BigBobJones

Most people and I believe we will see Vengance going to Thorpe, but has anyone thought these may be going to another dungeon, one they have not opened yet?

I agree with Benin, state clearly at the Fast Track Kiosk, On the ticket and at the Fast track queue, if guests get the hump, then tough. They knew their time slot and should stick to it. Yes the ride host may get one or two unhappy guests, but as long as the park management with the backing of security backed up their staff then there should not be a problem. If said guest who is late has an issue, they can obtain a refund from the fast track kiosk.

The Swarm is good, but I only went on less than half my visits as the queue was too bad, id prefer Saw and Stealth. Yes we have indeed had this coaster and a very good addition to the park, but we also lost Saw Alive, Voyages and CCR. What I really can't understand is why they can't open CCR and Saw Alive during the busy times, Sun Scream, busy weekends when they know the park is going to be busy. Everything they need is in place, so its just a case of opening it? I'm sure Voyages has already been ripped out and sold on by now so that cant be opened. As a guest I could see they made extra effort when it is busy, then it would make all the difference. We all know we are not going to get anything major for many many years now, but they really need to produce something new for next year with so much competition from Alton and Chessington with their new rides and the new Dungeons, that is just their own attractions who are going to pull the crowds away. I think what all guests want is all rides to be open all year and run at full capacity without being forced to buy Fastrack just to have a good time. A lick of paint, general tidy up and the audio if working correctly will make a huge improvement. But this is to be honest the minimum they should be providing as part of their ever increasing ticket price. And then for the non hardcore fan who will go because they like Thorpe, they need a sweetener to give them a reason to go, so this is where a new ride would be a pull for them, it could even be a second hand flat. We all know the club and ride nights worked very well for them and I am sure they will continue in greater numbers along with the crash pad, but I don't want the day guests receiving less, as money is being focused on club and ride nights. Here is an idea, cheap to do and for me others I know will love it, forget ride and rave, forget Fright Nights, how about simply doing an event called "Coasters in the dark" where you get to ride the normal rides in the dark without it being mega packed?

My honest opinion and I believe most of the GP will agree is: I don't care if TP are making 1P profit a year or 10 million pounds profit. Does the ticket price go up and down depending on how much money they are making? Do you pay more when the park is empty and less when the park is full? The simple answer is no, you pay the same no matter if you go on a Tuesday during term time or Bank Holiday Monday. I have said this before, nearly every visit to TP you get a completely different experience, One visit will be brilliant, you get on rides quickly, get to do everything in one day, the next visit many rides are out of action or on one train, the next visit you only get on 4-5 main rides in an entire day. Thorpe needs to work hard to ensure that they give a consitent experience to their guests. Fright nights for me was a big disappointment, the sound in the Lost City was appalling it was too quiet, produced no atmosphere and the Governor just made our group think "WTF?" Several areas had no sound at all. If they had kept on the standard park music it would have been a lot better IMO. The prisoners in the Saw queue were very good. Our group didn't do a single maze, why is this you ask, well 1) not paying for a maze after paying an event fee (which you don't have to do at Alton), 2) the queues were so long, now way am I going to spend 2 hours of my life queuing no matter how good it is and Fasttrack was not an option. Also the one thinge on the back of my mind was to get out of the place before it closed at 9 as I didn't want to spent 40 mins in a mega long queue to get out of the car park, after experiencing that level of disaster during Sun Scream. If anything I hope the Crash Pad gives us more facilities and possibly ERT as to be honest Thorpe are not giving us much in return, cancelling the fireworks was another kick in the teeth for us. I read about people saying the Alton Fireworks were not as good, but from what I saw on Youtube they were well up there. Thorpe couldn't be bothered to buy a £9.99 box from Asda and let it off. Note to Thorpe... I won't pay an event fee for Fright nights again, it was not worth it, but I would happily pay £10 event fee if you put on a good firework show like Alton.

Knowing our luck they would move Storm Surge somewhere else!

