pluk

They have done a good job of making it fit in with the existing bridge, I'll give them that. But... The entrance and bridge have been derided for years for being inadequate, drab and hardly a fitting gateway to a magical place, which I think I'm right in saying Thorpe have made no secret of their desire to improve and upgrade at some time. Then instead of using this is a opportunity to actually carry out those improvements they 'theme' more stuff to the same horrid and outdated scheme. Hilarious.

A very telling change me thinks. And yes, I guess just not fully updated yet - that height limit is likely to fall too if all the rumours are true.

In terms of marketing, the only things I think that weren't quite right were - lack of much actual and any quality ride footage in the main ad (relative to the whole ad length. Just a few quick cut shots, with no play on the slow turn upside-down at the highpoint which I would have thought would have grabbed peoples attention). Yes it looks stylish, but the ride and the theme don't come across too well. - longevity of the campaign. This is the main one. Maybe it was just me but after the excellent build up with the viral snatches, Lez Coogan online and on park, missing wall, cinema teasers etc, it just died. I saw the full ad quite a bit for around a month after opening, then it vanished. The only thing coming out from the park was via facebook which is naturally seen almost exclusively by those who are fans already, preaching to the converted is unlikely to bring in new people. What concerns / annoys me about all this is So the response (presumably from riders doing exit surveys) to the ride has been very positive, yet they are fiddling with .... the ride? Not sticking with what people have told them they have done so well, people have told them they like and instead fixing the marketing which people didn't react to and Thorpe admit has failed, but messing with the bit they have done well. Don't get me wrong, I don't think the ride is perfect. But the things that are wrong with it (length, odd dull ending, fastrack/general queue faff, continuity of theme in places) do not get fixed by slapping a gimmick on top. In fact this is likely to make some of these things worse. It smacks of lack of confidence in their ride and being a knee jerk reaction. People aren't stupid, Thorpe can call it an evolution all they like but making such drastic changes just one year after opening will look to all the world like the ride is inherently not good enough at its core. I am interested in the sensation of riding backwards and will be giving it a try at some point, I'm sure a fair few people might do the same, so from that point of view it could be a successful move in the short term. But in the long term the ride is deeply devalued and I'm sure guest satisfaction will not rise, people with too many choices to make are rarely happier, wondering what they are missing out on. And that is before we see how they have managed the queue line and fastrack around this, which I'm guessing won't be pretty but would be glad to be proven wrong. The effort and money they are spending on The Swarm would be put to better use fixing up almost anything else on the park and letting the word of mouth from all the people who have been reacting so positivity to the experience to bring in the punters. Maybe if the rest of the park was somewhere near the standard The Swarm already is more people would be coming back anyway, gimmicks or not.

It would be better without, but I find Dr Pepper quite inoffensive and fitting. Source was just garish. If it is done in theme and with some style it is an evil I can happily live with if it means they can afford to tart things up now and then!

And in shifting that focus they've actually ended up achieving neither, because the biggest memory of customer service most leave that ride with is being shouted at at an incredible volume. Whole trains and stations full of people wince every time the atmosphere is harshly cut through by that damn PA booming. Why do they find the simple little things so hard?

Getting bitten by an Alsation, not a great way to end my day at work. Grrrr, needles in the morning now.

That is all much neater than before in terms of packages, and the price creeping up is a very good thing. But this... ...better be a misprint! Surely? It must be! Unlimited fastrack (on Spinball and RMT especially but will do 13 no favours and flume will be bad when it's hot) sounds like an absolute disaster for £12. I was under the impression Spinball already operated with properly timed tickets because it fails so wildly at throughputs? Moving it to a basic unlimited will surely mean pretty much the only way of riding it will be with fastrack!

I couldn't agree more. When I first heard it I thought it was some sort of joke or an anti drug advert someone had persuaded him to do. Then it turned out to be real I assumed it was just me getting old and out of touch, nice to know it's not (only) that! Funnily enough I was listening to Boy In Da Corner earlier... ...where did it go so wrong?!

Yes, it is clearly not a photo. For reference, this is what Storm Surge was going to look like... This is what it does look like For what it is worth they may as well have drawn a picture of a parsnip.

YumYum

And is that scaffold up around Oblivion station building (where the ride cars exit)? That building needs some love...

Considering the time that has passed I think a LOT is a bit generous!!

New pics up on TT. To summarise, nothing much has changed. I was wrong about the station, it has not progressed at all. Biggest thing they've done looks to be the crazy amount of footers around that toilet block. I still thing it would have been easier to knock them down!

"Fastrack tickets, only £6"

Well in that case we are saying the same thing. So what is this discussion about?!

So, you agree that like I've said H&S give them the criteria and they have to comply in what ever way they see fit. Are you saying, in any case where that happens, any closure or removal would be the fault of health and safety? That's what it comes down to. You seem to be mostly agreeing with me, so how could anything like this be considered 'because of health and safety' and not 'because of park operations'? As for my job, you've only got my word for it whatever I put here. I don't make any secret of it and it is easy to find out fi you read some of my recent posts. I used to be quite high in a retail company where local H+S was directly my responsibility.

