Mark9

Gorgeous pictures. Alton and Chessington are parks that just shine when its sunny. They look amazing.

It exists?

Doesn't mean that much, small little things like weather can effect that. Considering how good the weather was afterall.

Much prefer Detonator's old music which somehow, despite being made for Black Hole, suited Detonator far more. I feel the same with the Samurai music which returned. Gives the rides far more drama actually.

Seems a bit pointless putting that there as the fastrack shop is less then a minute walk away.

About the closest example I could find. Go Merlin's isn't concept art as you can clearly see the new Colossus restraints on it whereas Colossus's concept art looked like this:-(Thanks TPG)

As I said in chat on Saturday, it is an 18 year old ride starting it's 19th season. It's bound to get a little coarser round the edges from time to time. Bloody brilliant ride though.

Far superior to Swarm. I'd go as far to say it's better then Nemesis

It's the UK's third best rollercoaster

I'm not I am afraid. Can't really justify another trip to Thorpe.

I think the idea is, if enough rides are ready to go then open the park because you stop the bottleneck of guests at the entrance and instead of creating an influx of people travelling across the bridge at once, you have a steady flow. Excellent idea in my opinion. The only issue being, if like last week they start the day with Swarm, Colossus and Inferno on one train, you end up having to close the ride for quite a hefty time whilst the second train gets put on.People may moan, but they'd have no grounds to because the park are giving you more time. If you decide to get there at 10 you aren't really missing out..

To anyone that thinks Samurai is run badly, look at this piece of crap.

Well firstly, before Slammer there was only one ever skyswat in the world and look how that turned out. The thing is, with a Jump2 is that they are massive rides with huge power consumptions and Thorpe isn't exactly gifted with space either. A moderately thrilling Jump2 isnt enough.I am so bored of this Thorpe top spin thing. The thing is, all over the continent there are parks with top spins, and guess what. They all NEVER HAVE QUEUES, they all HAVE POOR PROGRAMMES, they are all UNPOPULAR. Talocan, Rameses and Ripsaw are about the only exceptions. If you really want a top spin just go to Chessington. Why do people want cloned rides all over the placeThe thing with the Gyroswing is we have Vortex, Regardless of how much better a gyroswing may be, what is the point of replacing something to add exactly the same ride. And the topple tower is a ride that Thorpe really don't need. They are beginning to throw away the unreliable curse, adding something that Dollywood are actually sueing Huss for is a ridiculous ride for Thorpe to go for. it's not even going to be for their target audience for a start.People seem insistent on flat rides but no one comes up with anything that the park doesn't already own that is either unique or different enough. Honestly, they'd be better off adding a breakdance with the constant Jump2/topspin/topple tower suggestions.

Past the photo point, near Stealths exit stairs.

