TPJames

Just spoke to the ride team(who remember me from last week!) Turns out its not the same problem as yesterday and is hopefully a temporary problem. Once again they dont know if its going to open soon but an engineer is working on it at the moment.

Slammer has just broken down again. We were in the queue and people literallly got stuck in by the lap bars. Unsure if this is the same problem as yesterday but queueline was evacuated and people luckily released. Team unsure whether it will open soon.

Sorry for the stir! The SLAMMER HAS RESUMED SLAMMING

Slammer has just broken down today at about 3pm. It has not reopened and Thorpe have no news regarding it yet. I will be visiting tomorrow and if it does not open,(which I'm sure many of us are hoping it will) I will be paying my respects to slammer(as sad as that sounds ) and hope that the engineers fix it in the near future. At this point it is unpredictable whether slammer's final hour has occurred but if it has I'm sure many of us will be very sad to see it go.

Its simple what is going to happen. A queue will form to get into the queue. This is what happened on slammer last week, a 60minute queue formed behind us when we were waiting for it to reopen after checks. This is what will happen with RNR, people will turn up way before their slots and wait outside meaning a queue will form to get into the rides queue. As the slammer ride team said, the british just typically love queuing for things.

Would be appreciated if you answered my question THORPE PARK instead of avoiding it completely. Thank you.

Will definitely be quiet... Was going to visit this time last year however unfortunately several factors meant I couldn't attend the week. It must be one of the quietest days of the year I think but not entirely sure. Rollercoasters will be on one train and rides on slower operations I would imagine just like Thorpe however I definitely wouldn't expect queues over 30mins(except maybe smiler as that's always busy!). However most of the time I would expect things to be walk on/short queues. There is definitely no point in buying fastrack on the first week(especially mid-week). Don't rely on my information however expect short queues, and don't buy fastrack as it will be very empty, especially considering as its scarefest event.

CCR and the farm! wish they were still there as I remember going to the farm when I was little and it was a great little place to take you away from the rides for a while. Wish it was still here Apart from that, missing asylum already. I loved my first and only go in it and wished it was coming back for 2014!

Hi thorpe park, I have a question. Are you planning on making RNR the only way to queue for the coasters next year? If so, I think it is wrong that you are taking surveys and opinions from people when it's being trialled under complete different circumstances. If you are making this the only way to queue, I strongly suggest you use it under the circumstances you will in the future. Please can you confirm this for many of us on here, Thanks

I have to agree here, I think chessington are in a much bigger need for a new rollercoaster than anything else. They only have 4 rollercoasters, dragons fury, vampire, rattlesnake and scorpion however they are all seriously outdated when you think about the fact that runaway train has been at the park for years. They are in serious need of a high capacity rollercoaster, medium-high thrills which will get way over 1000pph. On the subject of new rides, has any planning permission been released for a new ride for 2015? Or is dragons falls just going to be named as a brand new attraction for 2015 as I hope it's not...

Thorpe have activated their rainy day garuntee for today and tomorrow. If you visited on either of these days, you will apparently be given a free return ticket to selected dates. "RAINY DAY OFFER TERMS & CONDITIONS - 25TH AND 26TH AUGUST Don’t let the wet weather put you off from coming to THORPE PARK Resort. As well as the queue lines being shorter, we have activated our Wet Weather guarantee for guests visiting on 25th and 26th August 2014. We will be offering all our guests already in the park a complimentary ticket to return later in the season on selected dates in 2014.* Just hang on to your ticket from your visit and present your original ticket at our admissions kiosks or ticket collection desk. *Free visit is like for like e.g. adult ticket for adult ticket and can be used on Monday 8th September – Friday 26th September 2014 & Monday 29th September to Friday 3rd October 2014." Hope this helps anyone at the park today or tomorrow

Sunken gardens

And Portaventura have copied kingda ka's exact design by putting 3 drop towers right underneath it for their new Ferrari land in 2016...

