Mark9

Do you visit the place more then you actually work there?

Are you calling m,e a bad member of staff then Benin Anyone who has run a single rider queue will tell you they are absolute hell. The majority of single riders are selfish bastards and when they start telling you how to do your job.. well lets just say I'm glad they removed it from most of Thorpe's rides.

Get it right Peter..

What a match... Tennis players deserve so much respect.

(you are to by the way )

I'm a bit fed up of football to be honest. Particularly England fans who jump about from "we're the best" to "we're the worst" and back again within a few days. It means sod nothing.And yet all over BBC news it's how England won one match out of three. Jesus Christ, they don't deserve any praise as they got through by the skin of their teeth.The real winners today are playing a tennis match, carried over from yesterday, that has gone on for over 8 and a half hours.Currently it's two set points each and 50 points each. Thats real passion there, not 22 players randomly kicking a ball around for 90 minutes.

And yet some never shut up about it...

The old rock-work structure was close to collapsing. It was either goodbye rock-work or goodbye dragon falls.

I disagree with this. Battle Galleons is a clear example of how Merlin aren't all that different. Now admittedly I haven't ridden it since it's opening season, but back then even two months after it opened, half the targets didn't actually do anything and on our boat only three of the eight guns worked. I don't know if the blame could be put down at Merlin's doors because after all they are a multi attraction owning company and probably care less about one gun working on one of its minor attractions. But the point is, everything should work every single time without fail.

Peter mentioned something about themed characters in the morning rush and saying theres is the best ever.... it is.. in the Merlin parks. I hate comparing to Europa but its very hard not to. Over there you won't just see the characters during the morning rush and never see them again, they have the themed characters coming round the restraunts during breakfast saying hello to the kids. This in itself is such a small detail but then you get into the park and you see groups of themed characters all over the park. I really despise the merlin themed character thing. When I operated Sea Dragons I watched Spike and Cinder come out to that little meet and greet under Fury. They honestly stand there and if no one comes after two minutes they go.. whats the point in that. When I went to Parque Warner in Madrid, the powerpuff girls chased us through Cartoon Network village to try and hug us. It's that kind of effort which is severly lacking in our parks. Our parks have women in costumes, in Europe the actors become the character.The way I see it is our parks only care about rides and attractions in their first year. Look at the way so many Merlin rides have deterioated. It's not exactly Merlins fault, Tussauds did a lot of the damage but Merlin so far haven't really rectified the rides a hell of a lot. The rebranding has worked but what I would love to see (and this is Chessington specific) is them really going to town with what is the closest park to any European attraction by throwing money at the place. Retheme Bubbleworks, refurbish Runaway Train, retrack Safari Skyway and actually show that the park is more then just the new stuff. Because really the old stuff is what is keeping our parks alive at the moment.

Here is the post I deleted purely cause.. well I dunno just didn't feel right. Something else I've also thought of. I've had this discussion with Marc quite a lot recently. Basiclaly I've been invited to the parks a few times since I've got back and I've never had any kind of inclination to visit. Even when the boyfriend said "fancy going to Alton Towers" I immediately said no. My reasoning is just that I know it cannot live up to how European parks treat their guests. Marc said in conversation that the guests in this country don't expect amazing theming, they just go for high rides and cheap thrills. Which is fine but don't we want to be totally immersed in an experience? Don't we want our expectations to be smashed and to be taken away from the real world for 7 hours and totally enthralled? Isn't that why we really go to theme parks?You tell me.

People who, despite working at a theme park or even visit theme parks every week, decide to call forum users or other coaster enthusiasts geeks/nerds/losers/saddos/anoraks.What makes you so much better then the rest of us?

If someone put together a list of Merlin rides that need some serious TLC...........

We don't live on the forum kabz. Little alarm bells don't go off in my house whenever someone breaks the T&C's.

I don't think there is a single group of enthsuiasts that you haven't insulted

Someone, Somewhere has just lost their mind.

Maybe the Kylie 4 minute orgy will be more to your tastes..

Rant Rant Rant.

Considering Big Dippers been going since the 1930's.. you probably have nothing to worry about.

Probably a grower. Will see that all over the gay bars within seconds though.

All the coolest people are

Oh sweet Jesus.. 500 quid for Alton Towers Hotel?! I mean I love that hotel, but it really isn't worth it.

Tally ho dear boy! Let us ride up to our mansion houses and get our Thorpe Park Mania slaves to cut the hedges.You dirty commoners.

Well what about Hammer and Brush? Tidal Rave? In way Out?