Going back a few posts RideAddict, in my opinion this is where you are going wrong in understanding how health and safety actually works. Health and safety goes hand in hand with literally everything any business does. It does not come before or after anything, it must be considered and evaluated at every stage during planning, operating and maintaining everything. Often it barely needs thinking about as another term for H+S could be 'common sense', but when bigger and riskier things are planned and done a set of guidelines needs to be followed. In the case of something like the Falls rocks they did not build it then stand back and think 'now I wonder if that is safe?'. At the time of design they would have ensured they would be safe, at the time of construction they would have ensured they had been built in the same safe way they were planned, after construction they would have ensured they knew how to safely maintain and check the structure itself and the materials used with a plan and log in place to do that. When they fail at one of those stages (in this case clearly the maintenance/checks) it simply can not be considered the fault of health and safety. The park has failed, health and safety have not crept up on them and have certainly not demanded something like that be removed, merely pointed out that the structure no longer complied with the criteria demanded to prove it is safe. What the park do with that information is up to them but again it is a certainty that the removal of the theming is their choice as a way of complying with health and safety criteria, rather than fixing or amending it. The only time I think it would be fair to say that something is closed 'because of' health and safety could be when the goalposts are moved. Something like 'Black Hole' at Alton Towers which, although operating safely for years, suddenly became non H+S compliment when the clearance and evacuation criteria were updated after an incident elsewhere. But even then closure is not the only option available to the park, it would just need to make adjustments to bring it back up to current criteria and it is up to them if they think it is economically viable or not. Some activity would be inherently too dangerous to ever be H+S compliment under any circumstance. Bare back lion rides and parachuteless skydiving being a couple that spring to mind. Having a themed wall is not one of them and never ever would be. As for your knowledge and where you get it from, well that is a very different thing to having understanding. I don't usually play the 'I know because' game as it is largely irrelevant with these things being opinion. But in this case I think it is worth pointing out that in a previous life I have been responsible for health and safety at a multi million pound company overseeing the work of a few hundred staff, and my current role includes working with the Health and Safety executive to gather evidence and mount prosecutions against those responsible for industrial accidents. Just sayin'.

In an attempt to avoid the derailing of this thread any further the health and safety discussion can continue here. In case it has been missed in all that, I think one thing the we can take from the Saw maintenance photo on the last page is that as of now the tunnel appears to still be there. At least the start of it is, I wonder how long lasts....

I don't like being negative, but that name is getting worse for me. The logo is superb, it really is, but I don't want anything with 'the smiler' written large across it. It makes it all look and sound so cheap and tacky, seeing it printed on that stuff really brings that home to me. Such a shame.

Oh dear, not another one! What hatred? Where? The only person in the above 'discussion' I can see who has anything approaching hatred towards Slammer as a ride experience is Josh. Boo Josh, it's all your fault!

I hate ERT when the park opening hours are so short in the first place, the effort should be put in for everyone! Just opening a bit early for everyone is a better way (as they often do), especially without a full scale hotel.

There are more disturbing things in a Findus Crispy Pancake than a horse. If they sold horse in the butchers I'd try it. To be fair I think it is a really big deal that food labelling can be so incorrect on such a large scale, but the fact that it is horse? Meh,

I'm going to put my reputation on the line and predict most people would like longer hours for less money. I have said much about the flawed pricing structure and short sighted operations of our parks, but over all on a quiet day if you take them up on their vouchers and ignore all their fastrack sellers it's not a bad value day out.

I think it looks stunning. Love that having used the fly through towers as supports the whole track looks like it is actually unsupported.

Well the CD is still stuck in the car player, so this week what I have been mostly listening to the hum of rubber on road. I've given up and turned her off. Once at work though, I've had an unusually office based few days. Most of the time I'm out in cars without music radios so it makes a nice change to be inside with some audio company even if it is frustrating not being out and about fighting crime. Some genius in the office had left our little DAB on the superb Absolute 80s which for someone my age turns the radio into a magical box of memories. Not great for my productivity to be honest, but made the nights fly by... This so vividly transports me back into the hurricane of 1987. About 3 in the morning, sitting in the dining room with my Mum, Dad and Sister, with the wind howling like nothing I've heard before or since. We were sitting in the dining room because it was the only central room in the house, with no windows to the outside world which were threatening to blow in at any time. While this was playing the room became much less internal as our conservatory gave into the wind and took off, never to be seen again. It was an incredibly exciting night! Although I would have been in many before the first time I specifically remember being in a pub this was playing, with the video on the TV too, quite a novel thing in a pub back then. It was in Norfolk with my Dad and Grandad while my Mum and Nan stayed home, a pub was a mans place then. I was allowed a sip of beer, I remember quite liking it! Also work related this week, it is 5 years since I joined the Police. It was a very daunting thing, going from something I knew inside out where I was at the top to being the new boy, the clueless beginner with everything to learn. I remember driving towards the police college for the very first time, not knowing what to expect or really if I was even up to it. The thought of all the training and proving myself to come felt crushing, as someone going in knowing nothing I felt so small and insignificant I half wanted to turn around, drive home and ask for my old job back. But then as I joined the A130 in the final run towards Chelmsford a song came on the radio. It had nothing to do with anything but was so fresh, so upbeat and just happy it totally changed my outlook. The day and months ahead suddenly felt like an exciting challenge, not a burden, and I've loved nearly very minute since. Inescapable this week is this little nugget of turd It's horrific. Every time it gets to the chorus and it doesn't quite follow the melody it has otherwise wholly ripped off I want to scream. It has no redeeming features, from the talentless bloke speaking over most of it to the shallow weak production, I have no idea why it keeps getting played and people seem to be buying it. It isn't even an original rip off, it is a rip off of a rip off after last years Alone Again by Alyssa Reid, who at least managed to learn the whole tune before she gave it a go even if she did butcher it in exactly the same way. For those who don't know, what these are both ripping of is the powerful and beautiful Alone by Heart. Doesn't need improving, does it? Laters.