Benin

Asterix is a great park. Makes me wanna go back as it's got some serious quality. Also yay for not hating Goudrix. It gets a really bad reputation.

Danse Macabre opens today! It looks like pure theatre and I cannot wait until my Christmas visit.

Low wages (for an engineer, especially given the rural location), aging attractions and the short-termism are pretty much that. Skyride was definitely planned to open this year but something happened. Hex was utterly buggered and needed a big fix. If the maintenance ends up just being a quick fix with a hope to do a proper one later then it all adds up. Especially if they don't get the budget or personnel to ensure that the full fixes are done. This then extends to day fixes if staff are stretched thin across the park and can't quickly get to rides because they're busy on the opposite end. Though much like with modern cars, modern rides tend to have so much going on there's more likelihood of it breaking down. So it's a lot of factors coming together.

People kept going back to Thorpe when things were similar (constant ride breakdowns etc.). Rita is buggered though atm. Which definitely doesn't help.

Possible regionalised power cut perhaps? Plus Galaticair being it's usual self. Unfortunately until Merlin remove the short-termism mindset things will continue as is. Also shows the issue with a lack of supporting attractions in two of the major areas of the park. Not replacing the Retrosquad attractions was foolish. Especially with the over engineered nonsense they're currently building. Also think that people are pinning too many hopes on Universal shaking things up competitively. It doesn't do much for the regional type parks in the US.

Good old half term.

All the Merlin parks suffered from the crash. Because of the inherent short-termism that is still seemingly rife in the company. If things don't go right/well (say, the new coaster not being deemed a success) at any of the parks they seem to go into cut mode. There's no attempt to weather the storm as it were but keeping or improving the quality in the face of adversity. So people visit and are greeted by a poor state of affairs and operations, why would they return in future? Combined with the numbers of MAP holders who don't tend to spend much anyway on their visits they need to take stock of what their goals are. Though a lot of MAP holders who are moaning seem to be more upset about the RAP booking system rather than the actual problems in the parks.

Seemingly reopened today. So yeah, not that bad. Funny though.

Getting caught between the external shell and internal seat mechanism. Bit of something breaks loose after suddenly moving for first time consistently all year and right in the way. Incident many years ago (think Japan) where a person got caught between the 2. Didn't end well.

You mean like the also been closed all season Defi de Cesar at Asterix? Hex isn't the only one that's been struggling.

Well it lasted just over a day at least.

On positive side, good to have Hex back.

I'm gonna be visiting Guest Services to log a complaint about the early closure of CBeebies. It's a terrible decision (ohhh yay Walliams World remains open though, no good if your child is under 0.9m) and shows how far gone from caring about the guest experience we are. Everytime there's a poor season (you know, cos most of it was miserable weather wise, plus the cost of living issues) there's a knee jerk reaction to it that lessens the product on offer, and then they wonder why people don't come back or renew passes. Which leads to more cuts and the prices remain the same so we end up in a horrible cycle. The more things change the more they stay the same. Quite funny when people took them for their word as "Best Season Ever".

Depends who you ask. My first visit this season was an absolute disaster. Especially when they trotted out the old "well you have a MAP" line. However Towers aren't in my good books now. So I guess overall the race to be the least worst continues.

It's completely conjecture and guesswork, by a lot of armchair engineers about it. If we bemoaned every ride manufacturer that ended up with a ride stalling, there wouldn't be many to choose from. Maybe Golden Horse.

@JoshC. Can't Blue Fire potentially run 5? Unload & Offload (if operating separately), pre-launch, then pre and post MCBR? @Coaster This isn't the same as them barely bothering with park hours, events or half decent customer service. It's sensible business practice, since as Josh listed no one really hordes trains. It's often an issue that plagues any park if there's unforeseen issues. But is it financially worthwhile to spend 6 figures on an additional train and infrastructure when it'll spend most time collecting dust? Merlin will need to do a lot more to attract experienced engineers. Especially given it being very niche and requiring both mechanical and electrical knowledge (and most engineers specify in one). Add on the weird hours and days and it's a tricky sell. @Marc Should've built that B&M instead. Though no ride manufacturer is immune from stalling issues.

The 99% factored in Stealth. Though nowadays it only ever has 2 ready for actual operation (3rd one is in strip down mode all season if I recall?). I also said parks buy the amount of trains to suit the block brakes/sections. Not like parks in the US have 4 trains rather than 3 (if they ever operate to a decent standard) on those that can. Hyperia doesn't have a MCBR, so cannot run 3 trains at one time. What's the point in buying and maintaining an additional train when the engineering team is stretched as it is and you'll not be likely to need it on a regular basis. 2006 Thorpe is not 2024 Thorpe, and probably got the 3rd train on Stealth due to Rita being problematic the year before. As said, it's weird that it's a bug bear for Hyperia but not Swarm for example. Wickerman is about the only one that can actually run 3 trains (and even then sometimes you're sat in the brakes for ages, thus negating the throughput bonus).

I mean we have a similar conversation every year about this. Media night is always fancier. It also never helps that the mazes themselves are very luck based. Run through when breaks are hitting? Perhaps an incident has occurred with another group? Batching is crap? There are many more variables that affect an individual run through on a standard day compared to rides themselves. It means a bad run can put a real bad taste in the mouth. As for the clickbait? That video oozes it. All that's missing is the vlogger's face looking angry on there for the complete bingo.

No one could've predicted this! God that's some clickbait influencer nonsense.

So weird that people are going on about "should've bought 3 trains" when it is not a regular thing for any park in the world to do. Parks 99% of the time will only buy enough to fit on the respective block brakes. Why stop at 3? Get 4 trains on it, spend more money on a larger maintenance shed area instead. Problem solved.

Awwww, it's like the late 2000s all over again ❤️

Even though Thorpe did this with Stealth (presumably after Towers struggled with Rita?), there's little point in parks buying in additional trains which very rarely see the light of day and might only be used in an emergency. Also additional work for the engineers who are already stretched thin as it is. Definitely reasons why parks only have the minimum number of trains they can potentially run.

I mean they can open it just on one train for time being (or to make the vloggers and "celebs" happy). My fully assumed guess is there's something about the design that failed to account for the weather Thorpe can experience being in the middle of a lake. But with more and more rides going for "stall" style elements there's a degree of risk involved in that choice.

What's the lottery numbers this week @JoshC.? Weather has been crap again to be fair. But not good either way.

Love a Mark9 trip report. Joint trip next year? 😉