Mark9

I quite like the idea that the entire food industry is out to get every last penny via best before/use by dates. Thats a whole film franchise in itself.

It's serious enough for companies to be fined £2000 per item found out of date. I've often seen some items actually go off before the use by date on the packaging, particularly fruit and veg and fresh meat.

A man after my own heart.

You mean the boards that tell you Charlie and the Chocolate Factors queue time of 5 minutes on every single screen but rarely ever mention Oblivion or Rita? The board where Squirrel Nutty has prominence whereas rides like the Rapids and RMT are virtually never seen. The accuracy of these boards is always under question anyway. It's very hard to be dead accurate for rides as it is when you think of the continually changing factors.

See again, if Thorpe was to get one, it would be tamed down rubbish, painted in one colour and heaped with downtime. Alton already had a similar ride (the Mondial supernova) and it was an expensive ride to run, was tearing itself apart and was eventually tamed down beyond recognition. Once it blew up its gear box, that was it. No one is saying fun fair rides aren't excellent. But theme parks can do better then just buying funfair rides and making them dull and boring.

My store begs to differ.

Whatever it is you can guarantee it will have black track.

Is that a serious comment? I truly hope it isn't.

Funnily enough its a majorly convenient time for a lot of other people and their school friends. Either invest in fastrack or plan your day to the letter.

Frankly, your trip report wasn't long enough James, I spread it out over three posts. It's only in hindsight that I realise how much I actually liked PortAventura, particularly Temple de Fuga, Shambhala, Stampida and Dragon Khan as much as I did. Although Theme Park Review are definitely targeting Shambhala this year as a ride that will fall from grace, I maintain that it is a fantastically fun ride and easily beats Expedition Ge Force and Silver Star in just being a pleasurable ride. It is so much fun to ride and deserves its place as one of Europe's finest B&M's.

Fanta orange Brer Bear or Brer Fox?

It is possible yeah. Between final construction and opening for Shambhala was just under a month. They can easily do this on The Smiler as long as there is no more delays.

People keep saying things like "How you can say things about Thatcher, you weren't even born when she was Prime Minister". It erks me because her policies and some of the things she put into effect still remain. Does it mean that I can't have an opinion on the first Star Wars films because I wasn't alive when they were first released. I completely disagree with the parties which are beyond disrespectful, not just to her but to her entire family. But when people are writing good articles and blogs about Thatcher, full of good points and arguments about Thatchers legacy, to be shot down in flames because they weren't alive at the time is pretty unfair.

People used to complain that it got you too wet. So Thorpe turned it off.

Looks like training to me in that video.

Much prefer this Boris video.

As true as that is, they wear Chessington uniforms so for all intents and purposes they are Merlin staff to a normal guest. A few of us who have commented on the slow loading have been in that situation, having worked for Chessington in the past. Even with all the new staff to the park to the years, there must be returning staff or managers who know that the ultimate way of pleasing guests is short queue times and efficiently run rides. If staff are by themselves, doing rides for the first time then that also concerns me as staff should feel confident in running a ride or attraction. No one is denying that there are some hard working staff at Chessington. But on rides like Fury and Vampire, one staff member can completely ruin that balance.

After a trip to Europa Park you'll wonder why any park actually bothers with tamed down funfair rides.

All those throughputs are still damingly slow. In my first season at Fury, when throughputs was the thing and there was 8 cars going around, 700 was our target and during that summer we achieved it. It was incredibly hard work but it was rewarding keeping that queue as short as possible. It's a shambles that 400 is seen as a realistic target. I was reading up there by rygr that Skyway had five trains outside the station. Back when I operated it, the idea of two trains waiting outside the station was something we completely warned against as more then then that and the trains start waiting on the hill next to Seastorm. The chance of the trains crashing is more likely. They really need to get their acts together. Queues are what people hate the most and the idea of waiting 15 minutes just for Kobra to start sounds awful. To bring this back to Vampire, I really don't understand what they are doing to it with this batching business. Just get the damn train out and keep the queue low. It's useless saying it increases fastrack sales when the same fastrack people are being kept waiting for ages as well.

Slightly niave opinion there. Hurarkan Condor is much faster and higher then Detonator and yet Detonator is just better in everyway. Nonetheless, Stealth is better because Rita tries to kill you straight after the launch whereas Stealth just goes up and down. Both rollercoasters suck compared to Blue Fire, Shock and I-Speed

I've been at Waitrose for three years now. It's amazing to think back in 2010 when I was unemployed, I was on Job Seekers Allowance and so depressed. Trips to theme parks were a luxury I just couldn't afford, the idea of going to Europa Park or even Chessington was literally a pipe dream, not a chance. Not even being able to go to hotels, train travel, alcohol even being able to afford food was a real struggle. I'm in some ways an example that if you really do belief and fight with determination that you can get yourself into what is effectively a career, earn a living, can move in with your partner and still afford the odd luxury without living off the benefit system. When I was on JSA I really felt like the lowest form of life. It is what will always encourage me to work hard and appreciate my employment because when it comes to it, being at the very lowest ebb, inspires you to become self sufficient and reliant. Something I am all the better for.

Are all your ride options going to be flat rides?

I dreamt the other night that I was working at Chessington again, operating Fury and deliberately going against the parks policy of only dispatching a car every 5 minutes. I then walked through the queueline and got every staff member on the ride at closing to litterpick the bushes thoroughly and properly. Sadly there wasn't a thing in the dream that was surreal or strange. Just a normal day at work.

Are you deliberately being silly here? Stealth is designed with rollbacks in mind hence why the magnetic fins come up as the train passes through the launch section. A hasty reset can occur and the train can go back into the station to be relaunched. If a Colossus train decides not to make it around the final turn around, it will rest between the inlines and the corner that goes over the pathways. Instead of it rolling back into the station (which would be impossible for Colossus to do), a crane is needed to hoist the train over the turnaround.

We could go back to Dragon Khan as well which held the 8 inversion record for 7 years, or Goudurix which kept the 7 inversion record for 6 years.As you said the record market is pretty dead now, a lot of these world first things are play on words or trivial things.