Marc
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Posts posted by Marc
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10 hours ago, Coaster said:
Would anyone be able to remind me how to change my signature? I can't seem to find the option anywhere.
Under account settings - clicking below when logged in should work!
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10 hours ago, Coaster said:
I was very saddened to hear about the incident yesterday. Truly a horrible event for the victim, staff, and guests. This shouldn’t happen anywhere; let alone a theme park and I hope that everyone is safe and that the victim recovers.
Sadly, I feel that this emphasises the absolute failure Thorpe Park have made in terms of security. For years, the park has needed a purpose-built entrance with a much higher number of security scanners and more thorough checks. Even after the tightened security measures introduced around the UK a few years back, they are still relying on waving people through a few (two I think) huts. On occasions last year and the year before, I wasn’t even asked to step through the security scanner. This should be compulsory for all guests and there should be the capacity to do this efficiently.
Today’s knee-jerk reaction causing a 2+ hour queue to enter the park is not the answer either. It should not take a stabbing to make a park that handles thousands of guests daily realise that they need proper security measures (which they still don’t have).
I'm not sure it does show a failure on thorpes part? Thorpe Park's security procedure (the parts which we see anyway) is IMO probably the most stringent out of all the Merlin theme parks already and will no doubt evolve again after this incident. I agree that I haven't had to walk through a scanner at thorpe other than on some special events, but the same can be said for any entertainment venue I've visited in the UK over the past couple of years.
The bag search was bought in after a number of terrorist incidents. I agree if they want to search every guest to a higher standard it will take investment in more equipment and infrastructure, and that 2 hour queues to get in are not a long term solution, but to say the park don't have proper security measures is a ridiculous statement.
QuoteWhether they like to admit it or not, Thorpe Park is not a safe environment. Some of the behaviour I have seen from guests in the past, particularly during Fright Nights but also at other times of the year, is disgusting and puts people in danger. Thorpe Park are aware of this behaviour and yet have still not introduced a properly secure entrance.
I don't agree Thorpe Park is not a safe environment, "Behaviours" you mention can and do happen in all sorts of places, when you manage thousands of people a day your bound to have trouble at some points, Fright Nights are typically busier and therefore your probably more likely to have someone out to cause trouble. And as far as I know this is the first instance of knife crime at TP - how would a "properly secure entrance" stop someone picking a fight in the park?
QuoteA park handling crowds on the level of Thorpe Park should be able to search all guests safely and efficiently. It shouldn’t cause long delays, nor should they have to wave people through due to not having the capacity to search everyone properly. It is a farce and either Merlin or Thorpe should be held accountable for yesterday’s incident, as they have had years to sort this.
Holding Merlin or Thorpe accountable for the knife crime problem in the UK is abit OTT - Thorpe Park's checks were always simply Bag Checks - The park no doubt work with local police forces to plan and execute things such as security / bag searches etc.
QuoteIn addition to this, I have also read multiple reports that despite requiring guests to pre-book online, they haven’t even been checking tickets of pass-holders. This means that they potentially could have exceeded the legal limits for safety due to COVID-19? Plus, they aren’t following guidelines and then an incident occurs at the park which is not good by any means.
To enter the park you need to have a ticket scanned at a turnstile or manually by staff, they of course know how many people are in the park at any given time, as far as i know there are no "legal limits" for Covid 19 - they simply have to ensure social distancing measures are in place which they are, park capacity is significantly reduced from normal.
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The TVs sort of worked last year - the news audio track played but very few TVs worked - think the ones over in the extended queue did but that was all.
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Hey
At which point of registration did you get the error? Just tried to register an account and it worked OK for me.
thanks
Marc
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26 minutes ago, ThorpeAddict said:
Pretty sure it was up again by the end of the day?
Yeah it did reopen later on!
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4 hours ago, TPJames said:
Marc, it’s great you are so positive and it’s always great to get a positive opinion and outlook on life!
