TPJames

The website always stated this. It was only social media teams who were claiming that it would be closed for the "foreseeable future".

Ride line up has been published on the website: "Soak up the summer vibes and enjoy exclusive after-hours coaster action at THORPE PARK Resort’s Summer Nights. On Friday and Saturday nights over the summer, enjoy minimal queues on our top rollercoasters, and chill out with a relaxed party vibe across the Resort. Rides Available: SAW: The Ride The SWARM Stealth Colossus Nemesis Inferno X Tidal Wave Storm Surge Detonator Tea Cups Dodgems Depth Charge Flying Fish Amity Beach (Weather dependent)" It's a few more rides than last year, so I suppose they are expecting it to be slightly busier and are trying to target more families with a couple of smaller rides added to the line up. However, ride availability at Thorpe at the moment is so dreadful that I think you would be lucky to get anywhere near that number of rides on the list!

I'm fed up of this whole pathetic "demand" thing, trying to cover up the real reason why the coasters don't operate on two trains at thorpe. It's just a shoddy excuse to hide the fact that Thorpe don't want to or are unable to add more cars to the circuit. A queue, of any length is quite frankly enough "demand" to warrant the second train. Therefore, unless of a genuine technical error, more cars should be added to the circuit as soon as a queue is starting to form. However, it's not a irregular occurance at thorpe to see the coasters operating one train all day on a weekday. Many a time I've been on a weekday and the coasters have reached 30-70minute queues and second trains haven't been added on any of them. This is shockingly poor on Thorpe's behalf and it is almost impossible to defend them here as this has happened on several occasions. Unless of technical errors, it seems to be due to understaffing or the fact thorpe simply don't want to spend money as to why more cars are not added. This is completely unacceptable and the fact thorpe constantly cover up the real reasons with excuses about "demand" is pathetic as often they say this when queues are well above half an hour on reduced capacity. I think Europa Park in 2 weeks will be a real eye opener for me, it's going to prove how poor operations at certain UK parks really are.

After WC16, I know we would all like to see a topspin. Yes, you are all thinking it really... I think this particular model is ideal, it should be implemented on the EXACT same cycle and the squeaky noises should not tried to be covered up in any way possible. It should also be placed next to Storm Surge, as this would allow the noises to blend in. --- (For anyone out there who doesn't have a sense of humour, this post is taking the mick )

Stealth virtual wait: 5 mins, standby wait: 35mins. People clearly don't understand the concept of the system, these trials are utterly pointless if the park fail to advertise it properly!

From what I've heard the ride has been giving the worst cycles lately, so either it's having ridiculous problems or the engineers have tamed it down to prevent it from having future problems... I found this video on youtube of one of the current cycles (I did not film it so excuse the somewhat dodgy filming...) and noticed how awful the cycles currently are. How long have the cycles been like this for? I can only presume since it re-opened after the breakdown a few weeks back as when it opened for Easter the cycles were pretty decent.

The problem with operating standby queues as well as RNR is that is not a realistic simulation of how the system would be operated and it means people just use the standby queues anyway as they don't understand RNR. On the peak days, we need to scrap the standby queues. Thorpe are over-complicating things and all we need is the system with phones and cards. RNR and fastrack, that's it. With the standby queues operating, it's likely to be a nightmare as those on the park will just use standby queues as it's "easier" and therefore they will have massive waits due to low throughput allocations to the main queue. As Jamie says though, this trial is not a success as it's on an off peak day and it proves nothing about the system, it's the later trials in the year we are interested in to see how they affect the park.

Last year during peak times shambhala didn't open until 11am each day. Personally, I reccomend getting to the park early and riding baco first and then walking over to dragon khan and taking a couple of rides on that before shambhala opens. After that, have a ride on the couple of smaller ones and get to opening of hurakan condor which is usually about 12pm. Everything else doesn't really matter what order you do it in, however if it's hot the water rides will get long queues as soon as they open. The new Ice Age ride is also likely to be popular so it might be wise to go straight there for its opening time. Of course, if you have express however, you don't need to worry about tackling the park in a particular order and any order will suffice, with the exception of condor which is a hard one to time for the shortest queue possible.

