Mark9

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

Ggrrr. Am I the only one that hates those give blood adverts. I WOULD IF I ****ING COULD Grrr...

You can call it that but all I know is I was in Th13teen's queueline at 9:55 whereas I was still waiting on the Colossus bridge for Saw at 10:30. The proof is in the eating and Th13teen beat Saw's opening day hands down.

Saw opening at 10:30... was not on time.

Oh get a life mate, no ones "picking" on Thorpe at all, comparisons between Saw and Th13teen giving to that their Merlins only rollercoasters built at old Tussauds parks and both rides are incredibly similar in that both have pointless outdoor sections but excellent indoor bits.I like both rides, I just find it interesting how different both opening days were.

If the park was dead that would easily explain only one train on Inferno, although the queue and time between people being let on is stupid.Thorpe has definitly improved though, I think most would agree with you.

Jumping the gun a bit haha, most of us haven't even seen Wild Asia yet

True, but they were 3 second blipverts to get people talking about what Th13teen could be. The main advert wasn't shown until Th13teen has opened.Kobra is on a slightly lower scale and if anything it will be the area thats advertised, not Kobra.

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