Benin

Why don't you actually bother to queue for it, when it's actually the second longest coaster at Thorpe behind Colossus... http://rcdb.com/4814.htm Not exactly sommat to complain about really the length then... So..

Most guests to theme parks do seem to leave their brain at the door... It's kinda this whole take advantage of the belief of how Fastrack will affect the day thing... We know Thorpe aren't the only guilty party with it, but Thorpe mess up their Fastrack selling on a much more regular basis than the rest... The overselling is a constant problem on standard weekends as well as the peak (summer, easter, halloween) days... And when it's done on weekdays it just shows a complete lack of actual sense or desire to give the customers a sense of satisfaction and a good day... And look what happened last time Thorpe plonked in a ride because of another silly view that you MUST have a new ride every year... If our parks here actually invested money into the infrastructure and tarting the park up and producing so much more than just the rides, there would be SUCH a big difference to the casual GP market... The parks need to consider methods of producing a good day out environment, rides do not mean everything at a theme park... You only have to look at the successful parks in the world in Europe AND America for this plain factor... Six Flags focused on rides a few years back, that clearly worked... And saying that they could've made Swarm longer? NO, NO, NO... Considering the fact that before Swarm that area was water, the cost would SOAR so much just for the groundwork alone... What they did is fine enough, Swarm is an excellent ride (if only lacking a truly exceptional finale), there is no point comparing it to any American version, because ALL their rides are technically bigger, longer, faster, taller, etc than any of our rides... Shame that those factors do not automatically make a good ride... Indeed, compare Nemesis to most American Inverts, and it dominates them... The only thing I would've changed with Swarm was to sort out the finale... Kinda where it loses a point to Raptor really... But for Thorpe to do something like Swarm shows a very different approach to things... Why would no theme and the ride being longer be any good? The theme is what makes the ride... Would hate for Thorpe to have continued a trend of the mid 2000s of building rides with little (Stealth) or no (Samurai, Rush, Slammer) theme... Tl;dr - Fastrack overselling is a burden at all the parks but Thorpe is the worst... Getting a new ride for the sake of getting a new ride when there are clear infrastructure issues (painting, lack of budgets) isn't the best way to run a theme park if you want people to return... And Swarm couldn't have been made longer without excessive extra cost, and the theme is the best on park now...

The Yorkshire way really...

Just a support structure by the looks of things... Scaffold style you know...

I've read that Brian Blessed will be playing Henry VIII as County Hall opens... Automatically better than Tooley Street

Depends if the bandied figure of £20 million for this move is true or not... Can't look any worse than the LBE mind... And considering how nice Blackpool's looked on the outside, I would suspect it won't be toooo awful, just kind of lack that old rickety sense that Tooley Street had... It makes more sense for them to move though... Lot more sense than staying at Tooley Street...

Henry VIII stuff eh? That sounds interesting... Meh, it'll always be more humour because of the general mob of tourists from abroad... Lot more of them in London, and tbh, I much prefer such stuff with a very British sense of humour attached to it... Much better than being some generic scare everyone thing...

Doesn't show the genius of letting Hart head it away and following the ball to smash it in... Classy goal mind...

Let's hope they do the same for the rest of the area...

Jesus Christ that character is TERRIFYING... But, Roland

PARROT COASTER!!! So want with it's LED eyes

Are we asking these people if they would prefer 30 minutes on one train, or a lower queue with two trains? What's the point in comparing off-peak and peak days? Ask people if they want a 30 minute queue with one train or a 0 minute queue with two trains, and it's obvious what people would prefer... One train operation is horrid... Just generally is... Hell if Europa can run 4 trains on EuroSat and EuroMir on a dead day (walk on queues) why can't Thorpe run two trains, allow guests an even better day, and let them spend less time in a queue and spend in shops/food outlets... Oh wait, I know, it's the pushing of Fastrack that every single park seem to do nowadays, but Thorpe are much worse for it, which of course, affects the park operations even worse... I can even attest to the whole "Fastrack was the only reason I had a good day" as I did that this year... So aggravating to see the park operations in the south (this topic could SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO be done for Chessie as well) be so poor...