Complaining to merlin won't have any effect on the situation... However, in an ideal world complaining to thorpe park management would be able to alter or rectify the situation in some form.However, complaining to thorpe park CS won't get you anywhere, except to the front of the queues inside the park.

So are the updates a weekly thing?

I agree, might just have been testing to try and help with the smiler investigation.Saw never had any technical issues, so at this stage it testing is no indication whatsoever to when the ride is likely to re-open. However, they really do need it re-opened for the summer holidays to control the crowds and summer nights will be much worse this year without Saw and Colossus as part of the line up (There is a chance Colossus will be closed due to Island Beats taking place)

I highly doubt they know full reason behind the accident, hence H&S still proceeding with their investigation however I'm sure the senior management teams within Merlin will have a very good idea of what has happened in the incident.As far as I'm aware, H&S and the local council pretty much have control over Alton towers right now. One of the main reasons the park hasn't re-opened yet without X-Sector is because it hasn't been deemed safe to reopen. Merlin are probably waiting for the word go from the H&S and local council teams and therefore they may be powerless right now in the situation. I'm not certain in what I am stating here, but I have a rough idea as to why towers hasn't re-opened yet and the other rides are closed across the board. I will certainly be doing some more investigation into the situation however. (SCB once again, as I have stated you are all taking the words out of Varney's mouth presuming every word he says is completely true. At this point in time, it is highly likely Merlin don't want people involved and therefore reliable news sources such as the BBC are likely to be more reliable at this point. Don't take my word for it, but I have investigated into this and it is highly unlikely merlin will be telling the truth at the moment). -To be honest the only ones who know the truth at the moment are Merlin, H&S and the Council, with the news knowing a large portion of the situation. Therefore everything we all say, is likely to be speculation and none of what any of us are saying, including me, can be trusted.

I'm not saying you're wrong here, but this isn't necessarily correct information.You're taking words from the national newspapers or Nick Varney himself. Whilst a lot of what the newspapers reveal is true however over-exaggerated, what Nick varney reveals himself cannot be trusted to full extent. Nick Varney as CEO of merlin simply won't be allowed to reveal exclusive information into what's going on behind the scenes. He most likely knows the cause of the smiler accident etc. however hasn't announced it to the public simply because he's not allowed to. There is a high chance H&S/local council teams have forced Merlin to shut similar ride types down across their range of parks in the UK, until the investigation is finished and and completely fail-proof operations can be developed in order to ensure this accident doesn't happen again. When the various block-brake rides do re-open, there is a high chance they will be running on a reduced amount of cars with slower dispatch times for a while in order to stop anything happening like this again in the future.

Return of single rider queues...? (Certainly seems random to add it on samurai and not anything else!)

Webpage data on the big six challenge has now been completely removed. I'd imagine it's gone for good as smiler isn't likely to be opening for a long time: https://www.altontowers.com/things-to-do/the-big-six/

Saw will continue to be closed tomorrow and will be shut until further notice. No reason has been given but they are probably waiting for the Smiler investigation to finish so they can find out cause and then do a massive system check over the ride to ensure everything is working as it should be. I imagine when the smiler does re-open, it will be equipped with multiple new back up systems to ensure the problem will not arise again, and I'm sure thorpe park will be looking at ways to prevent the same incident occurring on Saw.

Legoland and Thorpe Park are respectively quite close to Alton Towers when you look at the grand scheme of things in terms of attendance figures; I wouldn't be surprised if both Thorpe Park and Legoland catch up to, or overtake, Alton Towers in terms of annual attendance this year, especially after the smiler accident, likely to put a lot of the general public off visiting. It's clear that UK parks are becoming more popular year upon year, however I wouldn't be surprised if we see a slight drop in attendance this year, especially at Alton Towers due to the accident.

