Well took a trip to Chessington and Thorpe today(13/4/03) so here is the report, Its quite long, but I hope you enjoy

Arrived at Chessington at about 9AM and were soon granted entry into the park for early riding on Vampire and Hocas Pocas Hall. I'm pleased to say there was no restrictions in place for HPH today and I got in quite easily. Anyway HPH is a 4D Walkthrough attraction and overall its not bad but it is clearly aimed at the yonger generation, some of the 4D effects are quite clever and there is a very good mirror Maze effect located at the end of the attraction but its certaintly not brilliant, Definatly worth a go if the queue is not too big, but I wouldnt queue up a long time for it.

Vampire was running a bit rough as usual and the ride still looks in a horrible state, however the new entrance and fasttrack bits look nice. Luckly I managed 2 rides on Vampire before the ride broke down later in the day(It was down for a good 30 mins and was still down when I headed off to Thorpe)

My Ride Count for the 3hrs I was there was HPH Once,Vampire 2 rides,Black Bucceneer 1 ride,Tomb Blaster 1 ride,RattleSnake 1 ride,Samurai 1 ride,Dragon Falls 1 ride and a stroll down Action Man HQ. This is all the rides I got as the park got very crowded before I headed off to Thorpe.

Park News - Ramesis Revenge,Runaway Mine Train and Toadies Cars were not operational today, The Mine Train is sitting half way round the course with its restraints open which was very odd. Also Rattlesnake,Tomb Blaster and Vampire all had brakedowns as well. I also took a stroll round Action Man HQ as The person at the entrance said this would be its last season to make way for the new land of the Dragons and I got in with no problems,so if you've never been in there, do it this season.

The Elephant on Dragon Falls actually moves now but was not squirting people(dont know why as the weather was gorgeous, but its great to see him moving now) Black Bucceneer also look very nice with its new paint job.

After a fairly good 3hrs or so at Chessington, I decided to head off to Thorpe Park and spend the rest of the day there. The park looked very busy and thats how it turned out. Vortex was about 45 mins, Colossus was about 60 mins,Ribena Rapids 45 mins,Flying Fish 30 mins and X looked about 30 mins, the 3 suprises of the day though were Quantum was 20 mins max, NI 25 mins ALL DAY and Zodiac about 20 mins max. Also that was not a lie about NI, The queue really was 25 mins max all day(I was very shocked) However I certaintly was'nt complaining ;)

Ride Count at Thorpe was Nemesis Inferno 5 Rides,Colossus 1 ride,Vortex 2 rides,Quantum 1 ride and Detonator 1 ride.

NI is definatly getting better and better all the time I'm riding it, but it still doesnt quite beat Nemesis, It certaintly felt a lot more intense throughout the day though, Also the reason for a 25 min queue all day could be down to the crew on the ride as they were absolutly fantasic,they were really working hard today and were dispatching the trains really quick(A Huge Thanks to the NI Team) Finally managed a ride on Quantum and although it was good, The ride is on a very horrible short setting You only get 2 full rotations each way and its all over very quickly so slighty disapointing on the ride time but stil not bad. Colossus is still runing very nicely with a 2 train operation today but running with a very slow crew(they are probably a new crew and still getting used to things) but I hope they speed up things soon otherwise they will face hell next next over easter

Park News - Zodiac was running for most of the day, but broke down at approx 4PM and It WAS DOWN for the rest of the day(Not good news for the ride), Tidal Wave also had its daily brakedown but was operating for most of the day. Also had a strange incident on Vortex when I tryed to enter the Single Ride line and was told It could be a 1hr wait(WTF) he told he loads of crap that I would only be allowed a seat if one was available but the people queueing get priorty first(Once again WTF) Luckly I still managed to get on the next ride out though.

Eclipse is looking very nice and some of the cars have been installed with more nearby waiting to be installed, some rumours say that the ride will open late April, but I reckon we are now looking at a Mid to Late May Opening now. Also when exiting the park I saw a Token Machine at the back of one of the Ticket booths, now I wondered what it was for and then thought could it be a sign for the £3 parking charge that Alton currently has because it was due to be installed this season but suddenly never happened, I've got a picture of it at the link below so I will make you make up your own decisions as to what it is for???

Overall, a Very good day. Various Pictures can be seen from my trip at the address below, ENJOY

Continue to the Pictures