Unfortunately I just cannot agree. Blackpool has had a really successful opening day (bar issues with the big one due to wind) whereas merlin parks have been a bit of a shambles across the board. I’m tempted to say there’s been more rides closed than open today, and when the closed rides aren’t advertised on the website in advance, that’s pretty unprofessional in my opinion. Chessington and Legoland posted a list of what’s going to be open and closed, whereas Alton and Thorpe left their customers in the dark as to what would be operating, then Thorpe had all water rides shut, and towers had 2 major coasters closed. We can argue indoor rides are closed due to social distancing but at the end of the day I think indoor rides being closed is just down to budget cuts- out in Europe parks have indoor rides open so I don’t see why it should be any different over here.
In terms of covid mitigation, which is really important right now, merlin have done a pretty good job from what I’ve seen. But it doesn’t cover up the fact that parts of towers and Thorpe have been neglected and just not maintained, this was an issue pre-covid but is surely not going to be helped by the pandemic as any budgets left for park upkeep and refurbishment have probably been lost in the 3 months of the parks not being open. And to combine the abundance of SBNO rides today across all the merlin parks, it’s pretty poor.
When I checked the Thorpe park queue times at one point today there was only 10 rides open and 14 closed, and because of this queue times are elevated too which means people are in close proximity for longer.
I also struggle to see how chessington is operating on a 10am-4pm opening hours, that’s just shocking to be honest I can’t believe they can get away with that- not related to Thorpe though.
So yeah in terms of covid measures, they’ve done a good job but there’s been way too many unadvertised ride closures today across Thorpe and towers and the parks are just looking really neglected. The pandemic isn’t going to help with this as merlin now will be struggling financially along with every other business out there.
I just wish we had some more competition in terms of uk parks to give merlin that extra push in terms of investing in park maintenance, theming and upkeep.
I agree - I’ve no idea on other Merlin parks but Thorpe did have a number of rides closed - I do not believe it all being down to budget cuts though, In general rides were staffed pretty well.
For the indoor rides it seems to be a choice merlin have made across the board - as far as I know it’s the same at all merlin parks - personally at Thorpe I can see why, Ghost Train would be an awful ride to run in these times, Walking dead wouldn’t be much better with its narrow / dark corridors - then the added issue of odd numbers and couldn’t pair Odd number groups together, angry birds could open and I expect will at some point.
Along with that Thorpe had Tidal Wave, Storm Surge, Depth Charge, Rumba, Lumber Jump, Rocky Express and Timber Tug closed. From what I understand rush is due to technical problems unrelated to covid.
For me personally none of the above really affected my day - I’d open I’d have probably rode Rumba and Rush. I guess I did know in advance, the app was updated to have the open rides but I agree it could have been clearer on the website.
As for looking neglected - at thrope at least other than the mess of the rear of the arcade - I didn’t see anything which stuck out, plenty of places have been repainted, shops and food units have been refurbished. I do hope the arcade is sorted soon.
That said it don’t detract from the other genuine positives I mentioned across the park for this season.
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So I actually had a good day today, I’ll admit after the first hour everything felt a bit weird, but after that getting more used to things I actually enjoyed it.
Carrying on from above, the arcade from that angle does look bad - I’ve no idea I can only assume it had to be done very quickly for some reason or work wasn’t able to be completed due to corona - I do hope something is done to improve it as it don’t look great.
On a more positive note - Firstly with the social distancing I think the park did really well - there are markers literally everywhere spaced out 2 m anywhere there would be a queue - there are sanitiser stations everywhere and I didn’t find one which had ran out all day, on rides there’s social distancing where it’s needed - some rides seem odd such as quantum which literally runs 3 rows - others do make sense, but obviously this is new and will be tweaked over the next few weeks. There’s signage everywhere - again it’s all been done professionally and properly, proper signage throughout, information videos on screens and park wide announcements. For guests following it it’s a mixed bag - some queue lines seemed to follow it better than others, ride ops did step in at times and make announcements reminding people which jogged memories and people would then distance out more. Did notice some not wearing masks on The Swarm, at the same time someone at stealth didn’t have a mask and the staff quickly found one, disposable masks are also on sale in the shops as well as Thorpe branded ones.Entrance to the park was efficient- those without bags skip security queue and go straight to temperature check - the ticket window queue to the right of the entrance is repurposed info a holding queue for those waiting to get in before park opens to allow people to be socially distancing whilst waiting.
