Mark9

My very easy guide to getting the best out of Thorpe ParkGo to Stealth first, then Rumba and Nemesis Inferno. Make your way back through the park hitting Detonator, Tidal Wave, Flying Fish and the Lost City four. Then go back round towards Colossus, Saw and Samurai. Thats the best way to go round Thorpe.

HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY VAMPIRE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbUqywUDXSsJust back from Gardaland.Raptor is EPIC. Its big, everything about it is big. The track, the 'creature', the music and it's surroundings!As we all knew, it was never going to be a huge thrill machine, but it is thrilling. Some pops of airtime thrown in too. The ride rides best at the back (first drop is cool), although the front is awesome, just because it's the 'front'. I was suprised to get so wet, with fog effects and water spashes. Add it being walk on for both days I were there and = a happy Fever!Ive added some pics to my Facebok page, of a pretty cool and very well themed park!

Fantastic trip report Merky. Made me all warm and fuzzy inside. :(Now I've had some time to recover from the meet, I thought I'd post some highlights from the trip!The Monkey Puzzle Meal:
The meal was awesome, including Chris' comment about liking potatoes after Ian complaining that his weren't up to standard.... made me giggle at least. Chicken Paprika at the meal was awesome. Many photos taken including this beaut: Hotel Times:Bubbleworks Finale tribute (awesome strobes). Alcohol. Sausage Surprise! Merky wearing her awesome skirt. Mark9's amazing shadow projections! CWoA!Seeing new members attend their first meet. Managing to keep the group together for the day. Pizza Pasta!! Wild Asia. Group rides on everything. Spending time with everyone at the best southern theme park with beautiful weather! Ellie and Ratlesnake. Ellie and Fury. LowlightsHalf of the group wandering off after Rameses, causing me to have to round people up to keep the group together. Tiredness at the end of the day. Going back to my house alone after spending two days surrounded by people. Saying bye to people. Let's round off this awesome meet with some great group photos:Group pic in front of Tomb Waterfall:The NinesRandom Group Shot:Bubbleworks Tribute VideoMeet PhotosThanks again for an awesome trip everyone.

Those hoovers are useless to be honest. It would take about 20 minutes to clean Sea Dragons with those sodding hoovers so in all honesty I'm not surprised they've gone for tipping the boats instead.

So, trip report...Sunday 10th AprilIan picked me up at 1 and off we went to Chessie! Met up with some ex-Thorpies, had a good time on park. Said farewell to them, then we met up with Mark9, sorted hotel room out, etc (where we could hear Vampire!) and gradually met up with everyone for the meal.The meal overall was good, although there were a few cock ups with food orders/quality, but it was all fine in the end. As Ellie posted, the thing with the ribs/rib-eye steak! Facepalm for sure!Then came the drunk times at the hotel. Not much to say about that, just had a lot of laughs, and everyone who tasted my apple vodka was like "OMG that's so strong, no wonder you're so drunk!" Nice. Me, Ian and Mark made our own TPM Top Trumps as someone forgot to bring them, but it was a good laugh! Played lots of random videos, along with (obviously) "SAUSAGE SURPRIIIIISE!" I also wore some bed throw as a skirt, and we re-created the Bubbleworks fountains without the fountains, but we had the strobes from various iPhone apps! Lots of hilarious photos taken, including some very flattering ones of Mark9! Monday 11th AprilNot too hungover, but very thirsty and felt dizzy/out of it for a bit at the start. Met up with everyone at the park entrance, great to see so many people again and to meet a new member! :(Me, Mark9, Benin and Rich went on Vampire while the others went to the meet-up point. Good ride to start the day with, and on its birthday!Met the others at the meetup point, had photos, introductions etc then went on the mighty Tomb Blaster...where I forgot to say "It is now safe to remove your bladders!" Blast!Went on Kobra, first time on it for me, it's good fun...and yeah.Had lots of nommage at Pizza Pasta, although it took a while to get our plates and pay, dam card machines! But yum yum nice food and refreshing cold Coca Cola! And some BRILLIANT photos!We were heading for Dragon Falls but ended up doing Monkey Swinger and the dodgems in WIld Asia, great group rides and the dodgems were brilliant fun!Went on Falls, etc, then some people went on Rameses and we met up with Marc and Rickaaaaaay.Next we did Runaway Train, again a good fun group ride!Headed over to Bucanneer, where Ian, Mark and Marc had to go on to sit with children, then again with the rest of us. Ian didn't feel too great and had to run to the loo...then we headed to Vampire, where on the way I found some theming spider legs!Headed to Fury, saw some great staff interaction Didn't get the best spin but was still great fun, love that ride! :PLast but not least was Rattlesnake, good laugh as always, although bracing myself against the brakes appears to have hurt my neck!Bought photos, said our farewells and popped to the Chessington shop for people to buy Vampire bears! Unfortunately, thanks to work being slow at paying me, I didn't have enough to buy one, but they'll still be there next time (well they better be!) and hopefully it won't be long before I visit again! Oh and also the big cuddly tiger with the cub in its mouth. Deffo getting one of those too! I didn't want to let it go!Rushed out of the park due to big grey scary clouds, and chilled for a bit at the Monkey Puzzle with Ian, Mark and Daniel9, before leaving and going home.This was definitely one of, if not, the best TPM meet. It was so nice going to a different park, and I have to say, I do actually prefer Chessie to Thorpe, it makes people feel so happy and excited and for a lot of us, it's a park we grew up with. It has an atmosphere which Thorpe lacks, lots of interactive/group rides, and, apart from Rameses, there aren't really any rides nobody wants to go on, which is also something that often happens at Thorpe and causes the group to split/delays. And there's less pressure, it just feels so much more relaxed and enjoyable, and I love seeing all the happy families/children :DIt was so exciting when we arrived on Sunday and a real shame to leave, it felt like a holiday!Thank you to everyone for such an enjoyable time, we really have to do this more often and have more Chessie meets. I don't know how much easier or harder it is for people to get to, but I know for some, myself included, it is much nearer and cheaper than Thorpe, plus there is the bonus of the station being in walking distance from the park, unlike Thorpe and it's overpriced, chavvy 950 transport option!I love you guys so much, you make me so happy when I see you all, I miss you all so much, hopefully see you again soon!RER! My photos on Facebook

