company is run. Especially when he talks fondly of Thirteen working (one remembers that rides open day very vividly), you can see that John Wardley thinks of a ride as more then just the ride hardware but every element that goes into it. I've so much respect for him. He speaks so candidly and honestly in that interview and you can't help but feel the what if's when you listen to him.

It used to be two adults maximum per car, so thats something Chessington has sorted out slightly. Does that rule still apply on Rattlesnake, as it did the last time I went to Chessington.

I wasn't mightily impressed with this project at first. Then you see track and you suddenly think "Heide Park visit 2014"

The problem is they are running rides on full capacity. How can Vampire run three trains for example if the third train no longer exists. The Toadies 3 car thing is a blinder though. Truckers crashes frequently, does that mean it should only run one Truck per cycle. Man, Chessington's gone to the dogs.

It's bollocks (Excuse my French). The ride runs perfectly safely on three trains and it's down to cost cutting (maintaining three trains costs more then maintaining two) that the third train has been canablized.

The difference being that without fastrack, the queue moves at a consistent rate so whilst it may be physically longer, psychologically it feels shorter.

Oh I know Ian, I'm just throwing it out there that if it was 50%, it's too high