Mark9

Utterly sublime. Chessington was the theme park that got me into rides and rollercoasters and my earliest theme park memory was that first room with Zappomatic. Too know that there was a heart and soul behind Fifth Dimension really makes me feel honoured to have ridden it. Although in relative terms it was a complete failure as a ride, it's humbling and fantastic to know that as a show it was revolutionary, cutting edge and completely ahead of its time. You can tell that massive lessons were learnt from the way Fifth Dimension was done when Bubbleworks opened in 1990. I applaud your video EB, it has shone a light on a ride that has pretty much been forgotten and a ride that very few people got the chance to experience.

Some rides hit you right in the gut with their immediacy in impressing you. Over the years I've done countless rides and things like The Hollywood Hotel Tower of Terror or Katun will give that immediate buzz from the get go. From ride to ride, you come away with the immense feeling of doing something at the top of the tree. Some rides take a little longer; it's why I never judge a ride solely on the first go. On this list are things like Rush, Thirteen and one that is rapidly becoming one of my favourite attractions, Space Mountain Mission 2 in Paris. I've heard all the criticisms and in some ways I understand them. It's rough, it needs new trains, it needs the old music back, the new theme isn't as good, it looks run down, half the effects don't work and so on. And yet when I'm next to the ride itself the smoke billowing and the loud roaring as a train leaves the cannon to embark on its Space mission, I get this warm fuzzy feeling inside. I feel like this is a ride geared to impress me, it wants to draw me in with it's giant cannon, it's Jules Verne furnishings, it's ride out of time look. Lets talk about the ride first and foremost, ironically for me one of the least important parts of Space Mountain. I think it's great. Whilst the ride has never done well in enthusiast circles (It sits at 246 on the Mitch Hawker Poll for example), that original well paced layout punctuated by three inversions and a matching soundtrack runs rings around sister ride Rock N Rollercoaster next door. The proximity of new (or re-working effects maybe) such as the corkscrew through an asteroid storm or the way the first inversion takes a long time of winding through the building before hitting you is a great piece of coaster design. The lift hill towards the super-nova always messes with me, at first I couldn't work out what was happening and I'm not exactly a rookie enthusiast. The final inversion, well I still couldn't put a name to what it is without checking rcdb. So really, what I'm trying to say is that even though it has a fair bit of bite to it, this is a ride I would love to ride again and again. Unlike many, I don't find the ride particularly rough. That being said, I also rather enjoyed Goudurix.... My only criticism of this rollercoaster is the horrid jolt as you sit on the launch track. I've never enjoyed the backwards motion as you engage with the launch drive. The massive slow down at the top of the building is also a slight pace killer although thankfully it's almost forgotten the moment you descend into 'space.' In the time since I first rode this attraction, it has gone through a lot of changes. It currently sits in the middle of a massive refurbishment plan. All the signage and the ride building has all been cleaned up and a lot of ride effects such as the smoke that billows from the cannon or the meteorite strikes are now thankfully working. Its heavy rumoured that during its next refurb next year that the old Jules Verne story plot line shall return. I'm not sure how I feel about this as I never got a chance to ride the older version. I do wonder if it will be a step backwards or if perhaps a happy home between the two themes could work. A mission 3 perhaps. Suffice to say the addition of new trains would be a welcome change to the ride. People do have complaints with the restraint system (although not something I take issue with) and if it was to make a smoother experience I'm all for it. And finally, the ride theme itself. I think it's genius and puts it a step above its American and Asian equivalents. Before any complaints come in, I've not had a chance to ride Japan and Hong Kong but I'm talking purely form ride building perspective. Paris's version is pure steam punk glam. The glistening blues and golds of the ride structure is as aesthetically pleasing as it is original. And the Colombiard cannon is fantastic. I'll take points away from it because of the lack of a recoil but everything else makes this in my personal opinion, one of Disney's greatest triumphs. Overtime a track launches and the mechanical sound sounds of the cannon preparing to fire starts up, I stop and listen. Along with the on/off steam effects it really creates something special in Discoveryland. It's easy to become jaded about these things, after all it's a twenty year old ride and whilst Disney has created bigger and better things (Radiator Springs and Expedition Everest I'm looking at you), there is no doubt in my mind that Space Mountain is one of my favourite attractions in Europe. And that is something I never thought I'd say two years ago.

