JohnD

If they still had 3 fully assembled trains then losing one wouldn't be such a big deal. As it stands, they should have a full set of parts on the 'spare' train. If not then they're presumably using the loss of a train as an excuse to save some money on parts.

Was Nemesis on low capacity? That's rare if so. Oblivion was probably doing that to reduce the time people have to wait to get off, otherwise there's a queue of shuttles outside the station. It makes very little difference to throughput.

Having one or two rides closed is excusable as sometimes things happen which are outside the park's control, but Thorpe is notorious for their poor ride availability and has been for many years. No other (major) park I am aware of has such a major problem with multiple rides being unavailable, implying that Thorpe's maintenance team is under-equipped to cope with the demands of their rides. I'm sure the staff they have are doing the best they can to get rides open but like the closure of Blade it would seem that the issue is that budgets are insufficient to enable the park to run properly.

Since Ripsaw is still operating then it's highly unlikely that Blade really needs to go just yet. I don't expect that area to be closed until part way through the 2016 season (at the earliest). They probably don't want to start construction in FV itself until they absolutely have to due to the disruption it would cause. If that is the case, then the reason for Blade's closure is almost certainly financial, either to shave some money off the operations budget or faults were found with the ride that were deemed too expensive to rectify.

Today a full third of the line up was closed for the majority of the day, it's hardly surprising that people are going to post negative comments as a result. Though in some cases it seems that after nearly a decade of mediocrity expectations are now rock bottom and people are easily impressed as a result.

I feel sorry for the staff who have to deal with it. I've heard a lot of complaints about VIP pass holders and if it was up to the individual parks I very much doubt they'd be selling them again this year.

Adding a third train doesn't automatically increase throughput by 50%, if Swarm was slightly longer and had 3 trains you'd just be sat on the brake run for ages. Max throughput would probably be around 1300-1400.

Pricing for travelling rides is simple - set the price at whatever people are willing to pay. If rides have long queues despite running flat out you can't really expect the owners to cut their prices as it would just be throwing money away. I won't be visiting as it's too far to travel and the rides are way to expensive for someone like me who wants to do most of them, but as long as there's enough people willing to pay you can't really complain about the prices.

Well it is Saturday and they seem to put more effort in at the weekends - longer hours, no SBNO rides/shows/mazes and more outlets open. Understaffing was certainly an issue on my trip during the week though, both B&Ms were being run by just 3 staff - an op plus an attendant on each side of the platform. The one on onload had to batch, deal with express and check restraints which meant that once they'd finally gone up to 2 trains dispatch times were very slow.

I have 2 issues with Condor, firstly that it always had a long queue when we were there due to running between 1 and 3 sides at all times (the park wasn't busy, but several rides were on low capacity resulting in extended queues). Secondly, after waiting far too long you don't even get to choose your experience as you get directed to whichever side is ready next. At least Drayton had the sense to build 2 queues. My trip was at around this time last year and we felt like 2nd class guests for having the audacity to visit midweek - low capacity on most rides, some small rides closed, a significantly reduced show calendar (some shows did not run at all), several halloween attractions closed and Templo del Fuego closed entirely Monday-Friday. We arrived Sunday afternoon, but didn't realise it would be closing at 5pm and not reopening for the rest of our visit so didn't make it a priority.

It's not so great for anyone without a smartphone who will find themselves forced to use the much longer standby queue (which is part of the reason why I'm not there this weekend). It will be far busier today, so we'll have to see how well it copes with more people trying to use the system.

I've never had a problem with Rita. It's an intense ride (particularly the turnaround after the first hill), but not particularly rough as Intamin coasters go. I've always preferred it to Stealth, mainly as it at least has an approximation of a layout.

After the launch Furius Baco is not intense, it's just rough. If it wasn't for the excessive vibration it would be an incredibly dull ride.

Part of the issue here is the inconsistency. At Chessington it used to be allowed (within reason), at Thorpe you can re-ride pretty much as often as you like, at Towers it's completely banned (except on the Rapids when there's nobody waiting or last ride of the day on Thirteen and they need more people). Normally I'm not too bothered by a no re-ride policy, unless it means they're sending trains half empty and/or it's a long walk from the exit back to the station.. At Towers on the last day of the season a few years ago the final train on Nemesis was sent with 4 people on it due to the no re-ride rule, which seemed rather a waste of 28 seats.

