Marc

With only a couple of exceptions I can't think of many rides which opened flawlessly without suffering down time. If we compare to Merlins major investments (Swarm, Smiler, Thirteen and Saw) the only one which didn't suffer all sorts of down time is Swarm. With that sort of thinking rides would never progress

I do like the live action section but as Josh mentioned not sure they've got the acting quite right here. It is amusing watching from afar guests running out the way of the train coming towards them, genuinely scared for their lives!

Im pretty sure the cable is changed after a set amount of launches - this was the case before Rita had a cable snap too. Considering it's been playing up for a while I'd assume there's more wrong than a simple cable replacement - hopefully it back up soon!

I think this depends on how much smokes been pumped into the tunnel - when theres enough this is really quite effective (on my rides yesterday there were many people running out the way) but others its been more obvious whats going on here.

You mean the section which generates the most scares for the majority of riders? (for what it's worth I also think the 2nd VR section is the weakest part of ride but it clearly works well)

Looks like it! https://www.chessington.com/explore/theme-park/attraction/16/bubbleworks.aspx Last rides 6th September

I'd say tourist attractions within the UK (admittedly some of their own too) - that said there is still plenty of entertainmenty things to do in and around London what they are up against which are not Merlin.

I think people need to remember Universal etc are not the parks which Thorpe / Merlin are trying to compete with here... I got to ride it without VR to take some pictures last night - I saw adults riding it cowering into the side of their seats scared out of their lives - it's not often you see that sort of reaction other than a few screams on a coaster. I don't think it's for everyone - but reaction from the public in general is said to be very good and ultimately that's the most important thing when building a ride - pleasing your core audience!

Apparently there was around 30 seats out of use across the 3 trains last week - im assuming they are working on getting these back up and running.

No idea where in London you commute but it's not something I've seen - but on a ride designed to scare you I'd say screams are a good indication it's working?

No idea on official stats but the trains are usually full of screaming guests which i guess is a good sign!

Good to see the park must be doing well! Not often do they hit capacity outside of Fright Nights

DBGT is open with 120 min queue..

Pretty good of the park today - Stealth up and down , ghost train was evacuated but they reopened them both at 6pm and left them and all coasters open till 6:30 - certainly helped get on some rides we wouldn't have managed otherwise!

Just like the Merlin parks - the people who make these decisions are much more in the know about the park and its finances than we are. If opening late had a financial benefit to them they would open - clearly they've seen it don't and have changed their hours accordingly. I think piers are quite different attractions to BPB - you can walk up and down a peir for free play a few games if you want to, I never visited BPB when it was "free entry" I expect later nights worked better then although at the same time I expect it caused it's own problems.

Mayve compared to Galactica that would be a fair point but not sure if a ride designed around it suffers the same shortfalls as one having VR bolted on. I genuinely think VR will play an important role in dark rides for years to come.

The headsets are pretty compex in them selves - they are the best on the market and not really comparable to the samsung phones in a box. http://gizmodo.com/this-is-how-valve-s-amazing-lighthouse-tracking-technol-1705356768 - some info here on the Lighthouse boxes on each train and how that bit works. Then of coruse each headset will be connected to a computer on the train, simultaneously working in sync with each other, syncing up with the train its self and effects on the train. I think you'll find this attraction is a lot more complex than you imagine it to be!

Sorry but dont agree - of course VR is not as mechanically complicated - but it certainly extremely complex in other ways - I imagine the software driving this thing is probably more complex than most rides we have in the UK.

Most new rides open with technical problems, even more so rides using new technologies in different ways. Look at Air when that first opened and its numerous problems, the Intamin Rockets used to be pretty notorious too but run fine now. I wouldn't worry about it not delivering - the vast majority of the feedback from the GP seems overwhelmingly positive - if anything id say it gives us a good chance of Merlin looking to bring more dark rides to the UK. As I said the technical issues are normal for new rides and will be ironed out.

Its possible the headsets out of use have another issue such as the machines running them rather than just the headest its self. As you say, im sure they have plenty of spares!

These are the sort of things which long term will be sorted - they can have tech rehearsals and staff rides as much as they like but it don't come close to 1000's of people riding it daily. Contractors are still on site and I expect will be for a while yet!

Yeah it has

https://www.thorpepark.com/blog/top-5-derren-browns-ghost-train-easter-eggs/ - A blog post with some easter eggs / images from the attraction!

The owners who they lease the land from will have no say in any way what rides the park has - will be totally down to Thorpe / Merlin Im not sure it's time is up just yet - after all the work it's had it runs fairly well - apart from the last couple weeks of course!

Saw it had 3 members of staff at the entrance so if it didn't open it was close to!