Coaster

Where did you hear this?

Absolutely horrible thing to happen, I feel so sorry for the people on the ride and hope that they make a full recovery. I was on The Smiler last week and me and my family all commented that it felt slower than usual - was there already something wrong with it? Gerstlauer have got a lot to answer for with this ride. Neglect of a proper ride system is a serious matter, as has been proven today.

It seems that the way to stop it spinning is to reverse the wings so that they fight against the wind. They need to update the pre-show video, as letting go of the wings probably works when it isn't as windy, but this is Blackpool!

Spot on. People who use the system fairly and within the rules, I have no issue with them. I still disagree with the system but that's down to Merlin rather than the customers, you can't blame people for using the service that they have paid for. However, the people I do have a problem with are those who think that because they have the "VIP Pass" they are better than everyone else (for an example, only the other day at Alton Towers on The Smiler someone said "Can I have the front row because I'm Fastrack?") and abuse the system. I feel sorry for the staff who have to put up with it.

Unless you visit on certain dates during Fright Nights No, literally, once back in 2013 I witnessed someone get mugged, a fight, MBV have a shutdown due to an actor getting hit (and then when it reopened some chavs were hitting the wall which caused an actor to have to come out and shout at them out of character), drunks, and you couldn't breath in the queues because of the amount of people smoking! Disgusting!

You did right to report it to the management, they are not on for responding in such a manner. I'm quite saddened to hear about this, previously BPB have been very good with things like this but I don't know what is going on with the place this year, it seems to be taking a definite turn for the worse.

Not sure I follow this?I wasn't defending Thorpe, I was defending people's opinions on the Fastrack situation as they were being disregarded as rubbish by this person, but why is the idea of me defending something so strange?

Are you for real? No one reads it? 2290 members, 199242 posts and the fact that there are 92 people online at this very second suggests otherwise. If you're going to insult a forum then at least think about it! Also, if you consider theme park discussion to be rubbish then I am forced to question why you signed up to a theme park forum. Absolute nonsense, why would I want to waste that much money on a company I loathe, just to skip queues on mediocre (IMO) rides? It's not jealousy, it's the fact that the overselling of Fastrack causes the main queue to be inconvenienced, as well as leaving those who have paid extra stuck in a queue almost as long! No, it is not jealousy, it's the fact that Fastrack is run poorly, a dishonest system and slows down the main queue. Take your own advice would be my suggestion.

I've done 8 days in a row at Blackpool Pleasure Beach three times over the last year and a half and never get bored or fed up, any other park I would get bored of after two days generally. 5 days at Thorpe during August though? Good luck.

Firstly, I'm sorry to hear that you had such a bad experience, I heard that Skyforce was intense but I never realised it was that much so! In fact I said from day one that they hadn't considered the wind problem, as lots of Blackpool's rides already suffer with high winds so to install another ride with the same issue is a bit of a bad decision. The fact that the management of the ride didn't care is shocking to hear, was this people in the ticket centre or just general ride staff? I would be interested to hear exactly what you said to the managers/staff and what they said in response if that's possible? Their reaction to this is completely unacceptable and stinks of a management that doesn't give two hoots about its customers, years ago they had a huge first aid building which they would take injured people into and allow them to rest whilst they contacted the local hospital, this seems to have been abandoned. I have heard reports about several other incidents at the park recently and they seem to have taken a similar attitude to those as well.

Agreed with this, the engineering department can only work with what they have, if they don't have the right budget or resources to carry out the necessary tasks then they can't so it.

The thing is, Reserve and Ride has caused nothing but chaos around the park. 4 hour waits for mazes followed by another hour when you turn up, similar issues on the coasters, as well as reducing the capacity from the main queue.You make the point about RNR reducing queue times. This is fair enough, but actually running rides on capacity and opening them would be a good start with this, and I don't think they the park is in a stable enough position with regards to this to start implementing such a system. They should be looking at the fundamental basics to reduce queues, yet they seem to completely overlook the fact that only running one train on coasters is going to lead to long, slow moving queues, and instead focus on this system which is doomed to failure with the park's ride capacity in the state that it's in at the moment. Another problem is the lack of other things to do at the park. At Chessington you have the zoo, at BPB you have the FY4 fountain area which takes people out of queues on busy days, what is there at Thorpe? The operations and infrastructure of the park are not ready for this yet.

Now that's just downright underhand, and they claim that they don't inflate the queue time boards to sell Fastrack? Completely dishonest way of making stealing money from people.

True, but the fact still remains that some people don't own one/don't take one to a theme park. 8 hours? Depends on the brand of phone, my phone barely lasts 4 and I'm running it on battery saver mode most of the time.

How did that even happen? It just stinks of a lack of organisation, and yet again the culprit seems to be Fastrack overselling one way or another. Thorpe, when will you learn?

I sort of meant it the other way round - if people's phones run out of charge then they can't use the system, I wasn't blaming the system for causing the phones to loose charge.

They must have spent a lot on these acts, I hope it pays off.

But again, not everyone visits in fours, some visit in two's, and some families who visit won't have smartphones (my parents didn't until a few years ago!) Then there's other issues surrounding smartphones such as charge level, internet connection etc.

Believe it or not, people who are over 34 years old do still visit theme parks! I heard various people at Fright Nights asking for cards only to be told that they had to use their smartphone. Not everyone has one, and if they are going to bring in this system then they need to make it fair to everyone. Showing statistics that 80% of people have a smartphone is all good and well, but what about the other 20%?

Blackpool's is a paid system, and is the worst fastpass system I have seen implemented anywhere. Basically, people reserve a ride and wait for their timeslot (but the most expensive version reduces waiting time by 90% so they can just go pretty much straight on again and again), queue up at the exit, and then get put in a seat by ride platform staff. Not only does this mean that people behind the airgates have to wait and watch their seats get "stolen" right in front of them, but it also severely reduces throughput of the coasters as dispatch times are slowed down significantly because platform hosts are having to deal with speedy pass as well as operation of the ride. EDIT: Actually, it's the second worst after Oakwood's. Back on the subject of RNR, I've already voiced my opinion on it several times so won't bore you with it again, but one thing I think needs mentioning is that it's unfair to only run the system on mobile devices. Believe it or not, some people still don't use smartphones (I do but that's not the point) so the card should still be an option.

It seems that they are going for a sort of "surf" style to the entrance area. I like it!

I mean completely dressed up so that they look human like, just not moving. With the right strobe effects it wouldn't look that bad and wouldn't cost the park anything after the initial investment (which would be next to nothing).

That would explain why they weren't really in their role then. It's yet another example of these parks investing in something then letting it deteriorate so soon after.

I enjoy Sub Terra, but the lack of effort from the actors there at the moment (and the fact that there are less) has made it a mediocre experience rather than really good like it was a few years ago. The scare maze needs something added to it instead of actors now, even just propped up mannequins with gas masks on would be better than nothing. Lets face it, the fact that it holds a 5 minute queue most of the time says a lot about how much of a success it was.

That's because it has been on reduced capacity for the whole season so far. Not good.