Mark9

Paultons Park updates in 5.....

It wasn't amazing by 1996's standards either...

Because it is broken, there are supposed to be air gates there. I actually think air gates should be there from a comfort point of view, trying to board it at the moment is rather nasty because it was built with air gates in mind.People will wait for the back row but as it stands trying to get people down to the front just to fill middle rows is so time consumingthat it holds up the ride hence the second platformer. They could kill all that unnecessary waiting by having people fill rows up at gates whilst the ride is moving.

I sort of agree with you Josh, it looks like marketing speil because of the amount of exclamation marks that have been used.To be honest its not the way I would have written the article... but then I wasn't asked to either so

I loved Grffins. Could spend hours down there and not see a single person. Marvellous doss ride.

1. Inflation, new additions, staff wages have increased, ride maintenance costs go up as rides get older. They are expensive but only in relation to say.. doing nothing. I personally think the costs for Chessington anyway are good value. Thorpe and Alton not so much...2. Queues aren't so much shorter, it's just staff are more aware of queue busting and efficiency since Tussauds of 2003 becamse very aware of the bad publicity queues have.3. Gate Figures are far higher then you realise, the park is doing very well actually.

Corrected for you.

I don't see all those publicity stunts, in fact I only find out about one or two of them from forums like this. It's very hard for me to put into words but I shall try anyway.The focus on these publicity stunts is always completely irrelevant to the park itself. It should be the rides and attractions and things in the park getting the publicity. The Th13teen one around the election was a good one for instance because it involved something relevant and the ride itself. In their latest one, what exactly is being publicised? The park? The Hotel? The Alton Towers resort? The fact that they have beds you can have sex in?I think saying "it works" is so lazy, its the equivalent of saying 'kk' on msn or texting one word replies to people. Is it really getting people to the park or are the parks doing well because of new rides which should be creating the hype not Mark no longer getting a happy time during the night.

I can sort of see this topic being a natural extension to what I posted in the Parks, Coasters and News topic. The problem with records is that everyone has rightly said they do bring people to the park which brings in more money for future investments. And this is not a Thorpe only want the records thing, this is every single park in the world which wants to have the worlds largest of something. Corkscrew was Britains first double looping rollercoaster, Vampire was Europes first suspended rollercoaster and Loggers Leap was the UK's largest log flume.My problem is back in the older days of coasters you also got a good enough ride to justify its existance. Vampire, for all its faults tries to do something with the ride, its theme is still considered Chessington's best by many and the layout, for all its clunkiness and weirdness is still very enjoyable, 20 years on.It's inevitable that for every new ride we get there will be some kind of angle, although if you can tell me what exactly the angle is for Kobra at Chessington then you get brownie points.

Does anyone remember when Alton Towers used to do decent publicity? Before they turned ****ing crazy and started banning Speedos, employing rain gods and banning sex in its hotels. I remember the days when they added outstanding rides to but thats another story...

Better when they were at Chessington

Wait...so let me get this straight. It's the fault of people who think smoking is cool that have caused people to smoke and to continue smoking.

2008 season, regular 16,000 gate figues.Althoguh that year was just the best Chessie season ever from a personal stand point, as well as a commercial one.

I'd have been honoured to have my name on a forum with positive feedback. That rule on this forum is stupid, as any positive feedback at Chessie, rarely ever gets back to the host.

I think it gets slammed because people do expect a lot from it before they go and it doesn't really deliver. For instance, you are absolutely right about Stormforce 10's queueline, it is absolutely the best queue line in this country with theming that goes up and beyond what we expect. But then the ride is essentially lots of concrete troughs so the Cornish Fishing Village 'theme' isn't followed through. It's exactly what the outside bit of Saw: the ride is like, just rubbish compared to whats gone before.I've always taken issue with the "amount of trains" on a ride thing. I went during peak summer period five years ago and Shockwave was on one train and half the seats were out of action. Why didn't they bring on the other train or use the other train instead? It doesn't give you absolute confidence in the parks engineering if out of a 24 seater train, you can only use 12 seats which are dotted around the train. It's the same thing with G Force, instead of adding that stupid sound machine in the queueline, why didn't they invest in a second train?Drayton Manor has glimpses of awesome, for instance I adore its Rapids ride for being genuinely wet, Apocalypse is always good for a thrill and I do like Shockwave because of its fantastic zero G roll, despite its rather simplistic RCT layout. But I always come away thinking what problems the park has rather then what an excellent day I had.

