TraX

It's a shame merlin can't do more. We know they read the fan sites, and I for one have never seen THIS much complaint (that's saying something) on the forum. Merlin need to see the damage they're doing, although they won't give a crap until no one visits (chessington especially), and that's never gonna happen until Paramount opens, and merlin have to re-approach investment (or lack of), and operations of their dated parks.

The shutter in the cave is working today, that's about it. It's a total joke, they should be ashamed of themselves, its bad enough when it's working to their low standard.. What a farce.

That's the whole Disney thing, it's a 'stage'.. as long as (for the most part) it doesn't effect, or is too visible to the audience, then it's acceptable. Backstage at Disneyland Paris, you can really notice how half themed Main Street is, but from Main Street (the stage), it looks fantastic. As Benin pointed out, the worst is The Forbidden Journey, for it's shocking white warehouse.

If you understand it or not, that's the reason. Imagine batching people into the pre-show room, The Chase Van Driver video, and Gozi doing his thing..The last part of the queue is short, and more often than not there would be no one in the batching area, as ride staff would be waiting for the pre-show to finish (and would have to send out empty trucks). Its a constant battle between the entertaining department, and the rides department who were pushing for throughputs, but were stuck due to the pre-show. As I said, if it was all programmed then it would run for a set time, and the automatic doors would keep the guest flow. As the park cut that corner, they were stuck with something that now doesn't work (It also doesn't help that the Gozi animation is so awful, that people just take the p-ss out of it). Cheap, cheap cheap.

The technology that runs GOZI is dire. Additionally, the actors get bored in a small room, with not much communication with the ride operator. The main reason it was scrapped, is because it caused terrible throughput blocks, and caused some trucks to go out empty. The bottom line is that if Chessington had installed automated doors (which were planned and scrapped, due to budget), it would have all been show controlled, and all worked well. My main issue is the awful finale, which again on paper sounded jaw dropping, as guests were discovered, and unearthed a horrible curse, including African masks, lit up with bursts of air shooting at you, doubled with a forceful wind from all around (see the fans that were installed). As AstroDan said, this ride was cut back so much, until we got the mediocre attraction it is today (the best thing about it is the Avatar inspired audio tracks)..

AstroDan, your post is the best thing ever. I'm thrilled so many people have noticed this about that awful attraction. So much potential, then well, Merlin..

Ok..

The people who were 'next to get on the train' (which is inside), were also watching the stalled train (which is outside), and were shouting to stop the ride... A lot of those stories are rubbish.

HAHAHA.. the ride works, so why on earth would Merlin close it to make it look as splendid as it did in the 80's? Tombs re-do will come first, despite the fact Bubbles gets daily feedback for looking awful. Falls oddly has slipped through the net, and whilst there's no negative feedback on the embarrassing state the park decided to leave it in, it will remain. What's worse is that the original company that sculptured the stone faces, said they would love to re-create it, and bring it back to glory.

Unless it was left in manual after engineering added the extra train.

If this is what they want, then they need to invest making Explorer the main park gate (remember there's a few generations that have been using Lodge for years, so will need to adjust). Invest in Explorer and make it a better theme park first impression, than the add on it currently is. Oh I used the word 'invest' and 'great theme park impression'. LOL

The amount of complaints they get about that grass car park on a standard day, should have been enough to have swayed a better decision, IF the park wasn't run by sales, over guest experience.

You'd think the person running Chessington has zero experience running a theme park (he hasn't). It's almost like they're trying to annoy people now, it really is. When they fix up their dreadful, tatty theme park, which still sells attractions that made it famous in the 90's, I'll visit again, but right now the place is a dive. They should be ashamed how the park looks, and to leave Falls in such a state, shows you exactly their thinking; They don't give a damn, unless it pulls in a few pounds. From a park that was one the best theme park's in the 90's, we watched as they slowly run it into the ground, taking all the excuses they throw at us.

The whole point of the ride is the fountains. Particularly since they trashed it. Marketing could always do the same as they did with falls; 'we know it looks awful, but we're re-developing it for next year' (then obviously do utterly nothing).

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/alton-towers-accident-smiler-could-5844062 Now it may be stripped of it's 'world first' record as well! The horrors just keep on coming.

No wonder Merlin are so arrogant, what will it take to stop people visiting a place that is so lackluster? I can hear the meetings now; 'Just get the ride open. Any ride, is better than no ride.'

My interest lies in the possibility of a re-brand. We've seen the Towers logo loose all it's Smiler influence, and return to the classic AT logo, and we've seen the merch has been swapped out too. I'm sure this is only as things are 'fresh' in the minds of all, but what are the chances?

I'd like to see SimWorks take this on, so it becomes a ride system, rather than the up charge, maze that this is. Great idea though, and with the re-boot filming next week, I hope there are some parks looking into this again.

I would say that engineering add a train, engineering leave ride in manual. The stalled train was just bad luck. With the train stopped before entering the block, someone has either noticed '****, it's still in manual' and over ridden something, or simply under panic, jogged the train forward. We know from various other, and serious ride faults that Towers can hide a lot of details, Enterprise and Thirteen have both had SERIOUS issues, and had been covered to save bad press (ditto for the Chessington fire). Whilst it's not uncommon (after all, who could blame them), I would like to hope they're also supporting the girl who was operating (and the engineer who had originally attended), rather than looking for someone to fire and take the fall. It's also worth pointing out that Oblivion has an alarm that is constant, and has to be silenced, that warns staff if the ride is/or is still, in manual mode. Seems like a function that all coasters should have.

Basiclly, rides that have systems in place to be in manual will have more stringent restrictions. Engineers will not be able to leave rides in manual, I suspect they'll be a whole load of paper work and signing over during any kind of shut down/adding a train. The roller coaster stopped on the lift, and we know that. It obviously knew the car in front hadn't cleared the block. The point here is how 'someone' was able to jog the train forward, and not being aware of the stalled train. This is human error, simple as that. I know it's a bad error, however whether Merlin put their hands up, or blame the ride is yet to be seen.

Yes, they open the lost city rides, Depth Charge and Fish up until 9pm. The fastrack is for an hour and a half after park opening, and whilst you get in before the non hotel guests, you'll spend half an hour trying to find anything that is open before 10. I'd start on Swarm or Stealth as they seem to like operating them on one train until those queuelines reach 60mins.

The last day was today, with bank holiday weekend coming up fast ??

Totally have my name on one of those. It was only meant to be for a year.

OR they haven't got the staff to cope with it. It looks better whilst Merlin looses staff, to say these excuses about 'waiting for parts', or there being 'not enough demand', WHEN CLEARLY THERE HAS BEEN. Knowing Merlin they were prob short staffed before anyone left unexpectedly anyway. Staffing is pretty short all over, the Eye is running with a minimum staff also. Seems they're penny pinching has filtered right through to not hiring enough/more staff (which means the customers suffer a below par experience).

No, they're 'waiting for parts' not struggling with staffing. ;-)