Mark9

Interesting place to have a theme park discussion but here goes:-Thorpe park relies purely on the mazes at its fright night main events. I mean its fair enough, they are a massive draw for guests and their popularity means Thorpe don't have to do anything park wide. But why shouldn't they? I mean they make a hell of a lot of money at fright nights, it is after there the biggest two weeks the park has all year. So if Cwoa can cater events such as many actors around park, trick or treat mazes, Halloween theming dotted in and around the place and several smoke machines then why do Thorpe rest on their laurels and keep the smoke machines at the entrance, Samurai (that's never been seen before after all) and Inferno where the smoke machine is anyway. They don't need to do silly kiddy theming, they can be far more extreme with the theming considering the target audience of the park.It seems to be that with Hellgate and Assylum, they've got them set to a tee. Both have had great reviews this year and work well. The other two aren't nearly as good (judging by reports from you lot). So it seems to me that Thorpe know Fright Nights are a success, they put not as much effort into the event as they used to.That being said, Halloween Hocus Pocus this year is not as good theming wise as the last three years. Less stuff dotted around and less pumpkins. Still, they've got a smoke machine outside the Mexican diner and I could barely see to park Runaway on Sunday

Its a very good idea for a theme park but it was just built at the wrong time. With the global credit crunch hitting and the lack of interest in the park its had a pretty disastrous first season despite opening new B&M Led Zepplin and having some interesting unique ideas such as the Ferris wheel lift-hill. If it can open and recover well we're be hearing more things from Hard Rock.

Marc defending Thorpe to the bitter end as always. The money Thorpe makes from its millions of fastrack schemes per day could probably run the mazes for an entire year. As could pissing off hundreds of people as its star attraction launches a train every ten minutes.

Do it(I apologize fellow admins and moderators but this is something I must see!)

Your turn first Simon

Thats such a moot point. If people are travelling 100's of miles to be at Chessington they probably wouldn't be able to access the internet that easily. If they did its doubtful they would cancel a trip on that basis anyway. Secondly, as you said a ride status can change very quickly. I agree, should be on the website but Cwoa and Alton have never been good at that. We had no idea Hex was to be closed and I didn't know Oblivion was closed for the first day of my two day visit last month. Thorpe are the only ones who have ever been good at that sort of stuff. But that's the only credit I can ever give to them.

We need pictures of all these hot gay guys people..

That's true HOWEVER, at the entrance it was made explicitly clear Dragons Fury would not be available on Friday.

Hey Stealth Supreme, I'm about to disporve everything you just said, so enjoy this.Firstly the engineers attempted to get it open on Friday. They didn't succeed because the ride wasn't having any of it. I was in the park on Friday between 12 and 5. I saw engineers in the control box, on the ride platform and at the top of the lift hill.Secondly, Friday and Saturday had equal amount of guests. There was a couple 100 more on Saturday but not nearly enough to justify them closing Fury for a whole day just to piss a few people off. You may also notice Fury is back open, Bash Street Bus is not. The fact they got Fury open at all when it was due to be closed for the rest of the season shows that Chessington's engineers put their best into getting it open for half term week should be complimented, not criticized just because it wasn't open on your visit.Frankly your point about Falls and Tomb is neither their nor here. Fury's staff aren't just split round those two rides, they aren't part of the same area. To add to this it costs more to run Dragon Falls per hour then Fury so surely if they were cutting costs they'd get Fury open straight away.Now Stealth, here's the crux of things. Alex and I work at Chessington. You can believe what you want but when we say they were trying to fix the rides, we're telling the truth. Its the same for all of the Merlin group. If rides are down behind the scenes the engineers are working their arses of to get them open.

TPM is way to much fun for one day, in fact I'd go as far to say I am practically a jumping bean at the thought of Rich as a TPM admin.

I might buy a Mac, just so I can post my setup in this topic.

Bloody Hell! Now tell me fastrack isn't ridiculous. How is that reducing any queues when its creating 2 and a half hours worth of queue for anyone who has the audacity not to stump up more money.Bloody disgrace.

See, now I lose all respect for you.Why in the effing hell would they want to keep it shut. They were attempting to get it open on Friday.. however it wasn't to be. They then took several hours in the morning on Saturday to get it open.. which it did at 12.Why don't you get all the information and ask someone (for instance someone who works at Chessington) nstead of just assume they couldn't be bothered.

Announcing Rich as a new moderator on the forums. Be nice to him.. he knows owls in high places. Seriously though..

It also re-opened yesterday.

Yeah I know what you mean. If people said "I don't mind black people, I just don't want them around me" that would be called racist but if you said "I don't mind gay people, I just don't want them doing things near me" that's seen as perfectly acceptable.Nice one Tommy, now bring home all your gay friends and have big gay events...

Click HERE!FACEBOOK FAIL!

If it was the headline then yes, very slow day.

Our resident Area 2 operator.. does not operate Berry Bouncers. So who knows.

You said it does your head in but then you went and found a way of having a little dig at Windows anyway.

I think the thing with Alton's fastrack is that their rides can handle the system. Nemesis, Air, Oblivion and The Flume, The lowest one there is Nemesis and even that's 1200 which is an impressive number. Then look at Thorpe. They've got it on rides like Samurai and Vortex which are terrible at eating through people.Alton also have reliable rides (with the exception of Rita ) which means you are less likely to get everyone from Oblivion trying to go on Air for example. Alton have the system far better with much less tickets given out meaning there is less impact on the queue itself.Things like the Ultimate at Thorpe really do get on my nerves. For instance tpKabz for example. Riding Stealth 35 times. I mean was it really that different from the first or second time you rode it that day. I can understand the normal fastrack's parks sell but the ultimate really is one I don't like.

You must have some terrible luck then! It's had 5 closed days this year making it one of the more reliable rides of the year.

It wouldn't be because they've only just noticed it. It may be because something has happened on park.

I have more chance with Kelly Clarkson so I'm thinking her.Pizza or I dunno, an elephant

Apparently the actors really don't like it when you are chatty to them like that..But as long as you had fun