Mark9

As you know Micheala, it takes me a long time to get to Thorpe as well.. I just only see certain rides as essential to ride every visit and others I will ride if they have small queues. Whenever I visit, I feel 'happy' as such if I have been on Colossus, Inferno, Saw: The Ride, Stealth and Detonator. Everything else is inconsequential. Obviously its different for everyone, I was just adding a bit of perspective that the amount of rides Jamie_Hk got on wasn't actually as bad as his trip report made out. But then again, thats just my own view on visiting theme parks and isn't the rule

We're posting posters mocking the Tory campaign because they are funny. In the same way that you post pictures of things such as men holding giants chickens and HATERS GONNA HATE, I find the Tory mick take posters funny.Another thing, I don't have to justify my vote to you, neither do I have to give reasons why I will vote a certain way. But so TPM doesn't come across as some kind of namby pimby Labour hotbed (A bit like how the BBC is always accused of its Labour bias) heres a Labour mick take poster.

Pete, instead of being a idiot and as you have operated a log flume in the past, could you just explain what has happened, next time. Cheers.

Rattlesnakes lift-hill has two speed settings although unless it was heavy rain there would be no reason for it to be on the slow speed.

I went over Easter Weekend and yeah thats a pretty accurate count on things. Both days I went at around 11 am Air and Nemesis were still dead and according to signage boards so was Oblivion. It's a huge gamble if you want to bother with Sonic Spinball to be honest, on both days it was a 45 minute queue for the majority of the day. Th13teen, even if the queue is outside the entrance and queueing towards where Ug Swinger used to be will still be a maximum 90 minute queue. Rita is dodgy, on one day it was 15 minutes and the next it was 60 minutes.

1) Because we live in a democratic society and can vote for whoever we want.

I find it a kind of balancing act when I visit theme parks these days? Is it about the amount of rides you go on or the great times you've had with your friends on the rides you did get on. I've had days at Thorpe Park where I've been on 30+ rides but they pale in comparison to days where I've only been on 5 rides. Reading through your trip report, you got on three rollercoasters, two decent flat rides and a decent water ride. So I wouldn't be to down about it.

I didn't know you and Oufit were at work when you post on TPM?!

Adventurers...

MATT SMITH EASILY Jelly tots or milk buttons

10 o clock before its open (if it even opens on time) and after 6 when the park is closed. It's the new rides, its autmotically going to be busier then most other rides in the park. You'll be very lucky to go in the easter week and not have to queue at least 40 minutes for it. The only advantage going to Rita first and then over to Th13teen is that Th13teen's queue moves much faster due to it's higher throughput.

Interesting question! I think its 16,000 personally. However on that Sky day back in 2008 they were telling us 24,000. So really I think a lot of what they think of as "to busy" is down to the park manager that day.

My linkSeriously? Are people bloody insane... What next? Too Welsh? Too Sci-Fi? I can understand complaining about rude language and the like, but a woman in a mini-skirt? Give me a break.

1) You know on RMT when you go through the tunnel and everyone ends up waving at the Rapids boats? Same thing on Rita or Th13teen. If on the lift hill to Th13teen and Rita's nearby, give everyone a little wave. :P2) Some new Th13teen theming for y'all3) I don't think Nemesis being the best thing we will ever see is a bad thing. We should just be happy that we have it and that in this country we have such a wide range of rides and attractions! Considering the size of the UK we have two launchers, a flyer, a dive machine, three euro-fighters, two B&M inverters, two maurer spinners, a ton of flat rides that are very unique such as Slammer and some amazing woodies such as Grand National and Megafobia. This country is certainly not short changed when it comes to variety of ride experiences.

True, although I do like some of the newer monsters such as Luxray, Breloom and Staraptor. I get more annoyed with the amount of Legendaries there are these days. In the original gen, 5 was absolutely fine. But now theres about 30 of them and I get so fed up with the repetitive nature of trying to catch them.And don't even get me started on the event ones such as Mew, Celebi and Darkrai. Because of those..... gits, my pokedex will never be complete.

