Mark9

I was thinking of all the rides I've been on in the last year... and thought I'd put them in an easy to read list... you can do the same if you wish. 1.Nemesis (1994)- Probably the biggest and most successful rollercoaster we will ever see in this country. It defies description and following the B&M rule its the fastest its ever been, cutting through its pit in less then 60 seconds. If you think Inferno is a decent ride, I hope you go to Alton to be blown away. A true raw adrenaline experience. 2.Dragons Fury (2004) Ten years later Tussauds struck gold with this Maurer Sohne spinning coaster. Despite troubles with reliability this is a proper family coaster providing kids with an excellent first rollercoaster and providing surprising thrills for adults. Not to be missed and the best Maurer ride in Europe (trust me, I've done all 5 ) 3.Black Mamba (2006) Taking Nemesis's pit idea and taking it to the next level, Black Mamba is Europe's most innovatively themed ride. Its station makes any other ride looks pathetic in comparison. The ride is just hotting up and will soon be up to Nemesis standards. For now this really is one of the best Beemers in existance. 4.Tidal Wave (2000) One of Thorpe Park's only themed rides and actually one of Tussauds first rides, this Hopkins shoot the chutes is nothing special but the theming pushes it beyond the port of call. WWTP one of the most amusing Tussauds aspects of the last dcade. An almost perfect ride for the park. 5.Superman de Acero (2002) I was surprised by this. I'd heard a lot about the ride being to smooth and this is true however it packs so much variety into its two minute circuit, two air-time hills, an almost vertical first drop, seven inversions and a properly themed queue lines. The Floorless aspect adds much freedom for riders resulting in Europe's first of its kind to be a great little (big) ride. 6.Runaway Mine Train (1992) This may seem like a strange one but I find this little Mack powered coaster to be a fantastic ride. Starting off with a helix into several head-choppers before traverising through the Congo river rapids tunnel this short ride adds a lot to the park. The newly refurbished train looks fantastic and is an awesome asset to the park. 7.Oblivion (1998) Everyone praises what thorpe have done with Stealth but to be honest its a poor mans Oblivion as the worlds first vertical drop rollercoaster set the benchmark and has only just been beaten in America. The prospect of death set in the queueline as well as the huge hole add an interesting aspect to the ride and for such a short ride, it has a fantastic trick. 8.Acme Rapids (2002) This is what all UK rapids aspire to be in terms of wetness, this is an incredibly wet ride. The little sprayers added around the ride actually make sense and the wave machine got us utterly soaked. Its an aspiring little ride hidden away in toon world of Warner Madrid but is worth the find as one of the best in Spain. 9.Hex (2000) 2000 really was a hit year for Tussauds, especially with Hex which focuses on a local legend to create an atmospheric, enchanting ride. For those that haven't ridden I won't ruin the surprise, but it is definitly a must ride on anyones visit to the park. 10.Alpine Express (1984) Another Mack powered coaster, this time the first ever. Built in Europa Park the ride zooms into a tunnel where it is greeted by fire and water effects and a huge steel dragon which claws at the train. Not to be missed by anyoneThose that almost made it onto my top 10:- Grand National, Duel, Air, G'Sengte Sau, Tarantula Add yours if you like

Why did you do spit in the first place? Or were you showing off? Were you being a typical thorpe park stereotypical traveller child? The questions just keep on coming.

I'll tell you how it went on Monday

For a comparative study as a normal guests to Thorpe Park you won't get on all the rides in one day. For a start theres schemes such as Fastrack to halt your progress, closed rides or rides running on reduced capacity (Rush, Stealth). Let us compare to Europa Park where even with all rides running theres just to much to do in 9 hours to fit it all in. I went twice this year and must have missed out half the park in the process.. this on a 9am-8pm day.

Oh that is nasty!

Who isn't these days

Heres a comparison. People come off Flying Fish with a sort of unhappy smirk on their faces.Whilst on the Runaway train and the RMT at Alton which are properly themed rides they get a lot of praise and even cheering as they are well designed rides. You obviously didn't read what I said then. Lots of people buy fastrack and even if they didn't on the low throughput world that is Thorpe Park queues are still heavily effected by even a small number of fastrackers.

Every parks supposed to make a profit, the difference is Thorpe are already making a profit, so why have the fastrack prices increase every 3 months. If Thorpe had built high capacity rides to cope then fine, they haven't. Parks Like Europa don't do it and they get an incredibly healthy attendence, compared to Thorpe that has a very bad consistency.

Fastrak started in 1998 and was only on Dragon Falls and Oblivion I believe. The system was a bit crap as you had to have a ticket to ride, you couldn't just go into the queue. It stuck around for a while before being replaced and added onto Colossus and Air in 2002, since then being added to several attractions. It did used to be free but they started charging in 2004. Chessington's fastrack system started out at ?2 dont ya know.