Park audio has had so much work, probably more than its ever had, its not finished but it’s already significantly better, queues like colossus which have needed work for so long have had it, areas which never had audio before now have it, its really so much better. A few tweaks are needed with some volumes too loud or quiet but that will come over time - you need the general noise of the park to get these levels right.
Ride availability wasn’t bad - rides in old town were closed along with rumba, I expect these to open over the next Few weeks, as expected Ghost train and walking dead closed. Shutdown wise only actually saw Stealth and Vortex go down which isn’t bad for “first day” of season - all rides full capacity too which is obviously more important now with reduced seating.
New brand signage around entrance / dome looks good - much more professional and suits the park well - Infinity looks really good too, sadly they seemed to have some struggles in there today so didn’t get to try it but definitely will soon!
New car park system was good - passes scanned quickly, I do wonder if eventually pass holders will be able to register a car reg?
Was also happy to see fastrack not on sale - they easily could have sold it, and people would have bought it - but not selling it definitely is a big plus for guest experience especially when staff are getting used to the new procedures on rides.All in all I had a good day - it was rough around the edges in some places but open day ALWAYS is - with the added part of the vast majority of staff spending the last few months on furlough along with all the new procedures needed it ran significantly smoother than i thouht it would - am happy the parks able to reopen!
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14 minutes ago, Martin Doyle said:
I have said this time and time again. A fan forum will almost certainly reflect the current state of what it is dedicated to which in this case is Thorpe Park.
If Thorpe Park was performing and delivering to its potential, this forum would reflect that with members getting real excited about the place.
As it is, the park has been a shadow of its old self for a few years now to the point where many who once loved it are now staying away as they are fed up. So ofcourse this forum reflects that.
It would be nice to see positivity.....but when the park is leaving little to find positives in, its hardly surprising that you see more constructive criticism on here
Whilst I agree to an extent - there’s plenty to be positive about too..
The park has had a great rebrand over the winter - tonnes of signage replaced, tonnes of new stuff, it looks good, its much more professional and it needed doing.
The dome has been done up more - whilst I get opinions on looks are subjective and personal opinion, it’s had work done and it’s seen improvement, along with Infinity bar which at least from the outside looks really good - it will be a huge improvement for hotel guests when social distancing measures allow some of the new bits in there too.
Park audio system has seen the biggest overhaul it literally ever has had, a good 90% of speakers have been replaced, audio has been added to places which have never had it significantly improving coverage, queue lines which haven’t had audio for years have been fixed, there’s some tweaking to do with volumes etc but again it’s a great improvement.
Dont get me wrong - I get it’s not perfect, the area around ghost train near the arcade looks pretty dreadful for example - but it won’t stay looking like that, I suspect it was something started either very recently or just before everyone had to go on furlough. I get both sides of it I guess, personally I’m thankful the parks are able to start opening and getting back to some sort of normal!
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30 minutes ago, JoshuaA said:
I wouldn't say there is much in it to be fair. Chessington is really on the smaller side too. Sure they have the zoo, but even with the zoo its still small. Their capacities cannot be too different, so I think saying the pricing for Thorpe coming down to capacity is kind of a BS excuse.
Yeah I guess that is a pretty good positive. People just love having a 70% chance of getting caught in a traffic jam while en route to the park.
I didnt mean it as a positive, things in and around London are more expensive, its just the way it is.
It wont just be capacity, it will be demand too, seeing as they've sold out within a couple of hours of opening being confirmed i guess its safe to assume its been priced it right from a business standpoint.
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Day tickets for open day have sold out - annual passes will be out of a different allocation but will no doubt sell out too.
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6 minutes ago, JoshuaA said:
I think its awful. Chessington is compact and small too, but that is priced modestly..
Thorpe Park does not warrant that price jump. It should be the lowest in price IMO, as it has the least to offer. Lets also consider that the park has not received a proper new ride since 2016 (and that ride will most likely be closed for sanitary reasons and also because its terrible lol).
I’d say Chessington is a fair bit bigger bigger than Thorpe? The parks much more spread out, It has the zoo too to help distribute guests further.
Of course Alton offers more but then Thorpe will always have the extra premium being within the m25, as will Chessington.
