Mark9

What?! They didn't even bother showing what Fury actually did in the Land of the Dragon advert. It's been a long time since Chessington struck gold with the Samurai advert.

It was great to see everyone again yesterday. Park wasn't to busy, everything was open, the company was fantastic.Cheers everyone.

So a new season, and another first day visit.Well aside from some personal issues, Alton was looking very impressive. Clearly a lot of work is going on over at Alton to make the whole experience more enjoyable and nothing says this more then the entrance and the Corkscrews looping away in the plaza. They look absolutely fantastic and the new purple colour suits it perfectly. It's only when you are under them you realise just how bloody huge Corky was. Corkys info board is just below the corkscrews joining bit and is a lovely touch. With Tussauds, you always got the idea they didn't care about the look of something. Rodeo, Black Hole, Flying Fish, Boneshaker, all were just left to rot or dumped behind the scenes. With Corkscrew and Merlin, they have made me see so much more into how they operate their parks. With Wild Asia, Th13teen and Mutiny Bay already with us, I can't wait to see what they give us in the future.So anyway, back to the report. Headed over to Th13teen, queue was at the entrance. At this point we were doing a Saw VS TH13teen tally. Just which ride could open on time, breakdown very little and last the whole day? Find out at the end of this report. We joined the queue basically at the entrance and the queue was very quick. We queued.. I'd say an hour and 15 minutes including a breakdown whilst we were in the station. For an Alton rollercoaster, and a new one at that, I was very impressed. I liked the queueline, I dunno if it's a good thing but it's hard to tell what wood has been deliberately cut down to add to the theme and what wasn't. Later on, Th13teens queue would drop down to about 15 minutes. Is it a worthy replacement for Corkscrew? I'd say no to be honest. It isn't ground breaking and people certainly weren't queueing way past Hex and down towards the Log Flume to ride it. But it's what Alton needed, a solid family rollercoaster with a high throughput. Alton have shot themselves slightly in the foot with it's hype.The new Rita looks excellent. The new announcements are slightly crap, but the redone Rita cars look excellent and fits in right away with the new area. The ride itself is still ouch and it is in the way of Th13teen but thankfully, with two big rollercoasters next to each other, they will share the bulk of the queues.We saw the new Skyride station in Cuckoo Land, very impressive. I could hardly believe that 9 months ago the building was just buckled metal as it fits in right away. Finally Sonic Spinball. Just crap frankly. The day they remove this awful rollercoaster, will be a good day for Alton. Low throughput, can only load two people per car when it rains, stupid weight restrictions, stupid restraint restrictions, wrong location. This ride does nothing right. It had a 45 minute queue for a lot of the day. Ridiculous.Ride CountTh13teen - X2Nemesis X2Oblivion X2Duel, Blade, RMT, Congo, Charlie and Rita X1Oh and for final score?Ride Open on time Th13teen - Yes, Saw - NoRide Lasting all day Th13teen - Yes, Saw - NoRide queuetime? Th13teen - 75 mins, Saw- 90 mins (with no ride at the end)Ride throughput Th13teen - 1200 Saw- 800/900Ride open for preview events Th13teen - No, Saw- NoTh13teen - 4 Saw - 0

True, although the speed the Rita staff were going at on Saturday was awesome. No wonder I never saw Rita's queue above ten minutes. I've never understood why I never see Rita on one train, whereas Stealth with it's three train combo always without fail only has one train on.It's perplexing.

Yes but two points firstly.1) It has a low throughput. For the same reason Tiny truckers always has a 30 minute queue, Kobra cannot get through the people in the same way that rides like Buccaneer or Runaway can.2) It was a 13,000 gate figure day. I bet even Toadies and Griffins had a queue..I was optimistic in my earlier post, however judging a whole season on one successful day does not mean Kobra has saved the park or shown that it has pulling power either.

True but we're talking a ride with 1,200 throughput against Kobra which has a throughput of I'd say.... 450?Rita didn't seem to have a long queue to me all day tbh. Compared to the B&M cousins over in Forbidden Valley, Intamin corner was pretty quiet.

I've been soaked all four times I've ridden. You must just unlucky

Chessie has got off to a good start, frankly this area deserves it. As long as it's able to maintain the popularity for the season, merlin may really see that when you build something worthwhile, the visitors will come.My only concern is 75 minute for a Disko? Chessington really need to start thinking high capacity.

