Mark9

Are we talking about the days when the only major rides were Colossus, Vortex, Detonator and Zodiac? Nice comparison there.

Normally because there just happens to be capacity crowds at the park and they are only open for half the day

From the Huss website None of that counts on Buccaneer now. It just seems completely stupid. I can't see Europa Park running their Huss Pirate ship in the same way that Chessington are now doing with Buc.Although having seen the extreme lengths Chessington have gone to, for instance with Fury and Rattlesnake and their adult rules, I somehow doubt its Huss coming down on every pirate ship in existance in the same way.

I know that Blade has had the same new restriction imposed on it, but is it suffering from 70 minute queue becuase of the most ridiculous park decision ever.

Before the days of no air gates, you would fail to go and queue more then 10 minutes. Simply being, they need to sort Buccaneer out once and for all or get rid...Cause frankly, 70 minutes for a pirate ship is beyond a joke.

You are having a sodding laugh.....

Yes but that isn't what you said, you said people would only want to be scared at halloween. Judging by Saw Alives hour long queue times, that isn't the case and is just conjecture on your part.

So we're saying at the moment people don't ride Saw Alive because they don't want to be scared... what the hell are they doing at Thorpe Park then?!

Where have you got it into your head that Thorpe Park gets 2 hour queues on a regular basis. And if it is, it's what ONE ride that will have the two hour queue, at the very most TWO rides will have a 120 minute queue. And I have only ever seen that at fright nights which is the parks most busiest period.Stop trying to spin everything out of control when it's so obviously not the case.

You're right on that, the turning track looks way to small for a dive machine train to navigate.I think its more likely to be a floorless or a mega coaster...

Hello Amigos, its a bumpy ride sit back and hold tight!Ride CountVampire X1Dragons Fury X1Kobra X1Monkey Swinger X1Tuk Tuk Turmoil X1Dragon Falls X1Tomb Blaster X2Rattlesnake X1Runaway Train X1Toadies Crazy Cars X1Griffins Galleon X1For Benin's birthday we were given a task. To be Mexican for a day. And it went well apart from a few snidey looks from Middle age mothers in the Toadies queueline. First things first, Chessingtons staff are the best out of the Merlin group this year. Yeah, ok I worked there but no one I know really works there anymore so it was all new staff noticing out costumes, asking if we want photos taken of us, speaking to us like Mexicans, singing Spanish Flea down their PA systems. There was some excellent interaction going on throughout the park and many of the staff wished us a good day. The Caffe Nero staff didn't but meh, the hell with em. As for the rides, well we were warned that Buccaneer may have been closed all day due to Huss changing the minimum height for all their pirate ship rides, however it was running today. We saw no breakdowns whatsoever althouh we did hear that Falls had an evactuation. Didn't really encounter many long queue although to be fair we were at the right places at the right times as even for Kobra we only queued about 20 minutes despite the advertised queuetime being 45.Also took a journey around the new animal area. I think the Zoo is what makes Chessington the most unique Merlin park as it has a whole different side to it. Yeah, Alton has a farm but with a few ducks, rabbits and some chickens, it barely registers. Chessington has such a large variety of animals, all shapes and sizes and it makes me very happy to see the parks commitment to its roots. The new village area wasn't to bad although more animals are needed as so far the two randy zebras and some oryx that stay as far away from the look out tower barely registers as a safari experience. I do think the park needs to sort out its enclosure sizes as for some reason huge animals get such a small amount of space whereas the spider monkeys have massive spaces. Aside from that, I hope money continues to be pumped into a vital part of the park.

LOL!Reading this topic is a bit like that I agree..

The new signage is very good and thankfully the sponsorship is very subtle. There Is only one big sign which even shows what the big lollipop is so thumbs up to Metlon. With Tidal Waves dr pepper sponsorship and now Falls, Merlin seem to be able to sponsorship deals more tastefully.

I actually prefer the majority of the queue to be outside because I do think that when they overload that station it becomes a free for all and one of the worst queuing experiences in the UK. At least with a quiet station they can control the flow of people getting onto the ride more efficiently.

It did yeah, it was nothing more then poles and chains as for some reason whenever they do Falls queue line they under anticipate how popular the ride is.

Runaway Train is the best ride to operate at Chessington. It has an interaction factor that is second to none and the manual way it is operated means you always concentrate on the ride.Mikey will agree with me that it is absolutely fantastic to control.

I'm beginning to think you're trolling to be honest, Runaway is the most popular family ride in the park. I regularly had queues at 45 minutes when I operated it in the 2007/2008 season. And Mikey had long queues all the time when he operated it last year.

Most pirate ships rides don't even have batch gates (Blade, Banana Ride). The original air gates were broken by a member of staff.

Trust me, they load it as fast as they can but because its such a **** ride, you can't go any faster.

Electricbill.You are exactly right on the point it is just a sign. But the thing is, this sign hasn't been working since you were six years old. Ever since 2004, fanboys and enthusiasts have been banging on about the magic being lost at Thorpe, how a simple thing like a sign not working is evidence of the management not caring about their park and letting it fall into disrepair. They fix it.And on the official fan website which is practically dedicated to Thorpe Park as it is, with all its members and links, only two people can be bothered to say that the sign is properly working again. And I get mocked by you, but its exactly this lack of appreciation by its most loyal fan group that makes me wonder if they read this and think "well why should we bother fixing effects if no one is going to notice." The everyday guests aren't going to notice something as trivial as a sign flashing again. So am I really asking so much that people recognise the effort and dedication put in by Thorpe and its management team to get a sign working. If it wasn't for the lack of caring maybe we'd see things such as the Water-tower splashing water all over the place again. But if no one comments then how are Thorpe going to know people care.

To be honest it has nothing to do with the "what ride" factor. It's where people are heading. People always gravitate towards the newest ride and then go on from there. They don't usualy think "well we'll do Saw then go and do Stealth", it's always go from one ride to the nearest one. You can see this at Alton quite easily as Th13teen and Rita will without fail have epic queues compared to the dead Forbidden Valley. Colossus will struggle to get through queues as its the lowest throughput big coaster at Thorpe. Plus its ride system and Trains are rubbish!

I agree with letting people into the dome as it gives people a bit of space to breathe... although there may be issues with capacity in there. I don;t think Early ride time is needed at Thorpe as it already has very good hours. Currently its 9:30-8:00 which is a good 10 and a half hours. It doesn't really need extra time and the staff would be exhausted working a constant 11 hour day.Maybe in the quiet time, but then you wouldn't need early rider anyway as the park would be so dead.

*sighs*People for years have been moaning about ride reliability and the effects at Thorpe not working. Reliability is 100% better and effects that have long been off are finally fixed and no one notices or bothers to comment.

That's thE alignment gate which is fired with compressed air. Fury's is quieter just because the queue doesn't run directly pArallel with it. It's actually just as loud as Spinball.

Thats all well and good.. but did you spray the riders of Incredible Hulk with silly string?