Mark9

I just wanted to say that I secretly think Thorpe is the best theme park in the entire world and even though you can go and have stealth, Colossus, saw, slammer, samurai, loggers, rumba, banana ride and carousel all closed at the same time, it easily beats Alton Towers is the UK's best theme park.That is because I am a Thorpe fanboy.

Basiclaly on any average Sunday the queue times for the main rides reach about 30 minutes. Seb's got it pretty much dead on except I would throw Runaway Train, Tiny Truckers, Tomb Blaster and Flying Jumbos into the mix.The difference between the parks though is that on an average friday (as yesterday was), rides like Slammer should not have a 40 minute queue. Considering last year was just as busy, Slammer's queue was rarely exceeding the 30 minute mark..If it truely was a 6000 gate figure then something really is wrong over at Thorpe.

Huh?! I haven't posted at all about my sexuality for weeks

Yes, I was at work today and our longest queue was 10 minutes for Tiny Truckers and Dragons Fury (same max queue length as Alton Towers).It was still sunny on our side of the M25 yet with none of the frankly ridiculous queue lengths.

Are they joke queue times because really this is theme parks quiet period and if Thorpe are getting hour queues for things like Slammer and Inferno then it looks like Thorpe are where Alton was in 2004, ie, never a quiet period at the park.

Like, "stick this 200 foot giant c........ up your backside?"

Well here's a good debate point for you.Chessington, despite having no new rides for 5 seasons now, can still attract 1 million guests a year. Last year the park had 1.2 million guests, the largest growth in the Merlin group off the back of a Sea-Life centre. Thorpe may have to constantly throw rides at a place to gain (ridiculously over the top) popularity. Alton, Legoland and Chessington don't.Just something to think about

As themeparkmad said, there's been new things added every year..

This dragon survived the day

Funny...

So sexy.. Seriously. That looks so daunting, even six years later, and everyone's six years older. That's gorgeous

That to me shows that you know absolutely nothing about funfairs or their rides or even what a decent showman goes through to get there ride looking in tip top condition.I'm not denying that accidents haven't happened in funfairs but then they have happened at many of our theme parks to. We've had the Runaway Mine Train at Alton Towers split in half, Thorpe's Zodiac, Slammer, Rush and Colossus throwing bits of themselves off, a girl dying on Hydro because of negligence. That's only covering what I can remember from this country. See, that is where your logic goes wrong. A funfair showman knows everything about their rides. If they are taking them apart and putting them back together every few days they are able to replace parts much more faster and are able to apply the proper TLC to their rides. The point of funfairs is to attract people with glitz and glamour. Don't even start kidding yourself that funfairs are unsafe because at the end of the day they go through the same adips testing that any theme park rides goes through.

Oh it's in there.

Because they are.

Funfairs are just as safe as Theme Parks.

Right but you see the thing is Vampire in 1990 did a lot of damage in terms of noise pollution. It was a noise machine and so since then building new rides has been extremely difficult. Building an exact replica wouldn't do much as it would be essentially the same ride at the same cost. And a major problem with doing anything to Vampire is that you've got the Bubbleworks on top. You've got to remember that Merlin have been doing a lot with Vampire recently, a new food unit built and a new refurbished queueline means that if anythings going to happen, it will not be a replacement ride.I personally think it's got a long future at the park. It's still after Dragons Fury, the parks most important ride and more notibly is almost the exact defintion of a family rollercoaster.

Samurai - face your fear - enter

I have four cats (Holly, Misty, Amber and Sasha) and a Tortoise named Speedy.

1. I would wish that I was 7 again. With my 21st birthday speeding round so quickly, I now feel so old =(2. I would be able to relive some of my happiest moments in the last few years.3. I'd cure cancer.

You really should go and read your contract with Merlin again dude..

I'd say it's sorta military but really it's to do with the unknown. The story is on the X-Sector entrance signage so maybe one day someone will take the time to read it.

Agreed.

But I'm 21 this year...

Queues are weird at Chessington. At one point Fury's queue was at 35 minutes, Runaway Trains was at 50. It's because guests move round the park in the same way so instead of every ride being busy, rides are busy and empty at certain times.For instance on an average day, Fury is always the busiest at the beginning of the day but its queue time goes down by half around lunchtime. After lunch the other rides such as Runaway train, Tomb Blaster, Bubbleworks and Rattlesnake get really busy whilst Fury and Vampire remain quite short.(Chessington Geek)

I feel really old now!It's been 10 years since I first saw Samurai at Chessington and now 10 years since I first rode Bubbleworks.Someone book me a place at an old peoples home before I fall over