The Quick Questions/Trip Planning thread!

[nickdaegg]

As you have probably noticed, there are people from all over Earth here. If you've got a quick question about a theme park (OR theme park company related attraction, such as Madame Tussauds and the Tussauds Pass), then you should ask it here.

Keeping all of your quick, easily answered questions in this thread should hopefully keep this forum free of clutter.

Examples of questions to ask in this thread:

*How busy will ........ be on ......... ?

*Is ....... still at .........

*Is ....... open?

*When does ........ open?

*Which hotel is nicest?

*How do I get to ........ from ......... using public transport?

Also, if you've only got a few questions about trip planning, post them here! Someone who visits regularly or lives close to the park will hopefully inform you of the relevant information.

Thanks :)

And my own question:

Are there any "benefits" of using a Tussauds Annual Pass at Thorpe Park, as there are at Alton, such as Extra Ride Time or discounts?

[Cyberleader]

The Tussauds Annual Pass is amazing. Get it via Tesco if you can, about £70 cheaper. You get 20% off all shops and restuarants (excluding KFC, Pizza Hut, McDonalds etc.) and 15% off the behind the scenes tours. Best off all, where everyone queues up for ages for a ticket and then for ages to get in, you walk straight in! No queue! Which means, get there early and rides open, no queue. I think it opens earlier for APP holders also.

I'm going to Alton on Wednesday :)

[nickdaegg]

I know that for Alton, but what about Thorpe Park? Is ERT, discounts, priority entry etc. the same?

[Cyberleader]

Yup. 'Tis for all Tussauds parks.

[nickdaegg]

Ah right, that's good. The AP website isn't very clear on ERT except for AT.

[Alpengeist]

This is a very good idea nickdaegg.

...oh and if anyone has any questions about Universal or Busch parks, let me know. I'll be happy to help, if I can.

[kylr23]

well i should let every one know if your planing to go to maine come on down to saco. there two small theam parks nere by(and a water park) funtown has a realy good woodie that get boring the astorpher(a scrambler in side a dome synched to lasers) at anouther palice play land they have realy good thrill rides and its nere the beach:D. the last aquabogin(water park)theres noth mutch but stelth is pritty good:D:up:

[~LoveTulie]

1. Until Cedar Point ever gets a new coaster, will they just be adding random thrill rides throughout the years?

2. I heard CP might use some of the parking lot to add lots of new rides, and there would be a parking lot somewhere else where people would have to take Trollies to the park. Is this true?

3. Now this is the question I really want to know. Geauga Lake. They just got rid of two, somewhat good coasters. Since they took those out there is practicall nothing to do at that park. So, why the hell would they take those coasters out? And two, are they EVER going to get a new ride, a coaster, SOMETHING!!! They haven't gotten a new coaster in years, and that's really bad. If they got rid of X-Flight and Steel Venom, I sure hope they put something good to replace them, because you can finish up that park in less than two hours.

[Darth Gilbert]

1. If history is any indication, yes. Though I wouldn't say 'random' thrill rides, more like carefully selected thrill rides.

2. This is only rumor. Your guess is as good as mine.

3. They took the coasters out because Geauga Lake is supposed to be more of a family park these days, and those two coasters were both expensive to maintain and operate. X-Flight was moved to King's Island, and Steel Venom was moved someplace.?. I doubt we'll see any major additions to that section of the park in the next few years. To quote Dick Kinzel, "We'll let the thrill seekers go to Cedar Point."

[deaconnor]

Geauga Lake is trying to focus on the Water Park.

[~LoveTulie]

Oh okay thanks. And yea, Geauga's Water Park is like really good.

[kc_rc_fan]

I have been to the Seaworld in San Antonio and I loved it. Is the Seaworld in San Diego better or worse? What's so good or bad? We're going to be in San Diego next month and we're going to Seaworld so I was just wondering.

[deaconnor]

Sea World SA has roller coasters. Sea World SD has JTA and that's it.

[kc_rc_fan]

Only one ride?

[Cedar Point]

Ahem, if anyone needs CP advice, my hotline has operators online 24/7.

