Mark9

I've always loved that graph. It puts a lot of things into perspective. Nemesis just was the ride that completely changed Towers. Look at that massive jump in attendance, something Towers has never managed to reach since. Wicker Man did a lot of good in recovering attendance after the Smiler crash. Rameses at Chessington was such a hit back in '95 and it remained quite consistent up until Samurai. But the lack of investment and rubbish kids rides really didn't do much especially when big rides weren't forthcoming. The shoddy way Dragons Fury was marketed as well didn't help. Thorpe doesn't surprise me, the massive investments in the 00's was always going to be a problem when it stopped. The new ride doesn't fill me with confidence that they can reverse the decline. It's a plaster to a much bigger issue.

What is this thread and are we really to endure these cryptic clues for the next two years.

That must be a drag queens name.

Was it open for the whole of April, May, June, July & August. No. Was it still on the Towers website the whole time, yes. That was the point I was making.

Enterprise is still on the Towers website and that's been in pieces all year and Hex is on there despite it being open for only three days of the year so far. I don't think Merlin have a cut and dry rule for when rides are unavailable unexpectedly.

I love that you've made up this story based almost on entirely nothing. You could be right. But this fantasy is superb. You should work for Disney.

The dark rides are pretty alright. Never perfect, never outrageously awful. Of the newer era, Gruffalo is probably my favourite as it ticks all the targets of what it sets out to do and I find it disarmingly charming. Naturally, rides like Professor Burps Bubbleworks & Hex will always be my favourite dark rides the UK has ever had, purely from a rose tinted glasses position.

I love how wild some of those theoretical throughputs are. Colossus for example is so wildly over exaggerated by Intamin. Where is that Tidal Wave capacity from, I always assumed it was around 1000 an hour on three boats.

So I thought this was going to be a clone of Chessington's wing rider, but based on the pictures showing a lift hill it most certainly isn't. I'm even more intrigued now.

Back in the 80's Towers went from garden with the odd slide to a fully fledged amusement park. The locals already lived there and yes it caused massive issues. In the times we live in, things are very different and the locals seem much more forgiving of the noise from Towers. That being said, Nemesis received noise complaints in 2009 because of new wheels being louder. It just makes sense for Towers to get on with its neighbours. They know the value Towers brings to the area but their lives shouldn't be ruined by the park either.

Depends what they are doing exactly. And depends how good they want the attraction to be. I'm not sure how I feel about Towers opening up in 2023 with no Nemesis or Duel. It's not like Hex or Enterprise will be open and we can't rely on them getting fairground rides in again. Towers really needs to get a grip on what its offering has become. It's shockingly bad. Even going into Autumn this year with only one dark ride remaining is pretty indicative of where Towers sits right now.

I feel like I'm living in the past. If I remember correctly it was on Stealth, Colossus, Nemesis Inferno, Samurai, Saw & Vortex (maybe Rush as well). I doubt if its successful on Saw, that we will see it on many other rides, for example Colossus where SRQ was at the ride exit. I fell in-between the train once doing single rider on that because the queuing guests always sat on the left hand side of the train and the single rider always had to cross the train, normally in-between the carriages. Dangerous AF. There just isn't the space for it to be run properly at Thorpe. Even Towers which cut a giant huge hole into the Nemesis station for it, gave up after a few seasons.

I'm very excited. Very Very excited. I'm flying the flag for 8 year old Mark.

The cynic in me wants to know why a seasonal theme park needs 'scheduled closures' but I like the transparency of letting us know what planned maintenance is coming up.

Yup like I said earlier. This is why knee jerk reactions proclaiming the end of Scorpion Express aren't very helpful. This isn't the first time something like this has happened on scorpion, back when I used to work on it as Runaway Train, it was a known potential when operating the ride.

Update from today is that guests can now walk down into that area and the train is parked in the maintenance area (the lowest part of the ride, just before the station).

This is a semi regular occurrence for Scorpion, it will be a motor blow out and will require a replacement. So it will just depend on how quickly Mack can get that to Chessington.

Yeah maybe, Sounds like they got you good and proper though if the two best rollercoasters were walk on.

So this was confirmed as a B&M a few weeks back, some super zoomed in photos. It's code number is WI-R (for context, Raptor was WI-A and The Swarm was WI-B). I know this project has a lot of people who think this is a mistake. For me, I dreamed of B&M track at Chessington ever since I first saw Nemesis in 2000. The thought of this super luxury rollercoaster opening at my childhood park makes me so happy, like Chessington is finally entering the big leagues after years of being in the shadow of its sister park next door. As pure conjecture, with Legoland Deutschland rumoured to be getting a B&M wing-rider as well, it would be safe to assume that the model could be coming to several Legoland Parks across the globe. Sorry Windsor, not you.

So your ideas are for Thorpe to become completely unoriginal and just get the same rides that its sister park has got/is getting.

I personally prefer Chessington. The place has done a lot of work over the years to bring rides back to scratch and we can argue for the hills whether Runaway Train with its mountain landscape is better then Scorpion Express is with its Mexican inspired surroundings, the fact is, a lot of rides are looking really nice right now. There's been a concentrated effort and I think the park is the best its looked for twenty years. For me, Chessington is the closest we have to a theme park with European sensibilities. Where theme parks have a sense of fun and discovery.

I guess when I said at the start 'wouldn't say its a park that anyone has a huge itch to get to' I guess Cedar Fair agree too. What a shame and probably been on the cards pre-pandemic hence why Orion went to a different park instead. I can see Rail Blazer moving to another park in the chain and potentially Gold Striker. But Patriot, very unlikely and Flight Deck has limited options within the Cedar Fair chain. Demon and Grizzly are toast.

I find the Nemesis commentary quite funny actually. I don't know many rollercoasters that have reached nearly their 30th year that don't have a couple of rougher moments. It's almost like Nemesis is held to this god like standard and if there is ever a slight rattle has to be commented on. Wicker Man always surprises me. In my head its a middle of the road woodie but after getting off, I love it every time. GCI woodies are pretty special. Just a small piece of advice on your reviews, I've read quite a few of your trip reports and for each ride you repeat the line 'we decided to give it a go'. Try changing that description because as I'm reading through, its all I've noticed and it becomes repetitive.

Nope.

To be honest, I don't think size has anything to do with quality of a ride. My two favourite B&M inverters for example are Katun and Nemesis. One is absolutely mahoosive and the other is tiny. Quality normally holds out so GCI for example, generally are a excellent manufacturer whether thats Wodan or Wicker Man. B&M Hypers, I think at the end of the day is personal preference. Not much separates any of them, in fact for me the only 300ft one I've done is Leviathan and that was nowhere as interesting as Behemoth in the same park. The highest ride I've done I hated. Much love Dragster, but I hate everything about you.