So how many different queues are there now - are main, fastrack, VIP and disabled all separate? I'd assumed VIP would just get to use the fastrack entrance, but if they're getting higher priority than that is seems that they're the main problem here and not the number of fastrack tickets. The VIP pass surely ranks as one of the worst ideas Merlin have ever implemented.

As Thorpe allow rerides that's less of an issue though, as a lot of people just stay on. On my last ride yesterday both sides of the station were completely full, with a short wait beyond that. Quite a few people around me in the queue were commenting on how slow it was compared with 'earlier' (I.e. on 2 trains). Swarm really is an utter misery to wait for on 1 train, due to the split queue it's one of the worst in the park when the queue in the station is long. They also closed the bag store later in the evening, which suggests that staffing levels might have required it to go down to 1 train at some point (I'm not sure what Thorpe's policy is here, just speculating - does the ride ever run 2 with the bag store shut?).

This is nothing new of course, Saturdays of fright nights are always an utter fiasco due to the park's total inability to cope with high guest numbers as rides and mazes alike crumble under the weight of oversold fastrack. To be honest I find the idea of fastrack users waiting an hour pretty funny, just goes to show how broken the whole system is, I feel sorry for those in the main queue though.

I think it's £20 - there's a sign advertising it on the entrance bridge but I didn't pay it much attention

So first day of FN then. The downside of living in Birmingham is the 9hr round trip Fright Nights requires, due to there being fewer trains at night and being limited to coaches in the morning due to my own unwillingness to pay peak rail prices. Was it worth it? I'll answer that with my ride count: Stealth x12 Swarm x8 Colossus x7 Inferno x6 Detonator x5 Saw x3 X x2 Rush x2 Depth Charge x2 Vortex x1 Slammer x1 Zodiac x1 Total = 52 Highlights: *Inferno and Colossus on top form. *Detonator being generally amazing (it's still one of my favourite tower rides) *Laughing at self-entitled VIP pass holders getting angry about not being batched ahead of the 20 people in main queue. *Re-rides on Colossus and Swarm Lowlights: *Poor reliability (Samurai and Loggers closed, significant downtime on Vortex + a few minor breakdowns elsewhere) *Low capacity in the morning (all coasters) and late evening (all but Stealth) *Long queue to collect pre-booked AP ticket - print at home would be so much better

(New) Beast was a larger version of Black Hole - a Jet Star 3 rather than a Jet Star 2. It's also still operational, at a park in Columbia (thanks RCDB!). My most missed rides are Toyland Tours, Noah's Ark, Thunderlooper and Virginia Reel (though I never actually rode the last 2). Knightmare will be added to that list assuming it ends up getting scrapped. There are other rides that could be added but in all honesty I can't get too emotional over international rides I was never likely to get a chance to go on anyway (Eagle's Fortress), or rides that were removed long before I even visited the park they were at (Magnum Force/Bullet - Reel is an exception). Thunderlooper is the one that got away for me, as by the time I was brave enough to ride it had gone.

On quiet days they only use he front station and run 4 shuttles, when both stations are in use it's usually on 6, sometimes 5 (they have 7, but run rolling maintenance so there are never 7 in service). It was on 5 last Sunday, and on our ride we didn't stack at all. To get the absolute maximum throughput it needs to be on 6, any fewer and they'll be waiting for a shuttle to get back. It can get much more than 1400 (the theoretical is less than the often quoted 1800+, but I suspect 1600ish is still possible), however in reality the lack of baggage room slows things down significantly. Even when not running flat out it's easily one of the highest throughput coasters in the UK.

Smiler is currently on 3 trains due to 1 being stripped down pre-Scarefest and another with technical problems, however 5 train operation has been standard for most of the season even though throughput isn't really any better than on 4.

This is the reason I've only been to Thorpe once this year. I don't see why I should make the effort to come down there if they're going to make me queue far longer than necessary by running everything on low capacity. If I'm going to have to queue half an hour I'd much rather it be in a queue that moves at a reasonable speed.

I thought it was on a Thursday last year too...? The 6000 limit probably doesn't include VIP pass holders though, who apparently don't have to book. Speaking of VIP holders, does anyone know if they get unlimited maze fastrack too? It could cause even more misery to those in the main queues if so.

Have they bothered to close off the cup nearest the middle of the turntable this time? Last time I rode SIAT I ended up in the central cup on a broken turntable (the ride was walk-on so I didn't know it wasn't working) - I've had more thrilling rides on carousels.