Smiffy

Guests of all disabilities are catered for at thorpe park and that will not change. They can do exactly that, unless a guest's disability prevents them using the main queue line then it is not unreasonable to expect them to use that facility.The rides staff are their to aid guests on and off a ride but they are specifically told not to take on the role of a carer eg. lifting a guest into a seat as this is specifically the carers responsibility which is why a policy of 1 carer to 1 wristband is ridiculous in certain circumstancesIn answer to mark9 the majority of rides at thorpe require a guest to be able to walk unaided in case of a shutdown and evacuation of the ride, The applicable rides are mentioned in the disabled guide and explained to each guest when they get their wristbands

I'm with you on this Josh and That's pretty much exactly what they have done, the whole purpose of the yellow time card system was to allow disabled guests to ride and still 'queue' despite being unable to queue in the main queue line. The trouble is that too many guests were abusing this system. As I understand it this season they will only be giving out yellow time cards to guests who are physically unable to queue. I agree that the text on the website is at the moment muddled and the new policy needs clarifying. Enforcing a limit on the amount of carers is a good idea but a restriction of 1 carer to 1 wristband is ridiculous, Loggers Leap is a particular example where the constant moving boats and narrow seats necessitate at times more than 1 carer. But like Ive said before the rides staff will be able to use their discretion when appropriate

Ride Hosts aren't trained robots and will know when to use their discretion. The disabled policy at Merlin hasnt been set out to disadvantage or discriminate, it has simply been changed to become fairer and prevent abuse

The restrictions will vary on rides and as usual ride attendants and hosts will have discretion, in previous seasons there was too much abuse of the wristband policy. For example an individual with something like dyslexia for example could rightly qualify for a yellow wristband but should they really be entitled to up to 7 carers on rumba rapids?

Stealth has had over £90k spent over it closed season so rest assured that it will working fine

dont get why there's such a fuss whether this is advertising or not. The idea for a new coaster has been in the works for a while, its in the medium term development plan, so its not like its announcement will come as a suprise to the council or anyone else nor will it have affected thorpe adversely either

Out of the effects the only one likely to get fixed will be the water tower. The fire is out of the question, the pipes that feed the gas have corroded through and the machine is completely fubarred with it not working for so long and the multiple pigeon nests that now reside in the ball. As for the water being green it'll be to do with the chlorine levels and filters. After heavy rainfall it mucks up the water level and does something to the chlorination stuff. So basically its just a little bit of algae in the water making it green. completely harmless. Finally the water not hitting the splash zone happens all the time depending on the direction of the wind!

its gonna be a lot longer than a few days!!

well the vinyl matting where the boats slow down, yes, not a traditional brake run of sorts but an accurate description Mr Pedant

DC got new boats for this season,, they turn easier and apparently they flip more often when in the brake run. Ive seen the managers and engineers put weights in the boats to do test runs in the past few days

depth charge was closed from about 2pm till park close yesterday. problems with the boats apparently

The Gas ball wont be coming back, the costs involved are just too great to justify, its not just the flame equipment that needs stripping and overhauling but the pipes that feed the gas have corroded through thanks to the chlorinated water, The water tower however, is a more likely option.

yeh a prearranged budget that has to be split between all the rides and there simply isnt enough money to do it all. In an ideal world it would have all been done but there simply isnt the money to do it all. Money has been spent this year on a massive overhaul of the mechanics of the ride, there simply is no budget left to do anything about the theming this year.

Of course they dont, but they'd certainly be thinking about it if it couldnt open or was breaking down regularly as was the case last year. No point making it look flashy but lacking the substance to make it reliable. Thorpe have gone the right way about it getting the mechanics right before improving the aesthetics

Rumba is in desperate need of refurbishment but a lot, and I mean alot of money has been spent on it close season. Remember the reliability issues last season with it breaking down every half hour or worse? This season they replaced the whole turntable (Relaying the decking and regripping), replaced the ride computers underneath the console with brand new units and replaced the aging control console for the operators as well as some new cameras. These improvements cost money and with the current economic conditions Merlin doesnt have and endless supply of money to throw at every ride. Now that the big work has been done on the mechanical side of the ride, it is likely that the aesthetics will get tackled next season.

the 577100 number is a generic outbound number and doesnt exist for inbound calls