Why the attack on Stealth?Also, just to point out something important, Th13teen, a new ride's maximum queue length on Saturday was 75 minutes. Considering the different quality of the two rides, 75 mintues for a disko is embarressing.

What, no topic for Alton's new rollercoaster? Well here we are erm. Well basically in my opinion it was a pretty average ride. It wasn't terrible and it wasn't the second Nemesis. It was just a solid ride for the park with a very high throughput. In some ways th13teen ans Saw are very similar rides and are polar opposites to which is interesting. I genuinly think that if you had Saws beginning section and th13teens ending you would have an absolutely perfect ride. As it stands you have two rides with some excellent theming, some crap theming and two rides with very little actual story. I would give it 5/10

I dunno where you are coming from so what I've gone for is a general thing from London Euston to Uttoxeter. Also as a 13 year old you should be to have Child fare which would knock the price down slightly.Anywho the best way to get cheaper tickets to Alton is to pre-book in advance on the Virgin website. For instance I've got a window open up which is £24.60 return from Euston-Uttoxeter at the weekend on the 3rd April.It's best to check on there really and remember you also have to catch the bus to the park from just outside the station.

I pretty much agree with Cjw here. The irony is you are told you can't touch the actors so when they start screaming at you for help you just think... "well whats the point of me being here". I don't think I even noticed the pig people actually and a lot of the actors did there HELP HELP ME jazz then seemed to act dead..So yeah, about as scary as Wall.E looking in a fridge.

Right well erm, time for one of my all powerful trip reports from Thorpe's open day.Well to start, obviously, 100% better then last years disaster with all rides running and open for the majority of the day. They prooved me very wrong about Thrill Chill, clearly it was getting in the way of regular maintenance so a big thumbs up from me for that. Secondly, a lot of the park looks very rejuvinated with painting going on everywhere, a lot of maintenance on all the toilets on park and particularly Inferno, a lot of the effects are back to how they should be.As has been mentioned Rumba was the surprise hit of the day, really makes a difference when it makes you so wet. Samurai and Quantum also gave very good rides, which is surprising as those two are normally the most underwhelming.Now for the negatives..Well, first Saw Alive. I'll post more about it in its relevant topic but for something I wasn't looking forward to, it didn't even meet the lowest expectations. it was just rubbish really. Secondly, reliability wasn't to hot. Thorpe have this so badly so I won't drum on about it to much. Finally... Colossus is a bloody nightmare. Yes it was one train but it takes so long for that one train to do anything as the attendents constantly battle with a ride thats so stupidly designed. I am so glad we didn't even go near it till the station was near empty, otherwise I may have lost my mind.Ride CountInferno X3Colossus X2Rumba X2Saw: The Ride X1Stealth X2Vortex X1Rush X1Quantum X1Flying Fish X1Detonator X3Samurai X1Saw: Alive X1XNWO X1Bear Hunt X1Ride breakdowns:- Saw several times, Stealth, Detonator frequantly, Colossus, Rush and XNWOOverall a good day.

RICKY, MICHELA, MARC AND I WILL BE THEREYES

Who is Justin beiver??

There aren't many parks in the world that have their rides 'complete' come the rides open day. Besides you're comparing two differnet things here. If a ride has a missing piece of theming whose going to know whereas if you went to a restraunt and they were painting the walls it would make a mark on your impression of the restraunt because its obviously not finished.

No..They were still doing the finishing touches on Air, Saw, Dragons Fury and dozens of others days after the rides opened.

Am I in the best position then as I don't want to see a video of an incomplete ride area and a ride with its effects off. I've never seen a reaction to a ride be so negative to be honest.

ARGH!Right, time for Mark to avoid this topic from now on.Blipverts I can take, obscure pictures of Rita, fine. But actual secret bits.. no no.

After careful deliberation I have decided to come to this amazing TPM event.I'll bring the beer* *There will be no beer drinking, just good innocent fun

Marc on a screensaver? now I've seen everything =P!

You could sayyou queued to soon

Whats wrong with having a longer ride..

First I was like Then I was like And then I thought Why get everything else so right and then take away the best element of the ride.