:D

[nickdaegg]

Since TowersTimes is down :(, I'll ask here:

Has anyone ever got the bus from Nottingham to Alton Towers? Advice on cost timing or other options, please! :)

[SnooSnoo]

Fanboy... :)

[~LoveTulie]

Is Geuaga lake taking out Raging Wolf Bobs too!?! I love that coaster! I think this becuase when I have gone, it has been shut down each time, and the time when my friend went there, which was Saturday.

If they are, I am going to miss that ride.

[Cyberleader]

Since TowersTimes is down :(, I'll ask here:

Has anyone ever got the bus from Nottingham to Alton Towers? Advice on cost timing or other options, please! :)

Google search (http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=bus+nottingham+to+alton+towers&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8), followed by finding this (http://www.altontowers.com/content.php?pageid=487) on the official site!

[nickdaegg]

I've seen that, I just wondered about cost (not mentioned AFAIK) and other options available. So many options - I could take train from nottingham and bus from Uttox, or just bus from nottingham!

:bulb:

Snoo: Most definately. :D

[SnooSnoo]

Raging Wolf Bobs will be staying Tulie.

[~LoveTulie]

Oh alright. Cool! But then why has it been closed so many times?

[Harpo]

RWB had a major failure this year. I haven't heard much in the way of details, but, as I understand it, the rear of one of the trains derailed. Fortunately, no one was injured, but it reportedly did quite a bit of damage to the ride.

[~LoveTulie]

Oh wow. Although it's a shame whenever you go to the park, nobody is working on it. I loved that ride! The way I remember it, it wasn't that bad of a wooden coaster. I thought it was smooth actually.

[Harpo]

I rather like RWB, too. It was getting too rough, but a retracking really helped it, and I thought it was as good as when it opened. (Yes, I rode it during its first year, in 1988. I was working at Cedar Point at the time, and a friend of mine and I visited Geauga Lake on one of our days off.)

When the failure occurred, I'm sure the plan was to assess what caused it, and keep the ride closed until they could be sure that the problem was addressed and the park officials could feel reasonably confident that the problem would not happen again. It could be that they haven't determined the fix, or that the fix is quite major and requires parts to be delivered.

Just as an example, if the problem related to using trains that were different from the original trains, they might have discovered that the replacement trains were not an adequate fit for the track, hence requiring new trains to be ordered. (Note: I'm not saying that is the problem -- I'm just giving an example of a major problem that would require a long time to fix without any visible signs of work taking place on the ride.)

I used the trains as an example because I know that the ride originally had Philadelphia Toboggan Company trains, and they were replaced with Gerstlauer trains (one in 2003, another added in 2005). I don't know if there's 100% compatibility between the two train types, or if the different train type could potentially have had some small incompatibility that eventually caught up with the ride.

Keep in mind that I do not know if the different trains had anything at all to do with the problem. It could have been a track issue, some foreign body on the track, or many other possible problems. The important thing is that the park find and fix the problem so the ride will be safe. Knowing Cedar Fair, I'm confident every inch of the ride has been and/or will be inspected to find and properly fix the issues.

[kc_rc_fan]

I need some tips about anything to do in San Diego. My family is going down there all week next week. I think we're planning on going to Seaworld and I know we're going to the beach. I would also love to go to the San Diego Zoo as I've heard it's one of the best in the world. So if any of you could give me any tips about Seaworld or just San Diego in general, I'd really appreciate it.

P.S. By the way, I'm wearing Chiefs stuff all week. So if any of you are in San Diego and you see a guy wearing a Chiefs shirt, Chiefs hat, and heck I may even wear my Chiefs flip flops, you'll know it's me! :noob:

[Harpo]

I really enjoyed the Giant Dipper roller coaster at Belmont Park. I think it's worth a quick stop, especially if you like old wooden roller coasters. At Belmont, you can do a pay-as-you-play, so you don't have to pay for a full day's ticket just to ride the one coaster.

(As I recall, Belmont Park is not far from Sea World San Diego.)

[cchiic]

how busy will the first week of august be at Cedar point?

[kc_rc_fan]

I really enjoyed the Giant Dipper roller coaster at Belmont Park. I think it's worth a quick stop, especially if you like old wooden roller coasters. At Belmont, you can do a pay-as-you-play, so you don't have to pay for a full day's ticket just to ride the one coaster.

(As I recall, Belmont Park is not far from Sea World San Diego.)

Thanks for the tips Harpo!!