Mark9

The Mine Train is sheer class, easily one of Alton Tower's best rides. It has a fun factor that the other powered rides in the country don't have and I really really love the way that as you go through the Rapids tunnel everyone waves at each other.The ride ops are also in my opinion the best team in the whole of the Merlin group. Always happy, always interactive and they always make it a pleasure to go on their ride.

Ummm... "Shirts and shoes must be worn for the duration of the ride" UMMM BAD THEMEPARKMAD!

Well basically, Quantum used to have carpet ends on its sides. Around May 2004 it was found the ends had cracks all in them so they were removed. At this time Settings 3 and 4 were still allowed to be used and with less weight on the carpet the ride would really fly as it went round and round. Unfortunately the ride had an over-speed warning so when it was on setting 3 and 4 the carpet went to fast and it would cut out, sometimes in awkward positions. It was decided to limit the ride to settings 1 and 2 which are far less intense. Sometimes Quantum may overcome it and be slightly intense but never to 2004 June standard where the ride far outclassed Colossus, Samurai and even Detonator.

Well it is different, it is on a lower setting, and the ride has changed. It has nothing to do with Thorpe adding more intense rides since 2003.

There's a few reasons really.1. If they are tall their head won't be supported by the headrest.2. If they have long legs the bar might not go down the required three clicks.3. It's a very tight squeeze for most guests but for tall guests it may be very uncomfortable.The Maximum height restriction isn't as strict as the minimum restriction because the staff explain to guests all the above when they get in the car.

Already won tbh.. awesome pictureMy entry =)

It's not just chavvy guests. It can be dads, mums, young children, grandads and grandmotheres. I take my phone, keys, and my wallet on all rides. Doesn't make me a chav.

Park was empty, all rides were running and they had even added Flying Fish to the ride line-up.

But they are entertaining the guests. Themeparkmad and you seem to be the only ones with a problem with this. Detonator by it's very nature is one of the only rides at Thorpe where the operator can have fun with the guests. Keeping them up longer, teasing them, pretending the ride has broken down creates a level of interaction that very few rides at Thorpe allow. As T0M has already said, the queue was below 10 minutes anyway and I'm sure the people in the queue thought it was funny that people were coming off the ride even more scared then usual.

You see that is the odd thing as my Thrill Chill trips have been my favourite trips of the year. I know the opening day was far from perfect, hence why I chose to visit a week later when the park was actually ready to go.I'm just hoping that if they have scrapped Thrill Chill that all rides will be ready to go come next years open day.

Quantum still has a bit of a kick but it's so rare these days that it does feel like a lot of effort to go on it. Shame really, 5 years ago it was defintily up there with Detonator and Colossus as the best rides on park.

In what way is it a waste of time?

Could someone link me to where Thorpe Park has expressly said that rollbacks on Stealth will never happen again...

But it did open eventually!

Fury's queue is always around that mark in the first 2 hours of the day purely because all the guests come straight through south admissions and right into it's queue-line. By about 1 the queue will have dropped down to a more respectable 25 minute queue.

It's hardly the operators fault then. If they prevented some kind of accident or something out of the ordinary then that's more important then if the breaks were messed up.

It was open today though! (along with all other rides!)

Yes but then fastrack is an add on, the entrance fee and car park charge easily pushes Alton's charges over Chessington

I've had three instance, all mobile phones. One was as a Colossus train was going through the first corkscrew, the phone landed and smashed in the queue line. The other two were both Vortex.

I personally think there a waste of money. Chessington does not get the queues that Thorpe Park gets and many of it's ride are empty for several hours at the beginning and the end of the day. For instance you could easily ride Safari Skyway, Rattlesnake, Billys Whizzer, Runaway Train, Tomb Blaster and Dragon Falls in the first hour with no queueing troubles. Fury's queue always dies down to around 20 minutes at mid-day so you could get on that then and Vampire with three trains at the moment has a faster moving queue then usual (queues recently have been around 20 minutes).Fastrack, as I have said before is for people that don't bother to plan their days properly as especially at Chessington you can easily get around the rides and save 7 pounds.As for ultimate.. well it depends if you have money to burn really. I think it is rather hit and miss to be honest as Ricky and Steve saw the other day, the queue for Fury was non-existent at 1pm and so anyone with Express passes really had wasted their money.

LOL.. guess who was that guy at Sea Dragons with Benin... I loved that rain at Fury I dids!

Nah no way! A new ride should have buzz for a couple few years, I can remember back in 2005 when Colossus would always open with a 30 minute queue from the word go.Hell Vampire and Fury always get a 40 minute queue upon opening and one of them is 20 next year!

It's more then just two visit's this year that have put members off. For instance I've been visiting Thorpe for years and every year it is the same old complaint.. ride reliability is shocking. Fine, you can say that it's not Thorpe Park's fault their rides aren't available but if the end of the day the more money thrown at the enginnering side of the park, the more open rides will be. The 14th March trip this year was really the icing on the cake to well my patience with the place. The general public have very little time to put aside for theme parks and when they visit, they want to make the most of my day with full ride availability and no rides breaking down left, right and centre.

It did used to but it was removed in 2005 as it had minimal impact on queue length and throughputs.