It is good to see this topic is generating lots of input from people with different views. If I visit on a bank holiday, weekend or during the school holidays I do expect that the queues will be a lot longer, for me I always avoid these days. Most people are sensible that if they go during the busy times you have to queue longer. This is where for some guests Fast Track with its very expensive price tag and other issues about spoiling the day for the rest of the guests comes in to play. Those people who want to pay twice just to get on a ride quicker believe Fast Track is brilliant. But if you visit on a Monday or Tuesday when the kids are at school say in early May like I did earlier in the year, you don't expect Colossus, The Swarm, Stealth and Inferno all to be running on one train and queues of 40+ minutes. If people book a day off work, travel hundreds of miles and maybe book a hotel, they want to get everything done in 1 day and really enjoy their day. Tinie may say that the park has not failed if the ride is open, but if you go to Tescos and there is a 40 min queue at the till and they only have two checkouts open, would Tesco's have failed to serve its customers? Tesco have a one in front policy where they open more tills as demand increases. Thorpe on the other hand and I have witnessed this (and others) will open a ride on 1 train or even worse (on Colossus) at the beginning of the day send out every other train completely empty until the queue builds up, then start sending guests on both trains. Thorpe may deny this, but we filmed the empty train on our mobile phone being sent out multiple times, went to Guest services and complained and we were told )after speaking to the ride operator) that they should not be sending out the empty train. I fully agree if there is a safety issue, or technical fault, the safety of the guests comes first. But for me Thorpe don't invest enough time/money in to getting the rides open on time at full capacity as they know if the queue builds up people buy Fasttrack. Why spend money when by doing very little, the guests give you more money? I am sure if there was a similar 'Thrill Capital' park opened up by a competing company a few miles down the road, Thorpe's operations would be as good at a Florida theme park. I feel Merlin are lazy as if you want big coasters, you don't have a lot of choice as Merlin have the monopoly here. Maybe that is why when you go to Florida you get the excellent service as they are all competing against each other. What is Thorpe competing against apart from its two sister parks?

even if they do nothing with the theme, I can't see the ride going anywhere soon as it adds to their coaster count, its the only indoor ride and it isn't really that old, so if they do nothing I can see it staying another 5 years at least. If anything they won't do anything until the 2015/2016 coaster goes in. If they need more space for coasters, they have two islands marked up for it, they have already got sites for flats in the MTDP as well. Just imagine what they could fit in if they removed Depth Charge, Storm Surge, X:\ and slammer, that would leave a huge hole for some epic coaster, anyone call for a hyper coaster or a woodie?

I can see both sides of this. When I worked in a supermarket, there were a number of reasons why we could be out of stock of basic items, some of these things were down to the shop staff, others were out of their control. But at the end of the day if you go in to Tesco's and there is no food on the shelf, the supermarket has failed to deliver. The same can be said about running on 1 train or a ride shut, to the customer the park has failed to deliver. It does not matter if staff go back to Uni, its the job of the park to ensure they have enough staff. If additional training is required to get another train on, then do the training. If there is a technical/mechanical fault, fix it as soon as possible If the checks are not complete, then start earlier. Supermarket staff work through out the night to get food on the shelf, so if engineers need to start earlier, then so be it. You have to remember the customer or guest at the end of the day does not care about why a ride is not working or running on reduced capacity, all they care about is they can not get on their ride or they have to wait longer. This may sound selfish, but this is the society we live in. When people pay so much money to get in, they expect everything to be working. It has been said that free tickets have been given away, this is great and to be fair I have had lots of fast tracks this year from Alton, Chessington and Thorpe for various reasons.If you do complain and you have a valid reason, they will compensate you. But you have to have a valid reason of course. Now I may be fully against fast track, but if I have been wronged, then I have no issue in taking some fast track or priority passes as compensation. This tends to happen when you have queued for ages and a ride breaks down or you go to the park and multiple main rides are down. Or the excuse "Adverse weather" or as I like to call it "Rain"

It all comes down to money at the end of the day, they could have three trains if they invested and added the space to the stations, they could also employ additional maintenance engineers too. It just seems that Thorpe don't mind if they run one train or not as once your through the door they have your money. This is down to senior management and budgets.

The turnover of staff at Merlin parks must be very high, when I worked in a supermarket, the pay way low and we had a high turn over of staff, but I saw staff who left come back etc. Is some cases people left for another job, it didn't work out and they were back the next week. When they are paying such a low wage, with temporary/seasonal work, I doubt they will be too fussy, unless you got sacked or are know by the management, then I doubt you will have an issue. Worst case is they say no, but remember honesty is the best policy, if you lie, they will find out

Id prefer to queue inside as at least you don't get people smoking all around you while your in the queue

I understand maintenance has to be done, but the whole point of going on a weekday is that the queues will be non-existent and you get lots of rides in. Several times this year we have been during the week and found the queues have been no better on a Monday/Tuesday than a Sunday, which for quests is very frustrating. Anyway we have a few months to chill before the next season, who's off to the Winter Wonderland...

simple question is why don't they have three train on these main rides, if one is out of action, which seems to happen all too often, then guests don't experience mega queues.