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15 minutes ago, Benin said:
To raise the online booking price when EVERYONE will have to book online is dodgy however you slice it.
I guess it’s to make up for some of the losses they will make from no walk up tickets for the foreseeable future and being closed almost 4 months, that and capacity where I expect Thorpe will likely suffer most being as compact as it is.
I’ve no idea how ticket prices are set for theme parks, but I expect there’s some sort of market research into it and how much people are comfortable paying for a day out before they feel ripped off, that and I’m sure many 2 for 1 vouchers work online now?
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I expect the parks know more some more than we do though, even if not much. Merlin parks are now selling day tickets from 4th July so they must be fairly confident they will be allowed to open on this date baring any last minute changes.
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The rides were ready for the park to open in March, engineering will have been in throughout making sure they remain ready for when they are able to open.
No idea about staff but I expect as soon as the government give a firm date they will quickly get them back in and ready.
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2 minutes ago, StevenVig said:
Mark asks a reasonable question here though. There was no malice behind his post.
As a Queer POC on this forum, I can honestly say that personally, the lack of diversity has never actually crossed my mind. I’ve never considered race or ethnicities within this community. It does get you thinking though, it has never been an issue for me, and is something that I guess I just accept.
Though I can now see how this might be perceived to others though, and it is a healthy discussion to be had
Sure it’s a healthy discussion and am happy to have it - as Pluk said all team member applications the last time we did them were anonymous to keep things as fair for everyone as possible.
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On 6/5/2020 at 9:46 AM, Benin said:
Yesterday's front pages annoyed the hell out of me.
Two massive worldwide issues going on atm. The UK Covid numbers are more than the rest of the EU combined, then we have the numerous protests in support of those across the pond.
Our media ignores those and looks at a 12 year old case about a middle class white girl who died due to the neglect of her parents (even if they didn't kill her themselves, they left 3 children in a hotel room alone, but of course they don't get blamed for that either).
And some say we're better than the Americans.
You say that but media is one of the things which has really annoyed me during this whole pandemic - and this is a good example, this graphic showing the UK having a higher death rate than the entirety of the EU, its still being shared over on Twitter now, its is so twisted almost to try scare people and I don't really get why - a bit of research shows Spain are literally lying about death numbers (you can see when they went from over 200 deaths per day to 2) and god knows how accurate other countries data are too - then the UK is accused of lying about death numbers because they added on 400 or so from previous weeks... surely that's the opposite of lying?
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48 minutes ago, Benin said:
It adds very little because of how far into the situation we are. What's the point in testing now when travel is limited? Why weren't we testing those who came over from Madrid for the Liverpool match when Spain were beginning their lockdown?
Simply put we're closing the stable doors but the horses bolted 2 months ago.
Look at how other European countries dealt with this and it's no wonder we've got the highest death rate.
Oh I agree early on we should have done more I was more meaning now it’s probably pretty pointless till it’s more under control.
5 minutes ago, Martin Doyle said:Spain - near instant lockdown
Italy - near instant lockdown
Germany - near instant lockdown
UK - WASH YOUR HANDS AND SING HAPPY BIRTHDAY LADS!!
No wonder it's as bad as it is on these shores.
I wouldn’t say Italy or Spain are any better or worse than we are - Germany on the other hand have really taken control and shown how it can be effectively managed.
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11 minutes ago, JoshuaA said:
I wouldn't even say testing arrivals, testing in general is something the government failed horribly at doing.
Testing, tracking, and tracing is something Germany did a lot of. Arrivals would be a start, but ideally we need as many people being tested as humanly possible. But the government probably won't, because we don't have a smart leader and government like Germany. I think its no surprise that the UK and US are the worst affected..
Oh yeah definitely testing is something we missed the boat on and we have been playing catch up since - and we will need to expand further when more restrictions are relaxed as time goes on and that will have include arrivals when things are more “under control” but not sure what testing arrivals really adds at the moment.
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1 hour ago, Benin said:
Meanwhile the UK will only start testing arrivals to the country at the end of this month.
So don't hold your breath on our lot opening anytime soon. Because we're run by idiots.
I see a lot of comments on us not testing arrivals and genuinely don’t see why it’s important at the moment?
