Benin

It still reaches 60mph I'm sure, the slowness is to do with the ride staff...

As I said, they need to be efficient to make bag drops work, and 1 person doesn't make it efficient whatsoever... Also, how about you know my pain of platforming Vampire with tonnes of school trip bags (usually 24) on the exit platform... That was a little bit more hellish to deal with than inefficient bag holds... Or, just don't go during this time of the year midweek...

Just goes to show that some enthusiasts will always think they know better than park employees simply because they're enthusiasts... Interesting to see that Saw's single rider (which was always a temporary measure as Fastrack wasn't being operated just after it opened), seems to have been the root cause of Thorpe's dislike of SRQs... Of course, they could've solved it by not having short fences in the middle of the queue, but I guess that would've costed money to fix... I think it does occur at Towers though mind, given the layout of bag holds on Smiler and Thirteen... Unless the batcher is being decent and not just letting everyone through at once...

Is that an actual quote from Thorpe? Not particularly a great choice of words... In theory, single rider shouldn't be slowing a queue down if run properly, so I'm not sure on that excuse either... The only 'abuse' there is of a single rider queue is that you can do a lot of rides in a minimal amount of time (I remember the days of doing 10 rides on Inferno in a row)... It might slow the dispatch down due to faffy people but would that have caused a direct issue with the actual queuetime? Probably had lots of groups have rage because they couldn't ride together or something, and in Thorpe's case a lot of the queues were poorly placed (ESPECIALLY Inferno's), so some H&S issues there...

Everyone else is jumping on the bandwagon, why not Thorpe?

Just imagine being a Stealth staff member... Staff - "Only 20 minutes till close then, even with the extended opening time..." Engineer - "Ride works now, so you can open it" *Ride opens, 2 hour queue ensues* Staff - "FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU"

The bag system on Swarm has always been flawed, considering in the opening season there were moments when the queue would be backed up to under the lift hill... As Fred said, they should just have followed the same procedures as Gardaland and now Heide for bag drops... Especially as it would reduce the number of staff required to actually run the ride... What makes it REALLY daft is that they actually have a huge amount of space inbetween rows to put in such a system... As for X, I certainly prefer the bag drop being just before the station... Given the state the building gets in during hot summer days, it's beneficial for guests to have bags to hand anyway, for water/snacks/etc... They just have to be efficient at the bag drop (which X tends to be in my experiences, Swarm is really the only one that I've ever seen done awfully)...

Didn't even mention the unrealistic 'Hollywood' London layout you see on the train too (NO YOU CANNOT SEE THE GHERKIN WHEN LEAVING KINGS CROSS!)... When you do think about it, Diagon Alley does get a lot wrong...

If the other versions are anything to go by it will be good...

Paradise Alley looks FAAAAAAAAAB <3 This is an example of an IP done well, even if I have no idea what's going on storyline wise (because like most of the British population, I did not see the film or it's sequels)... Taken a lot of inspiration from Wuze Town/Maya Land I think as well...

To be fair, any ride with Fastrack/exit riders gains a suddenly faster queue after ride close... Will be interesting to see the effect of VIP passes, the question is can Merlin find 1000 people stupid/rich/goony enough to buy one? Yes probably... But that's a LOT of disposable income to be wasting...

Depends on what's happened to it... If they're waiting on a part to be delivered there would be no work until delivery...

Why should disabled ambulant guests have to buy Fastrack if they don't want to queue? Hideous idea...

Six Flags don't pretend to be any better than they actually are though... They have had their niche clone market and lazy naming conventions since before some of this forum were born... Merlin, with their budgets and desire to be better than Disney, should not be recycling theme concepts... Then again all their WingRiders are practically the same basic theme (riding on a big beastie that's destroying the local area), so I'm guessing we'll see it happen more and more...

Because there's not a lot else to do besides stand in a queueline? #wevehadthisarguementbefore

S'all personal opinion innit, I'm sure the whole 'free-flow' nature of Cabin helped it win the recognition award...