Does anyone remember Marcus Sheen and his website Coaster Kingdom? Whilst searching the internet for information on Megafobia I cropped upon his review of Megafobia and I can't believe how similar our views on Theme Parks are. Here's a few chosen quotes for people to muse on... especially when it comes to our "newer" attractions. It's odd to think that review was written in 2002.. and yet it's all true. Parks no longer really seem to care about their guests (well.. aside from Europa Park) and are only interested in overhyped record breakers and PR hits.

As James6 said, they are usually leniant if a majrotiy of people in a group have an Annual Pass.

I'm thinking Italy although Benin should invite me on principle. I have a feeling its a dive machine. It wouldn't make incredible sense for Merlin to throw three of B&M's new type of rides at its parks, it means theres no point in Ap holders (who may travel to each one) although of course the benefits of any B&M to a park are inmeasurable.

Toadies Crazy Cars is actually made by Supercar Leisure UK. Agreed with Benin, GO MACK!

Lol.... Pretty funny troll though to be honest.Anyone who thinks replacing Nemesis with a Rattlesnake type coaster will lead to a great career would certainly make me smile.

You've got troubles, I've got them to. There isn't anything I wouldn't do for you!Some other folks may be a little bit smarter then I am. Bigger and stronger to,MaybeBut none of them will ever love you the way I do, it's you and me boy.And as the years go by, our friendship will never die. You gonna see, it's our destiny.You got a friend in me.

Best ride in the world. Without a doubt.

Good question. Sometimes I feel communication to the mods is crappy on this forum. I had no idea the Slippery Serpent topic had been locked and I didn't know members couldn't start new topics in Thorpe Park forum.I shall get onto this and find out exactly whats going on.

I love visiting theme parks that are outside of the Merlin theme park world. You begin to appreciate how other parks cope when money isn't chucked at them willy nilly, and how out of a desire to achieve, the park is better for it. It may be why I prefer Chessington to Legoland, Nemesis to any other post 2000 rollercoaster and why Oakwood impressed me far more then it may have deserved.Oakwood, unlike Alton is quite an easy drive with very little hills through tiny villages, instead its more a journey through fields on the M4. The park reminds me a little bit of Paultons with its over the top entrance colour scheme. The entrance is decked in bright green and orange and invites you to ride THE TOP 4. These are Megafobia, Speed, Bounce and Hydro.Naturally we tried the challenge and headed straight for Megafobia. It was running one train and we queued about five minutes for the back row. Now, a lot of discussion on here goes for woodie as the way to go at thorpe. I disagree, with the amount of criticism Colossus and Saw come under, there is no way the average Thorpe fanboy and guest could take a ride like Megafobia. Now I personally think it is an excellent ride but it certainly doesn't treat you like a king. In fact its bloody violent. It jerks you, shakes you and throws you around for its full 90 second ride. And its pure class. It keeps its pace excellently for the full ride and I can totally see why this was in its day a top ten rollercoaster.We avoided Speed for a little while as there just isn't enough there to over-ride. We went on Treetop Coaster which was very cute, RCT2esque rollercoaster. We had two goes round and had a great laugh. We also rode Bounce, one of the top FOUR. It was a bit forceful and alot of fun to. And finally Speed. It is a far better ride then Saw and Rage and a very decent, well paced intense rollercoaster. It's hard to say why it gets so much right whilst Saw doesn't, but it just feels far smoother and enjoyable. The ride was running one car and we queued about ten minutes for it.We never did get onto Hydro, in fact due to its opening hours we never even saw it move. It is only open from 2-5 pm due to the rides expense but from what I could see its a far more scary ride then Tidal Wave. I'd question whether I'd really ever want to ride it frankly.Megafobia X3Speed X2Treetops Rollercoaster X2Bounce X1Toboggan Ride X1Brer Rabbit X1Spooky 3D X1Tractors X1