Well as we all know 'Kevin' is the greatest catch in the sea.

The 9's.

The 9 Rattlesnake car. Sit back, hold tight, it's ninetime!

Well as we all know 'Kevin' is the greatest catch in the sea.

The 9's.

The idea of a perfect theme park trip?Awesome people to spend the day with?Good weather?Low queue times?Yeah that was today in a nut shell and the meet for me was a complete success of fun times and excellence. The park itself were excellent hosts with full ride availability, no visible (or seen) ride breakdowns and moderate queue lengths (about 30 minutes max for Vampire). Chessington is for me the perfect park for meet ups. So many rides there are designed for interactivity and groups to enjoy themselves. Monkey Swinger, Dodgems, Tomb Blaster, Buccaneer, Kobra, Runaway Train are all perfect group rides.I just enjoyed the whole trip. My best theme park since Europa Park I'd say. Thanks to Mikey for organizing the meet and on the day itself and Ian for his team leading skills.

Well as we all know 'Kevin' is the greatest catch in the sea.

HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY VAMPIRE

The idea of a perfect theme park trip?Awesome people to spend the day with?Good weather?Low queue times?Yeah that was today in a nut shell and the meet for me was a complete success of fun times and excellence. The park itself were excellent hosts with full ride availability, no visible (or seen) ride breakdowns and moderate queue lengths (about 30 minutes max for Vampire). Chessington is for me the perfect park for meet ups. So many rides there are designed for interactivity and groups to enjoy themselves. Monkey Swinger, Dodgems, Tomb Blaster, Buccaneer, Kobra, Runaway Train are all perfect group rides.I just enjoyed the whole trip. My best theme park since Europa Park I'd say. Thanks to Mikey for organizing the meet and on the day itself and Ian for his team leading skills.

HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY VAMPIRE

This post is a continuation of my report in the Meet topic, so this goes from 11am!So having done Vampire and the meet it was time to meet up with John and the rest (after seeing them in the hotel briefly earlier), and this was done at Rattlesnack, where I waited for them to appear whilst taking some area photos, taking full advantage of the beautiful weather the park was being provided by...Once off, we headed to Runaway Train, and after a brief wait went straight onto our 3 lap goodness, usual fun and tree-grabbing did occur... Awesome sauce...It was next decided for Tomb Blaster times, which is where the day really began to take a turn for the awesome... As it was John's birthday, he had brought hats, blowers and a banner for various ORP times and general amusement... TOY STORY 3 <3After a long queue (how many trains on atm, it's definitely NOT 4...), we eventually got off and were informed of the arrival of the remaining people who had been stuck on the M25... As Fury was relatively busy at this point, we elected for Wild Asia, and Kobra, but were denied by a minor breakdown (10 minutes tops perhaps?), so went to enjoy the Tuk Tuks, our hats useful for easy targeting by us and the rest... The operator here was relatively entertaining, giving targets and the like, as well as singing Happy Birthday over the PA...Kobra had reopened, so we went on it... Short queue, no issues, Kobra is ok... Done...Lorikeets (and the rest of the zoo) were probably the least awesome parts of the day, as they had just come off lunch so weren't really up to much... It was a right struggle to get them to us and eventually bored us to go to Dragon Falls...Again, the 1.2m situation provided crying children, but undeterred we went on and high-fived the excitable batcher... With my broken blower I proceeded to make lots of noise on the ride, taking full advantage of one of Wardley's many tunnels to create a loud noise of death... Slightly damp and moist was a great thing to be today, and was glad of it...Lunch was called, and as we headed to Pizza Pasta we passed IanNem and Rich, who recieved much horn blowing from me (and looked extremely bemused by it), and we settled down for lunch... Where the girl at the front wanted a hat, so she got one... She loved it... And she wasn't the only one to join our lunchtime fun...Later on, as I returned from gaining pizza, my arrival was joined with a young disabled girl (the wristband guys) who stood silently as the awkward turtle raised his head up... Naturally I said hello to her, and the reponse was a noise that truly cannot be described on a forum... Her dad turned up to depart with her and we proceeded to giggle about the sheer randomness of it all, if you think it's bad... Go to hell... We were certainly not being nasty about it and it was just completely random and unexpected...THEN, and small boy and his dad arrived at our table, questioning the location of the Toy Story hats of JOY, so we answered, and gave him another spare hat... This caused great joy in the shy boy's face and he wore it with pride whilst his sister wore a look of rather displeasured anger at the lack of hat for her... Two really random moments that just provided the lunch with excessive lols... Absolutely amazing...We then proceeded to the zoo which wasn't THAT great to be fair... Oh wells, after some faff and Meerkat times we wandered back to Translyvania and the NEW Twilight Zone walkthrough, full details spoilered below... So after that experience, it was time for Vampire herself... Having done it already earlier in the day, I had already seen the two new tombstones, but I didn't realise the second one spoke to the queue... That's a bloody good addition and I just hope they can maybe add a few more to the queue in future...In the queue we bumped into the TPM group and some exchanges were made between myself and Mark9, Skunky, Sheepie and Holly9... All good fun really between us all and a bit of BANTA never hurt anyone However, breaking glass in the queueline to prevent us going through is NOT good sport chaps ¬¬Eventually let in, we pestered Keith and enjoyed a relatively rough experience on the ride... She's still a classic though, and certainly still one of the UK's most important and iconic rides... I'll miss it when it goes whenever that is, but hopefully Chessie will do as much as possible to delay that inevitably... 21 years is a fantastic age for any coaster, and I would love it to be going still in 9 more years...As we left the ride, we decided to buy MERCHANDISE! Including the brand new Vampire Bear <3, 21st Anniversary Bear <3, 21st Anniversary Pin <3, and a pen... :(We then did Bubbleworks, which is still crap... But we got another epic photo of joy <3After Bubbles, it was about 5:30, so a quick dash to Mexicana to pick up photos followed the run to Fury for one last ride... Top Trumps happened in the queue but I have no idea who won as the batcher decided to steal the show by singing Happy Birthday to John Christina Aguilara style... It was amazing, and Zoe my dear you are fab... Tom, tell her that :DFury then proceeded to top off our day but not only being awesome, but stealing John's hat on the Horseshoe Turn... It floated away so slowly and really finished the day off extremely well...After goodbyes were said, I met up with Holly and Ciaran once more, and as we couldn't (unfortunately ) faff and wait for the next train, we got the 6:40 train home very tired and achey... But BOY was it worth it...Today was such a stark difference between opening day, where there were a LOT more niggles in the park... BUT today was completely different, with Kobra being the only ride I saw break down, but the staff being generally fun and excitable all day with not as many "What's your favourite ride?" questions being plumped at me...Quite simply an awesome day with awesome people with an awesome park, maybe next time I'll stay with the TPM meet and think up something that can be yelled on Pirate Ships :DRide CountVampire - 2Bubbles - 1Fury - 1Tomb - 1Runaway Train - 1Kobra - 1Tuk Tuk - 1Twilight Zone - 1Lorikeet Lagoon - 1Falls - 1

The idea of a perfect theme park trip?Awesome people to spend the day with?Good weather?Low queue times?Yeah that was today in a nut shell and the meet for me was a complete success of fun times and excellence. The park itself were excellent hosts with full ride availability, no visible (or seen) ride breakdowns and moderate queue lengths (about 30 minutes max for Vampire). Chessington is for me the perfect park for meet ups. So many rides there are designed for interactivity and groups to enjoy themselves. Monkey Swinger, Dodgems, Tomb Blaster, Buccaneer, Kobra, Runaway Train are all perfect group rides.I just enjoyed the whole trip. My best theme park since Europa Park I'd say. Thanks to Mikey for organizing the meet and on the day itself and Ian for his team leading skills.

ARE YOU ACTUALLY ON HERE TO ANNOY PEOPLE.Aimed at Dano + Kary.

People who post "I'm so hungover" THREE times on Facebook, obviously no-one cares. You only have yourself to blame, piss off spamming my feed with your rubbish.

All I could think was "at least it wasn't a relavant... or interesting... or entertaining... or fun... or worthwhile attraction that burnt".

All I could think was "at least it wasn't a relavant... or interesting... or entertaining... or fun... or worthwhile attraction that burnt".