The hotels are a very smart move IMO. You can spend a few million on a flat ride which requires staff and maintenance, which all costs and doesn't bring that many people in, or you have the lodges, which guests pay you for and as they are staying longer, they will eat at your restaurants and give you more money. Over time these will pay for them self and make the park more profitable.

TP doesn't have a spinning coaster so this could work and with the cars spinning, it will turn it into more of a thrill ride

We went to Pizza Hut at Thorpe on Thursday, it was a complete shambles. Rude staff Lack of food, choice of 2 or 3 pizzas No knives or forks Half the salad bar empty I have been to Pizza Pasta multiple times this year and is is nowhere near as stress full as Pizza Hut at Thorpe.

@darkadder You liked some of the audio? I thought it was a shambles, I complained about the chart music being blasted, the chart music was a lot better than the Fright night audio. some rides had no audio at all. Atmosphere wise apart from the prisoners and a few grave stones at the entrance there was no theme or decorations.I would give Thorpe 1 out of 10 for their efforts with the audio this year, and only 1 as there was audio. The Governor's voice did not work at all for me

Simple answer to this, if your not there during your time slot, you don't get in, you have to re-apply for another slot from the Fasttrack kiosk. It may sound harsh, but if you don't follow the rules, your poor time keeping impacts not just on other Fasttrack customers, but the normal queue who gets the brunt of the delay. If they are not happy with this they can obtain a refund and join the main queue line.

It just seems that everytime I go past Rippy, you don't get the 4-5 full flips, its just going backwards and forwards.

But they have the power to remove or run it in a more fair way.... The problem with Fasttrack and car parking charges is once they get this income, the shareholders expect a good return on investment, so for Merlin to suddenly say they are going to drop their income by 20 million or something, the share price will crash and investors will not invest as they will not get a return on investment. The only solution is to get the right balance, which Thorpe never seem to manage. If there is a 40 min queue for a ride, don't stand outside the main queue selling fast tracks! if you are going to have guests queue for long periods of time, have clean and tidy queue lines, have the audio work properly, Saw for example, create an atmosphere. Guests don't mind standing in a queue if they are entertained or the queue moves at a good pace, but by having audio not working correctly, queue line TVs not functioning, queue kiosks closed, when it rains the queue lines flood does not give a good impression.

I fully support priority passes, if you have been in a queue and a ride has a technical error and you have been waiting for a length of time, or have been wronged by the park then having a priority pass to make up the lost time is fully acceptable. As for Fasttracks, its all about the money, money, money and the park is basically sticking their fingers up at other guests. It plays into the selfish side of people, those who have a little extra cash to have some fun make everyone else suffer. It is wrong in every way, Merlin making money by selling MY time. The number of times I have heard people saying they had to get Fasttracks so they got the most out of their day, but in fact they are making the entire situation worse. Virtual queuing or first come first on the ride is the most fair way. I don't mind if there is a 1 hour queue if everyone waits 1 hour, but for that queue to be increased by greedy selfish people who can't wait is not on. I don't think everyone will agree with this. I'm in the group who believe you have already paid and should not have to pay extra on top. There should not be a first and second class service. Everyone should be treated equal. There are people who are happy to pay over the odd to have their experience improved at the expense of others And the park is happy to cash in on basically doing nothing

These new ones seem to have very limited swing or way too much swing. If your in the front and you have two fully grown adults in, the amount of swing you get on the approach to the second lift hill and before you go back to the station is worrying. There seems to be too much swing there. This is what we have experienced this week. Also when the train goes round the track, it does not seem to have as much swing as the old ones. But my nieces really enjoyed themselves so you can't really complain when you look at their faces on the photo at the end of the ride.

Nice to see somebody who brought Fasttrack getting the same treatment as people in the main queue line.

Never pleasing everyone is there

Rameses has seats either side where you don't get wet, Ripsaw doesn't from what I can see. Plus Ripsaw seems to have a pants cycle where as Rameses seems to have a much better cycle, more full flips, where as Ripsaw seems to go round and not do a great lot. I think they would get more people ride it if they had dedicated seats for people who want to ride, but don't want to get wet. Plus with different settings, they can have a gentle ride, then a full on ride. Why not have the main queue split into two Queue 1 for a dry gentle ride, queue 2 for a more intense and wet ride...