The problem with dragons falls is that it looks like it will decently get you wet and in summer it forms 70minute queues. When you need a cool down and you don't actually get one on dragons falls it is quite disappointing really. Would be nice to see a water ride as loggers and tidal wave get long queues during summer so I could easily see chessington get a new water ride which attracts the crowds

This is the thing though, while I can't speak for Project LC or some others I genuinely enjoy thopre park and what it has to offer, hence me getting an annual pass. The problem is, I don't want queues to become spiralling out of control. I would much rather wait 2hours in a standby queue for a coaster than wait the best of 2hours in a queue for a flat ride because everyone is queuing virtually for the coasters at the same time. Waiting that long for a flat ride would just make it seem worthless and I get by making this a new system you won't bet on any more rides than you usually would as the queues would just be moved if it was all completely RNR. You feel much better queuing normally for a coaster than you do for a flat ride, if the queues are simply moved to the flat rides, then you are going to be forced into queueing for ages into queueing for a flat ride. The system will not work if it turns completely to RNR as thorpe don't have enough high throughput attractions to cater all the people. Anyways, my point is that I like thorpe the way it is, and it's not a realistic idea which is going to work UNTIL they install more rides and shows and attractions with high throughputs. If thorpe wait a few years then this system could easily be a winner.

Every park has flaws, it doesn't matter what these flaws are as long as they try to rectify them. I for one get very upset by Merlins customer service, they never actually take anything into action it is always the same response, "we will look into this further" or "have some free fastrack" or "we will pass your information on to the relevant department". Do they actually ever take action and listen to you comments? Probably not unless there is a big enough stir about something to make them lose money. Whenever I have complained to thorpe before, they never actually solve anything but give me fastrack. Yes this fastrack benefits me but my advice has not benefited thorpe or the public. Thorpe isn't the only park with merlin who have the same level of customer service. I recently won tickets to the fusion festival through alton towers. I haven't received them for well over a week now and the festival is on Saturday. When I email to ask them where the tickets are, the response is simply "we will ask the relevant department" or "we will look into this further". I am not happy about the customer service here and if I do not infact receive my tickets I would be grateful if someone could provide me with a proper customer service link for alton so I can deal with the situation. At no point did they say they would send out my tickets after I asked for a third time and I don't want to be given fastracks for alton as I am not planning to visit until next year at the earliest. Anyway my point is, complaining doesn't seem to get you anywhere. We can all moan as much as we want but thorpe aren't gonna change their mind, they have decided what they want to do and even their most important guests, US, the enthusiasts they won't take advice from. As much as we all moan about this system. Are thorpe's plans going to realistically change? No they aren't.

The only two rides which are actually 'water rides' at chessington are bubbleworks and dragons falls, neither of which get you wet in the slightest. Monkey swinger and rameses can get you ridiculously wet though, and they are both my favourite rides on park(I love thrill rides with water effects!). Would be nice to see a water ride on park which you actually get wet though...

Sorry I worded that wrongly, saw reached 120mins in the main queue today and was 3hours 30mins on reserve n ride. From what I've heard as well, the main queues are much longer than advertised as well with it saying 50mins for people to wait 2hours in the main etc. I wouldn't be surprised if the 120min saw queue was actually nearing 3hours with fastrack AND reserve n ride pushing their way through.

My assumptions are in NO WAY over the top. If the system was put into place and everyone was notified of how to use it, on a day with 15,000 people at least 10,000 will be using the virtual system while queuing for another ride. So what, if some are shorter than others? That's what has been experienced. Saw at a RIDICULOUS 3hours 30mins and stealth at 2hours 30mins today with the others just over an hour. Bearing in mind this is excluding the people who aren't using the system in the main queues and flats rides aswell. During peak summer with JUST reserve n ride in place, they will easily reach 2 hours each, baring in mind there are people currently not aware of the system and not using it. So 2000 virtually queueing per coaster. Once again I reiterate, there will be 500 people per 'other' ride if they spread out evenly. And they will not spread out evenly, people are more likely to go to things like samurai, rush or vortex which will easily get over 90mins with this system. I wouldn't be suprised if they tried this system and the queues for the flat rides are getting so ridiculously long that people miss their reservations.

