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The way SFA is running I don't think half the rides will make it till then even... Stealth's repeated downtime is very different. It had its issue at the start of the season, which was a big unexpected hiccup from winter maintenance. Since then, it's had two, pre-planned, periods of downtime. One of them was for a launch cable replacement, which happens yearly. The other I do not know, but since it was short, pre-planned and stayed on schedule, I don't think is a major concern. Rita has suffered longer, not-planned closures, with no known opening date advertised during those closures. That indicates that those issues are actual problems with the ride which needed fixing / parts replacing. I don't think the two are linked, and it's more coincidence that there's two rides of the same time that have experienced downtime in the same year.

They're all screwed in november then when Six Flags America closes.

The curse is that for every ride that six flags closes, a member of the accelerator family will suffer downtime.

Upon Kingda Ka's passing, it cursed all the accelerator models.

Do we know what’s actually been causing Stealth and Rita’s repeated downtime? It seems odd that they’d both be having such sporadic reliability at the same time. Might the issues be connected in some way?

Thanks for that, they were awaiting test and inspection on Wednesday.

Stealth is back open today 😃

Its just mediocre. Not helped by a number of areas of the park just sat there unused.

Got to be honest, I had my fingers crossed that Rita would close and they'd give the REAL Queen of Speed it's parts... One can hope I guess lol

Thorpe top this for me for reasons similar to the above. Rides are often operated well, especially the likes of Stealth & Hyperia and reliability has been better than from previous years. Towers contrary though has seen a noticeable decline in operations and reliability lately. Some rides like Thirteen still smash it but it’s not like how it was. Chessington is hit and miss, but I’ve seen some poor operations lately, with rides like Rattlesnake operating so badly now and too many rides on low or reduced capacity now. LEGOLAND is ok, but I still find it exaggerated where staff have to say “you’re secure” after checking a simple door or restraint once or even twice. It’s the most safety exaggerated park out there I’ve done!

I must be one of the few people who actually really likes Heide Park. Desert Race has get in the bin and be harvested for Stealth parts though.

Not my fault that place is crap and Desert Race not much better.

Poor Desert Race and Heide Park, both so forgotten about they don't even get considered for a Merlin plague...

Can only have one of Stealth or Rita running at any one time.

Hope this is OK to discuss here on the Stealth thread on the Thorpe Park Mania forum but Stealth is down again from today until Friday for more scheduled maintenance... Please stay with us Sweet Prince xox

Easy winner is Thorpe. Best operated rides, best opening hours and better reliability.

How have the queue times been at Chessington? Perhaps the demand isn't really there this season? (I have no idea) Attendance feels like it's lower in general at Towers and Thorpe this year. Don't know about Lego and Chessington.

I'm assuming that the 5pm closes in October will be changed. Otherwise that's a real cut down. Strange decisions from the higher ups.

It's even weirder given they're currently a whole area down (which you would expect has knock on effects to queue times, so cutting hours would lead to people getting less rides), and that Chessington are getting the most investment out of the Merlin parks currently. You'd expect them to be the crown jewel all round right now. Unless the fact that a third of the park is basically a construction site has reduced visitor numbers drastically, I don't get it.

Chessingtons opening hours for the whole summer holidays (and for the rest of the season) is 5pm. Same with Legoland. Going back, 6pm has always been standard, and for most weekends throughout the season. Infact a few years ago there was even a lot of 7pm closes in the holidays and weekends. Ouch.

The last few years, I'd say Thorpe park by a long way. Best ride availability, best throughputs and best opening hours. Crazy because going back 5+ years or so I would've always said Towers. 1 train ops on off peak days was standard at Thorpe, resulting in long queues even on quiet days.

It's certainly a fair concern. Given that Towers have already outsourced their Ents department, it will be interesting to see how Scarefest goes down this year and what changes are noticeable. Though Scarefest and Fright Nights are obviously very different events, it will at least give us some indication as to what the situation could be. It will be interesting how much creative control the park will retain for the event. They might still be able to design attractions, and just give operational outlines. They might be able to outline briefs and then leave things with the third party. Regardless, I don't just see it being handed over with Thorpe have next-to-no input and not being able to share that knowledge or passion, nor do I expect we'll return to lower quality outdoor mazes (not to say that outdoor mazes should be completely disregarded). I have heard murmurings at the very least that the park are seeing next year's Fright Nights as a 'big' one, due to it being the 25th edition. It's possible that's why there's no new maze this year (and so, less money spent on the event), so that they can go all out a bit more next year. Obviously take it with a pitch of salt, but I think for now, we're okay.

I am looking forward to this years Fright Nights and I think this year is going to be a great event. They have got it to a place where the event is consistent and has a range of indoor mazes and hopefully a few good scare zones and entertainment building on previous years. Smaller queues and more consistent experiences have been the trend over the past 4 years. I am worried however about next year in which RWS are going to take control of the event and experience. How much input does the park have into the event anymore creatively…. Thorpe Park is an outlier in which you can see this event is someone’s/ a group of people’s baby. The themes have been created by the same people which a consistent aim. Now it moves to another company which doesn’t have the same passion or knowledge about the event. I just hope we don’t go back to outdoor lower quality mazes again. It’s worrying as Thorpe doesn’t need an external entertainment provider as they basically only do fright nights.

Got to be Thorpe for me these days - they have had quite the turnaround over the last few years.

Thorpe comes out on top for me. Speaking across the board, availability is decent and throughputs are good. Towers do well with throughputs, but their availability feels a lot worse. Legoland comes next for me. They cope well with what they have. Chessington isn't awful, but they have a lot of low throughput rides and they struggle to operate them well.