Firstly - I don’t see why anyone arriving is anymore likely to have the virus than someone already here.
Secondly, with the restrictions / social distancing in place which people arriving have to follow - if someone does have it then following the rules in place make it unlikely to spread anyway.
Of course when the infection rates are low and it’s more under control in the U.K. testing / quarantining arrivals is much more important.
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1 hour ago, SteveJ said:
Funny how just 1 year later those "early days" were gone and the graphics infinitely improved. Swap out "early days" for "cheapest option" and you'd be more correct
To be fair the same people who did the VR when it opened did the re-worked Vr on the 2nd train - they were also responsible for the VR in the first segment.
Always thought it was the 2nd trains VR which let it down massively in its first year - the hold in green smoke just went on too long every time but apart from that it was OK - though the re-worked 2nd train scene is much better.
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8 minutes ago, SteveJ said:
Not those mini screens above, the big windows I mean, is it true these were initially simulator screens (or were designed so they could have been if wanted) before being covered/removed?
I heard a lot of the problems with the VR was that it was designed in relatively late to planning, rushed in by marketing who thought it would be a great addition, after some of the design had been done. It would certainly seem that way but may not be totally true.
Yeah the Simworx thing I'm also unclear about, I know other parties were involved in the manufacture but I heard that it was package prototype ride by Simworx (with those other aspects outsourced like the trains and track), excluding the VR on board. Again might just be an exaggeration that I was told.
One thing we do know for sure is there were changes to try accomodate the VR, in that wobbly period when the opening was delayedAhh my bad - the windows were initially supposed to mist up I believe during different points so you wouldn’t see what’s behind the scenes if you didn’t have VR on - but the reflections from the windows would mess with the VR so they were in the end just covered up.
I believe simworx ultimately manages the entire project but the most part of it was built by different manufacturers - probably not helping ultimately in all the problems.I don’t think the VR was added late as a marketing gimmick - the concept of a train with screens in the window wouldn’t really work on ghost train as you’d be awkwardly looking at a screen somones sat infront of - unless you only had people one side but that would end in a ridiculously poor throughput.
Yeah there was problems with VR contributing to the delay but by no means is VR it’s only issues - it’s a shame really as when the entire experience works as it’s meant to I still do think it’s good, it could have varied a lot more had it been a success to keep it fresh - it’s just so rare the whole thing works as an entire package.
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5 minutes ago, SteveJ said:
I can see that leg ticklers wouldn't really work, you'd see them as you board before the lights go out (they're just flexible tubing). The screens, fog and all that are what's interesting, I wonder how much was actually installed before being removed or just mothballed.
There must be a solution to using the ride system to its full potential as a simulator ride. It's the designers' job to come up with a solution and make it work as an experience, but it would take money not a quick rehash with some actors. Also as far as I know (might be wrong) Simworx built it without VR in mind to be rolled out to other parks in the future. It would be a shame to waste the ride system which was by far the best thing about the ride in my opinion.The leg ticklers were in place when it first opened - can make them out in the picture below on the left side of the train - also the smoke used to work and the screens played a news report in 2016 - think both were removed after the rise of demon changes.
Im not sure if ghost train it’s self would work without VR - it’s quite different to standard immersive tunnels simworx have built - The trains are built by Severnlamb the block system by Intamin - I’m not certain what parts simworx built them selves to be honest. VR wasn’t a last minute addition to ghost train by any means - the ride was designed to have VR fairly early in its planning.
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Realistically Ghost train would struggle without VR IMO - you have too long sections with the train sat there not moving for it work without it without huge changes which probably wouldn’t be worth it.
I can’t see it opening this year - if we do hopefully have a vaccine against this in a years time I can’t see it being too much of an issue then.
2020 Season
in The Past
Posted
You must be aware of massive terrorist incidents which resulted in massive changes to security operations within the airline industry?
But I can’t agree it’s completely the parks fault - there was a stabbing in a hospital yesterday, is that the hospitals fault?
As pluk said, there’s only so much they can do, You can not expect a guest visiting a theme park or any entertainment venue to go though airport standard security checks. Thankfully incidents like this are extremely rare at these places.