Leaderboard

Totally agree with what's being said, Thorpe were having a total nightmare! Nemesis Inferno had the WORST rides team I've seen in years (insert witty comment about PortAventura just to annoy you), prancing around, at one point all the platformers were in position with dispatch buttons pressed, while the op chatted on the phone for over a minute, finished her conversation, then finally thought "oh maybe I should actually do my job now", shocking stuff. Can you blame the ride for constantly killing itself, I know I wanted to... Does anyone know what causes Inferno to repeatedly anchor itself and stop dead in the first set of brakes (I was lucky enough to get to sit there for 15 minutes!), my guess would be some sort of over speed alert being thrown up, but you guys being the Thorpe die hards might know. Stealth went down while I was in the queue, then when I returned much later it was down again, didn't bother me though because it's only Stealth. Ghost Train went down while I was in the queue and when I returned later, we waited over 20 minutes to be batched in, I've no idea how this thing operates, so you can decide whether that was yet more issues or rather it running on a lower capacity (if it can?). Walking Dead was down all night, like I said in the official topic of that, how have they broken what is essentially a super reliable jumped up Vekoma Junior? Detonator took over 10 minutes on 1 cycle to start, can we still blame the staff being new or was this just awful staff? Swarm which before the event started had a train going up the lift every 10 seconds, was put on 1 train by the end of the event, why? Rumba Rapids closed half an hour earlier than advertised, which annoyed me a bit, because as has been mentioned elsewhere, it appears to have been intensified. Quantum, which was advertised as open, was in scaffolding, which was incredibly disappointing because it's fantastic. Regardless I had an OK time, it was a free event after all. The worst thing all night easily goes to the surge of the VIP pass holder, the scourge of the Earth...

My bet is, it was running on 2 trains and the host got the number of headsets available on the two carriages mixed up. Two trains means a long wait between batches.

We can't just blame Merlin/CWOAR on this one guys, alot of the problem comes from the GP's perception of the RAP system. I've known people in the past who know full well they are able and happy to queue in the standard queue lines, but because they have X wrong with them, they think, might as well bring a letter from my doctor and get myself that RAP, so essentially turning it into free fast track. I've also heard RAP described as fast track by the GP so many times it's almost funny, this is how wide spread the system is misunderstood. When I worked at Chessington, I can attest to what has been said, quite often on Fury, you'd see the RAP queue stretching down the exit ramp, an easy 20 minute queue. For those using it as fast track, that's a bonus, the main queue is 90 minutes, for those who NEED to use the queue, 20 minutes is unacceptable and I felt very uncomfortable with it on a few occasions. Tell me off if I'm wrong Herman, but I seem to remember there was a maximum amount of RAP users you could have on board Fury at any one time, meaning your comment about every other car might be slightly off? That or policies have changed? So in summary, I absolutely applaud Merlin/CWOAR if they are indeed increasing the circumstances for offering the RAP service, I just hope they are prepared for a backlash and stick to their guns when it comes. It's about time this system was sorted out, it's been abused for far too long.

Have to say, operations today were very poor. I’m pretty sure nearly every main attraction was down at some point during the day. The queue times were a complete mess, no accuracy. Waited 15 mins for an advertised 45 on Colossus. All of the photo scanners for the main rides were not working so couldn’t get any on-ride photos. Not sure what was going on with Inferno’s brakes, never seen a B&M so unreliable as this one today.

Agree with Jamie. Certainly my worst visit in quite some time. Got on 5 rides all day due to numerous break downs. I was very unfortunate to have it happen after queueing some time and always when at the front of the queue. At one point nine rides were unavailable! Inferno in particular was suffering badly and stopped many times at the start of the brake run. Haven't seen so many issues on Inferno since its issues in opening year. You missed Rush off of the list above just to add more ammunition! On a more positive note the eXpo event was great. Well done to Phill for that, you did a fantastic job.

Europa didnt have a wristband system when we enquired they just got us to show the blue badge at the rides exit

Riding a roller coaster just after eating, those were the days!

