Inferno

How have the queue times been at Chessington? Perhaps the demand isn't really there this season? (I have no idea) Attendance feels like it's lower in general at Towers and Thorpe this year. Don't know about Lego and Chessington.

Got to be Thorpe for me these days - they have had quite the turnaround over the last few years.

It's a very interesting one that's been touched on before in other topics. Apart from the excellent Wickerman, they've spent vast amounts of money over the last several years replacing the Haunted House, Hex, Sub Terra, Nemesis, Skyride and Ripsaw with... The Haunted House, Hex, Sub Terra, Nemesis, Skyride and Ripsaw... Yes they're all updated and in a couple of cases very different, but they're all essentially the same thing at the end of the day, and it's difficult to argue with that. Someone who last visited Alton Towers in 2014, over a decade ago, would realistically not see a lot of difference in terms of ride offering if they visited again tomorrow. In fact, there are fewer rides on offer. Don't get me wrong - I think its a very good thing that Skyride was saved, I think Curse is a vast improvement on Duel, and Nemesis' renewal and tart-up was a good thing to secure its future, but I agree with what you've said above. Realistically, to most people at least, none of it is truly new. It's neatly all been (granted, expensive) maintenance to existing attractions to keep them running... And the trouble is, they're not finished yet either. Galactica is crying out for a refurbishment and retime... so could that be yet another (all be it badly needed) large investment that needs doing instead of something truly new? It wouldn't surprise me, as it will probably be deemed worth investing in rather than scrapping. I think the truth is that Merlin has run nearly everything in to the ground, with little thought for the future. Although we all rode the wave of Merlin's success a decade ago, with new things coming in fairly regularly, their short-term thinking and obsession with only ever investing in a 'sure moneymaker' to satisfy the shareholders one year at a time has landed Towers here. The money that should have been spent on refurbishments and maintenance over the years was instead given to the top execs and the shareholders, and now everything's timed out at the same time, and is hoovering up all the money that would otherwise be available to invest in to new attractions etc. I'm very sad about the situation Alton Towers has been put in to by such poor leadership in the past. Clearly there is a lot of money being spent at Towers on getting things back on track. The recent renovations have mostly been excellent. But with more expensive fix-ups surely to come, and ongoing problems with reliability and aging rides elsewhere (Rita, Galactica, etc), they're not out of the woods yet. I hope there will be news soon on something truly new and exciting coming to Towers. They just can't keep replacing or re-theming everything for ever - even Disney have accepted that!

Those posters - my guess, now that the new stuff doesn’t seem to fit, is that there’s a new room in Trailers based on X:\NWO - one poster clearly says X, and the other resembles one of those manakins there used to be on the old X:\NWO brake runs.

It could be as simple as spending existing budget with the future in mind. They clearly had some form of budget set aside for the “sparkle project”, which (to some extent at least) was for the purpose of improving and polishing the existing park in general. What better way to achieve that than to tidy up old and defunct things, which at the same time will reduce the cost of a project later on as the clearance step will be partially done. Seems like quite a sensible decision to me as it has the future in mind.

I’m sorry I can’t answer your question, but in my experience it’s extremely rare, and on the few occasions when they have had actors in there during my visits over the years, it’s simply one in the pre-show room, but the “scares” are minimal and it’s more of an “opening and closing the doors” sort of role. Another actor or 2 is then in the corridor just after the station exit, although realistically the scares here are minimal too and it’s more for show as you file past. My advice would be, if you’re really wanting to ride TWD, depending on your phobia of course, it isn’t comparable to a scare maze and is a very brief interaction. You’ll be walking past them for a few seconds at most, and the environment doesn’t lend itself to being scary or really give the staff any opportunity to hide. you’ll also be one of a trainload of people so it’s safety in numbers! If you just come through the doors, keep your head down and walk, once you’re in to the narrow corridor you’re past where the actors usually are (if there are any!) I think there will always be someone in the preshow room, who often has a mask of some sort on, but as I’ve mentioned it’s far from a scary experience and really no different than any member of staff dealing with a preshow 🤷‍♂️ Do they even have actors in there anymore actually?

