pluk

Well there's an obvious upcharge attraction opportunity. Instead of flogging pots of nectar to feed the birds, charge a few quid for a go of an air rifle and take out a few monster rats. Fun for all the family!

Good choice.

They know already and they know how to prevent it. If they didn't the other rides closed 'as a precaution' would still be closed.

How did they mange to misjudge the readiness of the trains by half a year? Very odd considering the announcement that it wasn't going to be ready only came days before opening. I wonder if someone made a massive blunder and they simply didn't fit or weren't right in some major way, rather simply not being finished. It must be killing the place.

This is what I'm talking about. Shoddy beyond words and all too frequent when a ride isn't operating at 100%. Any fool can run a place where nothing goes wrong, it's how they react to a change in circumstance that is the measure of their abilities, and they fail. An incident like that is more than enough to completely taint a guests day at the park and their likelihood of returning and telling others it's a good place to go. All for a combination of wanting the quick fastrack buck and general incompetence. It basically costs nothing to resolve this issue, just some effective management. If they can't foresee and manage a simple thing like this what hope have they got of getting R&R in any way reliable? Go back and get the basics right first, then give your fancy new system a go.

This 'will you find out our secret' thing, I can see it being quite a long drawn out series of hints and stuff before we finally get an answer...

I think Matt means on a daily basis, and he's right - it has a planned opening of 11. The saga of when in the season they manage to open it is another matter, and clearly not a planned delay.

So what is up is around a third of the building. With the rest of the building on two floors (I think?!), and taking off a rough amount for station, queue and shop, it's about a quarter of the total floor-space the ride will be set on. I'm not sure it's easy to appreciate quite how big this is based on what's there now!

I think you are over thinking it Josh, the system can and does work. It doesn't matter about any prediction or future influx of guests, all that matters is what's in there the moment the guest enters. That snapshot is what you want! That can be updated real time so outside of any future unforeseeable breakdown (which will always be the case with any system) the queue time can be pretty accurate.

New pics from TPM facebook That arch like structure seems to come right up to the entrance side of the building, with a gap on the far side. It doesn't look the right shape for one of those tunnel things to me.

From the planning That appears to be the physical structure and not ride hardware, theming, IP's etc so doesn't really help much.. Wasn't there a powerpoint thing going round which had some rough numbers on it?

Right now Groupon are better than half price I believe.

Are we talking about Whitechapel or loggers?

Worlds first and fastest? Well, if it's the worlds first it's also the worlds slowest! Looks amazing.

TPG facebook There is definitely a tunnel like structure being built in there. Whether on not that's how one of the immersive tunnel things is built I have no idea.

Don't read too much / anything into that. It's not got an exclusivity to it, it's 'in principle' only. Also, this attraction was signed off, had planning and even had broken ground long before that deal came about, Thorpe would not have invested so heavily with out the IP deal being signed off and watertight already as it would be so intrinsic to the design and success of the attraction. If there even is an IP that is! Which there is. It's Dr Who.

Can certainly see why, the are similarities in that pic and the structure that's going up. I've not done one, but it doesn't look enough for a major Thorpe ride. Still holding out for a Spiderman type ride system, but the building doesn't look big enough for much of one of them. On the theme, why has everyone forgotten about this guy? I can't think of a particularly eye based aspect though, but early marketing is often about the feel of something rather than a direct representation of what the actual theme is.

Doesn't sound like a massive fan of the park! Surely Dynamo is more target audience if that's the kind of line they're thinking.

That's exactly what I was referring to. It was a system in use in UK parks in the mid 90s, started with turnstiles, then developed into using beam breakers which I imagine are less accurate but also less intrusive, but at some point fell out of use and was replaced with todays poor guesswork.

Hangovers. They only get worse. Go do your partying now kids, because your body really hates you for it later in life. It's almost like it's trying to tell me something...

It appears to be a contraction of the users name, and that user appears to be a real person. No leads here I'm afraid!

How can R&R in any way remove these variables? Breakdowns, pass use, fastrack all continue. With a 30 minute return window the number of guests will fluctuate as well, although maybe not quite so dramatically. Exactly why the standby queue will always be required and why the original concept was a non-starter. The numbers for a real queue are the same, with a very simple count in and count out of the queue line with a turn-style or beam breaker, a constantly updating and very accurate expected wait time could be displayed. I quite agree that the other bolt-ons operating outside of the R&R system are what causes most of the failures. They need ditch fastrack (never going to happen, but I can dream!), or more realistically build it into R&R so the system so there is proper control over what it is trying to manage.

They should advise to on safari skyride, very little chance of an animal creeping into shot from there.

Oooh, Bas is it? Mines a large salty combo if you see me coming!

? I don't understand? If they get it wrong there'll either be a big real queue after your virtual wait or the ride will be going round empty. Either way I think people will very much mind!