Fire effects have worked on some days this season. The explosion noise has always been there, and would normally go off the same time as the fire (not really sure why to be honest!). Water effects haven't been on all season; I've heard they received / are receiving extra work and haven't been signed off yet.

Is it just me or do the Colossus resins look like a diagram of the female reproductive system?

The rule on Fury is 1 disabled guest + 3 companions. So that's one full car. On busy days with the 20min + RAP queue you mentioned, it was common that every other car sent would have a disabled guest and their three companions. It was a bit daft.

In fairness, the majority of coasters don't open until 11 so Wicker Man is naturally the first ride people come to, terrible planning from Alton really. Hardly the sign of a decent park either when you have to go round it in a particular way in order to get on any rides, where's the fun in that?

The RAP situation has definitely become rather out of hand at the parks in recent years. With a potential daily average of 15 Of every 100 guests acquiring RAP, something does not quite add up and there is probably a proportion of users who are either abusing, stealing or have found a loop hole in the system. It should be adressed not all disabilities are visual and a better, fairer and more accurate RAP does need to really be put in place. One that benefits those that require the service but also discourages those trying to use and abuse the system. Whatever’s posts above remind me of a time when I chatting to a woman who had an autistic son in the Tidal Wave queue once who supposedly was not entitled to RAP. I thought this was off as regardless of his diagnosis they should’ve really been RAP.

What on earth was going on at Thorpe today?! Breakdowns on Nemesis Inferno, Colossus, Stealth, The Swarm, Depth Charge, Derren Brown's Ghost Train. Samurai closed all afternoon/evening and Walking Dead: The Ride failed to open! Got an E-stop in the final brake run of Inferno, noticed it had done that earlier in the day as well. Fog looked great in the queueline and tunnel though, haven't seen it working that well in years. Overall a very average visit, ride availability was terrible.

Snap! That’s the same mark I got when I did mine

I don't know if this is the correct thread, but I visited the park yesterday and it was rather hellish. In the picture (at the bottom of this post) you can see the queue for guest services. It goes as far as the eye can see, not to mention also past the left side of the photo and up a ramp. We had to queue for near enough an hour with a twelve year old boy who can't queue very well to get a pass so he does not have to queue. Do you see the problem here? I'd like to mention that the staff handling the queue were very friendly and understanding, and I have the biggest respect for all of them because they were having to deal with children and annoyed parents (who were behaving worse to be honest). There were even two zookeepers bringing round a friendly goat for the children to pet which was very sweet. From the parents, I heard quite a few 'I'd like to speak to the manager please', as if we weren't all going through the same thing. I feel a lot of parents feel so entitled that they don't have to queue or respect the staff or anything. It must be a generational effect. But I understand somewhat how annoying the queue was. My mum then got pissed when we finally saw someone to get the pass, as he said my brother was no longer entitled to get one. I wasn't listening because I was embarrassed of the way both parties were speaking to one another, but it had something to do with either needing a letter from the doctor or SENCO about how my brother could not queue well (which isn't easy. What do they know specifically about his ability to queue?) He also said that there were plenty of ASD people that go in the normal queue, and I'm sure there are, and I'm sure my brother would queue for longer if he absolutely had to, but it's not my decision to make because I'm not the ASD child. It's him that knows whether he can queue or not. Yes, the way the Guest Services guy spoke to my mum was a little condescending, but I remembered that this poor bloke probably hears the same arguments day in, day out and is probably underpaid for it too. It's not even his fault; he's just at the front of it. It's another thing I can't bear about older people (sorry mum): they take out their anger at the receptionist, the cashier or the waiter, when the real problem usually lies with the men in suits higher up in the corporation. Be polite to them for god's sake. My mum also threatened to the guy to withdraw her prepayment for a new annual pass. As if it makes a difference to him. (I still want a pass because most of the time I visit with friends and go in the normal queue anyway) I'm not entirely sure where this was going and this post was all over the place but basically, I'm stuck in the middle of this and I'm not hugely siding with anyone. But step up your game Merlin, because your staff at the bottom are suffering because of it.