Mark9

Thats the cruz of the matter. £175 isn't that bad all by itself for the amount of attractions and benefits you get. But when you compare it to last year, actually is is rather sneaky of them. It was inevitable that eventually the standard pass would become a bit rubbish though. I'm not bothering because real life is more important then a few days at theme parks. Considering I love theme parks (and I bet many are in the same position), it says a lot that Merlin have put a bad taste in the mouth.

Such a clever buisiness tactic there. Sorry Merlin, I'm not paying £25 more for your pass. You can shove it to be honest, especially when this year most of your new attractions open in September anyway and your theme parks are only adding one worthwhile ride (if that).I'd rather not waste the money frankly.

The annual pass has been good value, I don't think anyone denies that. The problem is the extra little bonuses are becoming less and less. When they start taking away park time from one of the attractions then it's only a matter of time before Alton, Thorpe and Chessington start to get hit by the same thing. The terms and conditions change on a regular basis with Merlin it seems and I won't be running the risk of getting a standard pass and then can't get into any of the parks until 2pm. Theme Parks are traditionally days out. Merlin really do seem to want to work against their biggest fans here...

This wouldn't actually surprise me although in saying that Chessie seems to rely far more on Annual Pass holders then the other three parks.

Thats me done I'm afraid. I've been an Annual pass holder since 2003 now and I cannot justify spending the money anymore when there are so little perks. I do feel a bit cheated on. I've saved a lot of money over the years, true. but every year its such a jump and when you account petrol costs, add on a whole heap of car parking costs and losing the right to visit theme parks during the whole day just means I can't be bothered with a company that doesn't actually care about its customers anymore.People are actually defending the car parking charge saying they don't use it. Crazy.

Interesting move though. The pepsi max is iconic. Are they just calling it.. "the Big one"?

Money almost doesn't come into it when it comes to the quality of an attraction. For instance, thorpe has had millions thrown at it and every year it opens the new biggest thing. And yet none of them have that wonderful nature of being "a ride that only Thorpe could do". That for me is so much more important then boring, generic, unthemed attrctions that are two the dozen the world over.For all of RMC's criticisms they did try very hard building expensive rides like Loggers Leap and Thunder River and trying something very ambitious with No Way out. There's no doubt that NWO no-way meets its proper potential. But you will rarely see parks in the UK attempting to do something with the little money that they have, to try and push boundaries.The way I see it is any park could have done Saw, Stealth or Colossus. Only the truely exceptional can make a Cobra, a 5th Dimension, a Loggers Leap.

I am SO bored of people just declaring something as crap when they don't like it. If it helps, Paultons is the Coronation Street of the theme park world. Rarely amazing

Benin 'I suck the fun out of 3D glasses'

I don't think Janice shouting "LEEE" was supposed to be in it. Corrie has been fantastic this week. Really emotional. When they heard Ashleys voicemessage....

Lets think about this, Ashley had a rubbish life really. His uncle turned out to be his father, he had slow swimmers, his first child wasn't actually his, his wife got brutally murdered by a serial killer, got blackmailed into an affair and then finally gets crushed by a viaduct.I sometimes wonder why he ever got up at all in the morning frankly.

Why?I mean apart from the obvious

THREAD DERAILED!

I don't know what I want to be in the future really. At the moment I'm just a food service customer assistant at Waitrose and really enjoy the role. Its very target based and everything has to be done to the letter. I find that kind of work very stimulating, shifts go by so quickly and at the end of a shift you do feel like you've achieved a lot.

I don't think it really counts as much of a closed season if every week you visit somewhere with rides though imo.As for me this closed season couldn't come sooner; I'm loving it.

Certainly explains Marcs road rage then...

No offence Outfit but you're hardly the most reliable considering last closed season you told us Runaway Trains rocks had been refurbished and that the Black Buccaneer boat had been completely replaced with a new boat.

I have no doubt that if Chessington advertised it in the right way they could have a fantastic winter event in the park with selected rides open. Afterall, Paultons event is incredibly popular because it targets the right people. And I mean, its popular despite no one actually knowing where Romsey is.

Chessington doesn't even really need to be open all the time between April - October anyway as whenever the schools are in, the park is dead. For the park to be open in February and November, would be like literally throwing money into the sea. Just a waste.

Schoolboy error.

You all suck. Caterham has no buses, no trains, no planes, no boats, no cars, only people wandering aimlessly to Tescos.

I have a theory that when people say Russia is properly prepared, what they really mean is 'Moscow' is properly prepared. I doubt the whole of Russia has snowplough after snowplough on every street, highway, side road because its such a large country. England is a densely populated country and unfortunately the snow we get every year just isn't often enough and constant enough to justify large amounts of funds going into diggers. The trains I do sort of wish were running better because it would mean I don't have to walk 2 hours to get to work on Saturday. But the thing is if the trains breakdown and then the recovery trains breakdown. And then the gritter trains break down.. I mean.. there is nothing that can be done and I'd rather just go "oh well" and get over it then moan on and on.

I don't actually think its a joke. What is a joke is peoples over-reaction to this whole snow thing. Things aren't running, deal with it. Caterham is cut off from the outside world, I was supposed to be in Brighton watching the Scissor Sisters. Instead I'm here listening to people moan about either the World Cup 2018 result or how snow ruins their lives. But it's cool, I'm dealing with it.Would you rather the train ran, it derails, killing everyone on board instead...

If you want to be completely true to life, some of Chessington's rides such as Rameses, Buccaneer, Toytown, Fury and Rattlesnake are dressed up fairground rides (Or can be fairground models for all the pedantics out there)...