From Thorpe's Facebook, some advance warning for anyone planning to visit on these days...

Disabled guests require carers to take them on the ride (as ride hosts aren't covered by insurance should something go wrong if they help them board/exit)... There is a maximum limit of 3 carers too (though whether that gets followed I'm not sure)... And of course, not every disability is able to be seen externally... And whilst a lot of people who get a pass tend to have crutches or general leg issues that would mean they couldn't queue for extended periods of time, I think that's ok, because I wouldn't want to be stuck in a queue of 60/90 minutes with a leg that's healing... The Merlin procedure of disabled passes is ok in theory, they just need to ensure that only those who are 'deserving' (for want of a better word) of it get it... Rather than people who would fake it...

Security do tend to have images of people who have been banned pinned up on notice boards within their offices... So yes, they will know... Shame that it kinda shows that the park's scrutiny in ensuring that those with disabilities get the exit pass is lacking... The park should be commended for the banning order, but should also try and ensure that this stuff doesn't happen... Even if it means stricter regulations for those with actual issues with queuing...

Given the entire fantastic look of the area, it's actually disappointing that the dragon is completely static bar the odd breathe of flame... Area ruined! </3 EDIT - POV of Hogwarts Express, spoilers abound obviously if you don't want to see it...

Amazing... Actually amazing... As it would appear you don't really know what a ratchet system is, here's a pic of a basic one off Wiki... Notice how component 1 and component 2 rest upon each other? Now when the restraint is pulled down, component 1 will rotate in accordance, meaning that component 2 will move... Constant usage in a theme park environment of course will mean the two components are constantly moving against each other, which will cause friction, and of course that in turn causes wear upon the two components... Friction is caused by two objects rubbing against each other, this electromagnetic repulsion is only to do with preventing solid objects from passing through each other... They are not the same thing... As for releasing restraints during an evac, again, when manually releasing a train it tends to be done per individual row, as there is no physical way (lack of current connector or release mechanism) that the restraints can all be released simultaneously during an evac... This may be true of things like Saw mind (sure someone who's worked on it could provide insight into their evac procedures), but that doesn't have seatbelts so doesn't link with your viewpoint that it prevents an entire train of people getting out during an evac...

In an evac multiple rows are not opened simultaneously though... Indeed, the only way multiple rows are opened simultaneously is in the station, whether it be due to the current being reconnected (Vampire, Saw) or the latch being opened (B&M)... Evacs involve rows being done one after the other... Both for weight reasons and of course that every restraint has to be opened manually... So they can't all release at once anyway, as there is no possible way for them to do so (Vampire for example, requires the current connector to open the restraints, the only way to release them mid-ride is to go underneath the train and grab the two hooks within the seat)... One would assume that evac procedures for rides where the restraints are connected together per car (like a B&M or Intamin) would not have an entire train of restraints rise up, but per row instead... Why a manual release would open the entire train in one go is beyond me I must say... Ratchet systems can obviously slip if the wear if enough mind... Basic friction... Of course a train with a dodgy restraint system would never be out on track (seen it enough times on Fury where we took a car off because a restraint was dying)...

Actually seat-belts tend to be put in as a bit of a failsafe in most rides (especially as those that use the ratcheting system of restraint (B&Ms) could theoretical release mid-ride more so than those that use Hydraulics a la Saw/Smiler)... So they can be deemed just as equally important on a ride's safety features as anything else... As Holly did say though, ride ops/hosts do have a bit more priority over the running of the actual ride over getting the correct queue time... Perhaps if management assisted with this (As they do roam about a lot more and can more readily see the queue) we'd see a bit more work involved? That or give the outdoor batcher the ability to change the times over say the operators...

School trip season for the next month until they officially break up... It's stupidly busy as a result, like busier than normal summer holidays in some cases...

A helicopter tour, showing the vast array of sheds for those who love them...