Mark9

I'll just park along the side roads in Chessington then...

Might be the 13 year old kids drinking fosters, 9 o clock in the morning on the Alton Towers bus that done it for me...

I dropped out of uni after 3 months.I realised that no matter how good my results are, I'm still going to die so may as well enjoy life..

I'd go if this happened...

When pigs do eventually learn how to fly....a lot of stuffs gonna go DOWWWNNNNN

This is just a point in mind, people never just go on a tirade about Thorpe being crap. They offer subjective criticisms about the park and how they would like to see it improved. Anything like "oh well it's Thorpe, so its crap" are normally tounge in cheek comments.To hate a theme park would be pretty extreme to be honest, anyone slagging off a place and then continues to visit week in, week out either has very warped priorities or just likes to bite the hand that feeds it.I have only ever criticised the park when I felt it needs to be put down and am one of the first to compliment something if I feel the park deserves it. Back when I worked at the park that no one cares about, Thorpe had all the money, all the media interest and all the enthusiast attention and yet despite this, the reliability of its attractions was abysmal, the look of the park was a disgrace and the running of fastrack annoyed me to the point where I'd have rather gone to Brighton Pier then get in on the AP at Thorpe.I felt last year was a real improvement. All rides open at the beginning of the season, very little prolonged closures (I can only think of Slammer atm), things were looking better such as the entrance area which had looked in disrepair, was glistening, shiny and new.I feel this an age thing. When you are young and into Thorpe you see something like graffiti on a tiny part of Nemesis Inferno's exit ramp and you think it's the beginning of the end, that the park doesn't care anymore and that Chessington is the way to go. It's as you get older and you get perspective that you realise how little a theme park really matters. So what if Thorpe is getting an incredibly awful ride this year. Next year we'll see a brand new Beemer and thats where I'd rather see the money invested.

In previous years we've had Vortex removed completely for refurb, Zodiac replaced by another model, Samurai pods taken away, Rush arms removed. Maybe thats what JoshC is referring to when he says the park is quieter as nothing large scale has been seen from outside it.

you know, I don't actually think that will be necessary

Aww, guys, I'm flattered. I don't agree with some of the ride results, there's no way Paultons is the worst UK theme park vote.Well done Ryan for being the hottest member

We'll ignore the way Expedition Ge Force is run shall we. God that was torture..

They check heights but it's not in a "lets embarress someone by pulling them over , ramming a stick into their head" kind of way but in a very discrete way. They also only check bars on Blue Fire, everything else is sit down and go, henceIn this country, we're absolutely shocked if our bar isn't checked on a Flying Jumbo ride.

Topic not needed.. a good staff member does not exist.

It's rather ironic that one of the main parks in Europe that could do fastrack and it wouldn't effect queues to badly is the one park that doesn't.Thorpe and Chessington for some reason just won't add rides capable of handling large numbers (although Chessington adding rides in general would be bonus).

I wrote that you see, I despise fastrack so I'd write something heavily skewed against it. I see it more as a penalty to guests then something that genuinely helps them.

Oh my god. Or you could, Ladies and gentleman, just be smart and go straight to it at the beginning of the day, end of the day or keep checking back until it doesn't have a 90 minute queue.Do not follow the advice of Marc and let impatience take over reason and logic!

Let the good work begin.AFTER TEN THOUSANDS YEARS WE'RE FREE!IT'S TIME TO CONQUER EARTH!

How about "the 9's." Would you like to be Holly9?I think that suits you.

You can join my group if you wish.There's only me.

Anyway... I'm starting to feel a bit weird at my job. I've got to the point where I have become one of the most respected and liked partners (as well as one of the hardest workers) and I sort of feel that if I don't get any further very soon, my interest may start to wane. I've been recommended by a few colleagues for the management scheme so I'm hoping that may go somewhere.

Sounds like real life to me."And we hope to be better then Disney.. by adding a safari themed restraunt, cancelling our rethemes and continuing to live off a decaying, 21 year old rollercoaster"

HMV thought the same.... not looking so hot at the moment. Why spend £20.00 on a dvd when you can look around and get it for £4.00. Merlin have it lucky that they own most of the market. Problem is, it will get to a point when all the costs and little "extras" will come and bite them in the arse and people may start to look elsewhere. £6.00 is a heck of a lot of money for one ride.. ok it's a pretty iconic and good ride but asking for 20% of the parks own entrance fee for one ride is a bit.. well... odd. People keep comparing to the train thing; thing is the parks run express pass like they are the absolute priority and whilst that is sort of the point, they sell the things like hot cakes, with seemingly no restraint on numbers so instead of fastrackers being able to waltz onto the ride, they often end up queuing 10/20 minutes as well. This results in trains and trains worth of fastrackers whilst the main queue look on miserably wondering if they may as well buy a second home in Colossus's queueline. Trains do offer first class seats as has been noted but the difference is for instance, Southern, South West and Southeastern don't make 9/10's of the train first class so the rest of the third class citizens are kept at the back of the train or left on the station. And realistically, unless you plan to use the trains in rush hour, you will always get a seat. With Thorpe's current mentatlity, unless you are a fastracker, you're practically worthless.

I'm not sure if this will mean a lot to people who've only joined TPM in the last two years but for ex South Parks members this will ring quite hard..Last night Cjw passed away. For anyone who knew him very well he was an incredibly prolific, kind and agreeable person and the world does feel a little emptier without him. I wouldn't normally start a topic about somebody passing away however it felt only right to open this topic.

Two years ago this would be such an exciting project, the first dive machine in Europe since Oblivion...But ever since X raptor and its sheer beauty and class emerged and was finished first... it's like I want to care about Krake but the Italian influence has taken over.Which is a shame, because Krake does look rather beautiful, especially it's baby dive machine cars.. aww.

Know any parks with closed Intamins? I'm just saying.. maybe Thorpe could get some second hand ones in... Maybe Monte Makaya!