So I know it's been ten years but the hell with it, on my first visit this thing was SBNO the whole time and it really bothered me. Does anyone know the name of what it was called, it was kind of near Grand National and Flying Machines. Many thanks.

The Daily Mail's headlines on the winner of the Great British Bake off. Ignorant, Racist idiots.

Incidentally, I wonder how concerned Merlin are with this 2016 ride after the failure of Sub Terra, particularly with the climate surrounding theme parks at the moment.

I'm okay with stand up's but I'm not going to pretend that they are the best rides in the world, they're a bit..... 90's. There's a reason Mantis got converted to Floorless after all.

As I said in the other topic, this whole situation was going to get worse, before it gets better. I'm actually amazed they're even bothering with Battle Galleons and Congo River Rapids.

Health and safety over reacting after a very public and life changing incident...

I do get your point.

I'm sure I make a massive difference when it comes to queue times CJ.

You weren't planning on going anyway so the point becomes irrelevant. Well thats then. With that mindset, going to Alton would be a pointless endeavour anyway, even if all the rides were open. Of course, Chessie comes with its own problems such as two major rides closed and major capacity problems on Fury, Rattlesnake and Vampire and of course Thorpe has Tidal Wave, Samurai and Vortex down. Still, there's always the closing at 5pm Loggers Leap or the completely unthemed to within an inch of its life Dragon Falls to enjoy for Log Flume fans.

NOT GOOD ENOUGH. I wasn't planning on going anyway, but now I definitely won't.

Majority of the members of this forum are from the South of England, we all have to travel the four/five hours to Alton. I'd agree with you all if it was, say Nemesis, Oblivion and The Smiler closed. The problem really comes to how badly the Smiler incident is biting our theme parks. You can either choose to support our theme parks or not. Brilliant.

Yeah see, the problem is people aren't going to Towers. Previous Scarefest's have been packed but there is no way that this will be the story this year. The only way the park can even get back to profitable ways is to close the biggest drains on rescources. Sub terra is one, the other is the flume and the rapids. Towers is one of the biggest crises's in its history and its only going to get worse before it gets better. If it takes three rides (two if we take out the Smiler as thats special circumstances) to stop you going, that says more about you then the average guest.

That's always been my problem with the mazes too. Actors never try and scare me either instead focusing their efforts on the young or girls so I just walk through a maze being ignored.

I thought that announcement was during the 2014 season. Didn't even know it was down actually.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dB5P8fD56fw Memories

Moved a couple of posts from this topic, you can discuss which is better out of Blackpool and Alton to your hearts content, but this isn't the topic to do that. All posts are in the Blackpool topic.

As if I have time to search through post history, I have moderating to do!

The second Phill post of the year. I shall treasure it always.

Good point, both times I went it was dead-ish and it consistently ran a three train operation even though it didn't need to. Those American B&M's are really put through their paces actually. I think people are just surprised at how drastic Hulk's refurbishment appears to be. I never thought I'd see it as a ride that would see parts of it scrapped, it's one of the most iconic rides out there after all.

I'm not going to do a trip report, cause you've heard the ride stuff all before, I just wanted to make a few comments based on my trip yesterday. - Park was empty, like it was about to close down empty. At first I found it funny but then the realisation set in how badly the Smiler incident has affected the park. Only two shuttles on Oblivion and not able to fill a single one. Five cars on Spinball, nearly all empty. One train on Nemesis, Rita, Air and only really one being used on Thirteen and only the Intamin pair being used with full trains. Barely anyone around at all, desolate. Loads of rides done but zero atmosphere on park at all. - Don't like CBeebies land. Apart from the gaudy colours which are already starting to age, the character of rides like Squirrel Nutty and Riverbank Eye Spy is completely gone. Shame that style rules over substance to get people getting into this area as I really liked the farm. - No breakdowns seen at all. All rides were running well (even if Nemesis was a teeny bit bumpy). Particularly liked Thirteen. - Smiler was moving all day and I feel for the staff who had people all the time running up to ask if it was about to open. - Saw some pheasants. Yeah, it was that quiet.

You're taking me back too a much better time in Thorpe's history. God I miss those days, before Original Source splurged awful colours over the boats, the flashing traffic lights, the dinging of the church bell, the police style fencing around the splash pool.

I've changed it to a more appropriate description.