MG

Hi, went to Thorpe Park today. Weather was great, queues not too bad, just a shame that Stealth was closed . More on that later. First: Saw. What a ride, the first drop in the dark really catches you and the overall atmosphere of the ride is great. Themeing is good. The ride is very intense, one of few rides I have actually been on where my head hurts afterwards! Slightly bumpy and slightly too short, but a fantastic ride. Definately worth riding, possibly best ride in park. Colossus: Unfortunately I had my head smashed in by Colossus today. The ride seems to be getting rougher each year. The track is getting rustier and the paint is wearing off. It seems to be in considerable neglect. I have always liked this ride, but it is an awful shame that is becoming painful to ride. The other rides you generally all know about already. STEALTH: Stealth has not opened yet this year and I found out why. I was informed that it is not working since the engineers went to replace one of the kicker wheel motors due to it being faulty, and discovered ALL the motors were faulty. There are an awful lot of motors! Slammer was also closed today. Saw was being fairly reliable. PHOTOS COMING SOON!

Saw the Ride Vertical drop and barrel roll, in the dark. What more could you possibly want!

According to the pinnacle of journalistic excellence that is the Daily Mail the ride managed to terrify celebrities on Wednesday evening.The Daily Rag It is thought the problem has been caused by a malfunctioning gate sensor causing a bug in the computer system. Oh well, good luck to Thorpe to getting it open.

Many of these photos have dates for the 4th June 2008. They have all been edited in Photoshop. Saw at Thorpe Park is opening this Friday but no other park in the UK is really open at the moment. Alton Towers is closed (I think!) until easter. This isn't helping at all.

^^DOH! I hoped that the LAX timetable meant you were waiting for the delayed flight to Tokyo. Hence the 'Gotta go' statement then followed by more posts. Oh Well M "Disappointed" G

Tokyo on Continental or Delta

I've never had a problem with my PS3 and I love it dearly. Only problem is lack of backwards compatability for PS2. Game selection isn't great but who cares when the PS3 has LITTLE BIG PLANET!!

14th I imagine would be pretty hellish in terms of queue time, if the public would be allowed to ride for most of the day anyway. The 21st is a Saturday so I would expect it to be busy especially since it is the *new* thing. The main things that might help are that it will probably be one of the most reliable rides in the park. With Thorpe you can never tell.

Mamma Mia We Will Rock You The Phantom Of The Opera Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Happy Birthday TPR

I think this is a fantastic idea. Thanks TPR

^Thats not actually that bad an idea. Planning applications have to go through various stages. If people managed to demonstrate to the council how important this new ride could be for Alton Towers' Future then it could be quite important. Every little helps

Oh dear, Steps Gold

VIDEO OF SAW TESTING HAS BEEN RELEASED!!! A video of Saw testing has been posted to Thorpe Park Mania. Looking Good! THORPE PARK Mania

^The whole of the ex-Tussauds chain is now owned by Merlin Entertainment Well if what you say is true that rules out SAW, the date is too early, Stealth since they already have Rita, Nemesis Inferno since they already have Nemesis, leaving only Collosus or X:\ WTF. I would be surprised if Alton Towers put in either of those two. My bet is some form of shuttle with some special quality so it can claim 'Worlds First'.

^Happy Birthday Robb This is such a good idea. Generally seems to be working fine, seem to have more difficult playing shorter videos than longer ones. I haven't been on it much so far since I didn't realise it was this ready and working! Thank you

Today at the closing of Corkscrew, SW6 is described as going to be a 'World's First' by Russell Barnes of Alton Towers while he was talking to BBC News. Interesting to see Alton Towers looks like it will be taking the prototype route again. Could be interesting. R.I.P Corkscrew BBC News

As long as the ride is good and well themed its fine. Just one indicator to show that Thorpe isn't that keen to return to family attractions as shown on the MTDP. I just hope they have a backup plan for the ride name when the franchise dies.

Can see all of them on IE7 and Safari for Windows as well as MSN Explorer 7. Number 1 works the best, number 3 works well, number 2 can't stream quickly enough. I might be looking into this too much but it appears to be European users who are having streaming problems with no. 2. I think its a really good idea. Looks like some serious coding though!

Hi everyone, recently the premiere of Little Britain USA was broadcast on HBO. The original Little Britain series has been around in the UK for a while. What are peoples views on it across the pond? Just for reference, the first episode premiered on 28/09/08 on HBO and attracted 540,000 viewers, whilst the British premiere on 3/10/08 attracted 4.7 million viewers. Wikipedia: Little Britain USA

UK police are under a far tighter leash than those in the US. People complain all the time to the IPCC (Independant Police Complaints Comission). These complaints sometimes are simply seeking compensation. As a result of these complaints British police have very little power. For instance in the US, when cops shoot someone and kill them it will cause a big fuss but thats it. A couple of years ago British police shot Jean Charles de Menezes mistaking him for a terrorist. I won't comment on my opinion of the case but it has ended up costing the British tax payer millions of pounds and it has remained near the top of the news for quite a while. You could say, and I am only saying 'could' that British police are often not very forceful as a result of political correctness gone mad.

I saw this on the news the other day. They were just crazy, they just kept trying to get into the road. Oh well . Either drugs or plain nuts.

^I didn't phrase that well. I think the ride side of the park will probably wind down and be defunct in 15 or so years. The planning applications around that area makes building a ride almost impossible. I don't think Blackpool Pleasure Beach would close. It's been around over 100 years. Hey, if all this global warming really works, Blackpool might be like Florida, that would be nice.

My pick which I can comment on would be Chessington World Of Adventures. Not much room to expand, locals hate the noise, planning troubles and one of the few properties which Merlin didn't sell off when it bought Tussauds.

I no longer experiment with PCs. Too many times in the past of causing loads of problems. I doubt I ever did anything though on the scale that some people appear to be doing on here.