Mark9

I detect a hint of pessimsm from you Sheepie and I feel a bit scared. Usually you'd be complimenting them for the repaint but this time it's criticizing that they haven't done it sooner.

Welcome to the Jumbo ride, please keep your hands and feet inside.WOAH, stay in your seats, chocks away, here we go, ENJOY THE RIDEEEE

The day they forgot to say Bash Street Bus would be down all day. Rides 1 had to question if it was open and control were like.. "err.. no over"Those were the days.

Ah, remember that season where Bash Street Bus spent about 75% of it closed and then Marc said Thorpe had better reliability because of this. Those were the days.

ADVENTURERS! WE HAVE SOME TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH DRAGONS FURY AT PRESENT, PLEASE REMAIN SEATED IN YOUR CARS AND WE WILL ENDEAVOUR TO HAVE YOU SPINNING, AS SOON AS POSSIBLE... THANK YOU.Or of course TRY SOME OTHER RIDES AND COME BACK... LATER.

So. I was reading TTF and a member posted Now, I'm not an alarmist and I'm going to take that with a pinch of salt so far. I know fastrack is going to be added to other rides in the park but if what this person has said is true then it's quite possibly the stupidest decision Chessington's managers could ever come up with and quite frankly I desperately hope they re-look at it before they and impliment it.The issue here is simple. Fastrack can only work on rides if it has a throughput that can manage to still get through the main queue, a standby queue and any exit riders that may come to the ride at any point.I'm going to start with the ride that will be least effected, Toadies. That could just about get through the people and have no issues. It mostly has a 5 minute queue and the cars are big enough to be able to fill up seats and pair people up if need be.Jumbos is an issue. It's a very popular ride and realisitcally it struggles at the best of times. It's queue can spring up very quickly during summer and its not uncommon to see 40 minute queues.Toadies throughput is 260 an hour and Jumbos, if you're lucky, fast, reduce the ride time and are able to fill all seats has a throughput of 250 an hour.Truckers will not be able to take potentially three seperate queues. It's absolutely ludicrious that they can even be thinking that fastrack on a ride that you have to work bloody fast on to even achieve 200 people an hour is a good idea. The only possible way an operator on Truckers will be able to operate that ride in summer is for the trucks to only go round once. That is poor value for the amount people may have to queue. So yeah, Chessington, think of the sanity of your operators here. Trucks is a nightmare ride at the best of times...

There has never ever been a time where I've ridden Spinball and it has gone from drive 4 (which is the first drive in the station) through to drive 8 (which is Spinballs dispatch drive) and not stopped.. Now you may say "but you don't live at Spinball and stay there all day" and that is true however I've ridden it enough times since 2004 and queued long enough for it each time to see that Spinball rarely ever has a car go straight through the station and out again without stopping..Also a bit confused, Spinball has the same amount of drives in the station and probably the same distance between drives in the station as Fury and yet Spinball has a longer station somehow.I'd actually argue it's far more easier for Spinball to stack up, the distance between drive 3 (the drive before the station) and drive 4 is so marginal whereas the distance between Fury's drive 4 (the transfer track drive) and drive 5 is a lot longer giving time for car a to get ahead of car b in the station.

Or good weather and half term?Lets be honest here, one capacity day during a zoo doesn't mean anything for the upcoming season. It's rarely as nice in February as it was today so it's a bit early to say the park is going to have a good season..

Agree with the theory. All rides are kind of dispersed around park so like Air not open with Nemmy and Th13teen not open with Rita. Hope it works, makes sense to spread people around during ert.

Having operated Fury for three and a half seasons.. I still got lost reading your post Outfit.

I'm talking about the times when it ran 8 cars and it was allowed 4 adults in a car though. Fury's estimated throughput was 900 which is impossible.Besides, you can still get 4 people in a car, the staff have to work damn hard but I had times up there when all cars were going out with 4 people...

- You're right Spinball isn't terrible. It does lack a certain something though.-Yeah well it's going to be popular, having the widest target audience, the first ride you see as you enter the park and the lowest throughput rollercoaster. Naturally It's going to be darn popular.- 750 throughput isn't likely. Fury with the same amount can just about reach 650 and with the amount of stacking on Spinball in the break run...

As you've both essentially asked the same question, I'll answer both at the same time...It won't be crazily busy but because at the moment we don't know the approximate weather for March, we don't know if Storm Surge will be open on time and we don't know yet how popular Storm Surge will be with guests, our guess is exactly the same as yours is. I'd say day after open day will be the emptiest to be honest but that guess is based on nothing...

Tangled - 7/10Whilst not a return to the Disney renaissance of the 90's, this was a great film with some genuinely funny moments such as the frying pan humour and Maximum the horse. Maybe I'm to old... but some of the plotting was signposted to easily on. For instance the old woman somehow able to find Rapunzel where-ever she went or Eugene being freed from the prison. it also lacked that Disney sparkle; the magical ending was pretty much scene for scene the same as Pokemon the first movie ie, if everyone cries our central character can live again.The Lion King - 10/10Pure beauty from start to finish. The story of the circle of life is timeless and the messages that eminate through the visuals are sublime. Simba is a wonderful character and Scar marks another Disney trademark that the evil characters are the more enjoyable to watch.Beauty and the Beast - 10/10A nice Valentines day present, another Disney stunner. Beauty and the Beast features my favourite animated movie scene, with Belle and the Beast dancing majestically in the ball room to the song 'Beauty and the Beast.' Beautiful story telling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zb64y6Nvs0&feature=player_embedded

I LOVE the whine. It's gorgeous. It's this kind of ride which makes me realise how sad I am.

Thats adorable!!!

Hmm.In other news, rumours are afoot that Port Aventura may add a B&M in the 2012 season. If true thats Thorpe, Parc Asterix and Port Aventura adding B&M's.B&M, back with a bang.

It just looks amazing. I can't wait for some proper detailed pictures of the train though, so far we're just getting glimpses. Last time I was this excited about a new ride was Black Mamba actually..

That was posted from the past. I'm a time traveller don't you know.