Mark9

The DoubleThorpe Park - 8th September and Alton Towers - 9th SeptemberClosed Rides (or ones I never saw open)Chief Rangers CarouselColossusMr Monkeys Banana RideRipsawRide CountAir X2Nemesis X2Nemesis Inferno X2Runaway Mine Train X4Flying Fish X1Saw: The Ride X1Oblivion X1Duel X2Blade X1Stealth X1Congo River Rapids X2Log Flume Unplugged X2Heave-Ho X2Spinball Whizzer X1The Bear Hunt X1Rita: Queen of Speed X1Charlie and the Chocolate Factory X1Twirling Toadstool X1Loggers Leap X1Maurauders Mayhem X1Beastie X1Squirrel Nutty Ride X1Samurai X1Points of NoteThorpe Park's downtime was.. well bad. Colossus didn't open during my entire time there, Samurai opened at about 2, we saw Detonator also go down. Banana Ride and Carousel were down all day.Alton Towers downtime wasn't as bad, but at one point both Ripsaw (Which was down all day.. something to do with the motor) and Air (which had been evacuated) were both down making Forbidden Valley very quiet.Thorpe Park was a lot busier then Alton, however what was weird was the queues. Whilst Stealth had a 10 minute queue, Detonators queue was 20 minutes. Saw's was 30 minutes, whilst Rush's queue was 15. In comparison, whilst Nemesis's queue was only 5 minutes, Oblivion had a 30 minute. The rapids was walk on and yet we had to wait 15 minutes to get on the Flume. Bizarre..Both parks seemed geared towards the future. Thorpe is very Fright Nighty now with the Asylum sign already up whilst giant holes have appeared all over the old Corkscrew site. Favourite ride of the trips was definitely the Runaway Mine Train. Choo Choo lady!

Those roadworks on the M25 at J17 are an absolute bitch and have added queues to where there were no queues before. When I last drove to Alton Towers it took me 2 and a half hours to get from Junction 9 of the M25 to the M1... Usually it takes half an hour.. so yeah watch out for the roadworks.Shame on you Themeparkbloke, not taking a driving break

They are put on the back because if the ride was to break down at any time with the trains on the lift sections, they are the first section to be evacuated as they may not understand a break down or are likely to have the most distress and so would be the first people taken off the ride. It has nothing to do with the ride being less/more intense on the back rows. The same procedure happens on Nemesis Inferno, Nemesis and Air.

The only reason (if any at all) it was extended was because the new land is not 100% confirmed yet. It needs approval to be granted, so there is no point in the park closing Beanoland and starting demolition if it is not actually allowed to proceed with its plans.

Small question.. why? The power cuts would have no bearing on the parks future.

Vampire has a longer queueline then Dragons Fury so holds more people. Vampire's throughput can be up to 1000, whilst Fury's maximum is 700. Hence why Vampire can have a much longer queue, especially if it is only on 2 trains.

I personally think that along with Billy's Whizzer, Black Buccaneer is Chessington's best ride. I find it quite odd that at Buccaneer the staff are encouraged to interact with the guests whereas on Blade at Alton Towers, the operators just look so bored and depressed.But yeah, love the Buccaneer, that low height restriction really disguises how intense the ride actually is.

Now now, Thorpe has done really well with its reliability this year, in fact all three of the old Tussauds parks have improved on ride up-time. It was probably for the best you didn't wait around for Vampire, lets put it this way, the park closed at 6:15 and the ride was still running with guests on at 7:30. We could hear it from the Monkey Puzzle.

Ah yes... yeah that's wrong I'm afraid.

Who said someone was coming down from Alton Towers.

I'd say Fury and Vampire are equally as important to be honest. Neither was set out to be THE ICON and yet both rides are iconic for the park in their own right.Besides, it re-opened today around 3 o clock.

It re-opened yesterday. It actually swapped places with Vampire as that is currently unavailable.

LOL... no.

You'd be amazed at how often the race card is played..

Bins or rubbish left all over the floor.. you decide.

It's really refreshing to hear some Chessington trip reports full of praise. I'm glad you guys had a good day and that the park is impressing people this season.

Dragons Fury is far more intense then a lot of people give it credit for. Just get the right weight combination and well.. I've seen grown women cry after it.

There is such a huge number of Annual pass holders that instead of queues going down at Fury/Vampire, the queue times were getting longer. 30 Minutes for express pass queue and 90 Minutes for the main queue between 5 and 6 is beyond stupid.

It's only been decided in the last two days that Ap entrance between 5-6 will no longer happen.

That's happening no longer I'm afraid....

I personally prefer Oblivion, the fall feels far more forceful and it feels like a longer drop. Saw's is over to quickly and well bloody hurts.

Nah it can't run with 8 cars. I know a few of the Spinball op's and they say its for the same reason as Oblivion, Fury and Rattlesnake.

It does.. It's weird but I've stayed at the hotels every year since 2005 and always have a fantastic time. As a driver it's also lovely knowing you don't have to do the drive up and down in one day but rest overnight.Definitly worth staying in.. especially for the Alton Towers hotel lift.

You may not, other people do.

Chessington is more like Alton Towers in that it takes a while for certain rides to build up, whilst others will have a long queue from the word go.I've always suggested that if you do not get to the park straight away do not even bother with Dragons Fury as everyone who comes through South Admissions pours straight away into Fury's queue meaning it can get up to a 60 minute queue almost immediately. Instead in the first two hours Runaway Train, Dragon Falls, Tomb Blaster, Rattlesnake, Billy's Whizzer, Black Bucaneer and Safari Skyway will still be relatively empty as the majority of people are stuck in Dragons Fury, Vampire and Bubbleworks queues.At around 1 all those rides I suggested will be incredibly busy whereas Fury queue especially will go down a lot, sometimes down to a 15 minute queue.If you are planning a trip for August, the park has been very busy of late so here are some average queue times Dragons Fury 60-80 MinutesVampire 50-70 MinutesBubbleworks - 40 MinutesRunaway Train 30-60 MinutesTomb Blaster 40-70 MinutesDragon Falls 70 MinutesDodgems 40 MinutesRattlesnake 30-40 MinutesSkyway 30 MinutesA few other things. Annual pass holders can use the Express Pass queueline between 5-6pm but often the queue for this on Vampire and Fury is very long. Dragon Falls has also had some technical problems recently and has opened at about 2pm for the last few days.