Mark9

Because most of Alton's rides were running properly. A breakdown can happen at any occasion in the season, I've heard that oblivion had some downtime, Air had some downtime (Air and downtime, no way?!) and Hex was down for a day or so. By your logic, Thorpe shouldn't have opened their doors until about May last year with the amount of downtime and relaibility issues they had. Alton is presumably opening because it has two hotels full of people for half term. Why not sponge a bit more money out of them by opening the park and most of the big rides.

What they do with Runaway at Chessington is put only the very essential parts of the train back on the track then run it in at every speed. It's a mind-numbing process as with 9 speeds and each speed has to do a certain amount of hours round the track. I don't think they can quite do that at Alton as the train has to run at quite a high speed to get back up the hill to the station.

Mores the pity...

Just to comment on a few of those... Nemesis wasn't originally supposed to be open at all so the fact they rush opened their best ride for a single week of opening is a huge plus for the park. Oblivion seems odd but then again, it's not unexpected especially in the cold conditions for the ride to play up.Duel and Hex have effects off all through the season so that can't really be blamed on the park not being ready.Runaway Mine Train thing is very interesting..., unless the operators are putting it on half speed (or lower then max) for some reason then it should't be running any slower then last year.

Right...Does that mean that even though I made a point of going to guest services twice last year to compliment excellent staff, I'm still not allowed to post on here about the experiences I had. Can I comment on good experiences I had two years ago or do I still have to let Thorpe know through the official channels even though said staff member probably doesn't work there anymore.Not that I ever go "OH CHOO CHOO LADY WAS THE BEST EVER" (Real name not used so I do not offend), but it just seems like a slightly petty rule.Maybe you need to add this to the terms and conditions then because I had no idea this rule was in place...

Or the actors will get really bored doing the same thing day in, day out that they won't put as much effort in to scare the guests...

Why exactly?Considering at Christmas you had two whole topics devoted to voting the best staff members at Thorpe and Chessington, why is a simple mention in here disallowed?

Then why do ride staff have to physically check peoples bars, why do they have to actually do ride and queue line announcements and talk to guests when rides have broken down, why do they have to TALK to people when they have fastrack or when they batch people onto rides?I'm not a ride guy anymore either.

You inviro guys are supposed to go un-noticed. People expect Thorpe to be clean, it's not a right its just agiven.

I'm not really that excited this year for some reason. I'm going Alton on open day but I just feel so cold toward Thirteen, it doesn't interest me at all so the thought of that 2 hour plus queue is filling me with so much dread.Now.. Runaway Mine Train and Nemesis, that is the ultimate combo.

G'Sengte Sau. It's a bad picture I know but its there woo. It's weird that in this country you have to do like five hours training to operate a Carousel, whilst in Germany you don't even have to read a manual and they let you opertae thier coasters.

Well it is its best rollercoaster from well every single standpoint actually so its a shame the little things are letting it down. I would love for all the newer Thorpe Park people on this forum to ride it back in 2003 to see how perfect the experience was.

Haha... A tacky rollercoaster made worse and look at that queue to.. LOL.

Ironically, the last time I commented in one of these kind of threads, the park decided to do a lot of them. For instance, I said the entrance to the car parks should be made safer as coming out of the car parks can be quite hazardous.. and lo and behold theres major work happening on the North car park. Hurrah!Improve the toilet facitilies. Aging and delapidated, a lot of the toilets are frankly awful and need sorting out. There's no point having "this toilet was last checked at __" signs if they don't use them and the toilets are bad enough anyway.More emphasis on "keeping the magic". What I mean by this is there is no point in the park adding beautiful things and improving scenery in the Zoo if the back of the Sealife centre is on show for everyone to see. It looks particularly bad from Skyway. It needs disguising somehow or at least covered.A better entrance. I think that is essential. Thorpe has a brilliant entrance, Legolands is inspirational with the little Lego men and the beautiful view over Windsor. Alton has a Monorail to give you glimpses of the park. Chessington at North has an old tower saying "welcome to Chessington" which is lacking any kind of inspiration. You then walk out through Admissions and just see grass with no real clear way of where to go to get to the rides (Which is what people go for first when visiting). I'm sure that space could be so much better with something more exciting then some Skyway supports and a well looked after garden. Better signage at the park is essential and it needs to be clearer. There is no point in having arrows at fixed point if the arrows themselves can be turned around by any guests. Safari Skyway, severly needs an over-haul. After 24 years, those Trains look terrible with no refurbishment since the park first opened. Either need replacing or sprucing up because the faded yellow looks embarressing. The same could be said for the rockwork at Runaway train but then Outift said thats all been redone anyway...They are my main thoughts if I was in charge. but I am not so never mind !

I'm not surprised mate!

I've got a further interview for Southern on Monday.. As my assesment went so well last friday I have a small amount of confidence this time as opposed to my assesment where I couldn't sleep.Have to say, very excited about this, I haven't had a proper permanent job for three years now.

I'm really sorry, I'm so so sorry but your post is the hardest thing I've ever tried to read.Could you edit it and put some full stops, capital letters and commars in it please.

It's things like that which make me wonder why I ever stayed at Chessington for 5 years...

Apparently so...

Argh, I have a job assesment for Southern Railway tomorrow and I'm really feeling the nerves right now =(!

Breaking News:- I was slapped by Keith last year.This guy is a menace to society!

I've forgotten how (excuse my language) ****ing awful school can be. I was bullied because of my ears, my accent and in primary school, one particular guy thought it was incredibly funny to bully me over the fact my brother had just died. It's very hard to say, just try and ignore it when they seem to be pushing it on you. Keith has said what I would do and its the only way to help the situation. You don't deserve to be treated like that, no one does.

I sold Andy Murray a picture frame at John lewis last year, I accidently split Davina McCall from her group of kids when platforming at Safari Skyway and I had the woman who plays Heather in Eastenders apologise to me after Alex Guy told her she was to big to ride Dragons Fury a few years back.I was also the operator of Dragons Fury when Jordan decided to get publicity by visiting the park, same with Jodie Marsh, I saw Marcus from Big Brother 4 at Chessington once. Finally I met Russel T Davies the writer of many of Doctor Who's stories from the last five years and Julie Gardner the producer. Lizo from newsround was also there but who cares about him!

The Train to Chessington is easy. You either get it from London Waterloo, Clapham Junction or anywhere along its route and the park is ten minutes walk from Chessington South Station. You can get the 71 bus just opposite the station if you are really lazy.

I'm really not being rude here. You would make an awesome colomnist for a national newspaper. Or failing that, a Womans magazine journalist.