So went again, this time a hotel visit and had a great time (even though the reliability was pretty awful to be honest)Day UNO!Arrived at around.. erm well 9:20 and decided to use the Woodland Walk to get to the park. Bad idea, apparently despite the fact most of the ERT rides are near the hotel, you have to catch the Monorail all the way to the entrance just to come all the way back. Stupid planning frankly, makes the woodland walk completely pointless. So decided to catch the monorail, however that had a 30 minute queue so instead took a walk to the entrance instead. At entrance, LED boards showed us that Charlie & the chocolate Factory and the Rapids was closed. Not a good start, but we pressed on over towards Forbidden Valley for the obligatory ride on Nemesis. Noticed Air hadn't opened on time so ignored that and headed back through Katanga for rides on Duel and RMT. No choo choo lady unfortunately. She'd become Heave-Ho lady for the day. Turns out Th13teen was having a load of issues as we didn't manage to get a ride on it. Everytime we headed over it was either being evacuated or had closed for some kind of technical fault. Instead went on Rita which is run so much better then Stealth. I get so fed up with the Thorpe equivalent, for instance I have never seen Stealth on two trains, I have never seen it open all day, everytime I go near it it's seems to be closed. Rita in comparison is so much better and for a longer ride time and more variety of experiences (Including the newly acclaimed hand wave at Th13teen moment which I have decided is as good as the Congo/RMT interaction). Rita does have its issues, but for me it's the better ride.Queue times were kind of weird really, Spinball's queue was at 60 minutes, whilst Nemesis and Rita were at 10 minutes max all day (well everytime we saw them). During the heavy rian we took a ride on Squirrel Nutty and Riverbank Eye-spy before getting some buffet pizza, a final front row ride on Nemesis and back to the hotel to rest with M&S food and beer.Took the obligatory visit to the Bars, first off to ATH, where despite Chris being 23 and one of his friends being 30, they were asking everyone for ID. Apart from me, apparently I look about 40 as I had no issues buying alcoholic beverages. The entertainment wasn't bad actually, some nice eye candy on show there. Only complaint is that it doesn't last very long and is slightly camp..So headed over to Splash Landings which is slightly more relaxed. The cocktails at Alton are certainly worth it, especially with annual pass discount. We had about 4 cocktails and was a bit drunk. I was worse for ware in the morning, in fact we only woke up because kids were running down the hall past our room.Day twoSo feeling slightly ill, we decided to take it slightly easier. Went to the Monorail at about 10. Bloody hell, I don't know what the hell was going on here but for some reason every 10 minutes they would just stack up all the trains outside the car park station. Took us half an hour to even get to the park entrance. People in our carriage were very impressed by the Corkscrews at the entrance, I fully stand by my first impression of them. They are excellent. For people that say Merlin only care about making money, the corkscrews didn't just fall through a bucket of purple paint before landing in perfect position at the parks entrance. Headed over to Rapids which because Th13teen was having MAJOR opening issues, had opened before 11. Same with the Flume. Got very wet, it was all lovely. Rode RMT, Duel and Nemesis before heading to Th13teen which had opened at about 12. We queued about an hour and 15 minutes for a front row seat whcih I thought for a new ride, in the easter holidays was perfectly acceptable. The staff didn't seem very happy or enthusiastic. When we asked if we could go front row the attendent just said "If you really must". Another staff member, when I told him there was a single seat on the front row, just shrugged it off and told me not to worry. Talk about making his job harder, the single rider queue line must have been an hour long as it was. As for the ride, my impression of it has grown. The front row is easily the best row as you get nice little pops of air time in the crypt section and backwards parts. It actually took me by surprise. When the stupid hype for this ride wears off, it will be seen as the solid and fun ride that is, not the ultimate terror coaster.With Charlie still closed we decided to go on Oblivion next. 5 minute queue?! Coudln't believe our luck. Well until someone decided to run into a ride area delaying the ride by about 10 minutes. Next, Spinball. WTH! 10 minute queue?! In some respects Th13teen opening late was a blessing as all the other rides seemed empty in comparison. Took a final spin on Nemesis, the only way to end (and begin ironically) a trip. To go out on a limb, the best ride this country will ever see. I don't think anything can ever take it over.Ride CountNemesis X5 (2 front row)Oblivion X2Air X1Rita X1Th13teen X1Sonic Spinball X1Blade X1Duel X3RMT X2Congo X1Mauraders Mayhem X1Heave-Ho X1Hex X1Enterprise X1Squirrel Nutty X1River Bank Eye-spy X1BreakdownsCharlie - CLOSED- both days, Congo opened late on Day one, Th13teen late on Day two. Ripsaw twice, Submission, Rita, Th13teen, Flume, Air had breakdowns.Congratulations if you got to the bottom here, I just had a lot of musing during my trip.

Someone must have been to Legoland this year, whats the new area like? (Or should I say a pirate theme thats just been slightly rejuvinated)

4) Should be THORPE PARK

Erm not really. Mainly because I don't competitively battle. I've got a few star performers, the rest are all just for the pokedex. My Diamond was started in 2007.

Erm not really. Mainly because I don't competitively battle. I've got a few star performers, the rest are all just for the pokedex.

I've got 12 badges now, but I've decided to slow down a tad and go back to catch all the little terrors. Even though Diamond is my main game (443 caught, I thank you), I'd like Gold to become my dominant one. So this morning I went on a rampage catching Tangela, Mr Mine, Pikachu, Clefairy and a few of the crappy Generation three ones. <3 Feraligatr

How did you get on Nemesis when it's at Alton Towers?(Yes I know...)

To you maybe, to me they are the competition

See, I love rides with stories but something about them winds me up. For instance, with Hex, I just cannot enjoy it because you always get one smart arse who has to take the piss during the scenes before the ride. I feel uncomfrotable in there and often choose not to ride it.The thing with Terror/Forbidden tomb was that it really wasn't popular. 5th Dimension had already been a flop (great shame, fantastic John Wardley ride), and with its visitor numbers dropping at a time when Chessington was regularly at capacity, something needed to be done. I find Tomb Blaster incredibly annoying. There's a story in there somewhere about sending the curse back into History but once you're in it's just loads of flashing lights and lasers. I also feel it doesn't have any pace to it. Duel is lucky as its sometimes speeds through and at others slows to a crawl. Tomb is just one slow dull pace, with minutes of stopping and staring at things.