Tracks fracturing isn't too rare an occurance for it to be an unbelievable thing, it happens especially a lot on Nemesis... Just kinda comes with the forces and stress that occur on the track... I would imagine the very bottom of Blivvy's drop bends and moves a damn lot, so would be prime suspect for a potential track fault... Dunno if it's true, but it's not toooooo far-fetched not to be if that makes any sense...

Oh yeah, Swarm's makes sense, as does Saw's tbh as it is 'MEANT' to be some form of warehouse jobbie... Warehouse would have one... Wonder if SW7 will have one...

They put Sub Terra in one And obviously Swarm's shop... But for the most part, they kinda make sense (Thirteen's defo doesn't, but then again, none of that area does)... Of course, the hotel idea still sucks...

This... A lot... Not that Merlin help themselves, I'm so bored of shipping container jokes...

Sure it's half and half... Otherwise why don't Chessie fill up Vampire's station anymore? (Aside from Chessie's operating standards falling)

I worked at a park where if it's main coaster was on one train, it was perhaps the most pointless thing I've ever seen in my life... It happened once I think, and I found it incredibly amusing and stupid, as everyone getting off wanted to re-ride, but they couldn't because of the one train operation... So what if a queue only peaks at 30 minutes for about an hour if that? I don't really see it as an excuse for only running the one train when it's easily doable for two (I accept it when the train is borked, like with Colossus), but it's all about guest experience, and having queues on empty days (where people go NOT expecting queue) AND to sell Fastrack on these days is a real example of how out of touch Thorpe are with being able to give a GOOD guest experience at times... As Mark says above though, the problem is how long it takes staff to get the second train in, it averages about 10-20 minutes at times for them to even get it in with a full staff number, imagine our shock when Katun's TWO members of staff (including op) suddenly out of nowhere brought out the second train even though they didn't really need it yet... Big difference there, especially when they cycled it once and then loaded it... Hell, when Thorpe put a second train on, it's announced as a breakdown, so that makes people actually leave the queue... What's the point in that? Thorpe is also getting busier on weekdays because of the target market's tendancy to have a few days off due to college/uni timetables, so they're needing to put two trains on more regularly at least, but they don't seem to be doing it... And because of the guest mentality that off peak days are empty (it is there), having lower operations causing longer queues and of course the random day of selling Fastrack, it doesn't lend well to a good overall day... And annoyed guests don't spend money or come back... Especially if they've already spent their money on buying Fastrack...

Wasn't that the point of Stealth having 3 trains after Rita was deemed awful? So still running 1 train on empty days... Why do Towers run 2 on empty days then? I don't get why Thorpe seem to love making people queue so much when queueing means spending less money, especially problematic on empty days when a few things (retail/food outlets) aren't open anyways... Le sigh, Thorpe need to go on some guest relations course over the winter, because it's their biggest flaw...

But they CAN'T be full, they're NEVER full!

Yet another stupid world's first claimed by a UK park... What is our obsession with such matters?

If they did couples rooms, they'd make them smaller... I quite like option to throw my bags and assorted crap on the bunk beds, knowing they won't be touched... See also, Europa Park...

How does the venerable Lord Sanbrooke know all this? I've never seen such information about Hex (or other Madhouses) online ever...

Erm, yeah, I was responding to OTHER people... I think I know that Vekoma don't build a spinning coaster in the same vein as Maurer Sohne, don't be so snarky with your bold double posting... If you were to read OTHER posts, someone asked about a retheme to Lost City, and someone questioned about spinning coaster in the dark... ON THIS PAGE... Maybe I'm not the one who should read up on facts before posting...

Thorpe, theme their ride to an old themed area? Nah, won't happen, they don't even believe Lost City exists anymore... And spinning coasters in the dark have been done, the relatively awful Caligstro at Rainbow Magicland and the rather fab Crush's Coaster at Walt Disney Studios are two examples...