Mark9

Oh god, the Blackpool "Merlin are actually the spawn of Satan" enthusiasts are going to love this.

LEAVE MARC ALONE

I think the problem here is Marc's contribution to global warming and increasing his carbon footprint. I don't care particularly if he doesn't lke the rides but deciding somewhere is to busy after 5 minutes is a bit to much for me to comprehend.

Sorry, a lot of that doesn't compute. Maybe it doesn't help that everyday you say "I don't want to go to Thorpe tomorrow" and yet everyday you end up there anyway.

Right, so instead of endless topics asking us how busy the park is going to be, instead here is a rough guide to the kind of business the park/s should be expecting this season. It's not set in stone and remember business can be effected by weather, ride reliability, mount of trains/cars on the rollercoasters, amount of staff working on things, fastrack etc etc etc!10am - 5pm Weekday. Likely to be very empty, particularly in term time. Queue time should be minimal (Unless your name is Stealth and you have a stupid system where you can only load 4 in the first, 8 in the second and then you end up rolling back anyway etc etc) 10am-5pm Weekend. Will be emptyish, however likely to be long queues for Saw, Colossus, Stealth and Nemesis Inferno.10am-6pm. Busy but not so bad. Queues for the coasters could reach 45/60 minutes, whilst the rest of the flat rides should be a max of 30 minutes. June and July are when schools start rolling in, so between 11-3 the park will be very busy.9.30am-6pm. Should be busy. Queues for the coasters could reach 60/90 minutes and the rest of the rides queues will be between 20/40 minutes. Fastrack will be in operation.9.30-7pm. Expected to be busy. Queues should be similar to 9.30-6.00 close except the last hour should be quite empty.9.30-8.00 Again should be busy. At least you have a long day to get on quite a few rides. 10.00am-10.00pm Will be busy. Last year wasn't as bad as previously however if it ever hits peak capacity, queues will be up to 2 hours for the rollercoasters and between 45/90 minutes for the flat rides.Remember guys, read this guide to help if you beat the queues without wasting money on Fastrack. Also use the park well. Head to Stealth and Inferno instead of Saw and Colossus. Do rides whilst they look empty instead of following the majority of the crowds.

Were you not with Ricky... Is he not 'someone.'

That people like Chessington and then you ride in with a snidey comment despite the fact that at least Themeparkmad and Ryan spend more then 300 seconds in a place before they decide they can't be bothered.

Yes I know what you said.

Hey, if you are playing Pokemon Heart Gold/ Soul Silver, the coolest games on earth, post your teams here. I present you with Feraligatr, Noctowl, Ampharos, Furret, Weepinbell and Growlithe.

I'm sure a lot of people give a park more then 5 minutes to.

More like everytime I see a themeparkmad post, there's a post from you straight behind.

Fancy keeping your flirting off the board?Thanks.

Well.. Wild Asia. I know a lot has been said in the trip report topic, and in particular electricbill which has really stolen a lot of what I was going to say. Grr!What a fantastic area. I've heard a few people actually criticise the area and I cannot for the life of me understand why. It's almost like people are seeing the new ride at Universal Studios Florida and comparing Wild Asia to that.. Bad move guys. For me, Wild Asia is the 2010 version of why I fell in love with Chessington in the first place in the 90's. For a start, the entrance area is up there with the building you go through to enter Transylvania and the Hex towers. It really is that damn good with the ruined rocks and draped flags all around, it suits the area perfectly. Moving Bash Bus to the front to create Jungle Bus has instantly proved a success as on a quiet day (as yesterday was), it was as popular as Jumbos and Berries normally are. The shops and games stalls look excellent, Tuk Tuk Turmoil looks great and I particularly liked the music. I loved Monkey Swinger (although to be fair Billy's Whizzer was my favourite ride at Chessington anyway). The madhouse thing wasn't open. Lorikeets Lagoon was very popular which I am glad of as Chessington isn't just about the rides.. which some people seem to forget.All of that and I haven't even got to Kobra. I personally think it was the perfect ride for Chessington to get after 6 long years of little to no ride investment. It attracts attention, its visually impressive and it rides very well to. Chris even preferred it to Th13teen.. thats says a lot about the type of ride it is. My only fear is that, like after Fury, the park decides to rest on its laurels and thinks Wild Asia is all thats needed till 2016. It isn't and whilst I love Wild Asia, I want it to be the start of something, not another stop gap.

Really? I heard he got a disciplinary last year.. or so I was told.

It's like you read my mind electricbill, I really wanted to see a picture of the Zappomatic gravestone, cheers.As for Vampire, anyone noticed how loud the music was, I could barely hear what Chris was saying to me in there.

Agreed. What I don't get it with it is the park knows it is a popular ride, the engineers have been wanting it since I started there in 2005 and yet every year the same old dilapidated trains are on it and you just wonder why they can't do something with it. Merlin can have the expertise if you look at Skyride and the Monorail at Alton.

Ok so I said I wouldn't go but meh, couldn't resist. Well... Wild Asia. What a fantastic addition to the park and Kobra the most beneficial ride added to the park since Samurai in 1999. And yes I am deadly serious about this. So I'll start with the negatives really. The new area shows just how neglected the rest of the park is. Runaway train continues on it's steep decline of disrepair, Bubbleworks music, ride and atmosphere get worse, Skyway still looks like it hasn't seen a paintbrush since 1986 and don't even get me started on the vile toilets all over the park. So hwhat about the improvements? Well there is new sinage all over the park and the new car park layout is excellent and will certainly make entrance to the park safer. Reliability was excellent, we didn't see a single ride go down ( for those keeping count I've been front of the queue for breakdowns at Stealth, th13teen and Rush so far). I'll post my views on Wild Asia properly into the correct topic. Suffice to say, Chessie takes the early lead of the three old Tussauds parks... At a time when all three are at the top of their game

I hope you enjoyed it then.

Wow, just looked at those pics that James6 linked from and I cannot believe how easily Kobra just fits into the park. It's like the old days where Chessington, whilst don't get the high costing rides, go all out on the interaction, atmosphere and theme. It looks incredible.

No.. the reason Thrill Chill was cancelled was because they wanted to make sure all rides were running, not just Stealth. I totally agree with you on Stealth's reliability. We were lucky to get a go in the time it was open but to be honest with you, considering every other ride was open and open all day no less, I can't attack Thorpe on this one as it did manage to open but continuing issues with the rides overhaul has meant it is having huge problems at the moment.Coincidentally, I've been three times this season so far and today was the first time I've seen it down for most of the day. In fact it's the first ride of the season to have continuing downtime. For Thorpe thats bloody fantastic.

I personally love it. There's enough themed music in the park, the chart music sets up the park as a fun, care-free day out. Theme music in an unthemed area just doens't connect together.

Dude, I'm ok. I remembered Superman de Acero, Black Mamba and Silverstar and suddenly the world felt right again.

They were fools frankly! The Dispatch theme cut right through that station perfectly and got everyone attention. When they started adding music to the station, Inferno just wasn't as good.

Tell me about it.. Plus ones been to Magic Mountain, the other the Florida parks.And I'm stuck with Paulton's being my new park of the year, it's so not fair