Those pictures actually put me right off. It looks nice but way to small and compact. For a minute there, I wasn't even sure there was a door to the bathroom.
That probably changes year to year depending on what rides they include in opening. I'd go for around 3000 capacity but wouldn't be surprised at slightly lower.
Just to be pedantic for a second, Colossus didn't lose its record in 2006, it was still the worlds first ten looping rollercoaster, it was just cloned in another country.
Everything else in your post, yep pretty much spot on.
If we were back in 2009, we'd still be declaring Amity Cove and Tidal Wave as the greatest themed ride/area at Thorpe. IMO, that still stands to this day.
I actually disagree with a part of this. Back in 1995 Thorpe was competing with Chessington who had not only just opened Rameses Revenge to great acclaim, they also had Legoland opening down the road which would take a significant amount of people away from visiting Thorpe. The park obviously saw the success of thrill seeking rides such as Nemesis and Rameses and decided to test the waters with this route. Enthusiasts don't forget this as such, they just see it as No Way out being a complete failure in advertising and as a ride concept in general. It was too scary for kids and not scary enough for adults. It lies in that dangerous middle ground of not knowing who its target audience is and throughout the noughties, was being pinched and pushed in a number of random directions.
I'd say the staff that actually gave a toss. I remember when I platformed with you on Vampire back in '08, there was no messing around and the parks team leaders joined in to keep the queue-line down and to get those trains out as quickly as possible. Now its gone completely the other way with the staff being more concerned with talking loudly through the PA or twiddling their thumbs and still not working hard enough to stop stacking in the break run.
There's more important things in life to be outraged about. They realised their mistake, apologised, they replaced the ciabatta (and added chicken ). There wasn't much more they could do and I wasn't expecting anything more.
Maybe I just get lucky with Bar 360 then. Never had more then a ten minute wait and it's pretty affordable for a large meal. I did have that one time where my chicken ciabbatta came with no chicken but I think that was just an oversight..
I wrote this a couple of years ago but it seems relevant to the debate going on here:-
http://mark2262.wordpress.com/2011/11/10/the-trials-and-tribulations-of-an-ss-skyswat/
Slammer must be the most ignored ride by enthusiasts at the park in terms of discussion on internet forums. There is no hate for a ride that you seem convinced exists. It's just plain facts that Slammer has had a lot of downtime. Thats it. No conspiracy, no hate.
No-ones denying that Thorpe look after Slammer. It's the ride itself that is effectively destroying itself thats the problem. Hence why the ride closes every four hours for maintenance checks and why the ride spends at least a month a season closed. Remember when people were amazed that Slammer was open on opening day last year. It's never been able to do that for 7 years..
I'm incredibly flattered by this, as I questioned why I was writing trip reports for a while. To know that someone has come back into theme parks after reading my reports.. well as I say it's incredibly flattering. I do remember you coincidentally, welcome back to the fray.