I totally agree that paying to park at theme park sucks, but trying to get out of it by “outsmarting” the system or whatever is poor behaviour. It’s like these idiots you see with cameras in Police officers’ faces, not breaking any laws, but trying for hours to catch them out or get a rise out of them. Not breaking any rules, but it’s scumbag behaviour. The reality is, if you get out of the car park somehow without paying, weather that be by tailgating someone at the barrier, driving the wrong side of the road out of the entrance, holding up the queue while arguing with staff to open the barrier, or whatever, I doubt very much that anyone would do anything about it, but if someone does something stupid or aggressive in order to get out without paying, they’re are an absolute piece of sh!t. 🤷‍♂️ The rules apply to everyone. Nobody should do stupid things to get out of paying, and certainly nobody should be trying to lean on the staff to let them out etc - they aren’t there for that and it isn’t fair. There will always be people who try to flout the rules, but I suppose it comes down to the sort of person you want to be. Some in our society simply don’t care. But if we all behaved like that, 1, we’d be in a mess, and 2, the parks would simply make whatever changes are needed to close the loophole. on the other hand however - if you choose not to buy a parking ticket in advance, and take a chance that the exit barriers might be open at the end of the day etc, I think that’s fair enough if you’re let out without paying but were willing to pay at the exit 🤷‍♂️

Imagine queueing 90 mins for twd 😬

Ah interesting - there have been a couple of fairly high profile people exit their roles at Thorpe now… Hopefully all will be well at Thorpe, because these last few years it’s been run better than it has for a very long time. Good luck to them all I have wondered if a few of the current and recently ex Merlin employees will pop up in Universal. Time will tell!

To me it’s always seemed that a train can dispatch after it’s passed the block brakes before the slow right-hand turn next to the maintenance shed. Back in 2009 sort of time, when the park was heaving after Saw opened, the operators on the coasters used to count down over the tannoy, and often the trains would be ready to go and would have to actually wait to be sent - the operations back then were incredible at times. Inferno would regularly dispatch before the next train had to come to a stop. I remember very regularly coming back to the station and watching the dispatched train in front fully leave the station and be out of sight round the corner as we rolled in without stopping. I’ve never seen it dispatch earlier than that though - I suppose in theory the lift hill creates a block doesn’t it? So I guess if it would be setup to do so, a train could be sent before the other one reaches the first brakes as the lift hill would stop if the block ahead (the main layout) isn’t clear by then? Not a lot of point though because realistically it’s rarely going to be that quick, and would literally save a couple of seconds at the very best

I know what you mean about those visitor numbers - also the potential opening hours (standard from 7am to 11pm) are wild - we all moan about Merlin’s hours, but the reality is that when they do open (Alton after hours, Thorpe summer nights) the number of customers is extremely low. That said however, nobody is “on holiday” at either of those parks as such, as they would potentially be at Universal. Saying that though, even DLP don’t open those hours do they.

Ah are these not the official plans? I thought they were going for some sort of special development permission direct from government or something?

Yeah that’s true. I have only seen bits of what people have posted but there seems to be a few mentions in there about being able to compete with other parks in Europe when it comes to heights etc. Their height comparisons also cheekily don’t even mention Hyperia, but they do mention other European rides The image in the plans of the Eurostar route map going to Bedford is huge. That will also have Disney’s attention I bet, as they are no longer even served by Eurostar and rely on connections.

Totally agree with that. While Towers has had a huge fall from grace, Thorpe has worked incredibly hard and really have turned it around, especially over the last 5 years or so. Not many years ago, Thorpe’s reputation was at rock bottom. That’s certainly not the case anymore. There isn’t a single SBNO attraction anywhere in the park, the operations are excellent, and most of the park itself is in great shape actually. I agree about the ride lineup too. It’s actually a very good and diverse list of rides. To be honest I’ve always thought that, but Hyperia really has boosted it. (Shame we lost a log flume for it though!) Staff is also something that has stood out for me at Thorpe in my last few visits. Again, as said in Mark’s post, they really do work very hard, and it does show. With a new entrance and security area, and a little money spent on maintenance of effects, Thorpe would really be punching above its weight. It’s definitely the most exciting Merlin park that shows the most promise isn’t it. I really hope attendance is good at Thorpe and they continue with all the improvements.

Ooh that’s a good point… Everyone used to show up with a cutout of a barcode on a cereal box or bag of chocolates to get their 2for1 or 50% off tickets. Those deals were very good value weren’t they