There was quite an interesting article released from The Guardian today that rollercoasters really aren't as dangerous as people make them out to be and you are certainly more likely to be injured from another everyday cause than riding a rollercoaster. Here's the article, I can't say statistics used are genuinely correct however it's an interesting read: "Sometimes being scared is half the fun. That’s certainly the case when it comes to rollercoasters: the adrenaline rush we ride them for is all the wilder for the slight panic many of us feel as the carriage makes its slow climb to the top as the ride begins. Such fear is made real by the fact that the rides do, on rare occasions, go very wrong. This week’s accident on the Smiler ride at Alton Towers thankfully had no fatalities, but left 16 injured, four of them seriously, and has led to the park remaining closed on Wednesday and Thursday. But how dangerous are rollercoasters? There isn’t a good, comprehensive answer on this – no one collects global statistics, and it’s also not fair to compare a rickety coaster in a travelling fair to a state-of-the-art fixed coaster. It is fair to say that they are broadly pretty safe, though: much like plane accidents, every rollercoaster crash is news – precisely because they are quite rare. The International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions – maybe not a totally unbiased source – wants to reassure you that parks are really quite safe. It gathered statistics based on the number of injuries per million activity days, and found that for rides in theme parks, there were eight injuries for each million days. By contrast, playing (American) football was 40 times more dangerous, at 343 injuries, and even fishing was far riskier, at 88 injuries per million days. Such figures tie in with a broader truth: what we are scared of isn’t what is going to kill us. Driving, cycling, climbing the stairs or smoking a cigarette are all dangerous, but it’s a rare person who recoils in terror from a daily task. Murderers, plane rides and spiders all seem far scarier by contrast. This familiarity bias makes us bad at the risks we face in daily life. One approach to try to quantify such dangers is the “micromort” – a term for a one-in-a-million chance of death. Professor David Nutt famously got into trouble for noting, correctly, that taking ecstasy had about the same risks as going horse riding (0.5 micromorts each). A 200-mile motorbike trip (roughly London to Manchester) is about as dangerous as serving a day of active duty for UK forces in Afghanistan was, at around 33 micromorts each. And your risk of being murdered on a mile-long walk home from work is about 20 times smaller than your being hit by a car as you walk – but even knowing that, the former stays scarier. So the good news is that what you are scared of almost certainly won’t kill you. The bad news – you knew it was coming – is that it’s what you feel fine about that will. The drive to the airport is more likely to kill you than the flight – and your diet, your drinking or your ageing body, is far more likely to do so than either. A final figure for you: if you are reading this in the UK, your average chance of dying today, from any cause, is one in 41,667. So, ah, good luck out there, guys."

Unfortunately this is what the GP have already done; it is now presumed that the accident was due to "human error" as the train was released before the empty carriage returned to the station which is not normal practice during normal operations. It is like the general public don't seem to realise that some rides can operate with multiple cars instead of two?

This event is one of the most devastating ride accidents to happen in the UK in a long time, my best wishes go out to everyone involved and associated with the accidents. It's no doubt that as a community we will all be extremely shocked by what has happened and I am sure everyone of you, like me, are hoping for the injured to make a full and swift recovery. Unfortunately all we can do in this situation is hope for the best of the injured and hope they manage to recover properly; whilst we cannot take any actions ourselves on what has happened, let's make the power of hope as a community give the best possible result to all of those involved in the accident. My condolences to absolutely everyone involved.