This is the problem though.. If they make RNR the only way to queue for the coasters then the system will flaw massively. If there is 15000 on park then there is at least 2000 queueing virtually per coaster which is 2 hours on virtual wait. Where will these 10000-15000 people then go? There is only one option, to the other flat rides, thorpe simply don't have enough shows and attractions to suck up the people. Let's say there are 20 other rides for guests to experience( including children's rides but excluding the beach and WET WET WET), the guests will then spread out across these rides. I'm going to take the lower number as everyone won't necessarily be on the rides and say that there are now 10,000 spreading out to these rides. 10000/20= 500. That means there are 500 people at every attraction INCLUDING the kids rides. Not many of the flat rides at thorpe will even make 500pph meaning that everything will immediately go to an hours queue while everyone is virtually queueing 2hours at the same time. And remember this is considering everyone spreads out EQUALLY including kiddy rides like rocky express. In realistic terms, we are talking 90mins for the likes of rush and samurai. If thorpe convert completely to coasters on RNR it will NEVER work, and you can argue with me but I have just done the math, and you cant argue with the math. If thorpe went completely to reserve n ride, queues for flat rides and other attractions will be out of control(seeing as rush can only cope with 50mins in its queueline). Thorpe do not have enough attractions which is why solely converting to it will never ever work.

Just to say I was watching the RNR page all day today and saw reach 3hrs30mins virtual at one point. Stealth also went over 2hours rnr but nemesis, Colossus and swarm stayed under 2hours rnr. I think it's unfair as it's like a free fastracking system, I think the rnr wait should be the same as the main queue time, as the main queue was 60 in the morning when rnr was 0mins, unfair I think as it makes it like a free fastrack.

The only reason the flats are coping well is because the main queues are open for the coasters. If these main queues for the coasters are closed off and people are forced to use RNR, then the flat rides will get exceedingly high queue times, which will be a shame. On a side note there, Colossus, swarm and saw are all over 45mins and RNR is still walk on. I really fear about the unfair ratios as by this rate I could have done all 5 coasters while someone in the main queue will have only done one.

But then I don't understand why people are waiting in 30-60min queues atm for the big rides when you could go straight on with RNR?

Sorry for breaking the conversation here... Please can someone tell me how swarm has a main line of 60mins but the reserve n ride is walk on? Makes utterly no sense and seems like a free way to fastrack to me. EDIT: it's the same with inferno aswell, main queue of 30mins but RNR of 0. I can only presume this is due to all the RNR being fastracked through due to the ridiculous main queue to RNR ratios.

I'm sorry but I have to back project LC up. Thorpe are planning to make RNR the ONLY way to queue next year and this will become an absolute mess. There will be 5000-10000 people wondering around with nothing to do except the other flat rides. This will then mean the streets get crammed and the flat rides with ridiculous queues. I will beg on my knees if it means thorpe do not implement this system. It's all very well and good for the system to work for the RNR users but the people who have been trailing it in the main queue have been outraged. Thorpe are only letting fastrack and RNRqueuers through which means a small amount of main queuers. I have been told that people have seen 30min queue boards to wait 2hours in the main queue due to RNR. The only way this system can even work with RNR and the main queue, is by getting the ratios right. And at this rate, that isn't going to happen in a very long time as I don't even see thorpe trying, they just jam through a massive amount of fastracks and leave the main queues to suffer. It will only possibly work if they get their ratios right and it will CERTAINLY not work if they make RNR the only way. Sorry for the negativity but this system has so many flaws and can be cheated so easily(all of your group can be in 6 different virtual queues at once etc.) that it will not work unless it is improved massively. It doesn't make a different what the people using RNR say, it's what the people in the main queue have to say who are suffering massively from the impacts of it!