Ladies and Gentleman, raise your glasses. Chessington no longer exists

I'm sure the parks look at it an excellent view. However you forget that they need to keep the guests happy and by having these ridiculous methods of queueing word of mouth fails. If all that queue goes away and says how horrendous queues are at Thorpe, they are unlikely to visit again. Thus damaging Thorpe's return visits. Yes theres new guests coming every year but they need to keep oldies happy to. It is profitable but thats the problem. So many low throughput rides and it doesn't work. You can hardly say Fish was breaking the bank and yet look how Fastrack prices have risen this year.Extreme(Colossus, Nemesis Inferno, X:\No Way Out, Tidal Wave or Loggers Leap) ?7.00Adrenaline(Rush, Samurai, Slammer, Vortex) ?7.00Stealth ?4.00Ultimate(Unlimited Fastrack rides all day!) ?40.00From what used to be ?4 at the beginning of 2006 to a 75% increase by May 2007. Thats the problem with fastrack.

Let me explain why fastrack is rubbish:-The idea behind is that by creating a stand by queue you are reducing the main queue as some come back at later times. By having it on a few rides the effect isn't to bad. However Thorpe's methods mean is it 9 or 10 rides have it. The only two major rides being Detonator and Rumba Rapids. Now the problem with Fastrack is that they sell to many of them and to many options. How many does Stealth have for example. Now considering Fastrack people are the priority it means the main queue only get a look in when theres few people around as the ratio is normally 2 fastrackers to every one normal queuer. So while you say its only a rip off to those who visit frequantly, its also a rip off to normal people who have already spent 30 quid each to enter only to have those with a bit more cash on them to stroll by pass unrestrained. Its a ridiculous method of queue jumping as by having a few with reduced queuing, you have 100% more queueing longer.

Depends.... Thorpe painted it blue.... Chessington put the name of the ride on each of its pods.. so its debateable

I'm on a nostalgia trip. If you know me its no secret you probably know I'm training on Runaway Train, which incidentally was my first ever rollercoaster back in 1992. Nowadays theme park is dominated by Stealth and ride reliability. Its hard to believe I've been well into coasters for nearly 10 years. So my question to you was when did you really get into rides and attractions and was there a ride that helped push you into it?My story isn't exactly complicated but looking back it was a very humble start. It was June 1998. Having not ridden anything huge for several years, as a small 10 year old I was extremely excited to go back to the "best day out in the South". Upon arrival in what is the South car park I looked to my left and saw the beigey brown track of Vampire, Smugglers Galleon swinging over the trees and felt my excitement grew. On that day we The Old Crocks Ralley (what is now Toadies Crazy Cars), Carousel, Safari Skyway, Toytown Truckers, Dragons River, Terrortomb, Flying Jumbos and Seastorm. It wasn't until lunchtime, eating at McDonalds and watching the old Vampire falling from lift two and swinging majestically over the treetops on its Fangtastic adventure that I felt myself becoming who I am today. Ironically my favourite ride of the day was Seastorm and it was to be well over a year until I rode Rattlesnake, Vampire, Rodeo, Runaway Train and all the overs but Chessington has always and will probably always be my favourite theme park as it introduced me to so much. Despite the park falling from grace I still believe it to be an enchanting place with an excellent variety of rides for all the family.So what was it that got you into theme parks. I hope my story hasn't bored you to much lol.

I'm 18.... 19 in less then 2 months. Damn it.

I had a weird dream where I was operating Runaway Train at Chessington.. then I realised it was reality. My god I love Operating that ride it has got to be the most fun thing ever!

ALEX CALM DOWN.....ok Maybe I need to calm down.

Thing with the B&M standard lay-out is that it works. It throws 7 inversions in successfully and will draw in the crowds. I think a lot of parks are trying new things wit the layouts though such as Inferno with the pre-lift opener, Hydra with the Jo-Jo roll, Black Mamba in general and little Demon at Tivoli. I think the standard B&M lay-out works though, certainly took nothing away from Superman de Acero in Spain, in fact it added a large amount of variety from the smaller Beemers which over-do it on the corkscrews.

Right. So by definition Nemesis, Inferno and the Batman rides are s**t because they are smaller then things such as Montu and Patriot. Come on give me a proper reason as size means nothing if you are actually interested in rides.

Why is Colossus a kiddie coaster compared to Kraken exactly?

Which they are in the new animal enclosures next to the hotel...

The Bear Hunt which opened on Saturday is a look out for bears through the Canadian Rockies.. so what do you think of the Canada Creek alterations and the attraction itself?I thought it was bloody excellent and Tussauds first real attempt at theming at the park since Tidal Wave. Considering it seemed to be a last minute thing, it's really been pulled of nicely. Its a bit short but considering its using something that otherwise would have been left blank its a great little ride that Families will enjoy.

Stick to the coke can

Fury had some issues today... its queue was about an hour all day

I'd just like to say its not really Thorpe's fault that rusty water landed on you. I doubt they did it deliberately.. they give you free tickets, there wasn't much more they could do.