Hopefully going to Europa Park in one month or so! Just a quick question, what are they like with onride filming? Are gopros with chest straps allowed on the rollercoasters? I'm sure I'll have some more requests but being a first timer to this park, it will be particularly interesting to explore this park and see what it has to offer and to find any hidden gems! The park certainly looks amazing from the few videos I have seen so to say I am excited may be a slight understatement

Went in July last year, was pretty packed and I would expect it's likely that it will be the same or even busier during August, although I don't know when peak times are in Spain.I would strongly reccomend the express pass, it's €50 for the whole day for unlimited fastrack or €50 if you're staying in the hotel for your whole stay; this is only about £35 so it's great value and the amount of people on park combined with queue jumping in likely to mean that queues move really slowly. (A large ratio of throughput is also given to express, we were only ever in the express queue for express rides so we don't know how slowly queues were moving etc.) The queuelines are also narrow windy cattlepens, meaning it's particularly easy for people to queue jump and the queue lines don't have any theming meaning you can get bored easily. Last year in July, average queue times over our stay were like this: Shambhala- Up to 2 hours (Was running 2 out of 3 trains). Dragon Khan- Up to 1 hour (2 trains). Angkor- Up to 2 hours Furius Baco- Up to 3 hours 30 minutes. Hurakan Condor- Up to 2 hours (Depending on the amount of towers running: due to lack of staff it's likely to only run a reduced amount of towers, then when other attractions close in the early evening, other staff will come to the attraction and it will run all the sides to remove the queueline. I reccomending entering the queueline just before the staggered ride opening(usually 12pm) or riding it near to ride closing in the evening when the fireworks show is taking place as this attraction does not have express). Tutuki Splash, Rapids, Silver River Flume- Up to 1 hour El Diablo- Up to 30 minutes Stampida and Tomahawk- Up to 1 hour

It's quite unrelated, but I strongly dis-approve of the selling and consumption of alcohol upon park, with the exception of out of hours events e.g ministry of sound. Fright nights last year was a nasty one, late into the evenings there would be people everywhere drunk, smoking and fighting. Storm turd in the dark was not a pleasant experience when two drunk men took the mick out of my friend and I and we couldn't get off the ride as we were stuck in the boat with them!

If it was a "brave decision" to trial the system during fright nights, how is it ever possibly going to be implemented to run all year round? The system is one which will have to work both during peak and off peak times in order to be implemented fully and at the moment it only appears to work during off peak. What's the point of introducing a system which only works on off peak and not during the busy periods if queue times are low during off peak days anyway...?

I'm still adamant in the mindset that the only reason the early trials had a selection of positive feedback was due to most people on park not actually knowing the system was in existence and believing it was a paid form of fastrack. The people who were using it were treating it as a free form of fastrack whilst the people in the standby queue were having a nightmare with ridiculously slow-moving queuelines. Thus this resulted in good reviews for reserve n ride in the early trials and awful reviews for the park as a whole from the general public who were in the standby queues being fastracked by users of reserve n ride.It was clear that the opinion of reserve n ride got much worse after the fright nights trials where the system was in full swing. It was clear on the Saturday that the system was a nightmare to operate and it received awful reviews from the general public when everyone was using it. Even the staff on park were not only confused by the system, but shocked that it was having such nightmare effects on the park. The system not only induced nightmare queues upon the mazes, with standby reaching 4 hours, RNR reaching 5 hours virtually followed by 2 hours standby and 1 hour in the fastrack line however also introduced nightmare queues on supporting rollercoasters with all rollercoasters at 140mins+. The system was a burden for staff to operate and put an awfully negative light on the park, and I wouldn't be surprised if that showed in fright nights gate figures this year. --- As I have stated before, this system is unable to work in a small scale park like thorpe park with little supporting attractions to the main rides and rollercoasters. If trials resume in 5 years or so time, I will have a more positive outlook on the system provided enough shows, entertainment and supporting attractions have been added to divert the public from the major rides. At the moment, having the system in place only diverts guests to smaller rides and will cause increased queues on supporting rides and the same waiting time overall as if normal queueing had been place anyway. A park like Disney, Europa Park or Portaventura is much more suited to a system like this and in thorpe park's current state, I think it is ridiculous they are even considering trialling a system like this to "remove" queues as it is destined to fail in the park's current state. Whichever team is behind the introduction of this system needs to reconsider their logic and ideas about the system as it is a system which cannot work in full swing, especially at thorpe park in its current state.