We do not have a topic for Merlin's second best opening hours theme park?! How is this possible. I;ll start us off.If you know me, you know I hate Legoland. With its branding getting in the way of interesting and original themes, it was never my favourite park to visit. On my first visit, queueing 40 minutes for a Rocky Express clone seemed ludicrous, an hour for a wildmouse that dies after its first drop? Seriously?So we wind round to 2012. Since my last visit to Legoland, I've got a bit older, that bit wiser and was willing to give Legoland another chance. One because its had a few new rides and two, the boyfriend forced me to go.So we rolled up about 11:20.I give em one thing, they've got the best entrance area of the parks. I adore the view over Windsor and the castle. So onto the first ride, the Viking Rapids ride. Like the majority of UK rapids its the little things on the side that get you wet, nothing to do with the actual ride. A shame and Chris wasn't exactly pleased with his level of wetness.Next was the Spinning Spider, not bad! Had some good moment and the staff member was incredibly jolly despite there only being five guests on the ride. Onto the Jolly Rocker, a ride which takes the adult on each side of the boat to the absolute exteme. Who introduced this ridiculous rule? Was it Helath and Safety or the parks own stupidity which has meant what is supposed to be a high throughput flat, has become a five minute nightmate. I despair for the staff who have to use the whole area PA system to beg any adults within a five mile radius to have a ride. Must be an absolute nightmare in school weeks.Next! The Dragon. I love the Dragon and think it is the very best family rollercoaster in the country. Forget Thirteen and its attempts at thrilling you by banking very oddly on a straight bit of track, it's all about The Dragon. That castle theming is exemplary, it's station is gloriously gloomy and its pre lift hill section is inspired. The air time and speed through the rides relatively short coaster section is punchy and perfectly pitched. They were running two trains and it was just great. Legos star attraction.Had a go on the Rocky Express ride (it's name escapes me) and Dragons Apprentice which is very good for a junior coaster. We then headed off to Pirate Falls which consists of that parrot just telling you which way to go, getting you to your destination and then telling you to go back. Just bugger off. The ride is severely lacking in a proper storyline and with only one drop, it feels a bit half hearted. It's a very wet flume though which gives it cred points.Next, after narrowly avoiding a camera disaster it was Laser Raiders. Now apparently this ride is hated with a passion met only by my hate for Saw the Ride. I really liked Laser Raiders. sure, it's just a rip off of Tomb Blaster (with less detail) but at least it had pace and shooting things caused amusing movements in the props around the ride. I found it slightly bizarre that the railway line goes through it's queueline. Must admit that I've never seen that before at a theme park. The final ride of real note at Legoland is that Atlantis Submarine Voyage that is actually just a disguised Sea Life centre. Lets be honest here, the joy of the Sea Life centre is taking your time by looking at the creatues. Legolands doesn't bother with this and encases you in a yellow submarine which literally goes round one corner and thats it. It's a huge waste of time because of how short the ride is. The noises in the submarine also distract you from the fish anyway. Just stupid. Much prefer Chessington's and Alton Towers's sea life centres.So has my thoughts on Legoland changed much? Yes actually but it really is a park you need to go to on a quiet day. Visting on a day with 14,000 other people is an absolute nightmare as the place just doesn't have the rides or throughputs to cope with such a huge weight of people.

Not all disabled people are unable to walk.

The best opinion so far has got to be "Ok just got off NST. Urm… Urm..urm.. I now like Charley and the Chocolate factory."

Nemesis has a zero queue in comparison. See, this is why I try to avoid Alton Towers open days as best as possible.

The first indication I've got of Sub terra from facebook is slightly to rude for me to post on TPM.Let us just say he didn't like it and leave it at that.

Can tell you weren't around in the days where Dragons Fury opened 7 and a half hours late..

So whilst we are enjoying our new B&M wing-rider, so are the delightful people at Dollywood. Theme Park Review descrive the POV shots as AMAZING which is a sentiment I don't really believe they hold but I digress...Luckily, whilst we get a band that no one really knows, Wild Eagle gets the amazing Dolly Parton to open the new ride, well I guess thats what happens when you name a park after yourself.Thanks to TPR.

I really would just jump in the Nemmy queueline and go round and round and round. Especially with all that mist.

Now now Benin, I never gave my opinion on Colossus, I just said it's running well around its circuit. For the record though, I don't feel any of this roughness on Colossus that some do. I think it's running the best it ever has actually and certainly doesn't share the problems of rides like Blue Tornado, Rock 'N' Rollercoaster or Rita. Imo of course

Thing is though, Swarm is new, it is bound to have these problems (even if the ride technology isn't that overly complicated, it is still new for the park)Everything else is 3 years old or more and their downtime is small little problems. According to staff, Colossus went down four times yesterday due to sickness. I can believe that as in my opinion, the ride is running very well and very fast at the moment, especially through the inlines. Saw keeps having small little problems and Inferno and Swarm both had ill trains at some point.Stealth is.. well it's Intamin and sometimes you just cannot forgive poor ride systems ;)One thing I've found on my visits this year so far is that with five major rollercoasters now all running (for the start of the season I might add ) and because of the relative size of the park, if a coaster goes down its effect has become far more negliblie compared to the days where losing Stealth meant Colossus and Inferno would be rammed 10-6. It has become a far more balanced park with Saw and Colossus on one side, Stealth and Swarm on the other and Inferno slap bang in the middle.If it helps I'll be Stealth/Swarm/Inferno/Detonator side of the park for the majority of my visits.