Mark9

Happy now

The bears have it!

That is amazing, I adore that and it is exactly the kind of thing I was hoping Thorpe would do to promote LC12.

I'm not going to lie to you here. The last time there was a royal wedding was in the 80's Back then the biggest ride in the South was Space Station Zero. The very thought of Vampire, Bubbleworks, Colossus was a pipe dream. We can only gamble at just how empty/busy it will be on Royal Wedding day.So to play it safe, go on the 8th.

Ooh, I like it. Way to capatilise on the deaths of thousands Thorpe Great little site that, wonder what they are doing in the park to start up interest.

Business as usual really.

Alton Towers - 19th April 2011Awesome trip today, one of the best for a very long time. Shared many of the hallmarks of the epic Chessington trip from last week. Excellent staff, Great people, Great weather and low queues. Only one bug bear which I will get to in a moment.Firstly, I've got to say I've had some of the best rides I've had for ages today on many of Alton's rides. Nemesis was stunning, absolutely stunning. I know its the old cliche that it gets faster every year, but my god! I came off with numb legs, I was blown away, it was fast, thrilling intense and B&M beauty all mixed into one grubby little alien in a hole package. Wonderful stuff. The Florida Dragons and Katun have a lot to live up to at this rate. Inferno had no chance, epic stuff.Air was okay, they seemed to be working bloody fast on their dispatches. Both stations were running and they were well ahead of themselves with trains ready to go as soon as possible. Duel was wonderful with many effects back and some sound effects returning. Had a great time.Two of the most memorable rides were Mine Train and Congo. The interactivity between these two rides is second to none and everyone comes off both rides with huge grins and a real sense of pleasure. I don't care if Mine Train's got slower, it has atmosphere in bucket-loads and was a favourite of everyone on todays trip. Onto Oblivion, it's sponsorship isn't as horrific as first thought to be honest. Can be easily ignored and un-noticed if you weren't looking for it. Now for the bug bear. Thirteen. Considering the awesome work seen on Air, RMT, Congo, Maurauders Mayhem and Oblivion, Thirteen staff could have really put a small black cloud over our day if guest services had not been able to pick up the pieces of their frankly rubbish operation.Firstly, if your ride breakdowns you do not play an announcement four times in around 40 minutes of downtime. Considering how quiet the speakers are for Thirteen and considering how ambigious the breakdown announcement actually is, it was no surprise that, actually no one in the queue knew what was going on. "Mystical disturbances" yeah, whatever.Secondly apart from the announcment of uselessness, there was no communication from Thirteen staff about anything that was going on or the situation. Was the ride going to open again? were they testing it? Were they taking trains off? The staff at their baggage point seemed more concerned with talking to each other, rather then actually talking to the queueline. Finally, when Thirteen did eventually reopen there was again no communication from the ride team. We only knew it was testing because some people in the queue started applauding. So we get to the merge point with fastrack, staff member has no completely abandoned his post. Great. We get into the station, staff don't seem particularly bothered about batching people properly instead just double, triple batching us all at rows. We get onto the ride and the staff member can't even be bothered to check my restraint. He instead moves his arm towards it then moves it away quickly away from it. I know my restraint is safe but that isn't the point at all. According to guest services a fire alarm went off. Did it burn the third train then because that had dissapeared to. It was just a rather bizarre thing to say as every other Alton Towers staff member had been excellent, efficient, hard working and more importantly friendly. So apart from the Thirteen situation, Alton provided an excellent day out with I'd say 95% of its rides really delivering the goods. Vastly superior trip to any from last year.

They did.

I'm devastated by this news. It's not secret that I'm a huge fan of the classic series and to lose not just Nicholas Courtney two months ago, but to lose the Doctor's most celebrated and best loved companions is a real horror. When looking at Elisabeth Sladen, she was a beautiful, graceful, intelligent women and its ahrd to believe someone so full of spirit and kindness could be taken so young. Ones thing for sure, she will always be remembered for the rest of time for playing Sarah Jane Smith.On Saturday I got her last commentary on a Doctor Who serial in Planet of the Spiders. I do urge anyone who is a fan of Elisabeth Sladen to buy the story as it shows her best performance in Doctor Who. It's seems doubly galling to know that the commentary on this story features three people who are now no longer with us.

Th13teen sponsored by AsdaONE....TWOO... THREE....FOUR...FIVE....SIX....SEEVEN.....EIGHT......NINE.....TEN.....ELEVEN.....TWELVE...ONLY THIRTEEN REASONS TO EVER VISIT ASDA!

See, I don't mind the orange piping, it's just the friendly little fanta mascots and rainbow colours on the Oblivion entrance I take issue with. I'm not incredibly offended by it, but I do wish it was slightly more subtle. Kind of like the dr pepper advertising on Tidal Wave which does't hit you like a brick.

Ah.Yes, oh dear. What were they thinking. It's not tasteful in anyway and destroys any kind of drama that Oblivion tries to evoke. Shame.

I'm with fever here. When adveritsing this ride they conjured amazing imagery of dropping into the Krakes mouth. Essentially taking Oblivion and doing the next level. They've failed on that account.I'd like to know how intense or exciting it is actually because compared to Oblivion it doesn't have that "into the hole" factor and it doesn't have the height or length of Sheikra/Griffin to justify itself.

In with Judas

Now that looks much better. Beautiful looking. How I had any doubt... just no idea.

At work I always get the "can I pay here thing"which of course is fine if I didn;t have several loaves to weight, a counter to clean, hot food to probe and check, an oven beeping at me because the sausage rolls are cooked and a time of day shelf to date check.And you want to pay here with your trolly full of fruit and veg which I can't weigh because my scales aren't connected to my checkout. Cheers babe.

There is a set time honey, the op can choose to stop it whenever they want but most of the time it stops by itself

But they are getting rid of the water if they're tipping the boats.. are they not doing that anymore?

A contradiction in terms, surely?!

The undesiables may notice the plug during the ride and decide to open it when the boats floating back to the station.It would be a 21st century version of the Titanic.

Those hoovers are useless to be honest. It would take about 20 minutes to clean Sea Dragons with those sodding hoovers so in all honesty I'm not surprised they've gone for tipping the boats instead.

Because it is the most dangerous, intense Maurer spinning rollercoaster ever created and the sheer force and speed of more then two people in a car WILL kill people.(Or Chessington are over-cautious zealots who for some reason, refuse to get their ride sorted out so unlike sister rides Tarantula, Sonic Spinball and Salama, has to have a ridiculous two people per car rule whenever the heavens decide to open)