Marc

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!

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!

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.

Day tickets for open day have sold out - annual passes will be out of a different allocation but will no doubt sell out too.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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?

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. 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.

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.

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.

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.

Ahh 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.

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.

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.

Depth Charge (3)Detonator: Bomb's Away (3)Mr. Monkey's Banana Ride (3)Nemesis Inferno (3)Quantum (3)Rumba Rapids (2)Rush (3)Samurai (3)Stealth (3)Storm in a Teacup (3)The Swarm (4)Tidal Wave (3)Vortex (3) Swarm + 1 Rumba - 1

Probably significantly less than they were a couple months ago! Hope your friend is alright - sooner this is all over the better for us all!

Audio and Lighting is a lot better - agree odd they’ve left disabled targets in places a lot of people did seem confused but overall much better! Airgates in the station too help with loading are a good addition.

Portaventura have delayed opening now.

Looks like all Premier League and EFL games are suspended till 3rd April at least - be surprised if the start of the theme park season isn’t affected.

Yes they did - and there’s plenty of things they’ve done to improve the mess left of which IMO is more important , especially at CWOA than the vampire station for example - things like The Gruffalo retheme, Scorpion Express and Tiger Rock renovations were all things which they’ve done well IMO which really did need doing - don’t get me wrong there not perfect but think they are not all bad too!

To be fair Vampires had more than just some Maplin LED’s thrown up at it - the organist is back to working better than I’ve personally ever seen - the lighting effects have all been properly synced up with the music track - the station it’s self is sounding great too. Even if done internally - it’s been done by skilled people, not someone who’s just plugged in a few lights. Merlin get a lot of flack - but remember lots of these things fell into disrepair from years of neglect during the latter parts of the tussauds years.

The thing with music is it’s literally down to opinion - the old track was very good, a lot of people will feel some nostalgia towards it too. The new track is also very good, suits the ride just as much IMO. Other than the music the stations looking nice - glad to see the colourful LED lights gone it was pretty atmospheric in there today.