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Sup nerds, Before last August I'd been to a theme park a maximum of probably 10 times. Then in August I'm dragged on Stealth for the first time. December I'm taken to Winter Wonderland. January I get bought a Merlin Annual Pass for my birthday (thanks SCB!) February I go to Thorpe Park's early opening. And this month I dash to the proper opening day of Thorpe Park after college, narrowly missed out on a spur-of-the-moment jaunt on the London Eye, and go to Chessington' Annual Pass Preview day. Oh and did I mention in the rest of this month I'm going to TPM's Thorpe opening meet, the opening of the I'm a Celebrity maze, and am dashing to Thorpe Park on the morning of the 31st for a last-minute go on Colossus before going up to Alton Towers for the first time for a three day break. And next month I'm going to the TPM Chessington meet. Busy month, isn't it? Winter Wonderland was great (expensive but great). MY impressions of travelling rides were something along the lines of Carter's Steam Fair, nothing particularly big, and NOTHING on the scale of a theme park. Yes okay so I've never been to a travelling funfair in Europe. Obviously what I saw completely spat on my expectations, and even though ice skating was cancelled and refunded instead I got to see my first proper circus (awesome by the way!) Thorpe's opening in February was a bit meh. Six rides open was a bit anti-climatic but the queues were short enough to make up for it. Me and SCB managed to get a ride on every row on Stealth, and more than half of the forward-facing Swarm rows. Oh and two dodgems battles as well. That was only half of my Valentines Day. As well as the added bonus of not having to listen to SCB going on about his withdrawal symptoms and the peak times of off-season. Proper opening was better but there was still a lot closed. Arrived at half two, left at five, got five rides on Colossus and a few on Nemesis and some others, including one or two on X. I forgot how much I had an absolute LOVE of thumping dance music... Nah it's not that bad. Got close to going on the London Eye during a trip to London for an important interview, until I realised I'd left my wallet (and pass) at home. Anyway the evening ended up with me and SCB walking down the Merlin South Bank at half seven in the evening, wondering where the new Shrek thingy was going and looking at all the attractions there that I hadn't yet been to. This is going to be a busy summer. As for Chessington... Where do I start. I hadn't been for years so couldn't remember what I'd been on before and what I hadn't out of all the rides that existed last time I was there. It was a bit sad seeing how so many familiar pieces of theming I remembered had been taken down, leaving some areas looking like some of the unis I visited last year. Industrial. Not being much of a Chessington geek yet I don't know what's expected to go soon or stay a while, or what new is being bought in. So (on this occasion practically being an ordinary punter) I was left a little disappointed. Also with so many rides closed for it's supposed 'opening' and with Dragon's Fury running just as if it was open but with no people on it, it was slightly as if the park was teasing me. As were the ride boards, with several rides that were closed listed as having queues of 5 minutes. I'm not going to go on about it. People do enough of that on here. On a more positive note, I'm so excited about Alton Towers. It's one of those parks I always wanted to visit as a child, but not having parents who had a particular interest in theme parks there wasn't really a possibility until I became old enough to get myself more mobile and go without them. Now it's actually happening I'm so excited XD I guess I'll write again about Towers and how it goes. Later nerds! See you at the next meet!